tarragon lamb - back to my roots

One of the things that is eating me from inside is whether I´m on the right place or not. I have been hasitating posting this, as I know a few people might take offence... Coming from Ceausescu´s Romania I was pretty narrow minded, naive but full of hopes and dreams. I have always liked to believe in Santa and in fairy tales.

wild mallow, we used to eat these as kids

After a few years here I started to change. I didn´t want to be "the crazy Hungarian"anymore, I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be "normal". I wanted to belong. Unfortunately, I didn´t fully succeed. I became a stanger in my old country while I remained a stranger in my new country. I am somewhere in between. In limbo land. This is not poor me, poor me. I am only trying to figure out who I have become and where I would fit in as I am. It is a bit scary to think like this at the age of 39, one would expect that I have come to terms with these issues by now.

I´ve always considered myself as a world citizen but I realize that I yet have to conquer the safety that knowledge about my people, their culture, the country and it´s history gives - to be able to fly. To be able to lift, I have to know and nourish my roots. And what better way could I find to nourish my roots, if not cooking? Couldn´t you guess that all roads lead to Rome? ;P

Székely cooking is part of Transylvanian cooking and has been impregnated by the Hungarian, Jewish, Armenian, Romanian and Saxon people and their cuisines. Székelys have always been living close to nature and being poor inspired them to use ingredients they could find in the forest and on the fields. Dill, tarragon, rosmary, basil, marjoram, caravay, lovage, "wild"thyme and juniper are some herbs that are frequently used and are found in every flower-bed on the countryside or hanging from kitchen ceilings in dried bunches.

my father´s kitchen garden with spring onions, beans and dill

Székely people are famous for their hospitality but I find it more of a burden than something overly positive. From time to time it can be very tiresome to turn down all the food you are being urged to try. I own a few Hungarian recipe books and a Transylvanian one, but I wanted to learn more about the history of food and cooking, so I ordered (read: asked my father to buy and post) two books on the subject. One of them is called Erdélyi lakoma (Transylvanian feast) written by a former owner of Four Seasons (London) Pal Kövi. The other one is called Székely ízek (Székely flavours) and written by János Pataki whom I´ve never heard of, but I´m looking forward to recieve the books anyway.

traditional székely porch in Csíkszentgyörgy

So, what I started with was lamb. The tarragon lamb soup is a famous Transylvanian dish, but in wintertime I prefer something thicker, something more filling. I pulled my old cookbook out and found within minutes a recipe for tarragon lamb stew with vegetables. It reminded me a bit of irish stews with the carrot, parsnip and cellery but there are a few differences :) But let´s start with the recipe:

Tarragon lamb with vegetables
serves 4

800g lambsteak in cubes
200g carrots, thickly sliced
200g parsnip, sliced
1 larger celleriac in cubes 2-3 tbs flour
lard (or sunflower seed oil)
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
tarragon*+tarragon vinegar*
salt, pepper
sour cream
*Tarragon is not dried for winter usage as other herbs, but vinegared (is there such a word?) Pack tightly a little jar with fresh tarragon and pour pure vinegar over so you fill the jar. Put a lid on and keep it in a cool, dry place and use it during the winter. You can actually use it for up to two years, then the flavour starts to fade away... (If you don´t want to make this, I´m sure you could use fresh tarragon and then add some ready made tarragon vinegar)

Roll the meat in the flour, then brown it in the heated lard until it gets a nice color. Pour 200ml of water on it and cook under a lid for 30-45 minutes. You have to check every 10-15 minutes, stir and add more water if needed, but don´t start with too much water because that´s the trick here. You don´t want to cook a soup, you want a stew, a kind of pörkölt. When the meat starts to get tender add the vegetables, lemon juice and zest and the chopped tarragon and cook for 20-30 more minutes until both lamb and vegetables are cooked.

When ready, add sourcream, stir, bring it quickly to boil and taste. If you think it´s tart enough, then that´s it. If you would like to add more tartness and tarragony flavour, add some tarragon vinegar. Traditionally this dish is served with mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!

