Pimped-up Bruschetta

Hiya,

I have been playing a bit with different textures that tomatoes can develop. So there is the tomato as such, so raw, you can cook them and blitz the result to a soup, so they become silky smooth, or you can dry them. You can also roast them and make a slow-roasted tomato soup out of them (recipe coming up soon).
I ended up with almost 3 kg tomatoes from the market and started of with drying them.


Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Set the oven to 100-120 °C (or lower if you use a fan). Then oil a backing tray lightly with olive oil. Cut small tomatoes in half, bigger ones in quarters or even eights. In my experience, plum tomatoes or small cherry tomatoes work best. Then set them cut-side up on the baking tray. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and some dried herbs like basil, rosemary or thyme. And now put them in the oven and forget about them for at least 3 hours, sometimes even longer. Dry to your own taste, I prefer it, if they have a little bit moisture left.
Fill them hot in a mason jar and add garlic and fresh herbs. Fill up with good quality olive oil. Store in the fridge. They keep for weeks, but never in my fridge :-)

So, after having made a huge amount of dried tomatoes, now to an all-time favorite, bruschetta.
The classic version doesn't include the dried tomatoes, but I prefer a mixture of fresh and dried tomatoes, think textures and taste.

Pimped-up Bruschetta

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of ciabatta or similiar bread
• 4 small or 2 large tomatoes
• a small handfull of dried tomatoes, chopped into small chunks
• 1 clove of garlic, finely diced (less or more, depending on your taste)
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• olive oil (take from the dried tomato container)
• balsamic vinegar (I prefer the white one here)
• fresh basil leaves
• salt, pepper

And how to make them:

• either put up a griddle pan and turn the hob on on the highest mark or turn on the grill of your oven
• slighlty oil the ciabatta slices on one side, when pan/oven is really hot, grill for a few minute until slighlty charred but still soft inside
• meanwhile, take a knife and slightly score the outside of the fresh tomatoes with a cross
• pour boiling water over them until the peel comes of, then drain and quickly wash with cold water
• peel and de-seed, then cut into small chunks
• mix with the dried tomatoes, the garlic and the onion
• add 1 tbs of olive oil, 1/2 tbs of balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper
• chop up the basil leaves and mix
• now top the olive-side of the bread with the mixture

That's it. A simple but so good starter or even a light lunch. If you want to add a bit more substance, you can also add some mozzarella or mushrooms (they need to fry first or be very finely sliced, so that the marinade basically cooks them). I prefer however the all-tomato version...

Bärentatzen

Hi there,

in the process of christmas baking, there are a few more recipes coming up soon. This one is fairly easy and not particularly made for X-Mas, but I thought I'd share nonetheless. I don't know, if there is an english name, so if any of you native english speakers recognise the cookies and have a name for them, pls let me know!










So, the few ingredients needed:

• 250 g butter (is essential here, no margarine!)
• 175 g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (oder ein Vanillezucker)
• 75 g blanched ground almonds
• 175 g all-purpose flour
• 175 g starch
• 150 g dark chocolate
• 150 g nougat

and how to make them:

• mix butter and sugar until creamy, then add the egg and the almonds
• mix flour and starch, add slowly to the butter mixture
• add vanilla extract
• get the dough into a piping bag and pipe out on grease-proof paper, shape should resemble the paw of a bear
• get in the pre-heated oven at 180 °C (fan) and bake for 8-10 mins.
• once cooled, find pairs that match and spread molten nougat on one bottom-side and top with the second one
• dip half in molten chocolate and let cool
• alternatively you can leave out the nougat and just dip them into the chocolates, both versions are scrummy (as Mary Berry would say...)

Enjoy!

Lebkuchen

In preparation for Christmas, my mum and I have started with some classic german recipes. This one will have to rest for 2-4 weeks, so made now, they will be ready for the Advent time. For the non-Germans that are not aware of what Lebkuchen is, I have undertaken a little research. Apparently, Lebkuchen has been developed in the monastries in the medival times and there are many local versions of it, some famous ones are Aachener Printen and Nürnberger Lebkuchen. The most important thing that they all have in common is that the basis is a honey cake that is spiced with at least cinnamon, cloves and anis. This recipe here is a family recipe that hasn't been made for a very long time, so this year, we wanted to try. I always thought, that Lebkuchen is very difficult to make, but once you have all the ingredients together, it is in fact rather simple.

