After weeks and weeks of waiting, this morning my magnolia finally decided to blossom. For the last years it always showed the first bloom in my garden. This time it had built the buds at the end of February as usual, but then nothing happened any more. The forsythia started to be abloom, the lilac followed, the magnolias in the neighbour gardens started withering already, but still the buds of mine didn´t develop any further. Finally I supposed it would skip the blossom, maybe because I cut it down this year for the first time. To my surprise, as I opened the shutter this morning it was in full blow.

Since we had pretty mild temperatures today I decided to have this year´s first breakfast in the garden and enjoy the view of the magnolia. Suited to the somewhat special occasion I indulged myself with one of my all time favourites: quick and easy oat yeast pancakes.

Oat Pancakes

serves 2

Ingredients:

125 g oats, ground in a food processor or coarse oatmeal

100 g wholemeal flour

500 ml warm water

2,5 g yeast

4 g salt

1 tbsp honey or sugar

Method:

1. Whisk everything together until smooth, the batter will thicken a bit and should have the consistence of double cream.

2. Cover, leave for 1 – 1,5 hours until batter bubbly and frothy

3. Give the batter a good whisk and bake the pancakes, the surface should become crispy and golden brown and show a lot of wholes.

4. Enjoy hot with maple syrup, bacon, a knob of butter,  jam or whatever addition you fancy with your pancakes.

After two weeks of sunshine my little garden explodes with green and shoots of all sorts. Unfortunately not only the welcome ones. I´ve been living in my house for about ten years but I did not bother a lot with garden maintenance. One of the kids in the neighbourhood mowed the lan every two weeks or so, every spring I unweeded a bit, and that was it.

This year I had to cut the bay tree in my front garden since it grew exuberantly and everybody had to bend down to come to my front door. Once started with trimming, I couldn´t stop. I did not notice before how feral my garden had become over the last few years. Weeds everywhere, bushes interleaving, and a lot of plants suffocating each other. After three days of hard work I ended up with lots and lots of big garbage bags full of twigs, leaves and weeds – and only my small Mini to dispose them all.

It was getting dark when I was finally finished, the shops were closed and the easter weekend lay ahead. My fridge contained some cheese, salami, eggs, and a lot of vegetables but no bread at all, so I decided to try once more one of Peter Reinhart´s brilliant recipes: The Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire.

I was out of  brown rice, polenta, wheat bran, buttermilk and nearly all of the bread flour. Instead of the requested ingredients I used whatever I had left in my cupboard, but I didn´t change the measurements. It worked very well, and the bread turned out to be delicious, crispy on the ourside, fluffy and chewy on the inside with a delicate flavour from the different grains and the overnight soaker.

Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

Adapted from Peter Reinhart

Ingredients:

SOAKER:

3 tbsp whole wheat semolina

3 tbsp rolled oats

2 tbsp cracked oats (I pounded whole oats roughly with a pestle and mortar)

1/4 cup water, at room temperature

DOUGH

1 cup wholewheat flour

1 cup oat flower

1 cup bread flour

1 tbsp instant yeast

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp honey

3 tbsp rolled oats

3 tbsp semolina

3/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup yoghurt

1 cup water, at room temperature

1/4 cup poppy seeds

Method:

1. On the evening before making the bread, mix the soaker. Cover and leave overnight at room temperature.

2. The next day stir together the flour, honey,, salt, yeast in the mixing bowl. Add the soaker, semolina, oats, yoghurt, and water. Stir a bit then knead with dough hook of the kitchen machine (or by hand) for about 10 – 12 minutes. The dough should be soft and pliable but not sticky and pass the window pane test.

3. Form a ball, put it in a lightly oiled bowl, rolling it around to coat with the oil. Cover with cling foil and let ferment at room temperature for about 90 minutes or until doubled in size.

4. Remove the dough from the bowl, transfer it to a lightly floured board and form a rectangle about 6 inches (15 cm) wide and and 8 to 10inches (20 to 25 cm)  long. Sprinkle with the raisins and form it to a loaf. I folded it like an envelope but you can do any shape you like.

4. Place the loaf in a loaf pan – or diretly to the baking sheet if you like a freestanding loaf.

5. Mist the surface of the loaf with water and sprinkle on the poppy seeds.

6. Proof the loaf for 90 minutes or until nearly doubled.

7. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).

8. Place the loaf on the middle shelf and bake for 40 to 60 minutes. The bread should register at least 85°C (185°F) in the center and have a golden brown crust.

9. Let cool at least for 1 hour. Enjoy!

At last I finished my detox diet. After months and months of lacking energy, feeling like having a cold all the time, suffering from headaches and sinusitis I feel completely fit and healthy again!

I intended to fast for only two weeks but I liked the new feeling of strength and health so much that I extended the diet to five weeks. For some days now I´m back to normal nutrition including gluten, dairy, and a bit of meat again but I´m choosing my food a lot more consciously than before.

