Perfect Pizza

Even as a kid I was (ever so slightly) obsessed with food.
Case in point: For my thirteenth birthday I wanted a pizza stone.
This was the product of having spent a night at my godfather's house and witnessing the wonder of thin, crisp and delicious pizzas that his wife produced in their own oven.

Not that it became a regular fixture after that. It was banished to the basement and spent many lonely years there...

But it was rediscovered during my recent move and has spent the last couple of months on a very visible shelf in my new kitchen whispering to me...

Yesterday, for no apparent reason whatsoever, I decided the time had come to give it another go. I have to add here that it was one of the hottest days of the year so far and I am still experiencing hot flashes even though the temperature has gone down ten degrees and an epic storm is looming.

But anyways, I would definitely rate the spontaneous experiment a success! It was the cheat's version I have to admit though... bought dough and no prepared tomato sauce to speak of... That's the beauty of cooking for yourself: No one you have to impress!

Ingredients:
1 packet pizza dough
1 mozzarella, grated
a couple of tomatoes, thinly sliced, maybe even de-seeded
a pinch of oregano
your favorite pizza toppings

The stone needs to preheat in the oven for about 25 minutes set to maximum heat. After that you're good to go. Roll out the pastry, top it however you want and put it onto the stone with your pizzaiolo shovel. It should be ready in 8-10 minutes.
This example has anchovies and a little bit of fresh basil after it comes out of the oven...


This was the beautiful result.

And one slice even aced the cold-pizza test today. Win!

Beef stew with couscous and a fresh pea salad

What do you serve hungry guests whom you would prefer to spend time with rather than slave away in the kitchen?

I really like the option of stewed meat. It is a dish where the main chunk of the actual work can be done hours before and the results are delicious and tender.
For this meal I wanted to use northern African flavors. I served it with couscous (also done in five minutes) and a pea and feta salad, which was really simple to make.

Ingredients:
ca. 900 gr. beef ragout
ca. 4 tablespoons flour
seasonings
Vegetable oil of choice
3 onions, roughly chopped
1 lemon, just the peel, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
1 1/5 teaspoons cumin powder
2 teaspoons turmeric
3 plum tomatoes, diced
olives, roughly a handful
2 bay leaves
water
to serve:
toasted sesame seeds
fresh coriander

1. Season the flower with salt and pepper in a bowl. Then toss the chunks of beef in it to cover. Preheat your oven to 150°.
2. In a pan that is oven proof heat some oil (I seem to use groundnut oil for all frying around here) to medium to high heat and fry off the beef until brown. If your pan is not big enough, do this in batches. Take the meat out and put it aside.
3. Turn down the heat to medium and add more oil if necessary. Add the chopped onions and the spices. Let the mixture fry until the onions are slightly softened.
4. Add the beef, the tomatoes, the olives, the bay leaves and enough water to cover. Let it come to the boil, put the lid on it and move the pan into the oven for about 1,5 hours.
5. Before serving, take out and check if the sauce has the desired consistency (if too dry add a little water, if too watery cook on the stove top without the lid) and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Maybe add a bit of lemon juice. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and coriander immediately before serving or let the guests do this themselves...


The pea salad went well with this because it added freshness and a bit of zing. Here's how I made it:
Boil a pot of water and add some frozen peas (you'll only leave them in for ca. 4 minutes). Into the serving bowl, grate 1-2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced chili to taste a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, lemon juice and chop 2-3 sprigs of mint. Drain the peas when they've come up to temperature, add them to the dressing and mix. Crumble over some feta and you're done. You don't need salt or pepper in this combination because of the feta, chili and garlic. Favorite new salad!

Five Spice Chicken

I love having a wide selection of spices at home... you never know what you want to cook for dinner.
In my opinion the best place to buy these, is a local Asian store of choice. Yes, the presentation may not be as neat as you're used to. But you will find that you are able to get two or three times the amount of the desired product for the same price. (At least this is true for Switzerland.)

If you are put off by the packaging, which in most cases will be little plastic bags, why not make the (modest) investment of buying smallish jam jars or something of the sort. They look good, you can easily see what spices are in them and you will be able to use them for years.

The traditional Chinese five spice powder combines cinnamon, Szechuan pepper, star anise, cloves and fennel seeds. Three of these are most often used in Western cooking for sweet concoctions around Christmas. But I was curious to experiment with it.

