tomato blossom

mode d'emploi

2006-12-08T14:58:00.000+01:00

warning! high self-importance factor. the writer of the following contents is not liable for physical symptoms or other reactions of the reader.

if you want to keep me happy...

do not eat my tomatoes. i am very serious about this. always keep at least one tomato product around. preferably fresh tomatoes as long as available (iris doesn't like watery tomatoes. nassty tomatoes.), canned tomatoes, passata - you get the idea.

we also need some kind of cheese like parmesan, mozzarella, ricotta, feta, pecorino etc.

and olive oil. good olive oil, at least one bottle. i have had as many as six different kinds crowding together in my cupboard. my all time favourite is greek olive oil (mani olive oil to be specific, they have great capers too) to dip bread into, for drizzling over fava...

oregano. the herb that is most integral to my cooking as it is much used in greek cuisine as well as in italian cuisine. parsley is very versatile, too.

keep my supply of tea and milk (at a pinch even uht milk or cream will do) steady. and don't let the sugar cubes run out. sugar cubes are cute and facilitate dosage. two cubes per mug (à two cups), two mugs of tea per day on average. i know i am an addict but that's not a problem.

do you really think one or two meak onions and a couple of shrivelled cloves of garlic are enough to get over the weekend? ha. too smelly to use a lot? well, i am prone to misanthropism anyway so potentially offensive smells are a welcome option to keep unlooked for social interaction at a minimum.

don't even think of smuggling reduced-fat "butter", margarine or the likes into my kitchen. doesn't taste good, useless for cooking, low quality fat.

there are few things that i detest more than the sight of a wet, smelly dishwashing sponge/cloth hanging around in the sink until it turns into a dirty brownish colour and gives off evil smells that make any decision on what to have for breakfast unnecessary.

check bananas for banana spiders, i really appreciate it. i am not afraid of spiders but this is a special case (probability of encounter low, toxicity of venom high means iris in fits of hysteria. not rational? don't make me laugh, who and what are rational anyway.)

enough - see you later.

the big sleep

2006-11-19T00:18:00.000+01:00

i never noticed that really ripe plums have a delicately lingering flowery aftertaste until recently. then the idea to make same sort of cake including plums and rose flower water popped into existence. and now that the plum season is finally over for this year i have enough time to write about it. but that's the way things go i guess. (or am i the only one to discover new and interesting recipes as soon as the fruit or vegetable in question is not available any more?)

anyway, the following recipe was adapted from a recipe in a baking book by dr. oetker.

plum tart

cake batter

one heaping cup of flour

two level teaspoons of baking powder

one third of a cup of sugar

three to four teaspoons of rose flower water

one medium egg

half a cup of ricotta cheese

6 tablespoons of milk or half and half

6 tablespoons of good quality vegetable oil or melted butter

for the pie pan

flaked almonds

topping

one and a half pounds of plums, halved and stoned

6 tablespoons of half and half

2 heaping tablespoons of ricotta cheese

2 heaping tablespoons of sour cream

2 tablespoons of honey

one vanilla pod

two medium eggs

mix all dry ingredients for the batter thoroughly then add the liquid ingredients. butter a pie pan and sprinkle with flaked almonds (the surface does not have to be completely covered). pour batter into pan.

arrange plum halves on batter (pieces must overlap or they won't fit into the pan).

scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod with a knife and add the remaining ingredients. pour over plums.

bake at 150 degrees centigrade for about 45 minutes.

the result was really pleasant (the slightly waxy flavour of the sage honey i used came out brilliantly) but there is still room for improvements. for example the vanilla taste could develop far better if you infused the half and half with the scraped vanilla pod. will definitely make this again though.

august and everything after

2006-10-13T22:04:00.000+02:00

i was busy studying in september, so no posts - i did play around with my moms digital camera though to share the few (culinarily speaking) memorable moments.

my first attempt to make brioches didn't turn out too bad. they looked like ducklings and some lost their little heads but nobody seemed to mind - the whole lot (twenty pieces) was gone within two days.

some people cook dumplings and creamed chanterelle mushrooms at home and some eat them in ikea restaurants (free coffee for ikea family members included). the recipe for creamed chanterelles from delicious days is actually very close to the one i remember from the days of my childhood - the only difference being that we used sour cream instead of double cream.

last but not least i got around to reproduce one of the five things to eat before you die.

more about that later...

