Coeur de Sel

Fish Pie

Zera — 2013-05-11T08:24:15Z

I just realised that I never posted my Fish Pie here - how could this happen? It's the dish I have probably cooked most. It's a simple dish but it never fails to impress our guests and it's probably our favourite dish too.

We just came back from a 2 week trip to Ireland with our camper van. To me fish has never tasted better than up there. We found a lovely fishmonger who sold the freshest fish ever. He also sold homemade fish cakes and fish pie. Paradise! Eaten in the van looking out to the sea was just divine.

I have about 3 variations of the fish pie. I will post them all here, starting with the very classic fish pie in a pot.

The main ingredient is the smoked haddock. Unlike in France or England it's not easy to get in Switzerland. The fishmonger at Globus always has some frozen if you ask. If I go to Globus I alway buy a big stash full - our freezer is usually full of frozen haddock.
Since all the other ingredients can be frozen too it's the perfect dish for a Sunday night when you had no time for shopping.

You'll need:

3 - 4 fillets of smoked haddock (depending on the size)
4 cups peas
1 big onion or a bunch of spring onions
1-2 dl fresh cream
Mash for 4 persons

Slice the onion thinly. Fry half of it in some butter and add the frozen or fresh peas. Stew them for a while then drench with white wine and stock. Cook till done, season and set aside.

Take the skin off your haddock and cut the fish into big chunks. Fry the rest of the onion when they turn golden, add the fish and fry for some more minutes.

Since the fish is already smoked it does not need to be cooked long. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

To be honest I always use ready made mash but obviously freshly made mash would be nicer.

Layer in a ovenproof dish or a dutch oven. Start with the fish then the peas. If you like you can now add a bit of cream. Cover with the mash. Sprinkle on some butter flakes and put the dish in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes or so, until it turns slightly brown on top.

Serve with salad.

This is the very basic version. Feel free to add fresh herbs or use thinly sliced potatoes instead of mash or whatever you fancy.

Kitchen Still #8

Zera — 2013-03-17T21:35:28Z

Monday classes february

Zera — 2013-02-26T16:15:33Z

This book was lying around for ages. I bought it before we went to vietnam - for a long time after we came back we wanted nothing but european food so I almost forgot about it.
It's a really nice book that is also fun to read. There's not so many inspiring Vietnamese cookbooks out there so I was really happy when I found this - I definitely plan on cooking my way through it.

the taste of vietnam by bobby chinn

We probably were a bit over enthusiastic when we planned so we had a rather late but delicious dinner.
On the menu was:

Pomelo Crab salad ( we used carb instead of lobster which) page 96. I have to admit I had never eaten pomelo before and to me it was quite a discovery.
Shrimp paste on sugar cane , a Vietnamese favorite of mine we could find any sugar cane so we used lemongrass stalks. A great dish you can prepare in advance. Then came the caramelized fish , with this had had our problems. First we did not realize that the fish has to cook for 2 hours and also we either got something wrong with the proportions or the recipe is not really working. There was way to much sauce but it tasted really nice. We added a bit of chopped cilantro which made this dish rally sing. Dessert would have been a Pierre Hermé Belle helene but here we took the short way by then it was already 23h.

Kitchen still #8

Zera — 2013-02-23T16:53:05Z

Sourdough

Zera — 2013-02-23T16:27:58Z

It was on a cold and sunny day when I stumbled over Chad Robertson and his Tartine bread. After I saw his brilliant video on vimeo I had the urge to quit my job and do nothing but baking and cooking. I was always interested in baking bread but beside the sunday "zopf" it was never really worth the effort. Our local organic baker does much better bread than I managed to do. But I had this vision of a very moist and very fragrant bread. Immediately I ordered the book. I couldn't wait for it to arrive. It arrived more or less on christmas. After reading it I was even more convinced to give it a try. Chads bread gets a very long resting time which I find key to good bread. Once I was to tired to bake my "zopf" bread in the evening so I let it sit over the night in a cool place. The next morning I baked it, and was more than pleased with the result. Not only had it a very nice structure, it's also perfect to have fresh bread on a sunday morning. Since that day my "Zopf" always gets at least a 10 hours rest.

Short after new year I started with setting up my own starter. After a long 10 days I baked my first bread. I knew it wouldn't work because there was not enough air in the dough but I gave it a try anyway. As expected the bread did not rise enough but it tasted delicious. I decided to speed thing up and ordered a starter online. I will still try to make my own starter but for now we are more than happy with our little french one.

