Milano Special

Eat like an Italiano...

In Milano!

Milan... at first I did not like this city for one bit! But the more I go and the further I stay away from the tourist spots, the more I start to like this northern Italian city.

This week I went with my girlfriend to Milan for 3 days. Everytime we go to Milan we try to find new spots hidden to the big tourist public. In the area between the castle and the Duomo you'll find most tourists and loads of expensive restaurants where you can eat food which tastes like cardboard, so this is what you want to dodge on your visit. If you want less tourists and more local restaurants, stroll through the Corso Garibaldi towards the Garibaldi station. The station has been recently renewed and is a nice place to chill.

Where to eat?

Cena (Dinner)

If you like dining out, you should go to "Brunello Osteria" in Corso Garibaldi.

It is a small wine-restaurant with a cozy interior and a few tables outside. In a temperature of 25°C it is a perfect spot to sit outside and enjoy watching the, sometimes extravagant, Milanese inhabitants walking by.

We arrived at the restaurant and immediately a waitress showed us our seats and brought a menu card. Just a few minutes later we got a bottle of water, which we asked for, and an amuse geule: a fresh cherry tomato with tabouleh and creamy goat cheese, perfectly dosed with olive oil. A good starter for the evening.

Steak tartar

On the menu you can find a mix of traditional and modern Italian dishes. The wine card offers a wide range of italian wines, most of them from the brunello grape. 

As starter we ordered a gazpacho with raw shrimp and melon and a steak tartar. The food tasted fresh, the gazpacho was perfectly balanced and the tartar was hand cut, always a plus for me!

For the main course we ordered a risotto with scallops and lemon and roasted piglet with apple and ginger cream.
The risotto was like it should be; moist and creamy. The piglet was perfectly roasted and went surprisingly well with the apple and ginger puree.
As we ate fish and meat the wine wasn't an easy pick. We were sugested a Girlan, Fass n• 9 vernatsch 2011, from Südtirol - Alto Adige, a light Italian table wine and a perfect match with both dishes.

As desert I took a espresso corretto with sambuca, I got almond biscuits on the side. My girlfriend took shortbread with lemon and vanilla cream and red berries.
Good value for your money here!
The owner of this restaurant is the same as the Sushi/Fusion restaurant across the street. Haven't tried it, but it is on my TO DO list!

Risotto with scallops

Another restaurant in this neighborhood is "Pizzeria La Fabbrica, con cucina", Situated at the Porta Garibaldi. I told you about this restaurant in one of my previous articles, the one about pizza. Also the Mozzarella Burrata mentioned in my article about insalata caprese is a delicacy you can taste at this restaurant. You can eat pizza's, pasta's and different kinds of meat and fish at reasonable prices and if you are lucky you can spot a designer having lunch or dinner. Last time we saw the big boss from Emporio Armani.
Definitely a recommendation!

Another really nice place to go are the canals from Milan. Say what? Canals? No it is nothing like Venice, but Milan has a few narrow canals, which start at Viale Gorizia, with bars and restaurants along the waterfront. You'll find mostly locals hanging in the bars sipping wine, cocktails or beer in a lively and friendly atmosphere.
If you are looking for a quick and relatively cheap dinner, this is definitely the place to look. Loads of pizzeria's and trattorie to choose from, also for a more sophisticated dinner you can find something here.
We decided to try a pizza in "Locandina dei Navili". We sat outside and ordered a pizza each. It wasn't the best pizza Italy has to offer, but for €16 per person we had dinner with 0,5l red wine, 0,75l bottle of sparkling water and a coffee, and not to forget... the nice surrounding.

Canals of Milan at night

Pranzo (Lunch)

Also lunch is something you don't want to skip! And if you want to make it cheap and quick, Italy is the country you have to be.