little barries

2006-09-11T00:21:00.000+02:00

one of my favourite fruits at the moment are elderberries. they taste good, they are easy to spot during walks in parks or wienerwald, can be stolen from branches hanging over fences (an old family tradition) or bought at farmer markets.

i made elderberry compote which goes very well with grießbrei (semolina cooked in milk, vaguely resembling warm custard).

grießbrei mit hollerkompott

2 cups of milk

3 tablespoons of semolina

2 tablespoons of sugar

one tablespoon of butter

vanilla and/or lemon zest to taste

eight to ten panicles of elderberries

five plums or an apple or a pear
honey to taste

cinnamon to taste, a pinch of ground cloves

bring milk to the boil, wisk in semolina and cook until soft (about five minutes). stir in sugar, butter and vanilla extract/lemon zest.

strip elderberries from panicles into a saucepan with a fork. add halved plums or diced apple/pear, spices and a little water to prevent burning. bring to the boil and simmer until fruit is very soft and mushy. adjust sweetness with honey to taste (about two tablespoons).

serve together in bowls

grießbrei is often considered babyfood but it has a long tradition as comfort food in my family. i like it sprinkled with cinnamon or chocolate shavings and with chunks of banana stirred in. you can prepare a sort of pudding by cooking grießbrei until it is very stiff, cooling slightly, mixing in three or four eggs (separated) and baking it for fourty minutes on medium heat.

i also made a batch of elderberry jam but i won't post a recipe because i just followed the basic rules for canning: equal amounts of sugar and fruit (added a couple of plums and a pear here as well), cinnamon, cloves, sterilized jars - you know the drill.

next time i will use a little less sugar though, because the one to one ratio produced a very sweet jam (well to my taste at least, other people don't seem to mind that).

five things to eat before you die

2006-09-09T00:27:00.000+02:00

a while back melissa at the traveler's lunch box started compiling entries for her food blogger's guide to the globe. everybody is invited to participate but as usual i need an extra kick in the *** to get moving and thus didn't post my suggestions for what to eat before you die - anyway as soon as you have recovered your appetite after having pondered over this grave matter - until matt tagged me.

i decided to exclude fresh fruit and vegetables of all kind simply because nearly every freshly picked sun warmed fruit/vegetable at the peak of its ripeness tastes divine. i also do not include dishes that are realistically not reproducable.

deep fried paneer in tomato sauce
i came across this gem during our last stay in dublin at govinda's vegetarian restaurant. the paneer cubes are crispy golden on the outside and chewy and milky on the inside and the sauce is simply spectacular. if you accidentally find yourself in dublin one day, try out one of the two restaurants. if your are not so fortunate, you can still test your skills at this recipe (in dublin they omitted the egg plant and chili though). it's part of the hare krishna cookbook the higher taste which can be accessed online. if you are not interested in religious doctrines, jump directly to the recipe section.

(greek) rose syrup over vanilla ice cream
so far my favourite kind of rose syrup is the one used in the greek restaurant plaka in perchtoldsdorf near vienna (austria). it tastes a bit like greek rose incense smells and has a very subtle aroma. but then nearly every (high quality) kind of rose syrup i have sampled had its own characteristic, delicious flavour, so don't despair if you prefer to stay where you are.
when making this divine dessert at home, keep in mind that rose syrup is very sweet so don't choose an overly sweet ice cream.

risotto alla milanese
there is no excuse not to make a really good version of this classic dish. i have developed my own ideas concerning the best texture and ingredients (and will post my recipe as soon as possible) but i think with so simple a recipe and so few ingredients everybody should be able to produce a good risotto. and don't leave away the saffron if you can afford it - don't take everything angelo pellegrini writes too literally (as much as i like his book).

erdäpfelnudeln (lit. potato noodles, austrian specialty)
erdäpfelnudeln are (obviously) made from potato dough . the thick fingershaped noodles are usually tossed in butter with a mixture of ground poppy seeds and powdered sugar ("mohnnudeln"). they can also be served with breadcrumbs roasted in butter, powdered sugar and a fruit compote ("bröselnudeln").
either way they are yummy, especially when prepared by my grandmother. she makes the fluffiest melt-in-the-mouth erdäpfelnudeln you can imagine. personally i am still working on producing acceptable results, but i might share a recipe with you in the near future.

