German Apple Pancakes and my Berlin Book Launch Event

The BOOK is out and I've done so many things for the first time in my life in the past three weeks that I'm still a little shellshocked. I've been on TV, which I never ever thought I'd be able to do and to say that I was nervous doesn't even come close to the feelings that shook me up inside (thank you Ben for being such a patient host!). I held more speeches than in my entire life before the book came out. My natural styling and rather casual dress code of jeans and shirt got replaced by pretty dresses, uncomfortable shoes, and more make up. And I changed planes like buses in the past few days. Once (it feels like a long time ago) I was scared of flying, but I've seen so many airports recently, that I think my phobia gave up. Now, I'm back in Berlin, I have a little break to breath deeply and to get some rest before the craziness continues and takes me across the Atlantic, to New York.

In the next few weeks, I'll share some impressions of my book launch events with you. We'll start in Berlin, my home town, and then we'll move on to Malta, London, New York, and Washington.

Berlin is my love, I've felt at home in this city since I first opened the door to my apartment almost 12 years ago. One of my favourite spots in this vibrant melting pot is the roof terrace of the stunning Hotel de Rome. It was around a year ago that I decided to have my first book launch event on this terrace. It's a tranquil oasis, it allows you to enjoy the whole city with all its prettiness and construction chaos from afar, but most importantly, you're right under Berlin's clear blue sky. We were lucky, on that early evening on the 26th September, the temperature was mild and the sunset was golden. I couldn't have asked for more.

The day before the event, in the early morning of a quiet Sunday, my family from Berlin and Malta - thank you Ursula, Alexandra, Emma, Julia, and Matt - joined me in my kitchen to help me bake the cakes for my event. I made a wise decision a few months ago, I only took care of the sweets for my event, the Hotel de Rome's fantastic chef, Jörg Behrend, and his team prepared the savoury recipes from my book. They did an amazing job, they actually managed to make me speechless. The food looked like the dishes in my book and tasted like the creations from my own kitchen.

What I've learned during the past three book launches in Berlin, Malta, and London is that you can plan every single detail of an event, but you have to accept that it will be unbearably stressful in the last 20 minutes. During these minutes it may feel like it's never going to work, but then, all of a sudden, in the last minute, everything falls into place. At 6pm sharp, our buffet was set up and Karl Chetcuti was ready to pour the glasses behind the table where he presented five delicious wines from the Meridiana Wine Estate Malta. Cynthia Barcomi - who gave me a heart touching quote for the back of my German book - looked gorgeous in her pink dress and we were both ready (maybe she was a little more ready than me) to have a public talk about my book. My pulse was pumping, wine, food, and the view was enjoyed to the fullest by our guests, and our roof top party got going.

It was the first time that I held a speech about my Eat In My Kitchen book, the first time that I stepped out into the spot light to talk about the process of working on this book. I couldn't have been more thankful for Cynthia guiding me through these exciting minutes, though this new experience, like a sister. My voice and knees were shaking, but my heart was full of joy. The first sip of Meridiana's crisp Astarte white wine after our talk was maybe one of the best sips I ever tasted in my life. I felt relieved.

I want to thank all my guests who came to celebrate with us. I'll never forget the amazing support I keep getting from Türkan, Jörg and the whole Hotel de Rome family, from Karl and Meridiana, from all my family and friends who are there for me no matter how crazy my life is at the moment. Thank you! I want to thank Jules Villbrandt for taking all these beautiful pictures, through your captures I can relive that day again and again. Prestel Publishing, and especially Pia Werner who came from Munich for our celebration, thank you for working on this book together with me.

You might have realized that I sneaked in a few pictures from my own kitchen. I can't write on this blog without sharing a recipe with you, it feels strange. So I decided to come up with very, very simple recipes while I'm on the Eat In My Kitchen book tour, recipes that fit into my tight schedule and that also have a connection to each country we celebrate in. Today's recipe is a childhood classic of mine: German apple pancakes. They aren't light or fluffy, these are thick, dense, eggy German pancakes, rich and filling. And - following my family tradition - they have to be topped with sliced sour apples and lots of cinnamon sugar. Enjoy!

You can see all the pictures of the book launch in Berlin taken by Jules Villbrandt here.

German Apple Pancakes

Serves 2

• plain flour 130g / 1 cup

• ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for the topping

• milk 240ml / 1 cup

• organic eggs 3

• granulated sugar 2 tablespoons, plus 2 tablespoons for the topping

• a pinch of salt

• firm sour apples, peeled, cored, and sliced, 1-2

• butter, about 3 tablespoons

Sieve together the flour and 1/4 teaspoon of the cinnamon.

In the large bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the milk, eggs, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and salt for about 1 minutes. Add the flour mixture, gradually, and continue whisking  until well combined. There shouldn't be any traces of flour left.

For the topping, combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large, heavy or non-stick pan over high temperature. Reduce the heat to medium, pour in half the batter, arrange half the sliced apples on top. Cook for about 2 1/2-3 minutes until golden at the bottom and just set on top, mind that it doesn't get too dark. Flip the pancake onto a large lid, add 1/2 tablespoon of the butter to the pan, and let the pancake slide off the lid into the pan. Cook on the other side for about 2 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar to taste. Enjoy immediately, the pancake tastes best when it's warm.

Add 1 tablespoon of the butter to the pan and bake the 2nd pancake in the same way, adding the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of butter before you flip the pancake. Sprinkle with sugar and enjoy.

Camping deluxe - Farfalle Pasta with Figs, Mozzarella di Bufala & Honey Butter

Although I can't really call myself an experienced camper, I'm fascinated by the idea of setting up a tent in the middle of nowhere and keeping the signs of civilization to a minimum.

I got my introduction to camping through my boyfriend. To avoid unnecessary difficulties, he chose wisely and decided to give it a go when we were in his home country - a place where you're never really completely cut off. He convinced me to take a boat to Comino, Malta's tiny sister island, which is just the right size to jump bravely into our first outdoor adventure without having to worry about too many risks. Our 'captain' dropped us off at the shore, along with our two bags, a tent, and a cooling box. It was August, it was unbearably hot, and I found myself in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, on a rocky island. There was not a single tree in sight. My boyfriend, however, looked at the situation with far more optimism. He knows Comino like his back pocket, thanks to countless trips as a child. He set up our rather basic looking tent within less than 10 minutes, with a little help from his clueless German girlfriend (I really tried hard not to be a burden). And when we were done, we jumped into the gentle waves in a lonely bay and I felt a bit like Robinson Crusoe. All of a sudden I started to like this camping idea.

To prepare our dinner, I collected some twigs and my man made a fire. We even managed to exchange a few of our tomatoes from the cooling box with the fresh catch of a passing fisherman. Then I got comfortable: I couldn't help but turn the rocks around me into a little desert island kitchen. Olive oil, salt, and pepper were ready to marinate the fish and vegetables for our DIY BBQ and we sat down with a glass of wine (a gift from the fisherman). This dinner tasted so good that I could have cried. Maybe that's part of the whole camping experience, you're very close to nature, you depend on the weather, the sunlight, the sea, and the food that nature (or your cooling box) offers you. It makes you humble and it opens your senses, everything feels more intense. To smell, taste, feel, and see is essential when you live in and around a tent or camper van. The night came early and covered our little island in the deepest darkness. As soon as the sun sank into the sea, I felt more sleepy than usual, but also more peaceful. I brushed my teeth in the calm sea and went to bed.

Most of my activities on the Maltese Islands are documented in thousands of pictures, but the idea of camping - at least in my eyes - is about being unplugged and as far away from any technical devices as possible. So there's no photographic evidence of my first or our following Comino camping adventures. However, when I spoke to my mother about camping recently, she brought many stories and pictures back to mind that I hadn't thought of in decades. My parents and my sister went to the Camargue, in southern France in the 70s, to a place with the beautiful name Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. They didn't have a tent but an old Volkswagen van. I always loved the old photographs, of them on the beach and in old villages, on ancient narrow cobblestone streets. The ease of a camper on their faces. One of the nicest camper vans I know belongs to our friends Luke and Jessica in Malta. Their gorgeous four wheeled gem is baby blue, built in 1968, and its restoration took them 10 months, but all the patience, sweat, and love they put into it was worth it.

Stephanie Le from Canada also shared her love for camping with me in our meet in your kitchen feature a few weeks ago. She's a pro, she even manages to create a Beef Stroganoff when she's out in the woods. Stephanie made me think about the culinary challenges that you have to face when you limit your life to a few bags and a grill or gas stove. It also makes a huge difference if you're in a place that still allows you to forage, or where fishermen offer you the best fish you ever tasted in your whole life. I'm talking about a rather romantic kind of camping here, away from the crowds and civilization and its disturbing visual and acoustic side effects.

Let's say you'll be out in the wilderness, for 1-2 nights, and you can upgrade your meal with some fruit and dairy products, the cooling box will keep it fresh for a day. When Volkswagen asked me to come up with a recipe - an eat in my kitchen on the road creation - I couldn't help but think of camping deluxe. A kind of camping that satisfies the longings of a gourmet who ended up off the beaten track. The senses stimulated by the whole outdoor experience, ready to be caressed by a beautiful plate of farfalle with ripe figs, creamy mozzarella di bufala, velvety honey butter, and fragrant basil. The dried pasta and honey are easy to store, the figs and herbs can be kept in a lunch box, and the mozzarella and butter stay fresh in the cooling box. This would be my ideal treat for a night under the clear black sky.

For more delicious recipes and kitchen inspiration, visit Volkswagen's Pinterest community board Food Blogger for Volkswagen.

Farfalle Pasta with Figs, Mozzarella di Bufala and Honey Butter

Serves 2

• farfalle pasta 200g / 7 ounces

• butter 3 tablespoons

• honey 1 1/2-2 teaspoons

• large figs, cut into 8 wedges each, 2

• mozzarella di bufala, torn into pieces, 125g / 4 1/2 ounces

• fresh basil leaves, a small handful

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

• flaky sea salt

Cook the farfalle in salted water until al dente.

In the pot used to cook the pasta, heat the butter and honey and whisk until combined. Mix in the farfalle, stir, and divide between 2 plates. Arrange the figs, mozzarella, and basil on top and season with crushed pepper and flaky sea salt to taste.

Enjoy warm or cold.

meet in your kitchen| Shakespeare & Sons, Berlin and Laurel's Chocolate Rugelach

"They both slow you down. They’re both transportive. They both smell good. They can both be enjoyed at the same time" - Laurel's words, when I asked her what she likes about the connection of food and books.

I've enjoyed sweet treats made by Laurel's hands for many years, but it took a while for us to meet personally. Together with her business partner Roman, the young woman from Boston runs Berlin's popular Shakespeare & Sons and Fine Bagels - a heavenly place for English books, bagels, cookies, rugelach, and cakes - all in one store! Originally, they started their Berlin business in a cozy space in Prenzlauer Berg that was, conveniently, quite close to where I live. But two years ago they had to move and I lost my dear store. A recent coffee date at their gorgeous new store in Friedrichshain brought back memories and awoke the idea to meet the stranger behind all these amazing sweet goods. It was actually a chocolate rugelach - possibly the best rugelach I ever ate - that made me get in touch with Laurel that same day. Her rugelach is gooey, chocolatey, sweet and juicy, it's so good that you basically have to order one after the other. When we met later, Laurel told me that her dear friend Sanam used to say that every rugelach sticks to your hips for seven years. If something tastes so good, I don't care about my hips, it's worth every pound!

Laurel is a self-taught baker with a weak spot for anything baked and sweet, a trait of her food loving family. Especially the women are quite gifted and know how to impress the hungry crowds at their kitchen tables with homemade cookies, cakes, and breads. Luckily, for generations, this passion has been passed on to the young ones.

Although she calls herself a shy bird who prefers to stay behind the scenes, when I saw her roll out the puffy yeast dough, dishing out stories about Israeli and American rugelach, I didn't believe it at all. Laurel sounds like a pro who must have a cooking show one day. I enjoyed watching her spread the dark chocolate filling lusciously over the orange flavoured dough so much, that I almost forgot how hungry I was. Luckily, it only took 15 minutes and she pulled out the most fragrant warm rolls in front of my camera - and then they went straight into my mouth.

Shakespeare and Sons also have the English Eat In My Kitchen book on their shelves!

Laurel's Chocolate Rugelach

For the dough

• 7 cups / 910g bread flour

• 2/3 cup / 130g granulated sugar

• 4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1 cup / 225g butter

• 1 1/3 cups / 315ml milk

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 4 eggs

• zest of 1 orange

For the filling

• 3 cups / 600g of sugar (this can be substituted for demerara or even muscavado for a stronger flavor)

• 2 1/4 cups / 270g unsweetened cocoa powder

• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon

• 1 3/4 cups / 415g butter

For the egg wash

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and yeast. When that is mixed in, add salt and whisk again. In a saucepan, melt butter on low heat and then remove from heat. Add milk and whisk. Add vanilla and eggs and whisk. Pour liquid mixture into the flour mixture. If using a mixer, mix until incorporated with the paddle attachment, then switch to a dough hook. Knead with the dough hook for 5 minutes. If mixing by hand, mix well with a wooden spoon and then turn out onto a floured surface and kneed well for about 7 minutes. It's a very stick dough however, so it's best to use a machine. Put the kneaded dough into a well-greased bowl, cover with a wet cloth or plastic wrap, and let rise for about an hour or until your fingerprint in the dough doesn't spring back.

Preheat the oven to 175°C / 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

While your dough is rising, make the filling. Mix sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon. Melt butter and pour on while hot. Mix well. Set aside to cool. You can cool it faster in a refrigerator, but be careful not to let it sit in the fridge for too long. It will turn into a solid block.

