Kategorie: Cooking, Baking and Everything

This month was too short, although it has one day more than usual. I wanted to try at least one other flatbread, but again I didn’t have the time. So I am going to present for the Bread Baking Day #7, which this time is graciously hosted by Petra of Chili und Ciabatta my chapati bread, which already took part in this meal. (Very clever of me: One meal, two events!)

Chapatis

Source:	Anne Wilson: Classic Essential Bread and Buns Typed 13.02.08 by Sus
Categories:	Bread, Flatbread, India
Yields:	20 Pieces

Ingredients:

		1 cup = 250 ml
2 1/2	cups	Wholemeal spelt flour, fine
1	teaspoon	Salt
1	tablespoon	Oil
1	cup	Warm water
1/2	cup	Wholemeal spelt flour, fine (additionally)
1	teaspoon	Black sesame (Nigella)

Preparation:

Put flour and salt in large bowl, form a well. Add oil and water. Using a cooking spoon first and then the hands, incorporate the flour into the liquid ingredients to form a smooth dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface and kneed for 15 minutes, do not add more flour. Roll to smooth ball and let rise in a covered bowl for at least two hours (even over night if necessary).

Divide the dough into 20 equal parts and form each to a ball. Roll out each ball to a flat round cake. Cover each chapati with plastic foil and let rest while doing the others.

Heat a cast-iron pan very hot. Bake each chapati for one minute, then turn and bake for another minute until it is brown. With a folded dish towel press the edges of the chapati down to create air bubbles.

Sprinkle each chapati with black sesame and pile them in a clean dish towel to keep them warm and soft. Serve immediately. The go well with curries and vegetarian food.

Time: 40 minutes + 2 hours or more unattended time

Notes:

– Because I do not have cast-iron pan, I used a normal teflon-coated one. But the chapatis didn’t get brown and crispy. With a few drops of oil it worked.

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Technorati: Recipe, Bread, Flatbread, bbd, breadbakingday, Blog event

Zorra from 1 x umrühren, bitte invited again this year to celebrate Valentine’s day. I knew quite soon that I wanted to make heart-shaped noodles, but I wanted to serve the dish on Valentine’s day, not earlier. I prepared the noodles last week and let them dry. Luckily I made my pictures then and not yesterday: during the week they broke – all by themselves!

Heart Noodles with Hearts

Source:	14.02.2008 by Sus
Categories:	Noodle
Yield:	2 Servings

Ingedients:

		Noddles:
100	gram	Flour
5	tablespoons	Red beet juice
		Salt
1		Egg
		‚Sauce‘:
200	Gramm	Spinach leaves (frozen)
1	small	Onion; finely chopped
1		Yellow or red bell pepper
4	slices	Cheddar (mild and strong)
6	slices	Ham
5	tablespoons	Cream
750	Gramm	Nutmeg
100	ml	Salt, pepper

Preparaton:

To make the noodles, put flour and salt into a bowl. Mix in the egg. Add the red beet juice one spoon after the other and mix. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes until it is soft and smooth. Cover the bowl and let rest for half an hour.

With a pasta maker or a rolling pin make thin sheets of dough, like for lasagne. Either put them on a working place dusted with flour or directly on the trays where the noodles will dry later. With a small heart-shaped biscuit cutter cut … small heart-shaped noodle biscuits. The remaining part of the dough can be used for the next pasta sheet.

For the sauce use the same biscuit cutter to cut hearts from the ham and the cheese. Do the same with the rinsed and halved bell pepper. (Easier than I thought!) Here the remains may be eaten.

Bring a pot full of water to boil and boil the noodles until they are ‚al dente‘. This may vary, depending on the time the noodles have been drying.

Fry the finely chopped onion with some fat or oil, add the spinach and some water. Stir in the cream. Add salt and pepper. After 10 minutes add the ham and the bell pepper. Add nutmeg.

Add the cheese hearts when serving.

