Talise Nutrition on MBC 1

Posted on March 14, 2013 by chefgabi

Our latest filming will be aired tomorrow, Friday, at 9 pm, at the Green Apple Show on MBC1…..very excited, and hope you all watch!

I have been very busy at work the last few weeks. Oh what am I saying, the last few months! No chance for even a short trip abroad to visit my beloved Bavaria, where I come from, to see the winter. Everyone at home is jealous though that I have everyday sunshine and warm weather while they have been freezing and shoveling snow. At least until recently, now finally some signs of spring are in the air.

To cure my longing for Bavaria I cooked some

flavors from home – away from home.

My home grown sweet marjoram (oregano family, but sweeter and milder) is beautiful and just perfect with its fragrant little leaves. Apart from its antioxidative benefits (think eternal youth!) it is a staple seasoning ingredient in Bavarian cuisine. I added it to my very simple but delicious

Potato Vegetable Soup with fresh Marjoram
2 portions

What to Buy
1 carrot, diced
1 parsnip or parsley root (however parsley root is difficult to source here in the Middle East), diced
2 small potatoes, peeled, diced
1 small leek, sliced
1 bay leaf
1 small piece mace
2 tablespoons olive oil
500 ml vegetable stock
salt, pepper
5 sprigs fresh marjoram, leaves picked

How to Make It
Braise in olive oil until golden the potatoes, parsnip and carrot with bay leaf and mace. Then add the vegetable stock and simmer for around 15 minutes on low heat. Add the leek, season with salt and pepper and serve with fresh marjoram leaves sprinkled all over.

Chef Gabi’s Tip:
I add sometimes dried cepes to the soup – they give this simple soup a significant upgrade! Must try.
This is what I cook at home when I feel not like cooking. A really easy to make recipe.

More Healthy Cooking on TV

Posted on February 18, 2013 by chefgabi

Healthy cooking is my passion since I became a chef. Because I believe that the food we eat is playing a major part in how strong, healthy and fit we are. So sharing recipes and ideas on how to live healthy and enjoy delicious food in the same time has become part of my daily work. An exciting part, I have to admit.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting a truly amazing film team from MBC, and it was much fun to work and cook with Howayda in our lovely outside kitchen set up at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai with view to the waterways!

I will share with you soon the dates when it will be aired!
Here some impressions from the filming….

Cooking with Love

Posted on February 12, 2013 by chefgabi

Everyone talks about Valentines day! It is, indeed, ante portas…
I was invited again to Studio One with Ash and Tom for the culinary support of their Valentines….week.

Thinking what to present I came across one of my long time favorites, an hors d’oeuvre, perfect to start a romantic dinner. Simple, quickly done, with impressive aroma. Because who wants to spend the time in the kitchen on Valentines day?

All you need is a slowly reduced tomato relish, a little bit of tapenade (olives and capers paste), and one hard boiled egg chopped and mixed with yoghurt and mustard. For the grissini look here. Watch the sequence here.

Enjoy!

Sunchokes and Tomatoes

Posted on January 17, 2013 by chefgabi

Here is the dish and recipe I have cooked on Dubai One. It was fun to be with Ash and Tom on the show as always!

Sun Choke Puree & Crisps
2 Portions

What to Buy
300 gm sun chokes
80 g potato
1 tomato
10 gm parsley
1 organic lemon (grated skin and juice)
20 gm butter
3 ml olive oil
Salt , Pepper

How to Make It
Wash the sun chokes and slice 2 of them very thin. Place the slices on a pergament paper on a baking tray and dry for around 15 minutes at 150 degrees Celsius in the oven. Peel the remaining sun chokes and the potato, steam them until very soft. Crush them and season the puree with salt and pepper. Dice the tomatoes (preferably with the skin due to the fact that the flavonoids are fully available). Chop the Parsley. Mix tomatoes with parsley, lemon juice and grated skin, season with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange the soft puree in deep plates or small bowls. Top with the tomato parsley salad and crispy sun choke chips. Serve warm, not hot.

Chef Gabi’s Tip
The sun choke is one of the finest source dietary fibers, especially high in oligofructose inulin, which is a soluble dietary fiber. Inulin should not be confused for insulin, which is hormone. The root flesh provides 1.6 mg or 4% of fiber. Inulin is a zero calorie, sweet inert carbohydrate and does not metabolize in the human body, which make the root an ideal sweet snack for diabetics and dieters. They are very good source of minerals and electrolytes especially potassium, iron, and copper. 100 g of fresh root contains 429 mg or 9% of daily-required levels of potassium. Potassium is a heart friendly electrolyte; helps reduce blood pressure and heart rates by countering effects of sodium. 100 g of fresh sun choke contains 3.4 mg or 42.5% of iron, probably the highest quantity among edible roots and tubers.

