South American coffee in Genevan Scot's mug with Alpine cow milk, Swiss chocolate on an Irish potter's plate. Wintry chill outside by Mother Nature.

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – I always thought the characters in Stieg Larsson‘s and Henning Mankell’s Swedish novels drank coffee endlessly out of nervousness or boredom, despite their crime-chasing lives.

Our icy winter weather with days on end of sharp winds and sub-zero temperatures on Lake Geneva have made me reconsider that this might just be a reaction to too much cold weather.

I’ve tripled my coffee intake in the past two weeks, sitting in front of the computer.

Swiss sun bread; bread is one of the targeted foods for reducing salt, while keeping flavour

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal Health Office in November 2011 released a report on Swiss sodium (salt) consumption, suggesting that Swiss consumers should reduce their intake by half. A study done by the Bern University of Applied Sciences, as part of the government’s continuing programme to find ways to reduce salt in processed foods, has shown that this can be done while maintaining quality.

Their work is part of Switzerland’s Salt Strategy 2008-2012, which calls for average salt intake to be reduced by up to 16 percent (4 percent a year over the four years) to 8 g per day by the end of this year. The long-term goal is for a maximum intake of 5 g per day, in line with WHO (World Health Organization) recommendations.

In November, Bern noted that “processed foods such as bread, cheese, sausage and other meat products, soups and ready meals are major hidden sources of salt. Efforts are therefore being made, in close collaboration with the food industry and researchers, to investigate how salt levels in processed foods and in the catering sector can be reduced over the longer term without adversely affecting taste.”

The Bern study, run at the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences in Zollikofen, has shown that processed foods account for about 34 percent of salt intake and bread and pasta for 21 percent.

Swissinfo 26 January 2012 carries a good background story on Switzerland’s use of salt in food and how it is changing.

Growth in food past its expiry date, collected and redistributed by Tables Suisse project

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Forbes carries a wonderful article about food and expiry dates, where it goes, who buys it and whether or not they should all expect to die within hours (if you read no further, the answer is “no”).

The problem of old but still good food isn’t limited to the US, of course. Swiss supermarkets throw away massive amounts of food that have reached their expiry date, but Tables Suisses, run by volunteers and with 31 refrigerated vans, last year collected and distributed more than 3,000 tons of food  from the stores.

The food gathered must be past its sell-by date but in good condition and perfectly edible. Swiss laws were aligned with European Union ones in 2009 for food safety, and while both federal and cantonal governments have roles to play in overseeing food safety, expiry dates are generally determined by the point at which a product is at its best, not whether or not it is still safe to eat.

Swiss consumers throw away 36 kilos of food per inhabitant each year, a total of 250,000 tons, of which 25,000 tons is considered by law to be fit for consumption.

The organization is a project of the non-profit (and tax exempt) Espoir pour personnes en détresse/Hoffnung für Menschen in Not foundation and it just celebrated its 10th anniversary in December 2011. Stores in 11 cantons participate.

The project distributes via a number of social work and charity groups, rather than directly to the needy. About 15 percent of the Swiss population is below the poverty line, some 1.1 million people, and half of these are considered in serious need of material aid; this is the group targeted by Tables Suisses.

Credit Suisse and Coop have been among the major sponsors since 2001, with the supermarket chain providing cash as well as food goods.

TSR ran a television report on Tables Suisses in 2009, and most of the information is still current, despite the show’s expiry date.

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.

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!

Philippe Chevrier's mousse parmesan

I just wandered through a list of how to tip, how much, where in the world, on the blog Political Calculations, which borrows from some previously published travel and food gurus to create a chart. It seems pretty accurate to me, based on my own travels. One thing is often overlooked in discussions about tipping, though, and it confuses visitors to a country. It’s the business of small change.

I wrote an article on tipping in France several years ago, when I lived in Paris, for an American Express magazine. Officially, no one tipped there, because under French law the service is included in the price of the meal. That hasn’t changed. Nevertheless, I invited a group of French people to meet in a cafe at the time and discuss tipping, since every visiting American asked why French people always seemed to leave something. Did they or did they not tip?

The cafe group was happy to discuss it generally, but none of them wanted to openly discuss their own practices. A woman from a well-respected old family took me aside and explained that while tipping was included in the price, and therefore no one tipped, most people would leave some small change, but getting that right was a delicate question. Was the party large? One person treating? Did they stay a long time? Was it a quick cuppa by yourself? Did you need to impress someone at the table, in which case you had to work out an amount that was not too small, not too big.

Switzerland is simpler. If your bill says CHF50, you can pay exactly that and no one will expect more. If, as I did yesterday, you invite someone to lunch and linger because you’re having a business meeting, leaving some small change is considered polite, but not necessary. To be precise: our lunch in a small cafe was CHF53 and I left CHF2 in change. This isn’t a percentage, but a gesture of appreciation because we took up table space for longer than the average customer. Dinner for four in a nice restaurant? I would pay the bill I am handed, no more.

Credit cards are part of the problem, because the international form often leaves a space for service, or tips. Leave it blank when you’re in Switzerland and copy the total. Don’t worry about looking cheap, as this is the correct thing to do.

What happens if you do leave a tip? It depends, again, on the place and the situation. In some restaurants, they will insist you take it back, assuming you aren’t aware that service is included. Swiss guests might do the same. In other retaurants, they will accept it, but be uncomfortable. And if the waiters are foreigners, they might be quite happy with it, but the owner will worry that you’ve left thinking the restaurant is more expensive than is really the case.

