thepassionatecook

Fennel & pistachio pesto

When Jeanne and Nick came over for a "fondue bourguignonne" on the bank holiday weekend, they brought along a little chest of treasures - culinary treasures, that is. I haven't tried the salsa truffina yet, but the fennel and pistachio pesto was absolutely amazing. I guess you have to be very fond of fennel, because this pesto does what it says on the tin... strong fennel taste here, not covered up with parmesan like so many basil pestos these days. The pistacchios could have played a bigger part, I think - but it's got a nice hint of chilli you only get to notice after a few bites and is a very refreshing sauce to mix in with your pasta for a quick lunch or dinner. I spotted a whole range of unusual combinations like this one in the speciality aisle at Sainsbury's the other day, so let me hear which ones rock your boat!

Threesome of curd dumplings on rhubarb & strawberry compote (Topfennockerl)

This is another post that is long overdue... I'm finding it hard to keep up at the moment! Spring not only brings great food, somehow the whole world seems to wake up and after having been stuck at home during the winter, all if a sudden you've got more social engagements than you can actually handle. Well, at least that's what seems to happen to me. Time to be a little selfish now and catch up on some posting before I whizz off to New York at the end of the week!
We had a sweet little soirée at a friend's house a few weeks back, where we spoilt an interesting crowd of people with traditional Austrian food. Martina made some great spreads which we nibbled with a glass of Prosecco in hand while waiting for a German-Mexican couple arriving from Frankfurt and getting completely lost in the jungle that is Greater London.
Next up was our Schweinsbraten cook-off: a bit like that "Ready, steady, cook" show on television - with our children judging who does the best roast pork - although we refused to be judged, calling it a "friendly", rather than a cooking competition.
For dessert, I decided to make some curd dumplings in three variations - struggling a bit with the fact that even though you can buy curd here, the consistency is very different... much wetter than anything I would buy in Austria. But we managed, adding loads of semolina until we achieved a dough that was managable.
The three variations were plain dumplings rolled in poppy seeds, plain dumplings rolled in toasted almonds and an apple & cinnamon version rolled in toasted pecans, all served on Martina's delicious gingered rhubarb & strawberry compote Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take notes for the latter, but I shall try and make one myself very soon, so stay tuned!

Asparagus risotto

Spring is a wonderful season and finally we can peruse of all the fresh, seasonal and local produce, which has to taste superior to any other fruit and vegetables, as it doesn't travel the world before reaching our market stalls. This invariably has a big impact on our daily menu, with asparagus, peas, strawberries and the like being the protagonists of the moment.
Nothing easier than whipping up a quick risotto on a weeknight when you're tired after work - just get you better half to chop the onions, while you trim some asparagus stalks and declare you'll be in charge of stirring the risotto every once in a while, ever so gently, and careful not to knock over the glass of chilled white you're, of course, "only tasting"...

Foodblogging goes to Twickenham...

