Vienna

For the last few days, I've been in Vienna. It's come to be a very special place for me and my boyfriend. We go twice a year because he has work there, luckily in the warmer months of April and July. Vienna breathes music. You can hear it in the walls of the stunning buildings, as the wind whistles through the trees that have seen it all, and even through the food. I imagine the schnitzel to be the cello, the potatoes are the piano, and the Gemüse to be the violin, all coming together on the plate to play their requiem, proudly and boldly.

This trip was just as magical, albeit short. As the hotel where we stayed was outside of the centre, during the day I would wander the neighbourhood. It was so calm. 

One day I went to the Schönbrunn Palace, the ornate summer home of the Hapsburg's. I had already visited the palace on a previous trip, so I just walked around the grounds, with the intent to go to the zoo (even though, in principle, I completely oppose the concept of a zoo). But I got side-tracked on my way by the Palmenhaus, a greenhouse built in 1881/82, and still functioning.  This huge glass building is surrounded by intensely manicured lawns, and totally worth being side-tracked for.

 As I walked through the heavy doors, I could feel all my senses being aroused; kicked into high gear. Floral scents floating above the heavy smell of moist earth, the talkative birds competing with not-so-subtle recordings of crickets and frogs, the eye-full's of vibrant, exotic flowers... everything culminating to bring out my inner, adventurous child. And that child wanted to explore this Amazonian world! So I did just that.

Covering all the paths, I played "Where's Waldo" to find even the tiniest, unknown plant or flower. At some point I noticed questioningly why there were no bugs to be found in this paradise. I got my answer quickly as I turned a corner and came face to face with a very thug-like spider. He looked like he would mug me I came too close. I could practically see him rolling up the sleeves on his eight arms, preparing for a fight. Needless to say, I quickly and quietly extricated myself from his environment. 

As I continued my exploratory adventure, I played with my camera, taking portraits of the all too willing subjects... Palmenhaus

For dinner we went to one of the best restaurants I have been to in a long time. Definitely high on the "top ten" list. Freyenstein is located outside of the city centre, but 100% worth the trek. A "Gourmet Gasthaus", as they call themselves, Freyenstein has one menu (which changes weekly I think), no à la carte, so no choice as to what you will eat. But fear not, the chef will choose wisely! We also had the added twist of not speaking German, so we really had the bare minimum of an idea as to what we were about to eat. But everything was amazing. Completely, utterly, positively mind-blowing!

We started with an amuse-bouche duo (every course was two plates) of lemon cream with caviar and creamy, cheesy, herby stuff wrapped in roast beef with pickled peppers. It was a perfect way to start a perfect meal. 

Next we had a Czech dumpling in a mushroom sauce and a savoury mango-watercress soup. I think the soup was one of my favourite parts of the meal. It had so many levels and a deep richness. 

Risotto with peas and mint and a stuffed courgette (I think it was yellow patty pan squash) with a tomato and pepper puree, walnut oil, and tiny edible flowers, which I found to be quite bitter. Almost every dish had some sort of edible flower on it, an ode to summer. 

Battered sardine with pickled radish and another vegetable that I know the name of but couldn't place. Don't you hate it when that happens? I think it was parsnip. And next to it is a fish ball (fresh water fish) with flower petals and some kind of sauce. I wasn't crazy about this course, as I'm not crazy about either type of fish.

Corn-fed chicken breast with fried potatoes and sautéed cabbage next to roasted veal with celery puree and parsnips. Mmmh, my mouth is watering. The meat was so well cooked. Everything on the plate was shining its brightest.

Finally, the dessert. A sort of home-made warm marzipan on top of a stewed apricot, then whipped yoghurt with fresh raspberries, and a berry soup with fresh mixed berries. 

The next day, unfortunately we had to leave Vienna. But not before a quick trip to the Naschmarkt. This market is the most popular in Vienna, and has a array of restaurants and vendors. We stopped for a drink before exploring all the food stalls. To see my Naschmarkt album... click here

Hopefully I can go back to Vienna next April, and continue exploring this magical city! 

