Apple sauce

This is autumn. Three kilos of Ida Red apples, simmering on the stove with lemon, cinnamon, star anise and dark brown sugar. This is heaven.

Apples, peeled and cored, cut into quarters

A cinnamon stick

A star anise

Juice & zest from half a lemon

Dark brown sugar (1/4 cup per 2 kg apples)

Water (1 cup per 2 kg apples)

Pot, stove, heat, simmer for half an hour. Mash with a potato masher until it has the consistency you like.

Eat.

Enjoy.

Be glad it's autumn.

Canadian Thanksgiving in Budapest

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving last Sunday with a 14-person, 2-dog potluck at the official residence. The event was a roaring success: pumpkins decorated the entrance, children and dogs chased each other under the table, conversation flowed in three languages, and there was enough food to feed an army. None of us, though, were entirely convinced by the turkey (catered by a local hotel): I am pretty sure it was in fact a capon.

Richard and I brought a tourtière, a lemon poppy seed cake, a chocolate ginger cake, and sugarplum fairy balls.

The tourtière recipe is available upon request. We were very chuffed that one of the French Canadians at the table asked for seconds – this truly defines the pinnacle of tourtière making.

The sugarplum fairy balls are tiny morsels of fruit and nuts, filled with sweetness and a satisfyingly crunchy texture. They are very Christmasy in their name, their appearance, and their ingredients – but I love them at any time of year, and they work well in a potluck setting. Here they are, nestled in a tub and ready to be transported to the official residence:

Sugarplum fairy balls

What you need:

• 1 cup dried fruit (apricots, raisins, cranberries, apples, etc.)
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 4 tbsp unsweetened dried coconut
• 2 tbsp fruit juice
• 2 tbsp sugar (not superfine)

What you do:

• In a food processor, mix dried fruit, walnuts and dried coconut until you have a fine, even crumb mixture. Add the fruit juice and mix until moistened.
• Form into small (1/2 -- 3/4 inch diameter) balls with your hands. Squeeze each ball slightly to make sure that the sugarplums stay together.
• Roll the balls individually in granulated sugar. Serve as soon as possible.

Chard, shrimp and grapefruit salad

A simple salad after a long, long road trip though Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia and Croatia. What a stunningly beautiful part of the world. Chard, grapefruit, white onion, courgette blossoms sautéed in butter, prawns and slivered almonds. Variations on this salad -- different greens, different onions and so on -- are one of my favorite dinners. The dressing is a light olive oil-balsamic vinegar. No mustard, no garlic -- just easy and calm.

Things are not so calm on other fronts.

Late afternoon. Time for a snack. Oranges and fresh figs. I wish I had some mint on hand.

Pinto bean & cocoa chili

Yes, you read that correctly. Bean and cocoa chili. The cocoa adds just a hint of bitterness, and a sublime rich flavour. This is my new favorite chili, hands down.

Our guests brought a spectacular Croatian wine straight from the Madirazza winery -- a red which complemented the chili perfectly. I usually go for a cold beer with a spicy meal, but this wine was the perfect accompaniment: deep, strong and full of late-season flavours.

What you need (6-8 servings):

• pinto beans, cooked from dry (2 heaping cups) with bacon
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• dollop olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 bell peppers or yellow paprikas, chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• cayenne pepper, hot paprika and/or chili powder to taste (last night, we used just under 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, and the chili was pleasantly but not overwhelmingly spicy)
• ~ 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa

What you do:

• Cook up the pinto beans, initially covering them with 1 inch of water.
• Near the end of the bean cooking time, heat the olive oil in a skillet. Over medium-low heat, cook the onions and garlic until translucent. Once the beans are finished, add the onions and garlic to the bean pot (do not drain the beans!). Over low-ish heat, get the bean pot simmering gently.
• Add the tomatoes and bell pepper, and stir well. Add all spices and adjust to taste.
• Stir the cocoa into a small amount of hot water, then add to the chili. Stir well. Taste again and add more spice if needed.
• Let simmer gently for 20-30 minutes, to let the flavours blend. 
• Serve with cornbread and rice!

Smoked salmon. Figs. Cream cheese.

Sometimes a simple dinner is best. Richard had a late meeting last night, and I had cinnamon roll dough covering every bit of counter space. The oven was in use, and I didn't feel like putting together a complicated dinner. And so: Wasa bread, cream cheese, organic Norwegian smoked salmon, red onion and fresh figs. We also had homemade bread with a cheese course. Oh joy. This was heavenly. The crunch of the Wasa, the silkiness of the cream cheese and the intense flavor of the salmon -- together with the sharpness of the red onion. 

