What are you cooking today?

Meatloaf made with beef chuck, carrots, day-old parisienne bread, garlic, chilli and onions with a mixed salad including home-grown red radishes.

750g beef chuck
50g day-old bread
50g carrots
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 red chilli
75ml milk

Pre-cook the sliced carrots, mince the onion, garlic and chilli, dice the bread, put all in a large mixing bowl
Warm up the milk until lukewarm, pour over the mixture, let stand app. 10 mins, mix well by hand
Add the meat, mix well by hand until you have a homogenous mass
Grease an oblong casserole (e.g. brush it with olive oil), press the meat mixture lightly into the form
Grease the surface as above
Shove into pre-heated oven at 180°C for app. 35 - 45 minutes
Serve with ketchup

Use any leftover for meatloaf sandwiches!

Ostrich is lovely! I think sushi is on tonight's menu though, but need to pick up some salmon first. Yum. With gyoza (you can buy it frozen).

Where do you but the gyoza frozen? Pork or seafood?

I buy the chicken & vegetable ones. But yes, there are other types such as squid, pork etc. I don't know where to buy them in Berlin though, only in Munich and London; from Japanese supermarkets! 1 bag costs ca. €5 which is enough for 3 x starters for 2 people. Just think how much you pay in restaurants for it!

Thats what I thought it is from Japanese supermarkets as I have not found them here in normal Asian markets! Anyway enjoy (not that I am jealous!)

In lieu of tackling the ostrich, I did steaks last night. The man needed some cheering up after his team lost and I needed something to do while he was shouting at the television.

Two Rinderfilets from Rewe, marinated for two hours in a mix of Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, freshly ground black pepper, a touch of cayenne pepper, dash of garlic powder, and three big cloves of fresh garlic. Seared them well on both sides for a couple of minutes, served them medium-rare with mashed potatoes mixed with horseradish and crème fraiche and a red wine demi-glace. I also did sautéed prawns in a butter, white wine, garlic and herb sauce over fresh greens with warm goat cheese rounds.

Posole ( Pozole).. I am not handing out the recipe its a family secret.. LOL

yesterday was lasagne..

Blimey GG. That is some cheering up you did there. If I ever need cheering up, my wife gets me beer. Works every time.

I am loving my cooking tonight - Roast Chicken with stuffing and roasted potatoes (regular and sweet potatoes).

This was all about the stuffing, I made it on the fly and am SOOO happy with it.

Sauté and onion and a clove of garlic until soft and add this to approx 2 cups fresh bread crumbs. Then add some marjoram, rosemary, parsley (all dried versions, but I'm sure fresh would be great too) salt and pepper and an egg. Now squeeze the insides out of two fresh bratwurst and add this to the mix. Stuff the chook. Cook the chook. Eat the chook. YUM.

For Indian food lovers!

Chicken 65

Make a marinade of the following dried herbs/spices - each in small pinches though...

Chilli
Salt
Cinnamon
Cloves
Garlic
Ginger
Cardamon
and ground-nut (peanut) oil - or olive oil works good too!
Stir a few times before going to bed & during the next morning.

Leave small cubed pieces of chicken breast to marinate overnight and the next morning (or if serving for dinner in the evening, do all this in the morning instead).

Deep fry for about fifteen minutes, or until you start to see the chicken pieces beginning to turn a tiny bit brown (only slightly mind you, or it will be spoilt)

The way I do rice here in India is to put two cups of water in a PRESSURE COOKER (best way in my estimation to cook rice and VERY quick) to ONE cup of rice. Let it hiss two to three times and then turn off quickly and let the rest of the steam out fast. Undo lid and serve the whole meal at once.

This is a favourite with us for Sunday lunch... (as we don't have an oven to make a roast (boo hoo) and it's very yummie!)

If you want the chicken not as spicy, then marinate for only a couple of hours.

Enjoy!

I am trying pork with a bread and marmite crust and a light ale sauce, wil let you know how it goes. Kind of made up as I go along.

