It’s been a while since my last post and I am being reprimanded frequently, and justly!!!

So much has been happening and loads to do. Adding summer heat and really not wanting to eat anything but cold soups and salad is another contributing factor.

I was at the Italian fish seller in X-Berg’s Markthalle and in a moment of over-excitement, bough too much sea food, so invited friends to cook together and in the process bagged the nick name, Angry Chef:)… better being called Angry Chef than Spaghetti Monster, the name that was given to my pasta maker of the night as he became so stressed out about making the pasta consistent and of same length that we found it too dangerous 🙂 to tease him about it…. all was good fun, though, and here is the result.

 

Ingredients (Feeds 4 people)

• 400 grams of halibut filet
• 500 grams of vongole
• 4 baby calamary
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• 4 tiger shrimps
• small pinch of saffron flower
• handful of parsley
• sea salt
• pepper
• 4-6 tablespoon of juice from bitter orange. If you cannot find bitter orange mix the juice from a large lemon with a medium orange and use a few tablespoons of the mix.
• 150 grams of 00 pasta flour
• 150 gramms of semolina
• 3 medium eggs
• a small package of squid ink
• olive oil
• 4 dried chills
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
• 50 ml of dry cooking wine

How To Make It

Pasta:

• Leave the eggs and ink on the kitchen counter for half and hour to reach room temperature.
• Mix the two types of flour and form a flour volcano.
• Add a pinch of salt and two tablespoons of olive oil.
• Pour the egg and ink into the crater of your volcano and mix slowly with a fork.
• Once there is no running liquid left, begin kneading   the dough until really smooth (about 10 minutes).
• Make a ball from the dough and wrap in plastic, and let it settle in fridge for at least 30 minutes (60 would be better).
• After the dough is ready, take it out of the fridge, and let it warm up a bit.
• Cut a chunk (about 1/8 of the whole) and wrap the rest in plastic so the dough does not dry out.
• Using a pasta machine gradually press the pasta and form it into a flat sheet by increasing the dial from 0 to 4 (5 times passing through the machine). All the time try to keep a rectangular shape.
• Once you have the length you want (I like the pasta longer), shred the pasta into Linguini. Roll the pasta in to a round shape and place it on a drier .
• Cut another chunk of the dough and repeat the process.

Sea Food:

• Chop the parsley roughly.
• You can cook the sea food simultaneously in four frying pans or in a sequence and keeping the warm under a red light or in an oven heated up to 80 degrees Celsius.
• Slice baby calamari.
• Quarter the cherry tomatoes.
• Cut the fish into square or rectangular shape and smear it with sea salt.
• Clean the shrimps if needed.
• Wash the vongole in cold water so the sea water would be washed away.
• Heat up some olive oil (between 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil).
• Throw in a dried chill.
• After a minute add a few slices of garlic.
• 30 second later add a portion of the saffron.
  • Vongole:
    • Throw in the vongole.
    • Toss and turn in hot oil for a minute or two.
    • Add the white wine and cover.
    • Cook for three minutes.
  • Shrimps:
    • Pan-fry on each side for about a minute to a minute and a half until both sides are orange red.
  • Fish:
    • Pan-fry on each side for about 1 minutes.
    • Pour in 4 tablespoons of bitter orange juice.
    • Reduce the heat and cover for the fish to braise for 3-4 minutes, then take out the fish and keep in the juice.
  • Baby calamari:
    • Pan-fry in high temperature for 2-3 minutes, turn constantly.
    • Add the juice from the fish, vongole, and a couple more spoonfuls of bitter orange juice.
    • Cover, reduce temperature, and let cook for 5 minutes.

Pasta and Mixing:

• Bring a liter of water to boil, add a tablespoon of salt and lower the temperature so the water remains hot while cooking the seafood.
• While the calamari is cooking, bring the water back to boil and throw in the pasta.
• Cook the pasta for 60-90 seconds (1-1.5 minutes).
• Drain the pasta.
• Throw the pasta and the quartered cherry tomatoes into the calamari sauce and cook for another minutes or until the juice is absorbed by the pasta.

Serving:

• Put the vongole on a plate so it looks like making a boundary for the pasta (do not forget to warm the dishes to at least 50 degrees, so the food stays warm on it).
• Deploy the pasta to the plate (mix well first so the calamari is distributed evenly).
• Put the fish on the top and place the shrimp so to make it a bit decorative.
• Garnish with parsley and serve.
• Enjoy your meal…