Turn out your dough onto a floured surface and cut it into 3-5 balls, depending on how large you want your rugelach. There's no need to punch down the risen dough, as the rolling will do that for you. Roll out one of your dough balls into a perfect circle about 1/2cm / 1/4" thick. Spread your filling evenly and thinly across the dough, being careful not to tear the gentle dough. Use a pizza cutter to trim the edges and to divide the dough circle into about 12 triangles, like pizza slices. Now starting from the outside of the circle, roll up your rugelach so they look like little croissants. Place on a baking sheet.

When you've done this for all of your dough, brush your rugelach with an egg wash and bake for about 15 minutes. When you take them out of the oven, drizzle with simple syrup. Oh damn, now you get to eat them.

This recipe also freezes beautifully. I usually bake up as many as I want and put the rest of the unbaked rugelach in the freezer to take out and bake as I need them. (Think about the possibilities here. Seriously. Lazy winter weekend mornings in bed and then...poof...15 minutes later you've got gooey hot rugelach in your kitchen? This is a maximum pleasure recipe so it's a wise move to keep them on hand). Just give them a few minutes to thaw before you throw them in the oven.

How does an ex-physicist decide to start a bagel shop? When did you come up with the idea? Did this idea grow over years or was it a spontaneous decision?

Ha, I don’t know if I’d call myself an ex-physicist. I’d say I got the physics degree and ran. The bagel shop happened out of pure, selfish necessity. I found myself living in the first-class bagel desert of Berlin and, frankly, I was hungry. I tried to assimilate, I swear. Ate broetchens, croissants, muesli...you name it. What can I say? They weren’t doing it for me like a bagel and cream cheese does. I’ve always been a home baker, wasn’t particularly focused on anything else at that point in my life, and it just struck me as something to do. So pretty spontaneous.

At your peak, you baked 350 bagels every day on your own before you put your team together. You offer 25 different bagels at your shop, sweet and savoury. What fascinates you about this popular bun with a hole in the middle?

The bagel is a creature of the diaspora. At this point, it’s as much American as it is Polish-Jewish. It’s spent the last hundred years moving out of the basement-level New York bakeries, getting softer and bigger, and landing on breakfast plates the world over. At the same time, bagels are no longer created with the same reference point or even a nod to their history, and I think it’s important to maintain standards. What I like about a proper bagel is the deliberate chewiness and the impractical hole. The hole serves only to gush cream cheese and soil your clothes. And yet it’s got to be there. More surface area for the flavorful skin. So it’s not an easy food. But it’s such a good food.

Both of us share a passion for rugelach, can you tell us a bit about the difference between American style rugelach and the traditional recipes rooted in Israel?

Ok, so the kind of rugelach I’m familiar with from back home (Boston) are more of a gently flaky cookie made with a cream cheese or sour cream dough and a filling of jam, chopped nuts, raisins, and cinnamon sugar. The dough is a royal pain to work with, but worth it. Meanwhile the rugelach you’d find in Israel are generally from a yeasted dough and reach the level of chocolate-y gooeyness that solicits involuntarily obscene vocals from those eating them. Or maybe that’s just me. This is disloyal to my upbringing, but I’m just going to say it: there is nothing better than an Israeli rugelach. The clouds of bees in the shuk in Jerusalem agree with me.

What makes the Ashkenazi baking tradition so special to you?

A hundred years ago, my great-great grandmother and her sister made their living baking breads and challahs in a village on the outskirts of Warsaw. All the women in my family are wonderful bakers and this is a way of maintaining and honoring a longstanding food tradition. The mandelbread recipe I use in the store goes back at least four generations. I’m not sure how the ancestors would feel about the double-whammy of reverse migration and return to the kind of baking that for them was a tough necessity and for me a cutesy, artisanal hobby-turned profession, but that’s 21st century privilege for you.

What's the hardest part of running your own bakery?

Not eating all the cookie dough.

Are there any Shakespeare and Sons plans for the future, apart from books and bagels?

Right now I’m working with several other people to organize a Jewish food week called Nosh Berlin. It’ll be from March 19-26 2017. There’s never been an event like it here and people are really coming together. To kick it off, we’re partnering with The Breakfast Market at Markthalle Neun to have a Jewish breakfast market with everything from bagels to blintzes to jachnun to Ethiopian dishes, and more. The idea is to get as much wonderful Jewish food together in one place as possible. We’re drawing from local chefs and home-cooks as well as folks from abroad. Then throughout the week there will be events all over the city, from popup dinners to cooking classes to film showings to readings. So everyone should set aside a lot of tummy real estate for that week.

You grew up in Boston, you've lived in Kathmandu and in Prague, and you've called Berlin your adopted home for more than 5 years. What do you like about the capital? What inspires you in this city?

What I like about this city is how easy it is to do your own thing here. It’s a place with very little open judgement about life choices and success seems to be measured differently than where I grew up. And that has provided me and a lot of other people with the room to make slightly unorthodox dreams reality.

What do you like about the connection of food and books?

They both slow you down. They’re both transportive. They both smell good. They can both be enjoyed at the same time.

Can you tell us a little about the history of the house and store where you opened the new Fine Bagels/Shakespeares and Sons shop?

So the building in Friedrichshain where we’re currently located was built in 1962 as a bookstore and apartment building. Since it was in East Germany, it was a state-run bookstore until the fall of the wall, at which point it was privatized. To this day, old Berliners are always popping in to wax nostalgic about their memories of the bookstore from back in the day. If you walk into the store, you’ll noticed a raised portion to your left. It sits on top of a Cold War bunker that was built-in. Meanwhile, all of the built-in bookcases are original. They were covered in terrible particle board from the early ‘90s and when we tore it down, there was the beautiful original wood shelving. It’s a big space so we’re able to accommodate the bakery kitchen, the cafe, and the bookstore. It was a stroke of luck to get it.

You say that many women in your family are passionate home bakers, what did you learn from them? And what about the men in your family?

We’ve got some sort of cruel genetic predisposition to a sweet tooth running down both the paternal and maternal branches of my family. So there was always someone baking sweets. Cookies, cakes, quick-breads. My mother in particular is a home-made obsessive and passed that on. Particularly chocolate chip cookies, kugel, and zucchini bread. One grandmother was always making the most divine Toll House Cookies you’ve ever tasted and the other one was all about blueberry pies and cheesecakes. Would you believe it if I told you my maternal grandmother was an early adopter of the Weight-Watchers program? Shocking.As for the men, well, at least a lot of them are good dish washers. That’s all I’ll say.

If you had to name one dish from where you grew up, back home in Boston, that you miss the most, what would that be?

Honestly, just an onion bagel and cream cheese from Rosenfeld’s in Newton Center. I’m absolutely devoted. They’re the best. And good seafood, of course.

Which are your favourite baking cookbooks and why?

My absolute favorite is Inside the Jewish Bakery. There are no pretty pictures, but it’s the most accurate and comprehensive survey of Jewish-American bakery recipes I’ve ever seen. It’s full of history and storytelling and extraordinarily detailed instructions. And that’s what it should be. The authors, Norman Berg and Stanley Ginsberg, both made their careers in these very bakeries and know better than anyone what they’re talking about. It’s my ultimate reference point.

Where do you find inspiration for new recipes for the Fine Bagels' menu?

Mainly I try to wheedle old family recipes out of the elderly. Other than that, I go home and visit the old-school bakeries and delis around where I grew up. I’m not really trying to do anything so innovative. I’m more interested in preservation.

Who is your biggest inspiration in the kitchen?

Meike, this is entrapment! If I told you it was someone outside of my family, what would the family say? If I told you it was someone within my family, they’d think I was playing favorites. I’ll whisper it in your ear, but you can’t tell the internet. It’s my own neck I’ve gotta think about.

What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?

Chocolate chip cookies with my mother. You hang around hoping to lick out the bowl long enough you inadvertently learn to bake.

What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Berlin?

The fairly new Bread Station on the Maybach Ufer does the best sourdough loaves I’ve ever had. They’ll schmear up a hot broetchen with salted butter and comte for you and it’s heaven. Merle’s Roti and Rum near Yorkstrasse is divine...piles of hot roti, spicy curries, and homemade ginger beer. Heno Heno in Charlottenberg is worth the trip across town. Homey don buri, sour plum onigiri, and herring nigiri appetizers. Lon Men’s Noodle House on Kantstrasse and Agni on Prenzlauer Allee are two other favorites.

If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?

Joan Nathan. She’s the queen.

You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?

A proper Nepali dal bhat tarkari. It’s the most wonderful food in the world. I bothered a lot of people into teaching me to cook while I lived over there and it’s still my favorite thing to make. A shout out of gratitude here to Saraswati Pangeni, Sudeep Timalsina, and Nirajan Tuladhar.

What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?

Childhood favorite? French toast. Grown up favorite? French toast.

Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?

I’m a kitchen misanthrope. Mainly because I’m clumsy. My ideal cooking scenario is having a friend hang out a safe 4 feet away from the cooking. They will gossip to me and drink wine while I make everything. Some days, like yesterday, this is not far off from the reality of my professional kitchen. Can’t say if that’s a good thing or not.

Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?

Planned. I live in permanent fear of not making enough food for my guests. This has never happened, but I gotta stay vigilant.

Which meal would you never cook again?

Latkes for 100 people. I smelled like a fry trap that fell into an onion field and my skin broke out in zits like a pubescent boy. Brutal.

Thank you Laurel!

Eat In My Kitchen is out! From the book: Radicchio, Peach & Shallot with Stilton

The Eat In My Kitchen book is out and I'm the happiest person on the planet!

One of the exciting - and often quite challenging - things in life is that you never really know where the journey will take you. It's like being on a ship out on the open sea. Sometimes it seems like you can control the direction, but it might just be an illusion, and in the end you can only ever go with flow instead of fighting against it. Since I understood this, my life rolls more smoothly than ever. I wasn't one of those kids that had a clear idea of their future and what it should bring. At the age of 18 I was still a bit clueless about my place in this world, so I decided to go to university and study architecture. I was a good girl and left 4 years later with a diploma in my pocket although I knew I wouldn't want to work as an architect. Instead, I worked happily in the music industry for 15 years. But things changed, I changed, the music business changed, my direction in life changed. I decided to start a food blog on a cold winter's day in November 2013, and this decision had more of an impact on my life than I could have imagined back then. I shared a new recipe every day in the first year of Eat In My Kitchen, and although I felt creatively extremely stimulated after those 12 months, I was also exhausted. My writing and photography improved tremendously in that year, and my cooking and baking evolved as well - I became more experimental. However, I had to slow down the pace, it was too much. But the solution was easy: less posts on the blog and I found a rhythm that allowed me to enjoy every single part of being a blogger (it still feels weird to say that).

In the even colder days of February 2015, life, the universe, destiny, luck, or whatever you may call it, had different plans. Holly La Due from Prestel Publishing in New York came into my life, she sent me an email in the morning, we skyped in the afternoon, and sealed our deal in the evening - all in one day. Holly's decision to ask me if I'd like to write a cookbook, changed my life so drastically that I'm still processing what's been happening in the past year and a half. I never really got used to seeing myself as a blogger, life was too fast, and now I'm a cookbook author. I still have these moments, when I look at my book using one of the recipes in my own kitchen, and I get a little shock and feel, "wow, that's my book". I guess I need a little more time.

Most of the time in life it's not just us alone, not just a single person who creates, we're woven into a net of people, ideas, and visions. Whoever pulls the string on one side of the net, affects the whole result. This heavy blue book full of recipes, Eat In My Kitchen - to cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat, is not just lying on my table anymore, today it's been sent out into the world, now it's on the book shelves and maybe lying on your table. And this makes me feel peacefully happy and thankful, I could squeeze the world.

This book has been a gift for me from the start. Being able to turn a vision into a physical object makes me feel very humble, I know that this book carries a part of every single person who's been involved. Thank you, to the most amazing team and friends all over the world:

Holly, Jamie, Jan, Lauren, Karen, Luke, Stephen, Angy, Emma, Oliver, Andrew, Will, Marisa, Ron, Monica, Ellen S, Jen, Pia, Julie, Adeline, Ellen M, Cynthia, Molly, Malin, Yossy, the Cini family, Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley, Joanna, Karl, Jo, Iggy, Marina, Türkan, Jörg, Kitty, Hetty, Mama, Uli, Ursula, Uwe, Jenny, Edith, Emma, Alex, Julia, Nina, Kim, Jessica, Luke, Matt, Muxu, Daphne, Nadine, Jan, Essa, Sandra, Chris, Alexandra, Doris, Chris, Anna, Jimmy, Gina, Pattie, Jayne, and all my loved ones.

Thank you my wonderful food loving blog friends, you've come back and visited these pages for almost 3 years. Your passion, enthusiasm, your questions and comments, your emails and pictures, made me enjoy my kitchen and my food even more than I already do. You drive me on to dig deeper into culinary traditions and to come up with new ideas every day. Thank you and a big hug!

Today I'll share the second recipe from my book with you, the colourful salad that made it onto the cover of my book and that became one of my favourites. It's a luscious composition playing with contrasts: bitter crunchy radicchio, soft and juicy peaches, sweet oven roasted shallots, sharp Stilton, and a little thyme. It's a beauty on your picnic blanket, a fresh addition to your brunch table, and the easiest starter for a dinner party.

The pictures of me and the picnic scene in this post were taken in July, at Villa Bologna in Malta, for an article in Eating & Drinking Magazine.

Radicchio, Peach, and Roasted Shallot Salad with Blue Cheese

SERVES 2 TO 4

FOR THE SALAD

• 8 shallots, peeled and cut in half lengthwise (or 4 small red onions, peeled and cut into quarters)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• Flaky sea salt

• Ground pepper

• 5 ounces (140 g) radicchio, soft leaves only, torn into pieces

• 4 ripe peaches, peeled and cut into 8 wedges each

• 2 ounces (60 g) Fourme d’Ambert, Stilton, or any crumbly blue cheese, crumbled

• 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

FOR THE DRESSING

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

• 1 teaspoon honey

• Fine sea salt

• Ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread the shallots on the lined baking sheet, drizzle with the olive oil, and season to taste with flaky sea salt and pepper. Gently mix with your fingers and roast for 10 minutes. Flip the shallots over and roast for another 5 minutes or until golden brown and soft. Peel any hard or burnt layers off the shallots and set them aside. You can prepare the shallots in advance; they don’t need to be warm.

