Vin brulé (hot mulled wine)

                                              

It's December already. Ever since I've started working in August, time has gone by at the speed of light. So here we are, already counting down the days till Christmas. Temps are still not very wintery and I'm a little disappointed because it hasn't snowed yet, but I'm making up for it by decorating the house and preparing Christmasy foods.

Vin brulé, aka hot mulled wine, is one of my favorite things about this time of the year. I first tried it when I was about 14, mingling at a Christmas market in the Dolomites with my friend Giovanna. We were freezing, so we decided to give it a try. It was the beginning of an obession. I liked it so much I order it everwhere I go if I see it on the menu. No wonder I liked Prague so much, they sell it on every street corner at a price so cheap, you just can't say no.

Of course I also make it home. Last night I had it while putting up the Christmas tree and, I have to say, it was one of the best recipes ever. Try it, you won't be sorry.

VIN BRULE'

1 bottle dry red wine

Peel of one orange

Peel of one lemon

2 cinnamon sticks

1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

8 whole cloves

1 cup of sugar

Place all ingredients in a sauce pan. Slowly bring it to a boil, then simmer for about ten minutes or until sugar has dissolved. Discard solids and serve. 

Potato and mushroom cups

I'm soooo tired these days. Last night I had the closing shift at the newspaper and afterwards, I stayed up drinking beer and watching The Mentalist until 3 am. Not smart, I know, but I have such a hard time unwinding, especially after a night like last night, when people seem to drive you crazy on purpose. When the alarm went off this morning at 9, I was tired, but thought I felt pretty good for how little I had slept. It's now 11:24 and I just hit a major wall. I could curl under my desk and go to sleep. Instead I have an interview to transcribe, pages to take care of and the thought that tonight it's Christmas tree/decorations time!

Of course I could sleep during the weekend... not this one though. Friday morning I'm leaving for Zurich, so I guess I won't be sleeping too much. Oh well. Thank God the weeened after that is a four day weekend, so I guess I'll have plenty of time to nap then! 

As for my "detox diet" (read: I have to shed at least 4 pounds because I hate the way my jeans fit me right now) it's going well. I bought a really cool cookbook called "Ammazzacicca" which literally means "fat killer". Gotta love that. There's all kinds of good recipes, all under 500 calories, so I'm enjoying food, yet losing some weight. So far just .5 kilos (1 pound), but hey, I've only started on Monday. Here's a good little recipe for you: simple, yet very satisfying.

POTATO AND MUSHROOM CUPS

1/2 pound potatoes cubed
2 shallots
A few sprigs of rosemary and sage
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 pound mixed fresh mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper

Sautèe shallots in olive oil, remove from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the same pan add potatoes and minced herbs, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for about 7 minutes. Remove lid and cook for another 7 minutes. Add shallots.

Place potato mixture in a muffin pan to give it a cup shape.

Sautèe mushrooms and garlic in the same pan for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve potato cups with mushrooms on top.

Roasted potatoes with thyme and shallots

Thanksgiving weekend is over, at least for me. I work on most Sundays, so here I am, sitting at the office, already looking forward to next weekend. Friday and Saturday I'll be in Zurich, Switzerland, to check out some art museums, eat fondue and, hopefully, bump into some Christmas markets. I was also kind of hoping for snow, but I just checked the forecast and, apparently, we are going to get fog on Friday and rain on Saturday - a wonderful combo to take pictures...

Oh well, maybe they are wrong. We'll see, I guess.

Other than that, I'm trying to eat light this week, after gorging on way too much food over the holiday weekend. That doesn't mean I won't be posting recipes, luckily I'm always behind when it comes to posting, so I have tons of recipes from the past 15 days still unpublished. See? Procrastination can be a good thing.

So here's the first one: these are the potatoes I served on Thursday night. I was tired of serving rosemary potatoes, so I decided to dress them up a bit with thyme and shallots. It was a very good idea, believe me.

ROASTED POTATOES WITH THYME AND SHALLOTS

Fingerling potatoes, peeled
Salt and pepper
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 shallot, minced
1 cup vegetable broth

Place potatos in a baking dish, season with salt and pepper, add shallots and thyme and pour 1/2 cup of broth in the dish, so they won't stick to it.

