Noma

Way back in October, just before we left Berlin, we took a trip to Copenhagen to visit some friends and attend a rather extravagant, but very, very wonderful meal. The plan to eat at Noma had been hatched way back in January when we all attended the Arztkammer Ball in Vienna. At the time it seemed like a dream with little certainty of becoming a reality.  The steps involved in even getting a reservation seem daunting enough (a phone call placed between 10am-12pm on a prescribed day, three months ahead of your desired booking). Then there were the practicalities of getting to Denmark, the question of what to do with one (and then two) new babies and for some of us at least there was the question of whether it was really that good anyway.  But we did manage to get a booking and since we all (yes, all four!) were on parental leave we could easily accommodate the midweek lunch booking we were offered.

And so we went and ate at the best restaurant in the world.  Was it the best meal of my life? Probably not. But it was wonderful. A true performance.  It was like watching a first-class ballet or opera the way the waiters and chefs danced around the room from table to table explaining their creations and encouraging the guests (us!) to enjoy good food prepared with love and an attention to detail found in few other kitchens.

If I had one criticism it would be that some of the dishes were just a little bit gimicky. The live (chilled) baby shrimp I could have done without and while it was great fun to cook one of the dishes ourselves (egg fried in hay infused oil cooked on hot plates at the table), it did, in the end taste a lot like a home-cooked fried egg. Fun, but not exactly haut cuisine.  But everything else was fantastic - they didn't blink when we arrived with a newborn (who slept the whole time - bless her), the service was spot-on without being stuffy, we giggled with the waiters, enjoyed wonderful company and we left full and all glad that we'd all made the effort. And really that's what good meals are all about, aren't they?

Strawberries

It's strawberry season here. Lots of little strawberry stands like these here are lining the streets and the Brandenburg strawberries bought from these stalls are unbelievably good. They smell so, so sweet and the taste is incredible. I bought a kilo to make jam and ended up eating half of them before they'd even been washed and hulled.  Oops! Back to the stall, another 500g, a few lemons and half an hour later I had... strawberry syrup. The jam didn't set. Bother. Anyone have any tips? Nevermind, it's delicious syrup and will be perfect with my yogurt in the morning, but I really was looking forward to thick, strawberry jam on my toast.

So domestic diva-like people who are good at preserves and jams. What are your tips for jam making? It needs to be a recipe that uses natural pectin as I can't find the packet stuff in the shops.

Donna Hay Hot Cross Buns

True to my word, I went home last night and made my Hot Cross Buns. I ate one this morning for breakfast, slightly toasted under the grill with a generous layer of butter, and for a first attempt I think I did an okay job. This batch is probably still a little dense for my liking.  I have a feeling I used the wrong yeast - there are about a dozen different yeast products in Germany and I still haven't quite worked out what the difference is between them all. Next time I might use live yeast, which is really my favourite bread-levening product anyway. 

On Adele's suggestion I also added some salt to the dough and having not tasted the sans-salt version I'm declaring it a successful addition.  I think I might jiggle the spice quantities in the next batch too - this lot had a little too much all spice and not enough cinnamon, although I think that probably had more to do with the respective age of the spices sitting in my cupboard than the recipe. But all in all, a definite success! They'll be more of these made before I declare the Easter holidays over anyway.

Recipe: Donna Hay Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

One of the things that I love about Easter is Hot Cross Buns.  Germany has the best bread culture and last year I was sure that this would mean some fairly extraordinary Hot Cross Buns at easter time.  You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered that Hot Cross Buns are not part of the Easter tradition here. Of course it never dawned on me that I might be able to make my own. And then yesterday I read this post on making your own Hot Cross Buns over at Delly and Bells  blog. I'm a sucker for a Donna Hay recipe at the best of times and a quick overview of the ingredients had me thinking I could make them without even visiting the supermarket for supplies. I was all ready to go and already imagining the smell and taste of Hot Cross Buns straight from the oven when the whole plan came unstuck. No milk! No matter, things have just been delayed by a day. There will be milk this afternoon. - and hopefully some Hot Cross Buns too!

 Picture Credit: Donna Hay

Do you have any favourite traditions for this time of the year? I love hearing about what other people do to celebrate something that for me, is as much about celebrating the change in seasons and the cycle of life as anything else. In Austria it's all about eating Spring Lamb and something called "egg-knocking", a game where you knock two egg tips together until one egg breaks. The Easter Bonnet parade was always something that I looked forward to at school and when I visited Japan a few years ago the Cherry Blossom festival was just beginning and I was surprised to see how much of this festival carried many similar themes as Easter in Christian cultures.