Happy birthday little Belgium!!!

Happy 178th birthday Belgium! You are a great country to live in. Of course, there are certain governmental issues, but other than that, I have to admit... I love you.

For those of you who want to learn more about Belgium, here is a great video explaining everything...

Unfortunately I had forgotten that grocery stores are closed on public holidays, and I hadn't been to the store yesterday. Thus I was caught without food. Or so I thought. It is situations like today that I am very happy about my method of shopping. It is similar to my mentality about clothes. If you always buy clothes that match, then you always have a cute outfit, even when you're just too lazy to care about fashion. Translated to food: If you always buy ingredients that taste yummy together, you will always have a nice meal waiting to be discovered in the back of the fridge! So tonight I made pasta (a staple ingredient in every household) with marinated artichoke hearts (which I had left over from the previous post's meal), mushrooms, garlic, white wine, cream, Gouda, and fresh Parmesan. It was simple and quick and most importantly, delicious! As Mitch Hedburg would say, "Mac and cheese  for adults". 

In case you were wondering how I made it, I'll tell you. I sliced up the mushrooms, fried them in olive oil, added one clove of garlic, and after it was cooked, added a bit of white wine. Once the alcohol had burned out, I added cream, Gouda, Parmesan and diced the artichoke hearts. Stir, stir, stir and you have a fabulous, easy pasta sauce. 


Not exactly a Belgian dish, but still one worthy of a celebratory meal. Now if only the clouds would go away so I could watch the fireworks...

  

An interesting experiment...

Recently, my mom went to a dinner party. Upon recounting her adventure (mainly the food), she asked me a question about what she was served: Chicken cutlets with artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes. "How would you have made that?" She asked. As we began to discuss how we could improve on someone else's dish (I know, how haughty of us), we decided to each take the basic ingredients, and the next day, discuss the results. Interestingly, the results were quite different. Especially since I did not stick to the main ingredients. Yes, I cheated. But maybe that's why mine turned out so much better than hers! (There's that annoying haughtiness again... tsk tsk Anouk) So here it is, my version of chicken with artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes:

Which is actually not chicken at all. It is veal escalope and marinated artichoke hearts in a sage & white wine sauce with a dollop of sun-dried tomato butter. And it was delicious!! So delicious that I'll cut to the chase and give you the recipe quickly.

Sun-dried tomato butter

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sun-dried tomato
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 clove garlic
1 teaspoon za'atar
2 leaves of sage
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Leave the butter to come to room temperature for 30 minutes. Now, I don't have a food processor (Christmas gift idea for anyone who's listening! hint, hint) so I had to do this the old-fashioned way. But if you do have a food processor, I suggest just throwing all the ingredients in there together, and blending. Otherwise, you are stuck like me, mincing everything for hours, hands cramping, sweat pouring... but worth it!
So basically, I minced the sun-dried tomato and sage leaf until it was basically a paste, then pressed the garlic, adding everything in a bowl with the other ingredients, and then mashing it all into oblivion. Man, I wish I had a food processor...
Once it is all mixed up, put it in the fridge for at least one hour to solidify.

Za'atar: The most magnificent Middle Eastern spice blend

Veal escalope and marinated artichoke hearts in a sage white wine sauce

For the moment, as my partner is travelling, I'm cooking for one. (He'll be back on Sunday though. Yay!) So if you are cooking for more, just adjust the quantities.

