Country Gourmet Traveler

05/17/2013 02:37 PM

8 views

Ghana Food: Tilapia light soup

It is somehow embarrassing that I am over one year here in Ghana and I have not yet given one local recipe, not even a hint. This has simply to change and I want to start today with a lovely recipe for Tilapia. Tilapia is widely eaten here in Ghana, there are Tilapia farms, but most of it is caught wild, and one an taste the difference, it is just nicer, fresher, firmer.

Country Gourmet Traveler

05/15/2013 04:26 AM

6 views

Minestrone

I think a minestrone is the perfect winter soup, it is actually a full meal, with a slice or two of organic farmers bread, it is like being in heaven. There are many ways of doing a minestrone, when I do it for myself there is always a little bacon in it and I use a very light chicken stock to fill up the soup, but of course one can leave all meats away to make it a truly ve

Country Gourmet Traveler

05/12/2013 10:29 AM

10 views

Chicken Breast, wild Mushroom Ravioli

I just felt like cooking, just had this urge of doing something nice, something tasty. I went into the walk in fridge and there was this chicken lying, just calling out my name: "Come here, take me, cook me!!!!!" How could I resist? I took the chicken gently and off I went into the kitchen. I first deboned carefully the breasts, making sure the wing bone is nice and c

Country Gourmet Traveler

04/29/2013 03:10 AM

6 views

Sweet potato cakes on spicy coconut and spinach sauce

This is the second vegetarian dish we put on the menu, which is on since a bit more than a week and it looks like it is a great success. It sells really well, looks very pretty and tastes even better. The amazing part is that this dish is even good for Vegans, yes this is a really tasty Vegan dish They are little cakes made from roasted sweet potatoes which are just tossed in a bit ol

Country Gourmet Traveler

04/23/2013 03:13 AM

10 views

Pea, pine nut and rocket risotto

We have just implemented our new vegetarian dishes, yes, we are changing the entire a la carte but it has to go bit by bit to ensure everything is running smooth. The one new dish is a pea, pine nut and rocket risotto, it is an absolutely beautiful dish, very creamy and full of flavor. It is very easy to prepare, just needs a bit time to have everything ready, but as soon as the

Country Gourmet Traveler

04/12/2013 02:02 PM

11 views

Canapes, little delicious eats for cocktails

Smoked Salmon Roulade Don't we all love going to cocktail, sipping the bubbly, talking stories to other people and listening to their stories and yes, of course nibbling these delicious little cocktail food called canapes. Let me give you the definition of a canape as per Wikipedia: The name comes from the French word for "couch," drawing on the analogy that the garnish sits

Country Gourmet Traveler

04/08/2013 05:33 AM

7 views

Chicken Breast on Creamy Asparagus Tagliolini

Today we have a super easy and delicious recipe, something when you start eating it you can't stop. Creamy pasta is always nice, but with asparagus it is just that much nicer. The secret to this dish is that you use the stock of the white asparagus as a base for your white sauce, so there is plenty of flavor in it.......basically you will use the white asparagus soup as a sauce, with

Country Gourmet Traveler

04/06/2013 06:25 AM

6 views

Veal on Asparagus

Now this is about as classical as it can get. We have a veal steak, asparagus, parsley potatoes, Hollandaise sauce and a bit gravy. Every single restaurant has it on the asparagus menu in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. It is a must have. If it is not on the menu, then the guests will either ask for it or complain that it is not on......strange but true. So there is just no choice b

Country Gourmet Traveler

04/01/2013 06:35 AM

7 views

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody I hope you all have a fantastic time and get this super maximum chocolate load we all don't really need but so much like. There is nothing nicer that eating all the chocolate bunnies, sugar coated eggs, marshmallow eggs and all the other sweets, then feel sick and guilty......but having enjoyed every bite! Here at the hotel it is not all about the chocola

Country Gourmet Traveler

03/24/2013 05:33 AM

11 views

Foie Gras on creamy Asparagus

Now we go with the next recipe of this little series about Asparagus. This time I combine it with creamy asparagus and then olives and tomatoes, a little unusual, but really tasty. I got this idea from a master chef in Switzerland, he had a top rated restaurant in Basel and made a very similar dish and it was so good that I remembered it even so many years have passed The tomatoes and

