Avigayil Damm

Alright, enough postponement already. It’s time to do Antonio’s some justice. Way back when I was in Bangkok with my hubby, we went about our usual dinner-picking-indecisiveness and walked in and out of almost every Sukhumvit road there is to find a place that would suit my hubby’s and my taste and mood for the night. I almost ran out of patience when we saw this lovely cozy light on the top floor of a building in the back of another building. Then we saw a sign “Antonio’s” with an arrow pointing around the corner. Out of curiosity as much as severe hunger, we both decided to go there.

(more…)

Yesterday, we stayed up pretty late, because we took a nap that was longer than planned so we were not tired or sleepy at all. Of course that did not stop me from complaining when a call woke me up at 8 this morning. It was my sister, giving me bad news about a family’s loss. So we naturally spent half the day today at our family’s place, extending our condolences.

It was a particularly hot day today and I felt drowsy, so when we arrived home I took a little nap to wind down. As soon as I woke up, I went straight to the kitchen to prepare tonight’s meal: Salmon en croute.

I followed a recipe from a local women’s magazine, Femina. It’s quite simple actually: I used 2 salmon fillet (each approximately 250 gr) although the recipe asked for one large fillet. With the help of my hubby, both fillet were skinned. Then it’s seasoned with salt, pepper, dill, and lemon juice before it’s fried for a few minutes. For the filling, I stir-fried one finely chopped onion until fragrant, then added 150 gr chopped button mushroom, and coarsely chopped spinach (about 200 gr), and seasoned it with salt and pepper. There are of course other recipes for the filling, but this is the one I tried for now.

Now comes the time to arrange them onto the puff pastry. I used ready made ones, available in some supermarket’s freezer section – try Kemchicks Kemang, that’s where I bought them. The puff pastry came in quite thick sheets, so I rolled them out to make them thinner and at the same time adjust the size to be able to cover the salmon fillet. Then the salmon is placed on the pastry sheet, topped with filling, and the pastry is rolled to cover it. The outside of the pastry is brushed lightly with one beaten egg to give it a golden finish when baked. There is a video on how Gordon Ramsey rolls salmon into the pastry here. Of course you don’t have to hop restlessly as he does while doing it. Watching his video sort of made me nervous actually (because of his hopping), but he does present it nicely (and easy to follow).

Anyways, after only 30 minutes (10 minutes less than the recipe, since the salmon I used are in smaller size) at 200°C in the oven, the salmon en croute looks ready to eat! Yummy!

Although we ended up eating too much of the salmon en croute since it was so delicious, we still managed (or more like forced ourselves) to have a very thin slice of chocolate cake from yesterday with whipped cream on the side, and black coffee to help with the digestion. The whipped cream (and the extreme thin slice) helped tone down the dryness of the cake. Since I need a lot of exercise with pictures, here is another shot of the cake.

It was time to try out another recipe. Tonight I picked fish in herb tomato sauce, a modified recipe from ‘The Australian’s Women’s Weekly Make It Tonight’ series, with recipes for cooking in microwave.

Ingredients:

• 425 gr can tomato puree
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 clove garlic, minced/crushed
• 2 small chicken stock cubes
• 1 tsp sugar
• 4 (1 kg) white fish fillet

The only white fish I came across in my last grocery shopping was dory fish, so I tried that one. The fish is cooked, covered, on high temperature in the microwave for about four minutes and then set aside. The rest of the ingredients, consisting of tomato puree, onion, garlic, oregano, parsley and thyme, chicken stock cubes and sugar,  are all mixed together and cooked, covered, in the microwave for about 5 minutes, stirring once.

The sauce is then poured over the fish and they are cooked again together, covered, for another four five minutes or until the fish is cooked through. Pardon for the poor-quality picture, but there you have the result.

Taste wise, I didn’t care much for the dory fish. What I would do next time, is probably fry the dory fish instead of cooking it in the microwave. Or, pick another type of white fish altogether, such as cod.

The onions could have tasted better if it was cooked ahead first with the garlic until soft and fragrant. Plus, next time I would go easy on the thyme – it made the dish smell slightly earthy. But I am not giving up on this one just yet. With the above changes, I will definitely try it again sometime.

Tonight, the menu is pasta (my choice is spaghetti) with tuna and capers sauce. It’s very easy, it took me only 20 minutes to cook it altogether. Chopped onions and garlic is fried for a few minutes until tender and fragrant, then tuna chunks is mixed in (I used tuna chunks in oil – make sure you drain it properly otherwise you will end up with a very greasy dish), together with cream (I used light cream), lemon juice, capers and parsley. The time it took for me to prepare the sauce was the exact time it took for me to cook the pasta. It fits into my weekday menu criteria: quick, easy and delicious. And I have three satisfied customer: my hubby, my visiting friend (yes people are now flying all the way from Yogyakarta to have a taste of my cooking!) and my little birthday pup, Sam.