Let them eat lunch - Staff Food in Ibiza

Staff lunch

Romanesco, potato and egg salad - boil eggs and potatoes in their skins, remove, allow to cool and skin. Rough chop them and put in bowl. Blanch romanesco and refresh. Add to bowl. Chop herbs, capers, spring onion and gherkins and add to bowl. Mix mustard, lemon and olive oil together and pour over everything then mix with your hands, season and mix again.

Salmon trout fillets - a la plancha. Meanwhile heat up butter and chopped blanched almonds till it goes brownish and is foaming then add lemon juice. Pour over fish.

Greek salad - totally out of season of course but strangely all the vegetables were excellent even for the time of year. See above.

My lunch

Unbelievable hand gathered wild clams form galicia with fino, chilli and garlic. Recipix to follow.

Kids tea

carrot and hummous

spagbog

Pippi Longstocking

Weather: good

Stuff being out of season - It is really difficult to tell what is and what isnt when there is a glut of broad beans (and good broad beans) in December. When the long green peppers are as crisp and sparkling as they are in summer. When there seem to be 3 - 4 potato crops a year. I dont know if it is the same on mainland Spain but it is confusing for ye olde worlde eengleeshman.

Recipix - Baked Cod with cannelini beans

Blog is not a very nice word and blogger is even worse. It should not be use in any context to do with food. It sounds like something you get from food poisoning. Or something you 'fessed up.""Oh man, look. He's just fessed up his blog all over his shirt." I'm going to call it my Flog, my Flogger. Or Slogger

Anyway.......

Christmas and new year have come and gone and the 2008 season is upon us. Whilst it is still months away I can feel it flexing. I can feel it breathing down my neck. Its gonna be hot and its gonna be long. Yeah. So.....food food food.

Baked Cod with baked cannelini beans. Goddamn that is a mix that works. Add bacon to it and the gates of heaven open directly for you. The cod was a big chunk from a big fish. No infantide here. Big mother. I cooked chopped leek, onion, fennel, garlic, bacon and carrot in some olive oil with bay leaf and rosemary. Sweated it until it softened and gave me the juice. Then I added some grated tomato and cooked it out. Then I added some cannelini beans i had cooked ready and a little stock. Cooked it till it was dryish, and then added the cod on top, seasoned it and baked it. As soon as the juices were seeping into the pan I took it you and poured some pounded parsley, lemon and yet more oil over it and then..........yeah. I ate it. And it was nice. The best piece of cod I have had in a long time. Huge firm moist flakes that resisted slightly as I bit through them. Godddamn. The cod had come all the way from Norway, which was nice.

There will be a recipe to follow this pronto but not just yet. Then there will be a video.

This God Cod came about because in between getting ready for the summer and a million other nothings I am actually doing some paid work. Cooking. I am cooking lunch every day for 10 - 12 people from all over the world, Colombian, Peruvian, Isreali, Italian, Scottish, English, Ibicenc in a house somewhere in the hills of this most extraordinary island. This mix is brought together as staff for a wealthy person(age). The person(age) is away. So I am cooking for the staff who look after the place whilst the cat plays. Ibiza. Extraordinary.

Happy New Year from La Grande Bouffe Catering!!

Hi all. Just a quick shout to say a very Happy New Year to everybody.. lets make it a big one!!

We're kicking off starting with our new Monthly recipes on our blog, and will be publishing the first one very soon. Watch this Space!!

take care all, from La Grande Bouffe Catering Ibiza the best in Ibiza Boat Catering

Mark Watkins - Chef & Proprieter