Yesterday, for example, I treated myself with some chocolate truffels. I made them from scratch all by myself – and with healthy ingredients only. It was the perfect delight. Not only because I ate them without any feeling of guilt. Actually, they were stunningly delicious!

I know, billions of healthy chocolate, fruit, and nut balls recipes are scattered throughout the internet. So I didn´t want to add any more. But then I tasted the truffels and I had to share the recipe! They are even better on the second day when all the flavours have come together. I put some of the chocolate balls in the freezer and they are great frozen, too. Still a bit soft and creamy, rich but refreshing at the same time, a great summer treat.

Dark Chocolate Grand Marnier Truffels

Ingredients:

3 tbs peanut or almond butter

½ cup oats

½ tsp vanilla

10 dates

½ cup prunes

½ cup almonds

½ cup walnuts

3 tbsp raw cacao

1 tbsp soy milk

3 tbsp Grand marnier

¼ cup cranberries

Method:

1. Put everything except for the cranberries and ¼ cup walnuts in a food processor and blend to a paste for about 5 – 10 minutes until the paste is really homogenous. When the paste starts to heat switch the food processor off and wait for some minutes then start again. If the ingredients crumble instead of building a smooth but firm paste, add a bit more soy milk, one teaspoon at a time.

2. Move the paste to a bowl, add ¼ cup cranberries and ¼ cup coarsely chopped walnuts and mix gently with a spoon.

3. Form balls and coat with finely chopped walnuts or raw cacao.

Surprisingly, I´ve learned to like my food without salt. After four days without any my tastebuds are becoming a lot more sensitive for all the subtle flavours I missed before. By now I can enjoy an apple or a clementine like a good glass of wine, the mix of fruity, sweet and tart flavours developing in my mouth.

But I still miss the salt, so I now allow myself one gram per day. That´s not much, but used with care it really brings me a lot of joy. Like yesterday in my delicious white bean hummus. Since it´s completely fat free, apart from the small amount of tahin, I didn´t expect much, but actually it was absolutely yummy!

I´m starting to like this kind of nutrition and even if my sinuses are still torturing me I´m beginning to feel more energized than I´ve felt in months. Maybe I´ll expand the 14 days to three weeks. We´ll see.

Fat Free White Bean Hummus

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of dried white beans, soaked overnight and cooked  (about 3 cups cooked beans)*

juice of 1 lime

1/4 tsp cumin

freshly ground black pepper

salt

1 big garlic clove

2 tbsp. Tahin

3 tbsp. water (or more, adjust to your own taste)

Method:

Put everything in the blender and mix until its a creamy paste.

Enjoy!

*You can use canned beans, but try to use freshly cooked dried ones, it really makes a big difference.

Do you know the Fairy Tale about the king and his three daughters? He asked them to express how much they loved him. The first compared her love with the joy of ruling a kingdom, the second told him, he was as precious to her as her jewels. The third one, the only one who loved him deeply, answered: “Father, I love you more than salt.” He didn´t understand her comparison at all and banished her from his kingdom. But in the end he tasted a meal cooked without any salt and found it inedible. Everything tasted blunt. He forgave his daughter and they lived happily ever after.

I understand the princess, I love salt, most of all the flaky Maddon Sea Salt, which smiles at me everytime I open my cupboard. In my opinion there is no dish which couldn´t be enhanced by a good pinch. Unfortunately my detox diet doesn´t allow ANY salt. The hunger is not that bad, I have surprisingly few cravings, but I so deeply miss the salt.

I´m still not feeling better after the first two days, but I didn´t really expect an effect this early. The pounds are melting like I wish the snow would. Three pounds in two days, that´s quite a lot. I´m holding on and hopefully habit will kick in and I won´t miss the salt so much.

The dressing I had today with the black bean & orange salad was surprisingly delicious and would have been gorgeous with a pinch of salt. It was the tastiest dish I had for the last days. Actually, it was so good, I saved some tablespoons and had them for desert. I will definitely make this dressing again after the diet. With a pinch of salt, of course, and I´ll double the amounts.  I think, it would be nice as a dip, too.

Raw sesame seed and orange dressing:

2 tbsp. raw sesame seeds

juice of 1 small orange

Put it in a blender and mix until it´s a creamy paste.

Over the last few weeks I endulged myself with eating marvellously. That´s always a pleasure, but I overdid it. Usually I balance a lot of eating with a lot of running. But because of the bitterly freezing temperatures and the snow-covered tracks I curled up on the sofa with a lot of comfort food instead.

Slowly but surely I´m feeling the effects of too much fat, sugar, white flour and not working out: I have been struggling with a persistent cold for three weeks; when I tried to put on my favorite jeans they seemed to have shrinked considerably. My energy level is completely messed up, I´m tired all the time.

