T and Tea Cake

Sesame & Soy Dressing

2012-07-30T15:33:00.001+02:00

Well look who is still around.

First of all, sorry for the unannounced hiatus (AGAIN). And sorry for me still being on it. Meaning: There still won’t be any new posts for at least two months. Before I will tell you the reason for that, I feel like explaining a little why I haven’t been blogging for so long. I’ll keep it short, I promise.

It all comes down to one factor: time. The same thing that had me going on hiatus the first time.

I am a University student. I work part time. I’ve sometimes worked for days, even weeks, in other cities. If you cannot cut down on your duties, you have to on your hobbies. And that’s what blogging is to me: A dear, yet time consuming hobby. As other bloggers – foodbloggers in particular – know, you can’t just sit down, type a few paragraphs, press send and BOOYA. All done. It’s an active, creative, social and beautiful process. The writing, the cooking, the photography, the inspiration seeking.

So, with no time on hand, what did I do? A clean (temporary) cut. No emails checking, no reading of other blogs, no contact with the blogosphere what-so-ever. In fact, this is the first time I have checked my OWN blog since MONTHS. I am a bit of a perfectionist and not being able to keep my blog running feels like a huge personal failure. So this complete negligence was necessary for me to make it less painful.

YADDA YADDA YADDA. More words that I wanted to write, already. So why back now and gone again for at least two months? Easy. The main reason I needed to work so hard and much: I am going on a two month trip to East and Southeast Asia! Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand (in that order), to be precise. Most of the first month is going to be dedicated to Korea, as I will enroll in a “Summer School” at a University in Daejon.

I am THRILLED! If you want to know what is going on with me there, I have created a Twitter account where I will write about the whole experience:

https://twitter.com/TobiasTwoCents

What will be on there? I don’t know yet. Probably something about sights, trips, culture and food. Possibly just me moaning about the heat and mosquito bites.

Anyway. My trip starts on TOMORROW with a one week stay in Seoul and you cannot imagine how excited I am! Will I be alone? No. Two dear friends of mine - K and C – will accompany me. Two girls. Lucky me, right?

I will continue blogging. Eventually. Hopefully wiser, with a lax attitude and with the pace I can afford. :)

Now comes another surprise: A recipe! This one has been sitting on my desk for ages. The first pictures I took turned out horrible. And these new ones are months old by now already. But the dressing to this salad is so finger- and plate licking good, I am so happy to finally be able to share it with you! It obviously is inspired by Asian/Oriental cuisine, without any specific country of origin. It is from a phase where I was obsessed with roasted sesame. This dressing. Is. Amazing. No seriously. Every time I went to the Asian grocery shop, I came back with the ingredients for this exact salad. I have always served it exactly the way shown here, but I am sure some shredded carrots and cabbage would be great additions, too. Or just simple iceberg lettuce.

Sesame & Soy Dressing (Kai-Lan & Mungo Bean Sprout Salad)

1 Clove of garlic (maybe a half more if you like it extra garlicky)
2 tsps. roasted sesame seeds
6 tbsps. Thai sweet soy sauce (the syrupy kind. The brand I use is Thai and is called “Healthy Boy”)
2 tsps. chili flakes (or to taste)
2 tbsps. rice vinegare
2 tbsps. light sesame oil
Extra roasted sesame seeds for garnish

300g Kai-Lan
250g mungo bean sprouts

Wash and dry kai-lan and sprouts
Cut the stems of the kai-lan (and the less pretty leaves) into thin slices. Leave the leaves longer.
For the dressing
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.

Salad presentation:

On a plate or in a bowl, arrange longer leaves in a half circle.
Combine stem slices and mungo bean sprouts, toss with dressing, leaving a bit aside.
Place salad mixure in the centre of bowl/plate.
Drizzle with remaining dressing
Sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds.

And off I go. See you soon and lots of love. :)

Sesame Cupcakes with Honey Meringue Frosting

2012-04-12T09:00:00.000+02:00

Hello everybody!

Finally I can share this amazing news. Today, I am guest posting Sesame Cupcakes over at Just One Cookbook! Nami - my blogger friend and the unremitting source of beautiful and delicious Japanese home cooking recipes - is away on a well-deserved family trip to her native country and took good care that her blog won't be neglected meanwhile.

Please head over to Just One Cookbook and check out Nami's recipes!

Hoisin Beef on Pak Choi Spoons

2012-04-10T22:10:00.000+02:00

Aren't food-bloggers a peculiar little folk? Always seeking for inspiration, trying hard to add something of value and entertainment to the ever-growing niche of online writers. And while I guess that most of us don't write for fame or fortune (ehrm...), I am always very appreciative of any feedback I get, may it be through mails, comments or in this case, an award given to yours truly by children's book illustrator, food blogger and New Yorker Melissa Iwai of The Hungry Artist fame.

It is the second time I received the award for the Versatile Blogger but I don't see why that should be important, it is Melissa who thought of me that matters. Thank you!

This award usually comes with certain guidelines - passing it on to newly discovered blogs and write seven things about yourself, to be precise - but I feel like I should skip the first one (for now) as I was too busy with life to really go on a hunt for new, exciting food blogs. This one may be kept for later. ;)

However, no matter how busy I am, there is no way I can avoid myself, so writing things about me should be a doable task, shouldn't it? So, here - slickly ignoring that self-centred Tobias just managed to use "Me, Myself and I" in one sentence - are the cold facts about the author (trimmed down to five):

I'm half German and Swiss, but grew up solely in Germany (being only German on paper) and have yet to step one foot on Swiss ground.

I almost studied cultural sciences (or creative writing and cultural journalism) but was too much of a wuss to apply for their aptitude test as I neither play an instrument (the test covers many aspects of fine arts) nor thought my writing had enough consistency. Plus, I was a bit late, anyways. Another consideration was becoming a teacher (English and German). In the end, I'm studying something called "International Information Management" with my minors being literature and psychology. If you want to know a bit more about it, feel free to drop me a mail and I'll happily respond. Besides, I like receiving emails. :)

One of my favourite authors is Banana Yoshimoto. I adore her poetic, easy-reading kind of style. I find reading her books and short stories immensely soothing and if you would ever ask me for an author to recommend, it would be her.

Alright, another odd one: I'm really into horror films. Not the torture porn kind of gross out flicks that seem to be popular these days, but the more subtle, suspense-heavy kind. Anything with ghosts and I'll gladly watch it with you. As the Japanese Ringu has caused a wave of amazing (and not so amazing) Asian ghost films, many of my favourites originated there. This had led me to seek out for Asian films of other genres, as well, so one of my favourite filmmakers is Wong Kar-Wai. Watch "Fallen Angels" and "Chungking Express", please.

Hmmm, maybe I should finish this list with something cooking related? Let me think...Ah yes: I don't own a lot of cookbooks and the ones I have are mostly pretty old, bought from flea markets or thrift shops (same places I mostly get my props from). I just find that the new/good/beautiful ones are rather on the expensive side and as a University student, I try to be considerate with my expenses. Besides, what is the food blogosphere for if not finding recipes and inspiration, right? I just wish I'd have more time to be more active in it.

Enough of me now and let's get to the recipe.

It is thought to be an appetizer but if only prepared for 2-3 people, can also be a lunch meal or light dinner. It is really easy to make yet quite the looker, in my opinion. I served it as shown in the photos, with the remaining meat and crème frâiche put in little ramekins on the table, ready to fill the pak choi left after the first bite. Pak choi is also called bok choi.

Hoisin Beef on Pak Choi Spoons

125 - 145 ml (4 - 5 fl. oz. or 0.5 - 0.625 cup) hoisin sauce
3 carrots
1 onion
350 g (12.5 oz) ground beef
400 g (14 oz) pak choi
Crème frâiche or heavy cream/double cream
Pepper to taste

Wash and dry vegetables.
Carefully cut or pull off pak choi stems from stalk, trying not to break any. I found it the easiest when I slit them just a little at the bottom and pulled them off. Sort out any stems that were either damaged or too small to be used as a 'spoon'. Set aside.
Cut onion, carrots and sorted out pak choi into very small cubes.
Pan fry ground beef on medium heat, crumbling it.
When half done, add and sauté cubed vegetables.
Stir in 120 ml hoisin sauce, taste and add more if needed. I did this recipe with two different brands and found one to be stronger/more concentrated than the other, hence the suggestion.
Season to taste with pepper.
Place on pak choi stems with a spoon.
Finish off with a dollop of crème frâiche or heavy cream/double cream.

Solyanka

2012-04-07T01:01:00.000+02:00

"Hnguh" was the first word Valeriya managed to press through her dry, crackly lips. If you can call that a word but at least it was something. Well done, she thought to herself sarcastically. The last time she has had a night like this she could not talk for a whole three days from singing, shouting and fighting. Not that it really mattered - nobody was actually talking to her in that dead-end job she was clinging to, anyway. The big city is full of opportunities. That was what people were saying in that forlorn village in the middle of nowhere up there in Lyubye.

Except her mother. As she was trying to move her sore body up from the bed, one tired leg after another, she recalled that conversation she had with her when she announced her decision to move. Don't go, child. St. Petersburg is full of sin and sorrow.

Valeriya's sight was still blurry when she looked down at her pillow where her own smeared face was starring back at her. At least what she put on it the night before: Red lipstick and dark mascara. Even her fake mole she always draws right beneath her left eye has left its mark. Sin and sorrow, she repeated in her mind; her mother was right about that.

At least this time she was the only person she had to make coffee for.

"Hnguh!" again. This time louder and more vigorous. The head-ache kicked in. She stood up, pulled down that dress she was still wearing, reeking of cold smoke and spilled vodka. "Nastrovye." she pronounced. Yes, Valeriya was bitter that morning. As she made her way to the kitchen right next door, she managed to step on those red pumps carelessly left on the floor. The dull pain distracted her for a second from that stinging, pulsating misery she called her head.

While the coffee machine was doing its job, she sat down at the window. Morning has long been gone, so was most part of noon. While she watched people going their ways - people whose faces she will probably never see again - her mind was still in her old village where the only thing that changed was the weather. She could have taken the easy path. She could have married one of the local boys, get pregnant not too much later and become the caring mother she has herself. That was it. Her life in a nutshell. Her mother's and grandmother's life in a nutshell. That's not what she wanted. Not all she wanted. So she chose Petersburg. Was she happy? No. But she was certain there was enough life in front of her to become exactly that. While she was still waiting for the coffee to be ready, Valeriya turned on the hob to heat up the Solyanka she prepared the night before. That is what she always does before going out: A hearty Solyanka for the hangover she is always certain she will suffer from. She was not wrong.

The crackling sound of the coffee machine gave her the signal for getting herself a mug, but also caused a rustling between the sheets. Movement. Groaning.

"Dobre. You want some coffee, maybe?"

