Bombay Aloo

This actually just potatoes and onions.

Onions are a big deal in many parts of India. Except the Brahman Class, they are not allowed to eat onions and garlic. Mountains of onions are sold at the markets everywhere.

I wanted to cook it for a long time. Normally I do not have a lot of potatoes in stock, I mostly buy as much as I need for a dish. When I store potatoes in the kitchen, they start to grow and get soft again.
Last week I needed several different kinds of potatoes and small amounts were not to come by. I had to buy in larger quantities. Now I have to use them up, otherwise I have to throw them out soon.

recipe for 2:
700 g potatoes
2 red onions
2 spring onions
1 green chili
6 cloves of garlic
2 knobs of ginger
4 kardamom pods
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tbsp dried Curry leaves
1 tsp Ground tumeric
200 ml coconut milk
water
salt and pepper
3 tbsp ghee

Peel the potatoes and cook them until nearly done. Drain.
In a small blender make a paste with chili, spring onions, garlic and ginger.
Chop the red onions into strips.
Heat up the ghee and fry off the spices. Add the red onions first and cook them for 3 min, then add the paste. Add water.

Get then potatoes in and the coconut milk and cook and season to taste.
Eat with some fresh tomatoes as a side and may be a bit of yogurt.

Amerikaner - an old German pastry

It may be an odd name for a delicious piece of pastry. And it does not originate in America.

It is a light crumbly pastry  in a UFO shape which was made with the Ammoniumcarbonate as the leavening agent. The first name of this pastry was Ammoniker, no one could remember that. Someone came up the name Amerikaner, because the helmet of the soldiers during WWI looked a bit like it.

Pumpkin is usually not used in baking this pastry. But a little veggie in a sweet pastry is great for the conscience.

recipe for 25 mini or 8 regular size ones:
250 g pumpkin peeled and chopped into cubes
water and salt for cooking

100 g room temperature butter
180 g sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla paste
250 g flour
2 tsp Ammonium Carbonate or Cream of Tartar
1 pinch Raz al Hanut
1 pinch nutmeg

glaze:
200 g icing sugar
2- 3 tbsp milk
1 tsp cinnamon

Cook the pumpkin in a small pot for 15-20 min. Drain and mix the pumpkin into a puree.
Cool down.
Heat up the oven to 180 C.
In a big bowl beat the butter until White and creamy, add the sugar. Then egg and vanilla paste. Now fold the pumpkin puree in. In a small bowl mix the rest of the ingredients and add to the other bowl. The dough should be thick and gloopy.

Use a baking sheet with baking paper and an ice cream Scoop. Put dollops on the paper and space them one Inch at least.
Bake for 12 min, they should be yellow brown but not dark. Cool them on a wire rack.

Make the glaze and paint the flat side thick. You can add a bit of cocoa powder to some of the glaze and make some colourings. Let that dry.

Wild Garlic Linguine

Now is the time of year when nature awakens. Fresh young herbs are shooting out of withered pots and in the forest it starts to smell of wild garlic.

I love this green leafy plants but loom at them very carefully not to mistake them with poisenous plants.
But for the less enthusiatic herb eater there is an easy alternative: buy wild garlic in packages at the store.

This green stuff is wonderful in pestos. A nice way to eat garlic without the stink later.

We have a local butcher who makes sausges with herbs like wild garlic. But you can eat any other kind of sausage that you can buy in your area. If you have a butcher who makes German style Brats, go any get yourself some there.

Recipe for 4:
400 g linguine
1 bunch fresh wild garlic leaves
12 chopped walnuts
Olive oil
1 small onion
Salt and pepper
4 sausages with herbs
4 quail eggs


Prepare the wild garlic oil and discard the stems, only use the leaves. Chop the walnuts and put them in a pan without oil and toast them.
2/3 of the green in a blender with olive oil.
Cook the pasta and save 100 ml of pasta water when you drain them.
Cut the Bratwuest into rinfs ans fry them off in a pan, add the rest of the chopoed wild garlic and finely cut onion.
Cook the quail eggs as sunny side up.
Add wild garl7c oil to the sausage and pasta water and toss in the pasta.
Sprinkle with walnuts and serve wuth the eggs.

Zoodles or Courgette pasta with Ayvar sauce

What to do with a single courgette?
I looked for my kitchen gadget from Lurch, a spirler and the courgette went through it.

With some shallots and garlic it went into the pan. I loosened it with some white wine and a tablespoon of sour cream.
Lots of dried thyme and Pul Biber for taste. Salt and Pepper.
I finished it with the last couple of tablespoons of Ayvar. I had to get the rest out of the jar.

On the first view the food in the pan looked like green pasta in some tomato like sauce. It takes a bit to identify the veggies.

I served it with a pork steak already marinated from my local butcher.

