Root Soup - Wurzelsuppe - Real German Cuisine Challenge

Welcome to the fifth week of the Real German Cuisine Challenge! After Semmelknödel mit Pilzen, Rahmgulasch, Käsespätzle and Apfelstrudel, his week was an easy, straighforward (and nutritious!) soup from the Schleswig-Holstein region (far faaarrr north). Get the recipe here

The whole thing began by measuring out the ingredients. Thank goodness for my scale (and here's a glimpse of the ugly but taste German "Celery" which is actually celery root.

And everything sliced
This is me. With my leek. My big giant leek. That inspired me to play baseball. Maybe I'm homesick... but in the end, i'm a pittsburgh gal... we're steelers fans, after all.
Everything got tossed into the pot, and cuddled up with some sizzling butter for five minutes or so. Then in with the stock, on with the top, and I let it simmer away! I used those cubes of veggie broth... (gasp!) because I just don't have homemade stock. Does anyone have a good easy recipe that I can freeze?
Then the whole thing went into my beautiful Philips blender (a birthday present from Artur). The thing doesn't shoot the blending stuff into the air like most, instead it makes a lovely blending tornado. Look! And it has lovely blue lights, kind of like the blender version of a VW Golf.
The a nice glob of Cremè Freiche and some dill and... TADA! Easy monday dinner. I used frozen dill from the grocery store to garnish... a great alternative to always buying (or raising) your own!

BTW, I met Christina from Amiexpat and her lovely husband and adorable son last thursday (on her birthday, what an honor!) and it was lots of fun to chat with a fellow blogger! We talked about German TV and the school system...two favorite gripe topics of mine. Perhaps a future blog post in the making...

Next, I'll be telling you about my spring project for the apartment: a balcony veggie garden! (perhaps some fresh dill is in sights..)

Apple Strudel - Real German Cuisine Challenge -

Another entry in the Real German Cuisine Challenge being run by Christina from Amiexpat!

I was really scared of this one. Dough. Filling. Baking. Ayayay!

Get the recipe here: Apfelstrudel

But, it was alright. Messy, but not as messy as Käsespätzle.

I started by making the dough, which consisted of piling 250 grams of flour on a board, putting a cracked egg and some oil into the middle, and kneading. And kneading. Well, what I got was sticky hands and very crumbly dough. I'm starting to believe that this cookbook is from a time where chickens laid much larger eggs. Or 250 grams weighed less. Or gravity was different. Anyways, I had to add water to even make it "smooth" like it was supposed to be before adding the water, but after that addition it seemed to be a fairly happy dough.

are those wavy lines?

I painted it with olive oil (I didn't have any vegetable oil) and put it to "rise" under a "warmed" bowl (my warmed bowl was plastic run under hot water… and I am wondering how it was supposed to rise without any yeast. Maybe it was just supposed to rest..)

Then, the apple marathon began. 1.5 kilos of apples. That's 3.3 pounds of apples. That's a lot of peeling. A lot of coring. A lot of chopping. But I have to say, I am so very proud of my very best European kitchen skill: the ability to peel fruits and vegetables in my hand with a paring knife in one long glorious spiral of skin.

This pride and glory got me through the first kilo or so. Afterwards, it was pretty boring. But I made it. The apples got mixed with the spices and then lemon rind and juice, and then came the fun part… rolling out my "risen" (or rather just well rested) dough.

Without a rolling pin. I just don't have one. But my 1 liter thermos which I use regularly for my homemade teas worked just fine. I spread the dough with sour cream and heaped the apple mixture and the plumped raisins on top of it. Oh so many apples and raisins. Then I brought the edges together (a bit of water helped them stick) and, as the directions indicated, "BOLDLY" flipped my strudel.

Then I read the next step "place in a U form into the pan). Hmmmmm. I think my kitchen counters would have to be longer to make a strudel that would by able to form a U. Mine was more like a… like an I! Or a #1! (or an elongated blob...)

