tomato blossom

i am still recovering from a bad case of sinusitis that kept me occupied during the last two weeks. lucky as i am, it started just when summer finally decided its time had come and the temperatures began to rise drastically.

in other news, i have added two more books to my collection:
jamie's italy and the unprejudiced palate. if you haven't already read them you really should. both of them have proved very inspiring. it's interesting to see other people's approaches to cooking and good food (but please, never ever leave away the saffron when making risotto alla milanese unless you want to make me very unhappy!). i have already tried ten recipes from jamie's italy and have gotten very positive feedback.

also, i am very proud to announce that for the first time i have prepared kochsalat from the scratch and not merely defrosted it - it was absolutely worth the mess i produced in the kitchen.

for three hungry persons you need about 2 pounds cos lettuce. wash the leaves and then throw them into a big pot with boiling water. they take longer to cook than other leafy greens because of the rather tough ribs, the old fork-pricking-test comes in very handy here.
when cooked al dente, drain lettuce leaves in a colander, place under cold running water until cool enough to touch and squeeze out as much water as possible. next, cut into 5mm strips and chop them into smaller pieces.
make white roux (butter, flour, milk and/or broth), add chopped lettuce leaves, season with salt, pepper, a little garlic and nutmeg (plus a little instant bouillon if no broth is used in the roux).

serve with fried eggs and erdäpfelschmarrn: cook and peel potatoes. chop one large onion per pound potatoes and fry in a little oil. as soon as it begins to take on colour, take a potato and cut into slices, dumping them directly into the pan. proceed in the same manner with the rest of the potatoes, stirring in between.
the idea is to let a crust build up and then loosen it before the next potato is added. the slices will fall apart partly during this process and stick together a little. you should end up with potato slices, sticky matter and crust mixed. if not, turn the heat up towards the end. season with salt to taste.

Posted by iris at 23:33 | Permalink | Comments

the reasons for my prolonged absence are highly unexpected changes and of course they are tangled and unpleasant. anyway...

our plants are doing reasonably well considering that it's pretty cool (around 10°C) for this time of the year. in tyrol it has even been snowing. i have to water the plants on my balcony although hardly a day passes without a decent shower or two. the tomato plant doesn't seem too pleased with the weather so i will probably put it in front of the living room windows inside where it's warm.

it's really amazing that i found austrian tomatoes, strawberries, eggplants (lots of them this year, they seem to be high in demand for some reason, not that i can complain), green beans, baby red beets and a lot more at the naschmarkt.
also, my mom located a new source for locally (5 minutes from where i live) grown vegetables: it's a horticultural school where vegetables grown by the students are sold every friday morning.

today's recipe was inspired by a recipe for sour cherry tartlets from this cookbook which must be among the first books i've ever read (from cover to cover) and it is still one of my favourite baking books.

cranberry tartlets

• 2 cups of flour


• half a cup of half-melted butter


• a fourth of a cup of powdered sugar


• a pinch of salt


• one egg yolk


• one to two tablespoons of milk


• cranberries, sugar


• half a cup of heavy cream and milk each


• one egg plus one egg yolk


• one generous tablespoon of cornstarch


• two heaping teaspoons of sugar


• a little vanilla to taste

rub together flour, butter, one egg yolk, powdered sugar and salt. add as much milk as needed to form a soft dough. form twelve balls, wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge or freezer until hard enough to roll out with a rolling pin.

mix cranberries with sugar.

preheat oven to 200°C. produce circles big enough for the tins of your choice (i used a muffin tin). press into buttered tins forming a one inch ridge around the edges. prick bottoms with a fork and put into the oven for 10 minutes on one of the lower racks.

spoon cranberries into tartlets.
mix milk, cream, egg plus egg yolk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan and heat stirring constantly until the mixture just starts to boil. take off heat and divide evenly among tartlets (about a tablespoon each).

put back into oven for about 20 minutes or until custard is set and begins to get brown speckles.

other possible fillings include sour cherries, rhubarb and gooseberries.

these tartlets are really tasty both warm and cooled.

Posted by iris at 20:04 | Permalink | Comments