F-Game Toad in a Hole

Lately, around here I am not giving my a-game. I’m not sure, what it would be like, though. No worries!

Anyway, life is like this: sometimes you loose and sometimes the others win. Nah, it's not that bad. Sometimes you simply have other things to do.

Therefore we go right away into food, for at least here we know, that it will go to a meal. Leftovers! There were those pork sausages in my fridge, those tiny ones. Here they are called Nürnberger. I used some of them for my English breakfast some time ago, but what to do with the rest of them.

Now I know, why I put all those knowledge into my head. At some point a bell will ring and I know what to do. So, toad in the hole. I never had. Therefore I never made it before. I now, it involves sausages and … something else.

Now I give you my F-game Toad in the Hole …

 Well, the F-game in this recipe doesn’t refer to it being rubbish. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even think about putting it up here.

No! It’s time for Lord Feta to strike back …

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 tsp mustard powder
120 g flour
100 ml milk
Some parsley, finely chopped
Some sage, finely chopped
Salt, pepper
100 g bacon, preferably 10 slices
10 small pork sausages
200g feta

Method:Heat up your oven to 180 °C.

Get yourself an ovenproof dish, 20 x 20 cm will do for this amount of ingredients. Put it aside.

Now get a bowl and mix in it the eggs, mustard powder, flour, milk, parsley and sage. Season with salt and pepper. Pour that mixture into the ovenproof dish.

What a coincidence, the amount of bacon was just enough for the number of sausages I had left. Go for it and wrap one slice of bacon around one little sausages and arrange in the batter in the ovenproof dish.

All done? Proceed with the feta. You can either crumble it into the ovenproof dish or cut it into cubes and scatter them over the sausages in the dish.

Anyhow, put into the oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, you have sufficient time to whip up your onion gravy and get whatever vegetables you want to put on the side ready.

For sure, you have a good recipe for onion gravy and know quite perfectly well how to do it. No?

I took a pan and melted some butter at low heat, tossed in the onion rings of a large onion and let things go until the toad in the hole is almost finish.

To complete the sauce, season with salt and pepper, add a tablespoon of flour and a generous splash of sherry. Briefly cook so the sauce thickens.

The finished dish from the oven could look somewhat like that or when you have a closer look, it will look a bit like this …

Ah, that wasn’t really that much closer. Anyway, plate up. With the right amount of vegetables you could even manage to satisfy four people with that, but than you can’t be as generous with the onion gravy as I have …

However, that was only, because I wanted to have fresh gravy for the leftovers another day and maybe enhance the gravy with some mushrooms then.

If, though, you don’t have four people for tea and decide to have a second go, you can have less or no gravy at all …

You could always have some more peas, though.

Whatsoever, I enjoyed it very much. If you want to have a more traditional version of toad in the hole, I guess, you just have to omit the feta.

In case you want to have a vegetarian version, you could omit the bacon and use veggie sausages or use something completely different, but then again, you might get a totally different dish here. So, why then, not cook something completely different.

Burn a Little - Bean and Feta Enchiladas and Steak

You can’t mess with time. Even if you could go back in time to change things you have done in the past, things will most probably end even worse.

What you could do, though, is a trip on memory lane, thinking about the things that you did and that happened and if you are clever enough, you could also learn from your mistakes. Or you could rediscover things you liked to do.

Anyway, today we will have at first some prawns and later something Mexican. After all we want some food. Some time ago, I bought a bag of Panko – Japanese breadcrumbs. I saw a dish on television – Panko Fried Prawns. For a long time I wanted to try it. Now I did.

Together with some chilli sauce it’s a lovely snack.

Side note: Just keep an eye on how much Panko Prawns you have going in the hot oil at the same time. If you use too many, the oil might just … eh … bubble over and spread on your oven top and … who knows what mayhem that might cause there.

Now we can go on with some Mexican food ...

Bean and Feta Enchiladas and Steak

The original idea was to make some vegetarian enchiladas, which indeed happened, but I felt I needed some more food, so I added the steak to the side. While the recipe mainly focuses on the Bean and Feta Enchiladas, I will mention a few things regarding the steak as well.

