Tuna Salad

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go.... Just that I won't take the jet plane I will take my car for a long drive tomorrow. Maybe ...on the road again... will be more fitting.

I like long distance drives. During holidays we used to drive all over Europe when I was small. We packed the tent & everything else in the car an off we were. But like most children I would nag my parents soon after we left with the question... how much longer do we have to drive??... This changed once I started driving on my own. Nowadays I prefer to stay in a hotel instead of sleeping on the floor of a tent but I still like the long drives. This time my destination is Murudeshwar.

But what I don't like very much is the food you get in places along the highway and it doesn't matter if it is along a highway in India or anywhere else on the planet. Most highway food is barely edible.

As a result of this I pack a lunch box with some sandwiches, fruits and salad to take along with me. Besides eating nice food I have the liberty to stop anywhere where I have a nice view or scenery, unpack my lunch box and have a feast. As I am not very fond of plain water I also pack bottles of Iced Tea.

There are a few aspects you need consider when you are packing lunch boxes for such a trip. First, what ever you put on your sandwiches should not be too moist otherwise they get soggy. Also don't stuff them too much as it will be difficult to eat and you don't want to end up messy in the middle of nowhere without running water to clean yourself. I like to cut the sandwiches in small potions similar to the ones you would serve for a High Tea.

I also cut the fruit into bite size pieces and pack them in an airtight container. Good fruits to pack are apples, pears, pineapple, whole strawberries or bananas but these should be packed as whole with their peel on. If you prefer vegetables carrots and bell peppers are a good option. Just stay away from anything that is too juicy. It will only get you messed up.

Salad dressings should not be too liquid for the same reason. If you like lettuce in your salad pack the salad and the dressing separate. Otherwise your lettuce will look like it has been boiled. I good choice are salads which have a creamy thick dressing, can be easily pre-mixed and be eaten with a spoon or fork but do not require a knife like pasta, rice, potato or tuna salad.

This afternoon I already hard boiled 2 eggs. I boiled them in advance that they can cool down completely before I cut them in slices for the salad.

I cut ½ onion into small dices. Take 1 tomato, cut it into slices and de-seed it. I drain the liquid from one can of tuna in water. I prefer tuna in water to tuna in oil as the taste of the oil often covers the taste of the tuna. Plus don't like food which is very oily.

I put the tuna into one corner of my box. In the other corner I put the tomato and egg slices. The onions go in the middle.

For the dressing I mix 1 teaspoon mustard, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, pepper, salt, 3 tablespoons orange juice and milk together until I have a creamy dressing which I pour over the salad. If you like to you can mix all ingredients of the salad together and put it than into a container. This is especially advisable if you make several portions of the salad.

I pack a few slices of crispy bread to have with it.

For this trip I decided to have some lemon and orange-cinnamon iced tea. For the Lemon Iced Tea I make a big pot of green tea. Once I strained it I cut 1-2 lemon into slices and add it to the warm tea. I just let it cool down like this and keep it over night in the fridge. In the morning I strain it again to remove the lemon and fill it into a flask that it stays cool. If you like your tea sweeter just add a tablespoon honey to it.

For the Orange-Cinnamon Iced Tea I cook a big pot of black tea. After straining it I add 1 orange cut into slices and 1 cinnamon stick. I let it cool down and store it overnight in the fridge. As with the Lemon Iced Tea I strain the tea to get rid of the orange and cinnamon and than fill it into a flask.

To complete my lunch treat I take my isolated bag. On the bottom I put some cool packs which I stored overnight in the freezer. These will keep my lunch fresh. In goes my box with the tuna salad, the zip lock bag with the crisp bread, a box of apples cut into pieces, fork, spoon, knife, a plastic cup that can be re-used, a pack of paper napkins, the 2 flasks of iced tea, an empty plastic bag for any garbage and 2 candy bars for my sweet tooth.

All set to hit the road.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Baked Yoghurt with Mango

Last Saturday I was invited to a friends birthday party. While enjoying some nice red wine we started talking about cooking and our view at it. We all agree that cooking has something therapeutic to it. Even though the reasons were rather different. Some said it it because it is something you do by yourself, others said because it clears your head. I agree with both versions but for me it is therapeutic because I can get rid of any frustration by beating egg whites by hand and secondly because it wakes all my senses.

For me cooking has something very sensual to it. The feel of the different textures of the ingredients, the different tastes of herbs and spices when they get together, even the sizzling of hot oil and not to forget the vibrant colours of fresh vegetables. Something for all senses.