Yesterday I googled “14 days detox diet”. I was looking for a diet which primarily helps rebuilding my strength and cleansing the body system. Loosing some weight would be very nice, too. After rummaging through a lot of pages I found Jugalbandi´s thread about Dr. Joel Fuhrman´s 6-Week Plan, the strictest version of the Eat to Live vegan diet plan. Bee followed a 14-days detox diet herself recently and I liked her program at first glance. Just like her, I will avoid gluten entirely.

I´m going to base my menu loosely on Bee´s and Joel Fuhrman´s Eat to Live guidelines and include elements of Ayurveda detox, for example the detoxifying tea. I´m quite excited about whether this kind of nutrition will show true impact.

Instead of my beloved super strong black tea with milk, this morning I brewed myself a big pot of Ayurveda detoxifying tea:

Ayurveda detoxifying tea:

2 quarts of water
1/4 t. whole cumin
1/2 t. whole coriander
1/2 t. whole fennel
seeds of 5 cardamom pods

Boil  water, add  spices, steep for 10 minutes, strain and put into a thermos. Sip throughout the day.

Here you can find the original recipe. I added cardamom.

My menu today:

1. 10:00 Fruit/veggie smoothie
2. 14:00 2 cups Mung Dhal
3. 17:00 1/4 cup walnuts, 1/2 Banana
4. 19:00 1.5 cups Mung Dhal, 1 pear

Fruit & Veggie Smoothie:

1/2 apple
1/2 carrot
1/2 banana
1/2 zucchini
1/2 small fennel bulb
some green leaves
10 almonds
1 tsp flax seeds
100 ml unsweetened soymilk
water added to 0,5 l (16.9 oz)

I didn´t like the smoothy particularly. It was drinkable, though. Tomorrow I´ll go for more fruits instead of veggies.

I cannot stand the cold, dark and wet German winters. Sure, the long evenings can be homey, especially with some comfort food, candles and hot drinks, but after some weeks I inevitably start yearning for the sun.

The last years we celebrated Christmas at far flung – and warm – places like South Africa or Kenia. This year we decided to stay at home. I like it. Only sometimes, especially after gray days full of nonstop drizzle, I feel this yearning again, but I have learned that cooking and baking helps a lot, especially all the Christmas dishes we did not have the last years.

Hence, I was particularly happy the other day when I discovered the original recipe of Grandma´s Elisenlebkuchen in my mother´s cookbook collection. It´s been years since we last had them, and I was so eager to have them again. Unfortunately, my first attempt was quite a disaster.  But I didn´t give up and this time I got it right.

A tip for chocolate lovers:

My grandma always made the cookies with a lemon sugar glaze. But I am sure they are yummy with a chocolate coating, too.

Elisenlebkuchen – German Elise Gingerbread

Ingredients:

3 eggs

50 g (1,76 oz) sugar

50 g (1,76 oz) honey

150 g (5.3 oz) almonds, finely grounded

150 g (5.3 oz) hazelnuts finely grounded

50 g (1,76 oz) almonds roughly grounded

50 g (1,76 oz) hazelnuts roughly grounded

100 g (3,5 oz) candied lemon peel

100 g (3,5 oz) candied orange peel

1,5 tsp cinnamon

grounded seeds of 9 cardamom pods

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 cloves, grounded

1 pckg. vanilla sugar

¼ tsp almond essence

12-15 oblates (very thin, paper like wafers)

Sugar Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

1.   Whisk eggs with sugar, honey, vanilla sugar until they become a pale and stiff cream.

2.   Fold in nuts, candied peels and spices.

3.   Heat the oven to 150°C (300°F).

4.   Arrange the oblates on a baking tray.

5.   Form little balls, about the size of a small clementine (I simply used an ice cream scoop), place them on the oblates, and flatten the scoops. The gingerbreads should be about 1 cm (0.6 in) thick.

6.   Bake for 25-30 minutes. (Don´t use the air circulation of the oven.) The gingerbreads should rather dry than bake and remain soft.

7. Remove from the oven and let cool. In the meantime mix the sugar glaze. Still warm, brush the gingerbreads with the glaze and let sit on an cooling rack until the glaze has firmed up completely.

Enjoy!

I do not always feel like a kitchen goddess. Not even very often, actually. Like the other day, when I made Elisenlebkuchen, the queen of gingerbread.

During a visit at my mother´s I rummaged through her cookbooks and discovered the original recipe for Elisenlebkuchen inherited from my grandma. Immediately, the memory of my childhood Christmas flashed through my mind, and I could almost smell the spicy little cakes again.

I wrote the gingerbread recipe down and as soon as I got home I had to try it, too impatient to wait until the next day and buy the proper ingredients. Out came this epic gingerbread failure:

They do not even resemble remotely the smooth, succulent, almost creamy cookies they should have become.

By hindsight, I could identify my mistakes: The recipe askes for “finely” ground almonds. I had only whole ones in my cupboard and grounded them in my food processor. Not nearly fine enough, obviously. The second mistake: I overbaked them thoroughly. They should only dry out in the oven more than actually bake. The taste was fine, though, but that was a small comfort.