4 thin veal escalopes
2 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup white wine
5 leaves of sage
1 clove of garlic
1/4 cube of chicken bouillon
3 small marinated artichoke hearts (I used lovely organic store bought ones)

Brush the veal with the flour, and shake off any excess. Heat a pan on medium heat, and throw in 2 tablespoons of butter and the 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Fry the veal escalope, 1 minute on each side. Remove the escalope from the pan (don't clean it! we need that yummy butter and browning) and set aside. Slice the garlic, not too thin, not too thick, about 3 mm, and throw them in the pan. After a minute of two, they should be nice and golden. Now let's pour in the white wine, add the sage, the marinated artichoke hearts, and the chicken bouillon. Stir until the bouillon is dissolved, and let all of this simmer on a low heat for about 7-10 minutes. Finally, add the remaining butter, stir, and then re-incorporate the meat into the sauce, including any juices that may have seeped out while we were making the sauce. Let this heat up for a few minutes, decorate a plate with it, add the bursting-with-flavour sun-dried tomato butter, and finally, time to eat!! I suggest a side of mashed potatoes and a complimenting glass of white wine.

At the end of the day...

I love sitting on the couch, reading a good food blog, looking at transporting photos, and nibbling on bite-sized fruit...

That's Roo, named after my favourite character from Winnie the Pooh. She loves nibbling too.

A multi-cultural head-on collison...

You know how they say that the only way to get started in something is to dive head first; jump into the deep end; something about reckless abandon (?)... well, you get the idea. Sushi is not one of these kinds of things. The infamous "they" got it wrong this time. The world of sushi should be entered slowly, cautiously, with all vitals being carefully monitored. I say this because at the tender age of 16, I had my first sushi experience: eel...made at home...by another 16 year old. I was so far out of my comfort zone, I may as well have been eating the red dirt of Mars. All I remember is hundreds of little bones, overly sweet meat, and crunchy rice.

Lucky for me, I don't scare easily. Well, actually, I do, but not from food. (Seriously, who actually enjoys horror films? The Ring stills haunts me.) So despite living through what can only be described as the horror films of sushi, I tried again. Starting a few years ago with the basic California roll and working my way up, I can say with confident pride that I am now on my way to becoming a sushi aficionado.

A few weeks ago, my friend invited me over to her house for a "sushi-making party". I am ashamed to admit that it had never crossed my mind to attempt to make it at home. I had heard myths of other daring people doing so, and I always admired their guts and glory. But I never thought it would be worth the work when I could just get it delivered straight to my door. Oh, how naive I had been! There is something truly satisfying about making sushi. Not only can you ensure that what you are eating is fresh and well-prepared, but you can whimsically experiment as well! And thus I came to find my taste buds new best (multi-cultural) friend: Mexican-spiced salmon tartare chirashi with a side of Korean roasted seaweed.

The best place to start is making the sushi rice (I found mine at the local Asian supermarket) as it takes the longest, and needs time to cool. This can be a bit complicated; mainly for those who can't make rice if it isn't an Uncle Ben's packet. (Guilty!) But it gets easier after the first time. Start by washing the rice 3-5 times, or until the water is clear. For the amounts, I use the ratio 1 part rice to 1 and 1/3 part water. For example, if I'm making this for myself, I use 100 ml rice to 133 ml water. Boil the rice for ten minutes with a tight lid on the pot, and do not open it. After the ten minutes, the water should be evaporated. Now, lay a tea towel over the pot and cover it with the lid, so as to soak up all left over moisture, for another ten minutes. Finally, transfer the rice to a bowl, and pour 1/3 part rice wine vinegar (or if you are using the measurements above, I use 33 ml). Lovingly, tenderly fold the rice so as to evenly spread the vinegar. 

During the 20 minutes it takes to cook the rice, there is plenty of time to make the salmon tartare and roasted seaweed. Lets start with the salmon, shall we? First, you will need a sharp knife. This is utterly crucial in making sushi. And with the sharp knife, trim any undesirable parts off of the salmon (I use 100g per person), e.g. fat, skin, etc. Also, please make sure there are no bones. Nothing ruins a good fish dish like a bone poking its way around a throat. Dice the salmon into small cubes, but not too small. I find that it's nice when they are more chunky, so as not to lose the flavour of the salmon. Throw the salmon (let's say we have 100g) in a bowl with one tablespoon of toasted sesame oil, one heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise, and one heaping teaspoon of Mexican spices. In Belgium, you can buy taco seasoning at the grocery store, and I've found that it works well on any Mexican dish. Mix this all together and set it in the refrigerator until its time to use it.

