Courgette garden flower, nearly ready for the kitchen

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Here are some of the items on three special Geneva restaurant menus the third week of August, to tempt your palate: courgette/zucchini flowers stuffed with Provencal vegetables, tandoori roast crab gratin, honey and ginger carmelized Dombes duckling. Special wines by the glass are available, as well.

Three of Geneva’s best restaurants are joining together to promote what they hope will become an annual event that could catch on in the area: Restaurant Week, 15-20 August, where you can pay CHF50 or 65 for a two- or three-course meal, at lunchtime or in the evening, and discover the city’s haute gastronomie. The week is designed to offer those who usually dine in lesser establishments a chance to discover, at an affordable price, three very different restaurants with excellent reputations.

The idea originated in New York in the 1990s, the brainchild of Tim Zagat of restaurant review fame and restaurant owner Joseph Baum. The basic idea is simple: introduce people who are new to contemporary fine dining gastronomic menus for relatively affordable prices, for a week.

Le Chat Botté at Hôtel Beau-Rivage hosted a first Restaurant Week in February and it was a clear success. This time it is joined by Rasoi and Windows.

Windows restaurant, Hôtel d’Angleterre

Panoramic views of Geneva’s boardwalk and the Jet d’eau with the Mont-Blanc in the background, dishes prepared by chef Philippe Audonnet, with the accent on Mediterranean cuisine, where the accent is on fresh produce and flavours. Superb wine list. Details, reservations and telephone: +41 22 906 5514

Rasoi by Vineet, Mandarin Oriental Hotel

Indian restaurant Rasoi is one of the best-known in the Geneva area. The “evolved” Indian cuisine created by chef Sandeep Bhagwat is accompanied by a spectacular presentation, says the restaurant, a treat for the eyes as well as the palate. Details, reservations and telephone: +41 22 909 0006

Le Chat Botté, Hôtel Beau-Rivage

Le Chat Botté boasts the creative, contemporary French cuisine of its notable chef Dominique Gauthier. The restaurant has a wonderful terrace with good views of Geneva’s lakefront area, the jet d’eau and the mountains. The restaurant assures us that diners during the Restaurant Week will be offered a number of hard-to-find wines from its famed cellar, one of the finest in Switzerland. Details, reservations and telephone: +41 22 716 69 21

Galmac apple, Swiss made, ripe just in time for the national holiday (photo ©2011, Swiss Federal Agriculture Department)

BERN, SWITZERLAND – Galmac apples, which kick off the Swiss apple season, have been around since 1986 but the unusual Swiss summer weather of 2011 is causing them to ripen a full two weeks earlier than usual, just in time for the 1 August national holiday.

The apples, native to Switzerland, are a cross between Jerseymac and Gala and were developed by the Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW federal research station to meet Swiss growing conditions and market needs.

This is the first year they are widely available throughout Switzerland in time for the national holiday.

The apples are sweet but crisp and juicy and 200 tons of them are hitting the market this week. Some, for consumers lucky enough to find them, have a white cross on them.

The trees are increasingly replacing Summerreds, with 35 hectares planted nationally by 2015, says the federal agriculture department. The apples were designed to provide an early apple that is not as acidic as most on the market, in order to give Swiss consumers a local product. Most apples are on the market in August are imported.

O'Restaurant in Nyon, all about terraces, water and fish

NYON, SWITZERLAND – Nyon has just become endowed with a three-in-one lakeside food spot that promises to be an excellent addition to the growing town’s quality food options. One of my favourite restaurants from the outside (I never ate there, oddly enough) has long been the bright orange and blue Cafe Latino at the east end of the city centre, near the dock.

Owners Santiago Wegmann and Benoit Rol have renovated the building, and it’s now home to three eateries run by the company O’Les Terrasses du Lac.

The pair two years ago renovated and recaptured Lausanne’s love affair with the old Pizza Mario on the rue du Bourg in Lausanne.

The top floor is now Le Deck, a 90m2 lounge bar with a wonderful view of the lake, available for private and corporate parties but otherwise open to the public.

The ground floor houses begood, the third restaurant in a chain whose first one opened near Paris. Its second restaurant is the Outlet in Aubonne, in canton Vaud. Begood, with 70 seats, has four families of menus that are centred around affordable, tasty and healthy eating: befit, for longterm weight loss, becoeurful for low-cholesterol eating, bezen for easy digestion, and betonic for a vitamin boost.

The main restaurant, on the first floor, just above the lake, is O’Restaurant, which specializes in fish, especially freshly caught Lake Geneva fish, although meat-lovers will find they can also order lamb fillet, grilled steak or a tartare de bœuf.

O Les Terrasses, 3 restaurants in 1, opens in Nyon

The restaurant complex gives back to Nyon one of its historic treasures. The building dates back to 1820. It was home to the Hotel Odelet in the 19th century, famous for its “feet in the water” terrace directly on the waterfront and shaded by two giant chestnut trees. The idyllic situation changed in 1904 when a second phase in the construction of the city’s quais cut the hotel off from its waterfront.

New owner Santiago Wegmann has recreated the building’s old love affair with the water by making a terrace on each level the focal point. Thirty-two of the 80 seats in the main restaurant are on the terrace, for example.

Open daily from 08:00-01:00, 7/7. Reservations: +41 22 994 4000.

Florida chicken battery (source: US Dept. of Agriculture)

The just-announced academic Chair of Poultry Welfare, at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, is the country’s first such chair, reports The Globe & Mail, saying that consumer concern over healthy poultry is behind the new research post. Canada’s poultry farmers are sponsoring the seven-year post, at a cost of C$100,000 a year. The university houses the largest number of animal research scientists in Canada, says the newspaper, which suggests the new chair will give the industry a public relations boost.

The chair “is one of three positions the Egg Farmers plan to fund as part of a long-term plan to take what spokesman Peter Clarke called a ‘proactive’ approach to preparing for the future. Mr Clarke said the investment has nothing to do with pressure from retailers or activists.”

The job is going to Tina Widowski, who heads the Campbell Research centre at Guelph, which studies animal housing, one of only two in the world, according to BetterFarming.

Switzerland’s laws covering poultry farming are relatively strict, but the 6.8 million birds cover only about half of what the Swiss population of 7.6 million consumes.

Not to be confused with an abused golf ball: scrambled eggs

This is for anyone who is trying to forget about the stresses of daily life, such as living outside the US and dealing with the IRS, the long arm of the US tax service for those without green cards, US passports or distant relatives who left them a small American inheritance.

It’s instructions for scrambling eggs in the shell. You have to read it. And don’t give up halfway through: this is about persevering and  how it pays off. It’s about how every kitchen question has an answer, and we can probably apply what we learn here to life outside the kitchen.

Thanks very much to The Browser on Facebook, a great treasure trove, for pointing me to the Evil Mad Scientist, a gem of a site.

An eggy alternative is Elisabeth David‘s more traditional omelette recipes, which I love on normal, non-IRA battle days. She is so logical, a virtue I can’t ascribe to the IRS. Her classic book “An Omelette and a Glass of Wine”, written in 1952, remains one of my all-time favourite food books, far more than a cookbook.

But if, like the Evil Mad Scientists, you think a real omelette should be a tad more complicated, check out the source of Elisabeth David’s omelette recipe.

Max Havelaar's fair trade chocolate (photo, Max Havelaar)

A GenevaLunch news story on Kraft, which this year bought out Cadbury, moving some of its tax base to Zurich prompted one reader and former Cadbury fan to write that he’s looking for new chocolate companies. I suggested he check this list of chocolate companies on wikipedia.

His search reminded me that if you live outside Switzerland or you’re new to the country it’s easy to lump all Swiss chocolate together, and it deserves a closer look. Switzerland, this tiny country of only 7.4 million, consumes more than 68,000 tons a year of the 106,000 tons of chocolate it produces, although an unmeasurable but probably large portion is bought by tourists.

The chocolate the Swiss themselves eat

There are three basic types of Swiss chocolate, to my thinking: products manufactured by large companies like Kraft and Nestlé, chocolate made by smaller manufacturers, and artisanal chocolates.

I’ll buy the last one any day: Switzerland has several extraordinary specialists in handmade chocolates, and I tend to write about these. But they are not in the everyday budgets of most of us, and the shops are not always convenient.

