Finally found!

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

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

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

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

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....

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....

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

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!!!

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....

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.