Here we go, ingredients:

• 250 g honey
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g margarine or butter
• 500 g all-purpose flour (non-rising)
• 10 g potassium carbonate (Pottasche in German, makes the very sweet dough rise better), alternatively 1 heaped tbsp baking powder
• 10 g ground cinnamon
• 10 g ground cloves
• 5 g ground anis
• 5 g ground cardamom
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 2-3 tbsp Rum (not necessary, but gives the dough some depth)
• 1 egg

You see, it's rather a long and unusual list of ingredients, however, the making is that much simpler:

• mix honey, sugar and margarine in a small pan and heat until completely dissolved
• cool until lukewarm
• meanwhile mix all the dry ingredients
• add the honey mixture to the other ingredients, make a smooth dough
• add the Rum and the egg an knead until you have a firm dough
• let rest for half an hour, then roll out to a 1 cm thick layer
• bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 °C for 20 mins
• now be quick and cut in shape before the cake cools down
• once cooled, the now very hard cake can be covered in either chocolate or any other icing
• and the hard part is: put them away for 2-4 weeks, best way store in an airtight metal box, test from time to time if the cake has softened enough

That's it!

Sunday evening treat

Hi again,
this is a very quick post, I just thought I'd share my sunday treat with you. I watched an episode of my cooking hero's show (Nigel Slater, not Jamie O :-) today and he had this brilliant idea about combining left over coffee with shop bought custard and freeze it to make a yummy ice cream. As much as I fancy ice cream, there is simply no space left in my freezer at the moment due to a large amount of cinnamon rolls and scones... But still, I had left over coffee from the morning and some custard. The original plan was making an apple crumble, so I kind of combined the two. I mixed the left over relatively strong coffee (espresso really) with the custard and added some cinnamon and ground cardamom. That alone was already yummy. Then I cut up some apples and mixed the apple pieces and the custard together. I topped that off with some crumble mixture, where I replaced half of the flour with ground walnuts as they always go well with coffee.
Finally, a bake in a 175 °C oven for 40 mins and I could hardly wait that long, given the smell!
And voilà, it was even better than expected! A crumble with built-in coffee-custard. I have to keep away from that dish.... :-) Have a good sunday evening all!

Thai-spiced squash soup

Hi everyone,

soup time has arrived with the low temperatures. At least, we don't have any snow in Berlin yet, as in other parts of Germany! At this time of the year, I just like to cuddle up inside with a cozy blanket, a good book and a proper warming soup. I remembered, that a friend of mine made a thai squash soup last year, and I have found a recipe on BBC GoodFood as well. I though I give it a go as I have recently purchased a beautiful butternut squash at the market. As usual, I didn't stick to the recipe, but for anyone interested, here is the link: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775669/thai-pumpkin-soup
I found that the addition of fish sauce gives it just that slightly better thai flavour.

So, ingredients:

• 1 small or half a medium-size butternut squash, peeled and cut into rough chunks
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 500 mL of vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• some chili flakes to taste
• 3 or 4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped if fresh or shredded if dried
• thai red curry paste (1 tbsp or less)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp palm or brown sugar
• lime juice

And how I made it:

• place the squash chunks with some vegetable oil in a preheated oven at 175 °C
• bake until soft and slightly browned
• fry the ginger, the chili flakes and the lime leaves in some oil
• add the curry paste, stir and then the squash
• add the stock, followed by the coconut milk 
• simmer for ten minutes on a low heat, so all the flavours can develop
• add the fish sauce and the sugar
• simmer for another 2 mins
• take off the heat and blend everything, the texture should be not to liquidy but smooth, add more stock if needed
• serve into individual bowls and add lime juice to taste

Done!

Cinnamon rolls - Cinnabuns - Zimtschnecken

Hi all,

as promised, I have tried out my long existing recipe for cinnamon rolls this weekend and after making a batch, I really can't remember, why I ever hesitated to make them in the first place!
I finished them off with a cream cheese frosting, however, this is just a little more decadent and you could survive without. I haven't tried them with soy milk, but I would assume it would work equally well.


