Gone West 1

We have taken the opportunity to take a late Spring break to travel a part of the USA that I have never been able to visit, the Wild West. I have been to the South of  San Francisco quite a few times but never North of that fine city. So with this in mind we spoke to our friend Richard who lives in San Francisco and booked a slot with him to start off our holiday. It just happens that the MOMA is in town, so that is a bonus, but last time we visited we didn't get to visit the De Young (we went to the Golden Gate Park but we went on a Monday and it is closed on Mondays) so may be better luck this time. But enough of the future, we will start at the beginning and head out like many before us to visit pastures new.

So with out further a do lets get this show on the road.

21 May 2016

Was up at before the crack of dawn 03:30, washed and dressed. then went outside and sat on the balcony watching the sky starting to lighten up and the dawn chorus starting up, just a few short tweets and hoots at first but rising to a cacophony of bird song each one trying to out do the other.

Wonderful, but then it was time for the off.


04:30
Taxi to Lübeck HBhf and train to Hamburg  airport.

Waiting for a train

Arrived in plenty of time, no delays and sat around and waited for the Starbucks coffee stall to open, we had a coffee I bought the newspaper to see what wee would be missing this weekend (it is the start  of the Lübecker stadt festival), We then got our bags, goods and chattels together and headed up to the check in. We had decided to travel to San Francisco via Copenhagen but our bags would be checked through all the way to our destination. We got checked in then through security, this was surprisingly easy with only Linda having to open up her Cpap machine and have a passed security sticker stuck on it.
We were called forward to gate C33, we were then boarded onto a bus to take us to our airplane, this was SAS flight SK646 a turboprop aircraft ofthe type ATR 72-600 a short haul machine that SAS use between Hamburg and Copenhagen (and other European cities).

Our Turboprop transport

The patchwork of crops over SH

The flight was an up and down affair, so sooner were we up, than we were on our way down. We passed over the patchwork fields of Northern Schleswig-Holstein, that in spring are the yellow rape and green  early wheat.



We crossed the belt and over the islands, and this time passing over the massive Belt Brücke, that now connects the mainland Denmark with Sweden via various Danish Islands, in February we had passed under it on the way to Gothenburg for our friend Kalles 60th.

The great thing about turboprops are that they don't fly so high and you are able to view the ground (or water) below, it was a very nice morning a bit of cloud but plenty of blue sky.
Landed and taxied to our gate and then into the Terminal.

Emptying the cargo, human and otherwise

We decided to go straight through to departure, We went to the boarding gate and had a cup of coffee and a sandwich, well it was 10:30 and we already been on the go for 7 hours. It was then onto SAS flight SK 935 (Astrid Viking) an Airbus A340-313E.

Linda on the way to the plane

We were right at the rear, I in the last row with Linda directly in front of me, it was close to the toilets and also the galley so no problem getting drinks and getting rid of them. The flight was very uneventful, with only a small amount of  light turbulence over Canada, about 15 minutes. The meal and snacks were ok, if uninspired, the main meal (no choice) was chicken curry (not very spicy) salad, cheese and biscuits and a coconut cake desert. In between they came around with nuts and any amount of tea, coffee and soft drinks (you have to pay for alcoholic drinks), we also had a wrap (tomato and basil pesto sauce) about an hour before landing. The entertainment was good, I watched the Woman in a Van, excellent movie, Ice age 3, I just love Sid, Scrat and Manny, I am a great fan of the Ice Age series and Peter Pan, ok, but I was expecting more, I think JM Barrie's original was far better. I also dozed and listened to some very good opera. Watching the progress on the individual screen as we crossed the North Atlantic, Greenland, Canada crossing the border about over vancouver and then down the West Coast before Landing at San Francisco 15 minutes before schedule.

Unlike the last time we arrived, the border control formalities had been speeded up, no delays, nice and friendly and we were out to the baggage carousel and into the arrival lounge. A quite easy, smooth and painless trip from Stodo to SFA.

Linda texted to our friend Richard, who came and picked us up in his brand spanking new red Ford, he whisked us off to the apartment that he keeps for visitors in his large wonderful house on Dolores Street.