Budapest has been putting its very best autumn face on: we've had four days of sun and warmth, with crisp air and leaves crunching underfoot. It's such a welcome relief from the rain and gloomy skies which this city does so well. And it's terrific for bird watching: recently, we've been out to the Hortobagy National Park, to Lake Velence (and nearby marshes), and to the Vacratot botanical gardens. Purple herons, great white egrets, nuthatches, lapwings, buzzards, and stonechats galore!

No recipe today -- it's as simple as it sounds. But I'm trying something new with chili tonight (pinto beans and cocoa powder) and, if it works, it'll be up on the blog soon. [It had better work, since we are having guests over...]

Fried rice

I like my fried rice to be chock full of tastes and textures; the rice nearly fades into the background and allows the other ingredients to shine through. As well as the necessary rice, egg and onion, I use three key ingredients: edemame, shrimp and shiitake mushrooms. The result is a hot, filling and flavorful dish, with the crunch of the beans, the softness of the shrimp and the firmness of the shiitake. It is quick to make, and good for leftovers. This weekend, we took our extras to our farmstay near Hortobagy National Park. With a quick re-heat, the fried rice was the ideal meal to be eating inside a small cottage kitchen while listening to the pelting rain.

What you need (4 servings):

• 1 cup rice, cooked (warm or cold)
• olive or sunflower oil
• 2-3 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork
• scant cup frozen shelled edemame, defrosted (just run them under the tap for a couple of minutes)
• scant cup salad shrimp (if they are frozen, let them sit in tap water for a couple of minutes)
• 8 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 medium onion, diced

What you do:

• Place the shiitake mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with hot tap water. Place clingfilm over the bowl and poke a couple of holes through it. Microwave for one minute. Let the shiitakes rest for at least 20 minutes. Then remove the stems from the mushrooms (keep them for making stock -- they can be frozen for this purpose) and sliced the shiitake caps into long, thin strips. Set aside.
• Heat a small quantity of oil in a wok or frying pan. Once it is hot, pour in the lightly beaten eggs. Let cook without stirring for 20 seconds, then break apart and scramble with a wooden spoon. Once the eggs are set (no more than one minute), remove to a bowl.
• At a tiny bit more oil to the pan, and heat over medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until translucent. Then add the edemame and shiitake, and cook until warmed through. Add the rice and soy sauce, stirring to break up clumps of rice. Once it is warmed through, add the shrimp and egg and stir to mix well. Serve piping hot!

Roasted plums

These are fresh out of the oven -- steaming hot, goopy, waiting to be cooled slightly and poured over yoghurt. Or ice cream. Or eaten on their own.

We've been eating delicious Italian plums for nearly a week now, but the last bunch I bought weren't quite right: tart, and faintly green between the yellow flesh and purple skin. I doused them in honey and dark brown sugar, and roasted them in the oven until they began to fall apart. Rescuing the juice was a pain -- I didn't use the right size pan -- but the result is sweetness and the taste of warm plums. We've had them over plain yogurt at breakfast, and over vanilla ice cream for dessert. The only problem is that they are now all gone.

What you need:

• plums
• brown sugar (1 tbsp per pound of plums)*
• honey (scant tbsp per pound of plums)*
• plain yoghurt or vanilla ice cream, for serving
• slivered almonds, for serving (optional)

*Use a bit less if your plums are completely ripe!

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 425 F.
• Cut the plums in halves and discard the pits. Place the plums, brown sugar and honey in a bowl and stir well. Spread the plums in a single layer (more or less) in a Corningware dish (or glass baking dish) and place in oven for 10-15 minutes. Remove when plums are soft but not completely soupy.
• Let cool until warm before serving.

The plums, with their juice, keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

Rack of lamb

Traveling in New Zealand last winter (well, it was summer there), we had some truly fabulous lamb -- including as part of our cabin-cooked New Year's Eve meal near Abel Tasman National Park. But then, we were in the hands of experts: good friends, one Canadian and one French, who are posted to Auckland. They are also fully responsible for our ability to cook mussels. And polenta. And ham. Oh, dear.

