Something kinda moroccan...

This dish was inspired by my recent discovery of the Jamie Does... series on youtube. (Don't think they've run on television yet and when they will, it will probably be in a horrible german synchronized form.)
The first episode I watched was Marrakesh... What can I say, it's always cool to see how other people react to places you have already been to.
On another note I've just watched the Stockholm episode and oh my. Never before was I remotely interested, but now I really want to visit the place!

But back to North Africa. This dish is something quite exotic but strangely enough all of the flavors and spices used have a permanent position in our pantry (Thanks to a large stash of Indian spices). So the only thing that had to be bought were the chicken legs.
This recipe might strike you as somewhat overloaded and confused. That is certainly what I expected. But the result was absolutely delicious, fresh and well balanced. Give it a try and tell me of your results.

Chicken with Lemon and Olives

6 chicken legs, skin removed (trick: use a piece of kitchen paper to pull it off)
one heaped teaspoon of coriander powder
one heaped teaspoon of ginger powder
one leveled teaspoon of cumin powder
olive oil
salt and pepper
three small white onions, roughly chopped
three small cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
one organic lemon, zest removed with a vegetable peeler and chopped, juice of half
big handful of olives
250 ml warm chicken stock
good pinch of saffron powder
a small bunch of flat leafed parsley, roughly chopped

1. Marinate the chicken legs with the three spices (maybe easier to mix them beforehand?), some olive oil, salt and pepper. Do this at least an hour before you want to start cooking (Jamie does it the night before).
2. When you warm up/make your stock add the saffron and let it infuse. Chop, peel and juice the rest of your ingredients (except the parsley).
3. In a large pot heat up some olive oil. Brown your marinated chicken. When it has gotten some color on both sides, add the onion and garlic. Let these soften and maybe even color lightly.
4. Add the lemon zest and juice, the olives and the infused stock. Let it come to the boil, then cover it with a lid and let it cook over a low heat for at least an hour.
5. Sprinkle over your parsley and serve with a big bowl of couscous.


Enjoy!

'Tis the season to be jolly...

Christmas is fast approaching. I know it's just the beginning of November, but the decorations are being put up in cities and the tree lighting ceremonies have already begun. (True story. Saw it on the news yesterday.)

I don't know how you guys celebrate the season. In my case it's some intense family time. Being as we are almost globally spread out, we have to make up for the fact that we can't just pop over to see each other during the rest of the year.
We have card games deep into the night. Fortunes are won and lost, as is honor. Good times.
What also become just as much a tradition is drinks before dinner.

A couple of years ago I discovered how easy it is to make your own flavored vodka. (I use vodka because it is relatively neutral in taste, but I guess you could use whatever you prefer.)
Christmas with all the evocative spices and tastes that go with it, is an especially fun time to play around with this. Plus you will have more people to enjoy the finished product with.

The preparation couldn't be simpler. In general you add your flavors to the bottle of booze then wait for three weeks while shaking the bottle a couple of times a week.

The fun part is creating your own blend of flavors. Just remember that the drier your aromatics the better. Spices are brilliant as are citrus peels. The problem with things that contain higher levels of moisture is that will at some point go bad.
Two years ago I made this orange and cranberry vodka that was absolutely beautiful.

(Sorry for the blurry picture.) I cooked a handful of cranberries with sugar before putting them in the liquor. The cranberries add color but the aroma came from the orange peel. At some point the cranberries were off and a weird gray/black color. (Note to self: It might work with roughly chopped dried cranberries...)

This year I am starting early with two flavors: Orange and Cinnamon&Star anise
These two both seem really wintry to me and don't pose a problem where spoilage is concerned.

Add the peel of an organic orange to your vodka of choice. Then wait and shake until the flavor develops. It really couldn't be easier.


Add two to three sticks of cinnamon and a star anise. Same procedure as with the other one. When I made this one last time I noticed after two weeks that the star anise was overpowering everything else, so I had to get it out. For this reason I am tying a thin kitchen twine to it this time, so the fishing part will be a lot easier. Within a few hours you will find the clear liquid beginning to turn a beautiful golden brown color.

This flavor is really nice mixed with hot or cold apple juice.

PS: My favorite non seasonal flavor is vanilla. Just add two or three split vanilla pods. Use this to make a divine mojito!

Sorry about the lack of new posts everyone!
The last couple of weeks have been all about a visit and enjoying time with the family.

Lots of good wine.


And great DIY food.

(Beef tartare, in case you're wondering.)

And another lovely tarte tatin with plums.
But not really much original dishes prepared by me... so not much to blog about.

Promise to have things running on the normal schedule again by next week!

