Thursday: quick(ish) stewed veal

Andrea found some veal stew meat at half price, so that formed the basis for dinner.

Cut the veal into thinnish slices; brown well in clarified butter; add minced garlic, diced onion, diced carrot, and cook a few minutes; sprinkle over some flour and cook a few more minutes; deglaze with white wine and let it reduce to half; add chicken bouillon and bring to a simmer; add chopped fresh herbs and simmer for 20-30 minutes; just before serving add more herbs.

We ate this with sauteed spinach (the usual garlic, chili preparation, drizzled with balsamico for serving), noodles, and a big green salad.

so far behind...

Ok, Andrea was out of town for a week and there was lots of lettuce in the fridge, so I ate salad for a week.

Friday: first pesto of the season

The basel plants on the balcony needed to be trimmed back, so I made the first pesto of the season. Aside from having a bit too much garlic, it was another nice way to welcome summer.

Friday at the grill

The weather was good, so we had a couple people over and fired up the grill.

The grilled food:

1. Red peppers and fat spring onions, choppped and mixed into a salad
2. Red onions
3. Veal cipollata
4. Standard bratwurst
5. Small bratwurst (Nürnberger size) with sage
6. Meatballs (beef) flavored with allspice, lemon zest, black pepper, and salt then grilled on skewers.
7. A nice ribeye (it was on sale, I couldn't resist) done with salt and pepper

The non-grilled food:

1. a big green salad
2. baguette
3. flavored ketchups: ketchup+curry powder+hot paprika; ketchup+chipotle tabasco
4. a vinaigrette : cider vinegar, rapeseed oil, rosemary, chives, salt, pepper, honey

We ate well...

Wednesday: macaroni with meat sauce

a.k.a. Hörnli mit Gehacktes :-)

Soften some diced onion, diced carrot, and minced garlic in olive oil. Add ground beef along with some salt and cook, without browning, until the beef is most cooked. Add some white wine and reduce a bit. Add tomato puree, oregano, bay leaf, parsley, a bit of rosemary, black pepper, and a good pinch of sugar. Let cook uncovered, barely simmering for an hour or so. Serve over macaroni with a grating of parmesan.

Monday: stuffed kohlrabi

An adaptation of a recipe from this month's Le Menu.

Peel a couple kohlrabi, then steam them until they are about soft (about 20 minutes). Cut a flat bottom in each and scoop out the insides to give a ~1cm thick shell. Chop the insides coarsely and set aside.

Cook 300g of spinach (I did in the microwave), drain, and chop coarsely. Cook a minced onion with some minced garlic in butter until the onion is cooked, then stir in the spinach and a good pinch of salt. Once the spinach is cooked through, add pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Stir in 2 eggs that have been beaten together with 5cl of sour cream; cook until the egg starts to set, then stir in 100g of grated gruyere.

Put the kohrabi shells in a lightly buttered dish. Fill them with as much of the spinach filling as fits inside (I ended up using about half, which makes sense since the recipe is for 4 shells ;-), sprinkle the chopped kohlrabi around, top with grated cheese, pour a mixture of cream and veggie bouillon around the whole thing, then bake at 200C until the top is brown and the liquid is bubbly.

We ate this with the leftover risotto and a big green salad and were not displeased.

Sunday: lamb chops and risotto

Found some nice lamb chops at the Coop on Saturday and this is what I did with them:

Marinate the chops with lemon juice, olive oil, minced rosemary, chopped garlic, minced lemon zest, black pepper, and salt for a few hours. Cook the chops in the grill pan until they have some good color and are medium rare, let them rest a couple of minutes then serve.

To accompany the lamb we had risotto made with onions, garlic, diced yellow carrots, diced chard stems, white wine, and chicken stock.

For the salad I marinated some halved mini-mozarella balls and grape tomatoes in a dressing of minced onion, olive oil, white balsamico, mustard, salt, and pepper. This we ate over lettuce dressed with the same dressing.

Really nice food.

Saturday dessert: Rhubarb crisp

I've been planning to do Bittman's rhubarb crisp recipe since I saw it online. We didn't get any more rhubarb in this week's box, so I picked some up at the market.

The only monkeying around I did with the recipe was driven by available ingredients: I replaced brown sugar with raw sugar (which is what brown sugar kind of wants to be anyway) and substituted sliced almonds for the pecans.

rhubarb is a really strange ingredient but still: mmmmmmm

Saturday: gnocchi primavera

There's a stand at the market that has various Italian cheeses, sausages, filled pastas, and gnocchi that look quite nice but somehow I rarely get stuff from. Yesterday I picked up some gnocchi in order to combine them with the eggplant from the box.

Cut a smallish eggplant into 1cm dice, salt it lightly and let drip for a bit. Prepare some spring onions by cleaning them and cutting them in half if they're big, then lightly brushing with olive oil and cooking under the broiler until they soften and take on some color; chop them coarsely. Cook the eggplant in olive oil with grated yellow carrot and a chopped garlic clove for 5-10 minutes, until the eggplant is about ready. While this is happening start cooking the gnocchi. To the eggplant add the chopped onions, a bit more minced garlic, and mixed fresh herbs (I used thyme, rosemary, parsley, and some unidentified member of the mint family from this week's box). Moisten with a bit of the pasta cooking water. Serve the vegetables over the gnocchi sprinkled with parmesan and drizzled with olive oil.

The gnocchi themselves were really good and this was definitely a very nice way of serving them.

This technically doesn't qualify as rule of five, but it almost works if you think of the herbs as one ingredient, and I made up the damn rule anyway. :-)

Friday: Kartoffelpfanne

An idea from Andrea to use some of the new potatoes from this week's box.