Ingredients:
Wheat tortillas
Creme fraîche
Chilli Sauce:
A splash of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1-3 dried red chillies, finely chopped
400 ml tinned tomatoes
400 ml vegetables stock (or chicken stock for non vegetarian)
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. sugar
A splash of red wine vinegar
Enchilada Filling:
A splash of olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
140 g sweet corn
1 red or green capsicum, chopped
250 g kidney beans
Salt, pepper
Bunch of parsley, chopped
200 g feta cheese

Method:
First of all, we need to do our own chilli sauce. Start in a sufficiently sized pan with a splash of olive oil at medium temperature.

Chuck in the garlic and the onion and have them work in the pan until translucent. Then add the chillies, the tinned tomatoes, the vegetable stock, the oregano and the sugar.

Bring it all to the boil and leave to simmer.

Now you have plenty of time to prepare the filling for the enchiladas.

Somehow, we start in a similar way, here – another pan and another splash of olive oil at medium heat. Toss in the onion and … you know … until translucent.

Add the sweet corn, capsicum and kidney beans. Season with salt and pepper and let it all simmer for a while until the vegetables have softened a tiny bit.

Remove the content of the pan to a bowl and let it cool down slightly. Then mix in the parsley and the feta.

Check the chilli sauce. If you where not super fast with the filling, you can remove the sauce from the heat now. If you don’t like all the chunks of onion and tomato in your sauce, you can pass the sauce through a sieve.

Get yourself an oven-proof dish, that will hold at least five enchiladas. Lightly oil it.

Then get yourself a plate. Place a wheat tortilla on it and spoon a bit of the chilli sauce on it. Spread the sauce onto the tortilla. Place a part of the filling on the tortilla, roll it up and place it in the oven-proof dish. Pack those enchiladas all nice and tightly in the dish. When all enchiladas are in the dish, pour over the remaining chilli sauce and transfer the dish to the oven for about 30 minutes at 180 °C.

Meanwhile you could prepare the steak, if you wish to have it.

Have some butter in a pan and cook the steak to your liking in it. Once you have removed the steak from the pan and leave it to rest, you have some pieces of tomato and some stripes of capsicum go into the fat. Season them with salt and pepper.

When everything is finished, you can plate up.

Place the tomatoes and capsicum first, the steak on top of it and some roasted onions on top of that (figure out yourself how to get those onions).

Put one enchilada on the side. You can garnish it with some chopped up parsley and add also a spoon of creme fraîche on the side to mellow the effect of the chilli sauce.

Enjoy!

Of course, I used three dried chillies in the sauce, but I didn’t feel it so much. So, don’t be afraid. While the chilli sauce itself might be quite hot, you won’t feel it so much in the finished product.

Lovely! I enjoyed my meal very much and I reckon and I keep on saying, I need some more Mexican food in my life and ... apart from that hot food will help you to burn and by that I don't just mean that it will burn in your mouth, but it could also aid you in burning off some fat you might not like in your body. I guess it always works for me.

Anyway ... keep enjoying your life and ... we will do the same here!

Have a Snack - Chilli Cheese Balls

Sometimes when the day is getting late, I feel I don't need a proper dinner, but a snack will be just fine, maybe together with a beer ...

Just like that! Some chilli cheese balls on a bed of rocket together with some serrano ham. Life is good! I'm happy and satisfied! The end of the day can come. I would say that snack has it all ... all those ingredients I love: chilli, cheese, serrano ham and rocket. What more could I want? Oh, I mentioned it already ... a nice refreshing beer.
It's not much work and quick you go and have your snack ...

