I just love citrus, any citrus fruit, especially Tahitian Lime. There are so many varieties of lemons, limes, oranges; you name it, they all have their own characters. One recipe I enjoy to prepare is a combination of citrus and Passion fruit called Heirloom Citrus-Passion fruit Curd. Using only the best ingredients, butter and fresh eggs, lemon and lime. With it Tahitian Vanilla Shortbread to dip.

To prepare the curd is actually easy; the recipe you can download at the end of this post. The only thing you need to remember is to incorporate the butter in small quantities at the time and not to rush it.

I used small jam jars, rinse them in very hot water first or better in boiling water for some time to sterilize the jars before filling them with your citrus curd. They will keep for some weeks in your fridge unopened for later use.

And here is the recipe: Heirloom Citrus-Passion fruit Curd with Tahitian Vanilla Shortbread

A couple of month ago I helped to design MadridLab.net, the Blog of Adam Melonas who is working in Madrid with Paco Roncero. Ever since I am hooked to follow their work; is it through Adam’s Blog or Paco’s website. Truly inspirational with kind of elements they are working with.

I have placed Adam’s MadridLab on my Blogroll.

Paco Roncero

Adam at work

Hey Mate,

Here are a few pics of the lab, Paco and I.

I am heading for El Bulli on monday to do some work with Ferran for just over a week so I will have a good story after.

Cheers Mate,

Adam

With so many restaurant to choose from here in Dubai, I wanted to try typical French Bistro food after we got turned away for not having a reservation at the Crown Plaza’s Belgian beer pub. So we went to the Interconti next door for Madeleine, a small Bistro with an open kitchen, serving authentic French Bistro Food. Franck, the Bistro Manager warned us about the typical pork sausage for its acquired taste but nevertheless, we ordered it anyway.

The spinach and pumpkin salad was perfect to start a good meal, the quiche was excellent, one of the best I had for a long time; full of bacon and onion, fluffy and well seasoned.

Andouillette is a traditional French pork sausage; Franck has warned us about this dish and now I understand why.

Andouillette is a French sausage, a specialty of Lyon, Troyes and Cambrai.

Traditional Andouillette is made from the colon and the stomach of pigs. A modern version may also contain cattle offal. The French andouillette is an acquired taste and can be off-putting to diners due to its extremely pungent odor, often compared to the smell of feces. (It is not to be confused with derivative andouille sausage, which is much spicier, but more mild in odor.)

Andouillette is sometimes eaten cold but more commonly is grilled and served as a hot dish, which strengthens its odor and taste. While hot andouillette does smell of feces, naturally all such matter is removed from the meat before cooking. The aroma is due to the pig colon (chitterlings) utilised in the sausage, which incorporates some of the same compounds that contribute to the odor of excrement

Coq au vin (French: “rooster in wine”) is a French fricassee of rooster cooked with wine, lardons, mushrooms, and optionally garlic. Older roosters are traditionally used because they contain a lot of connective tissue, which creates a richer broth when cooked.

Many regions of France have variants of coq au vin using the local wine, such as coq au vin jaune (Jura), coq au Riesling (Alsace), coq au Champagne, and so on. The most extravagant version is coq au Chambertin, but this generally involves Chambertin more in name than in practice.

Standard recipes call for chicken, wine (often a full bottle or two), often brandy, lardons (salt pork), button mushrooms, and often garlic. Recipes with vin jaune usually specify morels instead of white mushrooms. The preparation is similar in many respects to Beef Bourguignon. The lardons are cut as thin strips and then par-boiled to remove excess salt. They are then sauteed to render out the fat. Additional oil is added if needed in order to brown the chicken pieces. A mirepoix of diced carrots, onions, and celery is added along with minced garlic and allowed to briefly cook. Then the wine and stock are added to cover. The traditional seasonings are salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf (usually in the form of a bouquet garni). Mushroom stems and pieces will often be added at the beginning of the dish in order to contribute to the flavor of the sauce. Near the end of the preparation, the sauce may be strained to remove the cooked vegetables. The sauce is then returned to the chicken and the whole mushrooms and sometimes pearl onions are added for the last fifteen minutes of cooking.

The juices are thickened either by making a small roux at the beginning of cooking, or by adding blood at the end (technically a soup or stew known as civet in France).

Madeleine

Intercontinental Dubai Festival City, Tel: 04 7011111