Since I first saw them in Italian cookbooks, on blogs, TV cooking specials and in the raw in Italian markets I have wanted to make stuffed Zucchini blossoms. By I have never been able to get them here in Frankfurt at the markets and have feared bringing them back from my travels in my suitcase as they are so fragile. The beautiful colors of the female blooms remind me of the pale yellow wings of fairies while the large more open male flowers call to mind the spikey crowns and fiery breath of dragons.

This past weekend, unexpectedly as I visited the market, there they were in pretty packets of 10 blossom glowing up to me from the top of the tomato pile. Four large male “dragons” and six small “fairy” blossoms with mini zucchini attached. Golden yellow with intense green stems and lively green fruit, their trumpets lightly open to show their stamens and pistils. Sensuous, exotic, and enticing in a foodie kind of way.

On the spur of the moment I quickly passed the packet to the market seller along with 2 halved, gorgeously fresh boletus mushrooms, a firm yellow Turkish zucchini and the proper fresh herbs – thyme, rosemary, marjory, oregano and fresh basil.

Contented with these basic ingredients and excited about my catch, I continued on to the pickled stand to pick up the garlicky-herbed dried tomatoes in their succulent oil and the well formed and fragrant caper apples in their vinegary brine. And lastly a fresh ball of buffalo mozzarella went into my basket and then: away, away on my mighty stead (actually my little Hyundai) to my beloved kitchen so I can work my magic.

With the help of my sous chef  (alias foodie husband) we first made wonderful pici pasta dough (find Jul’s Kitchen’s simple and fool-proof recipe here ) to later slice tender delicious tagliatella to bed our dainty fairy and feisty dragon blossoms enveloped in a vegetable cream sauce.

After the dough had rested, I washed and chopped everything to a fine size so that the filling wouldn’t pierce the delicate blossoms and stir-fried the ingredients tenderly in unctuous olive oil so as to blend the flavors to a fragrant al-dente perfection.

Next, we rolled the tagliatella dough, cut the pasta strips by hand and set them out to dry.

Then we carefully stuffed the blossoms finishing-up with bits of tender mozzarella and gently folding the petals over the mixture to enclose the stuffing. They were lovingly placed on the steamer rack and steamed to sweet perfection at 100° C for 14 minutes.

The leftover stuffing became the base for the cream sauce, plumped-up with succulent chopped local tomatoes and pepped-up with a subtle amount of  racy arrabiata spice mix.

While the blossoms were steaming, the tagliatella were individually tossed into boiling salted water to rise lightly and delicately to the surface in just a few short minutes. Drained, returned to the pot and whirled with a dash of olive oil, the sauce was added and stirred, the top replaced on the pot to let the pasta soak up the sauce.

The steamer’s timer tweeted, I opened door and released the succulent smell of the blend of flowers, steamed vegetables complemented by the earthy smell of the mushrooms. The stuffed blossoms were intact and perfectly tender.
Recipe follows! read more …

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Alright, alright I am eating my hat! Why you say? Because I really enjoyed London this time!
Usually I am gripping about the expense for never getting to see anything while I am at the conference. But this year I stole away for an afternoon to see the London everyone raves about for myself. And guess what? I loved it!!! I will be posting my London pictures on our new travel blog www.personaltravel.biz soon. But back to Food Blogger Connect.

I really loved Food Blogger Connect 2012 this year. Attending in my third year I was very excited to see which of the possible improvements I had discussed with Bethany and Joslin Kehdy copiously over the years would be put into effect with the new concept at the new venue. And I must say they did an excellent job!

This year it was all about the food. But let’s not forget the drinks and experts sharing their knowledge, foodies helping each to learn and take away the most pertinent tips on how to improve your blogging, write a book, take scrumptious photographs, improve SEO, watch out for security, use the right tools, write inspiring recipes and much, much more.
A great success despite being a bit chilly. But hey, the sun shone as of Saturday and there was tea, coffee and soup to warm us up.