sformato di spinaci
in my family we call it simply "spinach pudding" because at the time my mother first made it, my italian was non existing (it is converging towards that state again but this is another matter). basically it consists of bechamel sauce with parmesan cheese, sauted spinach and eggs (like a soufflé). sformato di spinaci is steamed in a pudding mold lined with breadcrumbs. and as usual the mere ingredients and my clumsy description can not do justice to the finished product. the recipe can be found in a time life series on international cuisine (unfortunately out of print i guess, it's not on their website). the closest approximation i could digg up online (in english) is this. an italian recipe site comes even closer to what i have in mind. anyway - some day i might get around to post my own recipe...

well, that's it.

i considered including more typical austrian dishes but i realized that - probably due to being vegetarian - mostly dumplings came to mind how boring. and with autumn and winter approaching fast i will be posting more about things like that anyway, that is if i actually find the energy to do so - see above.

oh yes, and as there are almost no food bloggers - whose blogs i read of course - left over who have not already been tagged by someone or other, i tag sebastian and andi. i know they both care about food in their own strange ways and their choices might be interesting.

blue and blobby

2006-09-05T23:37:00.000+02:00

when i was a child i didn't really like powidl per se but i indulged in sweet dishes and pastries that use powidl as a main ingredient most willingly (like germknödel).

i never thought of making powidl at home because i imagined the long cooking time and frequent stirring to be rather tedious but it was half as bad. so far i have made two batches of powidl - one at my aunt's in styria and one here in vienna. they both came out great though different in consistency and taste because i only added cinnamon to the first and cinnamon, cloves and a swing of rum to the second.

powidl (my version)

about seven and a half pounds of very ripe plums
one pound of sugar
cinnamon and/or ground cloves, two generous teaspoons on the whole
optional: a glug (or two) of rum

remove stones from plums, throw into a big pot and heat slowly while mashing the plums a little to help release their juice. you can now turn the heat on medium/high and let them bubble away until they are almost covered in liquid (this takes about half an hour).

add the sugar (yes, there is no sugar added in the hardcore traditional method but adding just a little sugar reduces the cooking time and does not harm the taste too much, it's a good compromise in my opinion) and spices and continue to simmer on medium heat, stirring occasionally. after one hour the mixture should look like this:

i decided to stop the cooking process after about three hours to achieve pasty, spreadable powidl. this should be the case when the mixture is more or less homogenous, dark purple to blackish blue in colour and drops heavily from the spoon like cake batter.

the more traditional method is to cook the powidl until the mixture is pretty stiff and the surface feels like a rubber ball when cooled down (after about four hours of cooking). the required amount is then diluted with rum or some such directly before use.

sterilize glass jars and twist-off lids during the last half hour of the cooking time: put the opened jars and lids into a pot of water, bring to the boil and leave on high for five minutes.¹ carefully (!!!) fish out of the water with tongs and place upside down on a clean tea towel to dry.

pour/spoon piping hot powidl into the prepared jars (it's best to use one of those special funnels with an extra wide opening to avoid dripping the lava-like mixture on your fingers and the rims of the jars. in case you do not have one of these, be careful not to burn your fingers and wipe the rims with a slightly dampened paper towel should there be any "accidents".) close tightly with twist-off-lids, turn upside down and cover with one or two tea towels. leave to cool a couple of hours et voilà...

¹ Of course you can't actually sterilize anything as simple as that, but you get the idea.

cheap thrills

2006-08-05T19:41:00.000+02:00

the following post was saved as a draft before my trip to styria to visit my aunt. so, please ladies and gentlemen accompany me as i travel two weeks back in my time machine.
metallic rattle, dizzy feeling, newton's laws of motion in action, vision blurs, breaks squealing. you may now unfasten your seat belts. we wish you a pleasant stay in...

i have bought vegetables and herbs from the previously mentioned horticultural school in schönbrunn again. every time when shopping for veggies there i was amazed at the ridiculously low prices but this time i hardy could believe my ears when the nice lady at the register told me the price of my purchases.

this is what i bought: ten pounds of different kinds of tomatoes, two pounds of bitter gourds (how cool is that? locally grown bitter gourds!), two eggplants, one squash, two cucumbers, one small bunch of purple basil and one bunch of sage. now guess what i paid for all that. (and now consider that vienna ranks among the world's most expensive cities and make a guess again...)

drum roll and fanfare - the correct answer is: seven euro and fourtyfive cents (about 9.56 us dollars)!

my little monster

2006-08-04T17:08:00.000+02:00

this is the red kuri we bought in may. unfortunately so far i could only detect male flowers but we'll see. (no offence against male individuals per se...)

