Peach, Chèvre and Rosemary Tart
I allowed myself a few treats during our Mediterranean summer in Malta. I went snorkeling far more often than in the past few years, when my cookbook determined my schedule, I had a few girly shopping moments, and my man and I relaxed at the stunning - and newly renovated - Phoenicia Hotel in Valletta. We enjoyed stunning views from their infinity pool with a glass of crisp Maltese wine close at hand and indulged in lush breakfast buffets and fine French inspired cuisine on their gorgeous terrace overlooking the gardens.
Malta treated us well, the Mediterranean pace and hot climate force me to slow and calm down, something I only truly manage there. Nothing feels as heavy, as worrying or threatening as it might feel anywhere else, everything feels manageable and enjoyable. It's not so much about duties, but about collecting and treasuring the good moments in life. This also reflects in my cooking. If I spent a couple more hours at the beach, we just cooked dinner a bit later, or kept it simple by throwing a fish on the grill and drizzling some fresh lemon juice over it. It's pure, it's good, and it allows me to have more time to chill and chat with a friend, to sit on the rocks a little longer and see the sun disappear into the sea's faded evening-blue.
Another one of my lazy summer recipes is this lovely little sweet and savoury tart: ripe peaches, soft chèvre and Mediterranean rosemary spread on top of (store-bought!) puff pastry. You could also make your own, or use short crust pastry, but my lazy self just went to the supermarket and bought frozen Maltese puff pastry - the best I know.
The tart turned out even better than expected, offer it to your friends who don't have a sweet tooth at teatime, or slice it up for a relaxed late summer dinner in the garden or on the balcony and pop open a bottle of wine. Heaven.
This recipe also works with grapes!
Peach, Chèvre and Rosemary Tart
Makes 1 (28cm / 11″) tart, serves 4-6
frozen puff pastry, defrosted, 320g / 11 ounces (you can also use short crust pastry)
large ripe peaches, cut into wedges, 4-5
mild soft chèvre, crumbled, about 150g / 5 ounces
fresh rosemary, finely chopped, 1 generous tablespoon
liquid honey 2 1/2 tablespoons
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.
Spread the peaches in a circle on top of the pastry, sprinkle with the chèvre and rosemary, and drizzle with the honey. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and crisp at the edges (mind the heat, I use a gas oven in Malta, which is not as precise as my oven in Berlin).
Let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving and enjoy!
Lemon Butter Roast Chicken with Peaches and Rosemary
Roast poultry is always a feast. Nothing beats a whole roast chicken, the skin golden and crisp, the meat succulent and tender. And when it comes to seasoning the chubby bird, there are no rules to obey. Sweet or sour, fruity or veggie-focused, spiced-up or plain, a chicken can deal with everything. Lemon butter sounds fresh, tastes fresh, and turned my chicken into a perfect summer lunch. Italian peaches lend juice and fruitiness, a little sweet, but not too much, and rosemary brings in woody tones. Seeing as we're talking about feasting, there had to be wine on the table. The bird didn't necessarily need it, but my mood called for a German Riesling, chilled, fresh, and fruity.
If you love wine, here's a little experiment for the next time you open a bottle: choose a good bootle of white or red wine and pour it into three to five different wine glasses. You can also go for champagne, if you're in the mood for bubbles, but take your time and consciously taste the wine, its complex tones and colours, revealed by the dimensions of each glass, its shape, volume, height, and curves. If you have three glasses, you'll taste three variations of the same wine.
My mother - who loves wine at least as much as she loves food - introduced me to this kind of wine tasting in my early twenties. She has a huge crystal glass collection handmade by 260 year old glass maker Riedel, not only for white, red, and sparkling wine, but also for different regional wine and grapes. The taller Bordeaux glass, the rounder Burgundy that opens at the mouth, the elegantly shaped Syrah glass, they all bring out the best, the typical characteristics of these wines. That doesn't mean that a fine Chablis can't be enjoyed out of a glass that was made for a Riesling, but it might miss certain nuances that give it the final touch, the magic that goes beyond words.
After my first lesson in the art of wine glasses, I decided to follow my Mama's food steps and invest in a basic collection, my first machine-blown Riedel glasses. My budget was a bit more limited than my mother's, I focussed on shapes that work well for various grape varieties. Riedel's Rheingau glass, for example, is quite an allrounder, it flatters crisp and fruity whites like my beloved German Grauburgunder (pinot gris), but I also found out that a bubbly Crémant d'Alsace doesn't mind this shape either - in case a Champagne glass isn't at hand. When it comes to the reds, I'm a fan of body, weight, and depth. The classic Bordeaux shape goes quite well with a few of my favourite wines. These wine glasses were the start of my ever growing collection, which also led to ever growing kitchen shelves, but that's another story.
