Watercress soup

Watercress or Bachkresse in Swizerland

It is rare to see watercress on sale in Switzerland. It does not exist in the supermarkets, it is yet to be seen as the Swiss supermarkets are adapting to a wider range of products in the last years.

It is rather rare at the farmers´market too. Almost non-existent. When I saw the mushroom-man sell wild garlic and Bachkresse or watercresse the decision was made in my head in a few seconds. I made a mental note to strike through some other ingredients oin my shopping list replacing one planned meal with this new surprise.

Watercress soup with sourdough fougasse with olives

 

Water cress soup
Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil (e.g rape seed oil)
1 shallott, chopped
3 medium potatoes, cut into cubes
1 dash of white wine (optional)
0.7 l stock  
100g watercresse
2-3 tbsp fresh cream
salt
pepper

Heat the oil, cook the onions in it until glassy, then add the potatoes and cook for a couple of minutes. Splash in the wine and let it evaporate. Add the stock and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are soft. Add the watercress and cook for a couple of minutes until they soften.

Remove from heat and puree. Add the cream, bring back to boil. Season and serve.

Kohlrabi and wild garlic soup

For health conscious Fabi

After the extended winter this year the choice of the fresh vegetables at the farmers´ market is starting to multiply week by week and the opportunities to shake up another snazzy soup are equally expanding.



Aromatic Wild Garlic

The season for wild garlic in the nothern hemisphere is mainly in April and May. It finds its rightful place in a wild garlic risotto, can be folded into bread dough, mixed into a pesto or used raw to burst its garlicky taste. It has a smoother garlic taste than the conventional garlic cloves.

I thank my colleague Eli and her generous Mom and her garden where the wild garlic grows like weed.

I picked up one of the kohlrabis from the pile of these freshly harvested vegetables and assessed the baby smooth skin and the juicy crunch inside. The good ones have a kind of sweaky sound. Perfect! Can´t wait to be in the kitchen and 30 minutes later here comes lunch... Can´t be any fresher.

Fresh Kohlrabi (Swiss Rübkohl, Estonian Nuikapsas)

Kohlrabi and wild garlic soup

Ingredients for 2:
1 tbsp vegetable oil (eg. rape seed)
1-2 onion, chopped
1 Kohlrabi, cut into cubes
0.5 dl white wine or white sherry (optional)
0.7 l vegetable or chicken stock
2 tbsp fresh cream
salt
pepper
6-8 leaves of wild garlic, cut into fine stripes

Main ingredients for the kohlrabi & wild garlic soup

Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onions until for about 5 minutes until translucent.
Add the kohlrabi and cook for a few more minutes. Add the wine and let it sizzle away, then add the stock. Cook until kohlrabi is soft, about 10 minutes.

Take the soup off the heat and pureé until smooth. Mix in the cream and bring to boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with freshly cut wild garlic leaves.



Kohlrabi and wild garlic soup

Home Made Wild Garlic Bread

Wild garlic loaf (German Bärlauch Brot)

I suppose wild garlic is a little bit of Love or Hate thing. Less so if eaten raw, as in a raw state it resembles conventional garlic quite a lot. It reveals its special taste and aroma in some cooked dishes. Bread is one of such ways that when detected can be a real pleasure for the gourmet palate or may put off an eater not familiar with this herb.

In any case, for any curious mind, to find out if you have a love or hate relationship with wild garlic bread I invite you to try it out in your own kitchen.

Wild garlic at the market in April

Wild Garlic Bread
Ingredients for a small loaf
ca 15 g of fresh yeast
2.5 cups of dark wheat flour (I used the Swiss Ruchmehl)
0.5 tsp salt
2 tbs olive oil + a bit more for kneading
a small bunch (6-8 leaves) of wild garlic, finely chopped
1-1.5 dl water

Dissolve the yeast in a bowl in 0.5 dl water. Add the flour, oil, salt and the wild garlic. Add the water and mix the components together by hand. If the dough does not stick together add a little bit more water but not too much.

Put about 1 tbsp olive oil on the working surface where you knead the dough. Take the dough out of the bowl and start kneading it, stretching and folding it together for about 10 minutes until gluten builds and the dough becoms elastic and does not stick to the hands any more.

