Some pictures ...

[Vader]

Browsed my HD for pics I've had taken from my food and uploaded it. Thought I might share (yes, I'm in attention wh**e mode tonight.)

Next to my wife and daughter the love of my life.


oven roasted vegetables


Sushi & stuff


Kung Pao chicken


Duck breast on Chinese vegetables


Antipasti (filled tomatoes and 'shrooms)


more Antipasti (marinated chanterelles, grilled zucchini and sweet pepper filets in olive oil)


Chopped veal Zurich style with fried potato cake (Swiss national dish)


Paella with seafood from the barbie


Pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella (fior di latte) and fresh basil


Pumpkin ragout on tagliatelle


Chicken-banana skewers with raisin rice and glaced ginger carrots


Chicken soup (I love that pic)


The day after the soup: chicken fricassee with 'shrooms and asparagus


Crawfishtail salad on mango carpaccio.


Onion tart xxl


Duck served two ways on potato cream with red cabbage and lingonberry sauce

Roast pork and crackling with carrots, kohlrabi and bread dumpling (very German)


Vanillemousse with raspberries in chocolate mesh. It still needs some fruity sauce and icing sugar on top.


red thai beef curry, rather mild


one of my pasta favorites: penne all'arrabbiata. (pasta has been pre-cooked and needs to cook al dente in the sauce now.)


Kisir (turkish bulgur salad)


filled vegetables with raisin rice


Tandoori chicken (back left: Teriyaki chicken, right: chinese spareribs)


Safron Risotto with Chantarelles


I'd kill for this: ragù alla Bolognese with tagliatelle - never use spaghetti with this ragù)


Punpkin-ginger soup with lime


Another classic from over here: filled sweet peppers with tomato sauce


The sous-chef de cuisine (deputy kitchen chef) at work. Handles the knife like a pro.


On a side note: taking "good" pictures of food seems to be harder than cooking it.

[lorin]

that stove looks awesome!

[stonemaybe]

Vader, I love food but your pictures leave me totally unimpressed! You know why? I KNOW you have a gooseberry bush.

Show me a picture of that, THEN I may drool over the above!

[Vader]

LOL, this time of the year the bush rather looks unimpressive. Wait for next summer ...

[Menolly]

Your daughter is a cutie-pie as well, Vader!

[aliantha]

*Pictures* of food are all well and good. But I'd like the opportunity to drool over the recipe for your pumpkin-ginger soup.

Seriously, gorgeous stuff. My meals never look that picture-perfect.

-ali (who had a leftover turkey sandwich for dinner just now)

[stonemaybe]

LOL, this time of the year the bush rather looks unimpressive. Wait for next summer ...

You mean, you mean!? You mean you don't think enough of your gooseberry bush to already have pictures of it in full bloom??????

*shaking head, walking away from the galley forever*

[Menolly]

*shaking head, walking away from the galley forever*

Noooo!!!!

[Vader]

The pumpkin soup is quite simple and foolproof. You can add more ginger and lime if you want.

• 1kg /2-2,5 lbs pumpkin (roughly diced) I use Hokkaido
• 3 Tbs butter
• 1 onion (roughly diced)
• 1 clove of garlic (chopped)
• 900ml / 30oz vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp of ginger (grated) or more to taste
• 1 Tbs lime juice (fresh) or more to taste
• 1 Tbs of orange zests
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
• milk
• salt and fresh grounded black pepper
• cream cheese
• chives

Sweat onions and garlic in the butter (we don't want color here, just softness and sweetness) and add the pumpkin. Stir and gently fry for a few minutes.

Add the stock and bring to the boil at medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Add ginger, lime juice, orange zests and bay leaves. Let simmer at low heat for about 20 minutes until the pumpkin is pretty well done and soft.

Take out bay leaves and purée. Add milk until you get the desired consitency. Again season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve with a slice of lime and a knob of cream cheese and chopped chives.

[aliantha]

Thank you, sir! I am all about simple and foolproof!

[matrixman]

On a side note: taking "good" pictures of food seems to be harder than cooking it.

