A Foodie Movie Recommendation: Chef's Table

Regardless if you are a foodie or not, Chef's Table that can be watched on Netflix in many installments, interviews famous chefs from around the world telling their stories of resilience, love for authenticity and often the struggle to maintain a cultural identity through preserving old recipes and techniques.

Famous food creators and chefs from restaurants all over the world that won not only more than once a Michelin star but also offered a completely different view on food are sharing their stories often in a very relaxed casual environment. But in most cases, their stories are nothing but casual.

The reports are made from restaurants from all over the world, the main feature followed being represented by the originality of the chef's story and his or her vision on food, very often based on the personal and family culinary experiences and traditions. Besides interesting life stories and inspiring business ideas, there are a lot of outstanding things to learn about restaurant management, new food techniques and the latest trends in terms of food preparation. The return to natural, organic ingredients is part of many of the chefs featured as well.

This comprehensive documentary is also a proof of a different mark of times: food and its preparation is becoming more and more part of the mainstream and featuring things happening behind the closed doors of the kitchen is part of the everyday media agenda. Also, featuring chefs - many of them women too - is also a relatively new trend. What I really appreciated and made me follow the stories with the highest interest was the human aspect of the stories, from the personal family struggles to the efforts of getting acknowledgement and spending nights and days passionately looking the right composition.

Chef's Table offers very inspiring and tasty visual experiences and would definitely make you consider seeing at least one of those restaurants during the travels around the world. It's make it a good start into the foodie year.    

Liquorice...Like it or Hate it?

Lakrids, a German licorice brand

Some foods and tastes you have to be born with, grow up with or just crazily fell in love with. Otherwise, it simply doesn't work for anyone. As I personally develop a special taste for Asian foods and spices, only late in life, I can understand the sudden love for a specific food or meal. But this doesn't work for all, and not for anyone. 

In my case, the dilemma has a name: liquorice. Also written licorice on the other side of the pond, it is a root of sweet flavor extracted in South Europe and parts of Asia, specifically India. It has a star anise taste - which also for me may work or not, depending on the type of taste it is matched with - and used as an ingredient for candies and beverages (tea, but some bold ones will add it to their vodka too) or simply as sweetener. In confectionery, it is used together with starch flour, gum arabica or different types of gellies. 

Although the medical research didn't prove scientifically the medical benefits of liquorice, due to its rich concentration of hats and essential oils, it is also often assigned various health qualities such as treating cough, treating malaria, or helping to balance the blood pressure. 

However, the food aspects are most sought in liquorice. There are different combinations that can be achieved with it, especially in the case of the red variant, which may add to liquorice cherry, strawberries, cinnamon, apple, mango, watermelon or blackcurrant. In Germany, where is very popular, especially in the Northern part, it is also available in a salty variant.

What am I thinking about it? Do I like it?

Not sure about it? Most experiences I had until now were not positive and I was not a good match for the taste. It may be the heavy concentration of anise taste, the strange sourness and its overall flavor. I am not sure in which combinations to use it - after all, I've found at least two ways to eat carrots without feeling the carrot taste at all - to make it more likeable for my palate. 

This is a work in process and as soon as I would make peace with liquorice, I will be happy to share my - hopefully better - experiences. 

My variant of chickpea avocado salad with lemon and dill, by Tori Avey

When I am out of time and inspiration, the recipes of Tori Avey are my the main source of comfort. I love their simplicity, but also some background/historical stories that she usually includes, creating the perfect experience of the recipe. As I do love avocado a lot, and also chickpeas, ingredients that are rarely missing from my kitchen, I did not think twice and proceeded to the immediate preparation of this recipe that popped up into my social media flux a couple of weeks ago.

Except the boiling and preparation time for the chickpeas - that may last longer, even 1 day, depending of what kind of chickpeas do you use - everything is relatively simple and can be done within minutes. Instead of the dill in the original recipe, I used same water crest, a very fresh seasonal choice. It serves 2. 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

200 gr. of water crest

1 ripe avocado

150 gr. of chickpeas

1 tablespoon za'atar

1/2 teaspoon salt

If you like it spicy, why not use a teaspoon of Cayenne pepper?

In the mixer bowl, I added the olive oil, lemon juice, avocado sliced into small parts, the za'atar and the chickpea, plus salt. I first mixed them with a wooden spoon, and thereafter melted up at moderate speed for maximum 3 minutes. 

I spread the result on slices of potato black bread.

With a lemonade or a cold tea, it is a perfect morning or evening treat, especially during the summer. 

Bon Appétit!

My pickles stories

Source: http://www.foodanddrinkbuzz.com/

Yesterday, while relaxing after babysitting for a friend of mine, I was reading a very joyous article about the beauty of pickles. Lovely pictures and nice words, but as far as I remember from the old country, every season of the pickles was always very depressing and hot and very annoying, both for us, the children, as for my mother and the other women working in the kitchen.

I will always be honest. My mother, of blessed memory, was never a perfect cooker and I don't remember any single occasion when she was really happy to cook or even more, extremely excited by the result of the cooking. It does not mean that we starved, but we always had the chance of good babysitters or talented relatives that invited us for lunch or dinner. I learned the basics of cooking after 30 and still I have a lot to learn, for the first level. 

But when it was about pickles, my mother, a fine lady and intellectual most of her time, was instantly matching the mood of our non-sophisticated neighbourhoods. Maybe because her husband was an avid consumer of pickles or maybe because she always needed the feeling to belong to a community, be it the big community of pickles ladies. 

From the end of August on - the harvest time - lists and plans were made: the quantities, the categories, the spices, the combinations. Once the list was done and the money made available, the following step was to do a market research of the best prices for a couple of weeks. Another important aspect of the preparation was finding the big jars - the space to deposit them was never considered a problem, and our balcony was winter after winter occupied by the huge colourful jars. After the purchased were done, gargantuesques cauliflowers, mountains of carrots and a lot of small cucumbers were invading the kitchen table. The fire was set, the water started to boil and together with them, the pickles. I was never requested to help and was very happy to do my best to avoid the kitchen till the intense preparations were done. First, I did not like the smell of the vinegar in excess - and even now I need serious reasons to use some in salads - second, and the most important: I never liked pickles. And till now, my situation did not changed. The only sorts that I try from time to time are the cucumbers, that can offer a good balance after a lot of meat-based meals. Otherwise, I cannot give up the pleasure of a fresh fruit or vegetable. 

After a week, the balagan was over and my mother again the beautiful lady. The pickles were eventually added to the table on various occasions but I did not have the smallest interest to taste them. Somehow, my only food memory about my mother is about a kind of food I never tasted.