Vanilla & Clove Panna Cotta with Honeyed Persimmon

I`ve got this recipe from Coco, from her Blog "roost" - a wonderful foodblog with very creative foodcompositions.
Inspired by her and Johanna, a friend vom Israel who found that recipe in the www, it sounded so so interesting to me, that I had to try it out!

It was very easy to prepare, even if it does not look like.
The only "critical" moment are the hours where you have to wait for the gelatin to solidify.
Nyummnyumm!

You can find the recipe here:
http://www.roostblog.com/roost/vanilla-clove-panna-cotta-with-honeyed-persimmon.html

Persimmon

Jewelled Rice

A brandnew experience for me was this recipe, which I found (surprise surprise!) in Jamie Olivers` newest magazine from January/February 2012.

I always change those recipes a little bit, depending on my mood and ideas coming through the kitchen window :)
I guess you cannot find out all the ingredients from the photos (?), so here they are:
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- red lentils
- red rice from the Camargue
- red onion
- roasted pistachio
- roasted pine nuts and a little bit of crumbled walnut (that is what I`ve added)
- dried sour cherries
- juice from a lemon
- fresh leafs of mint and parsley (normally it is fresh coriander...but I don´t like it at all!

- as a topping: natural joghurt (I added that, too), not too much.
__

...in the end I was sure that it had perfectly fitted to put some pealed orangepieces on it, or pomegranate seeds. For the freshness and the contrast to the rice, which is very firm compared to the Basmati rice we always use.

I have never eaten such an interesting composition, so foreign in taste and smell and bite. Very, very cool! Wonderful...Timo didn´t stop eating :) - so we will cook it again, for sure!

Little Chocolate-Beetroot-Cakes

Because I`ve got a bunch of other work to do, I have not much time for cooking. And  I have even less time for big photography arrangements in our kitchen, because we cook very late at the moment.

Weekend begins now, and I couldn`t wait to try out this recipe!
I had a lot of beetroot from the farm who sends me fresh stuff every two weeks in my fridge and I asked myself: OMG, what can I do with THAT??
Timo does not like it, and for me, well....4 beetroots are a little bit too much. I found that recipe and *tadaaa* - Timo liked it, because the beetroot is more useful for a rich, dark color and it takes out the heavy sweetness from normal chocolat cake recipes.

So it tastes more like a dark chocolate cake what helps not to eat too much ^o^ ...

I had so much fun in taking photos finally again and I hope you enjoy!
Have a wooonnnnderful weekend! Love!

___________________________________
 Little Chocolate-Beetroot-Cakes

(4 portions)
>> 150 gramms beetroot
>> 85 g dark chocolate (min. 70%), chopped, best quality for sure
>> 2 TBSP Rum (if u want)
>> 3 eggs
>> 2 TBSP brown sugar
>> 2 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder, good quality again

- Preheat oven - 200°C
- Grease 4 oven-safe forms, each about 150 ml
- Cook beetroot until soft (that can take time - cut it in dices before cooking, so it`s getting quicker)
- Mix hot beetroot, chocolate and rum in a blender until smooth
- Mix eggs and sugar with the hand-held mixer 5 to 10 minutes - the color should get light and the
   mass should be threefold.
- On the bowl edge, fill in carefully the chocolate mass into the egg-sugar-mixture. Scatter cocoa-
   powder over it. Mix it caaarefully with a wooden spoon - it must not be perfectly smooth and
   homogenous
- Fill into forms, put into oven.
- Bake it 7-9 minutes - 7 minutes is more for a liquid core, 9 to 10 more for a cake.
- After baking, let it cool down in the forms for 2 minutes. Then turn them out.
____________________________________

The recipe is from the new Jamie Oliver magazine, german version, "Januar/Februar 2012".
It was invented by the british Foodstylist Anna Helm-Baxter. She came to the U.S. to live there and realized, how much sugar is added in the American foodstuff, so she decided to create "sweet" recipes with other things than sugar. This cake for example has only 2 TBLSpoons sugar in it. And a lot of beetroot, but you don`t taste it that much.
I think the idea of Anna is great!
We don´t need that much sugar for desserts...it can be sweetened through fruits and so on.

