GrandTastes

Carrot cake

2010-02-21T11:05:00.004+01:00

The carrot cake is probably the best one my dad can do. It is an all-time-favourite and perfect for any aniversary!Ingredients:
400g fresh carrots
8 eggs
275g sugar
400g almonds
50g cornflour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 organic Lemon zest and juice
250 icing sugar and lemon juice for the icing
100g pistachos, marzipan carrots, flowers and other decoratives

Instructions:
Peel the carrots and grate them finely. Preheat the oven at 180°C and seperate the eggs into two bowls. Mince sugar and egg yolks very well until you end up with a foamy mass. Add the carots carefully. Now add flour, 250g almonds, lemon zest and juice and cinnamon to produce a smooth mass. Butter a 24 or 26 cm diameter springform pan.
Beat the eggs until very stiff and add the rest of the almonds before mincing in the egg yolk mass. Put the mass into the pan and bake for about 60-70 minutes.
Let cool down completly and prepare the icing by mixing lemon juice and icing sugar. Cover up the cake totally and decorate as you whish.

Sweet turquoise macarons

2009-10-24T20:30:00.003+02:00

Ingredients:
3 egg whites
25g granulated sugar
175g icing sugar
100g very finely grounded almonds
food colouring (I prefer powdered colouring, but liquid is fine)

2 small egg whites
85g sugar
170g butter
1 vanilla pod
(If you want you can add one droplet of mint extract)Instructions:
The day before separate the egg whites from the yolks. Store the whites at a cool place. The yolks you can toss.
Whip the whites to a foam and add the granulated sugar. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes glossy. Add icing sugar and almonds and carefully fold the egg mixture over it with a rubber spoon. Repeat the process not more than 40 times. Using a pastry bag pipe coin-sized puffs onto parchment paper. The shells should now rest for 30 min to harden a bit. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 140°C. Bake the shells for 20-30 min an let cool down.

For the filling whip the egg whites in a bowl over simmering water. Add the sugar and continue to stir until the sugar is dissolved. Take away from heat and mix in the butter and vanilla seeds.
When cooled down a little put on teaspoon of filling between two shells. You can store the macarons in the fridge for no longer than 5 days.

Zwetschgenknödel - damson dumplings

2009-10-16T07:04:00.005+02:00

Ingredients for 25-30 dumplings:
1 kg Potatoes
250g Flour
70g Butter
30g Semolina
2 Eggs
Salt
1kg damsons
15tsp+ brown sugar

Instructions:
Cook potatoes and meanwhile slice the damsons and remove the stone. Mash the potatoes well while still hot. Add butter, flour, semolina, eggs and a pinch of salt. Make a nice smooth dough. Its best now to form a role and slice it into slices (25-30). On each slice put to half damsons and half a tsp sugar. Wrap the plum well with the dough, it is important that the dumpling is closed completely. Put them into lightly salted simmering water for about 5 minutes. They should float on the water when ready to take out. Serve with sugar and melted butter. :)

Pumkin Soup

2009-09-16T22:05:00.003+02:00

Ingredients:
2 big carrots
2 leeks
half a Hokkaido pumpkin of middle size
3 tbsp Olive oil
50 ml Orange juice
Salt
Pepper
Curry powder
1-2 L vegetable broth
Instructions:
Clean, peal and cut the vegetables into cubes. Heat the oil in a big pan and add carrots, leeks and pumpkin. Saute shortly, than add the broth and let simmer for half an hour.
Now take a immersion blender and blend the soup. Add Curry powder, pepper and salt and taste. Serve the soup hot with parsley, pumpkin seed oil or breadcrumbs.

Grießflammeri

2009-04-10T20:55:00.004+02:00

A classic desert (semolina pudding), served cold with fruits. Perfect for the coming spring and the summerlike temperatures!
Ingredients:
1L Milk
90g Semolina
10g Polenta
100g Sugar
1 Vanilla pod
50g starch
600g Strawberries
Instructions:
Freeze Strawberries over night. On the next day let the melt slowly to room temperature.
Boil 900ml milk combined with sugar sugar. Mix Starch and the rest of the milk very well. Add polenta to the boiling milk, stirr very well. Now add the starch-milk mixture and stirr again very well for 2 minutes. Take away from the heat and fill into forms. Let cool for 3 hrs.
Arrange the Grießflammeri with the strawberries and serve.

