Wednesday, 31st December 2008

The same procedure as every year

Well, every year as the clock nears midnight on December 31st, we are sitting round the table eating Raclette (melted cheese over boiled potatoes, accompanied by small pickled onions and gherkins) or Fondue and talking about the last twelve months. How time flies...!
Or we are watching tv - for example "Dinner for one". Oh, I love it - every year on December 31st! So have fun with it, enjoy the last day of 2008 and let's meet here again in 2009!

A happy New Year!

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Have you already opened the door today?

Wednesday, 24th December 2008

My suggestion: Stuffed Baked Apple instead of Cake

We all need good ideas concerning food for Christmas. So this is my suggestion: why not serving stuffed baked apples with custard instead of  cake? Try it!
Merry Christmas!

Ingredients for 4 persons:

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Wash apples. Using an apple corer and small melon baller, scoop out the stems, cores, and seeds from the apples, leaving the bottoms intact. Stand in a baking dish.
3. Heat Rum. Place the raisins / sultanas in a bowl and cover with the warm Rum. (You also can use hot water). Let sit until plumped (about 10 minutes).
4. Mix some of the cinnamon and sugar.
5. Mix all ingredients except the cinnamon-sugar-mixture (hazelnuts, raisins / sultanas, cinnamon, sugar, honey and rum).
6. Divide the mixture into 4 equal portions and stuff into the apples. Then sprinkle top with cinnamon-sugar-mixture.
7. Bake uncovered until the apples are tender, about 20 minutes.
8. Serve baked apples with custard.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 18th December 2008

A couple that really matches

The big event is very close. The third candle was lit last Sunday and the advent wreath starts slowly to mutate into waste. But I don’t think everybody has got all the gifts he or she requires. So do I.
Normally I would go out to buy what’s still needed. But honestly speaking, I really panic when I remember the crowded city in these days and I know what I am talking about. Some days ago I went downtown for shopping and get my skis adjusted. It  took me long  45 minutes to find a free space at the car park. With my two kids, two ski boots and two skis in only two hands I reached completely exhausted the sports shop. Finally after waiting for a very long time I caught somebody to help me. And that was it for me. Fed up with that experience I went straightaway home without buying anything else.
Back home I decided to order the pending items via internet.
Only some of the home made presents were left. So I started today with one of them: a typical Bavarian “Griebenschmalz” (apple greaves dripping) and  the “Rosmarin-Knoblauch-Öl” (Rosemary garlic oil). This couple really matches and is very suitable  for a small present.
If you are still looking for something similar, I am offering this recipe to you:

Griebenschmalz (Apple Greaves Dripping)

Ingredients (for 5 x 200 ml jars)

Directions:

1. Dice the pork fat into small cubes. Put them into a large pot and render the pork fat cubes over medium heat, occasionally stirring. After some time the cubes release more and more fat
2.  Peel apples, cut them into quarters and core them. Then cut them in thin slices.
3. Cut onion in small cubes.
4. Add all ingredientes into the fat and season it with salt and pepper (and if wanted: majoram and garlic)
5. Simmer it over medium heat until onions and apples gain a golden brown colour.
6. Remove from the heat and fill it in the sterilized jars.
7. Close the jars, let them cool down and keep them in the fridge.

 *****

Rosmary-Garlic-Oil

Ingredients (for 3 x 200 ml bottles)

Directions:

1. Peel garlic and dice into thin slices.
2. Wash rosemary and pat it dry.
3. Apportion the garlic and put it into the sterilized bottles. Then add a small sprig of rosemary.
4. Then fill up with olive oil and close the bottles.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 11th December 2008

Little presents keep a friendship alive

One of the most important question these days is: which kind of presents do I choose for Christmas? Should it be a book, a CD, a perfume, something to dress, some kind of furniture stuff or should it go in direction of jewellery? It´s really difficult. The time goes by and the pressure grows. Especially complicated is to find a present for somebody who has either everything or does not want anything.
To solve this problem I have my own system.
During the year I listen carefully to people who I want to include into my donator obsession on Christmas, if they disclose anything of their wishes. If I get something useful I note it down and try to get just before Christmas a confirmation of their desire by a careful interrogation of that candidate.
When I am lucky, it works.

In my donator mood on Christmas I include closer friends, not so close friends and even neighbours. They get smaller gifts. Most things which I produce myself.

A small selection of that I am going to note down for you. They are easy to make and very delicious:  

Figs with Cassis Liqueur

Ingredients for one jar (250 ml):

Directions:

1. First sterilize the jar by boiling it some minutes.
2.  Peel figs and cut them into quarters, sixth parts or eighth (it depends on the size).
3. Put figs into jar.
4. Add vanilla bean or cinnamon stick.
5. Fill jar up with cassis liqueur.

*****

Candied sugar with rum

Ingredients for one jar (250ml)

Directions:

1. Sterilize the jar by boiling it some minutes.
2. Fill jar up with candied sugar.
3. Add vanilla bean.
4. Fill jar up with rum (only 2/3 of the jar).
5. Close the jar with a clean cover.
6. Shake jar every day – the sugar will dissolve.
7. After one or two week open the jar again and fill again up with candied sugar.
8. Fill up with rum until jar is full.
9. Close the jar with cover.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 04th December 2008

Christmas is coming

We visited the first Christmas market, the  gingerbread house  is ready and nicely ornamented, most of the Christmas gifts are organized and all the many decoration items are created, too. Only the baking of cookies is pending. In short: I am good in time.
But if you think now that I have to be really lucky and satisfied, you are wrong. I am still sparkling of new ideas to create little gifts, dishes and decoration items. This all takes additional time, of course.

One of this many ideas I am going to present you now. It is a small Christmas tree made out of chocolate, which can be used as table decoration for Christmas or an invitation gift for your friends. And here it is:

Directions:

1. Double the baking paper, cut small squares (15 x 15 cm) and form small triangular bags and fix it with adhesive tape. Now place them (upside down) in a turned egg box.
2. Melt the chocolate and fill into the cones but only half.
3. Add some Smarties (chocolate beans) or chopped almonds and fill up with chocolate.
4. Let it cool down.
5. Mix half of the icing sugar with the green food colouring and lemon juice to a paste-like mixture.
6. Mix similar the second half only with lemon juice.
7. Mix the ground almonds with the food colouring. You get a mixture of green, brown and white particles.
8. Remove the chocolate  cones from the paper, coat it with the green paste and roll it in the ground and coloured almonds.
9. Now fix with the green paste some of the gold and silver pellets on the surface.
10. Fix on top of a big biscuit  a small one with the uncoloured paste and stick the small tree with the same paste.

How do you like it? Doesn’t it look sweet?

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 27th November 2008

Soon we are going to open the first door!

I am enthusiastic – it´s snowy! Not only the eyes of the kids are sparkling – nope, even we the grown-up are sentimentally touched.
Next week the advent season begins. “Only four nights more and I can open the first door of the Advent calendar”, my daughter says full of expectation. For me it´s  different. Only four nights more – and the pre-Christmas-stress will start. Visiting of Christmas parties, baking of the traditional Christmas cookies for us and the rest of the family as well, buying and organizing the Christmas gifts, packing them, decorating outside and inside and so on and so on.
But honestly speaking: I do like the so called “time of contemplation” very much, even with all that hectic and stress. I do like all that beautiful decorations, Christmas songs where you go and the Christmas markets everywhere. Out of the many, many Christmas markets around my home village I do like most these one in Schwabing/Munich, Dießen and of course the “Bergweihnacht” in Türkenfeld.

As an Advent calendar should be definitely part of the pre-Christmastime, I have designed for you a nice “Table Talks Advent calendar” with many links concerning Christmas.

Coming now to my new recipe. As you know the food during winter time differs sometimes from the light summer food. And as I prefer the low-calorie food I am going to present now a cabbage salad - a side dish matching with roast beef, baked potatoe and herbed quark (these recipes I will present at a later date):

Directions:

1. Cut green cabbage thinly. Then wash and blanch it.
2. Dice garlic. Then mix salad dressing with salt, pepper, sugar, garlic and caraway – then add oil.
3. Mix cabbage with the dressing.
4. Heat oil in a pan. Add bacon bits or diced ham and roast it gently.
5. Add bacon or ham to the cabbage and mix it.
6. Serve it while bacon / ham is hot.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 20th November 2008

Easy and spectacular – Chestnut-Cream-Soup with Sherry and Cinnamon

At these days you can buy chestnuts, or as we say “maroni”, everywhere. They are offered in small bags, with or without peel, pre-cooked and shrink-wrapped, not to lose much time to get them prepared.