We were also talking about eating with your hands rather than eating with cutlery.

Traditionally people here in India eat with their right hand, the left is considered as unclean. Interestingly in many countries in Europe any food that you touch will be held with the left hand because it is considered impolite to shake hands with a dirty right hand.

People here in India also say that the food is tastes better and is easier to digest if you eat with your hand. As a reason they state that the moisture of your hands and the enzymes in it have an influence on the chemical structure of the food. I so far have not found any scientific proof for that.

For me personally it depends on what I eat where and with who. For example, Saturdays birthday cake was a chocolate cream cake with a chocolate ganache on the outside. And was served in a bar. I decided to eat it with my hands. It just tasted so much better and not to forget the childlike happiness when you can lick your fingers after such a treat. It has something lustful to it. On the other hand would it have been served in a sit down restaurant I definitely would have eaten it with a fork.

Bottom line on the this subject is you should adapt to your surrounding an follow their customs because what is good manners in one place might be bad manners in another. As long as you enjoy the food with all your senses.

This brings me to another reason why I enjoy cooking so much. The sharing of the food along with some nice drinks and wonderful conversations among friends. I say, that is the best reason of all that cooking is therapeutic.

And for those f you that evening who discovered the joy of cooking just recently here a quick and easy recipe for a light summer dessert. Just in time for mango season.

For four portions I take 800g yoghurt an pour them into a strainer lined with cheese cloth of a white fabric napkin and let it stand with a bowl underneath it overnight in the fridge. The result is a nice firm hung curd which has the texture of cream cheese or quark.

The liquid that is collected in the bowl is very healthy and refreshing and tastes great when mixed with some juice like guava or mango.

I peel 2 mid size mangoes and cut the flesh into 1cm dices. I found potato peeler a great tool for that as you do not waste any of the gorgeous fruit. To the mango I add 5-6 tablespoons vanilla sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, mix it well and let it stand in the fridge for about 1 hour.

At this point I start pre-heating the oven to 175°C. I take 4 oven proof dessert bowls and split the mango evenly among them. In a mixing bowl I mix 60g egg with 2 levelled tablespoons vanilla sugar and 2 tablespoons warm water. This mixture I beat until all sugar is dissolved and I have a pale yellow foam. Add the hung yoghurt to it and mix it well. This mixture I spoon carefully over the mango so that the fruit is sealed in by the yoghurt cream.

Bake it in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the yoghurt mixture is set and starts getting brown at the edges.

You can serve this either warm or well chilled.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Beetroot and Feta Cheese Salad

Summer is approaching fast here in Chennai and temperatures are rising by the day. But that is nothing new for the people living here. I personally am not a summer person. I don't like temperatures above 35°C. My perfect temperature is 28°C but well, there are things we just have to live with.

A side effect of the hot summers in Chennai is that I don't like to spend much time in the kitchen. And therefore I stick to quick recipes which are light and tasty, preferable salads in any variety or home-made gourmet sandwiches. And of course light fresh fruit desserts. More about these another day.

One of my favourite vegetables is beetroot. It has a nice flavour, you can use it in a variety of dishes and it tastes well no matter if it is served cold or hot. This beetroot salad takes hardly 15 minutes to make. That is without the cooking time for the beetroot for which I don't have to be in the kitchen.

For 2 portions I take 4-5 medium sized beetroot. I cut away any green at the top and cook it in water until it starts getting soft but still has a crunch to it. Best is if you steam it over hot water. This way the beetroot looses less minerals and vitamins.

I drain the cooked beetroot and let it cool down a bit before I peel off the skin. To get the skin off I put on a pair of kitchen gloves and than roll the warm beetroot around between my hands. The skin comes off almost by itself. The kitchen gloves avoid that you are running around with purple hands for the next few days. After peeling I cut the beetroot into 1,5-2cm dices.

In a bowl I mix 1 table spoon cold pressed sunflower oil, 5 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 3 table spoons warm water, 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper and 1 pinch of salt. I cut 1 small onion into dices. I add the beetroot and the onion to the sauce, mix it well, cover it with cling foil and refrigerate it for about 1 hour before serving.

Just before serving I cut 100g Feta cheese into 0,3-0,5cm thick slices. On the plate I layer the beetroot with the Feta cheese, starting and ending with beetroot.

If you are less picky about the presentation you can just add the Feta cheese to the salad and combine all ingredients. Along with the salad I serve some fresh baguette.

Have a wonderful summer.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen.

