Year: 2017

Restaurante Grill Maravilla·Blog·2017

Tenesor Baez Valerón
19 April, 2017

The saddest goodbye

There are times that the most bitter face appears in life and  at present we are going trough a hard time indeed. As many of our friends and clients already know, our colleague Tenesor, “Tene” for all those who knew him, has left us at an early age, but we all know that life has never been quite fair with good people.

We have always shown trough this network as well as others all his culinary knowledges and to write these words is not easy. The Maravilla Restaurant it’s his work and was his big dream. This is the place where he used to go daily to work and is a faithful reflection of what was Tene as human being and as a professional. He was someone who loved to see people happy enjoying one of his dishes.

Although he is no longer with us, he has left behind a group of colleagues who knows perfectly how he liked things. Don’t worry Tene, we will continue with all your teachings and, always in your honour, we will make of the Maravilla Restaurant a place of reference in the island of Gran Canaria. We know that you will not go far and you will always be with us controlling every detail as you liked.

There are many things that are coming to our mind and we would like to write for the one who is reading now these lines and did not had the chance to know him better and realize how huge is this loss, but we will summarize it that he was a great son, father, brother, professional and always a good friend to his friends.

Rest in Peace, Tenesor Báez Valerón.

tartar
1 March, 2017

Origins and evolution of the tartar

The tartar is a preparation that is commonly made of raw meat or fish, macerated with different seasonings, sauces and to which is sometimes added egg.

About its origin, there are basically two theories, and in both the meat is its main ingredient. The first hypothesis states that it is a dish originating in Central Asia, where the well-known tribe of the Tartars placed the meat between the saddle and the back of the horse, so that it softened while they rode. The other theory states that it comes from French Polynesia, where it is common to consume raw meat and was popularized in hotels of French origin in the early twentieth century, a time in which the prestigious chef Auguste Escoffier carries out an update of several sauces, including the tartar sauce.

It is at the beginning of the 21st century when chefs reinvent this recipe and begin to prepare tartar with fish and vegetables, mainly due to the need for culinary innovation and due to the raw beef begins to be consumed with caution due to the known disease of the mad cows. 

Regarding the different ways of fish tartar, the usual choices are the tuna and the salmon where it is incorporated fruity touches like the mango, the orange or the avocado. Some also add tomatoes and some dried fruit like pine nuts. Also, it is frequent to substitute the onion for onion in vinaigrette, capers, etc.

In short, there is an immense variety of ways to prepare a tartar. It is a very fresh dish, requested mostly as a starter, ideal for warm places such as the Canary Islands.

In the Maravilla Restaurant, you can enjoy the two varieties of the tartar made with salmon and fresh Bluefin tuna, as the islands are in the migratory path of this valued fish. Occasionally, we prepare a mango and avocado tartar, two of the representative crops of the municipality of Mogán, in the south of Gran Canaria.

 

loin meat
10 February, 2017

Matured meat

In our desire to offer our customers the best quality products, we have recently purchased a series of premium quality loins with a dry maturation between 30 and 60 days. For this reason, we wanted to publish this monographic article on the different maturation processes of meat and the advantages that this process provides to the product.

The process of maturation of the meat begins after the sacrifice of the animal where positive changes take place in the meat, contrary to what is thought. The advantages of a well-developed aging in optimum conditions will cause the meat to become tender, increase its juiciness and enhance aroma and flavour.

matured meat

matured meat

Currently there are two types of maturation process, the most common is wet aging, consisting of a short time period maturation of the meat in a canal, which can then be vacuum packed or not. This maturation with the muscles attached to the bones diminishes the contraction and elimination of the natural juices of the meat and, therefore, diminishes the losses by volume, obtaining a texture that tends more towards the tender than toward the tender. These meats are those that are usually available in most of the butchers and supermarkets.

The other process of maturation is the called dry aged, that much appreciated by cooks and lovers of good meat, which consists of a resting process that is subjected to meat for progressive aging in controlled temperature and humidity over an extended period combined with other processes such as cutting and vacuum packaging under specific environmental conditions, ensuring that it does not lose its properties. In this type of maturation, the decrease in volume is higher, but the increase of the tenderness and flavour of the meat counteracts of that decrease.

In Europe and in America, especially in Argentina and the United States, these aged cuts have become the object of desire of the most challenging gourmets, that look for them in specialized butchers, or even go to restaurants that exclusively dedicate to this type of meats.