Pennette Aum Aum

I've only had Aum Aum pennette at two places in Capri; the one at Ciro a Mare was much better. This is the recipe as discussed with the chef.

pennette
aubergine
best quality sweetest cherry tomatoes
mozarella (does not have to be buffalo)
basil
parmesan
EVOO

1. salt the aubergine, squeeze excess water from aubergine after letting them sit a few hours, dry off on paper towels, saute in frying pan with EVOO and garlic until golden, set aside
2. in another pan, saute tomato halves, chopped garlic, aubergine
3. boil pasta until ready; drain well, add to pan with vegetables, mix well and add mozarella and ripped basil at the end before mixing again
4. serve on heated plates with some parmesan, if you like

Ragu Buca di Bacco

The chef at Buca di Bacco finally admitted to including an herb in his ragu: rosemary. This must have been the ingredient that led me to ask for the recipe to this lovely ragu in the first place. I'm glad that I ran into him as I left because the owner's recipe had nothing in common with that of the chef's. I asked "red wine?" He said "remember, red meat, red wine!"The other interesting bit is the blitzing of carrot, celery and onion to help create a smoother sauce. As this is a ragu made by a Napolitano, the tomato content of the sauce is naturally higher (in fact all the ragus I've seen have been heavy on the tomatoes).

onion
celery
carrot
EVOO
best quality beef
rosemary
butter
canned marzano tomatoes
red wine

1. blitz very finely the carrot, celery and onion, make sottofritto and add other ingredients, making ragu in same fashion as other ragu recipes, adding tomatoes last.
2. although I didn't verify, it would make sense to add rosemary to carrot, celery and onion to blitz equally finely, nothing worse than dealing with rosemary needles on your plate.
3. before serving, add a little butter to enrichen the sauce.

Capri Observations

One must work a little harder here to find the good stuff. A bit easier in the off-season.

• La Fontelina: Manou takes credit for leading us down the mountain trail to this beach shack of a restaurant, serving the bagno in high season. Pleasant in off-season as everyone is very eager to please, particularly the chef.
• Aurora: a great way to lighten up a scallopina Milanese: top with best quality rucola and halved cherry tomatoes.
• Ciro a Mare: pretty bagno trattoria at Marina Piccola, the one and only sand beach in Capri. Best version of the local Aum Aum pennette, which consists of cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and eggplant.
• Buca di Bacco: tiny trattoria in a cave with a tasty ragu on offer.
• JK Place: do not eat here unless you're in the mood for chicken McNuggets.

Fettucine Zucchini Fontelina

From La Fontelina in Capri. The chef was more than happy to chat as we were the only ones dining. We decided to go light with the only vegetable pasta on the menu. Turned out to superb. The key to the dish is the courgettes sauce, which the chef finally offered up to me. You need just enough to emulsify, no need to smother the pasta with it.

linguine
a few courgettes
EVOO
salt
butter
yellow or white onion
basil
parmesan to taste

1. make courgette sauce: peel a couple courgettes so only the white interior remains, slice the courgette along with onion, saute with EVOO in a pan, add some water and when soft blend until smooth
2. slice a couple courgettes with mandolin and fry for a couple of minutes in EVOO on high heat until golden
3. warm courgette sauce in pan on low heat, add linguine when ready, toss in fried courgette, some torn basil, parmesan, some pasta water, salt and butter; toss in pan until warmed through and pasta nicely coated with sauce
4. serve on warmed plates, sprinkle more parmesan, if you like

Curry Scallops & Cauliflower

Another idea from watching Masterchef. One of the contestants dusted some scallops with curry powder before pan frying, then served with a celeriac puree. While interesting, I will opt for a cauliflower pairing. To this I may add golden raisin in some shape or form but stop short of including capers, the third leg of the ubiquitous cauliflower-raisin-caper triad.