Love

Carola

Chocolate Ganache

The first recipe on this blog was a Chocolate-Coffee-Banana Cake. Back then in February my friend Uday commented on my Facebook link that he wants me to bake it for him. Well he had to wait a while but when I was invited for a common friends birthday party last Saturday I decided to bake the cake. Matching to the occasion I dressed the cake up a bit. I gave it a generous coating with a dark chocolate ganache.

I must say it goes well with the cake. I first thought it might be too much of chocolate which is something that I don't really like. And considering the feedback I got I was not the only one who liked it.

Chocolate Ganache is a very versatile cake topping or filling. It is basically only a mixture of whip cream and chocolate. But by changing the ratio of the 2 ingredients or the type of chocolate you use you can completely change it's texture and flavour. I used for the ganache used in the picture above a mixture of 200ml whip cream and 200g dark chocolate (with 70% cocoa) broken into small pieces.

To get a smooth mixture it it is important that the cream and the chocolate are heated together. I pour the cream into a stainless steal bowl that is slightly bigger than the pot I use and add the chocolate to it. Now I fill the pot about halfway with water and put it on the stove. On top of it I put the bowl with the cream and chocolate.

Heat up the water but avoid that it comes to a boiling point as any water that might spill into the cream mixture will ruin it. I constantly stir the mixture with a spatula. This way I avoid that the chocolate gets stuck to the side of the bowl. Once the chocolate is completely melted I take the bowl off the pot and stir the mixture until I have a smooth mass.

I let is cool down a bit and than spread it generously over the cake. The advantage of a ganache to a chocolate coating or icing is that it stays soft and shiny. And it doesn't have the extreme sweetness of a frosting or icing.

As much as I like sweets I am not a fan of extremely sweet things. Neither am I very fond of pastry that is filled with sugary butter cream that covers all other flavours. Even if I like very dark chocolate I don’t like 'death by chocolate' cakes. A chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream, coated in chocolate ganache and served with chocolate sauce is just too much of chocolate for me. For me a cake needs to have a balance of flavours.

This is why I change the ratio to 400ml whip cream and 200g chocolate if I want to use the ganache as a cake filling. After the chocolate is melted and well combined with the cream I let the mixture cool down completely and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours. Than I whisk it into a fluffy chocolate cream. This adds a nice volume to the ganache and make it a bit less heavy. It has now a texture similar to a Mousse au Chocolat and a milder chocolate flavour.

If you don't whip it up you can serve it as a chocolate sauce for example with waffles, pancakes or ice cream.

You can also add up flavours to it. I for example like to add a bit of Cointreau, Amaretto or mint oil to the cold cream before I add the chocolate to it. This way I avoid that the melted chocolate reacts to the liquid.

Nice is also to melt some nougat along with the chocolate. This gives a nice hazelnut flavour. It goes especially well with milk chocolate.

For those among you who don't like the very dark chocolate so much you can use also milk chocolate for it. This is especially nice if you fill an almond sponge cake with it.

Now let your creativity go wild with you. I would love to hear where it took you.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Apple Beignets with cream sauce - Sunday Family Lunch part 3

I love these apple beignets since childhood. For me it was always a feast when my Mum made them for lunch. She would serve a soup, most times a roasted semolina soup first and afterwards as a main course apple beignets and hot chocolate. She would fry them in a pan in small batches and than generously turn them in a sugar and cinnamon mixture. Sometimes she would serve vanilla sauce with them. Sweet childhood memories...

Even though I use the same dough my Mum uses for her apple beignets this is a bit a grown up version as I soak the apples upfront in some Calvados, lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon. And I upgraded the Vanilla sauce a bit as well.

Here the detailed recipe which is enough for four people as a main course or for at least eight people as a dessert.

To start off I take 4-6 apples, peel them and cut them in slices about 5-7mm thick. I cut out the core of the apples to get rid of the seeds and any hard parts. In a cup I mix together 40ml Calvados, 20ml lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. I now layer the apple slices in a bowl and sprinkle them with the Calvados mixture. One layer of apples, 1-2 tablespoons Calvados mixture, one layer apples and so on and so on. Than I cover the bowl with some cling foil and let it stand for about 1 hour. Before dipping the apples into the dough I pad them dry with a paper towel. Calvados is a French brandy made out of apples.