Drizzle some olive oil (again no more than 1 tablespoon) on the bottom and sides of the bowl and place the dough ball back into the bowl. Cover tightly with cling film and cover with kitchen towles. Leave to raise (prove) in a warm place for an hour or until the dough has doubled its size.

Preheat the oven to 220 Celsius.

When the dough has risen, take it out of the bowl onto the working surface and stretch and press out the air. Then fold the dough into a loaf and place it into the baking form fitted with the baking paper. If you wish, make a cut lengthwise.

Place a tray with water into the oven to create steam to support the making of the crust. Now the loaf goes into the hot oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes turn down the heat to 200C and continue baking for another 20 minutes.

Knock on the crust, but take care not to burn yourself. Hearing a hollow sound is a good sign. Place the loaf on a cooling rack and get the fresh bread afficionados ready around the table to taste your work. Serve with butter.

Serve the fresh wild garlic bread with butter

More recipes with wild garlic:
Red snapper on wild garlic risotto

Estonian Sweet Curd Pudding that melts in your mouth (Estonian: Suus sulav kohupiimavorm)

Estonian sweet curd pudding melts in your mouth

A long Easter weekend in Switzerland with two public holidays, enough time to colour eggs, eat fish and meat, make some curd desserts. The farmers´ market on Saturday morning was full of beautifully decorated eggs. The lady at my usual egg stand almost charged me double for my plain white eggs, thinking I had filled my carton with their painted masterpieces. The most common Estonian way is to dye Easter eggs with onion skins. You can find other Estonian Easter recipes on NAMI-NAMI food blog, written by another Estonian food fan.

Sweet curd desserts are quite popular during Easter in some countries. In Switzerland probably less so, but further north definitely. This year, Easter is so early that winter is still in its full arctic reign across most of Europe. I want to share a simple secret recipe for the irresistible indulgence for two in front of the fireplace or under the duvet during the snowy and rainy days. If you are generous, the recipe will stretch itself to be divided into three portions but four would be pushing it. For a party of four double the quantity.

These pudding bites disappeared in less than 5 minutes

Sweet Curd Pudding 
Ingredients:

750g low fat curds (German: Magerquark)
180g  sour cream (12-15% fat)
3 eggs
4 tbsp fine wheat semolina
1 tbsp flour
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
6 tbsp sugar
vanilla extract or contents of half the pod

Preheat the oven to 175° Celcius (350F).

Mix everything in a big bowl. Select either a round, square or a loaf shape baking tin. Prepare the baking form covering the bottom and sides with baking paper.

The shape of the baking form is totally up to you

Bake for 45-60 minutes or even longer until the pudding has hardened. The cooking time depends on the thickness, the thicker the dough in the form the longer the baking time.

Serve hot or cold, for an extra portion of sweetness dust with sugar (and cinnamon) or serve with some fresh raspberries or black currants.

Serve most of the curd pudding warm or cold, but definitely try a hot slice straight from the oven

More curd dessert ideas:
Sweet curd balls (Estonian: kohupiimapontshikud)

Cinnamon and apple rolls

Cinnamon and apple rolls

Cinnamon rolls have a certain cult status in the North of Europe. Whether it comes from the childhood experience or reading Astrid Lindgren´s books or just from having a whole raft of baked sweet cinnamon and yeast dough combinations as part of the everyday life, they are definitely on the list of "Happy foods". Perhaps like the famous Argentinian "alfajores" are for the Argentinians and wider South Americans. A similar feel good smily feeling arises with the well known "pasteis de nata" from Portugal.

Hereby I allow myself a brief digression from food to language. Namely, there is a word "küpsetis" in Estonian that denotes anything baked. I could use it as "kaneeliküpsetis" meaning anything baked with cinnamon without specifying the form of it. I struggle to find an appropriate quivalent in English. It is fine to be specific with "cinnamon rolls, cinnamon loaf, cinnamon cake, cinnamon-apple rolls, cinnamon biscuits, cinnamon sticks, etc, etc. The trouble arises when I am short of a word thinking I would like something baked with cinnamon when I haven´t quite yet decided in what form that baked someting with cinnamon should look like today. This is four words in the attempt of just wanting to say "kaneeliküpsetis". I suppose the dilemma is another example of the Estonian language being rather economising and not wasteful of words and therefore not as lavish in synonyms.

