Foi no principio que trabalhei na Vila Joya com o Chef Miguel e o Chef Mateo, que trabalha agora no Hangar 7 , restaurante prestigiado Europeu.
Aui estamos os 3 numa foto na zona de Garde Manget, chamado de Cozinha 'fria', onde então eu trabalhava.
In Hotel Vila Joya you can see, from October 6th 2006, sixty four rare reproductions of Austria´s expressionist artist Egon Schiele from Prof. Leopold Collection in Vienna Austria.
Well, not that one should drink wine for breakfast, thow, in early years, we did have the habit of eating 'Sopas de cavalo cansado' (Tired Horse soups) , made with country side bread bits and red wine, before going to work in the fields.
Those days are mostly gone, nowadays, breakfast means something else for the hard working ones. But wine still remains a beverage to be had at the main meals, at least in Portugal, where wine is considered, more and more, a exceptional beverage.
Quinta do Crasto, where world renown wines are produced and considered amongst the best in this wineyard Planet.
I am fortunate enough to be paying a visit to this Quinta do Crasto and to take a glimpse of how and where quality is produced in my beloved Portugal.
know more in Rei Vinho, my newest blog
From Wikipedia:
Mimolette is a cheese traditionally produced around the city of Lille in northern France (where it is also known as Boule de Lille), and also in some areas of Belgium and the Netherlands (where it is also known as vieux Hollande).
A cow's-milk cheese, it normally weighs about 2 kg (approximately 4.5 pounds). Its name comes from "mollet". When young its crust is supple, but with age it becomes harder. It has a grey crust and orangish flesh. The orange color comes from the natural colorant Achiote.
The greyish crust of aged Mimolette is the result of cheese mites intentionally introduced to add flavor by their action on the surface of the cheese.
Mimolette can be consumed at different stages of ageing. Most cheese-lovers appreciate it most when "extra-old" (extra-vieille). At that point, it can become rather hard to chew, and the flesh takes a delicious hazelnut-like flavour.
(the picture above is not from 'Pasteis de Belém' , but only from normal 'Pastéis de Nata')
From the site pasteis de belem :
"The Taste of Tradition
At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, in Belém, next to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (the Heironymite Monastery) there was a sugar cane refinery linked to a small general store.
As a result of the liberal revolution of 1820, all convents and monasteries in Portugal were shut down in 1834, the clergy and labourers expelled.
In an attempt at survival, someone from the monastery offered sweet pastries for sale in the shop; pastries that rapidly became known as 'Pasteis de Belém'.
At that period the area of Belém was still far from the city of Lisbon and could be reached by steam-boats. At the same time, the grandeur of the monastery and the Torre de Belém (the Belém Tower) attracted visitors who soon grew used to savouring the delicious pastries originated in the monastery.
In 1837, the baking of the 'Pasteis de Belém' was begun in buildings joined to the refinery, following the ancient 'secret recipe' from the monastery. Passed on and known exclusively to the master confectioners who hand-crafted the pastries in the 'secrets room', this recipe remained unchanged to the present day.
In fact, the only true 'Pasteis de Belém' contrive, by means of a scrupulous selection of ingredients, to offer even today the flavour of the ancient portuguese confectionary industry."
Recipe for Pastéis de Nata will be released soon, when I perfect the one I have now.
I know that it can be done better. Maybe almost as good as the famous Pastéis de Belém
from the wikipedia:
Serra da Estrela is a cheese from the region of Serra da Estrela, in Portugal. It is one of the most famous, not only in Portugal but also among appraiser all over the world. Its production has very rigorous rules and its delimited region is in the subdivision of the municipalities of Nelas, Mangualde, Celorico da Beira, Tondela, Gouveia, Penalva do Castelo, Fornos de Algodres, Carregal do Sal, etc. It is made of sheep milk, mostly during the months of November to March. Its maturation period has specific norms and must last thirty days at least. According to its maturation it becomes creamy pouring out or thicker. It is a cured cheese from artisan work with half-soft paste, creamy, white or slightly yellow, uniform (without holes or just a few) obtained from slow draining of curdled-milk, after raw sheep milk coagulation, with Cynara cadunculus thistle. The shape is a low cylinder with side camber and a little in the upper face, not having precise tacks. It shows a soft well formed rind, smooth and thin, with an uniform straw-yellow colour. Its scent is intense and the savour reveals a soft, clean "bouquet" lightly acidulous.
from the wikipedia:
Saloio is a Portuguese cheese manufactured in the region between Lisbon and Sintra.