Luckily there is light in my kitchen, too. Sometimes even bright light. Like yesterday, when I cooked Osso Buco. Originally, I intended to make an oxtail stew. The butcher had no oxtails in stock, but beautiful knuckel of veal instead and I decided to switch to Osso Buco.

On the website of Tyler Florence I found a tantalising recipe for this Italian dish. I have liked Tyler Florence since I watched his informative, amusing and mouthwatering documentary about Mexico. I hadn´t cooked one of his recipes before and decided to give this one a go.

It turned out so delicious that we decided to have it for Christmas dinner again. I changed just a few things: I added some juniper berries, skipped the originally added broth entirely for red wine and increased the number of bay leaves.

Osso Buco

Adapted from Tyler Florence

serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 pieces of veal shank (about 3-4 lb)

Extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 onion, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 lemon, zest peeled off in fat strips with a vegetable peeler

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 bay leaves

about 15 juniper berries

1 bottle dry red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon

1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, roughly mashed

Gremolata

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

1 anchovy fillet

2 garlic cloves

Zest of 1 orange, finely grated

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method:

1. Put the flour in a large shallow platter and season it with a fair amount of salt and pepper. Get in the habit of always tasting your flour; once it coats the veal it is harder to adjust the seasoning.

2. Dredge the veal shanks in the seasoned flour and then tap off the excess (extra flour will burn and make the dish off-tasting).

3. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat and hit it with a 3-count drizzle of oil. Add the butter and swirl it around the pan to melt.

4. Sear the veal shanks, turning carefully with tongs, until all sides are a rich brown caramel color. Drizzle with a little more oil if needed. (Do this in batches if the shanks are big and look crowded in the pot.)

5. Remove the browned veal shanks to a side plate. There will be a lot of flavor left over in the bottom of the pot. You’re going to use that to create your sauce.

6. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

7. Using the same pot, sauté the onion, celery, carrots, lemon zest, garlic, bay leaves, and parsley over medium heat.

8. Cook the vegetables down until they start to get some color and develop a deep, rich aroma. Season with salt and pepper; add a little oil if needed.

9. Nestle the veal shanks back in the pot. Pour in the wine and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

10. Add the tomatoes and stir everything together.

11. Cover the pot and put it in the oven.

12. Braise for 1 1/2 hours. Then remove the cover and continue to cook for another 30 minutes. The sauce should be thick and the veal tender and nearly falling off the bone.

Gremolata

1. Mash the pine nuts, anchovy, and garlic together in a mini chopper or with a mortar and pestle.

2. Fold that into the orange zest and parsley.

3. Scatter the gremolata over the Osso Buco before serving.

4. Enjoy!

Serve with pasta or polenta.

Unfortunately I´m not exactly in Venice, not physically at least, but all the more in my mind. For two weeks now I have been writing a novel taking place in Venice. When I´m not working, I´m looking at old photos from Venice, watching all the movies I can get hold of which take place in Venice, reading fiction and non-fiction – I´m sure you can guess the setting. I missed out a bit on the food, but today I cooked a hearty ragu, Venician, of course.

It wasn´t much laborious. Yesterday I mixed the marinade, put in the beef, left it overnight to infuse and today it simmered slowly until done. The recipe is adapted from a beautiful cookbook about Venetian heritage cooking, unfortunately it is only available in German: Genießen mit Vivaldi. But over the next few weeks I am going to cook some recipes from this book and share them with you.

Venetian Ragu

Adapted from Genießen mit Vivaldi, Eva G. Baur

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 kg beef

100 g bacon

Marinade:

3 onions

4 cloves of garlic

2 stakes of celery

4 Tbsp. olive oil

6 bay leafs

8 cloves

sage (I took 15 rather big leafs)

1 Tbsp. juniper berries

1,5  Tbsp. chopped thyme (if you are using dried thyme, take half the amount)

1,5 Tbsp chopped rosemary (if you are using dried, take half the amount)

2-3 small cinnamon sticks

1 bottle full-bodied red wine (I used South African Merlot)

1/3 cup good red wine vinegar

Salt, Pepper

1 tsp. sugar (or a bit more after your liking)

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp flour

Method

1. Mix red wine, vinegar, salt, spices and herbs in a bowl.

2. Cut the beef into cubes. I like them a little larger, I think it looks nice and the beef will be more tender this way. Chop onions and garlic roughly, put everything  into the marinade, cover and let sit for about 24 hours, at least 5-6 hours. I made the preparations for the ragu rather late in the evening, after my work was done.

3. The next day, about 3 hours before you like to eat the ragu, dice the bacon, melt the butter with the olive oil in a dutch oven or a deep big skillet and fry the bacon until golden brown.

4. Take the beef out of the marinade and put it dry. Dust it with the flour, then fry it in the butter-oil mixture. It should get really dark brown on all sides, but not scorch.

5. Add bacon, marinade and sugar. Cover and let simmer for about 2 hours. (If you like to cook the stew in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and let the ragu stew for 2 hours.)