Cinnamon and apple rolls
Ingredients (makes 8-10)
25g fresh yeast
2 tsp sugar
a pinch of salt
1 dl warm (not hot) milk
1dl warm water
1 dl rape seed oil
200g + 80g flour (plain or whole wheat/German "halbweiss")
1 egg, beaten

Filling:
20g soft butter
2 sweeter apples, seeds removed, grated
cinnamon
10 tbsp sugar

Mix yeast, sugar and salt until the yeast becomes liquid. Add warm milk, warm water, cooking oil and fold in the flour for a few minutes until a smooth dough is formed. Leave to raise under two tea towels in a warm place without draft. When the dough has raised for an hour fold in the rest of the flour and leave to raise again under the towel for 45 minutes.

Yeast dough

Preheat the oven to 200° Celcius.
 
Place the dough on a floured surface and spread it thin either by hand or using a rolling pin.The dough should be about 5-7mm thin. Not too thin as you want to spread the soft butter on the dough now without breaking it. Then sprinkle sugar and a generous amount of cinnamon on the dough. spread the grated apples on the dough and from one seide lengthwise start to roll the dough into a long roll.Cut the long roll into 3-4cm thick slices and place them on a baking tray or into small baking forms. I buttered the forms slightly. leave to raise for 10 minutes.
Brush the rolls with egg.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until golden on the top.

Generous amount of cinnamon is key in these apple rolls

Enjoy warm or cold.

More from the Cinnamon Bakery:
Red Beetroot Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon Loaf

Carrot and fresh goat´s cheese pie

Carrot and goat´s cheese pie

I took a trip to the farmers´market to get my next dosage of carrots.  The farmer with the Egyptian pyramid hat has such sweet carrtos, even though they are stored over winter they are addictively fresh and crunchy even at the end of March. The decision of a carrot pie with goat´s cheese was taken when the young cheese maker handed me the piece of fresh goat´s cheese. I had been eyeing that cheese for a few times thinking what to pair it with. Some stronger and saltier cheese and herbs de Provance type of flavours would do the trick...with some darker flour.

Ingredients for the pie filling

Ingredients:
15g fresh yeast
1 tsp sugar
a pinch of salt
1 dl warm milk
1 dl warm water
0.5 dl rape seed oil
150g dark wheat flour ("Ruchmehl" in Switzerland)
80g whole wheat flour 

Filling:
400g boiled carrot, crushed
200g fresh goat´s cheese
50g hard cheese like Grana Padano or Parmesan, grated
black pepper from the mill
thyme leaves

0.5 egg, beaten

Mix the yeast with sugar and salt until liquid, then add the water, milk, oil and flours and combine. Cover the dough with kitchen towels and leave the dough to raise for about one hour.

Boil the carrots in salt water, cool down, remove the peel and crush with a fork. I like a rustic slightly coarser bite. For a smooth filling crushing the carrots in a food processor will do the job.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Cut the goat´s cheese into small pieces, and together with the grated hard cheese, pepper and thyme add to the carrots. Taste for salt.

The filling spread on the dough

Spread the dough on a flour dusted table or counter and place the carrot mix on the dough. Roll lengthwise together. Cover the baking tray with baking paper and place the pie on the tray. Brush the pie with the egg mixture and bake in the oven for 30 min.

Carrot pie with thyme, and two cheeses

Serve the pie warm or cold with tea or milk

For more try also  Carrot pie with chunky parmesan

Roasted Carrot and Chickpea Hummus

Roasted carrot and chickpea hummus

 I happened to see an interview with a popular Estonian writer and a respected thought leader Mihkel Mutt. Shooting many thought pearls from his sharp cannon he was talking about why we should read and re-read the classics.
If we only read whatever new comes along there is a risk that people will adopt bad as acceptable, acceptable as mediocre, mediocre as good and good as genius. The classics help us to re-calibrate the important criteria in life.

I was thinking about this all day and while the tought was inspiring to always aspire perfection it rang a bell in a culinary sense as well. The classic recipes are classic, because they are good and are treasured by millions of mouths because the classics make them happy. The classic cooking methods are classic again because they have worked for long and will continue to attract new generations.

Adopting eating habits that lead to diabetes in early ages as acceptable, aisles of packaged ready-made food as satisfactory, fast food as good nutrition and a plate of take away "pasta bolognese" as genius is crying out for an occasional visit to a real quality restaurant or Mom´s kitchen or foodie friends to re-calibrate the main criteria.

