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Posts Tagged ‘cooking’

Roasting Chestnuts At Home

26 Nov

The Christmas season brings with it our local roasted chestnut vendor.  Every year there is an article in the paper about the elderly man, now in his 80s that sets up his stand on the main street in town for about 2 months starting in early November.  I do enjoy chestnuts and it is not uncommon for me to pick some up maybe once a week or so.

After watching him for so many years I decided it was time to give it a try at home.  We had made a charcoal fire for cooking dinner and I had purchased some chestnuts a few days before.  If seemed like a perfect chance.  I ended up using a metal basket for cooking vegetables on a grill for the roasting.  The basket turned out perfect, the chestnuts, well, they need some more work.

I have to admit they looked pretty, but I think I let them sit a bit too long in a sealed plastic bag.  The moisture from the nuts caused some strange stuff, probably mold to grow inside a few of the nuts.  Those were a very unpleasant surprise when I popped the first one in my mouth.  The nuts that were cooked well, and not gray inside were rather tasty.

The trick seems to be to ensure you have a good quality nut, and you keep it in a cool, dry place with lots of circulation.  Makes sense when the package the big bags of them in burlap, for air circulation I suppose.  I’ll have to give it one more shot before Christmas to see if I can improve my technique.

 
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How To Make Ice Cubes In Switzerland

15 Aug

Eiswürfelbeutel (Ice Cube Making Bags)

The trouble with Switzerland.  The trouble with Switzerland for an American is ice cubes.  This is an epic party conversation starter at expat parties and social events.  For the American pallet anything less than ice cold Coke, or Gin & Tonics without a good pile of ‘rocks’ is just not going to cut it.

Ice is like the holy grail of a good party for me.  For years now I have been buying ice and absolutely insane costs from the local getranktmarkt (beverage shop) for our annual first of August party.  It was not uncommon for me to spend between 30 and 50 CHF on ice to fill my American sized cooler to ensure I had the beer and soft drinks at an acceptable temperature to satisfy an American thirst.

Yesterday, I was amazed to find a truly Swiss solution to my decidedly American problem.  And where did I find my solution?  Probably the last place I ever expected to find it.  At a Swiss Housewarming party.

As I was offered and G&T by the Swiss Party host I started the lament my ice cube issue.  She immediately turned to me with a stunned look telling me that she had so much ice that she would have to throw away.  “No, don’t do it!” I screamed, offering to take the cubes home with me in my pockets if I had to.

Then she showed me the trick.  Eiswürfelbeutel.  These ingenious little plastic bags solve the problem that every American has come across.  How the heck can I fit my American sized ice cube trays into these tiny freezers?

The Eiswürfelbeutel are essentially plastic ziplock bags that can be filled with water.  They are ‘stitched’ with a quilt like square pattern so that it almost looks like bubble wrap when it is filled with water.  After the water freezes a quick tug on the side of the bag and the stitches break and you are left with a bag of ice.

You’ll still need to have some room in you freezer for the bags, but the fact that you can squish them in the freezer makes them much more convenient than the hard plastic trays I am familiar with from the U.S.

You can buy the bags at Migro in a hanging plastic bag packaging.  The cost is about 2 CHF for enough bags to make 220 cubes.  It is amazing that I am still learning about such things after more than 4 years in this country.  I can’t even imagine what my next discovery will be.

 
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Posted in Daily Life, Food, Shopping

 

Sloppy Joes, A Taste Of Home

17 May

Once in a while I am looking for some kind of home cooked, American tasting food.  Comfort food.  One recipe that I keep coming back to is Sloppy Joes.

Sloppy Joes are a bit of strange concept. Browned beef simmered in a tomato based sauce and then scooped over hamburger buns.  But they are easy to make, and even though I prefer the prepackage spice mixes in the U.S. you can make a pretty good version with the local products here in Switzerland.

Considering the standard foods available in Europe I can recommend the Sloppy Joes II recipe.  I know the recipe calls for brown sugar, but you can get around that by using half BBQ sauce, half ketchup instead of just ketchup.

This topic also reminds me of a conversation I had somewhere with an Australian.  I learned from him that A Sloppy Joe downunder is a jacket or cotton sweatshirt.

 
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