The Great Chef

Last Wednesday the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy group I belong to had a reception for the opening of our first exhibition. We organized everything with the kind support of the Yale Office of International Students and Scholars. Of course, food was included on the organization tasks. Each of us brought a dish - either savory or sweet - to offer to those who joined our reception. The diversity of the table reflected the cultural diversity of our group which was wonderful! And since I wanted to bring Portugal to that international table, I made a honey cake very traditional of Alentejo, a region southern of Portugal. For those of you who have been following my writings, you know how I deeply love and feel connected to that part of the country. My beloved grandma if from Alentejo and she passed me the passion for that wonderful region where one can live warm long days and have a kind of sustainability which is rare nowadays. One of the region's most famous dessert is this honey cak...

As in almost catholic countries these days, Easter in Portugal is less about religious celebration than it is about family gathering around the table. The main dishes vary from region to region but there are a few common traditions. The presence of the sweet bread is one of them. Traditionally, the sweet bread was the gift from godmothers to their godsons/goddaughters on Easter Sunday, in return for the flowers received on the Palm Sunday. Nowadays, the gadgets became the traditional gift and the sweet bread makes its appearance as a dessert for Easter lunch. Being as it may, this bread is a must have at any Portuguese Easter table (Greeks also have sweet bread in the Easter, as far as I know). Here it is my recipe for the Portuguese sweet bread: Start by dissolving 2 packages of yeast into 1/3 cup of warm milk. Set it aside while preparing the dry ingredients for the dough, allowing it to grow a bit. In a big bowl mix 4 cups of all purpose flour, 10 tablespoons of sugar, 1 cup of warm...

When you can appreciate the opportunity that is life you always find things to celebrate. But when to that vibe of thankfulness you add an unexpected, although very much wanted, amazing news you just give yourself the time to dress up, gather some meaningful people, and head to some place where you cherish yourself.  And so, yesterday night, was one of those moments I wanted to cherish myself in good company. We knew Ibiza Restaurant was hosting a visiting Chef from San Sebastian, Spain with a new tasting menu every day of this week. The choice was obvious: we went there to try yesterday's tasting menu by Chef Iker Gonzalez - a six course menu with many Iberian essentials.  Surprisingly, we were not offered any amouse bouche  this time so the meal started with the first dish of the tasting menu - Ajo Blanco , a garlic almond cold soup with coconut and diced pineapple. A good soup (although I am not particularly excited about cold soups, exception made for summer time) wit...

Lamb is one of those types of meat that is a delight all year long but for me Easter tastes even better with  a plate of lamb. While living with my parents I didn't get the chance of eating as much lamb as I would like because most of our family didn't like he exquisite and strong flavor of this meat (believe it or not!). So now, I don't wast a chance of eating it. That doesn't mean I cook it frequently, though. In fact, yesterday was my second time cooking it. The first time I cooked a rack of lamb I followed a recipe by Gordon Ramsay but I was not particularly happy with it. He suggests a crust of parmesan cheese and herbs but the flavor of the cheese ended up standing above everything else and turned the dish quite heavy. This time, I decided to follow my guts and try a recipe that came to my mind during last week. It also includes cooking the meat involved in a crust but this time I chose sesame seeds and instead of cooking the entire rack, I cut it in individual ch...