... and so did masses of other people. But while the "Barbarians" headed right towards the Rugby Stadium, beer in one hand, pie in the other, the "Culinarians" took a swift turn to the left to enjoy the, I dare say, more sophisticated pleasures of tapas & antipasti alongside carefully selected matching wines.
For the first time in history, the foodbloggers of Great Britain were meeting up... in the broadest sense, since we were also joined by the only Irish blog I am aware of (Meg of the-blog-stubbornly-known as "Let's eat with Meg and Ted" flew in from Dublin for the occasion) and the only professional wine drinker (or should I say "taster"?) with a blog, Andrew of Spittoon.
I am, of course, aware that there must be more UK foodblogs out there - some were invited, but either couldn't make it or couldn't be bothered, some others we weren't aware of... this is not a closed circle of snobbish food fanatics - if you think you deserve a place at this table, please let me know. We'll be more than happy to welcome you at our next get-together!
Last Saturday's 5-hour get-together in our kitchen conservatory made for merry eating and wine tasting (courtesy of Andrew and some free samples provided by Decanter Wines). Cécile of english patis brought a goats cheese, sundried tomato and pesto terrine and empanadas with a meat-raisin-egg filling reminiscent of her native Philippines, co-host Jeanne of CookSister! supplied a fabulously refreshing zucchini carpaccio with pecorino and some duely garlicky marinated mushrooms and Jenni of Pertelote made a paprika-smokey chickpea salad with tuna and roast peppers - a stunning combination! All this was accompanied by an assortiment of artisanal breads, which Meg of Though small, it's tasty (aka LEwMaT) carefully selected and carried all the way up from Brighton. I had planned to make vitello tonnato, but bed-ridden as I was I could only drag myself out of sick ward for a few hours and only managed to put some caprese on toothpicks (great idea for finger food there) and wrap gorgeous green asparagus stalks (blanched, of course) in parma ham and sprinkle them with parmesan.
Desserts were supplied by Keiko of Nordljus - and oh! what desserts! Gooey and melt-in-the-mouth tiramisu, the best crème brulée I have eaten in years - not too eggy, not too runny, great vanilla taste and and utterly crunchy burnt sugar crust... and if you thought that couldn't be topped, then think again - Keiko's hazelnut mousse au chocolat on a bottom of the fluffiest chocolate sponge cake can only be described as divine!
Loose plans were made for a follow-up meeting, an informal picnic in the hope that more foodbloggers might join us - Jeanne and I are pencelling in the first weekend in July on board of the Thames in Henley. And if nobody turns up, the two of us will have a rather splendid time sipping Pimms (with cucumber? really?) and watching  the fittest men in the country walk by in their lycra suits - and for once, the food will have to take a back seat...

Passion fruit panna cotta with raspberry coulis

Panna cotta being a really common dessert featuring on the menu of most Italian and many other restaurants, I would have thought that finding a decent recipe for it would be easy. Well, I was wrong. It wasn't easy at all. I only found a couple and wasn't too convinced, ended up adapting one from Gordon Ramsay's "Secrets".
But plain panna cotta wasn't good enough, I decided to pep it up with the addition of two of my favourite fruits - passion fruit, my eternal food love, for the panna cotta itself and as a nice speckled topping, and raspberry in the form of a coulis on the side. It was meant to be a light dessert - don't know what I was thinking there with all the cream going in, but at least something different from the obvious chocolatey finishes (why? what's wrong with that?). It turned out nicely, but I am not bowled over. The flavour was great, the acidity and freshness of the passion fruit cutting through the cream just enough to make it a refreshing finish. But next time, I'll use way less gelatine, as I do like my panna cotta to keep its shape, but I don't want to compromise on the creamy texture and turn it into jelly... so if you're trying this, experiment a litte - or wait until I make it again with a new! improved! recipe!

Digital Dish! The book is finally published!

Around this time last year, I was writing my first posts on this foodblog. I was enjoying my maternity leave, but needed to do something that would make me feel like I've achieved something at the end of the day... which nappy changes and baby feeding clearly didn't. So this is how I decided to dedicate more time to what I am really passionate about: food. Initially I dreamt about publishing a cook book. Until it became obvious that I had clearly forgotten what it means to have a tiny baby at home... was I really thinking I would be able to just put my feet up and suddenly have a 48 hours to kill per day and become incredibly bored after a week or so? Well, the reality was very different. But I was determined to do something.
When I researched a recipe for oeufs cocotte following a controversial online discussion in the food section of an Austrian newspaper, I came across weblogs. Foodblogs, to be precise. I started reading a few of them regularly and was hooked. A month later, I set up my own. Another three months down the line I received an email from someone who wanted to publish a selection of my recipes in a book. Would I be interested? Yessir! Of course!
And so, here it is. My first recipes in print format, apart from one which features in a Japanese course book for students of English (but that's another story). I am, of course, only a contributor - alongside 20 odd fellow bloggers around the world... 20 different kitchens, a lot of different nationalities, a selection of different styles, but a great book for sure. Some will intrigue you with their stories, some will bowl you over with their recipes. But it is definitely a good read.

