Sausage and Lentil Stew

While this isn't an authentic French recipe (so far as I know) it IS heavily inspired by dishes I had in Lyon when I went there recently. Yes, both the sausage and the wine are Swiss, but I'm sure proper French substitutes could be found.

Ingredients:
- 100 g (3.5 oz) smoked bacon, diced
- 6 small onions, quartered
- 2 smoked sausages ("Freiburger bauernwurst")
- 500 g (about 1 lb) green lentils
- 3 dL (about 1 cup) red wine (Dôle Romaine, Martigny, Switzerland)
- 1 L (about 4 cups) vegetable bouillon
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- fresh thyme
- 6 bay leaves
- 6 peppercorns

In a large pot the bacon was browned, then the onions were added and sautéed for 5 minutes before adding the lentils and the sausages cut in large pieces. The wine was added, and the pt was left on medium-high heat until the volume of liquid was nearly gone. Then the vegetable bouillon was added together with garlic, fresh thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns. The heat was reduced a little and the stew was allowed to simmer for 20 minutes (uncovered).

The stew was served with thick slices of bread and a glass of the red wine - a nice wine from the Swiss canton of Valais.

French Beer - Part I (Pelforth)

Beer probably isn't the first thing you think of when you think of France, and in my opinion the likes of Kronenbourg does nothing good for the reputation of French beer.

But, unsurprisingly, there is also good beer to be had in France - very good beer in fact. Take, for example Pelforth Brune, which I had my first taste of a few years ago in the US. When I recently went to Lyon I was suddenly faced with that option again. Not to be missed on my part - a delicious, dark, strong beer.

Of course, one could argue that this is cheating - that Pelforth is made so close to the border that one might as well consider it a Belgian beer...

Meze Menu 1

Meze is the middle eastern version of tapas: a selection of smaller snack dishes that served together make up a meal. Without further ado, let's have a look at Meze Menu 1:
- flour tortillas
- tabbouleh
- spanakopitta
- köfte
- grilled eggplant
- hummus

Yes, that is my recipe for (Mexican) flour tortillas but they go just fine in this context as well. The tabbouleh and spanakopitta have been described here very recently. The köfte are a slight variation on my previous recipe, and the hummus was my first attempt at it - it didn't turn out quite right, but I'll get back to that. The funny looking eggplant is called a Sicilian eggplant.

köfte:
- 500 g (about 1 lb) ground beef
- 1 red onion, finely diced
- 4 bird chillies, seeds removed, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- fresh basil, chopped
- fresh mint, chopped
- salt
- cayenne pepper
- allspice
- 1 egg

All the ingredients were mixed, and little meat balls formed by hand were fried in a pan using a little oil.

grilled eggplant:
- 1 Sicilian eggplant, sliced thinly

The eggplant slices were grilled under the broiler.

hummus:
- 175 g (6 oz) dried chickpeas
- water
- 4 tbsp tahini
- juice of 1 1/2 lemon
- 2 cloves garlic, mashed

The chickpeas were soaked in cold water overnight, then boiled for about 1.5 hours until very soft. The water was drained off, but not discarded. The chickpeas were blended to a purée and the tahini, lemon juice, and garlic was added. The saved water from boiling them was added in portions until the right creamy texture was attained.

As mentioned the hummus didn't turn out quite right. I think it was perhaps too much lemon juice and/or garlic.

Apart from the hummus, the menu was fantastic.

Update: A better hummus recipe.

Spanakopitta

Strictly speaking, one should make spanakopitta using fillo pastry, but we didn't feel like making it and the store was sold out - so we used puff pastry, which wasn't sold out.

Ingredients:
- 640 g (about 1.5 lbs) puff pastry (cut in 4 pieces)
- 500 g (about 1 lb) frozen spinach
- salt
- 200 g (about 0.5 lb) feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 eggs (+1 egg for brushing)

The frozen spinach was put in a small pot without any water and thawed over medium heat - and excess liquid was drained off. The feta cheese was mixed with 2 eggs using a fork, then stirred into the spinach, and seasoned to taste with salt.

The spinach-cheese mixture was divided in 2 equal portions and each was spread on a piece of puff pastry, leaving some 2-3 cm (1 inch) free along each side. The remaining pieces of puff pastry were used as lids, folding the pastry along the edges to close them. Long diagonal slits were cut in the pastry lids and the pies were brushed with the remaining egg.

The pies were baked in the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 45 minutes, until crisp and golden.

