Speckulatius

Yes it is this time of the year again, when it smells like cinnamon and cloves, when we look forward to  riding ski lifts and warm music, overdecorated trees and fullfilled stomachs. 

My Speckulatiusdough is rubbed with a spicy mixture. The best part is cutting it in thin stripes and watch it get crispy in the oven. 
May all of you (vegetarians included) have a spicy christmas. 

Speckulatius
(speculoos baconstripes)

___________________________

dough

250g butter
250g brown sugar

2 eggs

150g almond flour
500g flour
a pinch of salt
some red food coloring

spice mixture
2 tsp cinnamon, grounded
1/2 tsp cloves, grounded
1/2 tsp ginger, grounded
2 tsp cardamom, grounded
1/2 tsp nutmeg, grounded
1 tsp cakao

2 tsp honey

All ingredients should have room temperature. Beat the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer, then add the eggs and beat until frothy. Add the almonds and flour and knead until all ingredients are dissolved.

Set aside 1/4 of the dough. Mix the rest with 2/3 of the spice mixture, then divide it in 3 parts and color it in 3 different red tones.

Now assemble and layer the 4 parts as you wish (base is a rectangle of about 20x15cm). I like to have a light "fat" layer on the bottom and and to put the darkest red on top. In the end, squeeze your rectangle a bit, so your layers won´t look too evenly.
Rub the rest of the spices on the top. Foil and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Preheat your oven to 180°C. In a small bowl, mix the honey and two teaspoons of water. Cut the dough in thin stripes (the thinner the crispier it will get, the best is to cut it with an electric slicer, be sure that the dough is really cold), brush with the honeywater and bake about 10 minutes until golden brown.

______________

Ja es ist wieder soweit, die Zeit im Jahr in der es nach Zimt und Nelken duftet, wir uns auf knirschende Kufen, weisse Liftfahrten und wärmende Musik, zu voll geschmückte Bäume und voll gegessene Bäuche freuen.

Mein Speckulatiusteig wird mit einer würzigen Mischung eingerieben. Der schönste Teil ist ihn vor dem Backen in dünne Streifen zu schneiden, die dann mit Honig zu glasieren und zu sehen wie sie im Ofen knusprig gebacken werden. 
Euch allen (auch den Vegetariern) eine speckige Weihnacht. 

Speckulatius

_____________________

Teig

250g Butter
250g braunen Zucker

2 Eier 

150g gemahlene Mandeln
500g Mehl
eine Prise Salz
etwas rote Lebensmittelfarbe

Gewürzmischung
2 TL Zimt, gemahlen
1/2 TL Nelken, gemahlen
1/2 TL Ingwer, gemahlen
1/2 TL Kardamom, gemahlen
1/2 TL Muskat, gemahlen
1 TL Kakao

2 TL Honig zum Bestreichen

Alle Zutaten sollten Zimmertemperatur haben. Mit der Küchenmaschine Butter und Zucker verrühren, Eier zugeben und schaumig schlagen. Mandeln und Mehl zugeben und verkneten.

Ein viertel des Teiges zur Seite legen, den Rest mit 2/3 der Gewürzmischung vermengen. In 3 Teile teilen und mit Lebensmittelfarbe in 3 unterschiedlich starke Rottöne färben.

Jetzt dürfen die 4 Teile beliebig geteilt und geschichtet werden (Grundform ist ein Rechteck von ca. 20x15 cm). Ich lasse unten gerne eine helle "Fettschicht" und lege oben den dunkelsten Teig auf.
Am Ende den Teig etwas zusammenschieben, so ist später das Innere nicht zu gleichmässig.
Die restliche Gewürzmischung oben auf den Speck reiben. In Folie wickeln und mindestens 2 Stunden im Kühlschrank ruhen lassen.

Ofen auf 180°C vorwärmen. Honig in einer Schale mit 2 TL Wasser verrühren.
Speckteig in Streifen schneiden (je dünner desto knuspriger wird er werden, am besten geht das mit einer elektrischen Schneidemaschine und wenn der Teig richtig schön kalt ist), mit Honigwasser bestreichen und ca. 10 Minuten goldbraun backen.

Blood Oranges & Bourbon

Orange Marmelade has always been my favorite. Bitter and sweet at the same time, it is the perfect companion for some stinky cheese or a big slice of Frankonian Sourdough bread with a layer of butter.... and this orange golden Bitterness.

This fabulous recipe is from Suzanne Fuoco (who runs Pink Slip Jam in Oregon, Portland, a small-batch business making jams, marmalades and chutneys using organic, seasonal and mostly local fruits) and I photographed it for the current number 13 of Kinfolk Magazine.  

