Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

Can you believe it? I went to 3 stores and none of them had a brisket...Ok, then chuck roast it is. Doing homework how to make it on Saturday. The idea for the spice mix is from  Beef dry rub . Of course I don't have everything on hand these days. I am missing cayenne, so I added in 1tsp of no salt Texas mix. It has bit of kick to it, but nothing that would over power the beef. I also reduced the amount of salt called for. I seasoned it, put it into container to work magic over night in the fridge. Ohh does this smell good. Wood pellets: Hickory The plan: 220 with extra smoke until internal temp is 185F Start 10:18am after 3h I start basting every 30-45 minutes with some beef stock After 7h the internal temperature is 155. This calls for a change of plans. No more extra smoke, bump up the temperature to 260. Another hour and we are done. After about 8 hours I am at 180F. I am going to skip the last 5 degrees. Served with potato and sour creme. It did taste nice, but a bit on the sa...

 I am now the proud owner of a smoker. I thought I can just do some chicken legs on Friday afternoon. And the Boston But goes on Saturday morning. Until all was set and done, delivery and seasoning the smoker it was 5pm. To late to start something that takes hours. I had to exchange the pellets at the store. They brought me a blend and I had ordered hickory. So I ended up with Mesquite... The spice mix comes from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omXFw_JnP4E It is actually a bit more salty then I like it. The next mix will be adapted. So 4 chicken thights and the Boston Butt goes onto the smoker at 225F. I can't see a lot of smoke, so I turn the temp to 220F and hit the extra smoke button. Now we are talking. After 2 hours I stated to baize it a bit. The chicken legs with a Savanah marinade and the Boston Butt with a store board BBQ sauce. After 3.5h I took the chicken off and it was delicious and turned the off the extra smoke. The Boston Butt is now just spayed with wate...

 I didn't have a lot of the 14% whole wheat flower left, just 1 cup. My sour dough starter was lazy not rising.  Here is what I came up with. 1 cup whole wheat flower 1.75 cups of all purpose flower 1.5 cups of hand warm water In a mixing bowl mix all of this with a dough hook for 5 min on 1, then 10 min on 2-3. Remove the bowl, cover and let sit for about 2 hours. 3/4 tsp salt sour dough starter by volume 3.5" x 3.5" x 2.5" 2 tsp of active dry yeast. Mix all of this for 15 minutes on 3 again. The dough should only be lightly sticky. Remove from mixer, cover and let stand for 3 hours. Onto the mixer it goes again, mix for 5 minutes, put into a banneton. The banneton goes into a plastic bag with room to expand. Into the fridge for 12-15 hours (final time depends on when I wake up the next morning 😂 ). Bring the oven up to 495F. Place the DO in it. After 30 min. remove the DO from the stove. Use good gloves. The DO is hot, hot, hot. Remove the dough from the fridge, f...

 I decided to expand the list of topics here. Going forward I will also write about products I tried and things that I try. So far I have only written about what worked for me. So here we go. For 2 years I argue with myself, if I should get a smoker or not and then which one to get. I think I resolved question 1, I want a smoker. Coming to a conclusion what I get exactly is a very different story. I ordered a smoking tube off the internet. With cleaning it did cost me about 17$.  Now can I turn my broken Grill into a smoker with this? Nope. At best it for cold smoking. Let's start at the beginning. I bought a bag of wood pellets, a mix of cherry and others which are supposed to be nice flavors for fish.  I filled the tube with the pellets and now I need to light them. I have an emergency gas lighter, but that one didn't work that well. The flame just didn't stay on long enough. Ok, somewhere I have matches, where there wood is actually 20cm (a little less than 8") long...

This bread came out great. 2 cups of whole wheat strong flower (14%) 1.5 cup warm water Mix for 15 minutes with the dough hook on low. Cover and let it sit for 60 minutes on a warm place. Back on the mixer it goes. Add 3/4 tsp of salt, 2 tsp active dry yeast, sourdough starter (see note 1). I had to add 2 more tbsp of flower to get it less sticky. Mix for 15 min on low, cover and let it stand for 3h. One more time in the kitchen machine for 5 minutes on low. Flower a banneton, add the dough, put wrap it with a plastic bag, I used a target shopping bag, into the fridge for 14-15h. Put a DO into the oven and preheat the oven to 495 F, with the DO inside. Once the oven is at temperature, still wait 20 min. Take out the DO (protect your hands, that thing is HOT, HOT, HOT) Add parchment paper, flip over the banneton, cover and back in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Then uncover and reduce the temperature to 435. Bake for another 20 min. Remove and onto a cooling rack it goes. 😊. Let it coo...

 This cake is a really heavy cake We need  125g dark chocolate (100% cocoa Ghirardelli) 25g dark chocolate (80% cocoa Ghirardelli) 100g milk chocolate( something good like Milka or Lindt) 80ml heavy cream 60ml coconut oil (use good quality and tasteless) Butter Biscuits slices (best are Leibnitz) 10 drops of good vanilla extract Optional: 2oz rum This is good for 2 of the forms below. Line any form with strong aluminum foil. Make sure to have some foil left over on the side. we will need it to cover. I found 2 small ones, that are perfect. Cut the chocolate into small pieces. Except the biscuits put all the ingredients into a frying pan and melt them. Keep steering with a spatula. Heat must be the lowest level. Even then remove the pan often and keep steering, so nothing burns. Cover the bottom of the form with the melted chocolate, add a layer of biscuits. Repeat the process until the form is full.  Fold over the sides to cover it and then put it into the fridge for a fe...

The last 2 weekends I did experiment with sour dough bread. This weekend, I decided to switch gears and make a Turkish bread with sesame seed. The original recipe I found on the internet. I have a habit of not following instructions from time to time, so it ended up with some modifications. We need 1 egg 500g of all purpose flower 2 tsp active yeast 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup milk sesame seeds olive oil 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar Mix the water and the milk and warm it up, so it is lukewarm. Add the salt, sugar and 1 tsp of yeast. Mix it all up and let it stand for 15 min. In a mixing bowl add the flower and the remaining yeast and mix it all up. Turn mixer on 3. Slowly drip the water/milk/yeast mixture. Keep mixing for about 10 min.  Mix the dough per hand on flowered surface for 5 more minutes. Greece a bowl with the olive oil, put in the dough, cover and let it rest at a warm space for 1 hour. It should double in size. After 1h knead the dough again for 5 minutes, roll it out. Cover a b...