in season now: late summer edition

Posted on 07/09/2011 by oneexpatslife

Last week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Corn Soup, was a sharp reminder that corn is not a native european crop. While all the other FFwD crew talked of overflowing bins full of fresh local corn, I was happy to be able to find four lonely ears at my local market. However, before anyone feels sorry for me, I think that it’s important to note that the Germans take their seasonal fruits & veggies very seriously, and while there are items from home which I sometimes miss, I am certainly not starving for tasty local specialities, a few of which were completely new to me when I moved here.

Late summer brings several different specialities to the local market stands here in Germany, among the most beloved of which are a seemingly endless variety of plums in myriad sizes and colors. My husband is always most excited about the Zwetschen, or Damson Plums in english. He buys these almond-shaped purple plums by the kilo and happily munches them at all hours of the day. For me, however, the best plums are the Mirabelles & the Reine Claudes. Mirabelles are these bite sized little yellow babies, no larger than cherry tomatoes, which are most commonly made into jam, but are also eaten fresh this time of year. And the sweetest most luscious of them all, the Reine Claudes are my absolute favorites. But it wasn’t until the lady at my local produce market sent me home with a free bag that I finally tried them because these golf ball sized plums are an odd green color which makes them look perpetually under-ripe. Now I buy them all the time so I would say that her free promotional bag has more than paid off. Isn’t that how drug dealers get their customers hooked?

Another of my favorite late summer fruits are fresh figs. There are a few different varieties, but my personal favorites are the delicate green figs which are imported from Italy. I have no idea why I never ate these when I lived in the US. Were they not available? Whatever the reason, I just love these sweet little fruits and never seem to be able to keep them in the house long enough to try them in any of the dozen or so recipes I have collected.

And finally on the savory side, and currently appearing on seasonal menus all over Frankfurt, are the Pfifferling mushrooms, or chanterelles in english. These trumpet-shaped little yellow mushrooms are served over everything from pasta to steak. The mushrooms you see here are destined to be sautéed with a little garlic and whatever fresh herbs I can can find in the fridge and then served on goat cheese smeared toast. In fact, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it, I’d better go start on dinner…

 

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short ribs in red wine and port

Posted on 05/09/2011 by oneexpatslife

I am catching up with previously completed French Fridays with Dorie recipes and up this week is Short Ribs in Red Wine & Port.

I’ll keep this short. I think that this was probably a very good recipe for short ribs, but short ribs in general are a bit rich for my tastes. I’m happy that I tried the recipe since I had never made them before, but it is unlikely that this one will be repeated in my house.

This recipe did, however, prompt a discussion between my husband and I regarding mashed potatoes. Actually, about potatoes in general. Here in Germany I have noticed that potatoes are almost always peeled. Or if they are not, as with the very popular baked potatoes, the skins are pushed to the side and not eaten. Perhaps it is my rural upbringing, but in my family the only place one ever encountered peeled potatoes was in fancy restaurants. At home, all potatoes from mashed to boiled to baked, were prepared and eaten with the skins. I can still hear my mother’s mantra ringing in my ear, “all of the vitamins are in the skins”. Annoyingly it turns out that she was right and now I hear myself repeating this mantra to my husband every time he pushes his skins to the side of the plate.

So how about you, do you peel your potatoes?

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corn soup

Posted on 02/09/2011 by oneexpatslife

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Corn Soup, is decidedly un-French. In fact, living in europe I am reminded at the end of every summer that corn is not a native crop when I go to my local produce stand to try to buy some.  Right now I would venture to guess that many farmers markets in the US are overflowing with corn. Here in Frankfurt my local produce stand had exactly 4 ears yesterday when I stopped by. When I lived in Chicago I would sort through the corn at the market and pick out the nicest looking ears. Here in Frankfurt I am happy to buy those 4 lonely ears and be on my way; luckily for me, they looked very good.

Dorie’s recipe (published here in Bon Appetit magazine) is made with a traditional mirepoix, fresh corn, milk, and seasoned with fresh rosemary & thyme. At this stage you might be thinking that this is no different from a typical american corn chowder, but Dorie does throw in a few french twists. First, she suggests that the soup be pureed and even strained before serving (a step I lazily skipped), which is definitely unlike the chunky corn chowders I ate as a kid. Second, she garnishes her soup with the oh so french creme fraiche, a thick and creamy topping similar in taste to sour cream. .

But at the end of the day it is taste which matters and not point of origin. Whether american or french, Dorie’s corn soup is tasty and satisfying and it gets two thumbs up from voters in my household.

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expat cravings

Posted on 31/08/2011 by oneexpatslife

Last week’s French Fridays with Dorie hamburger recipe got me discussing expat cravings with a few of my fellow american expats. Though tastes and even regional foods in the US are different, our general list of top foods we miss from home was remarkably similar.

