Jonell Galloway
Recipes using seasonal ingredients found in Switzerland in February
Papet vaudois, a Swiss sausage and leek specialty from canton Vaud.
Worry no more mushroom barley soup with crusty garlic toast at Spirit of Pistoulet.
Easy duck confit recipe at The Rambling Epicure.
Fat-free Swiss carrot cake at Swiss Foodies.
Moroccan-style chicken pie at Epicurious.
Cabbage, collard greens, red onion, and blood orange coleslaw at The Rambling Epicure.
Double-chocolate walnut biscotti at The Rambling Epicure.
Curried squash or pumpkin soup at Swiss Foodies and Simply Recipes.
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
Tiny history of the parsnip
In the Middle Ages, Geneva was running over with parsnips, which they referred to as “white carrots”. It was almost always included in their “eternal pots” of soup, which consisted of seasonal vegetables that they just kept adding more vegetables to as needed, and a piece of meat once a week.
After World War II, many root vegetables went out of fashion in Europe, because people had had to survive on them and nothing else during the war, so farmers eventually stopped growing them. The same went for pumpkin. People in the north of France who had lived through the war and eaten pumpkin every day couldn’t bear the thought of eating pumpkin ever again.
In recent years, these old-fashioned vegetables, including parsnips, have once again become available, and chefs are going crazy with new ideas on how to use them.
Parsnips are plentiful at the moment and there’s nothing better than soup to warm you up on a cold winter’s day. Eric Burkel, former financial analyst, entrepreneur and now president of his local food coop in Paris, got this recipe from one of the farmers who supplies vegetables to the coop.
Parsnip soup recipe
Ingredients
500 g / 1 lb parsnips, peeled 80 g / 30 oz aged Mimolette cheese 60 cl / 2.5 cups chicken broth, heated15 cl / 1/3 pint extra-thick cream 4 shallots 1 branch of celery 30 g butter / 1 oz. butter
Instructions
Finely chop shallots. Melt butter in a saucepan. Slowly cook shallots until clear.
Cut parsnips into cubes. Thinly slice celery. Mix, then add to saucepan.
Pour chicken broth over vegetables. Salt and pepper to taste. Let cook on low heat for about 25 minutes.
While soup is cooking, use a vegetable peeler to cut the Mimolette into extra-fine slices. Set aside.
When soup is cooked, turn down heat and add cream. It is ready to serve as soon as the cream has melted into the soup and is warm.
Pour soup in bowls. Sprinkle with slices of Mimolette.
Note: This can be made ahead of time. If you do so, mix quickly with a hand-held electric mixer, then reheat in microwave. Suggestion: For a different take on the recipe, you could also add chopped apples after pouring the soup into the bowl. Croutons and herbs are also complimentary.Soup photo courtesy of Five Prime.
Jonell Galloway
Jean-Pierre Reichenbach with the Vaud sausages that he hopes will have AOC status - perfect with the soup
Reichenbach butcher shop in Aigle offers a good selection of regional products
by Ellen Wallace
You come to the Alps in winter with expectations of glorious blue skies and pristine white slopes, accompanied by the warming tones of cheese fondue, raclette and gluh wine or laced coffee taken in the brisk outdoor air.
And then it rains. It is not supposed to do that between Christmas and New Year’s, but in 2009 it did. Tuesday night and Wednesday brought downpours and fog. thursday wasn’t much better. Many people went shopping. Some of us stayed home and felt sorry for ourselves – until we were inspired to try something new and different in the kitchen.
There were no children in the house, so I could serve up odd vegetables. This time of year I get tired of the limited fresh vegetables in the markets, cabbage and cauliflower, which remind me of over-boiled vegetables of my childhood. I am not a big fan of cauliflower, but I’d read a recipe on the NPR (National Public Radio) web site that intrigued me, for cauliflower and leek soup with roasted walnut garnish. I’d bought the cauliflower, but forgot to buy leeks. I happened to have some excellent sausage and brown bread in the house. So here is the original NPR recipe by Carla Hall, which I’ll have to try sometime, and my rainy day Swiss Alpine lunch variation, which cheered up two adults, a sign of success with any food. It has the added advantage of being kinder to those who want to keep down their cream and butter intake.
