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.

Frozen yoghurt shots

I don't like ice cream. In fact, I do find it rather disturbing that every single dessert in some of London's top restaurants is served with ice cream.
When I grew up, our cakes did not come with a compulsory blob of ice cream on the side. We would have our cakes and Strudel on their own, at the very most with some whipped cream on the side. The concept of pouring cold liquid unwhipped cream over my cakes - like they do here in the UK - is one of the things that still seem very strange to me.
I try to accustom though and integrate cream or ice cream into my desserts. Preferrably ice cream on its own though. Like my frozen yoghurt and raspberry shots (inspired by La Tartine Gourmande's Rhubarb and raspberry yoghurt ice pops: they make my guest happy and although I wouldn't eat them myself I am happy to put them on the menu as they are no effort at all. Frozen yoghurt shots, for 10 shots
: 1 egg
: 60g icing sugar
: 300g yoghurt
: 200g raspberries
: 1-2 tbsp caster sugar

Simmer 100g raspberries and some caster sugar over a low heat until the fruits start to liquidise. Drain off the fruits and set the liquid aside.
Beat the egg with the icing sugar until creamy, then mix in the yoghurt. Pour 1/3 of the yoghurt mixture into a separate bowl and mix with half of the cooked fruits. Roughly chop the remaining uncooked fruits and fold into the main yoghurt mix. Blend the other half of the cooked raspberries with the raspberry syrup.
Spoon the yoghurt mix containing the roughly copped fruits into the shot glasses (fill them up to 1/2 or 2/3 with the mixture). Place them in the freezer for 30 mins, then add 2-3 tablespoons of the syrup to each glass. Freeze again for 30 mins. Finally fill th glasses with the remaining yoghurt/cooked fruits mixture and place in the fridge for another 20-30mins beforte inserting wooden or plastic sticks to make the lollies. Keep in freezer until entirely frozen.
Loosen the frozen yoghurt from the shot glasses by placing the glasses in a bowl of hot water for around 30 sec. Serve in shot glasses.

Mini duck liver paté eclairs with chocolate-balsamic icing

I defrosted my freezer a few days before I had my BBQ. I came across the duck liver which I had left over from my last party. Just a few small livers, not enough to feed a party of 15-20 with a nice paté for starters. Still, I wanted to use it up and out of the blue I had the idea of duck liver filled paté.
I sort of didn't think any further (I do like experimenting with my patés by adding herbs, alcohols etc.), so when the time came to actually make the paté I wasn't prepared for any special flavours. While going through my fridge looking for potential paté enhancers I remembered the chocolate-balsamic glaze on the top shelf: also a leftover from my last dinner party. Brushed on top of the choux pastry it would make my little savouries look like the real chocolate eclairs. So Japanese fusion filling then. I had some pickled sushi ginger and fresh lemongrass. That's all I really needed.
Mini duck liver paté eclairs with chocolate-balsamic icing, for 10-15 small eclairs
For the duck liver paté
: 150g duck liver
: 1/2 stalk of fresh lemongrass
: 1 tbsp of pickled sushi ginger
: 100g butter
: soy sauce
: sesame oil

For the chocolate-balsamic glaze
: 100g caster sugar
: 50ml balsamic vinegar
: 50ml cider vinegar
: 30g good quality grated dark chocolate

Prepare the eclairs/choux pastry shells.
Wash the duck livers and quickly fry them on a very hot griddle until slightly pink in the middle. Add some sesame oil and a good splash of soy sauce.
Remove the outer leaves from the lemongrass stalk and chop finely.
Place the liver together with the lemongrass, sushi and butter in a food processor to make a smooth and creamy paté.
To make the glazing, gently heat the vinegar and the sugar until the sugar has dissolved and simmer over a medium heat for a further 5 mins. Take off the heat and whisk in the chocolate.
Slice the eclairs in half and using a piping bag, fill them with paté and brush some of the chocolate-balsamic laze on top.

Peach, walnut and mozzarella salad with maple syrup

It's a very cold summer here in the UK. Shops seem to have given up on this year's summer. When I went to Asda's the other day to get some charcoal for my BBQ, I found myself in front of empty Sale shelves. The supermarket chain has decided to sell off all their BBQ stuff that has been sitting on the shelves for ages and to not re-order any more this year.
Luckily I did finally manage to get some charcoal from another place and we spent a very nice afternoon with friends and neighbours in our backgarden munching on tuna burgers, chopped steak burgers, sausages and salads.
My favourite salad was the peach, mozarella and walnut salad. Jamie Oliver did something similar once if I remember well. I guess that's where I got the idea from.
I cannot remember what exactly went into Jamie's salad, but mine goes like this:Peach, walnut and mozzarella salad with maple syrup, for 6
: 5-6 ripe peaches, cut into chunks or wedges
: 2 mozzarella
: 150g walnuts
: 250g baby spinach
: 100g rocket
: maple syrup
: extra virgin olive oil
: lemon juice
: Maldon sea salt

Cover a large serving plate with the spinach leaves. With your hands, tear the mozzarella balls into bit size chunks and arrange on top of the spinach together with the peaches. Add the rocket and sprinkle over the walnuts. Drizzle over some maple syrup, the juice of half a lemon and a few tablespoons of olive oil. Season with Maldon sea salt.

Aperol Spritzer

It's a big hype in South and Central Europe, in the UK however it hasn't had much success among the bar crowd yet: Aperol. In London, you only find it in the most Italian of all Italian cafes, bars and shops.
The bitterness of this orange liquor reminds of Cinzano and Campari. Two drinks that haven't made it big on the British Isles either.
I came across it last time in Austria where literally everyone sitting outside in a beer garden is sipping on an Aperol Spritzer: white wine, soda and a splash of Aperol. The perfect refreshment on a hot summer's day.
Which could explain the lack of enthusiasm about it in the UK: so far, we haven't had a summer yet.
Still, I was excited to see that my favourite Italian Deli had a dusty bottle of Aperol tucked away in the corner of the drinks section. The shop owner was delighted when I asked for it. It brought me one step closer to being Mrs Shop Owner one day (he IS cute ;-).
When I served prosecco with a glugg of Aperol to my guests recently, I got basically two kinds of reaction: content faces from the Southern/Central Europeans and the request for a spoon of sugar in it from the rest.
I like it. Prost!

Raspberry cream filled wafer cones with fennel crisps

You are being told by every cookery program on TV, read it in every cook book and hear it from every chef: get yourself a decent (and expensive) knife. I spent most of my cooking days using the cheapest, crappiest knives and survived quite well. So I thought!
Recently I stocked up on good WMF and Zwilling knives for up to £60 each and now I wonder how I ever survived in the kitchen using old, broken and almost poundshop worthy knives.

Now that I know the difference between good and bad knives I might also stock up on good pans. I did have difficulties last time when boiling my sugar syrup up to hard ball temperature. My little Berndes pot had to endure a biggest-flames-ever-in-my-kitchen treatment in order to bring the syrup up to temperature. It took forever, we almost didn’t make it and just when I was about to give up it reached the desired degrees. It was like driving an overcrowded London bus up a hill. But Berndes cookware is not even the worst you can get though. It is not heavy bottomed enough though.
When I went to Selfridges last weekend I fell in love with a £150 Fissler stock pot. Still a bargain when you compare it to the gold pot with diamonds by Fissler which sells for a mere £100.000.

Anyway, coming back to the knife: go out and get a good knife before even trying your luck with fennel or indeed any other kind of non-potato crisps (lime crisps for example).
The fennel crisps were initially not intended to go in the raspberry cream, but then, I made them (just for fun; I do the strangest things for fun it seems), so I needed to use them. And although fennel and raspberries do not seem like the happiest of all marriages: it did work rather well.
Raspberry cream filled wafer cones with fennel crisps, for 4
: 1 egg
: 40-50g icing sugar
: 150ml whipping cream
: 100g raspberries
: 4 ice cream cones
: 1 fennel bulb
: Suze

To make the crisps, cut the fennel into very thin slices. Prepare a light caramel: first lightly borwn the sugar in a pan, then add a splash of Suze or any other herbal alcohol and a splash of water. Add the fennel and let it soak for about a minute. When removing the fennel from the pan, try to shake off as much of the sugar liquid as possible.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a baking tray with lightly oiled parchment paper. Lay the fennel flat on the tray, cover with another sheet of parchment paper and place a second baking tray on top. Leave in oven for around 10 minutes, then remove the second baking tray and parchment paper. Cool down the oven to approx 100 degree Celsius and leave the fennel in it to dry for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, whisk the egg together with the sugar until creamy using an electric hand mixer. In a separate bowl, whip the cream. Still using the hand mixer, whisk together the cream and the egg mixture and finally add the raspberries, whisk for another 20 seconds or until the raspberries are blended in well with the cream (still keeping their texture).
Using a piping bag or small spoon, fill the cones with the raspberry cream and top with a fennel crisp.