6. Taste, add a bit more sugar, if you like it sweeter. Remove bay leafs, cinnamon sticks and juniper berries.

Enjoy!

The ragu is perfect with polenta. My daughter insisted on pasta today, and it was delicious, though.

Next time I will try a half cup of raisins instead of the sugar.

Actually, I wanted to wait with a new post until the new ballhead for my tripod has arrived from USA. My old one got broken some time ago, and the new one is stuck at the German customs office.

But yesterday I baked this heavenly Rueblitorte and it was so delicious that I didn´t want to withhold it from you. Believe me, you have to try it! This recipe is a stunner!

The cake is moist but not in the least soggy, it´s succulent and simultaneously airy (I hope my enthusiasm did not cause me to completely mix up the adjectives).

Besides, the photo´s lack of appeal is more due to our greed than the missing tripod. We tried, but weren´t able to resist the torte, and I cut the cake before the fudge got perfectly firm. In my defence I have to say that initially the cake wasn´t meant for the blog.

This recipe is genuinely Swiss, I brought it back with me from my visit to Zurich last year. In a small cafe I ordered Rueblitorte and expected a kind of carrot cake. To my surprise it turned out to be rather different from the usual carrot cake. I asked for the recipe and had to combine quite a lot of charm, compliments and persistence until I could get hold of it – it combines almonds, carrots, eggs and only a few grams of flour.

The original Rueblitorte came with a thick sugar icing and marzipan carrots, but yesterday I had a craving for chocolate and tried a vanilla chocolate fudge icing (which would also be delicious on its own!).

Ingredients:

Torte:

250 g (8,8 oz) tender carrots, finely shredded

250 g (8,8 oz) almonds

50 g (1,75 oz) wheat flour

zest of 1 lemon

0,5 tsp. ground cinnamon

0,5 tsp. ground ginger

pinch of nutmeg

6 cardamom pods, grounded

5 eggs

160 g (5, 65 oz) sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp butter

Chocolate Vanilla Fudge:

80 g (2,8 oz) dark chocolate (I used 80%)

80 g (2,8 oz) unsweetened condense milk

1 package of bourbon vanilla sugar

Method:

Torte:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (355° Fahrenheit). Dry-roast almonds in a large pan over medium heat until they are golden brown. Pour into a bowl and let cool down, then grind them finely in a food processor.

2. Grease a spring form (or any other cake molds) with 1 tsp butter.

3. Mix almonds, flour, baking powder, spices. In another bowl mix carrots and lemon zest.

4. In a large bowl beat the egg whites until very stiff, during the process add gradually the sugar, then carefully fold in the egg yolks.

5. Heap flour mixture and carrots onto the egg mixture and fold in until just incorporated.

6. Fill the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven (middle level) for 40 minutes. The torte is done when an inserted wooden skewer comes out clean. Take out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before releasing it from the pan.

7. When the cake is completely cool prepare the the chocolate fudge and cover the cake.

Chocolate Vanilla Fudge:

1. Break the chocolate into smaller pieces, put it in a saucepan or a melting pot with the condensed milk.

2. Stir over low heat just until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in the vanilla sugar. Remove from heat.

3. Spread onto the cake, cover the sides with a pastry brush.

4. Put the torte in the fridge for at least 5 hours. The Rueblitorte is best on the second day.

Here it is, from overseas. My first kitchen machine ever.

I own a food processor, a blender, even a rice cooker, but until this day I´ve never had an electric mixer. I didn´t mind whipping cream, beating eggs and mixing batter by hand. But since I have discovered the joy of baking bread I was longing for a kitchen machine every time I was kneading yeast dough.

I knew which one I wanted: A KitchenAid. Everybody seems to be enthusiastic about them, praises their performance and they are pretty. I wouldn´t exactly go as far as to say function had to follow form but I really love it when both comes together in one item.

It should be rather easy to get one, I thought, and googled them just to choose a color before placing an order on amazon.de. But it was the start of an epic search for the right machine. I had already come to terms with the fact that KitchenAids cost about more than twice the amount in Europe than in USA, but I didn´t know that a completely different league exists on the other side of the ocean! Not only the motors can be as twice as strong, there are also completely different methods of kneading! Suddenly our European 300-Watt machines appeared to be kind of a plaything.

After watching a video on youtube (Yes, I know, it´s a bit strange to watch a video about dough kneading, but even if it´s not really an action movie, it is rather meditative) I wanted one of those bowl lift models with a strong motor and a spiral dough hook. Unfortunately there is the voltage/Hertz problem between Europe and America. I talked to a trusted electrician who works with US-expats since 30 years. He told me it was no problem to use the 110 Volts US-KitchenAid motor with our 220 Volts system. I “just” needed a strong (and quite expensive) transformator which could handle the Hertz-thing, too.