Pork schnitzel cut in strips, canned peaches, chilli and feta cheese. It needs some fine tuning but definitely has potential.

No shit.

Maybe I'll take a picture of it when it's done.

Looks overdone to me.
I'm a cook like Don Riina, so I am!

I'm cooking something quick and easy. A red lentil soup using frozen organic soup vegetables. It's done in 30 minutes.

I´ll be on mozarella and tomatoes this evening - that´s about my level of "cooking"!!

Saturday I got in the cooking mood so I cooked up some ground beef, with dried bread crumbs, onion, garlic, freshly crushed cumin, paprika, salt, pepper and some 'wild game fond'. Hacked the top off a couple peppers and cleaned them out. layered the meat into the peppers with freshly grated Parmesan and plonked them into the oven, next to some veggies I had roasting. I fried up some eggplant that I had cut into strips with a bit of salt, pepper and garlic. just after they came out of the pan I grated some parmesan onto them and let them cool off.

It worked out pretty well, although next time I might try covering the peppers with tin foil and cooking them for longer and only taking the foil off about ten minutes before taking them out.

tamales they are steaming now.. I love tamales!!!

Just finishing up a orange-ricotta cheesecake.

* Sorry, you'll have to convert the oven degrees to celsius. It's a US recipe (originally from the joy of cooking, but adapted a bit).

Graham Cracker crust

9 full-size graham cracker sheets
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 Tbsp. sugar

Prepare crust:

Place graham cracker sheets in a large Ziploc bag and crush using a rolling pin. Pour the crumbs in to a small mixing bowl. Add the sugar and melted butter. Toss together with a fork until all the crumbs are moist.

Press crumbs into a 9"springform pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Prepare filling while crust bakes. Cool completely before using.

Filling:

1 cup sugar
finely grated zest of 1 orange
4 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups (22 ounces) whole milk ricotta (don't use skim, it won't be as good)

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the sugar and zest in a large bowl. Rub the zest and sugar between your fingers until the sugar looks wet and sandy. Add the eggs and beat on high speed until thick and pale yellow, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix well. Stir in the ricotta cheese.

Scrape the batter into the prepared crust and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F, and bake until a knife inserted about 2 inches from the edge of the cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes more. The center will be softer and the cake will seem to jiggly, but it will set after it has cooled. Let cool completely in the pan on a rack before unmolding. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, preferably 24 hours, before serving.

To unmold:
If the cake has pulled away cleanly from the pan, simply release the spring and carefully remove the pan side. Otherwise, slide a thin knife blade around the sides of the cake to detach it from the pan, pressing the blade against the pan to avoid tearing the cake, before releasing and removing the side. Serve the cake directly on the pan bottom, or chill it thoroughly before attempting to transfer it to a serving platter of cardboard cake circle.

We liked this served with orange curd as the sauce drizzled over each slice...

Orange Curd

Juice and zest of 2 oranges
2/3 cup granulated white sugar (you can cut back a little on this if the orange is very sweet)
4 Tbsp. butter
2 large whole eggs, lightly beaten
dash salt

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. In separate bowl, grate orange peel and squeeze juice from oranges. Add sugar and egg. Whisk to combine. Add the melted butter to bowl, and pour everything back into the pan. Over medium heat, whisk the orange curd constantly until it thickens--sort of like a thin pudding--about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Strain orange curd over a clean bowl with a fine mesh strainer. (I find this removes the white things from the whole eggs as well as the zest. I prefer a smooth orange curd. But, if you would rather skip this step, it's totally okay.) Enjoy warm or cold!

care to elaborate? We are still in a Ferienwohnung with a very limited kitchen... this sounds do-able and something my 3 year old might actually eat.

I need to find Mexican food staples... THAT is what my kid likes to eat, sigh!

YUM on the cheesecake, Seattle -- sounds great!

I just cooked a big tasty bacon with country potatoes, supersized.