Of course, I have a long way to go...and this is just the beginning.

the plank leading to my father´s house

from beetroot patties to red velvet cupcakes

Have you been secretly hoping that my beetroot days were over? No, no, no, I have just been experimenting with different dishes with more or less success.

First thing I made was a beetroot gratin wich I was very pleased with. I cooked the beets until almost done, peeled and sliced thinly.

Preheat the oven to 200C .

Layer the beetroot in a buttered baking dish w/ salt, pepper, grated parmesan and grated horseradish. Pour in dubblecream, about half way up the beetroot and beke for about 15-20 minutes.
Had it as a side to porkchops with oregano, but if you are vegetarian, you can just have it as a main course. Very nice.

My (secret) new year resolution was to cook and blog about more Swedish and Hungarian recipes, as it might be more appreciated than the ones everybody has access to (read: Nigella, Jamie). This was a good opportunity as beetroots are supposedly big in Sweden. I was lucky (or not?) because first thing I found in the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter was a recipe for Beetroot Patties with horseradish and yoghurt sauce. Sounded good to me! The recipe called for minced beef, grated beetroot, onion, egg, salt,pepper and capers (optional).

Grating the beetroot raw has left me with a large amount of beetjuice with a beautiful color and I just couldn´t throw it out. While forming the patties I got an idea. Ever since I have read about the Red Velvet Cake for the first time , I have been fascinated by it. Then in December when in London, I got a reminder because of a gourgeos one I saw at the Hummingbird Bakery. As a was a bit suspicious to the usage of such large amounts of foodcolouring, I thought I will use the beetrootjuice to substitute at least a part of it.

... I finished the beetroot patties, tryed some... blend, no character, nothing special. I mustn´t forget chucking out that recipe not to get confused in the future and make it again!

After that marvellous (not) lunch and disappointment I went on with my red velvet project.

As I have none to celebrate Valentines Day with, I figured I should feel depressed and bake and demolish a whole layercake but I just didn´t feel like it. I felt absolutely fine, so I was going to make some pretty velvet cupcakes instead. As a single person I find it more practicalwith the individual "mini-cakes", I can freeze a part of it while still slightly warm, and then taking them out one and one and frosting them before I eat them. This way they keep "fresh" for a longer time and I don´t have to stuff myself into a sugar coma.

I found a recipe for velvet cupcakes here, then "consulted" The Lee bros recipe here and decided to halve the first recipe and add some orange zest according to the second recipe.

I also altered the frosting, I didn´t find it necessary to add the butter at all, it tasted great!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

about 30 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
2 1/3 cups of cake flour
2 tablespoons of Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of buttermilk*
1 1/2 tablespoons of red food coloring
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar
Frosting ingredients
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
2 - 3 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
*You can make your own buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar to milk and letting it stand for about 10 minutes.

The cupcakes
1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer for 3 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy.
2 Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is fully incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.
3 In a large bowl, sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl whisk together the buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla extract, and red food coloring.
4 Add a fourth of the dry ingredients and mix, then add a third of the wet. Continue adding in a dry, wet, dry pattern, ending with the dry ingredients.
5 Scoop into cupcake papers, about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Rotate the pan after the first 15 minutes of baking to ensure even baking.
6 Allow to cool for one minute in the pan then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

The Frosting
1 Cream the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.
2 Add the vanilla extract and mix.
3 Add the powdered sugar, continually taste to get to desired sweetness. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Happy Valentines Day!

morning wisdom with your cuppa...

I love Yogi tea in the winter. I like the colour, the flavour and the warming aroma of cinnamon and black pepper. But I especially appreciate the small messages that come with the teabags...

I would also like to tell you about a blog that I found recently because it really did have a great impact on me. It was a particular post that really made me thinking, it felt like an eye opener.

"...can you admit failure and know you yourself are not a failure?"

Therapists and "learned people" ;) were not able to trigger that aha-feeling in me as this short little sentence did, when you recognize either what the problem has been/is or even better, what you could do about it how you could work with it.

I´m aware that things that touch me won´t necessarily touch you, but there might be somehting there for you too, so...here is the link to the eggbeater Oh, and of course, it is a foodie site too, eggbeater herself is a chef located in the SF Bay area.

