a caviar but just pretend it comes from a sturgeon

Two types of non-sturgeon caviar and both are inexpensive!

 

When you think of caviar, do you think of inexpensive? Obviously, if it comes from one of the varieties of  sturgeon, then chances are it is very expensive. Caviar is fish eggs and not all command a great price. The brush of red eggs that appear on your sushi are from Smelts and are quite nice. The two Icelandic caviar products I like come from Lumpfish ( or called LUMPSUCKER  and for obvious marketing  reasons they chose a less strange name) and  Capelin.

Capelin is a Smelt that can be found migrating in and around Iceland and Greenland. It spawns on the beach very similarly to the California Grunion, which as a boy on a trip to Baja I remember filling an abandoned large glass water bottle and later wondered how I was going to get them out !

The Lumpfish is a strange looking fish which probably explains why they don’t place a picture on the bottle. Wikipedia has this to say about the importance of this fish to Iceland, “Lumpsuckers play an important role in the Icelandic fishing industry; Lotna ehf, a fishing company partly owned by Swansea City midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson, have recorded catches of lumpfish as large as 2 tonnes. Other fish often caught on trawlers simultaneously with lumpfish include cod”

For a long time, non sturgeon caviar was referred to as ‘imitation’, but is it really? To me the smaller eggs are preferred. In addition, with the cost of purchasing a twelve ounce bottle ($12 -15 normally) at a small fraction of the price of a 1 ounce of a sturgeon caviar… it is a practical alternative and makes a nice garnish for an everyday meal!

a Wolfberry Birthday cake

Happy Birthday Karla!

Today is Karla’s Birthday and she wanted a Wolfberry Chocolate Cake! Ah, for those who don’t know what a Wolfberry is… it’s commercial name is “Goji.” Karla is very fond of anything that is offered to be ‘healthy’ and she believes that Goji berries have some sort of life sustaining properties and who am I to argue with her on her birthday!

Happy Birthday, Karla… your cake is coming right up!

Links to ocean is L2o restaurant

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Friends John and Steph Cacioppo hosted a beautiful dinner at L2o restaurant in old town Chicago and it was wonderful!

12 courses over several hours was an epicurean delight! Know for their comfort and service, nothing was disappointing. It was magical!

The finale was a kitchen tour where I explored to my hearts content… A very efficient and innovative kitchen flow!

Thank you John and Steph!

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an egg salad sandwich and Tomato soup serenade

Some foods transform us to another place and time ...

…and shortly thereafter, mechanically, loaded down by the dreary day and the prospect of a sad tomorrow, I brought to my lips a spoonful of tea into which I had let a piece of madeleine soften. But at the very instant that the mouthful mixed with cake crumbs touched my palate, I shuddered, attentive to the extraordinary thing that was happening in me. A delicious pleasure had invaded me, isolated – no notion of its cause. It immediately rendered all the vicissitudes of life unimportant, life’s disasters harmless, its brevity illusory… And suddenly the memory appeared to me…But, when nothing remains of a remote past, after the death of beings, after the destruction of things, only smell and flavor, more frail but more lively, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, only they last for long, like ghosts, to be recalled, waiting, hoping (on the ruins of all the rest) to carry without bowing, on their almost impalpable droplet, the immense edifice of memory. ”  — M. Proust

Foods are like that with me, they remind me of different places and times. From my childhood, I look fondly on my favorite lunch whether home or a friends … egg salad sandwich and tomato soup!

One of my favorite tomato soups is from La Madeleine French Country Restaurant ( the first located near SMU in Dallas).  I have even bought some on-line on several occasions. Laura pushed a recipe for their soup to me yesterday… and I had to see if it was close and it was. I made a few changes for my taste but I will present their recipe and my adaptation.

La Madeleine’s Recipe for Tomato Soup

some of the basic ingredients for my version ( plus lemon juice)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cans diced or cut tomatoes
  • 1 can chicken broth
  • 2 cans tomato sauce
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 tablespoon mixture of salt, pepper and garlic powder
  • 1 cup dried and chopped sweet basil
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Process

1) use a blender to chop tomatoes… but not to the point of a puree

2) add tomatoes, tomato sauce and chicken stock into a large pan or pot under low to medium heat and stir and reduce to slightly thicken

3) add cream, butter,  seasonings, a squirt or two of lemon juice and Basil … continue stirring until completely blended and bubbling

Serve with egg salad sandwich!

Bon appetite!

Going on Chefari in South Africa

My quest to experience a great ‘Braai” ( similar to our barbecue) and travel to South Africa on “Chefari” started with a few comments and experiences of my daughters. Karen had an internship in South Africa and brought back some  “biltong”   ( a South African meat Jerky) made of  Kudu  and some from Springbok. I was intrigued. My eldest daughter Kristin is a fan of Chef Gordon Ramsey  who is known to raise or hunt his own food, which I can personally identify. Karla thinks I should just find something edible and go to it!

Well, some folks can just grab their equipment , passport and head off on adventure; however, taking the time to plan out one’s trek is worth the effort. Needless to say, I had a few things to do before I leave. I needed a professional hunter and found one via Friends of the NRA… Likhulu Safari!  Also, I needed a particular rifle for this trip and purchased an Interarms Mark X 375 caliber. Recently, I upgraded the scope to one from Swarovski Optik  that I had a chance to inspect at a recent  SFI  Convention. Oh yes, I bought some boots from an excellent South African store called  M Gordon Footwear!

Going to South Africa is getting very easy for Americans because all you need is a passport for most visits. Hunters need import permits from South African and a permit to bring your rifle back into the states from Homeland Security. No particular inoculations are needed to enter South Africa, unless you are entering from a country where various diseases are problematic.

My daughter Karen provided a number of wonderful suggestions on her blog on things to think about before you take your trip:

South Africa — 10 things to know!

Karen’s collection of blogs on South Africa

SouthAfrica.info

I am certainly looking forward to my CHEFARI later this summer… and I will blog about it as it occurs!