And all the products, wares, food and drinks from the sponsors and street food vendors were incredible and delicious. Please see the complete and impressive list of sponsors and restaurateurs at the bottom of this post.

All in all an amazing inspirational three days with so much laughter, hugs and praise and good will, which saw me returning home with an unmistakable: outta my way, let me at my kitchen spirit.

Having emptied my multicultural goodie bag I dashed off to the produce market and got cooking.

The first thing I made was Spicy Chicken-Filled Asian Cabbage Rolls in a Coconut Curry Peanut Sauce.
And I am happy to share my Asian take on the classic German cabbage roll with you here.

Note: I used my steamer oven but I am sure you can reach the same results using a bamboo steamer over boiling water. The steaming time should be about the same. You will also need a meat grinder for this recipe, you could use your food processer instead but then you should pulse and not whirl. This has become a very long recipe but it was actually easy to make and the longest part was marinating the chicken filling.

Recipe for Spicy Chicken-Filled Asian Cabbage Rolls in a Coconut Curry Peanut Sauce follows! read more …

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Away again?? Yes I know I just returned from Girona and the Costa Brava in Spain, were my husband Ludger and I launched our new travel blog www.personaltravel.biz . This new blog aims to combine travel ideas for above and below water. A way to share our travels adventures past, present and future and to suggest ways to combine scuba diving and snorkeling with vacation home rental and local attractions on land. Please come have a look and let us know what you think. Some texts are in English and some are in German, just like our little family.

So after the conference and a last beautiful swim at Tossa da Mar in the clear blue warmth of the Mediterranean Ocean, we returned to chilly, rainy Frankfurt late Sunday night.

Fall had definitely arrived while we were gone: rain and windy storms, falling branches and leaves. At the markets the stalls are filled with pumpkins, apples, quince, pears and plums. Damson plums are the most common here in Germany at this time of year, colored a pretty dark-bruised purple, their oval form a pleasure to the eye and the hand. There are different varieties depending on whether you want to simply eat them, bake with them or make jam.

I originally wanted to bake with mine but ended up making a delicious 5-spice sauce to eat with pork loin medallions dipped in fig mustard and flour before frying and I therefore used half of the 2 kilos I had bought. My son ate a further 1/3 of a kilo so that I had 16 plums left to make jam with.

Hmmm I thought and looked around my kitchen and in my fridge to see what else “needed to go”.

The 16 plums, a handful of greengages beyond their prime – here they are called Reine Claudes (a yellow or green round plum very sweet and very juicy) – and 2 wrinkled apples were my starting point.

I decided to add some gin and dark chocolate, some ground Sumac, a pinch of chili and a teeny-tiny knifepoint of cinnamon, making it up and adding as I went along.

So I snipped, peeled, pitted, boiled and stirred, the heady delicious smell of the dark chocolate melting into the fruit floating through the apartment like an exotic bazaar.

The taste is rich, spicy and fruity, all at the same time. Your taste buds hopping from “it’s a chocolate spread” to “no, it’s jam” and then on to “wow it’s both, ooouuu and spicy too!”.

Good on bread, brioche, croissant, with roasted wild boar or simply licked off the spoon, this recipe only makes 2 jars of jam but I know you’ll want to double it to make more, so why not just do it right from the start!!

Warning this jam is brown – not very pretty – you can add some red food coloring to give it a more red tinge but it will basically remain brown. But the taste definitely makes up for the ugly duckling exterior.

So now I hope this racy jam will tide you over until my return from Food Blogger Connect 2012 in London – or maybe I will see you there!

P.S. If you can’t get greengages use 6 more plums.

Spicy Plum and Dark Chocolate Jam recipe follows

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I hear you say:

The way you like to cook is often….. what??

