Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

My mom made a lot of waffles during my child hood. My mom made the dough and my dad was the one working the waffle iron.  The original recipe is to much just for me, so I did cut all in half and changed it bit to make it work with standard US quantities 1 stick of soft butter (don't use Kerry Gold, use a domestic real butter product)  2 eggs 250g all purpose flour 1/2 cup of milk (1/8 l) 1/2 cup of water (1/8 l) 125g sugar a generous tsp of baking powder 1 pack of vanilla sugar 1/2 tsp of lemon extract Mix the vanilla sugar into the sugar. Combine the milk with the water. In a stand mixer use the wire whip. Add the butter and mix it up, add 1 egg and half of the sugar, mix it and add the second egg and the rest of the sugar. Mix it. Add the lemon extract and mix. Divide the flower into 3 portions virtually. add 1/3 of the flour. Put the mixer on low and mix. Add 1/3 of the milk/water mix again. Repeat that with for the second third of the flour and liquid. Mix the baking powder int

The original intent was to make Beef Wellington Ravioli. While cooking I changed my mind. The noodles turned out decent. It was only my 5th time to make noodles myself. I think I will do that more often. The meat Wellington style was good as well. I don't think the recipe for red wine reduction was great. I think it may even be incorrect with some of the measurements. So I am not going to post it. Here is what worked. Noodles: 1 cup and 2tbps of all purpose flower 2 eggs 1tbsp of olive oil. In a bowl mix all of it. Because it was really hard to get a nice dough, I added 1 more tbsp of olive oil and about 4 tbsp of water to it. I could still feel flour pockets, so I did run it a few times through the paster maker. Then I folded them all over, pressed them down, put it into plastic wrap and did set it aside for 30 minutes.. In the mean time fill a big pot with water, season it with salt and bring it to a boil. Meat: beef tenderloin, chop it in small pieces 4 medium mushrooms chopped

I am going through my freezer. Time to cook some of it. This weekend a leg of lamb. Parts of it was deboned already. The question was: to smoke or not to smoke. I decided the oven will do it. I had an appointment in the afternoon. I can turn off the oven and continue when I am back. The spice list: 6 cloves of garlic smoked paprika salt pepper oregano 1 lemmon EVOO The cloves go into the meat. One clove got away. So be it. All the other spices get applied generously. I used a turkey pan with a wire structure. That prevents the meat sitting in the bottom of the pan. Add water and 1/2 cup of EVOO into the pan. Roast it at 300F for about 2h. Check with a thermometer what the inner temperature is.  Half way through the roasting process I notices, I forgot the lemon, OK, slices and on top they go When it is ready, remove from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes. Then cut it. Serve with sides of your choice. For me  this time just a toasted piece of baguette. -Mahlzeit-  

This recipe was posted by Anastasia Thompson in Facebook.  All the unit are for standard European measurements. Many things are sold in 250g per container. Here in the US it is a different story, so I have to adjust things a little bit. My numbers in round brackets. It really pays if one has a scale that speaks oz and grams, The crust 250g of cold butter cut into little chunks. (I was short about 10g) 375g of flower (369 g, it just happened to be this number with the last scoop) 1 egg beaten 1 pinch of salt 150g sugar (140g). I decided to mix the flower with the salt and the sugar. I did cut the butter into small pieces. Slowly but surely I added the flower sugar mixture using a pastry cutter. Eventually I added the egg. At then end all of this ended up on a silicon matt to knead. The dough was 780g, The original recipe recommends to cut it in half. Which I managed to do by eye almost exact.  Line a the bottom of a 24cm spring form with parchment paper. I have some pre-cut for the form

A traditional German Gulasch is mainly pork and beef cubes and spices. While stores here general offer  beef stew meat, for pork this is a different story. I decided to got 1 piece of beef and 3 extra thick pork loin pieces. 2 of them were cut into cubes as well as the beef.  Ingredients 1 lbs pork and 1 lbs beef meat, cubed 1 red bell pepper chopped into pieces 1 medium onion coarsly chopped 1 tsp ground allspice salt and pepper to taste 2 tbsp tomato paste 1 can of chopped tomatos 2 slices of bacon chopped into small pieces 2 tsp of margarine or oil 3 bay leaves 3/4 tsp thyme 3-4 cups of water In a pot melt the margarine together with the bacon, add the onions and the red bell pepper. Let the onions get translucent.  Remove all from the pot, but let rendered fat in the pot. Then add the meat and sear it. Depending on the quality of the meat, water may come out. Most of this needs to evaporate during the cooking process. Then add the tomato paste, and stir. Now make sure that nothing

On Friday they had single packed Cornish Hen. Most of the time one has to buy 2. I picked one up.   I took it from the freezer this morning and by 5pm it was defrosted. I did cut the at the breast side, so I can flip the hen open. Seasoning: salt  lime pepper paprika ground chipotle pepper Line a sheet tray with aluminum foil, place the hen on it and into the oven for 45 min at 400F convection. Now I dial on my counter top oven 400F, the thermometer I have place inside, said 350F. Who knows what is right. I think the thermometer is correct, because I only baked bread in there and it didn't turn out that great. In a little bowl, mix 2 tsp of maple sirup and 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar. After 45 min, baste the hen, turn the heat to 350F. After another 10 minutes, baste again. After another 10 min turn off the heat and serve. As you can see, I already started to eat ...lol... and then I remembered to take the picture.  -Mahlzeit-