cauliflower

yellow onion

chicken bouillon

scallops

curry powder

chives, snipped

S&P

EVOO

1. roast onion and cauliflower in a tray until golden; add bouillon to tray; put contents in food processor and blend until smooth, adding some seasoning if necessary; put through fine sieve once or twice and keep warm
2. put scallops in bowl with EVOO, S&P and curry powder; saute scallops until golden on each side making sure not to overcook
3. to serve, put a few scallops on plate, drizzle with cauliflower puree, sprinkle chives

Peas, Feta & Scallions

This a recipe from Tamasin Day-Lewis, who I think lives on my street. The other day he asked me for the time, and I said "celebrity?", to which he responded, "no, just a cook". Maybe next time I will compliment him on this recipe, which I just stumbled across now on Epicurious and sounds lovely. Oops, Michelle just corrects me that this is not the guy that lives on our street.

2 1/4 pounds peas in the pod, or 1 1/2 cups frozen petit pois

2-4 tblsp EVOO

1/2 pound feta

1/2 pound Greek yoghurt

1/2 garlic clove, peeled and crushed with MSS

bunch of scallions, finely sliced

large handful of mint leaves, shredded

juice of 1 lemon

S&P

1. if using fresh peas, shell and boil in water until al dente, then drain and place in large bowl; sprinkle with 2 tblsp EVOO and crush coarsely with a potato masher
2. if using frozen peas, blanch briefly, drain exceptionally well, crush before adding oil, pouring off any more excess water at this stage, add the EVOO bit by bit and less liberally
3. mash the feta and yogurt in a shallow bowl; while peas still hot, add the feta and toss to combine; add garlic to taste and mix further; make sure there is some texture (not smoothness)
4. add scallions, 2 tblsp shredded mint; stir in juice of half lemon to begin; season with S&P (watch out feta already salty); taste and adjust seasoning
5. serve in dish with some warm/grilled pita bread alongside

Roast Chicken Risotto

One of the Masterchef contestants made this, and I thought it looked wonderful. If one knows each of the components well, i.e., roasting a chicken, making a creamy risotto as well as an intense chicken broth reduction, then the finished product will most likely be excellent given that the combination is so good. This is my best guess of how he put it together.

whole chicken

girolles

garlic

EVOO

S&P

parsley

preferred risotto rice

parmesan

chives

chervil

1. roast a chicken perfectly, so that skin is nicely browned and crispy
2. make chicken broth, set some aside for risotto as well as another amount to reduce to a syrupy glaze
3. make risotto in usual fashion, preferably using red onions and dry vermouth (versus white wine)
4. slice up chicken breasts and thighs into finger like portions, eschewing bone; make sure chicken includes skin
5. right before serving, saute girolles in some butter, EVOO, S&P, chopped garlic and parsley
6. to serve, put risotto in heated bowl, top with parmesan followed by the pieces of chicken and some girolles; drizzle reduced broth around edges of the risotto and sprinkle the plate with a mixture of chives and chervil, and some additional seasoning

Sweet Corn Veloute

A recipe from Neven Maguire; somehow blending chicken breast into the soup sounds like a novelty.

1 tblsp EVOO

50 gr butter

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

275 gr frozen corn kernels

250 ml sweet white wine

1.2 lt good chicken stock

2 tblsp light cream

1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

175 gr smoked chicken breast, finely diced

maldon sea salt

ground black pepper

1 tsp chervil, chopped

salted popcorn to garnish

1. heat EVOO then butter until foaming, add garlic and corn; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned
2. pour over wine and simmer for 15 minutes until reduced by half; stir in stock, cream and thyme and bring to a boil; turn down heat and simmer for 45 minutes until reduced and slightly thickened
3. stir in half of the smoked chicken and pepper; blitz with hand-held blender until smooth, then pass through sieve into another pan and heat gently; blitz again to make foamy
4. divide remaining chicken among warmed bowls and ladle with veloute, spooning foam on top; sprinkle with chervil and garnish with popcorn (although purely optional!)

Grilled Chicken & Umeboshi

From Tokyo's Hiro, under the train tracks in Nakameguro, a simple recipe using some of my favorite local ingredients. I think despite the Asian flavors, this would blend right into an evening of predominantly mediterranean tapas. Apparently umeboshi plums are more closely related to apricots.

