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What to Eat in Switzerland: A Geneva Christmas: Cardoon Gratin Recipe

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, December 19, 2012 Permalink 0

From the archives

Cardoon gratin is a classic Geneva Christmas dish, but only brave souls should try to prepare them because they are prickly, and the preparation can be long and tedious. Many farmers markets in Switzerland now sell them prepared sous vide, in plastic vacuum-packed packages, which is probably the best option for those who don’t get a thrill out of getting a few pricks. In any case, it is important to schedule it carefully into your meal preparations, because it is time-consuming any way you go about it.

Cardoon Gratin Recipe

Preparation of Cardoons for Gratin

Throw out any hard stems and any that are wilted.
Peel the cardoons by removing leaves, spines and stringy parts. The exterior will then be covered with a fuzzy layer. Use a cloth to rub stalks gently to remove fuzz.
Cut stems into 8 cm (3 cm) slices. Rub with lemon, or if you intend to use them later, put slices into lemon water so they won’t turn dark.
You now have two choices: you can either cook them in a white vegetable broth you’ve made ahead of time, or you can cook them in the lemon water you soaked them in.
Bring to a boil and boil until tender. It should take about 30 minutes for them to become tender, but if they are larger in diameter it can take up to 2 hours, so allow plenty of time.

Recipe

All these steps can be carried out while the cardoons are cooking. There are actually several ways of doing this. You can either make a Béchamel (white) sauce and sprinkle cheese on the cardoons before you put them in the oven, or you can make a Mornay (cheese) sauce and pour it on the cooked cardoons before putting in the oven to brown. I think it’s tastier to make a Mornay sauce, and then sprinkle a bit of cheese on the top before putting it in the oven. Here’s my recipe.

Ingredients

Click here for British/American/metric recipe converter

Approximately 1 kg of cardoons

30 g of butter

1 tablespoon of flour

2.5 dl of whole milk

1 dl of cream

50 g of cheese, type Gruyère or Swiss (see photo below), grated

Lemon juice, freshly squeezed

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Make a Béchamel sauce, using the proportions of ingredients above.
When finished and seasoned, add cream and cheese, setting aside a tablespoon of cheese. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 250° C.
Once cardoons are tender, drain, making sure all water is drained off.
In a large bowl, mix cooked cardoons and Mornay sauce.
Pour into a baking dish of the appropriate size, so that there is a layer of about 3 cm high.
Sprinkle evenly with remaining grated cheese and a few knobs of butter.
Put in hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Notes: It is important to use a hard, Swiss-type cheese. Cheddar cheese would have too strong of a taste. If you can’t find cardoons, the same recipe can be made with Swiss chard, thus eliminating the long, meticulous preparation. Simply cut them as for the cardoons and cook in chicken broth until tender, then follow the other steps in the recipe for making the gratin. Its texture is quite similar to that of cardoons.

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My Favorite Hanukkah Foods: Grandma’s Latke Recipe

Published by Jonell Galloway + Saturday, December 8, 2012 Permalink 0

by Warren Bobrow

From the archives

Hanukkah recipes are passed down from generation to generation. There are hundreds of recipes floating around on the Internet, but I thought it best to consult a friend with trained taste buds. Here is what Warren Bobrow has to say.–Jonell Galloway, Editor

My Favorite Hanukkah Foods

Of all the holiday foods I look forward to, there are two dishes that clearly connect my stomach to the past. The first is a rousing bowl of matzo ball soup. The other, specifically a Hanukkah dish, is a plate of crispy potato latkes, cooked in a heavy cast iron pan.

Ur-Bubby’s Latkes

I forewarn you. This is a Jewish story, so it is repetitive and sometimes fahklumpt (a confused story, for those who are not in the know), told by a kvetch (a complainer) who secretly loves life and food and words and work, and tells a story full of fond memories.

My great-grandmother Yetta made excellent latkes. During these eight days of Hanukkah (eight chances to get it right . . . to be exact), we celebrate the past by reliving these flavors and the stories that go with them each time we bite into a steaming morsel of grated potato, egg, onion and a bit of vegetable oil, made straight from her recipe.

Generations of cooks have grated potatoes for latkes in celebration of Hanukkah. You will not be the first or the last. And every family has their own special recipe, their own special stories.

Bubby Yetta was particularly interested in not scraping her knuckles. Even so, she used to say that if you don’t catch your knuckle on the potato grater, the latkes couldn’t possibly taste good. Something about the physical act of grating potatoes already connects me to the old days when Bubby made the latkes every evening during Hanukkah.

Onions also resonate in my memory: the tears that ran down her cheeks as she grated the onions were not tears of joy. We heard the same kvetching every year, and carry on as we make our own history.

Every day of Hanukkah, Ur-Bubby Yetta would scrape and grate until the job was done. Much hushed conversation would follow. Were the latkes going to be good? If not, what would we do, there was no place in those days to buy frozen latkes in the supermarket!

And with each potato and onion grated, each tear fallen, each latke fried, another memory was made. Years of latke conversation would follow . . . How about the ones we made twenty years ago? Did potatoes taste differently then, or was it a specific taste that stuck in our memories?

So careful with the grater, and accept that you’ll invariably catch your knuckle at least once, and that you may well have the battle scars to prove that you made them from scratch. And stories to tell.

Recipe

Our Word of Thanksgiving: Thanks to our readers for their loyalty

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, November 22, 2012 Permalink 0

We would above all like to thank our readers for supporting us in our efforts to build a site that joins the voices of people from around the planet who care about cooking, farming, health and everything related in a responsible, ethical manner. We think of our readers as part of our community, a sort of family that cares about the way food is grown, cooked, eaten; the mark it leaves on the planet; the health of our children.

So to all our readers (and contributors) around the globe:

Jonell Galloway, Editor

An Ode to Thanksgiving: A Poem by Mark Manning

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, November 21, 2012 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

While there is an abundance of Christmas songs, both religious and simply festive, there aren’t many Thanksgiving songs to remember, so Mark Manning decided to take a stab at one. It’s a jolly effort!

Randolph the Red-beaked Turkey

by Mark Manning

Randolph the red-beaked turkey
Had a very shiny beak.
And if you ever saw it,
It would be Thanksgiving week.
None of the other turkeys
Ever laughed or called him names.
(That’s just because they’re turkeys —
Turkeys all have tiny brains.)
Then one bright Thanksgiving eve
Th’ farmer came to say,
“Randolph with your beak so bright,
You’ll be on the plate tonight.”
Then all the diners loved him,
And they shouted out with glee,
“Randolph the red-beaked turkey,
You taste great with mom’s gravy!”

Thanksgiving and Christmas Recipes: Cranberry-orange Relish

Published by Jonell Galloway + Sunday, November 18, 2012 Permalink 0

Spontaneous Cuisine, by

From the archives

A healthier, tastier recipe than the traditional cranberry sauce

Cranberry sauce is of course a mainstay of any Thanksgiving dinner. In Switzerland, we eat a lot of game, so it is good to always have some on hand to eat with deer, wild fowl, boar, or whatever the hunters bring in.

This is a variation of the very plain, classic recipe. I’ve been using it for years. It’s easy, quick and a no-brainer. You can make it ahead of time (in fact, it’s better to make it a day or two before Thanksgiving). In addition, it keeps for ages, just like jelly or jam.

Recipe

Cranberry-Orange Relish

Click here for Imperial-metric converter

12 oz/375 g fresh cranberries
1/2 cup light brown sugar (if you like it really sweet, you can double the quantity)

1 tablespoon water

1 large navel orange

1 small sliver of ginger, finely grated (optional), or 1 stick of cinnamon (optional)

1/2 cup shelled walnuts (optional)

Place cranberries in a large saucepan with sugar and water.
Juice the orange and remove any white pith that lingers. Cut peel into small juliennes or zests, carefully removing any pith that is sticking to them. Add zests and juice to cranberry mixture.
Add ginger (optional) or cinnamon stick (optional).
Bring to a boil, then turn down heat, cover and cook until all the berries have popped open. This can take 20 to 30 minutes. Just be patient and keep an eye on them. If liquid evaporates before all the berries burst, add a just enough water to prevent them from sticking. Remove from heat.
Taste and adjust sweetness if necessary.
Pour into bowl you plan to serve it in and let it set. This can take a couple of hours, so it is advisable to make it well ahead of time, even 2 or 3 days. It keeps well in the refrigerator.
When ready to serve, shell and chop walnuts. Add at last minute, right before serving (otherwise, they tend to get soggy).

This recipe was originally published on GenevaLunch.

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What, no pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce at the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in 1621?

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What, no pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce at the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in 1621?

Health Challenge: Luscious Red Cranberries, good for your Health and Good for your Heart

An Ode to Thanksgiving: A Poem by Mark Manning.

What, no pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce at the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in 1621?

Health Challenge: Luscious Red Cranberries, good for your Health and Good for your Heart

An Ode to Thanksgiving: A Poem by Mark Manning

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Carrot Crazy: A Recipe for Pickled Carrots

Published by Diana Zahuranec + Thursday, October 18, 2012 Permalink 0

by Diana Zahuranec

Why did I eat half a pound of carrots before tearing myself away from the refrigerator? It is not a Vitamin A deficiency. Nor was I hungry. It was this magic “pickled” carrot recipe with drugs in the ingredients – just kidding, of course, about that last part. I am not kidding about the magic part.

These carrots aren’t exactly pickled. I suppose they could be if the water-to-vinegar ratio was double-checked for optimum bacteria inhibition, and of course if all canning and preserving steps were followed. But there’s no point in actually canning these if they’re eaten in under a week (ahem, sometimes under 4 days). Anyway, they should keep for 4 weeks refrigerated – provided they last that long.

I first tasted these crunchy, addicting snackies during a University of Gastronomic Sciences potluck dinner. A jar of carrot sticks amidst homemade quince tart, cinnamon sticky bread, cheesy focaccia, and endive leaves filled with oniony salsa – who had time for carrot sticks? But all it took was two or three unsuspecting students to reach into the jar, get hooked, and munch through 2/3 of the supplies before they kindly, reluctantly, let me in on the secret. I tried two, glanced the other way, and the carrots were gone. My friend told me they were simple to make: “Just blanch the carrots and soak them in boiled water with vinegar for a while. And I add some sugar and spices.” How long do you soak them? What spices? How much sugar? I wanted to know. My friend shrugged.

Four months later, I googled “pickled carrots” and then created my own recipe based on a mix of the ones I saw. My friend’s casually imprecise directions are pretty much the whole idea behind making these, because if you’re not pickling them, just loosely follow these instructions with your ingredients at hand or of choice. There’s little reason to actually be precise. Here it is.