tiny little pillows

when i got back on the blogging wagon late last year i was combing through my favorite blogs instead of posting a dish myself. you gotta begin in a small way, right? there was one recipe in particular that would not let me go ... i bookmarked it back then and always always always wanted to try the gnocchi over at tuna toast myself.

well, folks - today is the day!

when i was going over the recipe it occured to me that the bohemian cuisine has something very similar (again!) and that i already had my mum cook those "potato noodles" for me to showcase here - which of course, as i was busy busy busy back then i totally forgot to do!



so let's proceed with the gnocchi instead, right? and though the italian approach over at mizz tokyoastrogirl's looks rather tempting, i decided to keep it short and simple in the end (man, was i hungy!!). i fried the little pillows up with garlic, onions and basil. besides, how should i ever make up my mind and choose only one way to prepare the gnocchi since there are like a gazillion variations of these nockerl in bavarian, austrian, hungarian, slovenian and italian cuisine?!

wash, boil and peel 800 g potatoes. mash them with a food mill if you have one, or just use a potato masher like i did. make a mould in the middle and add a knob of butter, 100 g flour (i try to use spelt flour now and i avoid white flour alltogether) and one egg.


work the dough with your hands and knead it well. add more flour if necessary but be carefull - the dough should be fluffy!


cut the dough in several large pieces and roll the first piece into a long stick about as thick as your finger. cut the stick into little pieces.


usually you should give the gnocchi an oval shape, but this is a step i left out. rolling the pieces with a fork and your finger is another interesting way to shape them a little concave, then again i figured i'd go for little pillows instead. it's much too much work to individually shape them! I WAS GETTING REALLY HUNGRY BY THEN! i might want to try the "pretty version" of the gnocchi next time. i was getting crankier by the minute (did i mention just how hungry i was?), so i figured i'd go for "tasty" this time!


bring a pot of water to the boil and add a pinch of salt. when the water is at a boil, put in the little gnocchi. after a couple of minutes the gnocci will rise from the bottom of the pot to the surface - they are ready now! take them out with a large strainer, be careful not to squish them!


in a skillet heat a little olive oil and throw in one sliced onion, basil and garlic if you like. gently fry for a little while. transfer the gnocchi to the skillet and gently toss them until covered. continue stirring the gnocchi.


serve them hot, you can even add some grated cheese if you like!

i figured that i could easily prepare those little babies when i am in a hurry, so i made the whole recipe and froze three batches. phew!! much less preparation time on the next gnocchi-lunch!


ps: did you notice, i got a brandnew camera! i bought myself a belated christmas present, a sony α, one pretty fine dSLR-cam! i still have to get used to it, sooo many buttons to push, sooooo many adjustments to make! i might stick to my little digicam for my food-pix though. i hate to see this precious baby covered in flour!

hm, did i ever post a picture of myself in this blog before?

mamas zwiebelkuchen (mama's onion tart)

i have rarely seen my mama cook anything according to a recipe and when i asked her about helping me with the zwiebel (onion) task for todays foodblog event she again improvised herself away.


man, i almost had to write in shorthand! mama was so quick throwing this thing together although she has not made anything like this before, can you believe that?! she suggested to make a "zwiebelkuchen" with some sort of a pizza crust and a quiche filling. gosh, that lady can improvise! apparently mama knows what the final dish will taste like just by combining the ingredients in her mind!

i was incredibly busy with taking pictures and keeping up with "a pinch of this and a pinch of that" - the only thing i could offer to help with was doing the dishes afterwards ... and eating the onion tart (pie?), of course! so with this post you'll get the german version of the recipe and a photo(love)story as well.

für den teig:
250 g weizenmehl in eine schüssel sieben, mit 1 päckchen hefe, salz, 50 ml öl und 125 ml lauwarme milch hinzufügen, alles miteinander vermengen und etwa 5 minuten zu einem teig verarbeiten. den teig an einem warmen ort so lange stehen lassen, bis er etwa doppelt so hoch ist, ihn dann nochmal durchkneten und auf dem mit butter oder margarine gefetteten boden einer springform (kasserolle) ausrollen und die form bis zum rand mit dem teig auslegen.

