Food should be also a feast for the eyes!

Food is not only for satisfying hunger. It's more!

It's something social. It makes more fun to eat with friends than sitting alone in front of a plate.
And it's something for many sences.
At first you see the plate and hopyfully it looks nice. Than you smell the food and you're getting exited about eating and tasting it at the end should be the highlight.
But all three steps are (in my opinion) important and they belong together.

Since I love the first step quit a lot, I try to come up with something special every now and then.
This time I chose a special shape for my new pasta.

Sacchettini Quattro Formaggi

cheese... cheese... cheese...

This is the 3rd batch of cheese I made in Belize.

It's always a surprise how the cheese tastes after the ripening time of 14 -18 days. Since the "brie" is ripening from the outside to the inside, it can happen, that the cheese is almost "liquid" on the outside and still a little crumbly on the inside.

Any way - I had to stop the ripening because the taste is strong enough. Next time I will raise the temperature in my cheese fridge a little.

This time a made plain Brie, Brie with pistachios and Brie with bacon.

Pasta - 2nd batch

This time I made the pasta dough half and half.
I mixed flour and semolina 50:50. I added eggs and olive oil.

The stuffing was a spinach-cheese mix.


Thanks to my little helper - I have always the perfect thickness for the Tortellini.

Piña Colada Gelato

When I'm thinking of a tropical fruit, pineapple comes first to my mind. Especially here in Belize they taste so delicious. So it is obvious that I have to make a gelato with this savory fruit.
I decided to spice it up with coconut cream and a little - okay two little - dashes of coconut rum.

homemade pasta

It took me several months to make my favourit dish again.

Tortellini with Gorgonzola Sauce.

To get Tortellini, Ravioli or other fresh stuffed pasta in a supermarket in Belize is impossible. So I had to do it myself. You can make the pasta dough with flour, eggs and olive oil or you can make it with semolina, olive oil and water.

This time I choose the variation with flour and eggs.



I decided to make a hearty ground steak stuffing for the Tortellini and Ravioli. Next time I'll maybe prepare a shrimp - lemmon gras or a spinach - ricotta stuffing.

After more than 50 little handmade Tortellini I decided to do some Tagliatelle - this is much easier and not so time-consuming ;)



And with the leftover of the ground steak. We'll have "Pasta Bolgonese" for tomorrow's lunch.

first home made cheese

in Belize.





I already made cheese in Germany. It was easy to get all ingredients I needed. I could order the rennet and starter or edible mold cultures online. I could get fresh milk and heavy cream in every shop (and I could be sure that they're not spoiled when I open them at home).

Here it is a little different. To get decent and affordable milk for making cheese is not so easy. (Now I found a place but I have to pay 12BZ /gallon).

10 days ago I started and today was "the big day" - I took them out of my special fridge (not warmer than 60°F and not cooler than 56°F).

They look like edible mold cheese - and they taste like cheese... but unfortunately the milk had to less fat - so they taste like diet-cheese.

Next time I'll add heavy cream. But I'm so glad that it worked out. :)))))

Stollen

This is a traditional German christmas cake.



It's made with raisins, candied orange and lemon zest. I put theese three ingredients in a little bit of Belizian Rum and let it soak for 24 hours. Another important ingredient are almonds.

The bad thing about the Stollen is, that it has to sit for three weeks after baking . So it can develop the aroma.