BROCCOLI BASIL CREAM SOUP

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Erika
SP-Broccoli-basil-cream-sou

Broccoli soup

BROCCOLI SOUP with BASIL CREAM

I have been on a green theme lately, avocado, pesto, swiss chard…. it wasn’t conscious I tell you. I take inspiration as it comes. This time it was from the general direction of the fridge, where two broccoli’s & half of a cauliflower were staring me down. Add to that my lack of inspiration for dinner (happens to the best of us right), plus a lonely bouquet of basil and this soup was taking shape.

I have always felt that cream of broccoli soup was missing something, that it needed a little pick me up to tweak the taste buds. Here’s where the basil cream came in. It is not overpowering, in fact you may need a few spoonfuls to put your finger on just what makes this sumptuous soup so much better than the rest.

BROCCOLI SOUP

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AVOCADO, GOATS CHEESE & QUINOA SALAD Recipe

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Erika
SP-Avocado-goats-cheese-sal

Avocado, goat cheese, red quinoa salad

Quinoa -  simply delicious, with a little crunch and nutty flavour, makes a nice change from eating rice and cous cous. Add to that chunks of ripe avocado, pieces of creamy goats cheese, some garlicky pesto + toasted pine nuts, and you have a great salad!

I often find myself stuck for inspiration when it comes to lunch and craving something different, but at the same time not having hours to spend in the kitchen. This recipe checks all the boxes. I even made the quinoa the nightbefore, so it was just a matter of quickly chopping up the avo, toasting the nuts and throwing the salad together.

Thank god my avocado was ripe this time, as I have been on streak of bad luck lately, to the point of having to return two to the grocerystore as they were completely uneatable.  I figure at CHF2.50 an avocado, you should have something good to show for it!

And for those vegetarians out there, quinoa is a great hidden secret, a fab grain-like, pseudo cereal, which are actually edible seeds.  It comes in red or white, and is a great source of protein, while being gluten-free and easy to digest. What more could you ask for!

O-Foods-Contest Also I just received a note from Michelle of Bleeding Espresso Blog who is hosting a great food contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, called O Foods, so take a look HERE!!!

RECIPE

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PESTO

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Erika
SP-Pesto

Pesto

PESTO : This will be the shortest post known to man! Ok well not quite, but I was about to post the recipe for an avocado, goats cheese & quinoa salad when it occurred to me that it might be useful to have the Basil Pesto recipe first, as it is one of the main ingredients.

This recipe can be easily adapted to different tastes – more or less garlic, with or without parmesan and I add a dash of lemon juice to help keep the bright green colour, as the outer layer seems to oxidize so quickly!

Marisa told me,that when she was a little girl living in Italy, she was given the odious job of having to chop the basil by hand, into a fine paste using only a knife… authentic yes, time efficient no. So I have opted for using the blender and while less romantic it does get the job done.

PESTO

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TOFU & SWISS CHARD Recipe

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Erika
SP-Tofu-swiss-chard

Tofu & swiss chard

TOFU & SWISS CHARD

Who wants to eat tofu ???? I mean soya bean curd in a cube, the meat for the non-meat eaters. Appetising….. well actually yes ,very! I think the carnivores have seriously been missing out here - the herbivores are on to  a great thing, that is both nutritious and delicious.  Once you get over the stereotype of ‘tofu burgers’ and ’tofu dogs’,  it adds great variety to the weekly menu and goes well with Asian inspired sauces and many vegetables, like Swiss chard.

In case you aren’t familiar with Swiss chard, here is a link and there is a photo with my recipe. I make large quantities of this dish which is a delicious blend of the white, crunchy, slightly sweet part of the Swiss chard, with the slightly more bitter leaves, and herb tofu sautéed with black sesame seeds and garlic!

TOFU SWISS CHARD RECIPE

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PUMPKIN SOUP

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Erika

SP-Pumpkin-soup

PUMPKIN SOUP

It is pumpkin season again! I hadn’t quite realised to what extent until last weekend when we were driving through the Swiss countryside and came across huge stalls of every size, shape and colour of pumpkin imaginable. The food bells went off in my head and after much shrieking I had Olivier turning the car around to make a pit stop.

Here things work on the honour system – you take a pumpkin and leave money in the penny jar. If you forget, the headless horseman will come after you that night to remind you. Kidding! So we loaded up the boot, settled the account and drove home with 5 extra ‘friends’.  Now it was a question of what to do with them – soup seemed like a good start.

The secret to this recipe is the use of two different types of pumpkins:

  1. The potimarron (aka Hokkaido squash or kuri pumpkin) a small, intense orange pumpkin with dense bright orange flesh and sweet taste with a hint of chestnut (marron = chestnut in French).
  2. The muscade of Provence which is a large pumpkin, orange/grey in colour with lighter orange flesh, contains more water and has a less sweet taste.

The mix of the two makes the perfect soup. This recipe will also come in handy for my brother who recently bought a second-hand bicycle in Rotterdam which came with a hand blender (don’t ask)!

