Christmas Cookies

For the first time in my life I made more than one or two different kinds of Christmas cookies. It may be the last time as I'm so sick of them already. Fortunately I didn't have to eat them all myself, but was able to pile them onto my coworkers. I may, however, have a lawsuit pending for causing weight gain in the workplace.

I went through several recipes before deciding on which ones to make. I finally settled for Zimtpitten and Brunsli (both Swiss recipes) as well as Triple Chocolate and Linzer Cookies. Zimtpitten are cookies made of ground almonds, lemon rind and lots of cinnamon. Brunsli are also made with ground almonds as well as cocoa, chocolate and Kirsch. Of the four, the Triple Chocolate and the Linzer Cookies were the best, but if you're a chocolate person like I am then the Triple Chocolate Cookies definitely win. They are like a combination of a chocolate cookie, a brownie and a truffle.

Both the Triple Chocolate and the Linzer Cookie recipes are from Field Guide to Cookies by Anita Chu. This little book has turned out to be a real charm. Every recipe I have made so far has turned out to be fabulous. I also really like the introduction to each cookie at the beginning of the recipe and the photos of each cookie found in the middle of the book. The recipes are also really easy to follow.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

1 3/4 c flour

1/4 c cocoa

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt (I pretty much always leave salt out of sweet recipes)

12 oz ( 340 g) semisweet chocolate

1/2 c (110 g) softened unsalted butter

1 1/4 c dark brown sugar

1/4 c sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 c (6 oz or 170 g) chocolate chips

1. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

2. Melt chocolate in a metal bowl and set over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally so it will melt evenly; remove from heat when smooth.

3. In a stand mixer (or in a bowl using a hand mixer, which is what I do), cream butter and sugars on medium speed for several minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

4. Pour in melted chocolate and beat until combined.

5. Add flour mixture and chocolate chips and mix on low until just incorporated.

6. Cover dough and refrigerate for about 15-20 minutes until it is firm enough to scoop. (My cookies didn't turn out flat like they were in the picture, but pretty much held the round form. I may have left the dough in the fridge too long. But the cookies tasted great, anyways.)

7. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). LIne several cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

8. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and place on sheets about 2 inches apart.

9. Bake for 8-10 minutes--cookies will still appear soft but will firm up upon cooling. Cool cookie sheets on wire racks before removing cookies with a metal spatula.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Store in airtight container for up to 2 weeks (or until all gone ;))

Wild Mushroom Pierogies

Sheesh, I've really been neglecting my blog lately. It doesn't help that Christmas is around the corner, meaning free time is crammed with buying gifts and making cookies! (Not that those are bad things, especially the cookie baking...)

About two weeks ago I made a Polish dish for the first time. I had bought mushrooms and was searching for mushroom recipes on epicurious using the iPhone application. Handy tool, by the way. After browsing various recipes I finally came across Wild Mushroom Pierogies. I had only tried pierogies once or twice before and felt it was time to eat a whole dish of them.

Since I made the dough for the pierogies from scratch, I spent a loooong time in the kitchen, which is not exactly fun after a long day at work and a good run afterwards. I was starving by the time the suckers were finished. So make sure you have enough time planned in for these. If you have a pasta machine, use it to get thin dough. I had trouble getting the dough thin enough by using a rolling pin.

Despite all the hard work involved, it was worth it. The pierogies were excellent.

Click here for the recipe.

Cranberry Lemon Choc Chip Scones

For some reason I always thought scones were really hard to make and I was determined to some day make a batch of them. Last week I saw fresh US cranberries at the supermarket and grabbed a bag right away as I was worried I may not find them again. Turns out several stores do carry them.

Anyways, here I had this bag of cranberries and didn't know what to make. After going through recipes online I suddenly remembered that Ciocolat in Davis always has these delicious scones with white chocolate and cranberries. So I decided: scones it will be! I ended up finding a recipe by Ina Garten. Although I have looked at her cookbooks several times, I have never actually made any of her recipes.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, but used lemon instead of orange peel since I couldn't get an organic orange at my grocery store and do not like using the peel of citrus that has probably been sprayed with pesticides. I also used fresh instead of dried cranberries. For this it may be a good idea to add a little more sugar than the recipe says as fresh cranberries are pretty tart. If I remember correctly I only used half the amount of salt as I do not like my sweets to be salty! As I still had the image of cranberry and chocolate scones in my head I added some dark chocolate chips that I had left over.