Anyways, after brushing it with butter and pouring milk overtop, into the over it went. For an hour. Getting a quick breather with periodic bastings. I also made the Vanilla sauce. But I skipped the beaten egg white step. No mixer, no egg whites (too much work for me…). The sauce tasted delicious but was very liquidy.

All in all a HUGE success. I brought what Artur and I didn't eat for dinner (that's right, apflestrudel for dinner)… to work, where it was promptly gobbled up and I was serenaded with stories of various regional versions of apple strudel from my German colleagues.

All I have left to say is "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…"

Real German Cuisine Challenge—Käsespätzle (or: the attack of the killer slugs)

I want to say right off the bat: this recipe was really funny. Hilarious. And it made a giant mess. Get this hilarious messy recipe made as part of the Real German Cuisine Challenge here.

I didn't have a spätzle press, so after mixing up the dough, browning the onions and boiling the water, I had quite a time of "spätzlehobeln" as I clumsily tried to use my knife to scrape delicate portions of the dough into the water.

What I got, instead, were giant spätzle blobs. They kind of looked like big slugs. Not very appetizing. I thought it was rather hilarious, though.

I also had problems with the dough. The amount of water called for didn't even absorb the flour, so I had to keep adding until it had any reasonable consistency. Then, it was very sticky. I basically developed the technique of running my knife under water after every third spätzle to keep them from sticking.

I got better though, and as the layers formed in the pan, they started looking more and more like the spätzle I know. Last but not least I topped everything with the onions and extra cheese, and the final creation was yummy. But the smaller noodles were definitely better.

Lessons learned:
GET A SPÄTZLE PRESS!
Onions browned in butter taste DELICIOUS and i'm sure they would spruce up any dish
Giant Spätzle slugs are also yummy... a bit tough, with a "robust" quality
This dish can be reheated. Reheated. And reheated. And gets better every time.
German food is hard. Schwabian women are amazing.

I'm kind of scared for Apfel Strudel. But a wise woman once sang: cream colored posies and crisp apple strudel...when the dog bites, when the bee stings... i simply remember my favorite things. And then I don't feel soooooo baaaaaaaaaaaddddddddd! (sorry. gotta love sound of music. why else do you think i moved here? found out too late that it's austria...)

PS: I really enjoyed reading my fellow challenger's recipes! Thanks especially to Christine and Yelli!

Real German Cuisine Challenge: Kalbsrahmgulasch

Ingredients (read about ziplocked cream further on..)

This is my second cooking session as a participant in Amiexpat's Real Germany Cuisine Challenge

This week, we made "Kalbsrahmgulasch" or Creamy Veal Gulasch. Mmmmm. The recipe can be found HERE

I started out by chopping everything and clariying the butter (heating it and skimming off the "white stuff". I used a handy trick I read somewhere on the internet and used kitchen scissors to chop my tomatoes. Then, I used the scissors to cut up my veal.

chopped onions and tomatoes

I browned the veal in the clarified butter, added the chopped onions and sprinkled with paprika, and then, finally, topped everything with chicken broth. I used chicken broth instead of the recommended beef broth because a) i am not one of those people who makes their own broth so b) the only one without MSG at the store was the organic instant chicken broth.

Then, everything got to hang out and simmer for a while. When I say a while, i mean an ETERNITY!! Ok, so i am not one of those people who is very patient. I like food that involves a lot of activity and not a lot of waiting. And I didn't start cooking until 8pm. So... instead of letting it all simmer happily for the recommended 45 minutes, i only waited 30...

sizzle sizzle

And then added the cream, salt and pepper. Now I had a little adventure with my cream on the way home when it burst in my shopping bag (which i noticed as I was waiting for the ubahn as a white puddle started to form..) but i managed to rescue the dinky german plastic container with a foil lid by slipping into one of my newly purchased ziplops. That's right, call me Ms. Resourceful.

Anyways, I had just enough cream left and, to me, the whole thing looked a little TOO creamy. So I added some tomato paste and some Sriracha sauce. Then I let it cook away, finishing it off with some Crème fraîche (which, indeed, is very cheap in Germany) and lemon zest (i couldn't resist licking the Crème fraîche spoon..yum yum).

