西安西泽: caesar salad with chickpea cutlets et crème anglaise de vanille

a funny thing about living in china... even when surrounded by some delectably delicious foods, sometimes the western tongue craves something from home.  i miss chinese food, oh how i do, but while i was there, it was always satisfying to partake in something familiar.  it was more than just "comfort food" -- even eating something as mundane as boxed mac and cheese had a certain magic.   tuna melt? pure joy.

my friend adam and i enjoyed making soup. and no soup in my life will ever be that good because the mushrooms they have in china? they best any other mushroom ive ever had. ever.


the veggie market was across from campus. it was a bustling place, always, with the ever-present smell of rich spices.

it was a superb place for people watching. it was also always an adventure.

adam and i didnt just make soup though. we also enjoyed making caesar salad. it was a careful procedure because, while the produce in china was good, one had to be super careful when washing it. because the water is not potable, the choices were 1) use your precious drinking water or 2) boil water and let it cool. most of the time we forgot to preboil and cool water, and we were starving, so we developed choice 3: wash and dry. for nearly all fruits and veggies, this was not an issue. you just had to make sure you got ALL the water removed. but for lettuce, this proved to be a challenge. salad spinners were hardly commonplace. and so we'd use a windmill technique. wrap the lettuce in a towel and swing your arm like the dickens. worked pretty well.

now that im living somewhere that is neither china nor the US of A, i have moments where i miss both of those places. sometimes i make something yummy that reminds me of those other worlds and it is jut the right thing.

i made a fresh batch of chickpea cutlets and gathered ingredients to make caesar salad a la adam.

crunchy and delicious

first, i toasted the croutons.


while they were in the oven getting all golden, i made the cutlets. because the mister was actually home for dinner (YAY), i decided to make 'em fancy. in my previous post, i discussed the gluten strings that signals the doneness of the dough. this is what those strings look like:

gluten strings

using a cookie cutter, i made two special star shaped cutlets for us.

then i mixed up the dressing.  i still have a piece of paper with the ingredients scribbled down thusly:
½ Cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon Worchester Sauce
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic – mashed
Pepper to taste
Parmesan Cheese

i gave the goods a whisk, and the mister combined the lettuce, croutons, and dressing.  on top, i gave us each a gold star.  we didnt use romaine (which was a challenge to find in china, by the way), so adam might disown me.  i just have a hard time paying 5 francs for a head of lettuce.




but wait! i forgot the cheese!

cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese

there we are. dinner is served.

room for dessert? hells yeah.

i made us vanilla custard with roasted nectarine. the custard is all smitten kitchen's fault. i had to try.





Bon App!

salad, sammies, and something tasty for dinner

the bounty this week from christian's parent's garden was frisée lettuce and chard!

i love salad. this one, in particular, was delightful.
i used:
a nectarine
2 carrots
a bunch of frisée lettuce
some dried cranberry
2 boiled eggs

and for the dressing, i combined mustard, vinegar, honey, and olive oil.



these days, it's like switzerland remembered there wasn't much of a summer, so it better get down to business and provide one.  it has been quite warm! lausanne is on a huge hill (the elevation ranges from 372 m at the lake to 929.4 m at the top of the hill), with lots of small hills, so walking around town these days makes one hot and sweaty and ready for something cool an crunchy.

this salad beautifully combined the sweet of the fruit with the bite of the lettuce. plus it was pretty.  i love the colours.

the plan was to sprinkle some pistachio nut on top, but truth be told, i forgot.  until i was halfway through.  and by then, i was not going to run into the kitchen and shell a handfull of nuts to crush to enjoy.

while we were in the airport in madrid, the unthinkable happened--i ate something.... tasty!! can you believe it?! i still cant.   it was a lovely tuney fish sandwich with raisins in it.  and that got me thinking.  know what goes with raisins? apple.  know what goes with apple? curry.  and my lunch was born.

ive always been a bit of a monotonous tuney fish maker.  mustard, dill, fish, yogurt (or occasionally mayo).  my routine changed a little after living in china because adam always made tuney melts, so that became a standard for me.   but still, it was pretty routine.  not saying it's not delicious, but still.  so when i bit into the sandwich in spain and there were raisins, i was surprised and delighted.  this sandwich, inspired by that sandwich, did not disappoint.

the bread here is awesome, but the "toast" isnt. "toast" is sandwich bread. it doesnt matter how many times i've protested that "toast" isnt toast until it's toasted to no avail. if you want a big sandwich, you have to buy the american "XL" toast. it's white processed junk. i am happy to know there are whole grain sandwich breads here. because yuk.


i am a sucker for something crunchy with this kind of sandwich so i munched on some dijon potato chips the mister bought and, i think, forgot about.

after mixing the shredded apple, raisins, drained fish, yogurt, and curry, i let it all hang out before i assembled the sandwich. i wanted the flavours to get a chance to know each other.

i'm glad i did.

i'm also glad i had some swiss chard!! or, as it's called here, chard.  since we had some big healthy leaves, i decided to stuff and bake them.


i used:

5 mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
lovage
goat cheese
1/4 cup uncooked red quinoa
lemon slices


i cooked and fluffed some red chard (i used a mushroom stock instead of water), chopped the mushrooms and garlic and chard stems, minced a handful of lovage, and combined that all with fresh goat cheese.

a lemon was sliced and the bottom layer of my roasting pan lined with the fruit.  these slices serced as a way to keep the rolls from hanging out on the bottom.  lemon stilts.

i chopped off the chard stems earlier, when i was preparing the mixture, and cut the leaves into a lily pad shape.  basically, i cut a v out of the bottom, removing the stem.

to make the rolls, i lay out the leaf and crossed one side over the other, to get rid of the V , plunked down some of the mixture towards the top, and rolled it, folding the sides in.


each roll was balanced on the lemons.  once the pan was full, i added enough mushroom stock to cover the lemons, but not saturate the rolls.

these were incredibly filling.  i was so stuffed after one, i wrapped my other one in plastic wrap and ate it for lunch later in the week.



i had a tomato that needed to be used and some room in th pan, so i gutted and filled the tomato with some leftover quinoa.

the mister made himself a seared steak to have with the chard

next up: the mojo experiments have begun!!

Bon Appétit