Ceviche variation - Estonian marinated oily fish (Est. marineeritud räim)

A lot of people in the world like ceviche, a marinated fish or seafood dish known from Central and South America. Yumm! Humm! ...they say, munching on fish or prawn that has been soaking in lemon or lime juice spiced with locally popular chilli and cilantro. Very nice!
People on the northern side of the globe invented the same cooking technique with their locally popular spices. A special Estonian delicacy is marinated little oily fish. Since limes or lemons don't grow locally vinegar is used instead.

Marinate the small oily fish overnight

Ingredients
500g cleaned raw small oily fish ( raw anchovy, sprat, small sardine)
0.5 - 0.75 teaspoon salt
a 3 finger pinch sugar
1 dl apple or white wine vinegar
1dl  water
black pepper, crushed
allspice, crushed
1 small onion, sliced in rings

2 tablespoons rape seed oil

Layer the fish tightly side by side in a bowl or a small plastic container. Sprinkle with pepper and allspice in between the layers and add a few slices of onion. Repeat layering.
Mix the vinegar, water, salt and sugar and spread on the fish. Press the fish down a little and cover with a lid or plastic foil and leave overnight in the fridge.
On the next day, drain the fish from the vinegar marinade. Drizzle oil on top of the fish.

(Est. Marineeritud räim)

Serve with dark rye bread for the authentic northern taste.
In summer serve with new potatoes with butter and chopped fresh dill.

Rösti - Swiss Potato Paradise Dish

I had a bit of time to look around the Zurich airport recently. They are still going through some major renovation, but some areas have been finished. A refreshing change to nondescript fast food places is a new eatery that flirts with healthy - local- fresh theme. The green insignia of the Marche´corner invites with fresh breads, a salad bar, fresh juices, a grill station, pizza, fresh rösti as well as a pastry selection and a bar area.
Since I had time until my flight was boarding I wanted to try something out. At 5 pm the bread counter looked a bit deserted with little choice left, but the bread that was available didn´t look bad. Plain or with nuts or olives, bread rolls, sweet muffins? I chose a loaf with olives as a little bring along present for my host.

Fresh olive bread

Storm Joachim was taking its share outside and many flights were cancelled. I remembered my travel motto: "Eat and sleep whenever you can, since you never know when is the next time".
I can never say no to a good potato dish. Rösti is a Swiss specialty. It is great just plain. More sofisticated versions with special cheeses from the Alps or Gorgonzola or with sausage or with vegetables or bacon or mushroom or egg can be found in restaurants offering Swiss specialties. The next 20 minutes passed tasting a gold brown thick rösti. The potatoes and the level of frying was good, the potatoes stuck together. I had to season with salt as none had been used in the cooking process. Another traveller was desperately looking for some salt too at another table - he had some grilled vegetables. It could be the health aspect, however unseasoned food hardly satisfies a belly.

Rösti and blackberry-orange juice

Ingredients (for 2):
500g cooked potatoes
1 tablespoon oil
10 g butter
Salt
1 small onion (optional)
a couple of slices of bacon (optional)
1 tablespoon milk

Grate the potatoes on the wide cut, thicker pieces give a stonger bite. A 24 cm diameter pan is easier in the cooking process than a very big pan. Heat the oil and butter on the pan. If you are using onion and bacon cook the chopped onion and the bacon strips in the oil until the onion is slightly glassy. Add the grated potatoes and mix with the onion and bacon. Season with salt, use less if you are cooking with bacon. Cook further and stir every now and then. Press the potatoes together to make a firm "cake" and place a plate on the potatoes. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes until a crust has formed and potatoes have browned. Turn once. Sprinkle the milk on the potatoes and cook another 10 minutes until the bottom turns golden brown.

Serve as a standalone dish or as a side dish to a meat sauce. A popular Zürich specialty is rösti with a creamy veal and champignon sauce.

Persimmon kaki-apple & ricotta dessert - Swiss winter 2011

It is December and Christmas is all around. No sight of snow, temperatures above zero Celsius, constantly. Two weeks ago the Bern Christmas Market emerged overnight after the yearly Onion Market Day. The rare smell of the spruce catches my nose every time I pass and gives me the shivers. (That´s home.) Glühwein or mulled wine stands are full of people. The cafés in the streets are also brewing the season´s top drink, the spicy aroma following me in the archways. I like that most of the Glühwein is sold in recyclable porcelain cups.

