Wild garlic pesto / Baerlauch Paste

Picking your own fruit and veg is a big thing in Austria. Take mushrooms for example: People would get up as early as 4 am on a Saturday morning to embark on an hour long trip to their secret mushroom spots in one of the many forests in Austria. Of course, no one actually would know a proper secret spot, so if you are not there early enough, someone else will have picked the best and biggest ones. The same goes for wild blueberries.
And wild garlic. But as with mushrooms, not everything that looks like the real thing turns out to be the real thing. Wild garlic and the leaves of Lilies of the Valley are practically identical, just that the Lilies are not quite as healthy as wild garlic. In fact, every year a couple of people die in Austria after accidentally eating Lily of the Valley leaves.
It's not too long ago that I first tried wild garlic and although it has a very acquired taste I warmed to it quite quickly. It's very garlicy, but also very herby, which makes it so much more interesting than just normal fresh garlic.
I assume you can use the leaves in stir fries or add them to wilted spinach. A very common dish in Austria is also creamed wild garlic soup and wild garlic paste. Wild garlic paste is used in the same way pesto is. You can make a great dip by simply adding it to Greek yoghurt or sour cream. Or try to add it to your tomato sauce next time you have pasta.
Delicious but smelly. Best eaten on your own or with friends who don't mind the odd garlic breath. Wild garlic paste
Blend equal amounts of wild garlic and sunflower oil plus a pinch of salt in a food processor. That's it really...

Redcurrant-meringue cake / Ribiselschaumschnitte

Ever since I mentioned the redcurrant-meringue cake of my grandmother in one of my recent blog entries, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Not a surpise then that I bought a few wee boxes of redcurrants when coming across them during my lunch hour today. Immediately after handing the £1.50 to the stall keeper, I walked into the next shop to get some eggs and butter; nothing should stop me now from baking my beloved redcurrant-meringue.

The moment I walked through the door at home I got started. It's amazing, I had no idea that this cake is practically fast food. Well, I am not a keen pastry cook, so the art of baking is really still an art to me. But althoug it was my first attempt my cake proved to be a big success... Enjoy the taste of summer.Ribiselschaumschnitte
For the cake
: 5 eggs
: 90g corn flour
: 90g flour
: 100g icing sugar
: 50g melted unsalted butter
: zest of 1 lemon
: 70g redcurrants
: pinch of salt

For the redcurrant-meringue
: 4 egg whites
: 125 gcaster sugar
: 100g redcurrants

Cream together the eggs, lemon zest, icing sugar and salt for about 8-10mins. Slowly add the melted butter. Now fold in the siftes corn flour and flour.Grease an approx 40x30cm baking tin/tray and pour in the mixture. Bake for about 15mins at 180 degrees. Leave to cool.
In the meantime beat the egg whites and slowly add the caster sugar. Once the egg whites turn creamy and shiny, fold in the redcurrants.Top the cake with the meringue mixture and put under a hot grill for about 5 mins. Eat!

Viennese potato salad

No Schnitzel without good old-fashioned Viennese potato salad. Having said that, we never had the real thing on our dinner table at home. Even when it was Schnitzel-time.
As mentioned previously, every salad in my province was dressed by default with pumpkin seed oil. A habit, people from Vienna have not yet adopted. Second reason why the potato salad of my mother not only looked different (everything that has pumpkin seed oil added is greener than grass) but also tasted different to the proper Viennese salad is my sisters dislike for onions (in fact, my sister dislikes everything but chicken, rice and potato mash).
No dish prepared and cooked in my mother’s kitchen ever dared to have onions in it. My mother and I compensated the lack of onion-vitamins by eating German rye bread with paté, topped with loads of freshly chopped onion. Apart from that, my mother went through tons of onion powder. But it’s just not the same - that’s why my sister would eat it.
How delightful that my chicken-only-with-mash-or-rice-but-never-onion days are long gone. Ever since I moved out of my parent’s flat, I practically haven’t touched chicken, I couldn’t stand the sight of potato mash for years and I put onion into almost every single of my dishes.
Which brings me back to the initial idea behind this post: Viennese potato salad. With loads of onion! Viennese potato salad, for 4
: 400g salad potatoes
: 1 super large onion
: 1 chicken stock cube
: apple or cider vinegar
: sunflower oil
: white pepper

Cook the potatoes on their skins. In the meantime, sauté the finely chopped onion in a little oil until soft. Prepare the chicken stock as per directions on the pack. When ready, pour the stock over the onions and let it simmer for about 10-15mins.
While still piping hot, peel and slice the potatoes. Pour over the onion-stock-mixture and some vinegar. Let the salad rest for a while, but give the salad a quick mix/turn every 15 mins or so. After 1-2 hours, finish the salad off with a little drizzle of sunflower oil and a sprinkle of white pepper.
The salad keeps in the fridge for about two days. Best eaten at room temperature one day after preparation.

Chicken skewers a la saltimbocca

Skewers make a great party dish: you can be as creative as you want with the ingredients and presentation. And best of all: you won't have to wash millions of plates once your guest have left.
Inspired by The Passionate Cook, my friend Laurent took the skewer idea on board and although we couldn't find all ingredients given in the recipe we came up with our own pretty good little mouthfuls of succulent chicken and croutons.
Basically, we were missing the fresh sage. Fresh herbs are not always easy to get. Unless you live in shopping distance to Borough Market. But luckily, in this recipe you can cheat using dried sage. Chicken skewers a la saltimbocca with croutons and basil, for 15 skewers
: 2 boneless chicken breasts, diced
: 100g Serrano ham, cut into thin stripes
: 2 tbsp dried sage
: 15 leaves of purple basil
: French country loaf, diced
: sea salt
: olive oil

Salt the diced chicken, cover each piece with dried sage, then wrap in Serrano ham. Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the chicken parcels until golden. Remove from pan.
Add a little more oil to the pan and fry the bread cubes until crisp.
Stick one piece of chicken and one crouton on each skewer. Finish each skewer off with a leave of fresh basil.

