czech garlic soup

Česneková Polévka

Back in 2003, I went on a little road trip through Slovakia and the Czech Republic with my cousin (Jožko), his girlfriend (Miška) and his pal (Braňo). It was an awesome journey taking in Prague, Karlštejn, Hluboká, Tabor, České Budějovice (Budweis) and Český Krumlov, not to mention the ingestion of copious amounts of beer and wine and slivovica - as only people in their youth can do!

Since the crew were Slovaks, we often ate in tiny traditional restaurants that rarely saw foreigners. It meant I had fantastic guides who explained the indecipherable menu thoroughly which allowed me to try some seriously delicious, authentic, local food.

My favourite food memories were the Bryndzové halušky (Slovak potato gnocchi with a sheep’s cheese sauce), utopenec (Czech pickled sausages), smažený sýr (a crumbed cheese steak, like a schnitzel made entirely of cheese) and this wonderful garlic soup.

We were eating in a small sporting club, somewhere in Bohemia, and the little restaurant served this rich, clear garlic broth. It was cold outside so the broth was intensely warming.

But what really lifted the soup to dizzying heights was the discovery of melted cheese and smoky pieces of pork at the bottom of the bowl. Each mouthful was an oozing spoonful of molten cheese and garlicky broth. Perfect!

For these past 8 years I have thought of that soup so often. Now that I’ve made it, as part of my 2011 Food Challenges, I can honestly say my own version is an excellent tribute to the original experience.

Cook it, and you can experience the joys of Czech food too.

Česneková Polévka (Czech Garlic Soup)

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 4 as an entree (starter).

We used Eumundi Smokehouse's
pork fillet

Ingredients:
1 bulb garlic
1.5 litres chicken broth
Grated zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon marjoram leaves, picked over
300g peeled and cubed potatoes
50g smoked pork fillet, thinly julienned
125g edam, grated
Salt and pepper, to taste
Knob of butter, for frying
Teaspoon olive oil, for frying
A few extra marjoram leaves, for garnish
Crusty bread rolls, for serving

Method:
1. Peel the skin from all the garlic cloves and slice each into thin slithers.

2. Heat the butter and olive oil in a large pot then sauté garlic until very soft.

3. Add lemon zest and chicken stock, then bring to the boil.

4. Add salt and pepper, marjoram and potatoes. Boil for 8 minutes or until potatoes are soft.

5. Meanwhile, either in a large oven proof serving dish (or individual oven-proof serving bowls) spread the pork on the base and top with grated cheese. Grill for a few minutes until the cheese has completely melted. This way it sticks to the bottom of the dish when you add the soup.

6. When the potatoes are ready, taste the soup is seasoned properly, then ladle into the serving dish and sprinkle with a little more marjoram leaves. Eat immediately with crusty bread.

Note: If you can’t get hold of smoked pork, use a smoky ham. Also, you might be able to tell from the photos that I used thyme. Marjoram is the traditional ingredient; I just couldn’t find any that day! Thyme is a good substitute in a pinch.

polish pickle soup

 
Almost two years ago, Jonas and I found a great little Polish restaurant and enjoyed a tangy soup made from pickles: Zupa Ogórkowa.

I’d never heard of such a wonderment, but it combined two of my favourite things: pickles and soup.

In fact, zupa ogórkowa doesn't event feature on the SoupSong site - one of my all time favourite resources for unique and interesting soups.

Despite loving it at the restaurant, I'd put off making it myself for so long, imagining it wouldn’t be as good at home.

Turns out to be so easy and incredibly tasty, and frankly I think our homemade version was better.

The broth is clear, but there are so many vegetables and herbs floating through it that the soup still feels hearty and filling.

It’s a perfect winter flavour and reminds me of my family in Slovakia, but it could easily be served cold in summer, perhaps with a little more cream stirred through it and topped with smoked salmon.

This is another tick off the 2011 Food Challenge list!

Zupa Ogórkowa (Polish Pickle Soup)

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 2 as a main or 4 as an entrée.

Ingredients:

1 white onion, finely chopped
½ carrot, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely grated
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
1 litre rich chicken broth (or vegetable)
4 pickled cucumbers (polskie ogórki) , coarsely grated
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
2 tablespoons (40ml) pouring cream
¼ fresh parsley, chopped finely
Salt and pepper, to taste
Butter, for frying
Olive oil, for frying
Sour cream, for serving

Method:

1. Heat butter (and a little olive oil to prevent butter browning) in a saucepan.

2. Sauté onions and carrots until translucent, around 2-3 minutes.

3. Add grated garlic and potatoes and fry for another 2 minutes.

4. Add chicken stock and bring to the boil. Cook for around 7 minutes until potatoes begin to soften.

5. Add grated cucumbers and dill, and continue boiling for another 7 minutes. Test to make sure potatoes are completely cooked but be careful not to overcook.