lots of sugar tonight

2006-07-24T22:09:00.000+02:00

at the moment apricots are in season here and at the special request of the person who helped me baking and eating an apricot cake i herewith will reveal a well guarded family recipe handed down from grandmother to daughter-in-law to granddaughter (me).

marillenkuchen
dedicated to oma

beat together four eggs, three quarters of a cup of melted butter (unsalted), one cup of sugar and vanilla extract to taste.

little by little add two cups of flour mixed with one tablespoon of baking powder. stir in 6 tablespoons of milk (or rum...) or enough to make a thick but pourable cake batter.

pour onto a baking tray with high edges lined with parchment paper. distribute about two pounds of halved apricots over the cake and bake at 150 degrees centigrade for twenty to thirty minutes, depending on factors beyond human control.

sprinkle generously with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

other fruit that i have used for this cake: cherries, grapes, plums, nectarines and peaches. it's a very easy recipe that accompanied my childhood in variations through all four seasons (wow, that's ninety seasons until now - i am really getting old).

finding your own song in the kitchen

2006-07-06T20:19:00.000+02:00

finally the term is over and i can take a break from tests and other annoying things until september. however i haven't been lazy during my first free week. i have cooked a lot, taken up a knitting project again that i started in february, killed a few hundred aphids, made rose jam which involved killing yet more aphids, bought vegetables from the school of horticulture in my vicinity and resolved to tidy up my room (this time i really mean it).

over the last few weeks i have come to friendlier terms with the concept of "salad as an edible dish". i found a way i actually enjoy preparing the hitherto abhorred dish - i use my mortar to produce a pesto-like dressing with olive oil and herbs or nuts as a basis, then add either a little vinegar or lemon juice, salt, pepper and perhaps a little garlic. also important: the salad leaves must not be cut but torn roughly.

i'd like to be under the sea

2006-06-24T23:33:00.000+02:00

i am still recovering from a bad case of sinusitis that kept me occupied during the last two weeks. lucky as i am, it started just when summer finally decided its time had come and the temperatures began to rise drastically.

in other news, i have added two more books to my collection:
jamie's italy and the unprejudiced palate. if you haven't already read them you really should. both of them have proved very inspiring. it's interesting to see other people's approaches to cooking and good food (but please, never ever leave away the saffron when making risotto alla milanese unless you want to make me very unhappy!). i have already tried ten recipes from jamie's italy and have gotten very positive feedback.

also, i am very proud to announce that for the first time i have prepared kochsalat from the scratch and not merely defrosted it - it was absolutely worth the mess i produced in the kitchen.

for three hungry persons you need about 2 pounds cos lettuce. wash the leaves and then throw them into a big pot with boiling water. they take longer to cook than other leafy greens because of the rather tough ribs, the old fork-pricking-test comes in very handy here.
when cooked al dente, drain lettuce leaves in a colander, place under cold running water until cool enough to touch and squeeze out as much water as possible. next, cut into 5mm strips and chop them into smaller pieces.
make white roux (butter, flour, milk and/or broth), add chopped lettuce leaves, season with salt, pepper, a little garlic and nutmeg (plus a little instant bouillon if no broth is used in the roux).

serve with fried eggs and erdäpfelschmarrn: cook and peel potatoes. chop one large onion per pound potatoes and fry in a little oil. as soon as it begins to take on colour, take a potato and cut into slices, dumping them directly into the pan. proceed in the same manner with the rest of the potatoes, stirring in between.
the idea is to let a crust build up and then loosen it before the next potato is added. the slices will fall apart partly during this process and stick together a little. you should end up with potato slices, sticky matter and crust mixed. if not, turn the heat up towards the end. season with salt to taste.

absence makes the heart grow fonder or something

2006-06-04T20:04:00.000+02:00

the reasons for my prolonged absence are highly unexpected changes and of course they are tangled and unpleasant. anyway...

our plants are doing reasonably well considering that it's pretty cool (around 10°C) for this time of the year. in tyrol it has even been snowing. i have to water the plants on my balcony although hardly a day passes without a decent shower or two. the tomato plant doesn't seem too pleased with the weather so i will probably put it in front of the living room windows inside where it's warm.

it's really amazing that i found austrian tomatoes, strawberries, eggplants (lots of them this year, they seem to be high in demand for some reason, not that i can complain), green beans, baby red beets and a lot more at the naschmarkt.
also, my mom located a new source for locally (5 minutes from where i live) grown vegetables: it's a horticultural school where vegetables grown by the students are sold every friday morning.

