A Day out, Flowers, Caribbean and Dominican Tortilla

Finally we got the sunny weather. If you combine this with a day off and time to spare this makes for a good opportunity to have a day out. Accordingly we decided to take the train to Hannover, Germany, and look around of what is to see, buy some special food items and eat something special.

Arriving at the train station gives you the chance to have a snack right away, so we are having roasted pork in a bun. There is a place as well, that sells roasted pork in a bun nearby where we live, but that isn't half as good as the one at the train station of Hannover with soft onions on top of the meat. You could easily fill up on that, but ... I think it's better to leave some space for more.
For me, visiting Hannover means to go and see the Herrenhäuser Gärten. The gardens are really beautiful and you can enjoy them a lot. On this day it was quite quiet, if you don't count the workers. There are some days they have special events there and you can see a lot more. For the time being we enjoyed this quiet time, although it was that quiet, that they even turned off the water. If you want to see the grand fountain of water, which can shoot up the water even over 60 metres you have to be there before high noon or after 3 p.m.

Originally we only wanted to see the great garden, but the ticket came as a package with the mountain garden and the greenhouses as well. It's worth a visit as well. I would really enjoy to have some of those plants at home, too, but ...

Good there wasn't even a tiny cloud in the sky that day. So we could enjoy the gardens to the full ... with some bottles full of water.

So far regarding the cultural part. Of course you could do a lot more, but if you are walking around all the time and want to do a wee bit of shopping as well, the options are limited.
After walking around all day and buying a lot of chillies, platanos (plantains) and guandules (pigeon peas), it was time for more than a snack ... We set out for a place called Boca Chica. It's named after a place in the Dominican Republic. As we don't have the chance to fly every year to the Caribbean, this was the best we could do for now. The weather was right and they had a nice terrace where to enjoy the meal outside. We started with a mixed plate of starters ...

There was a lot going on on the plate: tostones (fried plantain), boquerones, aubergine salsa, plantain salad, yucca salad, mango, chicken, calamari and Dominican tortilla.
The Dominican tortilla is a bit like the Spanish tortilla, but instead of potatoes you use rice. This is a very good opportunity to use up leftover rice. Simple mix it with some eggs and if you like to get a bit more taste out of it add shopped up coriander or peppers. Then just fry it as small cakes. 
Next up the main dish with some fish ...

I decided to go for parrot fish as I never had it before. Seems quite healthy to me, but I still have to work a bit on my tastebuds regarding seafood. Well, that's not so easy around here as we don't have the chance to have it too often as no sea is nearby.
The rice had some guandules (pigeon peas) and that was something I had for the first time as well.
Something I didn't have for the first time was postre (dessert) ...

I have to try this one as home myself, if we ever get hands on ripe plantains around here. Well, it's not too fancy, but it makes for a solid dessert.
Anyway, it was a luvly day out we enjoyed very much. I hope I get my hands on some good and delicious cooking again soon.

Roadside Meal - Chicheron - Crispy Pork Belly

There are a lot of things I do not understand. Well, that is only natural, because there are a lot of things that is going on on this planet and beyond and if I would be able to understand all that I would have an IQ of above 200. Hm ... interesting ... I haven't checked that lately though, but I don't want to give an hypothesis of how high my IQ actually is nor do I want to give any suggestions regarding that right now.
That wasn't going to be the subject anyway. We are trying food here and supposedly from around the world. Going back to the do not understand part. For example there is this scandal going on at the moment with eggs and a chemical called Fipronil. On the one hand they say you should through this eggs away or bring them back to the supermarket and on the other hand an adult could eat seven of those eggs in a day and it won't happen nothing. Who is eating seven eggs a day?
Anyway, how can they put prices in the supermarket and write it is a special offer, when it's in fact the same prize as always or even higher.
How does it come that our fridge is always empty again so quickly. Well, for that one there might be an explanation ... eh ... it seems we are drifting away from the subject. Just to give an idea of where we want to get here ...

... maybe the might help to focus. That is one crispy pork belly or as they would call it in the Dominican Republic: Chicheron.
There again we get to the point I originally wanted to talk about when I said 'do not understand'. Over there in the Dominican Republic for example you find shops that sell chic heron at the roadside. Here it comes ... the curious part ... in one spot there are for example four shops next to each other that sell Chicheron. Then in another place there are four shops together that sell fish and no shop of Chicheron. Or four shops that sell fruits and no shop of Chicheron or fish. Again I could go on for hours, but that's how it is.
Anyhow, the way I put it on the picture is not the way you have it locally it rather might look like this ...

