Warm aubergine and tomato salad with feta

This might just be my new favorite light summer dinner. I got the idea when a friend had this dish in a museum cafe recently after we had been to an exhibition.
Added bonus: It's dead simple to make.

Ingredients for two:
Two or three sprigs of thyme
One midsized aubergine, roughly diced
One clove of garlic, finely chopped
Four plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
A small glass of white wine of stock
Ca. 50 gr. of feta, sliced
Fresh basil, to taste
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

1. Start by heating your olive oil in a deep frying pan. Add the thyme so you will know when it's hot enough. When the herbs start to sizzle you can add the eggplant with a large pinch of salt*. Fry the eggplant over medium to high heat and turn every couple of minutes until the vegetable is cooked through. This will take around ten minutes.
2. Add the garlic and turn up the heat. As soon as the garlic is fragrant (and before it burns) add your chopped tomatoes, give it a quick stir then add the wine and another pinch of salt*. Let it come to the boil, reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer with a lid for 5-10 minutes.
3. Check so see if you still need to let some liquid evaporate, check the seasoning of a final time. Then arrange it on a platter or in y bowl, top with the feta and basil (torn or roughly chopped at the last minute) and serve with some nice dark bread.

This dish is wonderful the next day. Reheat it in a microwave or eat cold, what ever you prefer.
*Seasoning a dish like this in stages will make it more subtle than just throwing in a lot of salt at the end. Just remember that you can always add more and err on the light side....

Cucumber, onion and coriander salad

As per request...
If temperatures where you live are set to hit the high twenties this weekend as well, this might just be the perfect accompaniment the the mandatory BBQ you are planning.
It's a simplified version of Yotam Ottolenghi's. It's easy and quick to make so give it a try!

3 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar (I used palm)
2 teaspoons toasted peanut oil (the original calls for sesame)
One small red onion, halved and finely sliced (use a mandolin, if you have one)
One large cucumber, halved and finely sliced at an angle
One small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped (haters, use mint instead)
One clove of garlic
Thumbsized piece of ginger
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix the dressing and add the sliced onion. Leave it to stand and mellow for at least an hour.
2. Smash your garlic and ginger with a big pinch of salt to paste in a pestle and mortar or put it through a fine microplane grater. Mix this with the prepared dressing, sliced cucumber and coriander. Season to taste. All done!

Chicken Wings update: Favorite marinade

Making something good even better....

Julia and I were in a bit of a pinch you see. We were in a new apartment with a kitchen equipped with shall we say, the barest of bones. All joking aside, we didn't have all of the knickknacks my lazy self is used to. But in this case it was definitely a blessing in disguise!

We were really craving some chicken wings, like we had last time see here
This recipe is kind of a simplified improvisation that we in fact like better than the original... Who knew?

This has seriously become my favorite marinade to put on any piece of bone-in chicken. Give it a go!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced/grated/chopped as finely as possible
1 heaped teaspoon of honey
a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of vinegar
tabasco or chili to taste

Stir all the ingredients together and give it a taste. The sweet, salty, tangy and spicy should balance each other. Adjust quantities accordingly if necessary.
As you can see in the photo below I used it on thighs. I guess you could use it on pretty much any piece you want. I love it with rice and a side of fried and steamed greens if I want to be slightly healthier... 

Stir-fry of beef with broccoli

This is a very basic template that I often use when doing a Chinese inspired stir fry dish. By template I mean that the specific ingredients can be substituted to taste, seasonality and whatever you have on hand. I love using vegetables that keep a bit of crunch (pak choi, chinese kale, etc.). Otherwise you can use whatever you fancy.

Ingredients for two to three people:
ca. 200 gr. good beef, thinly sliced (steak cuts tend to be good for this)
1 tblsp oyster sauce
1 tblsp soy sauce
a generous pinch of sugar or palm sugar
pepper to taste
Groundnut or vegetable oil to fry
two cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
fresh chili to taste, finely chopped
1 head of broccoli, florets split if they are big, stem parts chopped to equal sized pieces
one glass of water on standby
1 small red onion, cut into wedges
a generous splash of Shaoshing rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 tsp of corn or potato starch dissolved in a little bit of cold water

1. Marinade your meat in a mixture of the oyster, soy, sugar and pepper. Leave it for at least 20 minutes.
2. Heat your wok or frying pan on high. Put in a tablespoon or two of oil and add your beef evenly. Let it sit for a minute or two to brown and then turn over. Take out of the pan and set aside.
3. Wipe out your pan if necessary. Heat it back up and add more oil if desired. Add the garlic, ginger and chili and fry until fragrant (Only a minute or so). Add the broccoli and stir fry for two minutes. Add a splash of water and cover the pan to allow the vegetables to steam for about three minutes.
4. Remove the lid and add back in the beef, the onion and the Shaoshing rice wine. After the wine has cooked off you can add more water if needed for the sauce.
5. Add the dissolved starch at the very end and it will only need a couple of moment to thicken the sauce. Check the seasonings and add more soy or pepper if necessary.
Serve with rice or noodles.

Asian Rice

My recipe today is not really photogenic... It's not very spectacular either. But it's a little trick I learned a couple of months ago that takes virtually no time at all and makes such a difference!

I love doing stir fries during the week. They take virtually no time at all and have tons of flavor, even if you only stick with the basics of chili, ginger and garlic with your chosen ingredients. This method of rice preparation has completely won over my taste buds with any kind of Asian inspired main dish... Give it a try and you won't be disappointed!

For two portions of rice (don't worry, it's so easy to multiply...)

ingredients:
one clove of garlic, finely chopped
one cm of fresh ginger, (peeled, if so desired and) finely chopped
a little bit of oil
one cup of long grain rice of choice (I use basmati), rinsed until the water runs clear and drained
one cup of stock (your choice, I like the chicken)

1. Heat the oil in a pan over moderate heat. Add your garlic and ginger. Let them fry for a couple of minutes but make sure that the garlic doesn't turn brown. You don't want the bitter taste.
2. Add your rice and slowly mix the whole thing. Like with the first step of risotto, you want every kernel coated.
3. Add your stock and let it come to the boil. Lower the heat, put a lid on it and let it simmer for ten minutes.
4. Take the lid off, let the remaining fluid evaporate and fluff the rice up with a fork.

Enjoy with your stir fry of choice...

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.

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!

Flavoured oil

This is one project that only takes minutes to make. The result is so convenient to add something extra to whatever it is you're cooking.

I tried this the first time about two years ago. Nigella Lawson always goes on about using garlic flavoured oil on her shows. And making it yourself really isn't a big deal.

Once you get started the possibilities are endless. It's just a question of experimenting to find out what suits your taste best.

250 ml extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
To finish;
Woody herbs of your choice (basil, parsley and such will spoil too quickly)
Maybe a chili?


Add the garlic to the oil and leave to infuse for ca. 48 hours. Shake it once or twice.

Filter out the garlic pieces and fill the oil into a small handy bottle. Maybe add a couple of sprigs of fresh herbs or even a chili to the bottle. These will not only add a decorative element, but also start infusing their own aroma into the oil.

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.