Country Gourmet Traveler

03/20/2013 03:00 AM

7 views

Soft Polenta with Asparagus and Tomato Ragout

I hope you enjoyed the last asparagus recipe, I know it looked very long, but you see it is actually not that difficult. Now I want to do a super easy recipe, something that is healthy and most people can eat. Yes it is gluten free and vegetarian.....it can even be done for Vegans. When I do the recipe for myself I have to admit that I prefer to cook the polenta with a chicken stock, it is j

Country Gourmet Traveler

03/17/2013 02:32 AM

9 views

Asparagus Terrine

Spring is coming, even so Europe just got another cold spell and a lot of snow, but yes spring is coming. With spring there is something else coming, one of my favorite vegetables, asparagus. I know nowadays one can buy asparagus the whole year round, but for me, April and May are the traditional Asparagus month when the fresh white asparagus is coming on the market. I love white asparagus,

Country Gourmet Traveler

03/14/2013 03:30 PM

11 views

Chicken Roulade with Lobster Mousse

I am on a roll at the moment. We are changing a lot of dishes on the menu, have new promotions coming up and therefore there is a lot of cooking and testing going on. I wanted to give you a very special recipe, something we actually did for the Valentines menu, but because I was so busy with other things had no time to make a blog about it. It is a bit time consuming to make, but the

Country Gourmet Traveler

03/09/2013 07:36 AM

10 views

South Africa, Club Mykonos, Langebaan

OK, for a change I want to tell you a bit about travel, not just food. This time it is about a holiday destination in South Africa, in Langebaan on the west coast, about 100 north of Cape Town. Club Mykonos is the perfect retreat for either a weekend or even one or two weeks at the time. It is all self catering with built in BBQ or Braai as it is called in South Africa. The rooms

Country Gourmet Traveler

03/06/2013 08:44 AM

12 views

Smoked Salmon Mille Feuille

We had some special guests in the restaurant today and they wanted to have something different. As a starter they requested smoked salmon, something rather common, but nice to work with. It is very versatile and can be paired with so many things. I decided to go with Pumpernickel and cream cheese. Both are very traditional ingredients for smoked salmon. To make it a bit different,&nbs

Country Gourmet Traveler

03/03/2013 04:51 AM

5 views

Cured Salmon

I have been away for a while, but now I am back in full swing with new recipes and tips, some more about travel and other interesting stuff. One of the first things I did when coming back to work is some cured salmon, or Gravad Lax. This is a wonderful way of marinating fresh salmon, the flavor comes out beautifully and it is extremely versatile. I like to serve it with a honey-mustar

Country Gourmet Traveler

02/15/2013 05:15 AM

13 views

Branzino with Mussels and Tomatoes

I love Branzino, it is one of the tastiest fishes in the Mediterranean Sea and there are so many great ways to prepare it. It is the perfect summer lunch with a lovely glass of Pinot Grigio. The fish has such a lovely taste and can be done in endless variation. I remember seeing it on the markets and restaurants in Italy, often presented on ice at the table and the just roasted whole in th

Country Gourmet Traveler

02/10/2013 12:42 PM

10 views

Prawn Cocktail

I thought today I do something nice and easy, something that fits well for a Sunday or a dinner party, a Prawn Cocktail. Ahhhh, this is so 70 ties....yes it is but it is an absolute all time favorite. When I was working on the ships I was amazed how many of them we sold every single night during the cruise. It must have been hundreds every single day, so yes you might say that it is old fash

Country Gourmet Traveler

02/06/2013 11:01 AM

13 views

Confit Salmon Salad

Today I want to show you a bit of a different way of how to prepare salmon, this time as a Confit. So what is actually a confit? It is pretty simple, usually it is pork or duck that has been very slowly cooked in its own fat. So long that it is nice and tender and falls off the bone. Of course I can't use salmon fat to make the confit, that would never work and would not be very nice

Country Gourmet Traveler

01/27/2013 10:01 AM

7 views

Burns Dinner in Ghana

The traditional Haggis It sounds strange doesn't it? Yes it is strange, but we made it happen. The Caledonian Society of Ghana organized a proper Burns Dinner with everything that goes with it. We even got the best Haggis available, got it through unknown channels into Ghana.....OK, it was all official, but we had to get it in via a private source as it would have been far too complicated

