CheMENU 2020: Journey to the Swiss Alps
In the spirit of connecting our Sacred Heart community through food, we offer some recipes from Jane Cannon, Erin Cannon Chave ’85 and Lisa Tebbe ‘80 for your Chemin de Fer celebration.
Charcuterie and Cheese with Bacon Jam (recipe provided)
Simple Salad
Swiss Steak with Mushrooms and Red Wine (recipe provided)
Swiss Potato Rosti (recipe provided)
Fresh Green Beans
Dutch Baby (recipe provided) and/or Chocolate Fondue (recipe provided)
Bacon Jam — Wonderful on a charcuterie tray, can be spread on crackers, chips or bread.
3 lbs. bacon
3 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
8 cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 and 1/2 cup very strong, brewed black coffee
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Cut bacon slices into one-inch strips. Cook in Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring frequently, until browned. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towel-lined plate. Drain all but 2 tbsp. of fat from pan. Return Dutch oven to medium high heat and add onions and garlic. Stir well and reduce heat to medium. Cook for about 8 minutes or until onions are mostly translucent.
Add the remaining ingredients, stir well and reduce heat to low. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and boil hard for two minutes. After two minutes stir browned bacon into the onions and liquid. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally to make sure things aren’t sticking, adding ¼ cup water if it seems to be drying out. When the onions are meltingly soft and liquid is thick and syrupy, remove Dutch oven from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
Transfer contents of the Dutch oven to the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade. Pulse several times until the jam is a spreadable consistency. Scrape jam into jar(s) and store in a refrigerator up to a month.
Can be serve cold, room temperature or warmed. Makes about 6 cups.
Swiss Steak with Mushrooms and Red Wine – While the name doesn’t come from Switzerland, rather the technique of “swissing” the steak does. This dish – which bakes for 2 hours — is rich and comforting.
1 thick chuck steak (about 4 pounds), bone in, or a 2- to 3-pound piece of round steak
1 clove garlic
Flour seasoned with salt and pepper (1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper per half-cup of flour)
1/4 cup olive oil or bacon fat
1 large onion, chopped
1 12-ounce package fresh mushrooms, sliced thick
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/4 cup Cognac
1 cup red wine
1 cup chicken (or other) stock
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon summer savory
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper as desired
Rub the steak all over with the garlic clove. Using a tenderizing mallet, the back edge of a cleaver or the edge of a heavy plate, pound into both sides of the steak as much of the seasoned flour as it will hold.
Heat the oil in a large skillet, brown the steak on both sides and remove to a suitable covered baking dish. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees.
Add onion to the skillet and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until lightly browned. Add tomato puree, Cognac, wine, stock, thyme, savory, marjoram, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Pour mixture over steak, cover and bake 2 hours or until very tender.
Carefully remove steak to a deep serving platter. Skim surface fat from the sauce in the baking dish, check seasonings and pour around steak. Pass any extra sauce at the table.
Swiss Potato Rosti — a cross between hash browns and a potato pancake, Potato Rosti is Swiss specialty popular for breakfast or cut into wedges and served as a side with meat or sausages.
3 to 4 medium starchy potatoes, like russets, peeled
2 to 4 tablespoons butter
Salt to taste
Optional add-ins: parsley, onions, nutmeg, pepper, or ground paprika
Grate the peeled raw potatoes into a bowl. The grating is usually done by hand and on a grater with large holes, but a box grater will do nicely. You can do it with a machine, but the results might not be quite authentic. (You may also make rosti with parboiled potatoes Cook them al dente one day in advance, peel, and store in the refrigerator. Grate them just before you fry them.)
Melt 2 to 4 tablespoons of butter in an 8-inch nonstick or cast iron skillet. Add the grated potatoes about 1 inch deep and salt them as desired. Add onions or optional spices as desired. Cook the potatoes over medium heat several minutes, stirring two or three times with a metal spatula to coat the potatoes evenly with butter. Pat the potatoes into a cake with the spatula and let them cook for 10 minutes. Cover the potatoes and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
Next, you’ll flip the pancake, which can be a bit tricky. When the bottom of the potato cake is golden brown, place a plate that barely fits inside the skillet on top of the potatoes. Invert the pan, holding on to the plate. Remove the pan and set it back on the stove. Add another tablespoon or so of butter to the pan, allowing it to melt.
Slide the rosti off the plate and back into the pan, golden side up. Cook for about 15 minutes, pressing down once or twice with the spatula to make the pancake stick together a little more. You can cover the pan to get the potatoes cooked in the middle if desired but remove the cover at least 5 minutes before the end of cooking so that your pancake is crispy on the outside.
Slide the rosti onto a plate and cut it into wedges. Add more salt and pepper if desired.
Dutch Baby – Popular any time of day and very versatile, but especially nice as a dessert topped with syrup, preserves or caramelized apples
3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch of nutmeg
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Syrup, preserves, confectioners’ sugar or cinnamon sugar. Or, slice and cook some apples in butter with a bit of cinnamon and brown sugar until caramelized.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine eggs, flour, milk, sugar and nutmeg in a blender jar and blend until smooth. Batter may also be mixed by hand.
Place butter in a heavy 10-inch skillet or baking dish and place in the oven. As soon as the butter has melted (watch it so it does not burn) add the batter to the pan, return pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the pancake is puffed and golden. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake five minutes longer.
Remove pancake from oven, cut into wedges and serve at once topped with syrup, preserves, confectioners’ sugar or cinnamon sugar.
Chocolate Fondue – Cheese fondue is ubiquitous in Switzerland, but if you’re looking for a decadent and fun way to end your meal, try chocolate fondue, popularized in the 60s as a promotion for Toblerone chocolate, one of the oldest Swiss chocolate makers.
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares
1 1/2 cups sugar
Stick of butter
1 cup Half & Half
1/8 tsp. salt
Fruit, cookies, marshmallows, pretzels etc. for dipping
Melt chocolate over low heat in saucepan. Add sugar, butter, half & half, salt and cook, stirring constantly for 5 minutes until thickened. Transfer to fondue pot (if available or use a serving bowl).
Serve with fruit (bananas, berries, oranges, dried apricots), cookies (shortbread, vanilla wafers, biscotti), graham crackers, marshmallows, pretzels. Can roll in chopped nuts or coconut after dipping. Enjoy!