The snow returned, after we ate this.
Recipe
Swiss Alps winter rainy day cauliflower soup
4 servings1 small head cauliflower
1 onion, preferably white
2-5 garlic cloves, to taste
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 litre turkey stock (part of the treat of a Christmas bird)
75-100 gr = 1/2 packet of Chevroux goat cheese spread: fromage frais, to taste
150 cl / 1.6 qts. milk
1 egg yolk
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Fresh nutmeg to taste
Garnish
8 toasted walnut halves
Chopped fresh parsley
1-2 tablespoons browned butter
- Wash and core the cauliflower. Reserve 8 tiny florets. Roughly chop the remaining cauliflower, onion and garlic.
- Roast the walnut halves in the oven, low heat (130-150° C / 266-302° F), 15 minutes, until lightly browned; take care not to burn them.
- In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until soft, but not taking on any color, about 3 minutes.
- Sprinkle the flour over the onions and garlic and stir to combine. Gradually whisk in the stock. Bring slowly to a simmer, stirring as the mixture thickens. Add the chopped cauliflower and return to a slow simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to keep the bottom from sticking or burning until the cauliflower is fork-tender, 10-12 minutes.
- Remove the pot from the heat and puree the soup in a blender until smooth. The original “creamed” recipe calls for straining the soup at this point, but as the daughter of a US Great Depression mother, I find it hard to throw away the vegetable bits. Our mixture was not strained and as a result had a slight grittiness, which we enjoyed.
- In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolk with the milk. Whisk a bit of the hot soup into the egg/milk mixture. Then whisk the mix into the soup.
- Place the pot over very low heat and stir continually, gently, to warm through. Add the goat cheese and continue to stir, always over low heat so you don’t scramble the egg yolk, until the cheese melts, 3-5 minutes; do not let it reach the simmering point.
- Blanch the cauliflower florets set aside at the start, while the cheese is melting.
- Adjust the soup seasoning with salt and pepper. Grate in fresh nutmeg to taste.
- In a small skillet or pot, melt the 1 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Keep the butter on heat until it turns a nutty brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Mix the tiny cauliflower florets and the toasted walnuts in a small bowl. Portion the soup into shallow bowls and top with the garnish. Drizzle with the brown butter, then chopped parsley.
We served this with Vaud sausage (saucisse de Vaud) and an excellent brown bread from Migros. The sausage is made by Reichenbach butchers in Aigle, canton Vaud, whose owner is president of the Vaudois butchers association. The group has applied for AOC status for the product. It is a naturally smoked sausage that is cooked whole.
A Vaud sausage should be simmered in nearly boiling water not more than 75° C / 167° F for an hour. The bread is an organic, sustainable-development product that has good flavour and keeps its moisture well, a nice complement to the soup and sausage.
Jonell Galloway
Who poured the boiling soup on the head of the Savoyard?
Legend has it that a certain Huguenot, Catherine Royaume, who had sought refuge in Geneva after the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre, threw a pot of her boiling vegetable soup on the head of a Savoyard soldier as he and his mates were trying to besiege Geneva. This happened during the night of 11-12 December 1602. Ever since, she has been known as the Mère Royaume, or “Mother Royaume.”
Photo courtesy of FotoSearch.
And ever since, 12 December has been a day of celebration, referred to as the Escalade, which means literally “climbing,” as in rock climbing. In 1602, Geneva was surrounded by high stone ramparts and circled by several concentric high stone walls, so the poor guy who had the boiling soup poured over his head already had a hard day of climbing behind him.