I remember quite well when I tasted chestnut-cream-soup for the first time. It was about ten years ago. I went with my colleagues to the restaurant “Brauhaus zur Dicken Sophie” in Johanniskirchen near Munich. I ordered such a kind of soup and I was surprised about the marvellous taste.
So I decided to try to copy this creation. With the help of  all my experience, spices and of course a certain time investment I was really lucky. The result was a soup which was exactly matching with the wonderful soup I had tasted at the “Dicken Sophie” .
I decided to select this soup as starter for my Christmas-dinner this year. 
By the way, some days ago I served this soup to some of my friends. They where really impressed and asked me about the secret of this tasty creation.

As Christmas is near I think it is a good idea to offer your guests this wonderful chestnut-cream-soup with  sherry and cinnamon as well:

Directions:

1. Cut chestnuts into quarters.
2. Melt butter in a pot.
3. Add chestnuts and flour them with icing sugar – leave it to caramelise.
4. Add water –  let it recuce a little bit.
5. Puree it with a hand blender. If necessary add some more water to get the desired consistency (creamy or liquid).
6. Reheat gently, stirring in the sherry and cream. Do not boil again!
7. Season it with salt, nutmeg, cane sugar and cinnamon and check seasoning by tasting. 
8. Ladle the soup into individual bowls. Just before serving, spoon on a generous dollop of sour cream (if desired, then add two or three cheestnuts).

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 13th November 2008

Authors and their favourites

This new subject is very especial for me. Due to this reason it was difficult to find the right way to  begin this story.

When my school-time started many years ago, the teacher had a lot of difficulties to introduce me to the secret of writing. Even my parents who tried to support the frustrated woman by training me at home, gave up hope soon. After some time it was an open secret: this girl would never be able to write and read. But as you can imagine: they were all wrong – I learned it. And soon I discovered the secret of the written words. No book was secure from my attack  and I indulged my new passion vehemently. And I found out that printed words impressed me much more than any picture or movie. That´s the reason why I admire writers and authors so much.

In the year 2002 my employer, the editorial department of a televison station, sent me to the "Corine", an international award ceremony for literature. The event took place in the Cuvilliés-Theatre in Munich.
At this occasion I had the pleasure to meet some of the famous writers like Paulo Coelho (The Alchimist), Waris Dirie (Desert Dawn) and Barbara Wood (Sacred Ground).

Well, naturally even writers have to eat and they have  favourite dishes, too. Aware of this I decided to  deliver a little insight into this privacy. So I contacted some of the famous authors asking them what kind of dishes they prefer.
This blog is very particular for me. I invite you to enjoy it together with me.

I am going to start with the bestseller author Barbara Wood (“Daughter of the Sun”, “The Blessing Stone”, “Sacred Ground”, “Perfect Harmony”, “The Prophetess”, “Virgins of Paradise”, “The Dreaming”, “Green City in the Sun”, “Soul Flame”, “Vital Signs”).
She did not reply only but sent me the recipe of her favourite dish, too.

Barbara Wood’s biography:
After High School, Barbara attended the University of California at Santa Barbara but left to train as a surgical technician. In 1976 she sold her first novel.  Barbara's research for her books extends far and wide. She has visited every country she has written about and in fact does not feel comfortable writing about a country that she has not walked on or breathed its air. 
 
Her mail:

And now her recipe:

At this place and occasion I thank her very much indeed.

As we are talking just now about international writers I would like to present you a second American writer and her favourite dish. I am talking about Tess Gerritsen (“The Surgeon”, “The Apprentice”, “The Sinner”, “Body Double”, “Harvest”, “Life Support”, “Bloodstream”, “Gravity”, “The Bone”).

Her biography:
Tess Gerritsen did not plan her carrier as writer. She received her M.D. at the University of California, San Francisco. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. While working and living in Hawaii,  Tess Gerritsen submitted a short story to a statewide fiction contest. Her story won first place, and she subsequently left medical practice. “Call After Midnight”, a romantic thriller, was followed by more romantic suspense novels. Now retired from medicine, she writes full time – successfully, as we know.

And here her reply:

Thanks also to Tess!

Now we are coming to Kerstin Gier  a famous German writer. Kerstin Gier writes women’s novels like: („Die Mütter Mafia“, Die Patin“, „Männer und andere Katastrophen“, „Lügen, die von Herzen kommen“, „Ein unmoralisches Sonderangebot“, „Für jede Lösung ein Problem“).

Originally the profession of Kerstin Gier is an academically qualified teacher. Her first book "Männer und andere Katastrophen" was published in 1995. It was a big success and even a film was produced with Heike Makatsch in the leading part. But all the following novels were successes, too, and the novel: "Ein unmoralisches Sonderangebot" was assigned 2005 with the award “DeLiA” for the best German love novel.

Below you will find the letter:

Many thanks to Kerstin Gier and success for the future.

At the next I would like to introduce to you Cornelia Funke a very famous writer of books for children and young people („The Thief Lord “, “Dragon Rider”, “When Santa Fell to Earth”, “Igraine The Brave”, “Inkheart”, “Inkspell”, “Inkdeath”).
Cornelia Funke is a multiple award-winning German author of children's fiction.
After finishing her studies (“Education”), Funke worked as a social worker, focusing on children with a deprived background. Then she began illustrating books, but soon began writing her own stories, inspired by the sorts of stories that had appealed to the deprived children she had worked with.  Her international breakthrough came with “The Thief Lord” in 2000, which immediately climbed to the #2 position of the New York Times bestseller list.

I received a reply from her sister, Insa Funke:

Thank you, Cornelia and Insa Funke!

Last but not least we will talk about a man – Matthias Kringe.
Matthias Kringe started after his college as a caricaturist with the newspaper “Westfalenpost”.
Since 1982 he publishes the famous “Dilldappen-Calendar“ with comics in the native language of the “Siegerland”.
He draws comics, writes picture stories for "Pettersson & Findus"-children magazine of Panini-Dino and is responsible for the design of the licence products of Pettersson & Findus as well (f.e. puzzlebooks). He also works for the German MAD-Magazine, especially as designer of the magazine-covers.

Here his reply:

Thank you very much, Matthias Kringe!

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 06th November 2008

And then there was that Thanksgiving recipe...

Just some days ago, I found that very interesting recipe for Thanksgiving:

What a funny recipe...

And for those, who prefer roast duck to a turkey:

Roast Duck with Apples and Raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Remove giblets, necks, and livers from ducklings. Wash, drain, and pat dry with paper toweling.
3. Rub cavities with salt and pepper and brush with clear honey.
4. Fill duck with apples and raisins.
5. Fasten neck skin to back with a skewer. Tuck tail ends into cavities. Tie legs together and tuck wing tips under duck. Prick skin generously to release fat. Place duck, breast side up, on a rack in a large shallow roasting pan.
6. Backspace oven to 130°C.
7. Roast at 130°C for 3 hours or until legs (after one hour place duck breast side down).
8. Take duck out and let it rest for 30 min.
9. Heat oven up to 240°C and add red wine. Cook sauce for 30 min.
10. Flavour sauce with salt and pepper.
11. Cut duck into 4, 6 or 8 pieces (use – if you want – apples and raisins for the sauce). Baste it with stock or sauce and roast at 230° for 15 min.
12. Serve it with sauce and potato dumplings and red cabbage.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 30th October 2008

Eat’n Style – A must for every (hobby-) cook

There is a big mark in my diary, showing the fair “Eat´n Style” on Sunday.
For weeks I have been looking forward to this date. You remember, last year I visited the fair “Kochgeflüster” . But when I learned that the fair has been suspended for this year, we, my friends Isabell, Sabine and myself decided to visit the fair “Eat´n Style” in the Olympiahalle in Munich. Gert Bormann a friend of Isabell and  chef de cuisine in a restaurant and a well known all-round-genius wanted to join us.
When we met there at the spot, Gert was accompanied by a friend Michael Sobota a gourmet-chef, working in the  Restaurant Salzburger Stube in Rielasingen-Worblingen. He was there to perform later a cooking show at the fair. Of course we were intending to participate but at first we wanted to see what was going on at the fair. So we strolled from stall to stall. Everywhere were we passed by the exhibitors gave us friendly information, even without being asked, about their products.

Spices

Chocolate Fountain

And Gert provided us with proposals and hints like: “If you like to taste my wonderful recipe for a superb chocolate tarde, just take 150 g flour, 600 g cream, 600 g chocolate ….”
All that useful information I absorbed like a sponge and tried to store it onto my internal hard disk thinking already at which occasion I could use it.

Just before a Cooking Show

Then we joined the audience of  Michael´s cooking show. He presented his “Stuffed Crispy Pancake with Cured Trout and Tomatoes and Lemon-Wine-Sauce“.
We were selected to taste the result. And I tell you, it was wonderful.
On the spot we decided to repeat the whole thing next year again.

Gourmet-Chef Michael Sobota

To sooth my family before I left home for the fair   I prepared for them a tasty “Cut-Up and Sugared Pancake with Raisins“ a hommade apple sauce.

