dan's kitchen

2006-10-29T03:18:00.000-08:00

Simple Chicken And Vegetable Soup

Living in Thailand now, not having my own kitchen setup yet, I only get to cook once in a while at my friends place. This soup isn't just very easy to prepare, it's also the type of food I like to eat when I have a bit of an upset stomach. This certainly tends to happen here in Thailand if I had a few chilies too many the day before. You can also prepare quite a big pot of this tasty soup, then keep it for the next few days or even freeze it.

For a big pot:
1,5 l (50 oz) chicken stock
1/4 l (1 cup) white wine for cooking
2 bay leaves
1 clove
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (for the veggies)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (for the chicken)
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 large carrots, cut into large pieces
2 spring onions, chopped
1 celery root, cut into large pieces
1 broccoli
any other veggies you'd like
chicken thighs, breast or legs, cut into large pieces
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Add bay leaves and clove to the stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce the temperature so the stock simmers gently.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for at least 5 minutes. Add garlic, spring onions and all the other veggies that take longer to cook. Don't put broccoli and similar types of veggies in yet as they only take a very short time to cook. Pour in the wine.

Stir well and sauté for another 5 minutes over medium heat to let the wine absorb a bit.

Add the chicken stock including the bay leaves and clove and adjust the temperature to let the soup simmer.

In the meantime, heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken pieces and season well with salt and pepper. Sauté all the pieces well all around, then put them into the soup.

Keep everything simmering and taste the soup after another 15-20 minutes. Adjust the taste if necessary by adding more wine, salt and pepper. About 5 minutes before serving, add broccoli and other fast cooking veggies.

If you're interested in other easy to prepare dishes, check out:

Spaghetti with Oven Roasted Tomatoes
Roeschti
Filled Zucchetti
Pasta with Sage

2006-10-17T04:13:00.000-07:00

Venison on pepper sauce with mashed potatoes

Hunting season brings a variety of game meat to the markets. While this particular sauce could be used for beef or pork tenderloin as well, it pairs really well with venison. It might look like it's a bit time consuming, but if you're preparing all your ingredients ahead of time, it's done fairly quickly and tastes wonderful. You could also serve noodles instead of mashed potatoes.

for 2 people:

for the pepper sauce:
5g (0.2 oz) white pepper corns, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 shotglass whiskey (could be replaced by rum)
1 slice of bacon, cut into small pieces
1 shallot, chopped
1,5 dl (5 oz) white wine
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar (red is ok too)
1 twig of thyme
30g (1 oz) whipping cream
100 ml (3,5 oz) chicken stock
30g (1 oz) flakes of butter, put into freezer
freshly ground salt and pepper

for the mashed potatoes:
4-6 medium sized potatoes, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
milk, until desired consistency is reached

the meat:
2 venison fillets (or beef fillets or pork tenderloin)
freshly ground pepper and salt
2-4 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 80 C. (180 F.)

Grind pepper (not the white one!) preferrably in a mortar and season fillets well all around with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over high heat, sauté strongly on both sides then place into pre-heated oven. Depending on the thicknes of your fillets, expect the meat to be in the low-temperature oven for at least 45 minutes.

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, time is not very crucial for low-temperature cooking. You should be fine between 45 and 90 minutes. Just make sure you've sautéd the meat well enough before placing into the oven (about 5 minutes total).

For the sauce, sauté the white pepper corns over medium heat in the olive oil. Add whiskey (or rum) and flambé immediately. Never do this under the hood as the flames might get in there! And watch your hair too!

Add bacon and shallots and sauté for a few minutes. Then put white wine, balsamic vinegar and the thyme twig into the sauce. Let the liquid absorb completely before adding the chicken stock and the whipping cream. Let the sauce simmer over low heat.

For the mashed potates, wrap the peeled potatoes in plastic foil and microwave for about 3 minutes until soft. This is the easier way instead of boiling the potatoes.

In a large pot, add potatoes, butter and some milk and mash them over medium temperature until you have a fairly smooth paste.

Keep on adding milk if the mix is too thick. Keep the mashed potatoes warm with closed lid over low temperature.

Once your meat is almost ready, add the butter from the freezer into the sauce and move the sauce pan in circles for the butter to mix into the sauce. Don't stir. Season with salt and pepper to taste and remove the thyme twig.

Serve your fillets sliced with mashed potatoes on the side and pour over the sauce. I would also recommend heating the plates first. At this low temperature in the oven, any plates should be fine to be put in there together with the meat for preheating. Enjoy!

2006-10-07T00:16:00.000-07:00

Italy Part 4 - Three treasure restaurants

As usual, I've been doing quite a bit of research about which restaurants to visit during the tuscany trip. But the best ones were either found accidentally or by recommendation of our local hosts, Josiane and Narciso. Generally, the restaurants were all very good or even excellent. The pasta where it's made fresh by hand is always a real treat. A normal italian dinner consists of four parts, first antipasti, then primi, then secondi and then dolci and of course an espresso at the end with possibly a grappa. the antipasti could be some slices of prosciutto and a local salami, primi are most of the time a plate of handmade pasta, the secondi (main dishes) meat or fish, then any kind of dessert like handmade vanilla ice cream with a few drops of aged balsamic vinegar on top. To summarize it, it's usually quite a feast and you won't leave the table too soon.

Ristorante I' Polpa (Fiesole)

This place was found completely accidentally as all the other restaurants around were filled with tourists in their garden patio. I' Polpa didn't have outdoor seating which obviously kept most tourists away from it. But the menu attached outside looked very promising and the food ended up being fantastic!

