Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

My fridge was the home for 2 bottles of Guinness.  I had bought them for cooking some time ago. I don't drink Guinness. I don't like the muddy taste. I like Kilkenny a lot better. What do I want to do with that? Krustenbraten is made from pork shoulder with skin still on. For my version 2.0 I decided to variate things a bit. I did read about 10 recipes and that is what I came up with. Pork shoulder with skin on. The shoulder I found was bone in and pretty small already. I had the butcher cut it 1 more time, so I end up with food for about 2-3 days. The other piece went into the freezer.  1 large onion , coarsely chopped 3 carrots , peeled and chopped into pieces 1/2 celery root, cleaned and cut into pieces similar size to the carrots 2 bottles of Guinness (0.33l) 4 cups of veggie broth ( I used Better then Bouillon, 1 generous tbsp for 4 cups of boiling water ) 1 tbsp of tasteless veggie oil 1 tbsp yellow mustard 1/2 cup of water Salt, Pepper Wash the pork and then pad it dry....

This rub will work on any pork. It depends on how much pork you have.  The unit is tbsp. So (1) is 1 tbsp and (2) is 2tbsp and so on. The rub I used Ground coffee (2) Salt (1/3) Pepper (1/3) dried thyme (1/3) ground smoked paprika (1/2) light brown sugar (3/4) ground cumin (1/2) garlic powder (1/3) According to google,  3 tsp are 1 tbsp. I did not measure anything. I just eye balled it.  Wash the pork, pad dry and then rub some olive oil over all the surface. The spices need to stick. Cover it generously with the spice rub and let the pork sit on the counter. Preheat the oven to 375F.  My pork was pretty fatty. So I covered a tray with tin foil added some water to catch the fat drippings and cleaning easy. I added the water so the fat does not burn and stinks up the kitchen. With a deeper dish and water, this mixture can be used to make a nice sauce. Cook until you reach your desired temperature. For me it was about 30 min. It really looked as it all burned, but noth...

Pork knuckles can be found in the many parts of Germany. However, the preparations can be very different. In the south it is usually grilled. The skin gets very crispy. In Berlin it is cooked. The orginal spice mix is from  "Calle cooks grandma's recipe's (in German)" . Of course some of the things I can't get here or they are really exepensive.  I used: celery (celery root would be better, but is hard do come buy and expensive) fresh thyme (I used some I had in the freezer, an eye balled tsp) parsley (I used frozen as well, a good hand full) 1 medium onion, cut into 8 pieces (on the internet some people don't even peel, I dont like that, I peel) 2 carrots, cut into larger chunks leeks or Chinese onions (they look like baby leeks, I used those) around 12 Allspice kernels around 10 juniper berries (smashed) around 12-15 whole black pepper kernels 6 bay leaves (fresh or frozen if you have, dried is fine as well) 1.5 tbsp salt water And of course a pork knuckle I...

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...

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 abou...

It is Christmas and I didn't want to go for the standard potato salad and wieners on Christmas Eve and the duck on Christmas day. I decided on a beef and pork stew. I just posted a few days ago on my Hungarian  version of a beef stew. This is a bit different. I was planning to use some peppers here  as well, but then forgot to take them out of the fridge and then of course forgot about it. I don't plan cooking upfront. I go by what comes to mind. Ok, that requires me to write down what I used, so I can write here. This time I go with: Not on the picture: salt and pepper 2 tsp of tomato paste 3 tbsp of salsa 1/2 cup of red wine 1 tsp of smoked paprika 1 tsp of ground paprika 1 tsp of ground Allspice 1/2 tsp of thyme 2 tsp of margarine 4 cups of water In a pot, melt the margarine and add the onions over medium heat. Let them get translucent. Add the meat (I actually counted the pieces. it was 12 pieces each. I just didn't want to have so much left over.) When the meat is sear...

The original recipe is  here  . I changed it a bit.  I used 2 lbs pork shoulder with bone in, in 1 piece 2 big onions, coarsly chopped 1.5 tsp of ground piment 14 cloves  10 bay leaves 1 cup lager or pilsner beer 35 black pepper corns, lightly crushed 2 tbsp margerine 2 clove of garlic, cut in half 1 cup of buttermilk water Wash the meat and pad dry slightly. Generously salt and pepper from all sides and set aside. In a Dutch Oven melt the margarine, add the onions and let them get translucent. Move the onions to the side and add the meat. Sear from all sides. Deglaze with the beer and let it cook for a few minutes. Turn on the oven to 350F. Add 1 cup of water and all the spices to the DO, cover and let it simmer. When the oven is on temperature, uncover the DO, add some more water and put it uncovered into the oven. Let it roast for 1.5h with convection on. Check every 15-20 minutes to make sure that there is enough liquid in the pot. Pour some of the liquid over th...

I had a couple of pork loins in the freezer, that I wanted to use. I really only wanted to use 1 of them. They were packed separate, but connected. Unfortunately the seal between them didnt seal properly. So I had to defrost both of them. First I thought, I have not used the smoker in a long time, but it was rain in the forecast for all Friday. Ok, regroup, and I made them on the stove/oven. Friday morning they were defrosted, One of the loins was pretty flat, so I just butterflied it. A have a salt free Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning. This went very generously inside as well as a large clove of garlic slices on both parts of the butterfly with some salt, pepper and garlic powder. After flipping over the other the other side, I used some butcher twine to bind it. Set aside. The second loin was more round. I cut it so it would end up like a flat piece of meat. of course it was not perfect. I will roll it back together at the end. Once laid out flat, some salt and pepper, not to much. ...

This weekend is cook weekend. I found a soup cookbook and I am going to cook from it a bit.   2 lbs boston butt cut into bite size pieces 2 lbs of neef stew beef 1/2 stick of margarine small can of tomato paste 1 medium onion coarsely chopped 2 cloves of garlic chopped 2 bay leafes 1/2 tsp dried thyme 1 tsb ground all spice salt and pepper to taste 5 cups of water 4 tsp Knorr Tomato bullion 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes     In a Dutch Oven, melt the margarine. Add all the meat and sear it. Add half of the tomato paste (1 generous tbsp) and stir. Sear a bit more. Add all the remaining ingredients. Bring them to a boil, turn the heat down to simmer and cook till the meat is tender. Serve with potatoes or couscous or noodles or potato dumplings. -Mahlzeit-  

Time to put some more mileage on my smoker and grill today. Baby back ribs with smoked/baked potato and a side salad. Aside from what is shown, I added some salt and pepper on the meat side only. Then a liberal sprinkle of the sweet and smoky spice mix (does not contain salt). The woodoo sauce is for basting. I smoked 4 hours3 should at 210F and 3 hours at 250F. After 1 hour remove the bacon slices. Those slices are way better then anything one can buy at the store.  Baste about once an hour with the woodoo sauce. 3 hours into the smoking process I washed 2 russet potatoes, put them into Aluminum foil and added it to the smoker. 1 hour before the smoking is done, the potatoes were transferred into an oven at 450F to finish the cooking process for 1 hours. The spice combination makes a nice sweet taste with a good kick at the end. The side salad 1.5 cups of ripe water melons 1/2 onion finely chopped 2 tomatoes chopped into small bites 5 babybell mushrooms cut in half and then cut...

I picked up a small pork loin yesterday. It is supposed to go on the smoker today. I decided to brine it over night as follows: Fosters beer, so it is all covered 10 allspice kernels 10 juniper berries 1 medium red onion coarsely chopped All of this goes into a bowl and then it goes covered into the fridge over night. I took them out of the fridge this morning and let it come up in temperature for about 30 minutes. During this time I made the basting mixture. 2 tsb balsamic 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp sweet paprika 1 tsp ground Allspice 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses  Mix all of this in a bowl. Remove the meat from the brine and pad dry. Baste the spice mix on to the meat from all sides. In the smoker it goes, at 210F until the inner temperature reaches 148F. I had different bags pellets left, so I just emptied all of them into the tray. Use what ever is your favorite. If the temperature is 145F. 148F or 150F does not matter to much either. It all depends on how...