The result was stunning and we basically spent a whole sunday sitting in the kitchen eating bread.

Tartine bread is a beautiful, inspiring book that teaches you a lot about baking and bread. It's what if been waiting for, for a long time. So if you like baking and have things to do while your bread is resting go for it - it's well worth it!

If you need more inspiration I recommend starting here:

oh and check the video

Monday classes

Zera — 2013-02-23T10:04:21Z

I don't know about you, but our bookshelf is overflowing with cookbooks (ok to be fair it's primarily overflowing with Records).
Anyway, there's a certain amount of guilt involved when I buy a new cookbook because I know there's books and books with uncooked recipes at home. I've read all my cookbooks but I could probably cook for the rest of my life with the recipes I have sitting on the shelves.

I want to try out the recipes, but when we have guests I most of the time prefer to cook something I've done before because I'm more relaxed and this means I actually spend more time with our guests. Working close to 100% I don't just cook something new on a Wednesday, foremost because my cookbooks are at home ( most of them ) and I am in the office.

This is why myself and few girlfriends started Monday Classes. Once a month we meet to cook from our cookbooks. We try new recipes and techniques, we drink and chat and sometimes we even knit.

Here I will share impressions and let you know which recipes and books are worth buying and trying.

We started in January with the Ottolenghi. This was on the menu:

Bittersweet salad (Plenty page 162) and green pancakes with lime butter (Plenty page 150). For dessert we had an apple crumble.

The salad looks lovely and tastes nice and bitter. The rose water gives it a nice unexpected twist.

The green pancakes are proper comfort food perfect for a weekday dinner or a light summer dinner eaten on the balcony after a long and sunny day. The lime butter that goes with is is delicious and I will use it for other dishes as well. It's actually worth having a pot stored in the refrigerator…

A very good looking light dinner .

Chocolate Yeast Kranz

Zera — 2013-01-08T12:00:49Z

We ordered Ottolenghis and sami tamimis new Book "Jerusalem" for my mother in law. When it arrived I was tempted to keep it for myself but instead I had at quick try before wrapping it up. The Chocolate Yeast Kranz just looked to tempting. It turned out a bit too dark but I liked it a lot. Nothing over fancy but perfect for an afternoon in the garden. I love the hint of zest that comes through in this cake. It's quite different from the cakes I usually make.

It's not a quick thing tough, the dough has to be made the day in advance. But it's really worth a try.

Makes two loafes.

You'll need:

530 gr plain flour
100 gr caster sugar
2 tbs dried yeast
grated zest ob one little lemon
3 large free range eggs
sunflower oil for greasing
1/3 tsp salt
For the filling:
50 gr icing sugar
30 gr best quality cocoa powder
130 gr good qualitiy dark chocolate
120 gr unsalted butter, melted
100 gr pecans, roughly chopped
2 tbsp caster sugar
For the syrup
260 gr sugar
160 ml water

For the dough:
Mix flour, sugar, yeas and zest in the mixer bowl of your food processor. This is easily done with the dough hook on lowest speed. Add eggs and and water on let it go on at this speed for a few seconds. Then increase the speed to medium and continue for 3 minutes or until the dough comes together. Now it's time to add the salt and start adding the butter bits by bits until they are fully incorporated into the dough.
Continues mixing for another 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and shiny.

Place the dough in a large town, brush with sunflower oil , cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight.

Grease two 25ch x 10 cm tins with some sunflower oil and line the bottom with grease proof paper. Divide the dough into two.

For the filling:

Mix icing sugar, cocoa powder, melted chocolate and butter. You will get a spreadable paste.

On a slightly floured surface: Roll the dough into a 38cm x 28 cm rectangle, trim on the sides. Lay it in front of you with the short side close to you.
Spread half the chocolate mixture over the rectangle, leaving a 2 cm border on all sides.

Sprinkle half the pecans and the caster sugar on top of the chocolate. Brush a bit of water over the long end ( the one where you are going to finish).
Now use both hands to roll the dough from the long side the one without water to the side where you brushed the water on. Press to seal the end.
Try to make a even thick, straight roll and turn it so it sits on the seam.

Trim of 1 centimeter of the ends. Now carefully cut the roll lengthwise into 2.