I brooded for a while over that. Adding up costs for shipping, customs duty and the transformator for the KitchenAid would definitely cost -at least- as much as the Artisan one can buy here in Germany. Furthermore, the warranty for US-KitchenAids becomes void when the machines are used outside the 50 states of America. But I had got this crush on the spiral dough hook and its way of simulating hand kneading. Finally, I opted for a stronger US-version.

Finding the perfect model and a trustworthy seller who would accept my credit card, ship to Germany, etc., took me a while. Nobody seemed to answer my Emails; when I phoned everybody was extremely nice and lovely but couldn´t tell me anything without talking to a supervisor before. I don´t know how often I heared: “I´ll be back with you soon.” – which rarely happened.

To cut a long story short: After the sudorific ordering process to my big surprise it worked out, eventually. Today my KitchenAid has arrived. A 450 Watt model, 5 quart bowl – and a spiral dough hook. It´s a beauty, isn´t it? Let´s hope it´ll settle in and last for a long time!

One of my great pleasures is watching cooking shows. Good ones, of course, e.g. with Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater, Gordon Ramsey, Hugh Fernley-Wittingstall, Jamie Oliver, you name it. But that is exactly the problem. Did you notice that I mentioned no German chef?

Unlike other countries in Germany we suffer from an acute shortage of intriguing TV-cooking shows, at least of some to my taste. Interestingly enough, one of the more charismatic German TV-chefs, Tim Mälzer, was trained in the UK for a while by Gennaro Contaldo, as a co-trainee of Jamie Oliver. Fortunately, some of my friends live in England and send me records of UK cooking shows, so I don´t have to be too envious. (Unfortunately I have no connections to America or other countries.)

I always marvel at these TV-chefs. They handle their pots, pans and knifes like it was no effort! Sometimes, when I reproduce one of these dishes I nearly lay waste to my kitchen.

But definitely not when I´m cooking Gordon Ramsey´s amazing broccoli soup. It is not even a real recipe, just broccoli, salt, pepper and water. If you like a bit more of indulgence, add some grated parmesan cheese or a slice of goat´s cheese to the bowl, maybe some freshly toasted walnuts on top and a good slug of high quality olive oil. That´s it!

And the best of all: The soup tastes great, smooth and rich, actually. You would never suspect the simplicity of this dish. It´s a delicious starter or, served with some fresh bread, a healthy meal on its own.

Ingredients:

2 lb (1 kg) broccoli

2-3 cups cooking water from the broccoli

salt, pepper

grated parmesan cheese or a slice of goat´s cheese (optional)

freshly raosted, coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

good olive oil (optional)

Method:

1. In a big pot bring water to the boil.

2. Meanwhile clean the broccoli and chop into medium chunks.

3. Put the broccoli into the boiling water, cook until soft, about 15 min.

4. Quench the broccoli with really cold water for some seconds to maintain the bright green colour.

5. Put the broccoli in a blender with salt and pepper (a large blender is perfect but a handheld blender can be used as well).

6. Add some of the cooking water, start with 2 cups, mix at medium speed until the broccoli has turned into mush. Adjust the thickness of the puree to your taste by adding more of the cooking water and mix on high speed until you have a soft and homogenous creamy soup.

7. Serve hot.

Variations:

Add a good slug of high quality olive oil.

Before pouring the soup, put a slice of goat´s cheese into the bowl

or

sprinkle the soup with coarsely chopped walnuts and grated parmesan.

Recipe source: River cottage Handbook No.3: Bread by H. Fernley-Wittingstall

I love a hearty breakfast and crumpets are an all time favorite of mine (not only for breakfast!). I don´t know how much recipes I had tried before I found the River cottage Handbook No.3: Bread. I liked the bread recipes a lot and so I gave Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall´s crumpets a go.

Usually I wake up as hungry as a hunter and want to eat immediately. Hence until that day, I made crumpets only for special occasions or when it happened for some strange reason that I would wake up very early in the morning and had enough time for the yeast dough to rest. But when I read in the bread book that it didn´t matter if the dough rests for 1 hour or 4 hours, I invented my easy overnight-method: I just combine the ingredients in the evening, let them bubble for a while, put them in the fridge and in the morning the dough is ready for baking.

I bake the crumpets in a cast iron pancake form. This way they are not quite as thick as baked in crumpet or muffin rings, but still fluffy and soft as a pillow, and I don´t have to worry about them beeing crispy on the outside but still a bit raw in the middle.

The crumpets are perfect with butter and jelly, but also great with cheese, ham, bacon, maple syrup, cream, fruits, …

Ingredients:

450 g (15,9 oz) flour

350 ml warm milk

350 ml warm water

5 g (0,18 oz) powdered yeast

5 g (0,18 oz) salt

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Whisk together flour, milk, water, sugar and yeast to a runny batter, cover and leave for 1 hour minimum until really bubbly, can be 3-4 hours, or longer if you put the dough in the fridge after becoming bubbly.

2. When ready for baking, oil and heat a pan. Wisk salt and baking powder into the batter and spoon into the form. (If you use muffin rings, try first if the dough stays inside the ring. if it leaks out beneath the ring, add a little flour to the batter.) After one or two minutes baking time the dough should develop a lot of bubbles on the surface.

3. Bake on one side until the dough sets on the surface and the crumpets are crispy and golden brown at the bottom. Turn and bake for another few minutes, about 4 min. each side.

4. Serve hot.

Click on the photo and go to the gallery!

I love Falafel but I do not deep fry. My kitchen is too small for a deep fryer and I don´t like the smell of hot fat lingering in the house. So I just fry my Falafel in a non stick skillet with some olive oil for the taste and usually they look more like patties. On the hunt for the perfect Falafel recipe I tried a lot but until now I was never completely satisfied. This one is the best by far I´ve ever made, crispy on the outside, a slightly moist, almost meaty texture on the inside. (I suppose you could as well deep fry them if you prefer.)

They are not only delicious but the sprouted chickpeas make them also exceptionally healthy. During the germination process vitamin content and accessibility jump up. You don´t taste that the chickpeas have been sprouted because in this recipe they are used in a very early state of the germination.

I served them with the Creamy Feta-Red wine Vinegar Dressing by David Lebovitz and it was so good!

Ingredients:

sprouted chickpeas made from 2.5 cups of dried ones. * (See how to do the sprouting at the bottom of the post.)

0.5 cup bread crumbs

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp. coriander seeds

1 small onion

1 tsp. baking soda

0.5 tsp. baking powder

1 large egg

1 tsp.cumin

1 tsp.paprika

1 tsp. thyme

Salt, pepper

olive oil for frying

Preparation:

1. Put the chickpeas in a food processor with the garlic, onion and spices. Grind until you get a rough moist texture. Add a little water if needed.

2. Move the mixture into a large bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, combine, and put aside, covered, for 30-60 minutes.

3. Wet your hands, shape little balls (about the size of apricots), pat gently to flatten them. Heat olive oil in a non stick skillet and fry until crispy, for about 5 minutes each side.

3. Serve hot!

Sprouting chickpeas:

Rinse the chickpeas well and soak them in water for 12 – 24 hours. Drain, rinse and leave the chickpeas just in the colander on a warm and bright place. I don´t bother covering them. After about 6 hours they have built a kind of tiny tale and are ready to use. If you prefer to sprout them a little longer rinse them 2 -3 times a day until they form a longer tail, but for the Falafel I would recommend using them at the latest on the second day.

You think you know all about banana bread? Then try this one!

I love banana bread and today I had four very ripe bananas sitting in my fruit bowl. So what could be more natural than baking a banana bread? Unfortunately, the usual ones tend to be quite rich. Usually, I don´t care that much. If I eat a lot I just jog a little longer. But this morning we had the first night frost and I knew I won´t be out jogging frequently for quite a while. To spare some calories I tried an extra healthy banana bread version without any fat apart from 2 eggs. The four large bananas make for the sweetness, for a moist almost pudding like texture I added an orange, and fresh ginger gives the bread a good bite. I used a loaf pan for mine but the next time I´ll bake it in a shallow 9 or 10 inch cake pan.

It tastes great just on its own but is perfect with a lot of whipped cream and cup of coffee. (Of course, this way I added most of the spared calories, but maybe there will be no frost tomorrow…)

Ingredients:

0.5 cup oatmeal

2 cups wheat flour (you can use 2.5 if you have no oatmeal)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

6 pods cardamon, grounded

2 eggs, slightly beaten

4 large mashed bananas

1/4 cup runny honey

1 orange, peeled and roughly cleaned from the white skin

zest from 1 orange

80 g grated ginger (a generous 1 and a half Tbsp. when you like a bit of bite, but you can adjust to your taste)

icing sugar for dusting (optional but I liked the contrast between the sweetness of the sugar and the less sweet bread)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), grease a 9 inch cake pan.

Mix flours, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom in a large bowl.

Puree the orange and the bananas in a food processor, mix with the slightly beaten eggs, honey and ginger.

Spoon the dry mixture into the wet and combine thoroughly. The batter is rather liquid.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for minimum 50 minutes (mine took 65 min.) until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Still hot, dust with icing sugar.

Let cool and enjoy!

The bread does not store well. It´s best on the first day, the next it becomes a bit soggy.

Recipe source: The Bread Baker´s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, Ten Speed Press

At last, I´ve decided to start baking bread. Real bread, not just the quick breads I used to do. On the Internet I rummaged through the lot of books about baking bread and eventually opted for the The Bread Baker´s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.

Three days ago the book arrived. I opened it, ran over the pages – and was petrified. Two days time and different doughs needed for just a simple loaf of bread! Instead of throwing some ingredients in a bowl, a bit of mixing and in the oven it goes, as I have been baking my (soda) bread until now.