Bacon and cheese sausage

I love a fry up. Occasionally. A generous helping of organic streaky smoked Bacon, baked beans, fried egg and buttered soda bread will fill my belly for an entire day.
Only thing I simply cannot stomach about an English breakfast or Ulster fry are British sausages. Even the supposed-to-be good ones (those that actually contain proper meat) can’t compete with a proper German or Austrian sausage. Kaesekrainer, Nuerenberger Bratwurst, Weisswurst… whatever their names, they are haute cuisine compared to British bangers. My all-time favourite will have to be the Kaesekrainer, followed by Berner Wuerstl (according to a Swiss friend, this kind of sausage is totally unknown in Bern and every other part of Switzerland though). Bacon and cheese sausage (Berner Wuerstl)
: 1 Frankfurter, Viennese or Hot Dog sausage
: 1 slice of Emmenthal cheese
: 1-2 slices of pancetta or Hamburger speck

Slice the sausage open lengthways (make sure to not totally slice the sausage in half, leave the skin on one side in tact). Fill with cheese (fold/break thes cheese so that it fits) and wrap tightly with the pancetta. You can secure the Berner Wuerstl with tooth picks if necessary. Fry in a lightly oiled pan. Serve with chips (Pommes frites) and ketchup.

Raspberry Marshmallows

Ever since I read in a newspaper about James Martin having a can of diet coke and a chocolate bar for brekkie, I have fallen big time for this guy. My ideal and regularly consumed breakfast is diet coke with a slice of - as I call it - “black forest toast”: lightly toasted bread with a generous helping of Nutella and a dollop of cherry jam on top. I could however easily swap my black forest toast for a Mars bar if James Martin wanted me to ;-)
What I like about him is his down-to-earth approach to food. 90% of chefs would never admit that they eat or god forbid like any other chocolate than Valrhona chocolate. We all know that high quality dark chocolate is a good thing, but let’s be honest: a Mars bar, Bounty or Milky Way now and then can have its charm too. A sticky, gooey, high calorific charm… Yummy.
I had my last Mars bar 3 years ago. I love the stuff, but hardly ever eat any other choc bar other than a Milky Way Crispy Roll or Duplo when I am back in Austria: Not quite as satisfying, but less calorific.
Nevertheless, I love James Martin’s unpretentiousness. Which is reflected in most of his food as well. Simple, easy to recreate and very, very delicious. Like his raspberry marshmallows.
Damn, they are good! And as long as you have a sugar thermometer at home and manage to get hold of some liquid glucose, they are fairly simple to make as well. But don’t try to improvise and do stick to what the good man has to say: the sugar syrup’s temperature has to reach 127 degrees Celsius and you do have to beat the egg white/sugar mixture for about 10 mins. When you do that, success is guaranteed. I promise! And once you have tasted a homemade marshmallow, you will never go out and buy another pack of food colouring and E-numbers again.

Gooseberry crumble

When I was a child, there were no fruits I loved more than the gooseberries from my grandmother’s garden. While my sister would go and pick the sweet raspberries, I would eat myself sick on the not-so-sweet gooseberries. Don’t forget, I wasn’t mad keen in sweet stuff when I was younger. Apart from granny’s garden, there weren’t many places where you could get gooseberries. You would occasionally be lucky enough to find them on some farmer’s markets, but not in huge amounts.
So when I first visited the UK I was all excited about finding tinned gooseberries on the supermarket shelves. I am even more excited now to see that they've started selling fresh gooseberries.
I decided the give the classic gooseberry crumble a shot. My crumbles are usually just ok, but either the crumble gets to soggy or to hard… not much crumbliness going on. So no more sticking to a recipe but just following my intuition. I just mixed and crumbled the ingredients together until it looked ok. And it was. It was more than ok, it was the best crumble I have ever made. Actually, the best crumble I have ever had! Gooseberry crumble, for 2
: 350-400g fresh gooseberries
: 40g butter
: caster sugar
: Demerara sugar
: flour
: ground almonds

Simmer the gooseberries with 2-3 tbsp caster sugar until soft. In the meantime, mix together the butter, Demerara sugar and flour and almonds (ratio 2:1) until you get a crumbly texture.
Start off adding 2 tbsp Demerara sugar, 2 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp ground almonds. Taste the mixture and add more sugar until sweet enough. Finally add more flour and almonds until you get the right, crumbly texture. Make sure the crumble is rather fine and you don’t have lumps of dough in your mixture.
Spoon the gooseberry compote into a small, ovenproof dish. Top with the crumble and finally sprinkle with one tbsp Demerara sugar. Bake at 180 degrees for around 30 minutes.
Pour over some cold single or double cream and serve immediately.