For the dough I take 4 eggs (each about 60g) and separate the egg white from the yolk. In a very clean fat free bowl I beat the egg white until it is stiff and snow white. In another bowl I beat the yolk with 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 tablespoons warm water until I have a pale yellow foam. Now I add to the yolk mixture about 150ml milk and stir it carefully until both are well blended. If you stir too viciously the yolk mixture will loose its volume. Stir in half of 240g sieved flour and stir, again carefully, until you have a smooth mixture. Now put the egg white on top of the mixture and sieve the balance flour on top of it. Stir it all carefully together using a big whisk for it.

Let the dough stand for a few minutes.

In the meantime I heat in a deep pan about half litre refined cooking oil or cleared butter. Next to the stove I put a tray or big plate lined with several layers of paper towels. On this I will put the beignets after frying. The kitchen towel will absorb the excess fat. I usually prepare the beignets using only one hand that I have the other clean to handle the sieve spoon. Now I dip the apple slices into the dough that they are evenly covered and fry them in small batches in the hot fat. Once they turn brown on the lower side I turn them around. When golden all around I remove them from the fat and put them onto the paper towels. I do this until all apples and dough are used up.

In a plate I mix 3 tablespoons fine sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder. Before serving I dust the beignets on both sides with the sugar mixture.

For the sauce I pour 300ml whip cream with 1 table spoon vanilla sugar, the seeds from 1 vanilla bean and 125g quark or fromage frais into a bowl and mix it with the mixer at high speed until the sugar is completely dissolved.

To serve I put 3 apple beignets onto the plate. I pour 1 tablespoon maple syrup (per portion) over them. And I give 2 tablespoons of vanilla sauce next to it.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

revised settings of my blog

Hi everyone,
some of you informed me that they face difficulties posting comments on my post or become a follower. I have now changed the settings of my blog and you should not have any problems with posting comments in future. In case you still face problems pls let me know.


Love
Carola

Chicken Soup with Pancake Strips - Family Sunday Lunch part 2

I grew up in the south west of Germany and this is a traditional soup from the area. In most families this soup is made with beef stock. This recipe is made with chicken stock as I am using the rest of the chicken from the Coq au Vin recipe. If you are vegetarian you can also make it with vegetable stock. This soup is a nice way to use up the left over pancakes from Sunday's breakfast. I have to mention that where I am from we make pancakes without sugar in the dough. This way you can fill them with a topping of your own choice, may it be honey or cheese.

I recommend that you make the chicken stock for this soup a day in advance and store it overnight in the fridge. This way all the fat is forming a hard layer on top of the soup and you can remove it easily before you heat the soup on Sunday. Besides this it is not advisable to store raw chicken meat for a long time. This recipe is for Chicken stock but the same way you can make beef, lamb or fish stock and use it in a variety of recipes.

As I used only the chicken legs and breasts for the Coq au Vin I still have the wings and the rest of the chicken. To get pieces that fit into my pot I cut the rest of the chicken along the spine into half. Than I cut these halves again into half. This is best done with a poultry scissor but you can also use a big sharp kitchen knife for it.

I put the chicken pieces in a big pot (it should hold at least 4 litres) and add to it 25 crushed peppercorns, 1 teaspoon salt as well as 150g carrots, 70g celery, 100g leek, 70g onion all cut into pieces. Further I add 5 crushed corns all spice, 2 cloves garlic cut in half and a few stems parsley. I fill the pot up with water and boil it covered with a lid for a minimum of 2 hours to bring out all the flavours.

After cooking I let the stock cool down a bit. Than I pour it through a strainer to segregate the liquid from the solid parts. I discard the vegetables. Now I carefully remove the meat from the bones and keep it aside until it is time to serve the soup.

I put the stock into a container and keep it in the fridge to let the fat form a solid layer on top of it. This fat layer I remove before re-heating the stock at the time of serving.

For the pancakes I beat 2 eggs (120g) until I have a pale yellow foam. To this I add 100ml soda water and 120g sieved flour. I carefully mix all ingredients together to get a semi-liquid dough. I heat a mid size non-stick pan and bake 6-8 pancakes (20cm in diameter) out of the dough.

It is important to let the pancakes cool down completely before putting them into the soup as they otherwise absorb too much liquid and get very soggy.

Before serving I re-heat the chicken stock and season it with pepper and salt. I take 1 bunch of chives or spring onions and cut it in small rings. Further I cut the cold pancakes first in half and than into 0,5cm wide stripes. For serving I place in each soup bowl first some pancake strips, than some chicken meat and top it with the chives. Now I carefully pour the boiling hot soup over it and serve it immediately.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola