Happy Birthday to me

= carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for the other interns at work!

Recipe to follow as soon as I find the time to type it up.

Update:
Here goes! I found the cupcake recipe eons ago on recipezaar and the cream cheese frosting was found on the truly wonderful Joy the Baker blog.

I scaled down both recipe to more "European" portions. Can I pose the question to the Americans; What do you guys do with the additional twelve cupcakes all the time? :-)

These quantities are for twelve deliciously rich cupcakes. They were a big hit at work and gave us all a sugar rush.

Maple Carrot Cupcakes:
120 gr. flour
110 gr. sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (Natron)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
120 ml vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
60 ml maple sirup
3 medium sized carrots grated

Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a second bowl mix the eggs, the oil and the maple sirup together. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones until just combined. Then fold in the grated carrots.
Line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill them with the batter until about two thirds full. A very easy way to get equal size portions is to use an ice cream scoop to do this!
If you don't want to frost the cupcakes later on, you can sprinkle them with a cinnamon sugar mixture at this stage.
Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until an inserted tooth pick comes out clean.
Leave to cool before frosting.

For the frosting:
170 gr. butter
110 gr. cream cheese
55 gr. light brown sugar
half a teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
250-500 gr powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk

Make sure your ingredients are room temperature. Start by beating the cream cheese for about a minute. Add the butter and beat 1 to two minutes until well combined. Add the brown sugar, salt and vanilla extract until well combined.
Turn off your mixer and add 250 gr of powdered sugar to the bowl. Start your mixer on a low speed setting. Beat until well combined and repeat the process of adding a little more sugar until the frosting is of the desired consistency. Add milk to thin it out if necessary.
Pipe or smear it onto your cold cupcakes.

For Thea...

Just returned from a weekend in the gorgeous Engiadina mountains with the whole family. Had a wonderful time, even though I felt like sleeping for most of it. ;-)
One of the fabulous things we did was exchanging birthday gifts due for dates past, present and future. I was once again at loss what I could give my sister. She's a tricky one...
But a hint made me go out and buy this kind of contraption for her:

For all of you wondering what the hell this torture instrument is; It's a Spätzli Reibe!

Spätzli are big news with my family. They are a form of egg dumplings that are part of the traditional venison meal (with for example Brusselsprouts and stewed red cabbage) in autumn here in Switzerland. But they can also be served as a pasta variation the rest of the year.

So all that my sister needs to make authentic Swiss Spätzli in here London apartment is my mothers recipe. Without further ado:
For 4 as a main course (halve if you plan to serve it as a side dish in a larger menu)

Ingredients:
•400 gr of flour
•2 Tbsp semolina flour
•2 Tsp salt
•4 eggs
•3 dl of water

Mix all of the ingredients until well combined. Leave the batter to rest until bubbles start to appear on the surface.

Cooking method:
Boil a pan of water and salt it as you would for cooking pasta.
Prepare the dish, which you want to serve the Spätzli in and put in a pat of butter. This will prevent the Spätzli from sticking together.

Mount the Spätzli Reibe on the pan and pass through a portion of the batter. Remove the Reibe, let the water come back to the boil and let the Spätzli cook for about two minutes. They will go slightly puffy. Remove them with a slotted spoon, let the water drain off and place them into the serving dish with the butter.
Repeat until the batter is used up completely. Maybe add another couple pats of butter during the process.

PS: Photo to follow, as soon as Thea sends me one. ;-) She has a much fancier camera anyway.

No cooking doesn't mean no eating...

A slice of toasted "Zopf"
A hint of cold butter and mustard
A handful of delicate arugula leaves, picked ten minutes ago from the pot and left to crisp up in cold water
A couple of slices of prosciutto di Parma
Some shavings of parmigiano reggiano

Sometimes it can be that simple...

Linguine Salsa Nesa

This is a recipe I came up with about three years ago. A product of profound hunger, wanting something that packs a punch(flavor-wise) and a prolonged look into the storage cupboard. It's been my favorite pasta sauce ever since.

It's easy to make, quick, and has lots of flavor. And a well stocked pantry will have most of the necessary ingredients.
It's good with all kinds of hard wheat pasta. Linguine has really become a favorite lately.