Ingredients in La Mère Royaume’s cast iron cauldron
Geneva was quite a different place then. According to the food La Cocagne cooperative, people ate vegetable soup at every meal, so there was always a big iron cauldron or marmite on the fire. The vegetables changed according to the season, and on special occasions or Sundays, the more fortunate threw a piece of meat into the pot. Times were often hard after the arrival of the Huguenots and other Protestants, so the Genevois started importing rice from Italy and lentils from all over to help fill all the refugee bellies.
The vegetable soup of a cold December in 1602 was quite different from any vegetable soup we would eat today. It was not a velouté or a bouillon with a few drops of truffle oil. There was no fresh green asparagus imported from Peru.
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
Vercors-style chestnut velouté: perfect for this chilly weather
Emmanuel de Careil wears a coat of many colors. He writes books about everything from psychology to history, and is also a foodie who has collected stacks of good recipes over the years. He just published this very wintry recipe, inspired by the great French chef Guy Savoy, and I thought it the perfect time of the year to make it.
Just for information, Vercors is a wild region in southeast France, which includes the Drôme with its low mountainous terrain, known for its chestnuts.
This is my take on the recipe.
Recipe for chestnut velouté, based on Guy Savoy’s recipe
This recipe should feed about four people.
Ingredients for soup
300 grams of chestnuts (cooked at home, frozen, vacuum-packed or tinned)
40 grams of butter
10 centiliters of Chartreuse, an herbal-flavored liqueur found in France
1 bouquet garni
1.5 liters of chicken broth
50 centiliters of liquid cream
2 fresh chestnuts, shelled
2 pinches of cardamom
Salt and pepper to taste
Read more…
Jonell Galloway
Swiss recipes: FXcuisine
Photo courtesy of FXcuisine.
With a background in international finance and law, François Xavier, who is Swiss, publishes two recipes a week.
His Swiss apple roesti is an amazingly simple, but tasty recipe, which he demonstrates in a witty video.
His recipe for Swiss apple pasta (see photo at left) is an interesting twist on a traditional Swiss dish, spätzle. Both are seasonal, because it is certainly Apple Time.
Kids in the kitchen: Oui, Chef
Photo courtesy of Steve Dunn, Oui, Chef.
A former banker, Steve Dunn is based in Paris. He has five children, and for the last two years has devoted himself to teaching them how to cook and eat right, with recipes such as his bran muffins even your kids will like recipe.
His farmers market cheddar melt is full of interesting, contrasting flavors that are healthy as can be. His butternut soup with apple cider cream recipe is both seasonal and interesting.
For scrumptious takes on traditional British desserts: Woody the Foodie
Woody gathers recipes from chefs he admires. His sticky chocolate and toffee pudding recipe, inspired from Gordon Ramsay, is a masterpiece of a recipe, as is his chocolate bread and butter pudding, based on a James Martin recipe from the BBC food site.
Photo courtesy of Woody the Foodie.
Jonell Galloway
Take 4 thick dry or toasted slices of hearty whole grain bread and tear it into bite-size pieces. Drizzle olive oil over it and add 2 to 4 cloves of crushed garlic, depending on how much you like garlic.
Photo courtesy of Stu Spivack.
Mix and let it sit for a few minutes.
Take 8 large, extra-ripe red tomatoes. Cut into large chunks, and save all the juice. Mix into the bread and garlic.
Put into blender, with salt and pepper. Refrigerate and let it sit for a half hour or so, or several hours or overnight if possible.
Before serving, taste and then season with more salt, pepper and olive oil if necessary. Add ice cubes if you want it to be colder or thinner.
If you want to give the dish a bit of color or enhance it, add fresh coriander or basil, or a dollop of cream.
This batch will easily feed 4 or 5, and is better the second day, once it has marinated in the refrigerator.
This recipe is my version of a friend’s recipe for Seville-style gazpacho. The friend has chosen to remain incognito for reasons unknown to this writer.