Country Gourmet Traveler

01/20/2013 01:00 PM

8 views

Jaconde Alize.....a sexy dessert

Every good menu needs a stunning dessert to end the meal, so we need to have something really sexy for dessert. The name is already sexy, Jaconde Alize. If you google the dessert you will quickly find out that it is actually a classic dessert which has be brought to perfection by Michel Roux. It is soft layers of almond sponge, then praline butter cream and raspberries, something that

Country Gourmet Traveler

01/17/2013 11:07 AM

8 views

Beef fillet with Truffle Potatoes

It has been a good new year so far, we had already some great recipes, so time now for a good piece de resistance, the beef fillet. I serve it with truffle potatoes, basically lovely creamy mashed potatoes with a bit of truffle oil and then chopped truffles. For the meat I take a Karan fillet. Karan is a South African breed, very nice and lean. It is good value for money, not as nice as a Sc

Country Gourmet Traveler

01/11/2013 09:16 AM

11 views

Snapper and Lobster with Parsnip

Let's go to the next course of the NYE menu, I used originally grouper, but now I have a recipe that uses snapper instead. Of course you can change the fish to any fish you like, there are no limits. I serve the snapper with a small lobster tail, parsnip puree and roast cocktail tomatoes. All has a bit of a Mediterranean flavor to it, is light and just simply yummy. It is easy to prep

Country Gourmet Traveler

01/07/2013 12:32 PM

11 views

Foie Gras and Chicken Liver

One is French the other English? No, of course not. But calling goose liver Foie Gras just sounds more elegant. They are basically both livers, one from the chicken and one from the goose. But there is one huge difference, the goose liver is from a force fed animal. At least partly force fed. Already the ancient Romans enjoyed catching the geese when going south in late autumn, their liver b

Country Gourmet Traveler

01/01/2013 08:59 AM

13 views

Happy New Year and another Scallop recipe

Happy New Year everybody I hope it has been a good one for all of my readers. It has been a good one for me, one with many changes and new challenges. I said good bye to ships life and have settled on land again, in a place I would not have thought I would be working, but you know how it goes, it usually doesn't end up how one plans these things and like with many other things, one

Country Gourmet Traveler

12/24/2012 07:53 AM

5 views

Seared Scallops and Tomato Mousse on Ratatouille Salad

It sounds delicious, but wait, it is actually just half of the recipe. Yes there is more! The tomato mousse and ratatouille salad are served with olive oil fried scallops and a capsicum vinaigrette. A lovely and light starter that is so easy to prepare. I have done white tomato mousse before, so this time we are doing a red tomato mousse. It is the same way, cooking the tomatoes, then

Country Gourmet Traveler

12/16/2012 08:50 AM

8 views

Poached Sole and Salmon Roulade

This is another dish from our new weekly menu, something I haven't done since my training....yes that is a while back. A Sole and Salmon Roulade. I am not sure why, but sole, Salmon, Spinach. Potatoes and White Wine Sauce just go well together, the flavours bond and the dish is exceptional. It always worked and I never had a bad comment about it. The flavors are subtle but still stron

Country Gourmet Traveler

12/02/2012 03:21 PM

5 views

Springbok with Spinach Spatzle

Today I make a traditional game dish from Europe but with a different game, one from South Africa. Springbok is a small antelope with incredibly tender meat, especially the loin and fillet. But even the legs don't require to long cooking times. The recipe below looks like this huge amount of work, but to be honest, it is not. Of course there are short cuts you can take, o

Country Gourmet Traveler

11/25/2012 04:50 AM

14 views

Exploring Accra: The Deli @ the Moevenpick

No, it is not a restaurant revue, not at all. It would be silly to write a restaurant revue about the restaurant we just opened, no, no. We leave that to others So yes, I am here now since good eight month and had a fabulous time at the Moevenpick. We changed a lot, implemented a lot, are doing new things all the time, but the one major task I had this year was the opening

Country Gourmet Traveler

11/22/2012 09:35 AM

16 views

Oilve oil seared grouper with octopus

This is the fish dish of my weekly menu, grouper and octopus. It is a lovely combination served on fondant potato and a tomato fondue. Fondant potato is a classic, it is actually cooked in chicken stock and then at the end glazed with the reduction. For this dish I leave the glazing away, but I still cook the potatoes in a light chicken stock. The octopus gets braised in red wi

