As George W. Bush was getting ready to depart from the White House, he decided to make one last effort to “stick it to the French” and he raised the tariff on Roquefort over 300 precent, making it virtually impossible for the French to sell their beloved blue-veined cheese in the United States. This means that the price of a kilo of Roquefort will increase from $40 to $130! And while I’m a certified cheese-addict, I think even I would balk at such an outrageous price. The U.S. is apparently at this moment the third largest importer of Roquefort, grossing an annual $8 million in sales, and seeing as the region of Roquefort is entirely dependent on its production of the cheese, this could mean a mayor blow to the village. The reasons behind Bush’s actions? Apparently it’s because the European Union has a ban on beef from hormone-treated animals. Also, the EU has not offered any scientific proof that hormone-treated beef poses a cancer-threat to consumers, and that is why the World Trade Organization has allowed the increased tariff on Roquefort in both America and Canada (because the ban violates trade rules, and that is why America and Canada can sanction it). Meanwhile, the French have stated that they will not be scared into loosening their restrictions on hormone-treated beef. And the Americans? Well, the cheese-lovers are looking pleadingly at their new president in hopes he will improve the French-American relations and eventually bring the price of Roquefort down to an acceptable level. Until then, they will have to either pay the steep price or make do with cheaper and inferior cheeses…

Ha! I knew there was a reason why I can’t keep my hands off the hummus: a recent study shows that women may be less able to control their food cravings than men. According to this Newsday article, this may also explain why women have  a higher rate of obesity. In the study, a group of volunteers were presented with their favorite type of food while their brains were being monitored, and then told they could not eat it. They then had to use a technique to curb their desire for the food, using a special ‘inhibation technique’. Apparantly, the men’s brain activity went down while using the technique, while brain of the women stayed stimulated.

Well, all I know is that when you present me with, for example, a bowl of hummus and then ask me to exercise self-restraint and refrain from eating it, I might end up killing you. Or drooling. Or both at the same time…

I used to hate fennel. Sure, all the kids in school were eating it, but I heard that if you tried it once you could never go back. Oh no, you’d just start craving more and more, and while the first time would be for free, eventually it would end up costing you a whole lot more. You’d stop wearing clean clothes, drop out of school and finally live on the streets, begging people for change just so you could buy another bulb. And I refused to go that way. But then even my morther joined in it! “Just try it,” she said, “you’ll love it!”. Yes, dear readers, my own mother tried to get me hooked on fennel. I tried to hold off a while longer, but eventually I caved from all the peer-pressure. And I have never looked back. Would it be shameful to admit that I’ve eaten fennel three times this week? I’m even planning to have some more tonight… I need help!

Kids, just say no! But if you’re already hooked as I am, there’s probably not much harm in trying the recipe below. Just make sure you get the good quality stuff, not the stuff that has been diluted with celery or something like it.  Trust me, you’ll notice the difference.

Fennel risotto with porcini & goat’s cheese

(Serves about 3-4 people)

First up, you’ll need to prepare the stock for the risotto. I use my trusted porcini stock cubes from Star:

but vegetable stock will work just as well. Make sure to use high quality stock cubes though, not the ones that seem to have been made only from salt.  A liter of stock should be ample. I soaked about 25 grams of dried porcini (also known as cèpes in France, and eekhoorntjesbrood in the Netherlands, which literally means “squirrels’ bread”. Oh yeah, the Dutch have some hilarious names for some of their foods…) in the boiling water, together with the stock cubes (I used two for a litre).

You’ll also need:

- 300 grams of risotto rice, preferably arborio

- 2 large bulbs of fennel, about 500-600 grams in all, chopped in small bits.

- 1 onion, finely chopped

- 100 grams of crumbled soft goat’s cheese

- some olive oil

- pepper to taste (I didn’t add any salt because the stock cubes were salty enough, but you can always choose to add more)

Now, first you heat up the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and fennel and fry them on a low heat for about 2-3 minutes. Now add the risotto rice and fry for 1 minute longer. Now comes the fun part: add a little bit of stock (about half a cup) to the pan. It will be soaked up by the rice. The point is to keep adding more stock as soon it has evaporated, stirring the risotto every once in a while. Keep the heat low, otherwice the rice will cook to quickly and taste like glue.  Risotto takes a while to prepare, but it’s well worth the effort and you can drink lots of wine while you’re in the kitchen! It’s a win-win situation. Anyway, after about 15-20 minutes the rice should be about cooked, and you should be through your stock/porcini. Just taste the rice to see if it’s done. It should have a slight bite, same as with properly cooked pasta.  If it’s nood done yet, just add some more stock and keep cooking. If you’re through your stock and it’s still not done, just add some more boiling water.

(don’t mind the dirty stove)

When you’re satisfied with the way the risotto tastes, add the goat’s cheese and mix it well with the risotto.  Add some pepper, and you’re done! I served my risotto with some lamb sausages, and it tasted quite excellent. Risotto is notoriously difficult to take pretty pictures of, so you’ll have to be content with this:

Gah, I’m starting to drool again. Guess I’m well and truly hooked!

Since I’m too lazy to offer you an actual post today, I’ll take the easy way out and present you with some links to other food bloggers who have been up to some pretty darn interesting things!

