Jonell Galloway
Mindful Eating: Get serious about what you put in your mouth!
Mindful Eating means getting serious about what you put in your mouth.
Mindful Eating is sensual -- in this case visual -- as well as cerebral.
You don’t have to think with your taste buds every minute of your life, like I do, but eating takes on a new importance in your life, and is no longer just an essential action required to fuel your body.
Mindful Eating starts by being mindful of every aspect of our food chain, from the very soil to the end product we put in our mouths. It is about taste and smell and nutrition, but also about respect for the land and soil that provide our nourishment.
It is about the seeds we plant, the fertilizer we spread.
It is about the human contact between a producer and a buyer and the bond that is formed when he puts the vegetables he has grown with tender loving care and the sweat of his brow into your hand. It is about leaving the land in a condition that will allow our children to live on in a healthy manner.
Jonell Galloway
First local strawberries of 2010 in Lake Geneva region.
Breaking news: we have local strawberries and rhubarb!
Whoof, spring is here, even if the mercury can’t seem to rise quite to the heights we would like.
I was worried last week at this time. Be patient, the Mara des Bois will come in time.
First local rhubarb.
For local vegetables, green is the word. There are salads of every type, especially pourprier, rosette, arugula, baby spinach, chervil, and numerous other mixed wild greens.
Lots of sorrel to make your salmon sauce or soup. Jump on the dandelion greens while they’re plentiful. Nettles arrived on the scene this week.
Root vegetables are still in: celery root (celeriac), baby beets and carrots.
There are plenty of fat red radishes and spring onions. Jerusalem artichokes are still on the scene, as are parsnips and new potatoes, especially the raclette types. Oodles of varieties of potatoes.
There are plenty of baby leeks, broccoli and cabbages. Nice tender kohlrabi is available as well, along with Swiss chard and delicious fennel.
Wild mountain garlic leaves, to be used like an herb.
For other fruit, you’ll have to buy French or Italian products. Italian and Spanish oranges are excellent this year.
There are actually Florida grapefruit available, despite all the catastrophic predictions.
French strawberries are in abundance, as are, of course, the Spanish ones.
Sandrine Chapuis' lovely mix of wild greens and wild flowers.
Yellow kiwis from New Zealand are excellent this year, and Alphonso, well, I still have my love affair with Alphonso mangoes. I bought a dozen today for CHF2 a piece. They may be ugly, but they have a special place in my little heart. French rhubarb is available, although not in vast quantity.
Quite a variety of herbs, considering the fact that winter still hasn’t decided to really leave.
I’m not a flower specialist, so I don’t know the names. I’ll just show you the photos; they speak for themselves. There are however tulips and forsythia galore.
Jonell Galloway
Spring is here, technically speaking, but it’s still cold, so many local products that would normally be available now simply are not. It snowed in the Alps Easter weekend, and the skiing is great, so we can’t have the best of both worlds.
Root vegetables are still in: celery root (celeriac), baby beets and carrots. There are plenty of fat red radishes and spring onions. Jerusalem artichokes are still on the scene, as are parsnips and new potatoes, especially the raclette types.
There are plenty of baby leeks, broccoli and cabbages. Nice tender kohlrabi is available as well, along with Swiss chard and delicious fennel.
Jonell Galloway
This week’s foodie overview
I spend a lot of time reading, researching and tweeting about food and restaurants these days, so I thought I’d jot down my tweets from the last few days. These are from both The Rambling Epicure and Swiss Foodies and should give you an overview of what’s going on in the foodie world this week, in Switzerland and around the world.
These tweets are often focused on Switzerland, but also include a lot of links to Swiss, French, German, British, American, Canadian and other research on food.
Sometimes I couldn’t resist writing about the snow and skiing conditions, because that determines how a lot of us in Switzerland plan our weekends, and therefore what restaurants we go to or what recipes we cook up. And of course occasionally, watches and wine . . . and this week, the Vancouver Winter Olympics and those cute wooly pigs you see in the photo.
Read more…
Jonell Galloway
This week’s foodie overview
I spend a lot of time reading, researching and tweeting about food and restaurants these days, so I thought I’d jot down my tweets from the last few days. These are from both The Rambling Epicure and Swiss Foodies and should give you an overview of what’s going on in the foodie world this week.
These tweets are often focused on Switzerland, but also include a lot of links to Swiss, French, German, British, American, Canadian and other research on food.
This week was the countdown to Valentine’s Day, so I listed oodles of Valentine’s dinners, weekend packages at hotels and chocolate shops. You can find the Valentine’s venues I tweeted last week in the 20 Valentine venues, posted earlier this week.
Sometimes I couldn’t resist writing about the snow and skiing conditions, because that determines how a lot of us in Switzerland plan our weekends, and therefore what restaurants we go to or what recipes we cook up. And of course occasionally, watches and Alinghi . . .
Remember, these are just tweets
Remember these are just tweets, so they are short and sweet. They are not particularly orderly; I just tweeted the information as I found it.
I suggest you skim over the headings, and if you’re interested, just click on any of the links that interest you in order to read the detailed article.
Who knows, this might even tempt you to start tweeting yourself!
This week’s tweet list
Valentine’s
20 Valentine venues: restaurants, chocolate and hotel packages for the “big day”!
Valentine’s events in La Gruyère.
Valentine’s package at Bernard Ravet, CHF500, hotel, champagne, 9-course dinner, breakfast for two, Relais & Châteaux.
