All posts filed under: Gastronomic Adventures

Cooking experiments

duck confit

Making Duck Confit at Home in Gascon Style: Ultimate Slow Food, A Tradition to Preserve

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Yes, I repeat. Duck Confit is the easiest yet the most misunderstood food in the world. Let me explain why in this post and show to how to tackle the most sublime epicurean delight, which some might consider ‘too classic’. But as a devoted listener of A Taste of the Past, I have deep appreciation for traditional foods. This post inevitably made me dig into the album of the best moments in my life. It was supposed to be written before the duck season in February, or even earlier. Despite its delay, I thought I’d post it after tucking away my second batch of duck confit this week at the winery, in the deepest corner of the fridge, not to be tempted and open it up any time soon. It will sit there for at least one month to further develop the true confit flavours. If I can make duck confit with a small convection oven, so can you! Neither slow cooker nor sous- vide is required. Imagine numerous dishes I can make with this …

Life in the Vineyard – Part 3: Nomad Chef’s Food Story

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Sarkoy, though famous for wine, doesn’t have much to offer in terms of food and, having realised that earlier on, I brought survival packages of foods, spices and freshly ground coffee and my travel mate, a Vietnamese Phin filter. As you know, where Namie goes, there is food, not just food but thought-provoking food. Since I don’t like repeating a meal and my tummy has a limit for white bean stew (kurufasulye) and meatballs (kofte), I opted to cook instead of eating the food delivered to the winery. I try to cook no matter how tired I am, as long as I can lift a knife. The process of thinking what to cook is a therapeutic mental exercise and my body benefits from the simple clean food I make. Without fancy tools and pots, let alone a proper stove and a decent knife, I’ve been cooking just as fine as I’m a well-seasoned cook. The food produced from my tiny kitchen with an electric single hot plate and a kettle is getting more sophisticated day …

Life in the Vineyard – Part 1

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As I mentioned in the last post, I was at Chateau Kalpak Vineyards to help out during the Art Festival, and I’m back home for a little break. The festival was wrapped up successfully with the public exhibition on the last day. A group of journalists visited during the festival so there should be an article in a Turkish magazine somewhere, but I’ll also share the atmosphere and some art works by the artists when I return to the winery where my camera still is. In the meantime, you can have a peek at some random photos I took. Unfortunately, I couldn’t blog because WiFi wasn’t available in the studio. Even if there had been WiFi, I wouldn’t have been able to. Because I was crazy busy throughout the one-week long workshop, multitasking around the clock; serving, cooking, photographing, interpreting, and drinking, etc. I also led a winery tour for the first time and it was fun! The reward was waking up to this beautiful view every morning and sipping wine on the terrace, watching …

Burgundy Revisited

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The sights of Burdundy didn’t disappoint me as the vineyards were sporting the best of the best autumn colours. Though it was a week earlier to all the events lined up in Burgundy including Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction and Beaujolais Nouveau. I can’t always be lucky with dates, can I? Sometimes we just have to go with the flow and this tour was set out for the eyes to indulge rather than for the palates, and especially not for my interest, but for that of Cyrille, who would never have bothered to visit Burgundy if I hadn’t made the plan for him. The towns in Burgundy seem to have a mystical and mysterious ambience. We drove around and between the vineyards, getting lost at one point on the hill somewhere, thanks to the old GPS, but got a good view looking down the slope. This town, Gevrey-Charmbertin, is always wet whenever I’m there; it doesn’t seem to like me as much as I do him. I love its masculine and meaty personality, as I’m …

Market Day in Jura

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I’ve tried to write as many posts as I could while on holiday in Jura, but I am once again being swamped with so many photos that have been added to my already-overloaded hard drive. One has to have strong willpower to stay sober and focused when good food and wines are always around. That’s what I think whenever I’m in France. I’ve collected so many cheeses and discovered some great local sparkling wine Crémant du Jura and the best Comte shop, which I will share with you in another post. The Jura wine tasting happened to start at a local market. Jura wines aren’t cheap so I didn’t want to buy whole bottles to try at the risk of disappointment, especially when I’m not a white wine drinker. Luckily, the golden opportunity to taste and learn about Jura wines came and I went to the market. This farmer’s market rotates around Jura and it was in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine two weeks ago, which you can catch only once a year. I was worried that the market …

Confit de Carnard / Quick Easy Fondant au Chocolat

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The days of blue sky, as in the photo, seem to have ended in this part. The trees have lost their charming colours and now have more naked colours of brown. As I’m having my last week in Jura, I’m already being nostalgic, looking at all the photos from my crazy 3 week-long adventure of the Jura mountains and Jura wines. I have the last mission to complish, which is to visit the froggy lakes that were featured in Triplets of Belleville and eat frog legs, which will be the last supper to celebrate the end of my gastronomic holiday.