I should title this post, “the cursed food processors,” but then you wouldn’t get to know what I was making!  This month’s Daring Cook’s challenge was to make a nut butter and use it in a dish.  Well, nut butters mean one needs a [...]]]>

I should title this post, “the cursed food processors,” but then you wouldn’t get to know what I was making!  This month’s Daring Cook’s challenge was to make a nut butter and use it in a dish.  Well, nut butters mean one needs a food processor.  I thought this would be a great challenge to do at home in the US visiting my parents (if I’m visiting can I still call it home?), because I knew that they would enjoy the flavors I was thinking of for this month’s dish.

Well, I get there and find that my parents’ puppy had decided that the cord of the food processor looked appetizing, and bit the cord right off of the machine!  It’s quite hard to run a food processor if you have no way of plugging it into anything.  Ok, so no homemade nut butters this time.  Instead, I went to my nearest health store corporate giant and picked up some cashew butter.  Why cashews?  Well, everyone in my family loves them, and peanut butter is boring

This week I had thought about making my own cashew butter now that I am back en Suisse, but again with the cursed food processors!  There was a mighty wind event the other day, and silly us left our windows open in our apt. all day.  We’d gotten into the habit of this because it’s been so freaking hot lately – and trust me, you learn a totally different definition of hot when there is no A/C to be found, especially when your office faces the afternoon sun.  I melt into a sweaty sticky puddle on a regular basis.  It wasn’t until we left work that I thought things could be a problem.  After all, tree branches don’t normally float.  We got home to find so much stuff all over the floor of our apt., including the food processor!! The lid is cracked and in pieces.  gahhhhh!  Well, there goes making any nut butters this month.  At least the wind kept our stuff inside the apt., I half expected to find our life’s belongings strewn out all over the street below.

So jarred cashew butter it is for this month.  I’m ok with this, it was organic and quite tasty.  As long as your’e also ok with my store-bought nut butter, onto the challenge!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

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Read the rest of Daring Cooks go Nuts! Grilled Kabobs with Cashew Butter Sauce (344 words)

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I don’t usually write about my failures in the kitchen – after all, who wants to try a recipe that didn’t work?  However, at the risk of sounding cliché, I’m learning the slow lesson that life is not always about the end result, but about [...]]]>

I don’t usually write about my failures in the kitchen – after all, who wants to try a recipe that didn’t work?  However, at the risk of sounding cliché, I’m learning the slow lesson that life is not always about the end result, but about the process that one went through to get there.

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

Daring Cooks always post on the 14th of the month, but I made this attempt over two weeks ago.  So it appears a little out of order if you remember it was just last week that I had a miraculous find of guar gum in a natural foods store.  This attempt happened before I had guar gum and before I found gluten free bread mix.  We were charged with making baguettes, and after finding an awesome gluten free baguette recipe to try, learned that it would not happen without xanthan or guar gum. So, I took one of my sandwich bread recipes, and made a go without any binding agents by adding in some extra eggs and playing with the ratio of flours a bit.  I have also since learned from one of my favorite gluten free chemists that gelatin or agar agar should never be used in baking, because they turn the products too brittle.  I guess when making pitas or pizza dough it hasn’t been a problem for me because they are pretty flat to begin with, but for a crusty bread, brittle is definitely not a quality I’m looking for.

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Read the rest of Smoked Salmon Pâté (816 words)

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I remember when I first knew we were going to move to Switzerland, and my husband asked me “Isn’t it going to be cold all the time?” haha.  If you have been in Romandie at all the past couple weeks you will [...]]]>

I remember when I first knew we were going to move to Switzerland, and my husband asked me “Isn’t it going to be cold all the time?” haha.  If you have been in Romandie at all the past couple weeks you will know that it does indeed get very warm here!  I don’t think anything has hit 90 ºF yet (and no, I am not yet able to think in ºC outside of 0=freezing,  37=body temp), but it sure has felt like it in the sunshine and with all the mugginess.  I partly blame that on lack of A/C, which is usually fine except for those rare days like the ones we had last weekend when there is no wind.  And it only took a couple of hours outside to get sunburned, leaving an oh-so-fashionable imprint of my necklace on my chest.  Good things scarves are all the thing here no matter what the season, so no one else had to see me looking like a total dork for the next few days!  But the lake was gorgeous and worth the walk (and the sunburn) -

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Read the rest of One Step, No-Cook Marinara (438 words)

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Did you know that shopping on a Saturday is NUTS?  Ok, that’s probably expected, but shopping on Saturdays en Suisse is much crazier than any Saturday morning I remember in the States.  I suspect this has much to do with the fact that most everything is closed [...]]]>

