The Garden

For those of you who don't know I have a garden...well, a balcony that desperately wants to be a garden.....that I desperately want to be a garden. It has the obligatory space for a row of flower boxes, in which one plants: Geraniums. The rest of the balconey is for sitting on.....this is the accepted practice, in fact, this Summer weather right now is also referred to as 'Balcony weather'. Based on my authorative and extensive study of Swiss culture and traditions, I've come to the conclusion that there are three types of gardening practised in der Schweiz (note the dative preposition with feminine Noun - in der Schweiz....my German is getting a little better :)).

1. Flower boxes. Considering how many people live in apartments, this is not particurly suprising. What is a little disturbing though, is that there is very little variation in what is planted in these boxes....well you can chose the colour - Geraniums. I actually like Geraniums, partly because they really are industructable and I suspect nothing else is going to survive the full-force of the sun that hits the front of my balcony. However, variety is the spice of life!
2. The garden. This belongs to those lucky people who have a house, or the bottom floor of an apartment......but don't assume you can just plant a garden. Quite a few people I know with 'garden space' can only keep pots on the paved area or add flowers to any existing flower beds. Those with an inclination to garden (and permission) usually create the usual green space, filled with flowers, shrubs and small trees. Some of the ornaments are a little, well, interesting. Bright baubles on sticks, fake birds, concrete animals/gnomes and 'artistic' rocks. Vegetables and other edible items are strictly for.......
3. The allotment. I think this is a very familar concept, especially for anyone who has ever lived in Britian, the main differences appear to be that a) I have Buckleys of ever getting one, and b) you don't just grow vegetables there. Most of the allotments I have seen here have their own minature little holiday homes on them, with paths, flagpoles and landscaping of sorts....I feel it's more a lifestyle.
   

Back to my Garden (yes there is some random capitalisation of nouns - I blame learning German). My aim is to grow everything I possibly can on the balcony. I have giant plastic ikea tubs, window boxes and plastic pots. I think I'm doing a little better this year, definetely better than 50% sucess rate :) Some of it may not even have been my fault. We had a very long, cold, wet Spring this year (so depressing!) and I think that accounts for the failure of the sugar snap peas, snowpeas and why the sweetpeas are only now putting forth a few meagre blossoms. The chilli plants are also rather sick, struggling is the word. Also, the base of my flourishing cucumber rotted for no aparent reason. On the other side of the coin, the dill and coriander bolted as soon as the sun came out......it's just wrong! A plant with only 4 leaves should not be allowed to bolt.

My favourite plant is the Grapevine. It's didn't really do anything last year (well it survived Winter!) but this Spring it burst into leafy foliage....and then, tiny bunches of grapes! The bunches are still there and the individual grapes are getting bigger, I'm so excited. There are 11 bunches, it's amazing. However, I'm feeling some stirrings of unease as some of the leaves are turning very pale and yellow. The problem is (and this is common to many plants in my Garden) it could be a case of under watering or over watering....I can't tell. The sage is also sporting a few yellow leaves. Expert comments are welcome!

The Balcony is a bit of a mess right now (well, there is room for sitting) as I'm still planting and potting like mad while the sunshine lasts. I have high hopes for the beans, cucumber, tomatoes (some of them) zuchinni and herbs. Just to be pedantic, here is a list: sage, parsely (flat and curley), dill, basil (3 types) oregano (2 types) tarragon, coriander, mint (3 types), thyme (2 types). rosemary, and spring onions. Not all of these are 'harvestable' as such, some have bolted, but they at least made an appearance. I just planted some more radishes, rocket, salad leaves, and purslane.

There is also a very thorney (but lovely) bush rose called 'Ingrid Bergman' which produces the most glorious roses - some of them have double centres which I've never seen before.....maybe I have a mutant rose?

Oh, and 1 small box of Geraniums! When in Rome and all that.

Mughlai Lamb Biryani

A really good Biriyani is one of the most impressive dishes in Indian cuisine...in my opinion! It is usually made for special occasions and involves layering meat and rice in a casserole dish which is them cooked usuing the dum process. Dum is the indian method for pot-roasting food, in the case of Biriyani the rice, meat and spices are steamed together in the oven in a sealed casserole dish, and then arranged and garnished on a platter. I've seem recipes for Biriyani that combine cooked rice and meat with garnishes, but the more authentic approach (and better result) is to steam them together.

The recipe I've chosen is from Madhur Jaffrey's book - Indian Cookery - which I highly reccomend! This book is really very accessable, with clear instructions, yet also quite authentic. The other authors I would reccomend are Charmaine Solomon and Julie Sahni.

