Cook and Drink

The Art of Flavours

Our Recipes For You

Fleurs de Courgettes Farcie ©cadwu

Fleurs de Courgettes Farcie

15 September 2021

Such a pleasure to see courgette flowers in your garden or at the greengrocers. The young courgette is firm and tasty; the flowers a beautiful yellow. Simply stuff the flowers, fry in a pan or cook in the oven and you have a great side dish or starter. And then you start wondering: ‘Stuff with what? Cheese? Salmon? Tomatoes? Ricotta? Vegetable Mousse? How to make a filling that remains inside the flower and isn’t too firm?’
We stuff the flowers with crab and courgette. It’s a well balanced combination with surprisingly delicate flavors.

Enjoy with a glass of Côtes de Provence Rosé. You could also go for a white wine, for instance a Macon-Villages as produced by Bouchard Pere & Fils. In general a subtle wine that goes well with the gentle flavors of both the crab and the courgette.
… More Fleurs de Courgettes Farcie

Guineafowl with Ras el Hanout ©cadwu

Guineafowl with Ras el Hanout

8 September 2021

Preparing guineafowl can be a bit of a challenge: easily overcooked and quickly dry. Guineafowl has more structure and less fat compared to chicken plus it’s much firmer. The good news is that guineafowl has lots of flavour, perhaps a bit gamey, but not overpowering. So great to combine with nice ingredients such as morels or with grappa, junipers, sage, white wine and pancetta (as included in The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook, written by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers).

Ras el Hanout is a mix of some twenty plus spices such as coriander, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, fenugreek, fennel, cardamom, turmeric and many more. Ras el Hanout is complex, layered, warm, a touch sweet and bitter. It works beautifully with the guineafowl and the various vegetables.

Enjoy your guineafowl with a not too complex, medium bodied, fruity red wine. Grapes such as Grenache, Carménère, Carignan. We enjoyed a glass of Merlot, produced by Les Ormes de Cambras from the French Pays d’Oc region. A round, fruity wine with aromas of berries and subtle tannins. … More Guineafowl with Ras el Hanout

Ajo Blanco © cadwu

Cold Soup: Ajo Blanco

1 September 2021

It’s September, time fo buy fresh almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts; time to make Spanish Almond Soup. It’s made of white almonds, water, old bread, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and perhaps a pinch of salt. And trust us, there is no need to add anything else. No cucumber, green apples, jalapeño, chicken stock, pepper, flowers, white grapes, milk, aioli, Balsamic vinegar, raisins, cream, yoghurt, pine nuts or melon. We love creativity, but the ingredients people suggest to brighten up Ajo Blanco, it’s amazing. Especially because there is no need to add anything to the original.

Mention Ajo Blanco and someone will say ‘white gazpacho’. Because both are cold soups, because both are from Spain? We can’t think of any other reason, so please, please don’t even think about gazpacho when you serve Ajo Blanco. … More Cold Soup: Ajo Blanco

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