Heatlhy Cornmeal Rolls

A great meal is never complete without rolls. They make for a great pairing to some of the wonderful soup you have cooked up in your kitchen. They are also wonderful with just about any dish you could think of. People eat roll with salads, roasts, and a whole lot more. You could never go wrong when you have a fresh batch of rolls in your dish. Making these rolls are pretty simple, and even a beginner could make one.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups milk
½ cup shortening
½ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons dry yeast
½ cup warm water
5 to 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1 cup corn meal
½ cup melted butter

1. In a saucepan, bring your milk and salt to a simmer on medium heat. Whisk in cornmeal and cook until cornmeal is thick. This would take around 2 minutes and don’t forget to stir constantly.

2. In another bowl, whisk your brown sugar, yeast and water with the use of an electric mixer. Set aside for 10 minutes.

3. With the use of a dough-hook attachment on your electric mixer, mix your cornmeal mixture and 2 eggs on low speed. Add flour slowly until a soft dough is formed and kneed on medium-low speed for 5 minutes.

4. Prepare another bowl by brushing it with olive oil and place dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and wait for dough to double in size – around 3 hours.

5. In a 13 x 18 inch baking sheet, sprinkle cornmeal and roll out dough in the surface and divide into 3-ounce pieces. Roll the pieces of dough into a ball and place on the baking sheet about 1.5 inches apart. Cover your baking sheets with an oiled plastic wrap and set aside for another 30 minutes until dough has risen again.

6. Place your oven to 375F. Brush your rolls with beaten eggs and make parallel slits on top of your rolls. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Transfer on a rack to cool and serve.

Crustacean Filled Salad

Crustacean Filled Salad

Salads don't always have to include salad greens as long as there are other vegetables and a salad dressing in the mix. Most often, meat, poultry or seafood is the highlight in the salad more than the greens itself. In this recipe by Chef Jean Andre Charial of the L'Oustau de Baumaniere restaurant, crayfish, prawns and butterbeans form the core of the salad. It is a colorful salad, with a rosy pink from the vinaigrette bisque, red from the diced tomatoes and orange from the chopped carrots.

The white beans, tossed in mayonnaise, stand out in its creamy appearance while flecks of dark from the truffles and green from chopped chives complete the salad's rainbow hues. Instead of tossing the salad ingredients as is traditional, the diced tomatoes dressed in olive oil are layered with the cooked white beans so that their flavors and textures remain distinct with every bite. Use other types of beans like cannellini, navy beans or white beans if you can't find butterbeans.

At the heart of this salad of course are the seafoods. Also known as Dublin bay prawn or Norway lobster, and sometimes Scampi, langoustine is a popular crustacean in Europe but not widely consumed in the United States and Canada. It might easily be mistaken as a lobster because of the similarity in body shape but the langoustine is slimmer. Buy them as fresh as you can at the fishmonger's. In case the langoustine is not available, you can just substitute it with other seafood such as lobster, crayfish or prawns. Other recipes are available at Gourmandia.ca.

To get more flavors out of the langoustine, Chef Jean Andre Charial makes a splendid sauce out of its shells and heads. This is then added to the vinaigrette made of red cherry vinegar and olive oil. The salad dress is then poured into the vegetables and seafood. To provide an interesting counter-texture, the juicy langoustine tails are fried in olive oil. With a crusty bread on the side, this French-style salad is best served with a glorious glass of Sancerre or Chablis.

Ingredients

1 bunch basil
½ lb. carrots
2 tomatoes
12 prawns
2 oz. pine nuts
2/3 oz. truffles
3 2/3 lbs. butterbeans
mayonnaise with a shallot
Court bouillon:
1/3 lb. celery
½ lb. carrots
1 garlic head
1 onion, thyme, laurel, pepper, salt

Vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons rapeseed oil
1 tablespoon mustard
3 tablespoons Xeres vinegar
alt, pepper
3 spoons olive oil
5/6 cups crayfish reduction

1. Prepare the langoustine. Separate the body of the langoustine from the tails and take off the shells. Set the meat aside. Meanwhile, extract the essence from the shells by crushing it with a pounder or pestle. Catch the extract in a bowl.

2. Prepare the langoustine sauce. Cook the crushed head and shells on a saucepan with a little drop of olive oil. Add the carrots, onions, and leeks. Add the red wine and fish stock. Cook for half an hour. When the sauce is reduced, pour through a strainer on a bowl. Set aside for use in the salad dressing.