6. Add pouring cream, adjust seasoning and then add parsley. Mix through.

7. Serve hot with dollops of sour cream.

I'd like to enter this into Weekend Herb Blogging with dill being my ingredient. After all, the dill pickles are what made this soup and the dill is what made the pickles.

Our WHB host this week is Astrid from Paulchen's Foodblog. Check back at the end of the weekend to see her round up of all the recipes.

croatian summer, a cocktail

With the warm weather I've been making all kinds of cooling, blended drinks.

This one can either be a simple drink or can be turned into a cocktail by adding šljìvovica, a Damson plum brandy from the Balkans and most of central/eastern Europe.

What kind of cocktails do you like to drink in the heat?

Croatian Summer

Anna's very own recipe. Makes 1 very tall drink.

Ingredients:
3 ripe plums, halved & pitted
45ml šljìvovica
45ml sugar syrup
35ml lemon juice
Cup of ice
Cup of soda water

Method:
1. Purée plums with the šljìvovica, sugar syrup and lemon juice.
2. Add ice and blend.
3. Add soda water into blender, stir, then pour into serving glass.

povidlyanka - ukrainian semolina pudding

Povidlyanka (Повидлянка) is an ultra-sweet Ukrainian pudding that's a quick and simple dish to make on a cold evening.

I prefer the flavour of sour cherry jam, but you could use any preserve you like (blackberry, apricot or fig would also be delicious).

Povidlyanka (Повидлянка)
Based on a recipe from www.RussianFoods.com. Serves 2.
Ingredients:
150g cherry jam
100g semolina
10g rum or Madeira
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons flaked almonds, toasted
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180’C. Grease ramekin with plenty of butter.
2. Beat egg.
3. Whisk in jam and rum.
4. Fold in semolina and all but a few almond flakes.
5. Pour into greased ramekin, sprinkle top with sugar.
6. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining flaked almonds on top.

pork chops & sauerkraut

I forgot to delete some of my recent recipe photos from my camera and now that I lost my old computer (and all the files) I'm glad I was disorganised.

I've bought a new laptop so I can at least blog about the images I found, and I'm happy to say this includes all the recent recipes from my Vietnamese feast as well as two 2009 Food Challenges (this one for chops & kraut plus a wonderful braciole).

Unfortunately I still need to install Microsoft Office and Photoshop etc, so my posts might be a little sketchy for a while yet.

Not to mention trying to recover the more than 100 backlog of recipes I had on the corrupted hard drive of my old computer! Sigh.

This recipe for Pork Chops & Sauerkraut was one of my food challenges for 2009 under the category "food memories". I have a lot of sauerkraut memories, all good.

It is a signature dish of my 90yr old grandfather who would make big pots to feed the entire family, harping on the days when his own mother would enlist his help to cook for his five brothers.

When I was five, my grandparents returned to the US and my parents continued the regular family dinner of pork chops and sauerkraut, a favourite for my brothers and I.

Sauerkraut was such a normal part of our week that I never realised other families didn't eat it. It wasn't until my parents' divorce, with new partners and children who looked at the bland pile of shredded cabbage in shock and horror, that I realised my family was a rare breed of Aussie kraut eaters.

Unfortunately, this meant sauerkraut fell out of favour in both homes, much to the dismay of us kids.

As a teenager I travelled to Slovakia to meet my grandfather's family and suddenly understood the origin of this dinner. It was a strange, emotional moment for me when I perused a Bratislava pantry to realise that this Central/Eastern European dish had travelled three continents and four generations to link me to my heritage.

Since then I have eaten this dish a few times in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and more than a few times on what used to be annual work trips to Germany. One particularly good experience with sauerkraut and porkiness was the Schupfnudeln mit Sauerkraut und Kasslerwürfel that I ate in Koblenz. It was delicious!

So . . . onto the recipe. Pork chops and sauerkraut is the perfect winter dinner served with mashed potatoes. Enjoy.

Pork Chops & Sauerkraut
Anna's very own recipe. Serves 6.
Ingredients:
6 pork chops
450g canned sauerkraut
750ml (3 cups) vegetable stock
½ green apple, peeled + grated
1 white onion, sliced
2 dried bay leaves
Salt and pepper, to taste
Olive oil or butter, for frying

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180’C.

2. Heat olive oil in an ovenproof pot and brown pork chops for 1 minute on each side. Set aside.

3. In the same pot, fry onion until softened.

4. Spread onion across the base of the pot then add a layer of sauerkraut.

5. Next add the pork chops, bay leaves, salt and pepper and grated apple.

6. Top with remaining sauerkraut then pour over 2 cups of vegetable stock.

7. Cover with pot lid then back in oven for 1 to 2 hours or until chops are tender. The remaining cup of stock can be used to top up the pot if it's drying out.

Note: Serve with mash.

rösti

Announcing the spud themed Potato Week on Morsels & Musings!