Blood Orange & Bourbon Marmalade

___________________________________________

8 medium blood oranges

4 Meyer (or regular) lemons 

4 cups (1 liter) water
1 cup (235 milliliters) bourbon
5 cups (1 kilogram) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Remove the rind of the oranges and lemons with a vegetable peeler or a zester, slicing the rind into thin strips.
Squeeze the juice from both fruits, discarding the white pith and seeds. Put the rind, juice and pulp into a large saucepan.
Add the water and bourbon to the saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat. Cover and boil gently for 30 minutes.
Add the sugar and cloves to the saucepan of citrus and bring back to a rapid boil. Continue to boil rapidly uncovered while stirring frequently, about 15 to 30 minutes, or until the mixture forms a gel. Test for the right gel stage by drizzling a small amount of marmalade on a plate that has been chilled in the freezer, then turning the plate at an angle. If the tiny bit of jam runs down quickly, it needs further cooking. If it slowly moves down the plate or stops, it is done. Remove the marmalade from the heat.

Ladle the mixture into sterilized jars (1/2 pint size) .

Allow 24 hours to cool.

Unopened jams and marmalades will be preserved for 1 year. Refrigerate after opening.
Makes eight 8-ounce jars

as simple as cherry pie

It seems to me that the greatest findings in life are those who ask for only few ingredients:

Pitting night dark cherries from Tirol, listening to sweet music and dancing in my kitchen with violet fingers (and of course, finding some overlooked cherry stones in the pie to spit them as far as you can)

Yes, it is as simple as this.

Pitted Cherry Pie

______________________

Dough (Pâte à brisée) 

250 g flour 

125g cold butter 

1 teaspoon sugar 

1 teaspon salt 

1 Egg 

some drops cold water 

Filling

500g dark cherries 

200g huckleberries 

3 tablespoons sugar plus 1 for sparkling 

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Mix the flour, sugar and salt on your surface. Add the butter, cut into pieces and "sabler" (that means rub it together with your fingers, until the flour turns yellow and resembles coarse meal).
Now add the egg, kneed it in and and add some water if needed (only a teaspoon at a time). Wrap dough in plastic, pat into a disk and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.

Pit the cherries and mix them with huckleberries, 3 tablespoons sugar and starch in a big bowl.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Drape it over the buttered pie plate. Gently use your fingers to press it in. Cut the edges with scissors to get a nice rim.
Use the trimmings to cut out the some dots (you can use an empty bottle cap for that).
Fill the cherry mixture in the pie shell, place the dots on it, sprinkle with sugar and refrigerate again for 30 Minutes.

Bake until golden brown for about 50 minutes at 180°C.

Miami Beach and some Sun

all images © Kathrin Koschitzki

I love Miami Beach, its beautiful soft colors and warm water.
I bought a hat and took a long walk to see all the formidable Art Deco Buildings wearing my Salt Water Sandals.
If you ever visit, you should have some Stone Crabs and melting ice-cream at the beach. And, of course, try a piece of Key Lime Pie. This is how the sun tastes. 

KEY LIME PIE

_____________________

Crust 

100 g unsalted butter 

150g crackers (I use Leibniz Kekse) 

75 g sugar 

a pinch of salt

Filling 

800g sweetened condensed milk 

130 g sourcream 

200 ml freshly squeezed key lime juice 

2 tablespoons key lime zests 

Garnish 

200 ml heavy cream 

2-3 more key limes, cut into slices 

Melt the butter and crush your crackers into crumbs. Mix together crumbs, butter and sugar. In a 24 cm pie plate, press the dough down with your fingers and form a rim.
Prebake the crust at 175°C for about 10 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool.

Whisk together condensed milk, sour cream, key lime juice and zests. Pour into your pie crust.
Bake again for about 8 minutes. The surface should not brown! (The inside will still quiver when you touch the pan). Chill pie thoroughly before serving.

Whip the cream with an electric mixer until stiff.
Pipe around your Lime Pie (or just add a spoon on every piece when serving) and add some slices of key limes.

Chef Cathleens Spring Lunch

all images © Kathrin Koschitzki

A while ago I met Cathleen Boydron, a beautiful woman and excellent Chef.
To be honest, it was hard for me to decide what to be more fascinated about: her divine cooking (just exactly how I love food: freshly picked from the market, not too complicated in preparation, but always with a twist that makes it very special and that lets everyone roll their eyes when eating the first bite), her precious Parisian home (a turn-of-the-century town house, prettier than you could imagine it, with molding on the ceilings, a fireplace, oak floors and an enchanted garden around it) or Cathleen herself: an American-French Lady, swirling around in her cooking jacket like she never did anything else before...

Cathleen prepared this Spring Lunch for her Family on a Saturday, while her little daughter was walking around in the kitchen with Cathleens high heels on.