***

Have you ever had a hearty Solyanka? Solyanka derived from Russia but can now be found in all Eastern Europe. It was hugely popular in the former German Democratic Republic, yet had never really gained equal popularity in the western parts. Preparing it was a rather spontaneous decision, after I have had it for the very first time last week when a colleague of mine brought a huge portion from his country pub where they apparently serve it once a week, so it may be considered pub food? Given that it is supposed to be great against hangovers, it totally makes sense.

When preparing a Solyanka, you can use any kind of meat you prefer, making it a great way to use left-overs. For my recipe, the amount should be around 500g (17.5 oz). I have searched the omniscient spheres of the internet to find an authentic recipe, only to find out that there really is none. It is one of those recipes that everybody makes a bit different. So I have taken what I liked best and created my own version.

Solyanka

140 g (5 oz) pork chop,cut into thin slices
125 g (4.5 oz) bacon bits
200 g (7 oz.) bologna style sausage, cut into stripes about 3mm thick
2 wieners, cut into slices
2 tbsp. paprika spice
3 gloves of garlic, chopped up
200 g (7 oz.) tomato pasta
3 bell peppers (I used 2 red and 1 yellow one)
250 g (8.8 oz) cherry tomatoes
5 sour pickled cucumbers/gherkins (about 200 g or 7 oz)
2 onions
1,5 l (50 fl. oz) beef broth
200 ml (6.75 fl. oz) pickle juice
2 tbsp. oil
2 bay leaves
2 dashes of tabasco
Crème frâiche or sour cream
parsley, chopped

In a medium-sized bowl, mix meat with garlic, paprika and 1 tablespoon of the tomato paste.
While meat is marinating, cut bell peppers into stripes, tomatoes into thirds, onions into half rings and pickles into 5mm (0.2'') thick slices.
In a large pot, heat up oil on high heat, add meat along with onions. Reduce to medium heat, quickly sear content.
Add vegetables, sauté slightly.
Pour in beef broth and pickle juice.
Add remaining tomato paste, tabasco and bay leaves.
Let simmer on low heat for half an hour, remove bay leaves.
Serve with dollop of crème frâiche or sour cream, garnish with parsley.

Vegetarian alternative:

The recipe may be on the meaty side, but as the flavour is already slightly resembling kimchi, replacing it with 500 g (17.5 oz) tofu, cut into cubes, gives it an Asian twist. Let tofu marinate like the meat, but instead of adding it right at the beginning, wait until step 5. You may want to make the tomato paste thinner by adding a teaspoon of whater so the tofu is easier to marinate. Also, replace beef broth with a vegetable broth. Omitting crème frâiche makes it vegan.

Phở Xào

2012-03-31T00:53:00.000+02:00

I’m a worrier by nature. I overthink things, always think twice (except my words maybe. I really should learn to think before I speak sometimes but that’s a whole different story) and more often than good for me, assume an outcome to be the worst case scenario.
It’s not only my own business I worry about. I worry about others and everything. Life. I’m simply a worrier and I cannot change it.

A friend of mine is the complete opposite. What I should have learned from her is that worrying too much does not make things better but slows you down and unhappier than you could be. It’s as easy as that. I mean sure, there is a distinct difference between worrying too much and being devil-may-care. She should have taught me that that not everything has to be completely thought-out till the end and that the things with the most questions marks can be the greatest opportunities and sometimes, all you can lose is time. But even then you have gained experience. And maybe a story to tell.

This friend recently left family, friends - a whole life - behind for a job in her home country Vietnam, with no flight booked and no place to stay confirmed only days prior to her first day of work. And it all worked out fine. It’s not that she is completely oblivious to potential problems. It’s just that she chooses to worry once things get ugly and not a second earlier. How I envy her for that ability.

Friendship is not restricted by distance and out of sight surely does not mean out of mind – so I wish her all the best and see you soon!

Without her, I could not share this recipe with you as she taught me how to prepare this simple Vietnamese down-home dish: Phở Xào (pronounced rather like the French “fin” and, well, “sow”). Ginger and garlic is what boosts the flavour here; never underestimate the power of alliteration! Another very important ingredient is the fish sauce.
If you have never used fish sauce before, don’t be put off by the pungent smell. While it is mainly made from anchovies, it is not fishy at all but rather cheesy in its scent that also fades when used in a dish, leaving nothing but a savory, salty note.

Kai-Lan

Another new favourite of mine introduced here is kai-lan (also called gai-lan, cải làn in Vietnamese and phak khana in Thai. My Asian grocery store calls it soi sam and I have seen it being called choi sum as well but after some research I found out that the term is rather vague). Kai-lan – beautifully translating to “mustard orchid” – has a fresh, buttery flavour that is both slightly sweet and salty and acts similar to spinach when being cooked. As not only the leaves but also the stems are edible, it’s almost like you get two kinds of vegetable texture-wise. If you cannot find a place that sells it, don’t fret: Pak choi is a great substitute and may be more available.

Phở Xào

Serves 4

400g (14 oz) beef (you can use any kind, really)
250-300g (9-10.5 oz) kai-lan (or pak choi)
6 cloves of garlic
1 piece of ginger the size of a thumb, peeled.
400g (14 oz) tagliatelle-style rice noodles (the brand I use most often goes by the melodious name “Oh!Ricey”)
Pepper to taste
6 tbsp. soy sauce (more to taste)
2 tbsp. fish sauce (nước mắm or nam pla; more to taste, but use sparingly as it is quite strong in flavour)
3 tbsp. neutral oil (I used sesame seed oil), more if needed

Thinly cut red chili for garnish (optional)

1 egg (optional, see intructions)

Cut beef in stripes as thin as possible, season with 6 tablespoons of soy sauce and two tablespoons of fish sauce as well as pepper to your liking and one tablespoon of oil. Set aside.
Cut ginger in very thin stripes, chop garlic as small as possible – mix and set aside.
In a large heat-proof vessel, soak noodles in hot water.
Wash and cut kai-lan in pieces as long as your thumb - stem and leaves. Set aside.
Bring wok or pan to medium heat. Add one tablespoon of oil. Add meat and fry, stirring continuously (the meat is not supposed to brown at all). Once meat is just done, remove from pan and set aside.
Add garlic and ginger to pan, let brown slightly. Add kai-lan, sauté until it starts to shrivel (like spinach), set aside.
Drain noodles. Add another tablespoon of oil to wok/pan, pour in noodles. Fry until slightly browned, add more soy and fish sauce to taste (I used about 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce).
Throw meat and vegetables back in, stir well, garnish with chili and serve immediately.

Vegetarian alternative:

Omit beef and step 1 & 5. During the last step, add a mixture of one egg, 6 tablespoons of soy sauce and two tablespoons of fish sauce as well as pepper to your liking, stir until egg is set.

Olive Oil & Orange Cake with Pistachios

2012-03-21T23:08:00.002+01:00

Soooo, I was working at the CeBIT Computer Expo two weeks ago. For the oblivious ones among you (read: probably everyone), CeBIT is the largest IT fair in the world. Attending a fair that is the “barometer of the state of the art of computer technology” (thank you, Wikipedia) is pretty amazing, huh? Well, I wouldn’t know. I was busy ruining people’s days. All day, every day.

I was working at one of the entrances making sure that only those who were supposed to enter actually got in. That included telling families with children that they could not attend (you had to be at least 16) despite having valid (and pricey, I may add) tickets and coming all the way from France/Greece/Norway/whatever. People don’t like to hear it and I don’t like telling them. It was a lose-lose situation, really. I didn’t make the rules. It was not my fault but I was there, so I was hit by their fury. And all I could do was stay calm, smile and apologise. I mean, it’s not like it wasn’t written directly on the ticket in big bold letters but what can you do…

Anyways. Breaks lasted from five to thirty minutes, depending on how busy it was which even in a best-case scenario is not enough time to really see anything. The furthest I got was to the hall right behind the entrance. And what did it have? Robots? Future Social Media? 3D technologies (It was all there, somewhere)? No. Effing Ethernet hubs, switches and routers. But there were stalls giving away free lattes and popcorn, so I had carbs and caffeine to keep my spirits (and heart rate) up.

The recipe I share today is not mine but adapted from dear blogger friend Rowena over at Apron and Sneakers who posted it merely a week ago. The moment I saw this cake I had cravings. Cravings for something I have never eaten before. The concoction was just so intriguing and her presentation so appealing that I thought about it all week so when I finally had some time to spare on the weekend, I was a man on a mission when I hit the street market.

Let’s just say, the cake did not disappoint. It’s amazing! While it’s not her cake per se, she made several changes and additions. All of them are an improvement, in my opinion, and are what really makes this cake so scrumptious and moist.

Olive Oil & Orange Cake with Pistachios
Adapted from Apron and Sneakers.

Rowena wrote it makes two 22cm round cakes, but just like her I made one big cake. Mine had a Ø of 26cm. While I, too, made a few very minor changes, it is essentially her recipe that you see here.

For the cake:

400g (14 oz) pastry flour, sifted (plus additional for the baking pan)
250g (8.8 oz) sugar
200ml (6.75 fl. oz) olive oil (plus additional for the baking pan)
4 eggs, divided
Grated zest of one untreated orange
250ml (8.45 fl. oz) freshly squeezed orange juice
40g (1.4 oz) ground pistachios
1ts baking powder
Seeds of one vanilla pod

For the syrup:

250g (8.8 oz) sugar
250ml (8.45 fl. oz) freshly squeezed orange juice
Zest of half an orange (I simply forgot about it, to be honest)
1 orange, sliced thinly

Pre-heat oven to 180°C (350°F).
Grease & flour baking pan.
Whip egg whites until stiff, refrigerate.
In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and vanilla seeds until fluffy.
Add sugar, whisking continuously.
Add olive oil little by little, keep whisking.
Add sifted flour, baking powder and orange zest. Mix well.
Add orange juice little by little, mixing well.
Fold in egg whites.
Pour mass in baking pan.
Sprinkle top with crushed pistachios.
Bake for 40 minutes (30 if you make two smaller cakes.) with oven vent on (mine became suspiciously dark after 20 minutes, so I turned it off again). Check centre with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it's cooked.
Let it cool off a little. Make sure cake is loosened from sides of the pan while still left inside.

While the cake is baking:

In a small pot, combine sugar, orange juice and zest (that I forgot, like I said) over low heat until sugar has dissolved
Add orange slices. Move them carefully in the saucepan.
Increase heat and boil for 5 - 6 minutes or until syrup thickens.

Final touches:

With a toothpick, prick little holes evenly into the cake
Pour over half of the hot syrup little by little, letting it soak into the cake.
Carefully remove from pan.
Cover the top of the cake with the orange slices and sprinkle with crushed pistachios.
Let the cake cool.
To serve, cut the cake and pour over remaining syrup.