Go on, you know you want it! Just do me the favour to buy it directly through this site rather than through amazon - buying directly from the source means that we don't have to pay a retail commission and might actually see some of the royalties hit our account... after divvying it up among all of us, that is, so it'll be a while before I move into a mansion somewhere in Monaco and drive around in a flash car - but every little helps, doesn't it?

Italian roastbeef with jerusalem artichoke purée and mixed vegetables

Now that the "roast season" is almost officially over (according to the calendar, that is - the temperatures are almost hibernal still) this post seems almost out of place... it's not entirely, though, as it is a very light and lean roast, with loads of fresh vegetables and even the mash is lighter, using jerusalem artichokes (aka topinambour) instead of potatoes only. I call it Italian roastbeef not because it is a traditional recipe from the Apennine peninsula but because I used an Italian red - hardly a good reason, but can't think of any better name right now.
Britain is well known the world over for their roast beef, but I have yet to find one that doesn't taste pretty insipid... I prefer a stronger flavour, without being over-powering. Which definitely applies to this beef studded with rosemary and roast in a pot with red wine and herbs - some garlic and loads of vegetables with it make this a healthy Sunday roast.
If we have beef back in Austria, it's likely to be boiled, not oven-roast - like the famous "Tafelspitz"... I shall make one soon, providing I can get an appropriate cut - time to take out my eternal reference book with regards to our great culinary heritage (see link list to the right), which has pictures of pretty much all the most important cuts of meat, which will allow my butcher to cut it just the way I need it! The co-author of said "bible" actually owns a few restaurants in Vienna, one of them specialising in Tafelspitz - if you're ever going to Vienna, make sure you book a table at Plachutta's, who in my humble opinion does the "bestest" Tafelspitz ever!

First barbecue of the season!

Since we had an unexpectedly warm and sunny Bank Holiday weekend, it is not surprising that we should have chosen to go for the first barbecue of the season. I tried two new marinades: pineapple, garlic, chilli, lime and ginger for the pork and wholegrain mustard, red wine and honey for the beef. The beef kebabs  with the mushroom and bacon worked very well, although I found that the bay leaves didn't add that much flavour - nice smell when they're burning off, though! My favourites were definitely the pork skewers - I felt that the pineapple had made the pork really tender - and the mint was a very refreshing addition which worked beautifully with the fruit. I regret not putting the remaining pineapple slices on the grill for dessert... they taste delicious when they're slightly charred and with some lime juice and mint sugar on top, it's a simple dessert that's hard to beat on a hot summer's day!
And I see you laugh in disbelief as you look at the top picture, but I am not ashamed to admit: this is, indeed, a disposable barbecue! Since we do not have a braai tradition like South Africans or Australians do, I can sit back and relax while my husband is grilling, as I will just take the whole thing when it's cooled down and chuck it in the bin rather than scrubbing away endlessly to transform the grill back to its former self. Who's laughing now?!

Pea & mint omelette

Running late, must excuse me. Super-quick post due to a to-do list longer than my 12-year-old's wish list for Christmas! Have to submit my contribution to this (or rather last) month's EoMEoTE, celebrating its 5th anniversary this month (didn't you know that as with marriages, the first year in the life of a food blogging event is spent celebrating its anniversary every month, rather than once a year?).
And going with the seasons and what's on offer this month, I concoted a fabulous breakfast yesterday, using freshly shelled garden peas and irresistable fresh mint (the left-overs of which my husband is enjoying in the form of a Mint Julep as I type). Can't think of anything that brings home the joys of spring more than peas and mint - well, strawberries and rhubarb, maybe... post to follow soon, I suppose!