Tuesday: Spanish-influenced pork and beans

This one was pretty easy: brown some diced bacon in olive oil; add minced garlic and diced onion and cook for a while; add some pureed tomato, a splash of white wine, some veggie bouillon, ground cumin, ground coriander, some rosemary, a few piri piri chilis, and a couple bay leaves and cook for a bit longer; add some sausages and cook a bit longer; add some precooked beans and cook until they're heated through. Serve drizzled with fresh oil and topped with chopped parsley and chives.

This, with a green salad, is a very nice meal.

Monday: Pork steak with bärlauch butter

As we were gathering Bärlauch this weekend Andrea had the idea of doing a compound butter with it. It sounded like a great idea to me, so we tried it last night.

I made the butter by chopping a few leaves of Bärlauch and then mixing them into butter. I rolled the butter into some plastic wrap and let it cool again. Very simple. I just need to come up with a name for it... I guess in analogy to Beurre Café de Paris it could be Beurre Forêt de Bâle. ;-)

For dinner I broiled a couple of pork steaks and topped them with the butter. The flavor was a bit mild (the Bärlauch we gathered is much milder than the stuff Andrea picked up at the market a couple weeks ago), but otherwise good. The butter also went nicely with the basmati rice we had on the side.

We also had carrots that I chunked, cooked for a bit with some olive oil, then added cream and orange zest and cooked until the cream was quite reduced and colorful.

Oh, and a green salad.

Saturday Borscht

Given the quantity of beets that we had in the fridge, drastic measures were called for. Those measures took the form of a batch of borscht.

I mostly followed the recipe in BittmanWorld, though I added some bay leaf and thyme to the stew, altered the quantities somewhat (I used three beets instead of two) and skipped (well, forgot) the beans. The result was excellent.

I say it every time, but: it's so strange to like beets.

Nanorestaurant Review: Amrutham Restaurant (Basel)

This south Indian place is just around the corner from us. We tried it once before before I got discipline about recording things. This wasn't our first choice last night, but the new Italian place we wanted to try didn't have a table free.

Half a smiley face

• Food: Some things were quite good (vegetable cutlet, kingfish curry), others were quite boring (veggie pakora, veggie kurma), and the rice was overcooked (!). For a south Indian restaurant, there aren't very many interesting vegetarian dishes on the menu.
  
• Service: friendly and fine
• Atmosphere: comfortable.
  

Thursday Schnitzel with overcooked leeks

This was basically a repeat of Wednesday night's schnitzel (of course with freshly made schnitzel; there's no reheated schnitzel in our house!).

As an additional side I made "overcooked leeks", which is a fantastic vegetable side that I got to know, improbably, in the canteen at work. Not that overcooked vegetables are at all unusual in the canteen, what's improbably is that I would make something I had there at home. It's quite simple: cut leeks into 1cm rings, toss them in a pan with some olive oil, some salt (or vegetable bouillon), some white wine, and a bit of water. Cook for 15-20 minutes covered, then uncover and cook until most of the liquid evaporates. The results are really good.

Wednesday Schnitzel

Wow, we haven't done schnitzel since December, it had to happen.

Last night's was a completely standard approach: pork loin chops pounded out; seasoned; breaded with flour, egg, and fresh bread crumbs; sauteed in clarified butter; served with lemon wedges. Really, really good stuff. The fresh bread crumbs make it great.

As vegetable sides we had mashed celery root (diced, cooked with a bit of milk and butter until soft, mashed) and slow-cooked asparagus.

Monday: Bärlauch pesto, sausages and leeks

We've still got a ton of bärlauch that needs to be used up, so last night I made a batch of bärlauch pesto (bärlauch, toasted almonds, parmesan, olive oil) that we had over spaghetti.

I also picked up some sausages (unfortunately the Italian butcher is closed on Monday, so I got some Lughanighe from Coop) that I tossed in a pan with some thickly sliced leeks. I let this whole mess cook over medium heat until the sausages were nicely browned and the leeks caramelized. After deglazing with a bit of vermouth, this was a really nice combination.

Of course we also had a green salad.