We finally bought a rack of lamb (New Zealand lamb, no less) from the British Pantry and worked up the courage to cook it. The result? It's easy. It's fun. And it is splendid -- splendid -- to eat. We served it with boiled potatoes (not exciting, I know, but simple), steamed bok choy (rare to find here, and excellent) and rosemary-garlic butter.

This is a fancy meal, and relatively expensive. But it's worth it for the taste, the look, and the wondrous smell of lamb, rosemary and butter.

Rack of lamb with rosemary-garlic butter

What you need (3-4 servings):

• ~2 lb. rack of lamb, Frenched (get your butcher to French it for you -- home knives won't do the trick)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• 3-4 rosemary branches
• 75 g butter

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Heat an oven-proof skillet over high heat. Meanwhile, season the rack with pepper.
• Turn heat to medium-heat and sear the rack: place it meat-side down in the dry (do not add any fat) skillet for 2 minutes, and then turn it over for 2 more minutes. 
• Pour off any fat from the skillet, and place in the oven. Roast for 15 minutes. Here is where the size of your rack matters: for a 2-lb rack, 15 minutes is perfect. For larger racks, up to 20 or 25 minutes will be needed. We had a 1.7 lb rack, and 12 minutes gave us rare-medium lamb.
• Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Once melted, add the garlic slices and the rosemary branches. Simmer very gently as the lamb cooks.
• Once lamb is done, remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before slicing.
• Remove the rosemary from the butter, and serve the rack 3-4 ribs per person with butter poured overtop.

Chicken with pears, leeks and orange juice

This recipe affords us the opportunity to use our large Wilton stoneware casserole, which guarantees that it looks stunning on the table. Tim and Diane's pottery shop, housed in a mid-19th century limestone school house, is one of my favorite places to visit when I go home. The chicken itself is equally stunning: slowly baked with pear, leeks and orange juice, it is juicy and sweet and altogether satisfying. As Sassy Radish's original recipe notes, it's also deceivingly simple to make -- hence why we chose it for our last large dinner party.

This chicken is best served with rice (preferably brown or three-grain), which serves to soak up the juices, and a simple salad. I should add that it does not reheat that well, so I recommend adjusting the recipe to make enough for a single meal. We've made it for two with great success.

What you need (3-4 servings):

• 6 chicken legs and/or thighs
• 2 pears, cut lengthwise into eighths (don't worry if the pears aren't ripe; they will soften and sweeten during the cooking)
• 1 leek, thinly sliced (white part only)
• 4 spring onions, diced (white part only) (or other small onions)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• orange juice (at most 1 cup)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Place chicken in a Corningware or other baking dish just large enough to hold all the chicken in a single layer. Cover with the pear, leek, onion and garlic. Pour over the olive oil and enough orange juice to coat the bottom of the pan (for a 9x11" dish, you will need it least half a cup). Season with salt and pepper.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Turn chicken over and bake for another 20-30 minutes, until completely cooked. If it looks dry when you turn it over, add more orange juice. Serve with its sauce.

And -- because I can't resist -- the sun setting behind the hill, from our balcony:

Pinto beans

This is not the world's greatest photo -- I was much more interested in eating these beans than in finding my tripod. By the time we sat down to dinner, the kitchen had been full of heavenly smells for most of the afternoon. It has turned cold here in Budapest (overnight lows of 5°C and daytime highs of 15°C), and we are slowly moving from our summer repertoire of salads and cold meals to our winter repertoire of beans, soups and stews. 

These pinto beans are cooked with (us? vegetarian? not for years!) bacon, which renders them indescribably thick and tasty. You can leave as much liquid as you want in the pot, and serve these as a soup or as beans on their own. 

(The biscuits in the photo? They are Pioneer Woman's bacon-cheddar-onion biscuits. Don't make them. You'll never want to eat anything else again.)

Pinto beans

What you need (3-4 servings):

• 2 cups dried pinto beans
• 2-3 slices of bacon, cut into 1 inch squares
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• sour cream (optional)

What you do:

• Rinse the beans under cold water, picking out any small stones. Place the beans in a large, heavy pot and cover with 1-2 inches of cold water. Add the bacon. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, and then simmer (covered) for ~2 hours (or until the beans are just soft). During the cooking time, stir occasionally and add water if the water level falls below the bean level.
• Once the beans are cooked, add salt and black pepper to taste. I usually add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp black pepper.
• Serve with sour cream (optional) and some sort of biscuit or bread.