ANOTHER Celebration........?!

 In Asien ist Neujahr der wichtigste Feiertag und die Feierlichkeiten können bis zu zwei Wochen dauern. Wenn das kein Grund ist, Freunde zu fernöstlichen Köstlichkeiten einzuladen. Die passenden Rezepte dafür gibt es hier.
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In Asia, New Year is one of those ongoing celebrations, amongst the most important of the year. It can last up to 2 weeks or even longer, and it is becoming more and more popular in the Western world as well. Original products are becoming freely available in normal supermarkets, when just a few years ago the only place to find them were in the specialist Chinese shops. Here are a few recipes to have some fun with.......................     
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En Asie, les fêtes de la Nouvelle Année sont les plus importantes de l’Année. Ça peut durée plus que deux semaines, chaque jour autres chose sur la table "estivale"......Depuis peu, on trouve les spécialités en Europe aussi, dans les magasins normaux, au prix raisonnable. Avant il fallait aller dans des petites magasins spécialisés, avec des prix "spécialisés".... Voici quelques propositions avec lesquelles on peut s'amuser......
Bonne Appétit..... 
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Guess what 2011 is in the Chinese Calender........Yes - it's "WABBIT".....now I don't know if that means you can't EAT them this year or if you SHOULD eat them this year, so I think I'll just keep on as usual, with a few little changes from "Rabbit in mustard sauce".........
..I've never had the chance to travel to China or Japan or those other countries that celebrate, a definate error in my upbringing, but if any of my readers has a free place in one of their private jets and a little room free in one of their homes or hotels, I could rapidly correct my error.
With the influx over centuries of Chinese people towards Europe, a lot of the "Oriental Mystery" is disappearing, and many European countries take the opportunity to celebrate with the Chinese residents in Europe.
I recall passing through Brussels in Belgium, many years ago, and deciding with my wife to just take a Chinese meal - for a change.
5 hours later, we stumbled out into the dark with presents under our arms....!
To be very honest, I am not a specialist or even a great liker of things like "saki" but when one is plied with the stuff,  at no cost,  then one has to be simply polite - close your eyes, think of the Queen and Country - swallow it down and get on to the next little thing!
Rice wine isn't my "cup of tea" either,..and the infamous rice wine with a snake inside the bottle was fascinating to see, and less fascinating to drink... but since no Red Burgundy was available - I suffered in silence....!
More to my taste was the Asiatique preoccupation with everything that comes in a shell - like me, they adore these things, and the cooking ideas are, refreshingly, kept very simple. No extremely complicated sauces, just dip the pieces, pre-marinaded in a soy sauce, into a thickish yeast coating batter, pop into either the "wok" or the deep fryer, and around 4 minutes later you have a succulent dish, just oozing the oriental taste....."Scampi" are ideally placed to give an Asian aspect to our tables in Europe - all year round.....As a starter course, with some of that crispy crackling wafer bread, or as a main course with some fried rice....yes please, I could happily spend time in Asia.....
My only problem, as a "traditionalist", is the wine to accompany such delights, and - if I can - I tend to stay with my traditional choice of wines - from Europe....!
But.......going back to the starter course, in Europe nowadays, there is a wave of sympathy and fashion for a certain thing called ..SUSHI....!
Impossible here to really go into the subject in depth - it's inexhaustible...both in variety and quality and in price as well...but it is within the price range of just about everyone with a touch of inventiveness in the kitchen. Surely - not the absolute best of the immense choice, but then......we don't eat caviar all the time either - or do you.....?
Sushi is different, attractive, relatively simple to make to the standard of the normal European. Certainly there are huge differences between the luxury preparations and the normal "household" preparations, but even in Japan there are a few million people who are not millionaires....!
..Main courses - Well, after our Scampi style deep batter fried lobster, shrimps, these are similar to those we eat in Europe.
Apart from the occasional mistake of eating dogmeat (a taste shared incidentally with the Swiss!) the main meat dishes are from rabbit, poultry, pork, occasionally beef.
The main difference seems to be the application of rice,  soya or other similar sauces, very often in fact presented more in the fashion of a thin liquid, more like (for our Western eyes) a "garnished soup".....there are so many specialities that it would be presumptious of me to pick out any in particular...
And so you can go on and on.....for many hours......and for many days.....you'll always get caught up with the famous and sometimes infamous "cookies" or "fortune cookies" beleive or beleive not - as you wish, just one tip......if that little piece of paper says "you are entitled to a free meal" - order the most expensive, eat it with relish......When you've finished the washing up, you can always reflect on a sparkling Chinese New Year........

