Coffee Date with Blueberries & Peaches

In a few hours, an old friend from university will be coming over for coffee. In Germany, Sunday coffee is a sort of institution. It's not just coffee, it's also cake & all other goodies that fill you up with sugars & flours & make you not want dinner. Well, forget that - it's an old friend, not someone I have to impress. It's about seeing her again, not about the food. Well - not as much about the food.

Yesterday, I went out to the farm & in my "everything is fresh & I need it all!" frenzy, I got some vineyard peaches, as well as some blueberries. Neither are local, but both are fun. The vineyard peaches are flat & perfect for grilling, but I needed something to go with the blueberries for the pie. Cut them up & away I go. This is wine country- there have got to be more flat peaches out there.

Blueberry Peach Pie Crumble
1/2 roll puff pastry, or 1 pie shell
1/2 c flour
3 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp butter
pinch of salt
250 g blueberries
3 flat peaches, or 2 round ones, sliced
3 Tbsp light brown sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
zest of 1/2 lemon, grated
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Roll pastry into pie form.
Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, butter & salt to make a sandy mixture. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix remaining ingredients. Put fruit mix in pie shell & cover with crumble mixture. Bake at 180° for 30 minutes.

I've been looking forward to making a pie for months now, ever since I got my new pie form when I was at home a few months ago. An amazingly wonderful person gave it to me as a gift & if I can't share the pie with her, then I can at least share it with an old friend.

Goat Cheese Tomato Tart

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the farmer's market. The market is full on Saturdays, but on Wednesdays, it's a little smaller, a little less busy and a lot easier to graze at. I went to my regular stand and bought berries for jam, and then I saw the tomatoes. Oh the tomatoes! I bought a few different varieties with different things in mind. OK, I bought a few different varieties as I was salivating like one of Pavlov's dogs. I didn't have a clue what to do with them, but I knew that with these tomatoes in hand, I could trick myself into thinking that it's not rainy, and summer is just the way it should be.

I decided to use the meaty tomatoes for a goat cheese tart. It's still raining out, as it has been for the past week, and I'm in more of a tart mood than a gazpacho mood. I need something warm. I need something with carbs that will disolve on my tounge before I can even swallow them.

Tarte aux Tomates et Chevre
1 1/2 c flour
3 Tbsp butter
50 ml hot water
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 tomatoes
2 Tbsp tapenade (black olive paste)
1 Tbsp herbes de provence
150g goat cream cheese
2 Tbsp yogurt (if needed)
salt & pepper
grated pecorino

Dissolve butter in hot water, add oil. Add to flour. Let rest for a few moments.
Seed & slice tomatoes & set aside.
Knead flour mixture to make a dough, adding water or flour if needed. Roll out to fit your baking pan.
Mix cream cheese and herbes in a bowl. Add yogurt if needed to reach a creamy consistancy. Add salt & pepper to taste.
Cover dough with a thin layer of tapenade. Cover dough with cheese mixture. Place sliced tomates on top. Add grated pecorino & bake at 200° for 30 min.

There's something really strange about there being fresh, local tomatoes and it only being 21° outside. I'm not complaining, but I do find it odd. I don't feel like making the gazpacho but I am completely in favour of warm dishes that are packed full of flavour. I'm in favour of closing my eyes and savouring the season.

Tomatoes, Zucchini & Eggs

It feels as though I am constantly cleaning out my fridge. I don't buy food with a plan to cook it, I buy food because it looks good & then I have to find some sort of use for it while it still looks good. The zucchini in the fridge was like that. I made zucchini chips a while back, and while I need to refine this technique, I didn't feel like deep frying. In some sort of an effort to make a balanced meal, I made a tomato salad and a zucchini quiche.

Tomato Salad
6 small tomatoes, sliced
6 leaves of basil, torn
sherry vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper

Arrange basil & tomatoes on plate.
Top with vinegar, oil, salt & pepper.

The tomatoes are starting to get a lot better now, so they don't need much else.


Zucchini Quiche
2 small zuchinnis, sliced lengthwise
olive oil
1 package puff pastry
5 eggs
1/2 c milk
3/4 c grated cheese
1 tsp thyme
salt
pepper

Sautee zucchini in olive oil until it is bendable.
Line baking dish with puff pastry.
Place Zucchini ribbons in pastry dish.
Beat all other ingredients together & cover zucchini with egg mixture.
Bake in oven at 170° for 35-45 minutes, until browned.

I cleaned out some stuff from my fridge. Now I'm on my way to the market to restock. On the way over, I'll have to rethink this system.

Pork (Brontosaurus) Ribs

Every time I eat ribs, I feel like Fred Flinstone. I'm not too sure what it is, maybe it's the primal act of gnawing at bones, maybe it's the eating with hands, maybe it's because I like mine a little charred, or maybe it's just because I watched too much TV as a kid.

I recently got called out of town on short notice. This meant that the colossal amount of meat in my fridge had to be frozen. I had the clever idea that I would pre-marinate everything in zip-loc bags, allowing all the flavours to blend as they thawed. In theory, a clever idea. In practice, I should have labelled the packages more carefully. "Pork Ribs" only helps me so much. I opened the bag & smelt garlic and ginger, I could see black & chilli pepper. There was some sort of liquid - I'm not sure what it was.

I braised the ribs in the oven at 150° (300°) for 90 minutes in beer, then, when they looked like they were falling off the bone, I slapped on some homemade sauce (BBQ seems to elegant). and grilled them for 12 minutes until they were as charred as I like them.

Rib Sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Worchester sauce
1/4 c ketchup
1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp dried, minced onion
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Mix everything together & put on ribs. If you prefer, you can even use real onion & real minced garlic, but I was feeling rustic.