Let me tell you, these scones were HEAVENLY! They were fluffy and buttery and just perfect!

Ingredients

4 c plus 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/4 c sugar, plus more for sprinkling

2 tablesp. baking powder

2 teasp. kosher salt

1 tablesp. orange zest

3/4 pound (340 g) cold unsalted butter, diced

4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten

1 c cold heavy cream

1 c dried cranberries

1 egg beaten with 2 tablesp. water or milk, for egg wash

1/2 c confectioner's sugar, plus 2 tablesp.

4 teasp. freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C).

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix 4 c of flour, 1/4 c sugar, the baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the eggs and heavy cream and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour into the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy. Combine the dried cranberries and 1/4 c of flour, add to the dough, and mix on low speed until blended.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead it into a ball. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4-inch thick. You should see small bits of butter in the dough. Keep moving the dough on the floured board so it doesn't stick. Flour a 3-inch round plain or fluted cutter and cut circles of dough. Place the scones on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Collect the scraps neatly, roll them out, and cut more circles. (I was unable to do these last couple of steps as the butter got too soft and I couldn't roll out the dough. Instead I just formed balls of dough with my hands and it worked out just fine.)

Brush the tops of the scones with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the insides are fully baked. The scones will be firm to the touch. Allow the scones to cool for 15 minutes and then whisk together the confectioner's sugar and orange juice, and drizzle over the scones.

California Eats Part 2: Passionfish, Peppers, Sprouts

Wow, I can't believe how long it's taken me to start writing this post. Summer vacation was loooong ago, but I still want to share the rest of my CA food stories.

For the first time in I don't know how many years I tried a new restaurant in Pacific Grove, called Passionfish. I had read about it and wanted to try it because they serve sustainable seafood. It was quite difficult to choose from their menu as many of the dishes sounded enticing. But finally I decided on an heirloom tomato, watermelon, feta and arugula salad with mint-lime dressing as an appetizer. This is a combination of ingredients I had long been wanting to try and it was delicious!

For my main I decided on poached Monterey Bay spot prawns with linguini cauliflower-bacon custard and lemon butter although I was warned that it was going to be messy! It was indeed messy as I had to de-shell my prawns, but they were very good and the linguini custard was very comfort-food like. I didn't really care for the small orange eggs hanging off the prawns. Hope they weren't a delicacy because I couldn't get myself to finish them!

For dessert I had the raspberry peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It was good, but not great. The dough part was a little dry and I prefer a bit juicier and sweeter.

We did also have a chance to visit my long time favorite restaurant Peppers in Pacific Grove. As always I got full on their darned tortilla chips before dinner arrived but I was still able to enjoy my portabello mushrooms with roasted red pepper sauce and the usual Mexican side dishes.

On our way from Monterey to Yosemite we stopped in Merced to finally have our share of In-n-Out burgers, my so far favorite fast food burgers. I ordered my usual animal style cheeseburger and animal style fries. Mmmhmmm! Those items aren't actually on the menu. You have to be an insider to know about them. I don't feel like an In-n-Out insider but I'm glad I know about these secret menu items. Animal style means fried versus raw onions paired with a lovely sauce.

Last but not least I have one recommendation for a place in South Lake Tahoe. It's called Sprouts. It's a charming cafe right on 50. I tried the Mexican Vulcano salad and the quesadilla. The food was nice and fresh and pretty healthy and it tasted good.

California Eats Part 1: Ella's in SF and Hot Italian in Sac

I was so excited about the prospect to be able to eat California food again after having had to go without it for a year. Many of the places we went to on our two week trip were places I had heard or read about. The first one was Ella's in San Francisco. We went there the morning after arriving at the SFO airport the night before. It was pretty packed but we were able to get a spot at the bar, which turned out to be cool because we could watch the cooks put together meals in what seemed like nanoseconds. Lucky enough it was Sunday so we got the brunch menu, which has heartier items on it than the regular breakfast menu. I decided on the huevos rancheros despite the tantalizing menu item "fresh baked sticky bun" because I was craving Mexican food. It was quite delicious, but the portion was so big I couldn't finish it all.