Enjoy!

Parsnip Dumplings with Scallion & Bacon Filling

2012-03-05T23:06:00.000+01:00

Spring is on like donkey kong!

Not forgotten are the icy claws of winter still clenching this part of the world, numbing both nature and minds with its dull, dreary megrim. There are people who gain strength from this quiet melancholia. People who find inner peace and unbend. To me, winter is the time I am trying with all my might not to get in a funk. I am generally rather susceptible for winter blues and January and February are the worst.

However, the last few days made it clear that Persephone is slowly taking her first steps out of the underworld again. Temperatures are rising and sunbeams are hitting earth with a warmth last felt months ago. Spring is a-coming. One can feel, smell and see it. The emphasis was clearly on see when I walked through the garden this week and was greeted by these little fellas:

Not winter anymore, but not quite spring just yet. A time between seasons.

This is what I was trying to express through this week's recipe. I've tried combining ingredients that represent winter and spring. I have found them in parsnips representing winter, and scallions representing spring. The result are these dumplings that have an earthy and warming note at first that becomes lighter and fresher once you hit the centre. Dumplings of that kind can commonly be found especially in Northern and Central Europe, where they are normally served as a side to roasts for soaking up the sauce or gravy or in a smaller variation in soups. I kept it simple and served them to steaks, but due to the concoction, it would also work well with venison because of the parsnip and fish or chicken thanks to the scallions.

Making these kind of dumplings can be a bit tricky at first as the dough is rather on the sticky side, but I'll do my best with my comments. ;)

Parsnip Dumplings with Scallion and Bacon Filling

Makes 10 dumplings

100g (3.5 oz.) scallions, cut into thin rings
1 ts butter
2 ts of parsley, finely chopped.
50g (1.8 oz.) lean bacon, cut into small cubes about 5mm (0.2'') in length and height (If you only have slices, that's alright as well.)
500g (17.5 oz.) parsnips, cooked and cooled down
500g (17.5 oz.) potatoes, cooked and cooled down
250g (8.8 oz.) potato flour (can be substituted with corn starch)
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
More parsley for garnish

In a small pot, melt butter on high heat.
Add scallions and toss them quickly so that they are just heated through.
Lower heat and add bacon, pepper and parsley, keeping it cooking for about another 30 seconds (the bacon does not need to be completely cooked). Set aside.
In a large pot. Heat up water to the point close to simmering. Add salt and remain on low heat (the water should not even simmer or the dumplings become soggy later).
Combine potatoes, parsnips and the egg.
Purée with a masher, an immersion blender or a food processor as finely as possible. Transfer mass into a large bowl if it is not there already.
Stir in salt and potato flour with a wooden spoon (about a level tablespoon of salt worked for me.)
With wet hands, grab a hand full of dough, forming it into a disc with a dent in the centre for the filling.
Add a teaspoon of filling. Fold sides of the disc together, enclosing the filling. Form into a ball. (This part is way more difficult to describe than to perform. It simply is the process of getting the filling into the dumpling. Keeping your hands wet here is key or the dough will stick recklessly to your palms. If the dough is still too sticky, add a bit more potato flour to the mass.)
Lay into hot water.
Repeat steps 8-10 for all dumplings. The dumplings are done when they float to the surface by themselves which can take up to 20 minutes. You may want to stir them once in the water to make sure they don't stick to the ground. The water should not even simmer so keep on lowest heat.
Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Bread Roll Blossom

2012-02-27T12:07:00.001+01:00

Do you know that moment in the morning when you still lie in bed – not full asleep but not yet quite awake? The duvet has just the perfect temperature. Not too warm and not too cold and your thoughts go into wondrous directions bordering from sheer fantasy to deep discussions with yourself, salutary and bright – gone within a gasp. I like to think of that moment as the closest overlap between conscious and subconscious possible. Between what is really going on in my mind and what it wants me to believe is going on.

My feelings about that moment are rather bittersweet. Mostly because it usually happens just a wee moment before the alarm goes off and the rough and unforgiving tristesse of reality hits your face like you have never seen it coming. As you may have realised by now, I am a sleep person - not a morning person. In fact, I would love being a morning person, with the day still calm and young, everything and everybody just waking up. But I am simply not. I am a mess. I'm nauseous, my head hurts and I am so far away from mental clarity that nothing else but grunts and moans are able to leave my mouth. Please don't ask me questions right after I woke up. Please don't bother me too much for at least an hour, actually. I will hate you. I may hurt you. But probably not. I will hurt you in my mind, indeed, and debate about it with my subconscious the next morning at 7:59 am right before the alarm sets off.

Breakfast. Thank you for existing. This post's recipe is nice for a Sunday breakfast or brunch. Cut into halves and piled on with whatever is needed to fix your matutinal cravings. While it looks special, it is ridiculously easy to bake – there is most probably no other way to use yeast more fool-proof than here. I can also see them on a picnic (spring cannot come fast enough...) or for a party.

Bread Roll Blossom

Adapted from here (German).

Makes about 3 blossoms or 21 single bread rolls à 75g (2.6 oz). I halved the recipe and made one blossom and some single rolls.

42g fresh yeast (also called cake yeast. This would make 1.5 oz. Can be substituted with 0.6 oz/18 g/ 6 ¼ ts active dry yeast)
500ml (17 fl. oz) warm water
½ tbsps. sugar
1kg (35.3 oz) all-purpose flour
1 tbsps. salt
8 tbsps oil (I used sunflower seed oil)

Topping of choice (I used poppy flower, sesame and sunflower seeds; optional)

In a large bowl, combine yeast, warm water and sugar.
Add flour, salt and oil. With your hands, knead until well combined.
Let dough rise for half an our, knead well again afterwards.
Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
Form dough into balls the size of your choice (mine were about 75g or 2.6 oz).
Dip rolls in topping of choice and then lay on baking sheet lined with parchment paper in shape of a blossom - one in the centre and six around – with the edges barely touching (you can lay them in any shape you want of course or add another row to make it bigger. You can also skip the dipping part and sprinkle topping onto rolls, just make sure it sticks a little).
Bake on centre rack for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Rumkugeln

2012-02-20T07:22:00.000+01:00

It's give a little, take a little, right?

I love the concept of food blogs because you can be sure there is at least one person who has tested and approved the recipes and likes them enough to recommend them to you. Everybody has been given a great, well-tested recipe from a good friend, family member or neighbour he or she swears by and this is a bit like having a gigantic neighbourhood. Sure, everybody lives in certain streets and you cannot be friends with all there are but somehow, a community sticks together.

Recently, the nice people over at Onion Goggles knocked on my door and told me they liked what I'm doing here over at mi casa and passed along the Liebster Blog Award to me! 'Liebster' is German (I know, right?!) and can either mean “dearest”, “favourite” or “darling” and is meant to be paid forward to blogs that have 200 followers or less and you think deserve to be noticed.

Following rules apply:

Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.
Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.

Thank you so much!

I also want to thank my followers and all the people who read my humble little blog as well as the fellow bloggers who support and inspire me. Thank you, neighbours and friends.

These are the neighbours whose doors I'll be knocking on ~~one after another like a jehova's witness~~:

http://iamafoodblog.com/ - sure seems like the new troublemaker on the block! Kinda bold and awesome and I'm already loving it big time!

http://annacostafood.wordpress.com/ - gracious Anna also just recently moved to our neighbourhood and someone better tell her to shut the blinds at night as some teenage boy's are already lurking outside her window! If she and her husband ever invite you over for dinner – you will dine with style so wear your Sunday's best.

http://theintrepidbaker.wordpress.com/ - don't be fooled by her name. The intrepid baker does much more than just baking! I have only 'met' her recently and she comes off as the serene and creative type. What she does is often cute but never kitschy. Something I appreciate.

Both http://www.unhipsquirrel.com/ and http://avocadopesto.wordpress.com/ have already been around longer than I am (which does not say a lot. Haha.) but somehow managed to stay under my radar for a long time. While jovial Nicola from the unhip Squirrel is versatile in her cooking and has a productivity I'm jealous of, the equally versatile blog Avocado Pesto has a stronger emphasis on savoury and healthy meals.

Yes, and there are yet more news from my side! I have recently joined Pinterest and have been pinning away quite a bit already! I am planning on pinning more than just recipes so it's a bit like I give you entrance to my mind. Let's see how long it will take you to realise how boring I am! ;)

I am also glad to share with you another traditional pastry that you can find in every bakery around Northern Germany - Rumkugeln! Rumkugeln are cake balls made with rum and you know what the best part is? There is no active baking involved. Rumkugeln are a baker's dirty little secret. They consist of leftover cake, trims and failures. Anything that's dried out or not presentable – toss it in a bowl and make some of these! Mine are made of some of last week's Cherry and Red Wine Chocolate Cake as well as marble cake from the supermarket that was already kind of dry the day I bought it.

Funny thing not even most Germans are aware of: Southern Germany has something called Rumkugeln as well that looks just like their northern counterparts except they are smaller and mainly consist of butter, sugar, cocoa and nuts and belong more in the category of confections.

Rumkugeln are also known in Denmark and are similar to Swedish Arraksbol – except that these are made with Arrack liquor instead of rum.

There aren't even exact amounts of ingredients this time. No measuring. No baking. No fuss.

Rumkugeln (Rum Balls)

500g leftover cake make about 5 balls.

Leftover cake
rum or rum aroma
jam/jelly of choice (just avoid chunks. I used apricot jam.)
chocolate (I used some dark chocolate but you can use whatever you have on hand. If you don't have any, just leave it out. The sprinkles stick better to the ball when you cover it very thinly with chocolate and you will have to miss out on that very satisfying 'crack' when you dig in with a fork, but there will hardly be any change in flavour)
chocolate sprinkles

dutch process cocoa (optional. If your leftovers don't have any cocoa but you want some, there you go)
cupcake baking liners (optional)

In a bowl, crumble leftover cake (if you use different kinds of cake together, make sure that all crumbles are mixed well).
Add rum.
With your hands knead into dough (Amount of rum and jelly depends on the amount of leftovers you have so I would suggest to add little by little. The mass should be nice and stiff. Not too dry of course but it should keep its shape when formed. Without wanting to sound unappetizing, but think Play-Do).
Knead in jam/jelly (You can either start with rum or jam. However, to make sure that I get a nice strong flavour of rum, I like adding it first and then add jam).
When paste is homogeneous, put in fridge for a little while.
In the meantime, melt chocolate in microwave (It does not really matter if it gets too hot as you won't see it later, but it is easier to use when it is just molten).
Take paste out of fridge, form balls about the size of golf balls or tangerines. Thinly brush with chocolate or spread some on either with a spoon or even your fingers, roll in sprinkles and put in cupcake baking liner (optional. This is the classic way of serving.) Repeat until all paste is gone.
Keep in fridge for at least half an hour.