Tabbouleh

To aid us in our quest for cooking more middle eastern food, we bought another book, Claudia Roden's New Book of Middle Eastern Food, to get more inspiration.

As it turns out our copy of the book is flawed by a production error - more specifically the same set of pictures appears twice, leaving us guessing as to which pictures we are missing. Amazon.com wasn't able to tell us whether it was just or copy, or their entire set - so instead they refunded us the value of the book, and let us keep it at the same time. Hooray.

First up in a string of post on the subject is a variation on tabbouleh, one of several bulgur salads.

Ingredients:
- 2 dL (4/5 cup) bulgur
- cold water
- juice of 1 1/2 lemon
- 5 tomatoes, diced
- 2 small onions, finely diced
- fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
- fresh mint, chopped
- salt, pepper
- olive oil

The bulgur was soaked in cold water for 10-15 minutes, then drained and put in a large bowl. The lemon juice and tomatoes were added and the bowl was left for half an hour to let the bulgur absorb the juices and turn tender. [1] The rest of the ingredients were mixed in.

Tabbouleh might be eaten as a stand alone dish (supposedly it is traditional to scoop it up with lettuce leaves), or as a side dish.

[1] At this point the texture of the bulgur still seemed somewhat 'uncooked', which was a little worrisome, but in the end the result was just fine.

Bird Chillies

I noticed a pack of small green chillies at the supermarket, they were called "piments oiseaux" and given my past experience with chillies and naming around here I wasn't sure what to expect. As it turns out they are in fact known as "bird chillies" in English too (which is be the direct translation from French).

Bird chillies hail from Thailand and are quite hot, but their smallness makes it quite easy to dose them right. It does seem to me that they turn up the hotness a notch once they turn orange.

The pack was quite big, and a fair number of them dried out before I was through using them, but they can be used just fine dried as well.

Chunky Rosehip Jam

Rose hip is a quite common plant in Denmark: It grows wild along roads and in the sandy dunes along the coast and it's also widely used for hedges. It seems particularly suited for the latter purpose (if the idea is to deter intruders): Like all roses it is profusely thorny, and moreover the ripe berries are very mushy, leading them to readily release their payload of fine itchy hairs.

When I was in Denmark this past summer it was during the rose hip season (the length of which I'm thoroughly unknowing of), and I decided to pick me a bucket of rose hips and try to recreate the rose hip jam I have so found memories of both my mother and her mother making years ago.


Ingredients:
- 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs) whole rose hips, halved and cleaned (800 g / 1.75 lbs when cleaned)
- 5 dL (2 cups) water
- juice of 1 lemon
- 450 g + 75 g (1 lbs + 2.5 oz) sugar
- 2 tsp red label Melatin [1]
- 1 + 2 + 2 tsp Atamon [1]
- 2 glass jars with tightly fitting lids, about 750 mL (3 cups) each


The rose hips were halved with a small knife, the seeds and itchy hairs scraped out with a teaspoon and collected in a colander. They were rinsed well with cold water and let stand to dry a little. It's highly recommended to wash the hands thoroughly after cleaning rose hips.


The cleaned rose hips were put in a large pot together with the water and the lemon juice, covered and brought to a boil. After boiling for 25 minutes, the larger portion of sugar was stirred in before boiling uncovered (at this point it can foam a lot) for an additional 12 minutes.
At this point 1 tsp Atamon, the smaller portion of sugar and the red label Melatin was added. The whole was brought back to a boil and boiled for 2 minutes before removing from the heat. While the hot jam cools down a bit the glass jars were each swirled with 2 tsp of Atamon. Still warm (but not boiling) the jam was poured into the glasses and the lids were fitted on tightly.

Once cool the jam can be eaten. Of course it can be saved for quite for some time. The jam I made here was very chunky - so much that I would consider cutting the rose hips in smaller pieces next time. I particularly like it on white bread, such as our home-made buns.

[1] Melatin and Atamon are Danish brand names. They are gelling and preserving agents, respectively. Melatin contains carrageenan, locust bean gum, and sugar - one could surely substitute with pectin and/or agar, although I'd have to experient with the amounts. Atamon is an aqueous solution of sodium benzoate, lactic acid, caramel coloring, and rum aroma - the label is positively oldschool (to the point where one suspects they couldn't introduce it on the market today), and I honestly have no idea what alternative products one can buy outside of Denmark, but I'm guessing one could try sterilizing the jars in boiling water.

