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Betty Bossi’s Swiss Cookbook

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, October 19, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Betty Bossi’s “The Swiss Cookbook”

The Swiss Cookbook, by the famous but fictional Betty Bossi, the equivalent of Betty Crocker in the U.S., can make a good addition to a cookbook collection for those who want to cook Swiss dishes but can’t read French or German. It makes a great Christmas gift, and is handy to have in the house, whether you’re a gourmet cook or just an occasional one.

The recipes are organized by region. In a land with four languages and such cultural diversity, this is a necessity. There is a brief description of each region and its cuisine, along with attractive photos. Each recipe is accompanied by a photo.

The ring binding and glossy pages make it practical to use. The Swiss Cookbook is appropriate for Swiss people as well as for expatriates, because it gives a good overview of traditional Swiss cuisine and contemporary cuisine using Swiss ingredients.

It is an attractive gift for most anyone interested in food.

It can be ordered online from the Betty Bossi online shop, and is also available in many supermarkets in Switzerland.

Related articles

Neapolitan Ragù or Ragù Napolitano

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, September 4, 2019 Permalink 0

Ragù (or Sugo) di Carne

by Marlena Spieler

Whether it’s Ragù Napolitano “Classico” or “Leggere,” this richly flavored sauce is a perfect example of traditional, long, slow-cooked (slow, very slow) food, the sort of memory-filled dish that makes all Neapolitans, rich or poor, remember their childhood and nonnas or grandmothers with even just one bite; or even with just one sniff of the bubbling sauce.

Because it needs to be looked after, slowly cooked and attention paid that it doesn’t burn or scorch, it was given the name sugo della guardaporta, the doorkeeper’s sauce, as it needed someone to watch over it as it slowly, slowly, slowly bubbled its way to perfection.

Though now it has come to symbolize family food, it was no doubt created in the 19th-century kitchens by the chefs of aristocratic Naples — its abundance of meat and attention-demanding cooking method would have been beyond the means of the city’s poorer inhabitants, which meant most of the population. Its name came from the French ragout, or saucey stew. The Neapolitan ragù is exactly that: a large piece of meat simmered in either tomatoey or oniony (La Genovese) sauce unlike the ragù of other
regions, which include small pieces of chopped meats and vegetables.

San Marzano tomatoes.

Venice: The Alternative to Italy’s Pasta

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, October 16, 2018 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

No, I’m sorry. The staple of Venice is not pasta.

Yes, in Italy, they eat pasta, but Venice and the neighboring Veneto region are relative newcomers to both pasta and Italy. Venice and the Veneto, which the Venetian Republic dominated for centuries, only became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866 to escape the rule of the Austrian Empire, imposed after the Napoleonic Wars. Before that, the people of the Veneto didn’t speak much Italian; they primarily spoke Venetian. The Italian language and customs? They’ve adopted those, including pasta, relatively recently.

Abandoned agricultural storage building in a rice field in northern Italy

Slow Life in Chartres, the Breadbasket of France

Published by Jonell Galloway + Sunday, February 14, 2016 Permalink 0

Eating and Drinking in Chartres, the Breadbasket of France

by Jonell Galloway

Kentucky is far from Chartres, but not so far as one might think. Biscuits and cornbread were the bond that held us together in Kentucky; wheatfields and bread do the same in Chartres. We like white gravy; the Chartrains, as they’re called, like sauce. Isn’t white gravy a sauce, after all?

Growing up in Kentucky, I embraced the Slow Food concepts without ever knowing it. Wendell Berry was my breakfast, lunch and supper, after all. The French have never fully embraced the official Slow Food concept of Good, Clean and Fair, since they consider that French cuisine and agriculture already embrace these values and do not need an organization – especially an Italian association with an English name – to teach them about their own time-honored traditions. One might say that the French are arrogant and chauvinist, which I would never totally deny, but it is this very pride that has maintained a high level of quality in the world of artisanal food and agriculture.