2 small chicken breasts halves, boneless and skinless

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tblsp umeboshi plum paste (bainiku)

1 shiso leaf, chopped

1. slice chicken breasts on the diagonal into 1/4 inch thick pieces
2. drizzle soy sauce over chicken and let marinate
3. heat a large heavy skillet or grill over high heat; grill the chicken slices in the skillet until cooked while the center remains moist
4. arrange chicken slices on a serving plate, smear with plum paste, sprinkle with chopped shiso

Tomato Dressing

An extremely tasty salad dressing from Satsuma in Soho.

onion (1 tsp)

garlic (half tsp)

ripe tomato, seeded and peeled (3 tblsp)

salt

white pepper

tomato ketchup (1 tsp)

rice vinegar (2 tsp)

yamasa soy sauce (half tsp)

tobasco

sunflower oil (3-4 tblsp)

1. put all ingredients in a blender, blend until smooth
2. pass through a sieve and store

Tokyo Observations

• Mimasuya (Chiyoda-ku): a rowdy little izakaya on a cozy pedestrian side street; food on offer was perfect for the cold winter evening, especially the blowfish in beer batter with some ubiquitous bulldog sauce, a local anchovy-type of sushi which was perfect with a squeeze of lemon, seaweed and shiso leaf, dipped in some wasabi soy; super fresh, clotted tofu, spring onions, bonito, all topped off with an ice cold Kirin draft.
• Maisen (Aoyama): an institution specializing in the best tonkatsu I've had so far; the pork was wonderfully light, served with shredded cabbage and brown sauce; the owner prides himself on using only Roppaku Kurobuta (six spotted black pig, or Berkshire pig) supplied from Mr Hayao Okita in Satsuma, a district in Kagoshima prefecture; as described to me, the pork is carefully cut and pounded, with breadcrumbs chosen according to size, shape and water content, fried in sunflower oil; finished off with some grapefruit sorbet, the perfect end of meal palate cleanser.
• Wada-ya (Ginza): thanks to Nobu's office mate, we dined at this basement shabu-shabu restaurant late into the night; first was some slow-cooked premium "Viton" pork shoulder from Tsukuba district in Ibaraki prefecture with some mizuna "potherb" mustard to accompany (Viton in Chinese characters means "beautiful pig"); this was followed by a perfectly grilled mackerel served plain; then the shabu shabu, again with Viton sliced pork belly, shredded leek and other condiments, followed by some noodles at the very end to enjoy the remaining, intense broth; all washed down with some okinawa shochu or awamori (we had Zanpa), of course.
• Kaikaya (Shibuya-ku): hip little izakaya specializing in fish with lots of loud rock music (Scorpions seemed to be a firm favorite the day I was there); very informal, cute little bar to watch the kitchen action.
• Nippon Saisei Sakaba (Marunouchi): didn't make it here, but noting for future reference; a standing-room-only izakaya with some ice-cold beer and about 50 small dishes on offer.
• fuku-masamune: a more modern sake, to be enjoyed chilled at Fukumitsuya --don't forget to hold the pitcher mid-way and poor with just one hand!
• moromizu: a refreshing drinking vinegar from Okinawa enjoyed for breakfast, made from malted rice.
• hotel menu ideas: turkey club sandwich, terriyaki beef burger with truffle mayonnaise or freshly grated wasabi, caesar salad with grilled prawn & mango; a "wasabi sauce" which according to the kitchen contained wasabi paste, mayo, condensed milk and lemon.

Seoul Observations

A few interesting discoveries.

• Maple Tree House (Samcheong-dong): unique Korean barbecue because of the variety of meats served, such as pork jowl, pork cheek; although not an expert, also the first time I see marinated salad leaves-in this case sesame leaves--rather than the usual lettuce.
• Soseonjae (Samcheong-dong): a homely affair, only vegetables, but done to perfection; temple-type food, except very tasty!