You guys didn’t really think I’d go to a fantastic place like Madeira and come home empty-handed when it comes to food-related things! I know, it took a few weeks, but you can’t rush a delicious meal, or the recipes for it, right? Anyways, during the first couple of days on that wonderful island, I really thought I’d return without showstoppers in my recipe notebook – not because the food was bad, mind you, almost everything we had was absolutely delicious – but because the traditional Madeiran cuisine we indulged in is a very no-nonsense one.
Continue reading “Madeiran Black Forest Duck & Sour Cherry Chutney”
While I really enjoy relishing in the seasonal ingredients, I can’t help but feel a break from all the earthy aromas of early winter is in order! That feeling recently got a lot stronger when I, yet again, was admiring the beautifully arranged display of various regional mushrooms at the farmer’s market and had absolutely no desire whatsoever to buy and eat a bunch of them.
As my november’ly share of the flu is slowly fading, my poor nose turned-glow-in-the-dark finally isn’t visible from out of space anymore and my tastebuds are picking up their work again, I think the right time has come to kickstart my system as well as my kitchen with something healthy and quick to make, something seasonal and packed with enough aromas to bring back the last stubborn tastebuds from their goo-induced slumber.
Looking out of the window leaves no doubt about early winter having arrived with it’s claws and icy teeth out. In my kitchen, at least when it comes to sweets, this simple fact translates into: the time for the heavyweights in the chocolate’y business has arrived~! Dark chocolate, “warm” spices like cinnamon and allspice, nuts, dried berries, maybe a little bit of liqueur, orange’y hints… that sort of comforting taste that makes you lean back and stick out your tongue at the cold and gray november ick outside, satisfied grin on your face.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but coming up with the kind of intricate dessert – the ones that make you gawk at them in awe, quivering spoon in hand, at a ponzy restaurant – is, thanks to my not-that-sweet tooth, quite the challenge – which I happily accept every time, what with me trying my best to grow in the kitchen and all that jazz.
Over here, you know winter is com… no…. edging closer! when fresh, plump and pretty-in-orange things are popping up in the fruit section of stores and markets left, right and center. One of my favorites in that area, running a close second to tangerines, are Persimmon fruit, also known as Kaki. While they’re just as orange as any of their display-neighbors, they’re the odd one out, not a member of the citrus or pumpkin gang. Kaki or Persimmon are the fruit of the “Dyospyros Kaki”-tree, so, going by their scientific name, they’re actually the Fruit of the Gods. How’s that for a humble salad topping~!
Now, this is what happens when I set my mind to cooking up a storm on one of those days – when I can’t put a finger on what I actually want to eat, feeling like having seafood, hot chocolate and everything in between, and all that at the same time, if you please! Sometimes that kind of mood results in me shutting down the kitchen for the day in protest, sometimes it makes me pull out all sorts of ideas and go wild in the kitchen in an attempt to satisfy all cravings at once.
As you can imagine, learning your way around the vast and amazing world of desserts as a calory counting student with a miniature kitchen and without an oven to slowly ease into to the show with pastries, cakes and the likes, can turn into an infuriatingly hard and frustrating endeavor very quickly. Of course, making ice creams and chocolates hasn’t gotten old, at least not to me, over all those years, but at some point down the line I just had to do something new to wow my dinner crowd.
We’re back from our trip to the little piece of heaven on earth that is Madeira~! We’ve just returned last night, so I still need a bit of time to get my feet back on the ground and sift through the mountain of pictures hubby and I took – prepare for some scenery shots of showstopping proportions and, of course, some dinner-time yum-shots in the near future.
Nahdala's Kitchen 