We got our bags unloaded had a short discussion as what to do with what remained of our first day in the USA. It was decided he would drive us up to Bernal Heights to have a wonderful view down over the City and the sweep of the bay.

Towards the Golden Gate

Oakland Bridge

Down Town San Francisco

Next he drove us to a nice little diner called Chow, very close to the Mint, on the corner of Church and Market street.

The CA Mint

We dined and chatted, I had my first American flank steak of the trip, done rare, nice and juicy with French fries, grilled tomato and washed down with a couple of beers. Linda had a bowl of Thai noodles with chicken and steak, with peanuts in a spicy lime, chili,garlic broth she drank a nice Peruvian red with it, Richard had an Organic Greens, strawberries, goat cheese, quinoa, lemon salad, washed down with a beer.

Chow is a small chain of 4 restaurants in CA, that prides itself on serving homely organic food, well cooked in a friendly atmosphere. It was so good that Linda and I decided to breakfast there the next day.

But for now it was time to head back to the apartment and a good nights sleep, we had after all been of the road for 24 hours and were more than a little weary.

The Cookery Clubs Spring Meet.

It was the last day in April, it started off quite nice, but as the morning wore in it clouded over.

We loaded up the camper with all the necessary cooking utensils and the pre-prepared part of the meal, I was doing a soup and Linda the Asparagus and two different Hollandaise sauces.

We set off at 09:30 which would give us plenty of time to get to Kiel get parked up on Willhelmplatz and meet our friend Kalle at the market. we were not far on the road when it started to rain, just a few spots at first but within a few minutes it was a steady rain, so we drove to Kiel with Klassik Musik and the swish of windscreen wipers.

We got parked up with no bother and then walked the short distance to the market, it wasn't raining hard, but steadily. They had moved a few stalls around and we had a problem finding the coffee stall where we had agreed to meet Kalle, but first I had a matjes brötchen from the fish stall, I think that the Kiel Fish stands are magnificent, when Linda lived here, we would always buy our fish here, it is the freshest and if you want something exotic, you just need to tell one of the stall holders (we always used Frank on the Matjes Lange stand). We then popped along to say hello to Anker on the vegetable stall that we use and bought some new potatoes. It was still raining and so we wandered around looking at the food and plant stalls, it was cold and wet. After a bit of difficulty we found the coffee stand, it had been moved to the outer limits of the market. Kalle had just arrived, so Linda and Kalle had a coffee and I went to the next stall and had a Currywurst, I must say not the best I have had but then I was spoiled with living in Berlin, the home of the true Currywurst.

We then headed out to Carolyn where we would be feasting in the evening, we set up at the rear of the village local (that is being totally renovated so closed).

We had arrived early, but Linda read the Stern and I made do with the crossword from the Lübecker Nachrichten and dozed. Carolyn phoned and said if we wished we could come around, so we did and kept her company (along with a nice glass of white wine) as she got her main course ready for the oven (veal rump).

The rest of the crew arrived, which sounded the start of the evening, with the pop of the cock of the sparkling wine this set the wheels in motion. Marianne made the cocktail (I helped her, I put the ice cubes into the glasses). The cocktail had a very nice Apirol base, it is such a pretty colour and has that nice bitter/sweet taste.

We adjourned to the wonderfully decorated table (lilac themed) in the living room.

 Martin Started us off with his very tasty amuse bouch, served in a glass, it was a Green Asparagus, crayfish tails in a smashing cocktail sauce.

Next was my Cream of Asparagus soup with brown shrimps.

Serves six

2kg of white asparagus (peeled and cut into pieces)
500g of green asparagus
The peelings of all the aspargus
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 shallot, diced

1 large potato, diced

2 ltrs of good vegetable stock (this was used to cook asparagus over 3days)

A piece of lemon skin (outer only)

Juice of half a lemon

1 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

2 bottles of catering cream (less chance of it splitting)

150g of brown shrimps

A handful of wild garlic leaves shredded

A few fresh basil leaves shredded

I had made the soup base in the morning before setting off, this consisted of an Asparagus stock, that had been made over the previous week, each time we had asparagus I would boil the peelings up and then strain, before cooking the asparagus in the stock. I had started off with a vegetable stock from Knorr (those little plastic pots as advertised by Markus Pierre White).