In Sacramento we met up with a good friend of mine and went to try out a fairly new restaurant by the name of Hot Italian. We sat outside in their nice patio (see pic above). The Hot Italian specializes in pizza. Funny, now that I think of it, I don't remember seeing any "hot Italians" or any Italians whatsoever. Maybe they were in the kitchen. We tried the Trulli (figs, caramelized onions, gorgonzola dolce, arugula, and balsamic vinegar plus added prosciutto) and the Stella (prosciutto parma, mozzarella, crescenza cheese, mushroom medley plus added egg). Out of the two, the Trulli was my favorite, although both were good. I was surprised that I liked the egg on the pizza as I always shy away from meals that have an egg on top as it seems quite unnecessary to just plop an egg on a perfectly good dish. My only complaint about the pizza were that the toppings were quite sparse and my teeth were craving more to bite into.

We also tried two salads, the Canalis (mixed spring salad, genoa albacore tuna, cannellini beans, taggiasche olives, red onion, pecorino romano) and the Campioni (heirloom tomatoes and fior di latte cheese with butter lettuce, radicchio and arugula), the Canalis was clearly the winner as it had much more flavor.

La Fonda Cocina Mexicana in Basel

Mexican food in Europe -- it doesn't really work. I've tried it a few times, but it never got close to the Mexican food I'm used to from California, which, obviously, isn't the real Mexican food, but it's what I know and love.

My prayers for finding good Mexican food here in Switzerland were finally heard when my coworker and I went to lunch at La Fonda about two weeks ago. I ordered a vegetable enchilada and my coworker ordered a tuna fish wrap with salad. I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite delicious and all the ingredients were very fresh. The flavors were pretty authentic as well. I will definitely go back. But first I will get to enjoy Californian Mexican food on my upcoming trip!!

Eating Our Way Through Vienna

I had been wanting to visit Vienna ever since I read a newspaper article about it 2 or 3 years ago. I had already been to Vienna when I was a little kid, but who honestly remembers anything from those trips your parents took you on when you were little?

So last month we finally headed off to Vienna for a couple of days. In preparation for the trip I read up on restaurants and, most importantly, coffee houses. Below are my favorite.

First stop on the trip: Demel. In 2006 I first visited Demel in Salzburg and loved it. The hot chocolate was so rich and the whipped cream that topped it so dense and delicious. Due to the summer weather the hot chocolate would not be an option this time, so I had to try something else. I started off with the house-made sausages served with mustard and horseradish (called "Kren" in Austria--the Austrians love their horseradish). Then I moved on to the Annatorte, which is a layer cake filled with truffle cream with a hint of orange liquor and enrobed in chocolate nougat. This cake was very good, but the nougat perhaps a little too much. Along with the Annatorte I tried the Einspänner, which is a double espresso topped with loads of whipped cream. It was very good and we never found an Einspänner at any other coffee house that tasted as good as Demel's. Because of this and the many good sweets Demel has to offer we ended up going to Demel several times. On one occassion I got the Fächertorte (Fächer is German for fan). It's a cake that consists of four layers: poppyseed, walnut, apple and plum. I got the cake to go and it weighed a ton (after eating it I also felt like a ton!). It's worth trying but I don't think it would ever be my favorite as there are too many different flavors in it.

On our first evening we checked out the restaurant Glacis Beisl. I had read about it in my guidebook and since it was near our hotel we decided to give it a try. I had chanterelle goulash with dumplings (in German: Eierschwammerlgulasch mit Serviettenknödel). The goulash wasn't exactly what I expected. It was more goulash-like than I thought it would be, meaning it had the same spices and seasonings (lots of paprika) as regular (meat-containing) goulash and for some reason I expected a milder, creamier version, but it was very good nontheless. We ended up going there again on our last night. That night I had fried chicken salad (in German: Backhendlsalat), which was salad with pieces of fried chicken on top. At first I thought, what a strange combination, but it turned out to be quite good. The salad consisted of lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes and yummy purple broad beans, and was topped with dressing that had pumpkin seed oil in it, a traditional Austrian staple.

Of course we had to make a trip to Hotel Sacher to try the original Sachertorte. As with many foods labelled "original" there is some controversy as to who actually makes the original Sachertorte, but I won't go into that. Fact is, the Sachertorte at Hotel Sacher tastes very, very good!