The kitchen, quite simple.

A fresh porcini mushroom, grilled with olive oil, pepper and salt. Amazing!

The chef is putting the salsa verde on plates.

The lovely chef serving our dishes.

Stuffed goose throat with salsa verde and the best potato I've eaten in a long time. One of her grandmother's recipes.

A wonderful pie with grapes and rosemary.

Ristorante I' Polpa
Piazza Mino, 21/22 - 50014 Fiesole
Tel. 055.59485

Ristorante Il Pozzo (Monteriggioni)

At this place, the pasta was really standing out. Even though we didn't order it, the bistecca fiorentina they served at the next table, looked amazing as well. Specialty here the pasta al cinghuale (wild boar).

Besides a nice interior, Il Pozzo also offers a nice garden patio which was filled with tourists though.

Papardelle al Cinghuale. A must try here!

In paper wrapped ravioli with truffle sauce.

Ristorante Il Pozzo
Piazza Roma, 2 - 53035 Monteriggioni (SI)
Tel. (0577) 30.41.27
www.ilpozzo.net

Osteria Locanda (Terranuova)

One of Josiane's and Narciso's special recommendations, this restaurant is beautifully located. During warm summer nights, the garden area is available for seating in the middle of a herbal garden. It's a bit hard to access on top of a hill located down a small alley, but certainly worth a trip. Amazing food, very friendly service, great atmosphere and cheap, good wines.

Raw sole fillets marinated in olive oil and lemon juice with a lentil salad.

Pasta with porcini.

A simple beef stew. Heavenly done.

Narciso having a little chat with the chef after our fantastic meal.

Osteria Locanda Il Canto del Maggio
Frazione Penna 30/d - 52025 Terranuova B. ni AR
Tel. 055.0705147
www.cantodelmaggio.com

2006-10-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Italy Part 3 - Mercato Centrale in Firenze

The mercato centrale is a grocery market that's open every day starting 7am until 2pm. It's a two story building under a huge roof where all kinds of vendors attract locals as well as tourists for taking pictures or tasting some 100 year old balsamic vinegars. It's both spectacular and amazing to be able to shop in such a way especially after being reminded of the supermarket at home which hardly offers such variety and quality. I always enjoy checking out big markets in different places around the world. A nice comparison would be the local grocery market in Pattaya, Thailand.

Parmesan cheese, nice and crumbly.

There was a wonderful smell around those marinated olives!

Dried herbs, beans, veggies, ...

A big variety of dried fruits was also available.

Fresh seafood. There were many stands ...

... offering all kinds of fish, crabs, lobsters and sepia.

A stand which sold intestines only. Check out the brains in the lower right corner.

Kind of gruesome looking!

2006-10-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

Italy Part 2 - Regello

Away from the tourist destinations, we arrived at our agri-turismo place (kind of like a bed and breakfast) about 30 km outside Florence. The place was like a dream with two wonderful hosts, Josianne and Narciso. We were welcomed with a fantastic dinner, but not before picking some tomatoes in the garden which ended up as a very nice sauce for the primi piatti, the appetizer. If I'll have the chance to visit here again, I certainly will. Many thanks to Josianne and Narciso who were just simply wonderful to be with for those four days.

Narciso cutting prosciutto.

In the kitchen, Josianne is preparing the main dish.

Josianne's kitchen. Marvellous!

The dining table next to a gigantic fireplace.

Tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes. A rarity these days.

Narciso's home-made olive oil in a little can. Olive oil and bread always belong on any italian dining table.

Melon (from the garden outside) and prosciutto for antipasto.

Narciso is serving the primi piatti. Pasta!

Simple but high quality ingredients are the key to italian food. Cherry tomatoes, roasted pine nuts, garlic and herbs mixed with a superb olive oil.

Saltimbocca for main dish.

2006-10-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Italy Part 1 - Bologna

I apologize for the lack of updates recently... there has been a trip through italy which was very much food oriented as you'll see in the following posts. To put the conclusion first, for me, italy still offers the best food in the world. Beautiful grocery markets through narrow streets, local deli stores, bigger market halls that offer fresh goods on a daily basis and of course a vast selection of fantastic restaurants where it's still a rule to prepare fresh pasta day by day. I hope you'll enjoy the following pictures. I will be in italy hopefully very soon again since there's never enough time to enjoy all there is to enjoy.

One of many narrow market streets.

Getting some fresh fruit while on the way to work.

A wonderful selection of fresh produce.

Sometimes it's hard to notice the vendor in the small grocery stalls.

Carrying another load of fresh vegetables to his store.

And how much were those apples?

A woman checking out the fantastic Tamburini deli store.

Another fine Bologna deli store.

The selection of local salami, prosciutto and other coldcuts is endless.

A woman trying to make up her mind what to get.

I've never found such great salamis as in Bologna.

Fresh pasta...

... prepared every day.

2006-09-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

Chanterelle Salad

Either a nice summer salad for lunch or an appetizer for a nice dinner, chanterelle mushrooms on a bed of green salad is a treat!

I used a green leaf salad which is somewhat specific to europe and quite popular in switzerland, a so called 'Nuesslisalat'. If you can't get this leaf, I would suggest using another dark green salad, for example dandelion.

for 2 people:

Ingredients:

2 big handful of fresh chanterelle mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
freshly ground salt and pepper
dark green leaf salad (e.g. dandelion)
red balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

Start heating up the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and season well with salt and pepper. Sauté the mushrooms until they've lost most of their liquid. Let them cool out until they're just slightly warm.