You might just stop with your car, taste a bit of what you are interested and then buy a loadful of it and hit the road again or ...

... you might eat it on sight with some hot sauce and yuca and bananas on the side. Well that looks just like a little snack for me, you might think, but ... no I didn't eat it all.

Well, when you are blogging about food, you even might do some other things, when you are around, but those images might be too hard for some to see, so only read ahead when you are absolutely sure you can take it ...

Chanterelle, Medallions of Pork and Fried Potatoes

What do you do, when you have cooked to many potatoes and as a consequence have leftovers? For my father this was never a question. The only possible answer was fried potatoes. Therefore this was one of the regulars.
Anyway, I don't know, whether I should still be doing this, but after all, this is the game, Bloggers Around the World. So I keep on going ... or keep on cooking adding more work for myself later on for doing the mammoth round-up. I got some chanterelle mushrooms and some medallions of pork, so I had to go for this one.

There is really no big deal to it, but quite some butter. The Medallions of pork go to the pan in some butter and are seasoned with salt and pepper.
The chanter ell mushrooms go to the pan in some butter and are seasoned with salt and pepper. Fine I added a chopped up onion as well.
You know, the potatoes are cooked and then ... yes, guess ... fried in some butter and seasoned with salt, if you still wish.
Now, this all is somehow not with much variation of colour, but for that you can add a salad on the side. If you do it all right, you can enjoy a lovely meal, that is, if you like those ingredients.

Well, those goes for Germany today, although I would have preferred some baguette, cheese and red wine.

Going French with Rillettes and Fougasse

Some weeks ago I was very much in the mood for cooking some French food and improve my knowledge in that cuisine. Well, apart from the option to look things up on the net, I have a few books on French cooking. One of it is The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo. It's a lovely book and the recipes work excellently. I selected some of them and worked myself through them during a week.
I like to share some of the results with you today as France is also playing Switzerland in the World Cup today. However, I will not share all of them, I need to reserve a bit for later.
Therefore today I like to concentrate on two things: Rillettes au porc and Fougasse aux romarin, avande et from age du chèvre.

 First to the rilletes with pork. If you find the right shop you most probably can by it ready in a jar. However, it's so simple and worth a try. You need pork belly, some bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and some time. It goes into the oven for 3 hours at 130 °C. Afterwards you can easily shred the pork (rind cut off) and jar it up and eat it with some lovely homemade bread and a glass of red wine.
If you care to make a mess in your oven you can throw the cut off rind under the grill and let them get crispy. Great, you get a crispy, fatty snack, hear some crackling sounds from your oven and get the chance to clean your oven.
Guess what I did ...

I just wanted to test some pork cracklings, too.
Anyway, I enjoyed the rillettes most of it together with the fougasse and the red wine.

Sure, you need some time as well to make the fougasse, but hey, it's all so lovely. What I liked about this fougasse version was, that it included lavender and goat's cheese.
You make a yeasty dough with 10 g dried yeast, 400 g flour, salt, dried rosemary, dried lavender and olive oil.
Then, you know, there is some kneading involved, rising, proving and all that lot, yes shaping. Apart from that we need to fit in the goat's cheese. Push pieces of 80 g of firm goat's cheese into the bread before you let it rise for the last time after the shaping.
The bread needs about 20 minutes at 210 °C in the oven. 
The end result is lovely. So, if you want to try it, you either have to try it as it is or have a look at the book or ask for further details.

Now you get also a closer look at the bread. I enjoyed it very much. So, do you like to have a bite?

If you like to have this ready for the football match today, I have to inform you, that you better have to hurry. Otherwise ... you need to have something else.

I add this to our ever increasing collection of posts for the World Cup 2014 and Bloggers Around the World.

Fully Fed - Pulled Pork with Herb and Beer Cheese Buns

I know, there are quite a lot of things I haven't tried before. There is still a lot of food on my list to feed on ... eh to try, cook and eat. Sometimes I think, I should be cooking all day. Eh, well, for some thing you nearly have to do this literally, like for example pulled pork. An acquaintance talked about it, that he wanted to try it and then I saw something lovely on the net somewhere that encouraged me to try it, finally.
So I had a bit of a look on how to do it and then I had a go ...

