Tag Archives: lemon

The Medical Gourmet’s Tiramisu

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Tiramisu is, despite being simple, a tricky dessert. Lots of people claim to have the best recipe and don’t want to reveal their secret. However, in my opinion, Tiramisu is the one dessert one can’t really claim to be the king of, as tastes widely vary. How much coffee to use? Whether or not to add egg whites? Oooo or Marsala or Amaretto or Rum or Grand Marnier? And who on earth decided to add fruit to Tiramisu? That is just wrong. Is it? I’m sure every italian grandma would shake her head with disapproval.

I have yet to try an actual italian home-made Tiramisu and am longing for one of my italian friends to make me a one ala Nonna. Come to think of it, I don’t really know many italians. Damnit. Well, I guess until then I am stuck making my own. My preference: a medium amount of coffee (due to the fact that I actually don’t like coffee… ), egg whites, Marsala, and no fruit pieces. If I may say so, it has improved drastically since my first attempt a couple years back. My secret ingredient: lemon zest and juice. Go ahead and try it out, let me know what you think!

Tiramisu

 

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The High Tea Experiment

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It is fair to say that a friend and I have this slight obsession with baking and food. We wanted to join our forces and create something extraordinary…… No more needed to be said as our thoughts were clearly identical – we had to host an afternoon tea. Not just a boring old tea with some scones and clotted cream. We had to go all out. And we did –  with the following result: IMG_2324

 

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It was a raving success and boy, did we have a bit too much fun planning and preparing. We might even start making this an annual treat for our friends … I’m sure none of them would object.

Now, 7 recipes are a tad much for one post, so I thought I’d start with one of the winners: Lemon Tarts. Refreshingly light and perfect for a Summer Sunday. Admittedly also quite a bit of work with all the little cases and blind baking, but definitely worth it.

Lemon Tarts

Lemon Tartadapted from Mary Berry’s Tarte au Citron Recipe

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Asian Marinated Salmon with Sesame Seeds and Glazed Pak Choi

Posted in Mains by

I would like to apologise for the lack of posts. Main reason being: I moved into a new flat (yay!!) but didn’t manage to get my Internet installed for 3 whole weeks! Imagine a blogger without Internet for that time…. I almost went insane. Kidding. It wasn’t that bad. Quite freeing actually. On top of moving I also started a new job at the same time, which has admittedly been great but hahaha good-bye social life with having to get up at 5:30 on a daily basis.

Anyways back to today’s recipe: it is a delicious healthy summer alternative to your standard BBQ. Citrus fruits and fish just work. And add some asian veg on the side, voilà. Perfection! Ok, maybe not michelin star perfection, but medicalgourmet perfection 🙂

 

Asian Marinated Salmon with Sesame Seeds and Glazed Pak Choi

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Orthorexia Nervosa

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Have you heard of orthorexia nervosa? For those who haven’t – it is defined as an eating/mental disorder characterised by preoccupation with avoiding food perceived to be unhealthy. Over the past few years our society has formed a slight obsession with healthy eating, counting calories and various dietary inventions, which all seem to be labelled as”the best/healthiest”. To name a few:  Atkins diet, vegetarian (being the most harmless), pescetarian, vegan, raw-food-diet and saving the best for last – fruitarianism (these people literally only eat what naturally falls from a plant). What happened to simply enjoying food? I am fully aware that eating meat on a daily basis isn’t at all sustainable and shouldn’t be done. However, I could never give up any type of food, especially not animal derived products. But, being a foodie, from time to time I take an interest in these bizarre diets. A non-vegan friend of mine recently had an interest in trying to make a vegan dessert – she chose vegan banana ice-cream. Imagine succeeding in making super healthy and ultimately tasty ice cream without animal fat?? Sadly, it was a bad introduction to veganism. Some things are just not meant to be recreated without animal products. What is ice cream without cream (and no – coconut milk/cream does not count as a substitute when taking the penetrating, lingering, out of place coconut flavour into account!)?? Well, basically frozen mashed fruit, so frozen baby food. YUMMY. NOT. I mean, it was actually quite tasty, I love mashed banana, but seriously, how is this ice cream?