Yet you have acquitted yourself well! The photos are clear and sharp, and the food looks scrumptious. I envy your cooking skills (and that stove).

[Vader]

Christmas Eve 2009.

Doesn't look like much for 7 grown ups and a kid but there's plenty left.

Started with two kind of soups. Clear beef consommé with root vegetables



and a creamy tomato soup

.

Here's the cold-warm buffet. The picture looks awful because the light was not right. It's all very traditional (except for the empanadas) but hey, christmas is a traditional holiday.



in the back left to right: different kinds of cheese with grapes and bread, two kind of oven baked mini empanades (spinach-cheese and ground beef-onion filling), next to cherry tomatoes. Below that crayfishtail salad in cocktail sauce. Next to it cheery tomatoes filled with olive-cheese cream. The small bowl next to it has red onions sweet & sour, the round bowl below some kind of creamy chicken liver "pâté" with apples and calvados. Next to it fried meat in batter, small meat balls and cooked quail eggs.The round thing is a smoked salmon-spinach quiche.

Here the empanadas a bit closer



and the right side of the buffet in detail



The desert was a brilliant apple crumble my sister made - served with vanilla ice and whipped cream (no picture sadly).

[lorin]

I am still trying to make a really good tomato soup. Wanna share?

[Avatar]

Damn Vader. Are you now, or have you ever been, a professional chef? That stuff is plated well enough for any restaurant I've ever been to.

I have an awesome tomato soup recipe Lorin...unfortunately, it was packed away in storage with the rest of my mom's stuff when she died. I haven't had any tomato soup for 3 years as a result. (It's the only one I'll eat.)

When I eventually rescue it, I'll share it with you. Might be another year or two though.

--A

[Vader]

Never been a professional stuff. As we say over here "Das Auge ißt mit" which can roughly be translated into "you also eat with your eyes" or as SRD would have put it "taste is in the eye of the beholder".

Here's my tomato soup for 4 servings. (As usual I have no freaking idea which measurements you are using ....)2

canned tomatoes (750g or 1.5lbs)
2 Tbs olive oil
1 medium sized onion (finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic (finely chopped)
1 small sweet red bell pepper (finely chopped)
1 liter (like a quarter of a gallon) good vegetable stock
3 Tbs of concentrated tomato puree
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp sugar
fresh basil leaves

If you are using fresh tomatoes you need to skin them first. That's why I use canned ones which is perfectly okay for soups and sauces.

However, I skin the pepper with a good sharp vegetable peeler. This is totally oprional, I just don't want pieces of skin in my soup. But since you puree the soup in the end it won't really matter if you don't peel them.

Gently sweat the onion, garlic and red pepper in olive oil for 10 minutes. No roasting, no colour, just let them become lucent and develop some kind of sweetness.

Add tomatoes and let sweat for another 10 minutes.

Add stock, tomato puree, salt, pepper and sugar, put a lid on the pot and let gently simmer for like 15 minutes. Add basil leaves and puree until creamy.

Serve with little noodles.

[matrixman]

Damn Vader. Are you now, or have you ever been, a professional chef? That stuff is plated well enough for any restaurant I've ever been to.

I was thinking the same thing.

Vader, since you did not have a professional background in this sort of thing, that's actually encouraging - it means there's hope for the rest of us.

[Vader]

Monk fish filets, scampi and scallops with chinese vegtables.



Creamy potatoe soup with majoram and croutons.

[Vader]

It's been a while and I haven't been idle.


Fried potatoes with bacon.


My interpretation of insalata caprese with fresh figs.


Fish filets and spinach in puffy pastry.


Fritatta con patate.


Stewed lamb with kritharáki noodles in the clay pot (Römertopf).


The classical gratin dauphinois.


Prawns and mussels on tagliatelle.


Rosemary chicken on vegetables. Clay pots rule.


Another classic: veal saltimbocca with caprese and oven roasted potato wedges. The Marsala sauce is somewhere hidden under the meat unfortunately.

[JazFusion]

Jeezum. I just had a foodgasm.

You should seriously open your own restaurant. Or start a food blog. Or something.

Da-yum!

[Menolly]

^what Jaz said^