Did you know that shopping on a Saturday is NUTS?  Ok, that’s probably expected, but shopping on Saturdays en Suisse is much crazier than any Saturday morning I remember in the States.  I suspect this has much to do with the fact that most everything is closed on Sunday, and so everyone is rushing around to get the weekend’s worth of food.  Here, it is also the day when the largest market is out and open for business, which always draws a crowd.  While both my husband and I desperately wanted to sleep in this morning, 10 am came (which wasn’t sleeping in enough for us) and I knew if we wanted any chance at braving the crowds we’d have to go into the city centre soon.  I urged him to wake up, persistent even through his groaning like a little kid who doesn’t want to go to school.  We are still both very much in “college” mode where Saturdays should be declared sanctified “sleep in til noon” days, and despite living here for almost 6 months (I can’t believe it!), we still have not transformed our mode of thinking about Saturdays just yet.  But then, 6 months of Swiss life isn’t very much compared to the last 8 years of college that engrained the habit into the both of us…(...)
Read the rest of Chive and Dill Pesto (409 words)

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Before I made this, the last time I used a mortar and pestle was in chemistry class.  I felt oddly alchemic (is that even a word?) while making this curry paste, continually turning and grinding – this is a process that is slow, repetitive, meditative even.  I found it [...]]]>

Before I made this, the last time I used a mortar and pestle was in chemistry class.  I felt oddly alchemic (is that even a word?) while making this curry paste, continually turning and grinding – this is a process that is slow, repetitive, meditative even.  I found it surprisingly therapeutic – though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, as I find most activities in the kitchen relaxing (well, except dishes – dishes are evil).  I sat at my dining table (since I have like 0 counter-space), opened the window, and felt the breezes of the next Spring storm against my face, enjoying the last few bits of sunshine before the rain clouds rolled back in.  Oh and the aromas wafting up from the blending of all of the flavors was incredible!   Ground coriander seeds have a bright fresh, almost even lemony scent – add in some lemongrass, cilantro leaves, a little basil, and one ends up with bright fresh green flavors whose aromas fill the entire room.

The key to using a mortar & pestle is taking your time, and actually not using that much force.  I ground up salt/spices first before gradually adding in the wetter ingredients like onions, garlic, and the herbs – I think the salt/spices helped to act as an abrasive which aided me greatly when working with the other ingredients.  Oh and it’s also useful to mince everything up as finely as you can first – it’s a lot of chopping, but well worth it.  How did this compare to the jarred stuff?  It was more fresh, more vibrant, more full of flavor, and made for one heck of a curry sauce

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Read the rest of Thai Green Curry Paste (187 words)

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Yes it is the long awaited strawberry balsamic salad dressing!  This dressing is packed with flavor.  You don’t need a lot.  If you are the type to add 1/2 cup of dressing into your bowl and thickly coat all of your salad, this is not the dressing for [...]]]>

Yes it is the long awaited strawberry balsamic salad dressing!  This dressing is packed with flavor.  You don’t need a lot.  If you are the type to add 1/2 cup of dressing into your bowl and thickly coat all of your salad, this is not the dressing for you.  Here, a little bit goes a long way.

I first wrote about it last week after enjoying a great rainy (always rainy) weekend in Montreux looking at some beautiful Swiss mountains across the lake.  Now, Spring really is in full bloom, and I even got to see some sunshine today!  Sunshine seems to be a rare treat after such a long and gray Winter, and I am looking forward to actually enjoying being outside again.

I love that I can get fresh strawberries here in March/April.  One of the awesome things about living in Europe is that there exists a wide variety of climates in a relatively small area (compared to the US) – these strawberries came from Spain, which is about 500 miles (depending on where in Spain) from where I am.  In the States, that would be close enough for my old grocery store to put up a giant “Local!” sign, haha.  Not sure if I would call Spain “local”, but at least they weren’t shipped across continents.

Since I first mentioned about this, I’ve made it a few times, and I think I finally have the best balance of tart and sweet.  The great thing is, there is no exact science to dressing.  Usually I don’t even measure things, I just throw stuff together and whisk.  That’s really all you need to do as well.  I love that it goes well on a variety of salad toppings – my favorite way to enjoy this is to pair it with some rather salty salad fixings – I used some thinly sliced bündnerfleisch (a Swiss cured beef) in my salad, as the salty cured meat marries very well to the sweet & tart dressing.  Oh and those morel chips I made last week?  They are an absolutely perfect salad topper as well, along with some herbed chevre to adorn this salad.  Chevre is not a really salty cheese, but its mellow texture was a welcome contrast to the crunchy radishes and morel chips.  But then I could talk about morels forever – they always seem to somehow find a way to re-enter my thought processes, maybe because I am so happy that fresh ones are in abundance right now.  Someday I would love to figure out how to forage for my own, but until then I am quite content to buy them at the market.  But this post is about strawberries and dressing! Not morels.  I digress.  Gah, I always digress…..

