home - part 1

when we first moved in, our apartment looked like this:

then, for about two weeks it looked like this:

and now finally the boxes have [mostly] been put away and we have a home! its not all in order yet, but i thought i'd show you a sneak peak of the kitchen. it was very important for us to get the kitchen in order quickly- eating out here is rough on the budget. and let's be honest, not the best food! we were so excited to start cooking again and to use all of our nice kitchen things that we haven't seen for a year and a half. 

welcome to our new kitchen! don't you love how we expanded into the dining area to get more space for storage and our big work table? typically the dutch do not have big kitchens and this one has lots of amenities but almost no counter space. so we found this lovely work table which also stores a lot of our big appliances, pots and pans, knives, etc. one of the best things we did was to buy several transformers so that we could use our US appliances. 

now we just need some wine...

the mixer is "on display" because its too heavy!

one of my favorite spots- lovebirds from grandma millie
(the teapot is from her house as well!)

cooking adventures: moroccan beef pot roast with honey glaze.

in NO WAY is this a food blog. ha. but since we've moved to lausanne i've been cooking a lot. going out to eat is not really an option. this is huge for me, and why i started to keep track of the dishes in the side column there --->

except that i quickly lost track of what i've made. so i'm going to revise the list a bit, and include my favorites and try to either write the recipes or add links. maybe some of you know a couple of my favorite places to find recipes are smitten kitchen also the 'in the kitchen with' series at designsponge. also, my dear friend shweta has her own real food blog, the vegetarian way.

this recipe came from a surprise issue of 'Lunds and Byerly's: real food' sent to me in a care package from mom. it has been sitting in a pile of travel magazines by my bed for a couple months, but picked it up on friday when i was out of ideas for things to cook.

mine was not quite this beautiful
and we ate it too quick to take a photo!

i was lured by the photo of juicy meat and the word 'moroccan', so i decided to try this pot roast thingy. i had to adapt quite a bit since i don't own a dutch oven, only a tiny covered pyrex casserole dish. also meat is super expensive and speaking of meat... i really have no idea how to ask for a specific cut of meat in french. actually, i don't really know what these things are supposed to look like either- what makes chuck roast different from brisket?!

so, i just bought some "beef" and gave it a try. i'd say it was pretty successful- the beef dried out a tiny bit during the glazing process because i didn't have a 4-6 lb chunk of meat. (i only left it in for 7-8 min) but the dish tasted great with a little spice kick and lots of flavor.

Moroccan Beef Pot Roast with Honey Glaze:
[from Lunds and Byerly's spring 2011 issue of 'Real Food']

Pot roast

3 cups chopped onions

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

½ tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1 Tbsp sweet paprika

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp kosher salt

¼ cup cilantro stems, finely chopped (save leaves for garnish)

4 cups water

1 cup canned tomatoes, chopped

2 Tbsp lemon juice (or more to taste)

1 boneless chuck roast or brisket (about 4-6 lbs.)

2 cups cooked chickpeas (freshly cooked or canned)

4 carrots, cut into 2-inch chunks

3 cups butternut squash, cut into 2-inch chunks

2 cups instant couscous

Honey glaze

¼ cup honey

3 Tbsp braising liquid, reserved

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp dried mint

Garnish

reserved cilantro leaves

1. For the pot roast: Preheat oven to 350℉.
2. In a 6-quart Dutch oven, toss onions and garlic with spices, salt, and cilantro stems until well integrated. Pour in water and stir in tomatoes and lemon juice. Lay in meat, cover, and bake 1 hour.
3. Remove lid and bake 1 hour more. Ensure there are 2 to 3 inches of liquid in pot, adding more water as needed.
4. Cover and bake 30 minutes or until meat is just becoming tender. If not tender, continue to bake, checking every 15 minutes. When it is fork-tender, remove meat to a platter or pan. Add chickpeas, carrots, and squash and place pot over a medium-hot burner. Bring to a light boil and cook until vegetables are fork-tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. remove from heat and degrease the top.
5. Remove the solids and taste the liquid. If too watery, return to heat, bring to a boil, and reduce to concentrate the flavors. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Set aside or refrigerate overnight.
6. Preheat oven to 450℉.
7. For the glaze: in a small saucepan, combine honey, reserved braising liquid, lemon juice, and mint. Heat 1 to 2 minutes to form a light syrup. PLave roast in a roasting pan and brush on glaze. Place in oven and brush on more glaze every 5 minutes until the glaze has become bubbly and shiny, about 15 minutes total. Remove immediately.
8. While meat is roasting, prepare couscous as per directions
9. To serve, mound couscous in  a large, shallow serving bowl. Spoon on vegetables and plenty of braising sauce. Remove strings from meat. Slice or cut meat into chunks and place on top; scatter with cilantro. Pass additional vegetables and sauce.