Another Spring Meal

1. hors d'oeuvre: asparagus stalks slow baked (a la Slow Mediterranean Kitchen) and then wrapped in smoked ham. The Spanish asparagus is different enough from that which we got in CA that the slow-baking method works quite well and compares favorably to sauteing it.
2. soup: Bärlauch soup from a recipe in this month's Le Menu. I gave the vegetable bouillon a bit more oomph by cooking the asparagus peels and stalk ends in water for 30 minutes or so and then using that drained liquid as the base. I don't often do cream soups, but they can be damn nice.
3. main: Kohlrabi stuffed with veal and morels. This is another one from this month's Le Menu. The veal cubes are browned, then stewed with garlic, white wine, and veal essence. At the end the morels (also browned a bit), some chives, and a bit of cream are added. The veal-mushroom mixture is served in hollowed out kohlrabi that have been steamed until they are soft. Serving the veal in the kohlrabi was a bit of frou-frou (they could have just as easily been next to each other), but the dish was very good.
   
4. side: oven-roasted potato wedges
5. dessert: rhubarb stewed with dates, orange (juice and zest), and clove. This is a recipe from Bittman and it's really nice. The combination of different flavors and sweet and sour is great.
   

This was a bunch of very good food.

Friday Fondue

We wanted to get at least one more fondue in before it gets too warm, so last night we did a standard cheese fondue. We used a cheese mixture from a nearby shop and the recipe from Kaltenbach (300g cheese, 150ml white wine, 1/2 tsp potato starch, 1 1/2 shots kirsch, black pepper, nutmeg) and had a nice baguette as the bread.

Like last time we had peppermint tea with the fondue and of course we had a big green salad.

Wednesday: pasta with bärlauch/ricotta sauce

It's bärlauch season, so Andrea picked some up at the market yesterday and I improvised a pasta sauce from it.

Wilt some finely chopped shallot in a hot pan with a bit of neutral oil. Gently heat some good ricotta cheese (I put it a hot bowl and did 30 second stints in the microwave until it was warm). Stir in some chiffonade-cut bärlauch and a good grind of black pepper. Thin with a bit of pasta water and serve over the pasta, topped with toasted nuts (walnut and pecan pieces) and some chives.

This was really good stuff.

We also had a bit of sauteed kohlrabi and carrot and a big green salad.

Tuesday: Chicken cooked in butter

Last night I did a recipe from Kaltenbach for small chickens (Mistkraetzerli) cooked in butter. Pretty simple preparation -- put a few sage leaves in a small (<500g) chicken, saute in butter, serve with butter -- very nice results.

We ate the chicken with the leftover gratin and sauteed vegetables from Monday.

and a green salad

Monday Porkchops

I originally had another plan for the protein for last night's meal, but the Coop didn't have the necessary ingredient. So we did pork chops.

I did the chops very simply: I seasoned them and then sauteed them with some clarified butter. Once the were done, I removed them from the pan and then made a sauce by deglazing the pan with marsala, adding chopped shallots, and a bit of veal essence. After the shallots were tender and the sauce had reduced some I thickened it with a small amount of potato starch.

To accompany the chops I made the recipe for "Creamy Lima Bean Gratin" from JPFF using soisson beans instead of limas (can't find them here) and milk instead of cream. I'm sure that this is some classic French dish, but I haven't found the real name yet.

I also did a batch of sauteed vegetables with parsnips, celery root, yellow and orange carrot, kohlrabi, onion, garlic, and bacon. Seasoned with herbes de provence.

Very, very nice food.

We also had a green salad.

Sunday Indian

Last night we had a couple of friends over for dinner and did an Indian meal.

As a main course I made "Red Braised Chicken" from BittmanWorld. I did the variation with vegetables and added some sliced okra about 30min before the end of the cooking time. I used leg quarters instead of a whole chicken (they braise better) and browned the pieces before starting the braise. The dish was good, but could have used a bit more spice.

As a rice dish I did the Bittman "Stuck-pot rice" recipe with yogurt and curry. We've done the potato version of this a couple of times. I didn't get the level of crust that I would have liked, but the flavor of the rice was excellent.

I also made a simple raita with yogurt, lime, salt, and a cumin, black mustard, and curry leaf mixture that I toasted first.

Of course we also had a green salad.

Nanorestaurant Review: Goldenes Fass (Basel)

Another recommendation from Basel Geht Aus. Another good recommendation.

