Fruit

Simple? Yes.

Delicious? Yes.

Blood oranges, blueberries and lemon mint.

Root vegetable pasta. And a 2+ month hiatus.

I moved to Denmark. It's a good excuse.

Cooking for one. I'm not used to it. I keep finding my fridge chock-full of vegetables, of fruits, of seafood. But oh, what a joy to be shopping for food in Denmark: the quality, the variety, the entire experience are a world away from Eastern Europe. My fishmonger – Havnens Fiskehus – is a short walk from my flat, across campus and through a park-like cemetery to the sea. Small fishing boats, seagulls, looming port cranes, and a bustling shop offering sushi-quality salmon and tuna, shellfish galore (scampi, scallops, clams, oysters, mussels, and various as of yet unidentified varieties), roe, regular fish from here to Timbuktu, gravlax, smoked fishes and herring. It is wonderful.

This dish, however, has nothing to do with the sea. It's a terrific way of using up odds and ends of vegetables. Practically anything can be used – in the photo, there are carrots, celery (plus leaves), sweet potato and red beet (hence the hue); parsnips would also work well given their sweetness. Simply julienne vegetables, sauté them in butter until soft and releasing some sugars, and then pour in a little bit of wine or stock. Let them simmer while you cook up some pasta (linguini works well), and toss all together. Top with celery leaves and lemon zest.

It's an unconventional pasta sauce, for sure. The slight bitterness of vegetables, the hints of sweetness, the lingering crunch and the variety of tastes work together, though, and the dish is thoroughly satisfying and thoroughly different.

Quantities: you need approximately 1 cup of julienned vegetables per person.

Bacon-onion-cheddar quiche

I have an on-again/off-again relationship with quiches. Currently, it's on. This is a bacon, onion and cheddar quiche with roasted red peppers, made on the only afternoon last week when I had time to be in the kitchen. No, it was not tall enough for my crust. Yes, I always have this problem with quiches. No, nothing seems to fix it.

Regardless of height, this was a supremely satisfying quiche both hot on the night it was made and cold the next night. Served with a simple salad and organic Camargue red rice, it became rich enough for dinner: the time spent in the kitchen shone through in the combination and complexity of flavors, and the quiche meshed perfectly with the oncoming winter.

It is the new chef at the Canadian official residence here in Budapest who has turned me on to quiches again. It is a joy to watch him work: he dirties fewer dishes cooking a four course lunch for 10 people than I do making dinner for two. His kitchen, a large room of stainless steel and gas burners, is an oasis of calm. Having recently watched him make crème brûlée, I am again considering buying myself a torch. Perhaps.

Bacon-onion-cheddar quiche

What you need:

• 1 homemade quiche crust, partially prebaked
• 1/2 red bell pepper, roasted and julienned
• dollop olive oil
• 4 strips of bacon
• 3 small onions, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp of your favorite dried herb (thyme, oregano, sage, etc.)
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• scant 1/4 cup chopped green onion tops
• 3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar
• 3 large or 4 small eggs
• 3/4 cup milk

What you do:

• Preheat the oven to 375.
• Begin by frying the bacon until just cooked. Once finished, transfer the bacon to paper towels (to absorb the grease) and drain the fat from the pan. Be sure to pour this into a jar or directly into your garbage pail; it will clog your sink.
• Heat the oil in a large pan, and add the onion, garlic, herb and black pepper. Cook for approximately 10 min., until the onions are very soft. Transfer to a bowl and add the roasted red pepper, bacon and green onion tops.
• Sprinkle two thirds of the cheese into the quiche crust. Add the onion mixture.
• In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and milk. Pour gently into the quiche. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.
• Bake for approximately 35 min., until a skewer or knife comes out clean. Let rest for at least 10 min. on a rack before serving.

Wild boar roast

I don't cook much meat. I never quite know what to do with it. Give me anything from the sea – whole fish, squid, mussels, octopus, scampi, shrimp, lobster – and I can transform it into something delicious. But meat? It's not where my expertise lies. And when I do eat meat, I like to know a fair bit about where it comes from. While this is becoming easier and easier in North America, Hungarian producers are, for the most part, still opaque. And so we buy from the Jankovich Birtok Estate, where the autumn hunt for wild deer (red, fallow and roe) and boar has opened.

Game? It has a bad reputation – a reputation for being tough, overly lean and, well, gamey. But it needn't be: when cooked properly, it is splendiferous. Plus, as Michael Pollan has argued for years, it matters what the animals you eat themselves have eaten. In this measure, wild game is some of the healthiest meat around. The animals are not fed a diet of corn; rather, they forage and eat a wide variety of grasses and plants.

Lecture over.

Last night: one 1/2 kilogram loin of wild boar.

Marinate, for a couple of hours:

• With your hands, mix olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh mint, and fresh sage in a small bowl. Rub all over the meat, making sure to work the marinade in to the flesh.

Sear, then roast over low heat:

• Preheat the oven to 300, and prepare a roasting pan with a small bit of olive oil.
• Heat more olive oil in a large skillet (enough to coat the bottom), and sear the loin for 1-2 min. per side.
• Place loin on roasting pan, and cook for 30 min. per pound.
• When done, remove from oven and place on a cutting board. Cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 10 min. before slicing. While waiting, make the sauce.

Sauce:

• Place a swig of red wine in a small saucepan, along with a few squares of good chocolate, a bay leaf, a star anise, and 6-8 juniper berries. Heat gently, stirring all the while to melt the chocolate. Add the pan drippings and increase to a light simmer. Serve over the sliced loin.

Yes, we must work on plating. Arg.

