My Renaissance Man celebrated his birthday last Saturday the 7th. Naturally he cooked, as he cooks even when it’s just the two of us. Not every day but a few times a week. Over the years there must have been hundreds of occasions when I and other people were blown away by his cooking. A few years ago I started taking pictures of his dishes, pictures like the ones below.
I don’t use Instagram or any other photo app as I can’t bear to start another online account thing. I hardly use my Facebook as it is. But since I have this blog I’ll document some of his cooking here. I should have started way earlier in the two years since I started keeping this blog. I didn’t before partly because my photography skills are nonexistent, haha. I’m just not interested in photography enough to want to spend the time (time I don’t have) to learn to improve. I’m just a point-and-shoot kind of guy. Although I do love looking at all the wonderful photographs in the blogs I follow.
The first photo above is of some of the fresh pasta he had made himself. Bert has been inspired to make his own fresh pasta since about a year ago when we discovered and dusted off my late father’s pasta making thing (a metal hand-rolling thing that flattens dough as well as cut it into noodle strips). This is fettucine.
^ With that fresh fettucine he made it ai pomodorini, with cherry tomatoes, onion, basil, olive oil, and of course topped with parmesan.
^ Then came chicken, as involtini di pollo, rolled fillets stuffed with prezzemolo, garlic, bread crumbs and rosemary, and presented with capsicum, tomatoes and chili padi.
^ And then, mmmm, my favourite that evening, the fish dish, involtini di pesce. Like with the chicken, these are rolled fillets, filled this time with parsley, garlic, shrimp, breadcrumbs, and resting on a bed of onions. Other ingredients are olive oil, pepper, and lemon.
^ The fish was served topped with a gorgeous tangy sauce, made with oranges and lemons, butter and thyme.
This meal is considered very light by our previous standards. In the past when we had guests Bert would go all crazy and whip up a monstrous feast. Which the guests loved, but would predictably groan quite painfully that they were about to explode as they waddled out the house, while I too was left too stuffed to do the dishes so I would just leave them in the sink for the next morning, and just sit on the sofa in a stupor watching television. But I’ve noticed these past couple of years he has toned down a lot in terms of quantity of food and courses. I guess as we get older we’re more health-conscious and make an effort to eat less, and indulge only moderately. I mean, my God, come to think of it, I think we haven’t pigged out at a buffet in over a year.
Our guests are also relieved our meals together are so much lighter now.
I guess I’m starting a new food category with this post.
simple & gayforward 