I have decided that all the "weird" vegetables I am missing from California (e.g. okra), I am just going to have to grow. Now if I can find the seeds... going to check some of the English online seed companies now.

At least most of the stores seem to carry avocados! But boy, fresh produce is expensive here!

Okra is pretty easy to get your hands on here. Larger Asian shops often get some in.

EDIT: Ah, you're in Hamburg. Dunno what your asian shops are are like. I'm also quite proud to say that my knowledge of geography is so shite, that I don't even know where Hamburg is on a map, and I sincerely mean that.

here is what i am cooking today for dinner... i am having a late dinner lol...

1. Beef - 1/2 kg ( cut into small pieces)
2. Chilli powder - 2 tablespoon
   Pepper powder - 1 teaspoon
   Turmeric powder - 1/2 teasponn
   Garam masala - 1 teaspoon
   Meat Masala - 1 teaspoon
   Coriander powder - 2 tablespoon
3. Ginger - 2 big pieces
   Garlic - 1 pode
   Onion - 1
4. Curry leaves
   salt - accordingly
   Coconut pieces - 1/2 cup
   Vinegar - 1 tablespoon
5. Coconut oil - accordingly
   Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoonClean & drain the water from beef pieces. Mix the beef with ingredients number 2,3 & 4. Cook with a little water.Once the beef is cooked take it off from stove. Heat oil in a frying pan. Splutter mustard seeds & add curry leaves. After that add the cooked beef & stir until it becomes dark brown colour.

LOL, well Hamburg is ALL the way north. We are in the beautiful (but boring) boonies just south of there, and I have yet to see ONE Asian person, let alone a shop. I am going to try growing okra (and a whole bunch of vegetables from Italy!). I am quite the cook, and have found the selection here to be quite depressing compared to San Francisco CA! *insert crying emoticon*

I'll be cooking haggis for my German visitors.

a greasy kebab from a run down restaurant which does not use bio food and certainly does not use sustainable energy to cook the food. Do I also fit into this group?

yawn...

Caramelised pears :-) We're going out for the main course (having just moved, we're trying the local pubs&restaurants now), but dessert will be at home - two pears poached until tender, brown sugar and a little water in a pan, never stir, just swing gently until the sugar water becomes golden brown syrup, enter pears (cut them up to your liking, slices, pieces...) swing a little more until they are covered, then get out, serve with the caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream :-)

Plum Sponge. Lecker...

had a salad of mixed lettuce, rocket and avacado.with fishfingers
trouble is im getting hugary again

Stuffeded peppers

Pigs-ear pizza!

Basically we made a realy pigs-ear of one of those "roll out the dough and top it with what you like" pizzas.
Shorty had the job of rolling, whilst I prepared the veggies - unfortunately the dough all stuck together whilst being transferred from the table to the baking tray, so we I kneaded it a bit and thought I would be able to roll it out again "properly".
Well, you don´t need to believe that those things let themselves be rolled out again!!
so, I sort of flattened it out as much as I could and we popped everything else on top, and although it didn´t look much, it tasted wonderful!!
Mahlzeit!

breast wrapped in parma ham today

... the mind boggles...

ooops -

chicken breast that is...

Pasta with lentils in a curry sauce (onion, garlic, carrots, mixed peppers, tomatoes, curry powder, curry paste)

@Seattle2 or anyone else who might know the answer...!

What can I use as a substitute for Graham Crackers thats available in German Supermarkets? Butterkeks???

Thanks.

The Vollkorn butterkeks from Leibniz are pretty good.

That was quick, thanks!

Today I'm cooking a chicken curry in my slow cooker.
Ingredients are leftover chicken, curry paste, clove garlic, half a dozen handfuls of red lentils, small tin coconut milk, courgette diced, yellow pepper also diced and tin of chopped tomatoes.
I normally also add a tin of drained chickpeas to something like this but didn't have any.
Will serve with Naan or rice. Not exactly gourmet but uses the chicken and store cupboard stuff and will make enough for 4/6 portions. My toddler will also eat it.

