A Little Different Blog

My mom said I only talk about food. I am not sure what I should write about when I am clearly here for food. So I am taking a different slant to this blog. This first picture is a scampi from Italy. It is a fun looking shrimp. It was fried on top of my fritti misti, fried vegetables and seafood. everybite a surprise. I fried a piece of lemon to go in mine. Our chef said it was not Italian, but tasty. I told him Japanese tempura is not Italian but he said it was brought over years ago. I was just trying to add to Italian cuisine. These are my fish group for my seafood stew. I filleted all of these. Steve wanted me to get good at fish. Well I can fillet a fish and scale one in about 5 minutes. It is messy but easy. We had a great guest chef this week.

This is my strudel bread. It has nuts, chopped prunes, walnuts, raisans soaked in orange liquior, and pine nuts. It is rolled and then rolled like a snake to fit in the pan. it is basted with grappa and honey. Very nice when hot out of the oven.
This is school when leaving friday night. It was the most beautiful sky. It looked like puffs of pink cotton. We were very happy to be on our way home. We were having a family dinner. Everyone fixes something and we all bring our own wine. One of the girls, Christine is engaged to be married in may. I think I will go do her hair for the wedding. It is in Atlanta so I can visit my brother Joe. I think he will be happy to see me. Well her borfriend came to see her and we all had to check him out, very cute and real friendly. We did not seem to scare him to much. I went to the pub with the gang for the first time. It was a pub, very smokey and bad drinks. When it was ok to leave, I left and came back to the apt. The Walk back made me realize I did not need to drink that much again. Kitty showed up at my door with a hugh bowl of popcorn and we talked and ate popcorn till 2:30, 3:00. Wrong night to do all this. We had to be on a bus Saturday morning at 8:00. I did not feel sick just not awake and alittle YUK. I think I felt better after my nap on the bus. WOW, I am getting old. Next time they want to go to the pub I will make sure I have nothing to do the next day. Today I slept till 8:00, late for me. I washed my sheets so they would dry by tonight, NO DRYER, Cleaned the apt., ironed my uniforms, and read some on my GREAT KINDLE. It was a easy day.
Signing off from Italy, Yvonne

Pictures From The Last Blog

I am not sure why these did not show up on the last blog. This is the Hay Soup
The best Apple Dessert EVER!!!!!!
This is me and my pet bird
Veal filet with a salt crust

Week Four Very Busy

We started out the week with a guest chef. His mane is Chef Claudio Melis. The region is trentino Alto Adige. It is a region I am thinking about for my stage. This man was really great, his food was good, pretty, and he spoke English very well. So after the demo I asked if he took students for stage. He is moving to the US, either New York or California. He has contacts who want to bring him to the US. I am happy for him sad for me. This first dish he made is a hay soup. Sounds weird but very good. He cooked the cut hay,( wild grass and flowers) in broth, pureed potatoes and leeks. It was very tasty. In the Bowl is Speck,( very big in that area) Porcini mushroom,and zucchine diced up in small cubes and sauted. The soup would be presented as seen. It was a very different flavor and a fun dish. The next picture is one of the best desserts I have ever eaten. Even the chocolate lovers did not miss the chocolate. Variazione di mele,( variation of the apple), this area grows lots of apples. On the bottom is an apple cream. He peeled, cored, and chopped 4 golden apples, 200g water, 200g sogar. When cooked, drain, blend put in bottom of 4 bowls to jell, refrigerate. Next he made an apple sorbett( I suggest you buy it it requied lots of tools). Fritter dough, 500g flour, 400g cold butter, 200g sugar, use paddle on mixer until a sandy mixture. Finish by hand and knead until smooth no extra flour, Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest one hour or more. Roll the dough and cot rounds about the size of the jelled apple cream. Cook about 8 minutes 325 set aside. Fritter batter 30g butter heat till melted not to hot, 2 eggs separated, 1 glass dry white wine, 125g flour. Put butter, wine, flour, and egg yolks in bowl and mix. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest on counter for at least 2 hours. After 2 hours whip egg whites and incorporate into the batter. Use Red apples peel and core cut into rings 1/2 inch thick. Batter rings and fry in sunflower oil, till golden brown, drain. Put rounds onto of the apple cream, next the fritter and last the sorbett. It seems like alot but most can be dome ahead and assemblied at the last minute. Beauty and the flavors are perfect together. The apples he used for the sorbett were granny smith.
He made several other things: 2 fish dishes and some veggies. All were good but I liked these the best. Well the day after he was here I got to cook Guinea Hen. I had the pleasure of cleaning the bird from burning the feathers to the inners. I can say I never had Guinea Hen before, It was tasty. It was my dinner that night. We did not get out till 7:30 and we presented this dish about 5:00. Perfect timing for a quick meal. I am smiling inthe picture for ya'll but at the time dread was more on my mind. The prep was not as bad as I thought.