What are you doing to celebrate this time of the year? Keeping it traditional, attending religious services, spending time with family or just relaxing at home?

Green Week

It's Green Week in Berlin - apparently the biggest exhibition of Food, Agriculture and Horticulture in the world. We went along to the food part of the exhibition yesterday and ended up spending the whole afternoon taste-testing our way through europe, the middle east, asia and the americas.  So much yummy food on offer and happily most things were available in small "take-home" sample sizes and not just big wholesale quanities.  We ended up buying  some delicious Italian cheese,  smoked Hirsch (deer) and a few bottles of South African red wine. Yum!

I think one of my favourite parts of the event was seeing everyone in their traditional costumes.  Lots and lots of central europeans walking around in lederhosen and distinctive Baravian hats.  It was also funny to see what product each country or region had chosen as their "thing".  No surprises that Australia chose Kangaroo meat in all its permeations.  I think one of the strangest products I saw for sale was in the Russian area where they were promoting 'Milsch Konservative Kombinate', which translates as preserved milk made in Soviet-style cooperatives. It comes in a solid block, a little like butter or cheese.  Sounds really appealing, doesn't it?

tomato relish

I got the idea to make relish recently when I realised that they don't stock any form of chutney or relish in German supermarkets.  I love relish and I'm secretly hoping that this relish, some jam and a few other preserved "tastes" of summer will keep my spirits up this winter when fresh fruit and vegies are reduced to potatoes, onions, apples and pears (I'm exaggerating slightly, but if you don't want the carbon miles of fruit shipped from Brazil, this is just about it).   After trawling the Internet and being promised a "fantastic" recipe from my mum, I ended up using the recipe in Stephanie Alexander's Cooks Companion.   Once again, she didn't disappoint.  My only gripe is that what starts out looking like a monstrous amount of tomatoes ends up being reduced to, well, two 250ml jars.

Oh, and there should be some kind of disclaimer at the beginning that this recipe takes 3 hours to cook and therefore shouldn't be started at 8pm on a 'school night'. 

Kathy's Tomato Relish (from Stephanie Alexander's Cooks Companion) 

- I halved the recipe

1-tablespoon cloves

2 tablespoons whole allspice

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

5kg tomatoes, roughly chopped

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1-tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

30g salt

600ml wine vinegar

1kg sugar

Tie cloves, allspice and peppercorns in a square of muslin.  Put all ingredients except sugar into a large non-reactive stockpot.  Bring to a boil and boil steadily for 1 hour, stirring from time to time.  Add sugar and continue to boil, stirring every 20 minutes or so, for a further 2 hours.  Remove muslin bag, pressing it well over pot before discarding it.  Pass relish through the coarse disc of a food mill and, using a funnel, bottle at once in hot, dry, sterilised bottles.  Cap and allow to cool before storing.

* I didn't have muslin so I just added it all in and fished out the cloves (but not the peppercorns - they're pretty) at the end.  I also skipped the food mill bit because we don't have one.  Turned out a little more rustic

mango slaw

I'm still searching for the perfect summer salad that requires minimal cooking for hot summer nights.  Last week I think I came close.  It's this - Mango slaw.  I'm not much of a "slaw" person - but this one is good.  The cabbage is crunchy, the mango sweet and the onion gives the whole salad balance.  Next time I think I'll go for slightly firmer mangoes which keep their shape once cut.  When I made this I ended up substituting finely sliced fresh chiilis instead of chilli flakes which went down a treat.  The salad was spicey, sweet and salty awesome-ness.   Oh, and I couldn't find mint so I used basil and ended up using peanuts and not cashews because I picked up the wrong packet in the supermarket.  And that's the other reason that I love this meal - it's flexible enough that even when my head is completely frazzled, I can go to the supermarket, pick up the wrong ingredients and still make something that tastes delicious.  It's a winner in my book!

As with many recipes, I found this at smitten kitchen, one of my all-time favourite food-blogs around.

friday dinner

It's seriously hot here folks.  Summer has hit Berlin and it feels so good to be able to leave my apartment in the morning with just a whisper of a cool breeze knowing that we a destined for another day of blue, sunny skies and summer-y goodness.  The one downside is that our apartment is kinda hot.  Hot enough that I don't really want to be cooking over a hot stove tonight and we're planning on sharing a nice meal at home with my sister and her boyfriend before perhaps heading out to a cocktail bar around the corner.  So I need a nice, summer dish that doesn't need to much cooking.  Any suggestions?  I'm thinking about making cold Soba Noodles with Wakame and Ginger dressing for starters, but I need a main.  I'm happy to pop something in the over (quiche), but I'm not interested in stirring something for 20 minutes (risotto). Help!