Together with the pulled pork I wanted to have some Herb and Beer Cheesebuns.

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.

Underground Cooking and Hawaiian Luau time

Let me get one thing straight right away, this is not just a fooling around blog, but Cooking Around the World. Due to that fact, at times it's necessary to work hard for this.
So I got myself a shovel and went to the garden ...

A grave? Does this mean someone has to die or has died already?

Creamy Smoked Pork Chops Hawaiian ... sorry, no Hula

There is quite some Indian cooking going on in my kitchen right this moment, but that doesn't mean I can't write you some other things, too.
Do you like Hawaiian pizza or Hawaiian toast? Strangely I can't see the direct connection to Hawaii here ... must be the pineapple. However, it was invented or made popular in Germany in the 1950s according to Wikipedia. Didn't give that much thought to that before and I most likely will forget about again tomorrow or one or two days later.
However we want to use that idea now on some smoked pork chops.

Once more, it's no big deal putting it together ...

Ingredients:
600 g smoked pork chops
6 slices of pineapple
200 g crème fraîche
200 ml full fat milk
Black pepper
Olive Oil

Preparation (or call it assembling):
Start heating up your oven to 200 °C. The preparation won't take too long.
Mix the milk and the crème fraîche together. Unintentionally I ended up with a version of crème fraîche that included herbs ... no worries ... if you like that. Season with pepper.
Now get your oven proof dish and put in the smoked pork chops and pineapple ... chop, slice of pineapple, chop, slice of pineapple and so forth.

Then pour the milk and crème over it and add a few little splashes of olive oil.

Transfer to the oven for 40 minutes and ... do something else in that time. You could ready a book for a change.

Eat it with some nice bread for mopping the lovely cream sauce. It would be nice to have a salad with it as well. You will get some ideas. Whatever suits you.

Dig in! Well, since this is not reall to do with Hawaii, there will also be no hula right now, although we might try that another time ... as soon as I figure out ...

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?

Going Greek? What about some delicious Moussaka

καλημέρα! How is your Greek? Mine is no better then everyone else's. For sure you can be sure (sure?) that everyone speaks a bit of Greek, since you find it everywhere. Just one example, or maybe two. The expression 'philosophy' comes from Greek words meaning 'the love of knowledge' (or similar). You remember Socrates? He said: "I know that I know nothing!" I'm still wondering, though, how he could new that. 
Anyway, wrong subject. Then there are terms like 'democracy', 'biology' and most probably we could go on and on and on and on ... but we don't want to.
At least I can eat Greek food and that is what matter now. So why not have some then?!
I can offer you some moussaka kind of dish today. 

What follows now, is moussaka the way that came to  my nind, when I was longing for some food using aubergines.


Ingredients: 
Olive oil
400 g minced meat (beef/pork)
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
2 medium sized aubergines, in slices
400 g plum tomatoes or tinned tomatoes 
200 ml water
200 g Kritharaki (Greek rice noodles)
150 g yogurt
1 egg
250 g feta cheese
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Preparation:
Let's say, we begin by slightly frying the onions in the olive oil. How about that?
We go on by adding the meat and, well, eh, yes, give it the appropriate colour, as you may have guessed already.
Then we add the tinned tomatoes with some extra water, let things boil and then simmer for a while, as we finely season it with salt and pepper. Plan about 30 minutes for the simmering.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the yogurt, the egg, the feta cheese and the finely chopped garlic. Season with salt and pepper as well. 
Have your oven-proof dish ready and grease it with a little bit of olive oil and then put in one layer of aubergine slices. On top of this simply bour your Kritharaki.

Then follows a tomato meat layer. In fact, just put on all of it. Go for another aubergine layer and then finish it off with the yogurt-cheese mix.

Have it in the pre-heated oven at 200°C for 45 minutes.
Then plate it up and ... enjoy this moussaka kind of dish ... Καλή όρεξη!

However, before I leave, I like to link things up a bit.
Since I found those Kritharakin in my pantry, this goes to the December Pantry Party at The Law Student's Cookbook. 