Ingredients:
Rocket, as much as you want
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
4-6 slices Serrano ham
200 g soft goat cheese
Chilli, fresh, dried, flaked, powder or whatever you like, have and want
Small bunch fresh parsley, chopped up
Flour
One egg, whisked
Large hand full breadcrumbs
Oil for frying

Method:
Dress the rocket with the lemon juice, olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. Place it on the plate to serve and arrange the serrano ham on top.
Mix the goat cheese with the chilli and parsley. Give it a pinch of salt. Shape small balls from it. Then it's time to get them bread-crumbed. Off to be rolled in the flour, then egg wash and finally breadcrumbs.
Get some oil hot for frying and fry the chilli cheese balls until brown and crispy. Obviously you want to avoid that the cheese gets leaking out.
Lay the ready chilli cheese balls on some kitchen paper to get rid off some of the oil, but hurry, we want to have a snack ...

Ah, I really should make sure I have serrano ham and goat cheese in my fridge most of the time. So, have it as a late night snack or a starter, if you prefer that.
Now, tell us, what is your favourite quick evening snack?

Je ne parle pas français - Salade Pastourelle

Eh bien, je ne parle pas français. Well, I tried it at school for some month, but honestly I don't really understand much French. Nevertheless I like French cooking. Now, some time ago, I had strange ideas when travelling. I thought I might get a cookbook, when I'm on holiday ... in that country ... in the local language. As a consequence, I ended up with an Italian and a French cookbook. Great, I'm not really able to read it properly. So I didn't really make any efforts to try some recipes.
Here is, where it starts to get interesting. Dom from Belleau Kitchen has another entertaining idea for this month's random recipes. The theme is time for a spring clean and the idea is to give those books you would get rid off another go. Anyway, I wouldn't even think of getting rid off any of my cookbooks, even those I can't read properly. Nevertheless, I wanted to give one of those two books a go. The rolling of dice decided for the French one, which is Je Sais Cuisiner by Ginette Mathiot, and the random choice came up to Salade Pastourelle, which freely translated has to mean Young Shepherdess Salad. Have a look ...

This was the second try to select a random recipe for I by no means wanted to make anything with rognon de bœuf. Sorry, but no. I wouldn't know where to get beef kidneys and I don't want to know what they taste like.
So I was lucky I came to the salad section with the second attempt. Still there would be the challenge to translate the ingredients and the recipe. Then I reduced the amounts to m needs and came up with the following.

Ingredients:
5 small round onions, cooked, roasted, whatever
1 pickled gherkin, finely sliced
3 anchovy fillets, sliced
2 hard boiled egg yolks
50 g tuna in oil
2 tsp. capers
8 pitted olives
Vinegar, oil, salt, pepper
Freshly chopped parsley

Method:
Another problem with the book was, there are nearly 2000 recipes in the book, but no pictures of the dishes at all and the instructions are very limited.
However, I was so focused on getting the small round onions, that I totally mixed things up and got the wrong ones, for in the recipe it said you should boil them in salted water for 30 minutes. My onions needed no cooking at all, because they came in a jar  and where already roasted.
Accordingly my sole job was to get the egg yolks ready and then carefully mix all the ingredients together. Well, the egg yolks and the parsley where supposed to feature as a garnish.
Now I can not say whether I got this salade pastourelle right, but I liked it and as a matter of fact had another one the day after, however without egg yolks. I wasn't ready for more eggs that day.

I reckon, that cookbook has a lot of good French recipes in it. Fine, a few might be towards a direction I don't want to go, but I guess I could work a bit more on my French and have another go at something else. Maybe then I'll be able to figure out, why I got the book in the first place ...

Adana Soup - Chickpea Soup with Meatballs

Another month has ticked away as have done many more before so. However, these days they just pass by and I ask myself: 'What have I done?' ... and I can't remember. Then things just go on ...
Yes, we have to go on with things. Due to the fact the month already has progressed so far, I don't want to miss to blog my contribution to this month's Bloggers Around the World: Turkey.

This is a simple chickpea soup with meatballs. The soup is named after the city of Adana which is located in the Southern part of Turkey. It's the fifth populous city in Turkey. Adana is a major agricultural, industry and commercial center. So far about geography. Now to cooking ...