My relos, Lynn and Chris, have a farm in Robertson where they grow a number of things including potatoes. This year there was a bumper crop and Jonas and I were lucky to receive a sack of potatoes. They were the most delicious potatoes we have tasted in a long, long time.

In honour of this potato bonanza, starting today, I plan to blog a potato recipe for seven days straight. On the menu is:
Rösti (today)
Tomato & Caper Potato Bake
Tortilla de Rosamaria
Colcannon
Gnocchi w Sage & Burnt Butter
Patatas Bravas
Taleggio & Cambozola Potato Bake

Prepare yourself for a delicious starch and carbohydrate overdose!

Today I begin Potato Week with the delicious Swiss rösti. These pancakes of grated potato are spectacular for breakfast with smoked salmon, as a fair snack or for dinner alongside meat or poultry.

There are great debates about making rösti: whether to use boiled or raw grated potatoes, whether to add ham or cheese or apples, whether to only fry or also bake . . . the list goes on.

Jonas is the rösti maker in our home, and this is the recipe he uses to great, great success.

His rösti are always crispy on the outside and edges, but with a centre of soft, moist potato (yet never mushy).

The only problem with his recipe is that they are too delicious and one is never enough.

Rösti
Jonas’ very own recipe. Makes 2 large (breakfast) or 6 small (sides).

Ingredients:
5 potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Parboil potatoes in salted water, for approximately 10 minutes. Potatoes should be firm but not hard.

2. Cool potatoes to room temperature.

3. Coarsely grate potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Heat oil and butter in frying pan until very hot.

5. Form potato into patty and fry until golden (approximately 5 minutes on each side).

The potato is my theme ingredient for WHB this week.

I have already waxed lyrical about potatoes previously, so forgive me from stealing straight from my own post.

The root of the Solanum tuberosum is the world's most widely grown tuber and is in fourth place as the most produced food crop after rice, wheat, and corn. China and India are the world's largest potato producers.

Research seems to put the potato’s origin in the Andes from Colombia / Venezuela to northern Argentina and the first evidence of cultivated took place in Peru 7,000 years ago. Some 99% of the world’s cultivated potato varieties descend from a subspecies indigenous to South-Central Chile, probably due to the trading routes that carried the first plant exports.

Potatoes made the journey to Europe in the mid 1500s and quickly became a staple food crop, particularly for the poor.

Lack of genetic varieties in Europe left potato crops vulnerable to diseases, such as Phytophthora infestans, which resulted in the infamous Irish famine and a reduction of Ireland’s population by 25% from starvation, disease and emigration to the New World.

The English word potato comes directly from the Spanish patata, which itself is a compound of two Native American words for potato and sweet potato: papa (Quechua) and batata (Taino)

Many Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Scandinavian and Balkan languages derive their word for potato from an ancient word for potato which also meant “truffle”. French, Dutch, Hebrew, Finnish all have names meaning “earth fruit/apple/pear”, whereas Slovak and Polish use words that mean simply “ground”. Different Chinese languages have meanings such as “foreign taro”, “horse yam” or “earth bean”. Although the Hindi and Nepali word for potato is aloo and in Indonesian it is kentang, I don’t know what the base meaning of these words are.

Potatoes have excellent carbohydrate content but also good levels of Vitamin C, potassium, Vitamin B6 and traces of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and zinc.

The glycemic index (GI) of potatoes can vary considerably depending on the type, location grown, cooking methods and with what it is consumed.

Potatoes contain glycoalkaloids such as solanine and chaconine, which are toxic compounds found in high concentrations in wild potatoes. Light exposure and aging increases toxin levels but cooking at over 170°C (340°F) partly destroys the toxins. Affects are weakness, confusion, headaches, diarrhea and cramps and although coma or death could occur, poisoning from potatoes is very rare.

Common international varieties include Bintje; Désirée; Fianna; King Edward; Kipfler; New; Nicola; Pink Eye; Pink Fir Apple; Red Pontiac; Rooster; Russet Burbank and Spunta.

Fun Wikipedia facts!
• Potatoes are part of the deadly nightshade family, a group of poisonous plants including tomatoes and tobacco.
• There are about five thousand potato varieties world wide. Three thousand of them are found only in the Andes, where over 100 varieties of potato can be found in one valley alone!
• In France the potato was considered suitable only for cattle. In the mid 1700s Antoine Parmentier devised an ingenious strategy to encourage the French peasants to eat potatoes. Apparently he grew a field of potatoes and had it heavily guarded to make it look like a delicacy for the nobility. The peasants stole samples and started to enjoy them.
• Belarus has the world’s highest consumption of potato per capita with each Belorussian consuming 338 kg in 2005.
• The fibre content of a potato with skin equals that of many whole grain breads, pastas, and cereals.
• The notion that all of the potato’s nutrients are found in the skin is an urban legend. While the skin does contain approximately half of the total dietary fibre, more than 50% of the nutrients are found within the potato itself.

