Green pea • Goat cheese • Apple • Cucumber 💚

Several years ago, my mother-in-law invited me to a cooking class. Featuring vanilla. It was so informativ, so inspiring and – above all – so much fun. When a saw the topic for the collaboration “Big Bundt – Sexy Sauce” hosted by lovely Ashley from Plate and Pen and amazing Angela and Mark from Cooking…

Grape • Pumpkin • Chanterelle • Rice 💚

Playing with colors – that’s what this dish is all about. And autumn flavors. Prepare the risotto by sautéing chopped shallot, garlic and Gioiello rice is some olive oil. Taste with salt and add some red wine. Allow the rice to absorb and, little by little, add hot water. Once cooked, add black aceto balsamico,…

Avocado • Balsamico • Tomato • Cilantro 💚

Do you know the feeling when you imagine a new combination of tastes and your flavor memory makes your mouth water? That happened to me the other day, as I was browsing the lifestyle section of Nau.ch and bumped into a thrilling culinary encounter: avocado crostini with a balsamico mousse. I couldn’t resist replicating the…

Inverted parasol mushroom omelet 💚

Today, I’m preparing another dish featuring mushrooms. The other day, my hubby hit the woods and returned with a basket full of parasol mushrooms. I couldn’t help myself but to combine these wild treats with a creamy French omelet. Sauté the hat of parasol mushrooms in olive oil. Season with fleur de sel. In the…

Pumpkin • Amaretti • Sage • Butter

Pumpkin with bitter almond cookies is a traditional combination originating from Lombardy in Northern Italy. It’s usually wrapped into pasta and paired with sage beurre noisette and quince or pear mustard. This is my low-carb variation of that traditional Italian treat. Steam pumpkin until soft. Mash and taste with quince mustard and fleur de sel….

Fennel • Carrot • Onion • Tamarind 💚

When experimenting in the kitchen, I like combining components with different textures. Soft. Crunchy. Creamy. Chewy. You’ll find all these textures in this dish: Grilled fennel with a fresh carrot green salad, tart pickled red onions and a sweet tamarind dressing. Start with the pickled onions. Bring the pickling liquid consisting of one part water…

Grilled squash flowers with cream cheese and baby herbs 💚

We returned to Switzerland earlier this week only to find our kitchen garden hideously overgrown. Time to turn the green treasures into something beautiful. Halve the squash still attached to the flower. Sear in olive oil and season with fleur de sel. Spread with cream cheese and decorate with baby leaves of basil, mint, lemon…

Deconstructed golden beetroot 💚

More experimental cooking. This time, I created a dish featuring mellow golden beetroot served in three different ways – pickled, mashed and seared. Pickles: Pickle thin slices of golden beetroot in a liquid consisting of one part water and one part white aceto balsamico seasoned with salt, sugar and white pepper. Bring the liquid to…

Poached cherry tomatoes, pan-seared watermelon and marinated strawberries on grilled halloumi 💚

Today, I was playing around in the kitchen. Experimenting with shapes and textures. I ended up with a trio of spheres, all in red but all cooked using different techniques. What do you think about the outcome? Score a shallow cross in the skin on the bottom of the cherry tomatoes. Cover the tomatoes with…

Poached yellow and purple cauliflower on sourdough rye crisp soil and soft boiled eggs drizzled with buerre noisette 💚

When I was I child, one of my favorite veggie dishes was poached cauliflower drizzle with butter, coated with breadcrumbs and chopped hard boiled eggs and broiled in the oven. This is a decomposed and pimped-up version of my fond childhood dish. Poach purple and yellow cauliflower until soft. Season with fleur de sel. In…

Crudités on peppered goat cheese 💚

Crudités is the fancy French word for “raw things” within the meaning of veggie dippers. Fancy words call for fancy plating, don’t you think? Clean and halve or quarter baby carrots, French breakfast radish and snack cucumbers lengthwise. Stick into a generous dollop goat cheese seasoned with black pepper. Decorate with baby carrot tops and…