Here are a few explanations:

ex·tem·po·ra·ne·ous
Pronunciation: ()ek-stem-p-r-n-s
Function: adjective
Made up or done on the spur of the moment see also: impromptu

- ex·tem·po·ra·ne·ous·ly adverb - ex·tem·po·ra·ne·ous·ness noun

a (1) : composed, performed, or uttered on the spur of the moment : impromptu <an extemporaneous comment> (2) : carefully prepared but delivered without notes or text

b : skilled at or given to extemporaneous utterance

c : happening suddenly and often unexpectedly and usually without clearly known causes or relationships <a great deal of criminal and delinquent behavior is…extemporaneous — W. C. Reckless>

Or from another source:

ex·tem·po·ra·ne·ous  adj.

1. Carried out or performed with little or no preparation; impromptu: an extemporaneous piano recital.

2. Prepared in advance but delivered without notes or text: an extemporaneous speech.

3. Skilled at or given to unrehearsed speech or performance: an accomplished extemporaneous speaker.

4. Provided, made, or adapted as an expedient; makeshift: an extemporaneous policy decision.

To Extemporize: (transitive verb) To do, create, improvise, adapt, or devise in an impromptu or spontaneous manner – to ad-lib

Yes! All these words apply to the way I like to cook.

I like to scour the local outdoor markets for ingredients, herbs, produce, meat, fish or poultry  that tickle my fancy or intrigue me.

Once I get home with my baskets, bags and sometimes boxes, I unpack my bounty to see what I have picked up.

After putting things away and leaving out what is to be processed first, I will then surf the Internet for different recipes made with the ingredients I have selected, take up The Flavor Bible and The Flavour Thesaurus to check combinations, and then…. be extemporaneous!

My favorite part of this improvisation is consulting my spice drawer or rather my 2 spice drawers. Always overflowing, with herbs and spices in boxes, jars, sachets, tubes, on the loose (nutmeg), or in handy ziplock baggies.

Some marked, some not which allows me time and time again to open many jars to sniff if this is exactly the flavor I am looking for. A pleasant task that often takes me back down an olfactory memory lane of exotic bazaars in Istanbul or Zanzibar’s Stone Town, spice shops in Nice, quaint market booths or recalling hot fields and musty corners, so many smells and tastes. So many colorful memories.

Using my extemporaneousness to create tantalizing meals lets me run the full gamet of my talents.

Cooking is my passion, eaters’ pleasure my gain.

I seldom travel without a few spices in my baggage and a voyage to a vacation rental house or apartment entails packing my spice bag the night before, carefully selecting the treasured few that will accompany me as a base and to which I will add local finds, returning with much, much more than I left with.

My foodie friends will chuckle and smile when they see me arrive to a weekend foodie retreat asking if I have brought my spices and my mustards along.

Yes I have and often my vinegars or even a small bottle of oil such as estragon. For I am also a lover of condiments and asking for mustard at my house will involve receiving a tray with round about 12-15 varying types being brought to the table. My vinegar collection with such exotica as blueberry cream, or peach/vanilla vinegar along with my selected oils (ginger, seame, truffle, olive and many more) takes up half a cupboard in my not so spacious kitchen.

Blending flavors, adding a dab of this or a splash of that is my extemporaneous pleasure! No simple cuisine for me.

Like a witch with her herbs, flasks and bubbling pots I mix and stir and create to please my eaters; looking into to their eyes to see the pleasure reflected from the soft implosion of flavors on their tongue when they take the first bite is my reward!

bliss……yum…..and more

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At this time last year I was very sad. It was fig season and there were none to be had. In Germany most of our figs arrive from Turkey and when the harvest yield is small, the best figs remain in Turkey. Understandable of course but I was disappointed none the less.

HURRAY!!! This year figs are back, lots, affordable, and not overripe yet.

When I bought 2 dozen on Friday I had been planning to have them baked on pizza dough with smoked ham, goat cheese and pear slices, I could literally taste it when buying the ingredients. But my son stayed for dinner at a friend’s house and my husband took off for a last minute business trip so there I sat with my figs and no one to eat the with. Oh well I thought I’ll come up with something. And I did.