"...it takes humility to admit you haven't been who you suppose to be."

the color orange - cooking for human rights

Two nights ago I recieved an e-mail from a dear colleague about a global manifestation to highlight the violations of the human rights in China on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Beijing August 2008. The Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot is the initiator of the manifestation 'The Color Orange'.

The strict censorship can ban the use of obvious symbols of human rights, but the use of The Color Orange cannot be banned. By using something with the color orange during the Olympics - both inside and outside of China - you are sending a signal to the world that something is wrong in China. It can be anything, like an orange hat, camera bag, tie, pen, paper, dress, suit, bag etc. Even pealing an orange will be considered a pronounced statement. On the web site http://www.thecolororange.net/uk/ they are also encouraging people to support the project with various creative ideas, like writing songs, poems, blogging about the case or whatever idea one could have that comprises the color orange.

The Color Orange is inspired by what the painter Kandinsky said when he stated that the color orange is in fact red that has been made more human by the color yellow. The Chinese color is exactly red so maybe we can support the humanistic forces in the country by introducing the Color Orange. The selection of the Color Orange is however also inspired by the color of the prison uniforms in Guantanamo, the monks in Tibet and Burma and so on.

First I thought I won´t "do" politics on a food blog but then again, I grew up in a communist dictature and know what that does to peoples phychies. I have memories about our food being "regulated" by the gouvernment, not being allowed to decide what you want to eat, but you had to eat whatever you could lay your hands on...those were desperate times. No free television, radio, news were "filtered" so we didn´t really knew what was happening in the world.

I am out of there now but I may not forget that many people around the globe are still living like incapacitated and there human rights are violated on a daily basis. Cooking orange things and blogging about it is not going to help them, I am well aware of that. But if I do think about those people and sending them positive thoughts, good vibes or prayers while planning, cooking and blogging about orange things, that might make a slight difference. And if many other people with me are sending their positive energies towards this cause, that would make a real difference. To be able to change things, first we have to acknowledge them, to recognize their existence. I´m doing it here and now. Please, join me.

We could of course organize a cooking event in August, during the Olimpics, but we could also start right now. My first orange dish is a very simple one from Diana Henry´s Cook Simple but it is so good! I had it as a quick lunch yesterday and I intend to put it on my staples-list.

Spanish Sweet Potato w Chorizo
serves 1

1 small sweet potato in chunks

1 small red onion halved, cut into half-monn-shaped slices

1/2 or 1 red paprika, deseeded, slice into broad strips

olive oil

3/4 tsp smoked Spanish paprika

1/8 tsp ground cumin

salt and pepper

100g chorizo, cut into rounds

50g bacon, cut into chunks

1 garlic cloves, finely chopped

coriander or parsley leaves for serving

1 large egg

Put sweet potato, onion and peppers in a small roasting tin. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin, salt pepper. Stir vegetable until coated in oil and spices. Roast in preheated oven (200C/gas mark 6) for about 30 minutes.

Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and cook the chorizo and bacon until coloured. Turn the heat down, add garlic and cook for another minute. Add all this to the cooked vegetables. Stir in the chopped herbes.

Heat a little more olive oil in the same frying pan and fry the egg. Serve the vegetable mixture topped with the fried eggs.

Bon Appetit!

Edit: If you feel the least thing by reading the above, please, spread the word. I´ve made up an improvised logo that we could use to draw attention to this case. There is a rosemary on the photo, I just happened to buy it yesterday and loved the wrapping, that´s why I took a picture. When I looked up the meaning of rosemary, I found that it has an old reputation for improving memory, and it has been used as a symbol for remembrance. I think this is a nice coincidence...or perhaps it´s not a coincidence at all? ;)

You find more orange posts here

custard cream hearts

Everything around me seems to be pink right now except my sunglasses and I could really use a pair of them. I´m not a fan of pink but it just ingratiates itself into my life. The other day I found myself fiddleing with the settings of this blog and the next day I was about to scold myself with my morning cuppa; for a moment I thought I have signed in to someone else´s blog. When I tried to describe for a friend what it looked like, the closest I came to was something from Barbie´s Tea Party.

