The Great Chef

The mysteries encapsulated in my brain connectivity determine that I remain disturbingly idle during the few periods along the year when stress drops to bearable levels. And so, every beginning of year I see the days before returning to the inhuman demands of my academic duties passing by at the speed of light, while I linger over thoughts of going back to writing, reading one thousand books that I declared overdue, or trying the recipes that pop-up once in a while. It almost feels like a tradition, in which case should be observed. And, although the recipe I am about to share with you might not be closely followed by the dozens I have tried, since the last post, I can assure you it will be worth it. I have been thinking about making vol-au-vent  for quite some time. But the process is time consuming: cutting all the puff-pastry circles, stack them perfectly together making sure they stick together as well, so they do not separate when baked... It is one of those things that can be...

The Holidays are behind us. It is time to come back to real life, to old or new routines, to rush hours and late dinners. Therefore, all delicious and quick recipes are more than welcome. The following recipe was based on a recipe by chef David Chang - Ginger Scallion Noodles -, which my husband and I twisted a bit to become more nutritious. The original recipe is simply boiled noodles with a ginger and scallion sauce (delicious!). But after a hard-working day, a bowl of noodles feels less filling than desirable (although it is hard to silence the consciousness voices inside my head screaming about those who have nothing to eat while I was writing that last sentence). So, in fact, this recipe is two in one, since you can choose to cook the original version or to try our reinvention. For this recipe you are going to need chinese wheat noodles (you can find them in most supermarkets or in oriental grocery shops. 1 package serve 2 people, usually.), scallions, fresh ginger, shiitake mushr...

After a fine dinning experience, cooking is a challenge for me. How can you be proud of something you put on the table after being overwhelmed by cooking genius? But, hey, you have to eat and I rather face my cooking than go out to some place and eat bad food. The only think we have to do is to take the good experiences and use them as inspiration. And so, there I was yesterday evening, struggling to say yes to everything that was coming to my mind that qualified for dinner. I opened the fridge for some more ideas hopping those would satisfy me enough to take the risk. I glimpsed some baby portobello mushrooms among the veggies and I remembered that I had some home made mushroom stock in the freezer and... voila ! I had my dinner! I was going to cook mushroom risotto. Here it is my recipe for baby portobello mushroom risotto (it will serve two as main course). You can use water to cook the risotto but if you want to have a really flavorful dish, allow yourself 15 minutes extra to make ...