In the meantime, I made rice in my rice cooker (basmati, cause that's what i had..) and heated up yesterday's baguette in the toaster oven. Here's the finished product.

DELICIOUS! The only thing I would change would be...my patience. I think the meat really could have used those extra 15 minutes. Next time...

It DID taste like an Indian dish! But in a really cool fusion German way. Yummy yummy.

the final product

By the way, Christina, thanks so much for starting that. I am having SO much fun(and my boyfriend is too!!!) ! I look forward to every week and can't wait for Kässpatzen!!

After a while, I'll have Artur do a guest blog post and rate my German cooking skills :)

up up and away!

Food Buy: “Provencal Wildlachsfilet” from Aldi

For my fellow Germany residents, I present the first of hopefully many "product reviews"... so that, in this jungle of foreign food, we can find what's good...

This beautiful piece of herb-encrusted salmon is from Aldi: cheap and kitchy (but somehow loveable) Aldi.

But it’s certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, and it only cost 4,99€!!!! For 700g of Wild Caught Pacific Salmon.

This is what it looks like frozen.

Here it is, in its aluminium foil “boat”

The verdict: DELICIOUS! Moist, flavourful, fresh, and no bones. A big bargain that I’ll have to rebuy. Plus… it was so easy. Oven on, fish in, 40 minutes later I had a meal. I served it with rice cooker rice pilaf (sautéed scallions in butter in the pan, toasted the rice, added water and hot sauce, mixed in chopped fresh dill and chives at the end)

Zucchini Garlic Soup with Prosciutto-Feta Grilled Cheese

I discovered this recipe at the Kitchn today and it sounded delicious. Monday has become something of "soup and sandwich" night for Artur and I, so it fit the bill. I started out by heading to Aldi and picking up the only two ingredients I didn't already have (and i am not one with a well
stocked pantry...): Zucchini and Onions (I usually have onions, actually..)

Then I went to work. I started out by melting a hunk of butter and sweating 9 cloves of chopped garlic and 4 sliced shallots until soft. (the recipe does call for onions, but as we walking europeans know.. toting a 3 kilo bag of onions along with the rest of the shopping can do a number on your muscles. So I sprung for the much smaller bag of shallots).

Then, I grabbed my oh-so-handy "cucumber cutter" and mandolined all six zucchinis into the pot. Flew by like a breeze.

I let those babies cook away under cover and, in the meantime, boiled water in my Wasserkocher and dissolved two cubes of chicken boilloin. I really wish they sold cans of chicken broth in Germany!! But these fancy schmancy organic cubes did the trick just as well.

Once the Zucchini was soft, I let everything simmer and mingle for about 15 minutes. The recipe calls for 45...but I was HUNGRY! Then off to the blender in three batches and voilà!

While the soup was simmering, I assembled my sandwiches by thawing whole wheat Toastbrot and slicing my delicious chunk of marinated feta from our neighborhood "middle eastern market" and combining yellow tomatoes and prociutto.

Then off into the pan! I grilled the sandwiches (butter side out, like any good grilled cheese deserves) until toasty and plated everything up. The soup got an extra dose of "crema di balsamico" (my absolute favorite easy gourmet condiment) and fresh chives and dill. Absolutely delicious.

Homemade Citrus Vodka (and how to repurpose the leftovers)

As part of finger-lickin' Tuesday, here's a HOW-TO for making citrus infused vodka. I took a bottle of Absolut Vodka and stuffed it full of lime, orange, lemon and grapefruit peels.

In its essence, it's a really easy project. And cheap, considering all you have to do is buy the vodka and put in the peel—something you would probably trash anyways. But as I discovered, getting rid of all that "white" stuff from the peel is quite hard work.

Ingredients:

Vodka
Citrus Fruits

1) peel off sections of each of citrus fruits. Pick your method: I read that a vegetable peeler works well, but I had better luck cutting thicker sliced and then trimming off the white by holding the knife at a slight angle and cutting towards my fingers. Sounds dangerous… and it kind of was.. I sliced my finger a bit. Let me know if you have a better method!

