Halloween Ghost Sausages

This week is Halloween and to have fun with the little ones you could use some dough and of either bread rolls or even better pastry dough and wrap it around a frankfurter (wiener) and bake it in the oven for 15 Minutes or until crispy.

Looks very spooky.

Currywurst, a german speciality

This evening I was looking through old pictures to get a inspiration for a blogpost.

I came accross this pictures I took last year visiting my friend Marco in Hamburg. The currywurst is a typical german fastfood dish, which is pretty simple.
Its a big sausage with a curry sauce on top and fries on the side. At every outlet the currysauce is made a bit different and the ingredients are kept secret.
Usually a bit of curry powder is sprinkled on top to give it a extra kick.

You can try that at home easily, if you dont have the right sausage a frankfurter/wiener will do, bit ketchup and currypowder, voila, your homemade currysausage is ready.

Enjoy !

The real Sopa paraguya

I have been to New Jersey earlier this year and had the honor to be invited by my friend Hugo to a dinner at his place.

He thought me the original version of his family recipe Sopa Paraguaya I blogged about last year.


Its such a difference to see it done, rather than reading the recipe. I also could taste in the process of preparing it,
and I could understand that the coarse yellow corn meal mentioned in the recipe can be substituted with Polenta.


That gives the dish a whole new texture and taste, even better than what I have posted originally.

Give it a try, Yummi !

Thoughts on "American" Food

 (prawns stuffed with crab meat)

Americans love to eat, So do I, but what is it what makes their food so tasty ?
First I need to clarify that I don't like to use the word American, for me there is not such a thing than a American, other than the native Americans.
All the people I met on my week in the US, are people with European, South American, or Australian background and family history. The Taxi driver was Pakistani, the bartender Swiss, the barmaid Irish, etc, etc.

So when I speak about American food, I mean the food of this world, adopted and adjusted to the taste and lifestyle of this modern times in metropolitan areas like New York.

In general I would divide the US food into 2 categories,
finger food, and food you actually need to have cutlery to eat it.

buffalo chicken wings

While I believe preparing finger food like chicken wings has not much to do with cooking, (its rather like assembling food with simple instructions), it takes a bit more effort and skill to prepare meals you need to have cutlery to consume it.
Of course, cooking a steak one might say is not much of a skill, but to get it right to the point, outside grey and firm, inside pink but not bloody, that's the way I like it takes a bit of timing.


veal porterhouse steak

I do like finger food, don't get me wrong, its comfort food for me which is quickly prepared and easy to eat, and it doesn't need to be unhealthy. But i prefer to cook myself food, and taste food which takes a bit more effort than to place a piece of meat between two pieces of bread and serve it that way.

This creme brulee here on the right, to get that dish to perfection, you need to have the exact amount of ingredients, mix it gently, let the flavors work, the best is overnight, let it set, so the texture is as it should be. The sugar on top should be a firm shield between the dinner and the cream. Caramelized but not burned, God i get graving writing this lines.



So what is eat what makes the food so tasty ? To answer this question I raised in the beginning one have to look behind the food, behind it is a chef.

Everyone has a different preference, but a chef is a artist which manages to meet and hit the taste buds of many people. He creates the dish and with adding a sauce here, a pinch of spice there,
he influences our perception of the food served.

In my last trip to the US, I met the man sending me a recipe of his family. I tried to recreate it here in Europe without ever tasting the original. The result was not bad, but not the same. Watching him preparing the dish, trying the ingredients while in process is priceless to understand a complex dish and recreating it at home with the ingredients which might be slightly different you have at hand.

In my next visits to restaurants I will focus also on the people behind the dishes, learn their techniques, motivation and secrets for taste. I look forward to that.

How much Beef cuts are there ?

Because of the recent scandal in processed beef in Europe I had a discussion with my friend Bas about what food is being presented to us in a whole piece, what is minced up, or thrown away.

Well I am not a butcher, but I did some research on the topic, as did my friend Bas, and Board Bia here in Ireland for example promotes on their website 14 beef cuts, as shown above. On their website you can learn more about each cut and how its used in cooking.

Looking a bit further, to France for example, they promote 33 cuts, not counting the tongue and cheeks (thanks for pointing that out Bas). In my old home Austria, the Austrian Meat Marketing agency promotes the Viennese style of cuts which adds up to 25 cuts.

I wonder, how come there is not more on offer in Ireland, what happens to the rest, is it all just minced up ?
Maybe an expert can let me know ?

Schnitzel with Veal

I am a made Schnitzel person and I admit at least once a month I have one. Recently I found a source for veal here in Ireland, and let me tell you its nothing better than to have a Schnitzel made with veal.
most people here only know the chicken or pork version, but if they would ever try it with veal they wouldn't eat anything else any more...  here the recipe I posted last year, Ingredients you need:

for 4 Servings

Ingredient	Quantity	Comments
Pork chops	4	pieces
Egg	1	piece
Flour Plain	50	gram
Potato	0.5	kg
Parsley	1	pinch
Salt	1	pinch
Pepper	1	pinch
Breadcrumbs	200	gram
Butter	50	gram

Dexter Beef - Great Irish beef from farm to fork

A special treat for my family is to have once in a while a great steak. We are lucky to life in an area where great food it produced on small farms right at our doorstep.

On a Friday morning, its family tradition if the weather is not too bad to go to the Clonakilty Farmers Market. Every so often we meet Vic from the Camus farm who is selling steaks from his dexter cattle he is breeding up the road from us.

We love this meat, its aged 21 days, and if you cook it right, I like it medium rare it develops its full taste. Its a very rare type of cattle, and there is only a few farms in Ireland raising this breed. 
If you want to learn more about dexter beef visit the following website for more information www.dextercattle.ie.

Challenge 2013 - Make my own Leberkaese

I wrote before about the Austrian Dish Leberkaese, and now after long research I got a recipe how to make my own. So the challenge is on, I will try the recipe soon and taste my way through many attempts before I publish the perfect recipe for that great meaty dish from my old home.

Stay tuned !

Xmas or New years Buffet

New years is all about having a good time with your family. So the preparations for the new years eve shouldn't keep you busy all day.

Prepare a little buffet with delicous food in no time,for 6 people all you need is:
A box of cheese, from your local farmers market or shop
2 baguettes
butter
ham
asparagus from the tin
12 eggs
2 spoon mustard
250 ml vegetable oil
1 lemon
Salt&pepper
1 pack fillet of salmon
butter

Preparation time for one person should be approx 45 minutes.


Step1:
boil 10 eggs in water for 10 minutes until they are hard. We are going to make filled eggs.

Step2:
while the other eggs boil separate remaining 2 eggs, you need the 2 yolks. Add a dash of the lemon, two teasppon of english mustard, a bit Salt and Pepper. Using a hand mixer you are going to make mayonnaise by poring in, bit by bit the vegetable oil. Mix well and dont poor to much oil at the time.

Step3:
Cut the boiled eggs in two half's, remove the cooked egg yolk and put them into a bowl. Add some mayonnaise made in Step 2 and some salt and pepper to taste and mix well.

Step4:
Take the egg mix and fill the empty egg half''s with that now spicier mix. You can use a piping back to make it look attractive.

Step5:
Cut the baguettes in slices, half of it topped with butter and the salmon nice arranged on a plate, the other half in a bread basket so people can use it with the cheese.

Step6:
Take the asparagus and roll it in the ham to get little rolls as shown on the picture above.

That's it, very simple but effective. But most important, its tasty and there is something for everyone.

Hope you will slide over well into 2013, see you there !

How to cook a Xmas Turkey

Whoo, just 5 times sleeping and Xmas Day is finally here. Like most people we will have Turkey as well, but how to cook the perfect one ?

Most important for that operation is,
Do not attempt to cook a frozen Turkey !

Thawing times for frozen turkeys;

4–5kg: 20 hours at room temperature; 65 hours in fridge
5–6kg: 24 hours at room temperature; 70 hours in fridge
6–7kg: 30 hours at room temperature; 75 hours in the fridge
8–9kg: 40 hours at room temperature; 80 hours in the fridge
9–11kg: 48 hours at room temperature; 96 hours in the fridge

Stuffing, some people prepare that a few days ahead, some on the day if the use raw eggs. Make sure you match your families taste, sometimes a simple filling, a onion, a lemon, some herbs can be the best way to give your bird some extra flavour !