Ingredients:
300 g chickpeas
1,5 l beef stock
200 g minced beef
A small bunch of parsley, chopped up
2 tomatoes, cut into smaller pieces
Cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
White wine vinegar 

Method:
The first thing to do is to cook the chickpeas in the stock until they are soft.
In the meantime mix the minced beef together with the parsley a pinch of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper and make small meatballs out of it.
When the chickpeas are ready, add the meatballs and the tomatoes to the pot and cook for further 15 minutes. Feel free to adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Well, it's already time to eat. Serve on plates or bowls as you like it and finish off each portion with a splash of white wine vinegar.

So, here we go with my contribution to Bloggers Around the World: Turkey. It feels a little bit lazy, but ... hey ... who cares. The soup tasted fine and ... everything's fine.

Are you ready for May then? Bring it on then, it will be as good as the ones before ...

Telly ... Brain ... Plate ... Chicken Pie

While I was doing some research for the Bloggers Around the World South Africa, I came across Masterchef South Africa. Did I tell you this before or am I having a déjà vu? Oh ... either way it would mean my brain is not functioning properly. That wasn't what I wanted to get to.
Anyway, in that episode the contestants where supposed to visit a restaurant, sample a dish and then cook it. Something like that I like as well. Fine, for one team it was chicken pie. From that moment I fancied to make chicken pie. 
Apparently that was about one month ago.
Now I like to share with you what got to my plate after it went from the telly through my (malfunctioning?) brain ...

Chuck Away the Telly ... Have Some Twisted Round Pizza Bread

Right there in the most of the time dark corner sits a piece of equipment, the television set. I got it from work some months - or was it years? - ago and I almost never used it for tuning in into some television programs. Fine, once I connected a free SAT receiver to try to connect to the already installed satellite dish for the house. The receiver broke before the seek run was over. It never recovered.
Sometimes I watch a DVD using the television, but ... I don't really need it. I might as well chuck it away. I never switched it on since I live here.
Do I believe that television broadcasting is entirely evil and good for nothing?
Well ... eh ... um ... eh ... no, not really. A workmate told me how I can watch telly on the Internet ... after all a lot of channels give the opportunity to watch their program online ...
Since then I discovered some nice programs.
For instance, since we are visiting South Africa for Bloggers Around the World, I started watching Masterchef South Africa from 2012 and ... I love it.
Now I would stop talking about television programs and get to some cooking, but ... eh ... just briefly ... the following dish is inspired by Paul Hollywood's Bread, which I watched once. Maybe it was the last show that was running.

I didn't really remember the recipe, but just took up the basic idea. What did I do then?

Give me an N - No Fuss Capsicum and Pork

I was thinking ... no, I'm just kidding, I wasn't, but ... I had a look at my recipe page on my blog and I noticed, I didn't have any recipes starting with E, I, J, N, V, X and Y. I reckon, I have to work on it. Most probably it would be easy to work of everything with cakes and puddings: Eton Mess, Irish Coffee Cake, Jaffa Cake Tart, Nutty Surprise, Vacherin Something, X-Men Cake, Yogurt and Berry Dream ... things like that. Really, I don't  know, why I don't have anything with E as eggs something would be quite easy as well. Strange ... I am ...
So, give me an N and ... have some No Fuss Capsicum and Pork.

Go Swedish with Pickled Herrings, Köttbullar and Äggkaka

I'm having my Swedish days right now. I started by buying some Daim chocolate. Right now I am well stocked on it. I only need to be careful not too start eating from it in a non-self-controlled manner. So far things are working well.
In fact, I didn't just go and buy chocolate. Right while I was writing down the Bloggers Around the World post for Sweden, I knew what I was going to cook and, of course, bought things for that, too.
Somehow I had a travel brochure from 2011 about Sweden in my possession. Today I have no idea, how I came to have it. Blank, no idea at all. Anyway, there was a picture of Äggkaka in it and I thought ... I am going to have it ... whatever it is. What is it then? 