Country Gourmet Traveler

11/18/2012 06:55 AM

16 views

Lobster Terrine

Today we are attempting a different terrine, a lobster terrine. As usual it looks a lot more difficult than it actually is, the only thing you need a lot, is time. It takes a lot of time to prepare everything as you need all your ingredients ready when you start doing it. I like to take whole lobster tails in the terrine, they have to be poached separately. I usually take a kebab skew

Country Gourmet Traveler

11/13/2012 03:25 PM

15 views

New Zealand Beef Fillet in Ghana

I actually just wanted to write about our latest addition in the restaurant, the new 3 course menu. We have created a 3 course menu where the guest can as well eat the individual courses "a la carte" but basically if you order the whole menu you get the dessert for free. We will change this menu every week, so there are so many more recipes just waiting to be posted. But then I though

Country Gourmet Traveler

11/11/2012 02:20 AM

10 views

Duck Breast, Sweetcorn Puree, Wild Mushrooms

I haven't cooked with duck breast for a while and have to say that I missed it. Duck is such a beautiful product, the flavor is amazing. It has some gaminess to it, but is not overpowering. It is a strong meat, dark red in color and therefore is best eaten medium to medium rare. Of course the cooking point is always something one can debate. For me personally a good cut of red meat sh

Country Gourmet Traveler

11/05/2012 11:35 AM

11 views

Exploring Accra: Cavaliere Pazzo Restaurant

Finally I went to a new restaurant, it doesn't happen too often as after a hard weeks work I like to relax at home and just cook something simple like a little BBQ or have the pleasure that my fiancee cooks for me. This time we went to an Italian restaurant called Cavaliere Pazzo, situated at the Polo Club in Accra. Just hearing Polo you can imagine that the food is not cheap....reall

Country Gourmet Traveler

10/26/2012 01:58 PM

15 views

Beef Fillet with Wild Mushrooms

I have to admit, the title of this blog is giving very little away and is even a bit boring. There is so much more to this dish than a piece of beef with a couple of wild mushrooms.....I mean wild mushrooms on its own is already a treat, but you will see in this combination, wow Some the hidden items are foie gras, yes, the famous and infamous foie gras is featuring again. I love i

Country Gourmet Traveler

10/21/2012 11:37 AM

12 views

Chicken Galantine with wild Mushrooms

This is the second time I am writing a blog about Chicken Galantines. Last time I showed step by step how to make one....and yes, it is still a lot of work till it is done but it is so worth the while. This time I just want to show you a different variation of the Galantine, with dried fruit and wild mushroom salad. It goes with our wild mushroom promotion which has just started and I

Country Gourmet Traveler

10/12/2012 08:06 AM

13 views

Roast Vegetable Terrine

I love making terrines and will do more in the near future, but today I made one that was really fun to do. It is a roast vegetable terrine. It was a bit more work as I really wanted to get the right flavor out of each vegetable, so I did several different cooking methods. The pepers were roast int he oven with olive oil, salt, ppper and fresh thyme, the egg plant was dep fried,, as it makes

Country Gourmet Traveler

10/11/2012 03:23 AM

13 views

Making waves in Nigeria....a news paper article from the Nigerian Tribune

Wednesday, 10 October 2012 Movenpick Ambassador hotel, Accra, Ghana. Inset, executive chef, Mr Walter Butti. Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra, Ghana, is one of the Swiss hospitality brands attracting patronage from Nigeria ’Wale Olapade during a recent visit interviewed the executive chef, Mr Walter Butti, on the hotel’s culinary treat. What is Movenp

Country Gourmet Traveler

10/08/2012 03:19 AM

13 views

Hamburger Galore, the spicy Accra Burger

There I am again, this time with a spicy version of our hamburgers. I call it the spicy Accra Burger as a little homage of the town I live in at the moment. Here food is spicy, sometimes very spicy so I thought it would be good to have a spicy hamburger on the menu. The response I got so far from our guests is great, the hamburger is flying out, nearly as popular as the Ambassador Bur

Country Gourmet Traveler

10/02/2012 03:10 AM

10 views

Exploring Ghana: Makola Market

We had a really interesting outing, we went to Makola. Makola is a part of Accra one cannot miss because it is basically the city centre and it is one huge market. It is so big one easily can loose direction, especially when going into the small alleys. We went on the busiest day of the week, Saturday, and the roads were packed. There are people everywhere and goods are so far into

