By Ellen Wallace

Gently stewed onions with herbs from a Swiss Alpine garden

Independence Day celebrations for Americans are upon us but I’ve now lived outside the US almost as long as I lived there, so the party is not quite as festive or important as it once was.

The day has taken on another significance for me: it’s the time when our Alpine garden onions are finally ready to eat, and they are exquisite! I rank them right up there with garden-fresh salads and potatoes as some of the World’s Best Simple Foods.

We had our first ones last night, one red, one white, and we prepared them very simply:

Recipe for lightly stewed garden onions with herbs

Slice them paper thin.

Warm 2 T olive oil in a deep frypan, add the onions. Add a pinch of Camargue fleur de sel (best sea salt, to my mind), several sprigs of fresh lemon thyme and two small sprigs of fresh rosemary.

Cover the pan and leave on low to medium low heat for 20 minutes, stirring gently once or twice. The moisture in the onions creates the steam.

We had these served on the side with barbecued steaks, mashed potatoes, fresh garden salad and a beautiful bottle of red wine from St Pierre de Clage in canton Valais, Baton Rouge 2004 (Vidomne winery) which is a surprising blend of two grape varieties better known in Italy, Barbera and Sangiovese.

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…

The 7 foods experts won’t eat is an enlightening article by Liz Vaccariello, Editor-in-Chief of Prevention magazine in the U.S.

It’s an article that will educate even those of us who consider they are in the know about what’s good to eat and what’s bad (for instance, me!). The opinions are from scientists and doctors in the field, so we have to take them seriously.

For example: “The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.” We’ve somehow left behind what our mothers taught us. I remember my mother always saying you should never store acidic foods in metal. How did we manage to forget that in less than a generation?

Or that cattle are genetically wired to eat grass, not grains, so corn-fed beef has fewer nutrients. Common sense really. If we keep in in line with nature, there’s less likelihood that we’ll harm our health, and more likelihood that we’ll be eating in a healthy manner.

A good read, and an important one.

Sandrine and Olivier Chapuis
1037 route des Mermes
74140 Veigy-Foncenex
Tel. +33 (0)4 50 94 84 09

First local tomatoes. Photo courtesy of Suat Eman.

Sandrine and Olivier Chapuis in Veigy-Foncenex in France are the great specialists of juicy, full-flavored tomatoes in the Geneva area. They grow between 20 and 30 different varieties every year. There are yellow, orange, green, tiger stripe, red: a cornucopia of color and as sweet as fruit (of course they are fruit, technically speaking).

The first yellow cherry tomatoes were already in the Boulevard Hélvétique market in Geneva last Saturday. They expect the others to slowly start ripening by around 10 July 2009.

Some other summer vegetables have already started to ripen, including aubergines (eggplants) and sweet peppers. The zucchini (courgettes) should be ready in a week or so.

The Chapuis’ also have the widest range of wide and other greens and mescluns I’ve seen in Geneva.

You can also buy directly from them in Veigy-Foncenex, but Sandrine prefers that you call beforehand because she is not always there. After all farmers have to work in the fields sometimes!

They produce all the produce they sell in the farmers market, so you can be sure that is both fresh and local. Sandrine, or “Sabi,” as she is nicknamed, has lots of great recipes in her head for every product she sells.

Since their fields are scattered out in various places, she prefers customers to tell her what they want, and she will have it ready for them when they come to pick it up. The best time is Tuesday or Friday between 4 and 8, or any other evening on appointment. The Chapuis are trying to set up a system for opening every evening, but are awaiting authorization from city authorities regarding parking, since they are right off the route nationale.

First cherry tomatoes already in the farmers market. Photo courtesy of Scott Howden.

Guest blogger Christina Daub studied at L’Ecole du Cordon Bleu in Paris. She now lives in Washington, D.C. She is a poet, and teaches poetry at George Washington University and other writing workshops around the country.

It’s Independence Day, get out the grill!

Photo compliments of freedigitalphotos.net

With the fourth of July right around the corner, it’s time to clean the grill and get ready to barbecue. Whether you are using charcoal or gas, Independence Day just wouldn’t be the same without the smell and the sizzle of a big steak wafting through the backyard.

For my tastebuds, however, nothing beats the old-fashioned, three-legged charcoal grill, whose heat has been reduced nearly to embers and tinged with hickory chips I’ve soaked to add that delicious smoky flavor that enhances grilled food so well. Unfortunately, in Switzerland, unless you have a personal source of wood chips, you’ll have to use regular charbon de bois, or wood charcoal, which is usually a mixture of several different woods.

