Poached Quail Eggs on Roasted Radicchio

Poached Quail Eggs on Roasted Radicchio

(original recipe by Donna Hay, Food Illustrated  April 1999)

4 small radicchio, halved 

olive oil

2 tablespoons sage leaves

60g butter

8 quail eggs

Place the radicchio on a baking tray and sprinkle with olive oil, sage leaves and black pepper. Bake at 180°C /350°F for 20 minutes, or until the radicchio is soft.

Place the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and gently cook until it is a golden colour.

Poach the quail eggs in simmering water for 45-60 seconds (chicken eggs need 3 minutes to be poached).

Place the radicchio on plates, top with the eggs and spoon over the butter.

Roasted radicchio is a delicious thing. Crunchy and full of flavour if done right.

If like me, on some days, you prefer a quicker version, I suggest you just sauté your radicchio in some butter (as pictured above). Enjoy!

#4 Grandma's Classics: Osterzopf (Braided Easter Bread)

I always remember my mother and my grandmother, who were living very close, making this braided bread at Easter when I was a child. My mother continues baking it until today for her Easter brunch. It's one of the traditions that pass on through generations.

How Grandma makes a braided Easter bread

500g flour
1 sachet dry yeast
50g sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/8 l milk
50g butter

1 egg yolk to brush over the finished braid.

Before you start, make sure that all ingredients have room temperature, the milk can even be luke warm.

Mix flour, dry yeast, sugar and the pinch of salt in a bowl. Add eggs, butter and milk and stir well. Knead the dough until it becomes elastic. Add flour if the dough becomes too sticky. Once finished dust the dough with flour, cover the bowl with a dish cloth and set in a warm place for about one hour. The dough should have doubled in size.

Divide the dough into three equal strands and braid them gently. Braid from the middle out to an end, repeat with the other side. Tucks the ends under to seal. Place the braid on a baking sheet, cover with a dish cloth and let it rise for another 1/2 hour.

Beat one egg yolk and brush it over the braid. Bake in a 180° preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until light brown.

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If you like you can sink soft-boiled, dyed eggs into the dough before baking. Grandma never did. She always served the eggs separately.

Happy Easter!

from Sarabeth's Bakery: Expresso Cake

AUGURI  to all those who celebrate their birthday today!!  My kisses and wishes fly to Florence!

Sarabeth's Expresso Cake makes for  a true birthday cake: the batter tolerates the fanciest baking moulds, it's moist and smooth. With its subtle coffee flavour the cake is perfect for the birthday breakfast.

Expresso Cake ( from the book Sarabeth's Bakery)

butter for the pan
1 cup hot brewed coffee
3 tablespoons instant coffee, preferably expresso
3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 cups superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature, separated

for the coffee glaze:
2 tablespoons hot brewed coffee
1/2 teaspoon instant exoresso powder
1 tablespoon milk
2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 180°C (350°F).

Combine the brewed coffee and expresso powder in a glass measuring cup; let cool.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. In another bowl beat the butter until smooth.Gradually beat in the sugar, then add the vanilla, and beat until very light in colour and texture. One at a time beat in the yolks.

Reduce the mixer speed to low. Starting with the flour mixture, alternating with two equal additions of the cooled coffee, beat in the flour mixture, beating until smooth after each addition.

Whip the egg whites in a grease-free bowl until soft peaks form. Using a silicone spatula , stir about one fourth of the whites into the batter, then gently fold in the remaining whites.

Scrape the batter into the form and bake  30 minutes (small forms) or 55 minutes (one big form).

Cool on a wire rack.

To make the glaze, mix the brewed coffee and the expresso powder. Add the milk. Add the confectioner's sugar and whisk until smooth. It should be thin and warm to the touch.
Slowly pour the warm glaze over the cake. Cool completely.

♥♥♥

100 ayurvedic cookies

My dear readers, this is not a joke, I really mean one hundred cookies!

Antje passed by and brought me a nice little paper bag filled with some super healthy cookies. When I later asked her for the recipe, she sent me the below:

Ayurvedic cookies

18 cups oat flakes
3 cups sunflower seeds
3 cups raisins (soaked in warm water, strained)
3 ts salt
6 ts cinnamon
3/4 ts clove powder
3/4 ts ginger powder
3/4 ts pure vanilla powder
12 cups whole wheat flour, freshly ground
1 1/2 sachets baking powder
6 x 250g butter
1 1/2 cups whole cane sugar
3 cups honey

Mix the dry ingredients with the raisins. Melt the butter and dissolve the sugar in the liquid butter. Add the honey and stir well. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients, stir and let cool down.
Stir again.
Presss dough into the plastic lid of a honey jar and discharge it on a baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes at 170-180°C.

A short extract of our email conversation: 

B: Are you sure about the quantities? It seems to be a lot..

A: Yes, yields about 80-100 cookies, depending on the size, and this is only half the recipe

B: what the hell do you do with so many cookies?