Restaurants in French-speaking Switzerland w/ Valentine’s specials; just click on your canton! NOT TESTED BY THE RAMBLING EPICURE.
GenevaLunch: Lake Geneva Valentine’s cruise.
Ramada Geneva offering Valentine’s Day brunch as well as candelit dinner.
Hôtel des Armures in Geneva: special Valentine’s package, rooms, champagne, breakfast and chocolate.
Valentine’s package at Hotel Royal Geneva. Le Duo, chic delish restaurant & brasserie, chef trained by Bernard Loiseau.
Jamie Oliver’s Valentine’s Day menu, along with recipes and tips for a romantic feast.
GenevaLunch: Valentine’s for the “older” crowd.
Jonell Galloway
Anyone living in Geneva really should know how to prepare cardoons, since it is Geneva’s favorite winter vegetable. The problem is it is time-consuming and tedious, not to speak of the prickly thistles.
Cardoon gratin is one of Geneva’s favorite Christmas dishes, so now’s the time to learn!
Geneva cardoons.
Jonell Galloway
The age-old Geneva and Savoyard specialty called rzulé in the local dialect, better known today as rissole aux poires, was nearly extinct not so very long ago. The dish consists basically of pears braised until they caramelize, which are then used to fill a pastry. The result resembles a fried apple turnover or chausson, even though it is baked.
Very Easy Kitchen's beautiful photo of pear rissoles.
The nearly extinct Marlioz pear saved by Geneva woman
You don’t just use any old pear to make rissoles. You use a variety specific to the region: the Marlioz pear, which was saved by none other than Eliane Pottu, says La Tribune de Genéve. Jérôme Estèbe wrote a delightful feature, in French, on the fortunate revival of this dish. Traditionally, every family in canton Geneva and the Savoy had a couple of Marlioz pear trees in the garden, but this tradition has slowly dwindled away.
Jonell Galloway
Even though stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes are pretty standard fare, most families have their own version of the feast, including grandma’s recipes as well as traditional ones.
Photo courtesy of Steve Lupton/Corbis.
I’ve gathered some ideas that allow you to plan your own personalized Thanksgiving, right here in the Lake Geneva region, without having to have someone send you the ingredients from back home.
Thanksgiving planner
Epicurious has devised quite a clever Thanksgiving menu planner that should help everyone have a successful, stress-free Thanksgiving. You fill in a form, answering questions about what why type of dinner you want, and they propose a customized menu.
A gourmet Thanksgiving
I filled it in, with no holes barred, and this was what they suggested:
Read more…
Jonell Galloway
MarketView is published every week or so so you can take a look at our list before you go to the market. It should serve as a tool to help you make your grocery list and menus for the week before you go off to the market.
Summer fruit and vegetables in the Lake Geneva region are all but gone, and autumn and root vegetables are now on the agenda.
Fall fruit and vegetables
Baby carrots, baby turnips, baby beets, radishes of all types. New potatoes of all varieties.
Swiss chard (blettes), Jerusalem artichokes (topinambur), parsnips (panais), celeriac (celery root of knob celery, called céleri rave in French).
Cepe mushrooms (bolets) (delicious this year), field chanterelles (dark brown and gold in color, only available for a very short period in the autumn), black truffles, and a wide variety of other wild mushrooms.
Field chanterelles are only available in the fall.
Wild greens of all types, mesclun (mixed wild salad greens), wild arugula rocket salad, cabbage of all types, kohlrabi (colrave), beets, leeks, pumpkin, squash of all types, cauliflower, broccoli. Herbs of all types.
Most producers make their own mixture of seasonal soup greens and vegetables, which you can just add to a chicken broth.
Grapes (try the hard-to-find framboisé variety, absolutely delicious), apples, pears.
Flowers
In a couple of weeks, chrysanthemums will be the only local flowers available, so take advantage of what’s still available.
Jonell Galloway
MarketView is published every week or so so you can take a look at our list before you go to the market. It should serve as a tool to help you make your grocery list and menus for the week before you go off to the market.
Amazingly, we are still blessed with a few summer vegetables in the Lake Geneva region, so we still have an interesting mix of spring, summer, and fall fruit and vegetables. As I keep saying, it is surprising what a variety of local fruit and vegetables are still available this late in the growing season.
Spring and summer fruit and vegetables
Aubergine/eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgette/zucchini, green beans, radishes, bell peppers of all colors.
Extra-sweet strawberries, last of the corn, raspberries, blackberries (rarer than the other berries).
Rosemary, many varieties of basil, some mint (end of season), dill, coriander, parsley, laurel, scallions.
Fall fruit and vegetables
Local parsnips from just over the border in France.
Baby carrots, baby turnips, radishes of all types.
New potatoes of all varieties, Swiss chard (blettes), Jerusalem artichokes (topinambur), parsnips (panais).
Local Comice pears.
Grapes (try the hard-to-find framboisé variety, absolutely delicious):
Apples, pears, plums, red peaches (pêches de vigne).
Wild greens of all types, mesclun (mixed wild salad greens).
Cabbage, beets, wild arugula rocket salad.
Herbs of all types, but seeing the last of the mint.
In Switzerland, each producer makes her own mixture of seasonal vegetables for soup.
Most producers make their own mixture of seasonal soup greens and vegetables, which you can just add to a chicken broth.
Cepe mushrooms (bolets).
Black truffles, and a wide variety of other wild mushrooms.
Leeks, pumpkin, squash of all types, cauliflower, broccoli.
Flowers
