Carnival ice cream sandwiches

Carnival is all around us – over in the Black Forest, they’ve already begun their Fasnet, while for many others, carnival will start next week with Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday. The week after, commencing at 4 a.m. on Monday 27 February, Basel will burst into a cacophony of pipes and drums (accompanied by burnt flour soup and onion tart) and proceed in a trancelike state right through to Wednesday night.

If you’re anywhere in Switzerland at the moment, you can’t have failed to meet those wondrous, fragile, deep-fried, sugar-dusted little pieces of wickedness known variously as Fasnachtskiechle or merveilles de carnaval. Here’s a cheeky little dessert idea to take you into (and beyond) carnival – maybe even into a trancelike state:

• Take a Fasnachtskiechle (or several miniature Herbstkiechles, about 4 cm-diameter, pictured above) and place on a serving plate or board
• Arrange balls of ice cream over the Fasnachtskiechle to completely cover (or sandwich a ball of ice cream between 2 mini Fasnachtskiechles)
• Top with a second Fasnachtskiechle, press down very gently (they’re super-fragile)and put in the freezer till serving time
• Make a chocolate sauce by dissolving 125g best quality dark chocolate in 250ml (1 cup) water with 50g sugar in a saucepan over gentle heat
• When chocolate and sugar have dissolved, raise heat and boil for about 10 minutes or until sauce is glossy and somewhat thickened
• To serve, cut the large Fasnachtskiechle-Torte in serving pieces with a very sharp, serrated knife (serve mini-Kiechles whole) and drizzle choccy sauce over

Rachael Sills @ KäseSwiss

Amy Eber, Food Scout at WRS, recently invited me to join forces with her at an American Women’s Club of Zurich foodie event. The chat was all about what’s good to eat in Switzerland, and where and when to find it. With map in hand we did a whistlestop virtual tour round the Confederation, each of us chipping in with our fave festive, regional and seasonal foods – from all those Carnival goodies that are just coming in (Fasnachtskiechle, Fastewähe, onion tart and burnt flour soup) to the wealth of delectable breads and sausages that are the pride of each canton, to the strictly seasonal delights of asparagus and wild garlic in the spring, followed by strawberries, which in turn give way to succulent apricots from the Valais, then wild mushrooms, game – and of course Vacherin Mont d’Or, which lights up my autumn and winter and which – we both agreed – is one of the most outrageously delicious foods known to [wo]man.

To my great delight, Rachael Sills of KäseSwiss was good enough to provide a fabulous cheese platter, with samples of the kind of wonderful Swiss farmhouse cheeses she exports to the UK. Never heard of KäseSwiss? Allow me to introduce you!

Fromage Fort – a good home for leftover cheese

Just before Christmas my son, who’s based in Barcelona (okay, someone has to be), was down in Huelva visiting friends, who took him to see a cheese maker up in the sierra. Knowing my fondness for all things cheese-y, and thinking I might by now have eaten my fill of Swiss beauties and/or be tiring of Munster (Alsace’s only native offering), he invested in a wondrous selection of remarkably pungent goat’s cheeses.

A lobster lunch

freshly cooked lobsters, photographed at the Ecole Hoteliere, Lausanne

From time to time, Thierry Meyer of oeonalsace.com (and formerly Alsace correspondent for the Bettane & Dessauve Grand Guide des Vins de France), together with chef Jean-Philippe Guggenbuhl of La Taverne Alsacienne near Colmar cook up an appealing plan. Keeping a collective ear close to the ground – and an eye on the market – they wait for the moment when a particularly delicious item (skrei, morels, asparagus, venison, wild salmon…) is offered at a favourable rate. Then they pounce. Soon (and at shortish notice) the word goes out about a lunch or dinner at the restaurant which will privilege that particular food.

Last Saturday it was the turn of lobster. The price was right (they’re always cheaper after the Christmas rush), the date selected and 12 of us assembled, each bidden to bring a suitable bottle of wine to accompany the lobster feast.

Fancy a fondue?

from A Taste of Switzerland by Sue Style, photo copyyright John Miller

To many non-Swiss, fondue is a bit of a Seventies cliché. In Switzerland, it’s just an uncomplicated, convivial, warming winter dish – just right for this week when the temperature has been struggling to get its head above zero. There are no hard and fast rules about which cheese to use – at least none that are universally agreed upon in this most directly democratic of countries.

A mind for marmalade

By the time I get down to Seville in March, the orange crop will be finished and the 25,000 bitter orange trees that flourish in the city’s patios and plazas will be bursting into bloom all over again. The Sevillanos themselves barely use the oranges that have made their city – at least in British eyes – so famous. Almost the entire Seville orange crop goes to the UK for that most indispensable breakfast component: marmalade.

Feasting and tasting in Catalunya

If you’re planning a gastronomic foray any time soon, consider Catalunya (or Catalonia as we Anglos persist in calling it). It’s one of Spain’s foodiest regions, right up there with the Basque Country. It also has wine (unlike the Basque Country, which has Txakoli), ranging from over-hyped, over-priced Priorat  to decently made drops from indigenous and international varieties, both red and white, at affordable prices.

My most recent article in Decanter, January issue, is about wine travel in Catalunya and gives an overview of the region’s multiple charms, with thumbnail sketches of selected wineries, plus where to stay and where to eat. As with any article, I always seem to have loads of great surplus material that I have to steel myself to excise, for lack of space. Top of my list of surplus stuff in this instance were two places I’d love to have given more air time to: Restaurant U in Les Gunyoles d’Avinyonet in the heart of the Penedès wine-growing district (home of cava), and winery Mas Candí (website in Catalan only) in the same village.