La Grande Dame de Berlin

I spent last weekend in Berlin. Friday night, I packed a bag, set my alarm clock and got on the 6am train. Just in time for lunch in Berlin. After dropping off my bag, I set out to the Kaufhaus des Westens, also known as KaDeWe, also known as the best food floor in the world. Yes, it outdoes Harrod's. I'll post on that later. What I'm posting about today is the Veuve Clicquot stand.

There are stands for a few of the big champagne houses, Moet, Jacquard, and Veuve Clicquot. The Veuve stand had the most seating room and had the friendliest smile behind the counter. The workaholic and I went for Veuve, mainly because we never drink it. We had a glass of the regular champagne, as well as a glass of Grande Dame. I've never seen Grand Dame for sale by the glass before, maybe because it retails for over 100 Euros. This was our unique chance to try a glass of the 1998 vintage, and it did not disappoint.

After having the lovely lady with the smile explain to us what made this Grande Dame so special (very fine bubbles, notes of apricot and tobacco - yes, this is a good thing!) we tried a glass. Opened in front of us, poured so I could taste if it was corked, I was served a glass of very fine champagne. The Workaholic ordered a glass of the Brut as comparison.

Agreed, very fine bubbles. A beautiful brut: notes that a good chardonnay strives for and a wonderfully complex bouquet on the palate that made me savour every sip. The only problem is that I was under sensory overload with 1 glass. Maybe it's for the best because the stuff is rather expensive.

More on Berlin & KaDeWe later...

Truffle-Scented Roasted Cauliflower

I've been bad at blogging recently. I've been bad at just about everything recently. Work has been very busy, which is normally a good thing, but it leaves me very little free time. I'm uninspired to really cook anything extrodinary, and I'm even less inspired to blog about it.

Sadly, my blogoversary came & went & all I could do was tweet about it. I didn't even use the full 140 characters Twitter allows me. I didn't even think I had anything to blog about until I ran into a commuter buddy on the way home after a long day in the office. She asked me about winter vegetables & what I do with them. I told her how I roast cauliflower and sprinkle it with truffle oil. She seemed interested. So, here I am, 2 train rides later, inspiried and posting about the roasted cauliflower I had last night.

Roasted Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets.
1 Tbsp sunflower oil.
1-2 Tbsp truffle-infused oil*
sea salt

Heat oven to 220°. Put cauliflower in a baking dish. Toss with sunflower oil so it doesn't stick. After about 20-25 minutes, take baking dish out of the oven. Toss cauliflower with truffle oil in the same baking dish. Sprinkle with sea salt.

*I found some truffle oil in an Italian supermarket. I'm sure that a nutty sunflower oil or a good olive oil would work. This is the best use of truffle oil that I have found to date, though.

I made a risotto in the meantime. It came from a package & I had high expectations of it. The risotto was a disappointment but the cauliflower was good.

Update: My commuter buddy has a commuter blog. Visit here for her insights on the daily ride.

Daring Cooks - February - Mezze

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

A few weeks ago, the fondest memories of last January came back: Mezze in Kuwait. For whatever reason, last year I found myself in the middle of the desert with a scarf in my hair, looking to explore. Exploring isn't easy for a woman alone in the Middle East. I was miserable. Our hotel was in the middle of nowhere and the internet connection was ridiculously slow. There was one thing that had me excited: having dinner in one of these private tents.


The food was fantastic. I have no idea what it was but it was great. Warm weather (for someone who lives in Germany), bright sun, a couple of camels & mezze. The only thing that made me really want to leave was a glass of wine and a slice of Spanish ham (neither of which are allowed in Kuwait).


When Michelle posted her challenge, I knew this would be a chance to taste those middle eastern memories. I planned to make the hummus with a roasted red pepper. I started to knead the dough for pita bread. Something came up, I had to put the dough in the fridge overnight. I took it out the next day, rolled it out & placed it in a hot oven. At this point, I should note that I've never been able to make bread. Bread never really rises in the oven when I make it. One of my pitas puffed up, but not really. I left them in a little longer, hoping they just needed more time. The result: pita chips. Oh well, not bad.

The hummus was divine, the olives I had just bought from the market were great, and I have this supermarket around the corner that sells fresh pita bread. As wonderful as the smell of freshly baked bread is, as long as I live close to good bakeries, I'm going to outsource the task of baking.

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.

Kid Goat, Taken from Mom

Through a series of unfortuntate events, I tried to escape work early after work before a long weekend, and instead found myself at the local goat farm. All I can say is that Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) was not working well yesterday.

Normally, I visit the goat farm's stand at my local farmer's market, but while I was out in the middle of nowhere, why not pop by the farm itself? As coincidence would have it, I was at the farm exactly 1 year ago for a wine & cheese tasting, where I got a tour of the farm. As a life-long city girl, I never really thought about where my cheese comes from. I know that goat cheese comes from goat milk and that mammals produce milk after children are born. Well, in order to ensure that the milk ends up as my cheese, and not as the food for some young kid, the "excess" kids are slaughtered, usually the males, as the females will produce more milk in later years. It all makes so much sense, and had I ever bothered to think about it, I would have figured if out on my own, I'm sure. Really.

Springtime is the time to get the young male kids. I did not grow up in a household with goat, but I have fond childhood memories involving my mother's excitement upon finding goat dishes in the most unusal places. Against my jeuvenile judgement, I tried the goat, and although I never insisted that my mom make it at home, I wasn't turned off by it. My mom is a picky eater, and if it's good enough for her, then it must be good.

The first thing I did after I bought my 600g rack of goat was call my mom. When I was at the farm, I told Stefanie (the lady of the farm) that my mom would be jealous. My mom wasn't exactly jealous, but she had more ideas then I knew what to do with. Ideally, I'll be buying meat exclusivly from the goat farm for the rest of the season. I never really listened to my mom in the first place, but she did give me some good ideas. And I think the next time she'll visit will be in springtime for goat season. If she cooks, I'll certainly welcome her visit.

Roasted Kid Goat
600g piece of kid goat back (loin with ribs - bone in)
1 lemon
1 Tbsp chopped thyme
1 tsp chopped rosemary
2 bay leaves
salt & pepper
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 c french apple cidre (or substitute water + 1 Tbsp honey)
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme

Grate zest off of lemon & set aside. Clean meat, if necessary. Squeeze lemon & wash meat in juice. Salt & pepper meat. Place meat, along with thyme, rosemary, lemon zest, garlic and2 bay leaves in ziploc bag and allow to marinate overnight, or at least 4 hours.

Put goat in pan, add a splash of cidre, along with 2 bay leaves and 4 spigs of fresh thyme. Roast goat at 220° for 10 minutes, then turn the heat to 180°. Add more cidre. After ca. 45 minutes, turn heat down to 150°, and continue to roast. Baste continually (or whenever you remember). Keep the thing in the oven for a total of 2 hours.

I was thrilled with the tenderness of the meat, as well as the slightly sweet sauce I got out of it. To accompany my springtime treat, I made some simple quinoa, tossed in the wild leek pistou my friend gave me. Right now, I'm so content that I've forgotten about yesterday's traffic troubles. I might even pop by the farm again on the way home from work. And, yes, I'll call my mom to tell her how to cook goat.