Mix the green leaf salad in a bowl with balsamic vinegar and olive oil to taste. Place the salad on plates and arrange the warm chanterelle mushrooms on top. Sprinkle with another few drops of olive oil and enjoy!

2006-09-08T02:34:00.000-07:00

A few days in Paris

More than ever before I noticed what a beautiful city Paris is, including, of course, wonderful opportunities to dine excellently if you're careful to avoid the tourist traps. I wouldn't necessarily try to eat in a brasserie next to the Notre Dame or the Louvre, rather walk the many charming streets of Le Marais or Avenue de Buci for a fantastic selection of bakeries and patisseries as well.

There's one particular place I'd especially like to recommend. At Caveau François Villon, 64 Rue de l'Arbre Sec, I ate quite heavenly! The concept of this restaurant is, that you're choosing from an appetizer, a main dish and a dessert for a fixed price which was 26 Euros. In addition, I chose a glass of red wine, a Corbières, which was quite above the average quality of what you'd get served for 6$.

The entrance to the 15th century building, the wonderful Caveau François Villon restaurant.

You choose from six different appetizers, six main dishes and six desserts.

A pork feet terrine with a vinegary sauce and a small salad.

Beef tenderloin on a strong green pepper sauce with a Roesti-like potato pie.

The famous crème brulée.

A wonderful ratatouille with anis seeds, served chilled.

Lamb kidneys on a parsley sauce. Amazing!

One of the best desserts I've had in a while, prunes soaked in red wine and prune liquor.

A mushroom salad in a different restaurant inside Le Marais. The baguette is always served with any dish.

Duck breast on a honey sauce with mashed sweet potatoes. Coarse seasalt and peppercorns are served on the side of the plate to be mixed into the sauce. Good idea!

Caveau François Villon
64, Rue de L'Arbre Sec
75001 Paris
Tel.: 42.36.10.92

Au Gamin de Paris
51, Rue Vieille du Temple
75004 Paris
Tel.: 42.78.97.24

2006-09-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

Roquefort with Williams Pears

I've got a plane to catch in 2 hours to Paris! To introduce the next three days in the french capital, I found an excellent roquefort cheese at the local deli. If possible, get yourself a few nice williams pears. If you can't find that type of pear, any other small, ripe and sweet pear should do. Cut your pear in half, put a slice of cheese on top and bite!

The roquefort cheese (or another blue-type cheese if you can't find the good stuff), is like a dream paired with pears and a nice bottle of red wine. Bon appetit!

2006-08-23T01:56:00.000-07:00

Rack of Lamb with Cheese Risotto

I'd like to share a very nice little trick I've learnt from my friend George. Instead of sprinkling parmesan cheese on top of the risotto before serving, try to grind up some dried porcini mushrooms and then powder them on top of your rice. The extra flavor is quite fantastic and really very simple to achieve.

for 2 people:

Ingredients:

1 rack of lamb (could be replaced with a beef or pork filet)
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
handful of dried porcini mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon coarse seasalt
1 cup risotto rice (carnaroli or arborio)
1 large shallot, chopped
1 cup cheap white wine
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
4 tablespoons ground parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chicken stock
2 sage leaves
1 thyme or rosemary twig

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 80 C. (175 F.)

Crush the peppercorns and salt with a mortar. This is my preferred method of grinding up salt and pepper because I like them to stay a bit coarse, but you can also use your regular peppermill and salt shaker.

Rub the salt and pepper mix all around your rack of lamb.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil at highest temperature in a skillet.

To sauté meat of any kind, I like to use a stainless steel skillet to get the highest temperature possible.

Sauté the rack of lamb about 3 minutes on each side until you get a nice and dark crust all around. Then immediately place it in the oven in an oven-proof dish.
The beauty of this low-temperature method is, that your meat can stay in the oven for 30 minutes or even 1 hour and it will still be very tender and juicy.

Depending on the size of your rack, I would count on leaving the meat in the oven for at least 30 minutes (for a small rack) or up to 1 hour (for a big one). But don't crank up the temperature. To guarantee the tenderness and juicyness, you'll have to keep the temperature at the low 80 C.

Since the temperature in the oven is quite low, you can also add your dinner plates to preheat them without worrying that they'll brake.

Start preparing the stock. Put 2 cups of water into a small pot, add chicken stock, sage leaves and the thyme or rosemary twig. Heat up the stock over medium heat.

Grind up your dried porcini mushrooms. A mortar works best, but use your fingers as well, to get the powder as fine as you can. Put aside.

In another pot (or my preferred way, a non-stick skillet), heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat, add the shallots and sauté them until they start to golden a bit. Add the rice and mix until all the grains are covered with some of the olive oil. Pour in the white wine and stir until all of it is absorbed.

As soon as your rice is running a bit dry in the skillet, add some of the stock but never too much at the time. Keep on stirring. This process takes about 15-20 minutes.

Keep on tasting the rice to see if you like the consistency. Shortly before the rice is done, add all the three cheeses and mix well.

Remove the meat from the oven, cut it up and arrange nicely on preheated dinner plates around your risotto.

The big thing last, sprinkle your ground up porcini mushrooms on top of the rice and decorate with a twig of thyme or rosemary or anything else you find beautiful.

I served one of my favorite wines with this dish, a full bodied Amarone from italy. Enjoy!

This recipe was also submitted to "Design Within Reach" for their summer call for entries.