  • Mexican food – This is probably the one I hear most often from my fellow american expats. Paris based blogger & expat David Lebovitz recently did a post about how good Mexican food is slowly becoming available in Paris. One can only hope that the rest of Europe follows suit. As it stands now, even the ingredients to make Mexican food at home are difficult to come by.
  • Breakfast – I actually really enjoy German breakfast foods and would similarly miss them if I moved back to the states. But there are quite a few typical american breakfast dishes which are difficult (if not impossible) to find here: eggs benedict, breakfast burritos, heuvos rancheros, french toast, and bacon (who would have thought!). Pancakes would probably also be on this list except that I make them myself at home about once a month, and smother them with Vermont maple syrup which I periodically smuggle back in my suitcase.
  • A good hamburger or patty melt – and no, I’m not talking about McDonalds here, but it shouldn’t be too fancy either. Just thick, juicy, and fresh!
  • BBQ!
There are so many more and I could go on for pages, but these seem to be the ones that are common to most expats. What is interesting is that my German friends are always surprised to hear that there are foods I miss from home. Possibly this has something to do with american food’s reputation abroad; I have gotten into more than a few debates defending the merits of my homeland’s cuisine. But actually, I think that it has more to do with the fact that we don’t tend to give these things much thought until we move away from wherever our home is. For example, I honestly never seriously considered Mexican food until I moved to Germany and that’s probably because I didn’t have to, it was simply always available. It was more than available, I didn’t even really consider it ”ethnic food”, it was just food and it was a part of my regular diet which suddenly went missing when I moved here.
Have you ever considered what you would miss if you moved away from home? I guarantee that there would be a few things that you would not even think to consider. 
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if at first you don’t succeed…

Posted on 29/08/2011 by oneexpatslife

Pie crust and I are not friends. Never have been. Early attempts at making crust ended in tears and I decided that it was simply easier to buy the ready-made crusts from the freezer section of my local supermarket; a solution which I relied on happily for years. However, my simple solution fell apart after I moved to Germany, a country which does not even have a word for pie in its language.

So here I am, trying to learn how to make pie dough and trying not to hold this fact against my husband (who is the reason I am here in the first place). So far neither of these goals seem to be going very well.

The first time I tried to make Dorie’s Spinach & Bacon Quiche it was not a pretty sight. Dorie’s recipe calls for pre-baking the crust before filling it and baking it again with the custard filling. However, my pre-baked crust came out with a small crack in the bottom which I didn’t repair before filling it with the custard. You probably already know how that went, of course my custard leaked out, and since I was using a tart pan with a removable bottom… well, you get the idea. I used my full repertoire of curses (in two languages) while cleaning up after that disaster.

But since we’re not moving back to the States any day soon I still need to learn how to make crust and so I decided that I needed to try the quiche one last time, if only to show that I’m not afraid. I think some recipes can smell fear and pie crust is definitely one of them.

My primary complaint about pie crust is that it takes FOREVER! Seriously, first you make the dough and then you chill it… then you let the dough sit for just long enough that it is pliable but not so long that it warms up too much and then you roll it out, and then you chill it again… and then you bake it and then you have to let it cool off… all before I’ve even started the primary recipe! And yet when I was a kid my mother made pie crust which went from bare ingredients to finished pie in a matter of hours, so why the heck do I have to wait days? Any suggestions from the experts would be greatly appreciated here.

Enough ranting, I am happy to say that my second attempt at Dorie’s Spinach and Bacon Quiche was a success. I said a little prayer as the filled quiche went into the oven and I am happy to say that my crust managed to hold everything together. The quiche itself was very tasty and we enjoyed it paired with a simple side salad.

But, for now at least, quiche falls squarely into the more-trouble-than-it’s-worth category because of how much time it takes to get the darn crust together. I may have won today’s battle, but the war rages on.

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a french hamburger recipe

Posted on 26/08/2011 by oneexpatslife

On the list of foods which american expats living in europe miss, good hamburgers rank somewhere near the top (usually right below Mexican food). Now, you’ll notice that I specified good hamburgers, because bad and mediocre hamburgers are quite easy to find. Here in Frankfurt we have several McDonalds outposts and an “american” restaurant named Chicago Meatpackers, which serves up rubbery gray patties to unsuspecting Germans who no doubt go home confirmed in their belief that all american food is terrible. (And in case any curious locals are reading this, my extensive research into the subject has found very good burgers at O’Reilly’s Irish Pub across the street from the main train station.) Yet, in all my efforts to find a good burger in Frankfurt, it never once occurred to me to make my own. Why is that I wonder? In fact, this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, the Cafe Salle Pleyel Hamburger, is the first burger I have ever made.

According to Dorie, this burger was created by a Paris chef as a french take on the traditional american hamburger. The recipe (published here in the New York Times) starts out with the traditional american basics, a sesame seed bun and dill pickles, but then veers quickly into french territory with an onion marmalade, sun dried tomatoes, capers, cornichons, and tarragon. In fact, I was very much reminded of a classic bistro steak tartar as I was gathering the ingredients for this parisian burger.