today's recipe was inspired by a recipe for sour cherry tartlets from this cookbook which must be among the first books i've ever read (from cover to cover) and it is still one of my favourite baking books.

cranberry tartlets

2 cups of flour

half a cup of half-melted butter

a fourth of a cup of powdered sugar

a pinch of salt

one egg yolk

one to two tablespoons of milk

cranberries, sugar

half a cup of heavy cream and milk each

one egg plus one egg yolk

one generous tablespoon of cornstarch

two heaping teaspoons of sugar

a little vanilla to taste

rub together flour, butter, one egg yolk, powdered sugar and salt. add as much milk as needed to form a soft dough. form twelve balls, wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge or freezer until hard enough to roll out with a rolling pin.

mix cranberries with sugar.

preheat oven to 200°C. produce circles big enough for the tins of your choice (i used a muffin tin). press into buttered tins forming a one inch ridge around the edges. prick bottoms with a fork and put into the oven for 10 minutes on one of the lower racks.

spoon cranberries into tartlets.
mix milk, cream, egg plus egg yolk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan and heat stirring constantly until the mixture just starts to boil. take off heat and divide evenly among tartlets (about a tablespoon each).

put back into oven for about 20 minutes or until custard is set and begins to get brown speckles.

other possible fillings include sour cherries, rhubarb and gooseberries.

these tartlets are really tasty both warm and cooled.

the music never stopped

2006-05-15T00:06:00.000+02:00

wow, this (quite literally) sounds totally weird. funny though, i like the idea.

ps: i think i like the "excerpts" from the first cd better. and i will definitely cook letscho soon again.

how many local dollars for a local anaesthetic?

2006-05-12T22:07:00.000+02:00

although i haven't had the time and/or energy to post for a while, my resolutions have not died and neither have my plants, not yet anyway although the greenflies decided to move on to the cos salad (they don't seem to like the lollo rosso though, so that's something to keep in mind when i plant my next batch of lettuce...). speaking of plants, we transferred more than half of them to sebastian's mom's (flat) garage roof because they get way more sun up there than on my balcony. it's still not really warm for this time of the year. anyway, on said roof there were still a few huge flower pots left from past gardening experiments and when we removed various weeds and roots what did we find? we dug up about twenty white grubs - it was not a pleasant sight i can assure you. even now that i have learned that they belong to the noble family of scarabaeidae or dung beetles it is hard to politely overlook the sheer ugliness of the unfinished product.
in other news, i made milchrahmstrudel which is a nice way to use stale (read brick hard) white bread. i had a baguette hanging around for a bit too long and decided to use it while it still hadn't decided to go out and discover the world or whatever it is that french breads do when they take on a life of their own.

milchrahmstrudel

three cups of small pieces of stale white bread

milk

a handful of raisins

a fourth of a cup of softened butter

half a cup of sugar

four egg yolks

vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean for the snobs among us)

zest of half a lemon

one cup of sour cream

four egg whites

melted butter

six sheets of phyllo dough

two tablespoons of butter to melted in half a cup of hot milk

tear or crush the bread into small pieces (i had to use a rolling pin...) and add as much milk as they can absorb, put aside and add more milk later if necessary.

beat egg whites until stiff peaks or whatever forms.

cream together butter, sugar and egg yolks in a separate bowl, stir in lemon zest, vanilla and sour cream.

check if bread needs more milk (it should become very soft and mushy but there should be no excess liquid) and mash with a fork until more or less homogeneous. mix with raisins and then stir into sour cream mixture. at last fold in whipped egg whites.

prepare melted butter, a slightly dampened dish towel and one big ovenproof dish ideally there should be just enough space for three strudels but it's ok to use two smaller ones.

now you should work fast, because once unpacked the phyllo sheets dry out very quickly and literally break apart when touched. spread one phyllo sheet on the towel and brush with butter, it doesn't have to be totally covered everywhere but the butter keeps the dough elastic and easier to manage.

lay a second sheet on top of the first one and distribute a third of the filling on the half closer to you leaving a space of about two inches at the sides. fold the dough at the sides over the filling and gently lifting the towel roll up the strudel.

with the help of the towel transfer to pan. this is easiest done when the "seam" is on top. "roll" over the edge of the towel into the pan so that it flips over and the pretty side is on top.