I have not had Kassler in ages. Searching the internet I came across this video:  Home Made Kassler  . The recipe can be found  here . I didn't feel like making to much. At the end of the day, I really don't want to have Kassler for a week. I opted for slices of pork chops. The package had about 1.5lbs. I still decided to use the recipe as is. It could turn out a little bit salty (which it did). Anyways. I marinated the meat for 3 days in the fridge. I think 2 days would be enough as well. Then it was time to prepare my smoker. Now my wood pellet smoker smokes also with low temperatures. Oh well, lot's of smoke it is. The smoker has not seen a lot of action in the past 4 or 5 months. Like a windows computer, it wants to update first....ok.... Now the pork chops go onto the smoker. Eventually I added a thermometer into the meat. Smoke after 2.5h the inner temperature was still 125 F. Time to speed this up a bit. I increased the temperature to 210 and about 40 min later the i

I didn't have a chance to go shopping after work yesterday. I need an easy bread, that works around my work schedule. This one does the trick. The recipe is from the internet, but I cut all in half. 225g bread flour, (all purpose will work as well) 3/4 cup of warm water 1 tsp of rapid dry yeast 1 tsp of kosher salt In a bowl mix the salt, dry yest and flour. Add the water and mix it with a fork or a wooden spoon until there are no flour pockets left. The dough will still be sticky. Cover the bowl air tight. I use cling wrap for this.  All this takes about 5 minutes. Set aside in a warm spot. My warmest spot is my computer room. The warmest spot in the computer room is on a running laptop. The work day can start. About 2.5h later I pre-heat the stove  to 450F with a Dutch Oven including the cover inside. After another 30 minutes it is lunch time. The dough has doubled. I just got myself a silicon baking matt. This makes a lot of things easier and I don't need to mess up the coun

I bought a box of Tilapia filets this weekend. Time to try some recipes. As a first version, this is what I came up with: 2 Tilapia filets salt and pepper ground paprica juice of half of a lemon zest of 1/2 lemon 2 tsbp butter 1 tbsp olive oil Wash and pad dry the filets. Salt and pepper from both sides. Spingle some ground paprica on both sides. Heat up the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the the butter. When it is almost melted add the filets. Turn down the heat to low and cover. After about 5 minutes turn the filets over, add the lemon juice and sprinkle the zest over it. Cover and cook till done about another 5 minutes. Cooking time really depends how thick the filets are. As a side can be rice, potatoes and a veggie or salad. -Mahlzeit-

I came across pork belly at Aldi's. It was a small portion. Many things can be done with pork belly. The original though was to do pork belly with beans soup. When I started to read recipe's they all sounded very involved and I didn't feel like spending hours on things. So I  decided to forgot all about the beans.  This is what I came up with: 1 lbs pork belly cut into bite size pieces 1 cup of celery chopped 1 medium onion coarsly chopped 3/4 cup of white wine or champagne (Aldi has some great one to awesome prices) 4 tbsp of Famous Dave's Sweet and Zesty BBQ sauce 2 cups of beef broth  1 parsnip peeled and cut into bite size pieces 2 tbsp of veggie oil. 1.5tsp of smoked paprika 2 tsp of ground allspice  Salt and pepper to taste In a Dutch Oven heat the oil. Add the celery, parsnip and onion and cook for about 5 minutes. The onions should start to get translucent. Remove all from the DO onto a plate. Add the pork belly and let it get color from all sides. Takes about 1

The recipe was posted from Sascha Inden on Facebook. She references  Axel Schmitt as the author of the recipe. It sounds all pretty easy. When I read the recipe, I was not sure it will all work out as such. 300g flower (all purpose) 4g yeast 6g salt 200g water It states to all just mix in a bowl, so the flower is all wet. Not more then 20 seconds.... I would think one would dissolve the in the water and one uses warm water. But ok. Cover the bowl air tight and put it in the fridge for 14-20 hours. This morning, when I check, the dough still had the size from yesterday.  The instructions say, to leave it on the counter top for 15 min, while the oven pre-heats to 250C. Add some water into a separate bowl, to generate steam.. Sprinkle some flower on the counter top. Cut the dough in half and fold it over a couple of times. Then bake for 15 minutes.  That is where I left he instructions. I did flower a surface and did fold it over for a couple of times. And then I decided to let stand for

There are some veggies left over in my fridge, that need a purpose.   Missing on the picture: 3 bay leaves 1.5 tsp ground all spice 1 cup lentils cleaned and rinsed 1/2 cup of bite size chunks of celery 1/2 cup of bite size chunks of carrots.  10 cups of water 8 tsp of Knorr Tomato Bouilon Peal the potatoes, cut the cauliflower and the broccoli into bite size pieces. Clean the onion and coarsely chop it. Slice the sausage.  In a big pot melt 1 tbsp of margarine. Add the sausage and let it get some color. Add the onions, carrots and celery. Cook for about 5 minutes.  Add all the remaining ingredients. Bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 30-40 minutes. It depends on how long the lentils need. For longer cooking times, it may be better, just to add the spices, water and the lentils and let this simmer for about 15 minutes and then add the rest. -Mahlzeit-