Gnocchi With Basil

2009-03-22T18:47:00.003+01:00

Gnocchi is of course a famous Italian dish. This version is with fresh basil.
Ingredients (serves 4):
800g floury Potatoes
+/- 300g flour
1 handful basil leaves
1 Egg
1 egg yolk
salt, muscat, pepper, olive oil
Instructions:
Boil potatoes in well salted water until very soft (just before they fall apart).
Squeeze them through a ricer or use a fork. Add the eggs and 250 g flour. Combine well and add more flour. The dough should not stick on your fingers.
Chop basil into small bits and mix under the dough with salt pepper, muscat and a little olive oil.
Now form the Gnocchis and do not pile them on top of each other! Use flour to make sure they don't stick on your plates. Let them rest for 1 hour.
Boil water and add salt. Add the Gnocchis and cook until they rise to the water surface. This only takes a cupple of minutes.
Serve immediatly with Pesto or pine nut butter.

Crostini

2009-02-24T11:47:00.004+01:00

Crunchy outside, fluffy inside and topped with delicious italian food! - Crostini!

Ingredients:

1 Ciabatta (with Olives)

300g Mozzarella

1/2 Thai chili

Pesto (see recipe)

Pine nuts

Salt

Pepper
High quality olive oil

1 garlic clove

Instructions:
Cut ciabatta into 1,5 cm thick slices. Cut carlic into 2 halfs and rub onto the bread. Drizzle olive oil over it and put on a roast. Bake for 5 minutes in a preheated oven at 245°C.
Make little pieces out of the Mozzarella and put them on some ciabatta slices. Drizzle olive oil over it and some very small pieces of the chili. Salt and pepper the Mozzarella. On the rest of the bread slices put Pesto and some nuts.
(If you whish you can add some tomato slices as decoration)

2009-02-22T12:11:00.008+01:00

Tiramisu is the most famous italian dessert!This recipe is our version, its more fluffy then usual, try it out!

Ingredients:

500g Mascarpone

4 egg yolks

2 egg whites

4 tbsp Sugar

14 ladyfinger biscuits

1 cup black coffee

3 tsp Marsala

cocoa powder

Instructions:

Whisk three egg yolk with three tbsp Sugar until it gets creamy.Add 375g Mascarpone and mix well. Whisk egg whites until stiff. Whisk the rest of the sugar and the last egg yolk in a diffrent bowl and then add the rest of the Mascarpone. Carefully mix the egg white into it.

Mix Marsala with coffee (not too hot). Pull 7 Biscuits through the coffee. This might be a little difficult, because the biscuits should not fall into pieces, nor should they be hard.

Put the biscuits in a nice bowl, half of the mascarpone mass, which does not consist of the egg whites. Pull the rest of the biscuits through the coffee and put on top of it. Then add the rest of the egg white free mascarpone and dizzle some cocoa powder over it.

Now carefully spread the Mascarpone (with egg white) on to it and again dizzle with cocoa powder.

Chill for 3-4 hours.

A small starter to begin with

2008-07-18T17:31:00.001+02:00

All you need are some dates, pistachios and Cream cheese (eg. Philadelphia).

Slice the dates and remove the stone. Fill with Cream cheese and put some Pistachios on top.

...jumps in the mouth...

2008-07-13T11:45:00.005+02:00

This is one of my mums favourite dishes: Saltimbocca.
Ingredients:
550g thin slices of veal cutlet (Scallopini)
20 leaves fresh sage
10 Slices parma ham
flour
20 toothpicks
sun flower oil

Instructions:
Cut the cutlets into 20 small slices and roll slightly in flour. Half the parma slices and pinch with one sage leave on the cutlets, using the toothpicks. Heat some oil in a non-stick frying pan. Put the first pieces into the pan, so that the sage is on top. Fry for about 1 minute until the edges gain a light brown colour. Turn them over an fry for about 40 sec until all raw parts of the cutlet are gone. To keep them warm while frying the other pieces, put into your oven at 80°C.
Serve immediatle with eg. rice and in honey caramleized carots.

Chocolate Walnut Cake

2008-06-17T14:03:00.003+02:00

What about some chocolate - and some nuts... and a cake?