Image from : weheartit

Erdbeer

Berliners, I've realised, like their seasonal fruit.  A couple of weeks ago it was all about Beerlitz Spargel (White Asparagus).  Every "turk" (seven11) and grocer worth his while was selling Beerlitz Spargel; every restaurant and pub has a special 'Spargelkarte'.  Now it's the strawberry.  These cute little stands have been popping up everywhere selling locally grown strawberries which smell and taste delicious.  I've decided to embrace the frenzy and bought some strawberries for eating and some for cooking.

You see, I'm a lady of domestic leisure at the moment (quite enjoying it too).  I went and saw the specialist (ENT) doctor about my ear yesterday and she recommended, neigh, handed me, a doctor's certificate to have the next week off work and emphasised that I shouldn't be working on the weekend either.  So I'm at home this week.  I've had a lovely time spring cleaning the house from top to bottom, including reorganising the bookshelves.  Well, partly anyway, and then I lost steam.  I even managed to be so organised as to look in the fridge before I went shopping to check what vegies we had leftover - tonight's dinner is a Thai dish called Larp Gai on Quinoa - the only things I needed to buy were corriander and mint for garnish.  And the Quinoa.

And I made these.  Strawberry and Ricotta Muffins.  They're still cooling, but I've already taste tested one - it was a causalty of me trying to take them out of the tins while they were still too hot.  So, so good.    I'm contemplating making strawberry jam tomorrow.  And maybe some banana muffins. And...

Strawberry and Buffalo Ricotta Muffins
(from Cook Almost Anything)

300 grams plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
100 grams caster sugar
1 cup milk
2 eggs
100 grams butter, melted and cooled
250 grams strawberries, hulled, cut in half
200 grams buffalo ricotta

Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl - make a well in the centre.  Lightly whisk together the milk and eggs and pour this into the dry ingredients, followed by the cooled, melted butter.  Stir until combined and them tumble in the strawberries, crumble in about a quarter of the ricotta and then fold this gently through so the strawberries just disperse through the batter and the ricotta doesn't break up too much.  Fill your muffin cases about half way, top with a rough piece of ricotta and then cover with more batter.

Bake in a preheated 170°C oven until golden and cooked through - about 20-30 minutes.

Cool slightly in the pan before moving on a wire rack to cool completely.

ginger, lemon & honey tea

I have been pretty much out of action all week with a fairly nasty bug.  What started as a sore throat on Sunday night quickly morphed into a raging fire in my throat on Monday and by Tuesday I was stuck in bed.  None of this, I'm sure, was helped by me thinking rather delusionally on Monday morning that I wasn't too sick to travel to Heidelberg for a meeting.  Turns out that I was, but I went anyway and have consequently paid the price.  

But what I really wanted to say was that this drink - Ginger, Lemon and Honey Tea has been my life-line.  I remember my aunty giving me a drink like this when I was little and interestingly/suprisingly I found a similar 'decoction' (their words, not mine) in a little Chinese Medicine book I picked up - it's a prescription for the common cold and to quote "drink tea while hot, cover oneself up well. Sleep and get sweating."  The best bit is, it also tastes fab.

Ginger, Lemon and Honey Tea

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

30gm of roughly chopped Ginger

1 tablespoon of Honey

Boiled water

Boil water, add ginger, honey and lemon juice. Stir and cover for 5 - 10 minutes.  Drink while hot.

Anzac Biscuits

It's tradition at my office for the birthday-girl/boy to bring in some cake or biscuits to celebrate.  Lastnight I quickly baked up some Anzac biscuits and had a little fun with my new birthday present - did you guess what it was?  Yep - a new Marco Lens for my camera.  I am totally smitten.

Anzac Biscuits

1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
4 oz butter
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Grease a biscuit tray or line with baking paper. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. In a small saucepan over a medium heat (or in a microwave proof jug or bowl in the microwave), combine the butter and golden syrup until the butter has melted.  Add the bicarb and water mixture with the melted butter and golden syrup, then combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly.

Dollop teaspoonfuls of the biscuit mixture onto the greased baking tray. Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Allow the Anzac biscuits to cool on the tray for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Curry Wurst

I love fast food in Berlin.  Here, it tends not to be MacDonalds or KFC, but Curry Wurst and Donar Kebab.  Curry Wurst is my favourite.  It's basically a nice sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces and served with curry sauce and a bread roll.  Yum!  For 2 euro a pop, you can't really go wrong! 