3. Make vinaigrette using the cherry vinegar and olive oil (one spoon of vinegar for three spoons of olive oil). Mix the dressing with the langoustine juice and season with salt and pepper.

4. Prepare the other vegetables. Toss the diced tomatoes in olive oil and set aside. Toss the white beans in mayonnaise and shallots and set aside. Fry the langoustine tails in olive oil and place on napkin or paper for oils to be absorbed.

5. Assemble the salad Use circular mold to make a layer of the tomato, followed by the beans, and a piece of langoustine on top. Pour sauce around the dish and place bits of the remaining langoustine around. Sprinkle truffles and decorate with diced carrots and chives.

Bountiful Lobster Salad

Zeeland lobsters are highly prized and valued for their succulent, sweet, juicy and tender meat. Located in the westernmost part of the Netherlands, Zeeland consists of many islands and the surrounding waters are home to some of the highest quality seafood in the world. This refreshing salad dish is served at the elegant Manor Inter Scaldes in Zeeland and developed by Michelin Chef Martje Boudeling.

In this recipe, the Zeeland lobsters are cooked in a court bouillon for a few minutes and peeled to reveal its meat. The lobster meat is combined with a mix of salad greens called mesclun, basil leaves, watercress, chives, asparagus, and artichoke. The salad is seasoned with a dressing made with olive oil, garlic, coriander, sherry vinegar, minced herbs, salt and pepper. The lavish dish is garnished with Chinese truffles, black truffles, and Italian truffles, as well as fresh herbs and minced parsley. The structure of the dish is important in its overall enjoyment. The leaves, vegetables, herbs, lobster meat, and truffles should be layered and constructed for the utmost dining pleasure.

You can also use regular lobster to make this recipe. Alternatively, you can also use crayfish or prawns as long as you cook them before tossing with the salad. Make sure you do not overcook the seafood or you will lose the desirable succulence and sweet flavor. It is also not necessary to use three kinds of truffles if you have a hard time finding them or find them too expensive. If you can’t find fresh truffles, you can use truffle oil instead to flavor the dish. Chinese truffles are the most affordable of all the truffles but have a milder flavor. They are darker in color than the black truffles from France and have less veining when cut. Italian truffles are the most expensive and of the highest quality. Combined together, French, Italian and Chinese truffles provide a rare culinary treat and gastronomic experience. Other recipes can be found at Gourmandia.ca.

Ingredients

2 Zeeland lobsters (1 lb.)
1 ½ tablespoons corn salad
24 endive leaves
chopped dill
chopped chervil
chopped chive
allspice, basil, cress
1 bunch green asparagus
mesclun (chervil, arugula, leafy lettuces and endive in equal proportions)
3 tablespoons winter truffles
3 ½ tablespoons artichokes or chanterelle mushrooms
Xeres vinegar, salt, pepper
4 tablespoons truffle oil
olive oil

1. Cook the one pound live Zeeland lobster for seven or eight minutes in a court-bouillon. Once the lobster has cooked, peel and slice into pieces. Remove the intestines and the gritty pouch inside the head. Cut the tail into thin pieces.

2. Make the salad dressing by mixing olive oil, garlic, coriander, sherry vinegar, and minced herbs. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Toss the different kinds of lettuce in the salad dressing and season with salt and pepper. Dress the sliced artichoke and green asparagus. Arrange the seasoned vegetables on the plate. Sprinkle on some chives and add the chili pepper, basil and watercress. Heap the seasoned greens and young sprouts in the middle of the dish.

4. Season the Chinese truffle with a little truffle oil and some salt and pepper. Arrange the three kinds of shaved truffles on the plate.

5. Season the lobster pieces and arrange around the plate. Heap the flesh tail meat on top of the mesclun.

6. Sprinkle some parsley, garnish with some herbs. Drizzle some dressing around the plate and serve.

White Wine Bass Recipe

Bass filets are seared and cooked in the oven flavored with white wine and seasoned with pine nuts and black olives. The cooked filets are served with a rich and sumptuous sauce made from the resulting liquid where the fish was cooked in, enhanced with lemon, white wine, butter, Worcestershire sauce, and a mix of herbs including rosemary, thyme, sage, and marjoram. A light and refreshing dish for any occasion, bass fish with pine nuts and black olives is perfect paired with a bottle of Cinque Terre di Manarola.