Ingredients:
200g Flour
150g brown sugar
5 Eggs
225g Butter
50g Milk chocolate
75g dark chocolate
50g grounded almonds
50g grounded Walnuts
75g Walnuts
1 tbs Sun flower oil
Rice
Salt

Instructions:
Sieve Flour into a boil and add one Egg yolk, a pinch of salt, 50g sugar and 125g chopped butter. Pound well together and then put into your fridge for about 45min.
Preheat oven at 180°C. Put your dough into a buttered spring form (diameter: 26cm) and form a about 2.5 cm high edge. Put a sheet baking paper onto your dough and now sprinkle some rice over it. Bake for not more than 20min.
Meanwhile break chocolate into pieces and carefully melt with the rest of the butter. Put the rest of the flour, sugar, grounded nuts and another pinch of salt into a boil and mix well. Add 4 Egg yolks, the sun flower oil and the melted chocolate. Mix very well. Whisk 4 egg whites stiff and add to the chocolate mass. Stir well and put onto your baked dough.
Arrange Walnuts on the cake and put into your oven for 25 min.

Rhubarb-Strawberry-Pineapple Jam

2008-06-05T21:19:00.004+02:00

After buying plenty of Rhubarb, there was the question what to do with it... well here is the solution.

Ingredients:
750g Rhubarb
550g Strawberries
1 sweet Pineapple
75 ml white wine
1 lb preserving sugar 1:3
2 tbs lime juice

Instructions:
Remove Skin and ends from the Rhubarb and cut into small pieces. You need 1 pound cut Rhubarb. Repeat the same with the Pineapple, again you need 1 lb. Remove leaves and cut in halves (you need again 1 lb). Put all ingredients into one big pot and cook once. Let simmer for 15 min. Now take your hand blender and puree the ingredients until you end up with a smooth mass. Immediately fill the simmering Jam into clean jars (I cooked the jars before) and close them.
Put them upside down in a dark place to cool down.

Pineapple sorbet

2008-05-27T20:16:00.012+02:00

Refreshingly different - Pineapple sorbet. The perfect dessert after a hot summer day.
This is the perfect time to participate in a great event by Joelen - The Mighty Blender

Ingredients:
1 Pineapple
75ml hot Sugar water (1:1)

Instructions:
Remove skin and stalk from the pineapple. Cut into small cubes (0,5cm*0,5cm) and set 2 tbs aside (into your fridge). Put the remaining cubes widely spread into freezer bags (volume: 6l - I used 5 bags), so they don't stick together in one huge block when frozen. Put into your freezer overnight.
Blend frozen Pineapple cubes with the Sugar water until you end up with a smooth sorbet. Now add the not frozen pineapple cubes and stir fast. Serve immediately.

Rhubarb cake, Sun & Strawberries

2008-05-25T22:15:00.008+02:00

Its getting hotter outside, refreshing strawberries ripe in the sun and you just want to sit outside, chill and eat some ice cream ... or a piece of cake.

Ingredients (for 1 tray):
1,5 kg Rhubarb
450g Butter
500g Sugar
800g Flour
200g ground almonds
3 Eggs
1 package Vanilla-sugar (8g)
1 package Baking powder (15g)

Instructions:
Wash and peel rhubarb. Cut the ends of and cut into small cubes until you end up with about 1kg.
Sieve and mix 550g flour with the baking powder. Add 250g butter, 3 eggs and 275g sugar. Mix until you gain a smooth mass. Put some parchment paper onto your baking tray and spread the dough on it. Arrange the Rhubarb over it and sprinkle the vanilla sugar on top of it.
Mix all the other ingredients well until you end up with crumbles (Streusel). Spread them over the cake and bake in the oven for 45 min. at 165°C (air circulation).
Serve with or without whipped cream.

White Chocolate Cream

2008-05-22T18:05:00.006+02:00

Its breakfast time and you're wondering about what to put on your slice of bread today?
Try this recipe out - the perfect home made spread!

Ingredients (for a small pot):
100g white chocolate
125g cream cheese

Instructions:
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. While constantly stirring pour the chocolate over the cheese. You can either serve it immediately or put it into the fridge.

Ice Cream? Stracciatella!!!

2008-05-14T21:06:00.004+02:00

Mmhhm - one of my favourite Ice Creams!

Ingredients (serves 4):
225 ml Milk
200g Cream
1/2 vanilla bean
50g brown Sugar
50g small chocolate chips

Instructions:
Heat 50ml milk with the sugar and the scraped out seeds, as well as the vanilla bean itself while constantly stirring. When the sugar has completely dissolved, set aside and let cool down.
Whip the Cream and carefully mix with Milk and vanilla-milk.
Let cool for at least 1 hour in the fridge and than put into your ice cream maker. Before the ice cream gained its perfect consistency add the chocolate.

Rome, Naples, Capri....

2008-05-07T17:32:00.013+02:00

Italy - a lovely place to visit! We went there for 5 days this may.
After landing in Rome we visited the old town, of course the Colosseum, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain and many others...

