FANTASTIC FISH PIE

A while back I spent a wonderful winter in a small town called Piriapolis,

located in Uruguay, South America.

Piriápolis was founded in 1893 by Francisco Piria.

Population of around 10,000 people ( and 12000 dogs...)

Piriapolis is also known to be a mystical place.

It suppose to be the crossroad of strong points of energy.

I don't know if that it is true but I have to admit that I did spent a very peaceful and happy

four months.

What I do know is that they have the best sunset I've seen in my life.

Everything is walking distance (long walks). There is a fantastic market once a week

where fruits, vegetables, cheese and other goodies were great quality and extremely affordable.

The best thing about it was the fresh fish. Very early in the morning boats will leave

the coast and come back with loads of fresh fish.

I did get to try several seafood recipes while I was there.

My favorite fish is call ''Brotola''.

With brotola I made this delicious fish pie, I got the recipe from Food.com (Recipezaar at that moment)

Ingredients:

5 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 2 . 5cm/1 inch squares

salt & freshly ground black pepper

2 free range eggs

200 g fresh spinach

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, halved and finely chopped

extra virgin olive oil

600 ml cream

200 g cheddar cheese

1 lemon, juice of

1 teaspoon English mustard

100 g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

500 g haddock or 500 g cod fish fillets, skin removed pin boned and sliced into chunks

nutmeg (optional)

Preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F

Put the potatoes into salted boiling water and bring back to the boil for 2 minutes.

Carefully add the eggs to the pan and cook for a further 8 minutes until hard boiled,

by which time the potatoes should also be cooked.

At the same time steam the spinach in a colander above the pan.

This will only take a minute. When the spinach is done, remove from the colander

and gently squeeze any excess moisture away.

Then drain the potatoes in the colander.

Remove the eggs, cool under cold water, then peel and quarter them.

Place to one side.

In a separate pan slowly fry the onion and carrot in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes,

than add the double cream and bring just to the boil.

Remove from the heat and add the cheese, lemon juice, mustard and parsley.

Put the spinach, fish and eggs into an appropriately sized earthenware dish and mix

together, pouring over the creamy vegetable sauce.

The cooked potatoes should be drained and mashed - add a bit of olive oil,

salt, pepper and a touch of nutmeg if you like.

Spread on top of the fish.

Don't bother piping it to make it look pretty - it's a homely hearty thing.

Place in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until the potatoes are golden.
 
 
 

Now, if you are wondering why I do not have a picture of the finish dish....It's because we were sooo hungry, that I forgot and we eat it all!

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ITALIAN COMFORT FOOD

Food that nourish the body and soul.In Italy it differs with the regions.

I was volunteering for 6 months in Puglia, the South of Italyand hosted by the most adorable couple, Gianni and Graziella.

Graziella happens to be one of the most amazing cooks I've ever met.And trust me, I've been in the food business for a long time.

Cooking is her passion and her husband keeps a large organic veggie gardenwere we picked most of the fresh produce needed for her fantastic meals.

Top quality.

If I try to reproduce one of her meal with the sad tomatoes that I find at the grocery store this days it will probably taste like ...water (if I'm lucky)

Comfort food is a nostalgic element, and this baked pasta dish bring back memoriesof my great journey in Puglia this past winter.

Baked Pasta Puglia Style :

Ingredients: (4 people)

400 grs. rigatoni

120 grs. sausage

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 Tbs. basil, chopped

200 g ground beef

200 g tomatoes, diced

100 g bread

50 g milk

2 eggplants

200 grams mozzarella

100 g mortadella

extra virgin olive oil

salt

In a pan with olive oil, place onion, basil, tomatoes, salt and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes.

Mean while shred the sausage, chopped the mortadella and set aside.

Mix the ground meat with bread soaked in milk, sausage and a pinch of salt and make some small meatballs.

Cut eggplant into strips and fry in a pan with olive oil.

Cut the mozzarella into pieces.

Cook the rigatoni in salted water, al dente and strain.

In a greased baking dish put a layer of rigatoni and cover with half of all ingredients including meatballs, add a second layer with the remaining rigatoni and finish the rest of the ingredients.

Bake at 200 degrees for twenty minutes.

INTERNATIONAL FOOD FESTIVAL

I arrived to Bergamo the first week of October just in time to go to the annual international food festival. Hundreds of stands with magnificent food steaming in the cold Autumn days.
How lucky I was.