Kale again - Leftovers for Kale Risotto

One thing leads to another. We can apply this to leftovers. Since I wasn't in the mood to eat Kale the whole week in the way I prepared it lately, I intended to be creative with my leftovers.
Another contributing factor was this celery I still had on stock and needed using up. 
In that case 1 + 1 was not 2, but ... kale risotto.

Since the kale part is already eh ... ready, we primarily need to focus on the risotto.
The basic risotto always goes the same way.
Start with some olive oil in your pot and add some finely chopped celery or onions and stew them for a while until they get soft (yes, always the same).
Then pour in your risotto rice and turn everything around to get your rice coated.
After that pour in some white wine or vermouth. Let it cook away.
In another pot you already have some stock ready (I used about one litre).
Ladle by ladle add the stock to your risotto. You only add another ladle of stock when the previous one has been absorbed. Repeat this until all the stock is gone. That should be between 15 and 20 minutes.
Now we add the leftover kale and the sausage, which has been cut into small pieces. Mix everything thoroughly.
To finish we add a tablespoon of butter and about a handful of grated parmesan. Cover the risotto and let it simmer for about three minutes.
After that mix again and then you are ready to eat. Plate up as much of the risotto you want to eat and grate over some extra parmesan.
Well, I couldn't eat all the risotto. And since I want to be creative with my leftovers, one thing leads to another ...

Kale-os in the Kitchen: Grünkohl mit Pinkel - Curly Kale the German Way

That is going to be a sunny day. The sun wasn't at full force yet, but could clearly be seen rising behind the houses in the neighbourhood with a clear sky around it.
Lovely!
Well, the thermometer revealed it's 2°C and the car was covered in that thin white thing I despise so much, when I have to use my car in the morning.
Gladly, I didn't need my car at that point of the day.
A breakfast would be good at that point. Said and done!
By the time I was finished all hopes of a sunny day were shattered. How could it be!
Outside now a fog like dampness prevailed and it was far from being nice, despite the fact that 2°C can't be nice either. At least in my case.
Anyway, I had to go to get an appointment for the dentist for later that year and used the opportunity to visit the farmers market as well.
Today it's really the time for some comfort food. As I was browsing the different stalls, I couldn't fail to notice that it's the time for kale at this very point of the year. So I got myself a batch of it and made the following later that day.

Well, I have eaten that already many times. In Germany in some regions it is called Grünkohl mit Pinkel. 'Pinkel' refers to a special sausage made from pork. 'Grünkohl' obviously then is kale.
However, I've never cooked it myself. How hard can it be? (I know, someone else from television is always saying this, but I like to use it as well.)
So I got some last minute advice from the lady who sold the kale to me and set off to give it a go.
I give you the list of ingredients now, but don't try it at home. Maybe not the same way I did, but in a bit more reasonable way ...

Ingredients:
50 g butter
2 onions, finely chopped
1 kg kale, in small pieces
4 Mettenden or Pinkel (slightly smoked pork sausages)
1 l vegetable stock (I used 2 l, I know now it was too much, but it helped)
Salt and pepper according to taste

Preparation (more or less ... adapt with common sense):
By the way the lady at the market said 1 kg of kale would do for two persons, because it will reduce very much in size.

Now this is how the amount of kale looked like on my kitchen table. Oh, maybe the picture isn't that good.
To be more precise, half of the table was covered and it hardly fitted into the kitchen sink to give it a wash. Right, I could have done that in batches ...
Talking about batches, let's start by melting the butter in a pan, the largest you have, maybe and then continue by sweating the onions.

The next step is, that we want to cook the kale. Just think about this for a while. All the kale, that is 1 kg, has to go into that pan. Hm ... it will shrink ... but not at once. If you have a vessel in your kitchen for cooking that can hold 1 kg of kale, you might think about using that.
So I went on adding the first batch of kale and getting 1 l of vegetable stock ready to pour over it and let it cook.

With the stock the kale reduces quite good and I can add more. In fact, though, all this is taking a while, but since the vegetable stock is doing such a good job I added another litre of it.
Nevertheless it took quite some time. I kept adding batch after batch of kale. Reducing and reducing again until ...
... oh the pan seems to start to get very crowded.
Even some of the stock wants to hop out again. I have to be a bit more careful.
Despite that and the danger that the pan might overflow even more I kept going. Adding more and more kale.
Finally all of the 1 kg of kale was in that pan.
Now we can go on for real. I decided to let it cook openly at medium temperature for about 10 minutes. Maybe we get rid of the now a bit too much liquid.

