A few weeks back in the USA!

We finally headed back to the good ole' US of A as a family. I was once told that flying overseas with kids takes 2 years off your life...confirmed!  After 8 months of living in Switzerland it was good to get back to the States for a few weeks. This trip was obviously about seeing family and friends, as always that goes hand in hand with great food and quality drink! I headed down to Philadelphia to meet up with a good friend and in the short period of a few days we packed in so many food and beverage stops I'm still amazed to be here today. 

Summers on the Jersey Shore always meant crabbing in the bay and blue claws are king. Kevin and I both polished off 6 each and picked at least that many for crab cakes. 

When Kevin picked me up in Philly we immediately speed off to Long Beach Island to recall all my childhood memories. Surprisingly, most everything was as I remembered it...so feeling pretty darn nostalgic we stopped off at Mustache Bill's dinner to enjoy some Barnegat Bay flounder and a very non European turkey club (it was awesome).

We visited one of the cities best BBQ places...Sweet Lucy's Smokehouse (owned by my former partners from Boston, Brook and Jim Gershel.

Can't beat their smoked chicken and smoked kielbasa.

We had to hit a craft brewery...Philadelphia Brewing it was.

Two studs wishing they could have all that Kensington.

 

The tour was quick, but we got to see the entire process and be right on the floor while production was taking place...unlike large breweries that just manufacture summer swill.  

Who wouldn't want this as a tasting room?

I know it's not pretty, but keep in mind it's 1am, we're drinking some strong Dogfish Head  IPA, and they don't do chicken wings in Switzerland. 

Hoagies done the right way

Ending the day at Germantown Cricket club with an incredible Bluecoat gin and tonic.  

The Art of Cheese Making, Swiss Style

I want to do a lot of things (understatement), but I really want to make cheese! This is something that I’ve wanted to do for many years and truly have a passion for...it’s a combination of my creative side (like being a chef), my artsy side (I’m still perfecting my stick figure drawings) and my science side (ever evolving).  I have a huge respect for artisan cheese makers who take a few raw products and craft them into something as complex and living as cheese.  The process of making artisan cheese is so basic and has been going on for thousands of years, but it’s not something that can be replicated on an assembly line type of production and will quickly loose its sense of place or terrior.  

So a good friend and I decided to journey into the mountains and learn the basics of cheese making, the old school way...one copper kettle, wooden tools, a stone for a press, an open flame, and true old time Swiss cheese masters to guide us. 

Two well aged cheese masters who teach their art to crazy people like me and Alex 

Adding the renet, which makes the milk coagulate...a very important part of cheese making (ok, you wouldn't have cheese without this step)

Looking for a clean break. Looks more like jello milk.

Cutting the curd, not the cheese

Hey Miss Muffet...here are your curds and whey

Check out the wooden heat shield

Alex is working hard to make our cheese, but "this damn heat shield does NOT seem to be working"

That's the curd in the cheese cloth and the rest is the whey. Whey is high in vitamins, protein and minerals and this whey will be feed to local pigs. Otherwise the Swiss will use whey in carbonated drinks to add some healthy quality.A truly sustainable product.

A stone really is a unit of measurement, no joke.

This is where our cheese will age for the next four months

On the way home from the Emmentaler region we had to stop at a cheese shop to round out our experience...so the likely place, was a truly inventive and experimental cheese shop called Chas Glauser www.chaesglauser.ch located in the German speaking part of Switzerland. He is doing some incredible creative things with cheese. 

These fresh cheese are suspended over Calvados so they can absorb and soak up the liquor...adding an amazing flavor

I couldn't resist a picture amongst a huge wheel of Emmentaler (the inside looks like what most people associate with swiss cheese but this cheese is nutty and smooth, but is certainly not meant for a sandwich).

There are jars and containers all over the store with Herr Glauser's experiments. Yes, you can actually purchase these

Serious chemistry!

Carpentras, Provence, France

We had family in town and it was time for us to take a trip, sans kids...

so we headed out of Switzerland for a weekend getaway to the South of France.  

A quick stop in Grenoble to have lunch and for me it was one of my most memorable meals...isn't that always the case? So simple, no one spoke English, it was really called the Snack Shop, and we were absolutely the only ones NOT from Grenoble.  Awesome!

Frites, haricots verts a l'ail, de poulet dans une sauce brune avec champignons, steak grille - tres delicieux

Château du Martinet in Carpentras

Breakfast

Outside the Pope's Palace in Avignon

In the hill town of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse

A great meal and view and an incredible sunset at Le Mas des Vignes, Route du Mont-Ventoux, near Bedoin

Malakoff- Cheese Bombs

I can understand that many people have never heard of malakoffs in other parts of the world but surprisingly even in Switzerland they are not well known. Maybe it’s because each of the 26 Cantons has their own food specialty and each specialty is so amazingly unique and delicious they don’t need to look elsewhere.  This in my opinion is one exception to the rule.  This delicious specialty of Canton Vaud and more specifically the Communes (towns) of Luins and Vinzel are incredibly tasty and need to be shared. 