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Read the rest of Salad Dressing of Strawberry Balsamic Reduction (159 words)

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Sometimes it’s all about the little things, right?  Like this sweet apricot & yogurt mustard, intended to garnish my birthday celebration of roast lamb.  My memories of lamb growing up at various family functions always involved some sickly sweet mint jelly from a jar that I thought had [...]]]>

Sometimes it’s all about the little things, right?  Like this sweet apricot & yogurt mustard, intended to garnish my birthday celebration of roast lamb.  My memories of lamb growing up at various family functions always involved some sickly sweet mint jelly from a jar that I thought had no place near any meat I was ever going to eat, often emanating a radioactive green hue that made me wonder if I could somehow get it to glow in the dark instead of garnishing a roast lamb.  Needless to say, I’ve never really been able to get over that impression when it comes to mint jelly (though I’m sure if I tried a homemade version this impression could easily be altered), and so sought out something a little different to garnish my rack of lamb last weekend.  Actually, I stayed away from mint altogether, since I already had mint with the peas – I decided instead to embrace the sweeter flavor of the mustard/pistachio crust, and made a great little garnish that rivals any mint jelly.

Maybe I should call this a dip, because I could just as easily dip crackers into it as I could use it to garnish meat.  Either way, it was sweet and tangy, but not so potent that it overpowered the taste of the rich meat.  It was also incredibly easy to throw together – no cooking, just add everything to the food processor and mix.  You could use several different dried fruits here, I could easily see figs being used too – be a little adventurous, maybe you’ll find a great new flavor combination!

As for the chips, I was totally inspired by a 12 year old food blogger, who is super cute and created some of the most instructive cooking videos I have seen in a while – it just goes to show that cooking can be done at any age, and she is truly a great young talent!  She posted a video about making sage risotto that included a garnish of sage chips.  I took the idea one step further, and also made some morel chips out of fresh morels I got at the store this weekend.  I was seriously giddy inside when I saw that there were fresh morels available at the market.  If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a bit of a mushroom nut and love cooking with all sorts of mushrooms.  Maybe I’m just a big fan of that umami element to food, or maybe mushrooms just freaking rock.

So how do fried morel chips taste?  Great – the frying really enhanced their flavor, and I love how they were so crunchy like chips.  I probably did not even have to salt them like I did the sage chips because they were so flavorful already.  But I liked the contrast of the fried salty savory of the chips against the sweet apricot and mustard yogurt.  I also liked how the textures contrasted as well, with crunchy chips complementing the smooth creamy yogurt mustard quite well.  And it all went with the lamb, even with the minted peas.  Thanks to a fantastic 12 year old cook for the inspiration!

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Read the rest of Apricot & Yogurt Mustard with Sage & Morel Chips (158 words)

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The olives one can get here are ridiculously gorgeous.  Anyone who goes to the market on Saturday can see the olive sellers, who must have over two dozen types of olives.  I walk by and drool, and wish that I could just sample one of each.  Coming from an [...]]]>

The olives one can get here are ridiculously gorgeous.  Anyone who goes to the market on Saturday can see the olive sellers, who must have over two dozen types of olives.  I walk by and drool, and wish that I could just sample one of each.  Coming from an area where I only knew of about 3 types of olives, it’s quite impressive.  Actually I am impressed by the vast selection of many different foods here, but especially all of the olives.

Tapenade, while we served it with our “mezze” style lunch, it is a Provençal dish, not Middle Eastern as some might initially think.  I am sure that I broke all the rules by purchasing a mixture of Greek olives to make this dish.  I tend to break rules a lot in cooking.  But then, experimenting can be fun.  And what can be standard to some could be considered very unorthodox to others.  For example, don’t mention that you ever like to make fondue using beer and cheddar cheese in the land where fondue was born.  You should’ve seen the mouths drop to the floor at such a thought.  I still say it tastes great, even if it is not a “traditonal” fondue.  However the use of Greek olives in this tapenade was not so planned out.  It happened to be what I purchased, and then when we got home I said to myself “Oh! We could make tapenade!”

Provided you have an olive pitter or bought pitted olives, this is an extremely easy to throw together dish.  Otherwise, you need a husband as delightful as mine who is willing to do such favors simply because he is a nice guy.  A little bit goes a long way with tapenade, so you don’t need very much to make this crowd pleaser (assuming everyone you know likes olives – otherwise you are a bit out of luck).  Here is my probably very unusual rendition of a traditional southern French dish.

On a side note you know about formspring?  I created a page, and you can ask me anything you’d like! If you have a food or gluten free question, feel free to ask and I will answer promptly!