Roast leg of lamb with aubergines and onions

Sometimes I get the idea I want a leg of lamb. Well, that happens not that often, maybe not even a hand full of times during the year. What do I do then? I go through all my cookbooks and see what I can do . The last time I did some French version with beans and something. That was very delicious.
Now I wanted to try something else. I ended up with a classic Italian way of cooking lamb with aubergines. Therefore I had to trust Jamie Oliver again to have a fantastic meal: Roast leg of lamb with aubergines and onions. You find the recipe in his book Cook with Jamie.

Apart from the lamb, the aubergines and onions, there were a lot of herbs involved, such as rosemary, oregano and parsley.
First of all the leg of lamb goes into the oven just rubbed with olive oil and salt and pepper.
After that the rosemary, aubergines and onions join.
In the meantime you have to prepare a tomato sauce with the usual suspects, garlic, chopped parsley stalks, anchovy fillets, tinned tomatoes, dried red chillies, vinegar, salt and pepper.
When the lamb is cooked, it gets removed from the roasting tray to sit around for some minutes.

While that is happening and having some room in the roasting tray, the tomato sauce is going to assimilate all the flavours and vegetables in it. So you pour the tomato sauce to the aubergines and the onions and cook it for a couple of minutes on a gently heat.
Afterwards it's time to eat. Get your usual lovely bread to it and dig in. If you fancy a salad together with it, fell free to do so.

For one person or for even two persons, you have quite some food here, the chance to eat a few times from it. It would be perfect, delicious and fantastic as it is, but you could have it as a pasta dish, too.

All in all I can say, Jamie hasn't disappointed me. Once more, it worked out totally perfectly.
Do you like to have a leg of lamb at times? What is your favourite way of having it?

Text over Photo or Photo over Text? Onion and Feta Puff Pastry Pie

When you buy a new cookbook, what's more important for you, the text or the photos? Do you appreciate well written texts with lots of information and how to do things and some extra tips? Or will you rather go for books, which have delicious pictures in them?
Questions over questions. It seems, I have just questions for you today. But do you have answers?
Decide for yourself. Maybe you like to comment and leave your thoughts. For sure you know a lot of good cookbooks that don't have many pictures in them, yet to speak about photos. For example, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck has no photos at all in it. There are some illustration, though. To me, that's a great book, despite the lack of mouth-watering photos. Still you are able to create some mouth-watering dishes by following the detailed instructions.
Do you know any other brilliant cookbooks without photos?
Oh, another question, sorry, but I did this deliberately. Now we like to turn the tables. What about cookbooks with mainly photos and not much text or not so well written or useful text?
I don't have any examples for that. Do you?
Anyway, it wasn't my intention to just go on talking and talking and asking and asking and so forth. I still have some food for you. Once more there was a bit of experimenting going on in my kitchen. Here we go for an Onion and Feta Puff Pastry Pie.
However, we are doing things slightly different today. I give you the list of ingredients and some photos and you figure out the rest. Have a try!

Ingredients (in order of use):
3 onions
3 cloves of garlic
Splash of Greek Raki
180 ml cream
300 g puff pastry
Olive oil
200 g Feta
A small bunch of freshly chopped Parsley
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
20 ml cream
2 eggs
Salt and pepper

Method (if you can call it like that):
I told you, you'll be getting just  some pictures. So, here we go ...

Did you enjoy it? Are you now able to do such an Onion and Feta Puff Pastry Pie?
Of course, you only would be willing to have a try, if the photos would have made you hungry for it. Come on, there is feta in it!
What do you think? Maybe I should try it the other way around sometime and post a recipe without photos and try to make you hungry just by the description.
What do you think is easier? Text over photo or photo over text?

Neither here nor there ... Chicken on Chickpeas ... Randomly

And the Oscar goes to ...
How am I supposed to know. After all I have probably seen only two of the films that have anything to do with this years Academy Awards taking place in Hollywood, Los Angeles, U.S.A. I guess in a few more hours we will be richer of a bit more knowledge that won't be of any use for us.
No worries, in the end it will make all sense. It's like a puzzle. There are thousand pieces that relate someway to each other, but in the beginning you have no clue. However, as time goes on you put piece next to piece. First you get a frame and in the end you have a full picture.
Let's do it slightly different this time ... or not. Here you get a full picture at least.