repeat with remaining sheets (which can be covered with another wet towel until used to keep them from drying out to much.) brush strudels with butter and bake at 160°C for 30 minutes. they should be golden brown in color by now.

pour over milk with butter and put back into the oven for another 10 minutes. let set at roomtemperature until lukewarm.

milchrahmstrudel can be served warm with vanilla custard or cold sprinkled with powdered sugar.

beauty and the beast (take the spell away)

2006-05-05T21:46:00.000+02:00

my beautiful plants are infested with aphids. but i won't capitulate just like that, i shake my fist at you, whoever sent me this plague! (yes, i take this very personally because i have so many other things that need to be done at the moment. if there ever is a convenient moment for discovering that small sap-sucking insects are crawling over my plants it is quite definitely not now.) i am trying to get rid of them by spraying the leaves with neem tea. if anybody has had positive experiences with other home remedies, please go ahead and share your wisdom.

very little time means that nothing much exciting is happening in my kitchen (not having as many darlings and loves at hand as jamie oliver to get me the olive oil and those lemons...). however, yesterday i managed to find the time to make paradeissauce.

paradeissauce (homemade tomato sauce, traditional style)

a little more than two pounds of tomatoes

two tablespoons of flour and oil each

water as needed

one to two teaspoons of sugar (or to taste)

salt

optional: vegetable stock powder, tomato paste

cut tomatoes into quarters.

gently heat oil in a pot, stir in flour, then add tomatoes. the tomatoes should be cooked very slowly so that they can release their juice to form a sauce with the flour. if needed a few tablespoons of water can be added at the beginning to prevent burning.

when tomatoes are soft and mushy, run through something like that or mash through a sieve.

season with sugar and salt and vegetable stock powder if needed. the sauce should have a pretty mild taste, not too acidic. if the tomatoes are not perfectly ripe, adding a tablespoon of tomato paste might be necessary.

this sauce is either served over short egg pasta or used to cook stuffed bell peppers in it. my grandma used to toss some potatoes in a little butter and together with the tomato sauce they made a nice, light dinner.

btw, on my search for the vocabulary for the above (un)mentioned cooking utensil i found a few really strange articles on wikipedia in the "food utensils" category...

i love you (but you're green)

2006-05-04T01:21:00.000+02:00

after a rather adventurous trip to a plant and seed exchange event in schiltern (rudimentary description in english as pdf file) i am the proud (co-)owner of quite a number of plants that hopefully will survive the weather and me. oh yes, and i have some seeds to be sown in autumn for next year. we have (yes, i like writing lists...):

three different tomato plants (one of them should develop tiny yellow fruit, the other two are especially good for making sauces)

three kinds of basil (indian, greek and genovese)

two kinds of mint (greek and spearmint)

three chilli plants (from the capsicum pubescens and frutescens variety)

two kinds of lettuce (lollo rosso and cos lettuce, yes, i can't believe it myself...)

lemon verbena, borage, lady's mantle, lavender and one hokkaido squash

and last but not least a cardamom plant. realistically it won't bloom or bear fruit and can only be put outdoors when it's really warm but it looked and sounded too intriguing not to be bought. i love cardamom and when i arrange the (store bought) pods around the flower pot with the plant in it, it almost feels like the real thing... er or something like that. anyway it's nice to know what the plant looks like that produces this divine spice.

oh yes, the strawberry plants on the balcony already have tiny green fruit! let's hope it keeps getting warmer during the next weeks.

what should be done

2006-05-02T14:38:00.000+02:00

so, it's may already and high time to post more about my "eat local"-project this month. it was inspired by this site but is not directly linked to it as i am not an author on the collaborative blog. don't ask me why, but my gut feeling was totally against it maybe i will drop jen an email within the next few days but i can't promise anything.

so, without further ado i will sum up the rules of my game for you, my valued readers:

first and very obvious: consume as much of my daily energy intake from locally produced food as possible, focusing on organically grown produce.

exceptions: spices, tea, olive oil, some italian cheeses (unfortunately i still haven't found a local source for mozzarella but we'll see), eating out (i am always pleased to see when restaurants prefer locally produced ingredients, but i am not about to give up eating out just because that's not the case everywhere).

resolutions and ideas: i will bake my own bread and make pasta as often as possible, continue growing sprouts, grow as many vegetables and herbs on the balcony as possible without significantly raising my mother's blood pressure, try a few recipes from my grandma's cookbook and generally make as many half-forgotten traditional austrian dishes as i can stand or have the time and appetite to.