When I sat down at the Auberge De Luins (www.aubergedeluins.ch) I was well aware of the Malakoff specialty, but I didn’t quite understand what they really were.  Everything I read and everyone I spoke to had a different interpretation of what the ingredients were and how it was prepared.

Before I could open my menu to see the different kinds of malakoffs and what special accompaniments I would be indulging in, my server came over, pleasantly greeted me and immediately asked if I would like a malakoff with salad.  I quickly said yes but then inquired about portion size, how many came with the meal, did I need other items, but before I could get my concerns out she stopped me and said, “I can only bring one at a time...they must be hot when served.”  I closed my menu and knew I was in good hands.  No where does it state that this was a buffet or all you can eat, or even looked like a stuff-yourself kind of place.  In the US they make every effort to capitalize on such an amazing lunch special, but we’re in Switzerland and most everything is very understated.  While waiting for my lunch, eight other tables filled up around me and to my surprise and joy the only thing the server asked was “malakoff salad oui?”  There were businessmen, retirees, even two street sweepers (I know this because I saw them get out of their trucks), and no tourists (ok, maybe one…moi).  These were all good signs that I was about to experience a quality meal ...one specialty to be ordered, no one was asking to see a menu, different people from all walks of life, and outside seating.

 Indeed all the people around me were spot on, because my hot gooey malakoff was perfect...no fan fare, no special sauce, nothing to hide what it really is (a beautiful gruyere cheese bomb) and they just kept coming.  I could only manage to eat three, but those with heartier appetites could add a few more to their plate.  The salad was a shredded cabbage with lemony mustard vinaigrette that was surprisingly refreshing...sure, the whole meal was white, um, make that very white, but the salad was the perfect complement to this glorious fried cheese concoction.     

In the bowl is Gruyere cheese, milk, eggs, mayo, white pepper, and bread crumbs

The mixture is placed on top of a toast round

Chef 

Fried in peanut oil, which is rarely used in Switzerland

No additional breading...only a few uncomplicated ingredients that keep it simple and tasty  

Horses…not just for riding.

I’m sorry did you say horse, like as in nay and giddy up?  You have to be joking right?  This was my reaction when a local butcher in Nyon asked if I wanted to try his most prized air dried meat (cheval). Maybe we shouldn’t have laughed, so I tried it (my daughter was with me and wanted nothing to do with it) and I have to say it was quite lean and flavorful, and had a smooth texture with a deep dark red almost purple color, , but I don’t think I will be eating horse again soon.  I learned early on in culinary school that you need to try everything at least once...isn’t that what we teach our kids?  How will you know you don’t like it if you don’t try it?  Being able to experience other cultures starts with trying the food.  But I had no idea people around the world ate horse meat, let alone consider it a delicacy in Switzerland. 

Smoked

Since I have learned this new word, I found cheval (horse) being sold at our local grocery store and on a lot of restaurant menus. As it turns out, eating horse meat dates back thousands of years and today over 1 billion people around the world eat it.  China, Mexico, Russia, Italy, and Kazakhstan are the top cheval-consuming countries.  In Europe, Italy eats over 16,000 tons per year (and this includes donkeys…again...you’re joking, right?) while France, Switzerland, and Germany don’t fall too far behind. The Swiss often dry cure the meat and thinly slice it to be eaten with their traditional fondue.  The interesting thing about Italy being such a huge consumer is the fact that since the 8th century eating “le cheval” has been prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church.  I’m sure this is not the only thing that happens in Italy (and most countries) that is prohibited by the church!  

Sure it can be said that horse meat is very high in protein and many people look at anything on the farm as a form of food...waste not, want not. Though for me I still see the horse as a sentimental animal that can be ridden for fun or sport or kept as a pet, but not eaten for dinner. 

Different ways cheval is prepared

Supermarket cheval

Jennie's English/Swiss Brownies

Would you pay a little over $9.00 (CHF 8.00 Swiss Francs) for a basic boxed chocolate brownie mix? Sounds expensive, right? Well, living in Switzerland is expensive overall, but it’s even more expensive when you buy imported American items.  But sometimes you just crave certain things, and my family craves brownies, not just any brownies but brownies out of the box.  Sure, I have been formally trained on how to cook and be creative in the kitchen, but for me baking is a whole different ballgame (or so I thought).  It has always intimidated me...weighing, measuring, and being accurate...what if I screw it up and add too much of this or that and then “Poof” I have an irrecoverable disaster on my hands.   

