Creamy Asparagus soup with Cappuccino of smoked ham and Old Amsterdam cheese

This is the first post where I use an INGREDIENT that I brought from a city in HOLLAND. The first free ride -of course- I was heading to Amsterdam. The City that is famous for its canals showed a completely DIFFERENT face this time. The sport shops were packed, people trying on skates and you wouldn't find a piece on the canals without people walking or SKATING on them. The item I brought is -of course- OLD AMSTERDAM Cheese.

Ingredients:

2 boxes of small and thin Green ASPARAGUS

1/2 liter of water

1 Herbs SOUP Cube

1 CHICKEN soup cube

200 ml Cooking cream

3 slice of SMOKED ham

Old Amsterdam Cheese

PREPARATION

Put the CREAM on low gas and place the 3 slice of HAM in it. When the asparagus is ready, remove the ham and make is fluffy and bubbly with the hand blender.

Cook the Asparagus in water and a pinch of salt. When it gets soft remove most of the water, so you have approximately HaLF liter left. Put the soup CUBEs is and cook  it for 10 minutes on low gas. Smash it with a HAND BLENDER.

Put some soup in a cup or bowl, and carefully spread some CREAM over it with a spoon. Sprinkle some OLD Amsterdam CHEesE on top. You can save the top of one or two Asparagus as a decoration.

Canals in February. In Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsi

TUNA dip

One of my ADDICTIONs is related to TUNA. I love it! This dip was the starter of a long lunch for my family.

Here is the basic recipe:

1 tin of TUNA chunks in oil

half of a small Onion

2 spoons of Cream

salt 

pepper

TOASTS or any bread to dip

Put all the ingredients in the blender and SMASH them. Decorate with purple onions and CHIVES.

You can follow my friend, who gave it a little EXTRA and put olives, sundried TOMATOES and Capers.

Balsamic Vinegar with CACAO???

I mentioned earlier one of my latest FINDINGS: Balsamic vinegar with CACAO. I like using interesting products that may sound weird at first sight. I would like to bring it into your attention because it is DELICIOUS and special. 

The TASTE:
you can slightly taste a the typical acid balsamic vinegar taste in the background a slight cacao taste but the dominant part is rather RAISIN like. It reminds me a lot to my MOM's favorite wine, the MALAGA.

USE it with:
Goat Cheese, fruit salad, Cheese platter, maybe some light grilled meat (turkey).

The brand has several SPECIALTIES. In the store I saw white vinegar, green pesto vinegar, berries and on the homepage there is a whole range of FRUITY creations. They suggest them next to cakes and ice cream.

Of course I showed my new favorite to my BOSS, who is a chef and was more professional than I am and checked the ingredients. It is quite natural. There is only one "E" in it :) he said.

















If I made anyone interested you can find further information here:
http://www.sodastudio.it/ftp/carandiniweb/eng/index.php
http://www.sodastudio.it/ftp/carandiniweb/schede/cremecarandini/cacao.php
http://www.sodastudio.it/ftp/carandiniweb/schede/schede_pdf/CdB_fruttati.pdf

LIME sorbet to ease your belly

SORBET is the easiest thing in the WORLD. They are not only DELICIOUS but they give you some space for creativity. It is always a good idea to put the sorbet back to its ORIGINAL packing. 

My favorite is from here: http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/diaryofafoodie/2008/02/watermelonsorbet . Of course I copied it :)

I prepared with a LIME sorbet for you.

Ingredients:

1/2 liter water

200 gr sugar

6 LIMES

Preparation:

HEAT the water with the sugar till it melts in completely. Wait till it cools down and put the JUICE of the limes in. Put it in the freezer. Check it every 2-3 hours, mix it with a fork.

No big deal. My POINT with this post is to show you how much you can do with the colors. You can always put a FLOWER on top as long as it is not poisoning, PICK  the right color plate and it looks AMAZING. I think...

Een bak, een Euro Mango chutney!

As I mentioned earlier I went to the MARKET today and I made the DEAL of the year. I bought 11 ripe mangoes for 1 EURO. 

It was out of question that I had to cook something with MANGOES. I ended up with a mango pie and some left over mangoes in the pot. They were the base for my piquant mango chutney. It was as SIMPLE as it sounds like.

Ingredients:

2 ripe Mangoes

2 tbs Besengen spice mix paste (you can get it in the nearest Chinese shop)

GINGER (size as 2 cloves of garlic)

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Preparation:

Cut the mangoes into small cubes, and put them over slow gas. Put a little bit of CINNAMON and nutmeg in it. COVER it with a lid, stir it sometimes and cook it until it gets soft and sticky.

Take it off of the gas, mix the spice paste and the GINGER in. My personal TRICK for ginger is that I peel it, cut it into cubes and push them through the garlic-press.

