Apéritif nibble time "The man will bring you an aperitif while I escape from this accursed frock coat."

Apéritif nibble time "The man will bring you an aperitif while I escape from this accursed frock coat."
Ewing's Lady by Harry Leon Wilson

Ricard pastis time
Is built on the quality and variety of its natural ingredients.

The main ingredient is star anise, harvested in southern China where only the best fruits are handpicked, sundried and distilled on site to produce anise essential oil, which preserves the star anise’s full aroma. This rigorous selection process ensures that only the finest anise essential oils are used.

The pursuit of the finest flavours also takes us to the Middle East, in quest of another natural ingredient: liquorice. The most aromatic liquorice roots are selected on site as soon as they are harvested. This is the ingredient that gives Ricard pastis its roundness and legendary yellow hue.

The journey ends in Provence’s garrigue. Thyme? Sarriette? Marjoram? The famous recipe remains secret, but owes much of its success to the aromas produced by Provençal plants.
#Apéritif

Less than 24 hour old lambs on top of the Mendips

Less than 24 hour old lambs on top of the Mendips
Spring Lamb Good or Bad ? Know thy Sheep (Lamb,Hogget or Mutton)
Find out at https://plus.google.com/+JonChef/posts/DMTe9rafVBm

Don’t lose me… cook me! #Sheep

Hangout with the Guineafowl Fernhill Farm - Event Venue/Eco-Accommodation/Camping

Hangout with the Guineafowl Fernhill Farm - Event Venue/Eco-Accommodation/Camping
Sometimes called "original fowl" or guineahen.
They are endemic to the continent of Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds.

Guineafowl travel behind herd animals and beneath monkey troops where they forage within manure and on items that have fallen to the understory from the canopy.
Guineafowl play a pivotal roll in the control of ticks, flies, locusts, scorpions and other invertebrates. They pluck maggots from carcasses and manure.

Wild guinea fowl are without exception strong fliers. Their breast muscles are dark enabling them to sustain themselves in flight for considerable distances if hard-pressed. Grass and bush fires are a constant threat to these galliformes and flight is the most effective escape.

Some species of guineafowl like the vulturine may go without drinking water for extended periods, sourcing their moisture from their food. Guineafowls are very sensitive to weather, that is Cold weather when they are still keets.

Guineafowl as food
Guinea fowl is commonly eaten in parts of Africa (notably Ghana especially the northern part of the country, Nigeria and Botswana),India and the United States (notably in the state of Georgia).
It is consumed at Christmas in some parts of Central and Northern Europe (notably in Belgium and the UK). It is also eaten in Italy and in Vojvodina, a part of Serbia.

Guineafowl meat is drier and leaner than chicken meat and has a gamey flavour. It has marginally more protein than chicken or turkey, roughly half the fat of chicken and slightly fewer calories per gram.

Guineafowl eggs are substantially richer than chicken eggs.

Cool #DigitalFood in a gif and it is real.

Cool #DigitalFood in a gif and it is real.
Hat tip Bettina Ascaino

Originally shared by Yahiya Mv

FLOATING ISLAND DESSERT

YOU'LL NEED...

Meringue
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tbsp water
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup milk
2-3 drops vanilla oil
2/3 oz. sliced almonds
blueberries
cranberries

LET'S GET COOKING...

To make the caramel sauce, combine the sugar and 1 tbsp water in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat until golden in color. Add in another 1 tbsp water and stir to combine. Pour caramel into an oven-safe bowl. Sprinkle with almond slices and set aside.

Next step is to make the meringue. In a bowl, combine the egg whites and salt and beat for 1 minute. Add in the sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks.

Pour the meringue on top of the caramel sauce and smooth out the surface with a spatula. Prepare water bath for the oven. Bake for 25 minutes at 320 degrees F.

To make the custard sauce, heat the milk in a saucepan over low heat until just before boiling. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat until it's white in color. Add in the warmed milk and vanilla oil and mix quickly. Put mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened.

Pour the custard sauce onto a serving plate. Scoop the meringue on top of the sauce and garnish with blueberries, cranberries or your favorite fruits. Drizzle with caramel sauce and serve.
via http://taste.md/1R40sFn

The Bread is Baked and ready.

The Bread is Baked and ready.
It’s a fun way of cooking with a 6,000-year-old tradition.
There are two types of wood-fired ovens: "black ovens" and "white ovens".

Black ovens are heated by burning wood in a chamber. Food is cooked in that same chamber while the fire is still going, or in the heated chamber after the fire and coals have been swept out.

White ovens are heated by heat transfer from a separate combustion chamber and flue-gas path. Thus, the oven remains "white", or clean from ash.

While the traditional wood-fired oven is a masonry oven, such ovens can also be built out of adobe, cob or cast iron.