Country Gourmet Traveler

09/27/2012 04:09 AM

8 views

Champagne Dinner

Yesterday was a fun day, I was an extremely long day at work but most of the time I was actually cooking and this was just fun. Usually I spend a lot of time in the office doing the paperwork I "love" so much, but yesterday I was out in the kitchen the entire day. I must say that I am very fortunate that I have an extremely understanding partner. I told my Fiancee th

Country Gourmet Traveler

09/22/2012 07:04 AM

13 views

Exploring Ghana; Visiting an organic pig farm

In my quest of buying local and if possible organic I got approached by a supplier of pork. After talking to him a bit I got really interested as he offered to bring me out to the farm to see how everything works. After having some samples of the meat I happily agreed to come and visit the farm. Now firstly something one has to understand, here in Ghana time works different than in othe

Country Gourmet Traveler

09/15/2012 07:07 AM

16 views

Hamburger Galore "The Ambassador Burger"

Yes, Hamburgers! I want to write about them and share my recipes with you. As you can guess, we are serving hamburgers here at the hotel, not just the normal one the Classic and the Cheese burger, no, thee is a lot more to hamburgers than that. Firstly I have to talk about the meat. It very much depends on what you put inside to what you will have at the end. If you put in a good qual

Country Gourmet Traveler

09/08/2012 05:00 AM

33 views

Onion Tarte from Schaffhausen

This dish is very close to my heart as it is from the region I grew up in Switzerland. OK, Schaffhausen is about 30 km away from my home town, which is a lot in Switzerland, but it is close enough to write the recipe down. The Schaffhausen style onion tart is a great way to eat onions. My mom always planted a lot in the garden, so when the season started we would have this treat

Country Gourmet Traveler

09/02/2012 05:41 AM

23 views

Rice Casimir

Now we are really going wild here. This is one dish that has become a staple of Swiss Cuisine even so it is as un-Swiss as it can get. It is a Chicken Curry in a Rice Ring with poached fruit (often out of the can), a dollop of cream and then toasted almond....... Swiss??? Yes it is. It has its origins in 1952 when Moevenpick put it on their menu for the first time.....and the rest is

Country Gourmet Traveler

08/27/2012 05:48 AM

13 views

Osso Buco Ticinese

Another lovely dish from my home country, this time from the Italian part of Switzerland. The cuisines in Switzerland have of course been influenced heavily by our neighboring countries like Italy, France, Germany and Austria. Yes of course we have our own identity, but in a place like the centre of Europe it is normal that the influences from the surrounding countries are visible.

Country Gourmet Traveler

08/20/2012 03:57 AM

19 views

Emmental Style Lamb Stew

As you can gather from the name of the dish, we are starting Swiss Weeks here at the Moevenpick and of course I share all the recipes with you. We have Swiss weeks because on the 1st of August is the Swiss National day. I want to start this series with a rather unusual dish, the Emmental Style Lamb Stew. Unusual because the Emmental in the Bernese Mountains is not well known of having a l

Country Gourmet Traveler

08/10/2012 07:32 AM

17 views

Penne with Lobster

Now, after I showed you all the fun time we had with the fishing, I thought I will share the recipe for the Penne with Lobster. This is really a typical Italian dish, totally simple, but the flavors are just exploding on your palate. The base is a really good tomato sauce, chunky, not a fine one, a sauce where you are generous with everything, garlic, onions, basil and the ripest plum tom

Country Gourmet Traveler

08/06/2012 12:24 PM

16 views

Exploring Ghana, Fishing in Krokobite

Morning at Crocobite Beach Finally after nearly 5 month here in Ghana we went out a bit to explore a little more than the restaurant scene here in town. We went with our friend Bruno to Krokobite, about an hours drive from Accra to go fishing. But it is not just normal fishing, no, we actually went with the locals on a big Canoe into the open sea. Bruno with his Espresso Bruno i

Country Gourmet Traveler

07/31/2012 06:37 AM

20 views

Newspaper article from Nigeria

Today it is not me writing the Blog, but I copied the blog from a Nigerian News Paper which has published it as well over the net, some fun reading......really all true???? Come and find out! The article can be read as well under the following site http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/hotel-a-resort/41501-a-taste-of-buttis-cook A taste of Butti’s cook Friday, 20 July 2012 0

	Country Gourmet Traveler
	All about gourmet food, country food, recipes and travel. Having fun cooking with some facts about products and techniques

Search Posts