Food52 has a great Simple Summer Peach Cake recipe, the batter of which I often use in various combinations and fruits throughout the summer. Aside from the usual flour, sugar and eggs, it uses almond flour. I like the taste of walnuts with figs so I did some substitution, doubled the amount of dough, and used some of my delicious Spicy Blackberry Ginger Mint jam to create the checkerboard.

The result is a pretty cake that looks like bulls eyes on a checkerboard. I am quite please with the result.

Here is the recipe adapted from Food52’s Simple Summer Peach Cake recipe.

Checkerboard Fig Cake with Walnuts, Sesame and Blackberry Jam

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I am originally from America and we definitely have a sandwich culture and I definitely have a sandwich fetish!

Don’t get me wrong I’m not talking about fast food like Subways, but about going to a Jewish or Italian Deli and piling up that bulky roll, panini, bagel, rye bread, whole wheat sandwich with whatever tickles your fancy. Being floored by the choices, the questions being barked out at me with impatience and sometimes boredom as the sandwich-maker stalks down the condiment line-up: peppers, hot peppers, onions, mayo, mustard… come on, what else?

I choose my favorite things then watch my sandwich being wrapped in special waxed paper and packed in a brown paper bag. Those are the days I am happy to be back in the States, visiting.

But the rest of the year I live in Germany and although the Germans love to eat a roll with cold cuts and or cheese for breakfast, and the choices and quality are very good –to me that’s just not like a lunchtime deli sandwich!

Oh and by the way I also grew up in France and the French eat a sandweetch when on the run but it is mainly a quarter baguette with chicken and mayonnaise and maybe a leaf of salad on it – nope, that’s just not comparable either.

Now imagine a new scene, it is late June and I am on the Etruscan Coast with our foodie gang and my friend Emiko Davies tells us we are going to the beach to have the best lunch from a food truck. I admit I was skeptical and I certainly never thought I would find the glory of a real Italian deli from a beach food truck. My expectations ranged between: I am so hungry I’ll eat anything as long as it is not deep-fried, on the other hand: Emiko’s husband Marco is a Tuscan native and they have been coming here for years, and if they along with Giulia from Jul’s Kitchen a wonderful guide to Tuscany, say it’s the best then I know I can’t go wrong.

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I feel a particular affinity to Julia Child. I believe it has grown out of several roots: being French and American, having learned all about French Food at my Grandmaman’s knee both in my childhood summers and twice living with her outside of Paris for a year in the 1960’s, loving to cook and discover new recipes, and being an anything but usual woman while having a good and often rowdy sense of humor.
She was born on August 15^th – just as Napoleon and my son Jasper, and she was as extroverted as her birthday mates. She had an incredibly loud and humorous voice, an even bigger shoe size and although she was an ox of a woman she was one who showed that true elegance of mind and body are not a matter of size. And that self-confidence is a very healthy trait.

I remember my French father and my German mother watching her cooking shows on black and white TV as a child in the US, bringing a piece of French culture and culinary boldness into our living room. The sound of her voice floating out of the room accompanied by the comments and joyfulness of my parent’s laughter over her hands-on methods and boisterous remarks and stories.

And who could forget the movie “Julie & Julia”? Where Meryl Streep brought her so close to our hearts once again and created new admirers amongst those to whom she was unknown before.

Julia had a mostly fabulous life: in her childhood, schooling and studies where she was know as a “lively prankster” and even as “really, really wild”. Later working in the OSS to aid the war effort and traveling to many countries, meeting her husband Paul in Sri Lanka, writing manuscripts, moving to France, defying all by going to the Cordon Bleu Cooking School, writing and publishing her famous books, filming her 3 TV shows and all this done with her typical pragmatism in the face of criticism “You are quite a revolting chef, the way you snap bones and play with raw meats,” one criticizer wrote “I can’t stand those over-sanitary people,” Child responded.

