Category: Tasty

Cardamon Cake

Picture of Cardamon Cake, but it's really the smell that sets this one apart

Summary

  • Preparation: 20 min (+10 min for the cardamon pods)
  • Cooking: 60 min
  • Total: 80 min

Ingredients

  • 300 g (1⅓ cups) softened butter (keep wrapper to grease Bundt)
  • 4 eggs
  • 320 g (2½ cups) plain flour
  • 380 g (1 ⅔ cups) caster (superfine) sugar
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 80 pods (2 generous tablespoons of pods) of freshly ground cardamon
  • 200 ml (1 cup) milk

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 175°C /350F
  2. Cream butter with moderate speed electric mixer for 3 min
  3. Add eggs, stir for 1 min
  4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar,
  5. baking powder and cardamon
  6. Grease a 2¼ litre (10 cup) Bundt with butter and then sprinkle the inside with the dry portion of the dough to coat it, then pour rest back in with dry portion
  7. Stir dry portion into the egg/butter mixture.
  8. Stir in the milk
  9. Carefully pour into the prepared Bundt. Avoid creating air pockets. Tap the pan to remove any air bubbles and then tilt the pan gently, so that the batter runs up the sides.
  10. Bake for about an hour until it is golden brown, just beginning to pull away from the side of the Bundt and a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean.
  11. Let the cake cool in the Bundt for 10 minutes and then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
  12. When cold, transfer to a serving plate or board.

Leftovers?

Are you kidding?

Lentils and Quinoa

Lentils and Quinoa in a frying pan
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp curry paste
  • 1/2 tsp each cinnamon and salt
  • 4 carrots, sliced
  • 1 cup quinoa or rice
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 can (19 oz) lentils, drained and rinsed
  • 1 apple, unpeeled and diced
  • 4 green onions, sliced
  • 1/2 cup low fat plain yogourt
  1. Heat oil over medium heat.
  2. Cook onions, garlic, cumin, curry paste, cinnamon and salt stirring often for about 5 minutes or until softened.
  3. Stir in carrots and quinoa-cook, stirring occasionally for about 1 minute.
  4. Pour in stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes until quinoa is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.
  5. Stir in lentils, apple and green onions. Cook for about 5 minutes or until lentils are heated through.
  6. Serve with a dollop of yogurt.

Sauerbraten

There are two parts to this recipe, marinating and roasting. There seems to be some debate about how long, I have seen as little as 2 days and as much as 3 weeks. If meat in the fridge for that long freaks you out keep in mind that vinegar preserves; there are lots of opinions out there for how long so google as needed. Some people seem to boil the marinade briefly before putting the meat in.

This recipe is “Frei nach Dr. Oetker” but there are some notes and tweaks.

Marinating

  • 1 “roast for 4-6 people”
  • for marinade:

Peel and slice onions thinly. Mix other marinade ingredients and put the roast and marinade in a container that is as small as can fit all of it, so that as much of the meat as possible is submerged. Alternative: put it in a zip lock or vacuum bag.

Marinade for 2-21 days. Turn the meat occasionally during marinating so that all of it gets covered into the juice.

Roasting

  • Suppengrün – a carrot and a stick of celery and an onion
  • 50g raisins
  • 50ml port or red wine or water
  • 50g (1-2 slices) of German pumpernickel (not the spongy stuff you call pumpernickel in North America), or I prefer my favourite Flambe bread from our local German baker
  • oil for browning the meat
  • 1 tbsp Rübenkraut (not just golden syrup) or honey

Soak raisins in port so they are nice and soft when you add them to the sauce later. Keep this separate until near the end of cooking so it doesn’t get blended with the rest)

Take the meat out of the marinade and keep the marinade separate since it will be used for cooking

Brown the meat on all sides in oil in a frying pan that is deep enough for roasting it with its sauce.

While the meat is browning, cut up the suppengrün into small cubes.

Once the meat is browned, put the suppengrün, Rübenkraut or honey and about half the marinade into the frying pan with it and stew in a light boil for 30 min with a lid on. Add marinade as it steams off.

Break up the pumpernickel or Flambe into crumbs and add it to the frying pan.

Stew for another 1.5hrs or so.

The sauce

Take out the meat

Put the sauce and vegetables through a blender. It should end up a as a somewhat thick sauce. Take it out of the blender, and add the raisins.

