Ah comfort food: saute garlic in olive oil until it starts to brown, add diced onion and cook until it softens. Add soisson beans, cloves, sweet paprika, bay leaf, a pinch each of cinnamon and ginger, and chicken bouillon. Simmer a while. Add a couple Jura bergwursts (from Coop) and simmer. A couple minutes before serving add a couple slices of smoked pork loin. Serve over brown rice with parsley and hot sauce.
We also did a green salad.
Happy that it's once again pear season, the pasta with ground beef and pears recipe seemed like a good way to celebrate. I've made this twice before now and each time left out the optional curry paste component. This time I tried adding a teaspoon of green curry paste to the mix for the last couple minutes of cooking before adding the liquid. It works quite nicely.
When flipping through La Cucina de Mama I found an interesting recipe for chicken braised in a mixture of white wine and white grape juice. Two hours later I found white grape juice available as a seasonal specialty at the Coop. The message couldn't have been clearer.
Cut a small chicken into serving pieces (third the breasts and halve the thighs). Saute in olive oil until nicely browned. Add a slivered onion and cook until the onion softens. Add 100ml white grape juice and 150ml white wine along with a couple Tbs chopped cilantro and a big pinch of salt. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Serve topped with more chopped 'tro.
We ate this with leftover rice and beans from Wednesday and some baguette.
As a vegetable side I made a salad using Schnibbelbohnen: rinse the beans and then boil them until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Combine with diced cooked potato and a dressing made from minced onion, white balsamico, rapeseed oil, prepared mustard, and cream (halbrahm). Salt to taste.
Excellent, excellent food.
Driven by the fact that I found some nice-looking bell peppers on sale at Coop.
I used the "Italian Garden Pickles" recipe from Quick Pickles, using a bit less sugar than it called for; thyme, rosemary, oregano, and tarragon as the fresh herbs; bell pepper, onion, and cucumber as the vegetables.
Now it's time to wait.
[Update: 28 Sept: verrrry nice]
Not exactly sure where the idea came from, but I somehow ended up in the mood for beans and rice. Luckily we had some dried cannellini beans in the house.
Cook soaked white beans in the minimum amount of water possible (just to cover) with smoked bacon (cut into lardons), onion, bay leaf, rosemary, parsley, and a clove until the beans are tender. Add salt to taste.
For the rice I used the baked rice recipe from La Cucina de Mama.
Together with a green salad this was some very good food. The clove in the beans is a really nice touch.
Inspiration from a cooking show I caught a bit of while we were in Romania.
On their last visit, Andrea's parents brought us a can of beef (long story). Using it to make a hash seemed to be the obvious thing.
Dice some potatoes small (5mm or so) and cook them for 5 or so minutes with the minimal amount of oil to keep them from sticking. Add diced onion and minced garlic and cook until the onions are soft. Add diced canned beef and a diced long green pepper. Just before serving add a bit of the "broth" from the beef to moisten things.
We ate this, which was actually quite nice, with a green salad.
Ok, I can't help myself... It was quite a relief to be able to prepare something like this that's a bit odd and memory-associated for Andrea without making a complete hash out of it. :-)
A simple one to use more tortillas: marinate some geschnetzelted pork with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, salt, black pepper, and a bit of cayenne for a couple hours. Saute in olive oil and finish with a bit of dry vermouth. Serve with tortillas, a sauce made with sour cream and vermouth (cuisine de kuhlschrank strikes again), and rice.