Sometimes I do things and I don't do that on purpose, but somehow it all fits together.
Back to this years Oscars. Will an Australian playing a French person in a British movie win? Who knows?
For Best picture we find the nomination of Les Misérables. I already made a connection somehow in my last post.
At least this is one of the two movies I saw. It was only in between my last post and this post. Now I'm not all good as to these things as some might know from school like ... What was it that Shakespeare wanted to tell us with Macbeth apart from that he wanted to make some money and apart from "Fair is foul and foul is fair"?
I managed school anyway. Fine, don't mention what has become of me ...
Les Miserablés. Consequently I'm not filling you in to what was Victor Hugo's intend in that direction. Some people - either in the theater or in the cinema - go on crying most of the time. I find it easier to do so while watching an episode of MASH.
Well, some might claim, men have no feelings. I do not know nothing about such phrases or generalisations in general.
Anyway, most stories are fabricated in such a way, that the reader, listener, watcher etc. can identify with certain characters or at least relate to them in a certain way.
Now, as it comes to Les Miserablés it can get quite deep and complicated. I can relate to almost any of the characters portrayed.
Jean Valjean slaving most of his life and being on the run and not really finding peace in his life.
Fantine, her live going down the drain and seeing only misery.
The students crying out for justice.
Cosette being afraid to go alone in the dark into the wood to fetch some water.
The unrequited love of Eponine.
Finally also Javert, who sees his life not making any sense anymore, when all he was fighting for didn't work out in the end.
Marius sitting alone in the ABC cafe grieving all his friends that are gone now ...

Fine, what to say? For a change it was possible to go and see a movie in the right language. At times I really feel like being in the wrong place. Then again I don't want to be neither here nor there. In the end it will make all sense. But then again, who knows?

 

Let us go towards a subject we know a little bit more about: food!
This month, in Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipe challenge, the theme is 'the choice is yours'. 

At least a little bit of choice. Was it really a choice? Well, I simply took the book without thinking too much. This as well implies that I didn't make it all up, but in the end it makes all sense.
I'm not sure, though, whether that would be the place to be, but as the book I choose Jamie's America. Now the random part of this challenge brought me to the recipe Chicken on Chickpeas as you have seen on the picture above already.
Funny enough, the recipe is under the section Los Angeles. Some years ago I checked out this place myself and had a look at the Hollywood sign as well.
A friend of mine was driving the car and I had the duty to read the map. He was only a bit afraid we could end up dead if we take a wrong turn. So I better be reading the map properly. Obviously I did just that or ... it isn't that bad to end up in the wrong neighbourhood.
Chicken on chickpeas then is what we are having this time. Can we go wrong with that?
Pieces of chicken marinated in garlic, parsley, lemon and olive oil.
Chickpeas stewed up with onions, yet more garlic, peppers, tomatoes and green chillies. Just look at them going ...

I was supposed to put in red any yellow tomatoes, but I didn't bother to visit more than one shop. 
At least I had plenty of green chillies.
As to the chicken pieces, I didn't bother putting them into the oven, but just fried and cooked them in my special pot and it turned out fine and juicy and not dry and everything.
With the chicken arranged on the chickpea stew and finished off with some fresh basil leaves, it was just beautiful and delicious.
Taken everything together it didn't even take one hour and I still have some food for tomorrow. How good is that!?
Once more it has been a pleasure to take part in random recipes, although I know that the day will come when luck evades me in this department as well and I will end up with a totally painful cooking and eating experience.
However, not today, not yet. But why worry about the things not here, when there is plenty to do with worrying about the things already being present.

Little did I know that the 85th Academy Awards will be taking place in February 2013 while I was having the Bloggers Around the World challenge making a stop in the U.S.A. 
Why not then kill two birds with one stone and make this stop in Los Angeles and have this Chicken on Chickpeas for Bloggers Around the World as well.

Finally, remember one thing: "Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." ... but where? Neither here nor there?

Or simply dig in ... and don't relate the food now to Les Misérables and the 'Master of the House' part!