So there I had the CHUTNEY. Next step; what am I going to serve under it? I made some MUSHROOMS and glass noodles. It is an EXCITING dish and a refreshing change after the mozzarella salads for Vegetarian guests.

Haagse Markt

I went to the HAGUE market today. In Holland markets are part of the culture. There are different kinds and size markets. They have ANTIQUE market CHeese market, HORSE market. They hold them yearly, monthly weekly or even daily. The Haagse market is Europe's biggest market as far as I know. They sell mainly clothing and FOOD.

It is COOL because of the COLOURS and the atmosphere.

It's AwESOME because half of the stands pile up the fruits and vegetables in a bucket and sell it for 1 Euro. Part of the feeling is that they all shout "EEN BAK EEN EURO" or just "ÖROBAKÖROBAKÖRO".

I left the BEST part to the end, that you can get all kinds of MONSTERS that you are supposed to eat...

Rubik's FRUIT salad

Make your fruit Salad LOOk exciting by making cubes out of the FRUITS and place them on a plate in a square. If you want to go 3D put more levels on top of each other.

Mix a SPOOn of Honey with a glass of water and spread it over your CUBES. If you feel like Chop some fresh MINT and add it to the mix.

Here is some menu ENGINEERING

When I go HOME to Hungary, I like cooking for my family. I make 7-10 or even more cOurse dinners. The most was a 13 course Christmas dinner this year. When you do SOMETHING like this, you need to know a couple of simple rules.

• There is a certain SEQUENCE, that you need to follow. Basically it goes from LIGHTER, smaller dishes to BIGGER and heavier dishes then back to SMALL light ones. If you have a very long menu you can put sorbet in the MIDDLE of the meat dishes. 

1. aMUSE Bouche - a small bite, served BEFORE anything starts, you can serve it before anyone would sit down, together with the aperitif
2. Cold starter - I believe no you know this one :)
3. Warm starter 
4. Soup soup soup
5. FISH - If you have the opportunity it is nice to put fish cutlery on the table. If you serve more fish go from light, simple fishes to the more tasteful ones. For example SALMON goes to the end.
6. Poultry - Chicken, turkey etc... Again, from light to strong TASTES
7. SoRBET - The SORBEt is similar to ice cream but there is no dairy product in it. It is FRESH and its function is to stir up your stomach so you can fin more in there.
8. Au four - Animals that have four legs, in other words; RED meat.
9. GAME - Wild meat; duck, dear etc...
10. Cheese PLATTER - Combine as much as you can! Soft-hard, sweet-salty, strong-weak. Don't forget to put some grapes, walnuts and jam around.
11. Dessert - SWEEETS time
12. FrUiTs - Be creative! Don't just put a basket in the middle of the table.
13. Coffee/tea - If you are not fed up with cooking yet, make some BONBONS.

• when you make a 10 course meal, ask someone to HELP you and start preparing a day in advance, otherwise the guests will have to wait and the food will get Cold.
• Don't put Too much on the plates. Think how much would you eat in a 3 course MEAL and try to end up with the same amount.
• VARY in the dishes! potato soup, fish with fries, chicken with potato puree, beef with oven potatoes sounds like someone has a POTATO FARM in the backyard... Combine, mix and match and don't use the same material Twice!
• Plan how it is going to LOOK like! Plan how you put it on the plate, what COLORS you see on the plate, what is missing.
• DECORATE! Don't be afraid to use Edible and non-edible FLOWERS, hERbs, Chips, anything small will do!
• Use heavy and light dishes at the same TIME.

For some inspiration, here is my XMAS menu.

Some things you need to know about wines

I am not a SOMMELIER and there is a lot I still need to  LEARN about Wines. But I have a Basic knowledge  that I can share with you.

When you are cooking for your friends or family you always serve wine DON'T YOU? Have you ever thought about matching wines with your dishes?

It sounds hard and you feel like I have to learn about wines to do that... Its not that difficult, I help you a little bit :) 

• THE MAIN RULE is that the wine and the food has to complete each other.
• Most of the time stronger FLAVORS go with wines that have strong Characteristics and lighter dishes with Lighter wINES.
• Do not mix a strong AROMATIC wine with light dishes, because the fOOD won't be able to prevail.
• Read the labels, but follow your OWN Instincts
• If you have the opportunity, taste the wine. Its even better if you can taste it TOGETHER with the food components you'll serve.
• Make a LIST of the wines you tried. Write down the smell, taste and the dishes you can imagine it with.
• FORGET the "white meat white wine, red meat red wine" rule. Most of the time red wines are stronger and more spicy than white wines but there are light FRUITY red wines that make perfect combination with CHIKEN for example...
• Throw the "white-rosé-red sequence" in the BIN. According to this rule we can't have a white dessert wine... heh? Follow rather the  "from light to STRONG" rule. But if you have a lighter dish in the middle (for example a SORBET) you can match a lighter wine.

More is COMING! I will follow up on this post and show you a couple of wines I KNOW.