How / How not to pepare a hot irish Whiskey

Thats a perfect post for my Cooking Disasters category.

So here what happened. I wanted to prepare a hot Irish Whiskey, since its a great Medicine for a sore throat or a cold.

It should be simple to do so you might think, since all ingredients are simple. A few gloves, sugar or honey, Whiskey as much you want and hot water.

I know, I was told always to add a spoon in the glass, before adding the hot water. What should I say, I was naughty and wanted to see if thats true.

And as you can see on the picture on the left, it is !
The glass cracked, all the good whiskey and hot water was running through the cracks.

So remember, alsways add a spoon in the glass before adding hot water, or heat the glass before. What ever you think its easier. And yes, a plastic spoon doesn't count, and if you don't have a spoon, use a fork or knife, as long its metal it should do the job !

Cheers !

Making Sushi Part 3: In ice cube Tray

At lifehacker I found a great and fast way to make sushi which is much easier than the technique i used so far and its so easy to produce lots of sushi, especially in case you host a party.

The approach they use and I tested is to use and ice cube tray, to get the sushi out after use some plastic foil.

So far i tested the technique with avocado and crab meat sushi. 

Make sure you press the still warm rice tightly in the form.

Finally empty it out carefully as shown on the picture.


Enjoy !

Recipe: Backerbsen Soup - Easiers Recipe ever !!!

The easiest recipe ever is a Austrian dish,
called Backerbsen Suppe.

All you need is Soup Stock and Backerbsen.
Heat water, add some of the soup stock to taste and add the Backerbsen.

Its a great dish as a starter in the winter time !

You can get the ingredients in my online shop.

Enjoy

Ingredients can be found at www.myfoodfromhome.com

I

Menu for the Chinese New Year

This was my menu for the Chinese new year which is beginning today, the year of the dragon;

I had the Party last Saturday, so If you have been a lucky guest of mine, here the recipes to recook the dishes.

Hot & Sour Soup
Fried Rice
Spring rolls
Noodles
Tea Eggs 
Kung Pao Chicken 

Happy Bday

Honey, you are the greatest wife and mother, I love you,
happy Bday !

Recipe: Clonakilty Bratapfel (Clonakilty Apple)

Bratapfel, thats a very Austrian dessert, made especially in the winter time.
Last time I had appetite for one I thought i give mine a bit a Clonakilty twist.

So after I removed the core of the apply I stuffed it with pieces of black pudding very tightly.

After adding honey on top of the apple and some brown sugar I baked the Apple for approx 20 Minutes in the oven.

What shall I say, it tasted gorgeous even my wife liked it very much, she however does not like black pudding so she was eating around the Black pudding core.

But I tell you, if you grill the apple the last 5 minutes and the sugar on top is caramelizing,
there is nothing better on Earth than this Bratapfel !

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Time for the final countdown to the Chinese new year, 6 days to go...
Here my recipe for Spring rolls !

Ingredients:

1 Paprika
2 carrots
1 onion
half a cucumber
1 tomato
Oriental salad mix or bean sprouts
Rice paper

Chop all ingredients fine and stir fry them in your wok with some oil.
Put the rice paper in hot water and let it soak for about 10 seconds.

Than fill the spring rolls and fold them as shown on the picture.

Finally Serve them warm/cold with some soy sauce

Enjoy

Recipe: Kung Pao Chicken

An other dish I will serve for the Chinese new year is Kung Pao Chicken.
Here is how it goes:

Ingredients:

chicken, about 4 breasts.
9 chilies without the seeds

Marinade for the chicken:
2 table spoon of corn starch
1 table spoon of water and one of soy sauce


Sauce for stir fry:
1/2 table spoon vinegar
1 table spoon rice wine
1 table spoon soy sauce
1 table spoon sugar
1/2 table spoon corn starch
1 table spoon sesame oil


Cube and marinade the chicken, prepare the sauce for the stir fry.

Deep fry the chicken in about 200ml of Oil.
Not all at once since they tend to stick together.
So make half and half. This seals the chicken cubes so they stay nice juicy inside.


Than remove the oil from the wook and keep about 2 table spoon. Stir fry the chilies with a half a teaspoon of ginger powder until black, than add the rest of the ingredients and the sauce you made back in.






Its best to serve with some fried rice.
Don't forget to warn your guests about the chillies, since they can be quiet hot !

Enjoy !

Recipe: Hot & Sour Soup 酸辣汤

Its getting closer to the Chinese new year, which will be on the 23rd of January.


Its about time to try out some recipes for food I like to serve my guests to celebrate the year of the dragon.