Directions apple sauce:

1. Skin, core, and cut your apples into quarters.
2. Place apples in a pot.
3. Combine sugar, vanilla sugar and cinnamon.
4. Mix with apples.
5. Stir in water and lemon juice.
6. Cover and cook on low ½ hour.
7. Stir for a chunky sauce.
8. Serve hot or cold.

Ingredients for Cut-Up and Sugared Pancake with Raisins:

1. Soak raisins in rum or hot water.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
3. Beat egg yellows, sugar, cinnamon, salt and vanilla sugar in a bowl until fluffy and creamy.
4. Add milk, melted butter and flour, then raisins and nuts.
5. Whisk egg whites stiff and  fold in batter.
6. Heat butter in a flat-bottomed pan, pour in the batter and fry over moderate heat. Turn and finish frying.
7. Shred the pancake into small pieces while it is still in the pan.
8. Sprinkle on powdered sugar before serving.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 23rd October 2008

Change of subject just by chance

Since weeks I have been brooding about the subject which I wanted to offer you today. But while thinking how to frame the story I was suddenly aware about the fact that this will be a quite long  one. As the time was pushing me already I had to change the topic. So I am going to release the publication after finishing the story.
The subject is very interesting and at the moment top secret. But I am sure you will like it and, by the way, the literary background makes it even more amusing.

In place of the mentioned blog I present you one of my favourite recipe: roast pork and vegetables in aspic.
It´s easy to prepare and very tasty.

Ingredients (for three plates):

Directions:

1. Peel eggs and cut into slives.
2. Wash sweet pepper and cut into rings .
3. Peel carrot and cut into thin slices.
4. Cut gherkins into slices.
5. Pour broth and vinegar into a pot - retain 5 tbsp of broth.
6. Mix these 5 tbsp of broth with the gelatine.
7. Boil the carrots briefly in the broth and then take them out again. Then season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Prepare plates : First put the roasted pork, then the eggs and sweet pepper, carrots, gherkins and pepperberries into the soup plates.
9. Add the soaked gelatine to the broth and stir.
10. Pour broth in soup plates.
11. Let the broth cool, then put the plates into the refrigerator.
12. After 1 - 2 hours you can serve it with fresh baguette or roasted potatoes.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 16th October 2008

What do I cook now?

Each and every day my mind circulates  around the subject “cooking”. Of course, I know that many people have the same fun or maybe problem. But if you have to care for a family you need to think how to feed them and with which kind of food. But here start the difficulties already. Everybody has a certain preference for certain foodstuff and do not like very much to tolerate the taste of the others. As example: my daughter does not like meat and carrots, my son is not very fond of vegetable and my husband has preferences, he likes sandwiches and pizza. If my children could choose, they would eat every day pancake, kaiserschmarrn (cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins), rice pudding, spaghetti (just plain or with ketchup) or pizza. I think everybody in this “food-strange” family likes pizza and spaghetti – even me – but not every day.
I do like very much to try out new recipes. But even here I do not raise too much cheer. Mostly,  at least one of my beloved family members starts to grumble. I  think you feel how difficult it is for me to find a solution to satisfy all of them.

And so, I thought, it´s a brilliant  idea to generate a food-plan which covers one week to gain the advantage for me to strain myself once a week only. A mix of different kind of meals should satisfy everybody.
But this concept did not work at all. Sometimes I or somebody else from the family was not very much keen on the meal which the program offered, or we got visitors or we went out and so on. So that project was dropped and I looked for another alternative.
And again I had a bright idea. I produced a list containing all that kind of food which the family-members liked. I fixed the list on the fridge door combined with the strong hope that this new attempt will lead to some success.
Unfortunately I was not very lucky again. I think the list is still there, but hidden behind notes, labels, photos  and other papers. Or did it disappear already? Maybe as drawing paper? Nobody knows. But one is for sure, I haven’t seen it for the last one year.
Some times ago I met a friend of mine and she explained to me how they are solving similar problems.
Everybody has the opportunity to place once a week his or her special food-wish to the chief cook of the family.
And I thought - that is it!
The others should think about my daily problems and take over the responsibility.
But the result was again not that what I was looking for.
Each Monday my daughter wanted spaghetti and sometimes rice pudding. Tuesday and Wednesday I am usually out to earn money and the time after was too short to prepare a full meal. Thursday my son asked for rice pudding too and on weekend the chief of the family was fixed on pizza.
You can imagine that this business was not predestined for success.
Now I am at the beginning again: what do I cook? I torture my brain where I go and every time.
And the never ending story continues: ”I do not like vegetable, I prefer pancake” or “can I remove the meat from the goulash”, “I hate that  sauce” and so on. Or the other way round: “Why do you paint with the balsamic cream this strange figures on the rim of your plate? We are at home and not in a restaurant.”

But anyhow. Let´s start  with my next recipe: 
Tarte Flambee with arugula.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 220 °C.
2. Yeast dough: Mix flour, oil, water, yeast, salt, garlic and nutmeg – dough has to be soft.
3. Peel onions and slice them thinly.
4. Roll the dough in a thin layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle it a little bit with salt and pepper.
5. Mix Crème Fraîche or sour cream with whipping cream and brush dough with it. Sprinkle onions and ham on the top.
6. Bake tarte 15 – 20 min until it is crispy.
7. Clean and wash arugula.
8. Distribute arugula and serve it hot.

And what happened when I proudly served my latest product.
My five year old daughter commented really disgusted: “I was expecting a pizza but that´s no pizza at all!” And my son added with whiny voice: “I wanted a pizza and not such a strange something!”

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 9th October 2008

Let’s have a Party

If I have to characterise myself, the first attribute which I would point out is my sociality. Or even better my “very strong sociality”. I like to communicate with other people and I love to invite friends and cook for them and due to my drive to celebrate each and every occasion I search constantly everywhere for new recipes. It does not matter if it´s fingerfood-, salad- or other various kind of theme-buffets. Only last Sunday I purchased at the flea market in Utting (takes place every year on the first Sunday of October) a book with the label “Let´s have a Party” and as well as an old magazine from the nineties called “Essen und Trinken” with the main topic “Buffet”.
As I am very fond of buffet food I do know many variations and out of this pool I will offer you from time to time recipes here in ”Table Talks”.
Let´s start today with a very famous fingerfood which is called here in Bavaria “Fleischpflanzerl”. In other regions well known as “Bulette”, “Frikadelle”, “Klops”, “Fleischküchle” or “Hamburger”. During my culinary trips I tested many variations and this one which I like most  I am going to present you herewith:

Ingredients:

Add ingredients to the mincemeat

Mix it all

Form it and coat the mincemeat with the breadcrumbs

Then fry the "Fleischpflanzerl" in a pan

Directions:

1. Peel onions and chop them.
2. Mix mincemeat, onions, eggs and 100 g of the breadcrumbs.
3. Chop garlic or press it through the garlic press. Then add it to the mincemeat.
4. Add spices and mix it again
5. Fill 150 g of the breadcrums into a soup plate.
6. Heat shortening in a pan.
7. Form mincemeat balls, then press it a little bit and coat them with the breadcrumbs (if required, take more breadcrumbs)
8. Fry "Fleischpflanzerl" in the pan (medium heat) for about 5 minutes.

Tipp:  You can eat "Fleischpflanzerl" warm or cooled down. Serve it with salad or fresh baguette.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday,2nd October 2008

About jam and children´s birthday party

For this week I had three very important things in my time table. One was the making of a Plum-Amaretto-Jam, then the organisation of my son´s  birthday party and the third was the writing of an article for the newspaper about the Thanksgiving party in the kindergarten.

I started with the jam. You must know, I do like jam very much and I try constantly new recipes. Lately my friends asked me to make again my favourite Plum-Amaretto-Jam, hoping to participate on the hardware. So I decided to follow their request.
To get a fruity jam I need ripe, sweet and juicy prune plums. So I went to the market to purchase the required material. But no way. The fruits offered were just the opposite.
I searched shop by shop and at the end I was successful.
Now I am ready to start.

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Put prune plums into a pot, add preserving sugar and lemon juice and boil it until plums are soft. Stir it every now and then.
2. Meanwhile, take the vanilla pod, slit it open lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Then add seeds to the plums.
3. Add cinnamon .
4. Puree plums with a hand blender .
5. Add Amaretto hinzugeben und reboil it again.
6. Then fill it into the cleaned jars, wipe the rims with a clean cloth or paper towel, and close the jars with the cleaned covers. And now turn the jars upside down for some minutes.

***************

The next “very important“ task was the preparation of the birthday party. My son asked me to make some Muffins. To improve the appearance of the pastries I painted them in different colours and spread some chocolate sprinkles or granules over it.
How they looked, see below.

