Butterscotch Pudding

I've gots me a new favorite recipe: Butterscotch Pudding from The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook that I got for Valentine's Day from my aunt and uncle (thanks again!!). It's truly heaven. The texture is so smooth and the flavor a perfect balance of vanilla bean, dark brown sugar and half-and-half. It melts in your mouth and makes you forget you had to make two batches to get it right. I screwed up the first one by letting it boil too long. It curdled and I had to toss it into the organic waste. I was totally annoyed, needless to say. But I was determined so I went to the supermarket to buy another round of eggs and half-and-half and tried again. And it was oh so worth it!

Serves 6

4 large egg yolks, at room temperature

1/4 c cornstarch

31/4 c half-and-half

1/4 tsp coarse salt

1c firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped, or 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 c (1 stick, 110 g) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

1. In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch, 1/4 c of the half-and-half, and the salt; set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining 3 c half-and-half, 1/4 c of the dark brown sugar, and the vanilla bean and seeds, if using. Bring to a simmer.

3. Meanwhile, in a second saucepan, combine the remaining 3/4 c brown sugar and the butter. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the butter melts and the mixture is smooth and bubbly and smells a little nutty, about 2 minutes. Pour into the saucepan with the hot half-and-half and whisk until smooth.

4. Whisking constantly, pour the hot mixture into the egg mixture, gradually at first to temper it and then more quickly. Place a strainer over the saucepan and strain the custard mixture back into the saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Boil for 10 seconds, whisking. (Make sure the custard boils for 10 seconds in the center of the pan, not just around the sides). The mixture should thicken to a pudding-like consistency. Discard the vanilla bean, if using. 

5. Fit a standing mixer with the paddle attachment and pour the pudding mixture into the bowl (I used a hand mixer). Beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes to cool slightly. Add the vanilly extract, if using. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until chilled, 3 to 4 hours. 

Top with whipped cream!

Oil and Grease in Madrid

I'd heard before that food in Spain wasn't particularly good, which was always hard to imagine considering the good climate and all the fruits and vegetables that grow there. When I had the chance to finally visit Spain (Madrid) while on a business trip, I decided to arrive a few days in advance to be able to explore Madrid and also see whether the food really was as greasy as people had told me. 

The first evening I met up with a coworker who also arrived in advance and we went for tapas as it was 8pm and we were hungry, but couldn't go to a restaurant because they don't open till 9:30 or 10pm. We walked around Sol station and ended up at La Catedral where we  tried paquetitos crujientes de ternera y queso azul (crunchy parcels of veal and blue cheese) and croquetas de queso manchego e ibérico (manchego-a sheep cheese-and Iberian ham croquettes). All fried and served with, ta-da-daaaa...fried potatoes in the form of potato chips! Of course things that are fried are tasty, but it's not something I would want to eat on a regular basis. Fortunately drinking beer with tapas does help "dissolve" the grease and creates an appetite for more grease! I don't know how the Madrileños do it: staying up late eating greasy foods and drinking alcohol but going to work pretty much at the same time we do in Switzerland.

The next morning I headed to Chocolatería San Ginés, which is probably the most famous churros café in Madrid. Churros are fried pieces of dough, which are often dipped in hot chocolate. Now, before I went to this place I was picturing churros similar to the ones I knew from my childhood in California when we used to buy them from a cart while visiting the Los Angeles Zoo. Those churros were long fried dough sticks covered in cinnamon and sugar. Unfortunately that is not at all what I got in Madrid. What I got were several thin sticks of fried dough pretty much without flavor and without sweetness (sorry, I need sugar) which oozed grease when bitten into and the chocolate served along with it is not even close to any chocolate I'm used to as a German national and Swiss resident (and food snob). It was a huge disappointment. It'd be interesting, though, to find out if I still liked the churros at the LA zoo or whether it's some precious childhood memory of mine that would burst like a bubble if I ventured there again.

On the first night all my coworkers were in Madrid we went to Cervecería Santa Ana where we got several different tapas, my favorite of which were Jabugo ham and manchego cheese. After tapas and beer we continued to the restaurant Medina Mayrit that serves food with, as their website says, Muslim, Jewish and Christian influences. The dinner was outstanding (except for the dessert--unfortunately a common thing in Spain). We first got a cold roasted tomato soup followed by a salad of frisee lettuce, tomatoes, walnuts and pomegranate seeds with a honey dressing (or so it tasted) and meat croquettes. For dinner we could choose between a few mains. I decided on chicken tagine stewed with almonds, prunes and apricots. Dessert was a white chocolate mousse, but it was not very good as it had no flavor and I suspect it was made with gelatin, so it had more of a jell-o than mousse-texture. 

The other restaurants we went to while in Madrid aren't really worth mentioning. But I do think that there must be some hidden gems somewhere. Better luck next time!