Beloved Baked Beans

They are the greatest thing the British have ever invented: Baked Beans. I could have them anytime of the day - in fact, I do actually have them morning, lunchtime and evening. Well, not everyday of course, but occasionally. With bacon and a fried egg on a Sunday morning, on a jacket potato at work or as a quick dinner for when I am on my own in the evening.
You wouldn't think so, but baked beans are actually very versatile. They sell them in many different flavours: Tikka, Jalfrezi, Chili and Mexican. And one of the flavours that have been out there for ages now is Curry. Curried baked beans are the greatest among the inventions around the baked beans. And it doesn't take any time at all to make them sort of from scratch. Don't buy the ready-made curried beans!

Curried baked beans, for 2
: 1 tin of baked beans
: 1 small onion, chopped
: a good handfull of raisins
: 1 tsp ground cumin
: 2 tsp curry powder or curry paste

In a little oil, fry the onion until soft, then add the cumin and curry powder/paste. Let the curried onion mixture gently fry a minute or so, this will bring out the full flavour of all spices. Add the raisins and finally pour in the baked beans. Heat through gently (do not bring baked beans to the boil!) and serve with fried potatoes, chips or on its own.

Zuericher Geschnetzeltes

I remember having Geschnetzeltes at least twice a month when I was younger. First came the Zuericher Geschnetzeltes, but inspired by her weekly woman’s magazine, my mother soon added all sorts of things to her Geschnetzeltes. Two family favourites were Geschnetzeltes with asparagus and curried Geschnetzeltes with tinned peaches (still my number 1 among the all the Geschnetzelte).
There are times when your body screams for the comfort food from your childhood. Plus, I found a pack of dried Spaetzle in my cupboard, had turkey breast and cream at home, so nothing could stop me… apart from the lack of white wine. Time to improvise then: a splash of white wine or cider vinegar diluted with some water turned out to be a rather successful substitute. Zuericher Geschnetzeltes, for 2
: 250g thinly sliced turkey breast
: 1 small onion
: 100ml single cream
: splash of white wine or cider vinegar
: lemon pepper
: salt
: small bunch of parsley

Fry the onion in a little olive oil until soft. Add turkey breast. Once the meat has browned a little, add a splash of vinegar and some 150ml of water. Let the liquid reduce a little, then pour in the single cream. Season with lemon pepper and salt, sprinkle over some fresh parsley and serve with Spaetzle.

Pain perdu with glazed cherries

I am one of those people who cannot throw away food. So everything that doesn’t get used before its “Best before” date ends up in my freezer. Like last Christmas’ panettone. It was about time – after all, we are now in July – to finally use it.
I sliced it before freezing which turned out to be a great idea. It defrosts in literally minutes that way.
Pain perdu with glazed cherries, for 1
For the pain perdu
: 2 slices of panettone
: 150 ml milk
: 1 egg
: 1 tsp vanilla extract
: butter for frying
: caster sugar for sprinkling

For the glazed cherries
: 1-2 handful od stoned and halved fresh cherries
: 2 tbsp caster sugar
: 2-3 tbsp water

Heat the butter in a pan. Mix the milk, the egg and vanilla essence. Lightly soak the panettone in the milk/egg mixture and fry in the butter until golden brown. In the meantime, pit cherries in a pan and sprinkle with sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the water and simmer for a few minutes.
Place the pain perdu on a plate and sprinkle with sugar. Pour over the hot cherries and finish off with a few drops if cream.

Glorious (and almost homemade) bread

When I was a child I wouldn't really eat any bread but go for the nowadays more fashionable "no-bread-sandwich" a la Pret a Manger. Not that I would have cared about my wheat intake. What child would?
I simply wasn't a big fan of anything made out of dough. When, for example, my aunt invited us over to her place, she would baked a cake for my sister and my mum and I present me with my absolute favourite: smoked sausage with chantilly cream. Yum!
In my defence though, when we got older my sister discovered brie topped with nutella as her special treat... weird family ;-)
At home I would have the occasional thin slice of pumpernickel or crisp bread laden with virtually the whole content of our fridge: pate, mayo meat salad, cheese, sausage... you name it, I had it!