Glühwein - red or white, Punsch...

The stands at the farmers´market have made space for Christmas decorations.

Christmas tree in Bern on Parliament Square

Farmers´market in December

Christmas on the market

The Christmas Market is full of stuff offered for presents. My favourite stand is one that sells all sorts of musical instruments, pipes, flutes, didgeridoos, castagnettes, drums and a whole lot more, the names of which I don’t even know but all make very good sounds. You can feel it, you can feel the rhythm…

Didgeridoo plus the classes to learn to play it

Want to make some music, pick an instrument

Fantastic rhythm instruments

The second favourite is a games stand with board games, some of which I used to play and still do whenever the occasion presents itself. 

"Mensch ärgere Dich nicht" board game, very competitive

More intellectual games

And a very interesting display with voodoo dolls. What fantastic artistic little creatures.

Voodoo dolls, great faces

Christmas Market

A sweet treat today: Persimmon kaki and apple dessert

Ingredients:

1 persimmon kaki, cut into cubes

2-3 apples, peeled, hearts out and chopped

250g ricotta cheese

250g curd (Magerquark)

10 tablespoons sugar

Juice of one lime, the green one

1 tablespoon gelatine “powder”

0.75 dl milk

Put the apple and persimmon pieces into a pot together with the lime juice and bring to boil. Add half of the sugar. If you have sour apples you may need more sugar. Add sugar to your taste. Cook until the fruit is soft, about 10-15 minutes.

In a bowl mix the ricotta and the curd and add the remaining sugar, again add more to your taste if needed. Purée the soft fruits with a mixer and let cool.

Mix the gelatine with the milk and let it soak for 15 min. Then heat and melt the gelatine by putting the bowl into a pan with some hot water. No need to boil the water in the pan, heating it just enough to melt the gelatine is fine.

Persimmon kaki - apple & ricotta dessert

Mix the melted gelatine milk with the ricotta.

Fill serving bowls or glasses with the ricotta first and then add the fruit purée on top. Leave in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

TIP: you can also use the special sugar for making jams, the fruit purée would harden a bit more.

Plastic Around Carrots: Are You Buying Carrots or Plastic?

 

Carrots are wonderful vegetables. I use a lot of carrots in soups or as vegetable side dishes. Since I don’t have a garden I get my carrots from the farmers or supermarket. I like to select carrots and buy the ones I like. Depending on the dish I may choose narrower or thicker ones. The narrower I find sweeter and crunchier for eating raw, the thicker ones are easier to grate or more convenient to chop for soups or good in stews.

Daucas Carota (Lat), Carrots (Eng), Möhre, Karotte (Ger), Rüebli (Swiss Ger), Porgand (Est)

In the supermarket the only option is to use the plastic bag offered. In order to reduce the amount of bags and consequently the costly garbage at home I use one bag for all the vegetables and fruits I buy instead of a separate bag for each. And I often reuse the bag at home for something else.

So yesterday in a supermarket I chose my carrots and wondered around the vegetable section for a while. I found there were 4 different possibilities to buy fresh carrots.

1. Select your own and weigh them yourself. Price per kg 1.60.
2. 1 kg packaged in a plastic bag. Price per kg 1.60.
3. A value line 2.5 kg packaged in a plastic bag. Price per kg 0.84.
4. 4 carrots packed on a plastic tray wrapped in plastic. Price per kg 1.90.

Carrots in the value pack on the left, packed in double plastic on the right

Voilà! Number 4 was not explicitly marked as a bio-organic product that would perhaps justify a higher price. Apparently there is demand for carrots packed on a plastic tray and people are willing to pay more for it. In fact, I would just be paying more, once for the tray and second time for creating more garbage. Every bag of garbage you generate costs in Switzerland.Personally, I find no use for that tray at home to give it “a second life” in some other use to justify its existence even if the price was the same as for the loose carrots. 

I use one bag for all the veg and fruit I buy and reuse the bag

Yes, I have considered the point of hygiene as well before writing this, but did not find a convincing point. I see people eating fruit and vegetable bought in supermarket without washing them first. So they are not really bothered about this at all. When I buy the carrots selecting them from a crate myself, yes, someone else may have touched them, but I will wash and typically peel the carrots at home, so no issue there.

Please help reduce meaningless plastic!