Dorie’s burger was easy to put together, just blitz up the add-ins in a food processor and mix them into the meat before forming your patties. As per Dorie’s instructions for medium rare burgers, I cooked mine 3 minutes per side and they came out juicy and flavorful. In fact, the burgers were great, and yet…

It may seem weird to say, but as good as these burgers were, they just didn’t satisfy my expat craving. My husband loved them (but he’s european so…), but it seems that this american is a bit of a purist when it comes to burgers and I found all the extra ingredients to be distracting. In short, Dorie’s is a very good hamburger recipe and I’m glad that I tried it, but it’s unlikely that I will make them again. I guess some recipes simply should not be tinkered with.

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bacon really does make everything taste better

Posted on 24/08/2011 by oneexpatslife

Blanch some beans, crisp some pancetta, drizzle with walnut oil… what’s not to like!

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cupcakes de chevre

Posted on 22/08/2011 by oneexpatslife

“I thought you said this lady was a baker!”

This was my husband’s recent complaint as he noted how long it had been since my French Fridays with Dorie project had yielded a dessert to satisfy his rather notorious sweet tooth. While he enjoyed last month’s Citrus-Berry Terrine, he didn’t actually consider it to be a dessert. And considering how supportive he has been of my FFwD endeavor, gamely trying every single recipe and giving me his honest feedback, I thought that he had earned a sweet reward.

Here in Germany the local berries are slowly starting to dwindle and so I decided to make a dessert which would embrace the dying days of fresh strawberry season. Dorie’s Torteau de Chevre (or goat cheese cake) looked like the perfect vehicle. But since there are only two of us in the house I cut the recipe in half and made cupcakes de chevre, which I then topped with strawberries macerated in sugar and a sprinkling of cognac.

Final verdict: the cupcakes were very light and tasty and really paired well with the fresh strawberries. The texture of the cake is nothing like an american cheese cake, but did remind me a bit of a german cheesecake, which has a lighter, dryer texture than the version I few up with.

But while I enjoyed the finished product, I really struggled with the recipe because of its tart crust base. Pie crust and I are not friends, Dorie has been trying to teach me (quite a few of the FFwD recipes to date have called for tart crust) and I do think that I am slowly getting better, but the sweet crust for this recipe simply refused to cooperate. I could not get it to roll out to save my life and so I finally gave up and just pressed it into the muffin tins. My trusty Joy of Cooking assures me that pie crust just takes practice, but for now I continue to cringe anytime I see an upcoming recipe which calls for it. My hope is that by the time I’ve worked my way through Dorie’s book I will be a pie crust pro. It’s good to have goals right!

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eggplant caviar

Posted on 19/08/2011 by oneexpatslife

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Eggplant Caviar, was a darn easy sell in my household. I love eggplant, it is one of my favorite vegetables and I am always searching out new recipes for it. Dorie’s recipe calls for a nice soft roasted eggplant to be mixed up with onions, lemon juice, some chopped herbs, and tomatoes. The result is a dip which tastes light and refreshing, and with only a couple tablespoons of olive oil in the mix, is also guilt free!

We served our eggplant caviar for dinner with some roasted peppers, chickpea salad, and Dorie’s quinoa. Leftovers were polished off at lunch the next day, as per Dorie’s suggestion, in sandwiches with goat cheese and roasted peppers.

The only thing left to say is, yum! We will definitely be making this one again.

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salmon and potatoes in a jar

Posted on 12/08/2011 by oneexpatslife

We Americans have accepted canned tuna, sometimes even sardines and anchovies, but that seems to be about it for mainstream canned fish. German supermarkets, however, have entire shelves dedicated to canned, jarred, pickled, smoked, and cured fish of all colors. Maybe it’s just that my american taste buds have not yet adapted, but I tend to avoid this entire section of the supermarket. Yes, I have occasionally tried the ever popular herring (most commonly mixed with horseradish and mayo into some kind of salad) but, for now anyway, I am happy to generously give my portion to my German husband.

Dorie mentions in her introduction to this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar, that hers is actually “a modern version of a humble bistro classic, herring and potatoes.” I wonder if Ms. Greenspan knew that trying to sell herring to an american audience would have been a tough sell. As it was, I was a bit ambivalent going into the this week’s recipe. On the one hand I love salmon, but on the other hand, not so much gravlax. (which is salt & sugar cured salmon)

This recipe does take some time, but very little of it is actual hands-on time. The first day I cured the salmon in a mix of salt and sugar. On day two I boiled the potatoes and packed everything in jars with olive oil, vinegar and some spices. And on day three I served the salmon and potatoes, as per Dorie’s suggestion, with hearty buttered farmhouse bread and a squirt of lemon.

Final verdict: My husband really enjoyed it and I was actually pleasantly surprised. The salmon is cured, but very lightly so that it tastes more like fresh salmon than gravlax. The potatoes were also quite tasty and all in all I’m happy that I gave this one a try. Who knows, maybe I’ll even make it again.

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