Cook in a preheated oven at 375° for about 30 minutes, adding more broth as it evaporates.

Eat your Brussels sprouts!

 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was great, filled with amazing food and even more amazing friends. It's hard to cook for 19 people, especially in a tiny kitchen, but with my mom's help and two days worth the cooking we managed to serve a turkey meal that everyone enjoyed. Company, of course, was lovely too and it was a pleasure to see everyone loving the food so much. 

The turkey is all gone. All of it. And so are most of the side dishes, except for the stuffings (but that's not a problem. I love stuffing.) I was afraid Brussels sprouts were not going to be overly popular because, let's be honest, they usually aren't. But dressed up with pancetta, shallots and garlic they were much better than usual... they actually had flavor, which isn't their strong suit. Pancetta makes everything better in my opinion, kind of like butter. So if you are wondering how to make Brussels sprouts that don't suck... here's the recipe, adapted from Cooking Light, the November issue.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH PANCETTA AND SHALLOTS

• 6 slices center-cut bacon, chopped
• 1/2 cup sliced shallot (about 1 large)
• 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
• 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bacon, and sauté for 5 minutes or until bacon begins to brown. Stir in shallot, and Brussels sprouts; sauté 4 minutes. Add garlic, and saute for 4 minutes or until garlic begins to brown, stirring frequently. Add the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes or until the broth mostly evaporates and the sprouts are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in salt and pepper.

Cornbread stuffing with sausage, apples and fennel

 It's almost 5 pm now and I have made some progress. I'm actually proud of myself, since I have baked two batches of cornbread, made homemade pate', cranberry sauce and, last but not least, this wonderful stuffing. 

Making this was actually one of the easiest tasks today. I mean, between finding the freaking turkey - which is hard to come by whole in Switzerland - and making the cornbread, I'm already exhausted. It's a lot of cooking, I'll tell you. And right now I'm baking a pumpkin cheesecake, which is particularly stressful for me because I hate baking and I hate making dessert. So you can figure how much I hate BAKING DESSERT. 

Anyhow, here's the recipe for the stuffing, which I have tried and is delicious. Trust me, it doesn't get much better than this!

CORNBREAD STUFFING


Cooking spray
2 links hot Italian sausage
10 ounces frozen pearl onions
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 small red Michigan apples, skin on, chopped
1/2 large fennel bulb, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 loaf cubed cornbread (about 8 cups)
2 eggs
1 cup chicken broth

In a large skillet brown the sausage in its own fat, crumbling with a wooden spoon. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add frozen pearl onions and sprinkle with brown sugar. Cool until the onions are tender and sugar has dissolved, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add celery, fennel and apple (I left the skins on for color, but you can remove them if you like.) Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with thyme and cook for about ten minutes.

Spray a 10x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Mix vegetable mixture and bread cubes in it. In a small bowl beat the eggs into the broth. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over bread and veggie mixture, toss to coat. Bake in a 400F oven for 45 minutes.

Skillet cornbread

Here I am, on Thanksgiving Eve (does that even exist?), trying to make stuff ahead so I don't lose my mind tomorrow like I did in 2008, break my knee like I did in 2009 or end up with food even in my hair like I did in 2010. You live, you learn, they say. We'll see. 

As of now, it's 11 am on Wednesday and I've already baked cornbread for my gluten-free stuffing. That's all folks. It's not like I'm crazy ahead, but in the next few hours I'm going to crank out some serious food... at least the appetizers, the stuffing and the cranberry sauce.

I'll keep you all posted. Hope you are having a great almost-holiday weekend =)

A funny note: buttermilk doesn't exist in Switzerland. Or if it does they hide it so well I couldn't find. So my day started by having to make buttermilk, which is not complicated, you just mix a scant cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice... but it kind of makes you think about the challenges ahead.

