I normally favour seasonal eating, but what can I say? Preserves are delicious. Avocados generally coming from out of state, anyway, I tend to eat this in autumn, when my store of apple butter is large. A Californian would probably do the opposite. Regardless, these are flavours that do not often come into contact. The effect is almost like ice cream, with avocado's creamy, firm texture and mild flavour balancing the intense flavour of the apple butter and the biting chocolate sauce.
I tend to eat this in the morning, right after my breakfast starches, as the fat in the avocado tends to hold me over till lunch more effectively than carbohydrates, alone. For an independent breakfast meal, this could be served on a bed of black sticky rice.
This recipe is written very loosely, and is easily modified for non-commercial avocados or larger portions. Feel free to experiment.
SERVINGS:
One medium-large avocado serves one, for breakfast, or two, for dessert.
AVOCADOS:
aguacate(s)
clumped brown sugar
pitted dates
apple butter [see below]
chocolate sauce [see below]
CHOCOLATE SAUCE:
gluten-free dark chocolate ounces
partially reduced balsamic vinegar, to taste
chili powder, optional
chili oil
APPLE BUTTER:
Apple butter has a consistency like chutney and a distinctly European flavour. Strong but sweet, I recommend the recipe in Joy of Cooking using small, tart, slightly underripe cooking apples. Homemade apple butter beats store-bought, every time. This should be made (or bought) in advance. Although a batch can take all day to make, most apple butters keep indefinitely, canned.
INSTRUCTIONS:
• Chop dates, lengthwise, into fine slivers. Lay aside.
• Cut avocado into fourths or eighths, lengthways, and assemble on serving plate. Crumble clumps of brown sugar evenly, over the surface. Lay to the side.
• Heat the balsamic chocolate slowly in a small saucepan. Reduce partially, from 2/3 to 1/2 the original amount. It should be slightly sweet, to the taste, but still acid.
• Without raising the heat, add chili oil, to taste, and slowly add chocolate in chunks, stirring constantly as they melt, to prevent burning. Remove briefly from heat. Add chili powder immediately, if desired, and stir in, well.
• Warm the apple butter and place on avocado in generous dollops.
• Use a honey spoon to drizzle chocolate sauce evenly but sparsely over the dish.
• Serve topped with slivers of date.
Rajoittamaton Kyllikki.
07 October 2009
18 September 2007
Food in Context: Röschti and the Kartoffelpuffe.
For as long as potati have been cultivated in Europe, there have been Kartoffelpuffe, Germanic 'pancakes' frequently comprised of some combination of the following ingredients: potati, flour, milk, cream, cheese, egg, and grated onion. The exact ingredients vary from place to place, depending on the standard of the local region and the preference of its eaters. There are many different kinds of Kartoffelpuffe. American potato pancakes are frequently grated or julienned and bound with egg and sometimes cheese and eaten with applesauce or sour cream. Swedish rårakor consist of nothing but potato, but raggmunk (literally, 'hairdoughnut', a reference to the appearance of the grated potato) is bound with a batter of mjöl, ägg, mjölk och steks som pannkakor -- flour, eggs, milk, and 'potato sticks' fried into thin, shallow pancakes. Both are eaten with bacon or lingon (cowberry jam). Australian potato cakes consist of a slice of potato dipped in batter, fried, and salted. The Polish serve theirs stuffed with thick sauces spicy enough to make my nose run. The French fry up potato galettes made with sour cream, unsalted butter, cheese, and herbs such as rosemary.
In Germany and Austria, Kartoffelpuffe or Erdäpfelpuffe are winter foods, served on the street with apple sauce, whipped cream, hot chestnuts, and other seasonal specialties. My mother adopted this dish when she was working as a flight attendant for Lufthansa, and thus my sister and I have grown up on these German potato cakes (sans crème). The winter holidays were always full of recipe exchanges as my mother uncovered new German recipes which we swapped with Jewish family friends. For latkes are the most famous, internationally, of all potato pancakes. According to popular legend, potato cakes are symbolic of the cheese cakes served by the widow Judith to Holofernes. A simple preference for fried foods seems more likely, given that these and many other fried dishes are eaten during Chanuka (חנוכה) a festival celebrating the importance of oil to everyday life. Latkes and other oil-fried dishes are most important to the Ashkenazi Jewish families, who originated in Rhineland and settled as far east as Russia, Poland, and Hungary. These are the people my sister used to call 'Yidds' because most of them spoke Yiddish (she was too young, then, to remember the term Ashkenazi). The food has since spread throughout the Judaic community, mixing with other regional fried foods such as Sephardic boñuelos. The variety of foods available year-round has made possible all sorts of interesting combinations. Online, one can find, alongside standard recipes for leek or apple latkes, such interesting varieties as zucchini latkes with garlic and yoghurt (traditional, yes, but not for the Ashkenazi), and yam latkes with mustard seeds and curry (the origin of which I am quite unable to trace).