For a quick lunch head to "Osteria del corso". You'll find easy food such as pastas and roasted chicken or vitello tonnato served with a contorno of your choice (=side dish, in Italy you only get meat or fish if you order so, if you want veggies or potatoes you can take a contorno). We tried a pasta with tomatosauce and mozzarella and a roasted chicken drumstick with zucchini as contorno.
Cheap, fast, tasty and 100% Italian.

Duomo of Milan

If you would get hungry and you are shopping in the Corso Vittorio Emanuale II nearby the Duomo, just turn into a side street called Via Cesare Becceria. There you'll find, at piazza beccaria, a hotspot for the local working man... or woman. A corner restaurant, with a view on the top of the Duomo. It seems the place where the local people lunch during working hours. I must admit it is quite noisy, but it is local and there are plenty of seats, both inside and outside. We took two panini. One with panino "Praga", with cooked ham, and one panino "centro",with chicken breast and smoked scamorza cheese. The service was impeccable, the food was tasty and don't forget... it's cheap for its location.


I hope you have an idea where to go for lunch or dinner the next time you go to Milan.
Ci vediamo a Milano!

June 27, 2013

Shrimp & Noodle wok

Hey!

don't you wok away!

I know I promised you a BBQ recipe, but I seem to remember something about putting on a wok recipe. So first things first.

If you want to read about the other article about the wok, read it here.

The recipe I'm going to give you, is one I made ages ago. I wrote it down and recently found it back!

For this recipe I used a pre-made mix of spicy vegetables. If I would use fresh veggies I'd take carrots, capsicum (or paprika), leek and a hot pepper. Chop those finely, add some soy beans and *tadaaaam* your veggies are ready to wok.

Also... I wok "by feel" so I don't really know the exact quantities. Next time I prepare this (might be tonight), I'll update it and try to add measurements.

But here are some warnings: DO NOT use to much fish sauce, this sauce doesn't really have a nice smell, but it makes your dish taste great. As long as you don't overuse it!

DO NOT overuse on the sesame-oil, because this oil has a really strong taste.

Try to balance all the different tastes in your dish. That is the key to cooking by feel.

Shrimp & Noodle wok

Ingredients: (for 2-3 people)

• shrimps (about 6 to 8 per person)
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 capsicum (paprika), chopped
• 1/2 leek, chopped
• 1 hot pepper, chopped
• about 2 hands of soy beans (I haven't got a clue how many grams that is, I just take two hands out of the bag)
• thai fish sauce
• soy sauce
• lime juice from 1 lime
• wok oil (spicy)
• 1 tbs fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tsp lemon grass (for this recipe I use pre-grated)
• sesame-oil
• egg-noodles
• water or vegetable broth

Preparation:

Cook the water or vegetable broth. When it has reached it's cooking point, turn off the heat, add the noodles and let them swell (for the time they need: consult the wrapping).

Heat the wok oil in your wok and shortly stir fry the vegetables. Add some fish sauce, lemon grass an soy sauce and stir fry some more, they still need to be crunchy! Now take the noodles and add them to the wok. Give it a stir for about one minute and set aside.

Heat some sesame oil in your wok (use the same wok, you don't need to clean it first). Stir fry the shrimps with the ginger. Sprinkle with lime juice from 1/2 lime. Take out the shrimps and keep the liquid aside.
Divide the vegetables with the noodles into two bowls and add the shrimps. Mix the remaining lime juice with the cooking juice from the shrimps and sprinkle over the bowls. Garnish with cilantro.
ENJOY!

June 14, 2013

BBQ Sauce

Sun is shining

the weather is sweet!

When the sun starts shining there is always that one song that pops into my head: Sun is shining from Bob Marley. The other thing that pops into my head is: BBQ time!!!!

Barbecue is something everyone loves. And a barbecue sounds easy... light a fire, put on a grill, throw on some meat, scorch it and eat it. And that, my friends, is grilling! Even if you do it on a thing called a barbecue, you are grilling. Barbecuing is something different, a barbecue needs time!

If you want to have a decent bbq you need to invest some time in it. Like I said, it is not about throwing on some meat, grill it for 5 minutes and done.