Enjoy!

It took me less than half an our to make 10 Rumkugeln.

Divine Cherry & Red Wine Chocolate Cake

2012-02-13T18:53:00.000+01:00

As most of you may already know, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. At first, I did not have the intention of covering this oh so essential day for baked goods - from the bland perspective of food blogger-me, that is. The reason why is the me-me. Mixed feelings.

February 14^th has never really been the day for lovers, but more the day for love in a different way, as it was my grandfather's birthday. A man I have more respect, admiration and appreciation for than I could never form into words that would not fall short to what he really deserves. A man who was kind and honest. Benevolent. A man who met not the fate in a way he deserved.

This day will always be his birthday but of course, Valentine's Day is becoming more important as well. Giving it a bit more thought, the idea of a day that reminds happy couples how great and valuable it is what they have is quite appealing in its essence. However, the execution fairly often somewhat questionable. When shiny things and expensive gifts become the main focus – and especially when the lack of such result in tears and tantrums – maybe the relationship is not so valuable after all. Like I said, mixed feelings on so many levels.

But yes, in the end, I have decided to think up something for Valentine's Day.
Something that I am sure you are happy to know is rather quick to make (considering the date, it is last minute, isn't it?) but does not come short in decadence and sophistication. The ingredient that certainly makes it a grown-up cake is red wine and you will only need so much that there is still enough left to enjoy along with it. Cherries and red wine go together perfectly.

Oh yes, before I forget. Over the week-end, I finally found some time to do minor additions to the blog that were more than needed. For one thing, there now is a 'About'-page where you can read a little bit about the author of this blog, who would be me. For another thing, there now is a Facebook page for this blog. So if you like what you see and read, feel free to like me on FaceyB and be informed about every update and maybe some tidbids that come to my mind. :)

The only tricky thing with this recipe is that you need to flip the first cake over.

Cherry & Red Wine Chocolate Cake

Makes 16 slices

For the cake:

As you bake two layers, you will need this amount of ingredients TWICE. I would not recommend making the double amount at once.

250g (8.8 oz) all-purpose flour
50g (1.8 oz) dutch process cocoa powder
150ml (5 fl. oz) oil (I used canola oil)
1tblsp. (15g or a sachet) baking powder
2 eggs
75ml (2.5 fl. oz) strong coffee
275ml (9.3 fl. oz) milk
250g (8.8 oz) sugar

For the filling:

150g (5.3 oz) sugar
200ml (6.8 fl. oz) red wine
4-16g (0.15-0.56 oz) agar agar (this depends crucially on the kind and brand of agar agar you are using. Best thing you can do is to read the instructions on the package. I used the amount needed for 1000ml or 33.4 fl. oz. The amazing thing about agar agar is that the process can be undone, which means that you can simply re-heat the mass and add some more of it in case it was not firm enough. So all you can basically lose is time but no ingredients!)
1 complete jar of cherries (mine had 680g including the juice which I used as well. The complete filling for the cake should make about 1000ml or 33.4 fl. oz, so when your jar contains more or less than mine, I would simply balance it out with red wine)

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
In a medium sized bowl, combine all ingredients for the cake with a wooden spoon.
Spread on a sheet pan about 42,5x36x3cm in size (the equivalent would be 13x18x1''. It does not matter much if the size of the pan is slightly different) lined with parchment paper. Bake on centre rack for 10 minutes or until a stick comes out clean. Let the whole pan cool down.
In the meantime, repeat step no. 2.
Remove first cake from pan, lay on a flat and clean surface.
Use the now empty sheet pan again for step no. 3.
While the second layer cools down, blend cherries along with the red wine until smooth either in a blender or with a hand blender (before you do this, you may want to check whether there are still some pits left in some of the cherries).
In a medium pot, pour in mixture,combine with sugar and agar agar. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously.
Pour over the layer of chocolate cake that is still in the pan.
Let it cool off completely until it is firm (This will probably take way less time than you would expect).
Carefully lay first cake layer on top of the filling.

Enjoy!

Sesame Rice Noodles with Honey-Soy Drizzle and Chicken

2012-02-02T20:44:00.000+01:00

Where has time gone?

No worries, this is no whimsical post about the finiteness of life.

I mean, seriously? Where did the last weeks go? Christmas, New Years, BAM! Exam time.

It has just been a bit too busy to really catch up. Does anybody else get that feeling sometimes that it is all just an endless stream of overlapping tasks, appointments and work? One little unforeseen bump in the road and the little car that is trying to bring me from A to B is up sh*t creek without a paddle (pardon my French).

Alright whiny little boy, it is time to get yourself together again.

Anyways. When times get tough, the tough get going (and I throw around idioms like they are on sale). And when it comes to cooking, I tend to rely on semi self-made (there may be something in that direction coming up in near future), unmentionworthy or quick and simple. This one is in the last category.

While it certainly is inspired by asian/oriental cuisine, it is by all means no authentic dish but that does not mean that it isn't delicious. Because it is. And quick. In fact, if you leave out the chicken, it can all be prepared in about 30 minutes! I know, the instructions seem a little lengthy but that is only because of all the little steps and preparations that need to be done.

Roasted sesame seeds may become one of my favourite ingredients. Like almonds, they are kinda meh when raw but once you give these bad boys some toasty action they just boast of deep flavour that complements perfectly the salty-sweet drizzle.

Sesame Rice Noodles with Honey-Soy Drizzle and Chicken

5 tblsp. water
5 tblsp. black soy sauce (also called dark thick soy sauce)
1 tblsp. brown sugar
2 tblsp. honey
1/2 ts chili flakes (the amount of heat the chili flakes are providing heavily depends on the kind you are using.)

400g (about 14 oz.) rice vermicelli (Bún tươi)

2 big carrots
150g (5.3 oz.) mung bean sprouts, washed and drained
A dash of lime or lemon juice

1 chicken fillet (or to taste, customise amount of marinade accordingly.)
3 tblsp. thin soy sauce (the ordinary kind)
1 tblsp. oyster sauce

3 tblsps. sesame seeds

thinly cut scallion for garnish (Highly optional. Frankly, I just put some on top because it adds some colour.)

More soy sauce and honey for cooking as well as a bit of oil (I use either light sesame or rapeseed oil)

Before the actual cooking:

In a large heat proof bowl, soak vermicelli in boiling water. The good thing about rice noodles is that most of them do not need to be boiled, making the whole process a lot quicker. From my experience, even the ones asking to be boiled do not have to as long as you soak them long enough. That is why this is the very first step. When your are not sure, try one before using in cooking process.
Slice chicken fillet as thin as possible. Set aside, letting it marinade in 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce.
Cut carrots diagonally, slice them in about 5mm thin sticks. Add dash of lime juice, stir until all sticks are covered. Set Aside.

For the drizzle:

In a small pot, combine all ingredients for the drizzle and cook on medium heat until big bubbles develop, stirring occasionally. To check whether it is done. Drop a bit of the drizzle on a plate. If it thickens at becomes syrupy when it cools down, it is good to go.
In the meantime, put a small pot on high heat. Pour in sesame seeds, stirring them continuously. Once the seeds starten to brown, instantly remove from heat. Remain in pot but keep stirring until pot cooled down a little and the roasting process stopped. Set aside.

Main Part:

Heat up either a pan or a wok to medium heat. Put in carrot sticks, add another shot of black soy sauce. With a wooden spoon, stir continuously until all liquid has evaporated and carrots are heated through well (the carrots will be cooked but still on the crunchy side. If you want them to be softer in texture, add a bit of water in the process so they cook longer). Remove from pan and set aside.
Add chicken along with the marinade to pan/wok, stirring continuously. Make sure that it does not brown at all. The moment they are done (it will not take too long and is easy to see as it is sliced so thin), remove from heat and set aside.
Add a bit of oil to pan, strain noodles and pour them in.
Add about 2-3 dashes of black soy sauce to the vermicelli, as well as another tablespoon of honey (the amount of soy sauce depends on how salty you like it. Remember that the drizzle will give the majority of flavour. 2-3 dashes will not make it too salty but will add a nice and deep colour).
Add 2 of the 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds as well as the carrots. Turn of heat and carefully fold in mungo bean sprouts.
Put servings on plate or into a bowl, lay slices of chicken on top.
Drizzle with the sauce and garnish with remaining sesame seeds and a bit of scallion.

Enjoy!

Feta-Filled Carrot Meatballs

2012-01-07T21:37:00.000+01:00

So, this is me slowly crawling my way out of the holidays. Happy New Year, everybody!

I have spend the days between Christmas and New Year like most of us probably did: stuffing my face with delicious ~~fat-loaded~~ heavy goodness of both the sweet and savory kind with friends and family. And the days I have spend at home I was still feasting on left-overs (sounds familiar?). Thank you stomache for handling this maltreatment as well as you did, even though you have had me lying on the sofa feeling drained more than once this time. Those pillows have never felt that good before. I don't regret nothing.

But that's what December is for, right? Now is not quite December anymore.

Even the glitz of New Year's has faded by now and all that is left gloom. And some soggy fireworks on the streets. The last days have been dark and colourless. That kind of days where midday already feels like evening. What a relieve when it actually gets dark so I do not have to see that dull gray in gray anymore. . . Pouty me is not impressed with you so far, twothousandandtwelve.

This kind of weather wanted me to make something with an undertone reminiscent of late summer. A bit of dried thyme – that I picked when one could still sit outside without a coat and a scarf - was the ingredient of choice in these meatballs. The cumin works just great with the mildly sweet note the carrots are providing and its warming characteristics is just right for the cold season. The feta is a bit of an extra but also serves as a warm and creamy surprise in the centre that can easily be omitted. It's still great and gives a nice change in texture. Depending on the size of the meatballs, they make great finger food or a salisbury style steak for a main dish.

Feta-Filled Carrot Meatballs

2 carrots, grated
500g (17.5 oz) minced meat. Half beef, half pork (that is something you can buy here but either beef or pork works just as well. Half beef half turkey is also a great alternative if you don't do pork.)
1 tblsp ground cumin
1 ts paprika
1/2 ts curry powder
1 large onion, diced
3-4 splashes of soy sauce
1 little sprig of thyme (dried) or about 1/4 ts dried thyme
1 ts mustard (heaping)
1 tbsp tomato paste (or ketchup if you aren't a snob)
200g (3.5 oz) feta cheese
100g (about 3/4 cup) breadcrumbs
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).
Mix well all ingredients but the feta.
Cut feta into cubes to your liking (small ones for finger food, larger and maybe cuboid shaped for salisbury steaks etc.)
With your hands, take a part of the mass, form into a ball and push in one feta cube each (make sure that there is no white peaking out).
Bake meatballs on centre rack for 15-20 minutes (time greatly depends on size of meatballs) until the tops are nicely browned.

