Julia's Chicken Wings

Visits are always a special occasion... Especially if a sister is coming to stay!

When I asked Julia what she felt like having for dinner, she messaged back "chicken wings".
Apparently this was a hint for us just to go to McDonalds.... Next time: Spell it out hon!

I went into chicken wing research overdrive and muddled up this version, which turned out quite tasty indeed.

Ingredients:
Ca. 12 chicken wings
3 tblsp garlic olive oil
1 tblsp maple sirup
1 small lemon, juiced
chili to taste, finely chopped
2 cm piece of fresh ginger, shredded
1 tbsp soy sauce
salt to taste

1. Mix all of the ingredients for the marinade together. Mix in the wings and make sure they are evenly coated. Let them stand for at least 15 minutes.
2. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Prepare a baking sheet or a not too deep baking tray by lining it with aluminum foil (this will make the clean up ever so much easier). Spread out the wings in one layer and roast in the oven for 40 minutes.
3. Take them out of the oven and transfer to a serving platter with tongs (the foil might stick slightly). Enjoy!

Happy 720th CH!

Today is my country's 720th birthday. I remember this day in years gone by, spent outside overlooking the lago di lugano. Eating meats and sausages from the barbeque for dinner and impatiently waiting for the darkness and the fireworks it contained. I can't recall a First of August with rain.

Today's recipe is semi-patriotic. It's two main components are red and white in color. It is a simple dish that can be assembled very quickly... Just in case you still need a side for tonight's celebrations...

Couscous salad with tomatoes and feta cheese

ingredients for two portions

8 cherry tomatoes, cut into eighths
ca. 70 gr. feta, cut to your liking
1/2 cup of couscous
fresh herbs, to your liking (I went with two sprigs of mint, three basil tops and one long green spring onion leaf), roughly chopped
olive oil
vinegar or lemon juice
seasonings

1. Cook the couscous in a small bowl by sprinkling with a pinch of salt and adding an equal amount of boiling water (1/2 cup). Cover it with cling film and leave aside for ca. five minutes while assembling the rest of the ingredients.
2. Combine the tomatoes and the feta in your salad bowl and drizzle with oil and vinegar (roughly a 3 to 1 ratio). Add salt and pepper and mix well. Add the roughly chopped herbs on top.
3. By now your couscous will have steamed. Loosen it up with a fork before adding it to the other ingredients and tossing the salad a final time. Season to taste.

Spicy Bacon and Cucumber Salad

I found this recipe online, which suited my need to clear some space in the fridge very well. It's the perfect summer dinner, when a cold salad just won't do...

I had half a cucumber left over, so I added two baby bok choi (roughly chopped stems in with the cucumber and the leaves only in the last minute). I liked the Szechuan pepper, although I might grind it up next time. I just added the chili I have growing on the balcony, to taste. With these kinds of recipes it is pretty easy to play around with substitutions (different chilies for heat, vinegars for acidity, etc.), so just use what you have on hand.

All in all a very tasty and easy dish to prepare, which I will surely do again.

Apricot and blueberry pie with honey and sweet vermouth

This little number came to be because I had a total of five apricots at home which were going sort of soft... Meh. (Major apricot binge these last two weeks or so.)
In the grocery store I walked past the dough section and picked up on of those pre-rolled puff pastry pie shells, thinking I could turn it into something... And it did turn out very nicely indeed.

Many people like to sprinkle the bottom of the pastry with ground almonds or hazelnuts. Not only does this add taste but it also helps to soak up the fruit juices and keep the pastry from going soggy. Since I try to avoid nuts, I have substituted this with either Kellogg's Special K (bashed to powder with my pestle and mortar) and as I didn't have any of it on hand today, with a rye crisp bread.


I used blueberries here because the five apricots didn't quite fill out the pie and I had the berries on hand. So I just used enough to fill the gaps. They look stunning in combination with the apricots and their flavor doesn't really detract from them either.

For the sirup on top I wanted to go with lemon juice and sugar at first. But apricots are always associated with honey (don't know why) and I remembered the big bottle of sweet vermouth in the cupboard (I had bought it thinking it was the dry variety...). I was surprised how well the herb-y, woody notes of the wine complimented the apricots. I will be using this combination again for sure.



1 puff pastry pie shell
1 slice rye crisp bread, use pestle&mortar or a plastic bag and a rolling pin to crush it into powder
a little sugar, if the fruit needs it
5 apricots, de-stoned and quartered
a handful of blueberries
1/4 cup sweet vermouth
1 teaspoon honey

Preheat your oven to 200°C.
Sprinkle the rye powder over your pie shell evenly. Add a little sugar if you want to.
Distribute your apricots evenly and then the berries into the crevices. Combine the vermouth and the honey. Heat and let it boil for a couple of minutes. Then pour the sirup over the whole pie.
Bake for ca. 25 minutes or until the bottom has crisped.

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.