On our usual Saturday trip to the farmer’s market a couple of weeks ago, I was over the moon as something really large, round’ish and pale yellow blinked at me from one of the large displays of beautyful produce. Since our summer this year, with the exception of 3 horrendously intense heatwaves of 2-3 days each, was cold and wet enough for most of our regional yumtastic mushrooms to start shooting up 2 months early, I half expected those pretty-in-yellow balls roughly the size of my head to be early quinces. Quinces are one of those seasonal things, like asparagus, I look forward to all year in a ticking-days-off-the-calendar-kind of way, I simply love them.
Continue reading “Cedri Lemon Special Part #1 – Goat’s Cheese & Lemon Amuse Bouche”
Like I’ve told you guys already, I’m not really the sweets & junk food kind of girl, but there’s one thing, one oh-so insignificant product, I’m having my fair share of trouble to resist. A product that has been widely unavailable and unknown in these parts of the country during most of my early childhood, despite the masses of american soldiers still stationed here at the time – Peanutbutter.
This year’s Barbecue Season is, at least for the casuals amongst us, slowly approaching its end. This is causing a huge variety of BBQ’ish goods to flood stores, butcher’s shops and markets like you wouldn’t believe. One thing I’ve encountered in truly obscene amounts recently is Tofu – styled, chem-bombed, colored and shaped to work out as a meat substitute. One ridiculous specimen I’ve found in a store nearby was a brown’ish kind of tofu-goo wrapped around a bone’ish type of theoretically-edible-don’t-worry-about-it, looking like a cartoon version of a drumstick from hell, sporting a label along the lines of: „Almost tastes like real meat! Almost feels like real meat! Even with real skin and bone-marrow substitutes, flavored to almost taste like the real thing!“
As the berry season is coming to an end in our corner of the world, there’s a rare type of late strawberries popping up all over the farmer’s market – deep red and very intense „Blood Strawberries“ as the vendors call them. They have a flavor to them that immediately made me think about using them in a savory dish when I first tried them – something with a little bit of a zing to it, something not quite meaty… Before I could even finish wrapping my head around the idea of combining fish and berries – really good or ridiculously bad idea? – I found myself making a beeline for the Fishmonger’s stall, not really sure what I was actually looking for.
Today’s midweek special is one of our all-time favorites when it comes to salads. Easy to make, low on carbs and fat, crispy, spicy and refreshing, this one fits into any season, ready to satisfy our inner vampires on a moments notice. The preparation method might seem familiar to you guys in case you’ve encountered my Summer Chilli Con Carne before – well, this one is the root of all deliciously crispy evil, the „Original“, if you will.
Time to satisfy the sweet tooth for this month! When it comes to summery desserts, the first thing coming to mind is, of course, ice cream in all shapes and sizes. In that area, fruity sorbets are, with very few exceptions, my favorite type of icy delights. I started making these regularly pretty much right after I had my own kitchen to turn upside down. Back then, I wasn’t aware of things like ice cream makers being available for normal home-kitchens, so I delved straight into the colorful world of sorbets with its seemingly endless variety of possible combinations of flavors. As an added bonus to the delicious deal, most of them are really non-fussy to make, even without an ice cream maker.
There’s something to be said for classic combinations. Goat’s Cheese and Beetroots is one of them – regrettably underrepresented on the big stages of the food circus for years, lately I’ve been delighted to see more and more beety things appearing on menus. While I’ve always loved beets, goat’s cheese was an acquired taste. One specific pivotal moment almost closed the lid on the whole goat’s cheese thing for me, but in the end, while it made me tread more carefully around that cheesy matter, it not only made me really like the stuff but also brought on the answer to the “why” of cheese being so often combined with fruity or sweet things.
Finally it’s time! Time for garden parties, brunches, picknicks and other outdoorsy things calling for quick-to-make, transport-friendly and easy-to-eat things that stay yummy for some time. With the weather finally having stopped yoyo’ing from major flood scenarios to making everyone feel like vampires crisping up in direct sunlight, creating a country-sized outdoor-steambath in the process… Now, making plans for more than just 30 mins ahead is possible at last. In my case, this translates to long days in the park, a hiking trip with hubby here and there and the occasional brunch buffet or BBQ in someone elses garden calling for my kitchen skills.
Usually I have a plan set up, or at least some hazy idea about what I’m looking for on our saturday stroll across the big farmer’s market in town. This time… nothing. Nada. Zilch. Blanks and some cobwebs in the food section of my head, but not much else. Trying to force an idea of what I wanted to eat out of my skull gave me a headache and the very non-helpful adjective „colorful“. Hubby added the similarily helpful word „vegetables“ to the fog. Well, the market sure is the best place to find inspiration in the neighborhood of „colorful vegetables“ and something to go right along with them.
Nahdala's Kitchen 