Here the recipe:

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to auf 180° C (Umluft 160° C).
2. Grease baking dish.
3. Peel bananas and puree them.
4. Mix oat flakes, yoghurt, flour, cinnamon, grated chocolate, baking powder and natron.
5. Add bananas, oil and egg and mix it again.
6. Fill Teig batter into baking dish.
7. Bake it for about 20-25 min.Then let it cool down for 5 min and and take it out of the dish.
8. Icing: Mix icing sugar and lemon juice. Then add food colouring and stir it. Puderzucker mit Zitronensaft vermischen und Lebensmittelfarbe unterrühren. Please note: it has to be a semifluid, because the icing has to cover the muffin.
   If you like Muffins in different colours, you have to portion it an add different food colouring in each portion.
9. Then sprinkle icing with grated chocolate, coloured sprinkles, small chocolate beans.

***************

All is done, even the article was ready in time. Now I am waiting for the next challenge.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 25th September 2008

A brand new soup-composition out of pumpkin and pomegranate

It´s pumpkin time. Everywhere you go, at least in the countryside, you see pumpkins just waiting to get bought.
But Halloween has not come yet. But what does it matter? Already now you can buy Christmas items like Santa Claus in all versions, Advent calendars or sweets like marzipan potatoes. But I am not in the mood to buy such things now, three month before Christmas. Ok, about marzipan potatoes we can talk... Such goodies you can eat the whole year and I know what I am talking about.

My attitude about pumpkins is different. Here I am and here I buy.
Their wonderful bodies with different colours and shapes are very useful for decoration.  But for me is a pumpkin much more than a decoration item. This vegetable is predestined for something more.

This time I selected a Hokkaido pumpkin (his origin is the island of Hokkaido in Japan). This kind of pumpkin is not very big but of a wonderful taste.

For some days I arranged him in a fruit bowl on the living room table. After some days, when he got already comfortable with his new life, I fetched a big knife, took that orange fellow together with his two mates, an apple and a pomegranate and lead them to their new destination, a soup full of flavour and with a touch of  exotic.
To accentuate the elegant taste of that pumpkin I used some coconut milk, ginger, coriander and some other ingredients.
The result is tremendous tasty.

Try it and I think you will not regret it.

Ingredients:

Directions:

• Peel the hokkaido, remove threads and seeds from the middle and cut it into cubes.
• Peel ginger and chop it.
• Chop onion, heat oil in a pan, add onion and sweat it.
• Add water and boil it.
• Add pumpkin cubes and ginger and let it simmer for 25 minutes.
• Peel apple and cut it into cubes.
• Add apple after the 25 min simmertime and let it boil for another 5-10 min.
• Separate the pomegranate seeds from the membranes and skin.
• Decant the water in another pot and purée fruits and vegetable pieces, add ¾ of the pomegranate seeds and coriander leaves and purée again.
• Put mixture in a cooking pot and boil again for 2 min.
• Add pumpkin-cooking-water, until soup gets the desired consistency.
• Add sugar and coconutmilk and stir it.
• Season it with salt and Sherry to taste.
• Fill the soup into a soup plate and add some pomegranate seeds and coriander leaves. Serve it with fresh baguette.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 18th September 2008

No chance to be faster...

I am really inspired! If you ask me why, I am going to tell you - I found a cake which can be made in no time.
It´s fact that for mothers and housewives who are still in a job besides all the daily stress at home, are very thankful to any proposal for a dish, cake or similar foodstuff which can be prepared without spending too much time. And I got a solution. It´s a simple but wonderful recipe of a cake which can be modified in every way. Just by changing the ingredients you can create a total new product which does not remember even of the basic recipe.
The preparation time, you might believe it or not, takes only 5 minutes. I tested already two variations: a chocolate-cherry-cake and a coconut-pineapple-cake. So I call this cake "surprise cake".
If you got curious now - just follow the recipe mentioned below:

Ingredients:

Directions:

Preheat oven to 175 °C.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl for 3 min on highest setting.
Bake it for 45 min. If you want ice it.

You can modify the cake:

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, 11th September 2008

Say farewell...

And now it comes what has to come: today the summer will say “farewell” with a last warm and sunny day - at least the weather forecast did say so.
That means the last time swimming, the last time wearing summer clothes and the last enjoyment of an ice cocktail in one of the nice Italian coffee shops around. It´s always the same and not unexpected: after the more or less beautiful summer follows the autumn and then the cold winter.
To prepare myself for the coming cold days I went yesterday for shopping intending to purchase warm clothing. It was a kind of equivalent for the expected uncomfortable days. But when I saw the crowded city, people hustling through the shops and buying warm clothing to help to overcome the winter, I had the idea they have also listened to the weather forecast  and realized immediately what was coming up. The consequence was that the queues in front of the cashiers grew longer and longer and again I was sure to be as usual in the wrong, the slowest row.
When I changed to another one that seemed to be much faster, suddenly the receipt roll was empty, the change was finish or the cashier had to go to toilet. So, as clever as I seemed to be, I moved back to my old queue expecting some speed advantage out of it. But everything, what I did, seemed useless. Now  the imponderabilities started also here again. When the old lady in front of the desk wanted to pay her stuff she recognized she had forgotten her pin code and not enough money to pay cash. To cancel the bookings the incharge had to be called and the rest of us were waiting and waiting. Slowly I started to grow upset. And the moment came when my mind developed a strong desire to kill at first the old lady and then the cashier and then the rest of the world. Furious I looked around for more candidates – but I kept waiting. I wanted and I needed the stuff which I chose.

When I reached home and unpacked all that wonderful things which I purchased, I made peace with myself and the rest of the world. I was also proud not to have done what I wanted to do some hours before to all that people around me.

But that was yesterday and is already history. Today it´s today and more things have to be done beside preparing the outfit for the cold days. I mean the kind of food which has to be modified and changed to the coming seasons.
The light summer food is out and has to make way to the more heavy winter food. So I started with meat-rolls filled with a mustard-honey-vegetable mixture and another variation of feta-cheese and spinach.

Ingredients – Meat Rolls with Honey, Mustard and Vegetables

Directions:

1. Flatten meat with meat mallet or rolling pin.
2. Sprinkle beef slices lightly with salt and pepper.
3. Mix onion, carrots and bacon.
4. Spread mixture on meat.
5. Roll up meat from short end and secure with string or pins.
6. Roll in seasoned flour
7. Place meat roll in skillet over medium high heat in reserved oil and brown on all sides.
8. Heat oil and brown roulades, a few at a time, on all sides 1/2 hour in all.
9. Add some water.
10. Simmer roulades for 1 ½ hours.
11. With slotted spoon, lift out roulades; place on tray. Remove string or pins.
12. In a smaller bowl, mix reserved seasoned flour, stirring until smooth.
13. Bring to a boil; reduce heat; simmer, stirring, until thickened and smooth.

*****

Ingredients – Meat Rolls with Spinach and Feta Cheese

Directions:

1. Flatten meat with meat mallet or rolling pin.
2. Sprinkle beef slices lightly with salt and pepper.
3. Cook the spinach according to the instructions on the packet. Then pur away the liquid.
4. Peal onions and garlic, hash it and sweat it with oil in a pan.
5. Add the spinach and season it with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Then let the mixture cool down.
6. Crumble feta cheese and mix it with the spinach (or: spread spinach-mixture on meat and then sprinkle feta cheese on top). Then add the egg and mix it again.
7. Spread mixture on the meat.
8. Roll up meat from short end and secure with string or pins.
9. Roll in seasoned flour
10. Place meat roll in skillet over medium high heat in reserved oil and brown on all sides.
11. Heat oil and brown roulades, a few at a time, on all sides 1/2 hour in all.
12. Add some water.
13. Simmer roulades for 1 ½ hours.
14. With slotted spoon, lift out roulades; place on tray. Remove string or pins.
15. In a smaller bowl, mix reserved seasoned flour, stirring until smooth.
16. Bring to a boil; reduce heat; simmer, stirring, until thickened and smooth.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Tuesday, September 2nd 2008

To the Baltic Sea and back

Two weeks vacation, leaving behind business and stress. Two weeks piece and recreation. Two weeks sea and sun.
I love to go South for holidays. But this time the family was the winner. I had to go North. The target was the island Hiddensee located in the Baltic Sea. We rented a house for the estimated two weeks. The location was ideal. The front-side of that house was facing the blue sea and the beautiful white beach.
As cars on the island are banned the only chance to move yourself  from one place to the other was to use your legs or rent a cycle. The first thing what we did after unpacking the suitcases, inspecting the house, walking to the beach, having a touch with the water was to rent a cycle.

My holiday-program was tightly packed with cycling, climbing the light-house, swimming, jogging along the beach, visiting the Gerhard-Hauptmann-House, testing the restaurants of the island, reading, tasting  bread rolls with fish at the harbour and enjoy the beautiful view with a glass of wine in my hand – relaxation pure.
Ok, the weather did not play “holiday”, but I was informed about via internet before I started this trip. And according the slogan “there is no bad weather but only wrong clothing”  I had no problems at all as I took everything with me what was essential to withstand the natural imponderabilities.

