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Serrano ham and melon

Cantaloupe melon and Jamon Serrano

Guadalupe melon and Jamon Serrano

Cantaloupe melon and Jamon Serrano

Italian Focaccia

Italian Focaccia. A bread that is known and liked all over the world. Focaccia is a flat bread, Italian bread baked in the oven, which is very similar in texture and style to Pizza. The first confirmation of the word focaccia appears in 1300. In Ancient Rome, called panis focacius was a flat bread baked in a hearth. The word comes from the Latin hearth “hearth, place of baking“. The basic recipe is believed to have originated from the Etruscans, but today it is widely associated with Ligurian cuisine.
I love good focaccia. Great dough a little thicker than pizza dough, olive oil, rosemary and salt.
The flavors combine beautifully with each other and it is one of my favorite things that I eat as an appetizer or alone and of course everyone likes it.
Wanting to make a Focaccia after many attempts in the past, some with success and others without the right result, I thought of experimenting a bit not with the appearance, not with the baking but mainly with the process.
Usually when I was making a focaccia, I just kneaded the dough, left it to r
est for 1 hour and baked it.
The result is usually mediocre but tasty.
I thought that in focaccia we add dried tomatoes, salt and rosemary, without thinking that we can work other variations.
So I made this focaccia, without dried tomatoes and rosemary, but I replaced them with onions and basil.
I replaced the flour for all uses with type 00 flour. I removed the bench mixer and the dough was made by hand.
Baking time reduced by 15 ‘
The big difference was in the rest times.
Kneading and 1 hour rest, light kneading and 1 hour rest, kneading and 1 hour rest.
A total of 3 hours of rest from 1 hour that I was used to.
The result is extremely amazing.
A much more fluffy focaccia emerged and the most important thing is that after 3-4 days it is still quite fluffy.
There is also the theory that 4 hours of rest are needed, which I will try in the near future

 

 

 

 

DUCK Roasted with Νectarines, Chamomile, and Amaranthus

Serves 4

ΝECTARINES,PUREE
30 g butter
½ shallot, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
8 apricots, pitted and quartered
60 g
Chamomile Simple Syrup
Salt
Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until foamy but not browned. Add the
shallots and garlic to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened without any color,
about 5 minutes. Add the nectarines to the pan and cook until tender, about 25 minutes.
Transfer the cooked mixture to a blender and puree on high until smooth. Turn to low
speed and blend in the chamomile syrup. Season with salt. Keep warm.

 

ROASTED DUCK BREASTS
4 duck breasts, each about 550 g
Salt
60 g butter
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F. Trim and remove any silver skin or meat that overlaps
the fat side. Set aside and reserve for the Chamomile Jus. Pat the duck breasts dry with a
paper towel. Season both sides of each portion with salt.
Divide the duck breasts between two large sauté pans and place skin-side facing down.
Heat the pans over low heat to begin rendering. Periodically drain the fat from each pan as
the ducks render, reserving the rendered fat to finish the chamomile jus. When the skin has
fully rendered crispy and turned a deep golden brown, about 12 minutes, transfer the
breasts to a baking sheet lined with a wire rack, skin side facing down and place in the
oven to cook to medium, about 4 minutes. Remove the duck from the oven and let rest in a
warm place for at least 15 minutes before slicing to serve.

 

CHAMOMILE JUS
15 g grapeseed oil
About 150 g reserved trim from Roasted Duck Breasts
½ shallot, sliced

60 g dry white wine
240 g
Chicken Jus
10 g dried chamomile
Salt
Reserved rendered fat from Roasted Duck Breasts
Heat the oil in a saucepan over high heat. Add the duck trim to the pan and sear until
deeply caramelized, about 4 minutes. Remove the trim from the pan and set aside. Drain
and discard the rendered fat from the pan. Turn the heat to medium and add the shallots to
the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the wine to the
pan and deglaze. Bring to a simmer and reduce until almost dry. Add the caramelized duck
trim and chicken jus to the pan. Heat to a simmer and turn the heat to low. Gently simmer
and reduce the sauce until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove the pan from
the heat and stir in the dried chamomile. Cover the pan and let steep at room temperature
for 7 minutes. Strain the sauce through cheesecloth and season with salt. Break the sauce
with the rendered duck fat and keep warm.

