the red kitchen

Hello, sunshine

Hello again, my sadly neglected blog. It's been a while. Maybe it's the winter greyness that crushes all my inspiration, for I have been just doing my normal everyday cooking and haven't found much to get enthused about.

However, a couple of days of unseasonal sunshine have whetted the old tastebuds and I've thought a little more carefully about what we've been eating and drinking, cooking mostly exactly what I feel like, even in the face of overwhelming protest from the kids. Hey, they'll thank me later.

In one of my recent posts I was on a blue cheese bender; now that phase has passed and I've moved onto the gentler, more innocent qualities of goats' cheese. I particularly enjoy it for breakfast, on thick grainy bread (only lightly toasted of course, I hate really toasted toast), with my spicy plum jam - I reckon a bit of protein in the morning is good for me.

And last night I made one of my favorite standby meals, one that is good for when the cupboard is empty,
it's cold outside and I can't be bothered heading to the shops for supplies. Or just when I feel like I need a virtuous meal to counterbalance a couple of days of overindulgence. It can be made with meagre ingredients, or can be luxed up depending on what's in the fridge. It's just a simple omelette filled with vegetables, but oh, it is good.

I first ate this omelette when we were on holiday a couple of years ago. We were shopping at the Xmas sales at a major department store and were struck by hunger. We went down to the restaurant and I ordered this and watched them make it in front of me. It was perfect, the egg cooked just right, softly oozing, and the vegetables freshly grated and seasoned with just the right amount of salt, pepper and importantly, vinegar. It's the dash of vinegar that keeps me coming back to this meal, truly. I dream about it sometimes, how good that acid tang with the sweetness of the grated carrot is.

So back to reality. Here's the recipe, make it and enjoy it with a glass of crisp white wine (for those of you that imbibe), or sparkling apple juice or whatever. Good hearty bread and a bouncy salad would make this just about perfect.

Feeling blue

I seem to be on a blue cheese, bacon and walnut bender. The recent cold blustery weather has made me very, very hungry, all the time, and I'm craving all things heavy, warming and rib-sticking, thus tonight's dinner.

Bacon-wrapped chicken, seared then roasted, surrounded by more bacon, mushrooms, onions and garlic and a glug of red wine, plus polenta rich with this year's organic Tuscan EV olive oil (lovingly brought home for us by Bruno's parents after their Tuscan summer idyll - they are so good to us) and parmesan (a huge craggy chunk, also courtesy of Ruth and Ersnt), and a salad adapted from my latest Brocki read, 'On Rue Tatin: The Simple Pleasures of Life in a Small French Town', by Susan Loomis - salad greens, walnuts, tart apples and crumbled blue cheese, with a vinaigrette thick with hard-boiled egg yolk (leftover from Lola's lunch - she loves eggs, but only the whites of hard-boiled eggs, so I often have surplus egg yolks hanging about). An oldie but a goodie, and so delicious with a glass of red wine.

We spooned the juices from the chicken and wine-soaked vegetables over the polenta, and it was great. Previously I've made the chicken with roasted potatoes, but having something soft and spoonable to soak up all the yummy juices was a definite party pleaser. And the salad - the salad I could have eaten alone, it was so good. What is it with the apples, walnuts and stinky roquefort?! Perfect!

And now Bruno has just handed me a waffle cone with a scoop of distinctly alcoholic prune icecream, with a cup of hot peppermint tea. Now I can go to bed happy.

Bowl o' walnuts

Bowl o' walnuts, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

I love this blue bowl - I bought it at the brocki for CHF7, then later saw a slightly bigger one selling for CHF 80 (!) at a 'designer' brocki in Zürich.

It's such a a beautiful blue.

what's cooking

Angus (dearly missed, when are you coming to visit again?) asked me recently what's been cooking in the kitschenette household of late. Hmm, well there is always a lot of cooking going on around here, but much of it is less than stellar, and certainly nothing to write home about - I'm talking about the everyday school lunches and breakfasts (filled pita breads, muesli and cornflakes, toast and preserves, pastas, spätzles, pizzas and so forth, you know, the stuff you make with your eyes closed and that you know are crowd pleasers).