Houses covered with reed


Beach near Vitte

Harbour of Kloster

Beach impressions

Sun set. View from our villa

After two weeks we had done everything what had to be done: cycling through the island, climbing the light-house with the beautiful view from up there.

Lighthouse in Kloster

View from the lighthouse

Many times we went to the harbour enjoyed the fish rolls and watched the incoming and outgoing of the fisher-boats and the ferries. We visited the house of Gerhard Hauptmann where he lived and also his grave.

House of Gerhart Hauptmann

When the weather was not too cold we enjoyed the white beach, made a swim in the cold, clear sea and walked along the coast line. For dinner we visited all the restaurants around our house but the best food for us we found in „Godewind“ in Vitte.
Sometimes we cooked ourselves. Our favourite was the  Hiddensee-Roast.

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan and sauté it.
2. Take the joint out of the pan, season it with salt and pepper and spread it with mustard.
3. Coat the joint with bacon.
4. Put joint in a roasting tin, add some oil and roast it the oven (110°-120°) C for 3-3,5 hours.
5. Wash the fruits, seed them and cut them into halves, quarters six parts and eighths (it depends on the sizes of the fruits).
6. After 3 hours raise the temperature up to 200 ° C for 15 min.
7. Then lower temperature down to 110°C and add frutis and wine. Season fruits with sugar and cinnamon.
8. Add some gravy thickener if you want.
9. After 15 – 20 min the roast is ready.
10. Serve it with dumplings.

During the last days the weather was really beautiful. Of course it was not enough to paint my skin as I am used to it being in the South - but it was ok.
Finally I can say: besides the sometimes ugly weather situation the vacation in Hiddensee met fully our expectations – but you can´t have everything.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, August 14th 2008

It´s a must in summertime: inventive summer salads – simple and quick

I do notice again and again: Bavaria is beautiful and I have the privilege to live in the most beautiful spot of this country. Five lakes are around nearby, to Italy it´s just a stone´s throw and you can see the mountains. What do I need more? I live on a place where other people are spending their vacation. And a second advantage is the immense choice of leisure facilities especially during the summertime. In respect of sporting activities I think there is nothing missing. From hiking, climbing and paragliding in the mountains to sailing, surfing and swimming in the lakes, nordic walking, jogging, biking, skating or just walking in the flat area of the country, everything is possible.
Beside the sportive offerings there are a lot of cultural choices like open-air-cinemas, blade nights, night markets and and and…I am sure there is something for everyone.

Some days ago I participated on the festival which took place in the big garden of a castle which is just near to my village. A beautiful lake to my feet which looked like a painting from Lovis Corinth. The sun was shining, the water glittering and the smell of popcorn, sweet almonds, pizza, grilled fish, Asian rice pan and curry sausage everywhere.
Concentrated in one sentence: oh, what a wonderful day covered by a dreamlike scenery.

Not to forget the many different restaurants which I love to visit from time to time.
But beside all that I prefer to cook myself. And as already said, I like to create all kind of salads during the summer time.
Just imagine: a warm summer evening, the candles illuminate the lovely decorated tables and that all topped by a light, fresh summer salad with a fresh baguette and a glass of wine.
All that sounds good. And so I am going to present you a wonderful salad creation easy to prepare and very good in taste:

Lukewarm Lentil Salad with Fruits and a Honey-Lime-Dressing

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Dressing: Mix honey and lemon juice, then add spices and at last add olive oil and mix it again.
2. Boil lentils until soft – but not too soft.
3. Wash and peel apples, divide it into eight pieces and chop it.
4. Wash, peel and chop carrot.
5. Drop sultanas into into boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove immediately und dry them.
6. Let tangerines drain off. Fresh tangerines: peel and fillet them.
7. Brown peanuts lightly.
8. Mix warm lentils, tangerines, apples, sultanas, pink pepper berries, roasted peanuts and carott.
9. Add dressing and mix it again.

*****

Mixed Summer-Salad with Scallops in garlic

Ingredients:

Zubereitung:

1. Wash scallops with cold water and dab them dry.
2. Wash salad leaves.
3. Wash and chop tomatoes (divide cherry tomatoes into halves or quarters).
4. Peel and chop cucumber.
5. Peel and chop garlic.
6. Dressing: Mix vinegar, sugar and lemon juice. Add spices and mix it again. Then add olive oil and mix it together again.
7. Heat some oil in the pan, add garlic and roast gently. Then add scallops and sauté them for 3 min. Season it with salt and pepper.
8. Arrange salad leaves, tomatoes and cucumber on a plate.
9. Sprinkle dressing over salad and arrange scallops and garlic on it.

Serve salad with fresh baguette.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, August 7th 2008

Dozens of Summer-Parties

…and it happens again: I got an invitation to a summer-afternoon- party accompanied by the well known request to contribute something to the cake buffet.
Slowly the repetition of these procedures are growing to some kind of nightmares for me. Even in my dreams now rotates a new kind of a merry-go-round  existing out of cook books, summer-parties, recipes and again summer-parties. Constantly I have to think about what kind of food stuff I can take along with me to the different summer invitations of the Karate-club, the football club the summer-party of the kindergarten or the school and... and... and....
I also remember quite well the challenge to prepare and organize a breakfast in my son´s school together with only one out of the many other mothers.
I have to study recipes, select the right one´s and prepare the food and all that always with the same ending, to clean up the mess of the battle field “kitchen”.
But back to the “cake-party”. I know what that means. A lot of cakes on the tables and of course a lot of guests who do not like sweets. In spite of the party-motto I decided this time to skip my first idea and prepare something real: Greek Spinach and Feta Puff Pastry Bites. But before that I had to go at first shopping to get the ingredients, pick up my son from the school, book the seats for the holiday program for my children which our village offered this year for their youngest citizens and last but not least to prepare the Greek Spinach and Feta Puff Pastry Bites. A well calculated time schedule was more than  essential to manage all that in the remaining time.
When I reached the booking office I was panic stricken seeing the long queue of parents who wanted to sign for the same holiday program, too. It took me one and a half hour of my valuable time till I could make the booking. In the meantime I called a friend of mine to organize a packet of puff pastry which I had forgotten to buy.
Stressed and exhausted I reached my home. I changed the clothing  of my son and accompanied him to his Karate lesson. Again at home I could finally start with the cooking. There were only 45 minutes left.
I felt very hot and it was hot, 30 degrees centigrade and I thought I would collapse - thank God, it was only a feeling.
Step by step and well organized I prepared everything and when the creation rested in the oven I had 28 minutes left. 25 minutes took the baking and the remaining 3 minutes were reserved for cutting the ready product, arranging everything and carrying it to the place of destination - just over the road.

And it worked out. Just in time I could add my latest product to the cake-table. And I was right: it took only 15 minutes till the guests eliminated my creation born by stress.

The ingredients:

Directions:

Thursday, July 31st 2008

Original Bavarian and real tasty: the "Obatzda"!

What can be better and more beautiful than a summer day in Bavaria? The sky is usually white and blue the temperature is about 30 degrees centigrade and everybody who has not the pressure  to work is spending his time at one of the many lakes around or in the shadow of the old chestnut trees of a beergarden together with his beer mug and the typical Bavarian foodstuff.

Of course it is well known that most of this culinary specialities are normaly not very benifiting your body shape but this does not influence a real Bavarian at all. He likes to enjoy his Schweinsbraten, Leberkäs or Obatzdn.
This so called Obatzdn belongs to typical Bavarian "Brotzeit" (a meal or snack consisting of bread, cold cuts, cheese etc., usually between breakfast and lunch or in the evening) like the salt to the soup. The Obatzda combined with a fresh Brezn and a mug of beer raises the heart beat of any Bavarian and so does it mine.
But I have to admit that, at least, I try to keep my weight. And that´s not always easy. Due to that fact I created my recipes in a way that on one side the calories are kept in their limits but on the other the taste doesn´t suffer. And as you know, the children don´t know any mercy or tolerance if the taste of the food is not matching their expectation - they just deny to eat.
A common opinion is that there is no chance to reduce the calories of an Obatzdn without losing the typical taste. But my experiment proves - it is possible. If you do not believe me, try it yourself.

Here now both recipes, the original and the light one:

Cut the onions in small pieces or chop them but keep some onion rings beside for the later decoration. Crush and mix the cream cheese, butter, camembert and spices with the help of a fork. If you do like the mixture very creamy just use a hand-held-mixer instead of the fork. Now add the onions and mix it again (with the fork). Arrange the result on a plate decorated with some onion rings and serve.

I am quite sure nobody will notice the difference.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, July 24th 2008

A dinner for trial – may I taste?

It´s summer and happenings are taking place everywhere.
Parties, events and many activities matching with the summer spirit – the pages of my diary are filled up with appointments. Would I have not fitted my timetable on the kitchen wall showing in huge letters all this dates it may happen to miss one or the other.  Mostly is this free time-stress accompanied by the request to contribute something to the buffet like salads, finger food or cakes. And by god everybody knows that I am fulfilling this expectations.