Falling for wine glasses is a passion, it makes sense once you start investing in finer wines. A glass collection grows and changes every year, like a wine collection, there will be losses and new additions. It's alive, like the wines that they're filled with. It's always sad to lose a precious glass, but it's also so exciting to see a new shape added to the shelf.
When Riedel asked me, if I'd like to try out their new Fatto A Mano range, handmade at their headquarters in Kufstein in the western Austrian province of Tyrol, I could already hear my mother's ecstatic voice. Fatto A Mano is a beautiful collection, thin and light at the top, tall and elegant, and it introduces a new feature. Inspired by the Venetian tradition of glass making, a coloured handmade stem is the base of each glass of this collection. The bowl, however, sitting on top, is machine-blown and then fused with the stem, a process developed by Riedel. The colour scheme, including bold yellow, red, blue, and green, and more minimal black and white, adds fun to the table. The art of wine making is a science, but the art of wine drinking is first and foremost a pleasure that allows us the luxury to relax and let go, to taste and just smile at life.
Setting up the table for a dinner party or a weekend lunch feast with friends - especially now, in summer - doesn't need to follow strict rules anymore. We play with the arrangement and mix and match tableware, colours, shapes, and materials. Whatever mood I'm in, the food I choose, but also the way I lay out my table, reflects how I feel. The table is the stage for the feast, where we gather with the ones we love to enjoy a few hours of good food and wine, of closeness and conversation.
Thank you, Riedel, for introducing me to your artful Fatto A Mano collection. It has already created quite a few hours of pleasure at our table - for me and my friends.
In the pictures you see the Riedel Riesling glasses from the new Fatto A Mano range, the stemless Viognier / Chardonnay glasses from The O Wine Tumbler collection, which I used for water, and the perfectly shaped round-bellied Marne wine decanter.
Lemon Butter Roast Chicken with Peaches and Rosemary
You can use leftover meat, sauce, and fruit to stir into warm pasta and sprinkle with fresh basil.
Serves 2-3
unsalted butter 60g / 4 tablespoons
freshly squeezed lemon juice 75ml / 1/3 cup
whole free-range or organic chicken, about 1.5kg / 3.3 pounds, 1
flaky sea salt
ground pepper
medium sprigs fresh rosemary 6
large lemon, cut into 8 wedges, 1
large, firm peaches, cut into 8 wedges each, 3
Preheat the oven to 190°C / 375°F (convection setting or Rotitherm setting, if available).
In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and pour into a medium baking dish, large enough to fit the chicken in. Whisk in the lemon juice, then transfer the chicken to the baking dish and toss in the lemon butter until coated on all sides. Season the chicken with salt and pepper inside and out and lay 2 sprigs of rosemary inside the chicken. Arrange the remaining rosemary, lemon and peach wedges around the bird. Roast, spooning the juices from the pan over the chicken every 15 minutes, for 45-55 minutes or until the juices run clear when you prick the thickest part of a chicken thigh with a skewer. Turn on the broiler (grill) for a few minutes or until the chicken skin starts sizzling, mind that it doesn't burn. Take the chicken out of the oven and let it rest for a few minutes.
Carve the chicken and serve with the peaches and baguette to dip into the juices - and with a glass of chilled Riesling of course.
If you're looking for a starter, or a dish to accompany the roast chicken for an easy lunch or brunch, try my leek, tomato, and thyme quiche or basil ricotta and tomato quiche.
Peach and Ricotta Summer Sponge Torte
The temperature's high, the brightest blue is painted all over the sky, and my kitchen countertops are piled with berries and stone fruits. Strawberries, raspberries, the first red currents, peaches and apricots - I'm in fruit heaven. And soon I'll be back in Malta, where figs, naspli (also known as loquat fruit or Maltese plum), and bajtra (prickly pear) will be added to the table. I adore summer, I love its richness and lusciousness, the vast variety of colourful produce that inspires me every time I go to the farmers' market. A handful of ingredients perfectly ripened under the warm sun turn the most minimal dish into a regal meal. Or a simple sponge cake sandwiched with a creamy filling and seasonal fruit. Is there a better way to feast and celebrate summer than with a Peach Ricotta Torte?
When I was a child, my mother introduced my sister and me to a beautiful Sunday afternoon tradition. We'd pick a recipe, for cake or waffles, chat and bake, and listen to classical music. When our work was done, we'd get cozy on the sofa (in winter) or set up our teatime table in the garden. One of my culinary summer highlights is my mother's sponge torte with whipped cream and strawberries. It's almost too pretty to eat. And my uplifted summer mood called for a revival of our little tradition. Instead of German Rührkuchen - a sponge cake made with butter, which my mother bakes - I went for a lighter fat-free sponge, made with lots of beaten egg white. It's soft and airy, not filling at all, which explains why the two of us ate almost the whole cake in one day.