Roasted Carrot and Chickpea Hummus
Ingredients:
200g carrots, cut into 1-2cm pieces
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
salt
cumin powder

1 can chickpeas
2 tbsp tahini paste
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
juice of half a lemon
3 tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp salt
pepper
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder

Add more colour to pale hummus with roasted carrots

Heat the oven to 200 C, place the carrots into a baking tray, sprinkle with oil, a pinch of salt and a pinch of cumin powder and roast the carrots until soft, ca. 30-40 minutes. Cool them down.

In a food processor mix the roasted carrots. Add chickpeas, tahini paste, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper, cumin and coriander powders. Mix until smooth and well combined.

Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle some more cumin powder and serve with crisps, tortilla chips or thin roasted bread slices.

A more northern taste of classic hummus, with roasted carrots

Carrot and Rutabaga (swede) soup with lime

Carrot and yellow rutabaga (swede) soup with lime

I am a big fan of winter vegetables. Carrots, beetroots, celeriac, rutabaga (aka swede in Europe), potatoes, salcify, ... In European climate they store well either in the cold stores or in some countries even in the ground. For example in the UK where the climate is milder carrots can be stored in the ground over winter. In Estonia it would not be the case as the temperatures fall and stay well under zero (Celcius) and the fields are covered in snow for weeks if not months in good winters.

These days the farmers´market on the main square in the Swiss capital has been pushed to one side making room for a temporary skating rink. In very cold days some of the farmers don´t come out and in their usual places under the arches of the market streets would be a few yawning gaps. Still there is plenty of choice to fill up each basket and trolley bag with winter vegetables, a wide range of apples and pears, fresh eggs, cheeses, butter as well as fish and meat.

Behind one of the vegetable counters is a couple, perhaps in their fifties. The man, always in winter wearing a blue knitted hat that stands up like an Egiptian pyramid on his head, his ears reaching above the rim of the hat keeping the pyramid steady on both sides. He is very energetic and talks funny in a loud voice, often measuring the vegies by eye or a feel of their weight by hand. My pound of potatoes turned out to be just over 600g when I weighed them at home. The funniest part is getting the change back, some of it is "for the taxes", the coins often "for a cup of coffee" or some other treat. :-) I bet his wife is having a laugh at home like their customers are entertained on Saturday mornings.

Carrot and yellow rutabaga (swede) soup with lime
Ingredients (for 4 as a starter or 2 as a supper)

2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium shallot onion (ca 50g), sliced
3-4 garlic cloves
1 rutabaga (ca 200g), peeled and cut into cubes
250g carrots, cut into cubes 
800ml vegetable stock
1 stalk of lemongrass
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp desiccated coconut
salt, pepper
1 tbsp cream or coconut milk  
1 tbsp lime juice
1 green onion stalk, finely chopped 

Carrot, swede, onion, ginger, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass

Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onions until glassy, add the garlic and cut vegetables. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes before adding the stock, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, desiccated coconut. Bring to boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until carrots and rutabaga are soft. They both have similar cooking time.

Purée with a mixer, add the cream and season to taste with salt, pepper and lime juice.
Serve hot with green onions.

Swede and carrot soup seasoned with lime and lemongrass

You may also like these soups:
White swede (rutabaga) and celeraic soup (with fish)
Spicy sweet potato soup
Leek and potato soup with blue Stilton
Carrot soup with courgette (zucchini) and fresh salmon 

Winter: White swede (rutabaga) and celeriac soup with or without fish

White swede (rutabaga) and celeriac soup

Almost all food magazines I leafed through today at the kiosk dedicate a section on soups as the perfect winter food. Rightly so, however I doubt if anyone would really sit outside, read a book and enjoy a bowl of soup in winter in the northern hemisphere anywhere above the 47° N latitude like a beautiful photo was suggesting in one of these magazines.

I was waiting to board a flight around 4pm in early January in Helsinki and was looking out of the airport window. This was the time just before the evening darkness fell. My view through the frame was the dark blue sky, bordering black, a tick darker wall of forest on the horizon at the edge of the tarmac, a lonely yellow lamp not reaching past the gate, no other building in sight. The pressing "kaamos" (polar night, also referred to as winter tiredness) was only interrupted by an occasional plane rolling in to its gate somewhere. It was dark.