I have lived in the Beauce region, the bread basket of France, for over 15 years. The hill of Chartres is surrounded by wheat and grain fields and when you go to the bakers, they actually mark the name of the millers who provided the grain for particular breads. It’s all rather magical for those who have a holistic view of the world. The Beauce is all about farming, in particular, wheat, grain and sugar beets, but also goat cheese, pork products, rabbits, beer, apples and apple cider products, pears, chickens, rapeseed, etc. My goal has been to find all the best producers and growers and support them in every way possible.

What to Eat in France: Crêpes Vonnassiennes

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Permalink 0

What to Eat in France: Crêpes Vonnassiennes, Vonnas-style Potato Pancakes

by Jonell Galloway

Vonnas in the east of France is the home of the legendary Michelin-star chef Georges Blanc. He is best known for his Bresse chicken with cream and mushrooms. Traditionally, this chicken is eaten with potato pancakes. This recipe is inspired by Blanc’s mother, La Mère Blanc, who ran his restaurant before him. He learned to cook at her apron strings.

Vonnas is in the Rhône-Alpes region of France, known for poulet de Bresse chickens and poultry, frogs, Reblochon and Beaufort cheese, as well as gratin dauphinois, made with raw potatoes, thick cream and garlic, and pork products, plentiful in the bouchons, small restaurants found in Lyon.

What to Eat in France: Morue à la marseillaise

Published by Jonell Galloway + Saturday, September 5, 2015 Permalink 0

What to Eat in France: Morue à la marseillaise, Marseille-style Salt Cod

by Jonell Galloway

One might ask why the Mediterranean countries — and locations such as Marseille — which have their own fishing waters, would dry a cold water fish such as cod. Fish are not always plentiful enough, for one thing, and when bad harvests arrived, it was handy to fall back on salted fish, which keeps for years. Traditionally, Catholics had to have fish on hand for Fridays, when they were not allowed to eat meat. During the Norwegian famine in 1315-17, Clifford A. Wright says that the Norwegians allowed export of their stockfish and butter in exchange for import of malt, flour, salt, and other commodities they were lacking — things that were readily available in the south. In addition, most salt at that time came from the Mediterranean, so the Nordic countries needed it to make their salt cod.

The term morue is generally thought to mean “salt cod,” but technically speaking, it’s simply dried, salted fish of the Gadiformes family. The word stockfish, probably from the Dutch stokvis, is used in many other countries. In contemporary cuisine, one sees the term morue fraîche, which has come to mean “fresh cod,” even though there’s a perfectly good word for fresh cod in French: cabillaud.

What to Eat in France: Bourride à la Sétoise

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, August 13, 2015 Permalink 0

What to Eat in France: Bourride, or Provençal Fish Soup with Aioli in the Style of Sète

by Jonell Galloway

Bourride is the specialty of Sète, a town on the coast of the Languedoc in Provence. Sète is one of the largest fishing ports in the region. Native poet Paul Valéry called it l’île singulaire, the singular island, because it is nestled in between two salt water lakes and the sea.

Bourride is said to date back to the Phocaeans, the ancient inhabitants of Marseilles, then called Massilia.

In Provençal, it is called boulido, meaning “boiled.” It is not unlike bouillabaisse, a specialty of nearby Marseilles, the difference being that bourride is made with only white fish — monkfish tails in particular, and that it is accompanied by aioli instead of the traditional rouille served with bouillabaisse. Shellfish are never added.

My recipe is very traditional. There are many variants, but the aim of this series of articles “What to Eat in France” is to seek original or traditional recipes for traditional, regional dishes.

This dish is a sure pleaser for parties and is easy enough to cook ahead, doing everything but poaching the fish, which should be done before serving.

In the region, many locals drink rosé wine such as Coteaux-d’Aix-en-Provence with bourride, but one might just as easily pair it with a perfumed Languedoc white. There are a world of them to be discovered, but since they are not, for the most part. A.O.C., it’s difficult to recommend one in particular. It’s a matter of producer as much as place.

