The Golden Shrimp

No more blogging...at least for a while

2009-02-09T19:53:00.003Z

So, I guess you know what I'm gonna right based on the title....I'm hanging up my blogging, at least for the foreseeable future. It's very sad but life is just too busy at the moment and I just don't have enough time to do it all. Between a new job, a wedding to plan this summer, making the most of the snow with countless skiing weekends, pottery classes, yoga, cooking and crafting, I have no time to sit down and write. But still, I always feel like I should in the back of my mind, which is why this post should help make things a bit more final.

So thank you all for reading and commenting, it's been a great few years and I've learned and gotten so much inspiration from the blogging world out there! Perhaps one day I'll be back but for the moment I say goodbye.

On culture and cheese

2008-11-23T19:36:00.005Z

I'm determined to stay with the blogging at the moment but let me explain why I haven't posted for two weeks. Last weekend we had a three day trip to Vienna which was amazing. A beautiful city filled with fabulous buildings and museums, a bustling Christmas market, comfy coffee houses with tasty cakes and a delicious food market filled with many cafe's. After our stay, the feet were very sore from all the walking, the bellies full of the delicious tarts and sausages and the senses overloaded with their plethora of museums.

Then this weekend has been filled with dinners and meeting friends with at the top of it all, a scrumptious cheese fondue in a friends vineyard this afternoon. It's a small plot of land that first her father and now her brother work as their hobby. We walked up there around 3.30 in a snowy winter wonderland. Once we got to the little house they have, we cooked the cheese on the wood stove and drank their white wine....the most perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon if you ask me! The way down was a bit more challenging as it had started snowing again and there was a fierce wind making it very exciting in the dark.

Finally, a little bit of crafting with this year's dinner table light decoration. Still sticking with a natural theme like last year but using a different plant. And the little leaves swing happily around if you have some candles lit on the table.

Cheese Fondue a la Bischof
(calculate between 150-200g cheese per person depending on the appetite)

600g of cheese (equal amounts of Gruyere, Vacherin Fribourgeois and Appenzeller - or what you have at hand)
3 cloves of garlic (making for a fairly garlicy taste so reduce if you don't like it too strong)
300 ml of white wine (and plenty more for drinking!)
grated nutmeg
2tsp cornflour
a small glass of Kirsch (again, have some extra on hand to sip as it aids the digestion)
black pepper
a pinch of bicarbonate soda
plenty of your favourite bread (we had potatobread with walnuts and also half white)

Chop the garlic roughly and put it in the pan, add the cheese, wine and cornflour and place on the heat. Stir until all is dissolved and then stir in the kirsch, nutmeg and pepper. Mix well and just before serving add the bicarbonate soda and mix well. Serve with the bread whist stirring in the shape of eights - this prevents the cheese from burning at the bottom and makes for a fantastic "Grossmutter". This is the crust that forms at the bottom and make sure you have some room left as it's the best bit of the whole fondue.

First pottery piece..

2008-11-09T16:35:00.004Z

...that I made in my new course (started in April). The progress i this course is much slower but the pieces are finished better and I learn a lot more then before. One down side is that the glazes are a lot less spectacular then in my last class. But at the same time it's nice to glaze thing simply and make a form that suits that.

This cake stand is the the perfect piece to present these small savoury tarts on (made with some delicious Cashel Blue and left over beer and coconib jam)and it was soon empty again.

Where have I been?

2008-11-02T20:13:00.001Z

It's been quiet on the blog for the last few months but real life has been busy and bustling. We've had a summer of fabulous sunshine and Rhine swimming coupled with friends visiting, music festivals and mountains. Interspersed there have been many dinners, bbq's, crafting, pottery and testing Japanese recipes.

In addition, some life changing events have taken place: I finished my job at the university at the end of July. After months (even years) of doubt I finally made the decision to change careers. After 2 months of job searching (a wonderful week at home and lots of the above mentioned Rhine swimming) I found a new position and have very happily transited to the pharmaceutical industry since the start of October.

Last but by no way least, there has been a very unexpected but welcome proposal on the middle of a glacier a few weeks ago followed by a very swift OF COURSE! filling life with lots of champagne,celebrations and this incredible happiness. Who would have thought this would change so much in our happy living together state ...says the Dutch girl always skeptical of marriage, I guess I have to eat my words but boy, they taste sweet :-). With that comes lots of planning/organizing to be done in the next few months.

So with all that I fear the blog will suffer even more!

I had great plans of overhauling it this summer which obviously hasn't happened and have now decided to merge the two back here and abandon the other one. So this will see a bit more craft which will be interspersed with some more food and general ramblings. Thanks for hanging in there and look forward to sharing the experiences with you...

Christmas and more excitement

2007-12-26T15:12:00.001Z

So I had a whole series of posts planned but the last few weeks have just flown and not it’s boxing day! And in an hour we’ll be getting onto a bus to get to a plane and another one and another one and then in about 26 hours we’ll be landing in Melbourne to start our 4 week holiday! I’m so excited! Good friends of both Barry and me are getting married in Tasmania in January and we decided it was a great opportunity to catch up with them, see them on their special day, meet other friends who are attending and spend some time on what promises to be a fabulous island. So there won’t be so much posting done although I'll definitely be enjoying lots of nice food and wine. I hope you all have a fabulous New Years Eve and see you in 2008!

ps...a fab tip I found in one of my cookbooks, if you have any mulled wine left over, freeze it and serve it as a sophisticated granita

A wintery pizza

2007-12-08T08:13:00.000Z

Another brief post as this week we are in Ireland visiting Barry's family. We're getting all are family visits sorted now as we won't see them for Christmas. The reason?? We're going on a 4 week holiday to Melbourne and Tasmania! I'm so excited as we haven't had a holiday all year and we've been saving days for this one! Anyway, more about that in a later post.

With all the traveling, socializing and getting presents organized, the cooking has been somewhat limited recently but I still wanted to share this recipe with you. Its another one from my friend Simone who is a source of great recipes that are often easy but totally delicious! For this one we were lazy and bought a ball of pizza dough at the local store, which here is as good as home made, topped it with thinly sliced potato and Taleggio cheese. After baking it in the oven for about 20 min at 220°C on a pizza stone the cheese was melted and golden. Topped with some truffle oil to give it a nutty earthy smell, it was an incredibly tasty dinner that we'll be making much more this winter. I also think my little bottle of truffle oil won't last very long (even though a little goes a long way) as we've already been using it on this pasta and I think it would work well on something like a mushroom bruchetta.

In a pickle...

2007-12-01T12:48:00.000Z

...that's what happened to these baby onions, herbs and spices using this recipe. I've made this recipe for the last several years and they are great! so much better than the store bought ones. They make a lovely present or are great to keep and eat with fondue, raclette or meat. I normally make half the liquid suggested in the recipe or use twice as much onions...whatever you fancy. This is my entry for A Spoonful of Christmas hosted by Zlamushka I know it's a bit short but am in the Netherlands up to my ears in Sinterklaas poems and surprises.

On Snow, Parsnips and SHF

2007-11-22T08:34:00.000Z

How fitting that my 100th post is about one of the most perfect days I've had in a long time! Last Sunday I went to the mountains in my friends new camper van. After an early start we arrived in Lauterbrunnen, took the gondela up and walked to Mürren. This is why I moved to Switzerland!

The weather was perfect, sunshine, blue skies and the most amazing snow I've ever seen! About 70 cm deep and covered with a layer of crystals several cm big, they were like little Christmas trees. We made a beautiful walk, played in the snow, built mini snowmen and ate lunch in the sunshine.

When it comes to walking food, I'm just not one for sandwiches. I always find that by the time you get to eat it its squashed, cold and often tasteless. Therefore, I prefer home baked lunches, preferably with nuts and cheese for lots of flavour and energy. For this walk I used parsnips as they are back in season! I developed quite a liking for this root vegetable whilst living in Scotland. Before that I'd never even seen a parsnip as they are very hard to come by. However, this year the local supermarket has started selling them as an "ancient vegetable" so we'll hopefully be eating a lot more of them. I know parsnips mostly as a savoury vegetable but they also go well with sweet (think honey roasted) flavours and I'd heard that they can also be used in cakes, like carrots, but that this somehow fell out of fashion after the WWII.

I adapted this recipe (a firm favourite for summer walks) as I wanted to make a savoury and a sweet version to take along and use some of the walnuts from my parents garden. They were a great success. For the savoury I used gruyere, walnuts and fresh herbs (rosemary, sage and thyme), whereas the sweet ones had raisins, nuts, nutmeg and ginger. Both yummy and with lots of energy to keep me going on the walk, hopefully the season will be good, there will be many trips and I can make them loads. This post my entry for this months sugar high friday - The Beta Carotene Harvest - hosted by Definitely not Martha

Sweet or Savoury Parsnip Muffins (makes 6)

1 cup flour
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
3 eggs
2 parsnip - grated
1 tbsp creme fraiche
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Sweet
60g raisins
60g walnuts - chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Savoury
60g gruyere - grated
60g walnuts - chopped
2 tbsp fresh herbs
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the over to 180°C, in a large bowl, mix the creme fraiche, oil and eggs. Then stir in the flour and grated parsnip. Finally, add the extra fillings and the spices. Or at this point you can divide the mix in two and make both (make sure to halve the amounts given above). Pour the mixture into buttered molds and top with either raisins or walnuts. Cook for 30 min or until a needle comes out clean. Leave to cool and enjoy!

Nigella's express mousse

2007-11-07T23:31:00.000Z

I'm not sure if you've been watching the most recent Nigella Lawson series? Titled Nigella Express she promises you ideas to make good food fast with her usual "fantabulous" style. Don't get me wrong, I watched every episode but can't help feeling a bit cheated after every show. Yes, the recipes she shows are fast and no doubt tasty but a lot if somehow pre-made or bought and for me it takes the joy out of cooking a bit. Plus all the hair-flicking, flirting with the camera and vocabulary seems a little out of place to me.

Not that I want to slave over a hot stove every time but when having a dinner party, it's nice to make a bit of effort. But I appreciate that I can be a bit of a masochist when it comes to these things and she definitely has some nice ideas. I've become pretty addicted to her bean mash and when she made her no worries chocolate mousse, I knew I had to try it as I had the perfect occasion/audience.

A friend of mine has been organizing girlie weekend get-togethers in the Lake District for the last 4 years. They are weekends to catch up with her friends (and mine both from before and through this) and they are always fabulous. How often do you get the chance to spend a weekend with up to 20 women your own ages from all backgrounds, nationalities, professions in a wonderful setting?! Most make it every year and we chat lots, walk, have been known to treasure hunt and eat and drink lots of nice things. On Friday night it's casual pizza but on Saturday night all the stops are pulled out for a pot luck dinner. Everyone always makes a real effort and there is always to much food.

And this year was no exception, as I was traveling from Switzerland this year, I didn't want to make something very complicated but still wanted it to shine and I figured these would do the trick. And indeed they are a breeze to make (although I was a bit worries about pouring the hot chocolate mix into the beaten cream which totally deflated of course), set very fast and tasted lovely although it was incredibly rich and perhaps a bit too much after a 4 course meal! I paired them with some wafers inspired by the Essence cookbook I bought recently (fantastic! a definite recommendation and will blog about it soon!). These are very easy to make and look spectacular. The perfect dessert for another perfect weekend, I already look forward to the next one.

Rice paper and cocoa nib tuiles
50 g sugar
50 ml water
rice paper (from Asian supermarket;the white ones for making fresh spring rolls)
handful of broken cocoa nibs (or anything you want to use)

Boil the water and sugar together to make a syrup, then leave to cool. In the mean time line a baking tray with parchment paper, cut the rice paper into pieces and dip one into the syrup. Place it on the tray and sprinkle with some cocoa nibs. Repeat this process till you run out of rice paper. Dry these tuiles in the oven at 80°C for 3-4 hours, they will keep in an airtight container so are easy to make in advance.

And for the people who wanted the flat bread recipe:
Flatbreads (±15)
2 tsp dried yeast (or 30g fresh)
450-475 ml water
750 g strong white flour
2tsp fine sea salt
black pepper freshly ground
50 ml olive oil
extra flour for rolling

Start about 2-3 hours before required and you need quite a bit of space to make these. First mix the flour, salt, pepper and olive oil then add in the yeast and mix well. Finally stir in the water bit by bit to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl clean. Knead for about 10 min till elastic - you can do this by hand or with a mixer, whatever you prefer - cover the bowl with a lid/moist towel and leave to rise in a warm place. to speed things up you can partially fill the sink with lukewarm water and place the bowl in there. Alternatively, heat the oven to 50°C, turn it off and place the bowl inside. When the dough has doubled in quantity, knock it back and divide in to 15 pieces. Roll each piece out on a floured surface shaped like a large pita bread. Cover loosely and leave to rest for 3 min. Barbecue over fresh hot coals for 1-2 min each side (the bubbles that pop up are great!). You can also try making them in the oven as it's not really barbecue weather, I would guess at 225°C for 4 min each side. If you can use a pizza stone that will make them puff up nicely.

Preserving summer....

2007-10-31T08:27:00.000Z

We're well in to autumn here with the Basler herbstmesse (autumn fair) starting last weekend, most of the leaves on the ground and chilling temperatures at night. So here are a few of the things I made this summer an just haven't gotten around to post about and as they're mostly preserves I can still enjoy the summer flavours a bit longer.

First up is this lovely gooseberry curd recipe that was in last years delicious. magazine. I'm not a fan of gooseberries at all, I've always found them to bitter but Barry is a huge fan so I decided to make it for him. I found these dark red/pink ones here that seem to be just as common as the green ones. It gave the curd a lovely pink/salmony colour and I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. It was creamy and sweet but with a nice tart contrast making it much more palatable and I have to admit that with the help of a few jars of this, I'm even craving gooseberry curds now!

Second, is this elderflower curd I made from heads I picked on one of our walks in the Jura. Elder flower is something I learned you could eat whilst living in Scotland. I really enjoy the fresh "green" taste of it both on bread or in desserts. For this recipe, I basically soaked the cleaned heads in apple juice overnight and then boiled this the next day with pectin sugar.

Third up are mirabelles, these are little plums that are only in season for 3-4 weeks in August. We've always had a tree in our garden so their taste is very sentimental but it's hard to resist these sweet little fruits anyway. As the season is so short, I try to make the most of them. We eat them in clafoutis, tarte tatins or just on its own or with some yoghurt for breakfast. To preserve the flavours for the rest of the year I also made jam (800g sugar per kilo of cleaned fruit) and liqueur (equal weights fruit, cleaned fruit and alcohol-I tend to use vodka as it doesn't have a strong flavour).

Last but not least are these flatbreads. I picked up the recipe in a free leaflets from Harvey Nics when I was in London in May. Incredibly easy to make they definitely gain something special by being cooked on the BBQ. Yummy with kebabs, salad, burgers or just on its own. So that's it, I'm all up to date and will blog about some more autumnal food next

Pumpkins and apples

2007-10-24T19:52:00.000+01:00

A very brief and quick entry as I'm off to Paris for my fellowship interview tomorrow!! There is still so much to prepare but I just need a break as I feel my head will explode with science! I'm also very excited about Halloween and Stephanies Blogpary this month. Although it's not one of the traditions of the Netherlands, I think it's a fab holiday. Dressing up, trick-or -treating, lots of candy, scrummy food and a spooky atmosphere make for a perfect party I think. On top of that I can't get enough of pumpkins at the moment - Barry jokingly says I will turn into one soon, but who cares! They're tasty and healthy and lovely I think, and my friend Simone agrees which is why we have a whole Halloween pumpkin dinner planned for next week complete with pumpkin soup, bread and ice cream! However, first I have to get tomorrow out of the way and then I can focus on the kitchen again.

Anyway, back to the treats for this week: I made these little biscuits I discovered here (the beauty of online translaters) on Sunday as was very taken by them. First, they are easy to make. Second, they look beautiful and third, they have a lovely texture, crunchy without being hard or dry. I added some cinnamon and ginger for a more autumn taste which was nice and complemented the subtle pumpkin flavor. A perfect treat served along some hot mulled apple juice (put apple juice in a pan with some cinnamon, cloves and star anis, heat for about 5-10 min to let the flavors infuse) and to keep the brain going till tomorrow.

Little Sweet Pumpkins (makes 12)
30g cooked/roasted pumpkin
30g butter
25g sugar
pinch Salt
60g soft flour
2g cornstarch
pumpkin seeds

Cream butter and sugar together, when this is light and fluffy, add the salt and pumpkin. Mix well again and finally incorporate the flour and cornstarch. You should have a dough that is relatively firm but does not crack and leaves the bowl clean. Wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge. Divide the dough into 12 parts, roll each of them into a small ball, flatten slightly to give a pumpkin shape. apply marks to the side with a toothpick and insert a pumpkin seed as the stem. Bake 17-20 min at 170°C.

Boozy apple upside down cake

2007-10-21T21:09:00.000+01:00

A hasty post for SHF as I'm in the middle of studying for a fellowship interview on Thursday (yaikes!) in Paris (yeah!). So our flat is sparkling clean, my bills have been organized, I've been for a run, met a friend for coffee and cooked lots of yummy food this weekend. But still, the slides for the presentation are not finished and I've read much less than I should have! Part of it is that I always overestimate what I can do but, as you can tell, a big part of it is that I get incredibly distracted when I have very important deadlines and will do anything but that!

So SHF was another great distraction and as Andrew from SpittoonExtra picked such a fabulous theme it would have been rude not to partake. I wanted to use my newest weird ingredient, these long peppers I bought on my holiday in Paris three weeks ago. I had read about them in an article on pepper varieties in Saveurs (food magazine) a while ago and had been on the look out for them ever since. So when I saw the bottle, I knew it was mine...when I opened it, I was greeted by a sweet spicy vanilla smell so my first association was to use it in dessert although I've later read they are used more in savory recipes.

As I was a bit short on time, I decided to alter a recipe I used before. Instead of the honey syrup I made a syrup of sugar, water, brandy and long pepper and I substituted the oranges for apples (about 6). I grated 2/3 into the batter and cut 1/3 into slices to layer in the bottom of the tin with sugar, butter and some grated long pepper. Unfortunately, we only had Boskoop at home and they cooked to mush so I didn't get the nice French apple tart top I was going for but the taste was still great. The semolina made it nice and crunchy whilst the batter was moist from the fruit and syrup. The pepper gave it a hot cinnamon-like taste (so you can substitute with some ground cinnamon and chili powder)and the brandy made you feel nice and warm inside. A perfect autumn dessert!

Prickly pears!

2007-10-18T22:19:00.000+01:00

With a name like that, don't you have to try some?! When I moved here (one year ago already and I've never blogged about them) I was fascinated with these prickly pink, yellow and/or green beauties. I suspected they were cactus fruits and after a bit of browsing on the web I discovered I was right but that their alternative name is prickly pear or opuntia, which is so much more fun. So I bought some, tried some different recipes and was hooked. I love the light fruity taste of them that you can use both in savory or sweet dishes. Last night, we ate some with grilled tofu and a variety of grains (wheat, buckwheat and quinoa, emptying all the left over packages!). To make the sauce simply fry a chopped onion in some olive oil until soft, then add 4 chopped tomatoes and 3 peeled and chopped prickly pears (I'd recommend wearing washing up gloves as I was picking needles out of my finger for the rest of the night - sometimes this doesn't happen but some pears are more prickly than others). Fry for another 5 min till you have a nice sauce, add chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper and enjoy. The pears do contain a lot of seeds but I think you can easily eat around them (think pomegranate or passion fruit). I think it would also be really nice to use in a cold tomato soup, as a sweet jelly or in baking.

Poppy overload!

2007-10-11T22:14:00.000+01:00

A quick one as I'm off to the lake district tomorrow for a girly weekend with friends from Dundee! I'm looking forward to it very much as there will be lots of chatting, walking, relaxing and nice food. But I'll blog about that next time. The post now is one I promised to my brother who was visiting last week with his girlfriend. It was so nice to see both of them (last time was in March) and spend some quality time both in Basel and the Alps. Tuesday night was their last evening in Basel and so we cooked the first fondue of the season. For dessert I wanted to make something special and decided to open one of the jars of poppy jelly I made in July.

I was intrigued from the first moment I saw this recipe and knew I had to make it. So I set out one afternoon, gathered way too many leaves and spent hours cleaning all the pollen off (it pays off to be a bit more careful in the picking, then you'll have a lot less work). I made three jars of beautiful red jelly that then disappeared into the cupboard and came out again last Tuesday night. The taste of the jelly was strange but nice, not very strong but also not like anything I'd ever tasted. I decided to pair it with a panna cotta and to prevent it from all being too jelly-like (and stick with the theme) I added poppy seeds which collected at the bottom (=top after inversion) of the mold. They formed a nice contrast both in colour and in texture to the creamy panna cotta. I just thinned out the jelly (2 tbsp with one tbsp water) by heating it and drizzled some over/around the pudding.

Poppy Panna Cotta (serves 4)
200ml Double cream*
200ml Single cream*
60g sugar
1/2 vanilla pod
2 tbsp poppy seeds
level 1/2 tsp agar-agar**

Mix cream, sugar, poppy seeds and agar-agar in a pan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the cream and throw the pod in. Gently bring to the boil and cook for 1-2 min. Leave to cool slightly, then pour into individual molds. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

* This was just what was in the fridge but you could use double cream and milk or all single cream or whatever you feel like.
** I find it easier to just have this at home for when vegetarian friends come for dinner, you could also use gelatine in which case you need 1 1/2 sheets.

Busy, busy

2007-10-05T07:17:00.000+01:00

So much for my plan to try and blog more regularly! We had a fantastic time in Paris, despite the tragic Ireland loss. It was compensated by so much nice food, shopping and sightseeing. We came back Monday morning and work has been manic since with presentations and deadlines. Now my brother is visiting so we're off to the Alps this afternoon. Hopefully, I'll manage to squeeze a post in next week.

Hay Hay it's Donna Day #15

2007-09-27T11:50:00.000+01:00

A last minute assembly tart for this months edition of Hay Hay it's Donna Day hosted by Sarini from Trinigrourmet. We're about to leave for a long weekend in Paris to see some rugby, take in some culture, do a bit of shopping and eat lots of nice food.

I've been using a lot of chickpea flour lately but mainly in savoury dishes but wanted to try a sweet version as well. So along with the half pomegranate at the back of the fridge I thought they would make the great basis for an Arabic/Mediterranean inspired tart. I made a simple dough using chickpea flour (200g), butter (75g), sugar (2 tbsp), ground green cardamom (1 tsp) and a bit of water. The dough does not "come together" as there is no gluten in this flour so I just divided it over 4 buttered mini pastry cases. These were baked 15 minutes at 180°C and in the mean time, I diluted some Membrillo with a bit of water to make it into a softer paste. I spread this on top of the case, then applied a thin layer of ricotta, dusted this with more ground cardamom and finally sprinkled pomegranate seeds on top. All done in 25 minutes.

