TasteFood

Lemons and Lamb

Spring has arrived in the northern hemisphere - or so the calendar says, for those who seem to be experiencing extended winter weather this season. Here is a favorite menu I like to serve for friends and family, that uses some of the wonderful fresh produce appearing in the markets and gives an excuse to dust off the barbeque from its winter sleep.

Asparagus with Lemon and Olive Oil
 
A simple and elegant way to serve either green or white asparagus.  Use a vegetable peeler to peel the tough outer skin away from the white asparagus.
 
Serves 6
 
2 lbs. asparagus spears, ends trimmed
1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt
 
Steam asparagus or cook in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp tender.
Drain; transfer to a large serving dish.  Cut lemon in half.  Squeeze juice from one half lemon over.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with sea salt.
Cut remaining lemon half in slices and arrange over asparagus as garnish. 
Serve warm or at room temperature.
 

Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb with Rosemary and Garlic
Ask your butcher to bone and butterfly the lamb
 
Serves 6 - 8
 
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tblsp. Dijon-style mustard
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tblsp. fresh rosemary
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
 
1 5-6 lb. (3 kg.) leg of lamb, boned and butterflied
 
Place lamb in a wide bowl or dish.  Combine olive oil, mustard and garlic in a small bowl. Pour over lamb and distribute evenly with hands. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper. Allow to sit and marinate at room temperature for one hour.  (Can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance.  Cover and refrigerate.  Allow to come to room temperature before grilling.) 
Prepare barbeque. Grill lamb, turning, until meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of meat registers medium-rare, about 25 minutes.  Alternatively, roast in a pre-heated 425 F. oven approx. 30 minutes. Transfer meat to cutting board, tent loosely with foil and allow to rest 10 minutes.
Cut lamb in slices and garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs.
 
 
Steamed New Potatoes with Italian Parsley
Fresh, fast and deliciously simple - it doesn't get easier than this.

3 lbs. new potatoes, washed
Olive oil
Sea Salt
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, washed, dried, stems trimmed

Steam the new potatoes until tender. Transfer to a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil (or toss with butter, if you prefer.) Sprinkle with sea salt.
Toss with parsley and serve.

Lemon Cheesecake with Strawberries
An easy version of a timeless classic.  Prepare this cake one day before serving.
 
Serves 10 - 12

 
For the crust:
8 oz. graham crackers or digestive biscuits, in pieces
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
 
For the filling:
20 oz. (1 1/4 lb.) cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
8 oz. (1/2 lb.) Mascarpone cheese, room temperature
3 large eggs
1 tblsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons lemon zest
 
For the strawberries:
1 lb. strawberries, hulled, halved
3 tablespoons sugar
 
Make crust:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine graham crackers and brown sugar in bowl of food processor and finely grind.  Add butter and blend using on/off turns until crumbs are moist.  Press crumbs onto bottom and sides of a 24 cm. diameter springform pan.  Chill while preparing filling.
 
Make filling:
In a bowl of electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add Mascarpone cheese; beat until smooth.  Add eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each.  Mix in lemon juice and zest.
 
Pour filling into crust.  Bake until cake is puffed at edges and center moves slightly when shaken, about one hour.  Transfer to rack and cool completely.  Cover and chill overnight.
 
Make strawberries:
In a bowl toss strawberries with sugar.  Allow to sit one hour before serving.  (Can be prepared 3 hours in advance.  Cover and refrigerate.  Serve at room temperature.)
 
To serve cake, run knife around sides of pan to loosen.  Release pan sides.  Place cake on plate and cut in slices.  Serve with strawberries.
 

Border Crossings

As mentioned, Switzerland is a landlocked country bordering a handful of countries. From Geneva, you can be in France within 10 minutes, Italy in an hour, and from Basel and Zurich you are close to Germany, Leichtenstein, Austria. To an American this is just nifty. I mean, honestly, the most common border to an American is a state border, and crossing from California to Nevada or Massachusetts to New Hampshire is not nearly as thrilling as driving across a Swiss border to another country! When you cross a Swiss frontière, suddenly you enter another culture with another language, another way of making very good espressos, another set of road signs that you don't understand. Crossing a U.S. state border, you mostly find speed traps.

