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We print this newsletter as a service to (http://www.myswitzerland.com)
and it is written by Nick Malgieri.
Nick Malgieri, pastrychef, cookbook author and baking consultant writes
regularly on Swiss food & wine.
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To view this newsletter in html format, to read Nick Malgieri's biography and to get access to an archive of previous newsletters, please go to http://cdb.stnet.ch/link.cfm?uuid=24699&tid=239&url=usa.myswitzerland.com/en/na/food/foodandwine.cfm
1. Going to the Jungfraujoch
2. Engelberg and the Titlis
3. The Tenth Annual St. Moritz Gourmet Festival
4. Wine: Guido Brivio in Ticino at Mendrisio
5. Cheese Corner: What is an Alp?
6. Recipe: GRUYERE, SCALLION, AND WALNUT TART
The United Nations declared the year 2002 as the Year of the Mountains. Of course, all the best mountains are in Switzerland, and I've had a chance to visit quite a few in the past thirty years. My first Swiss mountain was a fairly small one - the Uetliberg, right outside Zurich. It was Christmas morning, 1973 and I went for a walk (it was a bit chilly up there) with my Swiss friend Andreas. We subsequently explored a couple of other mountain areas - first the Churfirsten that rises out of the Walensee in Eastern Switzerland not far from Chur; and the Rigi Kulm, or Mount Rigi, in Central Switzerland just south of Lucerne. More recently I have visited the Saentis, the highest peak in Eastern Switzerland (and got caught in a spectacular June snowfall); the Jungfraujoch ( 11,333 feet!); Mount Titlis, also in Central Switzerland, and another visit to the Rigi. In Ticino, you can¿t really go anywhere without going up and down Monte Bre.
1. Going to the Jungfraujoch
There is no more impressive series of mountain peaks than the Jungfrau range, that includes the almost-vertical Eiger, the Monch and finally, the Jungfrau herself. If you start out early in the morning from Interlaken, it's fun to have lunch at the top. Between the trip up and exploring at the top, you'll be just in time for lunch at one of the Jungfraujoch's restaurants. Your trip starts at the Interlaken tourist office where you must buy an advance ticket for the train. If you're not familiar with the area, or have never been to a high mountain before, I urge you to sign up for the guided tour. Besides a discount on your ticket, the guide will talk about points of interest on the way up and take you around on the peak, so you'll see all the most important sights and have them explained. You can break away from the group at any time, you are not required to have meals as a group and you may take any train you want for the descent. If you decide to take the guided tou!
r it leaves around 8 AM and arrives at the top just before 10:30. You can have several hours at the top and descend via a 1PM train. The trip is long, but no one has ever complained that it isn't worth it!
Your journey begins at the Interlaken Ost train station where you'll board the first train to either Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald. I usually go up one way and come down the other. At either of those places you¿ll board a second train that will take you through the snow to Kleine Scheidegg. At this point you'll board the cog-wheel train that goes to the top, traveling through tunnels inside the Eiger and the Monch.
There are two stops to see the view from those mountains on the way up. The first is inside the Eiger where you look out through giant picture windows down toward Grindelwald. The second stop affords a view of the 'Sea of Ice' just below the mountains. Third stop is the Jungfraujoch, the strip of snow-covered plain just below the Jungfrau peak.
Besides your lunch, you might decide to have a quick coffee and a croissant or something as soon as you arrive - it helps to stabilize you at the altitude. Move slowly, especially up and down stairs and drink plenty of fluids -- you'll be fine. Attractions at the top include the ice palace, a series of tunnels carved through the glacier, and an open area on the Joch where you can actually walk outside on the mountain range in fenced-in areas. During the summer there are light climbing and soft adventure sports such as snowboarding and short-distance ski.
But now for lunch. I had a great one at the Crystal restaurant in the restaurant building complex. There are several restaurants at the top, catering to many tastes and budgets. The Crystal has 110 seats and serves menus and a la carte specialties of traditional Swiss food. The Aletsch is a self-service restaurant with both light and substantial dishes. There are two banquet rooms for groups, and an Indian self-service restaurant. The restaurants are open every day of the year.
Interlaken Tourism
CH 3800 Interlaken (the tourist office is in the building just to the left of the Victoria Jungfrau hotel on the main street)
Phone from the US: 011 4133 826 5300
Website: http://cdb.stnet.ch/link.cfm?uuid=24699&tid=239&url=www.interlaken.ch
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2. Engelberg and the Titlis
Engelberg is just a short train ride from Lucerne, the stopping off point for many skiers going to the Titlis for a day in the snow. Even if you don't ski, going to one or another restaurant on the mountain can be a pleasant day's outing. In Engelberg you'll board a 4-seater cable car that will take you to the Jochpass, abut halfway up the mountain. There you can take a chair lift across the snow fields to the Baerghuus Juchstuebli, a small, friendly restaurant. Chef Raoul Malinger presides over the kitchens that produce fine traditional Swiss cooking. Of course, there is always fondue, as well as a host of other cheese dishes. I had a great roesti topped with cheese and broiled to bubbly hot perfection.
If you want to go to the top, you'll have the chance to see a 360 degree view from the mountain top that takes in the mountains all over Switzerland. Take the revolving cable car after you disembark from the first one and it will take you to the top of the Titlis, where the aptly-named Panorama Restaurants will delight you with all sorts of specialties. This series of restaurants is run by chef Roger Sommermatter and includes self-service, a la carte and Asian restaurants. The menu for the a la carte restaurant is interesting and varied and concentrates on fresh, local food. The presentations are simple, with many roasts and grilled entrees - just what the slim ski set is looking for.
Engelberg-Titlis Tourism
Tourist Center
CH 6390 Engelberg
Phone from the US: 011 4141 639 7777
Fax from the US: 011 4141 639 7766
E-mail: tourist.center@engelberg.ch
Website: http://cdb.stnet.ch/link.cfm?uuid=24699&tid=239&url=www.engelberg.ch
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3. The Tenth Annual St. Moritz Gourmet Festival
For the past nine years, St. Moritz' best hotels have hosted chefs from all over the world in late January. Each chef prepared a menu of his specialties to be served at the hotel's main dining room. At the close of the week-long festival a spectacular lunch cooked by the chefs as a team was served in a large heated tent on the frozen lake. Next year it's going to be different. First of all there's a new time: March 10 to 15, 2003. And though the same hotels will be participating, among them Badrutt's Palace, Kulm, Suvretta House and the other usual suspects, the finale will be held at Badrutt's Palace - the lake is probably starting to thaw a little by mid-March. Another new feature this year will be wine and cooking master classes, plus a Kitchen Party at Badrutt's Palace, a Gala Dinner at Mathis Food Affairs at 2,500 feet on the Corviglia ski slopes, at Chicago-born Reto Mathis' wildly popular restaurant. Mark your calendar now - I attended last year and can't wait!
to go back.
St. Moritz Tourist Board
CH 7500 St. Moritz
Phone from the US: 011 4181 837 3337
Fax from the US: 011 4181 837 3377
E-mail: pr@stmoritz.ch
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4. Wine: Guido Brivio in Ticino at Mendrisio
OK, so Ticino doesn¿t make wine in the mountains, but it's surrounded by them and Guido Brivio's wines are too good to pass up. A fourth-generation wine maker, Brivio has studied enology at the University of Bordeaux as well as University of California at Davis, the Harvard of the wine-making world. Brivio is up to an annual production of 200,00 bottles, but that doesn't prevent him from moving in new directions all the time. He is Ticino's champion of barrel aging - an expensive but successful way to age wine to a delicate finesse.
He produces wine from many different types of grape, including Ticino's ubiquitous merlot, but also does a new take on it and produces an exquisite white wine from merlot grapes. (You heard about Brivio's white merlot, Bianco Rovere, right here in January, 2001.) He also works with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet grapes. Brivio wines are exported to the United States - ask for them by name - I'm afraid many stores might shelve them as Italian wines.
Next year Brivio intends to build a great new tasting room for individuals and groups on his property so we can all go and have a taste of his exquisite wines.
Brivio Vini
Via Vignoo 3
CH 6850 Mendrisio
Phone from the US: 011 4191 646 0757
Fax from the US: 0111 4191 646 0805
E-mail: brivio@brivio.ch
Website: http://cdb.stnet.ch/link.cfm?uuid=24699&tid=239&url=www.brivio.ch
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5. Cheese Corner: What is an Alp?
Rather than talk about a specific cheese, let's explore an Alp. Until recently I thought an alp was just a mountain peak (didn't one of Auntie Mame's husbands fall off one?), and that alps were mountain peaks all in a row, like some great giant's jagged teeth pointing skyward. Well, I went to visit my first alp a year ago last Spring and this is what I found out: An alp is a pasture high up in the mountains where dairy farmers summer their herds. It all starts around the middle or end of May and the cows (and other various livestock) make the ascent to the alp. The dairy farmer and his family are arrayed in tracht (traditional dress), all the SUV's are left in the garage in the village as everyone walks up to the alp. The cows are richly arrayed in their ceremonial bells (the everyday ones will be put back on when they reach the alp), the best milk producers leading the procession.
Once at the alp the farmer and his family live in a chalet - an alpine house built into the side of the slope that provides shelter for the family, the cows, the other animals and also hold the dairy and sometimes an aging cellar. So why go to all this trouble? In summer the cows eat fresh alpine grasses and herbs and produce milk of exquisite quality - perfect for making cheese. During the winter when the cows live in the village, they eat hay which makes OK milk, but not outstanding quality. Though there are many different types of cheese made at different alps, the system of managing the cows is the same: They graze all day, then return to the back of the chalet at night. At the end of summer they parade back down again to the village. Winter milk, by the way, is often exclusively used for making yogurt or secondary products.
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6. Recipe: GRUYERE, SCALLION, AND WALNUT TART
This is a great combination of ingredients -- they are always available, and the tart is good hot, warm or at room temperature.
QUICHE CRUST
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg yolk
GRUYERE, SCALLION AND WALNUT FILLING
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup coarsely grated Gruyere
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 large eggs
Salt, pepper and nutmeg
1. For the dough, combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to mix.
Cut butter into 12 pieces and add; pulse to mix in finely. Add egg and yolk and pulse to form a ball -- if it resists, add a teaspoon of water and continue. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until needed, up to 2 days.
2. When ready to bake the tart, preheat oven to 350 degrees and set a rack in the lowest level.
On a floured surface, roll the dough and use it to line a 9 to 10-inch tart pan.
3. For the filling, melt the butter in a small sauté pan and cook the scallions for a few minutes to wilt them. Scrape onto the dough and spread evenly. Cover with the grated cheese and walnuts.
4. Whisk the remaining ingredients together in a bowl and pour into the tart crust. Bake the tart for about 30 minutes, or until the filling is brown and puffed and the crust is baked through. Serve immediately or cool and serve later.
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