But now, because my Cœliac Disease has rendered wheat flour an impossibility, I must turn to what is perhaps the most intriguing and politically embroiled potato cake in modern history.
It is called Rösti, and it developed from the German Kartoffelpuffe in Bern as a breakfast pancake, but nowadays the prevalence of Standard German is such that the spelling is often changed to Röschti to better reflect the pronunciation of the dish, which is now eaten throughout Switzerland and is often considered to be Swiss national cuisine. Röschti differs from German and Austrian Kartoffelpuffe in that it does not usually use egg or flour as binding agents, though cheese may (and often is) used. Essentially, Röschti is comprised of hashed or julienned potati and oil -- lots of it, which means two things for the health-conscious cooker. First, it is recommended that the pan be oiled only immediately before placing the cakes onto the pan; second, healthy oils such as olive oil are always recommended. German food is often oily but should never seem greasy. Most Röschti includes onions, but leeks or shallots can be also be used. Other vegetables, such as mushrooms, meat bits, garlic, olives, or even rice and corn can also be added. Essentially, it is a free-form art, much like the making of omelettes or pizza. This is convenient because one can make three cakes of Röschti for different people and still accommodate all their needs -- an absolute necessity, in my household. Cheese is added only after the cake is flipped, or it will burn.
The controversy in Switzerland is over what kind of potati should be used for the making of Röschti. This extends well beyond the fierce controversies over different breeds of potati. In general, German Switzerland hashes boiled potati for Röschti; French Switzerland uses raw, which is so controversial a difference between the two places that the term 'Rösigraben' or 'barrière de rösti' has come to symbolise the whole of the difference between the two regions and all the contraversies they have had in the past. It is highly intriguing that of all the manifold differences, socially and politically, between the French and German Swiss, it is their difference in food which is emphasised as though to suggest, perhaps, that their differences are as fundamental as their everyday consumption. For, as the old adage goes, we are what we eat.
In Germany and Austria, Kartoffelpuffe or Erdäpfelpuffe are winter foods, served on the street with apple sauce, whipped cream, hot chestnuts, and other seasonal specialties. My mother adopted this dish when she was working as a flight attendant for Lufthansa, and thus my sister and I have grown up on these German potato cakes (sans crème). The winter holidays were always full of recipe exchanges as my mother uncovered new German recipes which we swapped with Jewish family friends. For latkes are the most famous, internationally, of all potato pancakes. According to popular legend, potato cakes are symbolic of the cheese cakes served by the widow Judith to Holofernes. A simple preference for fried foods seems more likely, given that these and many other fried dishes are eaten during Chanuka (חנוכה) a festival celebrating the importance of oil to everyday life. Latkes and other oil-fried dishes are most important to the Ashkenazi Jewish families, who originated in Rhineland and settled as far east as Russia, Poland, and Hungary. These are the people my sister used to call 'Yidds' because most of them spoke Yiddish (she was too young, then, to remember the term Ashkenazi). The food has since spread throughout the Judaic community, mixing with other regional fried foods such as Sephardic boñuelos. The variety of foods available year-round has made possible all sorts of interesting combinations. Online, one can find, alongside standard recipes for leek or apple latkes, such interesting varieties as zucchini latkes with garlic and yoghurt (traditional, yes, but not for the Ashkenazi), and yam latkes with mustard seeds and curry (the origin of which I am quite unable to trace).
But now, because my Cœliac Disease has rendered wheat flour an impossibility, I must turn to what is perhaps the most intriguing and politically embroiled potato cake in modern history.