Spring Dinner Party

Dinner was amazing.  Seriously.  Bare with me on the not-so-hot photographs, but our kitchen is in a dark little corner of our apartment and the lighting is less than photographer friendly.  That's dessert in the first picture - I went with Rhubarb and Ginger up-side down cake as the supermarket didn't have quite enough Rhubarb for a flan.  The Rhubarb was nice and tart and the ginger in the cake added a bit of omph.  One difficulty I have with baking here is that the baking products are completely different.  I wasn't able to find bicarb soda, so I improvised by adding a bit more baking powder.  I don't think it had quite the same effect, but there were second's asked for, which is surely a good sign. 

Entree: Warm Goat's Cheese Salad with Walnuts and a Dijon Mustand dressing. 

Perfect starter.  Simple, clean tastes and most of it can be prepared in advance - just make sure you don't loose all your cheese as your grilling the tops. 

Main Course: Wild Hare with Beetroot and Chocolate Sauce and Homemade Spaetzle (Gnocchi)

This was seriously good.  Stephanie Alexander didn't let us down (Katie you were right, it didn't take that long).  The meat was so tender and the sauce was amazing - the chocolate added a richness and fullness to the sauce without being dominantly "chocolate-flavour".

A side-story to all this is how we managed to buy wild Hare in the middle of Berlin.  We weren't really sure that it was possible but decided to ask our local butcher if he could get some in.  He wasn't particularly optimisitc but told us (the royal "us" - Matthias did all the calling) to ring on Monday, and then on Tuesday and finally when Matthias rang on Wednesday he was greated with a "yes" your Hare is here.  When Matthias went to pick up the meat he discovered that ordering 'Hare' is not just a simple matter of calling the wholesaler and asking for some Hare.  The Butcher  apparently has a contract with a Hunter who takes all his orders for 'game meat'.  As it turns out there aren't many Hares in the countryside surrounding Berlin at the moment and the Hunter was only able to catch two Hares on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning.  You'd think this form of 'personalised' hunting would cost a ridiculous amount of money - but the meat cost the same as beef or lamb you'd buy at the butcher.  And it was fresh and delicious and perhaps (at a stretch) a little more local and sustainable.

Hare with Beetroot and Chocolate sauce

Tomorrow is a public holidays in these parts - it's Ascension Day, which is apparently when Jesus ascended back to heaven after his 're-birth' at Easter.  Good.  That a technically 'non-religious' state can have so many religious public holidays is bemusing but an extra day off I will not complain about.  Other than sleeping-in and relaxing, the plan is to cook an elborate meal for some friends.  My boxes from Australia finally arrived a few weeks ago, and with them this wonderful cookbook.  And while the recipes always sound mouth-wateringly good they often take hours to prepare.  But tomorrow, time is my friend.  So on the menu:

Entree: Warm Goats Cheese Salad

Main course: Saddle of Hare with Beetroot and Chocolate sauce served with homemade Gnocchi

Dessert: Rhubard flan

I'm a bit nervous - I'm not even sure if I like Hare.  Wish me luck!

tea time

Image: Risumiru on Flickr

Six days into my caffeine-free stint my caffeine headache has well and truly passed.  Good-bye Coffee Mug, Hello Tea Cup!  So far I'm sticking to a simple Green tea with the occasional Peppermint tea to keep it interesting.  To be honest I'm a little intimidated by the supermarket 'tea selection'.  So many options!  Does Apple and Cinnamon really work as a hot drink? Dandelion? It may be good for you, but I'm not really interested in drinking something that tastes like grass.  And I need options - bare in mind that I pretty much constantly have a hot drink in my hand at work.  That's roughly 4-5 cups a day, plus breakfast and after-dinner.  So we're talking about half a dozen cups, Green tea and Peppermint tea may be nice but they're not going to sustain me forever.  So people, help me out here, what are you favourite caffeine-free hot drinks?

PS. I know that Green tea isn't caffeine-free, but it contains lovely anti-oxidants and it tastes good.

it's that time of year

espresso, originally uploaded by minato.

It's that time of year again where I've decided to purge my body of all it's sins and go caffeine and alcohol free. Spring is definitely in the air and I'm feeling the need to spring clean "my inner temple". 

