Recipe: Faschierte Leibchen

Faschierte Leibchen, thats a Austrian dish and could be kind of translated into "burger, the Austrian style"

Its very tasting and a great way to precook food, f.e. for work, school, etc.

Ingredients:
500 gram minced meat
1 onion, fine sliced
1 egg
2 pieces of old (hard) bread, sliced into small cubes
Salt and pepper to taste, also f.e. other spices such as parsley can be added

mix all the ingredients as shown above in a bowl, add gently a bit of water until the mix and bread is soaked, and you can easily form little burgers as shown on the right picture. before cooking them in the pan, put them in breadcrumbs. This gives them a crispy outside.

Traditionally this dish is served with potatoes, or other veg,
also add a splash of self made Mayonnaise on the plate.

Enjoy !

(thanks to Papa for cooking it !)

Gift Idea: Self made spiced salt

Xmas is coming up and I was looking into a nice gift idea for my friends. 
The Idea came when I was visiting a friend and he used spiced salt for cooking. The idea to a gift was born, with ingredients i already had at home from the last holidays in France.
Sea salt, rosemary, lavender, pepper corn....

I mixed it as followed:
1 kg Salt, 2 soup spoon pepper, 4 spoon rosemary, 1 spoon lavender.


From the baby I got plenty little pots at home, and from a old curtain I cut round covers for the salt, so that also the wrapping of the gift looks nice, as soon in the picture.

I think its a great idea, and I hope my friends will like it.

After 2 weeks I smelled the glass contents, and have to say it smells and tastes fantastic !

Recipe: French Crepe

I love crepe, and i love my wife, since she makes the best crepe ever. Well its easy i say, since she is French, so who does know it better than the French how to make crepe ?


here her recipe:
190 gram flour

3 eggs

0.375 Liter of Milk

A little bit of slat

37.5 g of butter

Mix flour + eggs

Add the milk slowly and always mixing

Add salt and butter

Let it rest for one hour in the fridge, than give some in a very flat pan (crepe pan) and let it go golden brown. You can also add ham, a egg and cheese on top, or for a sweet version add hazelnut cream, etc.

Enjoy !

Review: Inside Stove from West Cork builders

The best investment since a long while was this inside stove, which I recently bought for 499,- at West Cork builders in Clonakilty.

Before most of the head from the wood and coal went out of the house through the chimney, and i had to use lots of coal to actually feel some heat at the sofa.

Now, after inserting the stove into the fireplace i use much less wood and coal, and the room is warm straight away, and keeps warm the whole night and even morning.

I was shopping around a bit, and had even a look in the city, but nowhere i could get a better deal, and nicer service than here. One more reason to shop locally !

Sushi, the second try...

I have asked earlier this year for help to make the perfect sushi, and after many tries and a few tips which I got through face book, I can report its getting better.

I found the most important recipe to make the perfect plate of sushi, its patience.
Patience and lots of training rolling this little nori sheets with the rice.

Also i added cucumber strips now, and tried it with crab sticks, works perfect.

Last time I made it, I was out of wasabi paste, but discovered that English mustard does the job as well, and spices the sushi nicely up.

A great resource for tips about sushi you find at makemysushi.com www.makemysushi.com

Create your own beer labels

You might know that i love to brew my own beer now I found the perfect website on which i can easily create my own beer label without much hassle in a few clicks.
www.labeley.com  provides that service, and i wonder how long it takes until they might also provide the same service for wine ?

Thats the label I designed now for my own beer.

Winemaking from berries

Making wine is a great hobby,to which i dedicate more and more time.There are so many different variations to be tried out so it gets never boring.

 
This time I ordered from my favorite supplier (homebrewwest.ie ) a dried fruits kit, which was very reasonable priced, and easy to handle.

It is actually funny, even wood chippings are included in the mix, which should give the wine a real wine barrel taste.