Chef Cathleens Spring Lunch

____________________________________

Young vegetables in Tempura

(all recipes serve 6)

Young veggies, like baby turnips, pink radishes, french green beans, pencil carrots, mini beetroot, zucchini flowers, edible flowers like violets, pansies

100 g of all purpose flour or rice flour

1 lightly beaten egg

15 cl ice cold water

20 g blue poppy seeds

deep fat frying

2L peanut oil

For the batter, whisk together  the flour and beaten egg, slowly pour the ice cold water and whisk briskly to eliminate the lumps. Add the poppy seeds and whisk again. Keep chilled until ready for use.

Wash all of the vegetables. Spring vegetables have a very thin skin and therefore don’t need peeling, except for the beetroots. Heat the peanut oil in a heavy pan or deep fat fryer to 180° C. Whisk the tempura batter and dip the vegetables into the batter by small quantities. Use a fork or chopsticks to take the veggies out of the batter, so that the excess batter will drip off.  Once the oil is to temperature, place the veggies delicately into the oil, about 4-5 at a time . Turn them around in the oil using a slotted spoon. Remove the vegetables once they are golden brown and place on paper towel to absorb excess oil. 

Sprinkle with « fleur de sel » or Maldon sea salt and serve immediately.

Roasted Green asparagus

with organic parmesan shavings,

18 local green asparagus

a nice chunk of organic parmesan

fruity olive oil

fresh ground pepper

Cut the woody end of the asparagus off. Green asparagus don’t really need to be peeled but I like to pel them lightly with a vegetable peeler ; the contrast of the light green stems and dark green tips looks nice after peeling. Boil a large quantity of water in a wide pan.  The asparagus should lay flat.  Once the water boils, salt it with sea salt, 10 g of salt per liter of water.  The salt will help preserve the vivid green color. 

Check the tenderness after 10 minutes by inserting the tip of a knife into one of the stems.  The asparagus should be slightly firm. Strain the asparagus and place immediately into a large quantity of ice cold water.  This will fix the chlorophyll, keeping the asparagus appetizingly green.  Place the asparagus onto a large platter and just before serving, sprinkle with some good olive oil, pepper with 
freshly ground pepper, shave fresh parmesan over the top using a vegetable peeler.

poached white asparagus from the "Landes" region of France

in herbed hollandaise emulsion

18 white asparagus

1 fresh egg at room temp

1 teaspoon of French mustard

 25 cl grape seed oil

fleur de sel, white pepper

¼ bunch of flat parsley

¼ bunch of cilantro

¼ bunch of chives

¼ bunch of tarragon

juice of ½ lemon

Peel the asparagus with a vegetable peeler.  Take off quite a bit of the stem, sometimes white asparagus can be pretty woody. Boil a large quantity of water in a wide pan.  The asparagus should lay flat.  Once the water boils, salt it with sea salt, 10 g of salt per liter of water.

Check the tenderness after approx.. 12 minutes, the white asparagus should be cooked to more tender than the green.

Strain off water and place the asparagus onto a plate with covered with paper towel to absorb excess water. Let them cool off before placing in fridge.

Hollandaise emulsion

Prepare a classic mayonnaise: all of the ingredients must be at room temperature.
Separate the yolk and egg white. Keep the egg white in a clean bowl.

Whisk the yolk with the mustard, pour the grape seed oil progressively while whisking briskly. The mayonnaise should take quickly becoming quite creamy. Continue whisking and adding oil until all of the oil is emulsionned.
Add the lemon juice, season with fleur de sel and fresh ground pepper.
Whisk the egg white until it become frothy and creamy, but not too stiff.
Wash all of the herbs and chop finely. Add the frothy egg white to the mayonnaise delicately using a spatula. Add all of the chopped herbs. Check the seasoning.

Slowly roasted Young veal loin with chanterelles and almonds

1 veal loin, weight 1,5 kg

(have your butcher tie the loin up like a roast and ask him for some veal bones)

2 sweet white onions

½ bunch of fresh sage

15 cl of dry white wine

1 l of veal stock

salt and pepper

olive oil

800 g of chanterelles

3 spring onions

12 fresh peeled almonds

1 candied lemon (candied in salt)

organic lemon zest

olive oil

10 g of sweet butter

fleur de sel and fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 190° C. Take the meat out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking. Peel and slice the onions, wash and spin dry the fresh sage. Heat a cast iron dutch oven with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and sweat the onions along with the stems of the fresh sage. The onions should not brown.
Remove the onions and keep aside in a bowl. Season the veal on all sides with fine salt. Heat 3 more tablespoons of oil in the dutch oven and brown the loin on all sides. Add the veal bones, they should brown as well. You can add a little fresh butter to help the browning. Spoon the melted butter over the loin roast regularly. The meat should be well browned, almost caramelized but not burned.
Remove the browned meat from the dutch oven, remove excess fat using paper towel, heat the meat juices in the dutch oven and deglaze with the dry white wine. Let the alcohol evaporate.
Put the veal loin back into the Dutch oven, add the onions and fresh sages leaves, cover in veal stock and bring to a boil. Cover with lid and place in oven for 1 hour. Turn the roast over after 30 minutes of cooking.
After one hour, remove the roast from the dutch oven, place on a rack over a pan and cover with foil. The roast must rest at least 15 minutes before being sliced.
Place the dutch oven on the stove and reduce the cooking juices. Strain the juices into a small saucepan and heat. Add a tablespoon of sweet butter and whisk briskly to thicken the sauce and
make it velvety.
Slice the roast and place on a serving platter and pour some sauce over the top. Serve the rest of the sauce in a sauce dish.

Cut off the end of the stem of the Chanterelles. Slice the larger mushrooms in two, and wash all of the mushrooms rapidly in a large bowl of water. Remove them quickly from the water and spin them dry in a salad spinner. Wash the spring onions and slice them at an angle.
Heat 3 Tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy frying pan. Cook the mushrooms on high heat, salt and cook for one minute, until they render their natural water.
Strain off the water, remove the mushrooms. Add the sweet butter, when the butter becomes frothy, add the mushrooms and the spring onions; cook for a few more minutes to brown the mushrooms.
Rinse the candied lemon and slice the zest in a fine julienne. Zest the lemon using a microplane
Add the lemon julienne and the zest, then the almonds. Heat gently.
Serve the warm mushrooms with the veal loin.

Berry pavlova with fresh whipped cream

200 g of egg white

200 g of granulated sugar

200 g of powdered sugar

33 cl of full fat whipping cream

Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries

Preheat oven to 90°. Weigh all of the ingredients before starting.
Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer. When the egg whites become frothy, start adding the granulated sugar, little by little. This will stiffen them and make them shiny. When the egg whites are stiff, stop whipping and add the powder sugar. Mix gently with a spatula.
Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment paper. Spread the meringue evenly creating a thick disk shape. Scoop out the center; this is where the whipped cream and fresh berries will be placed once the meringue is baked and cooled.
Place a second baking sheet under the first one . Place the oven rack in the middle and bake the meringue for 70 minutes.
The meringue should be very white. Once baked, remove from oven and slide the parchment paper onto a rack to cool thoroughly.
Place the whisks, the bowl and the whipping cream in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Whip the cream slowly at first then more and more rapidly until the cream thickens and becomes firm. About 8 minutes.
Place the meringue on a serving platter. Fill the scooped out section with whipped cream. Add the fresh washed berries in the center and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
The pavlova may be held in the refrigerator an hour but should be eaten the same day!

The Young Vegetable Tempura recipe has been published in the 11th KINFOLK Magazine.

Candid Classic Krapfen

Do you know Krapfen? We use to eat those soft yeast balls filled with red Hagebuttenmark at Fasching, dressed up in funny costumes with confetti in the hair. 

(if you did not decide yet what costume to wear, I find this snail with a trail of slime, this grandma, this christmas tree and erics head very pretty)

Krapfen

_______________

350g flour 

180ml milk

20g fresh yeast 

30g sugar

3 egg yolks

40g butter

a pinch of salt (or two)

Fat for Frying

Hagebuttenmark 

powdered sugar

Put the flour in a big bowl and make a little intention. Warm the milk. Mix about 5 tablespoons of the milk with the yeast and a pinch of the sugar and fill it in the hollow. Let it rise for 10 minutes. 

Add the egg yolks, butter, salt, the rest of the milk and sugar and kneed everything with your hands until you get a smooth, shiny and elastic dough. Form a ball, cover with a towel and let it sit at a warm place until it doubles in size. That takes about 1 hour. 

Kneed the dough again with your hands and then roll it out (about 4 cm thick). Cut out small circles (about 8 cm large) and let them rise again for 20 minutes at a warm place.

Carefully put them in the hot grease (170°C are perfect) and turn them after 2-4 minutes. Both sides should be golden brown. You are the perfect Krapfen Baker when your Krapfen has a yellow ring around the middle. 

Put them on a cooling rack, fill them with Hagebuttenmark (with the help of a filling tip) and sprinkle powdered sugar on top. 

Jomon Cookplay

Some time ago I flew to Bilbao to shoot pictures of the outstanding porcelain serie Jomon.Created by talented Designer Ana Roquero and famous Basque chef Aitor Elizegi, those pieces are as simple as clever. The bowls may sit in the reliefs of the plates  (and be arranged in numerous possibilities) or you can hold them in your hand to directly eat out of them, my favorite option of course. 

JOMON Cookplay, designed by Ana Roquero