For the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, both vinegars, and the honey; season to taste with salt and pepper.

Arrange the radicchio, peaches, and shallots in overlapping layers on plates, sprinkle with the crumbled cheese and thyme, drizzle with the dressing, and serve immediately.

Orange, Chocolate & Buckwheat Muffins

What a week!

The German Eat In My Kitchen book is out and my English book will follow next week, on the 4th October. Just 2 more nights!

The New York Times included the Eat In My Kitchen book in their list of 'The Best Cookbooks of Fall 2016'. NY Times' editor Florence Fabricant wrote a very nice review and also shared one of my recipes from the book. To call me excited would be a complete understatement - I feel insanely happy!

I had my first book launch event in my hometown Berlin, on the gorgeous roof terrace of the stunning Hotel de Rome. It was a golden afternoon, literally, we had blue skies and a slow sunset that wrapped the whole scene in magical light! There were so many wonderful people, fantastic wine from Meridiana Wine Estate in Malta, I offered my first food tastings - and saw many happy faces - and I held my first talk about my book, with dear Cynthia Barcomi. It was an unforgettable event and the best start possible for my book tour (you can see the pictures of the event here). Here's a picture of me at my launch, taken after I gave one of my cookbooks to tennis legend Boris Becker and his wife - the lunching family had to move table due to our event. I still feel a little bad because of that. Lots of nice pictures from the event are waiting on my computer to be shared on the blog, but I guess they'll have to wait a few more weeks, Malta is the next stop on my book tour. More adventures, book talks, and travels to come! To be continued ...

Here's a muffin recipe that I came up with - by request - a few months ago. Although oranges are a typical winter fruit, you can find them on the large fruit plate in my kitchen all year round. I can't live without their fragrant zest, especially in my baking. Pair it with bittersweet chocolate and you end up with one of the best combinations that the sweet world can offer (see last week's recipe from my cookbook). My quick and easy Sunday muffin is gluten free, made with buckwheat flour and ground almonds. It adds a nutty flavour, the texture is a little less dainty compared to plain flour, but the result is wonderful. Give me a cup of cappuccino and a few of these breakfast treats and I'm in heaven, especially when I can move straight to my sofa after a week of so much excitement.

Orange, Chocolate, and Buckwheat Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• buckwheat flour 200 g / 1 1/3 cups

• ground hazelnuts or almonds 170 g / 1 1/2 cups

• granulated sugar 100 g / 1/2 cup

• freshly grated orange zest 3 tablespoons, plus more for topping

• baking powder 3 teaspoons

• baking soda 1/2 teaspoon

• fine sea salt 1/4 teaspoon

• freshly squeezed orange juice 120 ml / 1/2 cup

• whole milk 120 ml / 1/2 cup

• organic eggs 3

• unsalted butter, melted and cooled, 125 g / 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon

• bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped, 100 g / 3 1/2 ounces

• paper muffin pan liners 12

Preheat the oven to 190°C / 375°F (preferably convection setting). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the buckwheat flour, hazelnuts, sugar, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.In a medium bowl, whisk together the orange juice, milk, eggs, and butter. Add to the flour-mixture and stir with a wooden spoon just until a lumpy batter forms. Gently fold in the chocolate. Mind that if you mix the batter too much, the muffins will lose their light texture.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and bake for about 16 minutes (slightly longer if using a conventional oven) or until golden. Take the muffins out of the pan and let them cool on a wire rack for 2 minutes before serving. Sprinkle the tops with a little orange zest.

From my cookbook: Chocolate Olive Oil Bundt Cake with Candied Orange Peel

Berlin, 2016:

The first picture of today's post caught the moment I held my Eat In My Kitchen cookbook in my trembling hands for the first time. I had to sit down, or rather, I fell into my beloved old chair in my living room. This chair has seen many emotions, sad and happy, it's been with me all my life and it's the place I want to be when the world around me becomes a little overwhelming.

So this chair had to catch me once again. My knees were wobbly and I didn't know if I should laugh or cry, so I did both. I received a package from my publisher and I knew what it was before I even opened it: two books, my books.

Tomorrow is a very special day, my German book, Eat In My Kitchen -sssen, backen, kochen und genießen, will be published and in a week the English book will follow: Eat In My Kitchen- to cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat, on October 4th. The book is already on Epicurious' list of 'The 25 Most Exciting New Cookbooks for Fall 2016' and my heart is jumping with joy!!

So many people keep asking me how I feel about my big publishing day(s), whether I'm excited, proud, or nervous. To be honest, I can't really say how I feel. Maybe confused and overwhelmed? As much as it felt normal to write this book at one point, to cook and bake the recipes, and to take the pictures, strangely enough it's starting to feel normal to know that it'll be out soon. It may sound weird and maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'll have a nervous breakdown at one point, maybe when I present the book in front of an audience (in the next few weeks, all over Europe and in the US), or when I see it at in bookstores, or when I watch people pulling it off a shelf and buying it. I don't know.

Luckily, I don't have much time to think about it, which is sometimes the best thing that can happen. Eat In my Kitchen feels as intuitive, natural, and close to myself as it can get. The physical book just as much as this blog. I'm in my comfort zone, constantly, which I consider to be the greatest gift. I don't take anything for granted in life, I'm here and I want to learn, grow, and experience everything. I don't know if I'll fail or succeed with this book, but it's also nothing I want to worry about. Every recipe, every story and picture that fill the 256 pages of this book, is totally me, to question or doubt its relevance, would be fatal. That would mean questioning my passion and my beliefs, before this book even sees a shelf in a bookstore.

I can say that I'm unbelievably happy that this book exists. With a big smile on my face, I stand behind all I've created and written in the past year and a half to fill its pages, in both the German and the English book. I went through many lows and I took the highs with great pleasure, I suffered and I cried, I changed some decisions and stood strongly behind others. I've been through my battles, while working on these pages. But now I let go. A month ago I wrote about this transition, this process of letting go of a project. Tomorrow, this process will be complete.

Today sees a premier on the blog, I'm sharing the first recipe from my book with you and, also for the first time, I'll share a recipe in English and in German. I get many requests to write my blog in two languages, and as much as I'd love to do that, I simple don't have enough time. I appreciate the effort of so many of you who aren't that familiar with the English language but still give it a try and follow my recipe instructions in a foreign language. Today, my German readers, you can relax and bake the most delicious, spongy chocolate olive oil Bundt cake, topped with a thick chocolate glaze and sweet and crunchy caramelized orange peel. I love this cake!

Next week, I'll share another recipe from my book with you, on the 4th October, on the day when my English readers can hold the book in their hands for the first time. I'll be in Malta at that point, celebrating the book at my launch at the gorgeous Villa Bologna before my journey takes me to London, New York, and Washington. I'll try my best to keep up with writing about all this here on the blog - and I also intend to start sharing videos on Instagram, so please come over and join my journey in the next few weeks and months.

Today I want to thank my amazing team here in Germany, all the wonderful women and men who made this book possible. Thank you everyone at Prestel in Munich, especially Pia, Julie, and Adeline. Thank you so much Ellen Mey for being my editorial guidance.

So very soon the book will be available in bookstores, and in case you can't find it on the shelves, you can order it at any bookstore in the world, or here:

• Amazon US – Amazon UK – Amazon Germany

• Barnes & Noble

• IndieBound

• Books A Million

Chocolate Olive Oil Bundt Cake with Candied Orange Peel

from Eat In My Kitchen - to cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat, published by Prestel

SERVES 8 TO 12

• Dry breadcrumbs, for sprinkling the Bundt pan

• 2 cups (260 g) all-purpose flour

• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt

• 5 ounces (140 g) bittersweet chocolate

• ⅔ cup (155 ml) olive oil5 large eggs

• 3½ tablespoons (50 ml) whole milk

• 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest

• 3½ tablespoons (50 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GLAZE

• 5 ounces (140 g) bittersweet chocolate

• 1 tablespoon (15 g) unsalted butter

• 1 to 2 teaspoons sunflower oil

FOR THE CANDIED ORANGE PEEL

• ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar

• 2 tablespoons water

• 1 small handful very thin strips of fresh orange peel

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C (preferably convection setting). Butter a 7½-cup (1.75 l) Bundt pan and sprinkle generously with breadcrumbs.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large heat-proof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, melt the choc­olate. Let cool for a few minutes then add the olive oil, eggs, milk, orange zest, and orange juice, and beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes or until smooth. Add to the flour mixture and quickly mix with an electric mixer for 1 minute or until well combined. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes (slightly longer if using a conventional oven) or until golden brown and firm on top. If you insert a skewer into the cake, it should come out clean. Let cool for a few minutes then shake the Bundt pan a little and turn the cake out onto a plate. Let cool completely. Trim the bottom of the cake to even it out.

For the chocolate glaze, melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil and whisk until smooth. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake, evening it out with a knife or leaving it in voluptuous drops.

For the candied orange peel, in a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. When it starts to caramelize add the orange peel. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the peel is golden and soft—mind that it doesn’t burn. While the caramel is still liquid, quickly transfer the candied peel to a piece of parchment paper. Let cool for 1 minute then peel it off the paper and decorate the cake while the glaze is soft.

German recipe:

Schokoladen-Gugelhupf mit Olivenöl und Kandierter Orangenschale

aus Eat In My Kitchen - essen, backen, kochen und genießen, veröffentlicht bei Prestel

FÜR 8–12 PERSONEN

• Semmelbrösel, für die Gugelhupfform

• 260 g Mehl200 g Zucker

• 3 TL Backpulver

• 1 TL Speisenatron1 Prise feines Meersalz

• 140 g Zartbitterschokolade

• 150 ml Olivenöl

• 5 Eier

• 50 ml Milch

• 1 EL Orangenabrieb

• 50 ml frisch gepresster Orangensaft

FÜR DIE SCHOKOLADENGLASUR

• 140 g Zartbitterschokolade

• 1 EL Butter

• 1–2 TL Sonnenblumenöl

FÜR DIE KANDIERTE ORANGENSCHALE

• 50 g Zucker

• 2 EL Wasser

• 1 kleine Handvoll sehr dünne Streifen Orangenschale

Den Ofen auf 180 °C (Umluft) vorheizen. Eine Gugelhupfform (1,8 l) einfetten und großzügig mit Semmelbröseln bestreuen.

In einer großen Schüssel Mehl, Zucker, Backpulver, Speisenatron und Salz vermischen.

Die Schokolade in einer großen Schüssel über einem Wasserbad schmelzen. Ein paar Minuten abkühlen lassen, dann Olivenöl, Eier, Milch, Orangenabrieb und Orangensaft dazugeben und mit einem Handrührer etwa 2 Minuten glatt rühren. Zu der Mehlmischung geben und mit dem Handrührer etwa 1 Minute gut verrühren. Den Teig in die vorbereitete Gugelhupfform gießen und etwa 35–40 Minuten goldbraun backen, die Oberfläche sollte fest sein. Ein Metallstäbchen sollte nach dem Einpieksen in den Kuchen sauber sein. Ein paar Minuten abkühlen lassen, dann die Gugelhupfform ein wenig rütteln und den Kuchen auf eine Platte stürzen. Komplett auskühlen lassen und, falls nötig, den Boden gerade schneiden.

Für die Schokoladenglasur Schokolade und Butter in einem Topf bei niedriger Hitze schmelzen. 1–2 TL Sonnenblumenöl dazugeben und glatt schlagen. Die Glasur über den ausgekühlten Kuchen gießen, mit einem Messer verteilen oder in üppigen Tropfen herunterlaufen lassen.

Für die kandierte Orangenschale Zucker und Wasser in einem kleinen Topf zum Kochen bringen. Wenn es anfängt zu karamellisieren, die Orangenschale dazugeben. Bei mittlerer Hitze etwa 3–4 Minuten köcheln lassen, bis die Schale golden und weich ist – aufpassen, dass sie nicht anbrennt. Während der Karamell noch flüssig ist, die Orangenschale schnell auf einem Stück Backpapier ausbreiten. Ein paar Minuten auskühlen lassen, von dem Papier abziehen und den Kuchen damit dekorieren, solange die Glasur noch weich ist.

Beluga Lentil Burger with Mozzarella, Pomegranate and Dukkah

My late summer of 2016 feels like an emotional roller coaster. And when there's too much work to be done it's so easy to panic, to be overwhelmed or to just give up. But I believe that we don't give up because there are wonderful people around all of us who catch us when we fall.

Many people catch me at the moment, some must already have sore arms and I can't thank them enough for being there for me and going through this rather intense time together with me. They listen to a crazy woman whose first cookbook will come out soon, in just a few days, and whose ups and downs can be more than tiring. They listen to me, they cook for me, they calm me down, and make me laugh. Many of them have been in my life for years and years, some I've only met a few days, weeks, or months ago. This post is for all these amazing people around me, thank you!

When I needed a spontaneous translation of a press release from English to Maltese a few days ago, I could count on my dear friend Jessica who even worked on it during a camping trip on the weekend. And Nikola, who I never even met before, made it possible to proof read it within a couple hours after I got in touch. My boyfriend is my rock, there wouldn't be this book without him, and Eat In My Kitchen wouldn't be as inspired as it is - my man is the biggest joy one can possibly have in life. The other day I was looking for accommodation in New York and someone who I haven't even met before helped me out without hesitation. And when I was chatting with Hetty McKinnon from Arthur's Street Kitchen about a meet in your kitchen feature this week, I mentioned that I'm planning my book launch event in NY at the moment and that I was struggling. It's a bit tricky when you're on another continent, everything takes much longer. Within a split second, Hetty offered to cook my recipes for my book launch event in Manhattan. I could go on and on, the list of people who've helped and supported me is long and I know it will become longer and longer in the next few weeks.

We're not alone, and that's wonderful, there are times to help others and there are times to receive help from the people around us. We should never forget that we're not alone.

I dedicate this recipe to everyone who has helped me, to my friends, my family, and everybody who I met and will meet on this journey and who makes it even better. It's a recipe that combines different tastes and textures: nutty Beluga lentil burgers and creamy mozzarella di bufala sprinkled with fragrant dukkah spice and nut mixture and juicy pomegranate. It's as vibrant, rich, and colourful as we all are. You can turn it into a sandwich, as I did, but that's not even necessary.

A big hug to all you wonderful people around me! xx

Beluga Lentil Burger with Mozzarella, Pomegranate and Dukkah

Makes 2 sandwiches

For the dukkah

• 30 g (1 ounce) skin-on hazelnuts

• 30 g (1 ounce) salted pistachios

• 30 g (1 ounce) white sesame seeds

• 30 g (1 ounce) sunflower seeds

• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed with a mortar and pestle

• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed with a mortar and pestle

• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed with a mortar and pestle

• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

For the lentil burgers

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 small sprigs fresh lemon thyme

• 60 g (2 ounces) beluga lentils (no soaking required)

• 40 g (1 1/2 ounces) drained canned cannellini beans, rinsed and roughly mashed with a fork

• 1 spring onion (green part only), thinly sliced

• 1 small clove garlic, crushed

• 1 large egg

• 40 g (1 1/2 ounces) Parmesan, finely grated

• 20 g (2 tablespoons) dry breadcrumbs

• 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

• ground pepper

• olive oil, to cook the burgers

For the sandwiches

• 2 rustic white buns, cut in half

• 4 lettuce leaves125 g (4 1/2 ounces) mozzarella di bufala, torn into small pieces

• olive oil

• 1/2 pomegranate

• 1-2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest

You won't need all of the dukkah for this recipe. Store leftover dukkah in an airtight container and use it in salads and soups.

For the dukkah, pulse the ingredients in a food processor until crumbly—the mixture should be dry—and transfer to a bowl or an airtight jar.

For the lentil burgers: Fill a large pot with water, the bay leaf, and thyme. Add the beluga lentils and bring to the boil. Cook, according to the package instructions, for about 18-20 minutes. The lentils should have some bite. Remove and discard the herbs, drain the lentils, and let cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the lentils with the beans, 3/4 of the spring onion, the garlic, egg, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Use your hands or a large spoon to mix until well combined. Wet your hands and form the mixture into 6 burgers.

In a large, heavy pan, heat a generous splash of olive oil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat down to medium and cook the burgers, flipping once, for 2 to 3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Transfer to the lined baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes in the oven.

Divide the lettuce leaves, lentil burgers, and mozzarella among the sandwiches and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds, fresh lemon zest, the remaining spring onion, and some dukkah. Close the sandwiches and enjoy!

Plum, Cinnamon & Buttermilk Muffins

More plums and more muffins!

On Wednesday, I mentioned my unstoppable appetite for plums. I turned the sweet and sour fruit into a caramelized topping for a rich cheese omelette and made a heavenly ciabatta sandwich. Today I turned them into muffins, fluffy muffins, refined with lots of cinnamon and pretty plums on top. I need my sweet dose of homemade cake at least once a week and there's no better day to indulge in this treat than on a Sunday. And if I don't have much time, I go for muffins. A batch of 12 is just enough for the two of us for breakfast and tea time, and the last nibbles are reserved for dessert.

I like to use German plums for baking, also known as Damson plums, but feel free to use Italian plums or any variety you can find. Apples, pears, or blueberry work just as well, I'd even give some late summer peaches or figs a go.More muffin inspiration:

• Carrot and Pineapple Muffins with Hazelnuts

• Bittersweet Chocolate Muffins filled with Peanut Butter

• Chocolate and Orange Muffins

• Fig, Ricotta and Olive Oil Muffins

• Banana Muffins with White and Dark Chocolate

• Cherry and Chocolate Muffins

Plum, Cinnamon & Buttermilk Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• plain flour 200g / 1 1/2 cups

• granulated sugar 70g / 1/3 cup, plus 2 tablespoons for the topping

• baking powder 2 1/2 teaspoons

• baking soda 1/2 teaspoon

• a pinch of salt

• ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus 1/2 teaspoon for the topping

• buttermilk 190ml / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon

• butter, melted and cooled, 90g / 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon

• organic egg 1

• large plums 8, cut into thin wedges

• paper baking cups 12

Set the oven to 200°C / 400°F (preferably convection setting) and line the 12 molds of a muffin tray with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

For the topping, combine the sugar and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, buttermilk, and egg, then pour into the flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir until you have a lumpy dough, with a bit of flour left here and there. Keep in mind, the more you mix it, the more it will lose its light texture. Divide the dough between the muffin cups and arrange the plum wedges on top. For the topping, sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar and bake for about 15 minutes (slightly longer if using a conventional oven) or until the muffins are golden and firm on top. Let them cool for 1-2 minutes before you take them out of the tray.

Spiced Plum and Cheese Omelette Ciabatta Sandwich

The changing of the seasons, the short gap before the next season takes over, is a great gift. It's a time that tends to fill me with great excitement. Autumn's waiting in the wings, yet summer isn't ready to say goodbye. There's no need to rush, I can indulge in Vorfreude - the German word for the happiness and excitement that we feel before a special event. The idea of coziness and comfort food, long walks in the forest and snuggly sofa time is already more than appealing. I replace my flowery dresses with a pair of jeans and a cardigan and spend just as much time outside as I did in the past few months. The sun is lower and wraps the world around me in a gorgeous golden glow, everything looks softer and warmer. My appetite shifts from lighter treats to the richer pleasures of the kitchen, and my mood is full of joy and curiosity for everything that the next couple months will bring into my life.

Cooking plums with spices is a celebration of late summer, but with a subtle nod towards the festive season. I had this aromatic duo in mind when Leerdammer asked me to create a new sandwich, a sandwich that fits my current mood. The fruit caramelized in sugar, cinnamon, and coriander seeds, sits on top of a rich cheese omelette. This whole juicy joy is layered in a soft ciabatta bread, sprinkled with a bit of fresh thyme. Just one bite and I'm ready to celebrate the season. I love to indulge in the produce that every month of the year offers, especially when there's fresh bread on the table: Be it in my Cheese, Bacon, and Egg Sandwich with Garden Vegetables, a summery light creation in June, or the pleasures of zucchini cheese fritters and strawberries piled between two slices of bread. Maybe I should come up with a sandwich calendar one day.

I usually spend late September and October experimenting with roots and winter squash, with grapes, plums, and apples. I try out new meat dishes and enjoy my trusted classics. But this year, I'll 'lose' a month in the kitchen. I'll be traveling through Europe and the US pretty much all of October to launch my book and to finally present my recipes, printed on paper, physically and not just in the digital spheres of the world. As much as I know that I'll miss my kitchen, I can't say that this circumstance fills me with sadness. I'm nervous, excited, even a bit hysterical at times, but I can't wait to finally open the pages of the Eat In My kitchen book and show it to all the people who I'm going to meet soon.

To make up for the kitchen break ahead of me, I spent the past few weeks cooking and baking with all the ingredients that I'll miss out on. Plums are at the top of my list - for sweet and savoury dishes. If I had to choose one flavour to describe this time of the year, it would be plums. I love their sour fruitiness, especially cooked, in combination with aromatic spices. Add them to a bowl of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream and you can still taste summer, turn them into a fragrant chutney and stir them into the thick sauce of a venison stew in a couple months and you're ready for winter. Dumplings, jam, cakes, or sandwiches, there's no recipe that this fruit can't deal with.

This post has been sponsored by Leerdammer.

Spiced Plum and Cheese Omelette Ciabatta Sandwich

Makes 2 Sandwiches

For the caramelized plums

• granulated sugar 2 tablespoons

• unsalted butter 2 tablespoons

• coriander seeds, crushed in a mortar, 1 teaspoon

• ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon

• large plums, cut into quarters, 4

For the omelette

• organic eggs 3

• heavy cream 60ml / 1/4 cup

• freshly grated nutmeg

• fine sea salt

• ground pepper

• butter 1 teaspoon

For the sandwich

• lettuce leaves 2-4

• small ciabatta bread, cut into 2 buns, each cut in half, 1

• Leerdammer cheese, thinly sliced, about 60g / 2 ounces

• a few fresh thyme leaves

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

For the caramelized plums, in a medium, heavy pan, heat the sugar, butter, and spices over medium high heat, stir, and add the plums as soon as the butter is golden and sizzling. Cook the plums for about 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden and soft. Turn them gently one by one, and mind that they keep their shape. Take the pan off the heat.

For the omelette, whisk the eggs and heavy cream and season with nutmeg, salt, and ground pepper. In a small, heavy or non-stick pan, heat the butter over medium-high heat. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, scramble very lightly and fold onto itself. When the bottom side starts to become golden flip the omelette around. Cook it shortly from the other side for about a minute or until the omelette is just set. Take the pan off the heat and cut the omelette into large chunks.

Arrange the lettuce on top of the two bottoms of the buns. Divide the warm omelette between the buns, spread the cheese on top, then finish it off with the warm caramelized plums. Pour the buttery juices from the pan used for the plums over the fruit and sprinkle with thyme and a little crushed black pepper. Close the bun, squeeze a little - gently! - and enjoy!

meet in your kitchen | Emiko Davies' Grape Focaccia & her life in Tuscany

Our long wooden dining table has seen many luscious lunches and dinners. It has its scars and scratches and I'm sure that a few of them came from an unexpected meal with friends a few months ago. It must have been spring, I was still busy proof reading my book and I was rather stressed. What was supposed to be a one hour snack with a friend from Malta turned into a little Friday feast, with three friends, salads, cheese, and salami, and with a few more bottles of white wine than one should open (and empty) on a Friday afternoon - but who cares, we had a wonderful time. We laughed so much that I managed to relax and forget my duties for a few hours - and it was the start of this meet in your kitchen feature.

One of the friends who sat at my table that day was my dear Heilala. Whenever we meet, we get lost in long conversations. Between nibbles of cheese and sips of wine, she told me about a friend from her school days who just published her first cookbook and had also gone through all the excitement that comes with the adventure of being a book author. Her friend lives in the heart of Tuscany, in Florence, once the breeding ground of breathtaking Renaissance art and architecture. If you've seen it once, you'll never forget its magical beauty. So Heilala told me that her friend lives right there, in this Italian paradise with her Italian husband and their little daughter, she writes a food blog and as I found out later, she's already at work on her second cookbook - she's called Emiko Davies.

I knew Emiko, not personally, but I've been a huge fan of her work for quite a while. Her recipes, her writing, and her photography have depth, every single aspect of her work shows that she's knows what she's talking about. Every picture she shares speaks of the beauty that surrounds her. If you live in a place that's so full of history, culture, and evolving traditions, where the fine arts have flourished for centuries, you can only grow. The former art and history student dug deep into Florence's culinary traditions. Like a scientist, she observed, read, and learned about the original cooking and baking of this part of Tuscany, a region that's so versatile and rich. Florentine, The True Cuisine of Florenceis a declaration of love, of someone who has experienced the city from the outside and has now become a part of it.

The curiosity and persistency of this food loving woman fascinated me - even more so after I found out that we share a beloved friend. We only got in touch last week, but I immediately knew that I wanted to meet Emiko in her kitchen. For know it's just a virtual meeting, but I'm planning to visit her next year, in real life - to be continued.

All pictures in this post are taken by Emiko Davies.

Schiacciata all'uva | Grape focaccia

from 'Florentine: The True Cuisine of Florence' by Emiko Davies, published by Hardie Grant Books

For one or two fleeting months of the year from September to October, the appearance of schiacciata all'uva in Florence's bakery shop windows is a sign that summer is over and the days will begin to get noticeably shorter. This sticky, sweet focaccia-like bread, full of bright, bursting grapes, is a hint that winemakers are working hard at that moment harvesting their grapes and pressing them. 

These days, it is usually made with fragrant, berry-like concord grapes (uva fragola) or the more traditional sangiovese or canaiolo wine grapes. These grapes stain the bread purple and lend it its juicy texture and sweet but slightly tart flavour. They are also what give the bread a bit of crunch, as traditionally the seeds are left in and eaten along with the bread. Avoid using red or white seedless table grapes or white grapes for this – they just don’t do it justice in terms of flavour or appearance. If you can’t get concord grapes or it’s the wrong season, try replacing them with blueberries. It’s completely unorthodox, of course, but it’s a very good substitute, giving you a much closer result than using regular table grapes.

Makes 1 large schiacciata, serves 6–8

• 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting

• 20 g (3/4 oz) fresh yeast, or 7 g (1/4 oz/2 1/2 level teaspoons) active dry yeast

• 400 ml (131/2 fl oz) lukewarm water

• 75 ml (21/2 fl oz) extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing

• 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) concord grapes (or other black grape)

• 80 g (23/4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar

• 1 teaspoon aniseed (optional)

• icing (confectioners’) sugar (optional)

Preparing the dough

This can be done the night before you need to bake it, or a couple of hours ahead of time.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and create a well in the centre.

Dissolve the yeast in some (about 1/2 cup or 125 ml) of the lukewarm water.

Add the yeast mixture to the centre of the flour and mix with your hand or a wooden spoon. Add the rest of the water little by little, working the dough well after each addition to allow the flour to absorb all the water.

Add 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil to the dough and combine.