So, as usual, ingredients first:

• 3/4 cups of milk
• 1/4 cup softened margerine
• 3 1/4 cups flour (non-raising), maybe extra
• 1 pack of dried yeast or half a cube fresh yeast
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 medium sized egg
• and for the filling you will need 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon, 1/2 cup margarine or butter, 1 cup of brown sugar, if you can, choose muscavado

Ok and the making of it:

• heat milk in a small pan until it bubbles, then take of heat and stir margarine in until melted; let cool to lukewarm
• meanwhile, mix 2 1/4 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and combine well
• add water, egg and milk-mixture and beat well, you should have a liquidy dough
• now add the remaining flour slowly until you have a smooth dough; you might have to add more than the recipe says, depending on the egg and how exact you keep to the measurements using a cup
• once in a smooth dough, take it out of the bowl and get your hands in, means, kneading time on a floured surface for at least 5 mins, better 10
• cover with a damp cloth and set aside
• now mix all the ingredients for the filling together, so it becomes a spreadable mixture; you might want to vary on the amount of cinnamon here, it really depends on your own taste
• now role the dough out into a rectangle shape, make sure to have enough height to be able to roll it a couple of times
• spread the filling evenly over the whole dough and begin rolling it up
• pinch the end to make sure they won't come apart 
• cut slices of roughly 2-3 cm; the amount of rolls will vary with the width of your previously shaped rectangle, I got something like 18 out
• now place the rolls carefully on a greased baking sheet, keeping then roughly 2 cms apart from each other
• cover with a damp cloth and set aside until risen so much, that they touch each other
• preheat the oven to 190 °C and bake for 30 mins until golden brown
• let cool and prepare the frosting by combining all the following ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 cup softened margarine or butter
• 75 g cream cheese
• 1/2 pack vanilla sugar or half a tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• once finished, drizzle over the buns as you like
• and finally you are finished and can indulge :-)
• this should take roughly 90 mins alltogether and believe me, it is worth it!

Lime Cupcakes

Hello, hello :-)

Another thing I got in masses from the market is limes. So apart from adding limes to my water and adding lime juice to my fruit salad, I have been looking a long time for a good recipe for lime cupcakes. And this is what I found somewhere in the internet. As usual, I have made some changes.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 60 g unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• zest and juice of two limes (or more to taste)
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• for the frosting: 60 g unsalted butter, 1 cup powder sugar, juice of 1-2 limes

And how to make them:

• pre-heat the oven to 175 °C
• sift flour into a bowl and add baking powder and salt
• in another bowl whisk the butter until fluffy and slowly add the sugar
• when finished add the lime zest and small portions of the lime juice. At this stage, the mixture might look curdled, but don't worry, it will come back together
• next, add 1/3 of the flour mix, followed by half of the buttermilk, another 1/3 of the flour mix, buttermilk and last portion of the flour mix
• don't overwork the batter, rather mix with a rubber spatula after the last bit of flour is just incorporated
• divide the batter between 12 large or 24 micro muffin cups, place in muffin tray and bake for 25-30 mins (micro ones for 15-20 mins)
• while the cakes are baking, prepare the frosting
• whisk the butter until it becomes lighter in texture and colour
• add powder sugar in small portions until the buttercream looks just a bit dry (but not crumbly)
• next add lime juice little by little until you reach a smooth texture and the aciditiy you are looking for
• place in a piping bag and set aside until the cakes are ready and cooled
• once they are completely cool, pipe the frosting and add decoration (if wanted, candied lime peel works well)

Voila!

Fig-Mustard - Feigensenf

Today, I went to the market with my friend and we ended up taking lots of fruit and veg (as well as materials for sewing) back home. We were faced with 10 very ripe figs each and I decided they had to be processed on the spot.
Since I am an absolute cheese addict, I was immediately thinking about fig-mustard. This is the stuff you get at the supermarkets where a small jar costs already a fortune for no reason at all. It is very easy to make yourself, and that is exactly what I did.

 
Ingredients:

• 3 ripe figs, cut into chunks (leave skin on)
• 1 small white onions, diced
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 6 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or raspberry vinegar)
• 1 tsp salt
• mustard (any type you like)

How you do it:

• sweat the onions in a little bit of oil, add the figs and stirr through
• add the sugar and caramelise the mixture
• add the vinegar and re-dissolve the sugar, add the salt
• let simmer for 10 mins at a medium heat (no lid)
• then blend everything into a paste (I prefer no chunks left, but some people prefer small chunks left)
• mix with mustard to taste 

If you transfer the mix still hot into mason jars, you can keep them for a long time, just like any preserve. Otherwise, you can keep it in the fridge up to 4 weeks. Mine will never last that long though :-) For a change, you can also use different fruits like apricots or dates. Eat with cheese but you can also add it to gravy or eat it with pork chops or sausages.

