Category: lunch

Coronation Quiche

6 May 2023

The coronation of King Charles is a wonderful combination of tradition, religion and mystery, a ceremony loved by many, for its pageantry, the celebrations, the concerts and of course the coronation food. Just think about a lovely Victorian Sponge Cake with raspberry jam and buttercream or a Coronation Chicken (Poulet Reine Elizabeth) with carrots, green peas, rice and a creamy curry sauce.

King Charles’s coronation quiche is supposed to somehow reflect his vision regarding the monarchy and its role in modern society. The quiche is tasty, healthy, nutritious, not expensive and relatively easy to make. Plus, when you replace the lard in the original recipe with butter (as we do), then it’s a nice vegetarian dish. Great to share with friends.

The quiche combines spinach with broad beans, tarragon and cheddar cheese. We suggest baking it one day ahead and serving it at room temperature.

We read the recipe, watched a few videos (this one is good fun, it also shows how to make a Victorian Sponge cake) and decided to prepare a Coronation Quiche, topped with a Crown!

What You Need (for a 15 cm tin)

  • For the Pastry
    • 125 grams All Purpose Flour
    • Pinch of Salt
    • 50 grams Cold Butter
    • 2 tablespoons Water
  • For the Filling
    • 200 ml Double Cream
    • 2 Eggs
    • 1 tablespoon chopped Fresh Tarragon
    • 100 grams grated Cheddar Cheese
    • 400 grams fresh Spinach
    • 450 grams fresh Broad Beans (or Fava Beans)

What You Do

Start by making the shortcrust pastry. Dice the butter. Sieve the flour, add a pinch of salt and combine. Add the butter and mix using your fingertips until is has a crumble-like texture. Add the water and turn the mixture into a dough. Cover and allow to rest in the refrigerator for one hour.

Now it’s time to prepare the vegetables. Wash and cook the spinach. Let cool. Drain and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Chop finely. Remove the beans from the shell. Cook for 2 minutes. Let cool and double pod.
Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry to a circle a little larger than the top of the form. The dough should be approximately 4 mm thick. Coat the form with butter. Line the form with the pastry. Use a knife to remove the excess dough. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 190 °C or 375 °F. Use a fork to make small holes in the pastry. Line the pastry with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and the baking beans. If you think the pastry is a bit wet, then transfer back to the oven for 2 or 3 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 160 °C or 320 °F.
Beat the eggs and keep some of the egg apart. You need it later to give some extra colour to the crown. Beat together cream, eggs, herbs and fresh black pepper. Scatter half of the grated cheese in the blind-baked base, top with the chopped spinach and then the beans, and finally pour over the mixture with cream, eggs, herbs and pepper. Finish by sprinkling the remaining cheese.

Use the remainder of the dough to make a crown. Coat with the egg mixture. You could apply an extra coating halfway the baking process.

Place the quiche and the crown into the oven and bake for 30 – 35 minutes until set and lightly golden. The crown is ready after some 10 – 15 minutes.

Coronation Quiche ©cadwu
Coronation Quiche slice ©cadwu

Wild Garlic Soup

24 April 2023

Only a few days to go before the end of the Wild Garlic season. The season starts early February when the first leaves appear. Mid-April the star shaped white flowers appear, beautiful and also edible. When the flowers go to seed it’s the end of the season and the leaves become bitter and chewy.

Wild Garlic can be used to make pesto, it can be added to a dish with white asparagus and morels and it’s delicious when combined with fennel and potato. Preparing Wild Garlic soup is also a good idea. The first time we tasted it, at Zum Fliegenden Holländer in Potsdam, Germany, we expected the soup to be a bit simple, probably we would taste onion, touch of garlic and potatoes. We were wrong, the soup was much more complicated and sophisticated than expected. The flavour was mild, we could clearly taste the Wild Garlic, but very gentle, with some sweetness. The overall taste was pleasant and lasting. Perhaps the potato was too present, but that was a minor detail. Bärlauchsuppe proofed to be delicious, refreshing and very much a tribute to spring.

What You Need

  • 150 grams of Wild Garlic Leaves
  • 500 ml of Stock
  • 1 Shallot
  • ½ Garlic Clove
  • Potato Starch
  • Cream
  • Olive Oil
  • Black Pepper
  • Nutmeg

What You Do

Wash and dry the leaves. Chop the shallot and the garlic. We were lucky, our bunch of leaves also contained a few flower buds. We chopped these as well. Warm a pan, add some olive oil and glaze the onions and the garlic (and the flower buds). After a few minutes add the stock. We used homemade quail stock, which brought additional sweetness to the soup. Leave to simmer for a few minutes. Coarsely chop the leaves, add these to the pan and leave for perhaps one minute. Be careful, you don’t want to discolour the leaves. Use a blender to make a smooth liquid. Pass the liquid through a sieve. Add one to two teaspoons of potato starch and mix very well. Add cream and leave for a few minutes. Just before serving add some excellent olive oil and black pepper, blender for 1 or 2 seconds and serve with some freshly grated nutmeg.

PS

We use potato starch to remain close to the basic idea of the Bärlauchsuppe in Potsdam. Potato Starch has a neutral taste and a high binding strength. If you use a (starchy) potato, then peel and cube it and add it to the stock. Remove the potato cubes when they are ready, add the chopped leaves, leave to simmer and then blender. Mash the potato cubes, combine with some of the liquid, add the mash to the soup and whisk well. If you blender the liquid with the potato, you risk ending up with a gluey, sticky soup.

Wild Garlic Soup ©cadwu
Fresh Wild Garlic ©cadwu

Asparagus

17 April 2023

Both White and Green Asparagus are seasonal products. Waiting for the season to begin is part of the fun of enjoying asparagus.

Green Asparagus

Preparing Green Asparagus is simple. Wash them and cut off 1 or 2 centimetres or so from the bottom. You could steam or cook them but you risk getting soggy asparagus. Better to prepare them in a skillet or in the oven. They will only take 10-15 minutes. Great to combine with basil and black olives. You could also grill them, see below.

White Asparagus

Buying and preparing White Asparagus requires a bit more work, but once you know what to do, it’s not difficult at all.

Fresh

Make sure the white asparagus are fresh. Just look at the bottom, where they have been cut off. If the cut looks dry, wrinkly or even moldy, then don’t buy them. If you want to be sure they are super fresh, then rub two asparagus together. If you hear a squeaking sound, then they’re super fresh.

Peeling

Peel White Asparagus, using a peeler, as you would potatoes. In the old days White Asparagus would be peeled twice, but nowadays we like a bit of texture.
Cut off 1 or 2 centimetres from the bottom. If your White Asparagus are fresh, it’s just a matter of removing the original cut.

Cooking

The most popular approach is to cook White Asparagus. Add the asparagus to a pan with plenty of cold water. Wait for the water to just begin boiling, keep it simmering for 1 minute, then transfer the pan to the work top. Wait for 10 minutes before removing the asparagus from the water. If you prefer them a bit softer, then leave them in the hot water for 5 more minutes.
Many add butter, sugar, salt, lemon and/or the skin of the asparagus to the water. We could imagine adding the skin. Adding sugar is a big NO for us.
You could use a special asparagus pan when cooking the asparagus, but actually there is no need for it. As long as the pan can accommodate the asparagus, you’re fine.

Steaming

We prefer steaming White Asparagus for 20 minutes in our Russell Hobbs. The taste of the asparagus will be more intense and richer.

Wine Pairing

In general a Pinot Blanc, Riesling or Dry Muscat from the Elzas will be very nice with your asparagus.

Recipes

Over the years we have prepared asparagus in many ways. Bon Appétit!

PS

You’re probably aware of the side effect of eating asparagus, the typical smell when peeing. It doesn’t happen to everyone, and it also depends on the type of asparagus. The sulphurous by-products (the result of your body digesting the asparagus) that cause the smell, will disappear within a few hours. Could take a bit longer, but nothing to worry about, it’s perfectly harmless.

