Swiss Recipes | Page 4 of 5 | The Rambling Epicure

Switzerland: Cucumber and Tarragon Salad Recipe

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, July 16, 2012 Permalink 0

Switzerland: Cucumber and Tarragon Salad Recipe

Spontaneous Cuisine: A Swiss Recipe

When the days are hot and sultry, few things can be as refreshing as a cold cucumber salad, especially this classic cucumber and tarragon salad. In Switzerland, we make it with sour cream and tarragon, while in France they cook the cucumbers slightly and then add crème fraîche and chives.

This salad goes perfectly with a grilled chicken breast or any white fish. It also goes perfectly with smoked or natural salmon, in which case you might want to replace the tarragon with fresh dill or dill seeds.

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Spontaneous Cuisine: Lacquered Pork Tenderloin, Roast Potatoes, Ramp/Ramson Recipe

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Permalink 0

Wild Garlic Leaves or ramson, Spontaneous Cuisine, Jonell Galloway, The Rambling Epicure

From the archives

Lacquered Pork Tenderloin, Roast Potatoes & Ramson Recipe

by Jonell Galloway

Ramson and wild garlic leaves, as we call them in Switzerland, are in season, so now is the perfect time to make this recipe. The season doesn’t last long, so don’t tarry. If you don’t have ramson, or Allium ursinum, in your area, try ramps or Allium tricoccum, which will produce a similar taste.

The sweetness of the lacquer and the tart acidity of the ramps give this recipe a lovely balance of opposing flavors. The roast potatoes serve as a neutral taste that makes the contrasts less shocking.

Spontaneous Cuisine: Lacquered Pork Tenderloin, Roast potatoes & Ramps Recipe

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Geneva, Switzerland: How to find food producers near you

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Permalink 0

The agricultural promotion office for the canton of Geneva (OPAGE) lets you fill out this , telling them what you want, where, the producer’s or company’s name, etc. so you can find just about any local agricultural product you want. It makes it so easy!

Spontaneous Cuisine: Parsnip Velouté with Aged Mimolette Cheese

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, December 15, 2011 Permalink 0

Itsy Bitsy History of the Parsnip

In the Middle Ages, Geneva was running over with parsnips, which they referred to as “white carrots”. It was almost always included in their “eternal pots” of soup, which consisted of seasonal vegetables that they just kept adding more vegetables to as needed, and a piece of meat once a week.

After World War II, many root vegetables went out of fashion in Europe, because people had had to survive on them and nothing else during the war, so farmers eventually stopped growing them. The same went for pumpkin. People in the north of France who had lived through the war and eaten pumpkin every day couldn’t bear the thought of eating pumpkin ever again.

In recent years, these old-fashioned vegetables, including parsnips, have again become available, and chefs are going crazy with new ideas on how to use them.

Parsnips are plentiful at the moment and there’s nothing better than soup to warm you up on a cold winter’s day. Eric Burkel, former financial analyst, entrepreneur and now president of his local food coop in Paris, got this recipe from one of the farmers who supplies vegetables to the coop.

Parsnip soup recipe

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

The Many Faces of Swiss Fondue and Chasselas wine

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, October 14, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

The word “fondue” means literally “melted” in French. In Switzerland, fondue is made by melting cheese with white wine, pepper, garlic and kirsch (cherry schnapps).

Photo courtesy of Fribourg Tourist Bureau.

Different regions use different cheeses and have different recipes however. In the canton of Valais, no starch, butter, or eggs are added, while in many other regions they are used for thickening. Today, many people use corn starch.

Fribourg fondue is different from other cantons in that it uses Fribourg Vacherin cheese. Both Gruyère and Fribourg make what is referred to as “half and half”, meaning they use half Gruyère and half Fribourg Vacherin cheese.In central Switzerland, it is common to use Gruyère, Emmental and Sbrinz, a hard cheese from central Switzerland that is claimed to be the oldest cheese in Europe.

What is Mindful Eating?

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, October 5, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Mindful Eating : Get serious about what you put in your mouth!

