If i were a rich man… i’ve already showed u how my Sweet Shop, the Cook’s Nest Heaven would look like…

Recently i was watching sooo many silly american fast-food-show on the TV and it made me think… Made me think about my stuff… People get pretty nice business from very little, with a truck for example. I can do. U can do. All of us can do in the right time with the right stuff and ideas… I was thinking a lot about all my big favourites… which i would definitely do in my little “notfastfoodatall” truck…

ESCABECHE

I met with this dish at Due South thanks to Scotty’s amazing recipe. At that time we had tonns of little fresh red snappers from our fishmonger – and was the best option to stick with the traditional pickled fish as a starter plate… since then i love it. Made an escabeche pickling marinade first using vinegar, wine, sugar, bay leaf, saffron, cumin, star anise and vegetables like carrots, onions and garlic. I adore to use dried fruits for a hint of fruitiness – this case i got some cranberries as well. Cook it a bit to melt the flavors together and let it cool down. The fish in my case was acadian redfish. Yummy. I fold the fillet lightly in flour and using a really hot pan frying the skin side down just to get crispiness… its half way cooked now so i just placed it in the marinade skin side up – trying to keep the textures on the top side while the marinade works in the bottom. BEAUTIFUL. Leave like this at least for one day – as long as better. No need more comment. :)

SQUID KIMCHI

I think u all know that already… Always better to use homemade kimchi. Of course its not easy to wait 2 weeks for the good result and more for the excellent… but u can always make it, never really goes off (it does but thats exactly what we want!!!!) and can keep it in the fridge. The basic element is the chinese cabbage what u make fermented with crazy korean stuff (I was working with a lot of different recipes and i developed mine in 3 steps, 1st is to cure your chopped cabbage in a mix of salt and sugar at least for 24hours – it allows all the water coming out. 2nd step to wash the cabbage and dry before mix with your killer marinate (which should contain garlic, ginger, chilli flakes and fresh chilli, fish sauce, light soy sauce, shrimp paste, spring onions, julienne carrots, apples, pineapple juice, brown sugar and whatever u wish after… 3rd step is to wait… Minimum 1 week. But best after 3, believe me. When all the flavors “fermelting” together heheheh)… and now u just get fresh squid – the baby always better, prep it nicely and fry quickly in a really really hot pan (as smaller the squid as much water it contains, so avoiding the steaming – need a smoking f8cking hot pan and drop small portion of squid in the pan at once.. At the last minute add your kimchi mix and buon apetit korean way.. Just AMAZING!

FOIE GRAS

The winner of all the times… And if somebody dares to say ‘dont like it’ just lying. People can disagree with the producing method but not the result – no place for question. Nowadays seems the goose liver as an overestimated part – all the posh restaurants working now with ducks, thats “more cool” – i think just a bit easier to work with. Everything is depends on the quality of the foie gras – if its first grade then u have easy job and amazing result (obviously can find good and bad goose and duck liver on the market as well). So as i said before, if u can get the right stuff u hardly need anything else. Maybe a little garnish but thats it (all the yummy sweety fruity things work perfectly, just follow the season – i used fig jam with brandy for a perfect caramelized sauce with some fresh toothache-sweet figs for decoration:))). I personally prefer the liver hot pan fried – other option could be the cold terrine or paté which is nice but like a sleepy firecracker next to an atomic bomb explosion… :) and soooo much easier as well just get your smoking hot pan, some seasoning and 1 minute fry after 1 minute rest and a big breath to enjoy it melting in your mouth.

PULLED BEEF

Have nothing really to say about it – a really slow cooked tough meat falling off the bone… The “original” one is coming from my asian restaurant, Yum Yum, where we served called ‘NinjaBeef’ which was our signiture dish. The piece of meat is a massive Short Rib (we called Jacob’s Ladder) goes to the oven covered with a secret marinade (like onions, garlic, bonito, seaweed and other stuff blended together etc etc… :) for overnight (around 12 hours) at slow temperature, about 100 degrees. I made a different mix of marinade with lots of onions, garlic, grilled nori, horseradish, anchovy etc etc… collecting flavors which go well with beef…The result talks to itself. Mouthwateringly georgeous… i adore the idea to serve a heavy juicy meat on a crunchy fresh salad with some umami infused thick sauce (asian flavoured jus with soy, oyster sauce, orange, brown sugar…), really spicy guacamole and coolingly fresh mint yogurt. Hm…. can’t stop eating… :)

MORCILLA, SCALLOP, BACON

This must be on the menu just because it has got all the flavors can makes u smile. Obviously im talkin’ about my home-made chocolate&pinenut&blood sausage with salty smoky crunchy bacon and sweet buttery scallop… the whole picture is perfect, no doubt. My only problem was here in Palma: no scallops…. NO SCALLOPS!!!! And i love them soooo much and the only thing u can buy is a frozen bag of already breaded something in shells…. nohoho thanks. So because of these circumstances i replaced the beautiful white scallop with some nasty monkfish meat which has ‘kindofsame’ meaty caracter – needed much more work with it (everthing for the show-up picture). First i cleaned the fish-meat and mix with some love, herbs, seasoning… then roll into a ballotine and sous vide (needs little time – around 20min about 48degrees. I do love this fish cause does not taste fish at all – more like chicken with different texture and amazing ‘outfit’ (dont know if u ve ever seen the face of this creature, must check it out, sexy :D). After cooling down the rolls in icing water cut into scallop-size and fry a crunchy layer on the top…hm… i think was pretty popular my emergency solution… :P (even if scallops should be there on the top)… or maybe not… ?