In the north where the darkness rules many months paradoxically the start of winter on the 21st December is actually the first step to the light again. That step is noticable already in the first days of January when the day is just a few minutes longer and life takes on a more optimistic note even if just psychologically. Most of the cold is still ahead....

Time for a bowl of soup with two winter vegetables: white fleshed swede and celeriac.
Swede is known as rutabaga in North America. If you are sensitive to the slightly bitter taste of swede then in the combination with the sweet note of celeriac that bitterness is not felt at all.

White swede (rutabaga) and celeriac soup
Ingredients (2 portions)
1 celeriac
1 white swede
bay leaf
5-6 grains of allspice
2 leaves of leek
800 ml vegetable stock

2 tablespoons sour cream or crème fraîche

a small bunch of cress
salt and black or cayenne pepper

400g bream, cod or salmon, cut into 2cm cubes
2 tablespoons (rape seed) oil

White fleshed swede (rutabaga), celeriac, leek, bay leaf, allspice

Cut the celeriac and swede into small cubes and place in a pan together with a bay leaf, grains of allspice, leek and add the stock. Cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
Remove from heat and take out the bay leaf, allspice and leek. Using a blender or hand mixer purée into a soup. Season with salt and pepper and mix in the cream.

Briefly fry the fish

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the fish for 3-4 minutes turning sides.

Serve the soup with chopped cress and portion the fish directly at serving.
Also tastes great without the fish as a vegetarian option.

Cream of swede and celeriac with fish

Christmas cookies and Estonian piparkoogid

Marzipan cookies

 

In Switzerland and Germany the typical Christmas cookies are Vanille Kipferln (vanilla half moons), Zimt Sterne (cinnamon and almond stars), and many others often made with ground almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts.

This year I set out to extend the line of the cookies and pair the dark Piparkoogid with a contrasting marzipan and orange cookies.

Marzipan - orange cookies from Germany

Piparkoogid are traditional Christmas cookies in Estonia and Scandinavia. Christmas and New Year without piparkoogid just doesn´t feel right. Piparkoogid are made with lots of different spices, cinnamon, ginger, clove, cardamom, nutmeg, orange peel, black pepper. The most important part of the preparation of the dough is burning the sugar. It gets very very hot, must not be over burnt, but under burning leaves the cookies too pale. The burnt sugar gives the piparkoogid the brown colour. It is good to let the dough rest for at least 24 hours and it can stay in the fridge even for a month. It almost has to given the volumes that all get baked during the last weeks of December.

Estonian Piparkoogid - Christmas ginger cookies

My Mom bakes lots of them for my Dad and for all the friends of the family. I usually make half of her  portion and that amounts to roughly 1000 pieces. So you can imagine a big basket of piparkoogid at my parents that gets filled and emptied and filled again. I must add that we love the very small ones and because they are small the hand just doesn´t stop going back to the bowl for more...and more...

Making Estonian Piparkoogid from dough

Small Piparkoogid are the best

I hope Santa will be in my town on the 24th, any day really would be good. He is a busy man visiting all of your towns too and hopefully with some foodie presents in his sack.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Pear and Persimmon Polenta Bread

Polenta Bread with Persimmon Kaki and Pear

I am lucky to have a lot of very international colleagues. My colleague who comes from Florida, a highly skilled cook herself, has awakened my palet to corn bread. This introduction happened last year during our cookbook project. To be perfectly honest I had mixed feelings with the first bite of her corn bread. On one hand I was so happy to have found something that is so simple, so tasty with qualities that would make a dish a family favourite instantly and on the other hand I couldn´t believe that it had taken me decades to get acquainted with this US staple. Of course I know why it is. Corn is not a staple in Estonia or in northern Europe for that matter. Polenta is more a southern European ingredient. It is grown in Italy or in Ticino in my current country Switzerland. In any case corn bread has found a place on my favourites list.

Today I am sharing a fruity version of the corn bread. Both pears and persimmons are quite sweet fruits and therefore don´t require too much added sugar. The changes to my friend´s recipe include adding the sour cream and the fruit, changing the quantities of flour, sugar and bicarbonate baking soda.