Mindful Eating means getting serious about what you put in your mouth.

Mindful Eating is sensual — in this case visual — as well as cerebral.

You don’t have to think with your taste buds every minute of your life, like I do, but eating takes on a new importance in your life, and is no longer just an essential action required to fuel your body.

Mindful Eating starts by being mindful of every aspect of our food chain, from the very soil to the end product we put in our mouths. It is about taste and smell and nutrition, but also about respect for the land and soil that provide our nourishment.

It is about the seeds we plant, the fertilizer we spread.

It is about the human contact between a producer and a buyer and the bond that is formed when he puts the vegetables he has grown with tender loving care and the sweat of his brow into your hand. It is about leaving the land in a condition that will allow our children to live on in a healthy manner.

Mindful Eating is not only about how the steak tastes, but also about what the cow has eaten, where it comes from, how it has been treated.

It is about cooking real homemade food for our family in a spirit of love and awareness, and making sure they are getting the nutrients they need and about avoiding the toxic ingredients so many foods contain.

Photo courtesy of Odette de Crecy.

It is about reading labels in supermarkets, about trying to eat natural, if we can, or at least making the best effort we can to put quality products on the table.

Mindful Eating requires us to look at the food we eat, smell it, chew it slowly and appreciate its texture and flavor, and then pause and enjoy the aftertaste.

Mindful Eating is somewhat a way of life, although we mustn’t become obsessive about it. Almost by definition, it moves toward consumption of local products, and thus re-creation of local economies.

It is a way of communing with our environment – our family, our community, local business, producers, nature – and the satisfaction that is derived from this.

Mindful Eating gives concrete, practical results. It can improve our health and help us lose weight; it can help us lower cholesterol and consume more nutritious food.

It can give us a sense of well-being, because we have the feeling we’re doing what is right not only for ourselves and our family, but also for our community and the world.

Photo courtesy of Nikoman.

It can cut down our food budget, since seasonal products bought directly from local farmers will invariably be cheaper. They will also fresher and have more vitamins.

This is Part One of a series of articles exploring the endless possibilities incorporating this approach into our daily lives. Stay tuned for the following segments:

Part Two: Mindful Eating and Farmers

Part Three: Mindful Eating and Health

Part Four: Mindful Eating and the Local Economy

Part Five: Mindful Eating and the Land

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Alessandro Guerani is a food and still life photographer in Bologna, Italy. He also has a food photography blog with beautiful food photos, Food-o-Grafia. The pomegranate photo is from his Baroque Food photo album.

Switzerland: Rosa’s Musings: Butterzopf, The History Of A National Sunday Bread

Published by Jonell Galloway + Saturday, October 1, 2011 Permalink 0

by Rosa Mayland

Switzerland (also known as “Confoederatio Helvetica” or “die Schweiz”, “la Suisse”, “Svizzera”, “Svizra”) is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons and 4 different linguistic and cultural areas (German, French, Italian and Romansch). It’s therefore not surprising if its cuisine reflects its rich heritage and highly diverse cultures. It is rather like an island in the middle of Europe, like a tiny kingdom.

Each region and canton has its very own traditional dishes and specialties as well as produce, and they defend and even protect it fiercely, because there are dishes, cheeses, wines, breads, and many more food items that are now protected by AOCs in Switzerland.

Even if this tiny piece of land stuck between Germany, Austria, France, Italy has its own highly diverse culinary identity, one cannot refute that each part of the Swiss Confederation has, to a certain extent, been influenced by its neighbors, and vice versa. For example, a sausage resembling the anise-flavored Geneva sausage called Longeole can also be found in Chablais (Haute-Savoie); a cheese similar to Valais raclette is made in Savoie too; the Swiss German spätzli seem to be of Swabian (German) origin. Then there is polenta or risotto which evoke the Apennine Penninsula, and are often found in Ticino, and, well, the list goes on. As it is the case with every place that is not in total isolation, the borders are quite permeable, so it is pretty understandable that ideas, information, arts and science cross back and forth across the borders.

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…

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.