Recently I have bought a pink scarf and hat, was given a cactus with pink flowers and found an old pink checkered tablecloth and a pink angora pullover that I totally forgot that I had. Now, thing is, that I don´t belive in coincidences, everything has got a meaning. According to the chakra theory pink (and green) is the color of the heart and love. Few weeks ago I started going to a therapy called the Rosen method and it is supposed to open up my frozen, lonely heart ;) Could all these pink things have something to do with that process?

("Rosen Method is distinguished by its gentle, direct touch. Using hands that listen rather than manipulate, the practitioner focuses on chronic muscle tension. ...the practitioner responds with touch and words which allow the client to begin to recognize what has been held down by unconscious muscle tension. As this process unfolds, habitual tension and old patterns may be released, freeing the client to experience more aliveness, new choices in life, and a greater sense of well-being.")

So when last weekend I was invited to a moving-in party I thought baking Nigella´s Custard Cream Hearts for the hostess will be just perfect. They are very cute but not nauseating enough for my recent mood, so I needed to make a small adjustment and add a touch of red food colouring to the filling.

Custard Cream Hearts

Biscuits:

175g Plain Flour

3tbsp Custard Powder

1tsp Baking Powder

50g Unsalted Butter (I used 100g butter and no vegetable shortening)

50g Vegetable Shortening

3tbsp Caster Sugar

1 Egg

1tbsp Milk

Custard:

1tbsp Custard Powder

100g Icing Sugar

50g Soft Unsalted Butter

1tsp Boiling Water

few drops of red food colouring (optional)

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4/180c.

To make the biscuits, put the flour, custard powder and baking powder into a processor and pulse to mix. Add the butter, cut into smallish cubes and the vegetable shortening in mounded tsps and pulse to cut into the flour to create a crumbly mixture.Tip in the sugar and pulse again. Beat the egg and tbsp milk together. Pour down the funnel of the processor with the engine running until it clumps into a ball. Form the dough into a ball and press down into a fat disc, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 4mm. Dip a 5cm heart shaped cutter in flour and cut out your shapes. You need an even number of hearts to sandwich together.Prick the outside edge of each heart all the way around on one side with a corn on the cob holder. Cook on a lined baking sheet for 15 minutes, and then leave to cool before sandwiching them.

To make the custard cream, put the custard powder and icing sugar into the processor and pulse briefly to combine and de-lump.Add the butter and blitz together until you get a smooth cream. Add the tsp of boiling water and pulse again.Sandwich each biscuit with about 1tsp of custard cream by gently spreading a layer of cream over the unpricked side of a biscuit and then wiggling a matching top on it.

They were easy to make, not that they came out perfect but I´m starting to become less critical and more gracious about my cooking and baking skills. People (read: 16 single women) were all excited about the cute hearts, they were sending the box around and asking the hostess if they were allowed to try them. There were different opinions: some thought she shoud save them, others were more eager to demolish the lot.

Within ten minutes the box was empty and I decided that was a good sign. I didn´t get any at the party, the only one I had before leaving was one without a "pair" and that was quite nice but not enough to make up my mind. I am still not sure wether they tasted great or they were just sweet looking?

Summing up: I must make another batch to be able to review them properly and I also believe the pink filling would be/IS an essential part of my healing process ;)

"This work is about transformation – from the person we think we are to the person we really are."–Marion Rosen

zucchini pancakes

Every year at end of February or first week in March there is book sales in Sweden. Yes, of course it is a sale after Christmas and one after the summer holiday but this one is THE booksale of the year. It starts 12 o´clock (midnight) and it´s a bit fun to stand there in the middle of the night with lots of other book- interested people and just look at, feel, browse through mountains of books.

Last year I found 7 cookbooks and one of them was Donna Hay´s The new cook. I love the layout, very clear, simple but elegant, lightyears from let´s say Tessa Kiros´ Apples for Jam... (not that I don´t like Tessa Kiros but they are just very different) As soon as I got the book and leafed through it, I remember trying the Zucchini Pancake...with not so good result. The picture in the book showed a nice, relatively thin pancake, while following the recipe I ended up with a very thick batter that couldn´t possibly result in thin pancakes. Optimist as I was, I went with it and waited for the miracle that just didn´t happen and I had a thick, grayish fritter-like thing that remained uncooked.