 

ROASTED NECTARINES
3 nectarines, halved and pitted
25 g olive oil
Salt
Confectioners’ sugar
Brown Butter, melted
Fleur de sel
Cracked black pepper
Preheat the oven to 135°C/275°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the
nectarine halves, oil, and salt in a mixing bowl, tossing to evenly coat. Transfer the nectarines
to the baking sheet, cut sides down, and dust lightly with the confectioners’ sugar. Roast
the nectarines until tender, about 1/2 hour. Remove from the oven and cut two of the halves
into quarters. Brush the cut side of each nectarine with brown butter and season with fleur de
sel and cracked black pepper. Keep warm.

 

 

  AMARANTHUS
10 Amaranthus leaves
40 g butter
Salt
45 g
Chicken Stock
Remove the stems from the amaranthus leaves and set the leaves aside. Trim the stems down to
10 cm (4 inches) in length. Using a mandoline, thinly slice the stems lengthwise and
immediately submerge in cold water. Set aside and reserve to garnish the plates. Cut the
cleaned leaves into 5-cm (2-inch) pieces. Heat the butter in a large sauté pan over medium
heat until foamy but not browned. Add the  leaves to the pan and stir occasionally
until evenly wilted, about 3 minutes. Season with salt. Add the chicken stock to the pan
and bring to a simmer. As the stock simmers and reduces, it will form a thick glaze. Be
careful not to overcook the leaves or reduce the glaze too far, as the emulsion will break
and make them greasy. Transfer the glazed amaranthus to a paper towel to drain any
excess glaze. Keep warm.

 

TO FINISH
Brown Butter, melted
Fleur de sel
Pickled Nectarines
White Balsamic Vinaigrette
Chamomile greens and flowers
Slice the duck breasts in half lengthwise. Brush the cut side of each portion with brown
butter and season with fleur de sel. Place both halves of each portion in the center of each
of four plates. Spoon the nectarine puree onto each plate next to the ducks. Divide the glazed
Amaranthus into one pile on each plate. Divide the roasted and pickled nectarines among the
plates, arranging them next to the duck. Drain the Amaranthus stem shaves from the ice
water and pat dry. In a bowl, dress the Amaranthus stem shaves with white balsamic
vinaigrette. Garnish each plate with the dressed Amaranthus stem shaves and chamomile
flowers and greens. Sauce each plate with the chamomile jus

Opera cake

Opera cake

Opera cake

Peach ice cream

PEACH ICE CREAM

PEACH ICE CREAM


Makes about 800 g

400 g milk
90 g cream
½ g vanilla bean, split and scraped
200 g sugar
30 g glucose powder
30 g dextrose
27 g nonfat milk powder
15 g trimoline
2 peaches, pitted and quartered
240 g peach nectar
2 g citric acid
2 g salt
Prepare an ice bath. Heat the milk and cream in a saucepan to a simmer over medium heat.

Add the vanilla bean pod and seeds to the milk and remove from the heat. Cover and let
steep at room temperature for 30 minutes. Combine the sugar, glucose powder, and
dextrose in a mixing bowl. Strain the milk mixture through a chinois and transfer to a
clean saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and slowly whisk in the sugar
mixture, milk powder, and trimoline until fully dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat
and set aside. Combine the peaches and nectar in a blender and puree on high until
smooth. Pass the puree through a chinois and whisk into the milk mixture. Chill over the
ice bath. Stir in the citric acid and salt. Freeze in an ice cream machine and reserve in an
airtight container, frozen.