Ingredients per person:
one splash of olive oil
one clove of garlic, sliced
chili to taste, finely chopped of fresh &crumbled if dry
one to two anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
one handful of de-stoned black olives, sliced or chopped
a handful of cherry tomatoes or one big plum tomato, roughly chopped

Heat a pan of water for your pasta. You can do prep work while it heats up, but in this case you actually have to be boiling the pasta to be able to prepare the sauce...

Drop the pasta into the salted boiling water. Then:
In a large enough frying pan pour in some olive oil, add the garlic and turn on the heat. Wait until you hear it sizzling and the garlic turns just the lightest shade of brown, then add the chili and the anchovy. Stir it a couple of times while frying for about a minute. Add the olives.

When it gets too hot take a table- or serving spoon and add a dash of the pasta cooking water. This will do three things; cool down the contents of the pan, add salt to the finished sauce and the starch in it will help bind the finished product.

Two to three minutes before the pasta is al dente, add your chopped tomatoes. They shouldn't completely disintegrate, but wilt and loose their form a bit.
Continue adding pasta water if it gets too dry.

When the pasta is just almost done(erring on the underdone side), save one cup of the water and drain the rest. Add the pasta into the frying pan with the sauce and stir. Mix well (the pasta will dry up a bit in the heat) and maybe add another splash of the reserved water if too dry.

As with all cooked pasta: Serve this spicy, salty dish immediately.

Link of the day

This sounds so good:
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/case-study-its-michelada-time/?ref=dining

Switzerland is going to have another week with temperatures reaching the 30s...

Mexican sweetcorn salad

I found this dish on the pages of Jamie Olivers magazine, which I always buy when I am in the UK as it is so exorbitantly more expensive here in Switzerland. (So are all the other English mags, but that is a rant for another day.)

It had one section with Mexican food which I found a pleasant surprise. I am not really a big fan of Mexican cooking. I have to admit that this impression comes from a limited number of experiences. I think I've just never been to a restaurant that specializes in the freshness aspect as opposed to the too much cheese and a couple of mildly spicy jalapenos. So these recipes were definitely an eye opener.

The one I was most intrigued by was this spicy sweetcorn salad. The flavours are well balanced and I loved using fresh corn from the cob.

Made for two people:
a tsp of olive oil
small knob of butter
one green chili (mine are hotter than hell, taste yours and see of you need more), finely chopped
one small shallot, finely chopped
two cobs of corn, kernels cut off
4 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
one clove of garlic, finely chopped
juice of one lime
a small bunch of coriander, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped

Heat a pan with the oil and butter. When in sizzling add the chili and cook for a minute. Add the corn, shallot and thyme. Sauté over high heat (you don't want it to steam) until the corn turns slightly brown and the shallot translucent. This should take about five minutes. Add your garlic, salt and pepper and cook another couple of minutes.
Take it off the heat and add the lime juice, spring onions and coriander.

You could serve it with sour cream and grated Parmesan. Haven't tried that yet.

White peach, strawberry and mint bowle

When the temperatures outside are high and a lot of people are expected, it's very convenient to be able to make a large quantity of drinks in a very small amount of time. Preferably the concoction should taste nice as well.

This is something I threw together for a BBQ evening with friends. I liked the results so much, it was repeated the following evening.



ingredients:
3 white peaches, peeled and chopped
one small punnet of strawberries, hulled and chopped
three sprigs of mint, leaves picked and slightly crushed
3/4 cup of vanilla vodka
3/4 cup of white rum
3 table spoons of brown sugar
half a bottle of white wine
1 liter of mineral water

Mix the chopped fruit with the mint, sugar and the spirits in a large bowl. Let it stand for about an hour so the sugar can dissolve and the fruit release some of there juices.
Add the wine and the mineral water. Serve ladling into drinking glasses like punch.



Since I don't take careful notes when experimenting the measures here are approximate. Feel free to adjust to your taste. I used a homemade vanilla vodka (three split vanilla pods go into a bottle, then wait for three weeks and shake it once in a while), since I thought it would go nicely with the strawberries. You could substitute both spirits with dark rum.