Notes:

– Unfortunately the noodle hearts lost their pink colour while cooking. They had nearly the same colour as the ham.

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Technorati: Recipe, Noodle, Heart, Blog Event

Since last year Sunita from Sunita’s World has a monthly event running: Think spice …. Every month we are invited to participate with a recipe featuring the chosen spice. This month it was Garlic. Oh well, I really like garlic. So it was not difficult to spice up the leg of lamb, which absolutely wanted to leave the freezer last weekend, with spikes of garlic.

The day before yesterday I wanted to check the event’s rules, but the page was not available. Going to the main page, it gave me pangs of fright and sorrow: While administering her blog, Sunita had by mistake deleted it entirely. Oh dear! What a catastrophe! But luckily she got it back! Phew! So this month’s event can take place as planned! Congratulations! (And I immediately make a backup of my blog!)

Leg of Lamb Spiked&Spiced with Garlic

Source:	January 22, 2008 by Sus
Categories:	Meat, Lamb, Garlic, Römertopf
Servings:	4 servings

Ingredients:

1900	gram	Leg of lamb (with bone)
10-15		Cloves of garlic
1		Lemon, juice
200	ml	White wine
1	teaspoon	Chicken broth (Instant)
10	stalks	Peppermint, fresh
2	tablespoons	Goose fat (or butter)
1		Rutabaga (Brassica napus subsp. rapifera)
2-3		Parsnips
5		Parsley roots (Hamburg parsley?)
3		Onions
3		Carrots
3-5		Cloves of garlic

Preparation:

Remove most of the fat from the meat. Peel the garlic cloves and slice each into two or three spikes. Insert them into the meat using a paring knife and marinate for at least 2-3 hours in white whine and lemon juice.

Soak the Römertopf thoroughly for 20-30 minutes. Wash the root vegetables and cut them into rather large pieces. Peel and halve the onions and the remaining cloves of garlic.

Wash the mint, remove leaves from the stems and chop them. Mix with the fat and spread this paste evenly on the meat.

Put the vegetable into the Römertopf, but leave a pit in the middle for the meat. Season with salt and pepper.

Sear the meat in a pan on all sides and put on the vegetable in the Römertopf. Add the marinade to the pan and stir. According to taste add the broth (powder). Pour the liquid over the vegetables.

Close the Römertopf and put it into the not preheated oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours at 180°C. Turn the meat after an hour.

Served with roast potatoes.

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Technorati: Recipe, Lamb, Römertopf, Blog Event, Think Garlic

Sometimes it is strange:

The 30. (thirtieth! Wow!) cooking event at Kochtopf with the nice motto Ginger was announced at the end of last year. I was very pleased about the many possibilities of ginger and the extended time until the deadline … and? … I only managed to test two or three recipes with ginger which then either didn’t look nice or didn’t taste good enough. Yesterday we finally found a worthy candidate for the event: The hot ginger and sweet cream go very well together.

Honey Waffles with Ginger Cream

Source:	January 13, 2008 by Sus
Categories:	Waffle, Cream, Ginger
Yield:	7 Waffles

Ingredients:

		Waffles
125	gram	Butter
1	tablespoon	Vanilla laced sugar or vanilla extract
5-6	tablespoons	Honey
2		Eggs
250	ml	Milk
250	gram	Flour
2	teaspoons	Baking powder
		Ginger Cream
1		Apple
100	ml	Cider
3-4	teaspoons	Ginger, fresh; grated
200	ml	Cream
1	tablespoon	Stabilizer for whipped cream
1	tablespoon	Vanilla laced sugar or some vanilla extract
2	tablespoons	Sugar

Preparation:

Peel, core and slice the apple. Put into a small pot with some cider (you can use water instead, of course) and sugar and cook until the apple slices are soft. Purée with a mixer.
Peel the ginger and grate it into the apple purée. Mix thoroughly. The purée should now taste quite hot.