After that it was time for the sausages to enter into the picture. Just puncture the sausages with the tip of your knife, so that they can release some of their juice to go into the kale. A great deal of the taste depends on it and with that, of course, also on the quality of your sausages. You might as well try other meat according to what is available to you. I could also imagine using bacon.
Now you can cover your pan, reduce the heat and let it continue to simmer for about 30-40 minutes. I only did 20 and left after that only to continue a few hours later.
While the kale is simmering you can cook and fry some potatoes to eat together with the kale and the Pinkel.
My mother used to add the potatoes to the kale and cooked them together, but I prefer it now this way.
Oh, I nearly forgot. Even two very greedy persons will not manage to eat all that. It will do at least for four. Otherwise you have to add more sausages.

That is a very comforting dish, something you for sure appreciate at the colder times of the year ... I could cry when I still think about what is ahead in the coming months ... I'm rather a heat person and I would appreciate a warmer place. But - things are as they are and we go on like this. There might  even be a sunny day again in the coming weeks.
What comforts you at such times of the year?

Challenge warm up à la française ... escalope de porc aux champignons

You might remember that I set up my own blog challenge Bloggers Around The World just last month. After our start in Germany with a bit of German food the next leg of the journey is bringing us to France.
Well, now it's not just that I like others to join, but of course I want to contribute as well with some food. Due to this I tried a few things French in my kitchen over the last few weeks. Still it hasn't all been the kind of things I want to contribute to my own challenge. Right, I set up the rules. Hm, I can't remember setting up a rule that limits the number of entries, but I guess one will suffice.

While I don't want to contribute this bit of food, I still like to share it with you. I might even add it to another challenge. 
Whatsoever, I consider it as a little warm up for some more French cooking. I can't quite claim that I mastered the art of French cooking. However, there is help available, as I have the two volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.
What you see on the picture is kind of based on the recipe Tournedos Sautés Aux Champignons. Fine, I didn't use fillet steak, but pork cutlets and ... eh marinated the meat therefore a bit differently. I used the simple marinade for pork from the aforementioned book.
Here we go then and warm up a bit à la française.

1. The pork cutlets are marinated for at least 2 hours, and if you like to put them in the fridge, for 4 hours. The marinade contains salt, pepper, lemon juice, parsley sprigs, thyme, a bay leaf and a clove of bashed garlic.
2. The mushrooms are sauteed in butter for a couple of minutes until then slightly brown.
   
   
   
   
   
3. I guess they deserve a little bit of seasoning with salt and pepper.
4. Then remove the mushrooms and put them to a separate bowl.
5. Now it's time for the pork cutlets to make there appearance again. Fry some butter in a different pan and then fry the cutlets from both sides until the colour is right and they are cooked through.
6. That's the point where I want to totally deviate from the book ... In reality, the following steps you have to perform while step 5 is still going.
7. In the pan, where the mushrooms have been, add quite a good share of white wine.
8. Then mix about 125 ml of double cream with a tbs of corn starch and then add to the pan with the white wine.
9. Now I wonder why I removed the mushrooms from the pan and just add them to the sauce again.
10. It's time to plate it up. Just do it the way as you have seen in the first picture and have a salad on the side.

Good, that was already a start. Was it French enough. I'm not too sure. I only know that it tasted very delicious. It even makes me to want some right now ... but I well know that this is out of bounds.
So far the warm up. I will do something else for the Bloggers Around The World challenge at some other day and ... I have also something in mind already. Keep on the watch!
Do you know what, some might use a package of who knows what is in it ready made sauce, but this was all from scratch without any E-somethings.

Cooking with Friends a la España

For me, cooking is very nice and enjoyable, but it is even greater to cook together with friends. We used to do this more often, when I was still younger. I even went several kilometres by bike to cook together with friends. Nowadays, everyone seems to be more busy and such events have become seldom. Well, another thing might be, that I live in another area than back then and it now would take a several 100 km to travel to do the same with them.
Whatsoever, it is good to have friends and even more important is to have time for each other and do things together. Finally then, we managed again. OK, the idea was to cook and eat together. Last time we did it, we just mixed a few recipes together to have a small menu.
This time we (well, I had the idea) wanted to have it themed, like maybe French, Italian, Turkish, Thai, Spanish or something else. We settled for Spanish. After going shopping for a few things then, in the evening we were ready.