In that one article on Vienna that I read a couple of years ago there was mention of the restaurantÖsterreicher im MAK. The review was quite good so we went there for dinner one of the nights. Although there were many delicious things on the menu we both decided that we should try the Wiener Schnitzel (Wiener means Viennese in German; Schnitzel is breaded meat--in this case breaded veal) as we hadn't yet had one. It was accompanied by a salad made of lamb's lettuce and potatoes. Both Schnitzel and salad were very tasty. Often Schnitzel is made with meat that eventually turns into chewing gum and meat-flavored chewing gum is not exactly my favorite... But this meat was tender and juicy and the breading had a perfect crispiness and was not too greasy. Fortunately the plate was big enough to cover most of the placemat which was a picture of a nipple, not the most appetizing thing to be looking at when waiting for food (the MAK is the Museum of Applied Arts, so the placemat can be traced back to some art project).

On our last day I just had to go to Fruth, a patisserie near the Naschmarkt, Vienna's most famous outdoor market. We had passed Fruth on our way to Schloss Belvedere on a previous day and judging by the display of sweets in the window I knew the place had to be good. The shop is very cute inside with additional goodies in the cabinets. Unfortunately, there is no place to sit down so you either have to get something to go or stand at the little counter on the side of the shop, which is what we ended up doing. It was so hard to decide what to get but I finally decided on the coconut raspberry muffin as it was something I had never had before. It tasted quite good and you could tell that the ingredients were of high quality, but maybe the muffin should have sat out at room temp for a little bit first as it was on the cool side. Next time I will definitely get something with chocolate!

Tagine of Lamb and Bell Pepper Purée

Lately I've been in the mood to try new recipes. During the week I usually don't take the time, but on the weekends I like to cook something more elaborate. Last weekend I was in the mood for lamb. So I got out my cookbook "Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon" by Claudia Roden and looked at different lamb recipes. I finally decided on tagine of lamb with dates and almonds (although I left out the almonds because I was too lazy to fry them). The lamb turned out wonderfully thanks to the long cooking and the blend of spices. For side dishes I made regular couscous and bell pepper purée and zucchini purée and baby plum tomatoes (the last two also from the above-mentioned cookbook). The bell pepper purée is definitely on my favorites list now. It would also be delicious in a cheese sandwich. Mmmm. I must try that next time! Unfortunately the zucchini recipe didn't turn out so well. It was quite watery. So I will only give the recipes for the lamb and bell pepper purée.

Tagine of Lamb with Dates and Almonds

Serves 6 to 8

3 pounds boned shoulder or neck fillet of lamb (my supermarket didn't have either, so I used lamb gigot)

1/2 stick (4 tblsp.) butter or 1/2 c sunflower oil (I gave in to my nutritionist's mind and used the oil)

2 onions, finely chopped

1/2 teasp. saffron threads

1/2 teasp. ground ginger

salt and plenty of black pepper

1 cinnamon stick

1-2 tblsp. clear honey (optional, but I used it and would definitely recommend it)

1 teasp. ground cinnamon

1 3/4 c dates, pitted

To garnish: 1/2 c blanched almonds; 3 tblsp. sesame seeds (optional)

Trim any excess fat from the lamb and cut into 6 or 8 pieces. Heat the butter or 3 tablespoons oil in a large pan, put in the meat, and brown it lightly all over. Take out the meat, put in the onions and cook, stirring, until they begin to color. Stir in the saffron and ginger and return the meat to the pan. Add salt and pepper and the cinnamon stick. Cover with water and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the meat is very tender, turning the pieces occasionally.

Take out two pieces of meat in order to make room in the pan, stir in the honey, if using, and the ground cinnamon and more pepper (it needs plenty to counterbalance the sweetness). Move the meat around so the honey and cinnamon is spread around and then return the two pieces of meat. Cook until the sauce is reduced, turning the meat over as you do. Add the dates and cook 5 to 10 min more.

Fry the almonds in the remaining tablespoon of oil until lightly golden. Leave whole or coarsely chop, and sprinkle over the meat when serving, adding lightly toasted sesame seeds, if you like.