2006-08-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

Snack Burgers

I might be repeating myself saying that I like to look into the fridge to see what else is left in there and use it up before it goes bad. That's how those little burgers turned out which I served as an appetizer.

I posted another type of snack a while ago while being in Pasadena. Check it out here.

Ingredients:

eggplant slices
tomato slices
feta cheese slices
dried oregano
freshly ground salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil
black olives, pitted

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to about 400 F. (200 C.)

Place the eggplant slices on a non-stick surface on a grid that will go into the oven. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt.

Put the feta cheese slices on top and add a few drops of olive oil. Next come the tomato slices, seasoned with oregano, salt and pepper.

Cut the olives in half and decorate the snack burgers with one olive each and once again, sprinkle with olive oil.

Place them into the preheated oven and bake until the tomatoes start to build a little crust.

Enjoy with some bread as an appetizer or a snack instead of chips.

2006-08-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

Zucchini Flowers

Those might not be easy to find in your regular grocery store. I picked them up at Signora Nicoletta's 'Schrebergaertli'. Those blooming flowers are full of zucchini flavor and with their delicate shape, they're almost melting on your tongue.

There's many ways you could prepare them. The next time I will try to fill them with ricotta before frying. For this first time, I went for a simple beer batter and then deep-fried in peanut oil. Serve them as an appetizer or maybe even as a main dish if they're filled.

for 2 people as an appetizer:

Ingredients:

about 10 zucchini flowers
60 g (2,5 oz) flour
1 egg
1,5 dl (5 oz) beer
salt and pepper
peanut oil

Instructions:

Don't wash the zucchini flowers if you know they were organically grown, otherwise, be very gentle when you wash them. Clean the stems by slightly peeling off the outer skin which is very rough and somewhat itchy.

Prepare the batter by mixing egg yolk, flour, beer, salt and pepper. Whip the egg white seperately first, then mix it into the batter.

Heat the peanut oil in a large pot and test the temperature by dropping a tiny bit of batter in it. If it starts bubbling right away, your oil is hot enough to start deep frying.

Dip one zucchini flower at a time into the batter and place into the hot oil. Flip the flower once after about 10 seconds. It should be slightly brown, but not too dark. You can probably deep fry up to three flowers at a time, depending on the size of your pot. Put the finished fried flowers aside onto a kitchen paper for the oil to drain a bit.

Sprinkly some extra salt and pepper on top if necessary and enjoy!

The preparation of this dish reminds somewhat of tempura, which is another fun and social dish.

2006-08-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

Super Simple #4 - Spicy Pasta with Sage

Pasta is always among my favorites and there's so many types of sauces you can come up with if you don't want to go for a sauce using tomatoes.

Dried chilies, especially those scary thai chilies, are great to spicen up the olive oil. Depending on how spicy you like it, you can cut open the chilies, revealing the seeds, or leave them whole for less spicyness.

for 2 people:

Ingredients:

pasta of your choice
6-8 table spoons extra virgin olive oil, cold pressed
red, dried chilies (amount depends on how spicy you like it)
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
10 sage leaves, cut into stripes
freshly ground parmesan cheese

Instructions:

In a pot, bring water to a boil. Add salt.

In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the chilies. Leave the chilies whole if you'd like to keep it not too spicy, cut them open to reveal the seeds if you're into a spicy sauce. Reduce the heat to medium and add sage and the crushed garlic cloves. Easiest to crush a clove of garlic is to press on it with the flat side of a knife.

If the garlic starts to brown too quick, remove the pan from the heat to not burn the garlic, then reduce the heat. This sauce should simmer for at least 10-15 minutes for all the flavors to mix. Basically, the olive oil will be flavored with the sage, the garlic and the chilies. Cook your pasta accordingly to have them al-dente by the time your sauce is ready.

It's nice if the garlic becomes a bit crispy, same goes for the sage. Crispy is good, burnt is bad.

I like to stir the cooked, drained pasta directly in the skillet with the sauce. That way, you're not wasting any of the wonderfully flavored olive oil.

Serve with grated parmesan cheese on top. You can choose to eat the crushed garlic pieces or not. I usually eat a bit of it and leave some aside to not smell like garlic for the rest of the day.

2006-08-01T23:23:00.000-07:00

Leg of Lamb (Gigot) on the Fire

For the Swiss National Holiday, we went up into the mountains to our good friend, Graziano's cottage at about 1800 m height. Electricity not being available up there, living and cooking work a bit differently. A lot of herbs, like the thyme we've used to fill the lamb with, grows just around the corner at the edge of the forest.

Graziano has been our family's friend for years and he's always been famous for preparing a wonderful leg of lamb roast on the fire. This time was no exception and the fresh air in the alps and the fantastic view over the mountains made this dinner an unforgettable one!

The fridge in the alps! The water, directly from a mountain water stream has about the same temperature (6 C. / 43 F.) as the inside of a state-of-the-art fridge and works great for storing food.

Graziano opening the lid of the 'fridge' and removing a water melon.

Since our leg of lamb was a bit uneven in thickness, Graziano chopped a few sticks to tie together the lamb roast.

Sharpening the sticks.

Pushing the sticks through the marinated leg of lamb was holding it together nicely.

The chef holding his marinated, tied together leg of lamb, ready to put it on the fire.

A wide grilling place works great to have a fire burning on one side while being able to move the hot embers to the other side underneath a grill.

Graziano's fantastic leg of lamb roast, filled with a garlicy thyme marinade!