Our Weekend Herb Blogging host this week is Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook.

Other potato recipes on the Net are:
Beetroot & Potato Salad - Nami-Nami
Cheddar, Chive & Potato Bread - Apple Pie, Patis, Pate
Crab Boil Potato Salad - Bacon Concentrate
Creamy Garlic Potato Gratin - Freestyle Cookery
Curried Potato Chips - TriniGourmet
Cypriot Potato Salad - Morsels & Musings
Feta Mash - Morsels & Musings
Gamja Jorim (Korean braised potato) - Kitchen Wench
Jeera Aloo (Indian cumin potatoes) - Book of Yum
Lentil & Potato Curry - Cooking with Amy
Potato & Cabbage Casserole - Vanessa Barrington
Potato & Long Bean Rendang - Feeding Maybelle
Potato Breakfast Curry - Morsels & Musings
Potato Chip Cookies - Cooking with Amy
Potato Kugel - Off The Broiler
Potato Skins - Simply Recipes
Potato, Squash & Goats Cheese Gratin - The Kitchn
Pytt i Panna (Swedish hash) - Morsels & Musings
Rosemary Potato Pizza - Apple Pie, Patis, Pate
Rustic Potato Chowder - 101 Cookbooks
Schoppala (Hungarian noodles) - Delicious Days
Schupfnudeln (savoury German noodles) - Book of Yum
Schupfnudeln (sweet German noodles) - Addicted Sweet Tooth
Sour Cream, Potato & Chive Bread - Knead for Bread
Spicy Potato Empanadas - From Argentina With Love
Swordfish & Potato Tortino - The Perect Pantry
Warm Potato Salad w Smoked Trout - Morsels & Musings

-------------------------------------------------------
This time previously on M&M:
2008 - Swedish food
2007 - Mulberry & Cinnamon Cake
2006 - Caprese salad

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Irish_Famine

pickled smoked sausages

Yesterday we woke up to an eerie red glow and looked out the window to see Sydney blanketed in an impenetrable mist.

It turned out to be a huge dust storm that dumped 1000 tonnes of iron-rich dust on Sydney from the drought-stricken outback. As the sun tried to penetrate the fog, the light glinted off the tiny iron particles in the soil and created the most beautiful red glow.

Unfortunately the entire city is now filthy and anyone with any kind of breathing issue is not a happy camper.

But onto the recipe . . . during a visit to the Czech Republic in 2003 I tried my first pickled sausage "utopenci". I loved it.

Next taste was 2005 in the USA, when I found snack-pack pickled sausages as well as huge jars at Walmart. My grandfather, father and I spent a summer afternoon sitting in the shade of the garage drinking ice tea and eating pickled sausages from a giant jar (in the Florida humidity)!

These memories were the inspiration behind this 2009 Food Challenge and I made my very own batch of pickled sausages to munch on at home.

Note, these are not "Marco Polo" brand, that's just the jar I used!

I highly recommend you make yourself some pickled sausages. They sound gross, but they are truly delicious.

Also, make sure you add beetroot juice or your sausages will turn an unappetising grey hue.

Pickled Smoked Sausages

Recipe by Glenn Shapely.

Ingredients:
1kg pre-cooked, smoked sausages
500ml cider vinegar
125ml boiling water
40g sugar
15g pickling spices
5g onion flakes
A few drops of beetroot juice

Method:

1. Cut sausage to fit container and place inside.

2. In a saucepan add the vinegar, water, sugar, spices and onion flakes to the boil.

3. Pour the pickling liquid into the jar, add beetroot juice and put on lid. Turn upside and allow to sit for a few minutes to sterilise and seal the lid.

4. Refrigerate for 2 weeks before eating.


Pickling Spice
Anna's very own recipe. Makes 1 batch.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 allspice berries
2 bay leaves
1 clove

Method:
1. Combine and add to vinegar when preparing pickling liquids.

khachapuri: georgian cheese bread

We had a Georgian friend once upon a time. His name was Mamuka and we met him when he was studying English in Australia. He lived in Moscow but he was fiercely proud of Georgia and we all loved to watch him write in the beautiful Georgian alphabet.

I wonder what happened to Mamuka? We lost touch about a year after he moved back to Russia, although not before he sent photos of his summer home in a picturesque Georgian valley.

I have always wanted to visit Georgia.

It seems fitting then that Jonas made a Georgian bread for this month’s Bread Baking Day with the theme “cheese breads”. Our host is Temperance from High on the Hog.

Khachapuri are the cheesiest breads there are. In fact you could easily label them Georgia’s answer to the pizza. They commonly use a traditional Georgian ingredient called sulguni (სულუგუნი), a pickled, salty cows’ cheese from the Samegrelo region.

There are as many different styles of khachapuri as there are regions in Georgia and some of the better known as Adjaruli khachapuri (topped with a raw egg), Megruli khachapuri (topped with more cheese) and Ossuri khachapuri (filled with mash potatoes).