This is quite a wet, sticky dough. Rather than knead, you may need to work it with a wooden spoon or with well-oiled hands for a few minutes until it is smooth. Cover the bowl of dough well with some plastic wrap and set it in a warm place away from draughts until it doubles in size, about 1 hour. If doing this the night before, leave the dough in the bowl to rise in the fridge overnight.

Assembling the schiacciata

Separate the grapes from the stem, then rinse and pat dry. There’s no need to deseed them if making this the traditional way.

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).

Grease a 20 cm (8 in) x 30 cm (12 in) baking tin or a round pizza tray with olive oil. With well-oiled (or wet) hands, divide the dough into two halves, one slightly larger than the other. Place the larger half onto the greased pan and with your fingers, spread out the dough evenly to cover the pan or so that it is no more than 1.5 cm (1/2 in) thick.

Place about two-thirds of the grapes onto the first dough layer and sprinkle over half of the sugar, followed by about 30 ml (1 fl oz) of olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of aniseed.

Stretch out the rest of the dough to roughly the size of the pan and cover the grapes with this second layer of dough, stretching to cover the surface. Roll up the edges of the bottom layer of dough from underneath to the top, to seal the edges of the schiacciata. Gently push down on the surface of the dough to create little dimples all over. Cover the top with the rest of the grapes and evenly sprinkle over the remaining aniseed, sugar and olive oil.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the dough becomes golden and crunchy on top and the grapes are oozing and cooked.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and enjoy eaten with your hands. If you like, dust with icing (confectioners’) sugar just before serving – although this isn't exactly traditional, it is rather nice.

This is best served and eaten the day of baking, or at the most the next day.

You've lived in many countries and experienced a variety of cultures in your life, your mother is Japanese, your father is Australian, your husband is Italian and you grew up in Beijing. How has your diverse cultural identity influenced your life and cooking?

Moving around a lot and identifying with different cultures, I grew up not feeling like I was particularly attached to just one place. I think this made it very easy (perhaps even necessary – at least that's how I felt about it when I was 20!) for me to pick up a suitcase, buy a plane ticket and move to a new country to learn a new language and discover the new culture. I am also pretty sure this travel and experience partly contributed to me being an adventurous eater – always willing to try anything once. From the beginning, I understood that food is a way to connect with and understand a new culture – if, for Florentines, their number one beloved comfort dish is a warm panino made with the fourth stomach of the cow (it's known as a panino al lampredotto), then you can be sure it's one of the first things I tried – and fell in love with too!

What do you love the most about Florence? Do you find anything difficult to connect with?

There are many sides to Florence and the longer I live here, the more I discover another aspect! When I first moved here, it was so easy to fall head of heels for Florence – especially for someone who studied art and art history as I did! Everywhere you look, the place is touched with the Renaissance and the most important artists in history, it's like one giant museum. That's what drew me in. And it's what drew a lot of expats to Florence, so there is a large expat community with many similar-minded people, who are all here for similar reasons (love, food or art, usually!). I made friends easily here and felt really at home, ironically (as I always feel more at home amongst expats). But having said that, I find it's really difficult to make friends, really good friends, with Florentines. That's been a struggle. I ended up meeting and marrying one, but I have to say, he's quite different from the typical Florentine man!

Was it easy to become a part of the Florentine way of life?

I think yes and no. Living it the historical centre of Florence, visiting the local butcher or fruit vendor or bakery for your shopping, the same bar for coffee every morning, you begin to get to know your neighbourhood and they begin to know you, it becomes your little world. I've met some wonderful people this way, and this feeling of a neighbourhood or quarter is something I love about Florence – something that I hope everyone who still lives in the centre continues to cling on to, as tourism tends to take over in a city like Florence. On another aspect, since having a child, I can see the cultural differences coming out more than ever! My parenting ideals are much more anglo-saxon and more often than not they seem to clash with the 'norm' here!

Your husband is head sommelier at the Four Season's Michelin-starred Il Palagio, do you find it inspiring that both of you work in the fields of the culinary pleasures of life?

Always. We work in two quite different worlds – I write about and cook homely, traditional food, while he has, for the past five years or more, worked solely in fine dining and wine. But at home we always cook together and we have a similar appreciation for good food and good ingredients, cooked properly. He inspires me and helps me in ways he probably doesn't know.

You say that "Italian cuisine doesn't exist, there are many cuisines". Why do you think regional cuisine is so diverse in Italy?

There are many theories, but the simplest answer is history. Italy is actually a very young nation – it was unified in 1861, that's little more than 150 years ago! But the traditions, dialects, dishes and ways of life of each region are ancient. In many cases, even the differences you'll find from town to town are huge. This is what makes Italy such a fascinating place – it's not really one country to discover but so many different places, which means it's almost a new cuisine in every town you visit.

On your blog, you mention an author called Pellegrino Artusi and his cookbook, known in English as Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, published in Italy in 1891. Can you tell us a bit about this book and why it fascinates you?

Italy had only been unified for 30 years when this book – documenting 790 “Italian” recipes – was published. It became the sort of cookbook every household acquired and had sitting on the shelf. Artusi himself was from Emilia-Romagna but he spent much of his life in Florence, so many of the dishes are Tuscan, or familiar to Tuscans. But it wasn't meant to be a regional cookbook, it was more like an encyclopaedia of recipes for the “modern” housewife. I love it because it's not only a snapshot into what Italian food was when the country was newly unified, but also because many of the recipes are still made the same way, so it's a fantastic reference for traditional recipes. It's a good read, too, Artusi is witty and at times hilarious in his anecdotes that accompany recipes.

Why do you think that there are many Florentine dishes that didn't change much since medieval times?

Traditions change very slowly in Florence! They have this saying here, la squadra che vince non si cambia, or the don't change a winning team. It's a bit like the phrase, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Partly there's that at play, it's the proud nature of Florentines to continue to prepare and eat their all-time favourite dishes more or less the way they've been prepared for centuries. There's also the philosophy to cook the local ingredients that have always been available for Florentines, and to use the long-time staples of the cuisine – bread and olive oil being two of the most important! These have been around for a long time and are still what humble, earthy Florentine cuisine is based on.

Can you imagine living in Tuscany for the rest of your life?

For the same reason that I've always found it easy to pick up and move, I can't really imagine being in one place forever! But I've lived in Florence longer than any other single place on the planet, so that's already quite an achievement! Italy is not an easy place to live in, despite the romanticism and beauty. I think that we are lucky to have the option to be able to live in two wonderful countries – Australia and Italy – whenever we want. For now, it's Italy's time.

Florentine, your first cookbook, came out in March this year. At the moment you're working on your next book, Acquacotta, which will be about the cuisine of the southern Maremma area of Tuscany. It will be published exactly a year after the first one. Why did you decide to start working on the new book immediately and what feels different now, after the experience of the first book?

It came about quite quickly because we were living in Porto Ercole, in southern Tuscany for six months last year, well before Florentine came out, and it was just such a beautiful place I knew it had to be shared in the form of a cookbook! So I contacted my publisher and we talked about the pitch for a couple of months and came up with Acquacotta. She was aware that starting to work on it while I was living there would be the best way to bring it to life, so essentially I started working on Acquacotta while I was still finishing Florentine. It's been difficult to juggle between the two and 'switch' from one to the other when Florentine finally came out, but the experience of the first book has helped me feel much more confident about the second one – from the recipe testing to the writing to the photographs, even how the recipes were made and shot. It really helped that I have the exact same wonderful team from Florentine working on this book too, it felt really good and seemed to just make itself, almost!

Your photography is stunning, do you prefer taking the pictures of your dishes yourself?

Thank you! I still feel like I have a long way to go – my background is in analog film photography, and I still feel like I struggle with digital photography, especially the editing part. I'm self-taught for the most part. For my blog, I take all my own photographs, but for the cookbook I took the location photographs, leaving the recipe shots to a wonderful photographer Lauren Bamford. In Australia, a cookbook is really a team effort, with one professional looking after each and every aspect of the book. For the recipe shots, I wanted to make sure the dishes looked completely authentic and real – just like how you'd find them in Florence. So I cooked them myself (with some help from my husband Marco and a home economist) and while I was busy in the kitchen, Deb Kaloper, an absolute magician in food styling, styled the dishes and Lauren Bamford took the photographs. It was a dream to work with them.

How do you develop new recipes for your book and your blog? What inspires you?

What inspires me most is travel and seeing how a place – its landscape, its history – is so strongly connected to the food that is made there and vice versa. It's why I am so interested in regional Italian food. In Florentine I wanted to share how the food in this city belongs entirely to Florence – not just Tuscany. It's not Tuscan food. It's Florentine food. And for Acquacotta, which is still about Tuscany, I wanted to show people how different Tuscan food is when you come to a place like the Maremma – more isolated, less touristy, hidden, and full of beautiful, rugged landscapes, mountains and the sea, which inspire the food. For the blog, I talk about not only dishes that I've found in old cookbooks or tasted in a new place, but also create some travel pieces for people who might be coming to Italy on holiday and want to avoid touristy food and know where to taste the real deal.Who is your biggest inspiration in the kitchen?In every day cooking, it's probably my husband. Everyone who likes to cook for other people knows that the best thing about cooking is making something that you know someone else will love! In developing recipes for the blog and my books, it's usually some old cookbooks that inspire me to try new dishes – aside from Artusi, I also love Ada Boni's 1921 cookbook, Il Talismano della Felicita' (known as The Talisman in English) and Elizabeth David's Italian Food. I've discovered some other older cookbooks recently that I have at my bedside table too, like Patience Gray's Honey from a Weed and Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book.

What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?

I can remember a few mud pies when I was very little, but from memory the first real food I made was scrambled eggs. My grandmother in Sydney taught me how to make them, using real butter and showing me how to take them off the heat when they're still soft and wobbly, just before they look ready so you don't risk overcooking them. I still make it the exact same way.

What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Florence?

My favourite food market is Sant'Ambrogio. It's a local market on the eastern edge of town. It's not huge but it's got everything you'd ever need and more. Plus there's always a nice neighbourhood vibe there, and we have a little ritual of stopping off at the news stand, then going to a pastry shop for coffee and a mid-morning treat. It's the little things. Many of my favourite restaurants are in the same square as the market – Caffe Cibreo is a really pretty spot for coffee or lunch, and the buffet lunch at Teatro del Sale is one of my favourite food experiences in Florence. Pasticceria Nencioni a little down the street is a wonderful, tiny pastry shop and right next to the market, Semel, a little hole in the wall panino shop, makes a fantastic quick lunch – a crunchy roll with maybe some anchovies, fennel and orange (my favourite one) and a small glass of wine.

If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?

It'd probably be my mum, I'd ask her to make me my favourite Japanese dishes – cold somen noodle salad and chargrilled baby eggplants if it's summer, miso soup with clams, her sushi and sashimi platters. Whenever I'm home I always request sukiyaki or shabu-shabu (a hot pot dish where each diner cooks their own food in the bubbling pot in the middle of the table) at least once.

You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?

Food that is unfussy to make (i.e. easy for the cook) and easy to share (i.e. fun and informal for the guests) – a creamy chickpea soup or a steaming pan of freshly tossed vongole and spaghetti, a roast of some sort (a whole roast fish or chicken are my favourites), stuffed with lots of herbs on a bed of roast potatoes and cherry tomatoes so you have the main and side dish in one. Dessert, either an after-dinner stroll to the gelateria or some whipped, coffee-laced ricotta with homemade lady finger biscuits to dip.

What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?

I loved everything as a child, but in particular I loved Japanese food and Japanese sweets – anything with sweet red bean paste is my weakness! They're still my favourite, most comforting foods, but it's very hard to get good Japanese food in Italy so I wait until I'm visiting my mother to indulge in it.

Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?

I like the social aspect of cooking together, when you've got something special planned and there's a lot to do, it's nice to have someone to chat to while you're chopping, or kneading or stirring all day. But when I get the chance to have some time to myself (rare these days, with a three and a half year old around!), I like to be alone in the kitchen, cooking is very therapeutic and relaxing, almost meditative, for me. That's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to the cooler weather, so I have a good excuse for long, slow cooking and baking, my favourite ways to cook.

Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?

I do like both, but I think I might be rather good with improvising a meal! One of my best food moments was pulling together a totally improvised meal for my very new boyfriend (so new I probably couldn't even call him that!) from a practically empty fridge. I made him pasta with broccoli and garlic. He took one bite and said “I'm going to marry you.” And he did.

Which meal would you never cook again?

I don't know if there's something I'd never do, but probably things I'd change the next time I tried it. For me, right now, being a mother and writing cookbooks, I have to be a bit picky with what I cook when I have the time to do it, so I tend to lean towards low maintenance, unfussy, simple dishes. Things that are fiddly and require every minute of my attention are things I avoid lately – caramel, for example, is something I may not try for a while!

Thank you Emiko!

Sautéed Belgian Endive wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma

The lack of time can be as fruitful as frugality. My mind tends to work quicker - and come up with surprisingly good ideas - when I don't have time and ingredients in abundance. It makes me creative. My boyfriend often asks me what we should cook for dinner in the early afternoon. In the past, I would have just gone to the grocery store if I hadn't made up my mind yet, I would have looked at the fresh produce and gone back to my kitchen to start cooking. But that's not possible at the moment, I'm lucky if I manage to do my beloved grocery shopping once or twice a week. Time is a gift that I never treasured as highly as I do right now.

But I don't want to complain, it's a different kind of cooking, but nonetheless inspiring and still very satisfying. Like these little golden bites of Belgian endive (chicory), sautéed for just a couple minutes until golden and then wrapped in a thin layer of prosciutto di Parma. It was delicious! In my pre-cookbook life I would have made a side out of it and not given it my full attention, or at least bought a fresh loaf of ciabatta to dip into the juices in the pan. But no, a few slices of my leftover spelt bread where just as good and the simplicity of this meal caressed my taste buds.