I gnawed on the bones in desperate need of dental floss, and felt like a citizen of Bedrock. The only thing missing was the bone in my hair.

Don't Tell My Mom I Miss Her!

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the family. It wasn't under the best of circumstances, but it made me realize how long it's been since I've seen my extended family and how far away I am from everything I grew up with. There wasn't the same food that normally waits for me, but I was only home for a few days. As luck would have it, on the flight back to Germany, I met a woman who comes from a neighbouring island of my parent's home. We chatted and discovered that we had much in common. She asked me if I cooked traditional Caribbean food, and I said, I try. Do you cook eggplant choka, she asked, to which I said Yes.

It isn't really true. I don't cook eggplant choka. I try to cook it and I don't get it right. I eat it when my mom makes it, when she leaves it unattended on the stove for a few minutes, only for it to be half-gone by the time she returns. And me, of course, I have an unusual lack of appetite. My mom never says a thing, and I think she's come to some bizarre recipe calculation of how much she has to make so there's enough left for dinner.

This evening, I thought of the woman in the plane & I thought of my mom & I realized I really wanted eggplant choka. I called my mom and she walked me through as I made my snack. It was simmilar, but 1) I didn't listen to my mom & I added too much tomato and 2) it's just not the same if I'm legitmately allowed to eat it before dinner.

Eggplant Choka
1 medium eggplant, roasted
olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
pinch cumin
salt & pepper to taste

Slice eggplant open, extract seeds, press out water.

Sautee onions & garlic in olive oil until translucent.

Add tomatoes & cumin and continue cooking over med-low heat until tomatoes fall apart.

Add eggplant and cook until warmed through.

Salt & pepper to taste.

Serve warm, ideally with roti (West-Indian flatbread) or just eat from the stove. It's a snack before dinner, which feels like being at home, but moreover, it was a good chance to talk with my mom.

Hot Weather Hot Chocolate

It's 27° in my apartment, and while I know that this is not much for most people, it is enough to make anyone in Germany melt. We're just not used to functioning in this weather. Many Germans will go off to warm sunny vacation spots & love it, but to work in this heat? Forget it.

The weather doesn't normally stay this hot for long, so it hardly seems like a worthwhile investment to get air conditioning for a few sticky weeks in summer. I'm onto other ideas: a fan bought is Spain as a constant fashion accessory, a cool foot bath, I'm even thinking of a kiddie splash pool for the balcony. I just tried out my newest cool-me-down: mint hot chocolate.

If you can still drink coffee in the heat, why not hot chocolate? And paired with some mint from my balcony, it seems like the kind of thing to cool me off.

Mint Hot Chocolate
1 cup milk
1 heaped teaspoon sugar
1 - 2 tsp cocoa powder (to taste)
1 sprig mint

Cook milk, sugar & cocoa, being careful not to let the mixture boil. Crush mint. In a cappucino frother, froth everything together. Alternatively, mix vigorously or use a blender.
Garnish with more mint.

The menthol in the mint is cooling, and the hot chocolate was soothing. I still might need to fill that pool, though.

Excursion to Alsace

It was Canada Day, it is Independance Day. What better way to combine these 2 national holidays than by paying a visit to the country that provided both Quebequois & the Statue of Liberty? OK - I wasn't thinking of any of that when I planned the trip, I just took the day off & I wanted some good food.

Alsace, like the rest of France, is full of good food. Also, I can get there on my commuter ticket. I packed an overnight bag, slapped on some sunscreen & got in the train. It then promptly started to rain. Most of the day was spent running from one cafe to another, sampling local wines along the way. The wines were Rieslings & Edelzwicker, and we ate a cheese platter, a Tarte Flambée, and some Escargot. They actually had frog legs available, but I wasn't that adventurous.

The cheese platter had a regular hard cheese, a camembert, chevre, butter and a softened buttery-like cheese with herbs. Much better than the stale crackers on the table. I have to figure out what the softest cheese was - I think it was like a cheese ball, but in slices.

The escargot was good, but the tarte flambée was fantastic. We ordered the traditional tarte, which is topped with creme fraiche, onions & lardons - something akin to cubes or slices of ham. The tarte itself was very thin, crispy & in spite of the toppings, it was a light snack.

After having slept back into sobriety (it was really rainy), I went out for dinner & was dazzled. The French have this way with the fixed course menus. I opted for the 3 course dinner & a bottle of 1998 Bordeaux, plus an Auxerrois as an apperetif.

As a starter: a skewer of shrimp and prawn, on a bed of spaghetti a olio. The oil was lightly peppery and garlick-y, and the shrimp were good.

Main course: Duck breast, cooked a la point (they even asked how I wanted it done), in a cherry sauce, with a chili polenta. It was matched well with the 1998 Bordeaux.

For desert, there was a trio of mousse au chocolat, served in layers, as a little cake. From the bottom, there was dark, milk & finally white chocolate. On the side was whipped cream and a vanilla sauce with stawberry sauce swilled in.

After sleeping in this morning, we went to a local bakery for breakfast. French breakfasts aren't all that substantial, but they have fantastic baked goods. We ordered the "full" breakfast, which included cooked ham, cheese (including camembert), butter and jam. The 1/2 bagutte per person reminded me of why France is so good. I don't know if I've had a baguette like this outside of France, and while I am trying to reduce my empty carbs, I could not resist this freshly baked treat.
Another hour until the next train home meant I had a little more time to oggle patiseries. I really should have bought the Kugelkoepff - the local specialty that looks like a bundt cake, but I was really full. There were also macaroons that looked fantastic, but I was afraid of them getting crushed en route.

The town of Wissembourg isn't that far from here. I think I'll be going there more often to eat, but I'll check the weather reports first.