Hope you enjoy!

Summer pasta

Yet another entry this week, I am getting a little bit proud of myself here! ;-)
Talking to a friend after swimming today, I remembered this little recipe for a nice summer pasta.






What you need:

• 1 chicken breast, diced (for a vegetarian version leave out)
• 2 carrots, cut into fine stripes (use a peeler)
• 1 courgette, cut the same way
• 1 tub of single cream (Schlagsahne)
• chicken stock cube (or vegetable)
• spaghetti or fettucine
• pepper, salt, 1 tsp lemon juice

How to prepare:

• cook the pasta in salted water al dente
• fry the chicken in a little bit of olive oil in a pan
• once browned, add the vegetables, stir through and add the stock cube
• add the cream, pepper and salt to taste
• bring to boil and simmer for about 5 mins, there should still be some crunch to the carrots
• add the pasta directly from the water (the water that comes with it adds to the dish)
• add lemon juice and stir through again
• serve with some basil on top, parmesan cheese is good as well

 Enjoy! 

Pear-Granita

Hi everyone,

I know, it has been ages since I last posted a recipe. I had a lot of stuff going on in my life including moving back to Berlin. This post here was long overdue since I first made the pear-granita way back in spring.
Anyways, this is what you need:

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe pears
• 1 cinnamon stick
• juice of 1 organic lemon + peel
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups water

And this is how you do it:

• cut the pears in chunks
• boil the water with the sugar until fully dissolved, then add pears, cinnamon and lemon juice and peel
• simmer for at least 30 mins on low heat with lid on
• then let cool, strain through a sieves, squeezing out all the juices from the pear
• place in a plastic container and freeze overnight
• once frozen solid, take a fork and scratch the ice off, it will look a little bit like snow with bigger flakes in it
• serve directly

If you want, you can also add some liquor, however, the granita will not freeze as good as without. Very refreshing in the heat, nice palate refresher after dinner.

Carrot & Ginger Soup

Man, it's cold! There is nothing more warming than a spiced soup these days. Here is my favorite winter soup, very simple and very quick, if you don't like ginger, you can replace it with chili or simply leave it out.
Here is what you need:

• 5 large carrots, roughly sliced
• 1 large white onion cut into rough chunks
• 2 cm knob peeled fresh ginger, cut into pieces
• 1 tbsp honey
• 500 mL (or more) vegetable stock
• soured cream for the finish (if wanted), thyme
• black pepper

How to make it:

• soften onions in a little bit of olive oil, add ginger and carrots and cover with a lid
• stir from time to time an fry for ca. 10 mins.
• add the honey, stir through and add stock
• simmer with a closed lid until carrots are soft
• blend until smooth, if needed, add more stock
• just before serving, top each individual portion with a dollop of soured cream and season with thyme and coarse ground black pepper and drizzle over a bit olive oil

Voilà!

Choux-Pastry (Brandteig)

Hi Everyone, I attempted this for the first time. Always thought it is very hard to get it right, but I tell you what, it is so easy! Choux pastry can be transformed into eclairs, profiteroles or german Windbeutel, also croqueembouche (but I wouldn't make one of those....)
I chose to make a hybrid between profiterols and Windbeutel and I froze them straight away. They thaw without damage and that way I always have something for desert in case of surprise guests!

So here the ingredients for the Choux pastry:

• 100 g plain flour
• 75 g unsalted butter
• 175 mL water
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 3 eggs, beaten

Method:

• put salt, butter and water in a pan and warm gently until the butter is molten and then quickly bring to boil
• add all the flour in one go, remove from heat and beat until you have a smooth dough
• put back on heat and stirr for another 2-5 mins, it is supposed to transform into a glossy ball and come easily off the sides of the pan
• let cool completely
• add small portions of the egg and stirr vigorously after each addition
• the dough should be still firm enough to be piped out, so stop the egg addition, if the mixture becomes to liquid
• pipe onto a grease proof paper and follow the cooking instructions

Cooking instructions:

• for profiterols or croqueembouche pipe out small heaps of max 2cm diameter (they grow quite a bit)
• for eclairs pipe out ~8 cm lines
• bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C (no fan!!!) for 15 mins
• open the oven door to release steam and continue baking fo 5-10 mins at 180 °C
• take out of the oven and make a hole in each bun/eclair, so the steam can evaporate
• bake for another 10-15 mins
• make absolutely sure, they are cooked completely through, they will collapse otherwise! If you think they are ready, give them an extra 5 mins
• let cool completely on a wire rack before filling