PUMPKIN SOUP

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CREPE Recipe

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Erika

SP-Crèpes

Russian crêpes – I used to think that a crêpe was a crêpes was a crêpe. That was until Katya made me her Russian recipe. While the basic ingredients are the same – flour, eggs, milk and butter, the taste and texture are soooo much better! I am convinced that the secret lies in warming the milk and melting the butter, to which the dry ingredients are then added. The result is an unctuous wonderful batter that makes perfect crêpes.

The second key factors is to be one with your crêpe – out with the spatula and in with your fingers, just be careful not to burn them while slowly peeling back the crêpe to flip it onto the other side. This adds a whole new meaning to hands on cooking!

RECIPE

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TABOULE / Tabbouleh

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Erika

SP-Taboule

Taboule (tabbouleh, tabouli ) – is an easy recipe for when you don’t feel like cooking! Or when you don’t have time to cook, or when you have a big group coming over, or if, like my brother, you don’t have an oven! There does not seem to be one single recipe for tabbouleh, but several variations on a theme: Moroccan, Armenian, Turkish, Syrian and Lebanese. The basic dish is a salad of herbs to which you add tomatoes, onions and bulgar wheat (cracked wheat). Traditionally it is eaten as part of a mezze, a selection of small dishes,  using a lettuce leaf.

I prefer this salad when it has a 50:50 balance of herbs (mint /parsley) to bulgar, but what is great is that you can  personalise the dish to your taste. Another reason I was attracted to this salad is that it is budget conscious and in these times that can be nothing but a good thing!

TABOULE

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SALMON TERIYAKI

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Erika

SP-Salmon-Teriyaki

SALMON TERIYAKI

Teriyaki sauce is a traditional Japanese sauce that became popular in Western cultures, long before sushi became the ambasador of Japanese cuisine! If you are like me it is something you have often ordered in restaurants or bought in Japanese food stores, but never taken the time to make yourself. Which is silly really, as after this weekend I realised what an easy recipe it is to make.

All you need are equal parts of sugar, soy sauce, mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine) and sake. These four ingredients are mixed together, boiled  and reduced to create a thick sweet sauce for coating meat and fish. The word Teri refers to the lacquered sheen or luster given by the sauce and the word yaki the cooking method of grilling/broilling. After so many years of using the word Teriyaki it’s nice to know what it really means!

My brother has just returned to Holland after a three month internship in Canada, and so this is the next recipe in the Dutch Series, of easy recipes that don’t require an oven! If you prefer to eat chicken or beef instead of salmon, this recipe can easily be adapted, especially after reading about the recent Fraser River Sockeye salmon issues in Western Canada!

SALMON TERIYAKI

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PIZZA & PIZZA DOUGH

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Erika
SP-Courgette-pizza

Courgette pizza

PIZZA : A kitchen garden is a dream I have had for some time, however as we currently live in the city center with only a balcony fit for potted herbs,  I have to live vicariously through Olivier’s mother. Josiane has a wonderful potager in France, where she grows everything from runner beans and beetroot to leeks & lettuce.

However it is the courgettes (zucchinis) that are growing like wild fire, taking up more than their share of the vegetable garden. As the summer months pass and Autumn draws near, Josiane has an increasingly difficult time keeping up with their pace and as a result, come August I am the happy owner of several enormous courgettes.

Now I tell you, grateful as I am, a girl can only do so much with courgettes and after my fifth batch of soup I was getting desperate. The fact that I have been on an Italian theme for the past few post and recently been perfecting my hand at homemade pizza dough, gave me the idea for this recipe!

The mint to be honest was a lucky accident…. I  was preparing the pizza for this post, grabbed the herb jar of dried ‘basel’…. shook it generously over the pizza, only to look down and discover that the label read MINT! Shit I thought… oh well, too late to turn back now, so into the oven it went.

RECIPE

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LEEK & BACON TART (FLAMMEKUECHE)

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Erika
SP-FLAMMEKUECHE

Leek & Bacon Tart

LEEK & BACON TART – FLAMMEKUECHE

When I told Olivier I was gong to post this recipe for leek and bacon tart he said, ‘oh the  Flammekueche‘…. ‘Oh the what ??? ‘ Cheeky man throwing out fancy words. But he did peak my intersest and so off I went to find out more. As it turns out the word Flammekueche roughly translates to ‘baked in the flames’ and is a traditional Alsatian dish, made with a thin pizza like bread, covered with crème fraîche, garnished with small bacon slices(lardons) and onions, then baked in the oven.

I happened to have some leeks, a packet of lardons and some puff pastry on hand, not to mention something of an appetite. Now it is all very well and good  to want to make everything yourself, however when it comes to puff pastry, I fear I fold like a cheap deck of cards for the ready-made, store bought variety. Guilty your honour! Futzing around with dough and layers of butter in this summer heat is not my idea of a good time. However if it is yours, do not let me stop you, in fact I take my hat off to you!

This recipes is meals in minutes and is perfect for those nights when you look in the fridge and think ‘what the heck am I going to cook tonight’. You can also cut it into bite-size pieces and serve them as canapés.

RECIPE

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