Easy, right?

Enjoy!

Amaretto Walnut Coins

2011-12-24T01:03:00.000+01:00

I am doing you a favour today and spare you my usual blabber. It is Christmas Time and there is such a great recipe to share on the final day of my countdown/bake-o-thon! It is nutty and fruity with a nice shot of booze - what better way is there to get merry?

Amaretto Walnut Coins

Amount depends on size of biscuit/cookie cutter. Makes about 36 (18 prepared) biscuits with a 7 cm (2.75 inches) cutter.

250g (8.8 oz) all-purpose flour
1 ts baking powder
100g (3.5 oz) butter
60g (2.1 oz) ground walnuts
80g (2.8 oz) sugar
1 egg
100g (3.5 oz) apricot jam/jelly
3 ts almond liqueur
150g (5.3 oz) icing/powdered sugar
3 ts almond liqueur
18 walnut halves (or more, depending on size of biscuit/cookie cutter)

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).
Knead together flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, ground walnuts and egg (I did this with my hands again as usual, since I am kind of a fan of putting some elbow grease into my biscuits).
Roll out dough (it should be about 1,5-2 cm or 0.6-0.8 inches thick). Cut out biscuits/cookies. Bake on centre rack for 10-12 minutes or biscuit start to brown. Let them cool down completely.
Meanwhile, stir together apricot jam with almond liqueur.
Spread on half the batch of your biscuits/cookies. Top each biscuit with a plain one.
Stir together icing/powdered sugar with rest of almond liqueur. Spread icing on biscuits/cookies.
Decorate each one with an almond halve.

I am wishing you all happy holidays and a wonderful time!

Pfeffernüsse (Pepper Nuts)

2011-12-22T21:49:00.000+01:00

Christmas Day is coming closer and closer. The tree is up and decorated, half of the presents are bought and the grill assembled. You've heard me. Is said Grill. With a capital G. It's December, it's cold and wet (no snow for me at Christmas this year probably) and my wacky mother is holding up her tradition to invite people in the late morning and have the last barbecue of the year. That's how she rolls. Bless her heart.

And by Christmas Day, I actually mean Christmas Eve, which is the 24^th December. Unlike in many other countries where the presents are being unwrapped in the morning of the 25., it is all about Christmas Eve here. The family comes together, (religious people may go to a Christmas mass where children usually re-enact the Nativity), you eat and then it is time for gifts (and other religious people may skip the first mass and go to a later one sans Nativity as the latest is usually held at midnight). That is probably the rough plan for many German families. When I was little, one of my gifts always was a board game that we played after the gift giving.

Oh yeah, and the food! What I am about to write will probably make a few people's heart stop for a second. As long as I can think, the dinner on Christmas Eve always consisted of one thing, and I know it is the same in many German families: Potato-Salad and bangers/wieners.

I do not know what the story behind serving a humble meal like this is, though.

The two days afterwards (the official Christmas Holidays) however, Germans usually step it up a notch and prepare more festive meals like duck, goose or roasts.

Coming to the fourth recipe of my 5 Day Christmas Countdown/Bake-a-thon.

This one has really got the Christmas flavours tingling. With allspice, cardamom and ginger, it is a spice-fest. But the kick (or a certain “je ne sais quoi”) is definitely giving the white pepper. Pepper in a biscuit? Yes. But don't worry, it is not hot and the pepper is not overpowering. This really tastes like Christmas to me.

Pfeffernüsse (Pepper Nuts)

You can find the original here (German).

The dough needs to rest over night so it is easy to whip it up in the evening.

275g (9.7 oz) all-purpose flour
1 generous pinch of baking soda
75g (2.6 oz) butter (or margarine for a vegan version)
3 tbsp. honey (ca. 50g; replace with maple syrup or more dark beet syrup for a vegan version)
75g (2.6 oz) dark beet syrup/molasses (alternative: simple molasses)
75g (2.6 oz) demerara sugar (or brown sugar)
1/4 ts ground white pepper
1/2 ts ground dried ginger
1 generous pinch of cardamom
1 generous pinch of allspice

75 g (2.6 oz) icing/powdered sugar

Mix together flour and baking soda
In a medium pot, boil up butter, honey, dark beet syrup, demerara along with pepper, ginger, cardamom and allspice.
Add flour and quickly stir it up into a homogeneous mass. Let it cool down completely. Wrap it up in cling film/saran wrap and keep in in the fridge over night (the dough can become rather tough but do not fret, that is alright).
The next day, let dough regain room temperature again. Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F).
Roll dough into hazelnut-sized balls and bake on second rack from the bottom for about 12 minutes (the pepper nuts will not rise a lot, so you do not need to leave too much space between the balls while baking).
Let them cool completely. Stir icing/powdered sugar with about 1 ts of water to icing. Brush on pepper nuts.

On the first day, the pepper nuts will be rather tough and crunchy. But keep them in a jar or box for a couple of days and they will soften, developing their spicy flavour.

Enjoy!

How do your traditions on Christmas look like?

Coconut Macaroons

2011-12-21T13:40:00.000+01:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Or in my case, it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Or sound. I believe that these two crucially belong together. At least when it's the right kind of music. I want to be honest. The first time I hear 'Last Christmas' some time in Mid-November, I feel like gagging a little. Maybe it's the major case of overexposure the song had to suffer from over the last decades or maybe it's just that it's simply not my kind of tune but I find it utterly annoying.

However, earlier this week, I have had the opportunity to listen to a Michael Bublé record and I really started to catch a bit of the Christmas Spirit. While I did not like all of the tracks per se, it's the classics that get me. Winter Wonderland, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and such. And then, the real classics: Silent Night and Ave Maria. I'm just not feeling those poppy 'contemporary' Christmas songs. Uh-uh.

But you really got me, Mr. Mickey Bubbles.

And while I'm in the mood for sharing a bit about me, why not something that makes me look like an oddball. Do you know what my favourite Christmas compilation is? It's the one from Ally McBeal (that TV show). Yes. Really. Just go ahead and give me that “You're a weeeeiiirdo.” look, but I can't help it. Oh, just to be clear, I am not getting paid for mentioning these records.

Coming to the recipe. Again, it's a fairly simple (in fact, it's probably the quickest and easiest of the all) classic recipe for Christmas perfect for last minute baking: Coconut Macaroons! Alright, I bet you know this one as it's not exclusively German with its origins being somewhere else, but they are still pretty Christmas-y. I decided to make the moist, dense kind as opposed to the ones resembling meringues. So there is no beating the eggs necessary. The little thing that makes these ones extra special is that you roast the shredded coconut beforehand to get a bit of a flavour boost.

Coconut Macaroons

200g (7 oz) shredded dried coconut
150g (5.3 oz) sugar
3 egg whites
1 TS almond liqueur (optional)

Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F).
In a small pot, toast shredded dried coconut until light brown on high heat, stirring continuously (be careful not to roast them too much as the macaroons may become dry).
Remove from heat and immediately stir in sugar let cool slightly.
While mass is still very warm yet not hot anymore, stir in egg whites (this step is the only tricky one as the macaroons will not stick properly if mass is either too hot or cool. It should be hot but not painfully hot at about 50°C).
Add almond liquer (optional).
With a teaspoon, form macaroons. Bake on centre rack for 17-20 minutes.

I have dipped the bottoms of the macaroons in dark couverture but this step is completely optional (but good!).

Enjoy!

Do you have a favourite Christmas song or album?

Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)

2011-12-20T15:00:00.000+01:00

Day 2 of my 5-Day Christmas Bake-a-thon and I am starting to feeling it.

Like I said, I did not have time so far to think about Christmas at all. Well, the only little accomplishment I mastered was to plaster the windows with some lights after switching into Tomb Raider mode when trying to find the ever so mysteriously disappearing boxes full of decorations in the basement. It's never where I could have sworn it was and it's never in the condition I thought I have left it (I am looking at you, weird ravel that is supposed to be Christmas lights! Must be the same effect that applies to headphones or any kind of cable, really...).

Oh yeah, to stick with the theme of bringing you traditional German Christmas Goodies, here is some random trivia: Did you know that decking the Christmas tree with candles originated in 17^th century Germany? It only really became a tradition in the Early Modern Period and was established in the UK during Queen Victoria's reign and spread through emigration to North America and Australia (Wikipedia is so clever, innit?).

I doubt that Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars) have been around for so long, but who knows. These pretty little things originally come from Swabia, a region in South Germany yet are known in the whole country today. Making them can be quite a sticky business, but laying out the surface with ground hazelnuts like in this recipe really helps. However, you know what I just do? I just flatten the dough with my hands and only use a rolling pin to even it out a little afterwards but for the ~~less barbaric~~ more traditional people among us, I've heard that laying the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper works wonders! And just for stating the obvious, you will need a star-shaped biscuit/cookie cutter, duh. But technically, any shape will do and I can even imagine them looking nice just cut into diamonds.

Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)

Note: While the recipe is not exactly mine, it has been in my family for quite a while with the source unknown. This is one of those recipes that friends and neighbours pass around on hand-written notes.

190g (6.7 oz) Icing/powdered sugar
100 (3.5 oz) Almonds, finely ground
200g (7 oz) Hazelnuts, finely ground
2 Egg whites
1 TS of Cinnamon
1 Dash of Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).
Either with a food processor or a hand mixer, beat together egg whites and icing sugar into a nice and firm, sticky glaze (this can take a little while). Set 1/3 of it aside.
Add 100g (3.5 oz) hazelnuts as well as the other ingredients to the remaining 2/3 and knead it in first with a spoon, then with your hands.
Cover a flat surface with remaining hazelnuts and roll out dough (or whatever method floats your boat). It should be about 8-10mm (0.3-0.4 inches) thick.
Cut out biscuits and put them on a baking tray laid out with parchment paper. Generously spread biscuits with egg white glaze.
Bake on centre rack for 10-12 minutes, sticking a wooden spoon between oven door after 8.

They should still be a bit chewy but speaking from experience, crunchy is not exactly a failure, either. :)

Enjoy!

Vanillekipferl (Vanilla Crescents)

2011-12-19T16:12:00.000+01:00

Alright, so I'm a big old liar.

Last post – which was AGES ago – I promised that I would stick around and keep writing. I did not.

But hey, at least I'm pretty good at lying as I had convinced myself at that moment I could do it. Damn how oblivious I was.

The reason I was on a hiatus? University. Let's just say there had been complications with my Bachelor's Thesis that had me stuck on the computer rewriting and writing it (or falling into comatose four hour sleeps or ~~lying on the floor in fetus position slowly rocking myself back and forth...~~whatever) until the last third of November and then trying desperately to catch up on all the academic things I have missed (I had to complete my thesis during the first semester of my master's programme... long story), holding presentations, attending a three-day course over the weekend in between yadda yadda yadda.

Anyways.

Good news is, I'm back! It's the middle of December and no thought was given towards Christmas so far. Not one. Meaning: No Christmas shopping yet, no trips to the Christmas market yet and only vague plans of how Christmas is going to be this year.

Among all those Chrismas-y things I have missed so far naturally is: Christmas Baking!

With only five days left until Christmas Eve, I hereby announce my 5-Day Christmas Countdown/ Last Minute Bake-athon! Starting today, I will post one recipe daily until Friday! Yay! But not just any kind of recipes. In a little attempt to spread some warm and cosy Old Worldly Christmas lovin', I will share the most traditional German Christmas biscuits and other pastries I could think of.

Admittedly, Vanillekipferl, sort of translating to Vanilla Crescents – do not ask me what Kipferl is supposed to mean as it is probably some kind of dialect – are more of German-Austrian-Bohemian origin, but as the boarders are rather blurry both geographically and historically, one cannot really pin it down to one particular country, especially not today's.

In Germany at least they belong to Christmas like Candy Canes do in the States and while there sure is a plethora of recipes for such a traditional kind of biscuit – with the ingredients varying slightly – this one is simply amazing. They really are delightfully light and almost melt-in-your-mouth airy. I think it is the lack of egg that helps with the consistency and also makes it really easy to veganize! Just replace the butter with margarine and there you go!

Vanillekipferl (Vanilla Crescents)

As recipes usually ask for vanilla sugar, which is not easily to be found everywhere around the world, I omitted it in my version and rather added the vanilla straight to the dough as opposed to rolling the baked biscuits in a mixture of icing and vanilla sugar.

250 g (8.8 oz) Cake or All-Purpose Flour
200 g (7 oz) Butter (or margarine for a vegan version)
100 g (3.5 oz) Walnuts, finely ground (I quickly did that in a blender)
70 g (2.5 oz) Icing/Powdered Sugar
1 Pinch of salt
Seeds of 1 Vanilla Pod (You could go crazy and use two, I dare you!)
Extra Icing/Powdered Sugar

Note: You can also make these using ground almonds or hazelnuts, but increase the amount of butter to 7.8 oz then

Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F)
Knead together all ingredients but the extra icing sugar. (I did that with my hands and I would recommend you doing that, too)
Let the dough sit for at least half an hour.
Form dough into rolls as thick as a finger. Cut into 3cm (a bit more than an inch) long pieces.
With your hands, shape pieces into little crescents.
Bake on the second rack from the top for 15-20 minutes (they should hardly brown)
Immediately yet carefully remove from tray as they both burn and break easily at this state.
Let cool completely and roll in generous amounts of icing sugar.

Getting the right shape can be quite a pain in the bum so sometimes I just roll the dough into little balls to bake vanilla buttons. It indeed is even less time consuming that way.

Enjoy!

Apple Walnut Brownie Cake

2011-10-16T14:02:00.000+02:00

Chirr chirr. Chiiirrrrrrr. Chirr chirr. What's that noise? Oh yes, it's the SILENCE that nested in here over the last days.

It has gotten a bit quiet around here, hasn't it? That is because I am really busy these days, having only little time for la dolce Vita. But don't fret, I'm here to stay. A weekly post is still something you can count on. Bare with me until mid-November, when life is hopefully a bit less stress-laden. That is when I am (hopefully) done with my bachelor's thesis. Keep your fingers crossed for me, would ya?

Alright, I have to admit...that's not all. Last week, I allowed myself a teensy weensy time off from everything. I was in London! How I LONG for that city! I have expressed my love for London before when I did that seven things about me post, and it's oh so true. Maybe one day I'll manage to live there. Especially after a friend of mine who is living there now has proven to me that it is basically just as EXPENSIVE to live right in the centre as it is in any other part of LDN. How I envy her...Sigh. I realize that I only lived there for the shortest time and I still kind of see things through rose-coloured glasses, but lets wait what time will bring.

While three days is not long (I did not go alone and we only managed to do the touristy things), it meant that I had to catch up on all the work that waited for me back home. Uhhhgh. Je ne regrette rien. Maybe a bit. No. Nothing.

Alright, this week I am back on the apple track, after last week's short break. The recipe combines one of my favourite combinations - chocolate and walnuts – with the sweet tartness that bring the apples. Alas, while the apples were supposed to stay at the top, the batter 'ate them up' just a bit too much in the baking process (maybe I should not have eyeballed the amount of baking powder...) so that they were hardly visible anymore in the final cake that was so wonderfully ooey-gooey, it was difficult to cut a piece without making a mess. Still, it's a texture and flavour paradise. It's juicy, a bit crunchy and creamy.

Apple Walnut Brownie Cake

Adapted from here (German).

100 g (3.5 oz.) butter
100 g (3.5 oz.) dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
100 g (3.5 oz.) walnuts
75 g (2.65 oz.) flour
225 g (8 oz.) brown sugar
50 g (1.75 oz.) + 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 package of vanilla sugar (can be substituted with 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3 eggs (size M)
125 g (4.4 oz.) crème fraîche
4 apples (each ca. 175 g or 6.2 oz.)
75 g (2.65 oz.) apricot jam
1 tsp powdered sugar
Butter for the pan

Melt butter and let cool slightly.
Coarsely chop the chocolate and walnuts.
Whisk together flour, sugar, 50g cocoa, baking powder and vanilla sugar in a bowl.
Add eggs to a mixing bowl, beat with a handmixer (or food processor) until creamy. Stir in butter. With a spoon, stir in the flour mixture well.
Fold in crème fraîche, chocolate and nuts in portions.
Pour batter into a greased springform pan (26 cm diameter or 9'') and smooth out.
Peel the apples into quarters, remove seeds and cut in several times with a knife.
Lay them out tightly onto batter.
Bake in a preheated oven (electric oven: 175°C or 350°F / fan 150°C or 300°F / gas mark 2) on middle rack for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, heat up jam.
After 25 minutes, remove cake from oven. Brush apples with jam and put the cake back into the oven for the remaining 20 minutes.
Remove from oven, place on a wire rack, loosen edge of springform pan and let cool in the pan.
Mix together 1/2 tsp powdered sugar and cocoa.
Loosen cake from the springform pan, set on a cake plate and sprinkle the sides with powdered sugar and cocoa mixture.

Enjoy!

There is still that document open that I have to focus on... so back to work!

Five Spice Snickerdoodles

2011-10-08T20:29:00.000+02:00

Five. Spice. Baby. Dudun dududun dudu dun dun. I bet Vanilla Ice never saw that one coming.

You know what? Before I got sucked into the fast-paced and capturing world of food blogs, I have never heard of the miraculous concoction that is five spice powder. Then I read about it on several blogs, featured in both sweet and savory dishes. I was intrigued, yes, but never imagined ever getting my hands on it because I thought I would not be able to get where I live. I was wrong.

One day I was just sort of meandering through my go-to self-proclaimed 'international' shop – and with 'international' they mean mostly Asian and Oriental food with a bit of African thrown in – when I found a semi-transparent little plastic bag tightly stuffed between a plethora of other semi-transparent plastic bags filled with spices. This one, however had the unexpected printed on it in bold black letters on a baby blue background: 5 Spice. Jackpot.

Curiously, I sniffed the package – quickly checking whether anybody else is in sight because, you know, I don't want to be the weird person sniffing stuff in public except fruits maybe – and fell in love with what I was smelling. Usually, five spice powder consists of a combination of cinnamon, fennel seeds, star anise, sichuan pepper and ginger, each representing one element of the five element theory (Wu Xing).

Probably one of the most famous dishes it is used in is peking duck.

So, as I have never used this spice mix before, I wanted to try something basic with the powder providing most of the flavour. I found this amazing quick recipe over at Dispatches From Whitcomb Street for snickerdoodles. Can it get more basic than that? I don't think so.

They turned out amazing. Crispy and airy on the outside but nice and chewy in the centre. Scrumptious.

My family liked them so much that I had to make them again two days later.

Five Spice Snickerdoodles
Adapted from here.

1 cup (225g) of butter
1.5 cups (340g) of sugar
2 large eggs
2.75 (345g) cups flour
2 ts of baking powder
1/2 ts salt
1/2 ts five spice powder

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and five spice and fold into wet ingredients until just incorporated.
Roll dough into 1'' (about 2,5 cm) balls and roll in a mixture of sugar and five spice powder (the original recipe said 3 tbsp of each was enough but I almost used 6 tbsp of each)
Put on lined or greased baking sheets at least 2'' (5cm) apart and bake at 400°F (about 200°C) for 8-10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus (Potato Pancakes with Chunky Apple Sauce)

2011-09-29T22:42:00.000+02:00

I wish I wish I wish. I wish I could cook and bake and enjoy life as much as I want. But unfortunately, there's stuff do to. Smart people stuff. Whether I'm up for the task has yet to be proven. I am working on my bachelor's thesis right now and am kind of in the crucial initial phase. Naturally, that means that it is taking up most of my time, leaving a little less for cooking and blogging. So today's main theme is: Keeping it simple.

You know what I have noticed? While I'm German, I have not posted any traditional German recipes so far. That is because I don't really know what “German Cuisine” is. I just heard some people yell “SAUERKRAUT!!”. Well, yes and no. Sauerkraut is eaten everywhere in Germany today, but traditionally, you would not find it in the northern parts. And then, every region would traditionally prepare and serve it differently along with different dishes.

See, historically, the area now known as Germany consisted of many small kingdoms and dukedoms each differing culturally, linguistically and culinary which one still notices today. I would not be able to understand people from the deepest parts of Bavaria. So even if a dish is prepared in a similar way in more than just one place, the name can still be different.

Those where a lot of differences in one post.

This is basically all you need.

These bad boys here for example, while basically known all over Central Europe, are called “Kartoffelpuffer” where I live. Other names would be “Erdäpfelpuffer“, „Reibekuchen“, „Reiberdatschi“, „Reibeplätzchen“, „Kartoffelpfannkuchen“ „Baggers“ and „Flinsen“ . See what I mean? Internationally, they are better known as latkes or simply potato pancakes.

For sticking with the 'simple' theme, I kept mine vegan, keeping it as simple as possible. The apple sauce however as a bit of an autumn like twist with roasted almonds and raisins. Onions along with a rather sweet dish? Yes. Trust me when I say that you won't taste them. Yet they are essential for having a lot of that roasted flavour!

Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus (Potato Pancakes with Chunky Apple Sauce)

Potato Pancakes

1 kg (35.3 oz.) potatoes
2 medium sized onions
2 tbsp starch flour
1/4 ts ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt

oil for frying

Peel and grate potatoes and onions. With your hands, tightly squeeze out as much liquid as possible (I am sure there are more sophisticated methods, but I am not that fancy and stick to the 'simple' theme here).
Add starch flour, nutmeg and salt. Stir well and set aside and start preparing apple sauce. Your batter might get a grayish tone that, while it will not be visible when prepared anymore, does not look too appetizing. To prevent the colour change, add about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
When apple sauce is cooking, heat up a pan. Cover bottom of pan with oil. You will need quite a bit or the potato pancakes will stick.
When oil is hot, stir potato mass again and place a heaping tablespoon of it it the pan, pressing it down with a spatula immediately, forming a patty (it is better to use a bit more batter than too little). I would recommend only placing up to three patties in the pan. Slightly shake pan to prevent patties from sticking to the bottom. After about three minutes or when you see that the patties are starting to brown, carefully flip them over.
If the potato pancakes are not browned enough to you liking, turn them over and over again until they are. The crucial part for them to stick together and not on the bottom really is the first turn.
Lay them out on paper towels to soak up some of the fat.

Chunky Apple Sauce

About 1kg (35.3 oz.) apples (preferably tart)
A splash of lemon juice
1 ts cinnamon
150-200g (5.3-7 oz.) almond slivers
100g (3.5 oz.) raisins
Sugar to taste

Remove core from apples and dice them in cubes of about 1''. You can peel them if you would like to. I did not. Throw them in a large pot heated up on low heat along with a splash of lemon juice. Stir well.
In a small pot, dry roast the almond slivers until they browned to your liking, add to the apples.
Once the apples start to soften, add all other ingredients. Stir occasionally until most apples have cooked into a sauce, yet still with some chunks remaining.
Add sugar to your liking. I found my apple sauce to be sweet enough because of the raisins.

Serve along with potato pancakes and enjoy!

Hasselback Potatoes with Apple Chutney

2011-09-22T18:26:00.000+02:00

Apples. I know I have already posted a picture of the apple tree from our garden. But just in case, here is a reminder:

Yup. A different one.

In fact, there are THREE apple trees back there taunting me with their heavily loaded branches. They know exactly that I should spent my time on something else than picking them all and I could swear there is a hushed giggle following each thud caused by another apple dropping down. You complained about a bad "apple year" last autumn? You want apples? We give you apples! Mean apple trees those are!

Actually, I should be happy about the plethora of tart, juicy fruits they are carrying this year. However, the only thing you cannot have too much of is ~~money~~ happiness, right?

So, as I am trying to use (and/or give away) as many of them as possible, there are going to be lots of apple recipes showing up on here, as I have mentioned before. Don't say I did not warn you.

This combination has a bit of a fusion cuisine touch to it with the hasselback potatoes originating from Sweden and chutney being associated with India and Pakistan. Hasselback potatoes are less of a recipe than they are a way of preparation. Make thin cuts (about 3-4 mm) into a (preferably waxy and broad for better hold) potato without actually slicing through. I put a few pieces of onion into mine, salted and topped it with a dab of butter and paprika powder. They were then baked in the oven on 220°C (425°C) for about 40 minutes, with pepper added afterwards.

The actual recipe is the chutney. I really like the combination of sweet, sour and savory. However, the recipe calls for a whopping 500g of sugar for 1kg apples! I sticked strictly to the recipe and found it to be overly sweet so I halved the amount the next time and it was just sweet enough this way. It works great with potatoes and pork like I served it. Chicken works just as well so does cheese or a fondue.

Apple Chutney

The original can be found here (German).
Makes a lot! But you can store left-overs in jars.

1kg (35.3 oz.) apples (preferably sour), peeled and cut in thin slices.
250g (8.8 oz.) onions, finely chopped.
1 clove of garlic (I used 3), finely chopped.
375ml (12.7 fl. oz.) vinegar (while the original recipe suggests wine vinegar, I used cider vinegar)
500g (17.6 oz.) sugar (I would suggest 250-300g)
3 tbsp ground mustard seeds (I used freshly ground brown mustard seeds which are milder in taste)
2 tbsp of freshly grated ginger
1 ts cayenne pepper
250g (8.8 oz.) raisins

In a large pot, combine all ingredients but the raisins and let simmer for an hour, stirring it from time to time.
Add raisins and let cook for another 15 minutes (I always add the raisins right away and never found anything to complain about this way.)

The chutney is done when it does not run off a spoon anymore.

You can store it in jars like jam if you want to right away, or heat up any left-overs and store those. Here is a great instruction on sterilizing jars.

Enjoy!

Hazelnut Apple Sheet Cake

2011-09-16T03:12:00.000+02:00

Sooo, Monday was my one month mensiversary. Yes. That's a word. I looked it up.

Anyway, I was just minding my own business not really thinking about it, when I saw that Alyssa from Mom de Cuisine was awarded with a 'Versatile Blogger Award'. “Good for her!”, I thought. It's a great blog she has there with almost daily updates from sweet to savory. So she truly deserves it.

As I went through the list of bloggers she passed the award on to, I noticed something. There was one name I thought I misread. Could that be... MY name I saw there? WHOA! Yes? YES! How was that possible? I feel genuinely honoured, I do. As I said, I have only been a blogger for one month yet feel very passionate about it and hope to one day find my style and voice as one and develop my cooking and baking skills.

It's been a great month and hope for many more to come!

Thank you, Alyssa!

So, coming with this award are certain rules. I did a search about it and saw that there seem to be different ones. As I am so new to blogging, I chose the following:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Tell 7 random things about yourself.

3. Pass the award on to 10 bloggers you've recently discovered and you think are fantastic!

Here we go:

Seven random things about me:

1. The only two Disney films that I like are the old Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins. I just don't get me to like Disney because I always felt like they ripped off other films and ideas (most of it was based on books and fairy tales to begin with, anyway) and many of the old ones had obvious racist implications. I could do a whole post about this so I'll leave it to that for now.

2. I hate spiders. Alright, that's not very creative. Many people hate spiders. It went so far with me that when I was a child, even the tiniest of those eight-legged monsters made me freeze and stare at it, fearing it would disappear once I manage to get the vacuum cleaner. It got better, though. Last year (pretty much exactly one year ago from today), there was an incident with a HUGE spider sitting right next to my pillow the moment I wanted to go to bed. Let's just say it was the first and last panic attack I've ever had with cold sweat and everything. After that kind of 'shock therapy', I'm a little more relaxed but still could not sleep in a room where I KNOW there is one.

3. I did an internship in London and fell in love with that city. The people, the mentality, the variety, the culture, the vibe. It comes so far that when the desire to get back becomes too strong, I go to that kind of strange tiny shop in a completely different part of the city I live in just to buy me a Crunchie for like 1€. You don't get those here. Oh, and while I'm German, my accent is British when I speak English. Apparently, I sound like a “posh British schoolboy”, so I've been told. Go figure....

4. If I was a girl, my name would be Julia. True story. My mother got the idea of calling me Tobias because of a football (soccer) match my brother had when he was 13. One boy who played in THE OTHER team was called Tobias and his friends where cheering him on yelling “TO-BY! TO-BY!”. She liked that so much that she gave me that name. Bless her heart.

5. I love animals but decided for me that I can never have a pet (anymore). I used to have a cat until she died about 3,5 years ago and it crushed my soul so deeply I still can hardly look at pictures of her. It's better for my own sake.

6. My very most favourite leaf vegetable was arugula... until I developed an allergy from one day to another. If I eat it now, my whole mouth and throat turn sore for a couple of days. Not worth it.

7. About two months ago, I bought a Joan Baez vinyl record. I don't even have a player. I just saw it when I passed a music store that also sells old vinyls and felt like it. I like her, yes, but am not obsessing over her or anything. These facts are supposed to be random and that is one of the most random things I bought, I guess.

About the bloggers...that really is a difficult task for me. I mean, I have only been a blogger for a month and being an active part of the blogging community is very new to me. Many of the blogs I would consider have already received the award, some may not really care. Because of those factors coming together here, I chose to pick 10 blogs I have recently discovered and think are great as opposed to 15 blogs in general. The rules vary and I found these to suit me better.

To be honest, I am a bit overwhelmed and feel like I am not quite up to the task. ;)

So here we go (in no particular order):

http://www.apronandsneakers.com/

http://lemonsandanchovies.wordpress.com/

http://vondelicious.blogspot.com/

http://www.tastewiththeeyes.com/

http://kitchenconfidante.com/

http://kokken69.blogspot.com/

http://zoomyummy.com

http://rumandreason.com/

http://hotpolkadot.com/

http://www.ecurry.com/

I am going to contact all of them as soon as possible although I have never spoken to some of them before. Awkward.

Now, there is still a recipe to post! I actually meant to post something completely different today, but because there is always cake when there is something to celebrate, I decided to bake one right this morning, especially for this occasion!

Autumn is right around the corner. That also means that harvest time is here. Do you want to see a picture of our apple trees? ~~No Tobias, why should we?~~ I knew you do! So here it is:

Packed.

That means that I am going to post quite few apple recipes in near future because that is basically what I'll be baking with. Apples Apples Apples. Good thing I like them.

I am in love with this cake. It has an old timey sentiment to it and not only because both my grandmother and mother used to bake it. I leafed through my grandmother's old folder of recipes she “passed on” to me and tracked down the original. It was in a promotional calendar by “Dr. Oetker” from 1954! For the month of March, strangely. Not really a month I'd associate with apples. Dr. Oetker is a well-established food processing company which also publishes cookbooks and has many other things in its portfolio. Their book “Schulkochbuch” had an impact on German cooking similar to Julia Child's in the US.

Anyway, I changed the recipe quite a bit to give it a more seasonal touch and because I simply adore the combination of apples and cinnamon. I prefer this version to the original. However, I leave it up to you to decide which one you like better.

Hazelnut Apple Sheet Cake

1 package vanilla pudding mix (not instant, the kind you need to cook. Can be substituted with 45g or 1.6 oz. starch flour and 1 ts vanilla essence)
4 tbsp milk
150g (5.3 oz.) butter
150g (5.3 oz.) sugar
2 eggs
A pinch of salt
250g (8.8 oz.) all-purpose flour
9g (0.3 oz. or about 1 1/2 ts) baking powder
500g (17.6 oz.) apples, peeled and sliced

My personal changes and additions:

I only used 150g all-purpose flour and substituted 100g (3.5 oz.) with ground hazelnuts
1 1/2 ts of cinnamon for the batter (because apples and cinnamon are HEAVEN)
2 handfuls of slightly crushed hazelnuts (I did that in a mortar but a freezer bag or even just cloth and anything heavy works just as well)
Mixture of about 5 ts of demerara sugar and 1 ts of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F)
Stir pudding mix with milk.
Beat butter until creamy, add sugar, eggs and salt little by little.
Mix flour and baking powder (substitute 100g flour with ground hazelnuts and add cinnamon if you want to try my version), add to the batter alternately with pudding mix.
Spread half the batter into a greased 24cm (about 9'') spring form pan. Lay out half of the sliced apples.
Sprinkle with half of the demerara/cinnamon mix and a handful of slightly crushed hazelnuts (all optional)
Spread remaining batter onto apples, lay out remaining apples. Add rest of demerara and hazelnuts (optional again).
Bake on centre rack for about 55 minutes (my version took about 60 minutes).

