Lasagna in Pattaya

[Swiss1960]

2 minutes ago, moogradod said:

Will try the Vespresso. Thank you. In the meantime: I just did it myself for the first time in my life and my message is here to the asean members: It's easy ! Try it. Minced meat 70/30 (next time I will be doing 50/50) and self made Béchamel (pasteurized Grass Fed Milk). It was not 100% yet (but very good already and certainly better than many you can buy), but now I know the secrets of doing it and my next try will be using a receipe of a 3 Michelin star cook. This should then definitely yield the full desired result. As always while cooking, a lot depends on the ingredients. I used Barilla pasta sheets and 18 months riped original Parmesan from Italy. Next time the sauce will get more attention using fresh spices.

50/50 is what I use also. But the main "secret" for me is the sauce. I don't use tomatoes in tin cans, but fresh tomatoes, boil them for 1-2 mins in hot water, peel them and then mince them. Then you can add whatever spices you like, pepper, oregano, some potatoes paste to enhance the taste... 

[moogradod]

3 minutes ago, Swiss1960 said:

50/50 is what I use also. But the main "secret" for me is the sauce. I don't use tomatoes in tin cans, but fresh tomatoes, boil them for 1-2 mins in hot water, peel them and then mince them. Then you can add whatever spices you like, pepper, oregano, some potatoes paste to enhance the taste... 

Completely agree - the only problem being: Where to get tasty tomatoes ? The best I know are sold in TOPS, but they are crazy expensive for the amount you would need (approx 1.5 kg minimum). For spices it will be Rosmary, Tyme, Oregano, Bayleaves. Muskat, Pepper, Salt for the Béchamel. Receipt by Andreas Caminada. Should ring a bell if I look at your avatar name...????

[Swiss1960]

14 minutes ago, moogradod said:

Completely agree - the only problem being: Where to get tasty tomatoes ? The best I know are sold in TOPS, but they are crazy expensive for the amount you would need (approx 1.5 kg minimum). For spices it will be Rosmary, Tyme, Oregano, Bayleaves. Muskat, Pepper, Salt for the Béchamel. Receipt by Andreas Caminada. Should ring a bell if I look at your avatar name...????

Good quality of almost everything is expensive in Thailand.. but 1.5kg of tomatoes... you must be cooking for a huge crowd... my recipe for 4 persons uses 600g of mixed with 500g of tomatoes... but that probably depends on how long you want to reduce the tomato sauce to get the taste out... that is why I add a bit of tomato paste, so I don't need to simmer it for 2 hours.

 

Yes, of course I know Andreas Caminada, not only by name. I was lucky enough to be invited to the end of a leadership event at the Schauenstein Schloss Hotel to the Remisa - La Tavalda - a first-class experience!

[Swiss1960]

On 2/28/2022 at 6:36 AM, Jingthing said:

 

You sound passionate about pasta. I can respect that.

 

However, I want to clarify something.

 

Italian American style lasagna almost always uses ricotta (or tragically cottage cheese) instead of bechamel. There is a long history to that.

 

The spinach addition is much less common, generally seen as a more fancy version, but there is still the ricotta.

 

You can certainly get traditional lasagna in the U.S. There are many styles of Italian restaurants there. 

 

I have never claimed the ricotta version is the same. I have explicitly said it's the standard Italian American style so NOT the same.

 

I will add that it's very common to use cottage cheese instead of ricotta in Italian American lasagna especially for home cooking. Cottage cheese is cheaper so it's probably even more common than ricotta but I personally hate it in lasagna. 

 

The U.S. is not the only country that varies recipes. Have you ever had Argentinian pizza? Thai style American fried rice? 

Thanks for recognizing my passion, I appreciate that - specially since I know it is also yours, given the many threads you open about food and restaurants. I never had an Argentinian pizza, and I also never had a Hawaiian pizza... Same as lasagna - or many other things like potato gratin or cheese fondue - I tend to make them myself from scratch. Of course you can buy a cheese mix for the fondue, but if you choose your now favorite mix of cheeses, cook it in white wine (the same you will drink with the wine), add pepper and nutmeg and slices of garlic, add some corn starch dissolve in cherry schnapps and you are ready to go. Of course, I eat it with my homemade bread (another passion of me), and every so often put a piece of bread into the cherry schnapps before picking up the liquid cheese... that is btw how Asterix learned to eat it in Switzerland...