The other day I was looking for recipes for beetroots (now you are surprized, aren´t you?) and noticed this recipe for pancake again. The idea that I will just use some milk to make the batter more liquid came to me so naturally that I felt stupid not thinking about it last time. Most often I just trust the cookbook writer without questioning the accuracy of the recipe and thank God most often they do work :)

Zucchini Pancakes
2 pancakes
breakfast for 2 or brunch for 1

250ml zucchini, grated
1 egg
1,5 tbs melted butter
100ml flour (depending of the size of the egg, you migth need just a tbsp more or so)2 tbs grated Parmesan
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 slices of Brie
50g sundried tomatoes
100ml milk

This time I was pleased with my zucchini pancakes, they were nice, they were COOKED through and they became flavourful with the Camembert and the sundried tomatoes. The recipe calls for Brie but I had some Camembert that had to be used and I don´t think it made a huge difference. I will definitely make these pancakes again, as it is perfect as brunch on a weekend.

not all beetroot soup is borscht

I seem slightly compulsive in my usage of individual seasonal items, but I must defend myself with the statement I made in my previous post: it depends on the fact that I´m cooking for one.
Few days ago I bought a 1000g package of beetroots and has only used 2 of them for making Diana Henry´s beetroot salad.
Being the weather as it is, stormy and rainy, I felt like soup, but not as strong as I find borscht can be sometimes. I was in the mood for something smooth and velvety and most of all comforting. I couldn´t be bothered roasting the beetroots wrapped individually in foil, so I cooked them in salted water to wich I added olive oil and marjoram.

Marjoram used to be my grandmother´s favorite herb, she added it a bit here and there to several dishes, not too much, just a touch. I wish I could say I was interested in cooking as a child (as many real foodies seem to have been) and learnt from my granny but I wasn´t the least interested , I didn´t even like to eat. In fact, I dreaded mealtime. It was an ongoing war between the "grownups" and I as I was never hungry...oh well, now I´m always hungry but can´t eat because of this starch-allergy or IBS...how ironic ;P

Back to the soup. Peeled the beets while still warm, stuffed myself with two of them as they were, plain with plenty of butter, cut the rest (4 middle-large beetroot) in thick slices and melted a smallish chopped onion with olive oil that I added the beetroot slices to. One more pinch of marjoram went in there and also 1/2 of vegetable Maggi cube and about 200-300ml of water. I let it simmer for a while (about 4-5 minutes) and poured everything down in the blender. When everything was smooth I transferred it back to the dish I cooked the beetroots in, added about 150ml of cream, brought it to a quick boil and served.
It was exactly what I was yearning for: sweet, warming, flavorful in a mild way and really, really comforting.

While looking for something to use instead of potatoes, I came across some interesting data about the starch content in potatoes and beets. While the starch content of 100g raw potatoes is 15g, raw beetroot contains only 0,6g starch!!!! That´s an enormous difference! Since then I have been serving cooked beets to fish and meat dishes, a lot better than eating everything with dark bread, as I did for a while.

[OK, I do realize that most of you are not interested in facts about starch content in food (lucky you!), but there are many people out there with IBS who might have some use of this... It took time and research before I could identify my problem and also find the connection between IBS and starch content in diet...]

Also, the comparision with the potato gave me the idea to try making the "French potato" soup next time, using beetroot instead! I´m totally enthusiastic about this!

Oh, and while in this "besser-wisser" mode, I would like to remind you about all the good things the beetroot is loaded with: the vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, antioxidants, potassium, dietary fiber and something new that I´ve just learned. Beetroot is also rich in betaine that helps us fight the development of different cardiovascular diseases.
Wow! I just found something very interesting. Just have a look at the Cuisine chapter...Stephen Nottingham has made a thourough research and geathered suggestions from foodwriters like Nigel Slater, Sophie Grigson, Claudia Roden, Elizabeth David and Simon Hopkinson.
I can already see more beetroot posts coming...sorry folks ;P