It is made from sheep's milk with no salt. It is a firm cheese usually served in small cylinders that are 5 cm wide and 6 cm high.
Another meaning of saloio is of a non-urban person, i.e. a person living outside the large city on the countryside whose behaviour is regarded somewhat uncivilized and foolish and thereby often being patronized by the hip urban sprawlers.
From the Wikipedia:
Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a young shepherd, eating his lunch of curds, saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he failed to catch her, he returned to his now moldy lunch and ate it out of pure hunger.
Roquefort, or similar style cheese, is mentioned in literature as far back as 79 AD, when Pliny the Elder remarked upon its rich flavor. Cheesemaking colanders have been discovered amongst the region's prehistoric relics.
Roquefort is a pungent ewe's-milk blue cheese from the south of France, and one of the most famous of all French cheeses. Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, European law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Cambalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort, as it has a protected designation of origin. Roquefort is sometimes known as the "King of Cheeses", a distinction that is also used for the Italian Parmigiano Reggiano, the French Brie de Meaux and the English Stilton.
The cheese is white, crumbly and slightly moist, with distinctive veins of blue mold. It has characteristic odor and flavor with a notable taste of butyric acid; the blue veins provide a sharp tang. The overall flavor sensation begins slightly mild, then waxing sweet, then smokey, and fading to a salty finish. It has no rind; the exterior is edible and slightly salty. A typical wheel of Roquefort weighs between 2.5 and 3 kilograms, and is about 10 cm thick. As each kilogram of finished cheese requires about 4.5 litres of milk, Roquefort is high in fat, protein and minerals such as calcium.
From the Wikipedia:
Gouda is a yellowish Dutch cheese named after the city of Gouda. The cheese is made from cow's milk that is cultured and heated until the curds separate from the whey. About ten percent of the mixture is curds which are pressed into circular moulds for a couple of hours. The moulds give the cheese its traditional shape. Next, the cheese is soaked in a brine solution which gives the cheese its rind and improves the taste. After the salt soaks in, the cheese is then dried for a couple of days before being coated to prevent it from drying out. It is aged for at least a couple of weeks before it is ready to be eaten. The term "Gouda" is now a generic name, and not restricted to cheese of Dutch origin. The term "Noord-Hollandse Gouda" is registered in the EU as a Protected Designation of Origin. The peculiar thing about this is that the city Gouda is located in the Dutch province Zuid-Holland. However, Gouda-type cheeses from Noord-Holland have a better reputation for their quality.
Exported Gouda is usually the young variety (aged between 1 and 6 months, rich yellow in colour and with a red or yellow paraffin wax coating). This cheese is easily sliced on bread with a cheese slicer. Exported Gouda has a pungent underlying bitterness, yet is still considerably creamier than other common cheeses, such as cheddar cheese, edam cheese. Locally, old Gouda (aged between 12 and 18 months, orange-yellow in colour and sometimes discernible by a black paraffin wax coating) can be obtained. This strong tasting cheese is hard and often too brittle to cut using a slicer, but it can be sliced by knife or served cut in cubes with drinks. Smoked Gouda is also a common find in many cheese markets and mega-marts.
Doesn't it look so good as a morning treat !
Yummie !
More to come about cheese !
ReiJam, Amazing Chefs At Home and Secret Recipes, will be available during the year 2007 for the general public.
Stay tuned to this blog for more newsflashes!
Now we may read in this blog in 3 different languages: Portuguese, English and French.
It is a international blog !
Bonjour
Je suis heureux de repondre à votre invitation à m'exprimer sur ce blog de passionnés de la cuisine.Je susi heureux que les restaurateurs fussent ils décorés ou non s'intéressent à ma conception de la cuisine. En effet je "milite" pour une ouverture la plus large de la cuisine, sans distinction entre les différents secteurs qu'is soient amateurs, professionnels, ou passionnés. Que la cuisine dépasse les barrières des cultures.