A long overdue update

Posted on October 28, 2012 by chefgabi

Sometimes all exiting things come together…. I have been quite busy at work.
So now finally after a while away from posting blogs let me share with you some impressions of my latest activities – between Dubai and Bavaria, again!

Recent filming at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray on The Palm for Studio One….

Here the sunset opposite the hotel when I arrived for the filming, packed with ingredients and some inevitable kitchen utensils I can’t live or cook without -
My favorite dish, with deep purple colors had to be featured, of course: Purple potato mash

topped with Miso Beetroot and almond foam – delicious, light, vegetarian food!

Then The Caterer ME Chefs and Ingredients Forum held at Madinat Jumeirah took place where I had the honour to be amongst the speakers.

After that I prepared for the Jumeirah Munich Culinary Week, 10 fantastic days in my beloved Bavaria, filled with meeting great people, cooking good food, and bringing arabian flavors and the unique hospitality of our Jumeirah hotels spread across the globe to Germany.
Of course extra soft and delicious dates from Dubai were a must! Our luggage was filled with baklava, sumac, arabic coffee ingredients and many things more we believed we wouldn’t get in Bavaria in the desired quality…

Bye Bye Bavaria – Welcome back to Dubai

Posted on September 21, 2012 by chefgabi

Autumn is on its way, you can clearly tell by the night temperatures falling to 10 degrees Celsius at times in Bavaria. I have decided to increase my knowledge about wild mushrooms (any mushrooms are a great source of protein by the way) and attended one of the rare occasions where experts share their wisdom with the public: I enrolled to a guided tour with THE HOUSE of NATURE in nearby Salzburg on my last days home. Oh wow! It was very interesting, for sure I will use the newly gained insights next year, when I am back.

equipment….

after a walk through the area our mushrooms got evaluated….

and in the end an impressive line out of all things found got a last informative recap. I truly enjoyed the tour and would come again next time! Special thanks to our dear friend Helmut, who restored energies with a lovely surprise lunch at his impressive Salzburg home, showing how delicious simple food prepared with love is:

By the way, I was all of a sudden very fortunate on one of my private tours in “my” forest: I walked, already a little bit grumpy because the forest was almost empty, when I felt a strong feeling to turn around and look back. It was that silent communication with the forest I sometimes feel and very often it means something. What I saw sitting on the back side of a single tree attracted my attention. A sponge larger than others, and paler than the usual mushrooms. I came closer, and YES! Below rare find is a Sparassis crispa, a 850 g mushroom with a taste resembling to morels. Last time I found a similar mushroom was 8 years ago. So now you know how much my heart jumped when I found it! Needless to say it made a great, proud meal for many friends……

Happily recalling great days home in Berchtesgaden I am now back in Dubai and also back to my busy, yet very interesting and inspiring work life in the UAE. Keep reading this blog and I will update you what I am cooking here in a different scenario, with different food, but still healthy, vegetarian, and delicious!

All Things Wild part 3 – what else is edible out there?

Posted on September 20, 2012 by chefgabi

A morning walk through the forest, breathing fresh air and enjoying the quiet, stunning nature is one good thing. But bringing home something delicious from the wilderness that can be of culinary use, I admit, is definitely something my chef’s heart desires. So what I do if I search through the forest soil without success of finding some mushrooms (they sometimes seem to disappear from this planet from time to time)? I go and check my secret places, where a natural spring releases fresh, clear and very often extremely cold water. There I can pick the freshest watercress leaves. Young, delicate, tender and with their typical sharpness of wild cress.

Their taste cannot be compared to cultivated watercress, wild ones are much more intense in flavor. And they are so beneficial for our health, full of chlorophyll, rich in Vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B17, C, D, E and K, folic acid, phosphorus, potassium, iron, manganese, copper, sulfur, and silica. Watercress is used to purify the blood, to stimulate the metabolism and digestive tract, acts as a powerful antiviral and antioxidant. However, take small doses of it to not over stimulate.

See one of my mother’s favorite recipes for wild watercress here. It is super delicious and easy to make:

Watercress Flan with Tomato Vinaigrette
4 Portions
What To Buy
250 ml cream
2 eggs
10 small watercress stems, leaves picked
salt and pepper
butter for the forms (ramekins or dariol)
1 ripe tomato, peeled, diced
1 shallot, peeled, diced
2 tablespoons white balsamic
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

How to Make It
Preheat the oven at 170 degrees Celsius. Brush the dariol forms with butter and place in a deep oven tray. Blend the eggs with cream, salt, pepper and watercress in a mixer. Strain through a fine sieve. Pour the liquid into the dariol forms. Pour hot water into the deep oven tray the dariol forms are in and bake the flan at 170 degrees Celsius for around 30 minutes. In the meantime prepare the vinaigrette: Stir tomato and shallot dices with balsamic and olive oil and season it with salt and pepper.
Once the flan is ready (you can check with finger pressure carefully on the surface if slightly firm) take it out of the oven and allow the flan to rest and relax at room temperature for around 5 minutes. Then carefully take it out of the dariol forms and place it on starter plates. Spoon over the tomato vinaigrette and serve warm with oven fresh spelt baguette.