The kitchen inside the cottage works without elecricity as well! At night, candles are used to light the place and a fire is burning underneath the stove top. The stove is a swiss made Tiba.

Opening the door to the stove reveals a beautiful fire burning and heating up the stove top for cooking. We've prepared a few potatoes, diced and seasoned with fresh rosemary, salt and pepper as a side dish for the lamb. For dessert the stove came in action again for a calory bomb dessert, a chocolate cream made out of dark swiss chocolate, melted with some heavy whipping cream and then served with some more whipped cream! Very heavy but great!

2006-07-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

Ostrich on Noodles with Chanterelle and Pear

It happens quite often that my ideas suddenly change while I'm cooking. While my chanterelle mushrooms were pleasently simmering in butter, I thought I'd like to add a shot of some kind of booze. Looking into the booze shelf, I noticed a bottle of a fine williams pear brandy from the elsace in france. If you're hesitating to buy this kind of brandy, it's also very delicious for desserts or as a digestive.

Luckily there were some unripe pears sitting in the kitchen as well, perfect to add to the sauce which turned out quite nice!

for 2 people:

Ingredients:

2-4 ostrich steaks (depending on the size), replaceable with a beef tenderloin
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 handful of fresh chanterelle mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
freshly ground salt and pepper
1 large green pear, sliced (hard and unripe is fine)
2 shots of williams pear brandy
noodles

Instructions:

Bring water for the noodles to a boil, add salt.

Season the steaks well with freshly ground salt and pepper.

In a small pan or skillet, heat the butter over medium-high heat and sauté the mushrooms until they're starting to shrink. Add the sliced pear, stir and sauté until the slices start to brown a bit. Add one (out of the two) shot of the pear brandy. Season with salt and pepper and keep mushrooms and pear simmering over low heat.

Add the noodles into the boiling water. Once they're almost done, heat a skillet with the olive oil over high heat and sauté the steaks quickly, about 1-2 minutes on each side depending on their thickness. Pour the second shot of pear brandy over the steaks.

Add the finished noodles into the mushroom-pear skillet, stir well and serve on plates. Arrange the steaks on top and serve immediately.

2006-07-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Super Simple #3 - Filled Zucchetti

Based on a little poll we've had a while ago, most of you readers seem to be interested in quick and easy to prepare dishes. This zucchetti dish certainly belongs into this category as well. The preparation time is 10 minutes or less with another half hour you won't have to do anything while the zucchetti sits in the oven. The addition of a little bit of clove added a nice exotic touch.

for 2 people:

Ingredients:

2 whole zucchetti (size depends on your appetite)
olive oil
3.5 oz (100 g) ground beef
3.5 oz (100 g) ground lamb
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons fresh or dried oregano
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 clove, ground (or 1/2 teaspoon clove powder)
2 oz (about 50 ml) white wine
2 tablespoons cognac or brandy
1 tomato, thinly sliced for decoration
a few thin onion slices for decoration
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Cut a thin lid lengthwise for each zucchetti. Using a spoon or a special tool, remove seeds and excess meat from each zucchetti so you'll have plenty of space to fill them.

Microwave the zucchetti to soften them but make sure they're still a bit crunchy inside. To test that, stick a fork in it and see how resistant the veggies still are. If you don't have a microwave, you could also keep the zucchetti in the oven for an extra 15 minutes or so at the end or get yourself a microwave. It's not just there to cook frozen dinners (please don't!), I prefer boiling potatoes in there for example which just takes a few minutes.

Place the zucchettis into an oven-proof dish and put aside. Pre-heat the oven to 355 F. (180 C.).

In a skillet, heat a bit of olive oil (a few tablespoons) over medium heat, sauté onions and garlic for about 1 minute. Make sure the garlic doesn't burn as it will become bitter! Pour in the cognac or brandy. Add both ground beef and lamb, season with salt and pepper and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients besides the tomato and onion slices. Stir well and test the taste. Add more spices to taste. If you like your dishes a bit spicy, you could add some chili as well.

Fill the zucchetti with the meat, decorate with tomato and onion slices, sprinkle with a few drops of olive oil and put into the oven for about 30 minutes. Optionally, you could also add some ground parmesan cheese on top.

For some other super simple recipes, check out:

Spaghetti with Oven Roasted Tomatoes
Rosti (Röschti)

2006-07-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Gigot Steaks on Eggplant with Tsatziki

Gigot, or also knows as leg of lamb, has a very unique lamb flavor which differs from the lamb racks I usually prepare. You might have to ask your butcher for leg of lamb steaks or if he has a whole leg, he might be able to cut a few steaks for you. Preferrably you would like those steaks to be at least 1" thick, better 1,5".

The combination of lamb, eggplant and the cucumber dip is very refreshing and perfect for those hot summer days.

for 2 people:

Ingredients:
2 leg of lamb (gigot) steaks, 1-1,5" thick
1 eggplant, sliced lengthwise
salt
flour
olive oil for sauté

for the marinade:
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 twigs fresh thyme, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon fresh or dried oregano
10 mint leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
freshly ground salt and pepper

for the tsatziki:
17 oz (1/2 l) plain yoghurt
1 cucumber, peeled, seeds removed and finely chopped (best to use a food processor)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons fresh dill, finely chopped
salt to taste

Instructions:

You need about 6 hours to de-water the yoghurt for the tsatziki. Use a strainer with a thin piece of cloth inside (a kitchen paper might work as well). Put the strainer in a bowl and pour the yoghurt into the cloth.