für den belag:
500 g zwiebeln abziehen, würfeln. 1-2 eßlöffel butter oder margarine zerlassen, die zwiebelwürfel darin glasig dünsten lassen. 1 eßlöffel weizenmehl mit 3 eiern, 2 bechern saurer sahne (etwa 300 g), kümmel und salz verrühren, mit den zwiebeln vermengen, die masse gleichmässig auf dem teig verteilen. 50 g durchwachsenen speck in würfeln schneiden, über die zwiebelmasse streuen, den teig nochmals an einem warmen ort für 15-20 minuten aufgehen lassen, die form erst dann auf den rost des vorgeheizten backofens schieben und auf 200 °C für ca 30 minuten backen.

and now the english version

for the pastry:
sift 250 g flour flour in a bowl and add a small pack of instant yeast, a pinch of salt, 50 ml oil and 125 ml lukewarm milk. make a firm dough and knead for about 5 minutes. let the dough rest in a warm place until it has doubled in size. knead again and roll out to fit either a casserole or a pie plate. make sure to trim pastry even with the edge of the casserole or pie plate.

for the filling:
clean and dic 500 g onions. melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter or margarine and fry the diced onions. in a bowl mix 1 tablespoon of flour with 3 eggs and 300 g sour creme, caraway seeds and salt and finally add the mixture to the fried onions. again stir well and spread the mixture evenly on the pastry in the casserole or pie plate. dice 50 g streaky bacon and sprinkle on top of the mixture. let the pastry with the filling on top rise again for another 15 to 20 minutes in a warm place then put in the oven and bake für about 30 minutes on 200-250 °C.

i really hope i got everything right. this woman is a very fast cook! and the onion tart was gone in the blink of an eye too! my grandpa, my aunt and my cousin and his wife (as well as their children) all wanted to have a taste. do i have to mention that i am really honored to be the daughter of the best cook in the family? she truly took over the wheel from my late grandmother. you can send fanmail to herta@haunschmid.biz ;)

technorati tags: zwiebeltag, onion day

why resist mamas delicious food?

since i am trying to loose some extra inches on my ass and tummy it is particularly hard to visit my parents. as i probably mentioned before my whole family *loooves* to gorge on mamas great dishes. she inherited her way of cooking from her mother and passed it on to her daughters, and though this might be a wide generalization i assume exactly our traditional home cooking is responsible for the struggle with my weight.

of course my mother has her own style and she did not actually copy her mothers recipes. but her only commitment to health probably was to substitute lard for butter or margerine. we where not wealthy at all when i was a kid and so the main aim probably was to feed the kids and put something filling on the table.

only recently as my father is struggling with diabetes my folks had to review their diet and this is a constant battle for them as the really tend to hang on to their (mal??-)nutrition. i do not want to be judgmental and blame my fat ass entirely on my heritage, but it was a real struggle for me to let go of unhealthy food. when i first moved out of my parent's and started my own household i was not able to integrate vegetables and fruits in my daily routine. i really had to force myself to grab an apple instead of a bread roll or a glass of water instead of a soft drink. i was just used to satisfy hunger quickly.

when i am with my parents i am usually adapting the conventions in their household in the wink of an eye. but i was not willing to give in this time! i wanted to stick to my rather strict diet and so i had to use a little trick for myself. though my mother did not want to hand over her kitchen to her daughters today (for gods sake mama, it's mothers day!!!) we somehow made a healthy deal: the other day i told my mum that i was crazy for fennel at the moment. my mum told me that she had never eaten fennel before in her entire life! so i suggested that i would prepare the side dish for lunch today. she agreed.



still my brother and my father would insist on their pasta on the side of their schnitzel but my mum and my sister where swept off their feet by my easy half steamed and half roasted fennel&vegetable creation.

i am strangely proud of myself to introduce my mama into the art of steaming vegetables - or letting a fennel touch her schnitzel :)

tagged with: cooking + food

i let my mother spoil me

after a big big presentation at university last week (which went very well, by the way) i decided to take a few days off and spend some time with my parents and recharge my engins :)

my mother is the best cook i know and of course she made some wonderful meals to spoil her eldest daughter. her "lungenbraten in semmelknödelhülle" was simply to die for - i have to look that up in my dictionary since i have no clue about the english word for "lungenbraten". and i'll post a picture as well.


update: there seems to be no propper translation for the austrian word "lungenbraten". my dictionary proposese "tenderloin" so i'll go with

tenderloin in bread dumpling crust with mushroom sauce and potatos

funny enough my mother usually makes stuff like this up. i have never ever seen her use a cookbook for a main course. now there's where i have all my fondness of experimenting from ... :)