Slow Food in Torino

Last October my mom and I went to Torino to visit the Salone del Gusto (the "Salon of Taste"), the major biennial Italian event where producers of food and consumers come together. I'd already visited the event twice before during my studies and was interested in going again, this time as a consumer and not as a student. Having seen many of the same producers before I was particularly focused on those stands that offered artisanal products, such as nocino, a walnut liquor, or organic rice for risotto. A particulary interesting stand was that of Koppert Cress, which specializes in "seedlings of unique plants", as their website says. There we tried various cresses and other plants, all of which had intense flavors and some of which were spicy. They mainly deliver these cresses to chefs, restaurants and hotels--I'd love to try some dishes specially prepared with these cresses as I'm sure it would be a flavorful experience. Who knows, maybe it's the next big thing?

What's interesting about Torino is that I never hear people talk about it although it's a beautiful city. I figure its location off the major railway network and freeways make it less attractive for visiting but I think it's well worth the visit.

The first evening, the evening before we went to the Salone del Gusto, we ate at le vitel étonné where we had a really lovely meal of salad, rack of lamb and tajarin with chanterelle mushrooms. The dessert was okay, but not a must-have.

The second night we met up with a friend of mine whom I met at Slow Food Nation in San Francisco in 2008 and who was also visiting the Salone del Gusto and the Terra Madre, a parallel event dedicated to talks and discussion forums about sustainable agriculture and food production. We met at Caffè Mulassano, a charming old caffè great for getting a quick something to drink (see photo at top).

On our third and last day we started out the morning with a trip to Caffè al Bicerin where we finally tried the famous Bicerin, a hot drink made with espresso, chocolate and cream. Unfortunately I was disappointed because I was picturing a mocha-like drink with whipped cream but instead the drink was like a coffee soup with cocoa and the cream on top was literally cream, no whip. Needless to say, I've crossed Bicerin off my list. What saved the visit was the delicious cake we ordered with it. 

 

For lunch we went to the famous Baratti e Milano caffè where we had lunch followed by coffee and cake. The salad and the risotto with pumpkin were very good. For coffee I had the Caffè Baratti&Milano, which was coffee with hazelnut cream, topped with whipped cream and hazelnuts. We shared the Torta Baratti, a  truffle cake, which was very good. All sweetened and coffeed up we were ready to head back home.

World's Best Carrot Cake and Apple-Almond Wreath

I'm probably the worst blogger in the world--it's been almost 2 months since my last post. But I do have some stories saved up, so I'll deliver them one by one even if they are now ancient in internet terms of time. 

For our housewarming party in October I decided to try some new recipes from Leila Lindholm's cookbook A Piece of Cake. My sister first found the book about a year ago and was raving about the recipes ever since she made the hazelnut cookies for Christmas last year. I was lucky enough to receive the cookbook for my birthday this year. With one exception I've loved everything I've made from it so far. 

I decided on making carrot cake since I love carrot cake and hadn't made it in a long time. The apple wreath took a little longer to decide on because I still greatly respect yeast doughs with their being so temperature sensitive. Turns out the carrot cake definitely could be the world's best carrot cake. The lime cream cheese icing is the cherry on top with its fresh and tangy flavor beautifully complementing the carrot and spice flavor of the cake. It's a perfect recipe for those who hate raisins and nuts as this recipe contains neither.

The World's Best Carrot Cake

3 eggs

240 g sugar

180 g flour

1 teasp. vanilla sugar (I use vanilla extract)

3 teasp. baking powder

1 1/2 teasp. cinnamon

1 teasp. ground cardamom

1/2 teasp. powdered ginger

Pinch of salt

150 ml sunflower oil

270 g grated carrot

Lime-cream cheese icing

60 g butter at room temp.

240 g powdered sugar

1 teasp. vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract)

zest from 1 lime

100 g cream cheese

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).

2. Beat eggs and sugar till light and frothy.

3. Mix all dry ingredients and stir into egg and sugar mixture.

4. Add sunflower oil and grated carrots.

5. Pour into a buttered 24 cm (9.5 inch) spring form pan (I didn't have the right sized pan, so I used a loaf tin).

6. Bake on rack in middle of oven for about 55 min until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool.

7. For icing mix all ingredients until smooth.

8. Pour icing onto cooled cake. 

I was really surprised how well the apple-almond wreaths turned out. And in retrospect the recipe wasn't hard at all. I will definitely try some of the other variations for yeast pastries that Leila has in her book. For the apple-almond wreath first prepare the basic yeast dough recipe. 

Basic yeast dough 

Makes 2 wreaths

1 tablesp. cardomom seeds (she calls for black, but I used green seeds)

300 ml milk

50 g fresh yeast

120 g sugar

1/2 teasp. salt

150 g butter at room temp.

1 egg

660-720 g flour type 550

1. Crush cardomom seeds with a mortar and pestle and heat with milk until lukewarm.

2. Dissolve crumbled yeast in a bowl with the milk, sugar, salt, butter and egg.

3. Add flour in several portions and work into dough until smooth.

4. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise to double its size for 45-60 min.