right now i don't have the patience to write a lot more (microbiology and physiology tests to come in two weeks...) but feel free to add anything that i left out but that seems important to you, i will probably include it into my list.

big bright green pleasure machine

2006-04-28T00:39:00.000+02:00

just a quick update: my broccoli sprouts are doing fantastic! they already have small leaves, not really green yet but we are getting there! on saturday or sunday i am going to whip up something nutritious with all the green goodness.

melancholy in the kitchen or the fundamental interconnectedness of all things

2006-04-26T16:59:00.000+02:00

lately i have done a lot of research on different italian dishes. an interesting side effect is that finally i find it useful having learned (some) italian in school because who wants to read italian recipes in german or english? not me.

all the occupation with italy and mediterranean cuisine made me think of how terribly hot it's there in summer which brought back fond memories of ireland and led to the usual melancholic state i invariably fall into when i imagine how nice it would be to have a cup of tea at (the old) bewley's (before it was converted from a nice coffee house into a mainstream-italian-influenced-cuisine-restaurant), to read a book sitting in the park on merrion square, to buy good smelling stuff at lush and to have a vanilla malt at eddie rocket's or dinner at govinda's.

but of course that was not enough, when i do something then i have to do it properly. so more melancholy it was. childhood memories specifically. when i was a kid, i would usually stay a week or two at my aunt's weekend house in styria together with my grandmother and a bunch of other aunties. we went gathering berries in the nearby forest and when (pretty soon) i had enough of that i would paint patterns on my arms and knees with the juice from mashed blueberries and build houses and boats with pieces of bark, leaves and blades of grass. we often made heidelbeerstrudel from all the blueberries we had picked and ate it fresh from the oven with lots of whipped cream that melted on the piping hot strudel. mmmh

the result of all this is that now i have to make pasta alla norma, have a cup of tea (well maybe not only one... or maybe a pint of guinness) and i am afraid i have to buy frozen blueberries to bake heidelbeerstrudel... *sigh*

note to self: next time you are in dublin at least have some breakfast or lunch before you visit the jameson distillery and the guinness storehouse on the same day because after your complimentary whiskey and pint of guinness you felt a little dizzy...

let it blossom let it grow

2006-04-23T22:26:00.000+02:00

today i started the project SPROUT. in my secret alchemistic lab i threw exactly two hundred eighty-five energized seeds into a highly specialized growing device, pointed my magic stick at them, mumbled a complicated ancient formula and soaked them in an extremely potent chemical substance that will turn them into green slightly hairy individuals that have to be eaten alive in dark full moon nights while bathing in a pond chanting mantras of the names of unknown gods and goddesses together with elves and dragons.
and tomorrow i will plant two strawberry plants on my balcony.

a fragrant springtime spell

2006-04-22T23:44:00.000+02:00

last week we made a huge batch of pesto from this recipe which is a little different from the one in the english wikibooks in that it uses pecorino as well as parmesan. freshly made pesto has an intoxicatingly delicious smell and tastes absolutely divine beyond description. no exaggeration.

other culinary highlights include...

my brother's vegetarian not-quite-bœuf stroganoff

300 g marinated seitan and/or tofu-type stuff, cut into strips

200 g button mushrooms, sliced

one onion or a couple of shallots, diced

olive oil

a heaping handful of carrot cut into short sticks

tomato paste (about one tablespoon)

paprika

flour

vegetable stock

pickles, cut into slices

salt and pepper to taste

sweat onion/shallots and carrots in olive oil, add seitan/tofu/whatever and fry until it begins to brown. (actually, it might be easier to fry the seitan/etc seperately before adding it to the vegetables, will try it this way next time).

stir in tomato paste and a little paprika. sprinkle about one tablespoon of flour over the mixture and stir to distribute evenly. pour over enough vegetable stock to almost cover everything stirring constantly. add pickles. cook until vegetables are soft but not overcooked and correct seasoning. serve over noodles or rice.

this makes a nice, comforting meal, nothing too fancy but very satisfying.

the importance of foreplay

2006-04-17T22:55:00.001+02:00

well, i could have put it differently but that wouldn't be quite like me. what i am talking about is the fact that it is really worth investing time into making bread. things like kneading for a couple of minutes and a second prove enhance the structure of the bread dough drastically. plus all the kneading and punching will bestow me with arms like popeye. so now that i have experienced the miracles a little patience can do, no more excuses for throwing the bread into the oven right after the first prove!
btw, the tomato bread was magnificent!