Wood-fired ovens are distinct from wood-fired stoves that have a hot cooking surface for pots and pans, like on a gas or electric stove.
A wood stove may also have an oven separate from the fire chamber.

Regardless of material they all have an oven chamber consisting of a floor (or hearth), a dome and an entry (oven opening).

Unlike modern household gas or electric ovens that provide a nearly constant cooking temperature, a black oven is typically heated only once during the firing stage (the combustion of wood inside the chamber).
After the coals are raked out, the oven gradually cools over a period of hours or even days (in the case of a well-insulated oven).

Oven temperatures may exceed 1000 degrees Fahrenheit (538 degrees Celsius).

The mass of the oven acts as a 'thermal battery', which slowly releases heat over time.
The retained heat in the oven may be used to bake multiple batches. Alternatively, foods requiring different temperatures can be cooked in succession as the temperature of the oven drops.
#WoodOven


Originally shared by Retiro da Avó Lidia

Que lindos saíram...

Birthday Cake in Action for Mr C

Birthday Cake in Action for Mr C
Real #DigitalFood in motion

Birthday Cake making ready to go into the oven

Birthday Cake making ready to go into the oven
#Cake

Indian Supper cooked for the crew by #JonTheChef on Tour.

Indian Supper cooked for the crew by #JonTheChef on Tour.
Can you guess the dishes ?
Washed down with Cava ;)

Spring is in the Air

Spring is in the Air
With their powerful and unique flavors, textures and colors, edible flowers have gained popularity as a creative and innovative ingredient for the culinary world.

Flowers are added to foods to provide taste, aroma, and color.
They can be part of a main dish, a salad, or a dessert.
They can be added as a garnish.
Flowers can be incorporated into beverages as flavorings, or used to make teas or wines.
They are added to spreads such as butter or fruit preserves, and to vinegar, marinades, and dressings.
Some are dried and used as medicinal or culinary herbs.
Flowers are also consumed for subsistence.
Many flowers that are technically edible can be far from palatable.

For best flavor, flowers should be fresh and harvested early in the day.
Wilted and faded flowers, and the unopened buds of most species, can be distasteful, often bitter.

Hat tip maria nasir super post another reason to go to your part of the
World

Originally shared by maria nasir

Do you eat flowers ?
Far more flowers show up on elegantly styled dinner plates than they did a while ago, not just as garnish but as an essential ingredient of the dish .

Come Spring and the first thing I yearn to cook is Kachnaar .
The ones in the pictures came from my own garden as a very pleasant surprise. The plant is still young but we got enough buds to make a meal.

Though I was a choosy eater as a child and particularly avoided many vegetables but the mild, pleasant aroma of Kachnaar always pulled me to the dinning table. I’m sure I eat with my nose first, then with my eyes and finally comes the tasting stage.

Never heard of Kachnaar ?! Well, this deciduous tree of the Bauhinieae plant family is native to South Asia and South East Asia, and is known by many different names …such as Indian Orchid tree, Camel’s Foot Tree and Mountain-ebony.

For cooking we use the young and tender buds of the tree…when the buds open up they can’t be added to a curry. The buds last a very few days, the early days of spring and for this reason Kachnaar is considered a delicacy and sold at a very high price.They have a meaty texture and bitter-sweet taste which is balanced by the generous use of tomatoes and yogurt in the curry.

Want to try Kachnaar Gosht, Bauhinieae Buds in Lamb Curry ?
Here is the link to my recipe :
http://www.foodaholic.biz/kachnaar-gosht-bauhinieae-buds-in-lamb-curry/

#marianasirrecipes
#edibleflowers

Persian Pork and Fresh Date Wok stew.

Persian Pork and Fresh Date Wok stew.
Dates have been a staple food of the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years.
There is archaeological evidence of date cultivation in eastern Arabia in 6000 BCE.
They are believed to have originated around what is now Iraq, and have been cultivated since ancient times from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, possibly as early as 4000 BCE.
The Ancient Egyptians used the fruits to make date wine, and ate them at harvest.
There is also archeological evidence of date cultivation in Mehrgarh around 7000 BCE, a Neolithic civilization in what is now western Pakistan.

Evidence of cultivation is continually found throughout later civilizations in the Indus Valley, including the Harappan period 2600 to 1900 BC

In later times, traders spread dates around South West Asia, northern Africa, and Spain.
Dates were introduced into Mexico and California by the Spaniards in 1765, around Mission San Ignacio.

A date palm cultivar, known as Judean date palm is renowned for its long-lived orthodox seed, which successfully sprouted after accidental storage for 2000 years.
This particular seed is presently reputed to be the oldest viable seed but the upper survival time limit of properly stored seeds remains unknown.
Fossil records show that the date palm has existed for at least 50 million years.