After several hours, a lot of the water from the yoghurt will have seaped through the cloth, giving you a much less liquid and wet yoghurt, perfect for tsatziki.

Before starting to cook the meat and eggplants, finish the tsatziki. Add the cucumber to the dried out yoghurt. Add garlic, olive oil, dill and salt to taste. Mix well and add more ingredients to taste. Keep cool in the fridge.

Sprinkle enough salt on all the eggplant slices on both sides and let them sit on a plate for about 30 mins. The water will start to come out of the eggplant and form little drops on the slices.

Once that happened, wash the slices and flour them all around.

Rub all the ingredients for the marinade around the steaks. Use more olive oil if the marinade is too dry. Put aside.

Preheat the oven to 175 F. (80 C.).

In a skillet using plenty of olive oil, sauté the steaks over high heat about 1-3 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness, until they've gotten a nice brown color but leaving the inside red. Put the steaks into a dish and place into the preheated oven.

Depending on the thickness of the steaks, leave them in the oven for at least 30 minutes, but no longer than 1 hour. You still want the meat to be slightly pink inside.

In a skillet, sauté the eggplant slices in olive oil until browned on all sides. Don't overlap the slices in the skillet, only put as many at a time as possible. Add more olive oil as needed.

Arrange the eggplant slices on the serving plates and put a lamb steak on top. Serve with the cool tsatziki on the side.

We've enjoyed a bottle of nice tuscany wine with this dish but you could also go for a lighter red to keep this dish more suitable for a hot summer night. I do tend to think though that a full-bodied italian wine enhances the flavor of lamb quite nicely.

2006-07-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

Schrebergaertli

I wouldn't know how to translate this correctly into english, but a 'Schrebergaertli' basically is a community of little cottages, each with its own garden for cultivating vegetables, salads, fruits and such.

Today we've visited Signora Nicoletta, who's been growing her own vegetables and fruits with great success for years already in her own little cottage in the 'Schrebergaertli'. She seems to have a perfect green thumb as everything she plants seems to grow beautifully!

By the way, having your own little cottage in a community like this is quite cheap. The rent per year is around US $ 150/year. Cheap rent, yes, but you're not allowed to sleep there overnight!

It was a joy, watching Signora Nicoletta, originally from Italy by the way, being active in her garden, filling bags and bags with fresh salads, onions, herbs and fruits.

Signora Nicoletta picking a few cucumbers.

Watering the tomato plants.

Cutting different kinds of salads.

A handful of green lettuce.

Preparing the soil for new baby salads.

In Signora Nicoletta's garden you'll also find eggplants...

... grapes ...

... all kinds of berries, and much more.

We left there with bags and bags full of fresh herbs, salads, vegetables and berries.

The dwarf is sitting there on the soil watching that everything grows well, isn't he?

A few recipes with all that green stuff

Green leaf salad

Ingredients:

any salad you like (preferrably organic)
balsamic vinegar
red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
fresh herbs (for example parsley)

Instructions:

There's not much to describe about making a simple green leaf salad. For certain types of leaves that are a bit more bitter than others, I like to make a stronger dressing by using more balsamic vinegar while I rather use a white wine or even apple cider vinegar for more subtle leaves like butter lattice.

I'm personally more into simple italian style dressings with just those few ingredients, but you certainly could add some mustard, cream or even soy sauce. Just try to not confuse the tastes by adding too many ingredients into the same dressing. Be creative!

Cucumber salad

Ingredients:

cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
sour cream
vegetable oil
white wine or apple cider vinegar
fresh or dried dill
sald and pepper to taste

Instructions:

A cucumber salad is a nice and refreshing salad that is best served a little bit chilled. Dill goes very well with it. If you don't have fresh dill, the dried one works as well. There's a seasoning by Knorr called 'Aromat' that I also like to add into the dressing. Again, taste your dressing and add to taste.

Pasta with fresh herbs

Ingredients:

pasta of your choice
lots of herbs (I used basil and celery leaves)
extra virgin olive oil
fresh garlic clove, crushed
fresh yellow onion, chopped
red chili (if you like it spicy)
lots of freshly ground parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, onion and chili and sauté over low heat for 10-15 minutes without burning the garlic!

In the meantime, cook your pasta in boiling, salted water al dente. Right before the pasta is ready, add all the herbs into the skillet and mix. I also like to put the drained pasta directly into the skillet to mix it well with the sauce. You really need to use a lot of herbs. I'm still surprised how much that mountain of herbs shrinks down when heated up!

Season with more salt and pepper to taste, serve, and sprinkle with lots of parmesan cheese. If you're pasta is a bit dry, add more olive oil.

With a simple dressing like this, it is even more crucial to use only the best and freshest ingredients. The herbs I had from Signora Nicoletta were so strong in taste and made for a great pasta sauce.

Rucola Risotto

Ingredients:

lots of rucola (arugula, rocket)
for risotto ingredients click here
lots of freshly ground parmesan cheese
a nice piece of meat goes well on top, I used a swiss horse steak

Instructions:

For the basic risotto instructions, please check here on my previous post.

Before starting the risotto, sauté your meat (horse or beef tenderloin) over high heat on both sides until nicely browned, but keep it raw inside. Season well with freshly ground salt and pepper. Wrap it into aluminum foil and put it into a low temperature oven (80 C. or about 175 F.)

Prepare your risotto. After about 10 minutes, add the ground parmesan cheese. Once the rice is almost ready, add the rucola and stir well. Arrange the rice on the plates. Remove the meat from the oven and arrange on top of the rice.