Classic white Asparagus ©cadwu
White Asparagus with Morels and Ramson © cadwu
White Asparagus with Sauce Périgueux à la Kimizu ©cadwu
Asparagus with Basil and Olives © cadwu
Sauce Gribiche with White Asparagus © cadwu
White Asparagus and Truffle ©cadwu
White Asparagus, Chives, Shrimps and Eggs © cadwu
White Asparagus with Scrambled Eggs and Shrimps © cadwu

Potato, Fennel and Wild Garlic

13 April 2023

So many names for this great plant: Ramson(s), Wild Garlic, Bear Leek, Daslook, Ail des Ours, Bärlauch, Ramsløg, Aglio Orsino, Allium ursinum, it is one of the highlights of spring. Powerful, pure and tasty. It can be harvested from the wild, but fortunately some green grocers also sell Wild Garlic. The taste is a combination of onion and garlic, but much greener, longer lasting and with a touch of bitterness at the end. You can turn the leaves into a strong pesto, but better use it as herb with for instance potatoes or gnocchi. It is also great when used in a dish with white asparagus and morels. The flowers are also edible and are a great decoration for savory dishes and salads.

We combine Wild Garlic with potatoes and fresh fennel. The anise-taste and the light crunchiness of the fennel go very well with this rich, lightly onion flavoured potato mash.

What You Need

  • Potato
  • Butter
  • Cream
  • Fennel
  • Wild Garlic
  • Black Pepper
  • Salt (optional)

What You Do

Dice the peeled potatoes and cook until ready to mash. Very finely dice some fennel, let’s say one tablespoon per one large potato. Add cream, butter and diced fennel to the mashed potato, mix and leave on very low heat. Remove the veins from the wild garlic leaves and tear the leaves, as you would do with basil. Add some of them to the mash, add black pepper and perhaps a pinch of salt. Leave for a few minutes, add more butter or cream if so required and more leaves. If you’re happy with the consistency and the taste, it’s time to add some more torn leaves to the mash. Serve immediately.

PS

Other elements on the plate are Saucisse de Morteau, Frankfurter and petit farci. More about the latter in one of our next posts!

Potato, Fennel and Wild Garlic ©cadwu
Ransom © Gail Hampshire from wikipedia commons

Bucatini All’Amatriciana

10 April 2023

Let’s prepare a delicious and simple Italian dish, packed with flavours. The challenge when making Bucatini All’Amatriciana is with getting the right ingredients. You must have Guanciale, Bucatini, San Marzano tomatoes, dried Spanish pepper and Pecorino Romano. Five challenges actually…

Bucatini is an interesting pasta. It looks like thick spaghetti but has a hole running though the centre. Indeed, a dried tube. When cooked it’s different from spaghetti, thicker of course and you need to chew longer, making the dish more filling and the taste longer lasting, without the paste itself being chewy. Could you replace bucatini with spaghetti? Probably yes, although the dish will become simpler.

How about Guanciale (cured pork cheek)? It is the key ingredient of Spaghetti Carbonara. Could you replace it with Pancetta? Probably yes, even Antonio Carluccio uses pancetta when preparing Bucatini All’Amatriciana with Gennaro Contaldo in this video.

Parmesan Cheese? That’s a no-go. We tried the dish with both Parmesan and Pecorino. The version with Parmesan cheese (made from cow milk) was okay, the one made with Pecorino (made from sheep milk) was delicious. The cheese combined very well with the spiciness and sweetness of the sauce.

San Marzano tomatoes have lots of flesh, just a few seeds and the taste is sweet and not very acidic. They are often used for canned tomatoes. If you can’t find San Marzano, then ask your greengrocer for similar tomatoes.

Shopping for the ingredients of Bucatini All’Amatriciana may be a challenge, preparing it is simple. Just keep an eye on the pan and the pasta. Within 30 minutes you can enjoy a classic Italian dish.