Sautéed Belgian Endive wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma

Serves 2

• olive oilmedium

• Belgian endive, trimmed and cut in half lengthwise, 2

• fine sea salt

• prosciutto di Parma 4 thin slices

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

In a small, heavy pan, heat a splash of olive oil over high heat and sauté the endives for 1-1 1/2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and still al dente. Season lightly with salt and take the pan off the heat.

On a large plate, spread the prosciutto di Parma and wrap each half of Belgian endive tightly in one slice of prosciutto. Put the pan back on the heat and cook the wrapped endives for 1 minute on each side or until the prosciutto is golden but still soft. Divide between plates and sprinkle with crushed pepper.

Cheesecake Swiss Roll with Mascarpone and Blackberries

Some days call for lavish teatime treats, especially when it's Sunday and I'm in the mood to spoil myself with some tasty calories. The 7th day of the week should be dedicated to rest and calm, but in my life it's also dedicated to baking. I take advantage of the fact that there are no duties and tasks waiting to be taken care of, so I can give my full attention to a quiet kitchen instead. I'm willing to share my baked treats with my loved ones, it's my kitchen credo after all, which led to my blog and my book's subtitle: To cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat. Cake always tastes better when you share it, but the process of baking it gives me some time just for myself.

So this week I got hooked on the idea of combining a swiss roll with New York cheesecake - without the cookie base obviously. I was after a spongy roll, fluffy but structured, and I know that my beloved swiss roll recipe manages to satisfy this demand with ease. It's been with me for two decades, I trust this roll. My usual filling would be whipped cream, as in my Blueberry Lemon Swiss Roll recipe. But it seemed too light for my current mood, I wanted creamy richness, a denser filling, with cream cheese and mascarpone - and a few plump blackberries - for my cheesecake swiss roll. My body's ready for the next season and it doesn't care that I'll be in Malta again in a few weeks, sitting on the beach in a bikini under the burning sun. I'm set for autumn and my Maltese boyfriend deeply disapproves of my decision - I think every Mediterranean man or woman suffers when summer comes to an end. But for a northern girl, the next season promises coziness and hearty treats, lonely walks in golden forests, and a chilled breeze whistling through the streets.

Cheesecake Swiss Roll with Mascarpone and Blackberries

Makes a 15cm / 6″ swiss roll 

For the swiss roll

• organic eggs, separated, 2

• a pinch of salt

• granulated sugar 40g/ 1/4 cup, plus 3 tablespoons for sprinkling

• plain flour 35g / 1/4 cup

• cornstarch 15g / 2 tablespoons

For the filling

• mascarpone 110g / 4 ounces

• cream cheese 110g / 4 ounces

• granulated sugar 2 tablespoons

• lemon zest 1 teaspoon, plus 1 teaspoon for sprinkling

• freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tablespoon

• blackberries 125g / 4 1/2 ounces

Set the oven to 220°C / 425°F (conventional setting) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt for a few seconds before adding half the sugar, continue beating until stiff.

In a second large bowl, mix the egg yolks and the remaining sugar with an electric mixer until thick and creamy. Using a wooden spoon, fold the egg white into the egg yolks. Sieve and combine the flour and cornstarch and fold gently into the egg mixture. Spread the dough on the lined baking sheet, covering a rectangle of roughly 15 x 30cm / 6 x 12″ and bake on the middle rack of the oven for about 6 minutes or until golden and spongy.

Sprinkle a kitchen towel with 2 tablespoons of sugar and flip the warm sponge onto the towel. Peel off the parchment paper and carefully roll the sponge with the towel, the roll should be 15cm / 6" long. Leave it rolled up until cool.

For the filling, in a medium bowl, whip the mascarpone, cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest and juice until creamy.

When the sponge is cool, unwind the sponge roll and spread the filling on top, leave a small rim (see picture below). Cover with the blackberries and roll it up tightly. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and a little lemon zest. Serve immediately or keep in the fridge before serving.

Roasted Cauliflower with Capers and Preserved Lemon - and about letting go

Eat In My Kitchen will be out worldwide in 34 days (in English, on October 4th) and my German book will see the book stores even earlier, in less than a month, on September 26th. It's becoming real. It's the transition from a project that existed as an idea in the heads of a handful of people to a finished, physical book, which will lean against other books in book shelves and hopefully come to use in many kitchens. Soon, this transition will be complete and then it won't just be my 'baby' anymore. Then it will be out in the world, it will live its own life, create lots of stories around food, and I won't be a part of it anymore. Soon, it won't be in my hands anymore.

You could say that it's not really a huge difference to the blog, which is true to a certain extent. For almost 3 years I've been sharing my recipes (more than 600) here, in the digital world. Whoever felt inspired cooked or baked them, many sent me pictures or emails, and enjoyed it. This interaction still made me feel like I'm a part of it, a part of my Eat In My Kitchen blog that changes constantly, it grows and evolves. But the book is different, it's done, it's printed, it reached the warehouses already, there's nothing I could change, even if I wanted to. Now, I have to learn to let go.

Although there's no work left to be done on the physical book, there's tons of organization left. My book launch events in London, Berlin, Malta, New York, and Washington seem to need my attention 24/7, there are interviews and photo shoots on my schedule, and so many things that come along with a book, things that I never thought about. It felt like a lot of work writing this book, but to send it out into the world seems even more crazy.

I have a habit, whenever my life resembles a rollercoaster, I try to be a little more disciplined and create a rhythm that I stick to. I have my rituals, I take Saturdays off, I go jogging more regularly, I set up more tea time breaks than usual, and I don't skip dinner. It's often quite simple, due to a lack of time and inspiration, but that doesn't matter. I chop my vegetables, nibble on my cheese, and sip at my wine glass (not every night though). I try to create normality within the chaos, a routine, and that helps me.

My current life leads to recipes that neither require much work or time, nor many ingredients. Unfortunately, the time that's left for my beloved grocery shopping decreased considerably in the past few months. But there's no need to complain, those dishes created out of spontaneity taste just as good. On one of those late nights, I opened the door of my fridge, I spotted a head of cauliflower, a jar of my homemade preserved lemons, and capers from Malta. I cut the cabbage into pieces, tossed it in olive oil and my tasty preserves, and ended up with the most delicious comfort food. It was a happy night.

If you're curious about my Eat In My Kitchen book, you can pre-order it here:

• Amazon US – Amazon UK – Amazon Germany

• Barnes & Noble

• IndieBound

• Books A Million

Roasted Cauliflower with Capers and Preserved Lemon

Serves 2

• cored cauliflower, cut into medium pieces, 600g / 1 1/3 pounds

• olive oil 60ml / 1/4 cup

• preserved lemon, thinly sliced, 1/2

• capers, preferably preserved in salt, rinsed, 3 tablespoons

• flaky sea salt

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

Preheat the oven to 220°C / 425°F.

Spread the cauliflower in a medium baking dish. Add the olive oil, preserved lemon, and capers and toss to combine. Season with a little flaky sea salt (mind that the capers are salty) and crushed pepper. Roast for about 18 minutes or until the cauliflower turns golden. Flip the cauliflower and roast for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown, turn on the grill (broiler) for the last few minutes, if you prefer it a bit more crispy. Serve warm or cold.

French Yogurt Cake with Greengage Plums for a late summer Sunday

Piles of plums, peaches, and apricots fill my kitchen's countertops. Plates with tiny yellow mirabelles and slightly larger greengage plums make it look and smell like a farmers' market - the fruit flies are having a feast. Every season has its culinary highlights, but late summer is the most lavish time of the year. Figs and berries are at their peak, packed with sweet juices. The whole variety of stone fruits is ready to be picked from the trees, and early apples tease me with their sour quality, which is so perfect for baked treats. Sponge cakes, muffins, tarts, and pies are just waiting to be paired with one of these summer fruits - who needs whipped cream or butter cream frosting? Now is the time to stir some fruit into the dough and enjoy one of the best sweet combinations ever: cake and fruit.

Sunday is my favourite day to bake cake. I start the oven right after breakfast, which tends to end rather late. Not so much because I sleep in, it's more because I enjoy the luxury of not having to rush after a busy week. I take my time, lots of time.

Looking at the long tradition of baking in my life, there are two recipes that I use far more often than others, not only on Sundays. The first one is my fluffy German waffle recipe, it's a family weekend ritual, and the other one is a simple fruit cake. It may sound quite simple but there are a million possible variations of this treat: you can add white chocolate, cornstarch for a lighter texture, or put some crumble on top. Olive oil creates a warm flavour and a juicy texture, great for a cake but also for my fig and ricotta muffins.

Today I went for a classic French yogurt cake, which is usually enjoyed plain. However, my enthusiasm for fruit led to a juicy filling of greengage plums. They were supposed to become a topping, but gravity, in combination with a light sponge dough, had different plans and the fruit sunk. The dairy product is mixed with mild olive oil, no butter, and adds a subtle sour hint. The yellow-green plums make it sweet and fruity (red plums would work here as well), it's just right for my late summer Sunday.

French Yogurt Cake with Greengage Plums

Makes a 20cm / 8" cake

• plain flour 230g / 1 3/4 cups

• baking powder 2 1/2 teaspoons

• fine sea salt 1/4 teaspoon

• plain yogurt 155g / 2/3 cup

• mild olive oil 155ml / 2/3 cup

• organic eggs 3, lightly beaten

• granulated sugar 200g / 1 cup, plus 2 teaspoons for the topping

• zest of 1 medium lemon

• greengage (or red plums), cut on 1 side and pitted, 500g / 18 ounces

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F (preferably convection setting). Butter a 20cm / 8" springform pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add the yogurt, olive oil, eggs, sugar, and lemon zest and mix with an electric mixer on low speed for about 1 minute, just until there's no trace of flour left and the dough is combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and arrange the greengage on top of the batter (vertically, see picture above). Sprinkle with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar and bake for about 60 minutes (slightly longer if using a conventional oven) or until golden brown on top. If you insert a skewer in the center of the cake, it should come out almost clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for a few minutes before serving.

Bean and Caper Dip with Golden Sautéed Zucchini

Besides all the excitement that our Mediterranean summer offered last month, we also got the chance to spend a more than relaxing, but nonetheless very inspiring evening at one of our friends' house. Alex and Benjamin live a life that's just as busy as ours, which makes it a bit difficult to meet. They love to travel, they celebrate their weekly gatherings and dinner parties with their loved ones, and they also split their life between Malta and London. And this I'll never understand and I'm sure you'd agree if you could see their gorgeous palazzo in the silent heart of Żebbuġ - if I lived there, I'd never leave the house! However, we managed to find a free evening, or rather a few free hours, and visited them for drinks and nibbles.

When you meet Alex, a man who seems to either work or spend his time in his beautiful kitchen (click here for pictures), you're treated to the most scrumptious culinary pleasures. Even his 'nibbles' are heavenly. He's a true connoisseur, a man who loves the fine arts, exquisite food and wine, and who's always up for a good conversation. Alex is a critical mind and and you'll never feel bored in his presence. Benjamin is the most beautiful person who's helped me deal with the struggles of my current crazy life more than once. Whenever my mind and body can't keep up with the challenges anymore that come with writing a book and organizing book launch events, I call Benjamin. He's the best reflexologist I know and whatever problem my body comes up with, Benjamin will fix me!

But back to the nibbles: I've always been a huge fan of Alex's dips. Be it hummus or smoky grilled eggplant, they are all addictive. And there's one of his creations that struck me with its subtle salty note. I couldn't make out what it was at first, but I loved it since I enjoyed the first bite last summer, spread lusciously on a thick slice of crusty Maltese bread. Alex purées boiled yellow split peas, mixes in chopped onion, olive oil, lots of lemon juice, and - here's the secret - capers. The salty fruits add a special flavour, it doesn't really taste like caper, it could also be canned tuna. I totally fell for it and couldn't stop eating the thick spread. Now I made it at home, it was my first try, but in my version I use canned cannellini beans. They are sweet and smooth, velvety, and fit just as well to this Mediterranean composition. A few thick slices of golden sautéed zucchini, some ciabatta, and lunch - or dinner - is served.

Bean and Caper Dip with Golden Sautéed Zucchini

Serves 2

For the bean caper dip

• rinsed and drained canned cannellini beans 360g / 13 ounces (you could also use boiled yellow split peas as in Alex's original recipe)

• capers, preserved in salt, rinsed, 20g / 1 ounce

• small shallot, roughly chopped, 1/2 -1

• olive oil 60-75ml / 1/4-1/3 cup

• freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 tablespoons

For serving

• olive oil

• small zucchini, cut into thick slices, 2

• fine sea salt

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

• fresh ciabatta 1 small loaf

For the dip, purée the beans, capers, 1/2 of the shallot, 60ml / 1/4 cup of the olive oil, and lemon juice in a blender. Add more of the shallot to taste and purée until smooth. If the texture is too thick, add more olive oil, and, if necessary, season with additional lemon juice and salt to taste.

In a heavy pan, heat a splash of olive oil over high heat, turn the heat down to medium-high, and sauté the zucchinis for 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until golden with brown sprinkles. The zucchini should only start to soften outside and still have some bite on the inside. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Divide the zucchini between plates and add a dollop of the bean caper dip. Drizzle the dip with a splash of olive oil and sprinkle with a little pepper. Serve with fresh ciabatta, enjoy warm or cold.

Fig, Chèvre and Honey Focaccia with Rosemary

My kitchen in Berlin faces a quiet backyard. In summer, I love to leave the windows wide open, hear the birds sing, and then it's often just me, alone with my thoughts and ideas, imagining ingredients, remembering old classics or coming up with new recipes. I get the cooker or oven started and my meditation begins: I just cook in silence.