This dish came together after a short research on the internet.

Chinese five spice chicken for one

1 Tsp of five spice powder
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 piece of ginger (the size of your thumb), finely chopped
some finely chopped chili to taste
1 Tbsp or to taste of soy sauce
1/2 Tsp brown sugar
1 Tsp red wine vinegar
some olive oil
1 leg of chicken

1. Mix all of the ingredients from the five spice powder to the vinegar. Then add enough olive oil for it to form a loose paste, sort of like pesto. You should be able to spread it onto the chicken easily but it's not supposed to be too runny either.
2. Put it onto you chicken and let it marinate for at least twenty minutes.
3. Preheat your oven to 180-200° and roast your chicken for about an hour. I like to turn it over half way.

This was really serves simply with some plain rice and a good squeeze of lime juice.

Gyros with greek salad

This is a recipe that is unbelievably easy and low maintenance to make. With a few choice ingredients the marinade is assembled in minutes and after that its just a question of waiting long enough and frying it up quickly. I have adapted it from this (German) source.

Make it the night before and it will be even more worth the effort!

This marinade will suit beef, pork or chicken. As it is only cooked for a very short time it is worth it to invest in a more tender piece of meat...

For three people:
3 Tsp mild paprika
2 Tsp oregano
2 Tsp thyme
1/2 Tsp ground cumin
2 cloves of garlic, pressed or grated
ca. 2 Tsp mustard
salt to taste
a good squeeze of lemon juice
olive oil
500 gr. chopped beef
2 onions, sliced

1. Mix the ingredients for the marinade. Add olive oil bit by bit until the marinade is loose enough to coat the meat. A couple of tablespoons should do it.
2. Add the beef and onion slices making sure everything is well coated.
3. Cover with cling film and wait. :-)
Generally the longer the better. But I would say that half an hour should be the minimum. If you remember, stir everything a couple of times.
4. Heat a frying pan to high heat and fry the meat up in batches. In my experience the oil in the marinade and a nonstick frying pan will do just fine without any extra oil... but suit yourself.
5. Serve with a simple salad of cucumber, tomatoes, black olives and feta cheese.


I can imagine that this would be a good thing to serve up for a crowd with pita breads and extra salad, so that everyone could make their own flatbreads...

Best way to feel at home in a new place?

Move in the cookbooks!

Fresh Winter Salad

Hello everyone!

Please excuse my prolonged absence! A challenging new job and an apartment hunt in a city that is notoriously difficult does take its toll... But things are looking up, so let's get back to business!

This delicious salad I just made is a fusion of the wonderful and unanticipated combination of oranges & raw beets (with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt) and the citrus & green olive salads that seem to be quite the rage these days (check out Mark Bittmans version on the New York Times homepage).

Inspiration struck today (three oranges lying around from making orange vodka like here) and I tried this version:

(ingredients for a light dinner for two)
three oranges
one raw beet (red ones make for a stunning color combination)
a handful of green olives (de-stoned for convenience)
one small red onion
good olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Start by cutting the peel off the oranges and slicing them, about half a centimeter thick. Spread them on a large enough serving platter.
2. Peel and slice the beet as finely as possible. Supposedly a little olive oil on your hands prevents them from taking on too much color...) Spread them over the oranges.
3. Chop your olives roughly. I cut mine lengthwise into slivers. Sprinkle over your oranges and beets.
4. Peel and slice your onion into half moons and spread over the platter.
5. Drizzle over your olive oil and add seasoning to taste.


The combination of the juicy fruit with the crunch, the sharpness and the saltiness is unbelievably good. I know it may be a bit late to try to get people to go for a winter salad, but if you try this one you will be looking for these ingredients long after the first local strawberries are being sold... Don't take my word for it. Try this one out for yourself!

Quick hello in the New Year!

Sorry for the long silence!
I have been cooking, but lacking the time, inclination and equipment to document it for the blog.... This will change as soon as my present living circumstance has resolved itself.

Project of this weekend:



Making a cover for my amazonkindle. (Nothing to do with cooking, I know. But it's definitely gotten me to read more again!)

And I am absolutely dying to try this recipe:
www.alexrushmer.com

What have you been up to?