Bell Pepper Purée

Serves 6 to 8

6 red bell peppers

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 to 5 tblsp. vinegar or the juice of 1 1/2 lemon

pinch of ground chili pepper

1 teasp. ground cumin

4 tblsp. extra virgin olive oil

salt

2 tblsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 tblsp. chopped cilantro

peel of 1/2 preserved lemon, chopped (left this out--I have no idea where to buy preserved lemons and I'm not about to make them myself!)

Place the peppers on a sheet of foil on an oven tray under a preheated broiler, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches from the broiler. Turn them until their skins are black and blistered all over. Alternatively -- and more easily -- roast them in the hottest oven for about 30 min, or until they are soft and their skins blistered and blackened, turning them once after 15 minutes.

To loosen the skins further, put them in a strong plastic bag, twist it shut, and leave for 10 to 15 min. Another old way that has the same effect is to put them in a pan with a tight-fitting lid for the same length of time. When the peppers are cool enough to handle,speel them, and remove and discard the stems and seeds.

Blend the peppera to a purée in the food processor with the garlic, vinegar or lemon juice, chili, cumin, olive oil, and a little salt to taste.

Put the purée into a serving bowl and mix in the chopped parsley, cilantro, and preserved lemon peel.

The Best Sour Cream Coffee Cake

My sister came to Basel two weeks ago to see the van Gogh exhibition (which was great, by the way). Right away we decided we would have to bake something together while she was here. After going through several possible recipes we finally settled on Sherry Yard's "Campton Place Coffee Cake" from her book "Desserts by the Yard". I had been wanting to make the recipe ever since I saw it in the cookbook and since peaches are in season, I thought 'what better time than now?' The result was a superb moist coffee cake that had me going back for thirds.

For the cake

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 c sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 c sour cream

For the filling

1/4 c sugar

1/4 c packed light brown sugar

1 tblsp ground cinnamon

1 tblsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 c slivered almonds, toasted and finely chopped

12 oz peaches, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces 

Make the cake: 

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a Bundt pan. 

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed for 5 min, or until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. In three additions of each, add the sour cream and sifted dry ingredients, alternating the wet and dry ingredients, and beat on low speed until all of the ingredients are blended.

Make the filling:

In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and almonds.

Scoop 1 1/2 c batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly to cover the bottom. Sprinkle on 1/4 c of sugar mixture and dot with one third of the peach chunks. Scoop in 2 c of the batter and spread evenly. Sprinkle with 1/4 c of the sugar mixture and dot with another third of the peach chunks. Add another 2 c of batter, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture and dot with remaining peaches. Spoon in any remaining batter and spread over peaches. 

Bake for 35 min. Rotate pan from front to back and bake for another 20-25 min, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan on a rack for 30 min, then invert, remove the pan, and allow the cake to cool completely upside down on the rack. 

Best Eats in London

London is fabulous. It really is. The shopping is great and, even more importantly, so is the food. In the four days we just spent there it was impossible to try all the places I had heard and read about since my last trip to London in 2007, but we did find five places that definitely deserve to be mentioned:

1. Spaccanapoli

2. The Grocer on Elgin

3. Ottolenghi

4. Princi

5. Coco Momo

1. Spaccanapoli

We passed this restaurant while searching for food on our first night, but I wasn't in the mood for Italian. Fortunately we decided to check it out on our second night and, man, was I glad we did! We had some of the best Italian food I had ever had (outside of Italy). 

We started out with an avocado mozzarella salad. The mozzarella was heavenly: creamy and smooth with a real mozzarella taste and not stringy or plastic-y (if you know what I mean). As a main course we had penne all'amatriciana and pizza rucola. Both were outstanding, especially the pizza: the dough was thin with a perfect balance between spongy and crusty, and the chunks of mozzarella were perfectly melted on top so that with each bite your teeth sunk into luscious layers of dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, arugula and finally parmesan. After all the food (the pasta portion was huge!) I really didn't want any dessert, but the charming waiter (who surprised us with good German skills learned by dealing with endless, and probably annoying, numbers of German tourists back in Italy) convinced us to try their housemade tiramisu and we were not sorry. It was one of the best tiramisus I have ever had. 

Just a side note: a specialty of the house is pizza by the meter. It is served on a long wooden board set on top of a raised wooden contraption so that you can reach the pizza from all sides of a table. Quite nifty! 

Another side note: get a table upstairs, if you can, as the tables in the basement are really close together so that when your neighbor chokes on their food, you get scared that their spittle will land on your food (this really happened!). 