Our last chef this week was from Venezia. If you look him up he is somewhat a superstar in this area. He is the Chef of the Hotel Bauer, a5 star hotel. It sits on the grand canal in Venice. Everything he made was very different and good. Presentation was perfect. I think I would have to work to hard if I staged for him. I don't have his web address but look the hotel or him up. It will be worth checking out. We had salt cod bigne with canied lemon and pesto. The candied lemon made the dish pop. Amberjack tartar with red chicory and balsamic glaze, ontop was a fried tartara sauce. This was so cool. All the textures and flavors. I am not much on raw fish but I could eat this everyday. He made sauce of 4 egg yolks, 10g white vinegar, 2g salt, 10g mustard seed, 18g gherkins, 130 olive oil, 2g capers, 12g shallots, 100g bread crumbs, 15g mixed sesame seed. I blender make a mayo with egg yolk vinegar gradually adding oil. Then all the rest except the breadcrumbs and sesame seeds. Freeze the sauce in finger shapes on parchment paper, about the 2 inches, by 3/4 inch. After frozen cover with breadcrumbs and sesame seeds twice. Do this fast so they don't melt. Place back in freezer. When ready to serve fry the sauce until crispy and place ontop the tartar. When you break intopen the sauce spills out. The chicory was blanched in vinegar water. It was placed in a ring with the tartara that was mixed with lemon and oil. The crispy sauce ontop. Very cool mix of texture and flavor. The dish you see above is a veal loin cooked in crusted salt, with an artichokeamd morel mushroom sauce with sweetbread chips. Everything went together so perfect. This is why I am here. I want to be able to do this on my own. Not by someones recipe. These two Chefs were both very inventive and able to make the inventions work. I cannot say that for every dish from a guest Chef.

We were supposed to go to the chocolate festival yesterday. We did not get enough people for the bus. It is just as well it rained all weekend and has been about 50 out. I am cookung some vegetable beef soup. That is Steve dish at home and I miss him so I want his soup. I am sure it will not be as good as his but I feel I will have alittle of him with me today as I eat and share apart of him. Happy Anniversary Sweetheart I LOVE YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bye from Italy Yvonne

Lake Como Part 2

Tell me how these people get to their house. Click on the picture and look real good, there is no road. Maybe they have a helicopter or a secret road. We checked it out from all angles and could not figure it out. What a great view they have.



This is my Antipasta at dinner. A soft cheese wrapped in Speck. For those of you who don't know Speck , it is a cold smoked ham. It is very very good. I ate every bite. It is hard not to enjoy cheese and ham. Well this was not just enjoyed but savored. YUM!!!




This is Gregg's Antipasta. It is Culatello with shaved Parmesan Cheese and I am not sure of the greens. Culatello is a cured meat similar to Parma ham. It is taken from the top section of the ham. When it is decided to do a culatello you cannot do the Parma ham. This process cannot be shipped into the US because it is artisanal and does not comply with the rules foe shipping food. It is a shame, everyone should get to try it. The meat melts in your mouth.


My dinner was Ravioli stuffed with cheese and herbs. The pasta was ok but the sauce was so so good. It was butter, cinnamon, nutneg, and raisans. The sweet with the sharp taste of the cheese was very different. This style of pasta is very normal for the area. Sometimes they have a sweet filling, such as pumkin, and a butter sage sauce. The filling or the sauce is alittle sweet. Very nice change. I would have licked my plate, but some thing you just can't do.
Well IF YOU READ THIS FIRST REMEMBER TO READ PART 1 OF LAKE COMO.
Gotta Go Yvonne

Lake Como

We started out with a very small rental car. I needed a automatic because it has been toooooooooooooo many years since I drove a stick. Well we started out at 9:45 am, Gregg, Alina and myself. The roads were easy to travel on and the drive there went smooth. Upon entering the lake area we made great time. Not knowing we were going to take 45 minutes to a hour climbing the very narrow roads to the hotel. That part was a little nerve racking. I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we dropped our luggage and went to the ferry. There are several Cities on the ferry and they are all beautiful.

I am having a affagotto (I think I spelled it right) Coffee, vanilla gelato, and whipped cream. It was as good as it looks. All the girls talk about them all the time. I think I know why. This was our first ferry stop. We had lunch and I had mac and cheese. Sounds great, right? Well it was. It was also alittle different from the stuff I get at home. Steve makes his world famous Mac and Cheese. They have not gotten the message yet, his was better but this was good.

This is Gregg and Alina walking the streets. THe streets were so cool. Little steps going straight up and alleys with stores ans restraunts. I bought myself a blue scarf of silk for 10 euros. It was very not me and I love it. I wore it to the graduation of the last class.