Whip the cream with sugar and vanilla until stiff. Use stabilizer, if available. Carefully stir in the purée. Put into the refridgerator for one hour.

Beat soft butter, honey and vanilla until slightly foamy. Add the eggs one after another. Mix the baking powder with the flour and alternately add some flour and some milk to the batter, stirring continuously. The batter is supposed to be quite soft and liquid.

Bake the waffles in the waffle iron according to the manual. Put each one a plate, add some ginger cream and decorate with chocolate flakes.

Notes:

– The apple is not used for taste but for substance; the ginger-cream-mix is a bit creamier and more fruity with it.

– Use a dark and strong tasting honey for the waffles.
– Next time I will use whole grain flour; it should taste even better.
– I used some stabilizer for whipped cream which seems to be a German product.

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Technorati: Recipe, Ginger, Waffle, Blog Event

Once again Zorra invites us to her Onion Day – time really is flying …

Spaghetti with Onion Sauce

Source:	November 26, 2007 by Sus
Categories:	Onion, Sauce, Noodle
Yields:	2 servings

Ingredients:

5		Onions (red)
2	tablespoons	Sesame oil
2	tablespoons	Sesame seeds
2-3	tablespoons	Sugar
2	tablespoons	White wine or cider
2	tablespoons	Vegetable stock
2	teaspoons	Caraway seeds
4	tablespoons	Cream
		Salt, pepper
		Nutmeg

Preparation:

Peel the onions, cut into halves and slice them. Put the sesame seeds in a pot and roast them lightly. Add the oil and the onions. Braise the onions for about 10 minutes. Add the sugar and stir gently to caramelize the onions. Add some wine and vegetable stock; season with salt, pepper and ground caraway seeds. Add the cream and boil down the liquid, but not too much. Season to taste with ground nutmeg.

Notes:

– Unfortunately I did not have red onions; it would have looked more colourful.
– A strong cheese fits quite well. I used a pecorino sardo.

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Tags: Recipe, Onion, Sauce, Noodles, Blog Event, Onion Day

Every day I find so many delicious recipes in the wide, wide internet I cannot help myself and have to try at least some of them. But unfortunately I often remember a recipe but do not remember where it came from. So I want to apologize to everyone if I present a recipe without giving the proper references. But the following recipe is different: I found it on the blog „Kochen für Schlampen – Hamburg, Berlin, Zürich“ and immediately tried it. I can confirm that it is extremely tasty! Well, I confess, I changed something: I added some lime: grated peel into the batter and juice into the icing. The combination of rosemary and lime tasted really good.

Rosemary Muffins

Source:	Original recipe: here modified November 24, 2007 by Sus
Categories:	Muffin, Baking, Rosemary
Yields:	6 muffins

Ingredients:

150	gram	Soft butter
100	gram	Brown cane sugar
2		Eggs
150	gram	Flour
2	teaspoons	Baking powder
1	pck	Vanilla sugar
2-3	tablespoons	Milk
1		Lime, organic
2	teaspoons	Fresh rosemary needles; chopped
50	gram	Brown cane sugar; ground to fine powder

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Whisk the butter together with the sugar and vanilla sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one after the other and mix thorougly. Add flour and baking powder, stir in the chopped rosemary and grated lime peel. add only so much milk that the batter still stays pasty and heavy. Attention: do not add too much milk. Fill the batter in the form (greased, if necessary). Baking takes about 35-40 minutes.

Let the muffins cool down after baking and remove from the form. Squeeze the lime and mix the juice with the powdered sugar. Slather the hot muffins with the icing.

Notes:

– I used my new silicon mini Gugelhupf form again. Baking time may vary with other forms. (Gugelhupf is a special ring cake form.)
– Although I used twice as much rosemary as in the original recipe, the rosemary flavor still was too elusive.

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Technorati: Recipe, Muffin, Baking, Rosemary