For the next days we stayed in Naples area, climbing the Mount Vesuvius, visiting Pompeii and again the city itself, which is indeed like Rome a beautiful place to go! Of course we ate the famous traditional Neapolitan pizza. I suppose I've never eaten so much ice cream before: It is delicious and its worth to visit Italy not only for ice cream.

Soon we took the ship to Capri, where we visited villa Jovis.
After climbing up the hill to this antic villa we went down and found a stone beach, where we were the only ones. The seawater was totally clear and it was not to cold to swim in. Today I wish myself back to this beach!

Capri is famous for its lemons, so I bought one - it's weight is 1kg!!
Sadly we had to leave then and so we flew back home...
When going to a restaurant in Italy, try to find small Trattorias in side streets away from tourist locations...

Coconut rice with Mango

2008-05-06T21:39:00.005+02:00

Well now, this is quite a special dessert, but believe me it tastes terribly goood!

Ingredients (serves 4):
2 Mangos
300g Sushi rice
600g Coconut milk
4-5 tbs brown sugar

Instructions:
Wash the rice and lay into cold water for about 20 min.Whip the rice in a thin kitchen towel and place for 30 min. into your kitchen steamer.
10 min. before the rice is finished, heat the coconut milk with the sugar and stir well - do not let it boil.
When the rice is finished, put it into a bowl and cover with the coconut milk. Let soak in for at least 1 hour.
Serve rice with cut Mango.

And another Thai dish!

2008-04-15T20:14:00.010+02:00

This time: Venison with Curry, yes Venison - the delicate meat sticks with complete harmony together with Curry. Try it out!

Ingredients (serves 4):
300g Venison fillet
500 ml Coconut milk
1 tsp Masmam Curry paste (from Asia shop)
1,5 tbs Palm sugar (alternatively brown sugar)
1 tsp Salt
2 tbs Fish sauce (alternatively 1 tsp Salt)
300g fresh Pineapple
200g Cherry tomatoes
2 hand full sweet Thai basil
Sun flower oil

Instructions:
Heat oven at 80°C air circulation.
Wipe the venison fillet with some kitchen paper, than season it with salt. Heat a grill pan and add 1 tbs Sun flower oil. Fry the fillet with very much heat on either side for 1 minute each.
Wrap the Venison in aluminium foil and put into oven for approx. 30 minutes.
Meanwhile heat 150ml coconut milk (try to get just the very viscous part) in a pot and add curry paste. Stir well and add the Salt. Let boil at medium heat and again stir well until the sauce gains a reddish-goldish colour. Add the rest of the coconut milk and the palm sugar. While still stirring, let boil once again and add the fish sauce and let simmer a while.
Take filet out of the oven and cut into thin slices.

Peel Pineapple and cut into pieces. Wash tomatoes as well as the basil leaves. Add the Pineapple to the Sauce and wait until it boils again. Now add the venison. In the end add basil, stir well and serve with rice.

Thai Chicken with Cashew Nuts

2008-04-10T20:19:00.005+02:00

I adopted this recipe from Oranut - THANK YOU!!!
This famous Thai dish can be found in every Thai restaurant, still this recipe is the best ;-).

Ingredients (serves 4):
400g chicken breast
1 onion
2 scallions
1-2 carrots
1 red sweet pepper
100g roasted and salted Cashew Nuts
3 tbs white soy sauce
1/2 tsp Sugar
2 tbs starch
4 tbs oyster sauce
sesame oil, vegetable oil

Instructions:
Cut the chicken into slices, not thicker than your thumb. Set aside
For the sauce, stir Soy sauce, sugar and a few drops sesame oil in a bowl. Add to the chicken and mix well. Add the starch and mix again. Let chill for about 30 min. in the fridge.
Meanwhile wash, and cut all vegetables into bite-sized pieces.

In a deep pan heat 100 ml vegetable oil. Roast the chicken gently until it gains a gold-brown colour. Remove from pan. Remove nearly all of the oil (leave about 1-2 tbs). Heat the pan and add the cut onions and roast them for one minute, add chicken and roast shortly. Add the vegetables ans stir once. Now add the oyster sauce and stir well. After 1 minute remover from pan and scatter the Cashew Nuts over the dish.
Serve with rice.

What to do with Avocados?