The book fascinated me, though. I took it with me to bed, skimmed through the pages a bit more, and soon I was completely hooked. I read for hours, nearly half of the night. I began to understand that there is nothing like a simple loaf of bread. You need just a bit of TLC and a simple loaf can become something extraordinary. Reading about the whole process of baking bread was quite an epiphany for me. With my new basic understanding the recipes suddenly were intriguing and not so frightening anymore.

Even so, I opted for an easy one for my first try: The stollen.

As I expected my mother for tea (she is gluten intolerant) I changed the wheat flour for spelt, and still in the spirit of TLC I soaked my fruits two days ahead in rum. The stollen turned out to be absolutely delicious. My mother got so carried away, she even told me it was better than her own mother´s back then. Maturing for a while should improve the stollen even more but we´ve already finished it.

Peter Reinhart´s Stollen

The recipe is reprinted with permission from the author.

Makes 1 large or 2 small stollen

Ingredients:

SPONGE:

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 tsp instant yeast

FRUIT:

1 cup raisins, plus additional for sprinkling on the final dough

1/2 cup candied orange peel

1/2 cup candied lemon peel

1 tbsp orange or lemon extract (I used grated orange zest instead)

1/2 cup rum, brandy or schnapps

DOUGH:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp grated orange zest

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 large egg

5 tbsp butter, room temperature

about 1/4 cup water

1/2 cup sliveres blanched almonds (or marzipan instead, I used almonds)

vegetable oil or melted butter for topping

powdered sugar for topping

Method:

1. Make the sponge by warming the milk to about 100°F (37°C, just lukewarm) Whisk in the flour and yeast. Cover with plastic wrap and ferment for 1 hour or until the sponge is very foamy and ready to collapse when tapped.

2. Combine the fruits mix, the rum and the orange extract. (I did it two days ahead).

3. To make the dough, in a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar, salt, orange and lemon zest and cinnamon. Stir in the sponge, egg, butter, enough water to form a soft, but not sticky, ball. Mix for about 2 minutes. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

4. Add in the fruits and mix to incorporate.

5. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, knead (or mix with the dough hook) to distribute the fruits evenly, adding more flour if needed. The dough should feel soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for about 6 minutes (4 minutes by machine) Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

6. Ferment at room temperature for 45 minutes. The dough will rise somewhat but not double in size.

7. Sprinkle flour lightly on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. If you are making two loafs, divide the dough in half. Roll out the dough into 1 or 2 rectangles, sprinkle the slivered almonds and additional fruit over the top. If you use marzipan, put a thin roll on the dough instead of the slivered almonds. Roll up the dough, sealing the crease by pinching the dough with your hands.

8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer the stollen to the sheet. Curl it into a slight crescent (I let it straight). Mist the dough with spray oil, cover with plastic wrap, proof for about 1 hour or until the dough is 1 1/2 times its original size.

9. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), bake it on the middle rack for 40 minutes for 2 loafs, up to 60-70 minutes for 1 big loaf. Maybe you need to turn the sheet for an evenly baking. The stollen should be deeply golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

10. Transfer to a cooling rack, brush the top with vegetable oil while still hot, immediately tap with a layer of powdered sugar through a sieve. After 1 minute repeat. The stollen should be generously coated with powdered sugar. Let cool for at least 1 hour before serving.

Storing: When completely cool, put the stollen in a plastic bag.

I´ll definitely bake another stollen this weekend, this time I´ll double the recipe and try the version with marzipan.

Inspired by Just Bento

I just got a request for a new manuscript, and I should be writing. But as always I´m putting off the start and decided to clean up my recipe-link-list instead. I didn´t get far. Already the photo of the second recipe made me droole over the pictured gomashio cookies.

Since I had a sweeth tooth and the recipe did not include any sugar, I decided to play around with the ingredients. I added an egg and baking powder to make the cookies more cookie-ish and dredged them with brown sugar. The result was amazing! The rather salty dough contrasts greatly with the sweet crust and the texture of the cookies is a bit like shortbread. And best of all: They are not only absolutely delicious but healthy, too!

Ingredients:

30 g (1.05 oz) tahin

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 Tbsp. native coconut oil (if you don´t have coconut oil you can take olive oil)

3 Tbsp. gomasio (mixture of roasted, ground sesame seeds and seasalt)

50 g corn flour ((3.5 oz)

50 g whole weat flour

1 egg

1 tsp. baking powder

1 egg white, beaten

sesame seeds and coarse brown sugar for sprinkling

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the wet ingredients (egg, oil, tahin) and mix.

Add flour, baking powder, gomasio, mix well with your hands or electric mixer, the dough should be pliable, but still a bit crumbly.

Form a ball, then a roll about 4 cm (1.6 oz) thick and cool it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in thin slices, toss them from both sides in sesame seeds and put them on the baking sheet.

Brush the beaten egg white on the upper surface of the cookies and sprinkle very generously with the sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes. Make sure that the cookies don’t get too dark, you may have to cover them with tin foil.