Jonas made the standard khachapuri, although we don’t have access to the rare sulguni and had to make do with another cheesey combination. It was delicious nonetheless.

This is also a 2008 Food Challenge, which has rolled over into the 2009 batch since it didn't get made last year.

Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese Bread)

Recipe from The World Encyclopedia of Bread. Serves 6.

Ingredients:
Bread:
225g unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
15g fresh yeast
150ml lukewarm milk
25g butter, softened
Filling:
225g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
225g Taleggio, cubed
1 egg, lightly beaten
15ml butter, melted
Salt and pepper
Glaze:
1 egg yolk
15ml water

Method:

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.

2. Cream the yeast with the milk, add to the flour and mix to form a dough.

3. Knead in the butter, then knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic.

4. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover lighting with oiled clear plastic film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 – 1½ hours or until doubled in size.

5. Meanwhile put the cheeses in a bowl and stir in the egg and softened butter for the filling. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

6. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes.

7. Divide the dough into four even balls. Roll each ball out into a rough circle.

8. Grease a muffin tin or ramekins, and place each circle into the holes. Drop in the cheese mixture into the centre then fold over the dough to seal the cheese inside.

9. Cover with oiled film to rise again for another 20 minutes.

10. Preheat oven to 180’C.

11. Mix egg yolk and water together to form a glaze then brush bread with glaze.

12. Bake for 50 minutes, or until brown on surface.

13. Cool for 5 minutes then remove from tin/ramekins and serve warm cut.

Variations: instead of Cheddar & Taleggio you can use many other cheese combinations such as Munster & Havarti or Red Leicester & Parmesan.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes khachapuri bread cheese khachapuri recipes cheese recipes bread recipes georgian recipes georgian food georgian cuisine

hungarian paprika chicken

When the weather outside is frightful, this spicy chicken dish is delightful.

The predominant flavour is paprika, so it’s important to use top grade. I like a combination of sweet and smoky to give the sauce a little depth.

Types of Hungarian paprika:
Különleges (Special Quality): The mildest and brightest red of all Hungarian paprikas, with excellent aroma.
Édes csemege (Delicate): Ranging from light to dark red, a mild paprika with a rich flavour.
Csemegepaprika (Exquisite Delicate): Similar to Delicate, but more pungent.
Csípős Csemege, Pikáns (Pungent Exquisite Delicate): An even more pungent Delicate.
Rózsa (Rose): Pale Red in colour with strong aroma and mild pungency.
Édesnemes (Noble Sweet): The most commonly exported paprika; bright red and slightly pungent.
Félédes (Half-Sweet): A blend of mild and pungent paprikas; medium pungency.
Erős (Hot): Light brown in colour, this is the hottest of all the paprikas.

Red paprika originated in the Americas and was brought to Europe via Turkey and into the Balkans. The first record of paprika in Hungary comes from 1748. The word paprika is the Hungarian word for "pepper" from the Serbian/Croatian word paprena for “the hot pepper”, which in turn came from the Latin piper for “hot pepper”.

Paprikás Csirke (Hungarian Paprika Chicken)

Anna’s adaptation of various internet recipes. Serves 2.

Ingredients:4 chicken thigh fillets
1 small onion, finely chopped
200ml crème fraîche (or sour cream)
100ml chicken stock
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon smoky or hot paprika
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon cornflour (if needed for thickening)
Lard, butter or oil for cooking
Salt and pepper, to taste
Spätzle (noodles) or boiled potatoes, to serve

Method:

1. In a large frying pan, heat cooking lard/butter/oil and brown the chicken. Set aside on a plate to rest.

2. Fry onion and garlic until translucent.

3. Add paprika and bay leaf then fry until fragrant (30 seconds).

4. Add chicken stock, seasoning, chicken thighs and any juices from sitting.

5. Simmer for 10-20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked, then remove bay leaf and chicken.

6. Increase the heat and boil the liquid until reduced by half.

7. Remove from heat and stir through crème fraîche. If the sauce is not thick enough, remove ¼ cup from heat and stir through a little cornflour. Return to pan and stir until thickened.

8. Return chicken to pan on heat on low until the chicken and sauce is hot enough for serving.

9. Serve hot over potatoes or noodles.

This is my entry to Nutriferia’s event, Hungry for Chicken? Check out the round-up on 20 July.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes main course paprika chicken paprika chicken recipes paprika recipes chicken recipes hungarian recipes hungarian food hungarian cuisine

chilled blueberry soup

Announcing blueberry week!!!

In honour of our holiday to Sweden (Jonas first trip home since 2003!), I have decided to post seven blueberry recipes in seven days.