This recipe is quite complex and does take some time, so I chose to make it over 2 days....just to avoid total chaos in the kitchen. The actual cooking time for the Biriyani is only about an hour, but it took a couple of hours to prepare the garnishes and lamb curry which is layered with the rice. Also, a good tip from the book is to soak the rice (after washing) with some salt for 3 hours beforehand. It makes the grains whiter and they seperate more easily - fluffy rice!

This recipe serves 6. I made the full amount for the lamb curry, then divided it in 2 (froze half) and then divided the rest of the ingreedients. I'll include the full amounts here.

Comments

• This is a very mildly spiced dish, focusing on the "sweet" spices like cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Next time, I would add some Moghul garam masala (Julie Sahni recipe) to give it a bit more oomph and fragrance.
• I wouldn't reduce the sauce so much. I think it would be better trying it with a wetter meat mixture to flavour the rice a bit more.
• Halving the quantity needs less time for the rice to steam in the oven. So check after 45 minutes.
• you need to cook the onions for a long time....no really, can be over half an hour. I think I may have even over browned mine, but seriously, you can go a long way before they are burnt. Just keep moving them around the pan so they colour evenly.
• And finally....Biriyanis are a meal in themselves so you can keep the accompanying dishes simple - a yoghurt dish, a relish and I also included some okra.
  

For the rice
450g long grain rice
3 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons warm milk
25g butter cut into 8 pieces

For the meat
3 medium sized onions
4 cloves garlic
2cm ginger, peeled and grated
13 tablespoons vegetable oil
750g lamb, boned and cut into 2.5cm cubes
250ml natural yoghurt
5-6 cloves
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2.5cm cinnamon stick
1/6 nutmeg
1/4 traspoon cayenne pepper

Garnishes
4 tablespoons blanched slivered almonds
3 tablespoons sultanas
3 hardboiled eggs

1. Wash the rice, drain and soak in 2 litres water with 1 tablespoon of salt for 3 hours.
2. Lightly toast the saffron threads, crumble and add to the warm milk and leave for 3 hours.
3. Cut 2 of the onions in half, then cut the halves into fine half-rings. Chop the third onion roughly. Put the chopped onion, garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons of the almonds and 3 tablespoons of the water into a blender and reduce to a paste.
4. Heat 6 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy pan over medium-high. When hot add the onion slices and fry until brown and crisp (this can take over half an hour). Remove and drain on paper towel.
5. Fry the sultanas in the same oil. Remove, and then fry the remaining almonds until brown.
6. Brown the meat cubes. Remove the meat to a saucepan/casserole pot, add 7 tablespoons of oil to the pan and fry the paste from the blender until medium brown. Add to the meat, and gradually a tablespoon at a time, add the yoghurt. Now add 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt, 150ml of water, cover and simmer on low for 30 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, grind the spices (not the cayenne) in a spice grinder. After the meat has cooked 30 minutes add the spices and cayenne and continue cooking another 30 minutes. At the end of this time, take the lid off and raise the heat to medium and reduce the liquid to about 200ml. Turn heat off and degrease the dish. (I resorted to scooping the meat out, pouring the sauce into a jug and waiting for it to seperate with the oil on the top).

Assemble the Biriyani

1. Preheat the oven to 150C / 300F. Bring 3.6 litres of water to the boil and add 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt. Drain and rinse the rice, then scatter the rice into the boiling water, bring back to the boil and cook for 6 minutes. Drain the rice.
2. Put the warm meat in the a layer on th ebottom of a casserole dish and then pile the rice on top in the shape of a hill. Using a chopstick (or whatever is handy) make a 2.5cm wide hole in the middle of the rice down to thr meat. Scatter 2 tablespoons of the brown onions on the rice, dribble the saffron milk down the rice and dab the butter around.
3. Cover with foil and put the lid on to create a seal. Bake in the oven for 1 hour.

To serve
My preference is to carefully scrape as much of the rice into a bowl, then put the meat in a pile in the middle of a nice platter and then mould the rice around the meat, so it can't be seen. Cut the eggs into quarters and arrange on the side and sprinkle the top with theremaining browned onions, fried nuts and sultanas. If you feeling rich, and can find some, you can add Vark (edible silver foil).

Stuffed Squid

No really, this is great! It's supposed to be stuffed Kalamari, but I only had squid and squid is well-suited to this kind method of cooking. I just bought a new cookbook I had been coveting while in Australia - a la Greque Our Greek Table written by Pam Talimanidis - an Australian who married a Greek and now lives part of the year in Greece.