L'amour de la cuisine lopasse aussi par le regard qu'on porte sur les autres qui pratiquent aussi. Chacun a sa personnalité, mais tous nous nous nourrissons de celle de sautres !
Bonne continuation
cordialement
Chef Simon
Chef Simon, from chefsimon.com, a phantastic site about cooking, as accepted my invitation of being a writer in this blog.
He will be sending his writings by mail to me and I will post them, and they will be in french, so get your french sharp, because there will be very good articles about the breakfast theme in here.
Merci Chef !
One early morning, I found Chef Koschina at the kitchen after a busy night. He asked me to give him a hand and prepare a nice breakfast for a special couple of guests, this is the story...
At first I prepared a dish with house made smoked salmon and another one with 'pata negra' smoked ham (presunto), nicely decorated and with toasted bagette slices on the side.
Then he prepared some scrambled eggs with salicornia, tomato, shives, mimolette cheese, cream, salt and pepper from the mill, while I grilled tomato slices and placed them on top of nicely toasted bread.
On top of the toasts and grilled tomato slices, I placed a triangular leaf, ladlle like, of Iceberg lettuce.
Inside the lettuce, Chef Koschina placed the egg mix and topped it with a lump of Sevruga caviar and Perigord truffle slices.
After this, we prepared the desert !
'Rahmschmarren' (?), a kind of oversized fluffy oven pancake, made with sour cream, self-raising flour, eggs and sugar, mixed with puff pastry bitts, on top of a smudge of raspberry jam, topped with vanilla ice cream.
He himself took the dishes to the guests and had breakfast with them.
He said to me that I was a good help and thanked me, (that's good, I presume).
And that's the story of one Chef Koschina's special breakfast...
(I hope that it is ok to use your pic here Chef...)
Just for you to know, the term "Marmelada" (marmalade), reffers to jam made with a fruit called "Marmelo". This fruit is no less than quince, and Marmelada is a thick jam that we make with it and sugar.
The orange marmalade was invented by a Scotish, James Keiller, and it consists of a orange sweet/ bitter jam.
I like this version, the one I usually make, my recipe, if there is such a notion any longer, no one invents nothing new any more, but I made it from reading and listening a lot and experimenting, so I guess it is a bit mine as well (be sure that all fruit is from biological agriculture):
3 kg of bitter oranges, Seville kind; 6 small lemmons; 3 kg of 1:1 gellifying sugar; 1 vanilla pod; 1 tb spoon of coriander seeds; 2 tb spoons of Apple pectine; mineral water;70 ml Gran Marnier liquer;35 ml Licor Beirão.
Extract the juices by hand, reserve all the pips.
Into the juices, pour mineral water so that you have a total of 7,5 litters of liquid.
With a fine vegetable knive, finelly slice the fruit chars and place them in the liquid. (hard work involved here!)
Keep in the fridge for 24 hours
Gently cook, inside a wide copper pan preferably, the fruit mix and liquid, with a split vanilla pod and the pips in a closed musselin bag, until it reduces to half of the amount.
Use a laddle to remove the scumm, from time to time.
Add the coriander seeds, after being a bit toasted and crushed, not burned!
Make sure to mix well with a spoon.
Using a big bowl, mix well the sugar and the extra apple pectine.
Add this mix to the pan and gently mix with a spoon or laddle, making sure that is it well dissolved.
When the temperature reaches 104ºC., remove from the heat source.
Wait 5 or 10 minutes to cool down a bit and add the liquers, mixing well and gently.
Remnove the vanilla pod if you want, but leave the coriander seeds. (It would be very difficult to remove them now, and they go very soft, with a citrus taste, its a curious tastefull effect.)
Pot the marmelade in sterilized air tight containers and take them to boilling water for 30 minutes to pasteurize. Lasts for 2 years in a dark, fresh place.
Terribly good with cheese, pancakes, baggette and butter or croissants and the morning coffee or tea!
If made with love then it tastes divinely... 0;-)
I here by declare that I will not reveal any recipes from my friend Chefs, unless they allow me to. Only my own recipes and experiments, as I always have done so far.
Fruit is the very best thing that you can start your breakfast with.
Simple orange juice, freshly hand squeezed, does wonders to your day, for example.
One simple apple, eaten fresh, is a nature's miracle.