People are always so happy around food.

I had dozens of samples.

But I spent most of my money on cheese. Mmmm...so many creamy, pungent and delicious cheese.

I also had toasted chestnuts for the very first time in my life. I loved them.

One of my favorites was a spice stand with seasoning freom all over the world.

FANTASTIC POLENTA

While in Bergamo this winter I was honored to meet "Chef Enrico", a true bergamasco chef or cuoco with a twist.
During my time there he made several fantastic dishes and this original polenta was the first one of a series of unforgettable meals.

He made one mini omelette for each of us, sauteed some mushrooms with parsley and the best organic extra virgin olive oil in the world, cooked some polenta, sliced some smoked cheese and roasted some potatoes.

After that he assemble the dish by setting the polenta in the middle of the dish with the smoked cheese on top, above the cheese he set the omelette and cover it with the sauteed mushrooms.

All surrounded by the roasted potatoes.

The dish was delicious and great looking.

I have had polenta with mushrooms before and I really like it but I hated that the mushrooms turn the polenta kind of grayish looking. By placing the mushrooms on top of the omelettes, that problem was solved.

Thank you chef Enrico.

Delicious fresh wild mushrooms

Winter just started in this part of the world.
A couple of days ago we went to collect some pine cones for the fireplace.
Not only we found plenty of them but we were also very lucky and we found some wild mushrooms.

I believe they are Pine Mushrooms, Hongos de Pino locals called them; they were right under at the bottom of a pine tree. I had them at home for a couple of days, Google them over and over, but I was afraid to eat them. What if I’m wrong and they are poisonous?
Well…I guess they were not! I had them today and they tasted fantastic; it’s been 5 hours and I’m still alive (and hungry again).
We had a delicious lunch: Grilled meat and sausage (Salchicha Parrillera), green salad, sautéed mushrooms, roasted spicy peppers, cauliflower fritters and some Pita bread.

The cauliflower fritters was a recipe from Food and Wine.
The pita bread was a recipe from the King Arthur's cookbook; I’ve made this bread several times, it’s a yummy, easy, fool proof recipe.
The peppers I bought at the market and roasted them myself in the oven then peeled them and marinade them in olive oil with a whole garlic clove.
The mushrooms came out scrumptious. They smelled so good.

Sautéed wild mushrooms:

Fresh wild mushrooms, sliced
Olive oil
Whole garlic cloves
Worcestershire Sauce
Chopped parsley

Just warm up the oil, add the garlic cloves and don’t let them burn.
Add mushrooms, sauté for a couple of minutes and season with the Worcestershire sauce and parley.

We enjoy the meal in the terrace, it was little cold but such a nice day we just bundle up a bit.

It smelled so good we attracted some visitors.

The number one fish taco recipe

I have not been good at blogging this past month.
Actually I have not been good at anything.
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

This morning I woke up and it was kind of cold and cloudy. I made coffee, brought it back to bed, turn on my laptop and started catching up on Google Reader where I keep track of all my favorite blogs, I haven’t check them out in almost a month.
To my surprise I wasn’t that behind. As I start reading I notice that I’m not the only one
without energy or lack of inspiration. Hmmm…strange, what’s going on?
The two first blogs I read where Beck & Posh and Mishmash! , both going through something similar.
Somehow it made me feel that I’m not Coo- Coo and inspired me to get up, cook up a storm and post.
So here I am, with some delish and super home made fish tacos.

I started making homemade flour tortillas, that came out very tasty.

I went to the island’s central fish market and got some fresh fish. I took my camera with me, it is a great place to photograph, sadly I got completely camera shy, didn’t want to look like a tourist and did not take one picture. Oh well…I am not 100% there yet, but I feel much better.

I dusted the fish with flour, salt, pepper and some paprika and cooked it in olive oil. My kitchen smelled like the Mediterranean.

When it was done I deboned it and broke it into big chunks.

At the market I also got 3 different kind of peppers for the salsa. They looked pretty spicy but it is just looks, they are not.

I used all 3 plus a tomato and green onions to make the salsa.

To add heat I had my tacos with chipotle mayonnaise. I think I have a little addiction to chipotles.

It was definitely and acquire taste since I didn't like them that much the first time I tried them.

I assembled the tacos with some lettuce and cilantro.

Added quite a bit of lime juice.

Opened a super cold beer and...yummy!!!!!!!!!!!