After this experience, in an attempt to make a non-vegan healthier version of ice-cream, I decided to try making frozen yoghurt. Bought frozen yoghurt is definitely just as satisfying as full on italian gelato (unlike vegan frozen mashed fruit) and healthier. So I figured home made fro-yo was worth the try. It was – not quite as creamy (sadly, I don’t have an ice-cream maker so creaminess is hard to achieve) as bought fro-yo, but definitely delicious and enjoyable. Still not ice-cream, but a much better alternative to the failed vegan attempt.

Strawberry Frozen Yoghurt

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Polenta Inspiration

Posted in Dessert, Mains by

WE DID IT!!! My friend and I successfully ran the Race for Life yesterday evening in Battersea Park. It was such a great event with an amazing atmosphere – over 3000 people had signed up to run, jog or walk the distance :-).

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I managed the 5k in just over 25 minutes… not too bad for an awful long distance runner. Thank you to everyone for your generous donations, together you helped me raise a grand total of £1’711.00 in aid of Cancer Research UK!!!! If you have not yet donated but still wish to do so, the link below is active until early September:

http://www.justgiving.com/themedicalgourmet

Moving on to today’s recipe – recently I have started taking one ingredient and basing an entire menu around it. Today’s choice: Polenta. Polenta is great in cakes and breads (nothing beats chilli with cornbread) but also makes a great side to mushroomy dishes. It reminds me of my childhood holidays in the warm italian part of southern Switzerland. The reason behind my choice of polenta is a recent dinner invitation. They served a delicious polenta/lemon/almond cake for dessert. I had two helpings (despite a starter, a main and an exploding food belly). The minute I got home I tried to find a similar recipe, determined to re-create this heavenly lemony dessert. I don’t know if it’s exactly the same recipe, but it sure tasted just as good :-). The strawberry coulis is an addition of mine, I felt the dish needed some fresh fruity sauce to round it off.

Beef Fillet, Mushrooms, Sherry Sauce, Creamy Polenta

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adapted from Fast Food by Laurel Glen and Wildeisen

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Race for Life – Donations Welcome!!

Posted in Cake / Cupcakes by

Craziness and possible over-ambition struck: I decided to sign up for Race for Life on the 11th June!!! I am running this race to help raise lots and lots of money for one of the most important fields of medical research – cancer. Liposarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer, hit my family 17 years ago and decided to relapse a few times – the most recent episode of disease being the worst with metastases. Sadly, treatment options for late stages of this (and other types of) cancer are scarce – a lot more research is needed!

So please click on the following link: http://www.justgiving.com/themedicalgourmet and donate as little or as much as you want in aid of Cancer Research UK – every penny is a step closer to finding possible cures!

As for this cake – it is the final cake baked for the birthday celebrations (YAY 5/5; I made it!) – a traditional Swiss style carrot cake with a Kirsch icing. I made a gluten free version to cater for everyone’s needs by simply substituting the flour with gluten free flour – it was actually one of the most successful and praised cakes of the event! Definitely worth baking again 🙂

Swiss Rübli Torte ala Betty Bossi

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Quarkcake with Red Currants

Posted in Cake / Cupcakes, Dessert by

There is a river running right through the middle of my city which essentially turns into a public swimming pool as soon as summer hits the town. If you cross the bridge around 6pm, there will be little heads bobbing about in the water as far as you can see, with the famous “schwimm-fisch” (waterproof swimming bags shaped like fish) in tow, enjoying their after-work cool down. To complete the Rhine experience, one must then lay out and tan, have a beer and a legendary burger sold at one of the little bars set up along the river. Pure bliss. And now for today’s recipe: this is a simple delicious summer dessert which I  had once roughly 2 years ago at a friend’s place. I managed to sneak the recipe out of the kitchen, but since then I have always missed the red currant season … until now! I got sooo excited when I went shopping and saw red currants and this is what happened.

Quarkcake with Red Currants

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Couscous Salad with Chicken, Pomegranate and Rocket

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The essence of this salad is in the pomegranate seeds. Add those crunchy sweet pops to anything and its taste will magically transform to a gourmet level. Ok not quite, but almost. I really only discovered the diversity of pomegranate when in a beach club in South Africa. They had a pomegranate mojito. It was amazing. Best mojito ever.

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Warm Couscous Salad with Chicken, Rocket and Pomegranate seeds

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