................!

iwmpop (mr le marquis)            -             Vauvert, France                 -    Février 2011

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• 'Year Of The Rabbit' Actually Threatens Furry Animal (huffingtonpost.com)

Roquefort - Cheese, Fromage - Kase....

Weltbekannt - lecker und vielfältig, überall einsetzbar aber auch "Spezielle" mann kann und sollte sogar es Geniessen mit weine etwas "süffig"...
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Connu mondialement... délicieuse... on peut l'utiliser  dans la Cuisine comme sur le plateau des Fromages...et on devrait l'accompagner avec du vin "doux"....
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World known, often surtaxed..delicious and usable both in the kitchen or on the cheeseboard...and - it should really be accompagnied by a sweet wine.....such as Sauternes..

LE ROQUEFORT.....
SAUTERNES.......
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This cheese, world renowned - is often surtaxed as a "luxury" - currently the case in the USA.
Its versatility makes it totally irreplaceable by those products euphamistically called "cheese" in certain parts of the world.
If you've never tried a simple omelette with Roquefort cheese folded into the centre, and slowly melting inside the omelette...... you've never lived....!
...Made from Ewes milk, the cheese takes its name from the high rocky plateau called "Larzac" in the  Auvergnac district of France.
It is made, under modern conditions, within the confines of certain caves of the Region which have proved themselves to be the ideal surrounding, both from  dryness/humidity and constant temperature, combined with other conditions that allow the cheese to develope fully, and obtain its (for the most part) natural spore or funghi.
 .."Société" is one of the most well known varieties, but there are others, slightly lower priced, which have all the savour and taste.
These caves are, in the main, hollowed out of chalk and limestone, and the "fable" of Roquefort goes back in time immemoriable, and there are many "fables", my personal favourite being that of the Shepherd who spent all his time herding his sheep on the plateau, in all weathers, with the occasional visit from his farmer's wife, bringing food and drink - mainly cheese, bread and wine.  Being French, of course, a touch of "amour" must enter onto the scene, and it did occasionally occur that the shepherd and the farmer's wife did not get around to eating and drinking, due to "other engagements".....!
On these occasions, the shepherd just stocked the proviants into a little hole in the rock, to protect it from the sun which is quite fierce during the summer months in the area.
As in all the sad "love stories" the day arrived when the Farmer understood that something was going on up on the plateau, and refused his wife permission to go and take supplies to the Shepherd....dastardly plan....but the Shepherd just started to "dig out" his older supplies from the many holes in the rock.
He found that the wine was fine - better even than before - but that the cheese had taken a strange looking aspect....Green veins covered it, and he hesitated before trying this new product!
In fact, hunger drove him finally to consume the stuff, and - lo' and behold - Roquefort cheese was truly born!...True (?) French story....but I suppose it probably could have been Italian as well....!
The point of the story is to show that it is these green veins that run through the true Roquefort cheese that give it the taste.
No - it is NOT mouldy.....no you don't try to take the green bits out of it....and no - it isn't poisonous...!
In fact the green "funghi" is actually a strain of the spore "penicillin" - one time wonder drug, and still used extensively in Medecine.
I must stress that Roquefort chees is a "GREEN" veined cheese, and there are very few of them worldwide.
It has nothing to do with those "BLUE" veined cheeses which one finds everywhere - cheaper and less pungent in taste, such as "Blue Stilton" from Britain, ..and any of the many others from all around Europe, indeed the world, such as the famous Italian "Gorgonzola" .. or the "St Agur" blue veined, from France.  All these cheeses are available world wide, and they all merit their place in the Cuisine of taste, but....they are NOT comparable with Roquefort!
Even in the USA one finds a variety which doubtless has its place as well, and most certainly is cheaper...not being "luxury taxed".
Whether the taste approaches that of the European varieties I cannot say, but I doubt it.
I had the pleasure of spending almost three years on the Plateau de Larzac, at the time as a "liaison officer" between the French military authorities and the British.(La Cavalerie, Larzac)
I was honoured to be taken regularly to "St. Affrique" - the town closest to the village of Roquefort, and indeed some of my French friends worked in the caves of Roquefort.
On one occasion, I was asked if I thought I could replace the Guide for the tourists "tour" in English and German - the Guide being ill.
I had the immense pleasure of doing so, and I determined that the British Tourists are the meanest with tips, the Germans second to them, and the Americans much more generous, only defeated by the Japanese....!
Mind you - I wouldn't want to try to live from the tips....!
My reward for "springing in" (apart from the pleasure) was a set of photo slides showing the tour, a whole Roquefort cheese, and the thanks of the Director....the cheese was eaten, the slides have disappeared, and the Director...? 
Probably changed his profession to Shepherd - a logical decision when one sees those Farmer's wives....! Or maybe not.....!
  Either way, I was forced to leave the Area when a certain General, named "de Gaulle" decided that France should no longer be in the Military section of "NATO" - and we had to leave.
Of course I've been back many, many times, it is only around 50 miles from where I now live, and the Patronne of the "Larzac Hotel" always showed her photos from those days, and talk affectionately of "Her British Soldiers"...there are fewer and fewer of us alive as the years pass, and the Hotel has become "respectable" - no longer must you take your own bottle and get it filled up with rough red wine for 1 French Franc the liter, plus 0.50 centimes for the use of a glass....!
No - nowadays, you sit with all the other Tourists and pay your 20euros for the same thing....but the toilets are no longer findable by following your nose....!
As a final point, in the Village of Roquefort, there used to be a small Restaurant at the bottom of the hill. The only place in the village apart from a tiny "Café-Bar-Tabac" and this Restaurant was, amazingly - a "Hotel Ecole" - inside it's walls, students took practical lessons in cooking, serving and general Hotellery.
Amazingly good, if somewhat intimidating with the classicaly laid out French tables, with 4 or 5 different glasses and knives and forks of all descriptions, with waiters hovering to attack you on a 5 minute routine....!
But...the food was great, and dirt cheap...supported by the Industry in the Region, it served more than it's purpose.
Just a tip - and even then - I don't know if it still exists....
When you go - look for it, or ask about it, and if it exists - go in and tell them where you got the tip from....!
They may give you a discount, or they may throw you out.....!