Autumn soup

Apples. Butternut squash. Yams. Potatoes. Onions. Garlic. This is the basis for my favorite autumn soup: a soup which is sweet and flavorful and full of color; a soup which reflects the changing colors of the leaves and the crisp autumn air. This is also the first soup I have developed ‘from scratch’. I'm slowly discovering the tricks and intricacies and joys of making my own soups. It's something I hadn't thought much about before last year, but which I now merrily daydream about on the bus.

What you need:

• a dollop of olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 medium onion
• 2-3 apples
• 2 yams or sweet potatoes
• 4-5 potatoes
• a large chunk of butternut squash
• 3 cups vegetable stock (give or take)
• fresh coriander
• white wine (for reheating leftovers)

What you do:

• Peel and chop the yams and potatoes. Cook for 10 min. in rapidly boiling water.
• Meanwhile, mince the garlic and chop the onion. Peel, core and chop the apples, and chop the squash.
• Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Once hot, add the garlic and onions. Cook over medium heat until the onions are transparent. Add the vegetable stock and the rest of the fruits and vegetables (yams, potatoes, apples and squash). Bring to a boil, and then simmer with the lid on for 20-30 min., stirring occasionally.
• Once all of the vegetables are soft, blend the soup (using an immersion blender if you have one) until no chunks are left. Serve hot with a sprinkling of fresh coriander.
• Notes on reheating leftovers: to reheat soup, warm on the stove with a dollop of white wine

Seafood stock

We realized last week that our freezer was full -- full! -- of shrimp shells and tails, fish trimmings, and the like. An hour later, and our freezer was full of seafood stock. This adds to the vegetable, chicken and game stocks already in the freezer. Winter, we are prepared for you! (Although it was quite a shock to see snow in Ottawa on Sunday.)

Seafood stock is perhaps the easiest stock to make, since it takes very little time. The trick is to put your fish and seafood tailings (bones, heads, shells, etc.) in the freezer every time you can. I use a large Ziploc bag, adding to it every time we eat seafood at home. Once you have about 6 cups, you're ready to make stock.

Hint: plan your seafood stockmaking for a time when you are not cooking anything else in the kitchen. While simmering, the stock will smell very strongly of seafood – strongly enough that you will not want to be putting cinnamon rolls in the oven at the same time.

Seafood stock

What you need:

• ~6 cups seafood tailings (if frozen, do not defrost)
• 1/2 a lemon
• 1 large onion, cut in half
• 1-2 large carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 leek, roughly chopped (you can use the greens, too)
• 1 bay leaf
• ~6 whole peppercorns
• water

What you do:

• Place all the ingredients in a large pot (heavy-bottomed, if you have it). For the water, use approximately 10 cups (this will of course depend on the size of your pot).
• Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and let simmer for half an hour.
• Strain the stock through a sieve into a second pot or container. Place a lid on the strained stock and set outside to cool. Once cooled, the stock can be used immediately or frozen for later use.

The perfect snack

I've been so hungry this afternoon -- this, despite a homemade blueberry-banana smoothie (I'm so glad I froze kilos of blueberries this past summer), homemade granola and half an orange for breakfast, and homemade roast tomato-bell pepper-red onion soup, homemade applesauce and an apple for lunch, and a banana and a homemade chocolate cookie for a first snack. Perhaps it's all of the craziness of this week.

The big guns had to be brought out for my second snack. I grew up eating so much good cheese: practically every lunch, whether packed or at home, was made up of cheese, my father's homemade bread, leverpostej (liver paté) and herring from the Danish delicatessen, and vegetables. Dinners, too, especially in the summer, were often based around cheese. At a conservative estimate, I would say my parents typically had $50 of cheese in the fridge at any given time. It's a habit I've picked up. And so: today's second snack: pavé du nord, a pyramid of raw goat cheese, and sharp cheddar, with Wasa bread.

The only problem is that Richard and I were going to have cheese, bread and olives for dinner. Looks like I've preempted that plan.

Moving to Denmark. It should be brilliant.

Homemade granola

We used to make homemade granola every week in Ottawa. This is a crunchy, unsweetened granola with a satisfying variety of textures and tastes – and it can be altered to meet your own tastes, or as ingredients change with the seasons. We haven't made it for over two years now, since moving to Budapest. The excuse is the same as ever: the ingredients here are expensive and hard to find. But, following another week of homemade cinnamon buns for breakfast, I put my foot down: cinnamon buns are a dessert food for me, not a breakfast food. (Yes, they taste fantastic – they will continue to make regular appearances in our kitchen, but hopefully not before 10 AM.)

With a more open mind, Budapest has proven mostly amenable to my homemade granola. I've had to give up on my four different grains, as well as on wheat germ. But the dried fruit and nuts were more than satisfactory (if expensive), and the result is fabulous: now I remember why I like this granola so much. It is crunchy and textured; it stands up to the milk and doesn't become soggy; it is bursting with flavor and color.

Homemade granola

What you need:

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 cups rolled grains (oats, barley, spelt, rye, etc.)
• 1-2 cups nuts (chopped into pieces if you like) (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, etc.)
• 1/2 cup wheat germ (optional)
• up to 1/2 cup seeds (optional) (sesame, flax, etc.)
• 1-2 cups dried fruit (chopped as you like) (raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, dates, dried apples, etc.)

What you do:

• Heat the oven to 300.
• Pour the oil into a 9 x 13 baking pan. Place in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, until good and hot.
• Add the rolled grains to the pan and stir. Bake in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the nuts, wheat germ and seeds to the pan and stir. Bake for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Remove pan from oven and add the dried fruit. Stir and let cool.
• Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.

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.