BLATE @ BUZO

i did a lot of learning this week... and it's only wednesday. for one, i learned that there are some things you just shouldn't wait around to do. like checking out a spot that has been recommended to you countless times. take buzo for example. been hearing how fantastic the italian food is there, but never ventured. so my friend corey who also blogs about tasty treats suggested we do a blate there. (blate = another thing i learned this week. it's when bloggers link up. a blog date kinda. not that you couldn't google that.) 

 it's a really cool spot. nice wines.

great service, including amado who is as good as it gets when it comes to hosting. (didn't get his pic, but big respect to amado. he's a boss. corey got a pic of him over on her blog, check it out.)

and pizza. there's a pizza bar where you can order your pizza to spec and see it pop in and out of this pizza oven. real fresh. 12 inch pizzas cut into 8 slices on a really thin crust. i hear 2 can deal with one comfortably. 

even though pizza was on my mind, executive chef cristian grini had a different idea. he started us off with some portobello fries, served with a truffle and roasted garlic mayo. hear nah! i was ready to write the review one time. 

seafood is my thing, so fritto misto hit the spot. shrimp, calamari and zucchini. the sauce was the winner here.

 next up was this platter of prosciutto (cooked and uncooked), cheese and olives. real salty goodness.

then we got into some pastas, which they make in house by the way. this one here was the torcelli. spicy calabrian sausage and porcini mushrooms in a cream and tomato sauce. a lil grated parmesan over the top for good measure.

hands down the winner of the show. hand made pumpkin tortelli with butter noisette, sage, shiitake mushrooms and parmesan cheese. off the chain! even for corey who doesn't really dig pumpkin that much. no complaints on this one.

by this time, we were full. i mean packed with all that good stuff. no room for main course, which judging from the healthy portions that were coming out, i'm sure would have been proper. we just had to skip through to dessert. i tried this one. forgot the name, but it had a house made blueberry marmalade on top of this milky cream with an interesting texture. i'm not big on desserts, but this was ok.

 this was a show stopper though. vanilla ice cream topped with cream, chocolate and amado skillfully pouring a shot of espresso on it.

warm espresso no doubt, so everything just started to melt and mix.

 the end result, a delicious mess. i just had a little taste of it. if you like coffee, this is fuh you!

all in all, i can't believe i took that long to check it out. great time. thanks to amado, chef cristian and of course corey for saying "what? you've never been to bu... nah! we going!" good call. lesson learnt. i'll be back fuh sure!

THE EXTREME CORKCICLE TEST

LOTUS has some pretty cool stuff. like this simple thing... the corkcicle. basically a one-size fits all cork with a gel stem that you freeze an put inside your wine bottle to keep it chilled. think about the possibilities! i did. so i decided to give it a test. not just a test though... an extreme test.

first off, it was designed to be used with wine. so obviously i got a bottle of rum. the single barrel of course. froze them both. 

plug it in, plug it in. 

 right. ready to roll. just a few beauty shots before we leave. yes... leave. as in leave the cool house. i did say it was extreme.

oh yeah. almost forgot to mention that i had to take a little bit out to compensate. i only needed to take out a little less than a drink, but hey, why go half way right?

sure the corkcicle would work in a nice cool air conditioned house, but what about somewhere outside in the blazing sun? like aranguez savannah for example.

i found a nice spot...

and called in muh boy MICHAEL for some back up. 

more back up. 

 so the rum stayed cold up until this point, which was probably about 1 hour after removing it from the freezer. 

the drinks were just cool now rather than cold. i like my single barrel cold.

 thanks to the friendly neighborhood snowcone man, we kept the party goin beyond the test.

so much so that some cricket ended up in the mix. 

at the end of the day, judging from the extreme conditions, the corkcicle seems to be handy. it wouldn't replace your cooler if you're heading outdoors, but it would keep your wine chilled nicely. and it should be golden inside on a cool sunday. nice find.

WHAT TO DO WITH A STEAM BAKED SESAME FLAX SEED LOAF?

"If you in town today, Q, pass by my office fuh sump'n" is not a wall post you come across everyday on facebook. neither is a steam baked sesame flaxseed loaf. so when i arrived at the collection point, got the brown paper bag from my friend LISA and took a whiff of the tasty goodness, i started to wonder "what do you do with a steam baked sesame flax seed loaf? ah mean yes it's bread, but it just doesn't look like you should be putting a slice of cheese between it just like that if yuh know what ah mean?

so i opened my fridge to find some inspiration. what if i seasoned up some minced beef with fresh green seasoning, onion, hot pepper and garlic?

and what if i put that in a pot and added a lil more heat to it with pepper flakes and chili garlic sauce?

what if i added some pigeon peas to stretch the niceness? just recently i tried some pigeon peas in a dish with minced beef and i wanted to try it again. good opportunity i'd say.

and what if i added some mushrooms too? because mushrooms are good.

how about some tomato sauce to bring everything together? why not?

but back to the bread. how about i drizzle some slices with some olive oil...

and toast them so they're nice and crispy.

then how about if i put the minced beef on the slices and top them with olives and parmesan cheese?

ans=something tasty. 

thanks LISA for the challenge. i think justice was done.

BRING BACK THE OL' PIE DAYS

after getting some requests, i realized “is true! dis bachy blog have no macaroni pie! with two pie jumbies like baidawi and myself, how is that even possible?” so i decided to make one. the first way i learned to make it.

yuh see, over the years i took a lot of things out of my pie because i discovered this cream of mushroom soup. it started as something to add for a little twist, but eventually it just took over. before long i was using this as a base instead of milk and eggs (which i avoid as often as i could). but i thought i’d take it back to the old school for this one. that presented one problem. milk. i forgot what milk i included in my pie all together. and the milk aisle offered no help.

hear nah! skimmed milk, high-calcium milk, fibre-enriched milk, omega-3 enriched

milk, probiotic-enriched milk, flavoured milks, what de hell?! well at least those terms are straight forward enough. but then you have all the pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, uht, reconstituted. come nah man!

not wanting my ole school throwback pie to be bland, i turned to the university of youtube to give me some guidance. turns out there wasn’t much to be afraid of. pasteurization is just heating the milk up to take out the bacteria. and ultra-pasteurization is actually uht which stands for ultra high temperature treatment. anti climatic ent? yeah.

anyway, during the process i remembered. evaporated milk! but of course! so i picked up a pack not expecting to see anything much. boom! the evaporated milk too. recombined, which i found out is the same as reconstituted, meaning they broke it down to powder, shipped it to wherever, then stretched it back with water and whatever else to add back the nutrients and the taste. you’ll find mostly that on the shelves here as opposed to fresh milk or made from fresh, which as the name implies is as close to the natural thing as it gets. it stays liquid or made from liquid, just pasteurized to take out the germs and daz it. something people are actually looking for these days because of the health benefits. but back to my pie, what concerned me was the low fat tag. fat is flavour. what allyuh doin?! well... i guess i’ll just have to make it work then!

so step one, obviously, boil the macaroni. some water. a lil salt. some oil in the water too. they say that keeps the pasta from sticking together. meh... i do it jus because. let the water come to a boil first, then boil the pasta for about 8 to 10 mins. i use a big pot so i could throw the macaroni back into it to mix in the other ingredients without dirtying another bowl. hate washing dishes.

while that is going on, take the opportunity to chop up some onion...

grate some cheese...

and gather whatever you want to throw in. i used some black pepper, a lil more salt, paprika, a lil italian seasoning just a little of the cream of mushroom soup because i really love the flavor of it and this time... 2 eggs.

i have a routine when the time is up. i switch off the stove, set the oven to 250, then strain the pasta. then it’s back into the pot to mix. yuh just want to dump all that in and mix it all up. see? big pot... one less thing to wash.

so you're looking for a rich mixture. by the way, this point is like last call. this is the time to fix stuff. taste it. see if it needs a little more whatever. last chance to make sure at least you can eat it.

when i tasted at this point i felt for a little more tang. a lil kick. so i added a little bit of honey mustard.

next, get your vessel. you want to just take a lil bit of butter, or cooking spray or oil just to grease the pan. i use this metal pan because it’s the biggest thing i have to bake in and when pie makin in these parts, we going big because we can’t go home. we already home yo! (ok, shooting with left, greasing with right... real hard!)

get that mixture into the pan. spoon it in... pour it in... however you get it in is fine. as long as it gets in. take your spoon and smoothen it out, make sure it fills the corners etc.

next, top dat pie. if you want, when you’re done topping it with the cheese, you can put a layer of biscuit crumbs on top. a nice vibe, but i prefer it plain. or sometimes i might shake a lil italian seasoning in the cheese on top too.

pop that bad boy into the oven. and turn the heat up to 300... 350 anywhere around there. fire below. bake until brown on top.

 next step is to let it cool. if you cut it while very hot, it will crumble. plus yuh need to swag like yuh know what's goin on and yuh accustom doin dat. play it off like no big deal. yeah, jus hold on... it would be aight.

and daz it. in the morning i’ll decide what to eat with this. maybe some lentils and stew chicken. or some stew pigieon peas and geera pork. i’ll see how it goes. but for now, i’ll just take a little sample. try it out!