Switzerland renowned the world over for its peace and tranquility, its mountains and Cows so its no wonder then that its national dishes are both made from Milk! The most famous of which has to be Cheese Fondu, a hot melting pot in which cheese and kirsch are added, to create a creamy and rich dish which you share at the table under- Neath a naked flame, dipping crusty bready, hearty meats and pickled vegetables into the mix !  This can also be translated into dessert for the Swiss the other national dish has to be chocolate and of course you can follow cheese fondu with a delicious chocolate fondu ! Adding fresh fruit and even marshmallows to the mix!

How to make cheese Fondu

Serves 2
Ingredients

1 clove of garlic
1 large glass of white wine, plus a little extra
200g Gruyere cheese, grated
200g Raclette, grated
200g Comté, grated
3 tsp cornflour
Salt and black pepper
Olive oil

Any or all of these are delicious dunked into the cheese
Asparagus tips
Tender stem broccoli
Small red skinned potatoes
Vine tomatoes
A rump steak
Baguette

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 190C and cook the halved potatoes in salt and olive oil for 30 minutes.

Slice the garlic clove in half and rub the insides of the Le Creuset with the clove.

Add the wine and bring to the boil, turn down the heat. Add the grated cheese slowly, stirring all the time until it melts.

Meanwhile heat a some olive oil in a griddle pan and cook the vegetables. Add the steak to the griddle and cook for 3 minutes each side.

Mix the cornflour with a few teaspoons of white wine to form a paste and stir into the cheese. This will make a smooth, creamy fondue.

A really good stir  will bring the fondue back if it begins to separate. If that isn’t working, a squeeze of lemon juice or another teaspoon of cornflour should do the trick.

 Our Must visit restaurant  &  how to make the signature dish at home

The Ivy London http://www.the-ivy.co.uk/

1-5 west street, London, WC2H 9NQ

Bookings 0207836 4751

The Ivy is our favourite Restaurant in London, Renowned for its Pre and post theatre dinners; the ivy is simply the best place for service and down to earth food in the whole of London. With a fierce following from celebrities and west end theatre goers we suggest you book well in advance. But if you are not so lucky to get a table why not try our very own version of the Thai baked sea bass at home?

Thai Baked Sea bass

1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons oriental sesame oil
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 6-ounce sea bass fillets

Chopped green onions

Chopped green onions

Instructions

Mix first 6 ingredients in 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish. Add fish; turn to coat. Chill 2 hours, turning fish occasionally.

Place steamer rack in large skillet. Arrange fish on rack. Pour marinade into skillet under rack and bring to boil. Cover skillet and steam fish until just opaque in center, about 8 minutes. Transfer fish to plates. Remove steamer rack from skillet. Boil marinade until reduced enough to coat spoon, about 6 minutes; spoon over fish. Top with green onions.

Our two representatives of French cuisine span two extremes:  light, delicate, refined and eminently fillable crepes on one hand; hearty, meaty, eminently filling Pot-au-Feu on the other.  Each of these dishes may have as many variations as cooks preparing it, but they are a symbol of traditional French fare:  elegant and making much of a few fine ingredients.

Crepes

Crepes are iconic.  It sounds funny if you say that about pancakes, but that’s essentially what crepes are.  They start life as a simple, thin flour-based batter, and from there the application of a lightly buttered, very hot pan does the rest.  Ideally, the batter is gently swirled and nudged round the pan and flipped before it can brown.  At a creperie, the whole operation is over in minutes.

Perhaps the most fun you can have with a crepe is to stuff it with something.  Popular savoury fillings include cheese, mushrooms, ham, or vegetables of all kinds.  These kinds of crepes sometimes eschew the popular wheat-based batter in favour of a heartier buckwheat version – good news for the gluten-free traveller. Sweet crepes’ batter is often lightly sweetened with sugar.  Fillings here can be as simple as a bit of sugar and butter or some whipped cream and fruit; crepes suzette uses orange peel and Grand Marnier.

Pot-au-Feu

Calling a dish “pot-on-the-fire” doesn’t have the imaginatory pull of bubble and squeak or even mozzarella in carriages, but it does highlight the origins of this hearty, slow-cooked stew.  It starts with a cheaper cut of beef, leeks, garlic, and herbs.  Culinary France’s trinity of carrots, onion, and celery is added, as is bouquet garni.  Other vegetables and even sausage can be added, and the lot can be eaten warm or saved and reheated for another day.  Bread is the accompaniment of choice, but pickles and / or mustard may also be added.

Sauerbraten and Currywurst

German cuisine:  a hearty, traditional fare, that has influenced many others, yet also very open to – even embracing – the occasional outside influence.  Many people who have never visited Germany can run off a litany of meat- and potato cantered dishes:   roast pork, potato pancakes, dense, dark bread, thick cabbage soup, innumerable sausages, kirsch Wald tort – that last being perhaps not quite so meaty.  But the two dishes we’ve chosen demonstrate Germany’s authoritative cuisine – sauerbraten and currywurst.

German National Dish sauerbraten

Sauerbraten

In German, braten is roast meat and sauer is, well, sour.  If sour roasted meat has you looking for the nearest way out, you can rest knowing that the sour refers, not to the meat, but to the acidic, vinegar-based marinade that the meat soaks in for three days or so.  This serves two purposes:  it allows the meat to tenderize, and it lets the onion, carrot, juniper, and cloves to season the meat.  The meat is then given a long, slow roast, and the juices are thickened to form a rich sauce.  The thickeners vary and include bread, flour, gingerbread, or gingersnaps.  Finally, the roasted meat is served with its sauce and various side dishes, such as pasta, dumplings, cabbage, boiled potatoes, or potato pancakes.

German National Dish currywurst

Currywurst

While sauerbraten has demonstrably been around for a very long time, Germany’s other signature dish debuted in post-war Berlin.  The etymology of curry (curry) and wurst (sausage) says it all – currywurst is Germany’s answer to fast food, a stout sausage that is cooked, sliced, and served with a curry-ketchup mixture.  As simple and incongruous as it seems, this popular takeaway dish is so beloved of the German nation that it has its very own museum in Berlin.  It’s neither complicated nor mysterious, but it’s one of German cooking’s newest and best-loved hallmarks.

Ingredients

Serves: 3

750ml (1 pint 5 oz) water

120g (4 oz) polenta

Preparation method

Prep: 5 mins | Cook: 40 mins

1.

Bring water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Pour in polenta steadily, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until polenta is thickened. It should come away from sides of the pan, and be able to support a spoon. This can take anywhere from 20 to 50 minutes. Pour polenta onto a wooden cutting board, let stand for a few minutes before serving.

Ingredients

170g/6oz chorizo, cut into thin slices

110g/4oz pancetta, cut into small dice

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 large Spanish onion, finely diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 tsp soft thyme leaves

¼ tsp dried red chilli flakes

570ml/1pint calasparra (Spanish short-grain) rice

1 tsp paprika

125ml/4fl oz dry white wine

1.2 litres/2 pints chicken stock, heated with ¼ tsp saffron strands

8 chicken thighs, each chopped in half and browned

18 small clams, cleaned

110g/4oz fresh or frozen peas

4 large tomatoes, de-seeded and diced

125ml/4fl oz good olive oil

1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled

12 jumbo raw prawns, in shells

450g/1lb squid, cleaned and chopped into bite-sized pieces

5 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation method

        Heat half the olive oil in a paella dish or heavy-based saucepan. Add the chorizo and pancetta and fry until crisp. Add the garlic, onion and pepper and heat until softened. Add the thyme, chilli flakes and calasparra rice, and stir until all the grains of rice are nicely coated and glossy. Now add the paprika and dry white wine and when it is bubbling, pour in the hot chicken stock, add the chicken thighs and cook for 5-10 minutes.

        Now place the clams into the dish with the join facing down so that the edges open outwards. Sprinkle in the peas and chopped tomatoes and continue to cook gently for another 10 minutes.

        Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil with the garlic cloves in a separate pan and add the prawns. Fry quickly for a minute or two then add them to the paella. Now do the same with the squid and add them to the paella too.

Scatter the chopped parsley over the paella and serve immediately.

It’s safe to conclude that every European nation has some kind of roast beef recipe.  England favors the simple treatment; beef, garlic, and herbs, usually with a few carrots and potatoes.  The drippings from the roasted beef, so rich in flavor and umami, are then used to make Yorkshire pudding, an airy, crispy sort of popover.  The batter is simple too – just milk or water, flour, eggs, and a pinch of salt.  Cooked quickly, the pudding is served alongside the meat.  If any pan juices are left, they can be made into brown gravy.  Sometimes a red wine sauce or a parsley sauce is served instead.

Find out how to roast beef to succulent perfection. Serve with our easy Yorkshire pudding.

Ingredients

Fore rib beef (about 4 kgs/9 lbs), French trimmed, on the bone, chined

olive oil

salt

freshly cracked black pepper

For the Yorkshire pudding

3 eggs

115g/4oz flour

275ml/½ pint milk

beef dripping

salt

Preparation method

.    Preheat the oven to its highest setting.

.    Rub the beef with the olive oil, salt and pepper all over.

.    Put a heavy-based roasting tray on the hob and when hot, add the beef.

.    Sear the beef quickly on all sides to colour and crisp the outside.

.    Transfer the beef immediately to the oven and leave the oven on its highest setting (about 240C/460F/Gas8) for 20 minutes.

.    Reduce the heat to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and roast for half an hour per kilo for rare, adding another ten minutes per kilo for medium rare, 20 minutes per kilo for medium, and 30 minutes per kilo for well done.

.    Remove the beef from the oven, transfer it to a carving board and cover with foil. Allow it to rest in a warm place for 30 minutes.

.    For the Yorkshire pudding, mix together the eggs, flour and a pinch of salt.

.    Add the milk, stirring constantly, until you have a runny batter.

.    Leave this to rest, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours.

.    Place 1cm/½in of beef dripping in the bottom of each pudding mould, or if you are using a rectangular roasting tray, place 1cm/½in of beef dripping across the bottom.

