Strawberry season!

"Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did"

Izaak Walton (1593-1683)

Lamingtons

As lamingtons are an Australian dish, this article is in German.

Lamingtons sind eine einfache und leckere Angelegenheit aus Australien. Traditionell werden sie aus Kuchenresten gemacht. Mittlerweile gibt es aber auch dort Lamington-Bleche zu kaufen. Grundlage ist ein Biskuitteig, der am Vortag gemacht wird. Ich habe ihn abkühlen lassen und über Nacht im Kühlschrank gelassen.

Am nächsten Tag den Teig in kleine Würfel schneiden. Da gibt es keine Vorgaben, je nachdem wie man es gerne mag. Bei mir wurden sie ca. 4 x 6 cm.

Die Glasur wird gerichtet. Über köchelndem Wasser rühre ich 1 Päckchen Puderzucker mit etwa 2 Esslöffeln Kakaopulver an. Dazu ein Klacks Butter und genug Milch, dass es schön flüssig wird. Zuerst dachte ich, es wäre zu flüssig, doch so konnte es ein wenig einziehen und genug auch wieder abtropfen.Die einzelnen Rohlinge mit zwei Teelöffeln fixieren und in der Schokolade wälzen, bis sie überall bedeckt sind. Überschüssiges abtropfen lassen und dann im bereitgestellten Teller mit den Kokosflocken wälzen.

Die fertigen Lamingtons sehen dann so aus:

Spätzle - geknöpft

Spätzle are a famous German dish. Often served fried with cheese in tourist regions. I think it might be called the German version of cheese macaroni.

There are different ways to make them. The dough is the easy part. Only flour, eggs, a little salt and enough water to make it into a dough. I don't use a specific recipe, it's too easy!

And after I found this great tool in my basement (belonged to my great-aunt), I couldn't wait to make them like this! These are my favourite spätzle!
You simply put the pan-like tool on top of a pot with boiling water. The dough is pressed through the holes with smooth movements of the scraper.
As soon as the swim on the top of the water they are ready. Usually this is immediatly. Spätzle made in this way are called Knöpfle - buttons.

Instead of forcing them through holes you can also put the dough onto a plate and cut it into the water. Then you get scraped spätzle. They are bigger than these ones.

The third way I know is using a little press like you can see here. The result is a thin and long spätzle. The most industrial ones you can buy look like made with a press. But of course making them on your own is always the better decision.

My dish was completed with lentil soup from a can (yes, too lazy) and added sausage.

As I cooked too much spätzle, there will be a serving of cheese spätzle tomorrow.

More Vegemite!

As I told here I got Vegemite from some friends. I found out that I really love it! Especially with toasties from Golden Toast.
Unfortunatly 145g are soon eaten and as I also gave some away, the end was coming fast.

So I ordered some more! Luckily there are a lot of possibilities to order special food via internet in Germany. I also ordered some Marmite, which is british. I'm curious tasting it.

I have always been the type to prefer salty and spicy stuff instead of sweet. And I like the strong salty taste of these yeast extracts.

Sushi

First time I made sushi at home was on 1. May 2007, together with a friend. This is the second time I made sushi. Again with a friend for visit. It is a nice thing to do and fun if doing it with someone else.

I had sushi rice, nori, rice vinegar, wasabi, soy sauce and of course the bamboo mat to roll it. For the filling we had cucumber, an avocado, a carrot and smoked salmon. The carrot we steamed, the cucumber we used raw. And the avocado was forgotten... Well, this is our result:

Five neat looking rolls of Maki sushi. We ate them with chopsticks, wasabi and soy sauce.

I have to realize that the taste of wasabi is very different to the hot spices I know. Red hot you have to clean your nose. Green hot simply blowes through and hurts.

But I love hot food!

Vegemite!

I have lovely friends. They visited Australia this year and brought me back a tube of Vegemite! They did it with good thoughts, because I asked them to do so!

Suddenly Vegemite was a desired good! So, it has travelled from Australia to Germany and then this little jar travelled on to Peru! Here it was seen the last time alive: Dan's Blog

Dampfnudeln!

One of my favorite dishes!

It is an original southern German dish with its origin in Palatinate. It can be either served sweet with vanilla sauce or hearty with potatoe soup. I love the hearty version! My mum always managed to make a nice crispy salt bottom.

One day I was eager to make them on my own as I don't always have my mum at hand. But she helped me with the recipe.

*****

You need:

500g Mehl/flour

1/2 Würfel Hefe oder 1 Packung Trockenhefe / 1/2 fresh yeast or 1 package of dry yeast

1/4 l Milch/milk

bisschen Zucker für die Hefe/a little bit sugar for the yeast

1 Ei/egg

Salz/salt

50g Butter/butter

Damit eine Hefeteig ansetzen. Make a yeast dough with this.

Den Teig in kleine Kugeln formen, wieder gehen lassen.

Form the dough in small balls, let them rest again.

Öl in Pfanne erhitzen/Heat oil in a pan.

Boden mit Salz bedecken/Cover the bottom with salt.

Kugeln darauf setzen/Put the balls onto this.

3/16 l Wasser/water

Dann Deckel drauf und zulassen!/Then cover the pan and leave it shut!

Jetzt kommt der komplizierte Teil. Du musst den Moment abpassen, wann das Wasser verdampft ist. Sonst werden sie unten schwarz. Als Richtwert braucht es 15-20 Minuten.

This is the tricky part. You must listen closly and catch the point, when the water is gone. Otherwise they turn black on the bottom. It needs about 15-20 minutes.

*****

The bad thing is, I never managed to make smaller amounts. So I always get 8 Dampfnudels. :D But thats not bad, they are really yummy. I even eat them without anything else at all. And even cold on the next day they are good. Next time I will try to fry the left-overs in a pan, my mum said that is yummy too.