Wine Pairing

A red Italian wine is the obvious choice. We opened a bottle of Villa Castello Terre di Chieti Sangiovese 2022. The wine is made with 100% Sangiovese grapes. A touch of oak, not too much alcohol, full bodied, smooth, and with aromas of dark fruit. We loved it with our Bucatini All’Amatriciana. In general, an (Italian) wine made with Sangiovese grapes will be a great choice.

What You Need

  • 150 grams of Guanciale
  • 300 grams San Marzano tomatoes
  • 1 small Yellow Onion
  • 1 dried Spanish Pepper
  • White Wine
  • Bucatini
  • Pecorino Romano

What You Do

  1. Remove the outer layer of the guanciale and dice
  2. Coarsely chop the onion
  3. Wash and dry the tomatoes
  4. Chop the tomatoes, also coarsely
  5. Finely chop the Spanish pepper. Depending on your taste you could use the seeds
  6. Heat a large pan, add the guanciale and fry gently, making sure you get some nice fat without frying the meat crispy
  7. Add the onion and some of the Spanish pepper *depending on your taste and its spiciness)
  8. Glaze the onion
  9. Add some white wine and reduce the heat
  10. Add the chopped tomatoes and leave to simmer
  11. Taste and perhaps add some more pepper
  12. In parallel cook the bucatini al dente, this will probably take some 10 minutes
  13. When ready transfer the bucatini straight from the water to the sauce, combine and leave for a minute or two
  14. Taste and if necessary, adjust by adding pepper
  15. Serve the Bucatini All’Amatriciana with some freshly grated Pecorino Romano.
Bucatini All’Amatriciana ©cadwu
Bucatini ©cadwu

Saithe with a Mild Curry

30 March 2023

Saithe is a member of the haddock family, which in turn belongs to the cod family. Most of us think this fish is only processed into fish sticks, ready meals and cat food, but it is a real treat. However, it’s very likely that our cat enjoys it more often than we do!

Some background information: Saithe (or Coley, Coalfish, Lieu Noir, Köhler, Zwarte Koolvis, Pollachius Virens) and Pollock (or Pollack, Pollachius Pollachius) are very similar. The Alaska Pollock (Gadus Chalcogrammus) is also a widely available, very edible fish, and also one that you will probably see mentioned as an ingredient of a ready meal. Of the three Saithe is supposed to be the tastiest. If it’s your lucky day and the fish monger has fresh Saithe or Pollock, then don’t hesitate and buy it!

We combined Saithe with a mild Indian curry and green vegetables. The gentle flavours of the fish worked very well with the coriander and cumin in the curry. The mixed vegetables support the combination and bring freshness and bitterness.

Wine Pairing

A white wine with a touch of sweetness (Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris) will be perfect with the Saithe. A rosé will also be a good accompaniment for the dish.

What You Need

  • Saithe
  • Mild Indian Curry Paste
  • Cream
  • Olive Oil
  • Green Peas
  • Fava Beans
  • Haricots Verts
  • Fresh Ginger (optional)

What You Do

Heat a small skillet, add some olive oil and fry the fish. Reduce the heat, add the curry and cream. Mix. Carefully coat the fish and cook until nearly done. In parallel cook the vegetables: the haricots verts and the fava beans perhaps five minutes, the green peas one minute. Combine the vegetables, add some olive oil and black pepper. You could also add some finely grated ginger. Serve the nicely coated saithe on top of the mixed vegetables.

Pollachius_virens_01 © Tino Strauss, 2009
Saithe with a Mild Curry ©cadwu

Bouchée à la Reine

20 March 2023

Crispy, fluffy, flaky puff pastry and a rich, warm filling with mushrooms and parsley, what better way to turn leftovers into a tasty starter. Bouchée a la Reine: a classic in Belgium and France. Not modern at all, but such fun to serve (and eat). You could fill the pastry with poultry, with mushrooms, shrimps, sweetbread, just about anything will go, as long as you use a rich roux as basis.
Making our own puff pastry is a bit too much for us, making your own bouchée is not too difficult, but buying them at the bakery is also fine. 