The tart was beautiful to look at and the taste pleasantly surprised me. I know you can't go far wrong using all good ingredients but still, it turned out better then expected. The nutty crust combined perfectly with the sticky sweet quince paste and the creamy ricotta whereas the pomegranate seeds provided a nice tart and fresh contrast. Definitely worth a repeat performance.

Update: the round up has now been posted....what a fabulous collection of tarts! A lot of inspiration/yummy things there to try out soon

Waiter! There's something in my... savoury preserve!

2007-09-26T08:36:00.000+01:00

When Johanna announced the theme of savoury preserve for this month's WTSIM I just knew I wanted to take part. I didn't really grow up with savoury preserves as it's not very much of a Dutch thing. So apart from shop bought gherkins and onions the only preserve we ate was green tomato chutney. This recipe had come from an English friend of my parents before we were born and somehow it stuck in my mums repertoire. Every year she would grow tomato plants to harvest the unripe green ones (as they're hard/impossible to buy) and make this chutney. Strangely, we only ate it with Nasi Goreng but I always loved it!

Moving to the UK opened a whole new preserving world for me and I still enjoy making and eating lots of different ones. However, this one will always stay my favourite and I've now reached the point of growing my own green tomatoes to be able to make it each year.

PS. the roundup has now been posted and I'm already planning some serious preserving as there's so much stuff I want to try!

Green Tomato Chutney makes 6 400g jars
2.5 kg green tomatoes, sliced
50g onions, chopped
150g yellow raisins
150g black raisins
500g sugar
1 liter wine vinegar
30g salt
15 g peppercorns

Put the tomatoes, onions, salt and peppercorns in a large bowl and leave overnight. The next day, bring the sugar and vinegar to the boil in a large non-reactive pan. Add the raisins and simmer for 5 min before adding the tomato mix. Simmer everything on low heat until the mixture starts to thicken (45 min) and divide the chutney over some well cleaned pots that have been sterilized in the oven for 10 min at 110°C. Cover, leave to cool and store in a dark and cool place.

SHF #35 - The Beautiful fig

2007-09-24T20:20:00.000+01:00

A very last minute entry for this month's SHF but when Ivonne announced the theme for Sugar High Friday as "The Beautiful Fig" I just knew I wanted to take part. Lack of time due to too much work and the breaking of our camera have cramped the blogging a lot lately (it's amazing how less nice the blog looks without pictures). But this seemed a worthwhile entry and I even managed to take a crappy mobile phone camera picture!

I was never a big fan of figs, for years, my mother tried to tempt me with fruits from the tree in our garden but something in the texture put me off. Then I moved to the UK and somehow developed a taste for them (still not quite sure where) but there they were hard to find. So moving here has been a fig paradise!

Basel has been swamped the last few weeks with yummy (and beautiful) figs from France and Italy and I've been eating my fair share. In my yoghurt for breakfast, as part of a chicken stew or in a fancy tart, they always taste delicious. But one of my favourite ways (that works very well with figs that are not quite ripe yet) is to just fill a small frying pan with figs, drizzle a bit of honey over them, a few tbsp of water and add some crushed green cardamom seeds. Leave this to simmer for 10-15 min till the figs are nice and soft and the liquid has gone syrupy. Enjoy this with yoghurt, quark or some ice cream.

(The roundup can be found here)

SHF #34 - going local!

2007-08-25T07:17:00.000+01:00

Moving to a new country can be quite a shock to the system. You have to deal with a new language, culture and customs whilst settling in, looking for an apartment and finding which isle has what in the supermarket. Lucky for me when I moved here, I spent the first two weeks living with a colleague (and now close friend) of mine who helped Barry and me settle in so much here in Basel.

She made me feel really at home in her apartment, translated house adds, helped me to make viewing appointments (my German is ok but I often struggle with Swiss-German), introduced us to Fastnacht and fed us our first cheese fondue in Basel. We also spent evenings baking Christmas biscuits together and made many nice walks in the Jura. Without her it would have taken us a lot longer to settle in and we forged a great friendship in those two weeks (and since then). I think it helped a lot that we share a love for the outdoors and great food and I'm learning lots of Swiss recipes from her. One of them is this red berry meringue tart that is her signature dish. The recipe came from her mother and before that I don't know. I thought it a very fitting entry for this months SHF hosted by Johanna as for me it will always remind me of Basel and settling in here.

You can only make it for a few months in summer as in Switzerland the produce is extremely seasonal (and even regional!) but it is delicious. A buttery nutty crust filled with a mix of tart red berries and a fluffy sweet meringue. Its very fresh and looks beautiful (although unfortunately no pictures due to death of digital camera). This year, I will also try to make it in winter by freezing some red berries to use and perhaps substituting them for cranberries.

Simone’s red berry meringue tart
Fort he crust
-200g butter
-100g sugar
-300g flour
-1 egg
-2tbsp ground almonds

For the filling
-3 egg whites
-130g sugar
-1 Tbsp ground almonds
-500g red berries
Mix the ingredients for the crust together, roll it out and place into a buttered tart dish.Bake this blind for 15 min 190°C. In the mean time, whisk the egg white till thick and add the sugar slowly. Then stir the in ground almonds and berries. Pour the mixture into the base, first bake 10 min at 190°C. Then reduce the oven temperature to 160°C and bake for a further 20-25 min.

Hay hay it's a very pink Donna Day

2007-08-17T23:50:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite colours at the moment is bright fushia pink! I don't know why, perhaps it’s due to the lack of a full blown summer which I somehow associate it with, but it just cheers me up. And cheering up is what I needed a lot of lately. With a paper needing revision and two fellowship deadlines within one week I was at the end of my tether. So I was in need of some comfort, especially in my dinners! Normally, when I get stressed, I actually like to cook something more elaborate as it relaxes me somehow but I didn’t even have time for that. So this recipe comes from one of my favourite books at the moment and it was the perfect dinner solution. Not so time consuming but still resulting in a great sense of achievement and as I made loads of them, I was sorted for several meals. By coincidence gnocchi were also the theme for HHDD #14 hosted by Cafe Lynnylu. This is an event I always wanted to take part in but kept missing the deadline so I am really pleased I finally made it.

The gnocchi tasted great, I had some trouble getting the dough to come together as I added too much beetroot (2 pureed small ones) and so needed a lot more flour than the recipe stated. I guess next time I would leave out the egg. I finally gave up and the dough was still pretty sticky when I made the gnocchi but I didn’t want to add more flour as the recipe warned they would become too stiff. That’s why the shape is a bit funky but the texture was perfect, light and fluffy with an earthy hint of beetroot. They were so much better then anything store bought! We ate them with mushrooms fried with onion, garlic and parsley topped with parmesan which complemented the earthy flavor very well. I also had them for lunch with Baerlauch pesto, roasted aubergine or just with some goats cheese melted on top. It definitely was a quiet and comforting point in my days to sit down with a bowl of these little pink beauties. The picture unfortunately doesn't do them justice as my camera decided it doesn't like to be turned on anymore so I'm relying on Barry's phone's camera.

Now everything is submitted and after some glasses of Cremant D'Alsace to celebrate I can put the gnocchi recipe away....but not for too long as I will make these much more, even for non-stressful days.

Basic gnocchi recipe
1 kg potatoes
1 egg
200 g flour
2 tsp salt

Peel the potatoes and cut into small chunks to steam (this is meant to make the end result lighter). When soft, mash them to a fine paste and stir in egg, flour and salt into the potatoes (this is where I added the beetroot, I would suggest adding less and perhaps leaving out the egg). Work everything to a soft dough, on a floured surface roll out into a long sausage and cut off little pieces (impossible with my dough). If you feel like it you can decorate these with a fork, then pop them into a pan of boiling salted water until they float up, you'll need to do this in batches. Enjoy with your topping/sauce of choice.

Minty Goodness

2007-08-15T18:43:00.000+01:00

Another blog party, another great theme! For this edition Stephanie chose minty goodness which was very timely as the mint on my balcony is growing madly. I'm going through a bit of an Middle Eastern food phase at the moment and mint seemed to fit into that seamlessly. For the snack, I threw together these little chickpea, aubergine and pomegranate fritters topped with minty quark. Easy to make, easy to bake and very tasty with the warm nutty flavors of the chick pea flour, aubergine and zatar contrasted by the fresh and zingy mint and garlic. I also like the grainy texture of the quark which is very sturdy so stays well on top of the fritters. To accompany these, I mixed some little Arabic G&Ts by adding mint syrup (made with some leftover sugar from this recipe) and pomegranate molasses (my new favorite cooking ingredient).

For the fritters (makes 25-30)
Mix 200g chickpea flower, 1 1/2 tbsp oil, 1 grated medium aubergine, 1 tbsp zatar and seeds from 1 pomegranate (keep a few aside for garnish and the drink). The dough should be a little bit sticky but not too thin. Heat some oil in a pan and dollop little balls in there. Fry for a few minutes either side. In the mean time combine 4 tbsp quark, 1 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh mint and 1-2 chopped garlic cloves. Put a little bit on each fritter

For the drink
Melt 50 g of sugar with 25 ml water. Use either mint sugar or add some twigs whilst simmering the syrup. Leave to cool, then mix with equal quantities Hendricks Gin, tonic and pomegranate molasses. Pour into small glasses and add some pomegranate seeds and small mint leaves as garnish.

Brownie Babe Nr. 3

2007-08-14T08:01:00.000+01:00

After my disappointing brownie last time, I decided not the divert from the tried and trusted recipe anymore. For the third edition of browniebabe hosted by Myriam I have made this recipe as long as I can remember, I would bring these to school for every birthday or special occasion and know the proportions off by heart. But even though they're great, I felt they needed to be jazzed up a little bit for this event and this is where it all started to go horribly wrong...

You know when you have (what you think is) a brilliant idea and you're so chuffed with yourself for having it that you fire straight ahead without giving it another thought....and then in hindsight you can't believe how stupid you were...well that's kind of what happened to me. I somehow decided it would be great to make honeycomb brownies. I saw someone making the stuff recently on television where it looked really easy and fast plus I love the stuff. Off I went, melted sugar, golden syrup and once caramelising added the bicarbonate soda...no problem...let it cool, chopped it up and put it in the batter....easy peasy....put it in the oven and went away. After 30 min I suddenly smelt this terrible burning, the whole flat was cloudy, so what had happened?! Of course it had kept rising as it had so much bicarb in there...duh!! So it rose higher and higher, flooded over the tin and onto the heating element at the bottom of the oven...damn! Still can't believe I didn't think of that!

Anyway, lesson learned so for the second batch I was a bit more conservative. I'd bought some Kumquats so added these as you can't really go wrong with the chocolate orange combination. To enhance the citrus flavor I also added some Yuzu juice and powder that I picked up when I was in London in May. I love the taste of this Japanese fruit which is a bit more bitter and tart than an orange but not as harsh as a lemon. I also simmered some left over kumquats with honey and Yuzu juice to drizzle on top. The brownies turned out perfect and were squidgy and moist as usual with bits of kumquats for a change of texture and taste. They're a bit bitter/tart, as was the Yuzu but this was nicely complemented by the sweet honeycomb I'd sprinkled on top.

Kumquat and Yuzu Brownies
175g butter
450g sugar
50g good quality cocoa powder
4 eggs
250g flour
1 tsp baking powder
ping of salt
24 kumquats
1 tbsp Yuzu juice*
1 tsp Yuzu powder*

Melt the butter in a large pan, add sugar and cocoa and mix well. Then stir in the eggs and sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Finally add in the kumquats and pour into a bog baking tin. Bake 30-45 min at 175°C and take out once a knife comes out clean.

Leave the brownies to cool and in the mean time make the honeycomb using this recipe (I halved the amount) and the syrup by combining 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp Yuzu juice 15-20 chopped kumquats. Leave to simmer for about 5 min, cool slightly and drizzle over the still warm brownies.

* optional as not very easy to obtain, try Japanese supermarkets for it.

8 secrets MeMe

2007-08-12T18:24:00.000+01:00

So I got tagged by The Swiss Job ages ago for this meme to reveal 8 secrets no one else knows about me. It took me a while to think us some stuff no one knows and is still interesting so this is what I've come up with....

1) When I was 5, a girl in our town broke her leg and got loads of pressies and attention from everyone. I got (a bit) jealous and decided I wanted attention to so for about a week, I tried to break my leg by jumping off a wall that was about 70 cm high. I guess I had no concept of what it meant to break a bone and all the pain involved and am grateful I didn't succeed.

2) Another jumping story: about a year later, we were playing in kindergarden by jumping off a box that was again about 70 cm high. I don't know what happened but somehow I was not going fast enough according to the guy behind me so he pushed me. I fell and in the shock I managed to bite my tongue in half between my molars. My dad had to come get me and said it was a horrible sight with blood everywhere. The only thing I remember is that I wasn't allowed to talk for a few days (very difficult!) and had to have this horribly bitter disinfectant stuff put on the cut every day but was allowed a spoonful of sugar afterwards.

3) I love pickles, so much so that I used to secretly drink sips of vinegar but I was very selective, only gressie essig herb vinegar please! available at selected Coops near you.

4) The final year of my PhD, I sent a request to the Nobel Conference in Stockholm if I could please attend even though I was 2 weeks past registration deadline. Instead of rejecting me, they invited me to give a seminar as they realized they should have invited my boss! So I had 2 weeks to prepare a seminar to talk in between the greats in the field....very very terrifying but a great honor as well.

5) I've played the harp since I was 8 years old. It all started when we went on a trip in kindergarten to a rehearsal of the Geneva orchestra. I saw a lady with a harp and was determined I wanted to play this instrument. In Geneva there were no teachers (that we could find and I was still very young) but when we moved back to the Netherlands we found someone. My parents tried to deter me with a trial piano lesson first but with no success and so I ended up playing the harp. With all the moving the last few years I haven't played much but hopefully this will come again soon.

6) I'm terrified of needles and injections, just the thought of them makes me shiver, roll down my sleeves and start feeling queazy. So much so that when I stood in a cocktail stick when I was 11, I pretended I was fine so I didn't have to have surgery. My parents began to suspect something was wrong when I couldn't walk anymore 5 week later! I also got the mould for my crown fitted (copper bent around your tooth) without anastetic as the first injection didn't work but I pretended to be OK (very silly).

7) The first outdoor climb I did was called the Inaccessible Pinnacle. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. So much so it took about 45 min of talking/shouting to get me off it as I was terrified of the drop!

8) The grossest thing I ever ate were fermented quid intestine whilst living in Japan. I was told it was a delicacy but it was pretty smelly, slimy and the taste was just not nice. So at least I can say I've tried but also...never again!

So that's it not very terribly shocking I would say. I'm not tagging anyone but feel free to complete it if you want :-)

Blogging by Mail

2007-08-09T07:21:00.000+01:00

The best way to cheer up a rainy Wednesday afternoon? Receiving my Blogging by mail package (kindly organized by Stephanie!) from the sunny state of Texas! I love these event where you not only get the excitement of a package....full of goodies (!) but you also get to know some other people out there in the blogging world that you haven't come across yet. My blogging partner was Jerry although, unfortunately, she forgot to include her blog in the package!?

I managed to hold off opening it till after I cycled home which was good, cause after being drenched down to my underwear (!Monday was still 30°C!) it was a great pleasure to open this box. The first thing I noticed was the lovely smell of honey! Jerry sent me a bottle of Texas's best honey and it had leaked ever so slightly tempting me with it sweetness but leaving lots in the bottle to enjoy. The other goodies were equally great from 3 different flavors coffee, orange pecan zest granola, Texas chewie pecan praline (they didn't last very long!) and the Austin spice company smoky hill mild salsa. This last one I had to beat Barry away from with a stick as I had plans last night and I wasn't gonna let him eat it! Finally, as she couldn't send me any peaches, Jerry also included a recipe for a grilled peaches Sundae which sounds absolutely fab and luckily we have a good supply of fresh peaches here so will make that this weekend. So this morning, whilst it was still raining, I enjoyed my cup of Venezuela estate coffee along with my granola ad feel ready to brave the rain again!

First camping trip of the year

2007-08-08T08:15:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we finally went on our first camping trip :-) I'd been dying to get away for ages but work has been mayhem recently, however last weekend we finally got the chance. After some advise from a friend, we headed to Luzern which is only 1 hour and 10 min on the train and situated at the Vierwaldstattersee. It was beautiful, the campsite (though very very busy) was right by the lake. We took a boat to Weggis where we got a gondola and train up to the top of the Rigi Klum from where we had beautiful views. We then walked down which was stunning. Sunday we swam in the lake and explored the beautiful city. So what did we eat?? When it comes to camping/walking I like things simple but tasty and the food needs to be durable (i.e. travel well).

For breakfast we got Gipfili (croissant) from the campsite shop and ate them with some cherry jam. For lunch I had made these muffins and this bananabread (both traveled great and were very tasty) and we supplemented with some aged Alpkäse to we bought from a local farmershop.

In the evening, after some local beers and a few nibbles, we had a one pot dinner of fresh pasta with mozzarella, tomato and baerlauch pesto which came together within 10 min. Just bring water to the boil, add pasta and cook 2-3 min. In the mean time chop the rest of the ingredients. Drain pasta, add the rest and leave in the warm pan for a few minutes. Best shared from the pan with a fork!

BreadBakingDay #2

2007-08-01T10:33:00.000+01:00

In the nick of time for the second edition of baking bread hosted by Columbus foodie...I've been very excited about baking bread since last January. Before that, I'd been baking bread, but somehow it always seemed very time consuming, which I don't mind if the result is great but it never turn out as good as expected. Then, a friend and I went on a half day bread baking course at Migros. This is not only one of the main supermarkets in Switzerland, but they also run many courses on a wide variety of topics at their ClubSchule.

The course was in German (good practice for me) but our teacher also spoke good English and she was happy to explain again or answer any of my questions when my German knowledge fell short. It was a great set up with some theory but also lots of practice and tasting and by the end of the day, I felt very confident and I took a few essential tips home which have made the baking fantastic since then!
1) Make sure to mix sugar/salt and fat well with the flour before adding the yeast (as the little yeasties like it in diluted form but not pure)
2) You can use dry and fresh yeast interchangeable and there is no need to pre-start it as long as you kneed well.
2) The batter needs to be quite wet and just not sticking to your fingers, but when you poke it, a little bit should stick temporarily (I used to make mine way too dry!)
3) To speed up rising, either put your bowl in a sink of lukewarm water or heat the oven up to 50°C, turn it off and place the dough in there.

So for the bread with fruit, I chose to make a variation on a recipe for Schiacciata. This is a flat bread from Tuscany that can be made savory or sweet. I used some little Italian pears that have been on sale here that are quite hard (good for baking)but full of flavor. I wanted to eat these breads with some pear preserve I made and as that had some tonquin bean (or tonca; a fragrant black nutlike South American bean, you can substitute with vanilla) in it I also grated some through the batter to echo the flavors. They turned out really well, crunchy thin crust on the outside and soft and airy on the inside. They were great for breakfast with the preserve that just enhanced their flavors and for lunch with some goat cheese.

Schiacciata with pears and tonquin
250 g strong white flour
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
20g butter
10g fresh yeast (or 1 1/2 tsp dried)
±300 ml water
1 tonquin bean
oil for brushing

First, mix flour, sugar and salt, then add butter and mix again. Second crumble the fresh yeast into the flour and mix again. Finally add the water till everything comes together. Kneed for 10 min, leave to rest for 1 h (or use fast rising tips above), knock back, divide into 6 balls that you flatten and brush with oil. Leave to rise until puffy, then dimple the dough with your fingers. Brush again with oil and top with slices of pear. Bake at 200°C for 15 min till golden and crisp.

Pear and Tonquin preserve
450g pears
30g honey
225g sugar
1 grated tonquin bean
40 ml vinegar

Clean the pears and cut them into small pieces. Bring sugar, honey and vinegar to the boil, add the pears and grated bean then simmer for 1 hour. Place into clear, sterilized jars and store in a dark place.

Apricot and Pistachio Datschi

2007-07-29T20:32:00.000+01:00

So, I found myself with another excess of fruit...not as"bad" this time but still a few kilos of apricots to deal with. I really fancied an apricot tart, had a look trough my books and made one where you make a pâte brisée sprinkle it with ground hazelnuts and layer the fruit on top. It was nice, but not what I wanted as I felt something more soft and spongy would be better. So I tried a recipe my mum sent me a while ago for and zwetschen datschi. Very easy and very tasty! I decided to add an Arabic hint with some rosewater and pistachios which worked well although the rosewater was very subtle. Also, I might add some ground cardamom next time. Baking really brings out the sweetness of the apricots that were nicely enveloped by the airy dough and the lemon rind added a nice freshness.I took it to a friends barbecue where it didn't last long and was enjoyed with fab food, Prosecco, some Rhine swimming and a stunning view of the Munster

Apricot ad Pistachio Datschi
125g butter
75g + 3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp rose water
1 egg
pinch of salt
rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp sour cream
200g flour
1 tsp baking powder
500g apricots
50 pistachios

Wash the fruit, cut them in half and set aside. Roughly chop/grind the pistachios with 3 tbsp sugar. Melt the butter and mix with the sugar, rosewater, egg, salt, lemon rind and sour cream, then sieve in the flour and baking powder. Mix well and spread over the bottom of a baking tray, layer the fruit on top and finally sprinkle with the nut/sugar mixture. Bake 30-40 min at 200°C.

Waiter, there's something in my....sauce!

2007-07-24T21:42:00.000+01:00

Another round of WTSIM and this time Andrew chose the theme of sauce. I had just the recipe for it that I bookmarked a while ago in the April/May issue of Saveurs. They had a feature on alternative pasta sauces and one of them was bright green, made with frozen peas and rucola (rocket). I made a few alterations as I didn't see the point of using chicken stock in a vegetable sauce and I also didn't really fancy the half liter of cream they suggested (perhaps a typo??). So instead, I used vegetable stock and a much smaller amount of sour cream. It was really easy to throw together and apart from a few green spots on the wall from slightly fanatic bending left us with little to wash up. We ate it with fresh pasta and the taste was mild, creamy yet fresh from the rucola. It tasted great with fresh pasta and I'm sure would be nice with some grilled chicken or fish. In any case, I definitely got my vitamins today :-)

Green Pea and Rucola sauce (serves 4 royally)
1 onion
300g frozen peas
400ml vegetable stock
150g rucola
4 tbsp soured cream
pepper and salt

heat a bit of olive oil in a pan, fry the onion till soft. Add half of the peas and leave 2-3 min, then add the stock. Boil for 5 min, add the rucola and when this has wilted blend everything to a chunky consistency. Add the cream, rest of the peas and season with salt and pepper.