Dark chocolate with pecans, chez Tristan, Bougy-Villars, Switzerland

Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – You still have a couple days left to sample artisanal chocolates and buy them at a discount at several chocolate boutiques in the region. Chocolate Week, the brainchild of Neuchatel’s chocolate-makers several years ago, was adopted by Vaud five years ago and more recently by Fribourg and Geneva. The idea is to introduce local chocolate lovers to hand-crafted chocolates, which not only taste good, but tend to use better products, have less sugar and lower fat content. Here’s the list of who is participating and what they’re offering in 2010. The chocolate week ends Saturday 6 November. Some of my favourites don’t take part officially, but they won’t object if we celebrate by stopping by.

Personally, I’ve done my bit by stopping in at Tristan’s chocolate boutique in Bougy-sur-Villars, one of my favourites in the region, where I stocked up on presents for the family (including me). He has two new chocolates which are now on my “best” list since my last visit in July, a dark chocolate with pecans with extraordinary flavour and a Cambodian pepper chocolate which is quite different from his Tasmanian or pimiento pepper chocolates. Less bite, more elegant pepper flavour and feel. I also bought rosemary, green tea in dark chocolate and myrtle chocolates.

Swiss pavé sesame, chez Tristan, Bougy-Villars, Switzerland

Myrtle, if you’re not familiar with it and are seeing “myrte” in the shop, is not myrtille, or blueberry. Myrtle comes from a shrub, and is akin in flavour to juniper and rosemary. It was used years ago in making Italy’s famous mortadella, but juniper is more commonly used for that now.

I am heading out the door to Morges soon to try one of the Vaud bouchon specialties, which I’ve never had. I’ll report back soon on that, with a photo.

And lucky for me, one of the participating chocolatiers is in Saint Prex, Boillat, and they’re offering 10 percent off on chocolate, a dangerously good deal. We’re doubly blessed, with a second excellent chocolate maker, Alexandre, right in the old town section of Saint Prex, and his busy, tiny shop is one of the nicest places around for morning coffee. With a bit of chocolate, of course.

Not bad for a town of 5,000.

Warning: once you develop a taste for this kind of chocolate you may find it extremely difficult to settle for the popular big commercial brands, although I did just receive a last-minute additional request from an overseas family member to whom I am shipping some of Tristan’s chocolate, at his request: “The Lindt chocolate in the red package is really good. Like… Lindor but in bar form? Creamy in the middle? That one was really good, feel free to send some of that. I have finished all the chocolate you brought over by the way.”

Related news story on Barry Callebaut financial results, the International Cocoa Agreement, 4 November 2010

Here's a beautiful and more exotic plum tart than the simple, classic Geneva recipe, prepared by Overthemoon, who provides clues about her additional ingredients (flickr)

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – (Video link included) Some dishes are simply delicious; others we love because of the memories they evoke. It’s not always easy to fall in love with the specialties in a country where you didn’t grow up. I’ve always loved American apple pie and I have a certain amount of fame in small circles for making an excellent one, with garden apples, so I was astonished when an elderly Swiss neighbor told me it was a lovely pie “but it would certainly be better if you didn’t add a top crust – that’s just too much crust.”

She’s probably right, but this is my traditional, grew-up-with-it USA apple pie and I won’t change it, thanks.

I know a lot of Genevans feel the same about plum pie, which I find pleasant most of the time and really good in the hands of a grandma who knows what she’s doing, out in the countryside. Today is Geneva’s “Jeûne genevois” cantonal holiday and plum pie was once the only thing you were allowed to eat on this day of religious fasting. For the past several years it’s simply been the dessert of choice, and all the shops in the region sell these. But the best, of course, will be the one you make yourself, and it must be one of the easiest pies to prepare. A classic recipe is offered by Pique-Assiette, whose video‘s make cooking easy and fun. Better yet, if you’re struggling to improve your French, this is a great way to learn!

Starting point: buy fresh fruit. Here’s a list of 35 farmers who sell fruit directly, from the cantonal agricultural department. You can also search the database by locality.

Pique-Assiette has a summer cooking programme on TSR public television. She’s not a famous chef but rather a popular cook with uncomplicated recipes. Her plum pie recipe calls for a prepared pastry that you can buy at any supermarket in Switzerland with a layer of crushed dry Amaretti biscuits for the crust. She uses 40 grams. Prick it with a fork in several places. The dark plums (she uses 750 grams) that you find everywhere in Switzerland this time of year are sliced lengthwise and placed neatly, skins down, on the crust. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Bake at 200C for 35 minutes.

Now here is a curious coincidence. When I was googling Geneva and plums I came across an article written in 2007 about how Geneva “leads the nation in producing new varieties of European plums”, which sounded odd. It’s about Geneva, New York, written by researchers at the University of Cornell, and the gorgeous photos of deep purple plums look just like the ones growing on our trees in Geneva, Switzerland. The article carries interesting information about the health benefits of plums, the wealth of varieties and more. It is New York-oriented but this tip holds here in Geneva, Switzerland, too: “Remember that any fruit purchased locally will be superior in flavor, aroma and nutrition because it is picked at a peak of ripeness.”

Happy holiday! Mmmmm.

By Ellen Wallace

Roadside stand with apricots next to trees with tomorrow's crop, Saillon, canton Valais, Switzerland

Saillon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - There are dozens of good reasons to go to canton Valais right now, starting with temperatures that fall one degree for every 200 metres or so of altitude in the Alps.

But the best reason for the next week to 10 days is apricots, fully ripe now, with wonderful flavour and selling for about CHF6/kg at roadside stands that have suddenly appeared everywhere.

Buy as many as you can eat in two days, close your eyes and enjoy one of Switzerland’s finest treats.

They are picked ripe and don’t keep at this stage: they’re meant to be eaten, right now.

One more day in the sun and they'll be perfect: apricots in Saillon, Switzerland