Ingredients:
400g black olives (around a lb)
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
8 filets of anchovies (canned/packed in olive oil)
2 tbs. capers
some olive oil
a few basil leaves

Directions:
1. Pit the olives.  Add olives, sundried tomatoes, anchovies, and capers to a food processor.
2. Pulse until  homogenized, then add olive oil as needed until the consistency is “spreadable”
3. Garnish with some sundried tomatoes and basil, spread on some bread, and enjoy!

Also submitted to – Blogger Secret Ingredient Capers

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Hummus isn’t the only bean dip out there.  And while I love hummus, tahini is expensive and can be hard to find.  I made this white bean and tuna dip to go with our “mezze” for this month’s Daring Kitchen challenge.  I originally decided to create [...]]]>

Hummus isn’t the only bean dip out there.  And while I love hummus, tahini is expensive and can be hard to find.  I made this white bean and tuna dip to go with our “mezze” for this month’s Daring Kitchen challenge.  I originally decided to create a white bean dip because I couldn’t find tahini at all (I have a couple candidates for shops now to look), but in the end I liked this a whole lot better than hummus anyways.  This dip was incredibly inexpensive and quick to make – I definitely will be making this again, as I imagine it will be especially suitable for making pita bread sandwiches  The flavor of the cannellini beans is much more mild than that of chickpeas, which I think lends them to combining with a greater diversity of flavors and tastes.  And the tuna is not as overpowering as one might originally think.  I am sure when I say tuna dip that you conjure in your mind some mayonnaise & tuna fish concoction that announces itself with its very powerful aroma to the entire world around you the instant you even think about taking it out for lunch, eliciting evil glares from your coworkers for stinking up the office.  This dip is not like that.  I think a better description for the tuna would be well-balanced.  I wouldn’t say subtle, because one does not have to search for the flavor, but I will say well-balanced.  Maybe the white beans help to mellow everything out.  Either way, the entire blend is quite addicting – we had a bowl out for lunch with our pita bread, and over the next few hours the contents slowly disappeared.  Suffice to say we didn’t need dinner that night

Ingredients:
4 cups white cannellini beans, canned (drained and rinsed) or already cooked
juice of 1/2 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil as needed (I didn’t need much, 1/2 c or so)
1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)
1/2 cup canned tuna (200g)
your favorite italian herb blend
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1.  Add beans and lemon juice to a food processor, and pulse until all smooth and homogenized.  If too thick, slowly pour in olive oil until the consistency is that of a scoopable dip.
2. Transfer dip from processor to a mixing bowl, and stir in sundried tomatoes, tuna, herbs, salt and pepper.  Serve and enjoy!

© Jenn Cuisine, 2009 - 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us

French cooking has 4 basic “mother sauces” – béchemel, allemande, velouté, and espagnole (though sometimes hollandaise is on the list too), and this one takes what I consider the richest of them and makes it richer.  I found this recipe in my mom’s 40+ year old Gourmet cookbook and oh is this good.  I don’t [...]]]>

French cooking has 4 basic “mother sauces” – béchemel, allemande, velouté, and espagnole (though sometimes hollandaise is on the list too), and this one takes what I consider the richest of them and makes it richer.  I found this recipe in my mom’s 40+ year old Gourmet cookbook and oh is this good.  I don’t think I need to make traditional gravy ever again, I will just make a creamy béchemel and be in heaven.  Complete heaven.  What makes this different from a standard béchemel is the addition of reduced cream to the sauce (and of course, making it gluten free).

What can one put this on?  Well roast, steamed veggies, mashed potatoes, and pretty much any other food you can come up with.  And the best part?  It is SO easy to make!  Some French sauces require a little finesse getting the timing/consistency right, but this one is pretty hard to mess up.  Just watch it, stir constantly, and you’ll be fine.

To make this gluten free, I used millet flour.  Millet seems to be really flexible when it comes to cooking, and as long as I am cooking (not baking), I tend use millet almost exclusively because it does such a good job emulating the texture of regular flour and does not impart a strong flavor.  This sauce is no exception to the versatility of millet flour!

A little warning though, this is very rich! You definitely don’t need much!

Printer Friendly Recipe
Adopted from Gourmet

Ingredients:
4 tbs. minced onion (yes, you can put onion through your garlic press)
4 oz. butter
1/2 c. millet flour
4 c. milk, heated to point of simmering
1 c. heavy cream
salt, white pepper

Directions:
1.  Make a béchemel sauce.   Saute the minced onion in a hot pan with the butter until softened.  Whisk in the flour and then gradually add the heated milk until incorporated smoothly.  Keep on a low simmer for about 15 minutes, whisking often.
2. Meanwhile, heat up heavy cream in a small pan and bring to a simmer.  Stir occasionally and let reduce to half volume.  Add in a cup of the béchemel sauce, season with salt and pepper to taste, and strain (to get the onion and any remaining lumps out).
3. Pour over EVERYTHING.

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