Supermarket selections of the largest manufacturers’ chocolates are good, affordable and easy to find, with a range of quality and prices. These are the ones my family buys to pack in their pockets for the ski slopes. Visiting friends and family from abroad are usually happiest taking these home. I find them mostly too fatty and sugary, but that doesn’t stop me from eating them.

The third group, smaller manufacturers, most of whom are more active in Switzerland than abroad, survive in the Swiss market because they have special products or are niche chocolate-makers. They make some very good products and are affordable, so if you’re looking for something cheaper than artisanal chocolate, but want to buy something you won’t find in 75 other countries, consider these.

Chocolat.ch brings together one group of them and several of the smaller companies are members of the Association of Swiss Chocolate Manufacturers, Chocosuisse.

One of the stellar companies listed there is Chocolat Bernrain/Chocolat Stella, who have been producing organic chocolate for more than 15 years and who were one of the early companies to produce chocolate without added sugar. They mostly make private-order chocolate for other companies but if you’re north of Zurich or in Ticino consider visiting their factory stores for a taste of a very special Swiss manufactured chocolate product.

In French-speaking Switzerland Favarger in Versoix is famous for its Avelines. Its shop is well worth a visit. The town of Courtelary, in the Bernese Jura, is home to Camille Bloch, famous for its Ragusa bars, filled with praline and whole hazelnuts (the dark chocolate ones are wonderful). The bars were born as the result of shortages during the second world war, but they are hugely popular with the Swiss.

Villars, in Fribourg, has a shop that is fun to visit, and it is one of the few non-artisanal chocolate-makers producing reduced-sugar bars. They use stevia as a sweetener.

A special addition to the list is Max Havelaar, the fair trade company, which provides a list of online shops that offer fair trade chocolate as well as a list of Swiss sales points for its chocolate products. It has yet to convince Swiss consumers to eat more fair trade products, which account for only half a bar for every 100 sold.

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Light, smooth but hard top, very moist in the middle (and yes, it is fully baked!)

There is nothing that beats just-warm brownies and a little glass of cold milk when it is snowing. The first snowfall of the season is exciting and everyone heads outdoors. By the second or third, snow starts looking like work, people get cold, and the kitchen beckons. A good way to keep family and friends busy and happy is to put them to work making brownies.

This is my adaptation for Switzerland of an old James Beard brownie recipe, which I consider one of the best. Susan Mosse in Ireland, a wonderful cook and baker, introduced me to it 30 years ago, and it wasn’t new then.

Notes: some ingredients have varying amounts as a matter of taste only. This recipe is from the bad old days of calories, sugar, fats, and it simply isn’t the same if you use substitutes, so don’t. Invite a crowd to avoid eating them all yourself if the calories worry you.

Swiss cooking chocolate has some sugar in it, so US recipes calling for unsweetened chocolate have to be adjusted, as has been done here.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (115 grams) softened butter – no substitutes!
180-200 grams Swiss baking chocolate (menage)
1-1/2 cup (340 grams) granulated sugar
2 eggs, 50-60 grams
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (250 ml) white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 to 1 cup broken walnuts

Melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Remove from heat, stir well.
Stir in sugar.
Beat in eggs and vanila.
Quickly stir in flour, salt and nuts, just enough to lightly mix.

Brownies in my favorite old pan, cooling briefly on the ledge, snowy garden behind - we are not good at taking the chef's advice to leave them for 2 hours

If you cut them too soon, the slices tend to collapse, but they still taste good

Spread into non-stick or buttered pan, 8 x 10 inches, or 9 x 12 inches (21 x 26 cm or the equivalent volume).

Bake at 180C or 170 in a fan oven, 35 minutes for the smaller pan size, 30 minutes for the larger, and five minutes less if you have a fan oven. Do not overbake!

To test for doneness: the top will  not spring back like a cake when you touch it, but it should resist a bit. Use a sharp knife or baking tester stick, which should come out clean when put into the center.

IMPORTANT: Cut into squares with a lightly buttered or greased knife (I use a plastic salad knife) while still slightly warm, but let cool for two hours, to set, before eating.