I know I've seen graham crackers here, just cant remember where... try Hertie, Karstadt in Hauptbahnhof, or Galleria Kaufhof. They all have american sections. There's also a grocery store called V-markt next to the St. Martin Strasse (S5/S6) stop - I'm thinking it might have been there that I saw them.

Otherwise, sounds like Marka has a good alternative for you. Here's a full post on graham cracker substitutes in the forum: click here

Perhaps a ginger cookie would also work and taste good. I'd probably lessen any sugar added to the crust though. Good luck!

Thanks Seattle2 will try that. I'm in Bremen though so sadly no Hertie.

I will be roasting a fresh whole chicken stuffed with lemon and herbs and will be roasting some parsnips, peppers, potatoes etc...

Not technically today but I'm having my first ever homemade sushi for lunch which I made last night. Just need to get the portions right though as I made enough for a large Japenese family and some to spare. And there's only me eating it!

Okonomiyaki with real otafuku sauce. looking forward to lunch

Last night's supper, leftovers for lunch (not the fries, just the chicken)
Chicken fingers and French fries

Slice two chicken breasts (skinned and boned) in long strips, about 2 fingers wide
Combine a cup of bread crumbs with 1 teaspoon ground rosemary, a dash of chili pepper and some white pepper
Heat a mix of half butter/half sunflower oil in a deep frying pan
Coat the chicken strips with flour, dip them in a mix of egg and milk (or briefly whipped cream to give you a more bubbly crust), coat them with the bread crumb mix
Fry in the butter/oil until golden brown, app. 3 - 4 minutes per side, turning once
Place on a thick layer of paper towels to soak up excess grease
Serve with lemon juice and tzatziki

I prefer the frying pan or kettle approach to French fries:

Heat app. 1 liter of sunflower oil in a deep frying pan or kettle until bubbles appear on a wooden spoon when dipped into the oil
Add the (yeah, I was lazy) frozen French fries, cover with your anti-spritz mesh
Let them fry, shaking the pan every now and then or stirring the fries with a long-handled spoon or fork
Turn the heat off when the fries are "blond" and let them continue frying for a couple more minutes
Remove with a slotted spoon to a thick layer of paper towels
Sprinkle immediately with salt to taste

Even Cat, the part-time vegetarian, relented and ate one whole chicken finger!

P.S. Does anyone want Scogs' leftover Samson's vinegar or whatever it's called? I don't do "chips & vinegar".

Pasta with gorgonzola sauce - yummy, but full of calories!!

Made this last night... delicious! And easy. Can use any rice you like, or even naan bread would be good with it. Was just about right for 2 adults, and had only a little leftover.

Notes: Double the spinach (4-5 cups)!! Read recipe reviews on the CL website if you want additional ways to make it spicier. I added 1 teaspoon of cayenne and it was barely spicy, but tasted great.

Chickpeas with Spinach

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups chopped spinach
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (15 1/2-ounce) can chickpeas, (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup hot cooked basmati rice
Lemon wedges (optional)
Grated lemon rind (optional)

Preparation
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, ginger, and garlic; sauté 4 minutes or until mixture begins to brown. Add water and tomato paste; cook 2 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring constantly. Stir in spinach, chili powder, salt, and chickpeas; cover. Reduce heat; cook 5 minutes or until spinach wilts and mixture is heated. Stir in juice. Serve over rice. Garnish with lemon wedges and rind, if desired.
Yield

2 servings (serving size: about 1 cup chickpea mixture and 1/2 cup rice)

Recipe from cooking light: http://search.myrecipes.com/search.html?Nt...Cooking%20Light

Can anyone suggest a sauce for Maultaschen? I actually found some way up here in the north. I had them years ago in Bavaria (and loved them), but I don't really recall what sauces were used... danke!