Prepare yourself for:
Chilled Blueberry Soup
Steamed Blueberry Puddings
Myrtille (cocktail)
Blueberry & Sour Cream Wholemeal Pancakes
Blueberry Pie
Venison w Juniper, Blueberries & Thyme
Sweet Blueberry Focaccia
When Jonas was a wee-one, he was allergic to blueberries. How terrible to live in a country where delicious blueberries grow wild along the roadside, only to discover your allergies had subsided once you migrate to Australia, a country where one tiny punnet can easily cost $7!!!

Oh, the irony!
Blueberries are now one of Jonas’ favourite berries and whenever I think of them I always remember our camping trip through southern Sweden with his mother, Ulla.

Somewhere in a Småland forest, in the Glasriket, Jonas and Ulla smiled patiently at me while I jumped from bush to bush shouting with glee and collecting handfuls of these precious, wild berries.

Once we set up our tent that evening, Ulla fried up some tomatoes and Karljohanssvamp (porcini /cep) and then we ate fresh wild blueberries and raspberries. I was so excited I didn’t even mind the occasional worm.

My second blueberry association is related to my sister Shamu (obviously not her real name, yes I'm a cruel sister).

Blueberries have always been one of her favourite berries too and at Christmas she took her partner, Tombolina, to spend some time on her mother’s property in Robertson. The neighbours had a huge blueberry farm that they weren’t harvesting so Shamu went nuts picking buckets of blueberries, twigs, leaves and unfortunately a few lizards.

She brought me back a 3kg bag which, given how expensive these little buggers are in Sydney, was AMAZING!

After freezing this bag, I managed to make an extensive array of blueberry dishes, and in the lead up to our Swedish holiday, I am going to post blueberry recipes for the next seven days.

First up is Studená Borůvková Polévka, a chilled blueberry soup from the Czech Republic.

Fruit soups are common summer starters in Central Europe. The Hungarians have the famous sour cherry based meggyleves, but Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia all have various chilled fruit soup dishes too, usually served before pork main courses. Although these soups can be sweet due to the natural sugars of the fruit and the addition of wine, the dishes are served as savoury courses.

My soup recipe was used for a pre-dessert course during one of my multi-course dinners: taken between the main of veal and a dessert of rich, sticky fig and chocolate cake.

The tart, fresh flavours of the berries made an excellent contrast between the richer courses and even though the soup was very strong in flavour, it still acted as a palate cleanser.

Studená Borůvková Polévka
(Czech Chilled Blueberry Soup)

Anna’s adaptation of various internet recipes. Serves 8 x 125ml or 4 x 250ml.

Ingredients:2 cups blueberries
½ cup apple juice
1/3 cup light red wine
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup vanilla yoghurt, for serving

Method:

