Swedish Applecake

I found this recipe on the German Website "einfach backen".

It is apple harvest tima and you can get local apples at the supermarkets. I would not use the ones from New Zealand or other places oversea. They are old now.
There is actually not much baking to do. Just bake a Swiss sponge cake and top it with apples and whipped cream.  Sounds easy, but that takes a bit of time. There are cooling times to watch.

I am looking forward to try it later. The remaining part will go the Office with me tomorrow.

Ingredients for the sponge:
3 eggs
60 g sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
70 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
butter for the dish

ingredients for the filling:
1 kg apples
1 lemon juiced
150 g sugar
300 ml water
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 package Dr.Oetker vanilla Pudding powder

topping:
400 ml double cream
2 packages of cream safe
30 g grated chocolate

Preheat the oven 180 C and use a 26 diameter loose bottom baking

In a standmixer combine eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar and beat until white and foamy.
Sift flour and baking powder together and fold it in with a spatula.
Thoroghly grease the baking dish and pour the mixture in.
Bake for 20 min. Cool down a bit, then take it out of the tin and cool it on a wire rack completely.
Peel the apples, core them and roughly grate them. sprinkle with juice of lemon or lime.

In a small pot heat up 260 ml of water with the sugar, dissolve the pudding powder in the rest of the water., When it boils, add the mix and cook for 1 minute. Pour it over the apples and mix it in well.
Cool the mix down.

Place a cake ring around the swiss sponge and load the apples on top.
Beat the double cream with the cream safe to stiff peaks and layer on top of the apples.
Sprinke with grated chocolate and cool down completely.

Adobo Chicken Drumsticks

This is a fast way to get to a tasty chicken dish.

You do not need more then 90 minutes to marinate the chicken. The meat gets very succulent this way.

Cooking it later will take only 45 min. And a little flash fry the drumsticks.

Serve it with rice.

Ingredients:
5 chicken drumsticks free range
150 ml light soy sauce
150 ml cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
5 slices of ginger
1 tbsp ground black pepper
5 bay leaves

2 medium onions
6 cloves of garlic
400 ml chicken stock
1 tsp olive oil

Marinate the drumsticks. Put them in a pot with the liquid and spices, add onion slices and garlic and stock. Cook for 40-45 min.

Use a medium pan with olive oil and flash fry the drumsticks.

Serve the onions and garlic on top of rice with the chicken.

Bell Pepper Garlic Soup

Now that we have more rain then sun and the temperatures are below 20 C, it is time for soups.

The combinations are endless. Best inspiration is a check of your veggie drawer and fridge.

I found a colourful bell pepper mix and 2 green Zebra tomatoes, some cheese and creme fraiche. With onions and a good amount of garlic, that sounded like a tasty soup.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
1 shallot
5 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
3 bell peppers
650 ml veg or chicken stock
1 tsp herbes de Provence
Salt and pepper
Chili flakes

3 slices older bread
2 cloves if garlic
1/2 tsp thyme
Oil and butter
2 tbsp Kraft processed cheese
2 slices of Emmenthal
Creme fraiche

Use a speed peeler and get some of the skin off the bell peppers, get the seeds out and chop them roughly.
Peel and chop onions and garlic.
In a pot in some olive oil give the onions a 3 min heads tart. Add garlic and peppers. Season and stir a couple of minutes.
Add stock and herbes de Provence and chili flakes and cook until the veggies are soft.
Use a stick blender and give it a good mix, but not too smooth.

Now let the cheese melt in the soup.
Chop the bread, peel the garlic and let it brown 2 min in oil in a wide pan. Now the bread cubes in.
Fry them and add a bit of butter last.

Fig Jam with rum

My fig tree was ready for the second harvest and in all grocery stores figs are sold. I ate some of my own and used the other together with the store bought ones to make some fig jam.

That is a lot less hassle than the plum jam from yesterday. Btw-. the pan I cooked the plum jam for 5 hours in got squeeky clean again in the dishwasher. All the crust was gone.

For fig jam you will need some liquid and some acid. I used grapefruit juice and rosé coloured wine.
And to intensify the taste just some dark brown Cuban rum at the end.

Ingredients for 4 jars:
780 g fresh figs
1/2 pink Grapefruit - the juice
150 ml rosé wine
500 g 2 : 1 jam sugar (1000 g fruit to 500 g pectin sugar)
1/2  ground vanilla pod
50 ml dark Havanna Club rum

Wash the figs and take off the stem. Quarter them. Squeeze the juice from the grapefruit on top and the ground vanilla pod.
Put this in the Thermomix or a blender and make a good paste.
Add wine and sugar and blitz again.

When you use a pot, bring the jam to a boil and cook for 5 min.
When you use a Thermomix, set the timer for 12 min at 100 C speed 2.
 Put the rum in the last 2 minutes.

Fill in some sterilized jam jars.

Pork Loin in Bacon with Courgette and Dumplings

Pork Loin is something I missed. I haven' t eaten it in a long time.

The base of this is recipes is from a German Website. I wanted some veggies to go with it and added more spices and a couple of fresh herbs.

Dumplings are a great side dish when you have a lot of sauce to soak up. My choice were large potato dumplings filled with a bit of fried bread. That´s the Bavarian way.

This a a good dish to prepare in advance when you have guests, just stick it in the oven when everybody has arrived. Dinner is ready soon.

recipe for 2:
250 g pork loin
80 g bacon strips
1 tbsp mustard
salt and pepper
150 ml double cream
100 ml creme fraiche
30 ml Noilly Prat
2 tbsp fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, lovage)
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp Java Curry
1/2 tsp cocos Curry
1 tsp Chili Ancho
pinch smoked paprika
1/2 tsp Italian herbs
1 tsp sugar
10 cm piece of courgette

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.
Cut the pork loin in 4 medaillons
Season with salt and pepper and rub with mustard.
place the bacon around it and set it in an ovenproof dish.
Chop the courgette in fine cubes.
Chop the fresh herbs and put both together with the meat in the baking dish.

Make the Sauce and pour it over. Stick it in the oven for 25 min.

Seabream grilled with coated fried courgettes

One of the last meals on my trip through 3 different countries was at a seaside Tavern 30 minutes off the mountains of Olymp.

We walked a path through the Enipeas Canyon to the famous waterfall at Mount Olymp. This is near the City of Litochero. Sorry to say, in September there is not enough water to create any waterfall. Walking the 1,1 km path each way was just a nice Cardio Workout.

After that we all were hungry, because breakfast in the last Hotel was a bit simple. Our tour guide made the reservation at Niko´s Taverne somewhere at the sea. Most of us ordered the offered menu of salad, seabream with courgette and French fries and a little ice cream for dessert. At 15€ it was a great price.

The holiday is coming to an end and neither in Albania, North Mazedonia nor Northern Greece hotel food was something to rave about. Large tour groups get Cafeteria food of medium quality at the hotels. Breakfast in all 3 countries was not a highlight either. The Nescafe powder served as coffee often with lukewarm water is chewable, but seldom drinkable.

Outside of hotels, the food in small restaurants was very good and with decent veriaties. But tomatoes and cucumber and feta are not to be seen on my plates for a very long time. They were served from breakfast, lunch to dinner. I thought sometimes that nothing else was growing in these 3 countries.
I had so often Tzatziki without garlic here. Is garlic no longer used here?

Plum Jam

Ingredients

• 3,2 kg plums (damson) or Zwetschgen
• 350 g sugar brown and white
• 150 ml white wine
• 50 ml rum
• 3  star anise
• 6 small cinnamon sticks
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice powder
• 1 knob fresh ginger
• Zest of a lemon
• 8 cloves
• 1 whole vanilla bean pod
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 7 cardamom pods

Step 1

Preheat Oven 170 C faN

Take 50 g sugar and all the spices and put them in a blender and blitz to a fine powder. Use the deep pan of the oven tray, fill it halfway with water and search for a baking dish that can just fit in. You need room.

Wash and pit the plums and cut them into rough pieces. put them into the dish. Sprinkle with the spices, you need to put them through a sieve.

Step 2

Baking

bake for 90 minutes, then take a wooden spoon and give the plums an good mix, turn down the heat to 155 C, put a long spoon in the door of the oven and cook for 2 1/2 more hours, turning everything every 35 minutes. When it is thick, check the sugar content, it depends on the plums, maybe you have to add a bit or a lot more. Clean 6 mason jars and sterilise them, put the rum into the mixture and start filling the jars up.

You can see that this is a copy from a recipe. The Jam here is my aera is called Latwerge. When I was a child on Holiday at my Grandparent´s house, I helped with stirring the huge boiling pot with 15 kg of plums. The cooking time the was neary 12 hours.

I posted it on SortedFood the year before I started to blog. Now I found some lovely plums and decided to give the recipe a try again. I like the spice blend in this recipe. It makes the plum jam tart and sweet and spiced.

Getting the the plums ready takes a while, but the effort is worth it. I love to eat that jam on fresh buttered bread, on Pancakes and as sweet surprise in dumplings. But if you need something to enrich a dark sauce, take a tablespoon of jam and make it better.

Ta Kokopia Restaurant in Korfu

A day trip with a ferry boat to the island of Korfu from the Albanian coast was one of the extras that I booked on this trip. I was looking forward to see this island. I heard so much about it from friends who stayed here on vacation.

After we arrived back in the EU, we drove with a bus to the castle of Sissi, the queen Elisabeth of Austria. So many buses and so crowded.

After an other long time in the bus for just a few kilometres we reached Korfu's capitol city.

Four cruise ships were in the harbour and the city was congested by buses and people. After some sightseeing we had 90 min free time and went for something to eat. No so easy with so many people around.

We finally got to this restaurant with seating outside on the street and in the back under old trees.

They had the traditional Greek food and a lot of pasta and pizza dishes

I went for Spaghetti Marinara.

Others had some Moussaka.

Albanian Folklore and Food

Lëkurësi Castle was the place for our Albanian folklore and food night.
High above the city of Saranda at the southern coast of Albania.

4 Bus tour groups were seated outside on a large platform and red or white wine and water stood on the table.

The staff was fast and came around with bread baskets, salad plates and tzaziki.

Next were grilled veggies and feta.

Many plates with fresh French fries came next and some kind of risotto.

No meat what so ever appeared. We ate and were satisfied with it.

Much later huge plates with different sausages and some kind of grilled meat was served.
Nobody ate much, that was too late.

Polyphone Music and Dance was shown.

A small dessert cup with some kind of white Panna Cotta and Aronia berries was served with some Raki.

Taverne in Berat

Berat is the city of 1000 windows and an UNESCO world heritage site.
We went up the steep hill to the fortress and visited an Icon Museum.

Later it was time for a lunch break. Where the tour buses stop is always a good spot for restaurants. Our guide recommended a family run place, were Mom and daughter cooked and the men made the service.

It was one set menu including one beverage of your choice for 10 Euro.

It started with a vegetable soup with fresh dill and bread.

A salad came next. I traded my tomatoes for cucumber and olives. A good choice.

The main course was a plate with grilled ocra, rice filled bell pepper, two fillo pastries and a meatball.

A plate of watermelon chunks to share came last.

I had an Albanian beer to go with it.

Home made and locally sourced. Good choice.