Seasonal Cooking - Fall Recipes

As I've mentioned before, something I love about Switzerland is the way they make such great use of the fruits and vegetables that are in season.... It would for instance be very difficult to be here, go to a store or a restaurant and miss when it's Asparagus or Pumpkin season. Great for the environment and for us consumers.... Since we got a whole heap of fresh veggies from our landlords garden, there was a dire need to make use of them and yesterday, I was really in the mood and decided to make this a kind of "seasonal cooking day".......and let's be honest, with all this waiting, there is not much else I can do ;))

Seasonal fruits, veggies and herbs at my disposal:
Green cabbage, Turnips, Apples, Parsley, Onions, Carrots.
Veggies and herbs already in our refrigerator: Broccoli, Mushrooms, Red Bell Pepper, Garlic, Tarragon, Basil, Thyme and Dill.

This is the 3-course dinner that came out of it:

Recipe - Green Cabbage and Broccoli Soup

Ingredients (4ppl)
1/2 a head of Green Cabbage
1 small head of Broccoli
1 Onion
2 Cubes of Vegetable Bouillon 
1 liters of water
1/2 cup of Cream
Butter
Olive oil
Parsley
Dried Chili Flakes

Directions
Fry the chopped onion in a mix of butter and olive oil until transparent. Add the fine slices of green cabbage (Just a tip! Ensure you rinse it properly once sliced to avoid un-welcomed guests in your soup ;)) and the broccoli. Stir together until the cabbage has softned. Add the water, bouillon, a pinch of chili flakes and chopped parsley and boil until the broccoli is soft. Add the cream. Now pour everything into a mixer or food processor and let it run until your soup is smooth.

Delicious, cheap and very simple to make!! Serve it as a starter or as a main course accompanied with some fresh bread. I had it both for lunch with some fresh bread and again as a starter during dinner...


Recipe - Salmon filets with Oven Baked Vegetables

Ingredients (4ppl)
4 pcs of Salmon filet (without skin)
Lemonjuice
Fresh Dill
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

2 Turnips
6 small Potatoes
2 Carrots
1 Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
8 Mushrooms
6 cloves of Garlic
Fresh Thyme
Fresh Tarragon
Fresh Basil
Olive Oil




Directions
As you will be using the oven for 3 different dishes here, first check that you an fit your dishes in the oven at the same time.

Baked Turnips
I'd like to mention that I had no clue how to cook turnips and so I googled for recipes and this idea is borrowed from a Swedish blog called: "Under vart tak"
I altered the recipe slightly to fit the ingredients I had at my disposal.

Peel the turnips, halve them and slice them almost the whole way through. Place them in a small, oven proof, dish. Slice garlic and press down about 4-5 slices into the cracks of each turnip halve (see image). Pour olive oil over the turnips and place chopped tarragon and thyme on top. Also add salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes in 200-225 degrees Celsius.

Baked Veggies
While the turnips start baking, get another oven proof dish and fill it with the potatoes cut into fine wedges, sliced carrots, onion wedges, sliced pepper, mushrooms in quarters and sliced garlic.

Chop the fresh herbs and place on top. Pour over a rich amount of olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Bake in the oven, together with the turnips, for roughly 30 minutes. Flip your veggies around at half-time to ensure the herbs are properly mixed in and that the veggies are evenly cooked and colored.

Salmon filets

While the above veggies are already baking in the oven. Place the salmon filets in an oven proof dish. Pour some lemon juice over them and season with salt and pepper. Place a little bit of chopped, fresh dill on top of each filet.

Cook in the oven, together with the veggies, for roughly 10-20 minutes (depending on the size of your filets). If you have coordinated this well enough, it should all be ready at the same time, so you can serve it all together while freshly taken out of the oven ;))

Very tasty and also easy to make! The turnips is a bit of puzzling but oh so worth it as they look very pretty when you serve them like this..... 

Recipe - Apple and Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients

3-4 Apples

3 Eggs

3.5 cups of Sugar

2 tsp of Vanilla Powder

2 tsp of Baking Powder

100 g of Butter

1 cup of Milk (3%)

3.5 cups of White Flour

100 grams Almond Paste

A pinch of Salt

Directions

Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla powder until white and fluffy.

Melt 50 grams of butter and then add the milk. Pour into the egg batter.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl and then gently fold it into the egg batter.

Grate the almond paste into the batter and mix gently together.

Slice the apples into fine wedges. Fry them in 50 grams of butter in a frying pan together with 1 cup of sugar and the cinnamon until soft. Mix the apples gently into your batter.

Place the batter in a buttered and breaded baking pan and bake in the oven in 150-175 degrees Celsius for 40min's-1 hr (depending on the strength of your oven). Check the readiness of the cake by a stick test to ensure the cake is not too sticky inside.

Let your cake cool down and serve as/is or with whipped cream, vanilla sauce or ice cream.

That's it! If you try any of these recipes, please do let me know what you think as I'm gathering to make a recipe collection.

xox