Everything but the kitchen sink chinese style soup

Or hunger is the mother of the best recipe inventions...
This turned out to be the perfect soup for a grey autumn day. Filling and not really spicy/hot but warming instead.

ingredients:
one packet plus three rashers of bacon, cut into strips
one clove of garlic, finely chopped
half a hot chili, finely chopped
a hunk of ginger, finely chopped
one liter of chicken stock
one portion of glass noodles
one small kohlrabi, peeled and cut into juliennes
half a head of cos lettuce (outer leaves), cut into strips
ca. two teaspoons of fish sauce
a generous squeeze of lemon juice


1. Fry the bacon until it gets crispy edges. Pour off most of the fat. Add the ginger, chili and garlic and fry gently. You don't want the garlic to get brown and bitter. Add the stock and let it come to the boil. Let it boil for a couple of minutes to let the flavours develop.
2. Add the glass noodles. They take about five minutes to cook. After about two minutes add the kohlrabi. After another two to three minutes add the fish sauce, lemon juice and the lettuce. cover with a lid and let the soup heat up again and the lettuce is wilted to taste.

Enjoy!

Taking Tarte Tatin for a ride....

(You know you want to...)

This recipe was inspired by a photo in a swiss cookery magazine that I saw at a friends house last weekend. The picture was good. The recipe was of sugar and damsons or prune plums covered with a complicated-ish batter.

I knew I wanted to try my own version instantaneously.

This is such a simple tarte to make. Give it a try and you will be surprised at how delicious it turns out.

Ingredients:
70 gr. cane sugar
zest of 1/4 orange
a dusting of cinnamon
700 gr. of damsons/prune plums (apparently Fellenberger are the best)
500 gr. of puff pastry

Preheat your oven to 200°C.
Spread your sugar evenly into your pie tin.
Sprinkle the zest and the cinnamon on top. (You really don't want much, just a hint to compliment the taste of the fruit.)
Cut in half and de-stone your fruit then arrange them cut side down into the tin. Try getting as much fruit in there as possible.
Roll out your pastry (it rises better than the pre-rolled kind) and cut a generous "top" for the tin. The pastry will shrink as it rises, so make it a little bigger. Extra tip: After you've cut it, turn it over before placing it onto the fruit. This is also supposed to make it rise better.
Place the pastry onto the tin.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and a deep golden brown color.

Take it out of the oven. Let it cool slightly then overturn it onto a serving platter.
Admire. ;-)

Serving recommendation: Still warm from the oven with a big bowl of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Gniocchi

As my work colleagues are very well aware of, I have an overly present disdain for consuming leftovers. Eating the same dish twice? Life is just too short.

Making a completely new dish out of a past meal is a completely different matter though. And this is where these pillow-y dumplings come to play...

I guess you could also make fish cakes or so out of leftover mashed potatoes... But these gniocchi are far more elegant...

Start out with a one portion amount of leftover mashed potatoes. Add an egg, about 50 gr. of semolina and however much plain flour is needed to make a pliable, non sticky dough. I can't really tell you how much that will be, as it mostly depends on how high the liquid content of your mash is... I can tell you, that it will be more flour than you anticipated. :-) Therefore my recommendation that you start out with only one portion of mash. I'm sure I used at least one and a half cups of flour...

When you have a dough let it rest and cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
Take it out, squeeze off one lump and form it into a roll of about a centimeters diagonal. cut off small peaces of that and "roll" it with a fork. Dipping the fork and knife into flour from time to time will prevent the dough from sticking.
And continue until done.


These gniocchi freeze very well. Space them evenly on parchment paper (multiple layers are fine), freeze and fill into a bag to store.

When your feeling hungry, boil water and add salt. Pour the desired portion of gniocchi into the boiling water, pull it off the heat and let it stand covered for two to three minutes.

Topped with sage and lemon butter this is a delicious and somewhat special pasta dinner. (Melt the butter, add the sage. When crispy add the lemon zest, a good pinch of salt and a squeeze of the juice.)

Can you say glut?

This is what my potted garden looks like these days:



All of the tomatoes seem to be in a rush, it seems. And half of the household is on vacation in Corsica!

Something had to be done to fight against this scary overload of red fruit.
This recipe, which I had tried once before, a year ago, come to mind:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/tender-chicken-legs-with-tomatoes
It's easy delicious and takes incredibly little time to assemble!
Give it a try. If you're not a huge fan of garlic, you might want to add a little less than the recipe demands....

The leftover vegetables can be heated and served as pasta sauce or topped up with stock, blitzed and served as deliciously fruity tomato soup.


Enjoy!