Swiss Sérac cheese, a fresh cow’s milk cheese made with whey

Whey cheese is produced when the curds are separated from the whey to make cheese. Ricotta is also a whey cheese, but unlike Sérac, it is often made with sheep’s milk. As a result, you can use your local cheesemonger’s Sérac in most recipes that call for ricotta.

Photo courtesy of Fribourg Region tourist office.

Sérac is made in most regions of Switzerland, and each region has its own version. Some regions smoke it; others flavor it with herbs, spices or pepper.

Sérac cheese is soft and creamy in texture, so it is easy to spread it on bread to make a healthy sandwich or snack, but Sérac is not only a snack cheese. It can also be used to make healthy, quick meals, such as the recipe below. In the summertime, I often use it like mozzarella, with tomatoes and basil or other Italian-inspired recipes.

It is a great way of teaching your children to eat healthy snacks. Top it with fresh fruit to make a healthy, low-fat dessert, or use it for between-meal snacks on chunky whole-grain bread.

Since it is a fresh milk cheese, it does not keep, and should be eaten shortly after purchasing. Because it is made from fresh milk whey, it is also naturally low in fat. In Switzerland, it would have about a 3.8% fat content, the same as milk.

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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.

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!

The list is long, so I’ll list the main topics, which are marked by headings in bold: Restaurants, Recipes, Swiss news, International news, Food trends, Nutrition, health, healthy lifestyle, Chocolate, Wine, Miscellaneous food and related info, Skiing, snow, lifestyle, and Nice quotes.

This week’s tweet list

Restaurants

Taste the latest in the food world, the wooly pig, 23 & 24 Feb. at du Chalet-des-Enfants in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

Tired of roestis and pasta in Verbier? Good classic French at La Grange, no surprises.

The Rambling Epicure: check out our restaurant listings.

The Bernerhof hotel in Gstaad has a restaurant for everyone’s taste: pasta, Chinese, traditional.

Tired of roestis in Zermatt? Check out authentic Japanese cuisine and sushi at Myoko, Seiler Hotel.

The food at King’s restaurant Verbier is a delightful mix of English, French, and world influences.

The Walserhof in Klosters is a perfect place to celebrate special occasions, and the food is top notch.

Everything you need to know about eating in Zermatt.

Check out the divine rolled truffle pizza at Quirinale in Geneva.

The Cottage Café in Jardins de Brunswick in Geneva is a great place to meet for afternoon meeting.

Site that lists restaurants in Switzerland that do home delivery.

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The best way to cook meals full of flavor is to use ingredients that are in season where you live. The winter months do not give loads of possibilities in the Lake Geneva region, so we sometimes get the impression we’re eating the same old things over and over. Potatoes, and then more potatoes.

Photo courtesy of Five Prime.

Fennel is a good way to add a bit of spice, while awaiting the wider variety of choice that comes with spring.

Fennel flavor combinations and recipe ideas

There are so many ways to cook fennel I can’t name them. It can be chopped finely and added to an ordinary Bolognese or other sauce, along with a few fennel seeds, to give the flavor an original edge.

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Invention through sloth: a recipe for lazy people who really would like to eat a healthy breakfast but can’t manage it

Cappuccino oats.

We don’t stop hearing about oats — they’re full of fiber so they’re good for your digestion and your bowels, they contain beta-glucans that help cut cholesterol and spread the rise in blood sugar over a long period of time, they make you feel full for longer so they encourage weight loss, they are anticarcinogenic thanks to their phytochemicals — and the list goes on.

Confession to my mother and request for forgiveness

I try and eat my oats every day, really I do. It has always been one of my mother’s Golden Rules of Healthy Eating. But Mom, I have to tell you: sometimes I just don’t, because I’m absolutely, unequivocally not a morning person and I just can’t get it together to cook the oats the good old-fashioned Scottish way we might all prefer.

So Mom, to relieve this deep guilt I have lived with my entire adult life, I found the solution, though I admit more by sloth than by wit. It was one of those days when no one was to speak to me before noon. I decided to pour some dry steel-cut oats into a bowl and eat them dry, in order to avoid the risk of pouring milk all over the stovetop instead of into the pan it was meant for, and then adding oats and other necessary ingredients into the milk that was already running down the front of the kitchen cabinets (I have already experienced this and it is not a good way to start the day). I was absolutely incapable of giving them the loving care they so deserve.

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Tomato and courgette salad

Try this easy zucchini and tomato recipe. If you make a big batch, you can even two meals out of it.

These recipes are perfect for those hot days or nights when you can’t bear the idea of turning on the oven and heating up the house, or when you know you’ll be getting home late and just want to whip up something healthy. They also make a perfect lunch on a hot summer’s day.

Ingredients

Use red juicy tomatoes — usually the big ones — that are extra-ripe.

Chop tomatoes and zucchini into medium-size chunks. Finely chop onion. Mix all with a generous helping of Balsamic vinegar and olive oil so that the vegetables can marinate in it and there is a lot of excess liquid at the bottom of your bowl. Salt and pepper generously. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Let marinate for an hour or so in the fridge, mixing frequently. Serve cold. The juice of the tomatoes blends with the vinaigrette, forming a wonderful, tomato-flavored vinaigrette. Before serving, taste and adjust seasoning again.

Variation: Zucchini and tomato pasta

Leftovers can be used to make pasta salad. Warning: Save the sauce as well as the vegetables and pour it over cooked pasta. Once again, let it marinate for an hour or two before serving. Adjust seasoning.

Variation: Zucchini and tomato salad with cheese

Add feta or mozzarella cheese to either of these recipes, and you’ve got a cool summer one-dish meal. It’s best to add it right before serving. Otherwise, it tends to get mushy.

Variation: Zucchini and tomato salad with cheese

If you still have some left over, pop it under the grill or broiler until the cheese melts and starts to brown. You might even add a little extra cheese on top to make a gratin.