2) Fill the bottle. I threaded bits onto a skewer, to make it more decorative, but they were really hard to get into the bottle. In the end I just stuffed the rest in--- this looked pretty, too. You may have to pour a bit of the vodka out to fit in the peels. That's ok, you can make yourself a vodka gimlet with the juice from your lime and a simple syrup or powered sugar. Mmm.

3) Time to wait. Mine was a birthday present for a party a few days later, and when I tasted it, it was already pretty citrusy (and had a pleasant orange color). But most tutorials suggest waiting at least a week.
4) Don't forget to label it! Here's my label which I made with word. I colored in the picture with colored pencils. The cocktail recipes are of course only a few of many different ideas. Experiment.

All in all a big hit at the party. I did have to explain that no, I did not make the vodka myself in my bathtub. I had a laugh over that one.

CITRUS PUNCH

After all the peeling, I was left with a bowl of naked citrus fruits! What to do?! I decided to peel them and slice, and then douse them in sugar and let steep in the fridge. The next day Artur and I bought a bottle of Sekt (german champagne) and doused our citrus fruits. Mmmm mmm delicious (it was still delicious on sunday night, too… if not less bubbly).

LEMON LIME JAM

My third use for my leftover ingredients was to make "lemon lime jam" which was actually my first venture into the world of jam making. I happened to have a package of "gelierzucker", which is sugar mixed with a gelling agent. I followed the following steps, improvised from a series of internet recipes:

1) slice lemon and limes into thin, half moon slices (I used 2 lemons and 4 limes)
2) boil in 1 quart of water for 20 minutes, or until tender
3) add package of gelierzucker, stirring constantly until the contents boil
4) continue stirring for four minutes while everything boils nicely.
5) Pour immediately into sterilized jars

I didn't take any photos while cooking because it was too sticky. It's quite tasty, kind of like sprite marmalade.

Here's to a vitamin C overdose!!!!

Change and Chili

As part of my new "blog structure update" I will now be posting, as part of my "finger-licking tuesdays" a recipe or delicious food experience weekly.

Today, I present, (drum roll)… patriotic Obama Chili to accompany the inauguration day ceremony. Obama posted his "family" Chili recipe and I'm going to try it out.

We expats sure don't have it easy when it comes to watching events live on TV. I still have a headache when I think of my day of work after the election, having stayed up until 6am to watch the acceptance speech. The Steelers big win at home against the Ravens on Sunday night kept me up until 3:30, and I fell asleep before the end (shame on me). The Superbowl will be a long one as well (HERE WE GO STEELERS!). But this time, we lucked out. I'll be heading home from work today at 4pm just in time to whip up a batch of Chili and settle onto the couch for an evening of patriotic pride (finally).

Obama Family Chili Recipe

1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Several cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground turkey or beef
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground oregano
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon ground basil
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Several tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
1 can red kidney beans

We'll start with the shopping, something we expats all know isn't an easy task for American recipes. The veggies should be no problem, the kidney beans either. I'll have to fudge the spices a bit (I could probably find everything, but I'm not sure I want to buy it all…), ground meat, tomatoes… looks like we're in the clear. The cheddar cheese might break the bank, but I'm sure a nice emmentaler would taste great too. Now it's time to go shopping!




Saute onions, green pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft.

Add ground meat and brown.

Combine spices together into a mixture, then add to ground meat.

Add red wine vinegar.

Add tomatoes and let simmer, until tomatoes cook down.

Add kidney beans and cook for a few more minutes.

Serve over white or brown rice. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, onions and sour cream.


All the cooking went on during the ceremony. I seeded peppers during the vice presidential oath, and during the presidential oath, I, appropriately, cut onions. My tears were plentiful, to say the least. During the speech I quickly browned the meat and threw in the tomatoes, spices and vinegar and then I ran to the sofa to let myself be swept up in the tone and cheers of history.

The Chili was a hit, served with Fresh Whiskey Sours, and I am so happy that the Bush years are over and a new time has begun. Cheers!