What to Eat in France: Lapin au Miel et à la Moutarde

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, August 7, 2015 Permalink 0

What to Eat in France: Lapin au Miel et à la Moutarde, or Honey Mustard Rabbit

by Jonell Galloway

In the Orléanais and Beauce regions around where I live in Chartres, rabbit is king. They raise them and hunt them as well, eating hare during hunting season. They make distinctions depending on the age and kind of rabbit.

Historically, the French have had a preference for lièvre or hare or lapin de garenne or wild rabbit. Gastronomes like Prosper Montagné considered the flesh of domestic rabbits tasteless and in need of heavy seasoning.

In the late eighteenth century, poor Parisians consumed rabbits regularly. They fed them cabbage leaves and kept the rabbit hutches by their beds.

Domestic rabbit must be eaten young — at 3 to 3 1/2 months old — and is called lapin, while young wild rabbit is called lapereau. Domestic rabbit has white, tender flesh, while the young hares produce firmer meat of which the flavor has more character. It can, however, taste musty. It’s best to check for mustiness before cooking because it can sometimes render it inedible.

Today, the most common recipe is for Lapin à la Moutarde, or rabbit with mustard. This recipe can in fact be made with both honey and/or mustard, giving a classic honey mustard taste to the flesh.

miel_gatinais

The region has been known for its honey, Miel du Gâtinais, since the Middle Ages, and is a blend of acacia, heather, chestnut and forest honey.

What to Eat in France: Truffle Salad

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, August 7, 2015 Permalink 0

What to Eat in France: Salade de Truffes, or Truffle Salad

by Jonell Galloway

The Périgord is truffle country: these large black truffles that grow underground next to oak trees and sometimes hazelnut trees are highly prized. Today, three-quarters of them come from the Var, Drôme and Vaucluse. They are harvested in autumn and winter, but the best ones are found in January.

They are often eaten raw, but can just as easily be cooked.

Recipe

Peel truffles.
Bring white wine, salt and pepper to a low boil and simmer truffles for 10 minutes.
Drain and slice.
Place truffles in a salad bowl. Add walnut oil, diced shallots and a trickle of wine vinegar. Mix carefully so that truffles don’t break apart.
Cook soft-boiled eggs. Peel and slice.
In another salad bowl, season sliced eggs with salt, pepper, walnut oil and verjuice. Mix carefully.
Pour eggs into truffles. Add a few pickled nasturtium pods and some chopped chervil.
Mix carefully and serve either one its own or over toast.

Note: The eggs can be replaced with artichoke bottoms or boiled potatoes. One should avoid adding aromatic herbs and spices so as not to interfere with the deep flavor of the truffles. Capers may be substituted for the nasturtium pods. If you like your eggs runny, place them directly onto the toast and pour dressing and truffles over them.

FRENCH RECIPES: POT-AU-FEU OR PETITE MARMITE

Published by Jonell Galloway + Saturday, May 23, 2015 Permalink 1

Emmanuel Ménétrier / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

ESCOFFIER’S RECIPE FOR POT-AU-FEU OR PETITE MARMITE

Pot-au-feu and petite marmite in today’s vocabulary are the same thing. Until the nineteenth century, the term pot-au-feu simply referred to a family soup to which was added different ingredients every day, usually with beef and chicken added on Sunday. The regional variations were endless, depending on availability and season and depending on the cook.

In 1829, the French etymology dictionary defined pot-pourri as “the name our fathers gave to the pot-au-feu.” In the nineteenth century, the recipe started to take on its modern ingredients of beef, root vegetables and a veal bone, but it still included chicken, which many people, including my French butcher’s wife, leave out these days.

Escoffier, who codified French cuisine in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, set down the recipe in Le Guide Culinaire in 1902, still calling it petite marmite. The regional variations started to disappear, and the recipe has now been simplified by most home cooks to contain only beef, no chicken. Escoffier insisted on the importance of the chicken, but today, one rarely finds a pot-au-feu with mutton, veal, pork, chicken, duck or turkey. The other name, petite marmite, has pretty much gone out of usage.