 

What I don't understand, why a perfect recipe must be altered, just to make it "American". That is a mindset that I don't understand. You see, Béchamel is sooo easy to make... a bit of wheat flour and butter, milk and vegetable broth (1:1), smother the flour in the butter, slowly add milk and broth and let it cook, then add spices, at the end add shredded mozzarella, cook for another minute and your are set! No more than 15 minutes including preparation. Why change something that is perfect already?

 

 

[Jingthing]

9 minutes ago, Swiss1960 said:

Thanks for recognizing my passion, I appreciate that - specially since I know it is also yours, given the many threads you open about food and restaurants. I never had an Argentinian pizza, and I also never had a Hawaiian pizza... Same as lasagna - or many other things like potato gratin or cheese fondue - I tend to make them myself from scratch. Of course you can buy a cheese mix for the fondue, but if you choose your now favorite mix of cheeses, cook it in white wine (the same you will drink with the wine), add pepper and nutmeg and slices of garlic, add some corn starch dissolve in cherry schnapps and you are ready to go. Of course, I eat it with my homemade bread (another passion of me), and every so often put a piece of bread into the cherry schnapps before picking up the liquid cheese... that is btw how Asterix learned to eat it in Switzerland...

 

What I don't understand, why a perfect recipe must be altered, just to make it "American". That is a mindset that I don't understand. You see, Béchamel is sooo easy to make... a bit of wheat flour and butter, milk and vegetable broth (1:1), smother the flour in the butter, slowly add milk and broth and let it cook, then add spices, at the end add shredded mozzarella, cook for another minute and your are set! No more than 15 minutes including preparation. Why change something that is perfect already?

 

 

The use of ricotta instead of bechamel was started from first generation mostly Sicilian Italian immigrants in America. Sure they knew it was different. This was originally for their own cooking not to cater to non Italians. There are two theories as to why. Immigrant life was hard so buying in ricotta saved some time. Secondly perhaps ricotta was seen as luxurious and they were much richer than they were back home. That's the theory of big American meatballs with spaghetti. Italians have meatballs but in America they could afford HUGE ones.

 

I have a similar family story. My father grew up in the depression and his family couldn't afford meat  So as an adult who could afford it we had steak for dinner 5 nights a week. I quickly grew to hate steak.

[LarrySR]

Almost impossible to find ripe delicious tomatoes. Cannot go wrong with:

 

 

 

[moogradod]

17 minutes ago, Swiss1960 said:

.............dissolve in cherry schnapps and you are ready to go. Of course, I eat it with my homemade bread (another passion of me), and every so often put a piece of bread into the cherry schnapps before picking up the liquid cheese... that is btw how Asterix learned to eat it in Switzerland...

Lucky you you had dinner at Schloss Schauenstein. Me and my wife in Switzerland just made it up to the Dolders The Restaurant. We are food enthusiasts like you but have visisted more upscale places abroad than in Switzerland were we (I) have been living for decades.

 

But you raise my attention with your above post again: WIth "cherry schnapps" you must mean "Kirsch". I have have never seen any for sale in Thailand ! The best in my opinion is Dettling (I think it is from Germany) although I have been living for quite some time in Zug, the Kirsch Capital). But can you please tell me: Where do you get your Kirsch here ?

[JackGats]

On 2/27/2022 at 2:37 AM, Cisco said:

Trattoria Pizzeria Toscana

 

Trattoria Pizzera Toscana on Beach Rd. is worth a try. Haven't been there in a while, but they made a good lasagna when there last.

I tried it during the lockdown, it was ok. Now I mostly go there fotr the quattro formaggi pizza.

 

These days I regularly eat the lasagna at Bella Italia (on Beach Road opposite Soi 6).

[roger101]

sorry to say but it's on 2nd road not Beach road

[JackGats]

59 minutes ago, roger101 said:

sorry to say but it's on 2nd road not Beach road

Indeed. I'm getting old or maybe I'm overstressing myself by checking the latest news every 5 minutes.