Kitchen experiments

I've decided not to post any more step-by-step recipes here, since I am having to re-explore a lot of baking/cooking techniques and basics in my new (Swiss) environment. Also, I would imagine that reading about learning to use the uniquely Swiss ingredients isn't terribly interesting for friends and family back in the US. I'd prefer to use the time/space here to tell you more about what's happening in our lives (PS - I love and miss all you guys!).

That being said, I definitely have been cooking/baking a lot over the past few weeks, and I will continue to post occasional finished products and links to recipes that I felt were particularly successful (as well as any changes I made to said recipes). And I'll definitely keep you updated on my attempts for homemade macarons.

I bought a book in my Kindle a few weeks ago that made my baking heart flutter. It's called Ratios and it talks about the underlying ratios present in many dishes, from breads to sauces. I've only tried one ratio from it thus far - I made 3 loaves of bread using different mixes of flour, since I am still unsure about the flours here (they have neither the same naming system as the US, nor the number systems that France and Germany have). They were all very basic loaves, and I was impatient about the rising, so they weren't perhaps the best tasting. But it was interesting to see the difference:

Identical loaves except for the flour used. The one in the foreground used 100% Weissmehl (white), the loaf in back used 50/50 white/Bauernmehl (Fr: rustique) flour, and the far left loaf used a 50/50 mixture of white/Zopfmehl flour. Bauernmehl translates to "farmer's flour," and apparently contains 12% rye flour. Zopfmehl translates to "braid flour" (I think it is often used to make a challah-like braided bread) and contains 10% spelt flour. I am still figuring out how exactly these percentages influence the baking process. Definitely Zopfmehl leads to a lighter dough that requires less kneading and rises faster (makes sense, since spelt flour is gluten-free). And I've only begun to explore the flours available in the baking section.

Mostly I've been just sticking to Weissmehl (Fr: farine blé) in my baking, since it appears to be the all-purpose equivalent. Which is fine for cookies and brownies (eg, I made these Nutella brownies with an extra scoop of Nutella in them - still not much hazelnut taste, but wonderfully fudgy), but I am still trying to work out the equivalent of bread, cake, or whole wheat flour.

Aside from baking, I have been trying to branch out in my cooking. I have phobias about trying to cook meat cuts (out of simple ignorance, not because I think the animals will take their revenge upon me at some point in the future), so I usually avoid them like the plague and before Zurich, I'd stick with ground turkey or some easy boneless chicken. However, B is a big meat eater, so I made a marinated pork loin for Valentine's day dinner (using this marinade as a base - I used brown sugar and added generous amounts of pepper, ginger, and garlic), along with some braised red cabbage and smashed potatoes (add parmesan cheese on top for super tastiness).

Not a great picture, but it was very tasty - and I didn't overcook the pork, yay! (well...not too much. I have issues when meat is still 'too' pink. Yep, I order steak medium well.)

I also made this couscous recipe, replaced the lemon with lime, added more seasonings/herbs, and threw in some extra veggies (onion and bell pepper) and some kielbasa-like sausage for a super quick, easy one-pot meal (Disclaimer: Switzerland doesn't seem to have liquid broths; I've only found boullion cubes, and I'm not sure I'm using them correctly. But it still tasted very good).

I've already made this a second time - with bell peppers. One of the quickest meals that I've discovered - and minimal dishes after!

This pear/dark chocolate tart wasn't actually my cup of tea (B loved it, the chocolate filling was almost bitter, but to me it was too strong and the pear flavor was lost), but there was a ton of leftover chocolate crust, so I made an extra tart with one of my favorite lime tart filling recipes (I use about 3x the amount of lime juice called for) and stuck some fresh raspberries on top. Delicious. I used the leftover egg whites to make some mini cupcakes and topped them with chocolate icing.

Dark chocolate pear tart with some vanilla ice cream on the side.

One of my favorite tart fillings, although it is better with graham cracker crust than the chocolate one, imo. Sadly, Switzerland does not have graham crackers - learning how to make homemade ones is on my to-do list, but of course one should use graham flour to make graham crackers...see my above words re: flour types. It's a vicious circle.

Mini cupcakes! Super cute, and they disappeared quickly at B's work, but they felt a little spongy and not quite right to me. I may have overcooked them (I had no toothpicks, so couldn't test the center). I am also struggling to get my usually-reliable icing taste here - it's odd, but the powdered sugar is almost...sweeter than the powdered sugar in the US, so I haven't been able to make a strong chocolate frosting yet. And it can taste grainy. Works in progress.

I did love the pear component of the tart, though, and we had a leftover one, so I made this single-serving size of pear crisp, and it was so good that I went out and bought three more pears, threw some raspberries in, and made a much larger version. B and I consumed half of it in one evening.

Super tasty, easy, and not even that unhealthy (well, compared to many other links on this post).  I have an allergy to raw apple and pear skins, so I may be a wee biased; this is the first time I was able to eat pears in well over a year.

One of my favorite recipes I've made so far are these lime-cardamom sweet rolls. Yum! I added some cinnamon into the filling for a more robust, rounded flavor. Amazing.

So good. Cannot recommend this recipe enough.

I've made other dishes, but I slacked off in taking pictures. If you are super interested, I keep most recipes that I try (and that work) on my Pinterest board Tried and True, along with notes about what I changed. Pinterest is a pretty huge time suck and probably my favorite form of procrastination, but I've found that keeping all the online recipes that I might want to revisit (because they were just that good) in one place is actually very useful. Recipes that aren't there I probably have stored on my supercook.com account, a totally AWESOME website (it suggests recipes based on the ingredients you say you have), but I am trying to slowly switch saved/favorite recipes to Pinterest, as they are easier to find there.

Dinner and a chocolate berry tart

Last night I managed to produce both a main dish and a dessert before B got home - the first time ever I've accomplished such a feat (I even did a round of dishes as well!). Perhaps it wasn't a huge fait accompli in the larger picture, but it made for a lovely, relaxing evening - and both dishes turned out quite tasty. And yes, the week's theme of lime made an appearance in both!

For the main dish, I served up basically this shrimp dish over rice. I've made it several times before (it's on my tried and true board on Pinterest, where I stash my favorite recipes), and it always turns out well.

Since I am a bit gun shy around meat of any type (including seafood), I wimped out and bought tiny frozen shrimp that had been pre-cooked, making the preparation a total breeze (although to be fair, I do like the small shrimp - you get some in every bite and don't have to worry about the tails). I love this dish because it's so wonderfully flavorful - both the lime and the cumin are highlighted.

Yum, shrimp.

I won't take you step by step through the recipe, but safe to say that I encourage anyone to try it out - the marinade has a lot of flexibility in how to prep it. I use much less olive oil than it calls for (maybe 1-2 tablespoons) and usually a bit more garlic. Really, I can't recommend the recipe enough - it's quick, easy, tasty, and probably uses ingredients that you already have in your kitchen.

So tasty. This was originally meant to be a serving bowl, but I ate the whole thing. B joined his gym at work this week - I definitely need to start finding my own work out motivation.

For dessert, I made a chocolate berry tart. I started with this recipe for a rustic raspberry tart, but my finished product bore little resemblance to it by the end. Also, I still don't have my rolling pin (I have an extremely nice silicone one that I shipped from the US, but it's in one of the boxes being held hostage by the Post), so things got a little dicey with the crust part. Apologies, I didn't get pictures of the early steps, nor did I remember to weigh anything other than the butter.

This slice was way too small. I had thirds - and I'm not even sorry :)

Combine the flour and sugar, then cut in the butter until it looks like very coarse crumbs. I used a pastry cutter (brought from the US) for this step, since I don't have a food processor or blender, but I'm sure those would work just as well (or better). If you don't have any of the above, I've made do in the past by cutting the butter into small chunks before adding it to the flour, then using a fork to smash it into small pieces. Unlike cookies, you really want the butter to be cold, so that it can be cut in and not just mush together.

Add the milk and vinegar until you can form a dough. Now, the original recipe called for  only 3 TB of milk, but I swear that the "all purpose" flour here is more absorbent or something - I often find myself having to add more liquid to get doughs the consistency I need. But definitely get some vinegar in there - it causes a nice flaky texture to the crust. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten. Put in the refrigerator for an hour or so until it's nice and firm.

While the dough is refrigerating, mix together the zest, sugar, and flour in a bowl. Add the berries and toss to coat. I added a small squeeze of lime juice at this point as well - just because.

Frozen/fresh raspberries/blackberries, which are my two favorites.

After your dough is firm, take it out of the fridge but keep it either in the plastic wrap or on some parchment paper - if you add more flour at this point you'll end up with a drier, not so nice crust. Roll out the dough in a circle-ish shape until it's around 1/4" (<1cm) thick and 12" (30 cm) in diameter (preferably with a rolling pin, but you know - whatevs).

Not a rolling pin.

Place the crust into a pie or tart pan and even it out around the edges as best you can.

The nice thing about the plastic wrap or parchment paper is that you can keep  it attached to one side of the crust when you place it in the pan, then just peel it off and voila! Crust in the pan.

With some re-allocation of resources, the lack of rolling pin wasn't too noticeable.

Add the filling in - at this point, I decided to throw some what-passes-for-chocolate-chips-here (small chocolate chunks) on top, just to fill in the cracks. This turned out to be a wise move.

Bake for 35 minutes at 400F (205C). Take out, let cool. If you'd like, you can dust the top with some powdered sugar (I did this. Do this).

Fresh out of the oven.

The berries evened out well, and the filling was wonderful - not as runny as I feared. The lime taste does come through (B couldn't taste it, of course, but for normal people, it was there), but my favorite part was definitely the chocolate + berries, one of my favorite flavor combinations.

PS - This is a discussion I've had before with friends and coworkers (actually several times - is that weird?), but what exactly is the difference between a pie and a tart? Discuss.