To get juicy, flavorful steaks, try slathering each side with mustard, Worcestershire sauce and soy, then let the meat sit while the charcoal reduces itself for slow cooking.

When grilling ribs (the pork variety), soak your wood chips in apple juice for about 30 minutes, then wrap them in foil, perforate it, and lay it on the coals. This gives a slightly sweet taste to the ribs which complements the saltiness of the pork.

Traditional or healthy accompaniments?

While the kids line up for hot dogs (in the Lake Geneva region, local pork butchers or charcuteries often make their own homemade frankfurters) and hamburgers (get the butcher to grind it for you fresh on the morning of the 4th), think about what you want to serve with your grilled delicacies.

Traditionally, there was potato salad, great lumps or cubes of potatoes swamped in mayonnaise, with perhaps a scallion or two to give it some punch. However, not being a fan of such cholesterol- and fat-filled fare, I have always opted for the healthier green salad, loaded with a variety of lettuces and pea shoots I can get by hitting the farmers’ market early enough. In Switzerland, there is an endless choice of greens, herbs and shoots at this time of year in any farmers’ market you go to.

A platter of just-cut, ripe red tomatoes (local if you can find them), sprinkled with salt and drizzled with high quality olive oil and a local full bodied red wine round out the meal. Until  dessert.

Dessert: a healthier version than in the old days

Photo used with authorization of Christine Koh

I have to say while the all-American barbecue meal totally sates me, I never pass up dessert, and this is one time of the year it’s really fun to use color in making dessert. There are a number of red, white and blue desserts I’ve come up with in the past, but everyone’s favorite seems to be what I call the “flag cake.”

This is a flat rectangular sheet cake that I cover either in white icing or whipped cream. On top, I create horizontal rows of raspberries for the red stripes of the flag and in the left corner, I intersperse blueberries so that the icing can shine through as “stars.”

For a lighter, but equally festive dessert, I layer yogurt with berries in parfait glasses, alternating the raspberries (you can also use strawberries or currants) with the blueberries in between the layers of yogurt. The kids seem to prefer vanilla yogurt, but for the adults I use plain, sweetened with a bit of honey.

Let the fireworks begin!

Photos compliments of Christine Koh and freedigitalphotos.net.

Step 1: Getting your children interested in food

For younger children, one of the easiest ways of introducing them to the kitchen is to tempt them with a sweet, fruit smoothie.

Smoothies are easy and can be made all year, changing the flavor according to what fruits are in season.

So as to avoid adding sugar, it’s best to choose a fruit that is very ripe and sweet, and, of course, one that your child likes. Letting your child choose the fruit is also a way of teaching him or her how to shop for fresh fruit, and explain why you don’t buy strawberries from Chile at Christmas. Local fruit is not only fresher and therefore has more vitamins, but it is also nicer on the purse.

Bananas are good all year, and can be mixed with different fruits in the summer. There are endless combinations that change with the seasons.

At the moment, strawberries, melons, peaches, and raspberries are already available in the Geneva region or from nearby France or Italy. Indian mangoes make a divine smoothie, similar to an Indian lassi, and always a favorite for children. The buttery, honey-flavored yellow kiwis from New Zealand have a very short season, but are not as acidic as the green ones, and have just come on the market.

You can always follow my MarketDay blog post on Thursdays to get an idea of what’s available in the region before you do your shopping.

Recipe

Buttery, honey-flavored kiwis from New Zealand with Indian mangoes in the background

Buy your favorite plain yogurt. Pour the quantity required into the blender or food processor. Cut fruit into chunks. Add to blender. Churn it all up, then taste. If it’s too thick, just add fresh milk (UHT milk gives a strange, not-so-fresh flavor).

For younger children, it is easy to cut bananas up into chunks. Raspberries don’t need to be cut. This is a good time to teach them the easy way to eat a kiwi. Cut it in half for them, then let them scoop out the pulp with a spoon.

They may need a little help with mangoes, melons and peaches, but that too is a way of demonstrating how to prepare them so they can do it on their own when they get a little older.

Let your child taste to see whether they want more strawberries, more banana, or whatever. This is a way of teaching children to be discriminating in their tastes.

Nutritional value

Smoothies are about a healthy a snack as you can get. They are the perfect way to introduce your children to the kitchen, without overwhelming them.

Smoothies are full of protein, calcium, vitamin C, and fiber, as well as other healthy things, depending on what fruits you use. Take advantage of this moment to teach your kids about the connection between fresh good-tasting food and nutrition.