But it is autumn, and if I think about it I can remember a few recent pleasures of a distinctly seasonal ilk:

• Pasta with blue cheese, toasted walnuts, spinach and cream, a hint of garlic and a few generous grinds of black pepper (well, to be truthful, I made it with a mellow camembert, but I intended to make it with roquefort, except the woman at the cheese counter somehow forgot to include my chunk of stinky blue with the rest of my cheese, and I only discovered the loss as I had the pasta cooking, the spinach wilted and the walnuts toasted. Still tasted good, but my original notion of blue cheese would have been just about, well, perfect for a windy, wild Sunday afternoon late lunch).
• Fresh walnuts from Bruno's parents' garden - deliciously nutty, without any of the raspiness-in-the-throat business that you sometimes get from fresh walnuts.
• Pears, juicy and sweet.
• Roast chicken with garlic mash and deliciously caramelized carrots (the chicken sits on a layer of carrots, and as it cooks the savoury, lemony juices trickle down to the carrots -  a real treat, especially the semi-burnt bits)
• Brownies, lots of brownies!
• Treasures from the Sion weekly market, thanks to Bruno's parents: salametti (special request of Max), home-smoked trout,  soft fresh goat's cheese wrapped in a broad leaf (from a mystery tree).
• The afore-mentioned soft cheese for breakfast, with home-made spiced zwetschge (plum) jam.
• Poached eggs, with coffee: I had a sentimental moment or two last week when the greyness closed in for what seemed like days on end and I thought fondly of Oz, blue skies and a good Sunday morning cafe breakfast - poached eggs, a roasted tomato or two, smoked salmon and/or avocado, maybe bacon...or hotcakes or pancakes, or garlic mushrooms, or fresh bagels, or, or or....anything that I didn't have to make myself. So this morning Bruno made poached eggs, with crusty warm wholemeal bread, cheeses, jams. So good, if only I had remembered to buy enough eggs for the whole family!
• Bacon-wrapped chicken, pan-fried then roasted until just tender, surrounded by more bacon, mushrooms and onions and a splash of red wine. 
• Prune ice-cream, late at night : )

Good things to come:

• Fondue!
• Warm spiced plums, with ice-cream
• Sticky date pudding with toffee sauce, packed and posted, for Donat, who is away for 3 weeks on military service.

It's only 4.45pm and the skies are already dark. I think actually that autumn has passed over into winter already...it might be dessert for dinner night, apple strudel and custard, mmm!

Autumn eats

Autumn eats, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

Autumn means chestnuts...and Bruno's favourite dessert, vermicelles (chestnut puree squeezed out into strands in a crisp tart base with vanilla cream underneath and a splodge of whipped cream on top).

Tis the season for...

Tis the season for..., originally uploaded by kitschenette.

...quince jelly. So much work, for so few jars of rosy deliciousness.

It took 3 attempts to get this batch to achieve even the slightest set - even now it slithers and wobbles on your spoonor knife, tremulously sitting for the merest second on your hot toast before melting into sticky rivers.

It is the most beautiful colour, though.

I can't believe I just ate this

I can't believe I just ate this, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

This afternoon we drove to a little cheese shop in Lichtensteig, which produces artisan cheeses made entirely from unpasteurised milk. They also make their own lovely yoghurt too, in little glass jars.

Despite looking like something that I dragged out from underneath the sofa, this mouldy old goat's cheese was surprisingly mild. Next to it is a delicious rosemary rind cheese (my favourite). All good with a glass of wine, a bunch of grapes, some local pears, plums and apples, and a loaf of rustic brown bread. Oh and our favourite neighbours, of course!

marscapone tart

marscapone tart, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

Marscapone + sugar+ lemon zest+ eggs = delicious creaminess.

I made this while on holidays and it was wonderful!

tart base

tart base, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

Gingernuts, hobnobs, butter - what else do you need?

Cheese, please

Cheese, please, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

An unpasteurised farmhouse cheddar, to be precise. At Neal's Yard. Or is it Neal's Yard Dairy. I can't remember. Stinky, though.