This Thanksgiving note came in from the American side of the family early Thursday, as the US holiday was getting underway (photos may follow, if she can bear to send them). Names changed to protect the first-time-for-pie granny:

“I’m baking 2 pumpkin pies to take to Mark’s & Susan’s tomorrow night. Terry [daughter] couldn’t believe that I’ve never baked a pie in my life. I was going to buy these, but she convinced me that pumpkin pie is the easiest thing in the world to make, so I bought the stuff to make them. However, since I’m baking two, I have them staggered on two different oven racks, and thought it was a good idea to switch them halfway through.

“I managed to move the first one just fine, but when I got to the second one (full of very runny pumpkin filling), I dropped it onto the oven door and the entire filling and part of the crust ran all over the interior of the door.  So that involved a big cleanup. First I scraped most of it back into the pie (minus some crust); luckily the door was very clean! Then I decided it would be best to clean up the remainder, rather than let it bake onto the door and into all the cracks. So I spent quite a lot of time removing that (from a very hot door), then started baking again.

Who knows how this will all turn out?! No wonder I’ve always bought pies in the past.”

Pumpkins drying on a sunny Swiss veranda in October

We harvest 20-40 pumpkins from our Alpine garden every October, dry them for a month on the warm stones of the veranda to harden them off, then store them in a cool dark area for winter eating. We grow them at 1,100 metres altitude, on dirt mixed with a good dose of the neighboring farmer’s cow dung. These are happy pumpkins!

They are always lovely, lasting about three to four months, but the best is always the first one we cut and use in pumpkin pie. I made one for Scottish friends David and Evelyn from Geneva last weekend, and promised that rather than just sharing the instructions/recipe, I would post them here.

My recipe is an adaptation of my old recipes from the US, for Thanksgiving, but with Swiss ingredients and fresh pumpkin, something I never had access to when I lived in the States.

One small or half of a medium-sized pumpkin like those in the photo is needed for a pie. I use a cleaver to cut them into quarters and cook them in the pressure cooker, usually a couple hours before I need them. If you’re buying at the supermarket, you”ll need a couple good slices. Better: buy whole or slice pumpkin from a farmers market.

One of the secrets of a great pie is a perfect crust, which takes practice. This is why I try to bake pies regularly, to stay in practice. And because they are so delicious!

Pumpkin pie, using fresh or stored pumpkin

pie shell

1 cup white flour (farine fleur)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening with some butter, Astra 10 is good as it is 10% butter
(note: this hardens in the refrigerator, where it should be stored once opened, so take it out 15 minutes before you need it. The Migros equivalent stays soft)
4-6 tablespoons cold water

If you’re already a dough pro, just read the words in bold. If  you’re a novice, the details should help.

Stir salt into flour. Use a fork or pastry cutter to cut in the shortening until half the dough is the size of peas and the rest is larger balls.

Using a fork to toss the dough from underneath, sprinkle the water one tablespoon at a time to dampen the dough. It should be sticky enough to hold together without crumbling, but if you add too much water it becomes gooey.

Using  your hands, form into a ball.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of flour on the working surface, flatten the ball using the palm of your hands, not your fingers, until it is 1/2 inch or a couple centimetres thick. Roll out with a rolling pin, from the center, until the dough is about an inch or 2-3 cm larger than your pie pan. I run a large plastic spatula under the dough once or twice while rolling it out, to make sure it’s not sticking to the surface. Sprinkle flour on the work surface as needed to keep the dough from sticking.

Pick up the dough by draping half of it over the rolling pin, which makes it easier to transfer into the pie pan: place the rolling pin over the middle of the pan and your dough will be in the right place.

Filling

Mix, in order given:

• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 110 grams sugar, preferably light brown sugar but Muscado from Swiss supermarkets works
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon powdered ginger, or very finely slivered fresh ginger
• 340 grams freshly cooked pumpkin: 20 minutes in a pressure cooker or 30 minutes boiled in small amount of water
• 1-2/3 cups condensed milk: 2 tubes, available in Swiss supermarkets

Pour into pastry shell. Bake 15 minutes at 210C/425F. Reduce heat to 190C/350F and bake 25-30 minutes more. If the top or crust brown too quickly, lay a sheet of cooking foil loosely over the top.

Check for doneness by inserting a sharp knife into the center. It should come out clean.

Cool on a rack. Best served cold, accompanied by a light drizzle of cream or a spoonful of good quality plain yogurt.

Enjoy!

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