Daily Prompt: Food for the Soul (and the Stomach)

Tell us about your favorite meal, either to eat or to prepare. Does it just taste great, or does it have other associations?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us FOOD.

Bramata and Osso bucco

And now for the foody part: what an opportunity for the cooks and housewives of the Daily Prompt to show us their favourites. Personally I did not really know where to begin. I do not really have favourites, I eat almost anything.

I have a sort of mental list of things I like to cook regularly. Then I have a backup somewhere in my head with things I like to cook now and again. There is another list for high days and holidays, when you spend a little more.

The regular stuff is nice an easy. I have cooked it so often. During the week at lunch it is just Mr. Swiss and I, so that is easy. We both have to like it. I very rarely cook meat at lunch time, but at week-ends and in between. Today it had to go quick as I had an appointment at the vets this afternoon with my mean cat (see Link), so I cooked some Spätzli (sort of pastry-like pasta) and fried some mushrooms and leek with chopped bacon. That filled us up for the afternoon. Tomorrow I have planned fried potato, baked tomatoes garnished with sage and thyme from the garden, and fried cervelat. Cervelat is a national Swiss sausage. My food is mostly Swiss based.

To explain the photo: on the right we have osso buco (sounds Italian and yes it is). The following explanation is not for the squeamish or vegetarians. Imagine an animal, calf or pig, chop the legs in pieces and there you have it: a bone in the middle surrounded by meat. It is cooked for a couple of hours in a chopped mixture of carrots, celeriac, leek and wine (red or white according to your taste – I prefer white). One of the best parts is the bone marrow, although a matter of taste. Mr. Swiss likes it on a piece of bread, I just eat it pure.

On the left we have bramata, again something Italian. It is maize cut roughly and cooked in bouillon, stirring all the time, for about thirty minutes. I usually mix it with some parmesan cheese and butter when cooked. It is just something that suits the osso buco.

I only associate food with occasions, when the food does not leave a good memory. There are people that long for the good old days when mum cooked this and that. My mum cooked everything, according to how her mother cooked it and probably how her mother cooked it like her not a lot of new things were picked up on the way. I was the odd one out at home as I never ate what was good for me. Greens (cabbage) boiled and drained off as a veg were not my favourite, but it would have been so good for me. I did not like the fat on the meat, another “good for you” part of the meal. The funny thing is that today I am quite partial to fat on the meat. Ham is just not ham without the white edge.

At the moment I am planning Christmas Eve (the big celebrations at Christmas in Switzerland). Over the years it has been established that a preliminary of prawn cocktail goes down well, followed by Chateau Briand with mixed veg (brussel sprouts and carrots), accompanied by fried potato. I have not yet decided on the desert, but probably something with ice cream. I do not really celebrate Christmas, but it is a time of year when everyone else does, so who am I to eat a cheese sandwich, being surrounded by everyone eating their 5 star menus.

One of my favourites to prepare is a cheese fondue. You can buy the mixture in a sachet. Take a suitable fondue bowl, rub it out with a clove of garlic, put the mixture in, heat it up stirring all the time. When it is a bubbling melted thick cheesy sauce, put it on the little fondue stove. In the meanwhile cubes of bread are ready to be pierced on a fondue fork to stir in the cheesy mixture. Now that is really no stress, tastes good, and ideal for a cold Winter evening. OK, there are dedicated housewives that make it all themself. Grated cheese, white wine and cornflour carefully being stirred to suddenly find that it does not mix and you have a hard clump of cheese surrounded by a watery white wine sauce. There are many memories of Swiss mothers/housewives having their nervous breakdowns caused by this catastrophe. That is why Mrs. Angloswiss buys the mixture. No stress and all finished in 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy you meals everyone.

Daily Prompt: Food for the Soul (and the Stomach)

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16 thoughts on “Daily Prompt: Food for the Soul (and the Stomach)”

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This may be stretching the prompt a bit, but it is about food!
http://geanieroake.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/afraid-of-my-food-storage-2/

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That osso buco and bramata looks good. The bramata looks like a kind of polenta made rissotto -style – going to check the specialty section at the big market today. Bon Appetito!

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angloswiss

11/11/2013 at 20:28

I am never sure which words would be understood in english, but yes bramata is polenta. The corn is not so finely milled. I prefer it.

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First time I ate osso buco was in Switzerland – having had to buy it from the butcher (“un demi kilo de queue de boeuf” repeated all the way from the flat to the counter) prepare it and cook it to have served with spaghetti. The sauce is delicious!

I wish we could by prepared fondue sauce here – I haven’t cooked it for years, but remember how delicious that is too shared with friends or family 🙂

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by? buy!!

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Wow, I would love to eat at your table!

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I liked spätzli when I visited Switzerland, Austria and southern germany years ago.
And bramata must be something like polenta, isn’t it? Sometimes I make polenta – thick – cool it down, cut it in squares and then fry the pieces. Serve with hot spicy tomato sauce

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