Chef Gabi’s Tip:
Don’t rush the flan to get ready in the oven. Depending on the size of your forms it could take even a bit longer. Make enough time to let it rest after baking. This is important for the flan to stabilize a little bit before you present it on a plate.
I personally love this combination of cressy flavor with eggs. It has a mildness and a sharpness which makes this dish just perfect. But of course you can make a similar flan with other aromatic herbs too, like parsley, dill, basil!

All Things Wild part 2 – more about mushrooms

Posted on September 5, 2012 by chefgabi

One of the pleasures of a passionate mushroom lover are the lonely morning walks through a silent deep green forest, breathing the fresh air, while the eyes are scanning the moss and fern covered soil. Unfortunately not always is going on a mushroom foray crowned with the desired success. The right time, the place, the weather, the moon, all was perfect - but…..no mushrooms. Or let’s say at least no cepes. That can happen. That’s what exactly happened to me last week. I walked the area in pouring rain, early morning, and found not even one cepe. I was also unlucky to spot the white dotted, red capped fly agaric, a poisonous mushroom indicating the potential presence of cepes, because they prefer the same soil and environment.

So I bent down for some other edible delicacies to fill my basket:

Chanterelles

Hedgehog Mushrooms

Saffron Milk Cap

Goat’s Beard Mushrooms

and Yellow Foot Chanterelles.

I appreciate them even more when there are no cepes in my mushroom grounds! They taste great too. Coming home, wet from rain, tired, a little bit frustrated (no cepes!) and hungry, this simple mixed mushroom pan fry with onions and scrambled eggs brings definitely back energy and happiness.

All Things Wild – an addiction

Posted on September 1, 2012 by chefgabi

Cepes. The king of the mushrooms. The blossoms of the forest. Ah, what a delicacy!
Since I can remember my family used to pick fresh cepes in the mountain forests in my home in Bavaria. The reliable places where they can be found have been kept very, very secret within the family. I learnt as a child from grandmother and grandfather where to find them, when they grow (the moon and weather play an important role), how to recognize them, how to prepare them. And I am still passionate about this. I try to exactly time my summer vacation into the mushroom season to not miss it out. It is my addiction.
At least once a year I want to go by myself and look for mushrooms. I mean the successful finding of wild mushrooms. Not just searching the forest up and down (rocky path, sometimes very exhausting) without bringing home any delicious fresh cepes. This would be frustrating, especially if you are not such an avid mountain climber as I am.
This year I am successful. I am here, it is the right time and I know the right places.

Come with me on a morning walk and have a look…..isn’t that beautiful?

I wish you could smell the sizzling cepes in the pan. Traditionally I come home have a first puristic feast with just pan fried cepes in olive oil with just a little garlic and rock salt. Mom’s wonderful dark sourdough bread is a great addition. Nothing else. This is heaven!
In the season even the home is decorated with mushrooms: Table decoration with moss and real mushrooms….

…..and wooden cepes at the kitchen entrance.

Keep reading this blog I will post more about my passionate mushroom adventures soon.

Heavenly Raspberries in Season!

Posted on August 30, 2012 by chefgabi

There is a miraculous richness in nature now. My favorite little berries are ripe – raspberries. Lucky me I am home in Germany to pick them fresh for my daily dose of delicious and powerful antioxdants, Vitamins C, A, E, B, and K. Did you know they also provide potassium, manganese, copper, iron and help to control blood pressure?

These little wonder fruits are best when they have not even seen a fridge. A luxury only possible if the fruits don’t have to travel anywhere!
We indulge in fresh, sun ripened raspberries now - apart from eating them just as they are, on muesli, with milk rice, or with créme brûlée.

I am a huge fan of home made raspberry sorbet. It is basically nothing else than pureed raspberries with a little bit of organic lemon juice and zest and either agave syrup or acacia honey, frozen in a sorbetière - incredibly good.

I recently hosted a private ladies afternoon tea on a hot summer day in the garden for my girlfriends and served refreshing raspberry sorbet in lime shells on crushed ice and rose raspberry punch. No question it was a hit!
Enjoy the summer and stay refreshed and healthy.

Talise Nutrition

Madinat Jumeirah's wellbeing Chef shares her passion about healthy cuisine!

Category Archives: Gabi on the move