bread with almonds

5 cups of wheat flour (all purpose or type 480)

120 g of almonds, finely ground

60 g of almonds, roughly chopped

3 tablespoons of butter

200 g curds or cream cheese

2 teaspoons of salt

40 g of fresh yeast or 7g of dried yeast

1 tablespoon of sugar

200 ml tepid water

additional flour, water as needed

olive oil

put flour into a mixing bowl, add salt and curds. slowly roast almonds in butter until fragrant and a tiny little bit browned, add to flour and let cool down a few minutes. dissolve yeast and sugar in water, pour into bowl with flour. knead for a few minutes adding water or flour as needed to produce an elastic dough.

let rise until doubled in bulk. punch down, roll into oval loaf. brush surface with a little olive oil (as though the dough didn't already contain enough fat...). make three or four parallel cuts into surface and then let rise again. bake in preheated oven at 160-180°C for thirty to fourty minutes. check towards end of baking time.

daily soap and bread

2006-04-14T22:01:00.000+02:00

the day before yesterday i made my last batch of soap and decided my short career as a soapmaker would have to end because while making soap can be great fun it's also very dangerous.

soap is basically made out of fat (vegetable or animal) and very concentrated lye. so you have to be really careful (wearing goggles and rubber gloves) while mixing together everything and you have to religiously clean every surface, pot, container and spoon the lye or the finished product could have come in contact with.

what it boils down to is that for me personally the risk involved simply isn't worth it. working with lye and "raw" soap in the kitchen obviously isn't a major problem for a lot of people but i get too paranoid doing things like that. so goodbye soap making!

the good news is that now - after a lot of cleaning - i can use the huge stainless steel pot i previously used for making soap for cooking larger amounts of pasta.

oh yes, and we took a trip to the naschmarkt. i was overwhelmed with the smells, the food, fruit and vegetables offered ranging from local produce to indian, chinese and lots of turkish/greek specialties.

among other things we bought olives, egypt style sheep's milk cheese, turkish flatbread, baklava, falafel, tamarind paste and curry leaves. so much for local eating. *lol*

and another major investment (at least for a poor student ;-)) was made: i finally bought a mortar big enough not only for grinding spices but for making pesto and indian spice pastes too.

olive bread:

4-5 cups of white breadflour

1 7g-sachet of dried yeast

2 heaping handsful of black olives

a little salt (not too much, olives are usually salted!)

2-3 tablespoons of good quality olive oil

water as needed

mix the flour, salt and yeast. pit olives and mix with the flour. add olive oil and as much water as needed to form an elastic, non-sticky dough. let prove until doubled in size, form desired shape, brush with olive oil and bake at 150-180°C (do not preheat oven!) for 30-40 minutes.

currently, i am baking this tomato bread and although it is still sitting in the oven i already know i will definitely make it again (soon!) because the tomato mush alone tasted so good i licked my fingers and the pan and i am only slighty embarassed!

sometimes a rolling pin is just a rolling pin

2006-04-10T20:09:00.000+02:00

pasta con finocchio

1 large onion, finely diced

2 small bulbs of fennel, diced

olive oil

a handful of raisins

a generous pinch of saffron

half a cup of dry white wine approximately

granulated garlic

white and black pepper

salt

a handful of chopped almonds or pine nuts or both, lightly toasted

saute onion in olive oil until translucent. add the fennel and soon afterwards the raisins. cook stirring frequently until halfway done. then crumble saffron into wine and pour mixture over vegetables.

cook until desired degree of doneness is obtained, stir in almonds or nuts and season with garlic, pepper and salt to taste (be generous with the pepper). serve with pasta.

this came out really nice, tasting sweet and saffrony. i should have added a little more pepper though. and it reminded me that is two months since i last made my beloved risotto milanese.

today i bought my very own rolling pin (beech wood). it's not as long as some of its italian brothers but it's longer than my mom's and most important of all it is mine. and after having obsessed over the impressive length and beautiful wood it is made of i discovered an olive wood ladle that i simply couldn't resist although i had not planned to spend nearly as much money as i did in the end.

recipe index

2006-04-01T01:34:00.000+02:00

pasta con finocchio

olive bread

bread with almonds

vegetarian not-quite-bœuf stroganoff

paradeissauce (homemade tomato sauce, traditional style)

milchrahmstrudel

cranberry tartlets

marillenkuchen

powidl

grießbrei mit hollerkompott