• First of all, young chef Aidan Brooks presents us with a picture of his brand new Global knife set, and explains what all the shiny knives are actually used for. Very handy if you want to know what to use a parisienne cutter for!
• Next up, Michelle of Thursday Night Smackdown eats chicken. With. 50. Cloves. Of. Garlic! Oh yeah, bring it on!And you probably want to stay out of my way when I’m inevitably going to make this, let’s say, tomorrow…
• Craving carbs? Deb of Smitten Kitchen shows us how to make light wheat bread, which takes up no time at all and looks delicious!
• If you’re looking to challenge yourself to the max in the kitchen, you might want to stop over at Alinea at Home, where Carol tries her hand at making smoked salmon with sour cream with dry ice.  Yes, the bar has just been raised…

I’ll be back later with a real post, just as soon as I have figured out what the recipe is goin to be…

This morning, as I rode my bicycle to the train station, my hair actually froze. Granted, I wasn’t wearing a woolly hat or anything to protect it from the cold, but I think this was the first time something like that has happened to me… Thankfully it quickly thawed again in the warm train, so it could return to its previous frizzy state. Don’t you just love winter? Needless to say it is very cold at the moment in the Netherlands. The perfect time for something that really fills your belly up, and what’s more perfect than a stew? I stumbled across this recipe on Jamie Oliver’s website when I was looking for a recipe that uses up parsnips and jerusalem artichokes (called topinambour or aardpeer in Dutch), which look like this:

These rather attractive babies come from my mom’s allotment, she dug them out a while back but put them in the ground again to prevent them from drying out and rotting: a perfect way to store root vegetables in winter! They’re a bit tricky to peel, so I just used a small knife and sliced off most of the skin and then chopped them.

This stew very easy to make, you can toss in almost any root vegetable, and it lasts you for days. The latter was actually a bit tricky since my refridgerator is still broken, but I managed to work my way through almost all of it!

Beef stew with parsnips & jerusalem artichoke  (adapted from this recipe)

You’ll need a big pot to make this stew, a cast iron one like a Le Creuset will do you fine (cheaper cast iron pots will work just as well, it’s just that I’m a bit in love with my Le Creuset at the moment). The original recipe just puts the pot in the oven for a couple of hours, but I put it on the stove since my oven isn’t very reliable, and it works just as well.

You’ll need:

- approximately 50 grams of butter (or a generous splash of olive oil)

- 2 onions, chopped

- 800 grams of stewing steak or beef skirt, chopped in 3 cm. cubes and tossed in a little flour

- 2 parsnips, peeled and diced

- 250 grams of pumpkin or butternut squash

- 4 medium carrots or two large ones, peeled and chopped in discs

- some jerusalem artichokes, I used about 3

- 300 grams of potatoes, peeled and diced

- 2 tablespoons of tomato purée, or 3 tomatoes, chopped

- 1/2 a bottle of a good red wine (I cannot stress this enough: use decent wine to cook! You’ll be ingesting it either way). I used an open bottle of Beaujolais, but any good red wine will do.

- 300 ml. of veal stock (this can be replaced by vegetable or beef stock)

- salt and pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in the pot and add the onions. Fry the onions for a couple of minutes, and add the beef, the vegetables, the tomato purée, wine and stock, and stir it all together. Add some salt en pepper, but not to much as you can always adjust it when you’ve actually tasted the stew. Also, some stocks are fairly salty, so you don’t need to add much salt. Bring the stew to a boil, and then adjust the heat to a simmer. If you do want to finish the stew in the oven, it needs to be preheated to about 160 degrees celcius (gas mark 2). Now you can just let it simmer for a couple of hours. I try to give the stew at least 4 hours, putting it together the night before I’d like to eat it, but if you don’t have that much time: it’s also perfectly edible after about 2 hours. It tastes even better the next day!

If the stew’s finished, you can top it off with some lemon zest, finely grated (I used the zest of 1 lemon), together with 2 finely chopped garlic cloves and a small handful of chopped rosemary leaves. Just sprinkle it on top, and it will smell fantastic!

My fridge died this weekend. Luckily the temperatures are cold enough (around the freezing point) for me to store some of the jars and stuff in my shed, but last night I put out a carton of milk for my daily cereal, and this morning it was frozen. Kinda looked like spoiled milk, only colder. Brrr. Thankfully I had some emergency vanilla soymilk on standby, so not all was lost. Still, a new fridge has to be found, and soon! Can’t say I’m looking forward to hauling the old one out, though, it’s ancient and verrrrry heavy. Oh well, good opportunity to build up some muscles!

By now the hangovers from the new year celebrations must have worn off, and we can face thinking about alcohol again… For all the champagne lovers out there I have some good news: the looming champagne crisis has been averted! The past few years champagne has been steadily rising in popularity all over the world, but as the region of Champagne is protected by an AOC-label (meaning only the bubbly wine actually from that region can be called champagne, otherwise it is ‘sparkling wine’)there is only a small region which can actually produce it. Every inch of the region has been planted with vines, but not enough champagne could be produced. That is why an expansion of the area has been proposed, so that 40 surrounding villages can join the AOC. Currently there are 319 villages in the Champagne-producing area, so this would mean an expansion of almost more than 10%. The plan has been given the green light by the French body which validates the AOC-label, the INAO. Now the villages have to vote about the proposal, but not much resistance is expected: a village in the champagne area can earn up to 1 million euros per hectare of vineyard! But we still have to be patient: even after the expansion has been voted in by the new villages, these areas won’t start producing champagne until the year 2012…