Seeing that the weather hasn't shown the slightest hint of summer, I concentrated on rather hearty pleasures. I made cheese spaetzle (Southern German egg noodles with lots of melted cheese and golden onions), pasta with sautéed radicchio, chicken liver, and mustard butter, and enjoyed my obligatory Sunday pizza night. I also tried out a new cake recipe with the sweetest greengage plums, which was great, and I experimented with some dip variations. It was all very relaxing, calming, and put my mind at ease.

I also pulled one glorious - and much appreciated - dish out of my oven that combines all the fun of summer: a spongy, oily focaccia topped with ripe figs, soft chèvre, honey, and rosemary. It's perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner or for a picnic - I could even have it at teatime with a cup of Darjeeling.

Fig, Chèvre and Honey Focaccia with Rosemary

Makes a 25 x 32cm / 10 x 12 1/2″ focaccia

For the dough

• plain flour 500g / 3 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons

• fast-acting yeast 1 (7g / 1/4 ounce) envelope

• fine sea salt 1 teaspoon

• granulated sugar 1 heaping teaspoon

• water, lukewarm, 260ml / 1 cup and 2 tablespoons

• olive oil 120ml / 1/2 cup, plus 1-2 tablespoons to oil the baking sheet

For the topping

• honey 2 tablespoons

• ripe figs, cut in half, 6

• soft chèvre, torn into pieces, 150g / 5 ounces

• fresh rosemary needles, a small handful

• flaky sea salt

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar (optional)

For the dough, combine the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add the lukewarm water and half the olive oil (60ml / 1/4 cup) and knead on medium-high speed for a few minutes until well combined. I mix it on '4' on my KitchenAid. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour. Transfer the dough to a table or countertop and continue kneading and punching it down with your hands for about 4 minutes or until you have a smooth and elastic ball of dough. Place the dough back in the mixer bowl, cover with a tea towel, and let rise in a warm place, or preferably in a 35°C / 100°F warm oven (conventional setting), for about 60 minutes or until doubled in size.

Oil a 25 x 32cm / 10 x 12 1/2″ baking sheet.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down, take it out of the bowl, and knead for 1 minute. Using your hands, stretch and spread the dough on the oiled baking sheet. Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place for about 20 minutes or until puffy.

Preheat the oven to 220°C / 425°F (convection setting). Heat the honey in a saucepan over low heat for about 1 minute or until liquid.

Using the round bottom of a wooden spoon or your finger, punch around 6 x 7 holes into the surface of the dough. Pour the remaining olive oil over the dough and into the holes. Spread the figs (cut side up) over the focaccia and push them gently into the dough. Sprinkle with the chèvre, rosemary, and a little flaky sea salt, and drizzle with the warm honey. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and light brown. Sprinkle with crushed pepper and enjoy warm or cold.

meet in your kitchen | Stephanie Le's Japanese Inspired Avocado Toast

When I started my blog back in November 2013, I didn't really have much of an idea of what was going on in the food blog scene. It was all new to me and I was curious to see what it would be like to write about my food and share a recipe every day - my chosen task for the first 12 months of blogging. So in the beginning, I focussed a lot on my own work, but then, in the cold early days of 2014, I began to discover more and more bloggers, their approach to food, their recipes, and their style of writing. It was a whole new world to me. And when I saw the food photography on some of these pages, I knew I had to improve considerably behind the camera!

One of those blogs caught my attention at first sight. I Am A Food Blog is written by Stephanie Le from Canada. Her dishes sound and look delicious and the photography is just stunning. It didn't surprise me in the least bit that she published her first cookbook, Easy Gourmet, in the same year I 'found' her. There are three things that strike me in Stephanie's work: Her easy way of cooking - it's not fussy at all - her unique, clean style of presenting her creations, and the fact that the world meets in Stephanie's kitchen. You can find Canadian classics next to Chinese, Japanese, British, French, or Mediterranean dishes. It's all comfort food, it's all yummy, and, most of the time, it's relatively quick and easy to prepare. The young cosmopolitan woman likes to travel the world, literally, but also in her cooking.

Camping is one of Stephanie's latest, re-discovered travel adventures and her Camp One Pot Beef Stroganoff leaves no doubt that she's a pro in the wilderness. The recipe she shared with me would also be a great snack for this lonely life, out in a tent, unplugged and cut off from civilization: A Japanese inspired Avocado Toast. For those days when even a camper needs a special treat.

Japanese Inspired Avocado Toast 

This toast is perfect when I have a sushi craving but also want avocado toast. I love a crunchy toast base and the roast-y saltiness of laver pairs perfectly with creamy avocado. The salty ikura are tiny pops of brightness and the sesame seeds add a bit of nuttiness. Seriously good!

Makes 10-12 toasts

• avocado 1

• toast or baguette 10-12 thin slices

• baby arugula 1 handful

• laver (roasted seaweed) 6 pieces

• ikura (salmon roe) 1-2 tablespoons (leave out the roe for a vegetarian version)

• toasted white and black sesame seeds

• salt

• ground pepper

Place the avocado on a cutting board and cut lengthwise, in the middle carefully, rotating around the seed. Twist half of the avocado off and remove. Place the remaining half (with the pit) on a dish towel and carefully tap your knife into the pit so that it wedges itself in. Twist the knife and remove the pit. Place the avocado, cut side down on to your cutting board and peel off the skin. Cut into 10-12 thin slices.

Top slices of toast with arugula, half a piece of laver, 2 avocado slices, a bit of the ikura, sesame seeds and salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

When did you start your food blog I Am A Food Blog? What got you hooked on writing about food and recipes?

My husband and I started I am a Food Blog in 2012 – it was after our other food blog, where I cooked through the entire Momofuku cookbook. Cooking through Momofuku is where I learned to love blogging – taking the photos, working through recipes, and sharing stories.

You just started a camping series on your blog. What do you love about camping? What are your favourite camping spots?

Camping is just fun – it’s always hard for me to unplug and stay away from the internet. I’m pretty much addicted. So camping is a fun (and enforced) way to take a break from the internet. My husband and I hike, sit around the fire, have heart-to-hearts and generally appreciate nature. We love camping along the West Coast – all of the National and State Parks in the US have really nice sites, but they book up fast.

Can you give us some catering tips for life in a tent?

Cooking while camping isn’t really a wing it sort of thing, so make sure you’re prepared. Make a list and check it twice! I like to measure out ingredients before hand and I also like to collect tiny condiments (like tiny ketchup packets) so I can bring them along. It’s best to also consider cooking fuel – recipes that don’t take a long time to cook are best.

Which city in the world inspires you the most when it comes to food culture and why?

I love Japan and Japanese food, so I’d have to say Tokyo. And the beauty of Tokyo is that they have myriad of other types of cuisines too, so it’s very inspiring. I love their attention to detail.

You live in Vancouver, Canada, what do you like about Canadian food?

I love that Canada is multicultural. We have so many different people from different cultures here that there is a very diverse food scene, especially in Vancouver. I think everyone thinks of poutine (crispy fries topped with squeaky cheese curds and gravy) when they think of Canadian food and I have to say, I do love it. When I don’t have poutine for a while I definitely crave it. It’s a guilty pleasure.

You call your husband your chief taste-tester, do you also cook together with him?

Yes! We actually work on the blog together – he designed the site and takes photos as well. He’s actually the one who taught me to take photos. He doesn’t cook for the blog, mostly just for us, family and friends. He’s really good at things that take a long time, like soups and stews.

Did cooking and food play an important role in your family when you grew up? When did your love for the kitchen and its creations start?

I actually didn’t like food much when I was a little kid. I was super picky. Although I remember having a play kitchen that I was obsessed with. My mom gave it away when I was at school one day and I was devastated. My mom cooks a lot, both now and when we were little, so I think I learned my love for cooking from her, through osmosis.

What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?

To be honest, I don’t remember what the first thing I cooked on my own was. I do remember baking cupcakes at day care, being extremely proud and bringing one for my mom to try.

You’re going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?

It would definitely be a DIY type meal: maybe tacos, or Vietnamese vermicelli bowls, or build your own salad. Something like that. I like interactive meals where everyone can make things to their individual tastes.

What was your childhood culinary favourite and what is it now?

I loved cereal when I was a kid. I used to eat it exclusively. Now, it would be entirely too difficult to choose, I love so many things. I could never give up noodles, that’s for sure.

Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?

I would say I like cooking with others, but my husband wouldn’t agree (laughing). I do love collaborating, but maybe I’m not so good at it?

Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?

I like both! I like the casualness of improvised meals, but if I feel any sort of pressure at all, I will need to plan because I’m a planner. I think the best of both world would be having an extremely well stocked fridge and pantry so that I could improvise without constraints.

Thank you Stephanie!

Marina's Lemon Marmalade Ice Cream with Caramelized Pistachios

A month has passed and I have to leave my beloved archipelago in the deep blue Mediterranean Sea behind. This is the last recipe from my Maltese summer, but I'll be back soon, in October, to present my 'baby' at one of my book launch events, at the fabulous Villa Bologna in Attard.

It's been a summer full of emotions, with lots of work during the day and family gatherings or evening swims afterwards - the fun began as soon I closed my laptop and put my phone aside. I've been busy organizing the book launches in Europe and the US, I survived my first interviews and photo shoots and I met so many wonderful people who'll be helping me over the next few months. To my surprise, I've been enjoying everything that comes along with being a cookbook author. I love giving interviews (I love talking!) and I've been quite lucky, I've only met very interesting and entertaining people to talk to so far. Photo shoots are still a bit challenging for me, I prefer to stay behind the camera. Usually, I ask my man to accompany me, he manages to make me laugh in the weirdest situations - the result is that we have lots of photos with a big smile on my face. We had a fun shoot with my friend, the great photographer Luke Engerer in Malta. He put me on the roof terrace of his house, the sea in front of me, sparkling in the light of the sinking sun. It was so amazing that I didn't even mind getting naked on the roof to change (I just hope that none of the neighbours had a camera at hand).

The problem with such a busy schedule is that time flies even quicker. It feels like we just arrived, on that hot night in July and now it's already mid August and I'm sitting at our dining table, back home in Berlin. For some reason, my home city must have misunderstood the season, Berlin welcomed us with autumn weather, I had to pull out the wool pullovers from the far back of my wardrobe. To ease the pain, I keep looking at the hundreds of pictures I took during the past 4 weeks and I remember every single second that I see in the pictures. I can smell the salty air, I can feel the hot wind on my skin, and I can even taste the ice cream that Marina made for us when we met in the kitchen and gardens of Villa Bologna. It was very lemony and it tasted so good - it was also the first recipe Marina ever made for me, back in the summer of 2015. This recipe is genius, it's only made with lemon marmalade, heavy cream, milk, and the juice and zest of a Maltese lemon. We were so impatient, that she took it out of the ice cream machine as soon as the motor stopped. It was an early afternoon and so hot, that the ice cream started to melt as soon as we scooped it into the glasses. Marina topped it with caramelized pistachios and lemon zest and I can't think of a better ice cream for summer - it was divine!

Whenever I have to exchange my Malta life for my Berlin life again, I tend to get a little stressed during our last two days on the islands. There's a lot of packing to do, but this time we had to sort out the transportation of 33 pounds (!) of sea salt from Mr Cini's salt pans in Gozo - and we managed. I also had to put away numerous packages of ottijiet cookies from Busy Bee and there were many fragile shells collected from the bottom of the sea waiting to be brought to Berlin to find a place on our window sills. Although they are already covered in shells, I can't stop collecting more and more of them. When the packing is done, we have a long goodbye ceremony with the family at our granny Edith's house, accompanied by a few tears and food. And when we've waved the last goodbyes and I've finally gone through security at the airport, I usually feel exhausted. I just want to get on the plane and relax, which always works out perfectly, thanks to the country's national airline, Air Malta. I love their cute looking planes, their friendly staff, and the fact that I don't have to worry about the weight of my luggage. Everyone gets 20kg (44 pounds) for free, just like in the good old days of flying.

Thank you Malta for another amazing summer! xx

And my last tip for the islands: I found a new old bakery in Rabat, they work traditionally and their baked goods are to die for!

Lemon Marmalade Ice Cream with Caramelized Pistachios 

Makes about 1.5l / 6 cups of ice cream

• heavy cream 500ml / 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons

• milk 500ml / 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons

• lemon marmalade 200ml / 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons

• juice and zest of 1 lemon

For the topping

• granulated sugar 100g / 1/2 cup

• pistachios (or almonds), roughly chopped, 50g / 2 ounces

• freshly grated lemon zest

For the ice cream, chill all the ingredients and churn in an ice cream machine until creamy. If it's still too soft, keep it in the freezer until completely frozen.

For the topping, add the sugar and pistachios to a frying pan and stir over low heat with a wooden spoon until melted. Quickly transfer the caramelized pistachios to a baking sheet and break into pieces when cool.

Divide the ice cream between bowls and sprinkle with caramelized pistachios and freshly grated lemon zest.

meet in your kitchen | Marina Fabic's Maltese Summer Feast at Villa Bologna

When you meet someone who follows a passion with dedication and humility, who loves every single part of the process of creation, you should stop to witness art in its purest form. Marina is this kind of person. She's very close to nature and loves to include all her senses in her work. Whatever she does, she uses her eyes, her nose, her taste, her sense of touch to get the whole picture. Her perception is holistic, she's a true artist, and I adore her for this reason. Food is her profession, her feel for simple yet stunning combinations of flavours is outstanding. To watch her picking fruits and vegetables in the extensive gardens of Villa Bologna, foraging for wild fennel, chives, and allspice is calming, as you can see a woman who has found her peace.

The first time we met, this Swedish lady caught me with her smile. It was at a lavish lunch at a mutual friend's palazzo, at last year's meet in your kitchen feature with Alex and Benjamin. Marina and I clicked straight away and decided to meet so that she could show me the place where she had just started a restaurant - which soon became the restaurant that all of our friends in Malta started talking about: The Villa Kitchen at Villa Bologna. Be it for a romantic dinner or a birthday garden party, everybody who loves food wants to visit Marina's kitchen in the heart of Attard where the stunning villa is located.

