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A three-course menu (Part II). Spinach and home-made ricotta ravioli with curry carrot sauce

Posted on Sunday June 19th, 2011 by Monica

8 people

Number of Diners

Normal

Difficulty Level

40m

Preparation Time

Cooking Time

I know it’s taken a while to write the second dish… and dessert is still about to come!!! The thing is, I just came two weeks ago from a few months in Berlin, so the time I’ve spend in searching for a place to live in and a nice restaurant job (hopefully soon) doesn’t leave me with many internet hours to post. But this is about to change soon… so expect some new german recipes with sausages, beer, Kartoffeln Salat (potato salad), my usual peruvian food from any part of the world (I brought a suitcase with all my ingredients of course), breads, and my guess would be new spicy food. Berlin has many Turkish markets and restaurants so new spices and plates I will be trying for sure. And I loveee Turkish food, and Indian, and well, yes, all kinds.

Anyway… back to the Menu and that special lunch with friends that started with the traditional peruvian Causa Limeña. So, now that I’ve told you how to make home-made ricotta cheese it’s time for a recipe with it right? This is what I prepared: spinach and ricotta ravioli with pine nuts and raisins with a curry-carrot sauce. Absolutely delicious. Let’s get to it, goes dedicated to all the Dad’s today on Father’s Day. Specially to mine, that is the best Dad in the whole world.

Let’s start with the Carrot Sauce:

Ingredients. For 8.

2 white onions
1 tablespoon of roasted garlic paste
1/2 kg of carrots
3 green peppers
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of powdered curry
olive oil
salt, cumin and freshly ground pepper

Preparation.

Cut all the ingredients into medium pieces.
Sweat the onions with the roasted garlic paste in olive oil.

Go to Recipe of A three-course menu (Part II). Spinach and home-made ricotta ravioli with curry carrot sauce

Posted in Creative, Italian, Pasta | Tagged curry, sphinach, raisins, step by step, pine nuts, ravioles, raviolis, recipe, fresh cheese, ricota, ricotta, home-made ricotta, carrot sauce, sauces, carrot | Leave a comment

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Poached egg over artichoke textures topped with crispy pancetta and Parmigiano Reggiano

Posted on Thursday May 26th, 2011 by Monica

4 people

Number of Diners

Advanced

Difficulty Level

1h 30m

Cooking Time

Oh yes, with this dish I’m going up on elegance and more for sure. Thought for my future menu and experimenting for the first time with foams and textures; reading about flavour combinations and cooking methods. This plate has travelled from Julia Child’s artichoke bottoms cooked in a ‘blanc’ (‘like it used to be done’), to an artichoke foam accomplished with Ferran Adrià’s ISI Gourmet Syphon. Over these two textures a poached egg and to enhance flavour crispy pancetta and some Parmigiano Reggiano. This is harmony ladies and gentlemen.

Ingredients. For 4.

12 fresh artichokes, the biggest you can find. If they are not so big then you will be needing 16, 8 of which will be bottoms and the rest for the foam.
4 eggs, best quality and very fresh
100 gr of pancetta
Parmigiano Regianno cheese
3 lemons
1/2 onion finely sliced
200 gr of cream 35.1% grease
100 gr water and 100 of the broth form the artichokes
30 gr butter
3 gr agar-agar
1/2 litre ISI-Gourmet syphon
vinager
salt, pepper and nutmeg

Preparation.

Let’s take it by steps.

1. Artichokes. Day before.

First you need to pick up the 4 biggst artichokes because we need the biggest bottoms or hearts, where the poached egg will be layed on. If they are smal there will be 2 per plate. These ones we will prepare as Julia Child did, ‘as done before’ a friend told me: in a blanc.
First break the stem off close to the base of the artichoke. Holding the bottom up, bend a lower leaf back until it snaps. Then pull it off. Continue until you’ve gone beyond the curse, where the cones of leaves folds inward.

Go to Recipe of Poached egg over artichoke textures topped with crispy pancetta and Parmigiano Reggiano

Posted in Creative, Starters, Eggs, Soups and Creams | Tagged alcachofa, bacon, cooking, espuma, espuma de alcachofa, Ferran Adrià, huevo, huevo escalfado, huevo poché, Julia Child, panceta, parmesano, recipe, sifón ISI | 3 Comments

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A highly gastronomical experience

Posted on Sunday April 24th, 2011 by Monica

A few days ago The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awarded Noma as the best restaurant in the world. Second place was to El Celler de Can Roca of Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca. I’m going to write today about my visit to Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, specifically a Wednesday where I tried over 40 different flavors paired with the best wines.

El Celler de Can Roca's kitchen

The day started in Girona, where my friend Diego and I had lunch at El Celler de Can Roca. I couldn’t believe my eyes when, before we sat to eat, we where talking to Joan Roca who kindly received us for a chat. All of this thanks to Diego of course, who gave me the opportunity to live this unique experience and that will repeat itself in the future, hopefully.

I didn’t take any pictures at the Celler. Not of the dishes. They will remain in my memory. However I must let you know that if you enjoy eating and want to live an amazing gastronomic experience you must make your reservation now. An olive bonsai to the table with caramelized olives filled with anchovies cream, truffled brioche with escudella broth, cod fish in perfection, delicious and soft “cochinillo”, the Palamós shrimp, the vainille in various textures, the wines, the stellar atention. The three brothers united achieve as Jaume Coll says in its book: “…a fantastic symphony executed with rigor and accuracy with three soloists, the first violin, viola and cello…“

…and from almost paradise we moved back to Barcelona for dinner. Tickets Bar. Albert Adrià’s new tapas’ bar located next to the Ferran’s cocktail bar 41º.