Quote

,,One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating.
And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends. ,,
-Laurie Colwin

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Smoothies

We all know that eating raw fruits and vegetables is extremely beneficial to our health. However, finding the time to eat enough fruits and vegetables per day can be difficult with too busy lifestyles. Smoothies offer unique health benefit and are loaded with antioxidants and vitamins. Smoothies made from fruits or vegetables are an excellent way to enjoy a delicious drink that offers good nutrition. This is the real fast food and I’m not talking about how fast the food gets to your mouth but how fast the body gets the benefits of what are you eating.A smoothie is a blended, chilled, sweet beverage made from fresh fruits or vegetables. In addition to fruits or vegetables, many smoothies include crushed ice, frozen fruits or yogurt.
Feel free to experiment; there are thousands of fruits and vegetables to be mix.
Here are some of the recipes I made. The recipes are for 4-5 portions:
1. Blueberries, banana and soy milk
- 200 gr banana
- 200 gr honey
- 300 ml soy milk
- 200 gr ice cubes
2. Mango and coconut milk
- 400 gr mango puree made from fresh mango pulp or from compote 400gr
- 400 gr coconut milk
- 100 gr honey
- 200 gr ice cubes
3. Sea buckthorn, tofu ice cream and pine syrup
- 200 gr frozen sea buckthorn 200gr
- 100 ml sea buckthorn syrup natural sugar free
- 125 ml pine syrup natural
- 200 ml soy milk
- 300 gr tofu ice cream – I used lactose free and sugar free
- 200 gr ice cubes
4. Strawberries, yogurt and agave syrup
- 200 gr frozen strawberries
- 500 gr natural yogurt
- 100 gr agave syrup
- 200 gr ice cubes
5. Orange, Carrot and Ginger
- 2-3 oranges (300gr) peeled
- 200 gr grated carrots
- 50 gr ginger
- 300 gr ice cubes
Squeeze one of the oranges into your blender to provide enough juice to help it blend. Then add the rest of the orange pulp and the second orange, grated carrots , ginger and ice.Blend on high speed until smooth!

Spinach - we all know the benefits of spinach - rich in antioxidants and vitamins. Spinach usually takes the flavor of other ingredients it is mixed with, so if you don't really like this vegetable, you will not feel it.
6. Spinach and pears
- 200gr frozen spinach
- 200 gr peeled fresh pears or from compote
- 100 gr agave syrup
- 300 ml soy milk
- 200 gr ice cubes
This is a combination that I want to do for long time and is amazing.
7. Cauliflower and chocolate ice cream
- 250 gr frozen or fresh cauliflower
- 250 gr chocolate ice cream
- 300 ml soya milk
- 200 gr ice cubes
- 100 ml agave syrup
Enjoy. Pin It Now!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Fine Dining & Seven Course Menu

What a treat to sit down for a 7 course meal! It’s wonderful to enjoy a feast with family or friends. Many people choose fine dining restaurants for a special occasion, so the food must not disappoint.Fine dining requires a lot of attention to details and no detail is ever too small to pay attention to, in fine dining. The standards you should always include in fine dining are fine china, glassware and flatware - no paper or plastic, while tablecloths is a ''must have'' in fine dining.
The three main areas to focus for a fine dining are the menu with finest food, service and atmosphere
The Menu
Your menu needs to be interesting and offer unique items that customers don’t find at other restaurant. The chef needs to exercise with his creativity when designing dishes.
You need to choose a theme for your menu, and try to have fun with it. And don’t forget the wine! Your wine list should complement your menu. Each wine should be paired with each individual dish. Work together with your sommelier to find the best options.
There are not any "rules" unless you are looking to do a traditional night like - French, Italian, Japanese....etc., course meal. The meal needs to build up consistent.
Here I made a list of “DON’T'' to show you the way I build the menu and the way I think about it:
- don't serve same proteins one after another;
- don't serve two seafood courses one after another (unless you have a shell fish night menu), or two meat courses;
- start with lighter fare, and then go on to the heavy;
- serve seafood before meat;
- Don’t treat – “amuse- bouche” like a course;
- don't serve the same cooking method more than once;
- don't serve more than one salad, or soup, or pasta;
- don't do heavy dish after heavy dish;
- don't mix in the same menu fancy dishes with fast food style dishes.
The goal is not to feed them massive quantities of food with each course, make everyone enjoying themselves, you must "school" your clients. None of the courses need to be heavy; they need to be in balance with the course before and the course after.
Here are some samples of menu I made and are easy to make.
You control and form the evening with the courses, let everyone come in and relax, with a glass of champagne and some ''amuse-bouche'' from the chef - should be the way to start the evening.
 Confit of duck with spice cauliflower and yogurt sauce.
Smoked salmon pate with salmon roe on a smoked crouton. 
The first course: Time for a fresh salad, tartar or light appetizer.
 Duck pate with baby pears, dry fruit compote and mango coulis.
 Tomato jelly with Catalan herbs olive oil.
 Salmon tartare with sweet mustard sauce.
Venison carpacio.
The second course: Soup is on!
All kind of soup can be serve. Here i made Lobster bisque with salmon pate and tiger prawns.
The third course: Traditionally the third course will feature a sorbet to cleanse the palate. A nice lemon or lime sorbet would do nicely. It’s perfectly fine to prepare this dish the day prior your meal.
Margarita granita sorbee.
The fourth course: This can be poultry, fish or shellfish.
 Butter fish with sweet potato mash, kumquats salad and lemon butter.
 Black ink risotto with tiger prawns.
 Cod wrapped in Parma ham with ink risotto and Parmesan biscuit.
Banana prawns with sushi rice , wasabi and white radish salad. 
Seared scallops with cauliflower puree, baby salad and truffle oil.
The fifth course: This will be a call for a red meat dish.
Seared Tuna file with wasabi mash, 4 flying fish caviar, wakame salad and teriaky sauce.
Slow cooked beaver in a filo pastry served with cumin sweet potato , red currant chutney and curry foam.
Reindeer file with dates puree, sugar beans and almond snow.
The sixth course: I usually made a small pre dessert.
Blue cheese and chocolate truffles.
Marinate grapes in mint and champagne with rosemary truffles.
Organic chocolate truffles with pure gold.
The seventh course: Dessert of course! It’s always hard to choose just one dessert.
Chocolate mocka tart.
Chocolate Oblivion with raspberry puree and Passion fruit.
 Lady Angel. Poached  orange in Cointreau serve with cocos biscuit and Cointreau sauce.
 Service
All of the details that are expected of a fine dining server require that your staff be rigorously trained. They should be able to answer any and all questions customers may have about a menu or item or wine. Customer service in a fine dining restaurant it goes far beyond taking an order and delivering food. Fine dining services include:
- escorting customers to the table;
- holding the chair for women;
- cleaning the table in between courses;
- replacing napkins if a customer leaves the table;
- explaining menu items without notes;
- serving food directly on the plate at the table;
- Sommelier should serve the wine and provide any information is needed.
The most important fine dining serving etiquette is to be polite to the customers and to give equal attention to all the guests. The food should be served from the right of the customer and the table should be cleared from the left.
 Atmosphere
In fine dining music is playing subtly in the background and should reflect the theme of the night, such as classical for a traditional fine dining restaurant or jazz for something modern, the rest of the atmosphere is up to you. Don’t forget, dining in a fine restaurant need to be a nice elegant way to have a meal and is relaxing and fun.
Enjoy. Pin It Now!

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