Dark Secrets and a Rustic Meaty Medieval Beer Stew

Moors and dense and dark forests. That's the perfect backdrop for some myths and legends. Witches, werewolves, wraiths, giants, fairies and dwarfs - creatures that dwell in those mysterious tales ... just around the corner. That's what the local newspaper wrote about the region of Schaumburg, not the one in Cook County in Northeastern Illinois. Rather the Schaumburg in the Northern part of Germany, just slightly to the west from Hanover.
The first tale I like to relate to you is about the blood linden tree (Blutlinde). According to the legend it took place around 1400. An evil squire accused a young girl or practicing sorcery. The trial took place at the castle of Schaumburg.
The girl was presented to the judge and also has professed her innocence under torture. Now it was upon 'divine judgement' that guilt or innocence was to be perceived. The night before the judgement a storm was raging and the linden tree at the gate of the castle fell down.
The next morning the accused girl in haste plugged a branch from the fallen tree, pushed it into the soil and said: "As surely as this branch will sprout and grow, I am truly innocent." 
The young girl was taken to the water pools to be put to the water test for the 'divine judgement'. Would she float guilt was proven. On the other hand, if she would sink down, she would be innocent. As you see, no chance of winning.
The young girl sank and hastily they tried to pull her from the water, but to no avail. Life had gone out from her. An innocent girl had been murdered.
The branch of the linden tree, though, sprouted and grew into a giant tree. Up to today you can hear the whispering  of it's leaves and the swooshing of the branches.
Today you also have a good view from the castle on the valley below, especially when you dare to climb the high tower. These days there is also a restaurant there, where you can buy fruit wines.
But back to the past ... same place, some years later, this time the 12th century. Apart from the owner of the castle of Schaumburg there is said to have been yet another resident - a knight. The story goes that he was clad in black and raided passing traders. The people around the area called him 'the Black Knight'.
Finally back in the 21th century a local brewery took up the legend of the black knight and brewed a beer and named it after that knight calling it 'Schwarzer Ritter' (black knight).
Now it happened that I had a guest post here on my blog recently. It was about a Canadian Beer Cheese Soup. Of course I don't just let others write posts with recipes for me without testing them myself. So I had to get some beer and as a result came across the 'Schwarze Ritter' beer, a dark brew.
Then I thought by myself I want to cook something else with it, maybe something that could fit the time and the area as well. What came out of it was this Rustic Meaty Medieval Beer Stew.

Let's do this stew. No one gets hurt, I promise.

Ingredients:
500 g beef shin, cut in small chunks
2 fresh coarse pork sausages
1 tbs butter
5 slices of bacon
2 onions, cut into rings
500 g carrots, cut into round chunks
1 kg potatoes, cut into random chunks
1 large leek, cut into rings
1 l beef stock
1 bottle 'Schwarze Ritter' dark beer (330 ml)
A bunch of parsley (or even dried), chopped up
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
You see, all natural ingredients, no additional artificial flavourings and preservatives. No fancy things, just basic ingredients. You can use any dark beer you can get your hand on.
Barbecue the beef and the sausages in your griddle pan unless you are in the mood to set up your barbecue outside. After all, here it's still to cold for that.
Once the meat has got sufficient colour and even some marks from the barbie you can put it aside on a wooden board or as you may see fit.
Get yourself a large pot ready and melt the butter. Place the slices of bacon at the bottom and let them work a little bit. I like to time things as I go. 
Now I give my attention to the onions and toss them together with the bacon. It might be necessary to reduce the heat a bit. We don't want to blacken anything here.
Time to work with the carrots, peeling them and cutting them into the aforementioned chunks. Well, this might be a good opportunity to train your knife skills. Maybe that's why I chose this amount of carrots. Into the pot with them. Spoon through with your favourite wooden spoon and devote your attention to the potatoes.
The peeling of the potatoes might feel a bit like a punishment. Maybe you can find someone else to do it for you. No? Ah, no worries, I managed alone as well. Off they go into the pot all the same. Spoon.
Now, what's left to peel or chop? Right, chop the leek in rings after you have thoroughly cleaned it. They will find their place in the pot.
While you are already at it, add the meat and the parsley as well.
Pour over the beef stock and the beer. Spoon through one final time before you bring the whole content of the pot to the boil. Then let it simmer with the lid on for about one hour or longer. The potatoes should be cooked through and soft, but still retain their shape.
You may want to let it simmer further on afterwards a bit longer while the lid is removed. It all depends on whether you like to have more or less liquid in your stew. 
If you want to use any leftovers later on in a pie or so, you can cook away some liquid away later. 
However, at this point it would be time to plate up your Rustic Meaty Medieval Beer Stew and eat it. 

