bite me!

this expression is a bit vulgar in english, isn't it? calm down, i do not mean to be rude, i just want to invite you to take a bite of my brussels sprouts, butternut squash and potatoes on skewers :) because in german "bite me" is much rather translated to "take a bite of me" or "taste me" - so it actually an invitation rather than an insult.

there you go. i was again very inspired by one of johannas recent posts and i decided to get myself some skewers and enter fall season here in austria with a little remembrance of summer and lovely nights out on the terrace barbecuing with friends. it is still lovely and warm outside, but you certainly can feel that winter is coming around again ... well, at least autumn. the children are passing me on their way to school again when i head for work in the mornings, and university will start again next week.

fall is my favorite season. i kick horse-chestnuts out of my way, i hop and skip a lot everywhere i walk and i even love it if i have to skip over puddles on rainy and misty days. i like to buy new pencils and beautiful moleskine notebooks in september, because fall has always marked a fresh new start for me. i am at university again, so stocking up for a new semester kind of makes sense. but even in the seven years i spent in different offices working for various companies i always got excited in fall. i went out and bought fresh new things for the office almost as if i was starting another semester in school. i am not nearly as excited about spring, you know? and it's not just because i just loooooove the vegetables of fall.

200 g butternut squash
12 brussels sprouts
3 potatoes
oil
rosemary
skewers

01 preheat your oven to 200 °C
02 peel and roughly cut butternut squash into bite size
03 cut each potato in 4 pieces
04 assemble veggies alternately on skewers and place on a baking tray
05 drizzle with oil and sprinkle with rosemary
06 bake for 20-30 minutes
07 serve as a side dish to meat or as a main course with a light yoghurt sauce on the side

pumpkin soup with zucchini (hokkaidokürbissuppe mit zucchini)

my busy life almost made me abandon my nice little dinnertable here on the web ... but today i am taking on the challenge of cooking another thing i have never cooked before: pumpkin! this might even be strange for some austrians as pumpkin (rather pumpkin seed oil) is a culinary speciality of one of our austrian states, styria.

i don't actually have a recipe for that one. i cut up a medium size pumpkin, i hollowed out the middle part with the seeds. i did not peel it, because you can actually cook and eat the whole thing. i stir-fried rater large chunks of the pumpkin in a little vegetable oil for a moment and later added about 1 1/2 liters of plain water. i let it simmer on medium heat for half an hour. when the chunks were soft enough i mashed the whole thing up with a hand blender. i only added some salt to season to taste. i grated about 1/3 of a zucchini and put it on the soup for garnish, but as i was tasting the soup i figured the zucchini can be mixed in as well. this gives the dish a lovely chunky note and a fine taste too. i also added some creme fin as a garnish on the plate, but if you don't plan on taking pretty pictures for you weblog you can mix in the grated zucchini and the creme during cooking. this would make perfect sense, and if i wasn't so focused on the visual part of a nice picture of my soup i would have done it myself :)

it might be a bit silly to cook an ingredient for the first time and not use a recipe whatsoever, but i wanted it to taste as pure as possible. i have been making soups of chunky vegetables before so i thought i can benefit from my experiences and handle a pumpkin the same way. it actually pays off to try things your way rather than stick to a recipe in every little detail. well, this is my cooking style (an inherited one ...) after all and while i succeed most of the time things can go terribly wrong if you are too careless. then again, i did not only inherit this style of cooking from my mum and my grandmother, i also inherited a bunch of valuable tricks that come in very very handy if you accidentally screw up a dish. i turned many mishaps in my kitchen into successful meals thanks to the valuable legacy of emergency assistance the ladies in my family passed on to me.

i don't have to be afraid of something getting burned, for example. of course i don't set out to ruin my meals but if i get carried away with other things during cooking (mostly digging around on the internet) i am safe to say that i have some neat tricks to rescue anything burned, too salty, to spicey or whatever. so while my soup was boiling away on the stove i was looking on the internet about the history and botanic classification of my organic food, because i usually like to have a little background of whatever i eat. especially if i cook something for the first time. zucchinis and pumpkins for example are actually in the same plant family (cucurbitaceae). i was pretty surprised to learn that they are considered a fruit and not a vegetable. i guess it's because we usually cook pumpkins and zucchinis in a savory way. in some germanspeaking parts of europe the expression "cucumber-pumpkin" is also common for the zucchini (i have never heard of it though). now that i look at my zucchini it suddenly resembles a pumpkin a lot ... hm, strange ...