Cut unpeeled new potatoes in half or quarters, depending on size. Cook with olive oil until they take on some color and are almost ready to eat. Set aside. Cook diced onion, diced carrot, and chopped garlic for a few minutes in olive oil. Add diced kohlrabi and fennel chopped into bite-size pieces. When the vegetables are a couple of minutes from being done, add sliced wienerli, the potatoes, lemon zest, chopped fresh thyme, rosemary, and parsley, and a good grind of pepper. Let everything heat through and serve.

Wednesday Fish

Driven by the multiple bulbs of fennel and large quantity of lettuce left from the box:

1. Fennel cooked in olive oil and a bit of water, dressed with lemon juice (from CPV)
2. Stir fried lettuce with lemon zest
3. Pan-roasted cod seasoned with salt, pepper, and piment d'espellete

All together quite a nice combination of flavors.

Sunday Mezze

Yesterday I fired up the grill and did several small things with a mediterranean influence:

1. Chicken marinated in a paste made from garlic, thyme, rosemary, parsley, dried chili, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil, then grilled on the slow side of the grill and finished with a couple of minutes directly over the coals.
2. Roasted peppers with thyme, rosemary, and olive oil.
3. Baba ganouj made from eggplant roasted whole on the grill.
4. hummus
5. a yogurt sauce made with grated cucumber, garlic, yogurt, salt, and piment d'espelette.

We ate this with lettuce and some flat bread and were pretty happy with our lot in life. :-)

Saturday: asparagus

Yesterday at the market we picked up some local white asparagus. I did a very simple preparation: after peeling it well I boiled it in a stock made from water, sugar, salt, and the asparagus peels. The cooked spears then went onto a napkin and we ate them with salt, butter, and dried ham. Thought it took me a while to understand the appeal of white asparagus, I definitely get it now.

As sides I made a batch of brown rice and sone pan-roasted cauliflower with spring onions.

Together with a big green salad this all made for an excellent late-spring meal.

Thursday dessert: pudding with rhubarb

A simple idea to use some old rhubarb: make a batch of the vanilla pudding recipe from Bittman and serve it topped with rhubarb stewed with a b it of sugar and lemon juice. Mmmmmmmmm

Thursday: burritos

This was to satisfy a craving that both Andrea and I had...

Marinate diced turkey breast in lime juice, oil, salt, ground cumin, and piment d'espelette for 30 minutes or so then cook in a very hot pan. Just before the turkey is done pour in whatever marinade is left.

Make a quick salsa from canned tomatoes (fresh would have been better), minced onion, lime juice, hot paprika, piment d'espelette, and diced red bell pepper.

Assemble burritos from rice, pinto beans, corn, turkey, broiled and chopped spring onions, sour cream, feta cheese, and salsa. Bake for 10 minutes or so then serve.

Not even remotely difficult, but quite satisfying.

Wednesday: venison salami hash

When we were in tessin over the weekend we picked up some venison salami that was a bit too soft for sandwiches but seemed like a good candidate for cooking. This was an improv to use that up.

Start by cooking some diced potatoes in olive oil until they take on some color. Set them aside. Cook diced carrots and sliced leeks in the same pan until the carrots start to soften, set these aside. Add some more olive oil to the pan and gently cook some piri piri chilis along with a few smashed garlic cloves until the garlic turns golden. Just before it gets there add cumin seeds. Add diced salami and ham and let cook until the salami starts to crisp. Add the vegetables and potatoes along with salt and pepper, mix well, and heat everything through. Serve topped with parsley.

As sides we had a big green salad and sone steamed kohlrabi.

Monday pasta

An idea created to use up lettuce... We had a lot from the biokiste.

Cook diced carrots, onions and garlic in olive oil until the onions start to soften. Add a tbs or so of flour and cook another three to four minutes. Add wilted, chopped lettuce and cook another couple of minutes. Add diced ham and cook another couple of minutes. Add light cream, salt, and pepper and simmer for a couple more minutes. Just before serving stir in a bit of piment d'espelette and nutmeg.

Served over whole wheat penne and with a big green salad, this made for a good meal.

Friday: bread

Another batch of bread. This time, as an experiment, I added 100g of millet to the mixture (150g rye, 300g wheat flour, 100g millet, 350g water, 1/2tsp yeast, 1.5 tsp salt). This didn't disturb the method at all and produced a very tasty loaf of bread.

Thursday: spinach-ham lasagna

Start by making a bechamel. This time I used the recipe from Kamman with the variation that I used a brunoise of carrots, onion, and celery (root) and I didn't strain the vegetables out. When the sauce is about ready to be used add some piment d'espelette and nutmeg.

While the sauce is simmering prepare the filling: saute leeks, a bit of carrot, and onion in olive oil until the onions soften. Add a good splash of white wine and let it reduce to nothing. Add smoked ham (cut into match sticks) and cook another couple minutes. Add chopped wilted spinach, salt, and pepper and mix well. Take off the heat and add grated asiago cheese. Build the lasagna by layering sauce, noodles, and filling. Finish with a layer of sauce, top with shaved almonds and a good grind of pepper, then bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

I'm not quite sure where the inspiration for this came from, but it was a good idea regardless. :-)

Wednesday: Spaetzli pfanne

One of those "use up the vegetables... quick!" things.
Start by cutting some bratwurst into 2cm slices, browning the slices, then setting them aside. To that pan add diced carrot, onion, garlic, chard stems, and a bit of olive oil. Cook a while until the carrots start to soften, then add the chopped and wilted (in the microwave) chard leaves. After another couple of minutes of cooking, set the vegetables aside. Add fresh olive oil to the pan and cook the spaetzle until they take on some color and begin to get a bit crunchy. Stir in the vegetables and sausage, along with some raclette spice and black pepper, and serve.