laocook

What a clever invention Pancakes are. They are easy to make and can be filled with various fillings. I like my Pancakes with only Sugar and Lemon Juice, however, stuffed Pancakes are lovely too.

One of the joys of making Pancakes is “flipping” them. I remember how much fun I had when making them in School, we had competitions to see “who could flip the highest” and someone would always get one stuck on the ceiling!!

Below King demonstrates “flipping” his Pancakes, only now we dont use those expensive Crepe Pan, we use the common Wok.

I love fish, especially Sashimi. But the best type of fish has to be the Tuna. I am fortunate enough to be able to obtain Tuna from the nearby port of Barbate (the Almadraba).

We only use the best cuts for our Sashimi, the Toro! This cut just “melts in your mouth” and fetches high prices in restaurants. However, not all of the Toro is “beautiful” enough to be used as Sashimi, so that is when our Toro Tartare is made.

The Tuna is minced by hand (never by machine, which can warm the meat), and kept cool by placing it in a metal bowl which is rested on top of crushed ice, this way the Tuna retains its flavour and freshness.

We then pack it in to steel circular molds and keep it in the fridge until needed. When it is ordered, we mix it with our special dressing made from Yuzu and Maggi/Soy sauce, it is served with Chives, Grated Ginger and Caviar which lends a pleasant saltiness to the tangy dressing whilst the Ginger adds aroma and “heat”, we also use a dash of Sesame Oil to give the dish extra body.

Sometimes we just mix the minced Tuna with a Wasabi and Onion Vinaigrette and add a dash of Tabasco to bring some sour heat.

When making this dish it is important to work fast as you want to serve the Tuna when it is at its best, and because Toro contains Marbled Fat, it can start to “melt” if you are slow.

Another great dish for Tuna is to Flash Fry it Clarified Butter and serve it with Asparagus which has been drizzled with Lime Juice, so simple, yet so appetising.

Sometimes its the simple things in life that we get the most pleasure from…

I remember the days of when I used to work in London, and taking the Tube home and hoping to arrive before 22.00hrs. Why? Because thats when StarTrek TNG was aired.

For the life of me, I had never thought that I would like the series, in fact, I used to laugh at “all those trekkies”. Then one day, I just kind of “fell in to it”. (like a worm hole).

Just a few days ago, I was in “El Corte Ingles” shopping centre when I happened to walk past the DVD section, and calling out my name was the new Movie Box Set. Now, I´m not really a Captain Kirk person, but hey, I thought “why not own the entire movies set?”

Anyway, the store wanted 120€ for the set (I was going to haggle down to 90€, but I remembered that I wasnt at “The Morning Market”) and I was just about to buy it when a girl standing next to me pointed out that “If you buy 3 DVD´s, you can get 35% off each one!!”.

So I took her advice and shopped around for other titles, and finally decided on “Gentleman Prefer Blondes” and “The Witches of Eastwick”, the former I chose because Marilyn is just gorgeous and the latter because Nicholson is just “one horny devil”. So, after checking out, my final bill was 85€… :)

On the way out of the store, the girl waved at me and mouthed “Live long and prosper”, and I smiled and replied “The needs of the many, outweigh the need of the one…”

Okay, the above isnt really true, but hey, theres alway the Holodeck to “Make it so”….

Okay, enough, its late and I´m off to bed…

There were no Roses or Chocolates last night, but at least I had the evening off to enjoy dinner with my own Rose :) .

Last night we had a whopping 1.6kg Lobster & Crab with Fruit with a Lao style César Salad and a lovely velvet Flor de Chardonnay from Bodegas Laus in Somontano.

I dont mind getting my hands dirty…