Dinner
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Continue ReadingMost of the recipes I came up with came to me while drinking coffee in the morning on my balcony bench and gazing into the bright blue sky. Rarely does it come out of the blue, I just sit back, relax and let my thoughts pick up the pieces ingredient at a time, kind of like a puzzle. The base: One of the most important things I learned throughout the past years working in the kitchen is to cook by colors. A dish is complete when it looks appealing, as well as being delicious. Thus being said, my initial idea,…
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Continue ReadingGrowing up in the Balkans, lamb was always a staple of every solemn occasion. Getting married? Roast a lamb. Getting divorced? Roast a lamb. Finally graduated college? Roast a lamb. Lost a bet? Pay for the roasted lamb. Although it’s clear to me why lamb is treasured so much I just find the lack of creativity despairing. So, with the ever rising tide of street food craze I decided to jump the bandwagon with a pulled lamb in brioche. Keeping up with tradition but using a bit more modern techniques. The meat: All though I have decided to go for…
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Continue ReadingIn 1740, Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve wrote Beauty and the beast published in La Jeune Américaine, et Les Contes Marins. Few centuries later, in 2019 the guys at ARTiCOK restaurant cooked a beauty from the beast. Not only does the name of the tale fit perfectly for this risotto, but the whole moral of the story where we should not judge others by their appearances and outward characteristics yet cherish the inner beauty is spot on. I feel a lot of people are missing out on the fun because of this, the fear of not opening up to the unfathomed leading…
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Continue ReadingNothing quite puts a smile on the face of a restaurant owner as an ordered beetroot risotto. This creamy eye candy of a meal costs next to nothing to prepare, yet is packed with rich earthy flavour willing to endulge even the most leery taste buds. The base The base for this risotto lies in two things. Good quality beetroot and a nice vegetable stock. Some people cook beetroot risotto with a chicken stock and I’m sure there’s a neat place in hell for those people. Any type of meaty stock is just too overpowering for the subtle earthy flavour…
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Continue ReadingWhile cooking this risotto I was thinking what to post about it later when writing the recipe and I thought something like… I was going on a hike after a rainy day and stumbled upon these little gems along the way. Took out my portable gas stove, cast iron skillet, chef knife, cutting board and all the other hiking essentials that, judging by the social media feed everyone caries around with themselves disregarding it wouldn’t fit into a truck; to post that “cooking in the woods” video people seem to love watching. But as cool as it sounds, that’s not…
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Continue ReadingWhat’s most likely to be the real mystery behind it’s name is that it’s derived from Italian Maccheroni (Macaroni), also a tube like shallow pasta. Being that Croatia was under Roman empire for centuries a lot of our common dialects, mostly along the shore are influenced by Italian language. One thing about the story behind it’s name is certain, who ever came up with it is responsible for the struggle todays bartenders go through explaining to guests that Makaruni are, taste and texture wise, nothing like macaroni. The main difference of this kind of pasta, as opposed to egg pasta…