Over the week t

his became more and more concentrated, until I had the final stock and the house smelling of asparagus

.

I added the final asparagus peelings, a crushed clove of garlic, a couple of slithers of lemon peel and the juice of half a lemon.

This was boiled for 30 minutes, strained through a sieve and the diced white asparagus added, plus a diced potato and a teaspoon of sugar.

When the asparagus and potato were soft I pureed them and passed through a sieve to remove any lumps and fibres.

I next cooked the green asparagus; this would form a puree to drizzle into the finished soup. I pureed the green, adjusted the seasoning and transferred into a piping tube.

Everything was ready, I transferred it to a container for transporting, all that was required at Carolyn’s was to bring the soup just below boiling point, adjust seasoning, stir in the cream and pour over brown shrimps in the soup plate, squeeze over the green asparagus puree and decorating with shredded wild garlic leaves and basil.

Served with some nice stone oven baked bread bought that morning at the market.

After the soup came the main course.

This was Carolyn’s haunch of veal with a butter and herb crust, slow roasted in the oven with carrots and shallots. Served with boiled potatoes and Linda’s white and green asparagus served with two different sauces Hollandaise. One was orange flavoured  and the other a mousseline (whipped cream added at the end to lighten it up)

To finish off the meal was one of Kalle’s desert creations, a trio of rhubarbs, a rhubarb tartlet, a rhubarb crumble and a rhubarb drink, all quite exquisite.

We sat and chatted, before it was time for us to retire to our mobile home and the rest headed back to Kiel and beddy byes.  The end of another wonderful Kikoklu evening long may they continue, the next one is a Summer BBQ at Stodo.

An early Spring Lunch (the lunch wasn't early, spring wasn't)

Gordon Ramsay’s roasted and pressed Belly Pork and Patata Bravas with Red Pepper and Chilli Salsa.

We had decided to have a change, so instead of having an evening meet we were having an early afternoon meal. It was to be at Marianne and Martins, so we would travel to Kiel on Sunday morning with ease.

As usual the hosts would be making the main course, so Linda had selected to do a fish dish and I would make a starter. I decided I would make a dish that I had done previously it was based on a Gordon Ramsey dish twice cooked pressed belly pork. This would be accompanied with a spicy salsa and a garlic schmaltz (lard) and also some Patata Bravas. 

Pressed crispy belly pork

1 piece of Belly Pork approx. 1.3kg

Rough salt

Ground pepper

Rape oil

White dry wine

2 bulbs of garlic

A few sprigs of thyme

So let us start with Gordons pressed belly pork. I bought a nice piece from our local ham smoke house (they use Schwäbisch-Hällisches porkers). I bought a nice piece weighing 1300g so that was the basics. They had already scored it but it wasn’t in small enough diamonds so I scored in between theirs.

I rubbed it all over with course salt opening up the scored cuts and rubbing the salt well in, I also liberally peppered it all over and rubbed the whole joint with rape oil.

I cut the tops of two bulbs of garlic and placed these in the base of a roasting dish just large enough to take the pork. 

I placed the thyme on top of the garlic and the pork on top of this. I then poured a dry white wine (Grauer Burgunder) up to the base of the meat and placed into a preheated oven at 160C for 2 hours.  

At the same time I put 4 red peppers into roast for the Salsa, these I roasted until the skin blackened and blistered, removing placing in a bowl, covered with cling film and allowed to cool overnight.

Place them on baking parchment, this can then be discarded without too much mess

The roasted peppers

After the pork had cooked for 2 hours and the skin was nice and crisp, I placed it on a stainless steel platter, placed another one on top and using a joiner’s clamp pressed the two together. (You can just place tins on top to weigh it down, this is what Gordon suggests, but I find the clamps much easier). This was left overnight to compress and cool.