Times have changed and so has my taste. I now love bread. The darker, the better. Rye is my absolute favourite followed by brown bread with nuts and raisins. But whoever has ever been to the UK knows how hard it is to find edible bread in this country. So I started to bake it myself, even imported sourdough and bread spices from good old Austria.
But there is not always time to bake bread from scratch. Luckily, in amost every country on this planet there is now Lidl, the German discount supermarket. Try to get the ciabatte bread mix (or get some white bread mix from any another supermarket I guess) and make it our very own creation by mixing in some interesting flavours.
Try to mix in the following:
: walnut and maple syrup, sage, olive oil and honey
: chili and good quality dark chocolate
: sundried tomatoes in oil and smoked cheddar or feta cheese
: pumpkin seeds and honey
: lardons and fried onion
: lemon zest and thyme
... even better: leave the thyme out and just put lemon zest and a little bit of brown sugar in the dough. While the bread is still hot, slab on some salted butter and drizzle with maple syrup.

Jalapenos, Sushi and kids at Ubon

Nobu is one of London's many celebrity hotspots. And Ubon is its less glamorous sister. Well, they do try hard at Ubon to put a little bit of glamour and trend into the backyard of a Canary Wharf apartment building block. Too hard. They seriously present their Fiji spring water plastic bottles in custom made silver coolers.

Since it is situated in an apartment block, the main customers are the neighbouring young yuppie families. One word: kids. No, I am not all against them; and yes, taking your kids out to a sushi place is surely much better than getting them a Big Mac with fries from your local MacDonald's. But please, not on a Saturday evening.

Apart from being exposed to the occasional crying baby and very unfriendly staff, the evening turned out to be a positive experience. Thanks to the great food.
Jalapeno spiced thinly sliced yellowfin tuna simply melted in the mouth. And the fried baby squid in creamy jalapeno sauce was a class on its own. Tacos filled with scallops were unexcitingly nice, the sweet potato tempura a bit tasteless. The avocado tempura though had potential: if only the dipping sauce would have had some taste. But definitely worth trying at home... with a decent sauce.
The sushi was simply great. Especially the tuna maki with spicy mayo!
As for desserts however: the "cheesecake" wouldn't normally qualify as such as its spongy yet chewy consistency had nothing in common with anything else made from chream cheese.
Still, although it wasn't perfect, Ubon is a nice addition to the bland high street restaurant-chain dominated area of Canary Wharf.

Quality & Quantity at Artisan

I would have never thought about eating out in a hotel restaurant (unless it is situated in St Martin's Lane and called Asia de Cuba), but there is always a first time for everything. And what a first time it was!
We arrived early at The Westbury. The weather was crap, we were thirsty and the bar was open. Lydia opted for a berry champagne cocktail, mine was called Lady Marmalade. Mandarine Napoleon with ... yes, marmalade; served in a tall glass over ice. Possibly the best non-cream based cocktail I have had so far.
It didn't come in cheap at 24 pounds for two drinks. But there is one thing that makes hotel bars well worth it: unlimited nibbles. Whether it is The Westbury or The Four Seasons: nuts, crisps, mini bruschettas, olives, capers... everything that is addictive.
So by the time we went across the bar to our restaurant we were already happily satisfied. But what came next exceeded all our expectations.
Ok, so it wasn't St Martin's Lane: no trendy, stylish crowd or decor. Just pure class, actually. The chandeliers were big, the music played nicely away in the background and the waiters were attentive. And the food: gorgeous.
First came the amuse bouche: gazpacho with avocado. Not sure whether the avocado was ripe enough to go into the soup nor whether it was necessary to go into the soup, but as a whole the gazpacho was quite nice and refreshing.
We did a no-do for starters and ordered the same dish: Scallops with squid-ink polenta. The scallops were perfectly cooked and the polenta not only a nice touch of colour but also a tasty addition to the tender and juicy scallops.
As for mains I stuck to my mid-year resolution: no more foie gras. I love foie gras. I adore it. But ever since I got reminded visually how it is made I started enriching organic duck liver with double cream and butter to fake the experience at home. So no, no black chicken leg with roast foie gras for me but beef fillet with polenta (again!) croquettes. The fillet could have fed 1.5 people and my sister, a dedicated potato croquette fan, would kill for the polenta version. Crispy on the outside, unbelievably and high calorifically creamy on the inside.
The palette cleanser, berry puree with bits of steamed apple reminded me of jarred Hipp baby food. But then, I do like Hipp baby food, so no complaints.
Lydia finally opted for the perfect dessert: pan fried apricots with lavender ice cream. The ice cream was to die for: and I usually do not even like ice cream.
My chocolate fritter with ice cream of undefined flavour (yes, I can read a menu, but neither Lydia nor me have ever heard about this fruit/nut/liquor...) wasn't bad but the post-dessert pre-bill sweeties were much better: homemade marshmallows, truffles, mini madelaines and chocolate dipped orange peel.