Thou might desire a piece of rustic bread to go with it. Why not have it! 
Enjoy it folks and have a nice life! 
See thee!

...

Wait! 

Not so fast! 

Where are you going?

I decided it isn't over yet. Another quick one. 

About one year ago ... to be precise at February the 5th in a small place far far away from a lot of things ... to be more precise, in a small town (village? hamlet?) in the Northern part of Germany a young man (just assume for a while - for the sake of dramatisation - it's right to say so) set out on a journey (if you like to call it that way) to boldly do ... eh ... now I confused myself ... again.
It's always the same. Now I write on this blog for exactly one year and still have drop outs and I don't know what to say.
Try and fail, try again and fail a little better. Fine!
Cooking Around the World is now officially 1 year old!!!

What do you say?

Ravinder, Jamie and trying a few recipes

In the last few days I have been thinking again ... yes ... for a change. Since I have a few cookbooks it wouldn't be bad to try some recipes again. So I had a look through some books and made a list of what to try. Then I went shopping and after not getting everything on that list, cancelled a few projects again.
Anyway, there still remained something on the list. Let us start with Ravinder Bhogal and her book Cook in Boots. Actually, Ravinder Bhogal is the only person I have a cookbook from, which I met already. That was this year in London, when she was doing 9 course meals at a restaurant in Aldgate.
The first dish I selected from the book was pork roast with grenadine glazing.

I just had to get some pork and the remaining ingredients were already on stock. I took the grenadine from the bar and the rest was mainly spices and things.
On the side I wanted to have some potatoes and fry them, but they ended up being mashed. To have some vegetables I tossed in some carrots with the roast into the oven.
Overall I liked it very much. It was sweet and spicy for some chilli and garlic was included as well.
There was another recipe from Cook in Boots on my list, but before I tell you about this, let us move over to Jamie Oliver.
I selected something very simple from the book Cook with Jamie: chicken breast wrapped in bacon with leeks.

It goes all in one dish, is for one person and really not complicated. Well, on the picture it looks like there was a lot leeks, but it was alright. It all could have been a bit more spicy, but you don't have to use chilli on everything, although you can. After all it's good to get in some other flavours as well.
Now back to Cook in Boots. On the program now: Cappelini with garlic, chilli, lemon and olive oil. That again sounds like quite some flavour.

It doesn't look very spectacular. That's because I didn't bring out the chillies and apart from that there is no much colour in it due to it's simplicity. The whole things doesn't even take ten minutes to prepare. Of course, a little bit depends on your speed in chopping the garlic and the chilli and grating the lemon zest and the cheese, but the parmesan is just for serving. The boiling of the pasta itself takes just three minutes.
I can say, that pasta dish tasted very lovely. Since I refused to just cook the pasta for one person and didn't have anyone for dinner, there were bound to be some leftovers. No worries!
Inspired by a recipe from Jamie's Italy I went for fries pasta at another day. You just need the leftover capellini (you could use spaghetti for that as well) and added some chopped cherry tomatoes, a bit of bacon, chopped parsley, an egg, some extra salt and pepper just to make sure and then you go and fry it in a pan.

That was very lovely as well. I should go through the books again and make a new list ... but I guess I should rather go for some Caribbean dishes, since we still have our Bloggers Around The World going on this month with some Caribbean inspired dishes. Are you in for it this month?