Happy St. Patricks Day

Fois Gras de Canard

Here another Specialty from France,
Fois Gras. I picture already my colleague Brice getting homesick and commenting on Facebook about this great delicatess from his home country.

For some people this kind of food might be very controversial, since the ducks have been specially fattened in order to get a big liver and fat.


Interesting is also that the technique used to conserve this product is more than 4500 Years old.
If you want to learn more about that product I suggest to visit Wikipedia

I taste this product once a year at Xmas, on plain toast bread, and can tell you, its delicious !

Hollondaise from Hell

I recently posted about how to make Sauce Hollandaise, well, one lesson i have learned when i produced now this disaster on the left (basically its scrambled eggs now) is to watch the heat !

Good side is,
its pretty fast to make a second attempt to get it right !

Recipe: Kasnocken

Its about time again to write something about home,
was just looking in the freezer and found some Bierkäse (Beercheese) from home,
so I thought lets make quick some Kasnocken.

Ingredients:
1/4 l water
1 egg
1 cup (300 g) flour
1/4 cup (70 g) butter
120 g fat cheese and 120 g low-fat cheese OR 250gram Pinzgauer Bierkäse
salt and pepper
1 big onion, cut into rings
1 bunch of chives, finely chopped

First make a dough with 1/4l water, 1 egg and the cup of flour. This dough should be fairly firm, similar to a pizza dough. Than bring a pot of water to cook. Using a special sieve or with a chopping board, let the dough drop into the boiling water, once you drop it slowly little dumplings are formed in the water. Let them boil 3 minutes, than get rid of the water.

Now add the dumplings back in, but first the butter. On medium heat you cook them until the cheese which you gridded on top of them is melted. now put the chives on top, and in a separate pan you fry the onion rings and also put them on-top.

Kasnocken are traditionally served in a pot or old pan, the whole family sits around the table and eats from the same pan. Milk as refreshment is served with it, also a little green Salad.

The slightly burned bit on the bottom is a speciality and called "Prinzn".

Enjoy

Recipe: Sauce Hollandaise

Sauce Hollandaise (Dutch sauce)  goes great with fish, but also meat and only takes a bit of preparation.

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
3 Tablespoon water
1 Tbsp citron juice
Salt & Pepper




Mix the egg yolks with the 3 Tbsp of water, citron, and salt & pepper in a small pot. Bring water to boil in a bigger pot and place the small pot in it, constantly stir the sauce, but be careful that it doesn't get too much heat, otherwise you cook the egg yolks and the sauce is a disaster !

It should get the consistency as shown in above picture and should be served straight away. You cant reheat the sauce.

Enjoy !

Table decoration

There is a saying, that we also eat with the eye,
meaning, if something is attractive presented, it tastes even better.

My aupair is a master of folding techniques, my self I rely on folding instructions,
which can be found for example on this website.

Doesn't it look great ?

New Review Inchidoney Hotel

Checkout my latest review of the Inchidoney Hotel and Spa in Clonakilty on West cork Times.com

DIY: Kaercher Power hose

Daddy got a new toy.
I got myself a Kaercher power hose, again I got a very good deal at West Cork Builders, I wrote about another shopping experience there a while ago.

I am very happy with the new tool, and i have no excuse anymore for a dirty car or dirty windows.
Also its great to give a good spring cleanup arround the house.

Here a before / after picture, can you see how much dirt I could get rid of in front of our utility room ?

I might make some other example pictures, but I guess you get the picture, it just cleans like hell !

Recipe: Jaegerschnitzel

Most people don't know, but there are actually 1000 ways how to cook a Schnitzel.

Today I show you how easy it is to prepare the Jaeger schnitzel (Hunters Schnitzel)

Ingredients:
Pork chops, per person one
Mushrooms
Carrots
Asparagus or other veggies in season
Nocken as a side

Clean the mushrooms and cut them in slices. Do the same for the carrots and also clean the asparagus. I cook carrots and asparagus  separately in pots with boiling water for 10-15 minutes,later remove the water and add some butter and keep it warm.
To the carrots I like to add a bit of honey and garlic at that stage. Spice the Pork chops with salt and pepper and fry them in a very hot pan for 2 minutes on each side, than set them aside and let them rest.

Now fry the mushrooms in butter on medium heat, and add a bit of cream and flour to get a nice sauce. Add back in the pork and serve as suggested above.

Enjoy

How not to cook a duck

via Face book,
since the last post was about duck,
this video demonstrates, how not to cook one.

Have fun: