A French evening with ...

Bonsoir!

No, I am not doing it again this time and have a post in French. I wouldn’t be that good with it. Nevertheless we are going to have some French food. Are we? Well, I don’t want to insult someone or something like that, but …

… sometimes having something French for me means …

Yes, a board of fromage, some bread and vin rouge. It’s all quite simple. Just unpack the cheese, place it on a board. Open a bottle of red wine and pour it into a glass and … et voila!

Fine, did I forgot something? A French evening with … With whom? No, not with whom, with what? Bread that is, garlic bread to be a bit precise.

So, pouring the wine and unpacking the cheese is quite simple, but baking your own bread is a bit of work …

Sift 500 g of flour into a bowl, add 7 g of yeast, pour over 250 ml of water and bring it together. Add a few tablespoons of steamed garlic t it.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes, let it rest 10 minutes, knead for 20 minutes (quite some work). Leave the dough to rise for 1 hour.

Then shape it into two balls and let it rise for 45 more minutes. Afterwards get it into the desired final shape and leave it for another 35 minutes. Then bake it at 230 °C for 20 minutes and then …

Maybe let it cool down a bit, if you like.

Fine, now I rushed a bit through the whole process of baking the bread leaving out a few details, like the precise shaping, the cut on top and the water in the oven for a good crust.

Anyway, it’s quite a process and as for me, sometimes you get nice bread and sometimes it’s not just perfect. Well, I enjoyed the bread, but it was a bit compact and not so lightly. Nevertheless, it worked out fine with the cheese and the wine.

For now I leave you with a picture of my adventuring time in France …

Au revoir!

Sale el Sol Tortillas del Trigo

Hoy tenemos algo completamente diferente. Ya ves. Vamos a tratar de cocinar algo Español en español. Empezamos de inmediato …

Ingredientes:
Un poco de ensalada verde
Seis tomates pequeños
Un pimiento rojo
Un pieza de la carne sazonada/marinada – 100-200 Gramos (de vaca, pollo o cordero)
100 g chorizo
Una cebolla pequeña (las rojas son mejor)
Un poco de queso
Tortillas del trigo
Sel, pimienta
Un poco de zumo de limon

Elaboración:
Cortar la ensalada verde, los tomates y el pimiento rojo en trozos pequeños. Sazone con sal y pimienta. Mezclar con el zumo de limón.

Cortar la cebolla en aros.

Freír la carne y el chorizo. Después cortar en trozos pequeños.

Ahora, empezamos con el tortilla del trigo. Calentar la tortilla. Después ponga la ensalada en la tortilla.

Después los trozas del chorizo y un poco de queso.

Después la carne y los aros de cebolla.

Eso es todo. Ahora envolverlo y comérselo. Disfrute de su comida!

Un poco de papel de aluminio podría ayudarle.

Are you still with me? How good was your Spanish to understand the recipe or did you need no knowledge of Spanish at all, because the photos were telling everything?

Just to make sure, let us go through it again …

Sunrise wheat tortillas

Maybe there is a reason for the name of the dish, but at least the sun is really out these days. I could have called it summer tortillas, but … I didn’t. My call!

But now, without any further ado …

Ingredients:
A little bit lettuce
Six small tomatoes
One red bell pepper
A piece of seasoned/marinated meat – 100-200 g (beef, chicken or lamb)
100 g chorizo
One small onion (the red ones are better)
Some cheese
Wheat tortillas
Sal, pepper
A splash of lemon juice

Method:
Cut the lettuce, tomatoes and red bell pepper into small pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Mix with the lemon juice.

Cut the onion into rings.

Fry the meat and the chorizo. Then cut it into small pieces.

Now, we can start with the wheat tortilla. Warm up the tortilla. Then put the salad on the tortilla.

Then the chorizo and cheese.

Then the meat and the onion rings.

That’s all. Now wrap it up and eat it. Enjoy your meal!

A little bit of aluminium foil could help you.

