Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

There were plenty of mushrooms in the fridge, a bag of white mushrooms and 1/2 bag of shitake mushrooms.  shitake mushrooms cleaned and sliced. I discard the stems, they are usually a bit wooden white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 1 cup of sour creme 1/2 cup of cut Chinese chives 1 tbsp margarine 1/4 tsp Old Bay spice 1/4 tsp ground allspice 1 medium onion chopped salt and pepper to taste  In a frying pan with a high rim, melt the margarine and add the onions and the chives. Over medium heat get them translucent. Then add all the mushrooms. And cook them until done. I tend to add some water, cover the pan and after 5-7 minutes I remove the cover, add the Old Bay and ground Allspice and keep cooking. Add the garlic and keep cooking. When all the liquid is evaporated add the sour creme. Keep cooking until it is heated up. Serve with noodles and some cheese. -Mahlzeit-    

My fridge had 1/4 water melon sitting around. And there was some feta cheese left. Somewhere back in the back of my mind I seemed to remember they do go nice together and indeed they do. Melon together with mint is a winner as well. There is my simple salad. 1/4 melon chopped into bite size pieces 1/2 cup of chopped or crumbled feta 1 handful of fresh mint (frozen works as well)   salt and pepper to taste Dressing 2 tsp pomegranate molasses juice of 1 medium lime  Mix all of this in bowl, stir and let it marinate for 1h in the fridge. -Mahlzeit-

When I go to the east end, I am stocking up on a lot of things. Meat, tea (if I am out of it) and some spices.  So aside from chicken bones I also got a couple of ducks, 2 rabbits as well as pork hearts, frsh noodles. I really wanted to get 2 different meals out of the duck. It all starts with roasting on of the ducks. The other one was still frozen, so it went into the freezer right away. When roasting ducks, I like the combination of a balsamic pomegranate molasses as a baste. But let's start from the beginning. Ducks from a Chinese store come with the head and the feed attached. They got cut off as well as parts from the from the wings and put into a bag into the freezer for the next duck stock. Salt and pepper from the out and inside. I got myself a new roasting pan. The old one had lost some of the non-stick coating. I didn't want to risk more of this to show up in my food. In  the bottom of the pan add so much water, so it does not touch the duck. For me that was a almos...

This salad gives a little taste of spring. On Saturday I picked up a small bag of mixed greens and a water melon.  In a bowl mix 2 cups of mixed greens 2 cups of chopped into bite size chunks water melon 2 tomatoes, cut into a cubes 1 small cumber chopped 6 mushrooms sliced 1/2 onion slices into small pieces 1/2 cup of fresh mint (frozen works as well) salt and pepper to taste For the vinaigrette juice of 1 lime 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil 2 tsp of pomegranate molasses  (honey or maple syrup will work as well) Mix all of this in a in a big bowl and put into the fridge for 1 hour. I like my salads cold. Serve with a fresh slice of bread or a warm dinner roll with butter. -Mahlzeit-

I was at my favorite Asian grocery store in the east end. It was time to stock up again. I bought some chicken bones. Time to make my own chicken stock. In a crock pot add   all the chicken bones,  3-4 peeled and coarsely chopped carrots,   2 cups of coarsely chopped celery stalks 2 tsp of salt 1/2 tsp of thyme 1 tsp allspice  3 Turn on high until it starts cooking, then turn it to low for the next 8 hours. Total time spend is now about 11-12 hours. I started this at 10 am in the morning, when I turned it off it was about 10 at night. The next morning I turn it on low for anther 8 hours, then turned it off and let it cool down. Strain the broth into containers. When they are on room temperature, they can go into the fridge or the freezer/

The process is shown here: Home Made Air Dried Schinken . Siby, thanks for the great idea and instructions. I am making this the second time. One needs a high quality pork tender loin, lots of sugar and salt and even more time. This process takes about 2 weeks.  I did cut mine in 2 parts so they fit nicely into the glass container. I also trimmed a bit from the fat. In a glass bowl cover the bottom with white granulated sugar. Add the tender loins, leave a little room between them and the container walls. Cover them fully with sugar. Cover the container and into the fridge for 2 days. Wait for 2 days, but check after 24. There will be a lot of liquid. Just add some more sugar. After day 2, remove it from the fridge, wash off all the sugar, clean the bowl and dry it very well. The meat should have now a skin on the outside and smell good.  Add a layer of salt to the bottom of the bowl, so it is good covered. Add the meat, cover with salt. Make sure the meat does not touch each ...

I think the last time I made a pizza at home was 18 years ago. Time to change this. Now this recipe I had to change a bit. The all purpose flower here seems to be very different from the European one. I needed more water then the recipe was talking about. Once this is sorted out with a few more trials, I will post it. The toppings high end ketchup 2 types of salami fresh mushrooms golden greek peperoncini jalapeno cheese oregano Into the oven at 450F for 12-15 min. -Mahlzeit-