Right now I use the guest bedroom, since its getting to cold in the utility room for a quick fermentation, but I need the wine to be ready in time for a mulled wine reception I am going to organize.

Its pretty clean right now to make the wine, but soon i have to transfer the wine into a different pot, also sieve the fruits out, get rid of the CO2, mix it again with the stabilizer, and than finally bottle it.

It might get a bit more messy, but i should manage without flooding the whole room :-)

I will let you know how this goes on, and i will tell you my secret mulled wine recipe which is in my family since generations.

News: My own Android App

Finally,
for all readers using Android on their phone,
Clonlin goes mobile, download here the App from the Android market, or scan the QR code on the left with your Camera.

Review: Steak tartar

We all know the scene from Mr. Bean dinning in a French restaurant ordering steak tartar. I have seen this on TV years ago, and last summer on holiday in France I spotted this dish on the menu, and had to smile while thinking of the funny slapstick from Rowan Atkinson. For all who don't know it, see at the end the video.

Anyhow, my wife suggested i shouldn't go for it if i am not really sure if i like it.

Anyway, No risk no fun. So I tried it.
the secret apparently is to mix the egg, the onion, the carpers and cucumber with the meat, spice it with salt and pepper and have a go.
Its actually really good, and somehow I felt like a real cave man eating rare meat ! WOAW !

I have to admit I could each all, as you see on the right, but I didn't dare to distribute the rest over the table...

.....Unlike him 

Chinese way to cook fish

I love the Chinese and my brother loves them even more, being married to a lovely Chinese woman.


On their visit to Ireland we took turns cooking for each other. I was in China last year, but with all this new impressions and food I completely missed how the fish was prepared, so I could discover this now.

As you see on the picture, in the fish are already cuts before it gets quickly fried in the pan, this way its faster cooked.
Also, once cooked after about 5-10 minutes (depending on the fish size and heat of your pan) this way its easier to eat the fish with chop sticks, since its already kind of cut into pieces.

Chinese love to eat the eyes as well of the fish, I rather prefer the cheeks which is the best part of the fish I think.

You should try once this way to prepare your fish, its easy and fast, and it tastes great with some Soy sauce !
Do you know other ways to prepare fish ?
Please let me know in the comments, would like to try new ways myself !

According to my stats some people read this blog, so somebody out there should have a tip for me ?

Seafood platter - a way to impress your guests

 I love seafood, who doesn't.
Especially when I have guests from abroad I love to serve them a little seafood buffet. Rather than spending 100+ Euro's in the restaurant for 4 or more people I prefer to go to the local market and buy directly from the fisherman, and if necessary get some additional things at the local super value.

Budget wise I am way under the costs of the restaurant, and its fun to prepare the buffet.

I use as seen above for example a stone found on the beach to place a prawn on it. (I always use the biggest)  Left in the picture you see Oyster i opened shortly before serving on Sea Salt with Guinness and Tabasco.

Of course normal mussels or a mussel salad can be served along side. Total preparation time is about 20 minutes.Enjoy

Cabbage a tool for sending free web sms

A great  tool i found for Android phones is Cabbage. It provides quick and easy use of your free web text(SMS) from Irish mobile providers Meteor,Vodafone,o2, 3 and eMobile.

a great way to send SMSfor free on the go....

here the link to the Android Market

Recipe: Halloween = Pumpkin Time

Halloween is just over, however right now you can get cheap deals for pumpkins or butternut squash.

A great recipe is to use the meat of the pumpkin, mix it with some minced meat, onion and spice it with salt and pepper and some curry.

on the top some cheese and give it for 20 minutes in the oven, at 180 degrees.


Its a very simple recipe but delicious.
enjoy !

Funny Friday: Irelands Smallest petrol Station

I believe i have found Irelands smallest petrol station, if just the prices would be small too ?

However this couple tries to fill up their buggy, which i think thats pretty funny...

Enjoy your Weekend !