Red Cabbage

Red Cabbage [braised]

A fine specimen of red cabbage

Ingredients

1 medium sized red cabbage ( make sure the stump looks whitish, if it is brown the cabbage is old and will taste simply bad)

fresh red cabbage

1 medium onion

150g Bacon pieces (or rashers) you can  use the pre cut ones)

2 Bay Leaves (if you have fresh ones use 3-4)

2-3 Apples ( Braeburn or any apple which has a good apple taste)

1 Tbsp Sunflower/Rapeseed Oil

1-2 Tbsp vinegar (nicest a good Balsamic one)

2-3 Tbsp brown sugar ( best: organic brown)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Glass of Red wine or 1 glass of water

Method

1. Cut cabbage into pieces, like for Coleslaw

2. Peel and cut onion small, do the same for the bacon

3. Heat oil in large saucepan

4. Add bacon pieces and brown slightly, add the onion

5. Fry until bacon pieces are crispy

6. Add cabbage and mix with bacon and onion

7. Add vinegar sugar and bayleaves

8. Put peeled and sliced apple on top of cabbage, add glass of wine or water and simmer on low temperature for approx 4- to 50 minutes

9. Add salt and pepper, check seasoning add more vinegar and/or sugar if necessary

the finished result!

Note When the cabbage is ready, most of the juice should have evaporated. If there is too much liquid boil it off, being careful not to burn the cabbage. You can also thicken the cabbage with a little cornflour mixed with a little water and added to the cabbage. Tastes best reheated!

Note on Vegetables (in general)

There are lot of recipes for all vegetables, especially if you want to use them as a main dish.. If you use them

as an accompaniment to the main meal, then the more simple they are cooked the better. Only buy vegetables when they are fresh. Use a shop or market which has a quick turn over. Bear in mind that frozen vegetables are a better alternative to tired old vegetables

Lemon cream sauce

Lemon Cream Sauce

Sauces can make or break a dish. When I was growing up I learned very quickly the importance of being able to make a good sauce from scratch.. Again there was this rivalry between the cooking tradition of my mother (Saxon) and my father (Prussian)! I think my father won that one. How to make the base of most white and dark sauces I will do in another blog.

The Lemon Cream sauce is quick to make and delicious with most fish, salmon,cod and  all crustaceons
[ This sauce originates in the Normandie where cream and butter are in abundance in cooking]

Cooking time: approx: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup chicken stock
1 cup fresh cream
Grated zest of my lemon
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh dill/ or 1 tsp dried dill
1 egg yolk
2 tsp butter/ flour balls

Cooking Instruction

1. Pour the chicken stock into a saucepan and add the cream

2. Slowly bring the liquid to boil, turn down to simmmer.

3. Add the zest and the lemon sauce and simmer until sauce thickens slightly

4. Add the butter/flour balls [work a tsp of flour into two dollops of butter] stirring until butter balls are dissolved. This will thicken the sauce

5. Beat  the egg yolk add a little of the liquid to the egg yolk, beating continuously while you are adding the liquid. Add to sauce stirring continuously. This will give the sauce a very velvety consistency.

6. Just before serving add the fresh dill. If you are using dried dill, add it at the same time as the butter balls to let the flavour develop.

Note 

If you find adding the egg yolk too fussy or difficult, then just leave it out. You still have a delicious tasting sauce

Note 2 The Butter balls are a quick way to thicken any soup. Due to the slow dissolving of the butter,  the flour is released slowly and your sauce does not get lumpy

Scalloped potatoes

Scalopped Potatoes

The following recipe uses pre cooked potatoes. You can do the recipe from raw potatoes as well. Just slice the peeled potatoes thinly and add a little more cream, so that the potatoes don't get too dry. Cooking time then changes from 45 minutes to an hour and 30  min.

Cooking time: 45 min approx

Ingredients

5 to 6 medium potatoes peeled and sliced
1/2 cup single cream
4 slices of Maasdamer cheese or cheddar or any cheese you like that melts well
Some salt
Approx 30 to 40 g butter

Cooking Instructions

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into slices
2. Boil the slices in lightly salted water for 10 min
3. Drain the potatoes.
4. Dot the dish you use with butter, layer half the amount of the potatoes slices
5. Put cheese on potatoes
6. Continue to layer the rest of potatoes
7. Pour the cream over the potatoes and use the rest of the butter on top of potatoes
8. Bake for approx 40 to 45 min at 175 C

Note  This side is ideal with any quick fried meat or fish, Particularly good with Pork Schnitzel

Note 2  You can use the above recipe as a dish on its own, by adding cooked ham pieces or fried bacon pieces. Serve the potatoes then with a green salad.

Smoked Cod Chowder

Chowder

I do not know how many different types of  Chowder recipes do exist, probably the same amount as for stews and goulash, I have eaten so many different ones, depending in what country I was in. In France, Spain and Italy your  proper Fish stew or soup contains alot of shelfish and particularly in Italy lots of small squid ( which I came to dislike!). The French are particularly proud of their Boullabaise. If you get a good home made one, it is a dish made in heaven. Don't eat the other one!!!!

The One I liked best and ate every time I was in Dublin, years ago, was on the menu in a Fish Restaurant in Powers Court. I do not know if it still exist. They just used white fish and smoked fish, no salmon, and no mussels. Perfect for my taste buds.

Anyway a few weeks I was in the English Market buying fish in O'Connell's and I was offered smoked Cod, which they had smoked themselves. It did not take a lot of convincing me and instead of just buying some fresh haddock, I ended up buying the smoked cod as well. Why? It smelled delicious.
I knew exactly what I was going to make out of it.

Ingredients

Use the recipe for the vegetable soup and add more Parsley and/or fresh dill just before serving.

400 g smoked cod ( make sure the cod is properly smoked) cut into cubes

                              (If you prefer less smoked taste then use

                                200 g fresh cod or haddock

                                200 g smoked cod)

Method

1. Use the recipe for vegetable soup and simmer for 20 min. You can change the quantities but make sure you have at least 3 medium potatoes

2. Then add the cubed fish and simmer gently for  further 5 min.

3. Adjust seasoning.

Note: 

If you prefer a more creamy taste, you  puree the vegetables before you add the fish and add half a cup of cream

Pork Roast

Pork Roast

To get a decent roast you need at least 4 pounds of a meat. This applies to any Roast be it Pork, Beef or Lamb.  

For this Roast I used the loin of Pork, which is easy to carve .

If you are partial to crackling then the leg of Pork would be better suited. The method is the same

Ingredients:

4 to 6 pounds of Pork roast serves 6-8 people depending on their appetite

3-4 medium onions

3-4 fresh tomatoes

½ l or more decent white wine ( full bodied!)

2-3 cloves of garlic ( optional)

2- Tbsp dried majoram ( optional)

Salt and pepper to taste 

Pork Roast prepared for roasting

Method

1. Peel the garlic, cut into slices, make some incisions into the meat and insert the garlic. Rub the meat with salt, pepper and majoram.

2.  Depending on the size of the roast  take a large pan and quickly brown the meat on top of the hob, or alternatively set you oven to at least 220C and roast the joint for 20 min.

3. After either browning or roasting at the high heat, place roast in roasting tin with the onions quartered and the quartered tomatoes.

4. Start roasting at 175 C. Baste the roast with the wine every 10-15 minutes. The wine will help to tenderize the meat and keep it moist. If you used up the wine you can use some water.

according to the weight you take 20 min. roasting per pound approx. a 4-6 pound roast will need usually min. 2 hrs. depending on your oven.

5. Take out the roast and let it rest

Scrape the juices with some water (if needed) and put the tomatoes and onions through a sieve; be sure to scrape off the pulp into the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste, add some more  majoram.

6.  Reduce the liquid ( boil it in a pan) until you have the required amount for the sauce. If necessary add some more water.

7.To thicken the sauce, put a tablespoon of  flour into a jar add some water make a soft liquid pour into to the sauce, bring it to the boil again and simmer for a minute or two. This will take the flour taste out of it ( if the sauce turns out lumpy put it through a sieve again, it will reduce the lumps)

Pork Roast after Roasting!

Note:  The better quality of the meat the better the taste!

The above method can be applied to any roast,  just use Red wine for Beef and Lamb

Depending on the meat you can add different herbs, ie. Rosemaryn and Thyme for Lamb, Bay Leaf and Tarragon for Beef etc.  

                                            Be adventurous and experiment!

Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup  (simply the quickest and easiest to cook)

The following recipe uses vegetables which you will have in the house most of the time. Once you get used to making soups you can and will use whatever comes to hand and make a nice soup.

I was initiated into soup making by my father's mother (Oma Mia). My gang will know the story but I think it worthwhile to share it with you.

When we used to visit Oma Mia, Saturday then was the traditional “Suppen”(soup) day,  in most German families and each family had their own specialities.

It took me quite a while to figure out what the difference was between my mother’s vegetable/potato soup and my Grandmother’s. One day we were in the kitchen alone and Oma, asked me to stir the vegetables in the pot. I ask her why and she explained that was to lock the flavours into the vegetables and that it would taste better. She called it “schwitzen”, that means sweating. She would put a little oil into the pot and sometimes, when it was to be a fine, delicate soup, she would use butter, or a mixture of both.

She had a specific order as well, which to this day I dare not change, I still don’t know the reason for the particular “Reihenfolge”( order).

First always come the onions, then leeks, then celery or celeriac, then carrots and last but not least the potatoes. These are the ingredients of the most simple soup and it is simply delicious.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. of good vegetable oil or butter or a mixture of both

1 medium sized onion

1 med/large leek

2 carrots

3 carrots

½ cup celery (if you like celery)

3 medium potatoes

¾ l chicken stock or vegetable stock

Pepper to taste

Parsley optional

Cream optional

Method:

1. Clean the vegetables and cut them into small pieces.

2. Put oil into a large saucepan and add the onions

3. Sauté the onions until the look glassy but are not browned.

4. Add the leeks, stir, let them “sweat” a bit and then add the carrots

5. Continue until all the vegetables have been added. Should take about 5 minutes.

6. Add the chicken/vegetable stock and simmer for 20 minutes.

7. If you want a cream soup,  puree the vegetables

8. Serve either with, cream, parsley, croutons (homemade!!)

Note:  The recipe for the croutons you find on the recipe for Winter's Tale soup

Mary's Salad

Mary’s Salad 

This salad has been a family favourite for a long long time now. It got its name after Mary, a close friend of the family. Why name the salad after her? Well, whenever we had big Parties in the house, the food and not really the drink! was the important bit. As already mentioned (Corn Patties) there are a few vegetarians among the friends and I felt that they deserved a little more than simply eating the non meat dishes. So Mary's salad was created. It is one of the salads which is requested any time there is a gathering in the house. It even made it to a christening in Germany! But for some inexplicable reason I never made a photo of it. The photos of the vegetables below were taken at a garden fête in Belfast last year.

Prep Time: 20 to 60 min depending how many portions are needed

Ingredients:

for approx 4-8 people depending on the size of the vegetables

1 small very fresh and firm cauliflower

2 carrots

1 gourgete

1 red/yellow pepper

1 leek

1 large eating apple/ pink lady or similar

1 Ts cut chives

½ tsp dried dill ( or 1 Tsp fresh dill)

2 portions of a normal vinaigrette dressing (1 Ts vinegar to 3 Ts rapeseed oil/sunflower, ½ tsp salt, pepper to taste)

Method:

1. Cut the cauliflower, carrots, gourgete into small pieces

2. Cut the leek into fine rings

3. Cut the apple into small pieces with the peel on

4. Mix the vegetables with the dressing and the dill

decorate with  chopped chives

Note: 

The salad can be prepared a few hours before using it. Just add the dressings shortly before serving. Depending on the size of the individual vegetable, adjust the dressing to suit.

 Only use absolutely fresh vegetables