Courgette with Feta Filling in tomato sauce

Today we are baking Macarons. They need some time to rest and we wanted lunch during that time.
Last week I watched Kitchen Impossible again and found a recipe for filled courgette.
The feta filling intrigued me, because Sweet Chili Sauce was used for flavouring the cheese.
It was actually a dish that was served in a large Cafeteria of Berlin´s  Office of Municipal Sanitation.

It is a great dish to serve in summer, when you have lots of courgettes in your garden. Slice them thinly and put them in some oil in a pan and get them soft and let them have some Colour.

recipe for 4:
3 medium courgettes
200 g feta from sheep milk
6 tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce
50 g roasted pinenuts
2 tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp smoked Paprika
pepper
olive oil

homemade tomato Sauce- it is good, when you can fall back to sauces you made before from your own Tomatoes. Just add the rest of the courgettes that can´  t be sliced. It would be a shame to throw them away.

Popcorn Sweet Rice

It is not good when you watch so many cooking Shows. You get so many ideas and want to try them all. This unusual combination I saw on Kitchen Impossible. A small Twist that made a very traditional sweet Rice into something new and very delectable.

I love the Concept of the Show, were the Chefs have to find out what is in the dish just by taste and eyes and cook it at the original Location where the dish was cooked. They get rated by a Jury. Their favourite dish this is.
The two Michelin star Chef tasted Popcorn, but did not know how to get the taste in. He just used a good amount of vanilla pods. Making fresh Popcorn and getting it into the rice did not occur to him. He even found a bag of Popcorn kernels in the kitchen pantry, but did not make the connection.

recipe for 3:
620 ml whole milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
pinch of salt
120 g Carneroli Rice
1 egg
1/2 Lemon
3/4 Cup fresh popped Popcorn

Make the Popcorn. Use a blender and make it semi fine.
Heat up the milk with sugar, vanilla and salt. When it cooks add the rice.
Cook on low until tender, stir often.peaks.
Press the juice from the lemon.

When the rice is cooked, take it from the heat and add the egg yolk, Lemon Juice, Popcorn and egg white.

Serve with some fruit sauce or Rote Grütze.

Mixed Berry Jelly Dessert or Rote Grütze

Rote Grütze is a dessert from the Hamburg region of Germany. Mostly found in the North. In summer fresh berries are made into a kind of jelly with clusters of berríes still intact. The companion to this dessert is vanilla custard. Some eat it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Mostly red fruits are used for it, but often mixed with blueberries and blackberries.

There are many ways to prepare it. Some call for a juice made of the berries without the seeds, some want all the berries intact. Mostly it is a mix of a juice base were the fresh berries are tossed in the last couple of minutes.

The jelly is made white or red wine or just fruit juice to the base, depending the occation. I blended 300 g of the fruits and just added some apple juice and a dash of brown rum.

recipe for 6:
750 g mixed defrosted berries
50 g sugar
25 g potato starch
120 ml apple Juice
20 ml brown rum

You can add more sugar if the berries are too astringend. But keep in mind, you will eat it with sweet Custard or other sweet things.

Take 300 g fruits and blend them, pour in a pot and add apple juice and rum and sugar and starch.
Bring to a simmer and cook until thickend. Add the rest of the berries and carefully warm them up.
Put into the fridge to cool down completely.

Lemon Curd

This is my favourite recipe for Lemon Curd.

I was on a 10 days trip through Cornwall a couple of years ago and went to the Eden Project. Huge domes containing different Climate zones with local plants. It was very interesting to see what grows in which Climate. I saw several plants for the first time, were I only knew the fruits from. Now I know how they grown.


Best of all in these sights are the gift Shops at the end of the tour.
On sale was a cookbook from Maggie Mayhew with the title: Perfect Preserves. Since I am a fan of homemade jams and jellies, it was mine the moment I saw it. And 3,99 GBP instead of 8,99 GBP was a bargain.
Several curd recipes are in the book as well.

recipe for a 250 ml + 100 ml jar:
3 organic lemons
200 g sugar
115 g butter
2 large free range eggs
2 egg yolks
and a lot of elbow grease!

Wash the lemons and grate the zest into a heat proof bowl.
Press out the Juice.
Add the sugar.
Set the bowl over a pot of boiling water, make sure it does not reach the Bottom of the bowl.
When it warms up, cut the butter into cubes and let it melt in the liquid.
Stir often.
In a small bowl Combine the eggs and egg yolks and beat them up lightly.
When the butter is melted, pour the eggs through a fine sieve into the hot mix.

Now the fun starts. Use a whisk and constantly whisk until the mixture thickens. Takes up to 15 min.
Pour into clean jars and cool down. Store in the fridge later.

Great for filling Macarons, Pancakes or fresh tarts.