For the fillings:

• custard for eclairs (thick, more pastelike custard)
• whipped cream for Windbeutel
• crème anglais for profiterols, plus molten chocolate on top
• a mixture of mascarpone cheese and whipped cream with vanilla for my "hybrid version" + molten chocolate mixture on top (50 g dark chocolate, 1 tbsp water and 25 g butter)
• or whatever you like! shouldn't be to liquidy though :-)

Enjoy!

Fun with Beetroots - Part 2: Beetroot soup

So, here is the second recipe with beetroots. It was a bit inspired by Borscht, but I didn't want to make such a complicated dish today. I was more thinking of something really quick and simple but warming, especially with nasty weather like this. I still had one cooked beetroot and a couple of potatoes from yesterdays dinner. So, this soup is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

• one cooked beetroot (medium size, two small ones otherwise)
• 2 boiled potatoes
• 1 leek, trimmed, only the white part
• 500 ml beef stock
• 100 ml cream
• 2 tbsp soured cream
• pepper

And how I made it:

• cut the beetroot and the potatoes into small chunks
• simmer in the stock for 15 mins, until soft
• now, blend everything (be careful with splashes, otherwise everything gets a nice pink colour!)
• with the cream, there are two options - easy one is, just add and stir through, second one is whip the cream and then add carefully to the soup, gives a lighter texture, more like a foam
• before serving add soured cream and pepper

That's it - simple as that. Believe me, the soup has a vivid pink colour, but the picture won't bring it out (due to the bad light from outside....)

Fun with Beetroots - Part 1: Red Hering Salad

My last post has been some time ago, so I thought I update you on my experiences with beetroot. As some of you know, each week I receive a "surprise vegetable&fruit box" and this time it included two beetroots. The first idea that sprang to my mind was a raw beet root carpaccio, the second was roasted beets. However, this is exactly what I have done the last two times with beet roots. So here is something else, two simple recipes, starting with a fabulous red hering salad.



Ingredients:

• 4 large hering filets (either in brine or in oil, they should be salty)
• 1 apple, I use Braeburn here, but anything similiar will do, just shouldn't be too sweet
• 1 onion
• 1 cooked beetroot (cook for 20 mins and then peel)
• 100 g yoghurt
• 100 g soured cream
• 100 g Schmand (I don't know if there is an english equivalent, i would just double the amount of soured cream)
• salt, black pepper and a pinch of sugar

The assembly

• cut the fish, the beetroot and the apple into dice
• cut the onion into halves and then finely slice
• mix everything in a bowl, than add the dairy products
• add the spices to your taste
• put in the refrigerator for at least half an hour

That's it, optionally you can also chop in a boiled egg, I do prefer it on the side though. Serve with dark rye bread, preferably with Pumpernickl, if you can get hold of it!

Quick Pear & Blue Cheese Tarte

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you enjoyed the festive season as much as I did and your start into 2012 was fabulous. I certainly had (actually still have) a very relaxing break and now I am looking forward to going back to work (yes, really!)

As first post for the new year, I chose this very quick, adaptable and yummy recipe using ready-made puff pastry.




Ingredients:

• puff pastry (1 pack or as much as you like)
• 1 small or half a large pear (preferably a bit sour and with crunch, not too sweet)
• blue cheese to your liking (I used a creamy gorgonzola but I guess almost every blue cheese would do)
• soured cream
• roughly chopped walnuts
• parsley, pepper

How to make it:

• roll out the puff pastry, 1 cm from the edges, cut lines parallel to the edges with a sharp knife, but don't pierce the dough (this will give you slighty higher risen edges of your tarte, so the filling won't escape)
• cover the inner box with soured cream (generous portion), add the sliced pears, sprinkle the walnuts and crumble blue cheese over
• make sure the rim is still dry, otherwise it won't rise
• bake in a preaheat oven at 150 °C (no fan) for roughly 15-20 mins (but this depends on the cheese you use!)
• sprinkle with parsley and freshly ground black pepper

That's it. You might also want to try different toppings, some of my favorites are figs and parma ham, smoked salmon and spring onions or chickenbreast and black olives.