how many local dollars for a local anaesthetic?
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.