Note: depending on the consistency you want, you can always add less stock at the beginning, then increase the volume if you prefer it thinner

More dumplings

2007-07-22T13:33:00.000+01:00

Johanna definitely started something with her dumpling challenge! At the time, I was sure which ones I wanted to make and they were great, but ever since then I've started to crave more. One of the first other recipes I tried was one I saw ages ago on the first blog I ever read. I was living/working in Tokyo at the time and totally obsessed with anything to do with Japanese food. So whilst looking for recipes I came across a blog. Not quite sure what they were yet but became sucked in quickly by the beautiful pictures and variety of recipes and started reading on a regular basis. Then one day, this post appeared and I really wanted to try it but was in the middle of moving continents, looking for apartments and trying to settle into Scottish life again. Also, it didn't help that original recipe the was in Japanese! Over the years, it disappeared from my mind but when making the dumplings last month, I suddenly remembered it again. So with help of an online translator and some guidance from a similar recipe I figured it all out. Some things are still a bit of a puzzle, for example the ear lobe texture description ended up in a feel and compare action but apart from that, they were easy to make.

The dumplings were great, stoggy with a nutty center thanks to the black sesame seed (available from most asian supermarkets) paste but in total still fresh thanks to the lime juice syrup. Perfect for the weather that is not summer nor spring/autumn.

Black sesame dumplings with lime syrup makes 8-10
For the syrup:
40 ml sparkling white wine
100 g sugar
juice of 1 lime
top up to 100 ml with water

For the dumpling:
120g glutinous rice flour
100g water
50g black sesame seeds
22g unsalted butter
28g sugar
pinch of salt

Grind the black sesame to a rough paste in a mortar or blender, then add the butter, sugar and salt and mix thoroughly. Put this into the freezer to harden so it's easier to make balls for the filling. In the mean time, combine water and sugar for the syrup, heat to melt the sugar and leave to cool, then add sparkling wine and lime juice. Make the dough by mixing flour and adding water gradually until it has the tenderness of the ear lobe (I love this sentence!). Divide into balls and roll out. Place some of the filling on top and close the ball. Boil in almost boiling water until they float then serve warm covered with the syrup.

Note: I ended up with less liquid than on the pictures of both recipes, it was ok but a little more would have been nice so next time I think I'll make 1.5-2x as much

Summer snacks

2007-07-18T21:55:00.000+01:00

A quick and short post for this months blog party which is not very social, I know. Specially not as it's the 2 year anniversary!! But life is terribly busy at the moment with grant writing for work and some other stuff in the pipeline too. So my entry is short but sweet: this watermelon refresher based on this recipe but spiced up a bit with some sparkling white wine and mint. To go with it there are little squigly squids (with legs for me, without for Barry) coated in flour with a bit of chili and stuffed with stirfried onion, chili, fish sauce, sugar and thai sweet basil (this is added at the end). Very very tasty and for me they capture the spritit of summer perfectly! And with the drop in temperature predicted (again!) I'm desperately holding on to that.

Celebrating summer

2007-07-17T21:23:00.000+01:00

Summer's finally here but for how long nobody knows, so we made the most of it by having a barbeque on our balcony on Saturday. I felt like having Eastern Mediterranean food so made lamb koftes by spicing lamb mince with a mix of harissa, chili, cinnamon,ground ginger, nutmeg and fresh coriander then binding it together with a beaten egg and some flour. To accompany this was a roasted garlic tzatziki where you mix the classic grated cucumber, yoghurt and mint with a few cloves of roasted garlic and a grilled aubergine, pomegranate and tahini salad. This is based on a Claudia Roden recipe from a newspaper article that I couldn't find anymore. I roasted the aubergine, let them cool and cut them into chunks, they were then mixed with pomegranate seeds, tahini, pomegranate molasses and some za'tar spice mix.

But the star are these new flatbreads that you bake on the BBQ. I got the recipe from a free Harvey Nic's magazine when I was in London last May and they are so easy, all you need is a bit of time, but if you start this before you make all the other bbq stuff it should be plenty of time. They are absolutely delicious and you can vary the topings/contents endlessly to make them go with whatever you're having. So far, we've used sea salt, rosemary and a mix of nigella (black onion) and cumin seeds and I've been thinking about sweet toppings or perhaps even fillings like in the Peshwari naans.

Flatbreads (about 16)
2 tsp dried yeast
450 ml water (luke warm)
750g strong white flour
2 tsp salt
black pepper
50 ml olive oil

Dissolve the dried yeast in 50 ml of the water. Put the dry ingredients and oil in a bowl and mix well. Add the dissolved yeast and then the rest of the water and kneed this for about 10 min, either with dough hooks but I prefer doing it with my hand. Cover the bowl and leave to rise for about 1-2 hours, if you want to speed up this process, you can fill the sink with lukewarm water and place the bowl in there. When fully risen, knock it back and divide into 16 balls. Roll them out on into thin pita shapes. Leave to rise for another 30 minutes then bbq on coals for about 1-2 min each side till brown.

To add flavours, either kneed what you want to add into the dough or wet the dough just after rolling it out, sprinkle over the topping and press it into the surface.

Courgette heaven and hell

2007-07-16T12:41:00.000+01:00

When the courgette plants on my balcony started blooming at the end of May I got terribly excited with visions of a big crop! However, as the weeks passed and I saw one after the other little courgette shriveling up I was getting pretty depressed. I tried everything, lots of water, little water even pollinating the flowers myself but there were no fruits developing. So instead we've started eating the flowers to make the most of these plants after all (although they have been very pretty and that in itself is a good enough reason to grow them). They are very tasty coated in a batter of egg, flour and milk then fried in some olive oil. But they become even tastier when they are stuffed with some mozzarella cheese and half an anchovy fillet before coating and fried. I also made a variation by adding parmesan cheese to the batter and stir fried them for a pasta bowl with union and tuna. So lots of enjoyment from these plants in the end and perhaps I won't wait so long next year before eating the flower.

Everything's peachy!

2007-07-10T21:23:00.000+01:00

I know I know but I just couldn't resist the pun, just like I couldn't resist the huge box of peaches at Migros last Thursday. 3 kg for 4.90 chf (=£2.20;=€3)!!! now I couldn't walk past that. once home though I realized they needed to be eaten fast so we've had peaches for breakfast, lunch and dinner the last 5 days. Here are a few of the things we've enjoyed apart from just eating them as they are, sweet and juicy...

These little snacks were inspired on a dish Barry's mum served us for breakfast recently. A very unusual combination but I really like it. I topped a potato scones (or any type of bread) with cottage cheese and peaches that have been tossed with some white balsamic vinegar and basil. Very fresh and creamy.

Spicy poached peaches from the last issue of Marie Claire Idées (I love being able to just cycle to France to pick it up!). Very simply just boil some red wine with sugar, rosemary, vanilla and pepper for a few minutes. In the mean time peel the peaches and add them to the liquid for 10 min (if you want to peel them neatly you can put them into boiling water for a few minutes). Leave the peaches to cool in the liquid, then take them out and reduce the liquid to about half. Add a good glug of Crème de Cassis and pour over the peaches to serve.

Roasted peaches with lavender and lime mascarpone. Based on a recipe from the first Avoca cookbook, slice peaches in half, remove the stone and string the peaches onto some lavender (or rosemary) twigs. Then sprinkle with cane sugar and cognac and bake 15-20 min at 180°C. In the mean time, mix some mascarpone, lime zest and lavender sugar and spoon this into the hole from the stone.

And finally something we will enjoy in a few months a peach and ginger pickle from The perfect pickle book. Very simple to make with ginger, garlic, mustard seeds and red chilies but I'm sure it will taste great with a curry.

Who says men can't bake?!

2007-07-08T12:56:00.000+01:00

I know, a bit of a sweeping statement, and if you look at the blogs out there it's definitely not true. But when I was growing up, my friends were always very surprised that my dad would regularly cook or even bake. He has a limited repertoire of his personal favourites that he makes extremely well so you always know (roughly) what you'll get but also always that it will be very good.

So what brought this post on? After Myriam's recent post about Amsterdam, we were discussing Dutch apple pie and I said my dad had a very nice recipe and I could share it with her. When I came back home to look for it, I realized I'd never written it down!! I know I attempted it several times when visiting home but of course always last minute before leaving to the airport and so was promised an email that never came ;-) To sort this out I phoned my dad last Monday and he promised to send it and a photograph as well. When he couldn't find this he decided to bake one for the occasion and take pictures "blog style"! I thought this was very sweet and definitely deserved a guest appearance here. Enjoy!

Henk's Dutch apple pie
-For the dough
250g flour
175g butter
80g sugar
2 eggs
-For the filling
about 750g apples (Boskop, Elstar or something firmish)
100g sugar
100g raisins/sultanas
cinnamon
30g shaved almonds
rind of 1 lemon

Mix butter, flour, sugar and 1 1/2 eggs to a firm dough. Leave to rest in the fridge 30 min. In the mean time, peel the apples, cut into chunks and mix them with the rest of the ingredients for the filling.

Roll out the dough, grease a high walled tin (10 inch/25 cm diameter) and cover it with the dough, cut off the overhanging bits and re-roll to use them later for the decoration on top. Fill the pastry with the apple mix, Add the lattice work (optional) and coat this with the leftover egg. Bake at 180°C for 60 min. Leave to cool slightly and serve with whipped cream.

The old reliable....

2007-07-05T07:59:00.000+01:00

Last Wednesday we flew to Dublin for a wedding of two close friends of ours, but before this kicked off in Trinity chapel on Thursday afternoon, we sampled a few of the restaurants in town. I'd been looking forward to our dinner at about trying out RhodesD7, Gary Rhodes new restaurant. We'd heard good things about it but I have to say, I was slightly disappointed. Though located in a beautiful space, I found the service pushy and the food very mixed. Some things were lovely, like the carpaccio of beef and whitebait but then the risotto was still raw in the middle and the scallops overcooked and rubbery. The same was the case for the main courses. The sea bream was lovely but the steak overdone. Dessert was satisfying but I couldn't help feeling a bit short changed by the whole dinner. I feel the menu had great potential but it just didn't quite deliver and it's not the hardest food to cook.

So the next day, in stead of trying something new, we went back to my favorite breakfast/lunch/shopping place in Dublin....Avoca. I fell in love with this shop the first time I visited 5 years ago. From it's foodstuffs and cookbooks in the basement, via it's colorful soft rugs and pretty clothes, funny children's stuff and house accessories to the restaurant on to. It;s a lovely place to spend a few hours browsing, buying and eating. We had a great lunch packed with flavor, the staff was friendly as usual (offering the bread with my salad before I'd even thought of it), and the desserts were beautiful. Plus, if you really like the food (as I do), you can just buy the cookbooks and recreate it all at home (as I do)

Another day, another blog!

2007-07-01T20:44:00.000+01:00

You might have noticed a small change on the blog, the crafty links on the righthand side have disappeared and there is a new link to my craft blog. I decided to start another blog to put some of the things I've been making recently and hopefully in the future. But as I didn't want to mix with the food posts, its over on The Crafty Shrimp. I hope you enjoy it!

Finding Nemo, cocktail in hand...

2007-06-27T15:43:00.000+01:00

So Blog party 23 hosted by Stephanie has the theme of Sci-Fi mixology. The inspiration I chose for this is perhaps not directly what you think about but somehow I couldn't get this image out of my head that I saw on a poster the other week. So my entry is based ona classic "science fiction" novel: twenty thousand leagues under the sea. Of course the famous captain Nemo was then reimmortalized by Disney a few years ago in the Finding Nemo movie.

So I use a pate brisee as a base, some egg whites flavored with lavender sugar (1 egg white-30g sugar put in a water bath at 100C in the oven for about 30 min) to make the ball and cut little fishes out of slices off peach. They were very easy to assemble and very pretty, if I do say so myself, although I think sweet finger food is perhaps not the best, they were more like petit fours.

The cocktail was based on this recipe made with homemade limoncello, sparkling white wine in stead of rose and I again used lavender sugar in stead of normal. This was really nice and I think, if the weather picks up we will be making this one a lot this summer.

A herby Irish breakfast

2007-06-24T21:40:00.000+01:00

As I went a bit overboard with planting seeds this year, we have a huge excess of fresh herbs (I know...not a problem) so we've been eating lots of tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil salads, Thai basil stir fries and Japanese sisho with lots of stuff. At the same time we're clearing out our freezer and there was a huge supply of Clonakilty Blackpudding in there (what can you do with an Irish boyfriend but I've grown to love the stuff too). So on Saturday when the weather was looking decidly dreary we had herby potato pancakes with blackpudding for breakfast in preparation for our trip to the green isle next week.

I love potato pancakes! I'd never had them before I moved to Scotland but by the time I left I was totally addicted. Potato cakes with bacon and maple syrup, with sausages, with jam or just with plain old butter. They are all that is stodgy and wonderful in the world and make you feel all warm and happy inside.

Just take your left over potatoes (or often I boil some specially) add salt and pepper and in this case a large handful of fresh rosemary, thyme, sage and chives. Then add flour until it all holds together and if you're really indulging some sour cream or creme fraiche. Fry in a medium hot pan for about 5 min each side and you're in comfort breakfast heaven!

Waiter, there's something in my...Dumpling!

2007-06-23T23:49:00.000+01:00

I was so excited when Johanna announced the theme for Waiter there's something in my....dumpling!! I've always loved them but never made them much. So I was contemplating which way to go and on our trip to Prague at the start of the month, I found my inspiration. Just off the Old town square we saw a string with some funny looking rolls around it and as we were in desperate need of a drink and snack after seeing all the beautiful architecture we sat down. They were called Staroceske Trdlo and are made of sweet yeasty dough, rolled around a metal ring and into a mix of ground almonds and sugar. This is then roasted over gas and eaten warm. They were so yummy, and we had quite a few over the weekend to keep the energy up with all the sight seeing.

So I decided to make a dumpling covered in this mixture, but to make it a little bit more special I filled it with half an apricot, a bit of sugar, almonds and ginger (inspired by these tarts that I've made lots). They were a breeze to put together although I was a bit surprised how big they became and we ended up eating way too much but tasted great. I liked the little hint of ginger, the freshness of the apricot and the caramely sugar on the outside. I think I'll be embarking on a dumpling filled summer after this!

Apricot, ginger and almond dumpling (makes 8 fairly big ones)

For the dough
400 g flour
50 gr fresh yeast or 1 sachet dried
1 tsp sugar
about 200 ml milk
pinch of salt

For the filling:
4 apricots
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp roughly ground almonds
1 tsp ground ginger

For the outside:
a mix of 2 part sugar, 1 part ground almonds

Put the flour into a bowl, mix the sugar and salt in and crumble the yeast into it. Add the fluid and work till you have a nice soft, springy dough. Cover and leave to rise for about 1 hour (if in a rush, fill the sink with lukewarm water and leave the dough in that for 30 min) then divide into 8 pieces and roll them out into a circle. Cut the apricots in half and mix the sugar, ground almonds and ginger together. Put half an apricot onto each piece of dough and fill the place of the stone with the ginger mixture. Roll into the dough and leave to rest for 5-10 min. In this time, bring a big pan of water to the bowl. Add the dumplings and boil for about 8-10 min, lift out and roll in the sugar-almond mix. Enjoy whilst still warm.

EBBP7

2007-06-22T23:25:00.000+01:00

Yeah, my EBBP package finally arrived!! I came home on Tuesday and waiting on the table was this box full of lovely food. Tommy assembled a great variety of British sweets which was a lovely reminder of the UK for us. Barry pretty much devoured the liquorice all sorts and pink wafers and I'm enjoying a lime boiled sweet with a chocolate centre every day after lunch. The crisps also didn't last long as they were a great variation from the usual natural or paprika you get here (I never thought I'd miss the weird and wacky UK flavours). Tomorrow we'll have a BBQ so we can try out the fancy ketchup which looks very good. Another great edition of EBBP hosted by Johanna. I look forward to the next one :-)

London eats and summer noodles

2007-06-18T23:26:00.000+01:00

Ok, it's been a while ago but at the end of May I went to London to meet up with two close friends, we had traveled together through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and India two years ago but hadn't seen each other for ages. It only took about 2 min and we were back to our normal chatting, tea and cake routine! We had a great weekend full of shopping food and musea starting on Friday with Portobello road, books for cooks and the spice shop (a true treasure trove). Books for cooks was amazing, first we had lunch in their cafe part, then I spent about 2 hours browsing (whist the girls were chatting) and they had to stop me from buying too much as I had to carry it all back in the handluggage. On the way back, we stopped for afternoon tea (we were in britain after all) at the Tea Palace. It was amazing, I had lovely kuchicha tea with an almond and blood syrup cake with Chai Masala ice cream. It was lovely, moist from the syrup and crumbly from the almonds. The ice cream was rich, creamy but not too sweet. After this, we went back to Sharon's flat where she cooked us our favourtite dinner, potstickers and buddah's delight.

On Saterday we went to Borough market, again the buying had to be stopped due to weight restrictions but we did sample lots of nice things. Then we walked along the Thames to the Tate modern, spent a few hours in there and visited the Japan centre where I stocked up on lots of foodstuffs that I just can't get here. In the evening we reminised about our travels over a great Vietnamese meal at Cay Tre (301 Old Street, London). We had many old favourites, fresh spring rolls, Bun Cha and Fish in Caramel sauce that came complete with flaming plate!

Sunday morning, we said hello to the dinosaur at thenatural history museum, visited the V&A where we saw the Kylie exhibition. This was great fun, lots of dancy happy music, nice costumes and more, which was just what we needed as we were getting a bit tired with all the trips. Had lunch in their beautiful cafe, walked past Harrods, Harvey Nicks and met up with other friends at a great wine bar. Finally we had a quiet night in and went to bed early as we had to get up at 5 to catch our planes. All in all a great weeked and I came back with lots of nice foodies to eat. One of them were these beautiful pink somen noodles. The first time I had these was when I was living in Japan taking a cooking class with Elisabeth Andoh in Tokyo. It was a focus on cold noodles for the hot summer and these were one of them. As the weather picked up drasticaly this weekend it was the perfect opportunity to make them. The dipping sauce is very easy to make, keeps well and can be used for all sorts of things. We enjoyed them on the balcony with their dipping accompaniments (the shiso were the first harvest from the balcony)...but as i was telling Barry, now that they're finished I just might have to go back to London to get some more :-)

Thin noodles on Ice serves 4

For the sauce
3 tbsp seasoned soy concentrate (see below) thinned with 1/2 cup dashi (also see below)
200g thin noodles
Ice cubes
For the condiments:
1 tsp peeled and grated ginger
4-5 shiso leaves, finely shredded
2 tbsp freshly toasted white sesame seeds, coarsly ground

Bring a large pan of water to the boil but leave room for more. When boiling, add a cup of water and repeat this step. Test if the noodles are cooked. Drain and rinse them under cold water. Place ice cubes in a bowl. Put the noodles on top and add water till they are barely floating. Divide the sauce over 4 small, deep bowls and add condiments to your liking. Lift noodles out of the ice water, then dunk them briefly in the condiments and sauce mix before slurping them.

Seasoned soy concentrate makes about 2/3 cup

5-6 large iriko (dried small sardines)
8-10 square inches kombu (preferably a high glutamate variety)
1 dried shiitake mushroom or stems from 3-4 mushrooms
1/4 cup dried thick bonito flakes or 1/2 cup tightly packed katsuo-bushi (fine bonito flakes)
2/3 cup soy
1/3 cup sake
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp mirin

Remove the black internal organs of the fish. Place iriko, kombu shiitake, kombu, bonito (only think ones, if using fine ones add later) and sake in a small deep saucepan and leave to infuse for 1-24 hours. Add the sugar, water, mirin to the pan and place over low heat. When the liquid begins to boil, reduce the heat to keep it from boiling too vigorously. As the sauce simmers, it becomes quite foamy, rising in the saucepan. Keep from overflowing and reduce by about 1/4 till it becomes syrupy. Remove from the heat and if using the fine bonito flakes scatter them into the pan now. Wait 2-3 min for them to sink, thin strain the liquid through a paper lined strainer. Reserve the solids and leave the concentrate to cool naturally, cover and refrigerate for up to 1 month. Put the soy-drenched bits of kombu, fish and mushroom into a pan with 2-3 cups of cold water, bring rapidly to the boil, strain immediately and discard the solids. This will make the dashi.

Sunken fudge

2007-06-10T17:05:00.000+01:00

Hurrah...the second browniebabe of the month is here! I was gutted to miss the first one hosted by Myriam but have made it in time for this one. Brownies have always been a permanent fixture in my family. I've been making them since I was little, they would be the cake I would bring to school on my birthday for the class (Dutch tradition), bake on holidays and pretty much any occasion I would get the chance. The original recipe came from a German colleague of my Dad and the proportions are etched into my memory. Sometimes I would add some walnuts or perhaps some crystalized orange but in general I was a purist brownie person. Why change the best recipe there is?

Then about a year ago, I had to eat my words and another brownie. One of the girls in work brought some in and they were delicious! So I got over my pride and asked her for the recipe. It was an old news paper article with many vairations. I moved it around, put it in different folders but never quite got myself to make them. Then I figured this would be the perfect event, I would experiment and use this basic recipe. To feel a bit less like a traitor, I opted for a blondie variety. I decided on a lemongrass blondie with fudgy bits inside, a great idea in my head but it still needs some tweaking. The taste was great but they were a bit too springy. Probably something to do with too much baking powder as I only had plain flour. In addition all the fudgy bits sunk to the bottom making it tricky to get them out of the pan. Next time I will add these halfway through the baking process along with some of the lemongrass. I grated 5 sticks (with my amazing new microplane grater!!) and even though it tasted lemony I think I would like the taste to be a bit more pronounced. So all in all, a good first attempt, but not quite enough to make me leave my old and trusted recipe :-)

Lemongrass blondie with fudgy bits
100g white chocolate
100g butter
225g sugar
130g flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
tube of sweetened condensed milk (300g)
salt to taste
5 stalks of lemongrass, grated

Heat a frying pan over medium heat, when hot, pour in the sweetened condensed milk along with the salt (depending on how salty you want your caramel-I used 1 1/2 tsp to counteract with the sweet white chocolate). Stir continuously until it becomes a caramel colored ball that comes clear from the sides. Test a little bit on a plate to see how solid it is, if too hard, add a bit of water. Allow to cool and cut into pieces. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Boil water in a pan, take off the heat and put the butter and chocolate in a bowl over the pan and stir to melt. Stir in sugar, sift flour and baking powder on top and add 3/4 of the lemongrass. In a seperate bowl, beat the vanilla extract with the eggs and stir this in. Pour into a greased tin and bake for 15 min, then add in the fudge and bake for another 15-25 min. If necessarry, cover the brownies with parchment paper when they get too brown. Take out of the oven and after 10 min, turn out onto a cooling rack

The perfect pot

2007-06-06T21:02:00.000+01:00

LIfe has been hectic recently....with stomach flus, midnight work and Barry's parents visiting, there has not been much time for cooking. I did however manage to cook in my new addition to the kitchen: this beautiful red cast iron pot! I'd seen it a few weeks ago at our local flea market . My eye was caught by a glimpse of bright red. Closer inspection showed it was a beautiful oval pot, the enamel was in pretty good condition with only a few chips missing at the edge and on the bottom was logo of a capital R with a crown.