see? i can get carried away or i can learn new things about my food durning cooking. some might consider this sloppy, i think it's freestyle and very self-confident. well, i think i am in a pretty talkative (writeative?) mood today and before i ramble on for even more paragraphes i think i should grab the ladle and eat some more of my delicious soup!

easy bread and carrot soup

my project "40 soups of lent" is a gigantic failure. i planned on making a different soup each day during lent and so far i have only made 11. oh well. maybe i manage to try out 30 new recipes for soup in passion week, who knows ...

recipe # 11: easy bread and carrot soup

1 clove of garlic
1 slice of dark bread
1 big carrot
1/3 l water
oil
salt

01 cut garlic and fry with one tablespoon of oil
02 dice dark bread and add to the pot
03 grate the carrot and add to the pot as well, stir it all well
04 add water and bring to a boil
05 place a lid on the pot and let boil for 20 minutes
06 once the soup thickens season to taste and serve quite hot

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

knoblauchcremesuppe (garlic soup)

i read a delicious entry over at tea and cookies about austrian garlic soup which inspired me a lot to make this delicious treat. so here we go. although there are probably a thousand different recipes for garlic soup i suppose my version is not that different from hers:

recipe # 10: knoblauchcremesuppe (garlic soup)

1 small onion
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 l milk
1/4 l vegetables stock
butter
3 cloves of garlic
parsley
white bread

01 chop onion and garlic and saute on low heat in butter
02 sprinkle with flour and add milk and vegetable stock
03 keep stiring and bring to a boil
04 add chopped parsley
05 make croutons of white bread and garnish soup

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

lentil soup with roasted bacon

recipe # 9: lentil soup with roasted bacon

50 g dried lentils
1/2 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
a dash of cream or creme freche
1/4 l water
1 bayleaf

01 rinse lentils
02 sautée finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil
03 add tomato paste and stir well
04 add water and lentils
05 cover and let simmer for about 30 minutes
06 when lentils are soft, remove bayleaf and serve with roasted bacon

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

coconut soup

recipe # 8: coconut soup

1/2 red pepper
1/2 eggplant
1/2 zucchini
100 g mushrooms
1/2 leek
125 ml coconut milk
500 ml vegetable stock
1 can of shrimp coctail (you can also use 125 g scampi)

dried lemongrass
curcuma
salt

01 clean and cut pepper, eggplant, leek, zucchini and slice mushrooms
02 bring vegetable stock and coconut milk to a boil
03 throw in vegetables
04 cook for 20 minutes
05 add shrimps (or scampi) and let simmer for 5 more minutes
06 season with dried lemongrass, curcuma and salt

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

cream cheese soup with minced meat

recipe # 7: cream cheese soup with minced meat

1/2 onion
1/2 leek
1 tbsp of butter
100 g minced meat (3-4 tbsp)
1 tbsp of flour
1/4 liter vegetable stock
75 g creme cheese (i used rama cremefine)
salt, pepper, chives

as i am going for less calories at the moment, i took rama cremefine). this product can be used everywhere you normally would use cream, whipped cream or creme freche. but only consisting of vegetable fat and milk. it has much less calories than those products and to me it actually tastes even better. it is not as heavy and rich, it is light and creamy and just delicious :)

01 dice onion and cut leek
02 heat butter in a pot and roast the onion for a while
03 add minced meat and keep roasting
04 the last thing you'll add is the leek
05 sprinkle with flour and pour in hot vegetable stock
06 let simmer vor 20 minutes
07 add the soft cheese and bring to the boil again
08 garnish with cut chives and serve with baguette

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

eggplantsoup with a twist

recipe # 6 : eggplantsoup with a twist

150 g aubergine
1/2 small onion
100 g zucchini
1 clove of garlic
olive oil
150 ml vegetable stock
salt, pepper, chives, cream

01 cut the vegetables and toss in a pan (don't forget to remove skin from the aubergine). drizzle with olive oil
02 put in the oven and roast at 200°C until browned and stirr occasionally
03 remove from oven and let cool for a while
04 puree roasted vegetables and put in a saucepan
05 add vegetable stock
06 simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes
07 season to taste and garnish with a dash of cream and some chives

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

rindsuppe mit grießnockerl (semolina dumplings in broth)

recipe # 5: rindsuppe (broth) - made from scratch!