2008-03-27T16:05:00.006+01:00

easy and delicious:

Ingredients (serves 2 as a starter):
1 Avocado
80g small, cleaned shrimps
1 tsp mayonnaise
2 tbs scions
lemon juice
2 tbs salmon caviare

Instructions:
Half the Avocado and remove the stone. Sprinkle it a bit with lemon juice.
Mix the shrimps with mayonnaise and put them into the hollow were the stone was. Arrange the caviare on top of it and decorate it with scions. Enjoy it instantly.

Apple Pie

2008-02-24T14:39:00.008+01:00

The sun is shining, 12°C, what’s better than a warm pie? Enjoy it with whipped cream, vanilla custard or icing sugar.

Ingredients:
2 layers puff pastry (~225g each – diameter: ~ 28cm)
5 apples (e.g. Boskop)
juice of ½ lemon
60g raisins
100g coarsely chopped walnuts
1 tbs Sambuca
2 tbs heavy cream
5 tbs Sugar
50g Butter
50g breadcrumbs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg yolk

Instructions:
Put 0,5 l water with one tbs Sugar slowly on to boil. Oil a spring form (diameter: 24cm) with butter.
In a small pot melt the butter completely and add cinnamon and breadcrumbs. Roast them while constantly stirring. Put them aside.
Peel the apples, and throw the apple core away. Dice them very coarsely and constantly sprinkle it with lemon juice. Give half of the apples for circa 4 min. into the boiling water. Carefully pour the apples off and mix with the other apples. Add raisins, walnuts, Sambuca and cream. Mix well.

Put one layer of the puff pastry into the spring form (you should still have a 2cm edge). Put the apples onto it and as well the sugar and the breadcrumbs. Now fold the puff pastry at the edge a little onto the filling. Cut the second layer of the pastry so that it fits perfectly on the cake.

Mix the egg yolk with 2 tbs water and sprinkle the cake with it. Bake it half an hour at 200°C in the oven and let than chill for 10 minutes. Eat it with relish as long as its still warm.

Grandmas Walnut Cake

2008-02-20T16:23:00.008+01:00

This recipe is indeed by my Grandmother...

Ingredients:

For the Cake:
3 layers of sponge mixture
½ jar blackberry jam
400g Walnuts
200g icing sugar
300g heavy sour cream

For the gloss:
1 fresh egg white
Juice of ¼ Lemon
200g icing sugar

Instructions:
Finely chop the Walnuts and mix with the icing sugar and the cream. Put the first sponge on a plate and coat the top of it with half of the Walnut mass. Now you coat it with more than 1/3 of the jam. Put the second sponge on top of it and repeat the procedure. Than put the third layer on top and coat it with the rest of the jam.

For the gloss whisk the egg a bit and mix with icing sugar and lemon juice. Coat the whole tart with it.

Pesto

2008-02-01T19:58:00.003+01:00

There are so many recipes for Pesto. Finally I made up my own recipe. Therefore the information given is quite rough, so don’t forget to taste! :-)

Ingredients (serves 4):
Leaves of two big pots of Basil (~60g)
50g Pecorino
60g pine nuts
1 clove of garlic
~ 150 ml high quality olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Instructions:
To begin with you pound the pine nuts in a pestle until you gain a fine mass. Put it aside. Grate the cheese and as well put it aside.

Wash the basil leaves, dry it carefully and pound them in the pestle until you get a mass. Now chop the Garlic very fine and give all ingredients into the pestle. Mix them well and do not forget to taste.

The Pesto is perfect with e.g. Gnocchis.

Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Walnuts

2008-01-27T15:20:00.002+01:00

There’s often the question “What shall we cook tonight?”, well this recipe is really easy, delicious and does not take too much time.

Ingredients (serves 4):
500g Spaghetti
6-8 Tomatoes
4 Onions
1 clove of Garlic
1 tsp Tomato purée
50g coarsely chopped Walnuts
5-10 Olives
1 small crystal of White wine
(1 tsp Flour)
4 tbs Olive oil
1 tsp Sugar
Salt & Pepper
a few fresh Basil leaves
Parmesan

Instructions:
Skin and coarsely chop the tomatoes and remove the stones. Dice and mix the onions with the Garlic.

Heat the olive oil in a big pan and fry the onions and the garlic until they start getting glassy. Start boiling the Spaghetti.
Add the tomatoes and the tomato purée into the pan. Separately roast the Walnuts until they gain a little colour. Mix them under the Sauce.

Extinguish with white wine. Add the flour if sauce is too diluted. Boil it again.
Chop olives and basil and give them with sugar, salt and pepper to the sauce.
Serve Spaghetti with plenty of the sauce and coarsely chopped cheese.