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup (114g) cold butter
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vinegar

Filling:
5 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
zest from one lime
400g (or thereabouts) berries
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:
Mix flour and sugar. Cut in butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add in milk and vinegar, form the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, flatten, and put in the refrigerator for around one hour until firm. For filling, mix together sugar, flour, and zest, then add berries and toss gently to coat. When the dough is chilled, roll out the crust to around 12" (30cm) in diameter (try not to use extra flour at this step). Place the crust into a greased pie or tart pan. Spread filling in the crust, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Bake at 400F (205C) for 35 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, then dust with powdered sugar if desired. Dig in.

Lime ginger cookies

For a blog that takes its name from a baked good, I've been doing a very poor job of sharing any accomplishments in the kitchen thus far. I've made quite a few meals and desserts (pb chocolate chip shortbread, potatoes au gratin, sweet rolls, pasta with pancetta/peas/cream sauce), I just haven't remembered to take pictures of many of them.

This week, I'll be featuring lime as a key ingredient. Often overlooked for its larger, more common cousin the lemon, limes are just as versatile and, in my opinion, much tastier. My Peruvian husband has a serious addiction ("Everything tastes better with lime on it!" - and he follows through, from chili to potatoes to fruit), and he's pretty much converted me.

So, when I found this recipe on Pinterest for lemon cookies, I figured it could be easily adapted - and it was. The cookies are sweet yet tart, and a wonderful divergence from the chocolate chip/standard cookie taste (Disclaimer: I have nothing against chocolate chip cookies - I love them and I will post a recipe next week for an amazing oatmeal chocolate chip. Just sayin' sometimes it's nice to branch out).

I've only tweaked a couple things from the recipe linked above (namely, adding ginger and increasing the amount of lime juice), so just want to make sure I give full credit to it.

Just a little shoutout to my kitchen scale. Makes adding ingredients so easy - just tare before each one! I'm quickly converting to the European idea of ingredients by weight. Except it means having to convert each of my recipes as I make it, and sometimes I forget to re-tare.

 First, as with many cookies, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Butter should be at room temperature - take it out and be patient! Go make yourself a cup of tea or vodka and wait it out. Growing up, I always wanted to get my bake ON and just stuck the butter in the oven or microwave to half-melt. Turns out, there's an actual reason this leads to poorer texture in the resulting cookies (although the taste will remain the same, so don't beat yourself up about it).

Mmm, can I start eating the "dough" early?

Add in the vanilla, egg, lime zest, and lime juice. Back in Boston, I had homemade vanilla from beans and vodka that I used in all my baking. Here, I've purchased the beans, but haven't obtained the spirits yet, and I've had a hard time finding actual vanilla extract (as opposed to some weird vanilla aroma thing that is definitely NOT the same thing). The closest I've found is this:

Technical difficulties, blogger doesn't want to upload the cropped, zoomed image.

Smells like vanilla, not sure why it's "en poudre," but I've been using it in my baking for the past week and it seems to do the trick, although it's been lots of guesswork for how much to add.

Mmm, the stars of the show. Post-zesting. Also - if you want to make juicing easier, apply pressure and roll the limes around on the counter some. Really makes a difference if the limes are a bit old or dry.

As for the lime zest, I wanted to use 2 limes' worth, but my zester failed about halfway through, so it ended up being about 1.5 limes' worth (see above). I also used 1.5 limes' worth of juice (about 55 ml - they were very juicy limes). Honestly, it depends how much you like citrus - I love it and B uses it so often that he can't even taste it unless it's screaming strong.

Mix until everything is incorporated - your batter at this point will look like it's curdled. That's ok.

Add in the salt, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and flour. Stir briefly until everything comes together. Honestly, I used powdered ginger because that is what I had - but I think the cookies would only be better if one used fresh or crystallized ginger.

From here on out, my pictures are a bit off the mark - we had to run off to an apartment viewing in the middle of my preparation - so do as I say, not as I do. :)

The dough should be light and slightly sticky, but you should be able to form small (1-inch) balls with the help of a spoon. If it's too sticky add a bit more flour and try again.

Put the powdered sugar in a bowl and drop the dough into it, rolling it around until the ball is well covered with sweet goodness.

Yep, bowl - not a plate. Bowl definitely works better.

Place the balls on a greased (or parchment paper covered) baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven until the bottoms show the tiniest hint of brown and the tops of the cookies are no longer shiny. I think our oven is painfully slow to warm up, so it took almost 15 minutes for me, but the original recipe calls for 9-11 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on the pan for at least 3 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack, otherwise they will fall apart. Enjoy! Other than the flavor, one of the reasons I love these cookies is because they are unbelievably soft and moist - and stay that way, even after they've cooled.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick/114g) butter, at room temperature
1 cup (215g) sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or random pinch of vanilla powder)
1 egg
Zest from 1-2 limes
55 ml lime juice (1-2 limes)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of baking soda
1 3/4 cup (220g) all-purpose flour

powdered sugar for coating

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Cream butter and sugar. Add in vanilla, egg, zest, and juice, mix briefly until combined. Slowly mix in salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour until combined. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough into powdered sugar and roll to coat. Place onto lightly greased/parchment covered baking sheet and bake until the edges start to brown and the centers are not shiny (10-12 minutes). Let cool on baking sheet for 3-5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.