Borscht

My parents have always kept a large vegetable garden - a hobby the entire family benefits from year-round. Although I have to say that neither I nor my siblings were entirely grateful for the bounty of beetroot. In our opinion our parents knew one or two recipes too many for dishes based on beetroot. Pickled beetroot were appreciated by all (e.g. as topping for liver pâté) - beetroot steaks and beetroot pâté not so much. Interestingly they never made us beetroot soup, which I think might have won me over a little more effectively - or maybe my taste just changed since then. Anyway, now it's autumn again, and therefore soup season, so I made a big pot of borscht.

Ingredients:
- olive oil
- 3 medium/small red onions, chopped
- 400 g (almost 1 lb) potatoes
- 800 g (almost 2 lbs) celery root
- 1500 g (over 3 lbs) beetroot
(all tubers were peeled, and cut in cubes 1 cm per side (1/2 inch per side))
- 2 dL (almost 1 cup) flour
- 2.5 L (2/3 gallon) beef bouillon
- 4 cloves garlic, mashed
- 12 peppercorns
- salt
- 6 bay laurel leafs
- thyme & oregano
- 0.5 L (2 cups) cream

In a large pot, a little oil was heated. The onion was sautéed for a couple of minutes before adding the tuber cubes. After another 5 minutes, the flour was added and stirred in to coat the cubes with the flour. The beef bouillon was added together with the herbs, salt, and peppercorns. The soup was brought to a boil, then the heat was reduced. The soup was covered and allowed to simmer for an hour with occasional stirring, before adding the cream.

Served warm with a little sour cream on top.

Stuffed Ball Round Zucchini

One Saturday morning shopping at the farmers' market I noticed these ball round zucchini, and thought they'd make an interesting variation for the previously mentioned stuffed zucchini. The recipe is basically the same as that mentioned previously, but the following substitutions are worth noting: I used 3 ball round zucchini; for the cheese I used Gouda cheese; and the bread crumbs were not Panko, but just some ordinary crumbs of dry bread...



It worked quite well - in fact, I think if I ever wanted stuffed zucchini in a handy serving-size way (as for one dish out of several in a fancy dinner) I'd use this version.

Burning Love

I have never really known why this dish is known as 'burning love' in Denmark. Basically it's just mashed potatoes with fried bacon and onion - and a some fresh parsley. Pretty easy.

Ingredients:
- 2.4 kg (5.3 lbs) potatoes, cut in chunks
- water
- 0.5 L ( 2 cups) milk
- salt & pepper
- bacon, diced
- 2 medium-large onions, chopped
- 1 bunch parsley, chopped

The potato chunks were boiled in unsalted water till fairly soft. The water was drained and the potatoes were mashed with a ladle [1]. The milk was stirred in, being added in portions, to give the desired texture. Seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

In a large pan bacon was fried. Then added onion and continued till the onion were soft and brown.

The mash was served with the bacon onion mix, and freshly chopped parsley - ketchup optional.

[1] The resulting mash was slightly chunky, which I like, but if a smoother mash is desired I'd use a hand-held mixer.

Paulaner Oktoberfest

I see I am a little late with this post, but only just so I guess it's not so bad.

I have mentioned before on these pages my taste for Bavarian beers as well as seasonal beers.

Therefore, it can hardly surprise that Paulaner Oktoberfest on sale seems a no-brainer to me.

Creamy Sunchoke Soup

It was only recently that I found sunchokes at a farmers' market here in Geneva - fortunately, I was able to recall the French word 'topinambour' [1] so I could ask for 1 kg of them. I used most of them to prepare this soup.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 3 small onions, coarsely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, mashed
- 1 green chilli, seeds removed, finely diced
- 850 g (30 oz) sunchokes
- 1.4 L (3 pints) water
- salt and pepper
- juice of 1 lemon
- parsley, chopped

Of the sunchokes, 700 g (25 oz) were cut in cubes approximately 1 cm (1/2 inch) on each side, while the rest were cut in cubes approximately 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) on each side.

In a large pot, the onion and chilli were sautéed till onion was translucent, then added the large chunks of sunchokes and garlic. After 10 minutes the water was added, brought to a boil, before the pot was covered and the heat was reduced. After simmering for 30 minutes, the pot was removed from the heat and the soup was blended to a smooth texture. Seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

While the soup was simmering, the smaller sunchoke cubes were roasted in a pan with a little oil.

The soup was served with sunchoke cubes and parsley on top.

[1] Given my generally poor knowledge of French vocabulary, I do seem to know a disproportionate amount of food terms..