Serve with dumplings and red cabbage

 

 

Tabbouleh (Tabuli ) salad

  • Picture of my bowl of Tabouleh1/3 cup olive oil
  • 4 tbsp lemon or lime juice
  • 0-1/2 clove garlic
  • 0-1 dash of cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup bulgur
  • ~1cup finely diced tomatos
  • 0-1 finely diced cucumber
  • 2+ cups finely chopped parsley
  • 1/4+ cup finely chopped mint leaves
  • 2+ finely chopped green onions
  • 1/2 tsp of salt (to remove water from tomato and cucumber)
  1.  wash the parsley and mint and dry it well (I spin it in a salad spinner)
  2. mix olive oil and lemon juice and optional cinnamon and garlic
  3. add bulgur and let sit for 15+ minutes (at least until bulgur is plumped up)
  4. chop up tomatoes, green onion and cucumber, mix with salt and let it sit for 5+ minutes
  5. chop up the mint and parsley
  6. drain tomatoes and cucumber and mix with mint, parsley
  7. add bulgur mix and stir

Shakshuka

Shakshuka in a frying pan
  • 1+ onion, diced
  • 0+ red bell pepper, seeded and diced
  • 2+ tbsp of prepared garlic
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • 1 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes
  • 6 large eggs
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 0+ fresh or prepared cilantro, chopped
  • 0+ fresh parsley, chopped
  • 0+ feta
  1. fry up onion and garlic until they start to brown
  2. add spices, pepper and tomatoes and simmer
  3. break up tomatos with a potato masher or similar so they are not too big but still have some texture
  4. make a  hole for each egg and crack the egg into the sauce
  5. cook with a lid for 5-8 minutes depending how you like your egg
  6. Add feta, cilantro and parsley

Kat’s Meow (savory granola)

Kat's Meow savory granola
Kat’s Meow savory granola

My friend Kat gave me some savory granola. I really liked it – the little jar she

gave me got nibbled to death without being added to anything. I usually eat it with plain  3%+ yoghurt, even though a bunch usually still gets nibbled right off the cookie sheet (careful, it’s hot). Kat gave me the recipe. I have since tweaked it some more, but I still call it Kat’s Meow.

Ingredients

  • Dry mix:
    • 1 cup rolled oats
    • 1 cup rye flakes
    • 1/2 cup buckwheat
    • 1 cup pecan pieces
    • 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
    • 1/2 cup hulled sunflower seeds
    • 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper (to taste)
    • 2-4 tbsp dried rosemary (to taste, but this is what really makes this stuff smell good!)
    • 1-2 tbsp dried thyme (to taste)
  • Wet mix
    • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 2-4tbsp grainy mustard
    • 1 tbsp maple syrup

Preparation

  • pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C
  • combine dry ingredients in a fairly large bowl, and wet ones in a smaller one (the oil and mustard are kind of hard to combine, I use a tiny little whisk)
  • pour the wet mix over the dry mix and stir really well
  • spread the granola on a cookie sheet (use one with raised edges; you really don’t need to grease it or add parchment paper or anything, usually a plain wash without scrubbing gets it cleaned up)
  • bake for 15-20 minutes; longer gets it a bit crunchier but you start to lose some of the flavour
  • once it has cooled completely, if there is any left, you can store it in a jar with a well-fitting lid

Kat’s Meow

Savoury granola

  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup rye flakes
  • 1/2 cup buckwheat
  • 1 cup pecan pieces
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/2 cup hulled sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper (to taste)
  • 2-4 tbsp dried rosemary (to taste, but this is what really makes this stuff smell good!)
  • 1-2 tbsp dried thyme (to taste)
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2-4 tbsp grainy mustard
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup

  1. pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C

  2. combine dry ingredients in a fairly large bowl

  3. combine wet ingredients in a smaller bowl (the oil and mustard are kind of hard to combine, I use a tiny little whisk)

  4. pour the wet mix over the dry mix and stir really well

  5. spread the granola on a cookie sheet (use one with raised edges; you really don't need to grease it or add parchment paper or anything, usually a plain wash without scrubbing gets it cleaned up)

  6. bake for 15-20 minutes; longer gets it a bit crunchier but you start to lose some of the flavour

  7. once it has cooled completely, if there is any left, you can store it in a jar with a well-fitting lid

My friend Kat gave me some of this savory granola. I really liked it – the little jar she gave me got nibbled to death without being added to anything. I usually eat it with plain  3%+ yoghurt, even though a bunch usually still gets nibbled right off the cookie sheet (careful, it’s hot). Kat gave me the recipe. I have since tweaked it some more, but I still call it Kat’s Meow.

Fesenjoon

We discovered that a Persian Restaurant nearby a few weeks ago. When we tried it out we asked the proprietor what dishes he would recommend. He suggested  several dishes, including Fesenjoon, a stew with a walnut and pomegranade sauce. He recommended we eat that one last, because it has so much flavour and would cover up the others. He was right. I have since gone back and had it again.