SKILLET CORNBREAD

• 3 teaspoons vegetable oil 
• 2 cups buttermilk 
• 1 large egg 
• 1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 
  

• Coat bottom and sides of a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with bacon drippings; heat in a 450° oven for 10 minutes.
• Whisk together buttermilk and egg. Add cornmeal, stirring well.
• Stir in baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour batter into hot skillet.
• Bake at 450° for 15 minutes.

Goat cheese appetizer balls

It seems like yesterday that I was thinking about Thanksgiving being two months away. And now it's here. Only two days away. Of course I havn't even started cooking or prepearing for it, mostly because this working full time thing has kind of gotten in the way ;-) Since Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Europe I had to take the day off and, while I was at it, I also took tomorrow off, so I have two days to prepare the feast! I have to say that I'm super excited about cooking. I hadn't really noticed it, but since I've started working I have been cooking less than I used to and I really, really miss it.

It sounds a little crazy, but it's true.

So tonight I'm baking cornbread that I will use for the stuffing, so that my celiac friend can eat it too. Tomorrow I'll make what can be made ahead: my famous homemade patê, a pumpkin spread for my vegetarian friend and, most likely, the pumpkin cheesecake I intend to serve as dessert. Thanks to Debbie at Feast for the eyes I will also make the gravy ahead. That way on Thursday I only have to make the turkey and the side dishes. Sounds like a good plan, right? We'll see if I actually follow it through. I'm famous for not following through, so chaos and disorder are always around the corner...

Anyhow... if you are looking for an easy to make and cool to look at appetizer, here's a recipe for you!

GOAT CHEESE APPETIZER BALLS

2 goat cheese packages

2 tablespoons ground almonds

EVOO, 1 tablespoon

2 teaspoons honey

Salt and pepper

Mix cheese, oil, honey in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Place in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Using your hands make balls out of cheese mixture. Dredge them into ground almonds.

Serve with a honey drizzle over it.

Things I loved about Prague

Back from 48 hours in Prague, Czech Republic. The place is absolutely fantastic, so great I wish I could have stayed there at least twice as long. To see the whole photo album, here's a link you can use even if you are not on Facebook.

Prague ham... at all times of the day, even for breakfast. Alwaya accompained by creamed horseradish and a Pilsner Urquell beer. The smokiness of the ham goes together well with the smooth, bold pils. A breakfast (or lunch, or snack) made in heaven.

Gorgeous, colorful houses in Mala Strana and Stare Mesto, the two oldest neighborhoods in town. One on each side of the river Moldava, they are so pictoresque they almost look fake. The best thing about them is they are 100% real.

Old Town Square and its Astronomical Clock looking dramatically beautiful. The square has been the heart of Prague since the 10th century.

Amazing doors and doorknobs that lead into even more amazing churches and sinagogues.

A Middle Ages themed tavern, where the waiter slams a tray full of grilled meat in front of you and says "Eat with your hands!"... what's not to love about that?

Art Deco everywhere. I swear, you cannot turn your head without bumping into some of it.

Grilled vegetables mock lasagna

 

One thing I miss about summer the most once fall sets in is eating flavorful fresh vegetables. Fall veggies are fine, but they are definitely not the same, not just because of their color, but also because of their flavor. Let's face it: parsnips are ok, but they are no fresh baby zucchini.

Still, I have promised myself that I wouldn't buy out of season vegetables that come form the other side of the world this year, that I would make more sustainable choices in the months ahead. And, to be honest, summer veggies don't taste that good when you eat them in the fall, they just aren't the same.

Unless you grill them, of course.

See where I'm going here?

I bought a last batch of summer veggies -zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant- grilled them and used them to make this mock lasagna. Again, I call it "mock" because it's not made with lasagna noodles, but with pane carasau, a Sardinian flatbread.

 

This isn't really a recipe. I just grilled the vegetables, chopped them and alternated layers of flat bread, layers of veggies and sprinkled them with shredded mozzarella. Then I baked it at 350°F for ten minutes and... voilà. Dinner is served!

 That's all floks. I won't be around for a few days, I'm going to Prague tomorrow... so have a great weekend everyone, and see you on Monday!

Wordless Wednesdays: Locarno, Lake Maggiore, Switzerland