I wasn't planning on writing a blog entry on squid, but it worked so well I think it is worth it. The main difference that I know of between squid and Kalamari (for those who may be interested :) ) is that Kalamari have pointed flaps that extend the whole length of the body, whereas in squid they occur only at the narrow end of the body (thank you Stephanie Alexander!). Generally, all the fresh Kalamari I have seen are quite small - the body is only about 10cm long, whereas the squid (frozen) that I bought here were rather large, up to 20cm long in the body. I realise now that when choosing your cephalopod you should go for the smaller specimens, but I don't have a lot of choice.

Another thing, there are 2 main ways of cooking this type of seafood, very fast, or very slow. Salt and pepper kalamari is one of my favourite dishes! When it's done properly the kalamari is really tender and the batter should be crisp and spicy. Stir-frying is also ok, but I have never eaten or tried cooking braised kalamari or squid......until now. The main mistake I made was putting far too much stuffing in the squid, they were like little footballs! not so very bad, but probably better if the stuffing has more room to expand. btw the rest of the meal was lamb keftethes, eggplant dip, olives, bread and wine.

Enough rabbiting, here's the recipe:

Stuffed Squid with Rice and Herbs
1 cup medium grain rice
250ml extra virgin olive oil
8 spring onons, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup dill
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
8x15cm Kalamari (body only)
2 teaspoons tomato paste
690ml water

1. Wash the rice, then drain.
2. heat 2 tbls of oil in a pan and fry the onions until soft and transluscent (about 8 min.) Add garlic and herbs followed by the rice. season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and let cool.
3. Stuff 1 tablespoon of the mixture into each kalamari. Because I had 2 very large squid I estimated the amount of stuffing I needed (over estimated) and then stuffed (overstuffed) them, securing the end with a toothpick.
4. Dissolve the tomato paste in some of the water in the bottom of a casserole dish, add the kalamari (squid) and add the rest of the water and oil.
5. Put the lid on and bring to the boil, and then simmer for 40 minutes until the kalamari are tender and the rice cooked. My squid were so large I cooked them for nearly an hour (can you overcook squid?) and then reduced the liquid to make a sauce.

Here's a tip from the book I should have followed ;) you need double the amount of water to rice plus 190ml extra water for the sauce. Exactly how much rice I needed was more trial and error........

Yoghurt cake with ouzo-lemon syrup

Cake Challenge.
I find baking a bit of a challenge - I have two different approaches: One, I blithely throw myself into the recipe, cut a few corners, 'improve' the recipe a bit and wonder why it doesn't work, or, two, I slavishly follow the recipe and still mess it up! btw, confessions of an Australian, I can't make ANZAC biscuits....well I can, if you like the traditional 'concrete style' biscuit.

I've decided to take a step back from the dreaded biscuit challenge and start with cakes. I absolutely love any dessert with lemon, and a lemon cake made with yoghurt is perfect. I have a recipe for such a cake drizzled with an ouzo-lemon syrup from "The Olive and the Caper" by Susanna Hoffman (see below).

I would like to try and alter the recipe a little (since I actually made it successfully the first time) by replacing some or all of the butter with olive oil and adding honey. I think the syrup can be changed as well by replacing some of the sugar with honey. I will add the results of this experiement at th eend of this blog. Until then, here is the original cake recipe, which is delicious!

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup yoghurt
1 tablespoon chopped lemon zest
1 3/4 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
ouzo-lemon syrup

1. Grease and flour a 10 inch cake tin and preheat oven to 180 celsius.
   
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy, then beat in the egg yolks. Add yoghurt, zest, then flour, baking powder and salt (pre-sifted together).
3. In a seperate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff ( I add a pinch of creme of tartare), then mix in half the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture and then carefully fold the remaining egg whites into the mixture.
4. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for about 45 minutes until a skewer/knife inserted into the middle comes out clean and the sides of the cake come away slightly from the pan.
5. wait 5-10 minutes and then release the springform sides and invert the cake onto a plate - yes it's upside down.
6. spoon a third of the ouzo-lemon syrup over the cake and let it soak for 5-10 minutes. Repeat 2 more times. Then set the cake aside for at least an hour before cutting.

Ouzo-Lemon Syrup
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup ouzo
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest

1. put all ingreedients into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer vigourously for 10 minutes until it thickens. Cool and use (or store in the fridge).
   

Chinese Peanut BIscuits

We just arrived back from Malayasia a few days ago...both feeling rather jetlagged, and my sinus infection returned with a vengence, but otherwise intact. Despite sampling foods from a number of rather dubious looking stalls in Melacca and Singapore neither of us succumbed to a stomach bug. My only concern was that I couldn't eat more!

In Melacca we stayed at the most incredible hotel....probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at, The Melacca Majestic. Around the Lounge, Library and Bar area near reception were large glass jars full of snacks such as peanuts, salted plums (not reccommended). coconut caramels and the most amazing little peanut biscuits. I must have scoffed more than my fair share and vowed to find the recipe when I got back to Zürich. It turns out they are Chinese New Year biscuits - Fah Sang Peng, and very popular in Malaysia.

Here's the recipe:
300g Peanuts
250g flour
200g castor sugar
1 tsp salt
250ml peanut oil

Roast the peanuts in a wok/pan until fragrant then finely grind. Add flour, sugar and salt and gradually mix in the oil until the mixture comes together (you may not need all the oil). Then need the dough until the sugar 'melts' and the crystals disappear.

Roll the mixture into little balls (about the size of macadamia nuts), glaze with egg, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 200 celsius.

My impulse buy in Malaysia when I just happened to be wandering through a cooking supply shop was a moon cake mould, and I used this for the biscuits....worked beautifully!

I think these biscuits must be foolproof as I have a rather deplorable record with baking biscuits, yet these turn out rather well.....even Doug likes them!
They are very fragile, I think I need to grind the peanuts finer and then maybe increase the proportion of flour. Here are my final attempts:

Sausage Making

Doug bought me (us!) a Kenwood Chef for Christmas, we call it "The Beast" and if I'm lucky it gets to sit on the bench (Doug has a clean bench policy that is occasionaly enforced). I've used it to make bread, Challah, chapattis and pancakes....it's simply awesome! It also came with a glass blender attatchement but the quiet call of the meat grinder is what really attracted our attention. In Australia, I wouldn't dream of making sausages, but in Switzerland, I think it has become necessary. Wurst is what you buy in Switzerland, there is something called "Italian Sausages" which look more like "sausages" but considering how expensive meat is here, somehow I don't think they are saving the best cuts for these products. Everything we have tried has been a bit disappointing, if not a little scary, so we bit the bullet and ordered the machine :)

That was the easy part.

Suasage making in Switzerland doesn't seem to be the done thing. Finding the casings for the sausages has been frustrating and really a bit embarassing. We don't have a local butcher here in Adliswil so I asked the butchers at the large supermarkets for 'wursthällen' and told them I wanted to make my own wurst. This is not terribly hard to say in German but all I got was a blank look and then after further clarification, the feeling that I had asked him to chop up his pet dog for me......'We don't have that sort of thing here!'.

All the meat here is chopped and processed to the nth degree. Nothing has a bone (except what is either shanks cut up or ox-tail - very expensive) in fact you buy shiny clean bones seperate! At Christmas time there was no ham on the bone and Pork roast doesn't have crackling.....it's crazy! Somehow I don't think the butchers (Metzgerei) take delivery of whole carcasses and then chop them up, it arrives that way and they package and sell it.

Finally I was given the address of a Metzgerei in a rather out of the way place that looked promising. I wrote to them and asked if they had schweindärme (pig intestines....I didn't think I would have much luck with collagen here) and Hallelujah, they did! I can't believe I was getting excited about finding schweindärme. I now have a bundle of pig intestines and 4 kilos of pork in the fridge. I'm just waiting for the machine to arrive, and the courage to untangle the casings.
Here are the recipes I want to try (from - TheSpicySausage.com):

Hot Italian Sausage

2.26 kilos pork
1-cup cold red wineç
1-cup chopped fresh parsley
5-tsp salt
1-tbsp garlic powder or-4 to 5 garlic cloves, minced
1-tbsp fresh ground pepper
3-tsp cayenne
5-tbsp fennel seed
2-tsp crushed chili peppers
5-tbsp paprika

Seems to have all my favourite ingredients. Might need to add speck to boost the fat content.

Anyway, we'll see.

The Meat grinder arrived today! I've just finished making Italian suasages from 2 kilos of meat.......quite a lot really! The fennel seeds were rather strong so I reduced 5 tbs to 4 and mixed sweet and hot paprika together. I bought some uncooked speck (for the fat content) and then forgot to add it :( oh well.

The whole process did take all afternoon, but I was also reading the instruction booklet for working the machine. The recipe is rather hot and spicy, so I could reduce the hot paprika content, and also crush the fennel seeds. Here are the sausages cooking:



The other recipe I tried I made up (with some guidance from the internet). Equally Delicious! I also made meatballs out of the spicy Italian sausage mix and it used it for spaghetti bolgnaise with meatballs.....fantastic :)

Sage and onion sausages
2.26 kilos coarse ground pork neck
1-cup cold white wine
4-tsp salt
4- cloves of smoked garlic
1- bunch of sage (and some parsely)
2-tsp crushed fennel
1- onion minced
1 -tsp mixture of nutmeg/ginger/cloves
1-tbs freshly ground black pepper