SWITZERLAND: THE FOOD

It’s hard to believe that today is June 9, and my kids STILL aren’t out of school yet. (Their last day is the 13th.) And it’s also hard to believe that we’re STILL trying to finish up the final repairs to this house that should’ve been finished over a month ago. Turns out, the guy was just taking our money and only fixing not even half the stuff we signed off on. But luckily, we have a new crew in there who seems to know how to work more than two hours at a time. We might actually get to finally move into it soon.

I bet these would also be good with some orange zest, too!

So, to calm down and celebrate the end of the school year coming up, there’s no better way than with food from Switzerland. The first thing I got started with was the Bütschella. First, I proofed my yeast in warm water until it was dissolved and frothy. In a large bowl, I added in my flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest and made sure it was all combined well. To that, I added in two eggs, some softened butter and the yeast mixture. I mixed everything by hand and kneaded it for about 10 minutes. After several minutes, I threw in some dried cranberries (the recipe calls for raisins, but I hate raisins; lemon and cranberries are much better together) and mixed it until it seemed like they were pretty evenly distributed throughout the dough. I formed it into a ball and covered with a slightly damp cheesecloth (instead of a towel) and let it rest for about an hour. I set out a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. After dividing my dough into twelve pieces and forming them into balls, I set them on the parchment paper to rest for another 30 minutes or so. I set my oven to 350ºF, and while it was heating up, I brushed the tops of these with an egg wash (using the whole egg) and sprinkled sugar on top of that. I let these bake for about 20-25 minutes until they look golden brown on top. I was amazed at how good these are, and definitely better with the cranberries. The crumb was perfect. What a great little summer pastry!

Very tender, the flavor was very good despite being minimally seasoned.

The main dish I made today was Zürcher Geschnetzeltes. Instead of veal, I’m using thin-cut pork cutlets, mostly because veal is harder to find and more expensive when you find it (I looked for it when I made Austrian food and wanted to use veal for wiener schnitzel. It would’ve been $63 for about 3 lbs!). I cut my pork into thin strips and sprinkled enough flour over it to coat them well. I melted butter in a frying pan and pan fried the meat until it was done and set it aside. Then I added a little more butter and sautéd the onion, sage leaves, and garlic for a few minutes before adding in the baby bella mushrooms. (I don’t think I’ve ever used sage leaves before and they smelled just like the woods.) I let these cook for another five minutes so that everything was soft before adding in a little bit of white wine and the pork back into the skillet. I let this cook down until most of the wine has cooked off, then turning the heat down and letting it simmer for another 5-10 minutes. At the end, I seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper and added in the cream. I let everything cook for another two minutes before I turned the heat off. Now this was fantastic! I really liked this recipe using the pork. Overall, it wasn’t a difficult dish to make, very easy for a weeknight dish.

I could eat this for breakfast. It was amazing, and I can definitely see room for variations.

To go with this, I made Oven-baked Rösti Cake. Any recipe that starts out with pan frying bacon and chopping it into small pieces has the potential to be amazing. Then I got my big pot out and boiled a couple lbs of golden/yellow potatoes for 5 minutes  (that was the closest thing I could find to Maris Piper potatoes, which apparently aren’t here in the US from what I gathered). After a quick blanch and dip in some cold water, I patted them dry and grated them (using the large grates) into a bowl. I grated part of an onion and mixed it and the bacon with the potatoes. I pulled out one of my loose-bottom cake tins, and sprinkled the potato mix in the cake tin that I had greased heavily with butter. Trying not to pack any of it down, I topped it with small pieces of butter. Before I put this in a 375ºF oven, I warmed up a baking sheet for about five minutes first. Then I placed my cake tin on the heated baking sheet and let this bake for about an hour. The potatoes should be cooked through and be crisp on top. I think I ended up boiling my potatoes a little longer than needed, but it kind of worked out in the end. I really liked this dish. It was almost like a potatoes au gratin of sorts. And it went quite well with the pork. I just wished I had made a green vegetable of some sort to go with them as well.

Such a wonderful meal! A+++++

This meal was so wonderful. All the dishes turned out well, in fact, it was more than well. This is the best type of comfort food, which is a good place to end my blog meals in this house. I’ll be taking a break for the next month or so as we get ready to move, but I’m really excited that the next time I cook for my blog will be in my own kitchen of our own home. Even though this is a rental home, we’ve been in it for nearly nine years, and I’ve cooked 167 of my blog meals in this kitchen. Onwards and upwards.

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