It is called Rösti, and it developed from the German Kartoffelpuffe in Bern as a breakfast pancake, but nowadays the prevalence of Standard German is such that the spelling is often changed to Röschti to better reflect the pronunciation of the dish, which is now eaten throughout Switzerland and is often considered to be Swiss national cuisine. Röschti differs from German and Austrian Kartoffelpuffe in that it does not usually use egg or flour as binding agents, though cheese may (and often is) used. Essentially, Röschti is comprised of hashed or julienned potati and oil -- lots of it, which means two things for the health-conscious cooker. First, it is recommended that the pan be oiled only immediately before placing the cakes onto the pan; second, healthy oils such as olive oil are always recommended. German food is often oily but should never seem greasy. Most Röschti includes onions, but leeks or shallots can be also be used. Other vegetables, such as mushrooms, meat bits, garlic, olives, or even rice and corn can also be added. Essentially, it is a free-form art, much like the making of omelettes or pizza. This is convenient because one can make three cakes of Röschti for different people and still accommodate all their needs -- an absolute necessity, in my household. Cheese is added only after the cake is flipped, or it will burn.
The controversy in Switzerland is over what kind of potati should be used for the making of Röschti. This extends well beyond the fierce controversies over different breeds of potati. In general, German Switzerland hashes boiled potati for Röschti; French Switzerland uses raw, which is so controversial a difference between the two places that the term 'Rösigraben' or 'barrière de rösti' has come to symbolise the whole of the difference between the two regions and all the contraversies they have had in the past. It is highly intriguing that of all the manifold differences, socially and politically, between the French and German Swiss, it is their difference in food which is emphasised as though to suggest, perhaps, that their differences are as fundamental as their everyday consumption. For, as the old adage goes, we are what we eat.
17 September 2007
A History of Food: The Potato.
The modern potato plant, Solanum tuberosum, is tuber crop from the nightshade family; it's root, known for its starch as well as its high vitamin and mineral content, is grown and eaten all around the world. The plant originates in the Andean mountains of what is present-day Peru, where it was an essential crop of the Moche and later the Chimú and Inca peoples. The word potato -- at one time more commonly spelled potatoe -- came from the Spanish word patata, which originally referred to its relatively distant cousin, the sweet potato, brought back by Colombus to Spain. Originally, all potato plants produced fruits like little green cherry tomatoes full of hundreds of tiny seeds. From these, several thousand varieties of potati were bred. Although most types of potati still create seeds, most commercial varieties, inconveniently known as 'seed potatoes', have a defective flower that does not generate a fruit. Instead, the potato is left alone in the dark for some weeks to sprout roots from its 'eyes', which are subsequently cut from the potato and planted to create genetic replicas of the original plant -- a worrysome prospect which has contributed to several major crop failures throughout the years, most famously the 19th century potato blight in Ireland.
Disclaimer: This is not my picture. I found it deep
in the bowels of my computer with no indication of
the source. Anyone who is able to provide me with this
information would be most welcome to do so, since I
have no indication of the copyright status of this image.
When the potato made its debut in Europe, it was not originally well thought of. After all, its use in the Spanish Colonies was limited to the lower classes, used more often for hospital inmates than in Spanish-household meals. According to legend, Sir Walter Raleigh brought potati back to the court of Queen Elizabeth, where it was celebrated with a feast containing potati in every dish. Unfortunately, the cooks served the stalks and leaves rather than the tubers, making everyone present violently ill and causing a ban to be placed on serving potati in court. Whether or not the story is true, it illustrates the European understanding of the poisonous nature of the plant. It was not until the late 18th century that potati gained a solid foothold in Ireland, where many native Irish people had been forced to occupy relatively infertile plots of land, where few things save potati -- and thus, the people -- were able to thrive. The dependence of the Irish on this one genetic strain of potatoes would be their downfall when the potato blight struck, forcing many Irish to face the choice between emigration and starvation.
Mainland Europe, however, was slower to adapt the potato for regular use. In France, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French chemist and botanist, introduced the potato to French cuisine after winning 'a contest sponsored by the Academy of Besancon to find a food "capable of reducing the calamities of famine"' (Stradley). This same Parmentier also called for the first mandatory smallpox vaccination as Inspector-General of the Health Service in the Napoleonic era and was a key figure in learning how to extract sugar from sugar beets. He even studied food conservation methods such as refrigeration. However, he is inevitably remembered for his contribution to potato history.