Vanilla ice cream with fresh berries

Always a favorite! Vanilla ice cream with berries of your choice! The berries could also be heated up a bit, or you could add a shot of liquor like cointreau.

Here are some other ideas:

Coffee with vanilla ice cream

Vanilla ice cream with grand marnier oranges

2006-07-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

Pork Tenderloin with Prunes

I've always liked the combination of meats with fruits and the pork tenderloin is especially nice to serve with fruits or even fill it. For this particular recipe, I used dried prunes which were first soaked for a while in Noilly Prat and then stuffed into the tenderloin.

I like to keep the ingredients simple to not confuse the tastes. This dish stays very simple in preparation and is a guaranteed success in the oven for low temperature cooking. As a side dish, I prepared some noodles as I thought they'd go best with the slightly sweet sauce from the meat.

for 2 people:

for the pork and noodles:
1 pork tenderloin
about 8 dried prunes, pitted and cut in half, soaked in 1/2 cup Noilly Prat for at least 1 hour
1 tablespoons green peppercorns, slightly crushed
1 tablespoons red peppercorns, slightly crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
kitchen string to close the meat
noodles of your choice

the sauce:
1 tablespoons green peppercorns, slightly crushed
1 tablespoons red peppercorns, slightly crushed
about 8 dried prunes, pitted and cut in half, soaked in 1/2 cup Noilly Prat for at least 1 hour
1/4 cup Noilly Prat
1/4 cup dry white wine (a cheap one for cooking)
3-4 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon chicken base (Better-Than-Bouillon)
1 teaspoon butter

Instructions:

We'll start preparing the pork first. Preheat the oven to 80 C. (180 F.).

Cut the tenderloin lengthwise without cutting through. Fold open the meat and add the soaked prunes. Close the meat and tie it tight with the kitchen string. Rub the peppercorns all around the meat.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over high heat and sauté the meat all around until brown, but not longer than a few minutes. The meat should still be red inside.

Wrap the tenderloin in aluminum foil and put into the preheated low temperature oven.

For the sauce, add all ingredients but the butter into the skillet where you've previously grilled the pork. Simmer the sauce until the prunes almost completely lost their original shape and are dissolved in the sauce, about 20 minutes. Add more white wine if the sauce becomes a bit too thick.

In the meantime, bring water to a boil in a large enough pot for the noodles. Add salt. Before adding the noodles, make sure your sauce and the pork are ready to be served. The pork should have been in the oven for about 30 minutes.

The advantage of low temperature cooking in the oven is, that the meat won't dry out and it also doesn't matter much if you leave it for another extra 10 minutes.

If you have the possibility, preheat the plates. The other way would be to increase the heat in the oven to a very high temperature for just 1 minute or so, not longer! That way, the meat will still stay juicy but will be hotter for serving.

Just before serving noodles and meat, add the butter into the sauce and mix very gently.

Remove the meat from the oven, cut into slices and serve with the noodles on the side. Pour the sauce over the noodles and serve immediately.

I found this funny looking swiss wine in the grocery store, a Dôle with the whole Ruetlischwur story written on it! Most likely, you won't find it at Trader Joe's ;-)

2006-07-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

Schwiizer Z'nacht (Swiss Dinner)

It usually happens when I return to Switzerland that I really crave some very basic swiss dishes. Not that it would be impossible to prepare those abroad, but the atmosphere and melancholy ask for it!

Having arrived just a few days ago back home, I do feel the urge of starting to cook again finally after one month of eating out in Thailand.

Walking through the local Migros (grocery store), which, by the way, is another very interesting experience being used to big american grocery stores - why is everything so tiny here? - I got a few Zueri Sausages (sausages from Zurich) to be prepared with a fresh green salad directly from the garden and a potato salad.

for 2 people:

for the sausages:
any kind of sausages you like for grilling (I used Bratwurst and Cervelat)
a good mustard

for the potato salad:
about 6-8 small potatoes, microwaved
4 tablespoons sour cream or plain yoghurt
1 white or yellow onion, chopped
4 tablespoons white vinegar
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
salt and pepper
1-2 teaspoons mustard
1-2 teaspoons Knorr Seasoning or soy sauce (optional)
half an apple, cut into slices (optional)

for the green leaf salad:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil (extra virgin cold pressed)
salt and pepper
any herbs like italian seasoning, thyme, oregano
shallot or onion, chopped (optional)

Instructions:

Not too long ago, I noticed that cooking potatoes is done the easiest way in the microwave. Especially for a dish like the potato salad, you'll really only need the potatoes to soften, which takes a few minutes instead of boiling hot water first and then cooking them in a pan.

Make sure the potatoes are not getting too soft though as they'll fall apart when you mix them into the dressing.

Mix all the ingredients for the potato salad dressing and also for the green salad in seperate bowls. You'll really have to taste the salads once they're done and adjust the seasoning to taste.

Grill the sausages over medium-high heat on a grill and serve them hot with some mustard on the side.

We had a nice and light bottle of swiss wine, perfect for a hot summer evening.

2006-07-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Thailand - Last Day

Market in Pattaya

The markets in Thailand always fascinated me with their vivid colors and scents. While this market in Pattaya is rather small, in bigger ones you'll encounter all kinds of, in our eyes, peculiar booths that sell, for example, turtles, swamp frogs, dried fish filled with baby banana, fermented pastes and of course a huge amount of different local seafood, vegetables and fruits.