A: they make you come over the winter and people love them, they are a kind of Lembas, you know, the elves' bread in the Lord of the Rings...

big snow, 3 boars and a simple beetroot salad

I had a flu. Runny nose, sore throat, cough and fever.
So instead of throwing myself into the planned spring detox and sports  in the (supposed) sunshine I'm spending my days lazily on the sofa, recovering, drinking hot English tea and trying to motivate myself to breathe the snowy air outside my warm cocoon not only for shovelling snow.

Snowboots and ski pants on, camera hidden under the parka I bravely headed  into the forest.  At least it was not cold (-2°C only).

On my way back from the lakes, just when  in a sudden euphoria I considered buying a new pair of cross country skis as soon as possible, three enormous wild boars jogged by my side. I stopped walking, breathing, all terrified, trying to make myself invisible...  Approximately 20 meters in front of me they crossed my path and disappeared in the forest again. I was not cool enough to take a photo. I'm sorry.

The question is, would it have been dangerous if I was closer?  What would have happened if, for example, I went with an off-leash dog? Do boars find enough food after weeks of snow covered fields? Do they also run around when the sun is shining? I shall have to ask the Head of the game reserve...

I don't cook a lot these days: simple things, vegetables with oil and vinegar, pasta, fish and rice.

I just thought it would be nice to share my today's beetroot salad with you. Firstly because it really was delicious, secondly because all this snow series needed a hint of colour.

Beetroot salad with apple and laurel

3 beetroots
1 apple
2 leaves of laurel
olive oil,  vinegar, salt and pepper

Wash the beetroots, cover them with water and cook them about 20 minutes until soft. Peel and slice them. Peel and slice the apple and mix with the beetroot slices in a bowl. Dress with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add the leaves of laurel. Let the salad rest at room temperature for at least one hour to allow the flavours to mingle.

Would  be nice to accompany a boar roast as well, wouldn' it?
But not for me, not now,  I definitely don't want to enrage the Big Boar Spirit....

#3 Grandma's Classics: Käsekuchen (German Cheesecake)

A good cheesecake is the pride of every German housewife and apart from the famous NewYork Cheesecake (which is made of cream cheese instead of fromage frais) it seems to be a signature cake of Germany.

The recipe in the cookbook requests 7 (SEVEN!?!) eggs for the filling. "No no no, that can't be true" I thought to myself, numbers and exclamation marks filling my head. The perfect cheesecake, one that satisfies the tastebuds and is still kind of healthy, wasn't to be found in the cookbook, but instead on the other end of the phone line (Grandma).

Cheesecake

Short crust
70g sugar
100g butter
200g flour
1 egg

Filling
1kg Quark (fromage frais 10-20% fat content)
150g sugar
3 ts vanilla sugar
1 ts grated lemon peel or a pinch of lemon myrtle
2 tbs flour
4 eggs

Prepare a shortcrust working together the sugar, butter, flour and the egg. Let it sit in the fridge for 1/2 an hour. Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and place it in a buttered springform.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

With an electric mixer whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon peel until white and creamy.
Add quark (fromage frais) and flour and mix again until creamy.

Pour the cheese filling into the shortcrust lined springform. Bake it for 40 minutes at 180°C. It is finished when the surface turns slightly golden.

After ca. 20 minutes of cooling down outside the oven you may turn the cake upside down on a wiring rack with the springform still assembled. Now let it cool completely for at least 2 hours. The imprints of the wiring rack leave the typical "German cheesecake" pattern.
You can't see the pattern in my pictures? YOU ARE RIGHT!  Me neither, but I couldn't have turned the cake upside down without ruining the crust!

My samples "to go" before and after baking

Grandma's tricks to prevent the inevitable shrinkage of the filling once out of the oven

1) after 20 minutes of baking open the oven, cut gently with a knife between short crust and filling and continue baking

2) once baked turn off the heat and let cool down for 10 minutes in the open but still warm oven

Red cabbage with figs and chestnuts

Following my intuition rather than a recipe I broke my red cabbage routine. The original recipe contains apples and onions which gave the distinct savoury-sweet flavour.
This time I used dry golden figs and cooked chestnuts to add sweetness and body. I was happy to find that the cabbage was no longer merely a side dish but had been transformed into a filling meal.

Red Cabbage with Figs and Chestnuts

2 tbs butter
1/2 head of red cabbage, thinly sliced
4 dry figs, thinly sliced
100g cooked chestnuts, minced
5 splashes of Tabasco sauce
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs paprika powder
1 ts thyme
2 cups of water
salt and pepper to taste
fresh greens to decorate

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the cabbage and braise until slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Add the figs and the chestnuts and stir. Add Tabasco, vinegar, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper and stir again to coat evenly.
Add 2 cups of water.

Now reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the cabbage is tender. It takes about 30 minutes, but have a look from time to time and stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Decorate with fresh greens. Enjoy!

little potato bags

After all the wonderful Christmas dining and overstuffing I celebrate to come back to the simple things of life. Like a little bagful of oven roasted potatoes. Together with some lemon and parsley dressed sardines and a nicely  smelling Chaumes they make for a delicious dinner.