Make a red fruits fruit salad, and add some cold sweet jasmin scented green tea.
A tropical fruits salad and add orange peckoe water and honey, that's wonderfull...
Grapes, pinneapple, sweet mangoes, strawberries, raspberries and yoguhrt.
Use lime juice drops on top of your mangoes and ripe papayas.
Just before eating a piece of juicy melon, press with your fork on a lemon rind, just the yellow bit, and then using the same fork, pick a bit of melon and eat... it takes you to a new dimension... my grandmather's Bia trick, she was a wonderfull cook and grandmother too.
And fresh figgs.... fresh from the tree, picked up early morning still wet and fresh...
Sweet peaches, water mellon sliced bits, dark sweet plums and so many others.
Cook your breakfast, be happy all day...
This is the callendar for the outstanding week when 7 amazing chefs will be preparing very special dinners in Vila Joya Hotel.
Book now ! Only a few seats left !
It is a honour and a previledge to have you writing on my Breakfast blog.
Jamie has the BreakfastBlog which has lots of very good and sound info on the breakfasts served around the world on several places.
Welcome here on my humble blog.
As of today, we have a new contributor to this blog, and he is no less than one of the best Chefs working in Portugal at the moment: Chef Murat Karaduman. He signs as goodfood52.
I wish that he presents us with the best breakfast recipes or technics, that he knows so well.
He has been my mentor and one of my best teachers. He is one of the two sous-Chefs working in Vila Joya Hotel at the moment, toghether with Chef Marcus, and led by Chef Dieter Koschina.
I have invited as well, Chef Vitor Sobral, Jamie from the breakfast places blog, Chef Simon from the site chefsimon.com and Chef Ferran Adriá from elBulli. All very highly respected by me.
Welcome Chef !
Stay tuned to the news, we will have several huge Chef legends from Europe, cooking in our Hotel Vila Joya, next January 2007, for one or two weeks.
It is a must !
Book now !
My good friends and collegues, Michael, from Austria and Ziggy, from Italy, took a well deserved pause from work.
I wish all the best for them and hope to work with them soon.
Hey, these I tried and use every day, to go with my eggs.
Use very good and soft white bread.
Finely (5 mm) slice the bread, remove the crust.
Cut in circles with a cutter (5 cm diameter).
Get some Paris Mushrooms and slice them finelly (2 mm).
Butter (use clarified butter), or Virgin Olive oil, each one side only, of each bread circle.
Use a frying pan.
Place the mushroom slice on the warm pan and add a bread circle on top.
Using a espatula, press down each piece, but just gently.
Alow to light brown and turn over so that it browns as well.
Remove from the frying pan and let to rest on absorbant paper for a while.
Grind some salt and spice on top. So gooooood...
P.S. Use Shallot slices instead of the mushrooms and it's still great...
All recipes that I post here were teste personaly by me. Please give me your comments and variations on each one. Thanks
Todas as receitas que eu escrevo aqui foram testadas por mim, pessoalmente. Como é evidente, gostava de saber das vossas variações conforme os vossos gostos. Comentem por favor. Obrigado
No site gourmetsleuth.com encontrei isto : quote " Alan Davidson states one of the earliest recorded versions of the sauce dates back to 1758 "sauce a la hollandoise" from Marin's Dons de Comus. This recipe included butter, flour, bouillon, and herbs; no egg yolks. Davidson also quotes from MeGee (1990) who explains eggs are not needed at all and proper emulsification which can simply be done with butter. He also states that if one does wish to use eggs they are not needed in quantities normally called for in traditional recipes." end quote.
utilizar nos Ovos bennedict, Espargos cozidos no vapôr e onde quer que lhe apeteça ...
Soube desta estória através da internet, sobre esta receita dos ovos Bennedict.
O Sr. Bennedict era , na altura um hóspede num Hotel de Nova Iorque, quando em determinada manhã, pediu ao Chef de serviço aos pequeno-almoços que lhe confeccionasse uns ovos esclafados e os colocasse sobre umas fatias salteadas de bacon e um muffin inglês aberto ao meio e tostado, tudo cobertinho com molho Holandês. O Chef gostou tanto da ideia que deu o nome do hóspede ao prato, Ovos Bennedict.
È de facto delicioso.