Pear and Persimmon Polenta Bread
Ingredients:

200g fine polenta
100g flour
1tsp bicarbonate soda
300dl butter milk
100g sour cream
2 large eggs
4 tbsp sugar
0.5 tsp salt
50g butter, melted
1 medium large pear (250g), grated
1 persimmon kaki, grated

Set the oven on 200 degrees Celsius.
In a large bowl whisk together butter milk, sour cream, eggs, sugar, salt and bicarbonate soda.
Add grated pear and persimmon, melted butter as well as the flour and polenta.
Combine everything into a smooth batter.

Fit baking paper into a tray (eg. 20 x 30cm) and trasfer the batter into the baking tray.

Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Serve warm or cold. Dust powdered sugar on top if you prefer.

Fruity Corn Bread with Pear and Persimmon

Grilled Aubergine Soup with Garlic and Sage and a glimpse at "The Pedant in the Kitchen"

Julian Barnes, a talented English writer, shares in a delightful humorous style the Pedant´s successes, frightening moments, discoveries, confusion and moments of happiness in "The Pedant in the Kitchen". This lovely book of 136 pages including illustrations takes anyone who wants to peek into other people´s kitchen to perfect dinner parties, to witness the inventory audit of the Pedant´s bottom drawer of questionable utensils, to picture the French roads with warning signes declaring "Betteraves" (beetroot), to signing up for a shopping course and handling a surly butcher or a teasing fishmonger.

I sympathise with the author as I have found myself in situations when following a recipe my cooking creation did not turn out as I had hoped or being utterly puzzled reading a recipe where the main ingredient promised in the name of the dish was not not even mentioned on the ingredient list. How much is a dash of sherry or a little sugar, how big is a medium size onion or a handful of rice? The only advice I have and follow myself is to improvise. Oscard Wilde said that cooking is an art. The Pedant in Barnes´book says that cooking is about making do with what you´ve got in ingredients, equipment and skills.

Grilled aubergine soup with garlic and crispy sage

Grilled aubergine soup with garlic and sage
Ingredients for 2-3
2 medium aubergines (400-500g)
olive oil
6 cloves of garlic
a dash of sherry (ca 0.5dl)
1 l stock
0.5-1dl fresh cream or creme fraiche
salt&pepper
6-8 fresh sage leaves
grilled paprika, yellow and red (optional)

Set the oven to 220 degrees Celsius at grill regime.

Rinse the egg plants and cut into 5-7mm slices. Place them side by side on a baking tray on a baking paper. Sprinkle with some olive oil. Grill for 15 minutes until the slices have softened.

In a pan heat 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil and add cleaned garlic cloves. Cook for a few minutes on medium heat until the garlic softens but does not burn.

Take the aubergine slices from the oven, cut into smaller pieces and add to the pot. Stir in the oil and add a dash of sherry. Let it sizzle away. Then add the stock and cook for about 10 minutes until the aubergine is soft. Take off the heat and purée with the mixer or blender.

Finish the soup with cream and salt - pepper to your taste.

In a small pan heat some olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan) and fry the fresh sage leaves briefly - no more than a minute - from both sides until they become crispy. Drain on a kitchen paper.

Grilled paprika adds colour and texture to the egg plant soup

To make the grilled paprika, place whole peppers on the baking tray together with the aubergines and grill until the skin turns dark brown turning from side to side. Remove the peppers from the oven into a bowl and cover the hot peppers with a plastic bag for a few minutes. This will loosen the skin. Peel and cut into suitable slices. Store the grilled paprika in a jar with olive oil.

Serve the soup with slices of grilled paprika and the crisp sage leaves.

More soup recipes:
Spicy sweet potato soup
Leek and potato soup with blue Stilton
Salcify cream soup

Simple "Aachener Printen" cookies, this time with figs and without anis

Aachener Printen, Christmas cookies, an old German tradition

The pre-Christmas hustle is taking up speed and density while the speed of moving around and the speed of service is going down. The streets are full of shoppers, shops are full of Christmas goods, products, decorations and gifts. The shoppers are carrying their coats under their arms or in the shopping carts to prolong or rather enable to balance the temper and temperature while the choosing of the things to buy and the wait at the check-out. No Christmas carols yet.

Last year I baked over a thousand Christmas cookies. This year could be more or a lot less since I am spending my weekend time on studying for an exam in December. I promised myself that I must manage at least some. Home made cookies are a part of the December celebration.