Wine Pairing

It all depends on the filling of your Bouchée a la Reine. It could be a light red wine if you have some left over veal, if it’s sweetbread then a lightly oaked chardonnay is fine et cetera. In all cases keep in mind that the filling comes with a generous amount of butter.

What You Need

  • 2 Bouchées
  • Some left over Veal or Chicken or Shrimps
  • Mushrooms
  • For the Roux
    • Butter
    • All Purpose Flour
    • Stock
  • Parsley
  • Lemon
  • Black Pepper
  • Butter

What You Do

Chop the (already cooked) meat and the mushrooms. Gently heat some butter in a pan, add the mushrooms and leave them for 10 minutes or so. Add the meat. Taste and add black pepper, perhaps some lemon juice, spices and herbs, definitely lots of parsley. In parallel make the roux. Warm the stock. Add butter to a pan, add the equal amount of flour plus a bit more (remember you also have some butter in the other pan). Softly fry the flour until you begin smelling that typical cookie aroma, then start adding the warm stock, slowly at first, constantly whisking. Add the meat, the mushrooms, some black pepper and the chopped parsley. Don’t turn the roux into a sauce, it must be ragout like. At this stage you could cool the filling for use later on.
Heat the bouchée in an oven at 180 °C or 355 °F for 10 minutes. Transfer from the oven onto a plate, add the filling and serve immediately.

Bouchée a la Reine ©cadeau
Bouchée a la Reine ©cadeau

Small-Spotted Catshark with Dashi and Bok Choy

16 March 2023

Earlier we wrote about small-spotted catshark, also known as lesser-spotted dogfish or rock salmon. It’s a very common fish, not endangered, it doesn’t have bones (sharks have a cartilaginous skeleton), it’s tasty and the texture of the meat is moist and pleasant. When we tasted the fish with a tomato and red bell pepper stew, we started talking about other ways of preparing it. Perhaps a Portuguese version with piri piri, tomatoes and potatoes? Or a fish stew with shark, mullet, monkfish and clams? Or with dashi, soy sauce, mirin, ginger and lemon?

Wine Pairing

A Pinot Gris or a Sylvaner from the Alsace region will be perfect, dry, floral and a touch of sweetness. In general a light bodied, aromatic, unoaked white wine will be a good choice.

What You Need
  • For the Fish
    • 200 grams of Small-Spotted Catshark
    • Dashi
    • Mirin
    • Light Soy Sauce
    • Sake
    • Lemon Juice
    • Olive Oil
  • For the Vegetables
    • Bok Choy
    • Oyster Sauce
    • Soy Sauce
    • Fresh Ginger
What You Do
  1. Add some olive oil to a pan and fry the fish
  2. Combine dashi, a teaspoon of mirin, soy sauce and sake
  3. Taste and adjust. You’re looking for a firm, not too sweet mixture
  4. After a few minutes add the mixture to the pan
  5. The idea is to stew the fish in this mixture
  6. When the fish is done (this will take some 20 minutes), reduce the liquid, add a splash of lemon juice and coat the fish with the reduction
  7. In parallel chop the bok choy and simmer the white of the vegetable in a mixture of water, soy sauce and oyster sauce
  8. Just before serving add some grated ginger and the chopped green of the bok choy to the pan
  9. Serve the fish on top of the vegetables.
Small-Spotted Catshark with Dashi and Bok Choy ©cadwu
Small-Spotted Catshark with Dashi and Bok Choy ©cadwu

Bell Pepper Soup with Grains of Paradise

13 March 2023

The first time we read about Grains of Paradise (or Melegueta Pepper) was when we prepared Sauce Cameline. The grains are common to the North and West African cuisine and were brought to Europe in the thirteenth century. According to some as a cheap substitute for black pepper. Recently we were fortunate to buy them and now we are impressed by their flavour: spicy, citrus and a touch of vanilla. When used in a stew it becomes less pungent. They gave a delicious and complex boost to the redd bell pepper soup.

Grains of Paradise are used to give flavour to craft beers, especially dark, seasonal beers. It can be a component of Has el Ranout. American chef Alton Brown uses Grains of Paradise in a stew with Okra and Tomatoes, in Apple Pie and in Lentil Soup.