You can also use other aromatic herbs for this recipe, depending on what you have in your pantry or garden or what is available in the grocery. Fresh green herbs are best and a mixture of different herbs will give the dish a refreshing bite. You can use sage, fennel, dill, basil, tarragon, parsley, and chervil, all of which go well with fish and the white wine sauce. You can also use cilantro for an intense bite that will give the dish an Oriental flavor. The firm and succulent meat of sea bass lends well to the aromatic herbs, absorbing the flavors easily while remaining delicate and fresh. The herbs highlight the natural sweetness of the bass meat. The pine nuts add moisture to the fish since it contains a high amount of oil while the black olives complete this Mediterranean-inspired gourmet dish which you can find in Gourmandia.ca

For superior flavor, get freshly caught bass whole and filet them yourself or let your fishmonger filet it for you the moment you buy it. Prepackaged or frozen bass filets have diminished flavor that will be overpowered by the pungent herbs and white wine sauce. The fish in this recipe is seared until brown before cooking in the oven. This seals in their moisture and keeps them from drying up. Overcooking the sea bass will cause it to become tough and dry. It should be tender and moist when cooked.

Ingredients

1 1/3 lbs. bass fillet
3 spoons pure cold-pressed olive oil
1/2 lemon
1.8 oz. pine nuts
3 ½ oz. (about ½ cup) black olives
1/2 glass dry white wine
salt
flour
1 oz. butter
2 or 3 drops of Worcestershire sauce
minced spices (rosemary, sage, marjoram, thyme)

1. Slice the bass fillet into four portions. Season with salt and sprinkle with flour.

2. Heat olive oil in a pan. Sear bass filets in the pan and brown each side, turning once. Place filets in a 356 to 392 degree F. oven for about 6 minutes to cook through.

3. Remove the excess oil from the pan and moisten with white wine. Place the filets on the hot stove and allow the liquid to evaporate. Add the black olives and pine nuts.

4. Place the fish on a dish. To the sauce, add some minced herbs and bouillon. Squeeze half a lemon over the sauce and add a bit of butter, 2 or 3 drops of Worcestershire sauce, and salt. Cook on low heat, stirring with a spoon until the sauce is thick. Serve sauce alongside the dish.

Duck Fillet with Arabica Coffee Sauce

The bold and brooding coffee sauce in this gourmet recipe matches the intense flavor of fried duck fillets. Endives braised in butter add a refreshing bite to the rich dish for an unforgettable meal. This recipe by Chef Jean Michel Lorain is a unique dish and a rare culinary experience. Make this for a spectacular entrée to a fabulous dinner party or special lunch. Pair it with a red wine like Bandol Rouge for a complete gourmet experience.

The duck is already quite flavorful on its own and requires only little to no seasoning. In this recipe, it is prepared as simply as possible, pan-fried until nicely golden and the grease from the fat leaks out of the meat. Because duck is very fatty, it cooks up tender and moist but care should still be taken not to overcook it or the meat will become tough and dry. The duck fillets are simply seasoned with salt and pepper since the coffee sauce is already quite flavorful. This recipe is from one of the best sites for recipes, Gourmandia.ca

To make the coffee gravy, you need duck juice prepared beforehand. This comes from the drippings of roasted duck or from duck broth. Duck juice is sometimes available in specialty stores and delis. You can also collect duck juice form roasting a whole duck. Choose high quality Arabica coffee beans with a strong aroma. Pleasantly bitter and earthy, Arabica coffee adds complexity and depth to the duck sauce. It also stimulates the senses for a lively dinner or lunch party. The lovely aroma from the coffee sauce is enough to perk up your senses and keep your guests excited. Lemon juice is added to the sauce to give it zest and a bright flavor Lemon rind is used to garnish the dish for a nice color and added tang. The pleasantly bitter, savory, aromatic, and zesty flavors go excellently with the wild and fatty taste of duck. Caramelized endives add a sweet touch and a crisp texture.

Ingredients

8 duck fillets (2 per person)
peanut oil
2 lemons
sugar, salt
8 endives
3/4 cup duck gravy
10 Arabica coffee beans
butter
pepper

1. Peel the lemons and slice the peeled skin into julienne then boil it in water. Drain the julienne peel and soak in cool water, adding some sugar and salt to remove some of its bitterness. Drain.