With the cut side facing up gently press one end of of each half and then lift the right half over the left half.
Repeat this process now lifting the left half over the right and continue like this thill you have something looking like a plait.
Squeeze the ends carefully together and lift the plait into the tin and cover with a towel.

Leave to rise in a warm spot for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. The dough will rise 10 - 20 percent. Now you can make the second loaf.

Preheat the oven to 190 ° making sure it is really hot before you put the cakes in. Place both cakes in middle of the oven for about 30 minutes or until a screwer inserted in the cake comes out clean of dough.

While the cakes are in the oven you can make the syrup by mixing the water and the sugar in a saucepan. Place over medium heat. As soon as the syrup boils and the and the sugar dissolves remove and leave to cool down.

When the cakes come out of the oven brush the syrup over the cakes. Even though the recipe said to really use all the syrup I found it a bit too much.
Let the cakes cool down in the tins and only remove them when they are just warm.

Since we are far away from warm spring afternoons spent in the garden preparing the vegetable beds I recommend eating this cake sitting by the window on one of the few sunny days we get these days, drinking earl gery tea and listening to some blues music dreaming of the warmer days and that will eventually come. Dreaming of swimming in the river and drinking whiskey sour (with amareno cherry!) on the balcony watching the sun set.

My musical recommendation is " Been here all my days" a wonderful blues record out on mississippi records. Once again bought at the best of all record stores : honest jon's

"Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, GEORGE MITCHELL recorded extensively in the South. Mitchell concentrated mainly on local blues traditions recording some famous bluesmen and many otherwise ignored artists. The George Mitchell Collection was originally released as a series of forty-five EPs on Fat Possum, this LP contains Mississipi’s favorite fourteen tracks."

Belgrade Market

Zera — 2013-01-04T13:09:49Z

It's become some sort of tradition with us to spend new year in Belgrade. We come here since 10 years now . It's been tremendously interesting to see this city change over the past years. From the dark bombed city to the city it is today.
A good spot to observe this transformation is the market, back in 2002 one could hardly buy anything except cabbage, potatoes, carrots and paprika.
I love strolling over a local market and discover the local specialities, if you are into pickled vegetables you should definitely visit this market.

Here you can see more of my Belgrade market pictures.

Apple crumble

Zera — 2012-12-04T10:09:25Z

For weeks I've been looking at these apples lying in the fruit bowl, looking more and more crinkly everyday and I kept saying we have to make a crumble. Not that I've ever made one, but I always wanted to.

Last week I was making the christmas windows at the shop which is something that exhausts me like not many other things. On the third day into the window decoration I came home and my niece, who is currently living with us, had mad that crumble.
It was delicious! I can't remember having eaten anything so comforting in a long time. The leftovers I took to the office the next day and had them for lunch, reheated in the microwave. And while I sat there in the office exhausted and tired I dipped my spoon into the warm crumble I felt like I had never eaten anything like it before and I knew what I had to make on the weekend and the week after , actually what we should always have in the fridge - at least as long as it's cold and grey outside.
The recipe is based on Nigel Slaters Crumble from Tener Vol II.

You'll need:

For the filling:
850gr cooking apples
1/2 lemon
75 gr brown caster sugar
30 gr butter
For the crumble:
95 gr butter for the crumble
150 gr flour
45 gr brown caster sugar

Peel and core the apples and cut into approximately 2 cm chunks. Toss with the lemon juice and half the sugar.
Melt the butter in a shallow pan. When it starts to sizzle add the apples and let the apples take some color. Don't move them around to much.
Let them caramelize a bit. Stir gently.

When slightly golden take them out of the pan and put them into a oven dish, make sure to scrape out all off the lovely juices you don't want to waist them.

Make the crumble by rubbing the flour and the butter with your fingertips ( or in a food processor ). Once it's crumbly add the sugar and mix. Now add 1 tbs of water and shake the mixture for a while.

Cover the apples with the crumbs.

Set the oven to 180° and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.

Eat while warm and serve with a dash of cream.

The New Yorker Food Issue

Zera — 2012-12-01T10:21:43Z

A recommendation for this weekend: The New Yorker Food Issue.
With the cold weather outside I suggest staying in all weekend reading the brilliant New Yorker Food Issue.

If you can't find the paper issue I strongly recommend reading this brilliant article "Toques from Underground
The rise of the secret supper club" by Dana Goodyear.