As for the Korean roasted seaweed, I use a sheet of Japanese seaweed for maki rolls, brush it with toasted sesame oil on both sides, and sprinkle some salt. Then roast it in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for two minutes on each side. You should have crunchy, flavourful seaweed! I personally like to cut the sheet into four small squares, and make hand rolls with the salmon tartare and rice. Or just eat it as a snack, as they do in Korea! Bon appetit! or as they say in Japan, どうぞめしあがれ

Good ol' Texan ribs & slaw

Even though I lived in Texas most of my life, I don't think I can be considered a true Texan. Actually, I know I can't. I've been told "Ugh, you're so French" by a vast majority of Texans I know. (Yet, the French I know say "Ugh, you're so American". They should really convene and make up their minds. Although the Americans are right - French Father, German-Jordanian Mother, American by birth). Anyway, I digress. Back to the matter at hand; amazingly tender BBQ ribs with their coleslaw sidekick and how they came to be in my kitchen.

So, as we have established, I'm not a true Texan. But after 16 years there, I came to develop certain culinary addictions. One of which is ribs, and there is only one restaurant to blame. Houston's. This restaurant makes the most mouth-watering, meat-falling-off-the-bone, tangy, ribs I have ever had. Along with crunchy, creamy, coleslaw, matchstick fries, and a honey mustard sauce worth killing over. 

This evening I decided to attempt these ribs. ("Attempt" being the operative word. I don't want to even pretend I could create the ribs which have been practically cooked by God himself.) After scouring the internet for the most effective recipe, I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't choose one, I would just take the best bits from all of them. (side note: I tend to do this for almost everything I cook. Recipes are more like guidelines than strict, factual instructions, right?) 

I started by removing the membrane on the underside of the ribs. Slide a blunt knife between the membrane and the fat/meat/bone, and pull up. It takes patience, but knowing what goal lies ahead, anything is possible. Next, I marinated the pork short ribs in apple juice for one hour. I wanted a sweet, fruity flavour to linger in the meat. The taste was definitely there, but next time I make this recipe, I think I will plan ahead and have more patience, thus marinating them longer for that extra oomph. Then I laid them in a roasting dish, pouring in about one centimetre depth of the apple juice, and covering it tightly with aluminium foil. This is very important, as they need to be steamed in the apple juice, so make sure it is really airtight. At 150 degrees Celsius, cook them for one hour. When this hour is over, take the dish out of the oven and remove the foil. When I did this, steam came billowing out, and I wish the same for you, dear reader, as this means that they have been steamed. 

At this point, I took a large enough sheet of aluminium foil that I would be able to completely envelop the ribs. With tongs, relocate the ribs from the roasting dish onto the aluminium foil and smother them in BBQ sauce. Really drown them. Contrary to humans, pork ribs like to be drowned. Once you have properly done this (I used a brush), then we need to envelop them really tightly in the foil. Once again, make it airtight. Pour out the leftover liquid from the roasting dish and lovingly we will place our envelopes in it. After cooking them for two hours at 150 degrees Celsius, the meat was quite literally falling of the bone. It was difficult to move them, and required a lot of T.L.C.

   

We're almost there! Now for the final touch. As in the above picture, the BBQ sauce has been cooked and soaked into the meat, but we want more than that! Lay the ribs on aluminium foil (this can get messy, better to just throw away the foil than scrub a pan for 10 hours) and smother them in BBQ sauce again. Don't deprive them, remember that they like to drown. Next, stick them in the broiler for 3-5 minutes on each side. In my oven, I really need to keep an eye on anything I broil, as it can burn very quickly, which would be simply sob-worthy at this point. After this, they should have a sweet, sticky blanket of sauce, and be ready to make you sufficiently messy!