2. Season the duck filets with salt and pepper. Heat peanut oil in a frying pan. Place the duck filet to cook on the skin sides first, long enough for them to drip off the fat. Sear the meat side for a bit to seal the moisture and turn it back on the skin side for the final cooking. Press the meat lightly to check if it is cooked. The more resistance, the rawer it is. Meat that’s too hard is overcooked, which is no good. When done, arrange on a serving dish.

3. Remove the oil from the pan and add water and duck gravy. Simmer and add Arabica coffee beans, which will infuse while the sauce is reducing and add color and a subtle aroma. Add a spoonful of lemon juice to finish.

4. Slice the chicory in two. Place butter in the frying pan, add a little sugar, braise the chicory. Caramelize very gently. Season with some salt and pepper. It should turn a nice golden brown when ready.

5. Place caramelized chicory beside the duck filets, pour coffee sauce and garnish with lemon peel. Serve.

Sweet and Spicy Mashed Potatoes

This recipe of Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes which is sweet, spicy, smooth, velvety, exotic and filling dish that can be served on its own as an appetizer or as a dip for nachos or chips. You can even stuff this nutritious snack in burritos, tacos, or top it over rice for a quick and satisfying meal. Sweet potatoes contain more fiber and nutrients than regular potatoes and are excellent for your digestion. This versatile vegetarian fare is a great addition to your weekly family menu.

To be healthy and slim does not mean you have to turn all-out vegetarian. You may schedule one day of the week for detoxification, such as meatless Monday. Your family can feel recharged and energized and take on the challenges of the week. Make this sweet potato a staple for those healthy days. This is a dish that you won’t easily get tired of as it is full of flavor and textures. It can be an addicting starter with spices like coriander, cilantro, lime, chili, and cumin.

Ideal for the couch potato as it is for the health buff, this spicy mashed sweet potato is a zestier and healthier alternative to French fries or a bucket of friedchicken. You won’t feel guilty even after consuming a whole bowl of it. In fact, you’ll feel more energized and invigorated after devouring the dish because it aids in digestion. Bingeing on this snack could possible help you lose weight.

If you consider the generous amount of spice contained in this dish which helps speed up your metabolism, instead of accumulating fat while you’re sitting around on a lazy weekend, it will help burn up those unwanted calories. These spicy mashed sweet potatoes can be prepared ahead of time, place it in the container, and store it in the refrigerator for up to a week, and you can instantly enjoy a healthy snack anytime.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
A few grinds of fresh black pepper
1-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from 1 lime) (or substitute lemon juice)
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (3- to 4-ounce) can chopped green chiles
Big handful of frozen corn kernels (1/4-1/2 cup
Handful of frozen peas
Garnish: chopped fresh cilantro

1. Wash and peel sweet potatoes and cut into 6 or 8 pieces each. Place them in a microwave safe container with a lid and cook on high (1100 watt microwave oven) for 12-13 minutes. Remove from oven and mash potatoes using a potato masher.

2. Add cumin, coriander, garlic, onion, pepper and lime juice and stir to combine. Now gently stir in beans, chilies, corn and peas. If it seems too thick add a bit of water (up to 1/4-1/3 cup or so should be fine). Return to the microwave oven and cook another 2 minutes, to combine flavors and heat it thoroughly.

3. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and serve.

Barbecue Ribs on a Rainy Day

To make deliciously mouth watering barbecue ribs at home recipe, you don’t necessarily need a grill. Your slow cooker or crock pot can be used to make melt-in-your mouth, tender, juicy, fall-off-the bone, finger licking good barbecue ribs. You also need just a few ingredients like onions, garlic, and barbecue sauce. Since the ribs cook in the crock pot for six to eight hours on low heat or three to four hours on high heat, you can rest it easy. Broil the ribs first for 25 minutes, to give them a nice brown color, before cooking it in the crock pot.

Before cooking, make sure that the ribs are properly thawed. In the refrigerator thaw the frozen ribs for a few hours or overnight. With its packaging still on, you can also thaw the frozen meat in a basin of ice cold water for a few hours. In this recipe spareribs or baby back ribs maybe used in making barbecue but you will need to cut the meat for it to fit inside the cooker. Trim off excess fat from the ribs before cooking. The broiling process also extracts some of the fat. Discard the fat to lessen your total fat consumption. With the meaty side out and standing on their edge, place the ribs inside the crock pot.

Ready-made and bottled barbecue sauce is available in the grocery or you can make your own barbecue sauce for use in this recipe. As long as you find the sauce delicious, then it will make delicious barbecue ribs. Spice up your barbecue sauce with some chili for a superb bite. Use fresh herbs and fresh ingredients to get a potent and exceptional tasting barbecue sauce. For more information about the dish or some best cooking videos your just one click away.