While you're strolling through those markets, the colors change as quick as the smell does from the spice booth next to the seafood stand. It's a visual feast to see the locals selling their goods.

Mostly, markets don't only sell foods, but also an unspeakable amount of things you can't imagine what they'd be good for. The perfect example would be the famous Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok where you can find about anything if you're patient enough to walk through all the sois (alleys). There's scorpions, underwear, ripped dvd's, antique furniture, birds and tigers, fresh fruit juices and anything else you could think of.

Fruits like Mangosteen, Logan, Bananas, Coconuts and many more...

Fresh vegetables.

More veggies.

Different kinds of chili pastes.

Sseasoning and fish sauces.

Fish and other seafood.

Pork and beef.

Cutting pork chops.

More meat.

Spices, onions and shallots.

2006-07-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

Thailand Day 21-23

Roadtrip to Dansai, Loei (northeast)

The northern parts of Thailand are quite different, more hills, green and lush, beautiful rice patties and overall just more quiet and peaceful so it seems. Loei is a region in the northeastern part of Thailand, called Isaan.

Dansai, a small town in the Loei region, was having their yearly
ghostfestival called Peetakhon, where locals would dress up, dancing through the streets in masks to wish for enough rain for a fruitful harvest and a good year of fishing. Similar events seem to be present in other cultures, including Switzerland as well.

Chateau de Loei Winery

Loei is also famous for their winery. Chateau de Loei is located in the middle of wide ranging vinyards where I wanted to go for some wine tasting as I heard that their white extra dry is quite nice.

At the tasting, I did manage to taste 2 wines out of about 10, as the others were "mai mee", an expression you might hear quite often while in Thailand, meaning "don't have". Trusting the word of my friend George, I ended up getting a box of the extra dry anyway and I'll keep you posted about it once I've actually tried it.

The Chateau de Loei Extra Dry

Amazing Thai Dinner

The food highlight certainly was this balcony type restaurant, situated right next to a small swamp off the main road. I feel comfortable to say that I had some of the best thai food ever here!

I really wanted to check out the kitchen as well and found that to be very interesting as it has nothing to do with western type kitchens we're used to. First of all, thai's cook outdoors whenever they can. This probably stems from the fact that their deep-frying and roasting chilies is more convenient in a well aired area.

Lots of stuff on the kitchen table.

The stove. Siemens? Electrolux?

The assistant cutting galangal (thai ginger).

The chef cutting lettuce for the soup.

Some kind of intestine for a sour-spicy soup.

Heating up the stove.

The best tom yum plaa (fish tom yum) I've eaten so far.

Prawn-egg dish.

One of the best fried fish I've had. She fried it for about 5 minutes on each side in a wok filled with peanut oil.

Smasing lemon grass to make fine threads.

Lemon grass threads, kaffir lime leaves, frog legs, sesame oil, tapioca starch and several spices which I don't know what they were. Really great!

Adding the above to the wok.

Frying until the lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves are crispy.

The basket for food delivery into the restaurant upstairs.

2006-06-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

Thailand Day 20

Pak Boong Loy Fa, Pattaya

I've walked by this place several times until I finally sat down to give it a try. I actually went twice already since then, but the first time I didn't have my camera with me when I had a green seafood curry sizzling on a hot pan. That curry was so amazing that I came back and ordered this hot and sour fish that was served in a fish shaped pan over a small fire.

I've eaten great here both times but I would recommend having an Imodium ready if you have a bit of a sensitive stomach like I do since the dishes here are rather spicy.

2006-06-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

Thailand Day 19

Fondue Bourguignonne at Restaurant Swiss Food

In Soi Diamond, a cross street to the famous walking street in Pattaya, there's at least one more other swiss restaurant besides Swiss Food. I got introduced to this place by my good friend and real estate agent, Tommi.

This time I brought my friends Andrew and Muchi and we ordered a fondue bourguignonne.

Unlike the cheese fondue, you don't dip bread into cheese, instead you'll cook beef in the boiling oil and then dip it into your favorite sauce. There's a selection of different sauces arranged on your plate around the raw bite-sized beef pieces.

The fondue at Restaurant Swiss Food tastes great! I can't remember I had such a good one before in Switzerland. It's served together with a bowl of french fries, which are very good as well.

We've ordered Tommi's favorite bottle of red wine here, the Puglia Primitivo from italy.

Restaurant Swiss Food
175/29 Soi Diamond
Pattaya

2006-06-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Thailand Day 18

Kiss Food & Drink

This place is a bit like Denny's in the US besides the fact that they do serve good food here. At least the thai dishes taste very fine, I haven't tried the burgers or wienerschnitzel which they also offer on their menu.

The kitchen is open around the clock and the outdoor seating is quite interesting to watch the people go by at 4 in the morning.

From my last visit I also remember it from sitting there at a table with very heavy tropical rain outside. It's quite fun eating here while watching the water level on the streets rise.

Because Kiss Food & Drink never closes, it seems to attract quite a few 'farangs' (westerners) with their thai 'girlfriends'. While the guy can eat his cheeseburger here, she'll be more happy to order a spicy som tam (papaya salad).

This time, we ordered a deep fried snapper and a ruby fish, which is a hybrid fish raised in the northern parts of thailand, originally an idea by the king to feed the people up north. I like their way of deep frying fish a lot as it's not greasy, the meat stays tender and the outside gets nice and crispy. The meat gets easily scraped off with a spoon and tastes great with a few drops of chili infused fish sauce.