The word barbecue apparently derives from the french words "barbe"(beard) and "cul"(ass) or "queue"(tail), depends on how old your audience is when you tell the story! This is because when families or villages had a feast they put a sheep, pig or any other animal on a stick and slowly let it grill along the fire, the stick went in through the mouth and came out through the... well you know, hence the word barbecue.

But back to cooking. Like I said, a bbq needs time. Why? Because the slower you cook your meat, the softer and tastier is will be! Of course steak and sausages can be grilled a la minute, but I'm talking about barbecuing whole turkeys, a nice mutton leg, a 5kg sirloin or a rack of ribs! These things need time. The good thing about slow-cooking meat on your barbecue is that you'll have a nice smoky taste.

Let's recap: grilling is on an open fire, no lid and the meat is directly above the heat source. Barbecuing is more time-consuming. And your meat needs to be close to, but not directly on top, of you heat source, in a closed environment (a bbq with a cover i mean!). 

So if you are a real grill- and bbq- lover, the Oklahoma grill is a  perfect thing to have.

When having a barbecue it is best to start lighting your fire a few hours before you've planned to eat. When your fire is hot, put on your meat and cover it. But make sure your meat is NOT directly on top of the fire! A perfect way to do this, on a smaller bbq with lid is to put an aluminum tray on top of the the coals under your meat so the heat and smoke will come from the sides and the top (because op the cover). For a smoky flavor you can marinate wood chips in whiskey or something like that, or you can buy wood chips for smoking in your store and put them on the hot coals.

For sirloin, sausages, fish, ... the ideal temperature is about 150°C to 165°C. If you want to have it more smoked you should keep the temperature around 95°C to 100°C, this is perfect for preparing turkey, chicken, ribs, and so on. But keep in mind that it will take a few hours before the meat is ready!

How you prepare your meat is up to you! You can season your meat with salt, pepper and other herbs, marinade it or just have it nature.

Personally, I like to marinade my meat before cooking it. It gives the meat such a great taste!

And since marinating is the first step of preparing a bbq, I will give you a recipe for a BBQ sauce which, besides dipping your grilled meat in, is also perfect for marinating!

Next time I'll give you a recipe for a nice piece of meat on the barbecue!

BBQ Sauce

Ingredients: (for approximately 1l)

• 2 chopped onions
• 3 to 4 cives of garlic
• 5 big juicy tomatoes
• 4-5 tbs oliveoil
• 1 dl worcestershire sauce
• 1 dl whiskey
• 4-5 tbs maple syrup
• 40gr mustard
• 4 dl ketchup
• 1 tbs tabasco (add more or less according to taste) or freshly chopped red peppers
• 1 lime (for it's juice)

Preparation:

Stew the onions, chopped garlic and chopped tomatoes for about 15 to 20 minutes. If you are using freshly chopped red peppers add them to stew with the other vegetables.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together, and after 15 to 20 minutes add them to the vegetables.  Let it stew again for 20 to 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper if you want (I don't do that anymore).

You can either serve this sauce hot or cold. If you want you can mix it, siefe it or leave it like it is (which I like to do).

This sauce goes perfect with grilled meat or fish, with deep fried snacks, french fries, ... or serve it with our eggs and bacon at breakfast.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

June 04, 2013

Long time ago

The future

will bring more food!

I have to apologize because it has been a while since my last post!
This is because I am really busy at the moment. I am sorry!
But DO NOT WORRY!! More recipes are about to come soon!


Here is a sneak peek of what can be expected:

• Sausage with beer sauce
• Mussels asian style
• Simple red curry
• Ceasar salad
• ...and much more!

Oh yeah... although we won't have the summer we've all wanted to have here in Belgium (the forecast says it is going to be the worst summer in 200 years!!), we take out our BBQ from the moment there is a little sunburst through the clouds. So BBQ recipes are to be expected!

See you soon!

June 02, 2013