Little Potato Bags

Fill  each square-cut piece of parchment paper with 4 small sized, clean scrubbed potatoes. Sprinkle generously with fresh parsley, thyme and oregano, add a piece of butter, a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Tie them up.
Bake the little bags in the oven for 40 minutes at 160°C.

Combines perfectly with a glass of red wine!

Midnight Milk Punch - Lenka's suggestion from Paris

Hi Lenka,
thank you so much for your suggestion! Your Midnight Milk Punch reminded me of the legendary Eggnog, Cary Grant offered so adorably in "The Awful Truth". Only that in all the years I tried to serve the Eggnog all my guests denied in favour of some more transparent liquids.
But you won't believe it: just mentioning your name  (so much cooler than Cary Grant!), everybody
has been keen to try it.
Big hugs and kisses and a very happy New Year (I'm sure it will be, because now we entered The Age of Aquarius!)

Chin chin!

Terrace Heart Biscuits

My dear friend Mela sent me a recipe of her grandmother and a picture of herself (cute!) as an extra feature for this blog! I was so excited about the submission so I felt rather guilty for taking so long with the actualization of the blog post! Mela, I finally baked the terrace heart biscuits, so what do you think?

I must say, they were fingerlicking good!

The recipe (as seen above):

120g sugar
250g butter
peel of one lemon
1/2 vanilla pod
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
400g flour
some tablespoons of jam, I took raspberry because of the nice red colour, although the original recipe requests apricot
icing sugar

Prepare a short crust working together the sugar, butter, lemon peel, the inside of the vanilla pod, egg yolk and flour.
Let it sit in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.
Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and cut out the biscuits with a heart shaped cookie cutter.
Bake on a tray at 180°C for about 15 minutes (until the pastry turns slightly golden).
Assemble the hearts using the jam as glue and dust with icing sugar.

Bon Appetit! Enjoy the terrace hearts on your terrace or elsewhere... if your terrace is currently frozen to -5°C like mine, a little bonfire and some mulled wine (bah!) will help your toes to stay alive.

Brownie Hearts

The little Erzgebirgian incense smoker fills the house with the warm scent of olibanum. The candles on the Advent wreath wait to be lighted. Hot deliciousness bakes in the oven.

Brownie Hearts
As for the recipe  I must confess I took my favourite Brownie mix.  I added butter, eggs and a sip of milk as requested on the package and prepared  the dough.  Then I spread the dough on a baking sheet a bit thinner as you would do for a true brownie, a brownie-brownie. I baked it for 20 minutes at 175°C.

Right out of the oven I cut the dough into hearts with a cookie cutter and dusted them with icing sugar.

To decorate I suggest you take a little crab apple. Isn't it cute?

potatoes in pink & purple, best together with Gremolata

Lately Herr Herzog, my organic vegetable provider, asked me if I wanted him to add some pink and purple potatoes to my weekly order. I immediately agreed because 1.) I always love to try something new and 2.) Sophie Calle's chromatic diet in mind, two difficult colours suddenly seemed to come within reach.

But before throwing myself again into the sophisticated Fine Arts of monochromatic cooking I went for a very quick and simple potato lunch: oven roasted wedges with  Gremolata using the last fresh herbs from my garden: rosemary, thyme, parsley and summer savory.

My Gremolata
1/3 cup olive oil
the zest of a small lemon, grated
1/2 ts grated orange zest (optional)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 ts red pepper flakes
2 tbs parsley, chopped
1 ts fresh rosemary, chopped
1 ts fresh thyme
1ts fresh summer savory

Whisk together 1/3 cup olive oil and the herbs, zests, garlic and red pepper. Set aside for at least half an hour.

"Salad Blue" potatoes

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Cut the potatoes into wedges. Toss the potatoes with the gremolata and add salt and pepper to taste. Spread the wedges out on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes.

The result: delicious taste with an avant-garde look!

#2 Grandma's Classics: Weincreme

Another delicacy is Weincreme . Life in a wine growing region ( Grandma is from Heidelberg )  requires  a well stocked fridge with open bottles of wine, and desserts like "Weincreme"  belong to the traditional repertoire of any housewife.
In very special occasions (baptism, wedding, famous guests) Grandma even replaces Chantilly  by Weincreme to accompany her homemade apple cake.

Weincreme (Sabayon)

yields 4 servings

8 tbs sugar ( Grandma takes 4-6)
4 whole eggs
1 tbs cornflower (Maizena)
2 cups of white wine (Grandma takes 3/4l)
a slice of lemon to be cooked with

Now the most difficult part: all ingredients have to be beaten continuously on slow heat until close to  boiling.  For this task you need a good eye and your full attention. Actually it could be easier to use a bain-marie, but of course not for a cook with the experience of Grandma!  Weincreme is ready when it turns from liquid to creamy.

Pour in glasses and cool.