Danish Beer - Part II (Indslev Brewery)

When I left Denmark in 2002, things were just starting to change. After that the changes accelerated, and for me the effect was amplified by only observing it on my short, relatively infrequent trips to Denmark. For example, one time I came home, and since my previous visit in Denmark, beer cans had been legalized - that changed the experience of walking down the beer aisle in a Danish supermarket a fair bit. On another visit, I noticed that since my previous visit, it had become standard for Danish supermarkets to have a decent selection of import beers - something I'd beforehand only seen in specialised beer stores and fancy department stores. Also quite the change.

And at the same time, the number of microbreweries in Denmark exploded to the point were on my most recent trip home, I noticed there were so many I didn't even try to taste all of them during the three weeks I was there. Many of these were entirely new breweries, but quite a few others were old breweries that had lied dormant (or nearly so) during the years of big brewery dominance. One such brewery is Indslev brewery in Indslev (coincidently a small town I have passed through numerous times because it's on way between my parents' place and my grandmothers' place) on the island of Funen. Originally opened back in 1897, it re-opened in 2006 with an interesting line of modern beers, of which I had the pleasure the pleasure to try a few. I have to say, the Indslev Spelt Bock is one of the best beers I've had in a very long time.

Lamb chops, black rice and white gravy

I've gone on about Danish gravy traditions here before, and one of the dishes I'm used to having white gravy with is lamb. Then, recently I woke up one early morning from a dream in which I was preparing lamb, white gravy and black rice. The image of the white gravy on the black rice was stuck in mind and when I went shopping later that day, it turned out lamb chops were on sale. It was like it was meant to happen...

Ingredients:
- black rice
- water
- salt & pepper
- lamb chops
- flour
- milk

I served it with a slight modification of this roasted bean salad (I substituted sunflower seeds for the pine nuts), which was the first thing to be prepared (so it could stand in the oven while preparing the rest).

The black rice were boiled in lightly salted water.

The lamp chops were seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in a pan. After removing the lamb chops from the pan, the drippings were added enough flour to make thick paste. On low heat milk added in small portions was stirred in to make the gravy. Added salt and pepper to taste.

Baba Ghanoush

Although I'm a great fan of what I have tried from the Middle Eastern kitchen, I must say I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject. Far less so than, e.g. Mrs. Throat-Erator, who has travelled in the region. For example, I didn't really know what Baba Ghanoush was when she started raving about how delicious it was. I urged her to make me some, and so she did..

Ingredients:
- 500 g (1 lb) eggplants
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- salt
- 2 tbsp tahini
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- paprika

The eggplants were rinsed and broiled until the inside was very soft. The partially charred skin was peeled away and the flesh was collected in a colander where it was mashed and drained. After being transferred to a bowl, the garlic, salt, ground cumin, tahini paste, and lemon juice was stirred in to give a smooth paste. The baba ghanoush was arranged as an atoll with the olive oil in the middle and paprika on the rim.

We had it with some flat breads, tzatziki, couscous salad, and meatballs.

I have to admit it was quite delicious, and we are aiming to practice more foods from this kitchen in the none too distant future.

Danish Beer - Part I (Carl's Beers)

When I grew up the beer market in Denmark was pretty homogeneous. First of all the market was almost completely dominated by breweries Carlsberg and Tuborg, their standard brews 'Carlsberg Hof' (Carlsberg Court) and 'Grøn Tuborg' (Green Tuborg) being probably the only 2 beers sold nationwide. Of course, there were other significant breweries - such as Ceres, Faxe, Harboe, Albani, and Hancock - but their beers were not as broadly available (i.e. only regionally or in certain stores). On top of that beers sold pretty much exclusively in dark green glass bottles (selling beer in cans was illegal in Denmark at the time) most of the breweries using the same standard recycled bottles (a relatively high price for the bottle themselves were part of ensuring a high rate of recycling).

Secondly, but perhaps even more importantly, almost all Danish beers then were pilsner style beers. My own mother has always claimed to prefer Grøn Tuborg over Carlsberg Hof, but I've always doubted if she could actually tell them apart in a blind tasting. And most of the others were quite similar too. To be fair, there were variations - Carlsberg has been making a porter as long as I can remember. Also, I think all the breweries had their own stronger beer (still pilsners, just higher alcohol content) such as 'Carlsberg Elefant' (Elephant), 'Carlsberg Sort Guld' (Black Gold), 'Guld Tuborg' (Gold Tuborg), and 'Harboe Bjørnebryg' (Bear Brew). And then there were the seasonal beers. Several breweries released special beers which were only sold around christmas and easter, respectively. Typically, these were stronger and darker beers, although usually only darker by virtue of being added caramel coloring rather than by brewing differently.