Apple-Almond Wreath

1 recipe of basic yeast dough

1 whisked egg 

1 handful of sliced almonds

Filling

200 g butter at room temp.

80 g brown sugar

1 tablesp. cinnamon

200 g grated marzipan

2 ripe, grated apples

1. Prepare basic yeast dough according to recipe.

2. Mix butter, sugar, cinnamon and marzipan until creamy.

3. Divide the dough in half and roll one half into a rectangle 30 x 20 cm (12 x 8 inches) and 1/2 cm (1/5 inch) thick.

4. Spread half of marzipan over dough and cover with half of the apples.

5. Roll the dough lengthwise. Prepare other half of dough the same way.

6. Place the wreaths into 24 cm (9.5 inch) buttered spring forms or just place onto trays covered with parchment paper. 

7. Make diagonal cuts into the wreaths 1 cm (1/3 inch) apart and pull every other cut slightly apart. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for about 1 hour.

8. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).

9. Brush whisked egg onto wreaths and cover with sliced almonds.

10. Bake on racks in the middle of the oven for about 20 min. 

Good Food in Sorrento and Napoli

I should have written this post ages ago. Now Napoli and Sorrento seem so far away. But it's really only been a few weeks since we visited Southern Italy. We flew to Napoli and then headed straight down the coast to Sorrento. We spent four nights in a wonderful villa in the neighboring village of Sant' Agnello, a good choice since Sorrento is quite full of tourists. The last night of our trip we spent in Napoli and we were glad it was only one night since it's not a beautiful city. If they fixed it up a bit, it'd do wonders as the architecture is quite nice. Just the paint is chipped and old, and there are piles of trash everywhere! Funny thing was that the trash didn't smell even though it was still reasonably warm weather. 

I was honestly quite disappointed by the food in Italy. Generally speaking, that is. This is due to the fact that I (or should I say we?) have been putting Italian food on a pedestal, which at one time was probably well-deserved. Not anymore. Italy is also jumping on the bandwagon of the fast life, which immediately shows effects in food and how it is prepared and what its ingredients are. Hence, not all mozzarella is bufala (the kind made from buffalo milk), not all tomatoes are vine-ripened, not all basil is freshly picked. Wouldn't it be nice if it was? 

Luckily I was still able to find some gems on our trip. For example the Trattoria da Emilia in Sorrento (Marina Grande, 62). This charming restaurant on the harbor is just what I like: unpretentious, friendly and serving simple, fresh and delicious food. We started off with salads: mixed and caprese (but not with bufala), then we had gnocchi alle vongole (gnocchi with clams) and calamari fritti (fried calamari). Everything was quite good even the red house wine we ordered. 

We ate at this trattoria once more since we liked it so much. The second time aroudnd we had cozze (mussels), spaghetti pomodoro (spaghetti with tomato sauce) and assorted fried fish. This meal was delicious as well. At this point I have to go off on a tangent about one of the worst food words for me. It is indeed the mussels, cozze. The reason this word is so bad is that is sounds exactly like the German word "Kotze", which means vomit. Not exactly a word I like to associate with food even if consumption of cozze may sometimes lead to Kotze. Ugh, enough of that. 

Unfortunately we didn't find any more gems in Sorrento, on the island of Capri, or along the Amalfi coast (I'm sure with more time, we would have found something!), but they did serve pretty good pizza at Sant' Antonino in Sorrento (Via Santa Maria delle Grazie, 6). 

In Napoli we fortunately found some good food at Gran Caffè Gambrinus right near the Palazzo Reale, where we ended up for lunch. The thing I noticed right away was that we were surrounded by German speaking people, not exactly what I like to hear when on vacation (to those who don't know: I'm German-American and may speak freely about both Germans and Americans!). But that's just how it is with Gran Caffès that make there way into every tourist guide. The worst part was when the 5 German ladies at the neighboring table started arguing with the waiter about who had paid what. In the typical German manner each lady had paid for her own coffee and cake (instead of having one person pay the bill and figuring it out later) and in the end there was confusion about one piece of chocolate cake not accounted for. That was a real German-tourist-on-vacation-moment that made me wince and sink deeper into my chair. I wish I hadn't witnessed that. So glad Swiss Germans, who do share some similarities in behaviors with Germans, are not afflicted with that characteristic. Anyways, back to the important part, the food! It was expensive but we had a really good caprese (this time with bufala!) and a good pizza. For drinks I had their lovely caffè freddo con panna which was like a sweetened coffee sorbet topped with whipped cream. Delicious! And mister had caffè nocciola, which was pretty good but you could tell the hazelnut flavor wasn't coming from real hazelnuts. There it was again: my disappointment with the declining food of Italy...

The day of our departue we had all morning and some of the afternoon to wander the streets of Napoli. We ended up having lunch in the Galleria Umberto at Fratelli la Bufala. There we had a pizza reale and gnocchi with tomato sauce and bufala. YUMMMMM!!!!