So far I'm having no trouble with the wine front, but oh my, this caffeine headache is driving me berk-o. I thought I was going to sail toward caffeine-free nirvana without issue when after 24 hours I was still not feeling anything. Silly me thinking that I could go from 2-3 double espresso 's in Florence to nothing without a squeak. By 9pm last night I had photophobia and such a bad headache that there was nothing else to do but put my sorry soul to bed. Today I coasting along (just) with aspirin. Not sure if replacing caffeine with aspirin is really providing my body with the inner-zen I'm after, but it's at least allowing me to work. I'm desperately hoping that by tomorrow I'll be through the worst. 

Has anyone done this before and remember how long it takes??? I swear it was easier last time.

Si An

One of the things I've really fallen in love with since moving to Berlin is the Vietnamese retaurants.  Last night we tried out a new one - Si An.  It's tucked away up a street close to home and you can see the lanterns waving in the distance just before the faint smell of incence, mint, corriander and ginger guides you to the door.  Inside are little communal tables and although it was busy, the place exudes a quiet calm so that even though we were only sitting 50cm away from the next guests we were able to chat without feeling disturbed or disturbing.

They serve the traditional Vietnamese fair of Pho and Glassnoodle salad, plus some really delicious fresh teas made with fresh herbs, galangal, ginger root and liquorice root.  Fresh, simple, clean tasting food - perfect for a mid-week meal!

pancakes!

It's Shrove Tuesday or Faschingsdienstag today.  I feel like a bit of a fraud celebrating this one - I'm not likely to fast for Lent - but who can pass up a chance to cook pancakes?  We've been talking a lot about Faschingsdienstag and Rosenmontag  in German this week.  We're learning about 'holidays in Germany' and around this time of year you either want to be skiing or enjoying the Cologne Carnival.  And beside, I don't need much of an excuse to find a reason to cook pancakes.  Not sure how I'll go on the German equivalent, Krapfen, though...

Image from Google

Quick, Simple Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons butter, melted 

- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together.  Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk, egg, melted butter and mix until smooth.

- Heat a non-stick frying pan.  Spoon in the batter and turn once bubbles begin to form on the surface.

- Serve with your favourite topping!

Image from Google

Krapfen

Ingredients:

3-4 cups unsifted flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups warm water

1 pack dried yeast

2 egg yolds, beaten

1/4 cup butter

grated rind of 1 lemon

1/4 cup jam 

- Mix 2 cups flour with sugar and salt.

- Make a well in the centre and add 1/4 cup warm water and the yeast.  Mix and let rise for 20 minutes

- Add egg yolks, remaining water and butter. Mix well.  Add lemon rind and remaining flour until a soft dough forms.  Knead for 5-10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic.

- Place dough in a slightly greased bowl. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size - about 1 1/2 hours.

- Roll dough until 1/4" thick, cut into 2" rounds.  On 1/2 the rounds place about 1tsp of jam.  Moisten edges with water and place second round on top.

- Let rise for 15 minutes.  Fry in shallow pan for 4 minutes on each side until browned.  Drain on absorbent paper and sprinkle with sugar.

Recipe from: International Recipes

udon noodles with miso and walnuts

In what is fast becoming a bit of an end-of-week routine around here I am heading home for a home cooked meal - this time found via Kathryn at Limes and Lycopenes

Udon noodles with miso and walnuts - unusual but delicious, right?  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Weekend ox

tomato sauce for a lazy friday

I have long admired the recipes on Smitten Kitchen, but I've never cooked anything. Until now. You see, while the receipes are delicious and her pictures incredible, the recipes always seem a little unobtainable for a weekday meal and I tend to turn to hardcopy recipe books, not the internet, when I'm looking for a 'special' meal. But then the other day she posted about "the best" tomato sauce. No garlic, no red wine, not even any sugar - just onion, tinned tomatoes and butter. Well, on a lazy Friday night with a bottle of red wine, my knitting and a movie, I had to try it.

It is incredibly simple. And whilst not the best tomato sauce (I reserve that for my Mum's roast cherry tomato sauce with roast garlic, olive oil and basil), it comes pretty close. And believe me, it couldn't be simpler.

Ingredients:

800g whole tinned tomatoes (best you can find)

70g butter

1 medium onion, peeled and sliced into two

Directions:

Pour tinned tomatoes (including juice) into a medium saucepan. Add onion and butter. Allow to simmer for approximately 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to break down the tomatoes. When the fat floats to the top of the sauce, it's ready. Discard the onion, salt to taste and serve.

Delicious and so, so easy. Pretty sure this will become the base of all my tomato sauce recipes from now - I'm considering making some more today and freezing it. Yum!