Foodie Month: June 2012

This month, I have been busier again. I recognised I like to cook things from the current Jamie Magazine Issues and 'reinvent' older recipes I cooked before. 

Diesen Monat war ich wieder etwas fleißiger - im Moment koche ich am liebsten Rezepte ause den aktuellen Jamie Magazinen oder 'erfinde' alte Rezepte neu.

Magazine Mondays

Pasta Rodeo - recipe from 'LECKER Trattoria' (original by Vapiano)

Pappardelle with Oxtail sauce - inspired by a recipe from the German Jamie Magazine  (Issue 3, May/June 2012)

Baking Tuesdays

Raspberry Muesli Buns - Baking Tuesdays - recipe adapted from the Jamie Magazine (Issue 27 March/April 2012) - post about my version will follow

Daring Bakers June Challenge: Battenberg Cake

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

"This cake has far grander beginnings than tea with teddy. It was actually created as a wedding cake for royalty. The first Battenberg cake was made to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria, to husband Prince Louis of Battenberg. It’s traditionally flavoured with almond and has the signature Battenberg markings, that is, the yellow and pink squares (said to represent the four princes of Battenberg). The strips of sponge are glued together using jam (normally apricot) and the whole cake is covered in marzipan. Sometimes the edges are crimped and the top is patterned with a knife."

I chose a recipe given in the challenge PDF - the Coffee and Walnut Battenberg. The principle how you do this is easy - bake the sponge, 'glue' it together with the coffee buttercream and cover with marzipan. Mandy provides lots of pictures how to do it right (just have a look at her blog) and even recipes for modelling chocolate if you don't like marzipan. I was in a hurry to get done with this, and marzipan was the fastest thing of all (otherwise I would have tried to use white modelling chocolate). 

As I didn't have a special Battenberg tin, I baked two flat rectangle cake sponges, cut them into eight cubic stripes each and assembled 'four in one'. It looked really nice but boy - there were loads of sugar and calories on that plate in the end ...

 

Mango-Erdbeer Sorbet am Stiel [Mango-Strawberry Sorbet Ice Pops]

Da hier hochsommerliche Temperaturen herrschen (ok, heute nun mal gerade nicht), gibt es etwas Erfrischendes für alle Eisliebhaber. Die Idee warein Sorbet aus Mangos und Erdbeeren herzustellen. Normalerweise mache ich einen Shake oder einen Fruchtsalat aus frischen Früchten, aber das war mir bei dieser Wetterlage nicht kalt genug. Anstatt das Fruchtpüree gleich in die Eisförmchen zu füllen, habe ich meinen (schon vor ewigen Zeiten hergestellten) Invertzuckersirup hervorgekramt, um dem Ganzen eine weiche Konsistenz zu verleihen und zum Titel Sorbet zu verhelfen. Normalerweise wird für ein Sorbet erst ein Zuckersirup gekocht, aber wer möchte schon bei 30°C den Herd anstellen?! Den Zuckersirup empfehle ich also besser im Winter herzustellen, da er sich lange hält. Der Aufwand ist etwas größer, aber im Prinzip macht die Industrie genau dasselbe mit den fertigen Eispulver-Mischungen (einfach mal auf die Zutatenliste schauen). Für das Sorbet selbst braucht man nicht einmal eine  Eismaschine. Das Ganze kann auch in eine große Auflaufform gefüllt, aller 2-3 Stunden aus dem Gefrierfach geholt und mit einer Gabel 'aufgelockert' werden, prinzipiell kann man das Sorbet aber auch gleich in die Stieleisformen füllen. 

[for English version, scroll down]

Fridays with Beatrice: Hachis parmentier with chicken, lime & coriander

This time it was my turn to choose. As I love all things baked in the oven with cheese on top, it had to be the Hachis parmentier. Usually this is a leftover dish, made with beef (the French version of 'Shepards Pie'). In this recipe it's made with chicken and an Asian twist by using lime, coconut milk and coriander. I love coriander and lime with chicken (used this combination for curries before) so I was curious how it would taste topped with potatoes and baked. 

I guess I should have used less milk because my potato layer was really slurry what I didn't like that much. I made the hachis in a terrine mould, and the final meal 'melted' onto our plates - not really nice for the eyes. The taste was not disturbed by that, I wished the chicken layer would have tasted a little bit stronger. Robert liked it anyway, he ate the whole rest out of the mould which you always can take as a compliment.

Roundup: The consistency was too slurry. The flavour combination lime-coriander-cocnut was good and should be tried with beef again. As Lena stated in her post, beef would have been better - I agree with that.

The Daring Cooks June Challenge: Cannelloni with radiccio and pancetta filling

Manu from Manu’s Menu was our Daring Cooks lovely June hostess and has challenged us to make traditional Italian cannelloni from scratch! We were taught how to make the pasta, filling, and sauces shared with us from her own and her family’s treasured recipes!

I am too late this month, but neverthless I will share the recipe I made for this month's challenge. I've made pasta from scratch before, and I know it's taste is unbeatable compared to store-bought one. But making the dough takes time, something I didn't have so much during the last weeks. I preferred to sit on my couch and to knit to be honest. I didn't have the energy to crouch into my cabinet, fishing for the pasta mashine on the top shelf and (much worse) cleaning it afterwards. Until I remembered I had this pancetta in my freezer and this radicchio into my fridge. I bough the radicchio about a week ago in an attempt of making something with an ingredient which I didn't use before. The thing was near to expiration date (looking at it), and I didn't wanted to throw away (I hate to cast away groceries). So I fought my inner couch potato and got cooking. The original combination of radicchio and pancetta goes with Taleggio which isn't availiable here, so I used Provolone (which I added to the bechamel sauce too). Iit's really easier to make cannelloni this way (with fresh dough instead using the store-bought ones - I found them more difficult to fill and you need to cook them before using (which you can omit when using fresh dough as I found out).  So thanks again daring Cooks for challenging me - I killed two birds with a stone this time - using radicchio and making delicious cannelloni from scratch.

Fridays with Beatrice: Apple, Rhubarb & Strawberry Nutty Crumble

This time, Lena and me chose a sweet recipe. I love crumbles and made one of Bea's Crumbles before, a dish which always finds the way to my brunch table (and which is always gone first). So I was expecting nothing more than a divine combination of flavours and consistencies coming together in my mouth, and I was not dissappointed. There was a little bit scepticism about the gluten-free crumble but I was suprised to find myself thinking "this is even better than the normal one". I had the feeling they were more saturating and had an even nuttier taste. It was the FIRST TIME EVER I made a gluten-free dinner on purpose (before there was only a  Daring Bakers Challenge and a failed chocolate cake). 

I used millet flour (couldn't get hold of amaranth flour) and served the crumble with vanilla sauce (right, not gluten-free ...), because no crumble ever in this kitchen has been served without vanilla sauce - we both love vanilla sauce! Don't want to imagine what would happen if we would have had vanilla ice cream in the freezer .. I guess I used too much orange zest (used the zest of a large orange) because there was a little bit to much of this aroma for my taste.

Roundup: Perfect, crumble heaven so to say, despite (or just because!) of gluten-free crumbles. If I would have to rate it on a scale from one to ten, I'd give it an eleven ... plus!

Thanks to Lena for choosing this recipe because I didn't mark it myself - and would have missed something very tasty.