Ingredients

3 lbs. spareribs
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 large onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups barbecue sauce

1. Preheat broiler and place ribs in broiler pan and broil for 25 minutes, or until browned. Allow to cool a bit before removing the fat and discard. Cut ribs into serving-size pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2. Place ribs in cooker and add sliced onion and minced garlic. Add the barbecue sauce. Cover and cook on Low Heat for 6-8 hours or on High Heat for 3-4 hours

Ice Cream Filled Sable

Pâte sablée is the richest of all French short pastry crusts and translates to “rich sugar pastry crust” in English. It is commonly used to make tarts and flans and traditionally made with butter, eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla, and powdered almonds. In this gourmet recipe by Chef Georges Wenger, pate sablee is flavored with grated lemon peel for a zesty flavor. The very delicate and nicely crumbly pastry is served with an array of exotic fruits including bananas, coconut flakes, dried banana, coconut meringue, passion fruit, and preserved kumquat. Cardamom ice cream and vanilla cream complete this tantalizing dessert dish. This makes a very colorful and festive dessert for special occasions. It has a tropical flavor and vibe that is ideal for summer dinner parties. Pair this with a bottle of Côtes du Jura Vin de Paille 1996 for a gloriously unforgettable night.

You need to prepare the dough ahead of time since you will need to chill it in the refrigerator of a couple of hours. You can even make the dough as much as four days ahead if you wish. To get very smooth and fine dough, use an electric mixer. The sugar and the butter should be creamed to get a light and fluffy consistency before the other ingredients are added. Use a low speed for mixing the ingredients slowly but evenly. Once the ingredients are well incorporated but not overly mixed, you can form it into a dough, shape it into a ball, and flatten it into a disc. Wrap the disc in a thin plastic film and chill in the refrigerator.

The coconut meringue also takes some time to make and can be prepared in advance. It is simple to do but takes some care and a light hand. You need to whisk the eggs and add castor sugar and whip until the mixture is glossy and fluffy, spread into the shape of disks and bake in a 284 degrees F oven until golden and crisp.

Ingredients

For the pate sablee (cookie dough):
7 tablespoons flour
7 tablespoons butter
3 ½ tablespoons powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1 grated lemon peel
1 salt grain

For vanilla cream:
1/2 cup cream
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla pod

For cardamom ice cream:
See Damassine ice-cream
Replace the alcohol with 4 green cardamom grains
crushed and soaked for 10 minutes in milk

For garnishing:
4 round coconut meringue discs
12 round, dried banana slices, fresh coconut flakes
12 preserved kumkats
4 passion fruits (emptied)
1 banana

For the topping:
¼ cup water
11 lbs. sugar
pulp from 1/2 an orange
juice from 1 orange
juice from 1 lemon
1 mature banana

To make the pate sablee, mix the butter and sugar in bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and beat with a whisk. Stir in flour and lemon peel and mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated and a smooth dough is formed. Shape dough into a ball, flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic film. Chill in the fridge for four hours.

1. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1/10 inch and cut 4 circles of about 3 ½ inches in diameter. Cook in a buttered plate in a 350 degree F. oven. Store.

2. To make the vanilla cream, whisk the egg yolk with sugar over a bain-marie. Pour over the warm, vanilla-flavored milk. Warm and bind until it’s 187 degrees F. Strain and store cold.

3. To make the topping, heat water with sugar. Add orange peel, orange juice, and lemon juice. Add the banana and cook it again. Stir.

4. To serve, place some vanilla cream on the pate sablee and make a decorative flower with the banana pieces. Place on a serving dish and cover with some sauce. Place a scoop of cardamom ice cream next to it, garnished with coconut flakes, dried banana, and coconut meringue. Sprinkle some preserved kumquat and passion fruit around the dish.

How to Cook Your Calf Liver

It is a tradition in Venice to cook calf liver strips with caramelized onions and butter to give it a rich, savory, and subtly sweet flavor. In this recipe adapted from the famous Hotel Cipriani, classic Venetian-style calf liver is garnished with freshly chopped parsley and served with grilled polenta. You can make the polenta a few hours or a day before cooking the liver so that you can chill the polenta in the fridge and let it cool and harden.