So you can imagine that I struggle with recipes that don’t give me the freedom to throw in a pinch of this or a dash of that.  It is my opinion that recipes are there for interpretation and can be great references but you can’t get hung up on them.  They are there to give you a jumping off point not an end all be all.  So because of my fear of baking and my presumptive thought that baking was very strict and you had to follow the rules, it was never important to me to have a good quality brownie recipe until faced with that $9 price tag.

Jennie’s Brownies (Jen is a British/Aussie friend here in Switzerland)

DRY

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I use unsweetened, but you can use sweetened, just cut back a little on the sugar)

1/2 cup all purpose flour (you can use self rising flour, just leave out the baking  powder)

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. baking powder

______________________________________________________________________

WET

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp strong coffee

2 ea. eggs

4 oz melted butter (unsalted)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C
2. In two separate bowls mix all DRY ingredients together and then mix all the WET ingredients together, then add wet to dry and thoroughly mix. 
3. Pour into a greased pan (11x7 or 9x9, just depends on thickness)
4. Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes and remove and let cool 

This is a recipe that can modified to your heart’s desire, just remember a few points:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

• Grease the pan with butter, vegetable oil, or spray (or line it with parchment paper) just make sure you have something down.

• Make sure the melted butter is cooled down slight before adding it to the egg mixture (it will scramble if too hot)

• Do not overcook!  If after 20 minutes the brownies are still jiggly in the middle remove and let cool.  There will be a good amount of carry over cooking and even if they seem loose they will firm up once cooled (or be a little gooey in the middle, yum!). Trust me no more than 20 minutes.  I like very moist brownies and usually only cook them for 17 minutes.

• You can swap the milk and coffee amounts (1/4 c. coffee and 1Tbsp of milk), it just depends on your taste

• If you do not like coffee replace with your favorite tea (earl grey would be nice)

• Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla 

Madrid = Jamon iberico

Traveling with kids is never easy, but imagine two parents who are fairly regimented  about when our family eats (yes, we all get really cranky if not fed), and throwing that family in a place that eats all their meals at completely different times than we’re used to.  Well that was us in Spain...lunch isn’t eaten until after 1 pm and dinner, if you’re lucky, isn’t served until around 8:30 pm. We knew this going in and had our snacks in easily accessible places, but it’s still a shock and a challenge.  With that being said, the kids surprised us with their adaptability, and the Spanish surprised us by being very accommodating.  So my official judgement is that Spain is awesome! Madrid could quite possibly be my new favorite city. 

It is so much more a food city than I had ever expected. For me I’ve always enjoyed the unexpected...like the time we toured a chocolate factory here in Switzerland, and instead of the standard protocol where the tour would end by receiving a single piece of crappy wrapped candy, when we got to the end it was like hitting the jackpot, the mother load...all the chocolate you could stuff in your mouth!  When you’re ready for one thing but you get a different but much better substitution, well that just makes me happy.  So seeing ham at every meal was not what I expected, but it certainly made me happy.  It was everywhere and everyone seemed to love the salted pig...every lunch counter, super market, and deli had it in some shape or manner.  

just a huge pile of cured ham in supermarket

Now I knew that the Spanish enjoyed cured meats because everything I read talked about the jamon iberico or the Black-footed pig that is found in Spain. These pigs roam the country side and have a unique flavor that most definitely comes from them being fed a diet of acorns.  With only a few days in Madrid it was important to belly up to a lunch counter for traditional tapas, visit the Market of San Miguel, and of course eat at the Museo del Jamon (which turns out is not a museum at all...ah, if only such a place existed...but instead is a chain of deli-like, ham-loving hangouts that truly places the pig on a pedestal), and to go to El Botin (the oldest restaurant according to the Guinness Book of World Records).

Museo del Jamon

I must say I was skeptical of making a reservation at Botin as it was sure to be a serious tourist destination, so how could such a place serve quality food and be up to speed with the culinary trends of Spain that I was looking for.  Well you know what I’m going to say...we made a reservation and hands down it was the best meal we had in Madrid and to boot it turns out the oldest restaurant, in my opinion, is the most kid friendly place we have eaten in all of Europe. They had booster seats, crayons, paper for drawing, kids silverware (for some reason this an anomaly in Europe) and the bread came immediately (though they charged 2,00 Euro for butter, who cares, the kids were happy).  Here are a few of the menu items we ordered:

• Green beans with Iberian ham
• Garlic soup with egg (over-easy)
• Roast baby lamb 
• Roast suckling pig - sounds crazy, but they’ve mastered the crispy skin and all
• Croquettes
• Sangria

I’ll make sure I return to Madrid, maybe even tour some of those famous museums everyone was talking about.