Review: Ritzenhof Saalfelden / Austria

Erdbeerschaumkrapferl "Ich mag Dich"

While on holiday recently in Austria I also visited my old home town Saalfelden which I left 7 years ago. Many things changed but thanks God many also stayed the same.
Like every time being in good old Austria I passed by the Restaurant Ritzensee.

I love this place for their good food, but also the view on the Ritzen lake is stunning.

When I don't go for local sourced fish or meat I always have a bit of a space for their desserts.

The Austrian Cuisine is famous for its desserts so I couldn't resist to have one piece of the famous Sacher Cake with Cream. My wife opted for a lighter version and had a Strawberry Cream assortment with fresh fruit.

Its amazing what value you get for your money, look at that piece of cake, Jesus, and the chocolate on top, it was just like a dream.

Close to the Restaurant lives a lovely Family offering traditional or modern style B&B at the Pension Kroell and Alte Schmiede. In the summer you can avail of the Summer Alpin Card which provides you with many free entries to local attractions, a taxi ride, and much more. We used that card so much and with all that savings we actually saved so much, worth 2 nights staying at the B&B.

Looking back, I miss Austria, but my current home Ireland got lots to offer as well.
About all the good food Ireland got to offer I will tell you more over the coming weeks.

Da capo: One year ago on Clonlins Blog

Every Thursday I make a little review what happened on this blog a year ago.
So this is the first edition of this series, I hope especially the new readers like this to see what happened a year ago.
Eggs and Chicken Suprise :-)

Little trick

Recipe: Brown Soda Bread

From a friends mother I got this lovely recipe for a big loaf of Brown soda bread.
Ingredients :

450 gram of plain white flour
450 gram of brown (stone ground) flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bread soda

1/2 litre buttermilk

1 egg

3 teaspoons grape seed oil, or you also can use pumpkin seed oil

Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients together, then beat together the egg, oil and buttermilk. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Put the mix in a well greased loaf tin and bake it in the ofen on 180 C for about 50 minutes. It stays fresh for about 3 days.

Yummi !

Austrian Beer / Pint Sizes

 

Some tourists coming to Austria from Countries like Ireland, GB, or the US might have issues with the Metric system, and the way how the size of Beer glasses work.
For very thirsty people you can order in a Austrian pub a "halbe Bier" which is 0,5 litre of the golden stuff. As you see on the left, I nearly finished mine there.

If you are less thirsty you would go for a "Seiterl Bier" which is 0.3 litre. And when you are really in a hurry, or just need a quick refreshment you would order a "Pfiffal Bier" which is only 0.125 litre of beer as shown on the right. Seriously, one nip and its gone. But it does look cute, does it ?

When a barmen really likes you, but he wants to close the pub since its late, he might offer you a "Maul voll" which means a mouth full and its about half of the Pfiffal so he is sure you leave soon and sound. This tradition only applies to some regions in Austria, mainly in the Alpine ones.  

If you want to know now how much the above units are in yours, check out this great website on which you can convert all kind of units.

Prost

Whats next

Unlike this wolf on the picture I wasn't sleeping while on holiday, instead I was tanking new energy and planning where to go with this blog, my upcoming book and life in general.

I figured I am pretty happy in life, I should more enjoy the presence than thinking about the future,
but once in a while stop, and choose a direction to go.

So here comes the direction for this blog:

Since I see many people are interested in what I write, not just here but also on my column at the West Cork Times
So I will continue to write every second day something nice about food, DIY, garding, fishing and the life in West Cork in General here on this blog, and on the West Cork time as long the editor can life with my typos I continue to report about interesting places to eat and dine.

I have a busy schedule at work and do this in my spare time, so please bear with me if I sometimes just post a short story, a picture with a update of a project, or a review about what I posted a year ago.

I want to redesign the layout of the blog a bit, and also plan over the coming months to relabel all posts. You also might have noticed I started to work with one bigger feature picture, and if necessary I will use further picture to illustrate my posts.
All pictures are by myself if not otherwise labelled, so it shall be noted they are my copyright but I am happy for you to use it if you give me a prior notice and credits.

So this stories / topics I plan for this summer:
DIY:
How to build a Incubator
How to build a BBQ
How to grow your own chicken


Gardening:
How to cope with the Irish weather
Stories around the Garden and from the Garden to the Kitchen

Fishing:
Fishing locations in West Cork
Different Types of Fish

Cooking / Food:
Recipes from around the World
Restaurant Reviews
West Cork Food Producers

So, you see, a busy time ahead, I hope you will enjoy it and please feel free to leave a comment if you like or dislike something on any of my posts.

Thank you for reading !

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Cooking Disaster: making mustard

While on Holidays I had time to recall a few incidents in the kitchen recently and I found some pictures I took about it. 4 weeks ago I   thought I have to be fancy to prepare my own mustard.I went to get some seeds from a local store, for 4 Euro !!!

Then the grinding, I spent at least 20 minutes on it to get the seeds to a fine powder.



I added the other ingredients such as vinegar, sugar, and salt and filled the"mustard" into a jar and stored it in the fridge.