Enjoy!

Oh right. This is what the calendar looks like:

Wow, this post took so long to write I had to push it back a day.

Zucchini Pan Stew

2011-09-11T02:15:00.000+02:00

Ok, so it has not even been a month since I have started blogging but I have managed to post at least twice a week so there are 10 entries by now. Browsing through those 10 recipes coming with the posts, do you notice something? No? ~~They are all terrific~~ Four of them have zucchini. And you know why that is so? Because I LOVE them! Zucchini and tomatoes are two vegetables (well technically, they are both fruits) I pretty much live on during the warmer months of the year. There is just nothing not to love about them. Don't believe me? I give you 5 reasons why you should love them, too:

1. They are tremendously healthy.

With 15 teensy-weensy calories per 100g (that's 3.5 oz. for you jolly people over the pond) one does not even really have to think about calories. And them containing potassium, folate, vitamin A and manganese (does the term “free radicals” tell you something? Mangenese helps to detoxify them and already 100g is enough to cover 19% of what is recommended daily.) only adds up to their goodness! But enough with the boring health blabber.

2. They are versatile!

Alright, zucchini ~~are a bit bland~~ have a very mild flavour. I'll give you that, zucchini haters (and I KNOW you are out there, I just don't know WHY!). But that is not a bad thing at all. That just means that they soak in the flavours of the other ingredients well like in the recipe that is at the bottom of this post. Want a bit of a crunch? You can eat them raw or lightly blanched like here. Enjoy soups? Blended zucchini give them an almost starchy creaminess like potatoes would but low-carb and calorie (Oh suprise! There is this awesome summery soup I have posted a few weeks ago.). So, you don't feel like eating something savory, now. How about something to satisfy your sweet tooth? Grated zucchini makes cakes and muffins perfectly moist. However, not even them can make this recipe healthy...

You can even stuff, grill and bake and fry them!

3. They are not bound to one particular cuisine.

Ok, I am aware that this also applies to a plethora of other veggies but it was not that clear to me when it comes to zucchini. When I think about them, my first thought is Italian or maybe also just western.

Here is a(n totally incomplete) list of links to recipes from different countries that contain zucchini:

Italian: Pasta Con Zucchine & Menta from Apron and Sneakers

Japanese: Chicken Curry from Just one Cookbook

They also work great as Tempura!

Lebanese: Keshké Salad from Taste of Beirut

Indian: Zucchini Curry from Simple Indian Recipes

French: Ratatouille from Burghilicious

Chinese: Mushroom Chicken from Rasa Malaysia

4. They freeze well.

Although they lose in texture, I find they generally freeze pretty well. I would recommend to already prepare them in the way you intend to use them later (chopping, slicing, grating) because that part could be tricky after thawing but apart from them: Put them in a freezer bag and they are good to go.

5. They are easy to grow in your garden (given you have one).

Alright, I am a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to this point because the last person who grew zucchini in our garden was my grandfather but still, it IS fuzz free! The soil does not need to be particularly good and as long as you keep it moist I cannot imagine anything that could go wrong. Oh, and did I mention that two plants are more than enough to get you and your loved ones well fed through summer? And as a plus, you get to enjoy their blossoms that are not only beautiful, but also edible.

Still not convinced? Here is my grandmother's quick-fix week-night low-carb super-tasty zucchini dish that does not require lots of ingredients and is low in price yet a real comfort food. I don't know exactly how to name it because it's not really a soup, nor a stew. Maybe a soupy stir-fry or a light summery pan stew at best. But what's in a name, anyway. All those juices come directly from the vegetables as there is no adding of water involved.

Zucchini Pan Stew

Serves 4

300-500g (10.5–17.5 oz.) ground meat, half beef, half pork
3 medium sized zucchini
3-4 tomatoes, depending on size
3 eggs
4-5 splashes of soy sauce
pepper to taste

Cut zucchini and tomatoes into slices of about 5mm (about 0.2''), set aside
In a pan, roast meat without additional fat until it gets crumbly. You still want some bigger chunks, though.
Spread zucchini slices evenly on meat, do the same with tomatoes afterwards.
Add a few splashes of soy sauce and close with a lit letting it simmer on low heat until zucchini are tender (the tomatoes will pretty much dissolve).
Remove lid, stir and add more soy sauce to taste. In a cup or a small bowl, crack open the eggs and stir them just slightly so that yolk and egg white are not completely combined. Pour evenly over pan. Turn heat up to medium.
When eggs begin to set, stir for the last time and keep the heat on until they are completely done.
Add some pepper and enjoy!

This really is a simple, down-home dish that my grandmother especially used to cook on particularly hot days in summer when she would rather do anything else but cooking. The soy sauce goes so well with the juices of the vegetables and if you still feel like you need your carb fix, serve with some bread to soak them up!

Still need some inspiration? Well, you know where get that!

Do you have a zucchini dish that you are particularly fond of? Feel free to post them in the comments. :)

Mexican Chocolate Tart

2011-09-07T23:11:00.000+02:00

Sometimes, to create something beautiful, you have to do evil.

There were five of them. I tore off all covers, leaving them bare-naked on the cold wooden surface. The first one was strategically placed right in the centre. I knew what was about to happen. Gazing at its shiny, smooth outer, my mouth could not be detained from smirking a little. Then I ran the knife through it for the first time. Easier than imagined. Chop chop chop it continued. Chop chop chop. Bits and pieces flew everywhere, covering the others that were silently sitting right next to it. Chop Chop Chop. First one done. Four to follow. Let's see if I can do three at once, I thought. The knife went down with three dull thuds each time. What a peculiar rhythm. Still one to go.

As I said. Sometimes, to create something beautiful, you have to do evil.

Chopping chocolate really is not the most delicate activity in the kitchen. In fact, I thought it always creates a scenario reminding of the intro of Dexter. You know, where that whole procedure of preparing breakfast somehow has a murderous touch to it. Coming to the beautiful part, now.

This tart is insanely rich. The filling consists solely of a ganache made of chocolate and cream while the crust has a nice flaky crunch with hardly any sugar giving just the right level of sweetness. I would stick with the official version that I only had a small piece but the picture unfortunately outs me as a big old liar.

Pants on fire.

Depending on what chocolate you use, it can be a bit pricey. However, you know what I did? I did a quick search online looking for reviews of chocolates and found a reliable source that told me how good they actually are. I have found one that was rather low in price, yet high in quality and it still tasted great (I tried it, of course).

As the recipe told me, I sifted a bit of cocoa over the tart which I actually would not do next time as the flavour overpowered the rest quite a bit. I kind of ate a thin layer off of the top first so I could indulge in the rest sans dutch-processed cocoa powder.

It's fairly easy to prepare yet decadent and just too good. I guess I have found myself another monster to munch on. ;)

The hardest part is to really keep it in the fridge for four hours before cutting it!

The magazine I found this in calls it 'Mexican Tarte', although I am not quite sure what is so Mexican about it.

Mexican Chocolate Tart

Adapted from: Frau von Heute, 9^th issue, 25.02.2011: Mexikanische Tarte

160g (5.6 oz.) AP Flour
100g (3.5 oz.) Butter
50g (1.8 oz.) sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk (size M)
1 tbsp dutch-processed cocoa powder
500g (17.6 oz.) dark milk chocolate (I was not too sure what exactly that was supposed to mean so I used 4 bars of 50% dark chocolate and 1 bar 30% so my ganache was generally rather on the milky side)
400ml (13.5 fl. oz.) cream
1 pack of vanilla sugar (this is lesser known in the US, I think you could either omit it or replace 1 ts cream with 1 ts vanilla extract)
Cocoa for dusting the cake (I recommend skipping this)

In addition:

Dry peas, beans or cherry stones for baking the crust blind.
Parchment paper for the same purpose.

Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
Combine flour, sugar, salt, egg yolk, cocoa and butter and knead until smooth (I did that with my hands). Put in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Grease a 24cm (about 9'') spring form pan and and lay out dough, forming a crust. Prick it with a fork several times and lay out with parchment paper. Fill with dried peas.
Bake for 15 minutes, remove peas and parchment paper and bake for further 10 to 15 minutes.
Chop up chocolate and heat up cream in a small pot. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate along with vanilla sugar to the heated cream and stir until smooth. Let it cool off for 30 minutes. (I added the chocolate to the cold cream and heated everything on low heat just enough to let it melt. It worked fine for me and there was hardly any time needed to let it cool down.)
Pour mass into crust and put in refrigerator for 4 hours. Dust with cocoa powder.

Forget about those damn calories and indulge!

Indian Sweet Potato Dessert

2011-09-03T23:47:00.000+02:00

It's warm outside. Soothingly warm. I have mentioned before that this year's summer did not mean well with us so every single day temperature rises above 20°C is precious. In fact, they appear so precious you kind of want keep them in your pocket so you can take them out again when you know exactly that you have got the time to make the most of it. Writing these words, I just realised how odd that thought is. Imagine people had the ability to save sunny days for later. The result? Clouds and rain all year.

Anyway.

This recipe is a bit on the odd side. It's simple. And apparently, it's Indian. It was the dessert we have had the day we enjoyed last time's recipe and comes from the same source. The original only asked for three ingredients: Milk, sugar, and sweet potatoes. This particular dish was chosen for two reasons: Not only were we actually supposed to work on a project so time for cooking was meant to be short (uhm...), it was also meant to be an experiment.

You can imagine that this concoction can only get as pretty as good ol' mashed potatoes and is maybe a bit one-dimensional flavour-wise. So foresighted, we added about 100g of almonds we caramelized with a bit of sugar. Some of it went directly into the puree, the rest was garnish. Almost pretty, right?

Indian Sweet Potato Dessert

Adapted from here. Serves 4.

1 kg (35 oz.) sweet potatoes
930 ml (4 cups) milk
200g (7 oz.) sugar
100g (3.5 oz.) caramelized almond slivers (optional)

Peel and slice sweet potatoes.
Put in a big pot along with 600ml of milk, let it cook on low heat until potatoes are soft.
Remove from heat and puree completely. Add sugar and rest of milk, stir well.
Put pot back on heat and let it simmer until consistency is creamy.
Fold in caramelized almonds and garnish (optional).
Serve warm.

So. How was it? Actually, it was alright and I can see myself preparing it again. It was sweet, creamy and, well, sweet potato-y. But probably only when there are any left-over sweet potatoes. I know it's really, REALLY simple but hey, there is worse.