Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

Growing up we had a lot of smoked fish e.g. Mackerel and Aal. I have to figure out how to smoke salmon like you get it in the store. This one is for sure not the recipe. The inspiration is from  Blackberry Babe . I changed it a bit. 2 x 1 lbs. pieces of salmon 1/2 tsp of salt 1 tsp of ground black pepper 1.5 tsp dried dill weed 1.5 tsp of Bajou Cajun Spice mix from McCormick 1.5 tbsp brown sugar Mix all the spices in a bowl. Under cold water wash the salmon and pad it dry.  Divide the spice mix in half and cover the salmon with it. Put it into the fridge for 1h uncovered. Heat the smoker to 220F I put the salmon into an extra tray. Smoke for about 90 min until the inner temperature is 145F. Serve warm or cold. -Mahlzeit- Update: I had a cold piece of the salmon tonight and added a spoon full of capers. OMG, that enhanced the salmon by a lot.

 I call it apple pound cake. It is not really a pound cake.  250g butter (8.8 oz) 250g sugar (8.8 oz) 1 pack vanilla sugar 4 eggs 500g all purpose flower (17.63 oz) (not shown in picture) 2 tsp backing powder 1/8l milk (0.52 cups) 1 oz rum (optional, not shown in picture) 1Apple Mix sugar with the vanilla sugar. In mixing bowl add the butter and mix on low speed. Add 1 egg and 1/4 of the sugar, when it is good mixed add the next egg and another 1/4 part of the sugar. Repeat and till it is a smooth  Then add flower , mix, a bit of milk and mix until half of the  flower is taken. Add the baking powder to the flower and stir. Then keep adding flower and milk, at last add that rum. Griese a sping form, add the dough and distribute evenly in the form. Cut the apple in slices and put then on top of the cake. Bake for 1h at 350F. When done, garnish with powder sugar -Mahlzeit-

Looking forward to my vacation in the south. It is still crawfish season. At a grocery store I got me some frozen crawfish. They were sitting in my freezer now for 3 or 4 weeks. Time to use it. 10 small red potatoes (washed) 1 pack Eckrich Turkey Sausage , sliced 1 ear of fresh corn 1 pack of Zatarain Shrimp/Crawfish boil. (That one was still sitting in my spice cupboard, was 3 years overdue, it still did its job) 1 gallon of water ( the Zatarain's package calls for 3 quarts. However I remembered, this being really spicy, so a bit more wont hurt. 1 pack of frozen crawfish (about 16 to the pack) In a big stock pot add everything except the crawfish and bring it to a boil. Lower the temperature, let it cook until the potatoes are almost done. Add the frozen crawfish, turn up the heat to medium and set the timer to 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, turn off the heat. Use a spoon with slots to remove all the goodies from the broth into a bowl. The broth may have sand in the bottom i...

 I really liked the spice mix I for the lamb. a few weeks ago. Let's see if I can come up with something similar for a Boston Butt, applying what I learned last time. This are the spices mixed up + some brown sugar + some Old Bay seasoning + some ground lack pepper.  In total I mashed 3 cloves of garlic. The lamb mix had chopped up rosemary as well, I opted not to use any this time. All quantities are eyeballed and then I tasted it and added what I think it needed more off. Other then the salt from the Old Bay seasoning, I did not include salt.   In the shop I asked the bone to be removed from the Boston Butt. I wanted to cut it up into larger chunks anyways. I am thinking this can cut down smoking time.  I cut them up into 4 chunks. Coded everything with the spice oil mix, covered in a bowl it goes into the fridge for tomorrow morning.  At 10am the smoking started: 7 hours later: -Mahlzeit-

It was time to make something vegetarian, well sort off.  We need: 1 bunch of kale, cleaned, chopped into smaller pieces 1 large onion coarsely chopped 4 carrots, peeled and chopped 1/2 a white cabbage chopped 6 potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces 12 cups of water 1/2 tsp of thyme 1 tsp ground allspice 6 tsp of Knorr Chicken Bullion 1/2 tsp of mushroom umami 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning 1/2 tsp Mrs Dash Salt free original seasoning veggie oil In a big stock pot add some veggie oil and the onions. Under medium heat let them get translucent. Then add all the veggies, the water and spices, stir an cover. Let it all come to a boil, turn the heat down to simmer. Stir every now and then. Cook until the potatoes and carrots are tender to your liking.  Well, I added some German Wieners to the mix to heat them up. 😊 -Mahlzeit-

In a Facebook room I picked up a great inspiration how to smoke lamb. For good smoking, actually cooking in general it is important to have the same size for the ingredients. Think about a steak. You want the same thinkness everywhere, so the steak is medium rare everywhere. Same applies for smoking. A boneless leg of lamb has some damage, where there bone was removed. I decided to take that flap off. No matter how I tried to get it back into a decent shape, it didn't work.... Turned out to be a good decision. Now I have 2 pieces of meat.  The spice mix: 5 cloves of garlic minced, if they are small, use more 2 sprigs of fresh or frozen rosemary stripped of the stem and chopped 1/2 tsp dried thyme 3 sprigs of fresh or frozen stripped of the stem 5 tsp of olive oil (you can use more) 2 tsp of Texas BBQ seasoning,  Most of the time, the boneless leg comes in a net. I removed it to cut off the extra meat and then put it back on. I also used kitchen twine to bind it length wise, to...

I got my hands on a small brisket, 4.5 lbs. My spice rub: 1/3 cup of sugar 2 tbsp paprika 2 tsp smoked paprika 2 1/2 tsp black ground pepper 2 tsp kosher salt 1 tbsp garlic powder 1 tbsp ground cumin 1 tbsp onion powder 1 tsp mustard powder 1 tsp ground chipotle pepper There are similar recipe's on the internet, but what can I say. Since the pandemic it is hard to get my hands on some things. I started off trimming the brisket, then seasoned it on all sides. Into a glas bowl with a cover it went and then into the fridge over night. I used hickory wood for the smoking process. My Smoker has a beginners brisket program: 3.5h on 165F and then it moves the temp up to 225F until the inner temperature is 190F. About 10 hours later I was still at 160, so I stopped the smoking, everything went into heavy duty alu foil double wrapped and into the counter oven at 350F. The thermometer I have in there, says it was only 250F. So who knows.  For the last 2 hours in the smoker I wrapped some pot...