Ingredients:

pork slices / also possible with  chicken

mushrooms

carrot

tomato

1 egg

green for the soup

white pepper powder

dark vinegar

corn starch

sesame oil

salt

chicken stock

Put the chicken stock in about 1 liter boiling water, add the sliced pork, sliced mushrooms, carrots and tomato in the pot and bring to Boil. Mix one Table spoon of Corn starch with 3 Table spoons of hot water and add it to the soup. Remove the top layer of foam from the soup and add some drops of sesame oil. Salt to taste. Now add 3 teaspoon of vinegar,(we add later a bit more)

Beat one egg and pour it slowly in the soup. Mix the soup slowly with chopsticks, it must be chopsticks, no skewer, toothpicks,spoons, etc. will be accepted by this soup :-)

Finally add half a teaspoon white pepper powder,two teaspoons of vinegar and a bit of sesame oil. Do this half a minute before you switch off the heat, otherwise the taste will dissolve if you keep boiling the soup further.


As a last step add some green to the soup, for example green onion, parsley or coriander.
享受您的膳食   Enjoy your meal !

Cork on Ice

Today a little review about the ice-skating hall in
Cork, Mahon Point.

We have been there in December and I have to say it was good fun to be on skates again, especially in the first 30 minutes we had all the ice for us.

Most people just kind of walked along the sides and hold on to them since i guess they have been first time on ice.

The equipment (skates) haven't been the newest but did a good job for most people.
If you a advanced skater you might want to bring your own, since the ones which are there for rental are not designed for proper advanced level use.

Other than that, the staff was very friendly and they had always one man on ice who helped people fallen to the ice.
For my taste its a bit expensive (being used to skate on lakes in Austria for free),
but hey where else in Ireland can you skate on real ice ?

here their website:
http://www.corkonice.com/

Android App Reminder

A little reminder, if you call a Android phone your own, you can download here my App to be informed about new posts or access the recipes straight on your phone or tablet there where you need them, in the kitchen.

Recipe: Kaiserschmarrn

Xmas time is homesick time,
here an other Austrian dish !

Kaiserschmarrn ("Kaiser", meaning "Emperor" and "Schmarrn" is "Mishmash" in Austrian German) is one of the best known Austrian desserts, popular in the former Austria–Hungary as well as in Bavaria. (c) see wikipedia.





Ingredients:
2 plate as main dish, 4 as dessert
6 eggs
200 g flour
2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
250 ml milk
100 g butter
raisins
Mix yolk, flour, sugar, vanilla extract, salt and milk to a thin dough; whisk the egg-white until it is stiff and mix it carefully with the dough. Melt the butter in a pan and add the dough. Sprinkle some raisins over it and fry it on low heat.

Turn the omelette around, tear it in little pieces and fry through. Serve with powdered sugar and plum sauce.

Recipe: Sopa Paraguaya

Sopa Paraguaya is a "poor mans" dish from Paraguay. Thanks to friend Hugo Estigarribia I can share this recipe. Its the best kind of corn bread i could ever taste.


Ingredients
2 cans cream of corn (if you can get this, I explain below how to make that yourself)

3 portions mozzarella cheese (whole milk)  or more if you like it cheesy

2 small/medium sized yellow onions chopped fine. 

4 eggs 

1 ½ cups of enriched coarse yellow corn meal
200 gram of salted butter - cut into slices

1 cup whole milk
Salt to taste 

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Cut all ingredients into small pieces.

If you cant get cream of corn, like if you leave in a country where there is not such a thing available in the stores, you can make this yourself.

Use 4 corn cobs and cut the corn down with a knife.

Put all in a blender and let it blend until you have a smooth cream.
Add a bit water if necessary, depending how much fluid is in your corn.

After mixing put it in 13x9 clear Pyrex dish (or whatever size fits it nicely) and bake at 190 degrees for 50-60 minutes. The top should start to turn brown in spots and its done.

Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes before trying to cut into squares. It tastes great hot, but it is not easy to cut until it cools off.

Traditionally its served with a beef soup, but you can also eat it as it is or with a stew.

Enjoy !

Food painting for Kids

A short while ago my lovely daughter had her first birthday and since the weather wasn't that nice that day I prepared different activities for the invited kids.

One of them was food painting, so I made different colored coffee cookies and had some sugar decoration colors ready to be used to paint on them.

Here a picture of the artwork which  survived the day, since some of course got eaten straight away.

Prosit Neujahr

Its soon time to watch the new years concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, its shown in more than 50 countries, hope also in yours.
Happy New year to you !