Time to get my smoker to work again. This morning I took a Boston Butt de-boned that I bought 2 days ago out of the fridge. My spice mix: 1 tbsp + 1 tsp light brown sugar 1.5 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp sweet paprika 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp all spice 1/2 tsp chipotle pepper   I mixed all of the spices. Note, brown sugar tends to get hard over time. The light sugar tends to take more time to turn into rocks. Dark brown sugar can turn into rocks a lot shorter time. The internet suggests to take the dark sugar rocks. add a wet paper towel and put it into the microwave between 20-30 seconds. I had mixed results with that. Anyways. I covered the meat with the entire spice mix.  I did let the meat sit for 2 hours on the counter to come up to temperature. Smoking temperature 225F, extra smoke for 2h, total of 6h, then I decided tp up the temperature to 350F. At 189F internal temperature I turned off the smoker 2 hours later.   Oh, ...

In the grocery store I found pork butt steaks. We ate a lot of them from a grill growing up. Normally they marinate at least 24 in beer and onions. I decided to just take one, salt and pepper on each side and onto the BBQ it goes. As a side I wanted to try grilled melon. Each side from the pork about 10 minutes. And the melon about 4 minutes a side. Serve with another veggie. -Mahlzeit-  

The freezer needs some room. There are a couple of pork loins that can go. Into the fridge they go and defrost. Spices: 2 bay leaves 2 chipotle peppers from a can sliced 1 big clove of garlic sliced 1tsp tumeric 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp ground allspice 1 tsp curry 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground mustart 1/2 tsp thyme leafs 4 cups of water 3 tsp Knorr Tomato Bullion 1 large onion chopped 2 tbsp veggie oil 1 tsp margarine  Meat 2 pork loin chopped into bite size pieces At the end 1/2 cup of fat free half/half 1 tbsp tomato paste   In a Dutch Oven, add the margarine and the veggie oil and heat it up over medium heat. Add the onions and let them get translucent. Add the pork. Mine was actually still a bit frozen, but that is ok. Turn up the heat and sear the meat. Be careful not to burn the onions. Add all the remaining items under spices, stir so all is mixed fine. Cover and turn the heat down to medium. Bring it to a boil and then turn the heat down, so it only simmers. Check ...

Well, it is the most famous BBQ day of the year. July 4th. I decided I am going to smoke a picnic shoulder, skin on, bone in. This is going to take 12h.  The plan: Start marinating Wednesday night and start smoking Fri morning.... Wed night: 2 large onions chopped in slices and 4 bottles of  German Urbock with smoke flavor, yes smoke flavor. Into a big bowl they go, cut a diamond pattern into the skin of the pork shoulder. Only spice it with some pepper. No salt for now, and all goes into the fridge Because the meat was not fully covered, I added to big cans of Foster Premium. Friday morning comes around, I wake up and it is raining. Not just a little bit, it is pouring. A pellet smoker needs electricity... I guess it it is still raining at 10am, I will have to move the smoking day. I ended up moving the smoking day. In the meantime I took the meat out of the marinade, wrapped it tightly with plastic wrap and back into the fridge. Friday morning: 8:30am: unwrap the shoulder, s...

 I still have a lot of meat in the freezer. Time to use some. I defrosted 2 burgers and 2 thick cut pork chops bone-in over night in the freezer. All of them get covered in Montreal Seasoning. Smoking temperature is 180F for 2.5 hours for the burger and 3.5 hours for the pork chops over hickory wood pellets.     Serve the burgers with your choice of toppings. For me that is usually deconstructed... The chops stay on a little longer. -Mahlzeit-