Yes I can empathize with Julia as I love to play with my food – it is part of being a creative cook, or as my foodie friend Regula says: “if you want to eat meat you have to be able to look it in the eye”, or the ear or the rear end for that matter I say.

Julia was truly a role model to me and so many others showing us that a sense of humor is one of the most important tools for getting through life’s adversities, and reaching for your goals without giving up another. Julia Child lived until nearly the age of 92 and worked on her last book My Life in France right up to her death ending it by saying: “… thinking back on it now reminds that the pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite – toujours bon appétit!

And last but not least her quotes have always and will always make us smile. Even in a 100 years! You can read her best ones here.

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The weather so often a topic this summer is finally warm creating an overabundance of ripe summer fruit. Unfortunately the prices at the market haven’t really dropped and fruit remains too expensive to make jam or simple fruit sauce with.

Luckily I live near endless banks of blackberry brambles offering succulent juicy berries for the picking or I should say for the sticking! Ouch those brambles and thorns are mean and at the end my arms and legs look like I was in a cat fight.

The juiciest ones grow along the prison walls where the heat is stored in the high walls andthere is no wind. But we pick many more along the way, walking through the fields with the unmowed grass and wildflowers reaching our waists. Along the brambles it smells of fox and badger but they are resting at this time of day so they won’t bother our quest.

School vacation is unfortunately drawing to an end and every moment I spend with my son Jasper is very precious to me. He has joined me and we chat of previous berry picking adventures while walking in the sun, working together with glove, cultivator, bucket, collecting and snacking on the juicy berries. The sweat is running down our necks and the juices from our fingers and lips. It is glorious and so productive. We managed to pick about 2 kilos in 1.5 hours.

When we returned our hands were red, prickly and scored, and our tummy rumbled for sustenance.

Thankfully I had some great “old” Italian white bread to make one of our favorites: French Toast which we thought would be perfect to soak up some delicious blackberry sauce.

Jasper made the French Toast soaking sauce with 2 eggs and 2/3 cup of milk and 2 tsps of cinnamon sugar,while I washed 2 cups of berries and put them in a pot with 2 TBSPs of sugar, 1 tsp of peach-vanilla vinegar cream, and 1 tsp of vanilla sugar, boiling it up and letting it simmer for the fruity sauce.

Out with the frying pan and vegetable-based frying cream, turn on the oven to 100° C to keep the French Toast warm, set a pretty table and your delicious breakfast will be ready in about a total of 20 minutes.

The mixtures of egg-fried bread combined with the sweet and pungent blackberry sauce is simple, delicious and satisfying, blending perfectly in your mouth! Reminding us of comfort, chilhood and our love of family and nature!

Seeing as we couldn’t eat all the fresh blackberries we picked I made a new blackberry jam creation

Spicy Blackberry Ginger Mint Jam – very different and very tasty with brioche of toasted English Muffins, or on white chocolat pannacotta or or or  ……

Ingredients:

• 1000 grams / about 2 pounds of ripe blackberries
• 500 grams / 1 pound of jamming sugar 3:1 gelatine included
• 1/2 vanilla bean split open
• 1 pinch of chili flakes – or more if you like racy jam
• 1 tsp of finely chopped fresh mint leaves (about 6 leaves)
• 4 apricots, wash and cut into pieces and add the pits
• 1 tsp of ginger oil
• 1 TBSP of agave syrup if jam is too sour after cooking (optional)

Putting it all together:

Wash and sort and drain the blackberries. Place them in a big pot and add all the other ingredients including the apricot pits which give such good flavor. Stir well and let macerate at least 15 minutes.

Slowly heat to a boil stirring occasionally. When the jam boild lower to a simmer and simmer stirring often for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside covered to cool somewhat.

In the meantime sterilize your jars by boiling them and their lids briefly in a large pot of water. Remove from the water with tongs and place upside down on a tea towel covered tray – remove the lids and place them next to the appropriate jar.