Two smiley faces

• Food: very nice. somewhat creative but not too much so and very carefully prepared
  
• Service: no complaints
• Atmosphere: very comfortable and, wonder of wonders, non-smoking during the dinner hours. hurray for nonsmoking restaurants!
  

Thursday Night: Steak au Poivre

This one has been on my "must make soon" list since I made the veal essence a couple of weekends ago. I used the recipe from Bourdain and some nice steaks from the Italian butcher.

To go with the lovely steaks I did oven-roasted potatoes and steamed beets with a rosemary vinaigrette. It's so weird to like beets now!

We also had a green salad.

Wednesday's extreme randomness

I had a plan for last night's dinner, even a good plan, but it was dependent on picking up a steak at the butcher. So, of course, the butcher was closed yesterday. That left us with the need to either go to the store or improvise from what was in the house. We were both feeling lazy, so improvisation it was.

I made a batter (1dl milk, 1dl water, pinch of salt, 120g knopflimehl) and used that to make thin pancake/thick crepes. These I filled with thinly sliced fleischkase (leftover from weekend breakfast), grated cheese (gruyere and tete de moine), toasted walnuts, and black pepper. I rolled the crepes, put them all in a gratin dish, and baked until the cheese inside was melted and the tops were crispy.

With this bit of randomness we had a green salad.

Tuesday: Chickpeas

I realized yesterday that I had a chickpea craving... this is how I solved it.

Saute some lardons of smoked bacon (~100g) in a bit of olive oil until they start to brown. Add three thinly sliced garlic cloves; continue to saute until they start to color. Add ~1tsp whole cumin seeds and a good grind of coriander; cook for another couple of minutes. Deglaze with some sherry (50ml?), add a finely diced onion, and a can of chickpeas. Add enough chicken stock (I used boullion) to get the beans swimming, then add a tsp of hot paprika and a pinch of saffron and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add some chopped roasted peppers and return to a simmer for another couple of minutes. Just before serving add some canned tomatoes that you've cut into chunks; return to a simmer and serve over rice, topped with chives.

This is one of those flavor combinations where it's very hard to go wrong. Nice stuff.

We also had a green salad.

Monday night: Southeast asian

For last night's main course I did the recipe for "Two-Way Chicken" from BittmanWorld using leg quarters instead of a whole chicken. I otherwise basically followed the recipe but made the mistake of using dark soy sauce (instead of standard) in the marinade: dark soy sauce burns too easily to be able to effectively brown the chicken. Ah well, the chicken wasn't browned so the dish wasn't as good as it could have been; it was still quite good. I did a full recipe of sauce and a half recipe of chicken, so we had plenty of delicious sauce for our rice.

As a side I cooked some frozen spinach with minced lemon grass, keffir lime leaves, and soy sauce. Just before serving I drained off the extra liquid and added a bit of butter, a splash of soy, and a squeeze of lime.

Saturday Dessert: Rum Creme

In the April chapter of Kaltenbach there is a series of recipes for cremes, and mousses. I was kind of wondering why these desserts were seasonally appropriate, but Andrea postulated that people have to do something with the contents of Easter eggs. Good point!

Last night for dessert I followed the rum creme recipe. I should have strained the thickened egg yolks before folding in the whites, but otherwise this was excellent.

Mix 3 egg yolks with 120g sugar and 150ml rum. Heat, stirring constantly, over a double boiler until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and strain. Beat the three egg whites to soft peaks with a pinch of salt and 20g more sugar. Fold these into the yolk mixture and cool the whole thing before serving.

Saturday: Braised Kid (goat)

It seems that in some parts of Switzerland the traditional Easter dish is kid instead of lamb. We decided to give that a try. So yesterday we picked up some front quarter pieces (i.e. ribs) which I braised in marsala with sage and rosemary following a recipe from Kaltenbach.

There wasn't a lot of meat on those ribs (I should have bought hind quarter pieces instead), but what was there was quite tasty.

We ate the kid with polenta as a starch, appropriate accompaniment for a dish from Tessin.

While we were at the store I noticed some organic asparagus that I just couldn't resist. It's nothing like local (from Spain), but at least it didn't have to cross an ocean (and, as Andrea pointed out, I have no problem eating oranges and mandarines from Spain). I prepared this simply by cutting the stalks into pieces on a bias and sauteing them in butter. Good stuff!