Parmentier first ran across the potato while a political prisoner in Prussia. At the time, it was forbidden to cultivate the potato in France on the grounds that it destroyed the soil where it was planted and moreover contributed to several diseases, including leprosy, syphilis, scronfula, narcosis, early death, sterillity, and 'rampant sexuality' (Stradley). Upon his return from Prussia, Parmentier successfully petitioned King Louis XVI in 1785 to encourage the cultivation of potato plants. That year there was a major grain shortage, which in Northern France was kept at bay by their adoption of the new plant. Two years later, Parmentier requested and was granted permission from Louis XVI to plant 54 Parisian arpents of potatoes on 'a miserable and unproductive spot of ground' near Neuilly on the west outskirts of Paris (Rayment).
He began by hosting large dinner parties featuring potato dishes and sending large bouquets of potato flowers to the royal family, which the Queen and her followers wore as decorations in their hair. However, in case these attemempts did not produce the reaction he desired, he set up a guard around his entire plot, rousing the interest of the neighbouring community. Then, when night had come and security was more lax, he allowed his curious neighbours to acquire their own potati, which was thus adopted as a valuable form of produce.
Once adopted in France, the potato gradually became accepted as normal fare throughout Europe for all levels of society, after which time it gradually spread eastward into Asia, where it has allowed people to live in places like the Himilayas which were previously uninhabitable; during this time, it also spread back across the Atlantic to North America, where it is still an important crop, today.
Works Cited:
Stradley, Linda. What's Cooking America. History of Potatoes.
Rayment, R. J. Potato! - History
in the bowels of my computer with no indication of
the source. Anyone who is able to provide me with this
information would be most welcome to do so, since I
have no indication of the copyright status of this image.
When the potato made its debut in Europe, it was not originally well thought of. After all, its use in the Spanish Colonies was limited to the lower classes, used more often for hospital inmates than in Spanish-household meals. According to legend, Sir Walter Raleigh brought potati back to the court of Queen Elizabeth, where it was celebrated with a feast containing potati in every dish. Unfortunately, the cooks served the stalks and leaves rather than the tubers, making everyone present violently ill and causing a ban to be placed on serving potati in court. Whether or not the story is true, it illustrates the European understanding of the poisonous nature of the plant. It was not until the late 18th century that potati gained a solid foothold in Ireland, where many native Irish people had been forced to occupy relatively infertile plots of land, where few things save potati -- and thus, the people -- were able to thrive. The dependence of the Irish on this one genetic strain of potatoes would be their downfall when the potato blight struck, forcing many Irish to face the choice between emigration and starvation.
Mainland Europe, however, was slower to adapt the potato for regular use. In France, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French chemist and botanist, introduced the potato to French cuisine after winning 'a contest sponsored by the Academy of Besancon to find a food "capable of reducing the calamities of famine"' (Stradley). This same Parmentier also called for the first mandatory smallpox vaccination as Inspector-General of the Health Service in the Napoleonic era and was a key figure in learning how to extract sugar from sugar beets. He even studied food conservation methods such as refrigeration. However, he is inevitably remembered for his contribution to potato history.
Parmentier first ran across the potato while a political prisoner in Prussia. At the time, it was forbidden to cultivate the potato in France on the grounds that it destroyed the soil where it was planted and moreover contributed to several diseases, including leprosy, syphilis, scronfula, narcosis, early death, sterillity, and 'rampant sexuality' (Stradley). Upon his return from Prussia, Parmentier successfully petitioned King Louis XVI in 1785 to encourage the cultivation of potato plants. That year there was a major grain shortage, which in Northern France was kept at bay by their adoption of the new plant. Two years later, Parmentier requested and was granted permission from Louis XVI to plant 54 Parisian arpents of potatoes on 'a miserable and unproductive spot of ground' near Neuilly on the west outskirts of Paris (Rayment).
He began by hosting large dinner parties featuring potato dishes and sending large bouquets of potato flowers to the royal family, which the Queen and her followers wore as decorations in their hair. However, in case these attemempts did not produce the reaction he desired, he set up a guard around his entire plot, rousing the interest of the neighbouring community. Then, when night had come and security was more lax, he allowed his curious neighbours to acquire their own potati, which was thus adopted as a valuable form of produce.
Once adopted in France, the potato gradually became accepted as normal fare throughout Europe for all levels of society, after which time it gradually spread eastward into Asia, where it has allowed people to live in places like the Himilayas which were previously uninhabitable; during this time, it also spread back across the Atlantic to North America, where it is still an important crop, today.
Works Cited:
Stradley, Linda. What's Cooking America. History of Potatoes.
Rayment, R. J. Potato! - History
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