Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

The air is crisp, the trees are bald.  Builders start constructing the booths for the Herbstmesse.  It is time for blut and leberwurst. 

PS:  Rhyming is hard.

Wise chefs say the simpler the dishes, the more difficult they are. I can’t agree more when I was making this dish. Sure I’ve cooked pasta with mushroom countless of time but this season’s sample of Porcini, also called Bolet in French or Steinpilzen in German, made me rethink my technique.

On a recent trip to the Italian-speaking Switzerland, we discovered that Porcini, the wild mushroom abundant only at the end of summer and early autumn, was in rage.  We sampled a few but we love the one served in Carona in the compound of its Botanical Garden.  The porcini was brown and nutty. All the earthy flavours shine. Texturally, it was juicy and firm. I realize I’ve always done my mushroom incorrectly.

Mushrooms are friends of butter, onion and parsley. So I use them. The key is in the timing. You’ll be rewarded with sweet, flavourful, and toothsome mushroom sauce. Due to the rather oily nature of the dish, it’s best served with bone-dry, light white wine.

Ingredients:
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This week, for some reasons, I was craving for black-pepper beef with tons of red, green, and yellow peppers. This dish, a staple in Chinese fast-food all over the world, has never been my favourite. They always appear sweet and gunky. But I recently fell in love with black-pepper crab in Singapore where, instead of gunky sauce, it was fried in a sea of cracked black pepper. I decide to try the black-pepper beef with generous amount of pepper for that fruity yet steamy, peppery flavour.

This recipe is rather detailed than usual. A friend must cook on her own these days and she’s been asking for recipes which meet her utensil and seasoning restrictions. The dishes must also keep well so that making dinner equals to reheating. I think this fits the bill.

I hope this is helpful, Leony. No need to be exact with the measurement but just taste and have fun!

Ingredients:
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Another one adapted from Sichuan Cookery. Admittedly, the generous use of the sauces make this dish exciting. But it will not be mapo tofu without the black bean sauce and sichuan chili paste so, forget the MSG and enjoy!

Ingredients:
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