2 small beef soup bones
1 onion
1 carrot
1/2 liter of water
one small celery stalk
salt
1 clove garlic
some juniper berries
one bay leaf

01 blanch the bones in hot water to remove all fragments from the bones
02 chop onion, carrot and celery into chunks
03 place onions and bones in a pot and roast, uncovered, until the bones are browned. it does not matter if the onions are turning brown/black-ish, this adds a great taste to the soup
04 pour water into the pot and add vegetables, juniper berries, bay leaf and garlic
05 bring this mixture to the boil and reduce heat
06 let simmer for at least two hours
07 when the soup is done strain it through a cheesecloth to remove all solid parts
08 you can also skim off fat if you like

grießnockerl

4 tbsp semolina
2 tbsp soft butter
1 egg
salt, nutmeg

01 in a bowl combine smooth butter and egg
02 add semolina and season to taste
03 let the mixture rest for at least half an hour
04 form tiny "nockerl" with the aid of two spoons
05 throw them into slightly boiling broth and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes
06 take the pot away from the stove and let rest for another 5 minutes

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe















it was harder to translate this than to actually make the soup from scratch :)

creamy sweet corn soup

recipe # 4: creamy sweet corn soup

sweet pepper powder
2 tbsp olive oil
70 g potatos
200 ml vegetable stock
50 ml cream
200 g strained grains of corn
1 spring onion

01 mix sweet pepper powder and olive oil and put aside
02 dice potatos and cook with vegetable stock, cream and half of strained grains of corn for about 20 minutes
03 purée everything and put back in the pot. bring to the boil again.
04 cut spring onion into tiny rings, add them to the soup and also add the rest of the strained corn.
05 let cook for about 3 more minutes
06 season to taste
07 put in a dish and drizzle with the olive oil prepared earlier

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

apple curry soup

recipe # 3: apple curry soup

1 apple (sourly)
1/2 onion
0,25 l vegetable stock
1/2 tablespoon of curry powder
butter
salt
pepper
crème fraiche
croutons

01 dice onions and stew in some butter
02 (peel and) mince apple
03 add to the onions and stew a little more
04 add curry powder and vegetable stock
05 you might want to use a handblender if the bits are to junky. i like them that way!
06 season to taste
07 you also can add some crème fraiche if you like
08 some fresh croutons also go very well with the soup

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

krautsuppe

recipe # 2: krautsuppe

1/4 white cabbage
1 small onion
1/2 l vegetable stock
15 g flour
sweet pepper powder
caraway seeds
nutmeg
salt, pepper

01 chop cabbage finely
02 fry diced onion in butter and sprinkle over sweet pepper powder
03 stir a little more and add a little bit of water and sprinkle with flour
04 add cabbage
05 season to taste and add caraway seeds
06 finally add vegetable stock and let simmer for half an hour

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

mühlviertler fastensuppe

today is ash wednesday. i am not particularly religious but i do not eat meat on ash wednesday and good friday. and i usually try to abstain from some beloved habit during the days of lent. watching less tv or cut back smoking for example.

as a new tradition i don't really want to cut back on something, i take up the challenge of making a different soup every day for 40 days of lent. lets see how that works out.

recipe # 1: mühlviertler fastensuppe (lent soup from mühlviertel)

1 tablespoon butter
20 g flour
1/2 onion
1 small potato
1/4 kohlrabi (stem turnip)
20 g white cabbage
0,25 l vegetable stock
parsley
salt
pepper
nutmeg
a little lemon juice
1 slice of dark bread

01 dice vegetables and stew in salted water until tender
02 make roux from butter and flour
03 add vegetable stock and stir in the precooked vegetables
04 season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg
05 pour in a soup plate
06 dark bread is perfect with this dish

tagged with: cooking + food + recipe + soup + suppe

pumpkinseed flavoured potato soup

since pumpkinseed oil has a big tradition in austria and i read a posting at the passionate cook about it i decided to make a simple yet delicious pumpkinseed flavoured potato soup. so this dish is very much inspired by johannas recent post (and it's freestyle again):

350 g potatos
half a liter of vegetable stock
half an onion
plenty of garlic :)
olive oil
sour cream
pumpkinseed oil from styria

01 dice onion, garlic and potatos
02 heat olive oil and fry onions and garlic
03 add potatos and vegetable stock
04 bring to boil and then let simmer for half an hour
05 mash everything up
06 add sour cream
07 season to taste and add some of the pumpkinseed oil
08 decorate with the rest of the pumpkinseed oil and enjoy!