2. The Grocer on Elgin

On our second full day in London we decided to go to Notting Hill. I thought we could have breakfast at the Hummingbird Bakery, a well-known bakery I had visited two years ago. But the urge to try something new took over and after trying to decide between three possible places for breakfast, we finally landed at The Grocer on Elgin. This place sells ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat-then-eat foods as well as drinks, sandwiches and pastries. After taking what seemed like ages to decide on a pastry, I finally settled on a hazelnut brownie. Brownies featuring walnurs are common, but I had never had the hazelnut version, so I just had to try it. By the way, hazelnuts seem to be the rage in London right now as there were other places selling pastries with hazelnuts, such as hazelnut croissants at Patisserie Valerie. Hazelnuts and chocolate really go together well. Hazelnuts have quite a bit of flavor (compared to walnuts) so that you get an intense flavor experience when eating them with chocolate. As a drink I tried the raspberry lassi, which was good because it tasted like raspberries and wasn't too sweet. 

3. Ottolenghi

I had already heard of this place before coming to London as my sister had found their cookbook with delicious looking recipes at Orell Füssli's English bookshop in Zürich. Ottolenghi has four locations in London. Since we were already in Notting Hill on Day 2, we went to the Notting Hill location for lunch. From outside the cafe you can see towers of sweets in the window. Once you enter you encounter a salad buffet, each one looking better than the next. But you can also order some meat and fish dishes. We settled for plates of three salads each. Everything we had was great. You probably can't go wrong with any of the salads. For dessert we shared a strawberry cheesecake. The texture was great, but it was a little too salty for my taste. I should have tried something else!

Just a side note: I would check out the other Ottolenghi locations as the café in Notting Hill has only a tiny room for eating crammed with one big table that sits 10. In general I really like the idea of sitting at a big table, but the room was a little claustrophobic.  

4. Princi

Late on our last night in London we passed by Princi and saw the rows of delicious sweets, which made our mouths water. But we were too full after having had dinner and trying Chinese pastries from Kowloon Bakery in Chinatown. So, we decided to definitely go back to Princi for breakfast on our last day. And that is exactly what we did! It was really, really hard to decide what to get, but I finally settled for a chocolate cake with nuts and raisins (second photo on bottom left). Mmmmm. It was delish. 

Just a side note: the interior design of Princi is really cool. There are long tables to sit at (love the communal feeling) and the back wall has water fountains coming out of it. Even the bathrooms are nice and scented by burning incense. 

Another side note: after hearing my American English accent the Chinese woman behind the counter said "Don't people shoot each other over there?" while pointing imaginary guns in the air. The USA needs an image change...

 

5. Coco Momo

For lunch on our last day we really wanted Fish and Chips. We had heard about a place in Marylebone, but it turned out to be closed. We continued along Marylebone High Street and came across Coco Momo. There we had an Aberdeen Angus beef burger w cheddar cheese, tomato & onion relish, home cut chips and Warm, grilled goat's w roasted Mediterranean vegetables on triple corn bread. Both dishes were really fresh and tasty. I also highly recommend the berry cooler made with real berries, lemon juice and soda.

  

One street south of Coco Momo is La Fromagerie, where I had my last sweet in London-a delicious brownie. We were in such a hurry to get back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to the airport that I didn't have time to take a picture.

Crazy for Rhubarb

This year I've gone crazy for rhubarb. Until recently I couldn't have cared less for the bitter stalks. But now I'm addicted to their taste and texture once cooked with a bit of sugar and paired with strawberries or raspberries or even better: both. 

The first idea I had when I was picking out my rhubarb at the store was to make a rhubarb compote with just rhubarb, sugar and water. Then I decided I needed to put the compote on something. Vanilla ice cream or a cream made of mascparone came to mind. I decided on the mascarpone cream first of all because it's hard to find Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream (the only store-bought vanilla ice cream in Europe I deem worthy of its title--the US has many more options) and second because you can determine the sweetness if you make your own mascarpone cream. At the store I also found fresh strawberries so I decided they would round off the whole recipe. The following photo is the delicious result of this first attempt. 