Here is Annas Website:
http://londonfoodieny.com/

Sandwich - Freestyle

Yesterday, after I hopped through one of Hamburg`s farmer`s market, we had a more or less simple dinner - just sandwiches.

I freestyled a little bit, so the first one was spread with Ajvar & Harissa , I added mackerel, olives, chopped salted  lemon (which I prepared one and a half month ago already, yumm!), salad and roasted pine nuts.

Normally, I would have used tuna, but because tuna is one of the most endagered and overfished fishes, we decided already 6 month ago, not to eat it anymore.
(You can read that here: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/species/atl_bluefin_tuna.htm ...
We always watch out for the logo of the MSC, the Marine Stewardship Council - they look after  natural and healthy fishing...>>>>

The other one was with peanut-cocoa-sauce, chicken breast with roasted fennel seeds and cinnamon, olives, chopped salted lemon and apricot.

Happy, happy evening.

Spitzbuben - christmas cookies part 2

Don`t think I am lazy and my kitchen stays cold...noonooo!

I made a lot of christmas cookies, cute packaging and gave them all away...
But I always have to prepare the whole kitchen for photography sessions, and after hours of baking, well...there is sometimes no power left for that.

But I have been in Brandenburg, where my parents enjoyed the pre-christmas time...in a house in the forest..., and I used the opportunity to bake cookies with my mum, what I didn`t for years!...All the good old childhood cookies...mmmmh!

So here are some pics of  my favourite ones: "Spitzbuben" .. so it is called here.I guess, everybody knows this kind of cookies, it is so so simple, and every part of every country has a different name for it.
But everywhere, they taste delicious, I am sure!

For all of you:
MERRY DELICIOUS CHRISTMAS,
whatever you may eat during the holy days!

_____

Nut slices - christmas cookies part I

Not only winter is coming...also christmas!
I love christmas! Not only because of all those memories of my childhood and the snow and the smell of tea and hot chocolate... but also because of all the christmas cookies!
I love to taste those from others, and I love to bake them me myself.

The first session began with nut slices. The big ones taste awesome, so I tried them in small - and they are much better, because you can have little bites of - but more often...

Conchiglie with Brussel sprouts

Winter is coming.
The temperatures here gonna reach 0 C° this weekend...well, I confess: I really hate to freeze, and I hate these empty trees, no leaves at all, no birds, light is dull... it`s always a time, I have to overcome.

But this season has also its good parts.
For example all the seasonal vegetables, cole and so on.
Brussels sprouts is something very common in the winter here. ...well,...opinions differ on this point :o)
People hate it or love it. Timo for example hates it. I love it.
So I was happy, when he had to left for one day to Berlin, so I jumped right off into my clothes and went shopping.


 With my prey, I made this wonderful  Conchiglie, with Brussels sprouts, bacon crumbs, cream and Parmigiano.
OMG, it was wonderful! So easy and so well tasting!

~~ Granola,...again.

At the moment, I try out my new lens.
I also try out my new "Studio" - I had the wonderful permission of Timo to rebuild his kitchen, because he has so much more light in that room than I have in mine.
It´S now a mixture of kitchen and photo studio. Everywhere props and cam equipment, next to olive oil from France and Pasta deluxe from Italy.

I drilled holes in the ceiling to install a selfmade white background which can be lifted and closed down.

So I play around now with all that stuff, also exploring the possibilities of the new natural light quality coming from the big windows.

I have an inflamation in the right arm, so I can´t cook at the moment.
I have to do most of the thing with the left arm. Photography is something I can do, so I take things I already have, like the granola, to be my playmate....

~~ Granola!

I`ve got a kind of a spleen...

I always want to learn how to make those everyday-life foodstuff we normally buy at the supermarket:

Ketchup, Bread, spicemixes (> Garam Masala), ...
I want to know from what these things are made of - and I want to avoid all these additions that have chemical-sounding words and nobody except the "experts" know what it is and what they will do with my body!


I want it as natural as possible..and I want to create that with my own hands, eyes and brain.
So I did with that  wonderful GRANOLA.

I love breakfast, and Timo and me had our first "Sunday-Home-Breakfast" (after 4 years!) - I wanted to have everything perfect and yummee!
I didn`t bake the croissants by myself (that will follow sooner or later, for sure!), but this granola was spectacular!

There is no refined sugar in it, just honey and a lot of dried fruits.
The oat flakes are from biological agriculture, so I can be sure, they used the whole grain.It is really so delicious! It is crispy and crunchy and SO HOMEMADE!.... we had a wonderful breakfast!

~~ Autumnal plum-icecream

This week, we had wonderful weather -sunsunsun! Finally! Because Germany missed the summer this year....
We call that here "Altweibersommer" - often, when autumn comes, there is a period of warm weather before the cold season begins.
All the light is not only good for the mood, but also for a perfect light to take pictures...

We decided to act like it is summer.
I made a delicious plum-icecream with lemon and figs.
We -Timo, me and the cats- ate it at once, the whole pot of icecream! BURPS!.... I do not regret one bite, even if my stomach is aching now.

~~ Paella Olé! Cooking is fun!

Sorry, but all you out there...who speaks german or spanish:
HAVE TO WATCH IT!


PAELLA!!
OLÉ!

~~ Guinness Cake

I found by surprise the recipe for a "Guinness Chocolate Cake" in the web (>> Nigellas Cake) and really really really wanted to bake it, too!
It looked so awesome and sounded so f*** great!! I mean...GUINNESS CAKE!!!..

I had a Flashback to my youth when I was about 16, or something, when I went to the Irish Pub in my hometown Darmstadt nearly every evening - and often had a Guinness (or two). I was (secretly) in love with the barkeeper, an irish guy who also had an irish name...I was a big fan of Ireland, so I thought: an irish boyfriend would be cool! :)
So I went there every evening, staring at the barkeeper, but was too shy to talk to him. And the Guinness never helped to lighten my tongue. But it was delicious!

Actually, I have to confess:
The cake was wonderful, but it was more chocolate than guinness...nearly not too taste. Probably a little bit of bitterness, but that was it.

The topping (I ate this kind of topping in the U.S. - more a cream cheese topping) didn`t reach the hearts here in Germany. We are used to eat more that creamy stuff on the top of cakes.


Well, I really liked it!
But the "base" of the cake, with all the chocolate inside...well...EVERYBODY who tried liked it :o)

I am glad I made this experiment!...and the beautiful pix.

~~ In times of need: eat Chips

I am back from a wonderful trip through Italia and France...a CULINARY trip! UMMMH!
For sure, I brought a thousands of photographies...unfortunately, I didn`t brought the time to arrange them :)

So, until I can post some of the mouthwatering stuff I saw in the southern europe, I share all the other wonderful stuff with you, which has been created in my beautiful kitchen in Hamburg the last months....



In may, where we had this shit damn (!!!) EHEC virus in Germany (and especially in Hamburg, where I live), we really had a problem about "What do we eat?" ... no fresh things...no salad, fruits and so on...no vegetables... it was horrible!
And I really suffered from the abrupt stop of cooking...
So I had a look in my pantry and did everything I could with the rests.

Like you can see, lucky Fabia found some potatoes, and so I could experiment with my first homemade fresh chips! It was a crispy and crunchy and wonderful experience.

Holiday-Pecan-Plum-Muffins to save my honour!

It`s one month ago that I have been on the summer party of my current company Deadalic...
I don`t know what we talked about, but it was fated that I promised one guy to bake Muffins for him when he starts to work at Daedalic.


Well, he arrived 1st of August..and I didn`t have Muffins.
I FORGOT!




Blame and shame! ... I can`t accept that...
I have really not much time at that moment, our hopliday trip starts saturday morning and I have so much to do until then. But Muffins are something nice and quick and lovely, so I decided to bake some Pecan-Plum Muffins...
No decoration today, `cause time is short, but ...well... if you could smell them....no decoration necessary :)

Have a wonderful august!

Already printed.

Seen in Schwäbisch Hall :)