Und weil das ganze jetzt so schön war hier nochmal für alle die, die weder viel mit Spanisch noch mit Englisch am Hut haben …

Wir wollen da, wie schon zuvor, nicht lange rum fackeln und einfach loslegen …

Sonnenaufgangstortillas

Gut, euch kann ich’s ja sagen, wenn ihr wollt könnt ihr es auch zum Frühstück essen oder auch zum Mittag oder zum Abendessen oder nachts oder zwischendurch oder wenn ihr Hunger habt. Was auch immer, die Sonne ist draußen, also hier mein Beitrag …

Zutaten:
Etwas grüner Salat
Sechs kleine Tomaten
Eine rote Paprika
Ein Stück gewürztes/mariniertes Fleisch – 100-200 g (Rind, Hähnchen oder Lamm)
100 g Chorizo
Eine kleine Zwiebel (die roten sind besser)
Etwas Käse
Weizentortillas
Salz, Pfeffer
Ein wenig Zitronensaft

Zubereitung:
Den Salat, Tomaten und rote Paprika in kleine Stücke schneiden. Kit Salz und Pfeffer würzen. Mit dem Zitronensaft mischen.

Die Zwiebel in Ringe scheiden.

Das Fleisch und die Chorizo anbraten. Dann in kleine Stücke scheiden.

Jetzt können wir mit der Weizentortilla anfangen. Die Tortilla aufwärmen. Dann den Salat auf die Tortilla geben.

Dann die Chorizo und Käse.

Dann das Fleisch und die Zwiebelringe.

Das ist alles. Nun zusammenfalten und essen. Guten Appetit!

Ein wenig Albfolie könnte helfen.

So, nun habt ihr wohl genug, oder soll ich das ganze jetzt nochmal in irgend einem Dialekt abspulen. Aber ich denke bei ‘datt’, ‘watt’, ‘ett’ und irgendwelchen Spezialausdrücken flippt die Autokorrektur – oder doch eher ich – völlig aus und es wird kein glückliches Ende nehmen.

Das würde niemand wollen.

No one would want that.

Nadie querría eso.

Kimse isterim.

Personne ne voudrait que.

कोई भी उस चाहेगा।

誰もそれを望んないだろう。

I think, this is a very good point to stop this post. I hope you enjoyed it. Hey, after all, this still is … Cooking Around the World!

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Gammon and Baked Beans Casserole

Here I am again sitting in front of my computer and typing away. Well, not really typing away. I’m not quite sure what kind of post I should put up today. I’ve prepared the images already and I have a name for the post, so it’s not that. There is some kind of food and recipe thing waiting to be fashioned into a post and maybe as well in a way that someone who wants to recreate the dish can do so.

Then it is something different. I’m not sure whether I should turn this again into a psychological or weird post or whether to simple through the recipe at you.

However, as the title promised food, I have to give you my Gammon and Baked Beans Casserole. I could think of any other proper name for it.

Gammon and Baked Beans Casserole

First of all we need a 20 x 20 cm casserole dish. Feel free to use another size, if you want, but the following is based on that size.

Drizzle some olive oil into the casserole dish. So, take note of this first ingredient. Then we move on to the next step.

We continue with a layer of sliced potatoes. You don’t have to do them that thinly, but not that thickly either. Let me think, that might be about 4 or 5 potatoes in that dish. We move on.

Next some onion rings. What you reckon, how many onions are this? Hm, well one or two I’d say. If you want more, though, or have a different size of onions, adjust accordingly.

Time for some gammon then. Or do you prefer bacon? It’s your call. At least we don’t have to argue about the number of slices I used here. It’s obvious, isn’t it. At the time I did this, I had to think about a way to use these up as I had a brunch with some friends at my place and I had some leftovers. Speaking of leftovers brings us also to the next step.

There were some leftover baked beans. So I continued covering the gammon with a generous layer of baked beans. Here we go.

Cheese, we need to have cheese. It always makes sense for me. For simplicity I just put on two slices of cheese. If you have some grate-worthy cheese available, go ahead.

That leaves us with a final layer of gammon again. Somehow I have to get rid of it and after all I want to call it Gammon and Baked Beans Casserole. So I had to use more than three slices.

Now that leaves us with putting it into the pre-heated oven. You for sure know my rule. So, that is 30 minutes at 180 °C. Then things should look fine. Otherwise leave it in for a couple more minutes.

For me that looks ready. To give it all a little colour offset, a bit of chives will do nicely and I had to use it before the whole plants things of kicking the bucket due to it’s limited lifespan or my poor treatment.

Plate it up and enjoy it. Cucumber? Mostly the same reason as the chives, but then you need some more veggie bit on that dish, don’t you?

I guess, I already said too much again, but then again, there is no way in stopping me once things get started. However, most of the time things don’t get started.

With that we … end.

Chicken Macaroni Cheese Apokalypse

Yes, you also know it doesn’t look that good, is not too healthy, will have too much calories and … but you want it, because it brings you comfort and tastes yummy.

We all know such dishes.

Today – using some leftovers from the indecent looking chicken (sorry, if there were any disturbing or offensive images in my last post) – I’ll bring you my Chicken Macaroni Cheese Apocalypse …

So, what do you associate with ‘Apocalypse’? Death and destruction?

Wrong!

If you know your Greek, you’d say ‘revelation’, for that is what the Greek work apocalypses means. So … the question now is, will this Chicken Macaroni Cheese be a revelation?

Let us see! For sure it will be very different from what you had before. Hm … yes … eh … well, different.

You know, you want it!

Come and get it!

Ingredients:
200 g cooked chicken meat, shredded (yes, I used it from the beer butt thingy)
200 ml cream (I would have used double had I any)
200 g grated cheese (sadly I just had 100 g)
100 g bacon (cubes, stripes, whatever you fancy … it’s your life)
50 ml chilli sauce (anyone you like)
50 ml tomato puree
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Some basil leaves, torn
Salt and pepper (because we want it)
250 g macaroni

Method:
Go, get your macaroni boiling. Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C.

Grab yourself a proper ovenproof dish (20 x 20 cm did for me) and go for it. Now that will all sound a bit simple from here on … because it is: Throw the ingredients into your ovenproof dish!

While the macaroni might not be ready yet, your dish might look like this …

With all that bringing your water for the macaroni to oil, even though using a kettle to help you, up to here things are fast and you really have to wait for the macaroni.

No worries, though, once the water is ready, the macaroni will be in under 10 minutes. Rinse and add …

That looks like, it could go to the oven and so it does …

By that time I already knew, I didn’t have a sufficient amount of cheese in it. Another remedy would have been to add a ball of mozzarella, but … I didn’t. Just saying!

Oh, yes, 20 minutes in the oven had to do for me, but I reckon 30 minutes will also do no harm.

At this point, things will look like this …

Yes, I know, it doesn’t look spectacular and it’s not much worse adding this picture at all. Hey, you know what? I do it anyway, because I’m the boss here. No I don’t have any issues in connection with being or not being the boss. I have other issues, but I try to suppress them for as log as possible, at least until I am finished here. You really don’t want to read any about it.

You know, you want something else. So let’s get on with it. What about putting on a bit of garnish?

That should do. I asked an expert about it, although she didn’t knew, what I would be using it for. A little bit of basil can go a long way. In our case it goes here …

Well, fine, you can also place it on the individual serving as I did in the opening. If you can’t resist, you can also drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil over it. Just saying! It’s your life!

Now, is that a revelation or just death and destruction?

Think about it! Answer correctly, if you want to live! It’s your life!

Scared? Sorry, I just have to work on making proper threats, but you know that I know how to find you … ah, just kidding, I wouldn’t really tell or show what I am capable of.

Fine, that’s enough. I better get out of here before things get out of hand. See ya!

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Game Over?! Beer Butt Chicken with Cheese and Onion Bread

Do you like to play? I don’t mind a good game of … different things. I even used to like computer games a lot. I also used to have a dart board in my flat … I had to paste over a lot of holes in the wall. However, I still appreciate a game of darts once in a while. I’m not so good at it, but why not relax a bit and have some fun. The fun stops when you are playing a game of elimination and you have reached far some points and could even go as far as winning and then … someone scores your number and you go back to zero, nada, zip. 

There is simply no fun in starting at the bottom again.

Still, there is food, there is comforting food. Fine, a bit of chocolate once in a while isn’t bad, however, there is no way you get it away from your hips again at some point.

So, talk other food …

A lovely homemade pizza always works for me. For sure it also will settle on the hips, but at least you got something for it.

This time, I made double the amount of dough, though. Not to have more pizza, but to make some bread as well.

I just made my normal pizza dough with 1000 g of flour – a mixture of normal wheat flour, strong baking flour and semolina flour – 600 ml of water, a splash of olive oil, 14 g of dried yeast, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Well … eh … mix the yeast, olive oil, water and sugar together. Leave it for some minutes and then pour it into the bowl with the flour and salt and make your dough.

Now, all this pizza and bread making business takes a while with all that rising proving and baking and everything. Luckily I could enjoy the pizza right away after baking and while the bread went into the oven.

Well, in between I prepared some kind of dessert, which, though, could not be eaten right after the pizza. At least I can say, I poached my first pear …

Anyway, this post is not about poaching pears or pizza. It’s rather about a chicken that is going to be baked in a special … eh … way.

Still, before we go to this, some more details regarding the cheese and onion bread. Remember, I already showed you the pre-baked loaf. The dough had to make it’s way from pizza dough to cheese and onion bread dough. Therefore I fried some onions with a bit of garlic (no, now it’s not cheese and onion and garlic bread, although … technically) and added them along with some 100 g of grated cheese to the dough, kneading all the ingredients in.

Here is the finished bread. It had to wait for it’s turn a while, because part of it was going to be consumed with a Beer Butt Chicken.

So, here goes my meal planning … off to the shop, because there are some essential parts missing for next weeks breakfasts …

Here comes the meat area … “Oh they have some decent chickens on offer. I could take one home and stick a beer can up its -censored- … eh … well, I could do a Beer Butt Chicken.”

Home!

I know I have a recipe for it somewhere. It must be in one of Jamie’s book. So I leafed through all possible books and couldn’t find anything. Ask the Internet!

Oh, there we go with the recipe: It’s in Jamie’s America. Fine, could have taken that one from the shelf as well and have a look.

We’ll do that then!

As a bonus you are to drink have the beer before you start cooking. Well, you could set half a glass of beer aside for later consumption, but … what’s the point in that.

Important things done: beer can is ready.

Now we need a spice rub for the chicken. Basically it’s quite simple: Heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds and level teaspoon of cumin seeds bashed up in a mortar. Then add a level teaspoon of smoked paprika, chilli powder and a heaped teaspoon of brown sugar. Salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil to bring it all together.

Just before we go to the part were beer and butt meet, we gentle rub the chicken with the spice rub. The oven is heated to 200 °C.

Now the chicken is ready to go to the oven for 70 to 90 minutes on the lowest possible rack.

Sometimes, that is if you can and if you want to, it’s good to plan ahead. When you start with all this at the time you normally would be ready to eat, all this doesn’t sound like such a brillant idea.

I never said I was a smart one!

What to do in this 90 minutes, while you are in fact hungry? Good question, next one, please!

I had some grapes and got the idea for a quick dessert for later on. Additionally I prepared a tomato salad as some kind of alibi for my meal.

Still, so much time left!

In fact, quite often there is a lot of time left, but … I feel like I rather want to do nothing, just sitting there with some music blasting from the speakers. Today I feel a bit brave and have a surprise mix from all my music.

So it goes like quiet music maybe classic or a tune from a movie. Bam! A smashing hit with some music that wants you to dance. Blob! A tune that rather wants you to cry. Bam! Get up, some feel good music (didn’t know I would react to some songs like that). Blob! Oh that one makes you think about … eh … something. Speaking of thinking, today I saw a girl that reminded me of someone that I used to know … some 20 years ago. I was shocked at first sight, don’t know why, though. Bam! I should remove the chicken from the oven …

… get some smoke from the oven into the entire flat. I might consider opening a window or two.