Inari Sushi

My friend bought Abura Age ready made for Inari Sushi. She did not know what she bought and had a different taste profile in her head. Something like crispy dough and savoury taste.
She was put off by the sweetness and the texture. They were a complete fail for her. She only used 3 pouches and thrown the rest back into the freezer.

When we met she gave me the frozen pack. I was looking forward to prepare it. I love this stuff and been eating it since 2006. May be it is an acquired taste.

I used Sushi rice and made the rice dressing at home and poured some over it. I took my hair dryer out from the bathroom to cool it down. Then mixed it with toasted sesame seeds.

I wanted a variety of flavours, so I bought some smoked Salmon, cooked some Edamame Beans, chopped some red bell pepper and use flat leaf parsley.

recipe:
12 Inari Sushi pouches
250 g Sushi Rice
3 tbps Rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sesame seeds
3 slices of smoked Salmon
1/3 red bell pepper
50 g Edamame beans
soy Sauce
Wasabi paste

Warm the pouches in the microwave for a few seconds. This way they are easier to open. Get your finger inside and open up to the edges.
Roll some Rice and stick it in to fill it.
Either eat it that way or top it off with the other ingredients.

Boxty griddle Pancakes from Ireland

I love German potato Pancakes with Fresh grated huge amounts of potatoes and onions.

But the downside is, frying them in lots of oil creates a smell that will sit in your clothes, hair and Apartment for a while.
This recipe is different. These are still potato Pancakes but mixed with flour and made into a smooth batter with buttermilk. Baking These in butter does not create a lot of smell.

I made them for St. Patrick´s Day and will prepare them again.

recipe for 12 Pancakes:
250 g floury potatoes peeled, cooked and dry mashed
250 g floury potatoes,peeled and grated
200 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
350 g buttermilk
1 egg
salt and pepper
nutmeg
butter for the pan

Mix all together and make a thick batter. Let it rest 30 min.
Get some butter in the pan and with a big Scoop get 3 or 4 pancakes in. Bake for 2 min, turn and bake again on medium heat. Flip twice.

Serve with bloodpudding and applesauce

Spinach Soup for St. Patrick´s Day

Eating and drinking green stuff was something I encountered in Florida on St. Patrick´s Day first. I did not know what was going on when the waiter brought me green tinted beer and some kind of cheese sauce that had an ugly tinge to it. Lots of people were celebrating and I asked, what kind of Holiday that was. I was told that the 17th of March was the day for the Irish to celebrate their Patron.

I was only wondering, why so many people were celebrating, who clearly were not of Irish decent. That was in 1988. That was the time I decided to Honor this day at home too. With my parents together we cooked some food that was green and worn green close. Even at the Office for several years my influence made that day special. Some baked green cakes or muffins, I made green Yello  and we all had a fun time.
Over these years and a couple of trips to Ireland, I discovered that they had parties on the Streets and in homes and watch the great Parade in Dublin.

recipe for 4:
500 g frozen leafy spinach with cream
2 shallots
1 tbsp semolina
500 ml chicken stock
nutmeg
White pepper and salt
1 tbsp oil

Defrost the spinach, chop the onions and fry them in a little oil for a couple of min.
Add the chicken stock and sprinkle the semolina in. Give it a good stir.
Now follows the spinach and the seasoning. Do not scrimp on the nutmeg.
Bring to a boil and serve.

Essigbrätlein - Nürnberg fine Dining

Are you looking for an exceptional evening out with outstanding food and great presentation in Nürnberg? You are on the right track, when you head out to the Essigbrätlein.

3 men are the Team of this Restaurant. Andre Köthe founded it, Yves Ollech is the Head Chef and Ivan Jakir as Maitre Sommelier will present you with the corresponding wines. They are famous for their vegetable Cuisine with local and more unknown produce.

You have to make a Reservation and you have to ring a bell to get into the Restaurant. They are taking your coat and bringing it away, very formal. But then you are welcomed by a very friendly Team.

We sat down at a very reduced styled table. Each place had the menu on the side. And a list of the wines this evening.

As an Amuse Bouche we had a small bowl of juice from grilled peppers with elderflower oil. It smell awesome. Then came winter spinach with rhubarb and ground juniper berries.

Between other Course came more of these tasty morsels.
We had some lettuce with sesame dressing.
Daikon and cranberries - my favourite !
Steamed sourdough bread with butter and fermented radishes.

The first Course was White Vegetables: several times frozen cauliflower and Kohlrabi with Poppy seed Sauce.
Since each Course came with a different kind of wine, the pairing was outstanding. Then after a couple of Courses we were  a lot funnier.

For the next Course came Char with beetroot, drenched in whey and grapefruit.

Next was Kale with Asparagus.

Then came Fermented beans.

Lamb and Broccoli.

We finished with Espresso and chocolate shards.

Visiting the washroom showed a huge picture of Grace Jones on the bathroom door -very unique!

We had an amazing evening with tasty food and are looking forward to coming again.