Set up your food mill over a clean pot or bowl, insert the finest blade. Carefully pour or ladle the warm jam into the food mill is several sessions making sure to remove the apricot pits as you find them. Mill the jam so that ony the seeds and vanilla pod remain in the strainer.

Stir the finished jam and add the agave syrup if it isn’t sweet enough. If the jam is to cool – carefully heat it again but do not boil. Turn your jars over and using a jam funnel fill the jars right to the top, screw on the lid tightly and turn the jars over and let the them cool upside down on their tops before refrigerating. Store right side up in a cool and dark place.

Voila!! Delicious jam with a perfect consistency, just lightly spicy on the tongue and tangy with the mint and ginger. If you tasted it with your eyes closed you couldn’t guess the ingredients except for the blackberries but the exotic mixture explodes on your taste buds.

I am including this recipe in the Herbs on Saturday August challenge hosted by Karen Burns Booth from Lavender and Lovage as well as the for the Simple and in Season August Challenge hosted by Ren Behan from Fabulous Food

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Hospitality just won’t do – in German one says: Gastfreundschaft – guest friendship – and it is a perfect term to describe weekends, festivities or invitations to the Salzhaus as the welcome guests of Sigrid and Isaac.

To quote Homer:

“True friendship’s laws are by this rule express’d,
Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.”

The Odyssey, Book XV, line 83. Pope’s translation.

We were all invited to celebrate Sigrid’s birthday. The weather had finally been hot all week and both the hosts and the guests were looking forward to a pretty outdoor garden party in the glorious nature of Herfa were the Salzhaus is located.

But then alas, it poured, cats and dogs, all day.

We, 13 adults, 2 children, 4 dogs, 1 gurgling baby and a beautiful venue at the edge of the mushroom-filled forest. The tables were ready to go outside, mountains of meat and sausages awaited the grill, gazpacho, tabouleh, mousse au chocolat, and much more, every dish a reflection of our host and hostess’s thoughtfulness (hurrah lactose-free for me and vegetarian for others) and their love of perfection.

Yes the fickle weather decided to play jokes on us. But nothing stops those determined to enjoy themselves and so armed with rain jackets and rubber boots the hikers and mushroom-pickers collected their bounty and the organizers brought nature indoors. Flowers were placed on the tables, candles lit and windows opened to let in the scent of the wet grass.

Reunited several hours later we cleaned the mushrooms, chopped, sliced, mixed, and stirred the trimmings, to the wonderful sound of tinkling glasses, light music and the joyful conversation of new people getting to know each other.

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On June 29^th 1880 the French senate passed the law to declare the 14^th of July a national holiday to commemorate French Independence Day called Bastille Day. It was named as such because it celebrates the storming of the Bastille, the famous prison, in 1789 during the French Revolution. The taking of the prison marked the turning point of the movement in its effort to replace a two-person government under a King with a representative government, and is considered to be the birth of the République Française.

Since then the celebrations have become elaborate with military and other parade balls and dances such as Le Bal Musette.

During the 19^th Century these dance forms became popular as people looked for faster and more sensual dance steps that could be danced in spaces much smaller than large public dancehalls. The dances themselves consisted of 4 main variations: tango musette, pasodoble musette and waltz musette also known as “la toupie” the top (where dancers get very close and turn around themselves like tops) and lastly the original musette dance “java”.

During Bastille Day many Bal Musette take place on dance platforms in public squares or tents. The music is played on the accordion and sometime still on the original musette a cabrette or bellows-blown bagpipe. And much delicious food is served with copious amounts of local wine.

For me, being an American/French expatriate living in Germany, my Bastille celebrations are marked more by memories of my adored French Grandmaman Henriette, my French Papa and his long history of teaching the French language and culture to American students, gladiolas which I always associate with France in the summer and a nice traditional French dish.

Escargot Ragout  read more …

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