Here we are with the chicken. Now remove the beer can. My first thought was to grab the can with my bare hand and pull off the chicken with the other … I told you … smart – not!

A more sensitive approach finally brought the chicken from can to plate. Finally, ready for eating. We just manage to avert starvation.

You see my alibi on the top edge and the cheese and onion bread at the bottom. Now I was willing to make use of my hands and dig into that chicken …

Already at the slightest touch the meat comes off the bones. It’s so tender and juicy and … ouch … yes, still hot.

Either I must have slept away most of my brain in the past few weeks or I have an increased willingness to take unnecessary risks or I was simply too hungry to be careful.

Anyway, these days I have to make the most of bright moments. Then I especially enjoy to drive my car like a racing car in day to day driving and … I enjoy some good food. I reckon, I succeeded this weekend. Already the pizza yesterday was a killer one (oh, I like the sound of it) and now the chicken: relish. Have a closer look again.

If you think I ate that chicken alone, then … you are … eh … forget about it.

I’d rather go to the fridge and grab my previously prepared creme chantilly with grapes …

And this is all for today … eh … Game Over!!!

Breakfast with bills

I really don’t know how I ended up with the great obsession with Australia. Honestly, I don’t know, but just because I have it I bought this cookbook by Bill Granger some time ago.

It features recipes from Bill’s cafe in Darlinghurst. Well, I had never heard about it before. That also means consequently, I had never been there myself. You, know, it’s just that Australia obsession again.

The book says on the back cover: “The only bills cookbook you’ll ever need.” Well, I’m not so sure whether this is a good strategy. How are they ever supposed to do a Bills Sydney Food 2? Then maybe, they never wanted to anyway.

Again, I don’t know. What I am sure about is, I had plans to go to that place myself, once I get to Sydney. In fact that is what I did ... and I also enjoyed it very much.

Just before that, I wanted to make sure, I tried as many recipes from the book as time, motivation, health(?) and ingredients permit.

For sure it will bring some great variations in the breakfast, lunch and dinner department, especially the breakfast department, which is usually quite limited … cereals or a few slices of bread. That doesn’t have to be like that.

Along that line I tried a few recipes from the book …

That’s an Open-faced omelette with fresh tomato, emmenthal and rocket. So, it wouldn’t be too hard, to put that up once in a while for breakfast.

Next we have …

… we have Banana maple porridge with buttere apples. Delicious, although I didn’t manage to make it look so good on the photo. Maybe I should have used a similar perspective as in the book.

Finally, for today I have tried this one …

… Pan-toasted sandwich with tomato & fontina. That was my favourite one so far. Honestly, I didn’t use fontina cheese in this one, but another creamy and tasty one. In fact, the lady at the cheese counter couldn’t even make something of the name Fontina.

Well, that’s the way it is.

If you want to have this for breakfast, though, you have to get up early. The recipe says, you have to mix 100 ml olive oil, 4 chopped cloves of garlic, 1 chopped red chilli, salt and pepper together and then marinate slices of tomatoes for two hours in it. So you have to get up ahead … or have someone else do it for you. Sorry, I had no chance for that.

After that time, you brush one side of the bread slices with some of the oil from the tomatoes, put slices of cheese on that. Then come basil leaves, the tomatoes and another slice of bread.

Now you only have to melt butter in a pan and … of course … toast the bread in it. Why else would you call it pan-toasted sandwiches.

Finally you can eat the hot sandwiches.

Those don’t look too different than in the book. There only the cheese oozes a bit more. Maybe because it is fontina? Or maybe due to other unknown reasons? Whatever, no worries.

I reckon, the stage is set. Roughly, you have an idea of what still is to come. 

If you liked this post, keep on the lookout for more breakfast with bills or even lunch or dinner with bills.

Hm … what is this … I smell … baked goods, I smell coconut … I catch you later then …