Prepare the Turkey, rub it in with butter and honey, have some foil and cover it when placed in the roasting tray. Start moderately with the temperature and allow about 30 minutes for each kg of the total weight of your bird. this may vary depending on your oven and how often you open it for basing.

let the bird rest 30 minutes before you serve it, that gives you time to do your vegetables.

Enjoy your meal and don't rush into things,
allow time, have fun and enjoy the company of your family rather than being completly stessed out about that turkey.

Make sure you wrap the leftovers up so you have plenty of food for the next days :-)

Xmas Tiramisu

I recently wrote about my favourite tiramisu and now for the run up to Xmas I created a simple Xmas version of it by using a piece of carton decorating it in a Xmas theme with Cacao powder.

Doesnt it look great ?

Mickey Mouse Birthday cake

My daughter Sophie and Laura had recently birthdays and I wish I could have made a trip back to Austria to make for Laura also a nice Bday cake.
Sometimes its not easy, also, not easy to make a nice cake. I googled a bit and found a nice recipe how to make a Mickey Mouse cake.

As you can see in the pictures, I made twice the amount of my Sacher cake recipe which you find here.

Than I used two small and one big mould to make the ears and face.

My talented Au pair did draw a Mickey Mouse face on same baking paper with a pencil, So I could transfer that features easy on some marzipan.Well the result of my Pastry talent you can see at the left, that's the best I could do in that short time, Sophie was happy !

I hope I inspired you a bit to give it a try yourself !

Garlic Spaghetti butter

Out of laziness, I didn't want to wait for the butter to melt to make garlic butter, I just used the garlic press and made some spaghetti like garlic butter as you can see here in the picture.

Simple idea, looks great.

Bernerwuerstel

The weather is supposed to be better again in Ireland, so if you don't want to spend much time in the kitchen, here a simple and delicious way to make a simple dish like a frankfurter sausage a bit tastier.
In Austria we have a sausage style called Berner Wuerstl, all you need is a simple Frankfurter (Wiener) sausage, Serrano ham and pieces of any cheese really.

Make some slices in the sausage, wrap the ham around and cook it in the pan. I usually serve some vegetables with it.

My seafood table decoration

Everyone who knows me knows also I love seafood. Not too long ago I had a chance to try out my new seaside table decoration I ordered on-line. Imagine now lovely seafood on the plates.
In Austria we say, also the eye is tasting the food, looks good !

Who came up with that name ? Stinking Bishop Cheese

I wonder how comes up with this names, and on what is it based, hopefully not on real experiences.

However I tried recently that Stinking Bishops Cheese because I thought the name is funny, and its really stinky, but very tasty too.

I might just get a proper container next time which seals the smell off better !

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 !

Toasties

Jesus I was a lazy guy recently,
look what I have cooked the other day. Toast....

To be honest, sometimes I shouldn't judge a meal by the time and effort I put into it, but simply how good it tastes and how much others liked it as well....
Its summer again, more or less, its hard to tell if you life on the Atlantic coast in Ireland,
so I guess its fair enough if I spend more time outside fishing,gardening etc. than in the kitchen....

I will be on Holiday very soon, collecting new impressions, etc. The house got a sitter, the chicken are save, and at this point here I am allowed to publish some recipes from my friend Alison.

Alison is also living in West Cork many years and she will share some of her favorite recipes.
More about that later, but I look forward to it as I will read these posts while on holiday.

Kitchen Layout

One of the things I learned while attending the Tapas Cooking class from Richy here in Clonakilty is,
its important to have a tidy and clean kitchen.

I got rid of all that clutter which has nothing to do in a kitchen, but left however my kitchen machines on a prominent place, since I learned from experience if you do not see it, you do not use it....



I also did put a shelf in the window, since first too much sun came through that window for my taste anyway, and also I thought that space was wasted.
I moved my vegetables away from a corner at the other end of the kitchen to a central place where I can keep a eye on them and use them before they go off. I believe by doing this I have now less waste.
I have to do a few more improvements I think so, but i am sure I am getting there to be once really happy with my kitchen.

Comparison of Eggs

Guess which of the two eggs below is the one from a happy chicken, which one from a chicken from the store ?

Right, you saw also the lovely golden yolk on the left ? Yes, thats the one from one of my hens.
Tastes delicious and looks so much better !