I was looking to widen my repertoir with some new cookies and happened on Lebkuchen which are normally thick soft cookies with a strong anis taste and smell. That´s how the Lebkuchen stand at the market outside the office smells. Most of the times I don´t enjoy anis. I am pretty sure everyone has some ingredient that they prefer to leave out of their diet. Anis is one of mine.

That little detail wasn´t going to stop my experiment with Lebkuchen. Aachener Printen is a type of Lebkuchen that gets an image "printed" on the cookie. My version is not that sophisticated, setting more worth to the inside than outside. :-) I took another liberty to change the standard recipe by adding butter. The original way of making the Aachener Printen is without fat. The recipe has been modified from one in the magazine of "essen und trinken" (I added figs, butter, changed the amount of flour, baking soda, left out pottasche, hirschhornsalz, kandis sugar). I am aware that my adjustments may be against the old traditions, but hey, all cooking is a big experiment.

Simple Aachener Printen, getting the name from the Aachen town in Germany

Aachener Printen with figs and without anis
Ingredients:
250g honey
50g sugar
0.5 dl water
80g butter
a pinch of salt
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground kardamom
1 tsp ground cloves
1 egg, beaten
450g flour
1.5 tsp sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
2-3 large dried figs, finely chopped 
1 tbsp starch

In a pot bring the honey, sugar and water to boil. Remove from the heat. Add the butter and let cool. Mix in the spices, salt and the egg. Combine the baking soda with the flour separately and the chopped figs with starch. Then mix the figs with the flour and add to the rest. Combine with a spatula and leave to rest for a few hours in the fridge. The dough should be quite firm, add some flour if it feels too soft. (You should be able to form a ball of the dough without it sticking to hands.)

Set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Spread flour on the working surface to avoid sticking. Roll the dough to a 0.5cm thickness and cut strips of ca 2cm width. Cut lengthwise into the length you like. Place on the baking tray fitted with baking paper. Bake for ca 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the oven not to burn the cookies.

Aachener Printen with figs and without anis

Fighting the cold with soup and Spice: Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

The first snow this year

The weather forecast projected a rough drop in temperatures. The synoptics were right. The constant rain turned into snow last night and the trees are now bearing the heavy weight of 24 hours of snowfall. The lamp posts are wearing white chefs´ hats. I am not complaining at all. It is rare to have snow in town here, therefore I am happy for every moment when I see the snow falling.

The snow kept falling and falling...

This snow really came unexpected and like the cars I was still wearing "summer tyres" yesterday. Fortunately it only took me a few minutes to find my winter wear. What annoys me is if I am not dressed properly and feel the cold drilling its way into the bones.
In this situation the best is to rush to the grocery store, buy a chicken, some veggies and put the pot on to make chicken soup. Already the ancient Greeks considered that food was medicine and medicine was food.

Kaffir lime, I wish the photo could project the aroma

As a quick profylactic - while the chicken was simmering - I reached for ginger, chilli and lime (the green one). The cold is guaranteed to be replaced by a flame in the stomach and blush on the cheeks. If you can get hold of a kaffir lime, try this. Kaffir limes, like kaffir lime leaves, have a very specific aroma and taste.

Sweet potatoes

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients for 2:

2 tbsp cooking oil (eg. rape seed)
1 medium-small onion, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, cut into 1cm cubes
1 carrot, cut into 1cm cubes
(0.5dl white wine, optional)
1 tsp of freshly grated ginger
0.5 kaffir lime (or 0.5 standard green lime and a kaffir lime leaf)
1 chilli pod or spicy peperoncino
0.5 l stock or water
1dl fresh cream (eg. 15% fat content)
salt to taste
fresh parsley or coriander, finely chopped

Cooked sweet potatoes and spices

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions for a few minutes, then add the sweet potatoes and the carrot cubes. Cook at medium heat for ca 5 minutes, stirring every now and then. If you have some white wine at hand splash ca 5dl and let it evaporate. Then add the grated ginger, juice of the kaffir lime, the chilli or peperoncino pod as well as the "empty" lime peel and the stock or water. Cook at medium heat for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

Puree with the hand mixer, at low heat mix in the fresh cream and taste. Add salt if necessary.
Serve with chopped parsley or coriander.

Spicy sweet potato soup