But this habit is not always common. Sometimes you can just go with empty hands and empty stomach and leave the party filled up to the top.

A similar event took place lately in the restaurant “Müllers Lust” in Pähl. The master cook had created a new menu especially targeted to the expected summertime. He focused on light food with many vitamins.
The intention of the restaurant owner was to test the new menu direct at the front, the customer.
For half of the normal prize you could participate. The only condition was to judge afterwards and fill a questionnaire. Of course it was a must for me to follow this invitation.

As starter I ordered a "Cold Vegetable Soup with Scampi Skewer an a Garlic-Chiabatta”, afterwards a “Vegetable Salad with Carrots, Arugula, Sugar Snaps, Bean Sprouts and a Ginger-Honey-Dressing served with a Monkfish Carpaccio”.
Because of the fact the carpaccio was not sliced as thin as the original carpaccio I would call it “fried monkfish pieces” - but anyhow it  was very tasty.
The “Beef Filet with Arugula-Chili-Crust served with Ricotta-Cappeletti und fried asparagus” which my friends ordered was very tasty, too, and met fully their expectations.

To bring it to the point: it was a nice evening in a comfortable ambiance with the good food which we expected.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, July 17th 2008

Weekend - Cakestime!

The weather is awful – it´s raining cats and dogs. But I am able to enjoy myself – I scroll through the pages of my different cookbooks. Well, I can do  something else but somehow I do love such kind of entertainment more. If I do not read I enjoy my second passion: I cook or bake.
Just last weekend I tried a new recipe of a “Red Currant Meringue Cake”.
The motive to do that were the many callers at my TV-editorial office asking for such a recipe. Of course we presented already quite a lot of recipes but no Red Currant Meringue Cake.
My hunting instinct was now awoken and I decided to search for information. It did not take long till I found the object of my desire - the recipe of the red currant meringue cake.

After studying the case I decided to create such a cake but with some modifications. Not only the reduction of sugar should help to be more friendly to your body (and you know: a moment on your lips - a lifetime on your hips).
Well, in spite of the change I tell you: the cake was absolutely delicious!
And now, ladies and gentlemen, here is it - the recipe....:

First preheat oven to 175 ° C. Then mix butter until fluffy. Now add egg and sugar and mix again. Add flour and baking powder and mix it again until dough is smooth. Lightly coat a 26 cm baking pan with margarine, and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Pour in the dough. Flatten the surface. Bake cake bottom for 25 min.

While the cake bottom is baking, beat the egg whites with the sugar till stiff peaks form. Add vanilla custard powder and beat it. Then add red currants and mix it carefully with a spoon. Put some red currant jam on the cake bottom. Gently spread the egg-white mixture over the top of the hot cake, and bake it for 15 more minutes. Bake it 40 min in the oven (150°C, circulating air).
When done, remove from baking pan, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Be honest, is this creation not looking inviting? But be sure the taste is even better.

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, July 10th 2008

A good idea: Homemade Italian Beef Carpaccio

Many times we read in the  menue of Italian restaurants: Beef Carpaccio! But honestly speaking – I don’t know anyone who ever had the idea to make beef carpaccio himself. The excuses are always the same: “I cannot cut the meat in the required thin slices as I do not have the right cutting facilities” or “I even don’t know, what kind of meat has to be used”. Hey? It is absolutely simple – believe me!

Here the ingredients:

                                                     
Directions:

First wrap the tenderloin in aluminium- or plastic foil and place it for two or three hours in the freezer. Then - after that time – cut the beef in thin slices with a very sharp knife, an electrical cutting machine or an electrical knife. The frozen condition of the meat makes this operation quite easy.
Place the slices on a plate in a way that they cover each other like fan blades and sprinkle some salt and pepper over it. Remove the stems of the arugula and arrange the leaves on the meat. Add some fresh lemon juice and olive oil. Decorate it with a slice of fresh lemon, spread now over this creation some grinded parmesan cheese and serve it with a fresh baguette.

Isn’t it a great appetizer – not only at the Italian restaurant but also at home?

Please leave a comment >>

******************************

Thursday, July 3rd 2008

About European Football Championship  and Coriander Quiches

Ok, ok, we lost the final against Spain in the European Football Championship. Never mind! I am sure next time we will be on the top. But instead of being too sad we will concentrate on our new recipe: a coriander-quiche.  For instance: you expect some friends for watching football on TV.  Why not offering a coriander-quiche to them? It is easy to prepare and it tastes absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Well, now let’s wait for the next World Cup in 2010 – maybe we will be lucky then. And if not, we still have our recipe to bake a coriander quiche...

Comments >>

******************************

Friday, June 27 th 2008

Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana...

... then I can bake a banana bread. I’m sure, Harry Belafonte also wanted to bake a banana bread. ‘Cause we – he and me – know that it tastes delicious and is healthy.
Joking apart – I don’t know if similar happens to you: I buy bananas for my family – they love bananas – and some days later – there are only three or four bananas left – I buy the next ones. But my family eats the new ones and nobody is interested in the “old stuff". They get ripe and change their colours from yellow to a deep dark brown and then – guess – they end up getting thrown into the compost.
No, I use them in another way: I make banana shakes or I bake a banana bread. It is absolutely tasty – warm or cold. Taste it!

Ingredients:

Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day-o...

Comments >>

******************************

Monday, June 15th 2008

A touch of Italy in my kitchen

Italy – I think of Venice, Calabria, Tuscany, olive grove, umbrella pines, fishing villages, Italian antipasti, pizza, pasta, a mild summernight in a little restaurant with a view to the piazza, a glass of wine and soft music. Do I have itchy feet? Or do I simply fancy Italian food? Both! Because I cannot head to Italy at the moment, I decide to bring a touch of Italy in my kitchen by cooking some Italian food. Well, it takes some time – and then I know what to cook: Fusilli with shrimps and orangesauce.

Ingredients:

1.
First grate the orange peel for the sauce. Then press out the orange juice and add the grated orange peel. Boil down the juice. Seed jalapeño pepper and perperoncino and chop it. Peel cloves of garlic and chop it, too. Add jalapeño pepper, peperoncino and garlic to the orange juice. Stir corn starch with some cold water and add it to the sauce (to achieve the required thickness). Keep the sauce warm.

2.
Peel green asparagus and cut the ends. Then cut into pieces (about 3 cm length).

3.
Cook the fusilli in the boiling water until they are al dente.  About 3 min before ending the cooking time add the asparagus to the pasta. Then let the pasta and the asparagus drain.

4.
Heat olive oil in a pan and stir-fry shrimps.

5.
Heat orange sauce. Add pasta, asparagus and shrimps to the orange sauce and mix it. Serve it with some leaves of basil.

While I am cooking there is a flavor of oranges, garlic and olive oil in the air. Italy – a touch of it in my kitchen...

Comments >>

******************************

Monday, June 9th 2008

Strawberrytime – how to make jam easily!

For breakfast I just need a cup of tea, a soft boiled egg, a bun (called “Semmel” in Bavaria) and a tasty jam. Nothing else! And because of the fact, that I eat a bread or a bun with jam almost every morning, I have to make a lot of jam each year. But I do not make jams just for me – no, jams are also a nice small present, when I call on a friend. So I collect all kind of jars in order to use them for making jams.
And now it’s strawberrytime – that means: now it’s time to make all kinds of strawberry jams, that cross my mind. But I do not use just strawberries – no, I combine strawberries with other fruits like pinapples, oranges and mangos. And this time I use ginger and coconut milk to add them to a unique taste. I always make just four or five jars of each flavour. So I don’t have to eat the same jam for more than two months.... And – to tell the truth – I have more ideas than I can realize.

Well, let’s start now. No, stop! First we have to sterilize the jars by boiling them 10 minutes. Then we keep the jars in hot water until they are used. Keeping them hot will prevent the jars from breaking when filled with the hot jam. Now we have to wash and rinse all caps of the jars as well.

And now let’s make our jam! First we want to start with the strawberry-mango-jam:

Ingredients:

300    g        strawberries
300    g        mangos
300    g        preserving sugar (1:2)
20      g        vanilla sugar
a little bit of   lemon juice

Peel mangos, remove the stone and cut them into little pieces. Then wash the strawberries and puree them. Add the lemon juice. Then add the mangos and puree them together with the strawberries. Now add the preserving sugar and vanilla sugar and stir it. Now transfer it to a saucepan. Bring it to boil over medium heat, stirring every minute, until the consistence thickens. Then fill it into the cleaned jars, wipe the rims with a clean cloth or paper towel, and close the jars with the cleaned covers. And now turn the jars upside down for some minutes.

So now we make the strawberry-pineapple-ginger-coconut-jam (I know, it's a long name – but I thin, everybody wants to know, what’s in it…):

Ingredients:

300    g        strawberries
350    g        pineapple
1        cm     ginger
300    ml      coconut milk
475    g        preserving sugar (1:2)

First wash the pineapple and peel it. Then cut it into small pieces. Now peel the ginger and chop it. Next thing is to wash the strawberries and puree them. Add pineapple pieces and chopped ginger, coconut milk and preserving sugar and puree it. Now again: transfer it to a saucepan. Bring it to boil over medium heat, stirring every minute, until the consistence thickens. Then fill it into the cleaned jars, wipe the rims with a clean cloth or paper towel, and close the jars with the cleaned covers. And now turn the jars upside down for some minutes.

Our next jam is the strawberry-orange-ginger-jam:

Ingredients

350    g        strawberries
200    ml      freshly squeezed orange juice
1        cm     ginger
525    g        preserving sugar (1:2)

First peel the ginger and chop it. Next thing is to wash the strawberries and puree them. Add orange juice and ginger and puree it again. Add preserving sugar and stir it. Then again: bring it to boil over medium heat, stirring every minute, until the consistence thickens. Then fill it into the cleaned jars, wipe the rims with a clean cloth or paper towel, and close the jars with the cleaned covers. And now turn the jars upside down for some minutes.

Next thing to do is a sauce, that goes with roastbeef or canard – a strawberry-chili-sauce:

Ingredients:

250    g        strawberries
1-2               japaleno peppers
100    g        preserving sugar (1:2)

First wash japaleno peppers, seed  and mince them. You can also use dried japaleno pepper from the mill. Then wash the strawberries and puree them. Add the minced japaleno peppers and the preserving sugar and puree it again. Then - like always: Bring it to boil over medium heat, stirring every minute, until the consistence thickens. Then fill it into the cleaned jars, wipe the rims with a clean cloth or paper towel, and close the jars with the cleaned covers. And now turn the jars upside down for some minutes. I use small jars as - compared to the jam - the lifetime of the sauce is shorter due to the fact that less preserving sugar is used.

Now last but not least –  because I have some mangos left – I make a mango-peach-coconut-jam:

Ingredients:

150    g        mangos (cut into pieces)
300    g        peaches (cut into pieces)
150    ml      coconut milk
300    g        preserving sugar (1:2)

Puree the mango and peach pieces. Then add coconut milk and preserving sugar and puree it again.  And now guess, what to do next? Yes, bring it to boil over medium heat, stirring every minute, until the consistence thickens. Then fill it into the cleaned jars, wipe the rims with a clean cloth or paper towel, and close the jars with the cleaned covers. And now turn the jars upside down for some minutes. Ready!

******************************

Monday, June 2nd 2008

A cold drink for hot days

It´s hot! The thermometer rises to 25 or 30°C and some days even higher. The desire to cool ourselves down is tremendous high. From inside as well as from outside. The best thing would be to jump into the cold water and have afterwards a cold drink.
As there are lots of recipes for cold drinks available I am going to offer you one by one.

At this time the elder is blooming and I think it’s a good idea to create a special syrup from this white tasty flowers. It is not very difficult.
You need:

Appr. 20-25 pieces of the elderflowers    
100 g           citric acid
2 l                water
2 k               sugar

So, I started to collect the smelly flower umbels. Of course I did not empty the whole bush as I am also very fond of the berries which I intended to collect later when they are ripe.
Again at home I started with the actual preparation. I shook the flowers to get rid of the farina and insects if existing, then I removed the stems. Sugar was solved in warm water and the citric acid in hot water and added to the sugar solution. Then I added the flowers covered the pot and kept it resting for 24 hours. After heating it up and filtering through a sieve or a cloth of linen I filled it into bottles.

To create now the drink itself just solve two table spoons of that syrup in a huge glass of cold water, add some lemon juice and ready is the “cold drink for hot days”.

******************************

Thursday, May 29th 2008

There ist nothing better than Bavarian soft pretzels!

Have you ever baked your own soft pretzels? You’ve never thought of baking a pretzel and you haven’t got the recipe? I can promise: you will never have better soft pretzels than those ones you bake yourself. Yes, I know, what I’m talking about. I did it! And I will do it again! It’s not that complicated you might think. No, actually it’s pretty easy. Well, first I have to say: there is a difference between pretzels and pretzels. While surfing around on the Internet and searching for soft pretzel recipes, I found out, that there are many so-called “pretzel” recipes, but I couldn’t find any Bavarian soft prezel recipes. The soft pretzels I found had strange colours and strange ingredients (yes, I even found a pretzel recipe with honey to get the right colour – hey, who on earth adds honey to his pretzel....?). Did you search as well for the absolute Bavarian recipe? Then I can put an end to your search. ‘Cause I’ve got THE RECIPE!  
                                            
Here the ingredients...

So, now let’s start: First you have to dissolve the fresh yeast in warm water and sugar. Then sieve the flour into a bowl  - if you use dry yeast, then sprinkle yeast over sieved wheat flour! Now add and mix the ingredients and kneat until smooth. Really smooth!

Ready? Place your dough on a floured surface.
Next step: Roll your dough into a rope. Then cut it into 12 equal pieces (about 40-45 cm length).

And now you have to twist eacht piece into a pretzel shape. That sounds easy, but it’s better to look at the photos:

Then cover your pretzels with a towel and let them rise for about 10 min in a warm spot.
It’s time to preheat the oven to 225 °C.
Now we have to cook the water and the natron in a large pot until it boils.
Add the pretzels to the boiling water for 30 seconds – one at at time.

Put a baking paper on a baking sheet. Remove pretzels and place each pretzel on the baking paper..
Sprinkle them with coarse salt and put them into a fridge for about 30 minutes. This is absolutely important, as you want a crispy soft pretzel!!!  And after resting 30 minutes in the fridge bake your pretzels for 20 minutes.

And? That’s easy, isn’t it? And now it’s your turn!!!.

******************************

Friday, May 23rd 2008

Fiesa – the world most famous Sandsculpture-exhibition

The planning yesterday was to visit the Sandsculpture-exhibition near Armacao de Pera and a typical Portuguese restaurant in Guia. But planning and reality are sometimes different.
At first we wanted to have dinner. It was 6 pm and we went to the restaurant “O Viera”. But it was closed. We were too early for a dinner in Portugal. So we had to change our plans and went to the Sandsculpture-exhibition area which was not very far from that place. The subject for this year was: Hollywood.
Reaching there I recognized that the chipcard of my camera was still sticking in the PC at home. Thanks god, my father, friendly as usual, was ready to go back  to get the missing item. Twenty minutes later he returned  and our tour through the exhibition could start. My goodness, it was not my day yesterday. After some shots the alarm light of the camera flashed, indicating that the battery was just empty. But again I was lucky, as I saw that my father had his small pocket digital camera taken along with him.
Similar to the days before the weather did not like us. It was cloudy and consequently the light for making pictures was not very suitable. Furthermore due to the rain during the last days nearly all sculptures where more or less damaged. As most of the artists had already left the country it was very difficult to get them repaired. Only the last 10 artists who remained here tried to repair the damages. The repaired one looked beautiful and for the rest we felt very pity.

The Simpsons, figures from Ice Age, Marilyn Monroe, the Flintstones, James Dean, different sequences from different films of Hitchcock, Batman, Spiderman and Superman were reconstructed and looked really impressive.
As every year, it´s definitely worthwhile to see the Fiesa.

According to our plan we went  afterwards to the restaurant “O Viero” which is quite famous for it´s excellent “chicken Piri Piri”.
I have to admit you don´t feel very homely as the guestroom is very big, the tables were set in long rows, the decoration looked strange for our taste and the white neon-lights were not very inviting. But as already mentioned, we expected a very good foodstuff. And it was good – even so good that I forgot to make a photo of this legendary “Chicken Piri Piri”.  I feel sorry for that but I promise there will be a next time.
And here the adress:

Restaurante - Churrasqueira
"O Vieira"
Rua General Humberto Delgado, 19
Guia - 8200 Albufeira
Tel: 289 561 556

******************************

Thursday, May 22nd 2008

A delicacy  of fresh smoked fish

Yesterday the awaited event took place – we started to smoke a salmon trout which we purchased at a local market.
When I said: we, I wanted to say :my father, as he was the man of action. Of course I watched carefully all his movements related to the preparation to convert a normal raw dead fish into a delicious piece of enjoyment. And this was really exiting.
We started already the evening before, cleaned the 1,4 kg heavy fish and kept him in the fridge for 13 hours in a salty and spicy liquid containing 50gr salt per 1 litre of  water, a small bunch of thyme and rosemary, a bit oregano, 5 leaves of laurel and 20 berry of juniper.
The next day the fish was cleaned with fresh water and hung up for some hours till he has dried completely.