This was already a pretty good combination. A few days later I ended up buying a food processor with an integrated blender (one of my most exciting purchases recently!) and decided that it was time to try a new version of the rhubarb recipe. This time I made a rhubarb compote with raspberries and then put it in the blender. I also blended the mascarpone cream in the food processor (instead of using a whisk). Although this is also tasty, I think I prefer a few chunks in my compote and a thicker version of the mascarpone cream (which you get when whisking by hand). 

Instead of arranging the compote and cream in a glass you can just put the cream in a bowl and top with the compote and fresh strawberries!

Rhubarb-raspberry compote

2 cups rhubarb cut into 1/2 inch pieces

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

3/4 cup frozen raspberries

Put rhubarb, sugar and water into a pot and cook on high till mixture is boiling. Add frozen raspberries and turn down the heat. Cook until rhubarb is tender, but not too soft. At this point you can choose to leave the compote the way it is or let it cool down and then put it in a blender, blending until you get the texture you want. 

Mascarpone cream

225 g mascarpone 

180 g plain yogurt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Whisk all of the above until the texture is smooth and creamy. You can also choose to make this cream in a food processor (but be aware that you will quickly get a very smooth and less creamy consistency) or alternately use a hand mixer (which I haven't tried yet). 

Lily's Stomach Supply

Ever since the weather got warmer and therefore more reminiscent of California, I have been missing all the places I used to eat at in California. I miss all the ethnic foods, Mexican and Thai especially, and I miss the abundance of fresh produce. Last but not least I miss getting good food for a good price! Here, when I'm hungry but too lazy to cook I don't really have many choices for grabbing a quick bite to eat. We have Döner Kebap places en masse, but I don't really like to eat meat that was wrapped around a rotating stick and exposed to the air and heat for hours!

The only place I have found in Basel so far (besides Tibits, which I already talked about) that kind of reminds me of eating out in California is Lily's Stomach Supply, which sounds more like a place you would go to get nuts and bolts for your stomach. Fortunately for our stomachs, they actually serve food there! Their menu is a conglomeration of different Asian foods from India, Japan, China and other countries. Every time I go I try to order something different, but sometimes I just order the dishes I know I like. 

Following are pics of some of my favorite dishes. I also highly recommend the Massaman Curry, which is beef and potatoes in a peanut curry. I don't have a picture of it, but even if I did I wouldn't post it because it looks pretty unappetizing (brown soup with chunks in it) and you wouldn't want to eat it if you saw it. But believe me, it's tasty!

Pakistani Lamb Curry

Bun Gah (Vietnamese Rice Noodles in Curry)

Tandoori Chicken

Swiss Sweet Tooth Satisfiers

I thought moving to Switzerland would be similar to moving to France, meaning I would be surrounded by sweets left and right. But, unfortunately (or, rather, fortunately), that was not the case. I'm not exactly sure how I got the impression that Switzerland would be a sort of candyland. Maybe because Switzerland is a country known for its abundance of chocolate. And there is lots of chocolate. It's everywhere. But what I was really looking for (and still am!) was pastries and cakes along the lines of those from Sprüngli, which I had already known from my frequent visits to Zürich. Zürich not only has a big Sprüngli café, it also has lots of shops within Zürich. Sadly, Sprüngli only has a small shop at the train station here in Basel. The other day I finally treated myself to some of their mini pastries. I had held off on trying them because who could be satisfied from eating just one? Besides that they are pretty pricey. But nevertheless I decided to try them. What I got was a mini cake with a truffle topping and a mini coffee eclair. Both were very good. However, I decided my favorite eclairs were those with plain pastry cream and chocolate glaze on top. 

After having searched the downtown area  for suitable sweet tooth satisfiers, I finally came across Confiserie Bachmann. Now I find myself going there almost every weekend to get one of my new favorite pastries: a chocolate macaroon (Schoggimakrone), made of what I assume to be hazelnuts, sugar, and egg whites and filled with chocolate cream (that unfortunately sometimes has an alcoholic flavor to it). But their chocolate buns (Schoggiweggli), a yeast dough with chocolate chunks in it,  are very good as well. Both types of pastries are pretty common here. 

Another common pastry is the Osterflädli. It's a little pie with a filling made of cream, milk, eggs, sugar and some semolina. So far I've only tried the ones from the bakery chain Sutter and it was pretty yummy. It has chocolate bits in it!

I have actually seen a few other confiseries and cafés I need to try. So hopefully there will be an update soon.