Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

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...

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...

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 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 cou...

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-