Then the actual smoking procedure started. After the temperature of the electrical smoking oven reached  128 degrees,  the fish was hung into it and the smoking sawdust,  which was made out of an old almond trunk, was added. After 80 minutes the fish, mutated into a golden-yellow  piece of delicious food.

To complete his wonderful product we served it with fresh horseradish, garlic baguettes and fresh green salad.

Last but not least the typical Portuguese wine “Vinho verde” perfected my first Portuguese smoke experience. Bom apetite!

******************************

Saturday, May 17th 2008

Let´s go South

Back again in Portugal!
In spite of the beautiful spring days in Germany I dare to leave my home country direction south. Two weeks of holidays including sun, sand and the blue sea – two weeks Portugal, lucky me!
Beside many different activities, I planned to visit the world most famous sculpture festival in Guia close to Armacao de Pera, the seaside with long beach-walks, to indulge in the local cuisine, test new recipes together with my mother (f.e. the Red-Lentil-Soup or the Cherry-Amaretto-Cake),  to barbecue and to smoke salmon (my father is the  specialist for such kind of work and he has also the facilities).
Soon you will be fed with more information about worthwhile experiences made the following days. .

Today was the day of barbecueing.
We selected  the fish  “gilthead” (sparatus auratus).
Some hours ago the fishes were cleaned, dried and brushed inside and outside with a special ready made spice-mixture for fishes which is everywhere available here. It contains salt, fennel, onions, dill, black pepper, garlic and tarragon. Now the fish has to rest for three or four hours in the fridge. After that time both sides of the fishes have to be cut with a sharp knife (three diagonal cuts each side). To get the final Mediterranean  taste, garlic slices were stuck into this cuts, salt was applied outside and inside of the fish and than filled with a mixture of fresh garlic and parsley. Now they were ready to put them onto the charcoal.
We served the fish with mixed salad, fresh from the garden and garlic-baguette. The typical Portuguese “vinho verde”  gave the final touch to this tasteful grill experience.

******************************

Wednesday, May 8th 2008

Beer gardens are calling....

A beautiful day yesterday, a beautiful day  today and according to the weather forecast the next days will be beautiful, too. Do you guess, what did I do with such a nice day yesterday? You just hit the point! I visited the beer garden. But not anywhere. Living close to the Ammersee, I prefer, of course, a location near  the waterside.

Due to the reason that there is no chance, at least for the present, to place comments on my home page, I also cannot ask you, which beer garden you prefer.

But to compensate this provisional problems I am going to disclose to the interested visitor, here and  now, seaside-beer-gardens as well as beer gardens at beautiful locations which are counting definitely to my favourites.
Located near the lakes are: "Schreyegg" in Stegen (Ammersee), “Augustiner” in Wörthsee, “Seepost” in Schondorf (Ammersee) and “Alte Villa” (Ammersee) (with Jazz-Brunch every Sunday).
Furthermore I do like the beer gardens at countryside like “Sepperlwirt”  located in the lovely village of Meiling, the “Schatzberg-Alm” in Diessen and the “Müllers Lust” in Pähl.
My favorites in Munich are: “Taxisgarten” in Munich-Gern, "Aumeister" in Freimann, the beer garden of the inn “Hinterbrühl” in Thalkirchen and last but not least the well known beer garden at the foot of the “Chinese Tower” in the English garden.

Do you hear them calling? Don´t wait too long!!!

******************************

Friday, May 2nd 2008

Hey, spring ist back ….

Actually the winter wasn’t really cold but it seemed to be much longer as usual.
The spring was overdue. And here he is. Fresh green, colourful flowers and even the smell of our world reflects the wonderful change.

And so did it happen to me. I woke up after a long winter sleep, full of power and ready to face all the beautiful things inspired by the new feelings. I see picnics, grill-sessions, Jazz-brunch in “The Old Villa” in Utting, meetings with the beer in the beergarden, walking in the forests and on the beaches of our lakes, shipping on the Ammersee or the “Over 30-parties” on the Starnbergersee, the Tollwood-festival in Munich, the Open-Air-Cinema at the Königsplatz in Munich and so on. There were no limits at all for my ideas as Munich and the area around present many options.

But I am not only creative in respect of entertainment. No, the break-up of the spring inspires me for new recipes, too. One example is the lukewarm Weißwurstsalad with Brezencroutons.

I admit this creation sounds a bit strange but the taste is definitely pleasing the palatine. And I accept also to consume this foodstuff beyond noontime. You know it´s tradition here in Bavaria that the “Weißwurst” itself has to be eaten before 12 o´clock. But as a born Bavarian - a real Munich child - I am allowed to propose such a change of tradition.
I am really anxious how do you like this recipe.

******************************

Tuesday, April 22nd 2008

Wellness – my dream of recreation

I have to admit, even I like to be pampered. If you ask me where and how, I would say, a good hotel will do it, but better is, of course, a hotel combined with extraordinary wellness facilities. If you think now I am in the second half of my life, you are mistaken. And this is most probably the reason why I am not so fond of curing in  “Bad Wörishofen” or in the well known cure-hotels in Niederbayern. I like to go to Italy or better to South Tyrol.

At this wonderful place I spend every year an extended weekend together with my friends  Sandra and Frauke.
In our common interest, of course, it makes definitely no sense to provide you here with a correct site plan but at least I be ready to disclose a rough location of the hotel. It is resting high above Brixen at the door of  the beautiful puster-valley. A location which is predestined for such a recreation event. The furnishing is tasteful and shows character even in the single details. The rooms are comfortable, the wellness area is extraordinary, the service super,  the food excellent and the administration very friendly. What do you need more? It is the right thing at the right place. And all that we got through a hint of a friend of mine.

Yesterday we came back from this weekend trip, well relaxed, recreated and very happy. How can it be different after the marvellous breakfast buffet, the different salads and soups for lunch and the exquisite dinner with the many courses.

Everyday we were supplied by flyer containing the weather forecast, a slogan who hit the point of the day and a recipe for example the creation of the typical barley soup of that area or the Italian dish Ossobuco alla Milanese (slices of veal shanks).
Frankly speaking, if we were not on our eating-tour, we enjoyed the calmness, indulged the massage, manicure or pedicure or recreated on our divan bed in the wellness area, the wonderful view of the snow-covered mountains in front of us chatting with each other or enjoying reading. To compensate the passive bodywork we took long walks through the hills and short stop overs in the hotel bar, a must if you are on tour with your friends once a year. Isn´t it?

To make our farewell more easy we booked already the same tour for next year.

PS.: Psst... I just decided to give our secret away: www.schoenblick.com  - but don´t tell it anybody ???

******************************

Friday, April 4th 2008

Memories

Sometimes you listen to a song and suddenly you see - or better - you feel the past. Memories which are firmly tied with this melody. If you are lucky these memories are pleasing and you do love to remember. This happened to me some times ago. During the clean up and sorting out of old obsolete stuff in my house I found some old tapes. You know the very old ones where even matching record players are very rare. But I had one. So I did not hesitate to activate the old machine and was very anxious to listen to the music recorded on that tape. And now the merry-go-round of memories started twisting. Wham (”Wake me up before you go-go“ und “Club Tropicana“), Earth, Wind and Fire (“Ladies’ Night”), Tina Charles (“I love to love”) und Jimmy Cliff (“Reggae Night”). At once the vision of a real party vacation in Spain with my girlfriend Steffi appeared in front of my mental eyes. I remembered also the weeks spent on the island of Elba where I worked with my uncle in his surfing school. I think it was 1986 or even ´87. Listen to that music I remembered suddenly many more of the old songs, never have heard for years. I continued my search and found my favourites “Abba”. And again, the memories were overwhelming. I remembered the fashion of this time – starting with colourful Indian – style dresses which I wore at that time, the pink-coloured leopard trousers and all the different dresses and pullovers with the funny  embroidered glitter stuff. My mind jumped from one to the other, and suddenly stopped at the foodstuff which my mother cooked for us, the Dampfnudeln (Sweet Yields Dumpings) with the vanilla sauce or the Kasspatz´n (Cheese Dumplings) which is actually a favourite food of mine. When I started my own household the first kitchen utensil which I  bought was a manual machine to manufacture such Kasspatz´n. I went 1992 with some girlfriends for a language-course to Salamanca. One day some of our Spanish friends invited us for dinner and they cooked the famous paella. The next evening we countered with that typical  Bavarian Kasspatz´n. For me it was not that easy as I did not have the “machine” called "Spaetzlemaker" with me, but I used another technique to create this lovely Spaetzle. I just made a 1 cm thin layer out of dough on a small wooden board which is available in every kitchen and scrapped with the knife small pieces from this material down, put it into hot water and the show could go on. It was not that easy but it worked well and so my friend had at least the chance to taste that typical Bavarian “Schmankerl” (delicacy).
Well, memories - I love them. And now it´s time to continue with Snap and “Rhythm is a dancer” - the song we were listening to at that time...- a song for memories...