.    Heat the dripping in the oven (at 240C/460F/Gas8) for about ten minutes, until it is piping hot.

.    Remove the roasting tray from the oven, pour in the batter, and immediately return to the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown and crispy, making sure not to open the oven door for the first 20 minutes.

Serve immediately with the carved roast beef.

It’s no coincidence that students of classical French cooking learn how to make the five mother sauces.  It exemplifies one of the home truths of culinary matters:  once you learn to make a basic, you learn the foundation for a thousand other recipes.

Another cuisine that typifies this truth is that of Italy; with pasta in the south and polenta in the north, Italian cooks have the perfect canvas to show off regional sauces, freshly-caught seafood, local mushrooms, organic vegetables, or any number of variations thereon.  So let’s take a look at a few of these traditional Italian dishes and their many, many guises.

Italian pasta

Pasta

Pasta is, at its simplest, a strand of wheat flour and water.  Of course, sometimes a splash of oil or an egg may be added.  Italy is also an important producer of rice pasta – important for any gluten-intolerant travelers.  Dense and filling, a good fresh pasta cooks in a few minutes; high-quality dried pasta (which should be a bit shiny and have a straw-like colour) takes a little longer.

Italian pasta comes in shapes that may surprise first-time visitors, from maltaglie (badly cut bits), which is torn or cut into irregular squares, to nidi (nests) – thin angel-hair pasta wrapped to form a nest.  It can be topped with just about anything; classic examples include tomato- and basil-rich marinara, mushroom and herbs, or butter and cheese.  Spaghetti carbonara, with its creamy combination of egg, bacon, parmesan cheese, and black pepper, is also quite famous.

Italian Polenta

Polenta

If you’re in the American South, you know polenta’s pale sibling, grits.  A bland mash up of semi-coarse cornmeal and water or milk, polenta is especially common in central and northern Italy.  By itself, it’s not inspiring.  But add in bleu or aged cheese, and you have a side dish that can hold its own with any hearty fare.  Polenta can also be cut and served cold, grilled, or used as a base for any number of hearty layered dished.  In some regions, polenta is made with chestnut flour for a dense, slightly sweet accompaniment to boar and other game dishes.

English food has gotten a bad reputation.  It’s been labeled bland, overcooked, and under seasoned.  True?  Consider the two dishes that we spotlight here:  fish and chips (fries) and roast beef.  These are two of the most popular dishes, in various forms, in Europe and America.  So what gives?

Fish and Chips

Fish has never been a problem for a country that is completely surrounded by water and traversed by streams, rivers, and lakes.  Fish and chips is one of those ideas that is so simple, so good, that it is hard to believe that no one had thought of it before Victorian times.  That’s right; fish and chips didn’t officially merge until an enterprising London cook opened the first fish and chip shop in the early 1860’s.

English Fish and Chips

The fish in fish and chips is usually some type of mild white-fleshed fish.  Popular choices include cod and haddock, but it location may dictate another plentiful local variety.  The chips are potatoes, cut a bit thicker than American or French fries.  The fish is battered and fried, usually in vegetable oil.  (Lard is traditional but harder to come by in many areas.)  A sprinkle of salt and maybe a dash of vinegar or lemon completes the simple dish.  Some may also add a bit of curry sauce, chili sauce, or brown gravy.

Yorkshire Pudding

If you are reading this, you are probably thinking “Paella, of course!”  Paella has become something of the go-to Spanish dish of people’s imaginations – along with tapas, which isn’t so much one dish as an umbrella term for many small dishes.  For American audiences, Spanish Omlette is a bit tricky and may conjure up an egg folded over a bell pepper and some onions.  Sorry – it’s not that kind of omlette.

Spanish Tortilla

Spanish Omlette (Tortilla Espanola)

A tortilla Espanola, or Spanish omlette, is actually a combination of sliced potatoes that have been fried in (usually olive) oil, combined with copious amount of egg, and refried.  If, at this point, you are thinking – no ham?  No paprika?  Not even one sliver of onion? – you can soothe yourself with the knowledge that ham, peppers, mushrooms, onions, eggplant, and even sausage are occasionally included in some tortillas.  And somewhere in Spain there is probably a family that sprinkles paprika on their oblates.  But this simple preparation is the standard.  It comes with a bonus, too – once cooked, it can be stored and reheated for a day or two.  Not something you can say about your average egg dish.

Paella

So, now that we are clear on the tortilla Espanola, would now be a good time to mention that paella is actually the name of the pan this much-heralded preparation of rice, vegetables, spices, and meat and/or seafood is cooked in?

Spanish Paella

Actually, paella can be attributed mainly to the good old mother of invention:  it’s what was on hand.  In many ways, that defines this dish – it’s what the local area grows and grows well.  That’s why there are many regional variations.  Let’s mention just a few.   In addition to the rice-, veg-, and spice base, good paella can contain seafood, chicken, sausage, rabbit, or any combination thereof.  Another variation is cooked with squid and squid ink, resulting in a startling black colour.