Finger food contest AKA pick the right glass!

After a few days in which my italianhousewifeness gave its best, I restored the cosmic balance of poshness with a finger food night, that was a very enjoyable rehearsal for a very special event yet to come ^__^

5 judges tasted 6 different dishes, all arranged into small cups. Cups are horrible, I know, but the german el-al security is the one to blame for this as they spotted a possible threaten for Israel in my pink Vivienne Westwood shoes and shipped them separately, delaying all my afternoon schedule. (BTW, the only threaten that those shoes might have is that Israeli girls will understand that in Israel they don't know how to make shoes and book a flight to Heathrow)

Back on track: the judges were extremely helpful with their suggestions, but hey, I hope the people attending the event will be a wee bit easier to please or I will have to take a month off only to study the presentation! :D :D :D

DE-STRUCTURED CAPRESE

Tomato cream at the bottom is made by blending a few red tomatoes with salt, oil EVO and fish gelatine. The white layer is mozzarella and the quenelle on top is made with basil and courgettes pesto (basil, parmigiano, oil EVO, pine nuts and pan-fired courgettes). Sort-of-borrowed from www.giallozafferano.it.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER IN TEHINA DIPPING

This is very similar to what I made here (but with no crunchy quinoa and no chicken)

BARLEY AND ROASTED PEPPER FLOWERS

I boiled the barley until tender and seasoned it with thyme leaves and oil EVO. I roasted the peppers in the over for 45 minutes and then peeled them, seasoned with salt and cut them in stripes to make the shape of the flower.

AUBERGINES WITH FETA AND TEHINA

Aubergines are grilled in the oven for 45 minutes, then peeled and seasoned with chilli, basil, mint, salt and oil EVO. Feta is cut in small cubes and seasoned with chilli too.

PEA BALLS WITH SESAME SEEDS AND TZATIKI

I cooked the peas in a pan with a spoon of oil EVO. When ready, I blended them with one egg, parmigiano and cubes of bread from the day before. I made small balls and covered them with sesame seeds. The tzatziki is explained here.

BRIE, PEAR AND HONEY

Superfast but super tasty…. this is nothing more than pear and brie cubes with honey on top

Canapés and the thin difference between puff pastry and shortbread

Last week I hosted a lab night to warm up out new flat and the task to accomplish was to feed 11 hungry neuroscientists (just to give you a picture, one of them spontaneously compares herself to a truck driver when it comes to food), luckily hungry AND very talented in the kitchen so it was not only because of Silviot that the night was a success :)

Actually, one of the Silviot (me) did her best to sabotage the night misreading the package of frozen puff pastry, that turned out to be frozen shortbread, hence I had to make a great story up about the long-standing italian tradition of using sweet pastry in association with cheese and curry to create a unique combination of flavors in the mouth. Not sure I persuaded them but they still hold me in the lab so it is fine!

I will not describe in details the recipes but I'll give the idea. I made canapes with roasted cauliflower and tahini, canapes with roasted red peppers and dill, red pepper muffins, a sort-of quiche with broccoli besciamella and salmon, S1 made the tuna roll with potatoes and capers and my colleagues made two delicious desserts, a meringue with halva and cream and the balcanic version of the pannacotta. As the queen of aubergines, the main was of course pasta alla norma :)

Roasted cauliflower, chicken and crunchy quinoa salad

This post might as well been called "a wrong day, that eventually, as many wrong days, turned out to be not totally wrong (except for my tiffany earring lost somewhere between ramat hasharon and dizengof... that still sucks)"

So why cauliflower, why chicken and why crunchy quinoa? Well, my neighbor, colleague, friend and mate in the NYC trip, that after a few months already falls in the "Ireallylikeyou" category, introduced me to Miznon in Ibn Gabirol, aka art within a pita. In the holy pita temple I had a taste of the Gods' food, that happened to be pita stuffed with roasted cauliflowers, served with tomato juice and tahini. That's why roasted cauliflower (and tomato and tahini). Two more to go.
Chicken, well because if you do not like chicken you do not want to go to Israel, unless you are vegetarian or know a reliable pork pusher.
Why quinoa? Because quinoa is soooo cool, bro. I mean, it is not a cereal, it is a PSEUDOcereal, how cool is that? And comes from south america, like the best soccer players and the best white powder (ofter they come together too). And finally, crunchy.... well, many things become crunchy if you leave them on the stove while you are trying to fix a portrait to a wall, and the portrait falls on the (supposedly) empty bottles of red wine, and the wine that was not supposed to be there is magically all over your pants, and so on and so forth until the stink of burned quinoa.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, CHICKEN AND CRUNCHY QUINOA SALAD

I boiled the cauliflower cut into small florets for few minutes and then placed them into a baking tray and baked until golden (adding some of the water when dry). I cooked the chicken on a grill adding lemon juice when the meat changed color, then cut it into small stripes. I (over) cooked one cup of quinoa in one cup and a half of water for 15 minutes after boiling and then left the lid sealed for other 10 minutes. I mixed the cauliflower, the chicken, the quinoa and some fresh celery chopped in stripes and seasoned with oil and lemon. Serve on top of blended cherry tomatoes and S1's plain tahini.