Those who don’t like liver will think twice when they try this recipe. A powerful storehouse of nutrients, calf liver is an excellent food choice that can be cooked and served the gourmet way. When cooked right, it turns creamy and luscious.

Available all-year round, calf liver is easy to prepare and it takes only a few ingredients to make a delicious meal out of it. The liver of calf, because it is young, is less likely to accumulate toxins, hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides found in the liver of older animals. Buy organic calf liver to ensure that it is free of toxins. Organic calf liver is also more flavorful and tender than commercial counterparts. For even cooking, cut the liver into even sizes. Slice them into small strips so that they cook tender and tasty as opposed to chewy and leathery. Overcooking the liver will make them fibrous and tough so cook them only until they become tender.

Foie de veau a la Venetian is also delicious served with mushrooms braised in red wine and can be served with a chilled bottle of red wine for a romantic evening. If you have leftovers from this dish, you can easily turn it into a liver spread or creamy liver paste. Simply add chopped boiled eggs and puree in a blender or chop very finely.

Ingredients

4 foie de veau (veal liver) about 1/2 lb. each
2 onions, pure cold-pressed olive oil
pepper, salt
parsley
1 ½ tablespoons butter
white polenta

1. Slice the liver into small strips. Chop the onions thinly. In the pan, saute onions in olive oil and season with a pinch of salt and freshly grated black pepper.

2. While the onions are caramelizing, chop the parsley very finely. Use only the young leaves. When the onions have browned a little, add the liver to the onions and cook until tender. Add a lump of butter and stir. Add the parsley and mix well.

3. To make the white polenta, heat a bit of oil in a large pot. Slowly pour the polenta flour gently stirring all the time. Dilute with water and stir well. Cool this mixture slowly always stirring for about thirty minutes until you get a nice creamy polenta. Pour the polenta in a rectangular dish so that it can be cut into squares. Allow it to cool and put in the fridge for about an hour so that it hardens and is easy to cut. Cut the hardened polenta into squares and brown them in the grill.

4. Place the cooked liver on a serving plate and add the warm polenta on the sides as garnish.

Asparagus and Egg Spaghetti

In this vegetable dish, fresh tomatoes and asparagus are served with Serrano ham as well as egg. To make the egg “spaghetti,” egg crepes are first created then sliced into thin strips similar to pasta. A dry-cured ham, Serrano ham is basically displayed along with Spanish as well as gourmet food in the shop. However, if Serrano is not available, you can opt for Italian prosciutto or jambon de Bayonne as an alternative. Blanching the asparagus in such a way that it is still mildly crisp though cooked is made possible by first pouring water into a pot and bringing it to a complete boil. Then ice water should be poured to fill a large bowl and leave it for a while. The trimmed and washed asparagus is then dropped into the pot with boiling water. It should be blanched for precisely 1 minute. Lastly, the asparagus is promptly removed from the pot and then dropped into the large bowl with ice water till it is fully cooled.

Ingredients

Egg Spaghetti
3 eggs
6 organic grape tomatoes, cut in half
10g hydrated porcine mushrooms
10g fresh oyster mushrooms, torn
1 tbsp olive oil
Tomato concasser
2 large hot house tomatoes
1/2 tsp finely chopped garlic
1/2 tsp finely chopped shallots
1/2 tsp finely chopped parsley
1 tsp olive oil

Serrano wrapped asparagus
2 thin slices of Serrano ham
5 pieces medium sized asparagus

1.For the egg spaghetti:The eggs are whisked and then sifted through using a fine strainer.With the use of a frying pan, the egg mixture is then made into very thin crepes.They are then rolled and sliced thinly. Afterwhich the mushrooms and tomatoes are sautéed in olive oil in the pan. The egg is then added and tossed several times. You may then season it after.

2.To prepare the tomato concasser: After quartering the tomatoes, some tomato flesh inside as well as the seeds are then removed. Afterwhich the tomatoes are diced finely. The shallots and garlic are then sautéed in olive oil. The tomatoes are then added and tossed. The parsley is then added and a bit of seasoning as well.

3.For the Serrano wrapped asparagus: The asparagus is blanched in fast boiling water. The ham is then laid out flat and the asparagus is placed across the ham. The stems are rolled around and wrapped tightly.

4.Using a pan, sear the ham and asparagus; the ham should be crisp on the outside.The egg spaghetti which is still hot is then placed on the plate with the asparagus propped on it. The asparagus base is then topped with the tomato concasser.