1. Simmer the wine for 2 minutes to evaporate some of the alcohol.

2. While the wine is still hot, stir in honey to dissolve. Allow mixture to cool.

3. Combine all ingredients (except yoghurt) in a food processor and purée well.

4. Refrigerate until completely chilled.

5. Serve with a swirl of yoghurt.

~~~

By creating this recipe, I managed to tick off another 2008 Food Resolution to create my own recipe for a fruit soup, although I do have plans to make another one once the weather warms up a little.

Well, that’s the first of the seven blueberry recipes for the week and I’d like to enter it into July’s berry themed Key Ingredient Cook’s Kitchen (KICK) recipe contest hosted by Sophie from The Back Burner.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes soups blueberry soup blueberries dessert recipes berry recipes blueberry soup recipes fruit soup recipes dessert soup recipes soup recipes blueberry recipes czech recipes czech food czech cuisine

meggyleves

Meggyleves is a traditional Hungarian cherry soup made in summer, when the cherries are abundant, and usually eaten as an entrée (starter). It’s served cold.

Ever since I first heard of this dish from one of my Hungarian relatives, Ákos, I have been fascinated and eager to make it. I found it difficult to imagine eating this as an entrée, since it seemed so sweet in nature, but the important factor is the type of cherries.

In Hungary they use Morello cherries to ensure a sour-tart flavour, however you could use any sour cherry such as Montmonrency (most common sour cherry in North America) or Early Richmond.

If you can’t get your hands on any sour cherries, you can use sweet cherries but then you’ll need to serve the soup as a dessert because it won’t have the required acidity. It will still taste wonderful, but it will be much sweeter and therefore serves a different purpose.

I absolutely love the sweet version as a summer dessert. It’s divine.

It’s an old recipe and therefore there are as many versions as there are Hungarian families. In fact it’s so popular Knorr even sell it as packet soups!

Some traditional recipes reserve the cherry pits, wrap them in muslin then crack them a little before putting them in the soup. The kernels have a delicate almond flavour which adds an additional complexity to the flavour. Nowadays you can add a dash of almond essence instead.

For a slightly thicker soup the old recipes blend half the cherries with the soup liquid or add egg yolks to the cream, while I noticed many North American versions used potato or corn flour.

The North American versions also seemed to omit the wine (a dry red, preferably from Eger) and reduced the cream too. I suppose this was to make the recipe quicker and more cost effective.

Here’s my version:

Meggyleves (Hungarian Cherry Soup)
Anna’s adaptation of Anne Sheasby's recipe. Serves 6 for starter.
Ingredients:
1kg sour cherries, pitted
750ml (3 cups) dry red wine
250ml (1 cup) water
250ml (1 cup) pouring cream
125ml (½ cup) crème fraîche
½ cup sugar
1-2 cinnamon sticks
Method:
1. Combine in a large pot water, cherries, sugar, red wine and cinnamon.
2. Bring to the boil then lightly simmer for approx. 20 minutes until cherries are tender. Remove from the heat.
3. In a separate bowl, combine pouring cream and crème fraîche to create a smooth mix.
4. Stir mixture into the soup and then refrigerate until serving.
5. Serve with a little crème fraîche on top.

This is my entry to the annual Super Soup Challenge, hosted by Tami from Running With Tweezers. A great event since it celebrates one of my favourite things to eat: soup!

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes entree starter appetiser soup dessert hungarian cherry soup cherry soup cherry meggyleves meggy leves cherry recipes fruit soup recipes soup recipes dessert recipes hungarian recipes hungarian food hungarian cuisine

sbiten - russian winter drink

сбитень

Today is Russia Day, a celebration of national unity when, in 1990, Russian parliament formally declared its sovereignty.

For such a recently adopted holiday, it has changed its name a number of times. First it was called Independence Day, then to the catchy Day of the Adoption of the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Russian Federation (just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it!) and finally to the much more acceptable Russia Day. Yeltsin brought it in, but Putin was the first to make it a popular holiday.

Tomorrow I’m off to celebrate with the Russian Embassy so in honour of their national day, and in the vein of cooking my way around the world, I offer you this delicious winter drink: sbiten.

Made from honey, spices and fruit, this traditional winter drink is deliciously sweet and spicy and was been first recorded way back in 1128. Sbitenshchik (sbiten vendors as pictured in this old school sketch) would sell the drink in the streets where it transcended all class barriers, making it the most popular Russian winter drink until tea made a splash in the 1800s.

I’ve read that it’s making a bit of a revival these days and why not, since it’s ridiculously easy to make and is perfect on a cold day. The spices soothe sore throats and a shot of rum turns it into the perfect after-dinner digestive.

Sbiten
Anna’s very own recipe devised from internet searches. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
1 litre water
150g jam (apricot or raspberry are most traditional, but I used rose hip)
50g honey
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground ginger
10 whole cloves
Method:
1. Bring water to boil, then add honey and jam.
2. Dissolve jam and honey into water.
3. After 5 minutes add spices and cook for a further 5 minutes.
4. Strain and serve hot.
Note: Can be stored in the fridge and reheated. You can also add a few cardamom pods and a dried chilli if you like.

According to Wikipedia, there are other versions which include:
* Tzar's Sbiten: honey, sugar, red bilberry, blueberry and blackberry; sweet clover, inula, salvia, thyme, spices.
* Sbiten Boyarsky: honey, sugar, cranberry, blackberry; melissa, sweet clover, thyme, spices.
* Sbiten Moscovsky: honey, sugar, red bilberry, blueberry; melissa, sweet clover, thyme, spices.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes drinks drink sbiten honey drink recipes russian recipes russian food russian cuisine russian drinks

asparagus soup w white truffle mash

Hopefully I am back on track with this blog, after one month offline.

First I was travelling and then we moved apartments and now we're waiting for AAPT and Telstra to pull their fingers out and get our ADSL connected!

Worse of all, I've been so busy at work and Jonas has been so busy with his assignments that I haven't had time or access to a computer to even read over other blogs. I'm feeling very isolated and behind the times here!!!

So now I'm staying back at work to put something up and have a gander at what's been going on during my internet exile.