Here is the menu a la España:

Jamon serrano
Lomo
Olivas verde
Almedras al pimiento
Queso con miel y tomillo
Chorizo al ajo y miel
Champiñón al ajo
Aioli y pan
Dátil frito
Brochetas de pollo y tomate

Chuletas de cerdo al estilo de Aragón

Churros con chocolate con naranja

Well, it might be all Spanish to you, but the first section were tapas, then the main course and of course finally the dessert.
As to the tapas, a few things were very simple ... only putting things on plates like with the jamon Serrano and the Lomo or transferring the olives from the glass to a bowl.
The cheese with the honey and thyme was only a tiny bit more effort, but with great effect.

Originally we would have used manchego cheese here, but unfortunately the shop we selected was poorly stocked. Instead we decided for Gouda, in fact in this case a so-called May Gouda. We didn't pay any thought as to what that would mean. Anyway, we ended up with a very very strong smelling cheese. After touching it with your fingers, it would take several thorough washings of your hand to get rid of that smell again.
Whatsoever, the taste and especially in that combination was totally delicious and for a cheese lover such as me, it was addictive.
So far to the simple things. The paprika almonds called for blanched almonds, which we didn't get. Consequently we went for blanching them ourselves. Just put them for a minute or so in hot water and then you can remove the skin easily. Really!

This was the beginning. It didn't go so well as expected ...

... about one hour later. Hm, not exactly, but it took quite some time. After putting them again in hot water and ... here comes my brave friend, which we will call Mr S, into play. He took the almonds directly from the hot water and removed the skin ... ouch, but a lot quicker.
Before we went into the other tapas it was time to get the main course, the pork chops a la Aragón, ready for the oven.

Slices of potato in an oven proof dish. Maybe a few slices too many, but ... whatever!

The seasoned pork chops go on top after some white wine was poured over the potatoes.

After that a mixture with parsley, garlic and almonds on top and it's ready for the oven. 
That gives us the opportunity to go back to the tapas.

Here we have the garlic mushrooms. From this point on everything went in quick succession.
After the mushrooms had left the pan, the chorizo came in. Obviously I didn't bother to take a photo. The chorizo slices were fried with garlic and finished with honey and sherry vinegar.

Out of the pan into a bowl they went to make room for the dates filled with chorizo and wrapped in bacon to be fried. Strange, for that I have a picture again.
Once they were finished and the chicken tomato skewers as well, the main course went to the oven at 200°C to be left there for 45 minutes - at least.
After about two hours of preparation and cooking, it was time to eat. If you have a look again at the menu at the tapas section, you maybe can imagine what followed.
Well, somehow, we were already quite filled, once the pork chops came back from the oven.

That's what they looked like. Somehow the potatoes didn't soak up the white wine as promised in the recipe, but ... anyway. No one was willing anymore to have a proper main course.

So we did some 'fine dining' portions.
Strangely, though, there still was the call to have the dessert, which would take a while to prepare anyway. After that most probably there would be the slight possibility that more food will fit in. 
As to making churros. Making the dough is fairly easy. You have 500 ml of lightly salted boiling water and sift some 300 g of flour into it and then combine it with an electrical hand mixer. Leave it to rest for let's say ten minutes.
After that you have the churros dough or a self-made paste for wall papers as well. If you don't want to use it to hang wallpaper you put it into a piping bag and pipe it into screaming hot oil and fry it. What shall I say ... that stuff killed my piping bag. I need to get a better one.

Despite that they go well with melted chocolate and if you add some orange zest to the chocolate it tastes divine ... if you still can take it. The recipe book gave some extra information about churros. It's popular to have them with chocolate after you have danced through the whole night, which we didn't do, or you can have them for breakfast with coffee, which I did the next day.

At the end we had a wonderful evening and on top of that we have created a bit of leftovers ... I still have to deal with some potatoes and pork chops.
Why not come together with friends and have a great evening together with cookin. Do you like to do something like this as well? What have you done? Leave a comment and let us know ...