Tomato mozzarella pots with pesto genovese

Tomatoes with mozzarella is probably - together with melon and prosciutto - the most served starter at a dinner party. Both 20th century classics, both reminders of the time when Italian dishes other than Spaghetti Bolognese, Pizza and Lasagne finally started to make it big across Europe. I remember my mother preparing it for lunch, dinner and parties. Tomatoes and mozzarella everywhere.
The dish hasn't lost any of its appeal ever since and still proves to be a dinner party hit. Rather than having them sliced on a plate with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, I like to present them in little pots. Mini-mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes, a drizzle of olive oil and a few dollops of green pesto.

Smoked salmon wraps

Wraps are a great way to feed your hungry boyfriend in the evening or your guests at a party. They are easy and quite cheap in the making and taste great. And the best think about them: you can practically put anything in a wrap. Recently, at a friend's party, we had salmon, dill and cream cheese wraps and ham, mustard and spinach wraps. The most simple of them all and almost the best was rolled up version of the the classic ham, cheese and mustard sandwich.

Sugar coated fruits

Gooseberries are my favourite fruits, closely followed by currants: red and white. I will always remember the redcurrant cake my grandmother made whenever they were in season. Spongecake with redcurrant-meringue. I adored it, I loved it, I would have given away my Barbie for it. My mother didn't share my appreciation for this cake though. The pungent acidic flavour of the redcurrants and the slighlty uber-sweet meringue didn't tickle her tastebuds enough to ever bake it.

Redcurrants are not only tasty, but also very pretty little berries and great for decorating dessert. Especially when frosted with caster sugar. Simply dip the washed fruits in a little egg white, then cover with sugar. Leave them to dry for an hour or so. They add some texture and crunchiness to mousses and cream desserts, or even cakes (try it with my favourite chocolate cake)

Slim dinner: Soy steamed veggies with rice

I went to the gym today, as I do most days. Oh no, I don't enjoy it a bit, but that way I can eat more ;-)
I was doing my exercises on the Swiss ball when my personal trainer whom I occasionally have sessions with approached me. He sat down next to me: "I saw you working out on Tuesday and you looked amazing! You must have lost quite a lot of weight".
He surely was baffled that I wasn't even the slightest bit delighted about his comment. What he didn't know though is that I had the gastric flu just a few days before. No wonder then that I had the flattest of all stomachs. But since I was sitting on the ball he couldn't see that meawhile I was back to my old self.
Crap, so my personal trainer now expects me to be slim! Veggies for dinner then.I still had a pack of Chinese Choi Sum in my fridge. I fried it with some garlic, fresh lemongrass, freshly squeezed orange juice and soy sauce, added very little rice and some water and let it steam for a bit. It was a meagre dinner, but not bad at all.

Mediterranean salad, the Styrian way

People from the South-East of Austria (province of Styria) are hooked on pumpkinseed oil. I am one of them. I always make sure that there is at least one spare bottle in my cupboard - for emergencies.
It is a very versatile little helper in the kitchen. Most people use it for salad dressings only, but you can make fab scrambled egg with it and even bake cakes with it! Newest culinary invention using pumpkinseed oil is pumpkinseed pesto. It isn't that different in the making from Pesto Genovese. Use pumpkinseeds instead of pine nuts and pumpkinseed oil instead of olive oil. Or take some ready made pumpkinseed oil pesto with you on your next trip to Austria just like I do! Aubergine and zucchini salad with beans and pumpkinseed oil pesto, for 6
: 1 large aubergine, sliced lengthways
: 2 large or 5 small zucchini
: 2 cans of beans (e.g. borlotti, cannellini)
: 1 bunch of parsley
: 2 tbsp pumkinseed oil pesto
: pumpkinseed oil
: Maldon sea salt
: freshly ground black pepper

Slice the aubergine lengthways into thin slices and cut the zucchini into chunks/wedges. Fry both vegetables on a hot, well oiled griddle. When ready, arrange the aubergine on a large plate and top with the drained beans. Finally, add the zucchini and a few dollops of pumpkinseed pesto. Season with salt and pepper. Roughly chop the parsley and sprinkle over the salad. Finish off with a drizzle of pumpkinseed oil. Serve with grilled meat or freshly baked brown bread.

Apricot Mebos

Mebos must be some kind of chicken nugget amongst snacks. We believe them to be healthy, but actually, they are worse for you then a Big Mac.
When I went to South Africa some time last year, I came across those compact fruit rolls in a wee road side shop. The first bite is a bit of a shock to the system… very sour and salty. But the more you nibble on it, the better they get.
They are very high in salt and sugar content, but hey, at least they are 100% fat free. And they keep for months!
It is a recipe for summer since you will need to dry them in the full sun for a few hours. So not much chance that I will make my own this year!
Apricot Mebos
: sweet, ripe apricots
: 250g or more sugar per 500g mebos
: 1kg salt to 8 litres water

Soak the apricots in salted water for 12 hours, then drain them and remove the skins. Leave the whole apricots out in the sun for 12 hours, then squeeze gently to force out their stones. Press the apricots into round flat shapes and spread them out on racks to dry for a few days. Keep on shaping and pressing them (dip your hands in a mixture of 25ml salt and 2 litres water) occasionally during drying. Pack the mebos neatly into small boxes and cover them with sugar. If you layer them, make sure to put a good layer of sugar between them. Store in a dark place.