The first house I lived in was in a small village between Geneva and Lausanne. In this small hamlet, there was a marie, or town hall, a boulangerie(no self-respecting village would be without one) and a douane, or border guard. We lived one mile from the French border and could easily drive to and fro between Switzerland and France to our hearts' content. On Sundays we would shop the open air market in Divonne-les-Bains, purchasing fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables, roasted chicken, artisan cheese, paté and foie gras. We would then head to the local tearoom and recharge ourselves with a luscious croissant d'amandes and cappuccino before crossing back over the border to our home in Crassier.

When I first arrived, I loved casually inserting into a conversation with friends or family back in the U.S. that I had just shopped for groceries that morning in France, or that I would dine that evening in a French countryside auberge. My friend Kingsley arrived from the U.S. to visit me, and one of our first outings was to walk to France. Now, mind you, this was not the most scenic walk to do in the area, but, by golly, what a good story to talk about after. We nonchalantly waved bon jour to the Swiss border guards as we strolled past their guardhouse and casually glanced at the decidedly empty French border guardhouse (the guards were most likely fortifying themselves over a 2 hour lunch break) and then voilà! We were officially in another country! We trudged on to our destination, a simple café in a French village where we ordered Salade aux Crottins de Chavignol, a glass of wine and the French version of very good espresso. We then walked back over the border and still are, clearly, talking about it.

Cheese Fondue

Cheese Fondue

You may wonder why on earth I would start with a cheese fondue recipe, especially since I had just arrived in Geneva after 6 months of cooking and eating my way through Paris. Well, I start with this, because this question best mirrored my own sentiment upon arriving in Switzerland and getting busy with one of my favorite extracurricular activities: Eating in restaurants.

On the heels of Parisian dining I found that Swiss dining was somewhat, well, limited. At least this is what I found in the spring of 1991. Yes, there were many fine establishments serving haute cuisine, but for those preferring less of an impact on wallet, digestion, and trouser-size, this was not an option for frequent dining. For more casual outings, the common option was the local auberges. These were cafés and inns located in every town and village; a convenient stop for those who tired of eating at home. Quickly, one discovered, however, that variety and choice were not necessarily the operative terms when the menus were devised.

Bon Appétit

For the past 18 years I have lived in 5 countries. In 1990 I moved to Paris to study cooking with the intention of lingering on after my cooking program finished and finding a job. Originally I planned to work as an interior designer. After all, that was my profession in Boston before I moved, and while I loved cooking, I approached it more as a hobby and a ticket to Europe. I figured that once I got myself to Paris, learned the ropes of La Cuisine Française, magically learned French (I studied Spanish in school), endeared myself to the all-embracing French population and became a local, well, then, I might just get a design job with Euro-Disney, which was in the process of being constructed on the outskirts of Paris. I would nimbly straddle the French-American culture, drinking café au lait and eating baguettes (I was on a tight budget, after all) while involving myself in the construction and decor of the Magic Kingdom and home of Mickey Mouse. Sounded like a plan.

As all best laid plans go, before I even boarded the jumbo to take me to Paris, I met a Dane in Boston who was in town on business from Geneva, Switzerland. What does this have to do with anything, you may ask. Well, everything. We hit it off, we liked each other. I thought he was cute, and apparently he felt the same about me. So, when I did fly over to Paris to cook, that was not the only thing that began cooking. Geneva and Paris are a 3 hour TGV train ride apart, and for the next 6 months we spent nearly every weekend together either in Paris or Geneva. So, upon my graduation from La Cuisine Base de Française in Paris, I decided that Euro-Disney would have to be built without me, packed my bags and took another TGV ride to Geneva - this time with the plan to stay.