For some reason it’s crucial to combine grains of paradise and lemon juice, As if the acidity amplifies the flavour of the grains?

What You Need

  • 2 Red Bell Peppers (or 1 Red and 1 Orange)
  • Shallot
  • 2 Garlic Cloves
  • 5 cm Carrot
  • 10 cm Celery Stalk
  • 250 ml Vegetable Stock
  • 5 cm of Fresh Rosemary
  • ¼ teaspoon of Grains of Paradise
  • Lemon Juice
  • Crème Fraîche
  • Olive Oil

What You Do

Clean the bell peppers and cut in 4. Transfer to the oven and grill or roast for 10 minutes or until well charred. When still hot, put the bell peppers in a plastic container and close it. After one hour it’s easy to remove the skin of the bell pepper. Chop and set aside.
Chop the shallot, the garlic, the celery and the carrot. Add olive oil to a pot and add the shallot. Glaze. Add the carrot, the celery and the garlic. Leave on low heat for a few minutes. Add the bell pepper. After a few minutes add the stock, the rosemary and the crushed grains of paradise. Leave on low heat for one hour. Remove the rosemary. Use a blender to make a smooth soup. Pass through a sieve. Taste the soup and decide if you want to add some extra grain of paradise. Leave the soup on low heat for 30 minutes. Just before serving add one or two teaspoons of fresh lemon juice, depending on the flavour and your taste. The soup should be smokey, aromatic, a touch spicy and refreshing. You could add more crushed grains of paradise, that will make the soup spicier. Make a swirl with crème fraîche an serve.

Red Bell Pepper Soup ©cadwu
Red Bell Pepper Soup ©cadwu

Spaghetti Carbonara with Guanciale

9 March 2023

This must be one of the tastiest dishes from the Italian cuisine. Creamy, rich, moist, salty, aromatic, delicious and not difficult to prepare. It’s also not difficult to ruin the dish, that’s why Antonio Carluccio recorded a video showing you exactly how to prepare it and how to make sure your Carbonara is creamy.

About the ingredients: If possible, use guanciale, cured pork cheek. It’s also used for another delicious recipe from the same Italian region: Bucatini all’amatriciana. The pork meat is rubbed with salt, pepper and various herbs and cured for a number of weeks. Guanciale is not smoked and therefore its taste is very different from bacon. Pancetta (made from pork belly) could be an alternative, provided it’s not smoked.

As emphasised by Carluccio, most certainly no cream. And no garlic, basil, parsley, onion or white wine we would like to add.

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed our Spaghetti Carbonara with a glass of Bardolino 2022, produced by Monte del Frà from Italy. The wine has a beautiful deep red colour and the aromas made us think of red fruit and perhaps pepper. The wine is medium bodied with some acidity and fruitiness. In general, you’re looking for a fruity red wine with a touch of acidity, for example Chianti Classico, Montepulciano or Barbera. If you prefer a white wine, then a Pinot Grigio or Soave is a good choice.

What You Need

  • 125 grams of Guanciale
  • Spaghetti
  • Parmesan Cheese
  • 2 organic Eggs
  • Black Pepper

What You Do

  1. Cut of the rind of the guanciale
  2. Dice the meat
  3. Heat a pan to medium
  4. Fry the guanciale
  5. In parallel cook the spaghetti al dente, this will take some 10 minutes
  6. Whisk the eggs, add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and whisk again
  7. When the pasta is ready, remove the pan from the heat and add the spaghetti straight from the water to the pan.
  8. Combine and make sure the spaghetti is nicely coated with the fat and juices from the meat.
  9. Now it’s time to create your creamy carbonara!
  10. Check if the spaghetti and the pan are not too hot. If so, better wait a minute
  11. Add the egg mixture, combine, keep moving the spaghetti, add some freshly grated black pepper, keep stirring and then serve immediately on a warm plate with some extra Parmesan cheese.
Guanciale ©cadwu
Spaghetti Carbonara ©cadwu