Malta was my inspiration when I thought about the filling: I chose the lemon-ricotta filling for Maltese cannoli from my Eat In My Kitchen book. Lighter than whipped cream, it has a slightly sour touch, perfect for a summer torte. My cake only had one layer of ricotta, but feel free to double the amount and also use it as a topping - in case you aim for a richer cake-sandwich. A little icing sugar to finish it off was just right for me.
White soft and juicy vineyard peaches (also known as doughnut peaches) added the right amount of sweetness, red currants to decorate the cake brought a sharp note to the palate. Stroll over the farmers' market and grab whatever fruit pleases your eyes and taste. Just try to balance out sweet and sour - that's what a fruity summer torte is all about.
More fruity summer sponge cake and swiss roll inspiration:
Peach and Ricotta Summer Sponge Torte
Double the amount for the ricotta filling if you also want to use it to spread it on top of the cake.
Makes 1 20.5cm / 8" cake
For the ricotta filling
fresh ricotta, drained, 250g / 9 ounces
granulated sugar 2 tablespoons
freshly grated lemon zest 2 teaspoons
vanilla bean, split and scraped, 1/2
For the sponge cake
organic eggs, separated, 4
fine sea salt 1/8 teaspoon
granulated sugar, divided in half, 150g / 3/4 cup
freshly grated lemon zest 1 teaspoon
vanilla bean, split and scraped, 1/2
plain flour, sieved, 160g / 1 1/4 cups
For finishing
ripe white vineyard peaches or doughnut peaches, with or without skin, cut into very thin wedges, 3 plus 1 cut into thicker wedges
peach cut into thicker wedges, for the topping
red currents and raspberries, for the topping, a handful
icing sugar, for the topping, in case you don't double the ricotta to also use it for the topping
Preheat the oven to 190°C / 375°F (conventional setting). Butter a 20.5cm / 8″ springform pan and line it with parchment paper.
For the ricotta filling, in a medium bowl, whisk the ricotta, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla seeds until creamy and transfer to the fridge.
For the sponge cake, in a large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg white and salt for 1 minute. Add half the sugar (75g) and continue whisking for about 7 minutes or until very stiff and glossy.
In a clean bowl, using a stand mixer, beat the eggs yolks, the remaining sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla seeds for about 2 minutes or until light yellow and creamy.
Gently fold the stiff egg white into the egg yolk mixture, it should be almost combined. Then fold in the sieved flour, stir gently until relatively smooth and combined. Don't overmix it and don't worry if there are a few smaller pieces of egg white left here and there, however, there shouldn't be any flour left.
Scrape the batter into the lined springform pan and even out the surface a little. Bake for about 20-23 minutes or until light golden and spongy. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the sponge cake cool in the springform pan for about 10 minutes before you take it out and transfer it to a cooling rack. Remove the parchment paper from the cake; let it cool completely before you cut the sponge cake and assemble the torte.
When the cake is completely cool, using a sharp large knife, cut the cake in half horizontally. Spread the cold ricotta filling on the bottom half of the cake (if you doubled the amount of the filling, only use half the ricotta). Spread the thinner peach wedges in circles on top of the ricotta and gently push them into the filling. Lay the top of the sponge cake on top of the peaches. Either dust with icing sugar or, if you doubled the ricotta, spread the remaining ricotta filling on top of the cake. Decorate with the thicker peach wedges, raspberries, and red currants.
Serve immediately or keep the torte in the fridge, it tastes best on the first and second day. Take the torte out of the fridge about 10-15 minutes before serving and dust with additional icing sugar, if necessary.
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.
Grilled Peach and Camembert Sandwich with Rosemary
It's cheese and fruit again! My last sandwich which combined these two flavours lies more than a month back. I had paired a creamy Gorgonzola with some of the first strawberries of the year, it was mild and milky but spiced up with a few pink peppercorns. Today's sandwich is more intense, I used a ripe Roucoulons camembert from the Franche-Comté region in the East on France. Normally this cheese is quite mild but mine was already beyond that state. It was very ripe, so spicy and sharp that my boyfriend refused to eat it so I decided to put it under the grill. I went for white-fleshed galaxy (or donut) peaches, we call them vineyard peaches in Germany. They are so sweet and juicy, exactly what I needed as the peach season has just begun here and most of the other types aren't rich in flavour yet (and wouldn't have managed the combination with my intense camembert). I sprinkled some crushed black peppercorns on top to add some spiciness and a little fresh rosemary which became a bit smoky under the grill, it was good!
For 6 open sandwiches I used half a loaf of spelt ciabatta cut into thick slices, topped with 2 ripe peaches (sliced) and 125g / 4.5 ounces of Roucoulons camembert. I sprinkled each of them with a couple rosemary needles and put them under the grill for 1 minute until the cheese became a bit runny. We added the crushed pepper afterwards so that each of us could adjust the spiciness.