But I thought I should be sensible, we have a small kitchen, I didn't really need another pot, specially as I already had one that's a similar size. So I walked away, went on with my shopping and tried not t think about it. But I kept thinking about it, regretting I left it and dreaming about the casseroles and stews I could make in it. And then after three weeks I went back and it was still there! I couldn't believe my luck. So I thought, I'd have to check how much it was, the owner would tell me it would be really expensive and I could walk away. But it wasn't! 10 chf = £5 = €7 so I had to take it home and I'm so glad I did as it's great. Every morning I'm greeted by the beautiful red glow and brimming with ideas of what to cook in it. As it's summer, and the weather has picked up again it's not really stew weather so I opted for this French summery stew. It's lovely and creamy but the Cider and vinegar still keep it light. It tastes great with pasta and some blanched summer vegetables.

Pork meat in Cider sauce
serves 4
500g pork meat cut into cubes
10 shallots
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1/2 bottle French cider or white wine
1 dl white wine vinegar
thyme and bay leaf
1 tbsp creme fraiche
salt and pepper

Heat half of the oil and butter and brown the meat quickly. You might have to do this in several goes. Add the rest of the oil and butter and brown the shallots. Add the cider and vinegar and deglaze the pan. Add the meat back in along with the herbs and seasoning and simmer for 1h 15 min. Reduce the sauce and add the creme fraiche.

Waiter, there's something in my...aubergine!

2007-05-25T16:24:00.000+01:00

Jeanne is hosting this month's edition of Waiter, there's something in my stuffed fruit/vegetable. I opted for the veggie option by using these thai aubergines and stuffing then with a mix for nem nuong. Nem nuong are vietnamese pork balls that you grill and then assemble into wraps with salad etither in big lettuce leafs or rice paper. The first time I ate them was in Vientiane (Laos) when I was traveling with my friend Lisa. The owner of the small sandwich shop we were eating at recommended us this dish and we were very happy we took her up on her offer. She explained to us how to make the rolls and the ingredients so I could recreate it at home. The only distraction during this lunch was a Canadian girl eating outside and sharing her adventures with some friends. She was fairly loud and we were nosey so we listened in on the coversation. Little did we know that we would meet this girl, Sharon, the following day as we flew to Vietnam and would get on so well that we'd travel together for the next three months!

Last weekend I went to London for the long weekend and Lisa, Sharon and I met up (post to follow). We had a lovely time with lots of chatting and eating. It's amazing how you can not see each other for a year and then get right into the swing of things again. One of the highlights was a great Vietnamese meal which brought back lots of memories and stories. I'd however forgotton about the Nem nuong and when I got home and was flicking through this book, I ran into them again and WTSIM was the perfect event to recreate them in a different format. I like the thai eggplant as they have a slightly more bitter taste and love their small and dinky appearance. The combination worked well, the pork was moist and sweet and the slight bitter eggplant balanced this nicely. We ate it with rice cakes (from the chinese supermarket), stirfried veg and a Vietnamese dipping sauce. On the down side the aubergines were a bit fidley to hollow out and I had way too much filling. I filled 6 and could have probably done 24 at least! We decided to just grill the left over pork mince as little balls and have them with rice and salad tomorrow.

Aubergines filled with Vietnamese pork mince
24 thai
225 g lean pork
1/4 cup minced shallots
1/4 cup minced garlic
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
freshly ground black pepper
30g minced pork fat
1 tbsp roasted rice powder*

Slice the pork and place it into a bowl with the shallots, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and pepper. leave to marinade between 1-24 hr. Before proceeding, transfer this mix to the freezer for roughly 30 min. In the mean time slice the top off the aubergines and hollow them out, cut the flesh into small chuncks. In a food processor, wizz the fat to a paste, then add the chilled slices of pork and process till it forms a ball of rubbery paste. Add the rice powder and the scooped out flesh of the aubergines and process this in very briefly. Scoop a ball of this into the aubergines, place the top back on and bake 30 min at 180°C.

* roast 1/4 cup of thai sticky or jasmine rice until golden brown. Grind down in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle till a fine powder. This will keep well in a jar. Alternatively, I've cheated and just roasted some rice flower instead.

Vietnamese dipping sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 minced garlic clove
1 minced small chili
shredded carrot

Goodmorning yellow!

2007-05-25T07:45:00.000+01:00

When we moved into our apartment in Basel, one of my (very) slight dissapointments was the size of the balcony. After having a garden in our last flat in Dundee where I enjoyed growing some vegetables I'd been looking forward to growing some more here. But we decided that is was still very possible so installed some herb pots (sage, rosemary,thyme, parsley, chives, basil, mint, thai basil and shiso) and planted some seeds. We picked tomatoes, as I love making green tomato chutney and don't know if you can buy them here, and courgettes as I'd read somewhere they were very easy to grow in pot. They've been so much fun! Aspecially the courgettes just grow before your eyes. A few weeks ago they were moved to the balcony into big pots and have been growing ever since. So as we pulled up the shutters this morning there was a vibrant splash of yellow on our balcony as the first courgette flowers have opened up....what a site to wake up to!! They were like little suns sitting within the plants and I think they are enjoying the 25-30°C were having at the moment.....let's hope the weather holds so we can enjoy the new crop soon.

Coffee and biscotti

2007-05-16T23:23:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, I finally got to relive one of my favourite childhood shopping moments! When we were living in Thoiry, we did our big shop over the border in Meyrin (Switzerland) where they had a huge Migros! I rememeber isles of chocolate, loads of fishtanks with a vast array of fish and crustaceans and a checkout as far as the eye coud see (probably slightly exaggerated due to my little size at the time).

But the real treat would come after the checkout if mum had bought coffee. This was bought in beans and then either my brother or I would get to put the beans into the machine, place the bag into the hold and move the lever...then after a few seconds a loud bbbzzzrrr would sound and out came wonderful ground coffee. Even though it still took me a long time to drink coffee, I always loved this smell. So as my parents bought me a lovely coffeemaker for my birthday and my first jar of pre-ground coffee was empty I went to the shop. After selecting this lovely yellow bag, I went through the checkout and walked over to the machine. There, I started the familiar procedure and a few bbbzzzrrrs later I had my bag of lovely smelling coffee. To enjoy this to the fullest, I baked some biscotti to go with it from a recipe I got from my Norwegian friend Anne. She is an amazing baker and this recipe was no different as it delivered on all fronts. The biscotti were very easy to make, crunchy and packed lots of flavours that came out even more when dunked into the fresh coffee. I can't wait for the next bag (of both!!)

Biscotti Toscani
1/2 cup whole almonds
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond essence
2tsp grated orange zest
2 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Roast the almonds at 160°C for 8-10 min, leave to cool. Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, vanilla and almond extract and the orange zest. Combine the dry ingredients and add this to the wet mix. Finally, cut the almonds in half and fold them in. The dough is quite sticky but divide it in half and shape it into logs on floured baking trays. Bake at 160°C for 25 min or until golden brown. Place on a rack to cool for 5 min, cut them at a 45 degree angle about 2.5 cm thick. Lay slices flat on the baking sheet and return to the oven for 10 min turning them over midway. Cool on a rack or eat while still warm.

Tapas

2007-05-13T15:14:00.000+01:00

Barry went to Barcelona last weekend for his friends stagdo. But although his memories are pretty hazy of the whole thing, he did remember to bring me back a selection of nice meats including Chorizo, Jamon and Salchichon. So with the weather being nice again this weekend, we had a tapas style dinner on our balcony last night. We had some of the meats, some cheeses (Tomme de Savoie and Comte), Membrillo, marinated bell pepers, pickled onions. To go with this, we had spicy potatoes and I coated some baby squid and sardines in flour mixed freshly ground pepper and briefly fried these. A great meal and so simple, I think we shall be eating like this a lot this summer!

Spicy potatoes
500 g boiled potaoes
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
2 green chilies
handfull parsley
2 tbsp tomato puree
salt and pepper

Dice the potatoes into smallish chunks and finely chop the rest of the ingredient. Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic till golden. Add the rest of the ingredients, season to taste and fry for 10 minutes. If the mixture starts to get a bit dry or burning you can add some water or red wine. These potatoes taste great both hot or cold.

A Taste of Yellow

2007-05-07T19:30:00.000+01:00

Having lost my grandparents and family friends to cancer I figured this was a very worthwhile event to take part in. I have so much respect for people who have to deal with this every day. For this occasion I made a passion fruit tart based on a recipe from this book. Very simple to make and with a sweet zingy taste this beautiful yellow tart would brighten anybody's day!

Passion fruit tart serves 8
*for the pastry
200g plain flour
100g butter
75g sugar
pinch of salt
water

*for the filling
150 ml double cream
100g caster sugar
200 ml passion fruit pulp (about 9 fruits)
4 eggs
icing sugar, for caramelizing

Mix together flour, butter, sugar and salt till you have a crumbly mixture. Then add water until it comes together into a firm dough. Wrap this in cling film and place in the fridge for about 30 min-1 hour. Preheat the over to 190C, grease a 20cm tart tin and cover with the rolled out pastry. Prick the base with a fork, cover with baking paper and fill with beans. Bake 10 min, then remove the beans and bake another 5 min or until golden. Take out of the oven and reduce the temperature to 140C. Warm the cream in a small pan. In a large bowl, whisk the butter, sugar and passion fruit pulp , then whisk in the eggs. Finally, add the pre-warmed cream and pass everything through a sieve to get rid of the seeds (press these down well to get as much juice from them). Pour the mixture into the tray and bake 50-55 min or until the filling is just firm at the edge but still wobbly in the centre. Leave to cool completely, remove from the tin and chill for several hours to allow the centre to firm. Just before serving, dust the surface with icing sugar and place it under a hot grill to caramelize and make a thin, golden glaze.

When the cat's away...

2007-05-05T22:09:00.000+01:00

....the mice can play :-) I don't mean this is in a bad way, but with Barry away for the weekend in Barcelona with his friends I had a chance to eat everything I wanted this weekend!! As lucky as I am with his willingness to try most things, in his heart he's a true Irishman and just likes his meat and potatoes. Whereas I prefer fish and so I'm making the most of his trip away. I started with trout and eggplant last night, followed by a lovely sushi lunch this afternoon.

Then tonight I finally got a chance to cook from my new book. I'd had my eye on it for ages and received it as a Christmas present this year...and even though I've been reading it lots, reminiscing of my trip down the Mekong river and through these countries two years ago. There was somehow so much to choose from and I just couldn't decide where to start. In the end it was an easy choice as I'd bought some squid and the book only had one recipe. I fell in love with this fish whilst travelling in Asia, I liked it before but I think often we get bad quality here. Over there everything was so fresh, prepared very simply but so well that it has now become one of my favourites. I think for the month we were in VIetnam that was all I ate! And this recipe delivered exactly the same, fresh tasty squid with crispy salad and fresh, spicy flavours. I think after this one, I shall keep cooking from this book as this dish was so simple yet rewarding to make!!

Squid with ginger-garlic sauce

2 pounds cleaned squid or 3 pounds small or medium whole squid
2-3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 cup coriander leaves
crunchy sald (I used oak leaf with chopped celery and fennel)
1 lime cut in wedges
salt and pepper

ginger garlic sauce
* 2 tbsp minced ginger
* 2 cloves garlic minced
* 1 bird or serrano chili, finelly chopped
* 1 tsp sugar
*3 tbsp fish sauce
* 3 tbsp fesh lime juice
* 1-2 tbsp water

First, prepare the ginger garlic sauce by crushing garlic, ginger, chili and sugar together in a pestle and mortar or by chopping it up finely. Add the fish sauce, lime juice and water to taste and blend well. Next, prepare the salad by cleaning all the veg and chopping it to whatever size you prefer. Finally, clean the squid and cut into rings or pieces, leave the tentacles whole or cut in half. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the squid in this for 4-6 minuted. Drain well, coat with lime juice and add coriander leaves. Serve with the salad and the sauce, either drizzle the sauce over or dip the pieces of squid in it with some veg.

British breakfast buns are best!!

2007-04-19T19:02:00.000+01:00

I was very excited when I saw Sam would be hosting Fish and Quips to promote British food! I strongly believe the British Isles are totally underrated when it comes to food and defend them on many occasions, my boss even calls me a food Anglophile!! Having lived there for 5 years and now living with an Irishman (whose mother is an amazing cook!), I've had my fair share of great British cuisine.

One of my big loves are the breakfasts. And I'm not even talking about a proper fry with eggs, bacon, sausages, beans and more. This is very nice occasionally but gets very heavy, no I'm talking about the splendid selection of breakfast buns that can definitely compete with the Swiss Gipfeli (croissants etc). Give me a crumpet, english muffin or potato scone for breakfast any day. They are lovely just toasted with some butter or if you feel like it with jam or more.

One of my first encounters with these buns were crumpets. I had them at a friends house in highschool (they were English). They had gotten them from the Marks and Spencers store in Amsterdam (now sadly closed) and I was fairly sceptical about this holey pancake like "thing", but once I had bitten into the first toasted one with butter, I was hooked! I love the combination of the spongy top with the crisp bottom and all the holes are a great place to collect whatever you're speading on it. Living here now, they are not so easy to get but I've discovered with the help of Delia that they are very easy (and lots of fun) to make. I love watching them intently and being surprised by dozens of bubbles popping through the surface, just as you thought it wasn't going to happen.

Crumpets makes about 12

275 ml milk
55 ml water
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp dried or 20g fresh yeast
225 g flour
1 tsp salt

Let all the ingredients come to room temperature. Put the flour in a bowl, then add the salt and sugar and mix well. Crumble/add the yeast (depending on the kind you're using) into this and again mix well. Then stir in the liquid gradually until you have a nice smooth batter. Cover with a tea towel and leave to stand for about 1 hour. If you're in a rush, fill the sink with lukewarm water and leave it in there for 30 min. To cook the crumpets, use egg rings that are well greased. When the pan is hot, pour about 1 tbsp of the mix in each ring, let them cook for 4-5 min until bubbles start appearing on the surface. These will then burst into the traditional holes. Now lift the ring off and turn the crumpet over and cook for about 1 min on the second side. Repeat this with the rest of the batter.

A foraging trip in the Jura

2007-04-04T23:11:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday we went on a walk in the Jura. We took the train to Delémont, which is about 30 minutes from Basel, and followed a path through beautiful valleys and over cols to Laufen. Partially, to get out of Basel, partially because it was such a glorious day but also because this is the season for Baerlauch.

Also known as wild garlic, this plant grows rampant in the forests around here. The first time I'd read about it was in last years Delicious where they had an article about young spring greens. At that point I realised that this is what you used to smell when you went walking along the river in Balmarino, near Dundee, but somehow I never made it back during the season. Then suddenly I saw some in our local Bio shop but I really wanted to pick our own. I thought it would be hard to find but we ran into it within the first 15 minutes. It was amazing how much there was and Barry had to stop me from picking too much.

In the end, I picked about 400g which was tonnes, so the whole week we've been eating garlicy. My poor collegues! It started with some garlic mashed potato with our roast chicken dinner by just adding some chopped leaves at the end. Then I mixed a few leaves in with my lunchtime salad for several days. I managed to make 2 jars of wild garlic pesto using equal weights of leaves, pine nuts, parmagiano and twice as much olive oil. We had this with pasta and on brushetta and it's very nice although slightly more potent than the basil stuff. We also made this recipe for ravioli stuffed with wild garlic and ricotta. To some I added some chopped walnuts for a change in texture and taste. The nuttiness contrasted very well with the sharp taste of the garlic and the creamy ricotta. Then tonight, we finally finished the last of the leaves by making a recipe from this isusue of Delicious. It's a stirfry with clams, peas shoots and wild garlic. As I couldn't find pea shoots, I substituted with some nice lettuce and mangetous. I was surprised to find these clams in Basel, but Manor sold them, although I had to swallow briefly at the price! 27chf for a kilo. But they were well worth it!

Clams with peas and wild garlic
serves 4 as starter or 2 as main
1kg fresh clams
1/2 tbsp oil
1 large spring onion
leaves from 2-3 thyme sprigs
100g frsh or frozen garden peas
1/2 tbsp rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
125ml vegetable stock, hot
handful of mangetouts
handful of wild garlic leaves trimmed and roughly chopped

Wash the clams under cold running water, discarding any open or broken ones. Heat oil in a large pan or wok and when hot, add chopped spring onion, thyme and garden peas. Stirfry for 1 min, then add all the liquid and the clams. Cover with a lid and leave to steam for 3-4 min, or until all the shells are open. Discard any clams that haven't opened. Uncover, add the mangetouts and wild garlic and leave till wilted. Check for seasoning and add salt if necessary. We ate this with pasta as a main course.

Waiter, there's something in my ... Easter basket!

2007-04-01T20:38:00.000+01:00

When we were younger, we always knew Easter was coming when a big beautiful chocolate egg like this one appeared at home. These would come from my dad's latest trip to Geneva. Luckily for us, he had to go there a few times a year for work resulting in a steady supply of great chocolate! The bottom half of the egg would be made out of solid chocolate and the top was covered in parlines and truffels. The total was topped off with a huge bow, which my brother and I claimed/argued owership over . Now I've grown up and I know it's a pretty commercial event (especially here, with aisles of decorations) but still I can't help but get excited about the huge display of chocolate that the shops have put on.

And as Johanna is hosting this months rendition of Waiter, there's something in my ... Easter basket it only seems fitting that the first item will be chocolate. But as this isn't very exciting - to prepare that is - I also include two more Swiss traditional Easter customs/dishes. The first one is Osterfladli, a creamy custardy tart containing golden sultanas encased in a crunchy puff pastry that is eaten specially around this time. We'd had it a few times over the last few weeks in the bakeries and I was interested to make one myself. I used a recipe from my Swiss cookbook and was surprised to find that it's made using old bread. I also didn't realize it was a slightly more complex then a normal custard. But it's well worth the little bit of extra effort both for the taste and the texture. My only problem with the recipe was that I couldn't figure out how long to bake the tart for. My recipe called for a "sic" or 5 quarters of an hour?? I figured this would be 75 min? But after 1 hour the top of my tarts were very brown instead of a golden easter yellow I've seen in the shops so I took them out. They still tasted fine and weren't burnt but still. I'm not sure if this is a problem with my oven but just keep an eye on them. I was also sceptical about not baking the puff pastry blind but the long baking time made this really nice and crunchy. I just dusted the top with a little bit of sugar to hide the brown. The end result was scrummy anyway, with the occasional raisin popping up for a texture/taste change. They were even better the next day and I prefer these to the shop ones.

The second is dyed eggs. The Swiss love their eggs, on their Rosti or just as is. The whole year round you can buy boiled, dyed eggs but the last few weeks, the piles of trays have been getting bigger and more prominent in the shops, there are lots of kits for sale to paint or dye them. In addition, in the local pubs (the traditional Swiss ones) you can find little trays of them on the table that you can help yourself from and pay when you leave. This is where I first saw eggs dyed the old fashioned way. beautiful brown coloured eggs with patterns of grasses and flowers on them. So I decided to dye mine this way too. I saved some onion skins and picked some flowers. I wasn't quiet sure what to tie mine up with so I used an orange net, which gave a nice added effect in the pattern (but I guess for a clean finish some linen would be better. Then boiled them like they were normal eggs. I was quite pleased with how they turned out, although they were a bit more blurry than expected but I guess this will come with practice....and they tasted great on our walking/foraging trip today (but more about that some other time)!

Osterfladen
Easter tart, makes 6 small ones
25g White bread (without crust)
milk
1 egg, separated
65g coarsly chopped almonds
65g sugar
25g golden sultanas
175 ml cream
125g puff pastry

Heat the over to 180°C. Crumble up the bread and soak this in milk. Pour off the excess liquid and mix in a large bowl with sugar, almonds and egg yolk. Add the dried fruit to the mix. Whip the cream into soft peaks and in a seperate bowl, beat the egg whites till stiff. Fold the cream into the mixture and finally the egg whites. Roll the pastry out thinly and line 6 buttered mini quiche pans. Pour the mixture and bake for 1 hour (keep an eye on this, might need longer/shorter).

Finally found!

2007-03-26T20:21:00.000+01:00

The first time I heard about cocoa nibs was August 2005 in this post. I was intrigued by the description of these roasted cocoa beans and tried to find them both in Dundee and Edinburgh but without success. Time went by, I gave up on finding them in Scotland and forgot about them again. Then this summer, making the same jam again, my interest was rekindled. I figured living in Switzerland, famous for it's chocolate, I should be able to find them. So I visited the chocolate shops, bakers, high end department stores but everybody looked at me like I'd gone mad. "Roasted cocoa beans? What on earth is wrong with a normal chocolate bar or praline??" I could see them think.

Then by fluke last saturday I found another chocolate shop, in an alley next to my favourite bakery, I figured I had nothing to lose, walked in and shyly asked if they had perhaps ever heard of roasted cocoa beans in my bestest broken German... and by a miracle, without blinking the lady said:"yes of course, we carry 2 different kinds, which one would you like?" I was so surprised that I didnt hear her description and picked the ones with the yellow label as it looked more pretty. Chuffed to bits I cycled home, I couldn't believe I'd found them and just in time for Sugar High Friday. Originally started by the Domestic Goddess, this month it was hosted by Chocolate in Context. But now to decide what to cook?! I thought about these cookies or this jam but in the end I settled on a small tart using up some chestnut jam and eggwhite to fit the wintery cold we had this weekend.

I made a simple pate brisee, lined two small tart tins with the pastry and baked them blind for about 15 min. I ground down a handful of the beans, mixed this with a few tablespoons of chestnut jam and put this on the pastry. I covered this with an eggwhite stiffly whisked with sugar. Popped it in the oven for 30 min at 150°C and let it cool to room temperature. I was really pleased with the result. The sweet gloopy chestnut jam was balanced nicely by the bitter cocoa beans and the meringue was light and fluffy on top. Next time, I think I would add a tiny bit of cornflour to the jam, to thicken it a bit as now some syrup was dripping out. But I still have lots left so I can try again and finally make all those other recipes :-)

Green

2007-03-17T07:30:00.000Z

My family has had an affinity with green for a long time. It started with a birthday present for my dad about 10 years ago. My mum bought him tiny green glasses (he has always liked glass in general) in the antiques shop which had the most vibrant color. It's a really in your face, limy, fluorescent kind of green and really after some research we found out it is called Anna green, was made at the start of the 20th century and is produced using very slight amounts of uranium oxide (this makes the vibrant color). My dad being physicist loved this even more and so started the collection.Over the years they have accumulated quite a lot of small pieces and it has gotten to a stage where non of us can go to a second hand shop/ flea market/ garage sale without looking for it and then, when you find a possible one, deciding if it really is or not, or perhaps once with less uranium, or just a dye etc.

But with a irish boyfriend the love for green reaches a whole new level. Not only is he a keen glass hunter but he is convinced it's the best color in the world (and why would people think otherwise)! When we were furnishing our new apartment in Basel, he would have bought everything in green if he had the chance (furniture/bedlinnnen/towels/appliances) so in the end we compromise on a green couch (which I secretly love, but don't tell him!) and 3 green chairs. Don't get me wrong, I like the color, but more in plants or when I'm outside in a forrest or the mountains. But today, I thought I'd make a gesture as it's St Patrick's day! St Patrick, who was originally Welsh, came to Ireland to chase the snakes (devil) away and bring christianity to the island. For the Irish it's a great excuse to wear their national color and enjoy a few pints of Guinness.

Over on Kochtopf, they also felt patriotic about today I decided to bake something for the event. I stuck with the green color and made a green baked cheesecake. It's very lightly based on a green chocolate mousse my mum makes (and we actually eat out of the green glass) which is made with white chocolate and creme de menthe. I really like it but somehow felt it was a bit to delicate and light for the occasion (how are you meant to hold your Guinness on that?!). Instead, I made a base using a mix of chocolate biscuits and ginger nuts and added a few teaspoons of creme de menthe to the cheese part. It didn't become as vibrant green as I had hoped but after being in the oven, the green was more pronounced in a velvety green tone. The tart was lovely and creamy with a hint of mint. I liked the taste but next time I think I will add something to the cheesemix to give it a bit more texture.

Minty Leprauchaun Cheesecake (serves 4-6)
100g biscuits (mixed gingernuts and chocolate biscuits)
50g butter
1 egg +1 yolk
350g cream cheese (the proper stuff-light just doesn't set as well)
90g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp creme de menthe

Crumble the biscuits, melt the butter and mix these two together and spread over the bottom of a pie dish. Then whisk the eggs, cream cheese and sugar till it's creamy, then add the essence and the creme de menthe. Spread it on top of the base and bake roughly 45 min. Leave to cool in the oven, then place in fridge for at least 2 hours preferably overnight.

View of the Eiger

2007-03-08T21:14:00.000Z

With all the Fasnacht, I haven't done so much (exciting) cooking...plus with a visit from my brother and his girlfriend last weekend we went away to the Alps. We'd planned this a long time ago and I'd been hoping that the weather would pick up or cool down!! After the initial dump of snow in January, the Swiss winter has been very disappointing. The warmest one for the last (don't know how many) years. Not exactly what I expected from moving to Switzerland but we've made the best of it so far with 2 great trips.

And this weekend we had another great time skiing. We leisurely drove to Grindelwald last Saturday and even though the village looked depressingly green, we had two nice days. Sunday was beautiful and sunny and we had a great view of the Eiger and Jungfrau all day. Then on Monday, it was more cloudy and started snowing just before lunchtime.....but this cleared up again and conditions were great with a nice layer of fresh snow. We'll definitely be going back there...hopefully in winter to try the 15 km (!!) sledging run and otherwise in summer as it's only 3 hours by train! Tomorrow, we're off to Geneva for the weekend to meet up with my family (parents are coming from Holland and brother and girlfriend on their way back from skiing) for some serious (?!) physics at CERN (thanks to some old collegues of my dad) and lots of catching up. Next week I'm on a course in Zurich for work so things might be a bit quite for a while until I'm back.

Three days of madness and mayhem

2007-03-01T20:48:00.000Z

Wow, we've just experienced and survived our first Fasnacht! From the day we arrived everyone had been telling us about the Basel carnaval and how we shouldn't miss it. The excitement had been building up the last few weeks with occasional cliques marching through the street and the noise of piccolo music rising up from our downstair neighbours.

Sunday it had finally arrived, the three kings (symbol of the poshest hotel in Basel) were dressed as Waggis and the town was waiting in anticipation. Officially, Fasnacht starts on Monday morning at 4am with the Morgestraich but we went to the nearby town of Liestal on the recommendation of Matthew and Sarah. There they have a fire festival where people carry torches through the village. So we set off, a friend from work, Barry and I, found ourselves a spot close to the arch in the city wall and waited. It started with a carnival (drum/brass) band dressed in masks with fluorescent eyes...fairly spooky but the lively music made it very fun.

Then at 7.15pm all the lights went off and in the distance, we could see the first torches floating down the hill. It was a very impressive sight but the poor men and woman (and children sometimes) carrying them must have been so hot!! Interspersed with the people carrying torches were burning carts that initally fitted through the archway, but became bigger and bigger as the time went on and the firemen had to wet the archway more and more. It was an amazing sight, specially when the fire that had been contained in the arch came out into the air with flames going up 10 meters. If you were unlucky and the carts stopped in front of you, the heat was so blazing. I would strongly recommend anyone who is in Basel for Fasnacht to include this too.

Once back in town we had dinner and went to a party at the Kaserne to stay awake till 4. We positioned ourselves near Marktplatz and it was very nice standing on the street, slowly seeing all the clique emerging, putting on their masks, turning on their lanterns and all waiting for the starting time. Again, all the lights went off and after a call of "MORGESTRAICH" they started marching whilst playing their tunes on piccolo and drums. We spent about an hour watching the different groups coming past, all in their own costumes and themed lantern. It was nice but somehow I had expected something a bit less tame and organized (I guess they're Swiss after all). So cold and hungry we had a traditional piece of Ziibelewaije (onion quiche) before turning into bed.

The next afternoon after a nice brunch (including Faschtetwaije-a traditional bread with cumin seeds) we went back into town to watch the Cortege. This was much more like I excpected it to be, mad, costumes and music everywhere, lots of people throwing confetti and having a good time. We spent ages watching all the different floats, collecting oranges and sweets that were thrown in addition to the confetti. But when the rain got too hard we went to one of the clique bars that are only open this time of the year. They are decked out with decorations and sell a limited selection of food and drink....but all you need on a wet afternoon/evening. Here we had the last required Fasnacht food of Maalsuppe (browned flour soup). This was one thing I wasn't too sure about trying but I was pleasantly surprised. It's tasted like the liquid from a good stew and served with a slice of bread and some grated cheese, it's pretty good when you're cold.

Anyway, to make a long story a wee bit shorter...on Tuesday night we watched the guggi bands (drum/brass bands) perform at the Barfussenplatz and watched the display of lanterns on Munsterplatz. On Wednesday, we saw more parades, caught more oranges, got confettied lots and ate and drank in the cellar bars. All in all, it was an amazing time and feels a bit strange that it's all over now. Things are back to normal, everything is cleaned up but the occasional traces of confetti remind me that there is a different side to the neat and organized Swiss.

Easy peasy lemon squeezey

2007-02-20T20:51:00.000Z

It's very easy to squeeze lemons, but what to do with them afterwards....The warm weekend (20C on our balcony!) brought the promise of late summer evenings sitting outside, enjoying good food and company. One of the things I love drinking at these times is limonchello. I made some last year which was very successful so I decided to try again, this time using this recipe. Even making half the amount, I still ended up with 8 lemons so what to do with them? I went a bit mad and decided to try all the lemon recipes I've been wanting to try for a long time. First we made a lemon tart with meringue. As I was lazy I used puff pastry for the base which was fine, but I think it would have been much nicer with a proper crust. It was still very tasty though and a good oportunity to use Barry's new favourite toy - the blowtorch.

As I really liked the filling, I decided to make some lemon curd, which is similar and can be used as a filling for pastry cases. I adapted this recipe as I was intrigued by the use of almonds. However, I didnt have any zest left, and I wasnt about to use more lemons, I just increased the amount of juice. I also reduced the amount of sugar as I often find lemon curd too sweet. The curd was great, at first I wasn't so sure about the almond powder but as we had brunch on our balcony in the sunshine it really began to grow on me. It gives a little "je ne sais quoi" to the curd, somehow it becomes more velvety and soft.

As the ground almonds I had were fairly mixed, I had to sieve them to get the fine stuff for the curd, with the rest, I made another recipe from this site for lemon fleur de sel cookies (again without zest and with slightly more juice). I was keen to try some fleur de sel de guerande that barry's uncle and aunt had kindly given to me. Tasting the dough initially, I didn't really taste so much salt but once they were baked, you would run into little salty bits. These are really nice with a cup of tea and a good book, plus they look great in my new cookie tin. This was a present from a Dutch friend from a shop in Amsterdam and they are a modern take on Delft Blue. They're very pretty and if you want, you can get your products customized for you.

Finally with the last dregs of the juice I made some blood orange marmalade which looks beautiful. Unfortunatly, when I poured it into the jars, all the skinny bits floated to the top. It still tastes good but not quite as pretty. Does anyone have any ideas/tips about this??

So a busy weekend in the kitchen but it actually wasn't so bad. All the recipes are very easy and straightforward, they dont't take much time to make (fair enought the marmalade takes long but doesn't need much attention) are all very tasty.

Celebrating....

2007-02-14T21:51:00.000Z

Crack open the champagne....or Prosecco in this case!! My second paper has just been accepted! I'm over the moon as I've been waiting for this a long long long time. The first time I sent it off was in Nov 2004 and 2.5 years later it finally happend. For me this is a pretty big deal as I'm on a one year contract at the moment and have to find my own funding for my research project some time this year. So being able to add this to my CV is a huge deal! We celebrated with a lovely bottle of Prosecco, my new favourite drink!

Thursday already....

2007-02-01T21:35:00.000Z

I can't believe it's thursday already, time flies when you're having fun (or working 11 hour days). Last weekend we were meant to go skiing with my work but this trip got cancled as there has been so little snow in the mountains although this week made up for it. Instead fridaynight we enjoyed a great fondue at a very nice restaurant. It is a traditional place where a lot of quilds and studentassociations still meet. I like fondues as they are a very social and simple kind of meal. But the real surprise was dessert, I chose a lackerli mousse. These are traditional Basel biscuits that are normally quite hard and chewy so this could go either be lovely or go horribly wrong.....but it tasted great. It still had that lackerli chewiness but was nice and airy....I'll definitly go back for that again.

The next day we went to see the Vogelgryff, this is an old Basel tradition (started in the 13th century) based on the rivalry between the north and south part of the city. A raft carries a wild man, a lion and a griffin down the river, which come to the bridge and then dance around with their back towards south Basel. It was very nice, but very busy, with lots of kids so I recommend coming early to get a spot at the middle of the bridge.

Then I went to pick up my brand new ski's (early birthday present) which we went to test out on sunday. Barry, Simone and I went to Engelberg for a bit of skiing. Two hours by train later, we were on the slopes and had a fab day in the sun, although we could have done with a bit more snow. The days was also filled with hazards as you can read in this post. What Barry failed to mention is that coming off our first lift in the morning, he made it impossible for me to get out which meant I fell down the side of the lift (±3m)!!! Luckily I landed in a big pile of fluffy powder. In addition, I had to spend the whole afternoon skiing with his one bent pole. But it's worth it if he comes skiing more often!

Once back in Basel, we treated ourselves to a tropical dessert using Barry's latest Christmas present. He got a blowtorch for cooking so we made a lovely mango creme brulee based on recipe in a Malaysian dessert book I received with a blogging by post package a while ago. I liked the idea of using fruitpuree in stead of cream as still trying to be sensible with eating to much fat. The creme turned out really rich, which was nice and had a lovely crispy topping. We'll definitly be making this one again, specially as everything I cook at the moment Barry wants to blowtorch!! fire extinguisher anyone?!

Mango creme brulee (serves 6)
2 eggs
30g sugar (plus extra on top)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
250 ml mango puree

Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence until creamy. Add the mango puree and stir thoroughly. Pour this into molds, bake 30 min at 170C until golden on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool (they will sink quite a bit so make sure your molds are nice and full). Sprinkle some sugar on top and melt/caramalize this with the blowtorch (or place under the grill).

Museums, bread and chocolate

2007-01-26T08:23:00.000Z

So many things to write about and already it's Friday....so I'll just do a quick recap of the last weekend. Fridaynight was Museumnight in Basel. From 18:00 to 2:00 you can access any museum in Basel and travel between them for 20chf. So we decided to make the most of it and visited a whole array of places. It was a great opportunity to have a quick glance in a lot of places. First we went to the Tingely museum, had dinner there, then visited the Kunstmuseum, Culture museum, Pharmacy museum, Botanical gardens and more....but the most impressive was a Hydan concert in the Munster where you could listen from the gallery.

The next morning, I got up early to meet a friend across town where we spent the morning at a breadbacking course. We had a great time abd even though I've baked a lot of bread before I picked up some interresting tricks. For example, you can accelerate the rising process by putting the dough in a sink filled with luke warm water or a 50 degrees Celsius ove which you then turn off. Also, to get a nice crust, it't the tension in the surface of dought that's important. The format was very nice where everyone (12 people total) made a different bread with 500g flour which we devided in half. One half we had for lunch and one we got to take home. Then we all learned to make zopf and took that home as well.

Finally, as part of being back from limbo, I figuered I should take part in some of the blogger events again and what better way to start then with SHF#27 hosted by David. However, I got my deadlines mixed and thought it was today instead of last friday. Doh! But it was a great opportunity to finally make some macarons....having read about them for the last few years and am ashamed to admit that I've never had a real one. I followed this recipe and even though it took a lot more work then I thought but they turned out really great. I tweaked the filling slightly to include goji berries, an inspiration that came from here. I soaked the berries while the biscuits were drying. For the chocolate, I used Droste cacao (I'm a dutch girl after all....plus I think this chocolate is highly underrated) and Lindt Excellence 85% Dark Chocolate. The result was amazing, really dark chocolat, not to sweet, a but chewy in the middle and the occasional berry for altered texture. My only dissapointment were the tops that were all cracked instead of being round and glossy....prehaps I should have left to dry them longer? Anyway, this is definitly a keeper but I'll have to go and try the real thing soon!

Snow!!!

2007-01-24T07:21:00.000Z

It's finally started snowing!! When I moved to switzerland in autumn I had visions of a nice cold winter with lots of snow skiiing and fondue. S ofar, it has been the warmes winter ever, then only snow I've seen was in France and even though it was great, there wasn't nearly enough of it!. But now it has finally start, just as my workskitrip this weekend got cancelled due to lack of snow and I pick up my new ski's on friday....perhaps we'll just have to do a daytrip to Engelberg on sunday....keep the white stuff coming!!!

Breaking the silence....

2007-01-18T21:32:00.000Z

Okay….after about 3 months of hibernation I’m back! With the unnatural warm weather there is no way to have a winter-sleep and there is much to write about. Last Monday I resubmitted the revised version of my paper (Yippie!) that has kept me from blogging about my 1 year blog anniversary, Christmas markets both in Basel and Strassbourgh, a food-filled festive holiday and a skiing trip to Tignes. But what finally got me out of limbo was last Sunday’s bloggers meeting organized by TBF where I met lots of nice people and this made me feel I should perhaps contribute again to internet space ☺

So that evening, I set out to make a dish for the golden shrimp….it was inspired by two things: a great Christmas present of a stainless steel grater and part of a lump of Italian Parmasan cheese my colleague received as a late Christmas present and couldn’t finish. I figured the best way to combine both, would be to make a simple pasta with pesto which was made very quickly. For the pasta I used this recipe and for the pesto I used the recipe in my favourite Italian cookbook. Both were very easy to assemble and tasted great.

For dessert, we stuck to the green theme and made this sorbet. I modified the recipe slightly but adding half the lemon grass to the syrup for a stronger flavour and I pushed the apples through a sieve after blending them as I don’t have a juicer. Also, I forgot about it whilst at the bloggers meeting so it didn’t get stirred and turned into a granita in stead of a sorbet but still tasted great and looked the part in my new Japanese tea cups (another persent). So that’s it for now, but I’ll post again soon!

Pesto (serves 4)
25 fresh basil leaves
100ml extra virgin olive oil
40g pine nuts
50g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
salt

Blend the basil leaves with the olive oil, pine nuts and a pinch of salt in a blender. Add the grated cheese and process again.

Bits of Basel

2006-10-29T18:02:00.000Z

I thought life would quieten down slightly when moving to Basel but it seems to be the opposite! Whilst trying to settle into a new flat, the project at work has taken full flight and the Christmas deadline is approaching (far to) rapidly. Apart from that there are trips to Ikea, second hand shops and more to get the flat sorted and work left over from Dundee as the comments for my paper have come back (luckily they were fairly positive but I do need to go back to Dundee briefly for more work).

However, I thought I’d share some more impressions and food with you. Last weekend we had a celebratory dinner in our new flat to christen the kitchen. Along with a batch of appeljam, chilli ginger and lemongrass jam and quince jelly I also produced two lovely dishes that I’ve wanted to make. I saw the scallop with chanterelle risotto and pumpkin recipe recently and it seemed very suitable as there are lots of these mushrooms around at the moment. The fig rosemary tarts with lemon mascarpone I noticed ages ago and have been keeping the recipe for a special occasion which this definitely was. Both were surprisingly easy to assemble as lot could be done beforehand and it really turned into a feast. I will definitely be making these again

Then yesterday the Basel hebst messe has started. On several spots in the city there are fairgrounds, food stalls and markets. The one closest to us on the Peterplatz is mainly filled with stalls. I had to keep myself from buying lots of jummy food, pottery and wool but got lots of things I’ve got an eye on and will be returning often in the next few weeks to purchase them. They are also a great place for picking up Christmas presents at there are only 8 weeks left (yikes!).

Goodbye Dundee and hello Basel!

2006-10-11T20:22:00.000+01:00

About 5 weeks ago I got a phone call from my new boss telling me that he finally had funding for me to work for him in Basel. I was taken totally by surprise but accepted quickly as I’ve wanted to work for him for the last two years. So after weeks of frantic packing, cleaning and saying goodbyes I’ve left Dundee after 5 great years here! I just want to thank the many people who have made my stay there so amazing and showed me the country, mountains, pubs, sessions, took me climbing, walking and sailing, knitting and weaving and are such good friend! We’ll meet again soon!

And now I’m in Basel where I’ve been thrown in at the deep end, being put straight to work but that’s ok, cause I like working that way. I’ve been very lucky to be able to stay with a colleague who is very nice and we’ve discovered a common love for cooking and mountains. Barry and I have also found a flat (!), which we will move into this weekend, and I’ve bought myself a bicycle with a pannier for all my food shopping.

I’ve already had some lovely food in the 1.5 week that I’ve been here including a real Swiss fondue (thanks to Simone and Raphaela), the most simple but delicious fettucini with Chantrelle and Steinpilz and finally Vermicelles. This is seasonal dessert made of a mountain of slightly sweetened chestnut puree, shaped like spaghetti, served with wiped cream topped with a piece of marron glace and in our case with a hidden light meringue inside. I’d had a variation of this dessert in Japan last year where it is known as Mont Blanc. The Swiss version appears less sweet, which I like, although the portions are a lot bigger, which is not so good as it’s heavy stuff. Last Saturday we enjoyed a very nice one in Schliesser, a gorgeous old patisserie with tearoom upstairs. I can foresee spending many a rainy day in there (if I’m not to busy cooking in my nice new kitchen with pull-out, floor to ceiling, pharmacy-like cupboard!! only slightly excited about this).

Malaysian moon cake and more

2006-10-05T18:35:00.000+01:00

Another post long overdue…Stephanie organized Blogging By Mail recently and I’ve still not posted about this. Friday the 15th I came back from an exhausting conference to find a package on my desk. At first I didn’t twig but then realized that it was my BBM package, and so early! So I managed to keep myself from opening it right there and then and after posting my own package on the way home I opened it when I came home.

I was sooo lucky that I was assigned Viviene! She sent me the most amazing package full of Malaysian goodies. I’ve never had the chance to go to Malaysia, but did stop over in Singapore once for 14 hours and spent a month travelling in Thailand so I’ve had some of the food and absolutely loved it! this package was a lovely reminders of the flavours I’d tasted before and it contained:

Lobster snacks beautiful little snacks which I expected to be fishy but tasted of peanuts and kept me going during the weekend I spent packing my belongings for the removal people

Peanut brittle one of my favourites! It didn’t last very long I’m afraid to say as it was just too delicious!

Durian sweet I’d seen and smelt the durian fruit when I was in Thailand and it was pretty foul but when you taste it, its really nice. So these sweets were a real treat.

Moon cake a beautiful round cake filled with real lotus paste in honour of the moon festival, which was eaten with my parents whilst cleaning the flat on my last weekend here (they were stars!). I’ve had these types of pastries filled with bean paste but never lotus paste which was very yummie, she also sent me some information about the history and legend behind the Chinese Moon Festival.

Curry paste and sticky rib sauce both looked lovely, but haven’t had time to make them so they are in a box travelling to Basel at the moment as I decided to share them with Barry as he loves sticky ribs.

Ginger honey coffee I’m normally not a big fan of flavoured coffee but these were really nice! Not to sweet and overpowering and kept me going on my late evenings cleaning up the office and finishing all the work I had to do.

Finally last but not least, a letter explaining the contents and a cookbook on Malaysian desserts, which I’m sure will be very well used as soon as we’ve found a kitchen (and flat to go with it).

So all in all, a wonderful package that has made the last whirlwind weeks a lot easier to deal with….thank you very much Viviene!

PS apologies for the bad quality of the pictures but I had to make due with the camera on my laptop as my digital camera was off getting fixed by Sony. Not impressed with them at all as first my camera broke within 6 months and then they made me pay for it even though it was still under warranty. They claimed there was nothing wrong with it but the guy on the phone explained to me (kindly) that sometimes opening and closing them solves the problem when something is jammed (like the lens in this case) yet then they still made me fork out £30!! Unbelievable.

Tagged by Pamela

2006-09-30T10:13:00.001+01:00

Sitting at Heathrow airport waiting for my flight to Basel, I am finally sorting out my backlog of things to blog about. Pamela tagged me for this meme but with all the packing and leaving parties in the last week I’ve not had a chance to get around to it so here it goes…

I am thinking about: my new job starting on Monday

I said: Achter de wolken schijnt de zon (the sun is shining behind the clouds)

I want to: never move again!

I wish: my papers are accepted and I get a grant to stay in this job longer

I regret: not spending enough time with my parents and brother .

I hear: Blackbirds and Thrushes by Niamh Parsons.

I am: going to weave lots on my new loom when it arrives (thank you for a fabulous present guys!)

I dance: not nearly enough.

I sing: all the time and still not enough.

I cry: not very often.

I am not: looking forward to running again

I am: going to enjoy my first weekend in Basel and buy myself some new trousers (three pairs is just not enough)

I write: to much science and not enough about my cooking

I confuse: my French, German, Spanish and Japanese when I speak another language than English or Dutch.

I need: to sleep lots this weekend.

I tag: Sheryll, Corri_chan and Viviene for this meme

On another note, long live BA for letting me take on 10 kg excess luggage at no charge!! How is it every time you move you have more stuff then you think?!

Favourite kitchen gadget

2006-09-10T18:15:00.000+01:00

Darn it....I'm late! I've spent the whole weekend at a weaving workshop (I can recommend it!!!) so now my post is late....hopefully it'll still be ok.Pamela was hosting the favourite kitchen gadget event. As I’ve been packing to move I’ve seem all my kitchen paraphernalia coming past in the last few days and decided that I don’t have one, but three favourites and all for different reasons.

The first one is my most practical favourite, my tried and trusted multipurpose mixer. I love the versatility of it! Whether you are making a cake, dip, curry, soup or something else with only a few attachments you can make it all. And there is no need for lots of bulky kitchen appliances. This mixer was a present from my mum the first year I went to university. For the last 9 years it’s been happily blending, mixing, grinding and kneading away and I hope it will continue to do so for a long time.

The second one is my cutest favourite. This lovely little princess grater was given to me by a friend of mine back home when I moved to the UK. We had shared many lovely meals during our studies and seeing it reminds me of that. Plus someone is always smiling at you when you walk into the kitchen which I the best way to start the day ☺.

Finally, my odd favourite….another present….Barry gave me this for our first Sinterklaas together, so for a start it reminds me of the effort he made trying to mimic Dutch custom and the thoughtful present he got me. For those of you who are wondering, it’s an egg clacker, meant to open your eggs with in a neat way. You lift the ball to the end of the stick, let go and it should leave you with a perfect cut to remove the lid of your egg…perfect for soldiers. Living in Scotland, I then to fry my eggs here but it reminds me of the game my brother and I used to play when we were younger where you would make as small a hole as possible in your egg. Then you would eat it very neatly, turn the shell upside down and give it to my dad. Without fail, he would always pretend as if he was really surprised it wasn’t a “real” egg. In addition, I love how geeky it is (I am a science nerd after all) and wish I would use it more. I’ve recently seen some very cool pictures of little custards made in eggs so perhaps, it’ll a get a few more uses in the future?!

Sudden move!!

2006-09-06T10:52:00.000+01:00

I'm so excited!! as you might have figured out from the blog, I've been planning to move to Basel for a while. Barry left last week and started his new job on Monday and I had resigned myself to living in Dundee until Christmas. But then I got a call from my future boss yesterday saying he finally got money organized but I need to start on the 1st October! So I'm moving on the 28th of September....I'm sooooo excited that's it's finally happening (it's been about two years in the planning) and daunted by packing up all my kitchenstuff! somehow it'll all fit, but it might be a bit quite on the blog in the next few weeks.

Saying goodbyes...

2006-08-29T06:37:00.000+01:00

It’s 6.30 in the morning and I’m just back from the train station to drop Barry off for his move to Basel. We’ve been planning to move there for quite a while now but it’s finally happened. So this morning he left to start his new job on the 1st September. I’ll stay in Dundee a bit longer to finish another paper on my work but once that published I can leave as well and hopefully that should be before the end of the year.

But to “celebrate” our last weekend in Scotland we’ve eaten pretty well in the last few days. On Friday night we had 9 friends over for dinner and had a lovely meal (if I do say so myself). Then on Sunday, Barry had planned me a surprise lunch so we set of in the car to a “secret” destination….as I was trying to guess as we drove along, we arrived in a place called Inverkeilor where we went to a restaurant called Gordon’s. He had read a review of this restaurant in The Times a while ago and decided we should try it out (don’t you just love surprises like that!).

They had a set menu with two options for each course (they have more options for dinner) and I could have eaten all of them, they sounded so good. Whilst we were having a drink an making out choices, they served us a lovely sesame and cheese biscuit and some very good olives. In the end, we decided to split and taste each others but each had our preferred choice.

For starters I had smoked haddock with Isle of Mull rarebit with a piperade and basil dressing. This was a lovely dish and a combination I hadn’t thought off. The sweet spiciness of the piperade combined well with the smoky taste of the fish and all of this was softened down by the lovely melted cheese on top. Barry had roasted red pepper and plum tomato soup with a pesto yogurt, which was very nice as well, but I’m just not a soup person in restaurants.

My main course was the supreme of guinea fowl with a calvados mousse, vanilla parsnip puree and pan juices and Barry went for the Venison. I really really liked this dish, the guinea fowl was perfectly cooked and the mousse was a nice surprise under the crispy skin but I loved the parsnip puree! It was smooth as velvet, creamy yet still light and the vanilla added a lovely accent…it was almost like eating a savory custard.

Then we shared the cheese platter and the dessert as we both wanted both. The hostess suggested to eat the cheeses in order or “ripeness” starting from Pont l’eveque to Gorgonzola, Isle of Mull, Dunsyre blue and finally Epoisse. They were all lovely but my favorites were the last two, I guess I prefer the smellier ones, whereas Barry preferred the Isle of Mull and the Dunsyre blue.

Finally dessert, a coconut and Malibu soufflé glace with caramelized pineapple and sorbet. It was definitely a feast to the eyes I but I was a bit skeptical at first as I don’t really like Malibu and often find it quite sickly. However, I’m glad to say I was wrong because it wasn’t anything like that. It was fresh, creamy, light and lovely. We finished the meal off with coffee and homemade vanilla tablet and honey chocolates. At £25 pp (£38 for dinner) for the food, I think this is a great find and I thought the portion size was perfect where I was very satisfied but didn’t feel stuffed at all. They also had a very impressive wine list, but as we were driving, I only had a glass of the house wine. We then went to the nearby beach of Lunan Bay for a walk to digest. All in all, a great day and a perfect way to say celebrate leaving at another one of Scotland’s hidden treasures! If anyone is in the area, I would definitely recommend you make a detour to this restaurant.

A very fancy jam sandwich

2006-08-27T19:52:00.000+01:00

I was very excited to hear the theme for Sugar High Friday was jam! One of the big farming industries around Dundee is berries, and a big proportion of British strawberries and raspberries are grown around here. In the summer months there are lots of fresh local berries for sale in the shops and there are many farms where you can go and pick your own. This is a great afternoon out and often on a Saturday we would pack up a picnic and head over to our favourite farm with friends. After a great meal in the sun, we’d set off into the fields to pick some berries and eat some as you go along (“one for the basket and one for me”, is the general motto). This give you a great supply for the week to pick at and whatever you can’t eat goes into the freezer or gets turned into jam.

I love making jam, it’s so easy, plus, your house smells great!! I was always fascinated by the whole process as a kid, in the summer my mum would buy trays of fruit at the market and cook them in her big copper pan on our camping stove outside (gas was better then electric and it was just to hot inside; the joys of living in France). To make this I used my friend Allyson’s recipe (she is a jam queen!) and just heated the sugar in the oven (about 100C, equal weight to the berries). I added this to the berries with the juice of a half a lemon (I think I had 500g berries, which made 2 jars) and did the frozen saucer test. For sterilizing, I use my mum’s technique of washing the jars, fill them with boiling water, leave 5 min, then air-dry on a clean towel. I find when you add the jam to the jars when its still hot, this will create a natural vacuum and I’ve not had any problems with mould.

Most of the jars have gone as presents as we are moving to Basel soon (Barry leaves on Tuesday!) but I’d kept one back for a special occasion, and this was it. I decided to cook this recipe, which looked incredibly appealing (seemed fitting as they are hosting this SHF) and as I was going to a last minute dinner party with a milk intolerant child present it was perfect. It took under 30 minutes to make from start to finish and tasted fabulous. Unfortunately, my baking tray wasn’t big enough so the sponge turned out quite thick, which made it hard to role up. Therefore, it ended up looking more like a jam sandwich than a roll but this didn’t affect the taste, and it went down a treat with everyone….definitely a keeper!

Lucky stars

2006-08-13T09:03:00.000+01:00

Apologies, but it’s gonna be a long one….I’m just back from a two week break in Japan with a colleague (and a subsequent week in bed with an evil Japanese cold!). The trip was part work as we were attending a conference and as the flight was already paid for we stuck on some holiday. We didn’t get off to a good start as our bags were left behind in transfer in Istanbul and as the next flight was 5 days later we spent the whole conference in the same clothes (three cheers for free t-shirts and hotel slippers!). This was a bit nerve-racking, especially as we had to present our work in a seminar. But of course everything went fine, we met lots of new people, caught up with old friends, ate lots of wonderful food and finished with a lovely leaving dinner complete with Japanese dancing (and they made us all participate! Lots of embarrassing pictures for the next meeting I think).

Friday, when the conference was over, we travelled to Fukuoka with two friends (Yumie and Manami) I met working here last year and there were our bags (I’ve never been so excited at the sight of clean clothes!). Bags and all, we piled in Yumie’s family car along with her mother and after a great Tempura lunch, drove off to the mountains where we had the most amazing three days. We stayed in an apartment annexed to the Rikuro Okamoto museum, which Yumie’s father designed as they are good friends. They treated us to a lovely home-cooked meal of raw katsuo marinated with soy and ginger, somen noodles with orka, cucumber and dipping sauce, tomatoes with sesame dressing and boiled taros you dipped into soy and ginger. It was so fresh, delicious (o-ish-ii!!) and beautifully presented (didn’t take many pictures as I wasn’t sure they’d appreciate my fascination with photographing my food) and after a lovely dessert of uirou (traditional Nagoya sweet) we went outside to look at the stars.

After a traditional Japanese breakfast of rice, miso soup and several dishes (not too keen on the pickled fisheggs but the rest was tasty) we set off to visit the ruined Oka castle. We climbed up and enjoyed stunning views of the surroundings, followed by a lovely lunch at Tajimaya in Takeda city. Lunch was perfectly presented in a two tiered lacquered bowl where lifting the top layer revealed a lovely collection of chicken and vegetables simmered in soy broths, along with fresh fu (wheat gluten), kuzu kiri (transparent arrowroot noodles) with a miso, yuzu vinegar and pickles. Lifting this layer showed the accompanying sticky rice with chestnuts and there was also some clear broth to go with it. We then visited the associated sweets shop where they had beautiful sweets made from sweet bean paste and big displays of Obon sweets (this is the festival where dead relatives are remembered and these sweets are displayed at the house altar). The rest of the afternoon was spend driving around visiting scenic bridges, waterfalls, a winery and Guernsey (in Japan!?) farm where we had the hugest, creamiest ice cream straight (almost) from the cow.

One Sunday we had another great day visiting one of the tops of mount Aso, a volcano that is still active. The crater was amazing, so barren yet beautiful in this lush green landscape of rice paddies. We then descended and had our own little volcanic lunch of a Dengaku set. We got a mountain of glowing coals in the centre of our table and 6 skewers each with a variety of vegetables, tofu, fish and a mini-crab to grill to perfection. Once done, the waitress came to smother the skewers with a Dengaku glaze (Miso-fermented bean paste, stock, Mirrin-sweet cooking sake, sugar and in this case Yuzu-citrus fruit) and you then ate this along with pickles, rice and soup. This was a real treat as I am a self-proclaimed Miso-monster. I love the stuff and would have it every day if I had the chance. Stuffed (keko desu!) we continued to Yumie’s uncles sake brewery were he gave us a guided tour of the place. I never realized it was actually made like wine from a mix of steamed rice with water (his saying was good water = good sake = good times) and even though some of the details were “lost in translation” we got the general idea. We then purchased some bottles and went back home for another feast that included horse sashimi (a local delicacy), a variety of sweets for dessert and some sake tasting which was really really nice! I was pleasantly surprised as the stuff I’ve had before was always quite strong and harsh whereas this just melted in your mouth. I was kicking myself I didn’t buy any more and the 300 ml taster bottle disappeared quickly. We then retreated outside again and as the sky was sooooo clear saw about 10 shooting stars in 30 min and had a stunning view of the Milky Way.

The next morning we were woken up (slightly in shock) at 5.30 by Yumie’s mum as outside a truly rare sight was to be seen around the volcano. They call in Unkai when the old crater around the current tops fills up with a sea of clouds and we were lucky enough to witness it! So off we drove in our pyjamas to the nearest viewpoint and it was truly stunning, the world was just so peaceful and pretty. We then went back to bed and after a lazy breakfast said goodbye to Manami and went to the nearby onsen town of Kurokawa. Onsens are Japanese mineral hot-spring baths and this town contains many, they are all beautifully designed. So we spent a while soaking in the turquoise water surrounded by the smell of cedar (the building material of the onsen) enjoying the view outside and then retreated to the associated restaurant for a delicious lunch where we shared a portion cold soba noodles and then had Yamaimo rice with many accompaniments. Yamaimo is a strange vegetable as it looks like a potato but once grated it turns into this white slimy slush. You mix this into your rice and slurp it with delight…however, I didn’t really go for the sliminess but our Japanese hosts gladly took care of leftovers. But the rest of the dishes were delicious as always and the black sesame ice cream we had for dessert was lovely. After that we packed up and headed for Fukuoka, which was a bit of a shock after the peaceful mountains but it seemed very vibrant and alive. We caught up with Yumie’s father and all went to a yatai (food stall) to have ramen, the trademark food of Fukuoka and it did taste very good although it was a bit hot in the weather (38 degrees Celcius and 80% humidity).

On our final day in Fukuoka, Yumie’s mum taught us how to make matcha (powdered Japanese green tea) according to the rules of tea ceremony, which was a real treat. For dinner, Yumie’s father taught us how to make his family recipe of cold miso soup, a quick summer dish with lots of fresh vegetables and fish to keep the farmers going. The luck didn’t stop there as it turned out there was a hanabi festival where they shoot off lots of fireworks. Unfortunatly, on the way there my camera died ☹ so no pictures of the stunning 90 minutes display. It was beautiful, especially as we were surrounded by lost of ladies and girls all dressed up in pretty yukatas (summer kimonos). Also no pictures from our subsequent 4-day stay in Kyoto I’m afraid. But then, I didn’t get to make the most of it as my colleague was short of cash and just not very interested in Japanese food so I had to contend myself with a shopping trip to Nishiki market and didn’t get to eat any of the beautiful Kaiseki food Kyoto is famous for. However, I did manage to buy this stunning looking book so will hopefully be able to recreate some of those lovely dishes at home with all my edible souvenirs! And I thank my lucky stars that I have such wonderful friends over there that have given me an insight into their culture, home and kitchen....hopefully we'll meet again soon.

Five times meme

2006-07-23T13:16:00.000+01:00

Anna kindly passed her meme of fives onto me, so here are my answers:

Five Things in my Freezer

With a freezer and a half, it’s amazing how much stuff you accumulate (unfortunately no Edamame in my freezer though)
1. A jar of Lemonchello as its nicest cold
2. The best pizzadough every according to Heidi and Barry (as a true pizza fanatic) agrees with her
3. An emergency loaf of Irish bread
4. Lots of left over herbs
5. A tub of rhubarb ginger granita I made for this but never got the chance to post about

Five Things in my Closet

1. My ever growing collection of silly shoes (can a girl ever have enough?!)
2. Some nice bottles of wine, hidden for a party and now waiting for the perfect meal.
3. Lots and lots of belts and scarf
4. A growing collection of artsy skirts (my new project)
5. The rest of my clothes

Five Things in my Car

1.WD40, a savior when it comes to Dolly, our 15 year old Polo that has lots and lots of rusty bits
2. Change (mainly small) for crossing the bridge to Fife for summer berry picking and knitting trips
3. Decent plastic bags (not the flimsy supermarket ones!) and a cardboard box to not create more plastic waste when shopping
4. A miniature black camper van inherited from the previous owner
5. Lots of dust and mud as I’m very lazy at cleaning the car out and with walking trips it accumulates quickly

Five Things in my Purse

I have the loveliest green felted purse my friend gave me for my birthday. Unfortunately, there are not many compartments to put interesting stuff in

1. To many plastic cards
2. Lots of coppers that will eventually make it into the car for the bridge change
3. A small tub of Vaseline
4. Lots of receipts
5. Ibuprofen for my most recent ceilidh injury (don’t ask).

With that I’m off to Japan for the next two weeks (both conference and holiday)!! I can’t wait for all the wonderful food an will blog about it once I get back.

Sunday lunch with Sinatra

2006-07-13T19:30:00.000+01:00

Every Sunday, during the summer months, various brass bands play at the bandstand on the green at the end of our road. We’ve been away many weekend so have missed it so far but last weekend we were finally here so I made a Japanese themed lunch in my lovely “new” lunchbox.

I bought it just before Christmas when we went to a local shop where everyone else bought decorations for on and presents for under their tree. However, I saw this lunchbox and fell absolutely in love with it. It reminded me of the bento’s they have in Japan. There, everyone eats their lunch from compartmentalized boxed that contain great goodies. At new year, the hearth is traditionally extinguished for tree days so before this happens, the women of the house prepare an elaborate meal that is kept in a big bento and eaten over three days. I was full of good intentions to prepare this but with all the holiday madness it never happened and afterwards it seemed a bit silly to do it at the inappropriate time.

So last Sunday it was finally christened with a variety of Japanese dishes. In the top layer, I put soba noodles I’d come across made according to a Nigella recipe accompanied by Takuan pickles (or the Korean variant, from the Chinese supermarket) and soy simmered mushrooms. This is a recipe I learned in my first Japanese cooking class and have been addicted to ever since. In the second layer, I made various shapes of sushi with the same sake-toro filling, which is easily made by mincing some fresh salmon, spring onions and a dollop of Wasabi finely with a big knife. In the final layer, there was some salmon sashimi with soy and leeks in a Miso-vinegar dressing. It all looked great, but threatening clouds were appearing so I quickly went into the garden, which was a good idea as minutes later, rain came pouring out of the skies so we decided to have our picnic at home instead. But once we had finished all the tasty bits, it had cleared up again so we decided to go down after all. There were a lot of people there and most were elderly. But as it started to rain it was the young ones that disappeared first while the older generation dried of the seats with their hankies and pulled out their umbrellas. The most remarkable was an old man, dressed top to bottom in waterproofs that wondered down the hill holding on to his zimaframe, to the chairs where he sat happily tapping his feet in the rain. I really hope that when I reach that age, I will still brave the heavy rain to come and listen to some Sinatra.

Soy-simmered Dried Black Mushrooms (Shiitake no Umani)
Makes about 1/3 cup
3-4 dried shiitake
pinch of sugar
3/4 cup basic seastock
1/2 cup liquid left after softening the mushrooms
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp shoyu

*Remove the stems from the mushrooms (they are very chewy but can be used to make a vegetarian stock). Soakthe caps for at least 30 min and up to several hours (or even days if you want to make this in advance) in warm water to cover. Adding a pinch of sugar hastens the softening process. You can weigh down the mushrooms with an otoshi-buta (dropped lid) but I generally use a small plate or glass to make sure the mushrooms are completely submerged.
*When the mushrooms have softened, strain to remove the gritty bits and resoak the capes in the stained liquid for 5-10 min (the caps should be fully reconstituted before cooking; I often skip this step as I'm not to fussy about little bits). Strain again and save the liquid.
*Combine 1/4 cup of the mushroom liquid (save the rest for soups) with half the dashi. Season with sake and bring to a simmer in a small saucepan.
*Add the softened shiitake caps and cook for 10 min maintaining a steady but gentle bubble, again trying to keep the mushrooms submerged. Skim away froth before adding the sugar.
*Add the sugar and cook 3-4 min stirring occasionaly, then add the shoyu and cook 4-5 min until the shiitake become glazed. Allow the caps to cook in the cooking pot and transfer them into a clean glass jar. They can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days

Note: Dried mushrooms are not interchangable with fresh ones as they have very different flavours. The left over liquids can be used to make miso or noodle soup. The mushrooms are lovely on their own or cut into slices in salads.

Gourmet sailing

2006-07-06T18:23:00.000+01:00

We’ve just had a mini holiday last week where for five days, we sailed on the North Sea with good friends as their boat needed to be transported from Shetland to Dundee. We missed the first few days of the expedition but took the ferry to the Orkneys and joined the expedition there. Orkney is full of Neolithic monuments and when we came off the boat we went to spend midnight at the ring of Brodgar, a huge stone circle that originally consisted of 60 stones. This is a truly magical place and as we’re still close to midsummer there was a constant sunset in the sky. It is really baffling how these people quarried and moved these huge slabs of stone with wooden and stone tools only.

Back to the boat for a few hours of sleep but before bed, we had a wee nip of Caol Ila (a lovely whisky and also the name of the boat) accompanied by a slice of citrus polenta cake. I had made this cake beforehand as I had lots of polenta to use up and was inspired after Keiko’s post on kumquats. The cake was very easy to assemble although I went slightly wrong caramelizing the fruit for the bottom layer as the pan wasn’t hot enough. But once I got past that, I ended up with this lovely moist batter (even though I added too much polenta). It travelled remarkably well and was very tasty but would have benefited from the vodka mascarpone in the original recipe (we solved this problem with custard in the following days).The next morning we explored the island, which included a guided tour of another beautiful Neolithic structure, Maeshowe and a few visits to the local fishmongers. We decided to have a seafood feast for Barry’s birthday and went all out with spoots (razor shellfish), scallops and lobsters. Then we set sail for about 4 hours to move a bit further south to a bay just off the Scapa flow. This was a magical spot where we anchored right next to one of the Churchill barriers, which was the perfect location for our dinner. We went for a plain salad and traditional scones to go with the meal as we didn’t want to detract from the great flavours of the seafood. We just boiled the lobsters and fried the scallops in garlic butter. The spoots needed a bit more effort as they needed to be left in water for about 15 min to get rid of all the sand. Then you pour boiling water over them to get the shells (I think this would have been the point to remove the stomachs, but we didn’t realize we had to do that and ended up with some added sand) to open and finally they were quickly fried with garlic butter as well. Everything tasted so lovely and fresh and we were all well stuffed towards the end of the meal. Finally we had another nightcap (this time Dutch bitter, which is what we used to have back on the boat in Holland) with Banoffi pie that was lovely and rich. The next morning we set off early for a 16 hour leg to Fraserburgh, but due to the lack of/southerly wind we had to motor all the way. The main distraction was watching puffins and guillemots trying to take off (but failing and just nose diving into the waves), swinging off the haliet and eating lots of nice food.

In Fraserburgh we lost half our crew due to other commitments and to much seasickness :-( , which was a shame as the next day we finally got to sail properly and saw a big whale playing in the waves!! I looked over and noticed this huge white and black shape clearing the water, at first I wasn’t sure if I’d seen it right but then there were a few spouts of water and the whale jumped up two more times. It was truly amazing and we were just soooo excited for a long time after. So to celebrate that evening we decided to go for a scrumptious 8 course meal consisting of crayfish tails in a sweet chilli sauce, parcels of pepperoni, sun dried tomatoes and rum soaked cashew nuts (a variation on Johanna’s wonderful skewers), battered and fried squids, rolls of pastrami filled with grated carrot and spring onion dressed with soy, Portobello mushrooms stuffed with parsley, cashews and blue cheese, Emma’s excellent broccoli with ginger soy and marmalade (!), a perfect fillet steak and finally, crepe suzette (although not lit as that would be a bit risky.) This was all accompanied by some G&Ts, Chablis, pink and red sparkling wine and a great singsong.

Needless to say, the next morning was a bit of a struggle but we had to get up early to make it to Arbroath in time. We didn’t get quite so far and moored in Montrose where Barry came to pick us up. Utterly exhausted and pretty land sick (everything was moving sooo much) we had a final farewell dinner with everyone in Dundee and then went off to bed to get rid of all the moving motion in my head. But it was a really wonderful experience and hopefully we’ll do it all again very soon….

Pottery, Pies and Picnics

2006-06-21T22:04:00.000+01:00

Work is a bit hectic at the moment and I’m afraid the blog has been suffering from it the most. After a long day of writing papers and grants, the last think I feel like is sitting down behind the computer again. But last weekend, we managed to escape to the far north of Scotland to celebrate the Summer Solstice (which is actually today). This was a real trip down memory lane for me as we went to Achmelvich, which is the first place I visited outside of Dundee when I moved here the first time in 2000 as an undergraduate student. I came here for 7 months to work in one of the labs, fell in love with Scotland, came back the next year to do a PhD and haven’t left since (although the end is in sight)….this is one of my fabourite parts of Scotland and I love coming here. This time, Barry came with me as he had never been and I wanted to show him this area before we move....but I digress.

So last Friday we drove up with friends and pitched the tent next to the sea. Saturday morning we woke up to the sound of rain so stayed in the tents for a while, had breakfast and around 11, when it dried up wondered over to Lochinver, a village about 4 miles away. We visited the Highland pottery shop, which has stunning pottery but quite pricey. So I was sooooo chuffed when I found a seconds serving platter, which was perfect on top but had an ugly mark on the bottom (nobody will ever know!) half price (pics will follow soon). We then went to this amazing shop I’d been told about a long time ago but never had a chance to visit (even though I’ve been in the area five time already). It’s the Lochinver Larder and they sell lots of wonderful pies. There were so many different varieties that it took us a long time to make up our minds but in the end we shared a venison and cranberry pie, a wild boar, port and prune pie and rounded it off with a strawberry/rhubarb pie for dessert.
The pies were heated for us but we took them outside where they made a perfect picnic whilst looking out towards the see. The pies were really moist and full of flavour, the fruit was perfectly balanced with the meat and the pie crust had a nice bite to it. After this, we wondered back and the rest of the weekend was spent walking beaches, swimming (for some...way too cold for me!), playing rugby on the beach, building dams in sand, having barbeques and roasting marshmallows and wondering along the cost. I can really recommend this area if you’re ever this far north. It’s a beautiful rugged part of the country with lots of sheep and little people but everyone is really friendly and the food is great. There are a lot of wonderful seafood restaurants and at this time of year the light is really fabulous, it’s so far north that it doesn’t even get completely dark and we sat up with a bonfire till the early hours.
Now back in Dundee with the piles of papers, I find myself staring at the mountain scenery on my new plate and contemplate ordering some pies by post soon, unless I find the time to make one….

When you can't make ice cream...

2006-06-13T19:40:00.000+01:00

...as you don't have an ice cream maker and you can't go out and buy one as you will be moving by the end of the year and you have to move your vast quantity of kitchen paraphernalia again....you make granita! I've been restraining myself from buying an ice cream maker but with the warm weather there is nothing like some frozen comfort but I have found the solution to my problem....granita's! They're somewhere in between a sorbet and a slush puppy but so much better then the horrible synthetic tasting ones we get here (I mean turquoise for raspberry flavour!). They are very easy to make (and quick, which is a big bonus at the moment as work is hectic) as you just boil a sugar syrup and can then add anything you fancy to thin the liquid out, preferably with some alcohol. The liquid is then frozen in a shallow tray and scooped out as a crystallite mixture. Lovely on its own, with fruits or cakes, the possibilities are endless.

I've previously made a mulled wine granita and this time went for a lemon one with the lemons we got from our organic citrus box. I took the rind off the lemons and boiled this with the sugar syrup. The syrup was strained and water and alcohol (in this case Corenwyn; a Dutch version of gin) was added. This was then frozen and had been sitting in my freezer for ages until we ate it last night. I had baked some lemon and poppy seed cookies to go with it from the parcel Marie-Laure sent me for EBBP4. The cookies were great and their crunchiness contrasted nicely with the fresh, tart and slighlly boozy taste of the granita...the perfect summer dessert!

Some random food...

2006-05-11T18:22:00.000+01:00

...that we've been eating over the last week or so. I'm very busy at work at the moment so don't have that much time to write posts but I thought I'd share these pictures with you as I like them. First up, a summer salad of mixed leaves with Beluga lentil and goats cheese crostinis which we enjoyed in our garden on a Sunday afternoon (the weather has been absolutely fab here the last week).

Followed by some daikon and roast beef rolls from the Japanese feature in this month's Delicious. These were very easy to make, just grate some daikon, squeeze out the juice, add some chopped spring onions and roll them up in a slice of roast beef. The dipping sauce was made off soy (4 tbsp), sesame oil (1 tbsp) and some finely sliced garlic. The whole thing took about 5 min to assemble and was very tasty....great finger food for entertaining.

Finally, we had some pork burgers (mince, onion and garlic mixed with ground coriander, cumin, tumeric and chilipowder) with some steamed runner beans and these lovely ceci with garlic and sage. They are a bit of an effort to make but very much worth it, crunchy and with a bit of a kick they make a lovely snack or part of a full meal. So hopefully I'll have more time to write a proper post soon but first we're off for a weekend of walking on the westcoast...fingers crossed we'll keep the nice weather!

Something old and something new

2006-05-09T08:34:00.000+01:00

One of the souvenirs I brought back from my recent skiing trip in the Savoie (France) was a bag of Crozets. This pasta was introduced in the Savoie in the 17th century. The pasta is made from a mix of plain and wholewheat flour or buckwheat flour that is cut into little squares and is a good example of hearty mountain food. I bought a bag of buckwheat crozet as I like their nutty flavour. Traditionally, they are prepared in a Croziflette (a tartiflette made with crozets in stead of potatoes) in which they are paired with bacon and Reblochon. This is a tasty and filling dish, just what is needed after a day on the piste or perhaps whilst having lunch on the piste.

A few months I already made the traditional version, but with spring finally here and summer fast approaching; it was time to use them in a new combination. So I decided to use the crozets in a fresh summer salad. After boiling them, I paired them with some lovely organic mixed leaves we got from our organic veggie bag delivery. I also added some slices of roasted kabotcha pumpkin, a few bits of gorgonzola and some slices of Parma ham. This combination was great, lots of strong flavours that combine well. The crozets stay pretty al dente so have a nice bite to them and as the mixed salad contained mizuna, shungiku, tai sai, cress, rocket, raddicio and little gems it was crisp and spicy. The sweetness of the roasted kabocha pumpkin combined nice with the Gorgonzola, which started to melt slightly with the pumpkin and the Parma ham finished all this off beautifully. A very pleasant lunch indeed and I think this new combination is at least as good as the old one!

Three uses for Katsuo-bushi

2006-05-05T08:15:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I got a very nice surprise as I received a parcel from Anna at Baking for Britain. Anna was my allocated person for EBBP4 and I some of the ingredients I sent her were for making Japanese food including dashi (seastock). However, my ingredients were incomplete and contained no bonito flakes as just can’t get everything in Dundee. These flakes are made from the dried flesh of the bonito (skipjack tuna) which has been repeatedly smoked. This is then shaved into flakes and mainly used for adding a smoky, fishy flavour to stock or as garnish for a variety of dishes. Anna very kindly found some in for me in London and this was the parcel that arrived, 5 precious little bags of bonito flakes (or katsuo bushi as Anna discovered from the Japanese shop owners).

So I wanted to make something a bit more special then just stock and decided to make okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is what they sometimes call Japanese pizza, as you can vary the topping but it’s more like an overly filled omelette. The first time I had one was years ago when one of my Japanese colleagues in Dundee organized a pot-luck dinner party, Her contribution was an okonomiyaki and I remember being amazed at the topping. The omelette is garnished with katsuo-bushi and as the flakes are so thin, they seem to “dance” on top of the omelette as they sway in the hot air.

Then whiles living in Japan, we would sometimes go to restaurants specialized in okonomiyaki. These are very fun places as all the tables have a hot plate built in and you order the premixed ingredients but get to cook the whole thing at your own table. However, after dinner there, you are definitely in need of a shower as you stink of frying but it’s well worth it.

So I got the recipe from the book Untangling my Chopsticks, a book I absolutely love and recommend if you are interested in Japanese food and the culture involved. The recipe is very simple, you just chop and grate all the veg and meat (or you can of course make it vegetarian, mix everything and then start frying them. You only use one egg, which doesn’t look like much, but it gets it’s lovely creamy golden texture from the grated taros (also known as Japanese mountain yams or satoimo). To eat, you garnish with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, katsuo-bushi and nori (seaweed) flakes and pickled ginger. Okonomiyaki sauce is actually based on Worcestershire sauce so you can use this as a replacement. Worcestershire sauce came to Japan in the second half of the 19th century but the flavour has been made milder to suit the Japanese palate. I couldn’t find the right pickled ginger so used gari (that you use for sushi) instead which doesn’t really matter flavour wise, although the other one does taste a bit stronger. I’d also run out of mayonnaise. As I had to make dashi for this recipe, I used one of the bags for that and then “recycled” the used bonito flakes by dry frying them with some soy…this makes a great sprinkle over rice. The rest of the dashi I used for making miso soup the following day. When frying the omelettes, the smells made me all nostalgic about Japan. Once again, the fish flakes danced on top and the taste was perfect.
Okonomiyaki (makes 2, serves 4)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp (0.5) tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 1/2cup dashi
1 large egg
1 cup grated taro’s
2 cups coarsely chopped green cabbage
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1 medium carrot, peeled and shredded
1 bunch scallions(±6) trimmed and thinly sliced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced into small pieces
10 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and sliced lengthwise in half

for garnish
mayonnaise
okonomiyaki sauce (can substitute with Worcestershire sauce)
shredded red pickled ginger
dried bonito flakes (katsuo-bushi)
shredded nori

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together dashi and egg, then add the grated taro’s. Add this wet mixture to the dry, whisk until the batter is smooth and add all the vegetables. Heat a non-stick skillet on medium-high, brush a tablespoon of oil on the surface and, when hot, put half the mixture in the pan. Spread this out till about 8 inch wide, scatter half of the chicken and shrimp on top and press them into the surface. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the pancake for about 4 minutes until the top edges appear cooked and the bottom has stiffened. Turn the pancake and cook for 3-4 more minutes until the other side is golden. Repeat this process with the remaining oil, batter, chicken and shrimp.

Cut the pancake into wedges and let people garnish their individual wedges. First spread creamy mayonnaise on top, followed by okonomiyaki sauce. Next, scatter some ginger shreds, bonito flakes and finally add a generous pinch of nori on top.

What’s For Pud?...Summer!!

2006-04-24T08:53:00.000+01:00

What a wonderful day we’ve had yesterday! We’ve gone straight from winter into summer up here in Scotland so the only fitting English dessert to make for What’s For Pud was Summer pudding. This was my first attempt at any kind of bread pudding as I have a great dislike of soggy and I was pleasantly surprised. It was very easy to assemble just boiling the fruit, sugar and water, lining the mould with bread and putting the fruit mixture in there, then leaving it in the fridge over night. The taste was really good, the juices sweetened the bread and even though the bread was slightly wet, it wasn’t soggy and the fruit inside was still intact. We had our first barbeque of the year and had the pudding for dessert. Thanks to Becks&Posh and Jamfaced for organizing this, it made me discover a great dessert and I’ll definitely make this more often, specially once it gets to picking season and you can pick your own berries at the farms around.

What's For Pud? and St George's Day

Liquor used at long last

2006-04-21T08:05:00.000+01:00

This Sugar high Friday is hosted by Chandra at Lick The Spoon and she picked a drunken dessert, preferably not rum….so I had the perfect recipe for this that I’ve been meaning to use since I bought my very first silicon mould (sigh). It was a cold November Sunday, I’d spent the weekend in Edinburgh and was on my way home. The last few months I’d been reading more and more blogs and had been reading about this new baking product called a silicon mould. Everybody seemed over the moon with these moulds and they did sound good but I’d never spotted one in the Dundee shops.

So little unexpected me was wondering in and out shops on the way to the train station and suddenly found myself in the Jenners (it’s a bit like the Scottish Harrods, but not quite so grand and without the foodsection) cooking department where I was greeted by a table full of lovely baby-pink Fauchon silicon!! So I ages to decide but finally settled on a mould with nine small rectangles (very practical) as I figured buying the pink mini heart-shaped moulds would give him a hart attack.

When I finally sat down on the train, I unwrapped my lovely new mould (there’s nothing quite like getting something just for you wrapped as a present anyway) and found another bonus: there were two recipe cards included with the mould. One was for vegetable mini cakes and the other for miniature pear cakes. Both sounded appealing but I’m definitely sweets person so I started plotting this recipe. I wouldn’t be able to get pear liquor in Dundee I would have to make some and I had just the bottle for it.

My parents have this habit of giving us presents and then not remembering so giving them again. This way we’ve steadily been building up a collection of Corenwyn (only in Dutch I’m afraid). This is almost like a Dutch combination of vodka and whiskey, distilled from grains but matured in oak casts for three years it has a high alcohol percentage and a sharp taste and I’m not a big fan of it as a drink. But as the taste isn’t very pronounced it can easily be used for cooking.

So when I got off the train, I bought some pears, made the liquor using equal quantities of sugar, fruit and alcohol and left it in the cupboard to rest……for about 6 months! For all my initial excitement, I never actually got around to making the cakes until now so this was a great motivator. The batter was very straightforward to prepare although I could really have done with braising the pears earlier but I left everything till the last minute, so they weren’t quite cold when they got mixed into the batter (and still had quite a lot of juice with them). Another thing that worried me was that there was no use of rising agent but the dense consistency worked quite well once the cakes were soaked. Once cooled, the cakes were really nice and moist, the flavour of the alcohol wasn’t to overpowering but gave this subtle hint that there was a little more than just pears in there. It was great for dessert as it was still all warm but even better the next day when all the flavours mixed.

Miniature pear cakes (makes nine)
165g caster sugar
3 eggs
165g butter
2cl pear liquor/brandy
165g flour
165g diced pears
17g butter
33g honey
Pear punch:
40g sugar
6cl water
3cl pear liquor/brandy

Braise the diced pears in the honey and butter; cool and set aside in the fridge. In a bowl beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture forms soft peaks. Blend one third of the mix with the melted butter and brandy, add the flour to the other two thirds of the mixture. Then mix these two together. Fill each miniature cake tin with the mix and the diced pears. Bake at 160C for 35 min. Mix the sugar, water and pear liquor to make a pear punch and heat it for a few minutes. Leave the miniature cakes to cool for 3-4 min; then soak them in the hot pear punch for 30 sec.

Easter extravaganza

2006-04-16T22:31:00.000+01:00

I am writing slouched on the couch as we’ve just had soooo much food this afternoon, I could not possibly sit up. But it was wonderful, we had lovely company, the weather was beautiful and allowed us to go out and sit in the sun, and after two days in the kitchen we had a true Easter feast. As this was the first time in about one and a half years since I’d had a big dinner party I went a bit overboard. So a big thanks to Barry for helping me out with everything and calming my panic attacks (we’re not gonna have enough food!!). Anyway, this is what we had but unfortunately I forgot to take pics of lots of the dishes so I’ll leave it up to your imagination.

We had spiced chickpeas to nibble on, then Nigella’s
ham in cola, which is always a great success. For the vegetarians there was an asparagus quiche, chickpea fritters with a tikka sauce and Jerusalem artichoke salad, both from the Crank’s cookbook I got for my birthday and hadn’t had a chance to cook from yet. Then our guests brought lovely salads, potato cakes and chocolates and we had lots of different homemade breads with rosemary, sun-blushed tomatoes and a butter lamb as well (the mould was another present).

For dessert we had chouquettes, a slightly adapted version of Gateau de Mamy with more almonds, less flour and pieces of dark chocolate, Pate brisee with Dulce de Leche instead of ganache, hot cross buns, as I’d never had any before and finally a Pavlova with a mascarpone lime cream topped with raspberries and strawberries from the Avoca cookbook.

So now…we just need to digest (which will take a while I think) and then have it all over again as we made way too much food! There was no need to panic after all….

Chocolate balls turn into eggs

2006-04-13T22:44:00.000+01:00

The first time I had these chocolate balls was over a year ago in Jaiselmer, India. We’d just come back from a two day camel trek in the dessert and were tired, sandy, smelly and incredibly sore. But after a shower we felt a bit more human and staggered into town (John Wayne style). We had a lovely sand-free italian dinner after 6 weeks of curry) in one of the hostels and as they had no tiramisu on the menu, we settled for chocolate balls. Not expecting very much, they were amazing...perhaps it was the 2 days in the desert, the motion of the camels or the lack of sleep but these balls were fabulous. After much persuasion, they let us come back the next day at lunchtime and showed us how to make them. What they claimed was a carefully guarded family secret turned out to be incredibly simple and easy!

The second time I tasted them was a few months later when I met up with one of the girls I travelled with and she had made some for old times sake. So we took a London bus tour and enjoyed our “balls” in the fresh air and sunshine whilst reminiscing of the camels and driving past Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and more.

So this is the third time I’ve had them and the first time I’ve made them myself but they were just as easy and tasted as good as I remembered...and instead of balls, I turned them into Easter eggs as it’s almost that time. They looked lovely next to my new decorations of eggs I blew out and wrapped in left-over bits of ribbon and I’m sure they’ll look great on the table, next to my newly knitted sheep egg warmers. I hope you all have a lovely Easter with lots of nice food and of course lots and lots of chocolate!

Indian chocolate balls
8 bourbon biscuits
2 heaped tsp of dissolving chocolate or cocoa
½ tsp of desiccated coconut (optional)
1 tsp butter
3 tbsp sweet and condensed milk

Crush the bourbons in a blender and when fine, add the rest of the ingredients. Mix till you get a mouldable paste and roll these into balls (or in this case, eggs). Sprinkle with coconut powder to serve.

I’m sure these would taste great with some crushed nuts, dried fruits or anything that takes your fancy instead of the coconut. And perhaps adding some rum, grand Marnier or other liqueur would be nice too...so many options!

Sakura in Dundee

2006-04-13T09:44:00.000+01:00

Last week a friend from Japan was visiting my work. We had a great time both in work and at ceilidhs and sessions. But he also brought some sweets from Japan including these Sakura cookies. Whilst I lived there last year I got really fascinated by all the food, especially the sweets so this was a lovely gift.

Sakura, the cherry blossom, is Japan's unofficial national flower. It has been celebrated for many centuries and takes a very prominent position in Japanese culture. When the blossom is blooming, there as special weather forecasts telling you where they are at their best and people go out to admire them at hanami. At Hanami festivals, people go out to celebrate the beauty of sakura, and for many, it is a chance to relax and enjoy the beautiful view. The city planting in Japan is very thought out so they have rows and rows of these trees in scenic spots. This way people can enjoy their free time admiring them, having a picnic there and having a good time.

The cookies were beautifully and thoughtfully packaged as everything in Japan is. Every detail matches perfectly like the stylized flours on the outside package, the two trays of cookies that fit perfectly into the outer container, one labeled with the leaves and one labeled with the flowers of the cherry tree as this is what’s in the cookies to the instructions on how to open a sachet. The cookies tasted lovely, very light and full of flavor with a hint of cherry blossom. I find myself wishing I was back in Japan to see the cherry blossom (as I missed it when I was working there from May-September) but for now, I’ll admire the few sakura trees that are randomly spread around Dundee while enjoying my cookies.

All of the orange…..

2006-04-11T09:09:00.000+01:00

...went into the cake. After weeks of eating citrus fruit we’ve finally managed to make it through the box of oranges we received. They tasted great and I really enjoyed the variety we got. Big oranges, small oranges, tangy oranges, sweet oranges and more. We ate them just as is, drizzled with honey and olive oil, had pears soaked in lemon juice, lemon sorbet and made limoncello, which is currently maturing.

But one of my favourite recipes was this Mediterranean orange cake, which comes originally from Delia Smith and was given to me by my mum who is a great source of tasty recipes. With this one, I really like the fact that it uses all the orange including the rind and this gives it a lovely bitter taste. As you put the whole orange in, it was great having organic ones and you don’t need to worry about nasties, wax and more. The dough is lovely and moist and as you use semolina flour it has a lovely grainy texture once finished. The cake is also soaked in a honey syrup, which makes it very moist and the icing of pistachios and Greek yogurt gives it a beautiful finish. Even though the list of ingredients is quite long, it is really easy to prepare but tastes great with the different flavours and textures really complimenting each other. Great for a dinner party, tea or just if you fancy some cake!

EBBP4- Delices from O delices

2006-04-06T09:19:00.001+01:00

With a bit of a delay both my parcel and post on EBBP4 has arrived! This was the first time Iíd taken part and I really liked the idea so I signed up with Andrew (Thank you so much for organising this!). I had a great time putting my parcel together for Anna and she wrote some lovely posts about it.

Then last Thursday I received my parcel from Marie-Laure at O delices. Odelices is not an actual blog but a website updated every week with a recipe. There are some really stunning pictures and food on it and it will be a good incentive to practice my French by cooking some of the food on there. I was also very taken by the gatherings they have where lots of people join, bring food and get to know each other/catch up. It seems to fit very well with the EBBP where I feel like Iíve already gotten to know two people by making and receiving parcels. But I think it would be nice meeting fellow bloggers in real life so if people in the area (Dundee/Scotland) are up for it I would be very happy to organize something?!

Anyway, so back to my French parcel: I was very chuffed with my goodies as Marie-Laure had made me two homebakes. First out of the box were some lovely mini orange and strawberry muffins, which were really nice, not too sweet and very moist. Closely behind were golden star shaped lemon and poppy seed biscuits. The stars were very pretty, firm and fresh with the nutty flavour of the poppy seeds breaking thought the sharpness of the lemons. And hooray, she included the recipe for these with some corn flour (very different from the corn flour we see here, I wonder if itís more like polenta??) and poppy seeds so I can make my own. There was another recipe for lemon snaps, which looks very tasty as well. Last but certainly not least was a bag of dried strawberries that just taste like summer and brought back lots of good memories.

The last time I ate these was when I was in Cambodia in February 2005, where I was travelling with two friends. Sharon and I were making a no-bake birthday cake for Lisa, which we topped with dried strawberries. By coincidence, Sharon, who I hadnít seen for a year was visiting as my EBBP parcel arrived, so we had fun reminiscing and cooking again.

I decided to take the pictures outside as it was such a beautiful sunny day, everything is so lush and green (I guess from all the rain!) and the bulbs in our garden have started to bloom. In some cases though, the food looked a bit funny next to the soil so guess weíll have to grow some more greens...peas and radishes are already planted!!

Speedy shrimp

2006-03-26T20:56:00.000+01:00

The brief for IMBB24 was to cook a meal from scratch in 30 min and as this is my first IMBB I thought it would be appropriate to use the crustacean this blog is named after. So I decided to make Amai Udon from the Wagamama cookbook as they pride themselves on their quick and easy recipes. I’ve always thought they looked quite convoluted when I opened the book and haven’t really cooked from it that much yet. So after a busy day planting vegetables in the garden, I decided to put it to the test. It was a lot easier than I’d expected. Even though you had to make a separate sauce it only takes about 2 min to dissolve the sugar for the sauce in which time you can prepare all the other ingredients. We also used fresh noodles, which made it a lot easier as they only needed to be boiled for a few minutes and the whole meal was done in no time. There was still 7 min 18 sec left on the timer….so plenty of time to make dessert! The noodles tasted very nice and I liked the creamy texture the egg gave to the sweet, salty sauce. I did find the taste a bit too strong next to the subtle tastes of the shrimp and tofu so in the future I would add less of the Amai sauce to the mixture.

Amai Udon (serves 2)
400g (14oz) Udon noodles
2 eggs, beaten
75 ml Amai sauce (3fl oz; I personally would add less)
1 large leek, finely sliced
6 cooked peeled prawns
large handful of beansprouts
2 tbsp vegetable oil
110g (4oz) firm tofu, cut into 10 cubes
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts

cook the noodles in a large pan of boiling water for 2-3 minutes until just tender, drain, refresh under cool running water and reserve. Mix egg, Amai sauce with leeks, prawns, beansprouts and noodles in a bowl and stir together. Heat a wok over medium heat, then when slightly smoking , add the oil and fry the tofu till browning slightly. Tip the contents of the bowl into the wok and stir fry for 3-4 min till the egg is cooked and the leek has softened. Divide between two bowls, sprinkle with lime juice and chopped peanuts

Amai sauce (makes 125ml/4fl oz)
1 tbsp malt vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
pinch of salt
1.5 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tsp tamarind paste

Gently heat vinegar, sugar and soy until the sugar has dissolved, then add the other ingredients and set aside.

Tagged with: IMBB24 + 30Minutes

Squashed Tomme

2006-03-23T22:02:00.000Z

I decided to use up some of the cheese I brought back from my recent trip to France. One of them was a small Tomme, a local cheese there which is creamy and has a subtle smelly cheese flavour (don't know the best way to describe it., but its not as overpowering as a morbier or reblochon). I decided to combine the cheese with a squash I still had in the fridge. A friend recently served us roasted slices of squash which were delish and I wanted to try and make them. So I cut the squash in pieces, brushed with olive oil, seasoned and roasted them in the oven for 45 min at 220C. The inside tasted lovely but on the outside they had gone all dry, whereas the other's I'd had before were all lovely and moist (tips would be greatly appreciated). I kept a few slices whole and put the rest into a plain risotto (onion, garlic and vegetable stock) with some sage, then cut the cheese in half and served it with a pumpkin slice on top. It looked beautifull and I really liked the soft creamy flavor of the cheese with the squash. It was a lovely warming dinner on a cold snowy day, but I will have to perfect my roasting techique!

A week "en Savoie"

2006-03-21T18:41:00.000Z

We spent a week on holiday in a part of France called Haute-Savoie. This is the alps, just south of Geneva and a beautiful part of the country full of lovely food. We had a wonderful week with tonnes of snow, skiing and indulging in local produce....here are some of the things we had. My favourite biscuits ever, Galette St Michel, they are like a slightly sweeter, finer biscuit and I'm desperately addicted to them. For breakfast we would have fresh bread with some Conte, Tomme de Savoie, Morbier, saussison sec and gelee de coins (quince-another favourite). Then we had more cheese for lunch and dinners in tartiflettes, quiche au reblochon and raclette. This was all digested with local wines like Abymes, Apresmont, Chignin and Gamay. For dessert we would have lovely gateaux like pear and chocolate with a ground almond and sweet eggy batter on top, Bugnes, appeltart, chocolate and nut tart and more! so much jummy food....it was a shame to leave but not without some provisions in my bag.

A sunny parcel

2006-03-13T22:49:00.001Z

After returning from a weeks skiing holiday in France (which was a bit of an epic with all the snow across Europe) I realised my organic parcel from the south of Spain had arrived. I got the chance to order one of these boxes through a friend of mine who’s parents run an beautifull organic farm near Carlisle and jumped at the opportunity. 5 Liters of lovely olive oil, 1.5 liters olives in brine, sundried tomatoes and 10 kg of lemons, oranges, almonds. That’s what I call a lovely sunny package to come home to in this winter weather. I cant wait to try them!!

Chocolate extravagance....

2006-03-03T10:02:00.000Z

Last weekend we were in Edinburgh visiting friends and I finally made it Plaisir du Chocolat. I had been wanting to go to this café that specializes in chocolate for a very, very long time. I first read about it in March 2005 when I was travelling in India. We were in Macload Ganj learning about Tibetan and Indian cooking and reading books on the sunny terraces in between. As I finished my book, I traded it in the hostel for a book called Debatable Land by Candia McWilliam. In this book, which is not the best, the main character is sailing on a boat from Tahiti to New Zealand and reminisces about his life back in Scotland, one of which was a day where he had hot chocolate in this cafe in Edinburgh and the description just made you want to go there (being a chocoholic does help too!).

I always thought it was a fictional place until my friend told me last month it actually exists. So last Sunday we made it there, after a nice walk through the cold, crisp and sunny city centre, we wondered down the Royal Mile, and there, between the old buildings is this lovely art deco style café. Walking in the door you are received by this wonderful thick scent of proper chocolate. So after pondering the menu and the cake display, I settled on a Tanzania hot chocolate, he had a Chocolate expresso and we shared a wonderful piece of raspberry chocolate gateau. The hot chocolate was really nice, made with 73% chocolate, it had a lovely hint of vanilla but was still nice and bitter….but I have to say the expresso has to be my favourite. It was really rich and thick and just sooooo chocolaty. The cake was divine, a very simple short crust with raspberry puree and chocolate mousse (but a really nice thick one) on top. I could have been hit by a bus and died happy after that…..

But luckily that didn’t happen as we also treated ourselves to a box of 4 chocolates to take home. We chose Uji, Scotland and Bounty, which were a dark chocolate outside filled with white chocolate ganache infused with matcha tea, whiskey and honey and coconut respectively. We also one Espelette which was dark chocolate filled with a dark ganache infused with chilli pepper from the Basque region. All chocolates were individually beautifully decorated and were a pleasure to look at and eat. We also got a box as a present for my parents with more pretty chocolates but as it’s taped shut, the pictures will have to wait.

A very belated birthday present

2006-03-02T23:14:00.000Z

My parents kindly agreed to sponsor me to buy a digital camera for my birthday. It took me about a month to decide so after a long internal debate I finally settled on this digital camera. It’s unbelievable how much choice there is out there and in the end, the reason I picked this one was that the first digital camera I came into contact with was a Sony. Not very scientific I’m afraid. So it arrived in the post today and here’s the first picture. We made a very nice Chana Masala and it tasted just as good as it looks. This should make blogging a lot easier as I don’t have to wait to finish my film, get it developed, scan the pictures and more. However, I think/hope I’ll still keep using my SLR and medium format camera for all my other photography!

Haggis Pancakes

2006-02-28T18:56:00.000Z

Despite the new year’s resolutions….it’s been ages since I posted anything!! Very very bad, but work has been mad and life even more hectic with walking trips, pottery, knitting and birthdays. Anyway, today it is Shrove Tuesday, which is also known as Pancake Day! And even though I’m not planning to give anything up for Lent I feel this is a tradition worth honouring. Pancake Day and Lent were whole new concepts to me when I first moved to the UK. In the Netherlands, we would eat pancakes occasionally as a meal, but as my family is not religious, I never realised it was a tradition associated with the church. Traditionally, people would finish all their food on Shrove Tuesday before fasting for 40 days over lent. This specially included finishing all the milk, eggs and butter which were traditionally eaten as pancakes.

We decided to have pancakes with a Scottish twist…partially cause we’re off skiing next week (hooray…France, here we come!) and I got given a veggie haggis that needed eating. I do enjoy a normal haggis as well, but this was the one I received. I think it is one of these meals with a high yuck (!) factor but actually its very, very good and not much different from eating pate or black pudding. This traditional Scottish dish is made by mincing sheep heart, liver and lungs with oatmeal, onion, herbs and spices. All of this is then put into the sheep stomach. It was made famous by the Robert Burns poem, which I still don’t totally understand. But my favourite haggis story is that it is a small animal with legs shorter on one side then the other, so it can run around the hills. To catch it, you make it run in the other direction so that it rolls off the hill and then catch it on its way down. But anyway, I digress, especially as our haggis was a veggie one

So as a main I stir fried some onion, curly kale with bits of vegetarian haggis and had this on a wholemeal pancake with a creamy mustard and whiskey sauce. It was a very tasty combination with the slightly crunchy kale and a smokey hint of Laphroaig. Then for dessert we went for the old traditional combination of a plain pancake with lemon and sugar, it’s still my favourite in all its simplicity.

Apologies, but having difficulties with the pictures...coming soon hopefully!

Dad’s favourites

2006-01-25T10:31:00.000Z

When we were young, the main person cooking in our house was my mum but she lived by the motto “nobody works seven days a week” so from the age of 7ish on Saturdays, my brother and I (never together!) were allowed to choose and prepare what we ate. I think this was part of the way they taught us to cook and it has definitely worked. When we moved out to go to university we could prepare a very decent meal instead of taste and boiled eggs.

But back to the Saturdays….to prevent us from just getting a takeaway, my dad would encourage us to pick something we could cook ourselves and then he would help us prepare the whole thing. This ranged from Spaghetti Bolognese to leek tarts and more….however, when he had the choice he would pick traditional Dutch dishes or variations on the theme. Dutch traditional food isn’t very exciting and mainly consists of mashed potatoes combined with something (curly kale, andive, carrots and onions, sauerkraut etc) and accompanied by either meatballs or sausages.

This dish is a variation on the Dutch sauerkraut mash and comes from Hungary. As a kid I found the sauerkraut alone a bit much but these days I love it. It comes with little packages of green cabbage filled with mince, onion and rice, chorizo, bacon and paprika served with mash to heat you up on cold winter nights. So I decided to make this dish even though the winter is once again pathetically warm (all these predictions of the coldest winter ever….maybe it’ll still happen but I’m sceptical). It tasted delicious as usual and brought back many pleasant memories, even without the chorizo, which I didn’t have in the house.

Hungarian Sauerkraut / Csarday (serves 4)
500 g sauerkraut
8 nice green cabbage leaves, without the central vein
400 g mince
4 tbsp boiled rice
1 onion
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp dried marjoram or oregano
1 egg
salt and pepper
2 slices of bacon, cut into 4 pieces each (not too fatty)
2 small chorizo sausages, in slices
sour cream
butter
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Soften the cabbage leaves in boiling water for a few minutes. Fry the onion in butter and mix with the mince, rice, paprika, marjoram, egg, pepper and salt off the heat. Divide into 8 portions and fold each portion into a cabbage leaf. Put the sauerkraut on the bottom of a thick (Le Creuset) pan, then the cabbage rolls followed by the slices of chorizo and finally the bacon. Add some of the juices from the cabbage and simmer for 45 min - 1 hour. Serve in the pan with some sour cream and paprika

Chestnut experiments

2006-01-24T14:02:00.000Z

As part of my attempt to cook more seasonal produce I bought a big bag of the last chestnuts as I’d never used them before. I used to have a great dislike of these nuts, on cold winter days it was great standing around the roasting stalls for the warmth but the nuts were wasted on me. I think they were just too bitter for me at the time…but I decided to give them a second chance. I didn’t want to make the traditional British chestnut stuffing but instead chose two recipes, one Japanese and one French.

The first one proved fairly easy, as it didn’t matter if the chestnuts stayed intact or not (in my case not!). I boiled the nuts, peeled and mashed them roughly before putting this through a sieve to make the puree very smooth. After this, the puree went back into the pan with a few tablespoons of sugar and thinned it out with water. I didn’t want to use milk or cream as I think the nuts are quite creamy anyway. Using a bit of clingfilm I twisted the paste back into a nut. The sweets looked great and tasted even better, they were quite subtle in taste and not too sweet but had a lovely creamy texture.

We also tried them with persimmon cakes, which I made from the persimmon cookbook using the recipe for Marguerite Hager's Persimmon Pudding. This was a nice cake but I was a bit disappointed, as the cakes didn’t really taste of persimmon, however the fresh jam I made after it from this recipe tasted very good with it. To flavour the jam I used a cinnamon, pink peppercorns and kardemom.

The second recipe, French this time, was for Marron Glace but this turned into a bit of an epic. After checking out various recipes I settled on this one, which seemed fairly straightforward but lengthy. However it dragged out considerably, first of all, peeling the nuts was quite a task, trying to keep them intact as the thin membrane is wedged into many cracks, then the cooking was easy enough as was the re-boiling but instead of the nuts absorbing all the liquid it just turned into a solid block of sugar! So in the end, I dissolved this in water and preserved them this way for future use.

Kuri kinton (makes 12)
150g chestnuts boiled and peeled
3 tbsp demerara sugar
water
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Boil the nuts for 30-45 min and peel. Break up and then press through the sieve to make a fine puree. In the pan melt the sugar with a bit of water, add in the chestnut puree and cook on a low heat till it makes a thick glossy paste. Put a spoonful on a piece of clingfilm and twist to form a chestnut shape

Japanese comfort food meets Scottish smokieness

2006-01-13T10:51:00.000Z

Happy new year!! May 2006 bring you many culinary adventures, new flavours and satisfaction, both in the kitchen and outside :-) It’s been a while since I’ve posted, after a luxury three week holiday its back to work now and I have many things to post about, both from last year and since Christmas so best get on with it....
When my brother came to visit at the start of December I wanted to cook something I had eaten while in Japan. I also wanted to use the local produce I’ve recently been getting from a local farm. They deliver organic veggie bags, eggs, bread and more, which are all very tasty. I had also bought some lovely smoked mackerel from a smokehouse in the highlands at the monthly farmers market.

I picked a recipe from Untangling my chopsticks by Victoria Abbott Riccardi. This is a great book in which she describes her move to Kyoto for a year where she studies tea kaiseki, the formal cooking that accompanies Japanese tea ceremony. She beautifully describes life and food in Japan, both from an authentic point of view and as an outsider. I read this book while I was working and living in Tokyo last summer and found it accurately described the way I felt about moving to this extraordinary country. Plus it contains a number of recipes so you can recreate the food yourself, what more could you want!

The recipe I chose was for Donburi, which Victoria describes as “Hot, soupy, salty, sweet and satisfying….that just about sums up Donburi, which is quintessentially Japan’s comfort food”. Its lovely food, which is easy to prepare by mixing stock, soy, sugar and mirin (sweet syrupy rice wine) with egg. While frying this I added spring onions and served it on top of rice with the baked mackerel. You add quite a lot of stock but it turns out great, not too soupy at all, and all the flavours balance each other out nicely. The salty flavour of the mackerel fitted well.

For dessert I found this recipe for a beetroot and mandarin tarte tatin. I was intrigued to use beetroot for dessert as I only cook or roast it normally. It was straightforward to make and the colors looked beautiful in the pan (although the pictures didn’t turn out very well). The taste was really nice, the caramel brought out the flavour of the beetroot but the tangy mandarin cut through it nicely. All in all, a very good meeting of east and west.

Christmas Eve….the big dinner

2005-12-25T17:05:00.000Z

Ever year we have a big dinner for Christmas, generally on Christmas Day….but this year we had it the night before as it suited best for everyone. Some of my Mums family comes along for this so this year we were with 11 people. So “De Gouden Garnaal” (The Golden Shrimp in Dutch) was opened and serving up the following menu:

Mousse de sole a la truffe
~
Terrine de Lapin aux Pistaches
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Filets Mignons en Croute
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Plateau de Fromage
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Meringe aux Pignons et aux Myrtilles

We also had irish soda bread with the mousse and pate. For the cheeses we had some Stilton with port, Bleu de Gex, Tomme de Savoie, Camenbert, soft goats cheese and Old Rubens. Then various biscuits and truffles with the tea and coffee to finish. With all this food we drank some lovely wine, with the starters we had the choice of Tavel (a rose from the Provence) or Touraine (a Sauvignon from slightly south of the Loire). Then with the main course and cheese we drank a Morgon (a Beaujolais from the Cote du Py). For dessert we had a Banyuls, a very spicy sweet red wine.

The pate was made a few days in advance which was fairly straightforward...although watching the fat bubbling away in the oven around the pate made my hart already feel tired, but the smells were amazing the taste was great, crumbly, meaty and very subtle with the pistachios. The meringues and the filet mignons were prepared/started one day in advance so we did not have much to prepare on the day itself. The mousse was fairly straightforward and we made a gratin accompany the Filets mignons. The dessert was lovely, the meringues were nice and gooey on the inside and the nuts added a lovely flavour. It was a great evening, catching up with every one and eating all this lovely food.

Mousse aux sole et truffe (serves 11)
300 g sole fillet
1 vegetable stock cube
splash of white wine
125 g sour cream
salt and pepper

Boil the fish in water with the stock cube and white wine, then take it out of the liquid and blend it with some seasoning and the sour cream. Leave in the fridge to harden. Serve with blanched asparagus, sweet peas, a boiled quail egg and a slice of summer truffle

Terrine de lapin aux pistaches (for 8 people)
1 nice boned rabbit
125 g cooked ham
125 g pork shoulder
200 g soft bacon fat (+ more to line the mould)
100 g peeled non-salted pistachios
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Marinade
5 dl white wine
5 cl cognac
1 onion
2 shallots
1 carrot
1 garlic clove
Herbs (parsley, tarragon, thyme and bay leaf)
10 pepper corns
20g salt

For the marinade, peel and cut the onion, shallot, carrot and garlic. In a large pot add all the other ingredients for the marinade and mix well. Clean the rabbit, cut the meat into stripes, cut the pork and 200g fat into pieces and add to the marinade. Leave for 24 hours in the fridge. The next day, fish out some of the onion and drain the rest. Pick out some nice pieces of rabbit and cut into bit sized pieces. Mince the rest roughly. Cut the gammon into cubes and mix this with the pistachios, rabbit and mince. Line a pate tray with fat or with puffy pastry (to make a pate en croute), fill with the mix, making sure the pistachios are covered (otherwise they burn) and bake at 200C covered for 1 hour and 15 minutes and then for another 15 minutes without cover. Take out of the over, leave to cool for 15 minutes and put a weight on the pate. Make this two days in advance and store in the fridge.

Filets mignons en croute (8-10 people)
2 pork fillets
500 g puff pastry
2 glasses of white wine d’Alsace (preferably Riesling)
3 garlic cloves
1 egg yellow
salt and pepper

The day before, put the fillets in a dish and add the wine, peeled and chopped garlic , salt and pepper. Leave to marinate overnight. The next day, drain the meat, divide the pastry in two and roll one half out 8mm thick. Put the fillet lengthwise on the middle of the pastry, roll out the second part of pastry and put this on top. Join the edges of the two parts, decorate the top and cut some holes into it to let the hot air escape. Coat with egg yellow and bake for 45 min at 225C, halfway through the process, pour a few spoonfuls of marinade into the holes. Serve hot or cold.

Meringues aux pignons et aux myrtilles (Serves 4-6 people)
3 egg whites
200 g caster sugar
100 g pine nuts
oil, for greasing
300 ml whipping cream
2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
200 g blueberries

Preheat the over to 145C and lightly grease two baking trays. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peakse, then gradually whisk in the sugar, a third at a time, until the meringue is glossy and fairly stiff, holding soft peaks. Using a large spoon, carefully fold in the pine nuts and spoon heaped teaspoons onto the baking trays (±12). Bake 1 hour, then turn off the oven, leaving the meringues to cool inside. Lightly whip the cream and mix in the icing sugar, serve the meringues with the whipped cream and blueberries

Christmas cookies part 2

2005-12-23T10:52:00.000Z

Here’s some I made earlier! I made this biscuits about 10 days ago as Christmas present for my friend. The recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s “How to be a domestic goddess” which is a wonderful cookbook. I spotted this recipe for Christmas cookies months ago and planned to make it. It was quite interesting using a lot of freshly ground pepper next to mixed spice so I used black and pink peppercorns. The dough tasted great (I’m afraid I’m an avid dough eater, somehow it always tastes great before cooking) but when the cookies came out I thought the taste was quite bland. This might have had something to do with the extra flour I had to add as the dough was so sticky, you couldn’t roll it out so I will give this recipe another shot next year.

We decorated the biscuits with a plain sugar icing (icing sugar and water) and some silver, pink and purple sparkles (although he refused to use these last two as they weren’t “manly” enough) and they looked great!

Chocolate and cheese

2005-12-22T23:13:00.000Z

Two more additions to the food we’ve made in the last few days: Chocolate Truffles and Gougere (cheesy profiteroles). There were two reasons for this, we had a lot of old bits of gouda cheese left that needed finishing and two old chocolate letters from Sinterklaas that needed using. Sinterklaas is a Dutch celebration we have on the 5th December where we celebrate the day of St Nicholas (Santa before he went to the USA and Coca Cola). There are many traditions with these celebrations but one of them is that you get a chocolate letter of the first character of your name (E for Eva…I was always very jealous of people with a name starting with a W as they got more chocolate!!). Both are very easy to make and very tasty although the Gougere were a bit disappointing. I think this was because the cheese was grated instead of cubed and it makes the taste less pronounced. The truffles were delish although rolling them was a bit tricky and very, very sticky. In the end, we made the balls using spoons as it was far easier and our shapes had more “character” this way.

Gougere
250 ml milk
100 g plain flour
50 g butter
4 eggs
75 g cheese (cubed)
pepper and salt
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Bring milk to a boil with butter, pepper and salt. Take off the heat and add the flour at once. Stir well until it forms a big ball then add the eggs and cheese. Put dollops onto a greased plate but space them well as they rise quite a bit. Add some more cheese on top, glaze with milk and bake for 45 min at 180C till brown and risen.

Chocolate truffles
250 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa or more)
50 ml crème
75g butter
2 tbsp sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp Cointreau
50g cocoa
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Melt the chocolate in a bowl placed on a pan of boiling water with 1 tbsp of water. Add crème, butter and sugar gradually, then remove the bowl from the pan. Once the mixture has cooled at bit, add the egg yolks and Cointreau and cool for at least two hours. Put the cocoa powder in a bowl, form balls of the cooled mixture, roll these in the cocoa and cool for at least another hour before serving (keep 2-3 days).

Raclette

2005-12-21T23:15:00.000Z

My parents recently traveled to Geneva and brought back a piece of Raclette cheese. "Raclette" is derived from the French word "racler" which means "to scrape off". This is true winter/mountain food from the Alps and the cheese is traditionally cut in half, melted in front of the fire and layers are scaped off as they start to bubble. The cheese is eaten with boiled potatoes and pickles. We also had some dried meats with it. As we don't possess a traditional raclette setup, we used this. hmmmmmm cheesyness is wonderful but very very filling.....I'm so stuffed!!!