After a few days I checked the result, doesn't look as attractive than the mustard from the shop, I guess I have no artificial colours in. Also it doesn't taste as good, and overall, I spent more money on it than from the store, and I feel I wasted my time...

That's why this blogpost gets the category, cooking disaster !

Holiday Greetings !

The next week or so you wont hear from me, no recipes, no reviews. Look at the picture, I am back home, hiking in the mountains, swimming in the lakes, but most important tasting Austrian Food !

Do not worry, I will bring some souvenirs back from you. And I will continue at this place end of June !

(Ps.: If someone thinks now, great, lets rob his place, good luck. Got a house sitter, my neighbour is a Gard (Policemen), and the farmer across the road is retired and got plenty of time how to shoot with his riffle. But first and foremost, there is nothing to gain, I got my treasures with me !

Guestpost: Rhubarb and Strawberry Marmalade

by Alison Wickham

3 cups cleaned, finely sliced rhubarb
1 lemon, finely grated rind and juice
1 orange, finely grated rind and juice
1/2 cup sliced strawberries
2 cups sugar
Place three clean, dry, recycled jam jars in a 100C oven for ten minutes to sterilise them.  Boil metal caps in water for 10 minutes.
If you have a food processsor, the quickest way to get the grated rinds is to peel them lightly (avoiding white pith) and whizz them with 1 cup of the required sugar until finely chopped.
Place all of the above ingredients into a large saucepan and slowly bring to a rolling boil.  Keep the mix boiling for at least ten minutes, stirring often until the mixture is thick and clear looking.  Test for setting by placing a little on a  saucer in a cool place.  After a few minutes if you lightly push the edge of the spoonful with your finger you should see a wrinkled skin form (about 100C if you have a thermometer in the pot).  If the mixture in the pot has developed a foam on it, this can be dispersed by stirring in a 1/2 teaspoon of butter. Let jam rest for five minutes.
Meanwhile get your jars out of the oven and place on a chopping board.  Pour jam into a large jug and then pour carefully into the hot jars avoiding dropping the jam on the jar rim.  Drain screw caps and wearing rubber gloves to protect from the heat, screw on tightly.
Variations: Just before filling the jam jars stir in 1/2 cup of walnuts that have been soaked for 10 minutes in boiling water and then chopped.  This adds an interesting texture.
Or add 1/2 cup of chopped crystalised or stem ginger and the walnuts to the jam instead of strawberries.  Tastes wonderful but looks a little drab.

Guestpost: Shortbread by Alison Wickham

by Alison Wickham

1/2 lb butter (I use the regular kind. Butter needs to sit at room temperature for a while to be soft enough- not oily though.)
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 and 1/2 ounces cornflour
10 ounces of plain flour  (it should not contain any raising agent, so check the bag)
1/4 teaspoon salt




Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy and then add in remaining ingredients.
Mix well.  You may need to knead the dough to get it to stick together into a thick non-sticky lump.
Turn out onto a long strip of greaseproof paper. Using the paper to help, shape into a long rectangular log about 2 inches by 1 inch and cut with a sharp knife into 40 pieces (about 1/4 inch deep).
 Alternatively roll out 1/4 inch thick between sheets of cling film, or on a silicone sheet,  and cut into small shapes with fancy cutters (check cooking time after 15 mins if you choose to do this).
Place on a greased oven tray. As these cookies have no eggs or raising agents they spread only a small amount.

Source: Original recipe from New Zealand Anchor or Fernleaf butter wrapper circa 1970.

I used to make these in the early 2000’s for the Clonakilty Market and Inchydoney Hotel.

Bake in a cool oven (160 C) for approximately 20 minutes until golden. They should not be brown, but a pale creamy – gold colour, but crisp right through the centre when cool. (They brown up more after they are removed, so be careful.)
Cool on a wire rack.

Part of a tray about to go into the oven.

Guestpost: Healthy Baked Apples

 byAlison Wickham


Per person:
1 Bramley apple
3-4 dried whole dates
Preheat oven to 180C or 350 F.
Wash and core apples, keeping apple whole. Cut a line around the apple horizontally in the skin.
Check that stones have been removed from dates and stuff each apple with three or four. Place a half an inch of water in a baking dish big enough to contain the apples. 



Bake for 30 minutes or until soft. Serve warm with lashings of low fat Vanilla yoghurt.

Guestpost: Turkey Waldorf Salad

by Alison Wickham

The next 2 weeks while I am on holidays I am proud to have guestposts
with recipes by Alison Wickham, a good friend from the Clon favor Exchange.

Alison is also secretary at Sustainable Clonakilty where she collected a great resource of her own and other members recipes which can be made with local produce.

First Recipe of this series: Turkey Waldorf Salad
Per person:
100 gram of cold cooked turkey (or ham or chicken or both)
1 stick celery
1 small red skinned apple
1 teaspoon low fat mayonnaise
2 large walnut halves
handful salad greens

Place a handful of salad greens on a medium sized plate.  Dice all remaining ingredients, except nuts, into a bowl and stir mayonnaise through to coat lightly.  Season to taste. Divide evenly and place in mounds on lettuce.  Garnish with tomato if desired.  Sprinkle with chopped nuts and enjoy. Best prepared immediately before eating.