iwmpop(mrlemarquis)            -                    Vauvert, France            -       Janvier 2011

Oh those lovely odours..Schone Gestank....Les odeurs merveilleuse.....!

Contre le rhume, la grippe, l’hypertension, le vieillissement, le cancer… L’ail est un aliment santé incontournable. Vertus et mode d’emploi de cette petite gousse magique.
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So....what is it - this miracle thing.....?
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Na dann - was ist diese Mirakel....?                                       
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Yep - good against Colds, Influenza, aging, cancer, high blood pressure - attributed with "aphrodisical" powers.....the only problem is occasionally getting close enough to someone who likes to eat the stuff.
Truly...so many dishes just would not be the same or anything remotely resembling anything, if this little member of the onion bulb family wasn't present, and yet the British people seem to be the world's worst acceptors of it's remarkable prowess and capabilities, because of the strong odour given off.
Strangely enough, they are probably also the world's worst cooks....!when they ever get into the kitchen...and even there, it tyends to be the British man who has spent at least some time on the "Continent" who risks it!
Of course, garlic is freely available in Britain, and with the arrival of a cosmopolitan population, its popularity has risen and risen, although never approaching the "Continental" consumption levels. For this reason, "fish pie" in Britain is an "avoidable at all price" concoction, whilst the "Brandade de Morue" is world famous, and is exactly the same thing - but with enormous amounts of garlic in it.
Strange isn't it.
Of course Garlic isn't the only little thing like that, shallots and onions being principal ones.
Impossible to imagine almost every dish without at least one of these ingredients.
Of course they have their drawbacks, but when - as in Italy or France, everybody eats them, then any odour is not particularly remarkable, and - in fact - the more one puts into a dish, the less one seems to notice it!

It is actually only when the product has passed through the body that the main odours are notable - transpiration for example being the simplest way of expelling certain odours, and simply breathing directly into the face of others, although there are others methods of expelling such delicate fragrances.....
I recall a "medecine" called "Liquifruta" in the UK, many years ago which was used in Winter to "support the system" and avoid catching bugs and flu. I must confess to being averse to the odours, extremely powerful, that emanated from people in the London Tube, all pressed together like sardines.
If I hadn't known the dislike of British people for garlic, I could have sworn that it was garlic......and - imagine......... ....but not all were totally honest, calling it something else.....or NOT a sign of garlic....anywhere!
Finally - I recall my own wife telling me that when she arrived at Lyon, in France, coming from Germany, there was a distinct "cloud" of garlic hanging over everything. She adapted very quickly and didn't notice it after a couple of hours...and Germany has changed now as well!

 iwmpop (mr le marquis)          -       Vauvert, France          -           Janvier 2011

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Yum-yum .....yum-yum.....yum-yum...!

Healthy eating out is possible... Essen Ausserhaus ist doch möglich....Manger sainement dans les Restos est possible, on le fait déjà souvent en France et Italie...
Here is the address....voici l'adresse - Hier ist die Adresse....

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthy-holiday-eating-10/slideshow-healthy-eating-out?ecd=wnl_chl_011811
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• Yum to sell John Silver's, A&W All-American Food (marketwatch.com)
• (what is it....)

Nouveau- que les trucs que vous voulez....

http://www.manews.com/

Les actualités ne sont pas toujours les plus agréables...alors - changez les - a votre façon...!
Cliquez et créer vos actualités....en cuisine ou ailleurs...

Nouveau - New - Neu....

Nouveau - essayez-le.. Brand new, in French - give it a try - Ganz Neu, versuchen Sie im Französischen...
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 Déconnexion

Toutes les rubriques de MaNews > Gastronomie Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 > Papillotes de lapin à la moutarde >> article publié le 14 janvier 2011 Quoi de mieux qu'une recette classique et facile à réussir, avec un brin d'originalité grâce aux papilottes qui la rendent encore plus simple, rapide et savoureuse à la fois. lire la suite Janvier : place aux menus légers >> article publié le 7 janvier 2011 Contrairement aux idées reçus les menus lights peuvent rester hype et "faire attention" ne signifie pas forcément ne pas être gourmand, voici quelques pistes. lire la suite Velouté de châtaignes au cognac >> article publié le 31 décembre 2010 Vous recevez chez vous ? Testé par la rédaction, voici une recette de velouté ultra rapide et inratable, qui fera une merveille servi en verrines à l'apéritif... lire la suite Chocolat maison >> article publié le 24 décembre 2010 Pour poursuivre le repas de fête, Bruno Oliver nous propose deux recettes de chocolat maison pour accompagner au mieux vos cafés et pauses sucrées... lire la suite Bûche de Noel framboises chocolat >> article publié le 17 décembre 2010 Pour continuer le repas de fête, Bruno Oliver nous suggère une recette de bûche inratable ... et délicieuse. A vos spatules ! lire la suite Chapon farci de noël aux fruits secs >> article publié le 10 décembre 2010 Pour continuer le repas de fête, notre chef Bruno Oliver propose un chapon... mais avec une farce très parfumée et un accompagnement aux fruits secs. lire la suite 8 recettes pour un apéritif de fête >> article publié le 3 décembre 2010 Les fêtes approchent à grand pas. MaNews vous propose grâce à Bruno Oliver une série de recettes pour un repas raffiné, en commençant par 8 idées de mises en bouche apéritives... lire la suite Verrines de pommes minute >> article publié le 26 novembre 2010 Après du foie gras et des St Jacques, pourquoi pas un dessert fruité ? Notre chef Bruno Oliver nous donne aussi quelques astuces sur la pomme... lire la suite Noix de St Jacques rôties aux Céréales >> article publié le 19 novembre 2010 Après un foie gras maison, MaNews vous propose cette semaine une recette du chef étoilé Christophe Aribert. Met délicat pour se mettre en bouche en vue des fêtes... lire la suite Foie gras maison >> article publié le 12 novembre 2010 Pour les fans de foie gras, voici une recette facile, rapide et délicieuse. Après l'avoir testée et dégustée, voici nos astuces... lire la suite Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >

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