Serves 8.

no-knead bread. (from Steiny via M. Bittman)

I really love to bake. I don't claim to be an expert, but I'm great at following recipes and generally have good results. But there has forever been this gap in my baking repertoire: BREAD. I've never attempted a proper bread (with yeast that is- quick breads I can do.)

Howie and I received a great gift of a pizza stone for our wedding and never were able to get the crust right- I just haven't had enough experience with yeast, I think. So when I emailed my bud Steiny for his famous bread recipe, I was a little nervous. Luckily, it turns out that the hardest thing about making this bread is cleaning up afterwards!

No-knead bread is really simple and gives a great result. We ate ours with the Cafe Latte chili that I made the next day. The recipe is below and you can watch the NYT video here to get an idea of the process.

No-Knead Bread (Steiny via M. Bittman, J. Lahey)

The recipe makes 1 large round loaf (Le Cruset dutch oven size) but is easily halved or doubled.  (For my tiny oven I used 1/4 the recipe and it was fine!)

7 cups flour total. *pure white flour works fine and tastes great. but, as long as 5 cups is white flour, you can replace 2 cups with other flours or grains like oats. 

1tb sea salt

1tsp instant yeast

3.25+ cups tap water (Steiny says 50/50 milk/H2O works well too!)

1) Mix flour, salt and yeast in a big bowl with a whisk. Add 3c water and mix with a spoon. The dough will be tough and look unpromising (like a shaggy wet dog) and have lots of dry spots in it. The goal is to wet it just until the dry spots are gone. It should be difficult to stir but not sticky/sticking to the side of the bowl. (both Steiny and I have added too much water- the bread turns out fine, but the dough is a little extra floppy...)

2) Once the dough is mixed, cover the bowl with a plastic bag and let it sit on the countertop for at least 12 hours, 18 is better. The dough is ready when its bubbly and shiny and looks transformed. It will be pretty sticky.

3) Place a large covered dutch oven or casserole (glass, ceramic, or cast iron seem to work) in oven and preheat oven to 450F (230C). This is the most important part of the process. You don't need any grease at all, but the cover is crucial, as is the pre-heating. You're creating a mini-steam oven. 

4) Turn out the dough onto well floured surface. Handling it gently, take the edges and fold them under the loaf itself 3-4 times, or until you've acheived a generally ball-shaped lump of dough with a uniform surface. (watch the video link above if you're confused about this!)

5) When the oven is preheated, place the dough in the preheated pan and cover immediately with the preheated top; if it stays in a ball shape that's great but if it falls apart you'll be fine. Mine fell apart. (Also its good to use easy to wash oven mitts or hot pads- after handling the dough you need to cover it and I made quite a mess of my only oven mitt...)

6) Bake 30 minutes covered, then remove the cover and bake 30 additional minutes, or until the itnernal temp is 200F. Remove to a rack and let cool for at least 4 hours; this bread does not cut well when its warm. 

Cooking: Chinese steamed dumplings

Yes, it is true that I, Alison Ruth Markowitz Chan, gave a cooking lesson. I'm sure any family members right now reading this are rolling on the floor. They always tease me about my lack of cooking skills, but when you've got a husband who loves to cook you don't have many opportunities to practice! (poor me.) Also, lets not forget the amazing sweet potato casserole that was the hit of our thanksgiving dinner. Well, this year is different and I've already been cooking a lot, both simple everyday dishes and a few more complex. 


Here is a blog post I wrote about the recent cooking lesson for some other partners on the MBA partners blog. The post contains the instructions for cooking dumplings. And, if you're interested, check back on that blog to find out what some of my new friends are writing about throughout the year. 

Iyerida, Junko, Sharon, Maria, AMC, Verity & Nora