This is a great shot from the water of Beliago. It is truely a beautiful city. It was written in my travel book as the prettiest city in Europe. I don't know if it is true or not but I can understand why it was said. All the streets are alleys with stone steps and walls. Stores just kinda blend in. The water in clear as glass. The houses sitting on the hills and all the boats in the lakes and docks. It was fabulous. I am sorry to say we did not encounter George. We did not even see his house. Well maybe another time. I am sending another blog tonight so I can send more pictures.
Yvonne

Demo Number 3

This is our Chef Bruno holding a very long ugly fish. It Is called Spatola The translation said paddlefish. The visiting Chef fileted it in about 10 seconds. His name is Gaetano Alia. This man could cook. He is from Calabria, that is the boot. Where there is a great use of chili peppers. The New York Times wrote: " Simplicity is here an authentic choice for a refined Mediterranean cuisine which is quite uncommon in the South on such a high level". His restraunt is called Locanda di Alia www.alia.it Check it out he is soooooo artistic. T is him making the fish dish. He put squares of fish, tomatoes, seasoned breadcrumbs, cheese, another layer if fish, tomatoes, seasoned breadcrumbs, then into the oven. It is a type of blue fish but it was still very good. The cheese made the difference.
This is him putting it together and getting ready to put it in the oven This is the result.

This is a fried sardine with his homemade pepper jam. It was not the same as pepper jelly. I loved this stuff and he was kind enought to give out his recipe. You may get some in the future for Christmas. Another thing he gave us was a carmelized onion spread for fish or cheese. I have that recipe also. He made such great dishes. I could not do him justice . Check out his web page. He did a fig dessert called Insalata DI Fichi Secchi, Dried fig salad. Wow!!!! The fig sat in a bed of melted melted white chocolate. It had nuts, dried fruit, jam, orange peel, and of course the Dried fig. To make it festive he sprinkled it with multicolored sprinkles. It was beautiful, fun to eat and look at, and everyone in the room loved it. It is hard work watching these chefs, but its my job now and I am determined to do it well. Time for bed, talk to you later.
Yvonne

Second Demo

This is our guest chef from Liguria. Liguria is a costal region of Italy. A city in Liguria you might know is Genoa. His name is Luca Collami and web address is www.ristorantabaldin.com Check out his work beautiful and very easy to eat. Remember the deconstructed fish salad I made. Well this first picture is the traditional way to prepare the salad. It was not as pretty but oh so good. This man made us 9 different dishes. Several types of bread, 2 pastas, fish, and dessert. He was so fast and when he chopped he would not look at what he was chopping. I was worried he was going to miss, but no accidents.
This was the ravioli, Pansoti con salsa do noci ( Ligurian ravioli with a walnut sauce). YUM The pasta is made with flour, water, white wine, and salt. It ia a real white smooth pasta. The stuffing was made with wild herb mixture changing with what is in season, Ricotta, Parmigiano Reggiano, eggs, garlic and of coarse salt. The walnut sauce is so nice it is walnuts, garlic, evoo, breadcrumbs, curdled milk and salt. This is ground up and oassed through a seive. Instead of curdled he used another product. I need to get the name, I plan to make that myself.
Well here is his Focaccia. He made a plain and a onion. Both were very good. The onions were placed ontop raw. Then evoo was poured ontop and cooked in a convection oven. He told us you should never use evoo to make focaccia you need sunflower oil. It is much lighter and because you use so much oil it makes a better bread.
This was the dessert. Bugie con crema inglese al chinotto di savona, basically a fried ravioli stuffed with jam. Then a piece of the dough not stuffed is fried, with crema inglese, jam and topped with powered sugar. This was my kind od dessert. I think I gained 5 lbs. that day. I need to talk about another chef and my trip to Lake Como, but that is for another day.
Yvonne

Food of The Week

I really have so much to tell, I will have to do it in sections. I want to show pictures with it all and this blog only lets me show 4 shots a blog. The first shot was a pasta with pesto. The pasta was made with a stamp, and looked like coins. You can have a stamp made up with your family name and on the back a design. The pesto was very tasty and the pasta was a different texture. They went together really well. We did a seafood salad. It was deconstructed. I am showing you mine and when I blog on the 2 demo I will show you the traditional. This was fun to make. The shrimp were really red and sweeter than our shrimp. The scampe looked liked little lobsters. You will notice alot of different shellfish and other slimy creatures.
My masterpiece, click on this and make it bigger and see if you can tell what is on the salad. I really like our chef. Chef Bruno tries very hard to be fair but still lets us know when things are not right. When the visiting Chefs come he has to translate. He is so good remembering and then presenting it to us in English. It has to be exhausting.



This last shot is some of the dessert feast we encountered at lunch last friday. We went to lunch and it was WOW. No diet today. We were so full. Then we had to see the demo. He fixed the best food and gave us very large portions. I just rolled myself back to the apartments. I am done now and plan to write another right behind this one with the second demo. Remember to check out the other seafood salad.
Yvonne