In my previous post about German food I mentioned a delicious white asparagus soup that I ate in a Frankfurt Italian restaurant called Medici.

As one of our last big meals in our old apartment, I replicated the dish with green asparagus and the results were absolutely fantastic.

The best part of this dish is the unique addition of mash potatoes that have been flavoured, ever so delicately, with white truffle oil. Pungent and perfect.

Asparagus Soup w White Truffle Mash
The soup recipe is based on Delia Smith's but the overall concept belongs to Medici in Frankfurt. Serves 6.
Ingredients:
900g (2 lb) asparagus
50g (2oz) butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 slightly rounded tablespoon plain flour
1 litre (1¾ pints) hot stock (vegetable or chicken)
150 ml (5 fl oz) pouring cream, plus 1 tablespoon extra
salt and freshly milled black pepper
2 potatoes
White truffle oil to taste
Method:
1. Prepare the asparagus by cutting away and discarding the tough, stringy white ends of the stalks, reserve 4 asparagus tips per person to garnish the soup, then chop the green parts of the rest of the asparagus into 1 inch (2.5 cm) lengths.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a gentle heat and cook the chopped onion in it for 5 minutes, keeping the heat low to prevent the onion colouring.
3. Stir the asparagus into the melted butter and onion, then put a lid on and let it sweat for about 10 minutes, giving it a stir now and then.
4. Sprinkle in the tablespoon of flour, stir again to soak up the juices.
5. Add the hot chicken stock, a little at a time, stirring after each addition.
6. When all the stock is in, bring to simmering point, season with salt and freshly milled black pepper. Keeping the heat low, let the soup barely simmer, partially covered, for 20-25 minutes.
7. Meanwhile clean, peel and dice the potatoes into small cubes. Boil until soft (approx 5-10 minutes). Add 1 tablespoon cream and mash with potato masher. Add white truffle oil to taste, adding a few drops at a time. Set aside but keep warm.
8. Allow the soup cool a little, then pour it into a blender and blend in batches (a large bowl is helpful here). Taste to check the seasoning.
9. Stir in the cream and the reserved asparagus tips. Re-heat gently for 3-4 minutes.
10. Arrange mashed potatoes in the centre of warmed soup bowls. Pour in soup around the potatoes and garnish with asparagus tips.

This German inspired soup is a fitting contribution to my return to Weekend Herb Blogging, since this week the host is Ulrike from Küchenlatein in Germany (Kronshagen).

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes soup asparagus white truffle white truffle oil soup recipes german recipes

schwarzwälderkirschtorte

Otherwise known as Black Forest Cake.

Today is Sugar High Friday, a very popular event among food bloggers and one which I have never managed to join. Until now.

February’s theme, in line with St Valentine’s Day, is Sweet Seduction.

Our host, Jasmine, from Confessions of a Cardamom Addict writes
Your mission, should you accept, is to provide a sweet that entices and lures. There are a number of ways you can approach this:
• Something you’ve made to seduce someone
• Something you’re planning on making to seduce someone
• Something someone’s made to seduce you.
• Something you wish someone would make to seduce you

I have to admit that I’ve never cooked anything to seduce someone. My cooking skills really took off sometime after Jonas and I had started living together.

By the same token, I’ve never had anything cooked to seduce me either. So no luck there.

But I certainly have a long list of things I wish Jonas would cook to seduce me. And there’s one in particular that I always point to and tell him “if you ever feel like making me something really nice, this is it.”

Alas, he never took the hint.

So with this event in mind, my own desire to taste it and Ashlee’s birthday on the horizon I whipped up my favoruite cake: Schwarzwälderkirschtorte.

I’ve loved Black Forest Cake ever since I was a child and there are numerous reasons why: cherries are one of my favourite fruits; I adore chocolate, who doesn’t?; whipped cream is divine; how can you not love a place called the Black Forest? It sounds so dark and mysterious! Fittingly it was the setting of many Grimm fairytales.

It’s believed that the Black Forest Cake originated in the 16th century in the form of biscuits drenched in Kirsch then topped with cream and poached cherries. Good start!

The Black Forest, or Schwarzwald, is located in the state of Baden-Württemberg which is famous for sour cherries and Kirsch. It is commonly believed that the cake did not originate in the Black Forest but could possibly be named after the origin of the main ingredients.

The earliest written record for Black Forest Cake was in Dresden in 1934 and by 1949 it was listed as lucky number 13 in a list of Germany’s most famous cakes. (My favourite number too – wow, this cake is spookily MINE).

So if you’re ever trying to woo me, just bake me a Black Forest Cake and I’ll be yours forever.

Black Forest Cake (Schwarzwälderkirschtorte)

Gourmet Traveller Annual Cookbook: 2006. Serves 10.
Ingredients:
300g dark chocolate (63% cocoa solids), chopped coarsely
1½ tablespoons Kirsch
155g unsalted butter, softened
250g caster sugar
6 eggs
55g dried breadcrumbs (I used plain flour)
250g almond meal
300ml thickened cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g canned morello cherries, pitted
Method:
1. Combine 130g chocolate, kirsch and 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl and heat in a bain-marie until chocolate has melted. Stir until smooth and set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 5 minutes or until pale and creamy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, allowing each to be fully incorporated before the next is added.
4. Add chocolate mixture, mix to combine then fold through breadcrumbs and almond meal.
5. Spoon into baking tin and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake withdraws clean.
6. Cool on wire rack then halve cake horizontally.
7. Combine thickened cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.
8. Place base of cake on a serving plate then smother with cream. Top with cherries then a little more cream then place top layer of cake over cream.
9. Melt remaining chocolate in a saucepan then pour over cake. Serve immediately.

Tschüss!

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Forest_gateau
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/BlackForestCake.htm
http://www.foodreference.com/html/fblackforestcake.html

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes dessert cake torte black forest cakeblack forest gateau black forest torte schwarzwälder kirschtorte schwarzwälerkirschtorte chocolate kirsch cherries morello cherries dessert recipes german recipes german food sugar high friday