gründonnerstag

maudy what?!

i *never* eat beef

i mostly cook vegetarian now, sometimes even vegan. i don't really miss meat and going vegetarian/vegan is about as close as i will ever get to these special diets that would probably be a good idea for an ms-patient like me. i've made quite a few adjustments to my diet anyway since the diagnosis and i continue to do so, but i am not (yet) cut out for the strict regime that's necessary when you follow those specific diets. there are several diets too, which makes it even harder to find one that suits me.

ah, what the hell.

i never hesitate to eat meat when i feel like eating meat! i'm like "hey, my body wants it, my body probably needs it!" when i have that craving i always buy poultry. i haven't bought red meat in years, even before the diagnosis.

when i stumbled upon the amazing recipe for mongolian beef over at "the crepes of wrath" i not only licked my laptop screen, i also instantly wanted to try it.

well, i did. and i did not substitute the red meat with white meat on my first try. though the dish itself tasted incredibly hearty and savoury i wasn't too satisfied with my choice of the red meat.

since the recipe itself is pretty awesome and tasty i was willing to give the dish another try - this time with turkey (virtually the only kind of meat i eat these days).

so here is my (metric) approach to the recipe along with some pictures.

dice two turkey schnitzel and cover the cubes with two heaped spoons full of cornstarch. make sure to shake off any excess starch because it can make your sauce too gooey. set the meat aside while you prepare the sauce.



fry one tablespoon of grated ginger and six cloves of minced garlic in three teaspoons of sunflower oil.


now mix 150 ml water and 150 ml soy sauce with two generous table spoons of sugar and add to the pan [the original recipe calls for brown sugar, but i still have to get rid of a couple of sachets of plain old white sugar. so i used those].


now remove the sauce from the pan. fry the meat until it starts to turn brown.



now pour the sauce back in the pan and let it simmer over medium heat until the sauce has your desired consistency.


cook your favorite rice for this dish! i am totally into brown rice these days ...


garnish with a nice touch of a little green when you arrange the dish. you could use spring onions or salad or even swiss chard, as i did.


while i am all for experiencing new things and tastes i guess i'll resort to white meat in the future. turkey is just "my thing", i like it a lot and it looks like i just can't cook red meat anyway - it is never tender and yummie, it always has the consistency of the sole of a shoe. clearly, i am doing something wrong! i probably can't handle beef! [and i manage to screw up dishes with pork now too.]


what a fantastic dish! even the leftovers look delicious! [since i made enough to have dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, technically those are not leftovers. this is my lunch for tomorrow!]

rosmarinus officinalis

since it looks like my rosemary wants to go the way of all earthly things i have to act quickly: before the last green *leaf* of this baby conifer drops to the ground i'll stuff a couple of those *leafs* in a nice bottle and marinate my sunflower oil.

that should work, don't you think?

[laˈzaɲa] for my computer guy

well, i am a computer girl myself. i don't mind to screw open a data processor and adjust hardware. in most cases i even adjust hardware sucessfully *lol*. my friend peter is hardcore though. he can do *everything* with a computer, may it be hardware, software, a network or whatever. no kidding. i bow before him!

peter drops by with a few ram modules for the server he gave me recently and therefor i will cook a delicious lasagna for him tonight.



when he presented me with the server a couple of weeks ago i was a geek girl in heaven! i hope tonight he'll be a geek boy in a lasagna coma :D. undoubtedly he *will* be, because i made my first lasagna in a cooking class when i was eleven years old and it was very good right from the start. now, 22 years later i still cook it from time to time. i don't need a recipe, i cook it slightly different every time and it still turns out ... well, pretty darn good! yes yes yes, i blow my own trumpet here, but believe me, my lasagna IS perfection! [but whose isn't?]

in a pan, fry one small onion in a little olive oil. add 500 g of minced meat and gently fry over medium heat. sprinkle in two stock cubes. add one spoon full of tomato paste and a couple of cherry tomatoes. add dried basil, cover with a lid, leave on medium heat and let simmer for half an hour. stir occasionally.



prepare béchamel sauce (or white sauce) once the meat looks ready by whisking 300 ml of scalded milk gradually into a white flour-butter roux (roux is equal part clarified butter and flour). the sauce should not be too thick! stir a couple of fresh basil leaves into the meat sauce and start to build the layers:




ladle enough meat sauce in a baking dish to cover the bottom and top that with non cook lasagna noodles. top with béchamel sauce, just enough to cover the noodles. add an even layer of your favorite cheese. now add meat sauce again, then noodles, béchamel sauce, cheese, meat sauce and so forth. make as many layers as you wish, i usually get to four or five. top with béchamel sauce and add some more cheese. for a fresh touch i like to add cherry tomatoes and fresh basil and even more cheeeeeeese :) bake in a preheated oven for one hour to 90 minutes and allow it to sit for a few minutes before serving.


i think peter enjoyed my dinner.


he even finished off what i did not manage to eat! good guy!

google friend connect

so, i am just trying this new feature, google friend connect. i have no clue what it is all about yet, but since i am an early adopter as far as web 2.0 is concerned ... google says it will *enrich my site* and *attract more visitors* - we'll see about that!