Villa Bologna was built in 1745 by Fabrizio Grech, as an extravagant wedding gift to his daughter Maria Teresa, married to Nicholas Perdicomati Bologna, the namesake of the opulent Baroque villa. One of the family's most politically influential descendants, born in 1861, was Gerald Paul Joseph Cajetan Carmel Antony Martin Strickland, 6th Count della Catena, also known as the 1st Baron Strickland. The busy Lord's roles included being Prime Minister of Malta, Governor of the Leeward Islands, Governor of Tasmania, Governor of Western Australia, and Governor of New South Wales, in addition to being a member of the House of Commons and House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Over hundreds of years, the members of this aristocratic Anglo-Maltese family left their marks in Malta, both politically and culturally. The Stricklands are part of the Mediterranean archipelago, their roots are British, but their influences combine English and Maltese traditions. Lord Strickland and his first wife, Lady Edeline Sackville-West, had eight children. One of their daughters, Hon. Mabel Edeline Strickland, was an exceptional and remarkably modern woman of her times. She was a pioneer of emancipation, co-founder of The Times of Malta and one of the principal political leaders of the 1950s. Her older sister, Hon. Cecilia Victoria Strickland, established a strong support for the arts. Cecilia founded an arts and crafts institute in the 1950s and archived numerous traditional Maltese blue prints for lace and fabric patterns. She understood the importance of protecting the arts and knowledge of former generations. The traditional pottery attached to the premises still uses the old patterns for its beautiful designs, to create plates and platters that turn every table into a Maltese feast. I love the minimal design and its strong colours, which seems so modern even in our days, all hand painted on robust white ceramic.

Although times have changed, the villa is still a place to learn about the past and appreciate the crafts of former generations. Cecilia's son, Gerald de Trafford, and his wife Charlotte opened the villa to the public eye for weddings and events in the 1980s. Their son Jasper has taken care of the villa since 2009 and initiated further projects. The current restoration of the representative rooms on the villa's ground floor should be finished in autumn, when guided tours will be offered by appointment. The visitors will get an idea of the original life at Villa Bologna. To present the house in all its glory, Marina is strongly involved in the creative process of going through hundreds of years of furniture, artworks, and tableware, as is Jasper's mother Charlotte who has called the villa her home since she was a young woman.

Marina left London, her former home, two years ago to come to Malta and live here with her boyfriend Dom Strutt who's a close friend of the Strickland family. She brought many years of catering experience with her, which she gathered while working as a chef in England's capital. As soon as she arrived on the island, she started building up The Villa Kitchen, aiming for an honest, simple, and creative style of Mediterranean cooking. Marina and I have a similar approach in the kitchen, we try to avoid too many ingredients and distractions, just the right combination, with maybe one element that breaks the usual pattern. Marina's next step is to transform her vision from food to perfume. Her senses and sensitivity that guide her explorations of the culinary world work just as well in the world of aromas and led to three unisex perfumes united under the name Neroli & Spice. The beautiful perfumes enticed me with strong notes of spices and citrus, they will be launched this autumn, at the same time as my book, which I'll celebrate at an event at Villa Bologna. Somehow, Marina and I have had a strong bond ever since we first met under the hot Mediterranean sun.

Last week, we met to cook together and Marina turned lunch into a summer feast with family and friends from London, Malta, and Sweden. She caressed our taste buds with Gazpacho made with tomatoes and peppers fresh from the garden, refined with anchovies - her little secret - to enhance the vegetables' flavours. The fish is not dominant, but delicious. The meal moved on to swordfish marinated in lemon oil and linguine with an amazing pesto made with lots of pistachios, fennel, and parsley, accompanied by oven roasted aubergine with pomegranate and warm rosemary focaccia. The dessert was divine, but I'll keep it a secret for now and share it next Sunday, it's one of Marina's famous signature dishes!

Marina's recipes for a summer lunch

Gazpacho Soup

Marinated Swordfish with Pistachio Sauce and Linguine

Oven Roasted Eggplant with Pomegranate and Mint

Serves 4

For the Gazpacho soup

• 1kg / 2 1/4 pounds best ripe tomatoes

• 1 red pepper

• 3 anchovy fillets

• 2 garlic cloves

• 100ml / 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons best extra virgin olive oil

• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

• sea salt

• dash of Tabasco

• a handful of fresh basil leaves, plus a few chopped leaves for serving

• 4 ice cubes, for serving

Blend everything in a food processor till smooth, season to taste, and chill. Divide the Gazpacho soup between bowls, add an ice cube, and drizzle with a few drops of olive oil and some chopped basil.

For the swordfish

• 150-200g / 5-7 ounces swordfish steak per person

• juice and zest of 1 lemon

• fresh rosemary, chopped

• extra virgin olive oil

• sea salt

• black pepper

Spread the swordfish on a large plate. Combine the lemon juice, lemon zest, rosemary, a generous splash of olive oil, salt, and pepper, add to the swordfish, and mix well, using your hands. Let it marinate while you prepare the pistachio sauce.

For the pistachio sauce

• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds

• 100g / 3 1/2 ounces unsalted pistachio kernels

• 2 cloves garlic

• large bunch of parsley

• juice and zest of 1 lemon

• 100ml / 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons best extra virgin olive oil

• sea salt

In a dry frying pan, toast the fennel seeds first and then the pistachios till fragrant.

Grind the fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar. Grate or finely chop the garlic. Chop the pistachio nuts and parsley quite finely and mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the lemon juice and olive oil bit by bit to create a sludgy texture. Season with salt to taste.

For the oven roasted eggplant with pomegranate

• 2 medium size purple eggplant

• olive oil

• sea salt

• 1 pomegranate

• fresh mintpomegranate syrup (optional)

Preheat the oven to 220°C / 425°F.

Slice the eggplant lengthwise and spread on an oiled baking sheet. Drizzle a little olive oil on top, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes or till dark golden. Let the slices cool to room temperature and layer on a serving dish. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds and chopped mint on top and drizzle some syrup over, if using.

For the pasta

• 500g / 17 1/2 ounces linguine pasta

Cook the linguine till al dente while cooking the swordfish: In batches, panfry the swordfish steaks in olive oil, about 5 minutes on each side over medium-high heat or till slightly golden. They should be just cooked through.

Divide the swordfish, pasta, pistachio sauce, and eggplant with pomegranate between plates and enjoy.

You grew up in Sweden and lived in London for 20 years, but you've lived in Malta for the past few years, what made you settle in the Mediterranean?

My friend Jasper de Trafford, the owner of Villa Bologna was looking for someone to set up a cafe / restaurant at the villa and I had been looking for the right opportunity to change my London lifestyle. It was the perfect chance for us both to start a new venture.

Was it hard to switch from a northern European to a southern European culture? What do you like about the Maltese way of life?

No, it wasn't difficult at all. I’ve always had it in my blood since my father is Slovenian and I spent much of my childhood in Portoroz on the Adriatic. I love the Maltese way of taking each day as it comes and the enthusiasm for new projects and the friendliness of the people. It’s made me feel very welcome here and has made it easy to settle in.

Do you remember what you felt when you first visited Villa Bologna?

I first visited six years ago for Jasper and Fleur’s wedding party at the villa and I was totally smitten by its' enchanting beauty and charm.

Having run The Villa Kitchen restaurant at Villa Bologna for 2 years, what do you enjoy most about being a chef and about cooking in general?

The best thing for me is the creative process of putting together local and seasonal produce in an endless variety. The villa has its' own organic fruit and vegetable gardens so there is always fresh and delicious ingredients to use. It’s a cook's dream to be able to pick and choose straight from the field to the table, so to speak. It’s also amazingly satisfying to have happy customers enjoying our food!

What inspired you to start a career in food?

Food has always been a passion for me and I suppose that I’m a natural cook. I had an opportunity to set up a catering business in London with Andrea Bauer-Khadim, formerly of Grosvenor House and Somerset House, called Wild Peacock Events. We catered for high end occasions from weddings to intimate dinners and cocktail parties. This gave me experience in working with food on a professional level and gave me confidence to start The Villa Kitchen here in Malta. My mother Britt-Marie also encouraged me and helped me set up the cafe from scratch. She has been an enormous help and a very hands-on collaborator particularly in developing fantastic products for our shop, such as marmalade, chutneys and cordials.

You'll be launching your first perfumes this autumn. Are there similarities in working with food, which needs the attention of all of your senses, and with fragrances, which are purely developed with the help of your nose?

Yes, this may seem like a departure from food and cooking but for me it’s very much a continuous progress. When cooking, I focus on the layering of flavours and balancing spices, herbs and other ingredients in order to achieve a whole result. There are many similarities in creating perfumes using Mediterranean scents such as citrus, spices, herbs and botanicals. The process of layering and balancing to create a specific vision is similar whether olfactory or gourmet. This crossover inspired me to create Neroli & Spice, which is launching as a niche perfume house soon. My best friend Gunilla Freeman is my partner in this venture and she brings business savvy and a brilliant eye for detail.

Do you have the final composition in mind when you start working on a dish or a perfume or do you add ingredients until the result fits your vision?

I’m strongly influenced by my travels - in particular to Egypt and North Africa - and places which hold a special place in my heart, both when creating dishes and perfumes. So I start off with a sensory memory or picture, which I then aim to evoke through experimenting and mixing until I feel that the result is right.

Where do you find inspiration for your creative projects? How do you develop new recipes - for food and perfumes?

Inspiration comes from my impressions and experiences through travel, culture and my background as a Scandinavian with roots in the Mediterranean, having lived in Sweden, Slovenia, London, Los Angeles and now Malta.

What are your future projects for Villa Bologna?

My main focus will be on curating and putting together the main rooms in the villa for it to be opened to the public. I am collaborating with the de Trafford family to create a unique insight into the way of life at this grand historic house which has been in the same family since it was built in 1745. There will be guided tours and we are looking forward to welcoming visitors to one of the finest baroque houses in Malta with its beautiful gardens and ancient citrus groves. It was the home of Jasper de Trafford’s great grandfather Lord Strickland who was Malta’s prime minister in the 1920’s as well as his daughter Mabel Strickland who founded The Times of Malta. The Villa has been used as a film location on numerous occasions and I’m sure visitors will be interested in seeing where famous actors have starred! We will also host some very special events, such as a Christmas market and classical concerts. I’m also creating a perfume especially for Villa Bologna, called Sans Mal, which is the family motto!

What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?

I think it was a chicken curry with peanuts and banana for a party as a teenager but I remember helping my grandmother make jams and cakes as a child. Both my grandmothers were amazing cooks.

What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Malta?

Malta’s has a fantastic climate which produces an abundance of fruit and vegetables all year round. For me, the best places to buy are from the farmers market in Ta Qali and from local grocers specially in my home village of Siggiewi and the farming area of Mgarr. Some of my favourite restaurants are Michaels in Valletta, Il Corsaro by the Blue Grotto, Ta Majjistra in Mgarr and Carmen’s Bar in Ghar Lapsi, where we swim every day. The Corinthia Palace hotel is also a great place to eat. I prefer simple down to earth restaurants who use the best local produce, where one can relax and enjoy the atmosphere.

If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?

I’d ask my mother to cook creamy chanterelles on toast with mint chocolate mousse for dessert. We would sit in the garden of our summer cottage by the sea in Sweden.

You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?

Well, I would throw together a tagine or curry or some other one-pot dish with a fresh salad from the Villa Bologna gardens. There are usually a few different ice creams and sorbets in the freezer on standby to finish off with. During the orange season I can just go and pick some delicious fruit as well.

What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?

I loved my paternal grandmother’s apfel strudel and my maternal grandmother’s roast veal with her delicious creamy sauce, with prune soufflé to follow. I still love these dishes but I suppose I have expanded my taste somewhat. I really love good Dim Sum and a visit to The Royal China in London is always a must.

Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?

I prefer to cook on my own with an assistant for other people to enjoy!

Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?

I’m definitely an improvised cook and love spontaneous meals.

Which meal would you never cook again?

Anything too fiddly and I would prefer never to cook for a wedding again, it’s far too stressful.

Thank you Marina!

A juicy Grape and Rosemary Tart

This tart combines two of my favourite Mediterranean flavours - grapes and rosemary - and the result is nothing less than heavenly. The fact that the aromatic filling lies on top of buttery crisp puff pastry only exaggerates the temptation.

After failing miserably at making my own puff pastry on a few occasions, I only use this sweet delicacy when I'm in Malta, when I can buy it frozen in exceptionally good quality. If I ever manage to come up with a recipe that's as good as the product that I can buy here from the supermarket, I'll be a very happy baker. You could also use a shortcrust base for this summery tart but I like the elegant look and flaky texture of puff pastry in combination with the syrupy, juicy grapes. The chopped fresh rosemary sprinkled on top of the warm cake as soon as it comes out of the oven adds a woody aroma and gives it an unusual touch - try it, it's fantastic. I used it for a focaccia recipe last year and got hooked on this tasty duo.

I've already baked this tart twice since we arrived in Malta and it immediately gained huge popularity within our family - everybody loves it, kids and grandmother included!

Grape and Rosemary Tart

Makes 1 (28cm / 11") tart, serves 4-6

• frozen puff pastry, defrosted, 320g / 11 ounces

• dark grapes, preferably seedless, 500g / 18 ounces

• granulated sugar 120g / 2/3 cup

• freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tablespoon

• roughly chopped fresh rosemary 1 generous tablespoon

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F and butter a 28cm / 11" tart pan.

Line the tart pan with the puff pastry, pushing the pastry into the pan, and put in the freezer for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, using a large spoon, mix the grapes, sugar, and lemon juice and spread on top of the chilled pastry. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and crisp at the edges. The grapes will be juicy, so the bottom of the tart won't be crisp. Sprinkle the tart with the rosemary and let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving.