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Switzerland: Watermelon and Fennel Salad Recipe

Published by Jenn Oliver + Thursday, September 8, 2011 Permalink 0

Switzerland: Watermelon and Fennel Salad Recipe

by Jenn Oliver

Until recently, I didn’t know anyone did anything with a watermelon besides just cut it up and eat it. I mean, it’s already completely sweet, juicy, the pure essence of summer. Why mess with the perfection embodied in this pink fruit? The mere sight of a ripe watermelon evokes memories of childhoods past. For me, it evokes images of weeks at girl scout camp, running around outside, carefree, swimming in the lake, making new friends, riding horses…you get the idea.

But why not play, and see just where the flavor of this fruit can go? Have you ever thought about the flavors of this king of summertime snacks and how they would meld with other foods? I certainly hadn’t until Meeta challenged us Plate to Page alumni to photograph watermelon as a fun photography assignment — two photos — one raw, and one in a dish. Yes, a dish. Who puts watermelon in things? Ha, maybe it was time to change my perspective and open my eyes to other possibilities.

Perspective is a funny thing. Sometimes our first impressions have such a profound effect on us that we forget to look for other possibilities right in front of our noses. I think that’s why I like to go for walks and hikes, because all that time away from everything gives my mind space to think and breathe. And sometimes, I even get to get lost and freak out after sitting at a train station for 30 minutes until I figure out that the train only passes through on weekdays…

Daily Food Quote, September 1, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, September 2, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.–Mark Twain

Mark Twain was an American author and the favorite of many. His novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, amusingly recounted many of the adventures being based on real occurrences he had either experienced personally or had witnessed.

Food News Daily: September 1, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, September 1, 2011 Permalink 0

Mainstream Anglo Media and Press

Gordon Ramsay’s Australian Nightmare, The Wall Street Journal

‘The Art of Eating’ from Flemish painters to Ferran Adrià, Phaidon Press

The Art of Picking the Perfect Meal for Beer, The Wall Street Journal

Cargill sees cocoa demand up 1 mln tons by 2020, Market Watch

Food is the ultimate security need, new map shows, The Guardian

How Many Calories Do You Need to Eat Per Day?, The Atlantic

Think outside the box: Top cooks reveal how to perk up your children’s packed lunches, The Independent

Nine Tips for Digging Through Local Farmers Markets, Dallas Observer

Best of the Anglo Food and Travel Blogs and Sites

Praising farm wives: The spirit can exist in anyone, Culinate

A Cardiac Surgeon on the Glory of Saturated Fat, They’re Good for You, The LRC Blog

Plums – Food of the Month, Health Castle

Alternative Press/Sites

Potatoes reduce blood pressure in people with obesity and high blood pressure, Eurek Alert

A Classy Model-Egg Chicken Coop (Coupe) (shaped like a Model A),

How the Soaring Price of Bread Will Shake the World Economy, AlterNet

World

The Famous Anzac Biscuit, Honest Cooking

Red Velvet Crêpes, duhlicious

Melon au citron vert, Ma p’tite cuisine by Audrey

$1 Million Of (Mollydooker) Wine Destroyed In Forklift, Accident, Technorati

Food Photography

Coffee bean owl, Image Shack

The Evolution of Coke, Pete

Food News Daily: August 30, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, August 30, 2011 Permalink 0

Mainstream Anglo Media and Press

Baked Trout With Arugula and Blueberries, Washington Post

Here’s Eating Lunch With You, Kid, New York Times

Cheers! It’s a real ale renaissance: Despite pub closures and a dwindling lager market, record number of microbreweries are opening, The Guardian

10 Best English Cheeses, The Independent

French Food Quote: Daily Food Quote, August 29, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 29, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Wheat can only be packed away in the granary after being threshed, which is necessary to separate it from the chaff. And so it is that my soul cannot enter into Paradise without the martyr’s palm leaf, from which the butchers so violently ripped my body.–Jacques de Voragine, bishop of Genoa, when speaking of the martyrdom of St. Agatha

Le froment ne peut être serré au grenier qu’après avoir été fortement battu pour être séparé de sa balle ; de même mon âme ne peut entrer au paradis avec la palme du martyre que mon corps n’ait été déchiré avec violence par les bourreaux.–Jacues de Voragine, évêque de Gênes, en parlant du martyre de sainte Agathe

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, August 26, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, August 26, 2011 Permalink 0

by Simon de Swaan

What is a man, when you come to think upon him, but a minutely set, ingenious machine for turning, with infinite artfulness, the red wine of Shiraz into urine?–Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, 1943

Karen Blixen was a Danish writer who wrote under the pseudo name Isak Dinesen. She was married to her Swedish second cousin, the Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke. She is best known for her book Out of Africa about her time living on her coffee plantation in the hills of Kenya, and for her short story “Babette’s Feast,” both of which were adapted into Academy Award-winning films.

Switzerland: Filet of Perch with Parsley/chive Sauce Recipe

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, August 25, 2011 Permalink 1

Filet de perche / perch filet, Switzerland, Swiss food and cuisine, recipe

Spontaneous Cuisine, by Jonell Galloway

Traditional dish in Lake Geneva region: filet of perch with parsley, chives and butter: a recipe with a twist

Recipe

Ingredients

1 kg / 2.2 lbs of filet of perch

1.2 dl / 1/2 cup of white wine

125 g / 1 stick butter

1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons of strong mustard

2 egg yolks

Parsley, 1 large bunch

Chives, 1 large bunch

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 220°C / 425°F.
Butter a baking dish that can also be used on stovetop. Add wine and garlic.
Arrange filets in a baking dish. Salt and pepper.
Bake for about 8 minutes or until fish is cooked but still firm. Carefully remove fish and set it aside.
Use cooking juices in baking dish to make sauce. Add butter, mustard and egg yolk.
Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly with a wire whip. Add parsley. Warning: If you turn the heat too high and quite stirring, you will end up with scrambled eggs instead of sauce!
Arrange perch on serving plates, preferably warm. Pour sauce over fish and serve immediately.

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French Food Quote: Daily Food Quote, August 22, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 22, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Thus it is Gastronomy, to tell the truth, which motivates the farmers, fineyardists, fishermen, hunters, and the great family of cooks, no matter under what names or qualifications they may disguise their part in the preparation of foods.–Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)
The Physiology of Taste (1825)

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, August 22, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 22, 2011 Permalink 0

Those who have a profound indifference to the pleasures of the table are generally gloomy, charmless and unamiable.–Lucien Tendret

Lucien Tendret (1825-1896) was a French lawyer and gastronome, and great nephew of Brillat-Savarin.

French Food Quote: Daily Food Quote, August 15, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 15, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Nouvelle cuisine was so specifically French that it was, and still is, misunderstood in the rest of the world. You have to be dominated by Escoffier before rejecting him becomes meaningful.–Mark Kurlansky, Choice Cuts (2002)

Mark Kurlansky’s Choice Cuts features more than 200 essays on what great thinkers, writers, musicians and sometimes even foodies thought about food in all its forms throughout time. It is essential to any cookbook collection and serves as an amusing read at any time of the day.