[i'll try to make christmas cookies in the meantime]

my winter salad

cook a few small (new) potatoes. wash lamb's lettuce and marinade in olive oil, vinegar and pepper. add a spoon full of sunflower seeds. toss. set aside. once the potatoes are done, cut them in half and fry them in a splash of olive oil. add salt and pepper and also rosemary. when the potatoes are nice and crisp add them to the lettuce and toss.

enjoy.

love food, hate waste AND save money

a very inspirational website i just found:

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

growing up in a working class enviroment i've learned to live a resourceful life at a very young age. i still am very aware of that today (i believe), but there is no harm in consulting clever websites every now and then. it's not only that i hate being wasteful, i also can't affort to pour money down the drain! really - who can, these days? while i try to be very aware of enviromental issues, i also am aware of my slender purse.

for the soul

so, what do you do when this leek you've had in the fridge for a while seems to go the way of all earthly things? you suddenly are inspired to post to your foodblog again!



leek soup
wash, peel and cut three small potatoes into cubes. cut one leek into rounds. fry the potatoes in vegetable oil over medium heat. you only need to do this for a couple of minutes before adding the leek. put a lid on the pot and sauté the vegetables gently for a few more minutes [if you want to add any herbs, you can do it at that point. parsley, tarragon, whatever. chop a good hand full and throw it in as well! unfortunately the herbs on my balcony did not want to stay alive when i moved them inside to my windowsill ...] add one liter of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. reduce the heat and let the soup simmer until the vegetables are soft. arrange on a plate with a dash of pepper and nutmeg. since i had to get rid of some very frumpy rye bread i decided to toast some slices, break them up and make croutons.

now, this is really heart-warming ...

i am making bread on weekends

no knead bread

fake it till you make it

i've had a very rough time lately as you might be able to guess.



so today i am faking apfelstrudel because they now sell filo dough at my local grocery store for all my strudel needs. i suppose i'll keep a packet of this pastry in my fridge from now on ...

good work!

how weird. that piece of stop motion cooking actually made me hungry!

snap!

i am not big on impromptu action. i need to plan ahead, i need to set things up properly, i need to be prepared. i've always been like that, but ever since i have to be on a schedule with my medication, it became even worse. i wish i could be impulsive, but i am just not. having a plan calms me down.

recently i learned to let go a little, don't ask me why. maybe it comes with age. maybe it's because it occured to me that i don't even have a "plan b" as far as my life is concerned. maybe it's because i realized that i can *not* controll everything. and i don't even need to be able to controll everything!

i spent a few days in berlin the other week *just because*. a vacation (or even a daytrip) usually is a HUGE thing for me. and guess what, not everything was planned out and not everything i had planned went according to my neat and oh so clever schedule. gosh, i even forgot my towel at home and to my big surprise, this was not the end of the world! omg, and the foooooood in berlin is awesome! what a great cultural diversity, and how cheap and amazing it is! so authentic, i can't even begin to describe the enjoyment!

but i am getting off the point!


i actually wanted to show you a few pictures of an impromptu beach-dinner-thing i organized yesterday. I ORGANIZED IT! well, there wasn't a lot to organize, those things usually organize themselves. i just brought the food and the forks and i called a few people.

it was awesome, to say the least!

i made some bbq pasta salad that was kind of mediterranean. i don't have a big recipe for this, though. i grilled a few vegetables and halloumi and boiled a substancial amount of pasta. i let it all cool a bit and combined everything with 125 g crème fraiche, herbs and garlic.








summer has never been a friend of mine, i get a sunburn and a million freckles only *thinking* of sun (though i use baby sunlotion spf 50+), but as far as the summer food is concerned ... oh, how i love it!

how sweet, more *nockerl ... !

i guess you are aware of my love for *nockerl*. i adore those tiny pillows in every shape and form, no matter if savory or sweet. luckily my heirloom recipes offer many variations, they all are easy, quick, filling, cheap and above all delicious. the little dumplings really are a staple of the regional cuisine and i think that their biggest pro is that you can so easily adjust servings to your desire.

if you feel really hungry just go ahead and load a whole plate full to the brim! if you come home from a loooong day and you still have left over *nockerl* from the day before, just nibble around a bit! grab your fork and plunge into the pot!

it also comes in very handy that you can so easily freeze a batch, if they are still undercooked or half done it's even better. you can get very inventive with your additional ingredients when you fancy *nockerl* the next time and take a batch out of your freezer.

but i am going for freshly boiled today.
and i am also going for sweet!


topfennockerl / tiny curd cheese dumplings, nockerl, or gnocchi

with a fork, thoroughly mix 250 g curd cheese, one egg, 25 g (2 tablespoons) of semolina, 20 g (2 tablespoons) of flour and a pinch of salt. you might need more flour, this really depends on the texture of your mixture. you might even need less than i used here, just try it out!


set the mixture aside and let it rest for about half an hour. the dough should not be too soft, so you might even add more flour at this point.

bring a pot of water to the boil. now form little *nockerl* with two spoons. once you throw them into the water, it should only simmer (this is VERY important!) the *nockerl* are done when they start to float to the surface.


melt a knob of butter in a pan. stir in 15 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and two packets of vanilla sugar. roast the crumbs until they turn brown. my mum usually makes them much sweeter and adds like 4 times as much (regular) sugar and also cinnamon. you see, it just depends on your taste!


when your *nockerl* are done, remove them from the water, place them in the pan and turn them a little to coat them with the crumbs.


it turns out that the specifications above make exactly 13 nockerl. too much for me to eat in one sitting, so this actually serves two. or me again, in the evening.


the other day my mum suggested to coat those *nockerl* with poppy seeds. that's also a fine idea but since my pantry is not as well stocked as hers i'd need to do some more grocery shopping for *nockerl* improvisation extravaganza.