As for the sidekick, it is really simple, and can be prepared while you are waiting for the ribs to cook. Shave half a head of cabbage into thin strips, grate two carrots, mince half an onion, and dice 100ml of sweet pickles. Throw all of this in a large bowl. For the sauce, I mixed 100ml of mayonnaise, 25ml apple cider vinegar, and 50ml of BBQ sauce (adjust as you see fit, I always do). Mix all together, add salt and pepper to taste and yeehaw! You have ribs & slaw! 

A tribute to my kind, eclectic host: Belgium

I can't think of a better first post than to pay tribute to Belgium's most world famous dish: Moules Frites! I made this a few days ago and it was absolutely delicious. My favourite version of this dish is moules à la crème (mussels in a cream sauce). The problem is that my palette has been spoiled by a restaurant in Cannes, South of France, called Chez Astoux. It was the most creamy, rich, velvety sauce I had ever experienced. Which means my taste buds are lucky to have learned of its existence, but doomed to only eat it on the off chance I am in Cannes. Now after numerous attempts to find a duplicate sauce in Belgium, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I found the basic recipe for moules à la crème online and then proceeded to make it my own. 


There was a sale (hurrah for sales letting me buy food normally too expensive!!) on moules de bouchot (800g) at my local grocery store. Moules de bouchot are mussels that attach on to oak or chestnut trunks (ranging from two to six meters long) that have been half stuck in the sand along the Atlantic coastline. 

Now, in the kitchen, armed with the little guys, we have to wash them, remove the beards, and trash the open ones (this means they are dead - despite that we are about to kill them, we have to be prejudice to the those early departed ones). To clean the beards, I find it easiest to pull towards the joint in the shell. It acts like very primitive scissors. Let's leave them to sit in a bowl of cold water for the moment. 


Now I take four shallots, given that I have 800g of mussels, slice them thickly, and throw them in a large pot with about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Once these have browned, after about 2-3 minutes on a medium heat, I add 5 cloves of crushed garlic. Stir this around for a little bit, less than a minute. There's nothing worse than the taste of burnt garlic. Now for the wine; its only fair that we get these mussels drunk before they die. I add about 2 cups of white wine, and let the alcohol begin to boil out. As this is boiling I add a cube of chicken boullion (something I use in almost every sauce, you will come to find) and two bay leaves. After the wine has boiled for about one minute, drain the mussels and lovingly lay them to rest. Quickly cover the pot with a lid, and make sure it is tightly sealed. Mussels need to cook with the steam. After about three minutes, they should all be opened, but if there are a few stragglers, wait a moment. If they don't open by the fourth minute, maximum fifth minute mark, it is time to count them out, they were dead long ago. Turn off the stove, take off the lid, add 1.5 cups of creme fraiche, stir, and Enjoy!


The best part of this meal in my opinion, is throwing the frites in the sauce and letting them soak it up. I always get so full from lack of restraint with these devilish saucy fries. 

Time to take a dive...

1,2,3...Here we go! I'm swan diving into the (already overcrowded) pool of food bloggers! And I'm excited to squeeze in with my fellow foodies...

So far in my 25 years, I have been a bit of a wanderer. I've lived in Dallas, Texas, Paris, France, London, England, Cairo, Egypt, and currently, Brussels, Belgium. But I didn't just wander geographically. I've also dipped my feet in the pools of interior design, graphic design, journalism, nannying, event management, and administration. And now I'm on another diving board, having looked around, but deciding to jump into the one passion that has always been constant; Food! Through all the other ventures, food was always there, the comforting passion that it is. You would think the light bulb would have flashed earlier, but I guess it was one of those that takes a while to reach its full brightness.

Nonetheless, I'm here now, poised and ready. A proud foodie, obsessed with all things food related, and amateur chef.