Portobello mushrooms filled with herbed goat cheese 💚

Mushroom caps filled with creamy cheese seasoned with aromatic herbs and left to soften in the oven is a one of my favorite go-to suppers. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s full of flavors. Mix goat cheese with finely chopped portobello mushroom stems, garlic, white onions, chives and parsley. Fill portobello mushroom caps with the…

Green asparagus panna cotta with morels 💚

Right before Easter, I spend an amazing week in bella Italia. In Venice, to be more precise. Souvenirs being an integral part of the travel experience, I couldn’t return home without a physical reminder of the trip. What did the foodie buy? Silicone portion molds in different size and shape, of course. One of which…

Heirloom carrot roses on a hazelnut crust 💚

My first dish for the Food Blog Challenge organized by Foodblogs Schweiz is a tasty pie consisting of a really short hazelnut crust filled with creamy goat cheese and topped with roses of naturally sweet heirloom carrots. Start with the crust. Cream 200 g butter. Add 2 egg yolks, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp…

Heirloom beetroot carpaccio 💚

In 1950, Giuseppe Cipriani, the founder of the Venetian restaurant Harry’s Bar, invented a red and white dish honoring the colors characteristic to Vittore Carpaccio’s paintings. While the original dish excels with thinly sliced raw beef served with Parmesan cheese as well as lemon and olive oil, my version is vegetarian and based on radiant…

Parmigiana tower 💚

Parmigiana is an Italian oven dish consisting of thinly sliced veggies – usually eggplant – served with tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese and mozzarella. I built a nifty little tower with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella coated tomatoes, red onions and – last but not least – eggplant as well as Parmesan cheese chips and served it…

Trio of appetizers

Bite-sized appetizers – what a great way to start a party and encourage mingling. There’s a saying in German: “Klein, aber oho” meaning “Small, but beautiful”. And that’s what these hors d’oeuvres – each showcasing combinations of flavours that are so much greater than the sum of their parts – are. Here are three bites…

Heirloom tomato salad

We usually spend our summer vacation in Switzerland by the lake of Morat. The Lakeland around the three lakes of Morat, Neuchâtel and Bienne is not only famous for its wine, it’s also one of the most important regions in Switzerland for growing vegetables. Hence, we’re spoiled with regional, often organic, high-quality veggies throughout the…

Meadow soup 💚

Part two of our vacation started with all of us being ill, one after the other. Nothing serious. Just stomach flu. But enough to put us out of action for a couple of days. Today, we were able to eat fairly normally again. We had homemade broth with veggies. So nourishing and so luscious. I…

Veggie soup with feta cheese

Have you ever had to cook with whatever ingredients you happen to have at home? That happens to me all the time. So a part of my creativity is forced upon my by the fact that I haven’t manage to grocery shop. Now it’s out. My secret is revealed. Chop zucchini, shallots, new potatoes, carrots,…

Pimientos de Padrón • Halloumi • Raspberries • Herbs 💚

This is another simple dish where different tastes come together nicely: a sweet sourness of the raspberries, a gentle saltiness of the halloumi and an earthy bitterness of the green peppers. Plated elegantly, this dish could even be mistaken for haute cuisine. Pimientos de Padrón: Drizzle the small green peppers with olive oil and roast…

Feta cheese with cantaloupe and beluga lentil salad and fresh spinach 💚

I had this dish some years ago in a hip, local-oriental restaurant in Zurich called Bebek. It’s a really simple dish, where the harmonic combination of sweet and salty will make your mouth go wild. Start with the melon and lentil salad by boiling beluga lentils for 30 minutes. Cut the pulp of a cantaloupe…

Water melon on feta cheese and spring onion salad 💚

On a hot day like today, it’s important to stay well hydrated. Next to water, minerals like sodium and potassium are crucial. This beautiful and refreshing dish takes perfect care of your hydration status: The juicy water melon is great for your water balance, the salty feta cheese provides your body with much needed sodium…

Halloumi stuffed bell pepper with mint oil 💚

Lunch usually needs to be quick. Correspondingly, the work steps mustn’t be complicated and the number of ingredients has to be small. This only five-ingredient dish is flavorful and comes together really easily. Add some edible flowers and you’ll have yourself a lovely lunch. Remove the top of your bell peppers (I used white ones)….