War Ukraine - Russia |Latest news of the conflict and Putin, liveDo you remember pajamas, the dessert that was a hit a few decades ago and that brought together ingredients as disparate as flan, peaches in syrup, cream, ice cream, and in some cases, even morello icing in the same dish?This elaboration triumphed in the summers of 40 years ago with a decoration as motley as its content was dense and caloric, as did the prawn cocktail, which we talked about last week along with the stuffed eggs, the tuna cake and potato or melon with ham.Today is the turn to talk about other old best sellers of that old gastronomy, taking them to a much healthier, creative, traveler, sustainable and even aesthetic terrain.From the hand of chefs such as Eugeni de Diego, Germán Espinosa or Josep Armenteros, we have chosen 5 new old summer jewels so that you can enjoy them again on your table with a renewed look.Do you want to discover new fruit combinations for your next fruit salad or give your cheesecake the most original flavour?Well keep reading.The tomato lives its splendor in the summer, the best season to reinvent the usual stuffed tomato.Eugeni de Diego would look for a very good quality tomato, juicy and summer red, “he would cut it in half and season it with salt, pepper, oil and a little garlic, and confit it in the oven.Then he would empty it and fill it with Stracciatella or burrata cheese, dressed with basilisk and basil”.Oriol Ivern proposes that we change the traditional egg and tuna filling “for a cod brandade”.You can fill the tomatoes with other products that are also baked, such as mozzarella cheese or eggsFor his part, Josep Armenteros also recommends us to use a large, pink tomato, scalded, peeled and emptied, and in his case stuffed with an ice cream or gazpacho granita.Nothing more summery.As an accompaniment, the executive chef of the Gaig group proposes making oil bread flakes to give it a tasty crunchy touch.The dessert that takes this funny name is a curious combination of flan, vanilla ice cream, peach in syrup, cream and to top it off: candied icing.A dish only suitable for gluttons, which, if we want to modernize, we must reduce the enormous portion that was traditionally served and decorate it with a little more taste.Eugeni de Diego proposes that we also be original with flavors, making a coffee flan, for example, and changing textures."We can aromatize the cream, make a syrup purée and macerate the fruit."Josep Armenteros suggests that we place the ingredients in another container, for example a long glass or a highball glass, so that the colors and textures shine.The chef would make the peach ice cream in syrup, swap custard for crème anglaise, and make a pineapple granita.“Sautéed strawberries, whipped cream, a cherry, umbrella and sparkler”.Oriol Ivern bets on leaving aside the syrup and baking fresh peaches with a little rosemary and butter, "they are very good", and also for infusing green tea in the milk where we will make the flan.Likewise, it is important for the chef, "that the flan is always homemade and the ice cream is artisanal, something that did not always happen when we ate it as children".A French fish dish so simple and so classic that even the mythical Julia Child -pioneer of culinary programs on North American television- confessed that her idyll with French cuisine was born the day she ate that fish floured and cooked with butter with a touch of lemon, the sole to the Meunière.How do we modernize it?“A black butter will give it more nuances,” says Oriol Ivern, who cooks the butter over high heat, 150 degrees or so, so that it is hazelnut-colored and has a nutty flavor.He cuts the cooking with lemon before it burns and adds pickles (capers, gherkins...) "so that our taste buds open up".Josep Armenteros makes a tempura to which he warms up a knob of lemon-flavoured butter that “will melt over the sole”.Sole MeunièreFor Eugeni de Diego it is not as important to be imaginative with this dish as it is to make it as juicy and tasty as possible.His style is a Basque point.Add the butter and lemon juice to the juice left by the sole (with skin to take advantage of the gelatin it releases).When he starts to boil he sets it aside and makes a pilpil.He cleans the fish and sprinkles it with that sauce, making it unctuous and tasty.Cheesecake dates back to the ancient Greeks, who made it by curdling sheep's milk, although it was the Romans who introduced the egg.They spread throughout Europe and each area created its own varieties with its own cheeses until in the 19th century the settlers took it to the United States and the popular cheesecake with cream cheese and biscuit was born, which became universal.Modernity goes through going back to the origins, recovering traditional recipes, which are innovated or updated.Although it was in the 1980s when Hilario Aberlaitz in Zuberoa surprised us by using his own cheeses such as Idiazábal and shortly after La Viña did it – flavor of the year for The New York Times in 2021 – starting the so-called burn basque cheesecake, almost burned on the outside and coulant inside, the renovation of this cake is experiencing a boom today with the appearance of personal recipes, more or less liquid, more or less intense in flavour, with or without biscuits and above all trying different cheeses.In Barcelona, ​​Jon García, in his busy Jon Cake shop, for example, has already tried 100 different types of cheese in his sought-after cakes, always halfway between San Sebastian and New York.He combines them with ingredients such as coffee or chocolate and assures that he loves using artisan cheeses.Eugeni also advises us to play with a thousand toppings, “if it is very sweet with bitter orange jam, for example”.And Armenteros invites us to have fun with strong cheeses, giving them an original touch with black olive or tomato jam.For Eugeni de Diego and the expert chef in biodynamic vegetable cooking Iolanda Bustos, a good fruit salad must be made with fruits that are in season.It is important to cut them and combine them well so that, in addition to being nutritious and refreshing, the dish is attractive.You should not abuse varieties, quantities, or place the pieces too ripe because "they will fall apart and dilute and you will not know what you are drinking," warns the cook, who likes to add rose petals or aromatic herbs to the fruit salad.The chef at A Pluma proposes to go beyond orange juice to dress them and also that we do it with other fruits, such as grapefruit, apple or other citrus fruits.You can also mix a little alcohol, even lime and rum in the manner of a mojito."Or make a 30 or 50 percent syrup with a liter of water and 500 grams of sugar or honey and infuse it with an herb such as mint, basil or citrus peel."And a fun touch: make a pineapple salad, with lime juice and lime peel, and break a Halls candy on top to give it a balsamic and fresh touch.Armenteros is committed to playing with flavors and contrasts, osmotising strawberries with vinegar, melon with beetroot, watermelon with mint and pear with basil.© La Vanguardia Ediciones, SLU All rights reserved.