For many years this seemed to be fine. Danes appeared content to be getting mainly pilsners. But during the 1990's something happened. People started being more interested in different types of beer. Imports were on the rise. And in 1997 Carlsberg held a "beer election": A number of new beers (I think 5 or 6) were introduced for a limited time (several months) and by the end of it the customers voted for which of these should be continued. And since then Danes have had the joy of Carl's Special (unfortunately it is not exported), which is admittedly another pilsner style beer, if a little darker - but it is, IMHO exceptionally good. More importantly, this was the beginning of a new trend changing the beer market in Denmark.

Since then the line has been extended - the seasonal Carl's christmas brew and Carl's easter brew came quickly, and more recently Carl's Porter and Carl's Ale (pictured) were added.

Birthday Omelette

When it was recently Mrs. Throat-Erator's birthday I made an omelette with fresh golden chanterelles I had picked up at the farmers' market.

Ingredients:
- bacon, diced
- spring onions (lower part only), sliced
- golden chanterelles
- eggs
- white cheddar, grated
- salt & pepper

In a large pan, the bacon was fried, then added onions and golden chanterelles. After a few minutes, a mixture of beaten eggs, grated cheese, salt & pepper was added. The heat was reduced and the pan was left to let the eggs set.

Appenzeller Beer

Appenzell in the north-eastern part of Switzerland, has a reputation for being a backwards, kind of rural place - most infamously how women didn't gain the right to vote until 1991. On a more positive note, the preservation of traditions and slow pace is regarded as highly instrumental for the production of their famous cheeses, chocolates, bitters and beers (not sure all of these really sets it much apart from the rest of this country). By now I've had opportunity to taste a number of their beers:


While I haven't been to Appenzell and therefore cannot really say on how the place is, I CAN say that they do make good beer. Of those pictured, I guess Quöllfrisch is my favourite (not pictured is a very nice hemp ale). Schwarzer Kristall deserves mention for being a truly black beer.

Breaded Fish Cakes

We recently had some delicious fish cakes at an Asian restaurant, so I was interested in trying my hand at the art - in the end these were quite different from the ones we had at the restaurant (but still delicious) so I'll probably return with further variations on this theme.

Ingredients
- 500 g (just over 1 lb) potatoes, peeled, cut in chunks
- 400 g (just under 1 lb) pollock fillet
- 2 dL (almost 1 cup) milk
- 1 green chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
- 16 g (0.5 oz) fresh ginger, finely diced
- 3 scallions, green part only, sliced
- 20 g (0.7 oz) fresh basil, coarsely chopped
- salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- bread crumbs (to cover)
- oil for frying

The potato chunks were boiled tender in lightly salted water. After draining them thoroughly, they were put back in the dry pot and mashed on low heat to give a relatively dry mash. Care was taken not to let them burn (constant stirring/mashing while on the heat).

Simultaneously the fish was put in a frying pan with the milk and 1 dL (almost 1/2 cup) of water, covered, and brought to a boil. The heat was then reduced to allow it to simmer for 5 minutes before removing the pan from the heat. Still covered the fish was let stand 10 minutes in the warm milk to gently finish. Afterwards the fish was lifted out of the milk on to a plate to cool.

The cooled fish was drained, then flaked into the potato mash. The salt, basil, scallions, ginger, and chilli was added, and the the entire mixture was worked together by hand. [1]

The fish cakes were formed and flattened by hand, turned over in egg and bread crumbs and fried till golden brown on both sides in oil on a large pan.

Served with wild rice, cucumber salad and peanut dipping.

[1] I think if I try this again, I would spend an extra egg on the dish to see if the fish cake mass could have a little less tendency to fall apart.

Update: Using more fish relative to potato gives a better result - but you have to use more eggs.

Birra San Martino

When we were on vacation in Ticino this past summer we had the chance to try some local beer. Birra San Martino located in Mendrisio (we bought them in Lugano) makes three different beers of which we tried two.

The most remarkable thing about them was the unusually low level of carbonation. This on the one hand made them seem a little flat, but on the other hand was likely also one of the reasons they went down as fast as they did. For my personal taste, the red one was the more interesting of the two.