Compress the pork between two platers with a joiners clamp (or heavy tins)

The nicely compressed belly pork

Sweet red pepper and chilli salsa

4 large red peppers

7 chillies (I used a mixture of red and green)

1 red onion (100g when skinned and diced)

The contents of the roasted garlic from the roasting tin

1 handful of parsley

1 handful of basil

8 tbsp. of oil (50% olive-50% walnut)

1 tbsp. of white wine vinegar

1 tbsp. of red wine

1 tsp of balsamic vinegar

Zest of 1 lemon

Next morning, I skinned and deseeded the red peppers, and deseeded the chillies, finely diced the red onions. I roughly chopped the red chillies and minced them fine in the dicer. I added the onions and the red peppers to the chillies. Mixed the oil, vinegars and red wine together and added this to the mixture, chopped the parsley and basil and mixed in. I squeezed the garlic out of the bulb and added this to the Salsa mix. I then seasoned with salt and pepper and added the lemon zest, gave it a final stir, covered and set aside to mature until tomorrow.

The roasted red peppers

Skin and deseed

The chillies

Deseed the chillies

Chop the chillies

Dice the onions

Squeezing the roasted garlic to add to the salsa

Finely chop the chillies and onion in a blender

The pork was sliced and then cut into squares about 3cm x 3cm, Gordon recommends using a serrated knife so having just bought a new one this is what I used. This was placed into a clean roasting dish ready for the final roasting at the venue.

Patata Bravas

800g of small potatoes

2 tbsp. oil

Smoked paprika

Chilli salt (you can make your own or buy it ready made)

Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes and then cool under running water,  Remove the skins and cut in half, place in a roasting tin and sprinkle with oil, shake so that they are all covered, place in a hot oven to roast, turning at regular intervals. Sprinkle with a mixture of salt, pepper and paprika. Allow to cool and then next day, place in a hot oven to heat through, serve with the belly pork and Salsa.

Unfortunately, because we were chatting in the kitchen and i didn't keep an eye on the pork, it got a bit browner than it should have.

The wine served with the dish was a Spanish Rosé -2013 Utiel-Requena.

Linda’s Fruits of the Sea Pâté

For 10 portions as a small fish starter you shall require:

500g of white fish filet (I had some cod filets in the freezer from my last fishing expedition, these I offered up in aid of our Kikoklu)

500g raw prawns (save a few for decoration)

90g of butter

6 chopped spring onions

250g of scallop meat (the round muscle that holds the two halves of the shell together)

1 clove of garlic

2 tbsps. of Cognac

125 ml of single cream

1 dsp. of lemon juice

1 tsp. paprika powder

1 pinch of Cayenne pepper

A wedge of lemon to decorate

Methode:

Skin and pin-bone the fish (in this case it had been done before I froze it) cut into pieces. Shell the prawns. Melt the butter in a pan and sweat the spring onions for a couple of minutes in this. Add the fish, prawns, scallops and garlic and over a low heat slowly cook until the prawns have taken on a pink colour and the fish is just starting to break apart.

In a small pan or ladle heat the Cognac and light, pour this over the fish, wait until the flames have died down and add the cream. Stir in the lemon juice, paprika and Cayenne pepper. Tip all into a blender and blend to a smooth homogeneous paste. Fill into individual pâté dishes and decorate the top with lemon slices and reserved prawns.

Serve with crackers and/or celery.

Linda also made a small salad to go along with it.

A dry Baden Grüner Silvaner  2014 Königsschaffhausener Vulkanfelsen was served to accompany the dish.

Our Spring Afternoon Lunch

 

Our little band of "Brothers and Sisters" The KIKOKLU

So the wonderful afternoon was started off with Carolyn's Bruchettes, her world famous chicken liver paté and a walnut pesto, topped with Mozzarella and anchovies we drank a nice bottle (it turned into two) of Cava as we chatted about this and that and Martin and I got the DVD of Kalle's birthday cruise sorted out.

Carolyn's walnut pesto with mozzarella and anchovies

Carolyn's chicken liver paté

Next came my pressed pork belly, with a sweet pepper and chilli salsa and patatas bravas

Then came Linda's fish pâté.

Linda doing a bit of decorating

This was followed by the main course :

Marianne's and Martin's Tafelspitz, with Pellkartoffeln and Frankfurter Grünsoße.

Best end of rump with potatoes boiled in their skins and Frankfurt Green Sauce

It was a quite wonderful main course, it is many years since I have had it and the beef was wonderfully cooked and the sauce just the pièce de résistance. 

The beef had been placed in unsalted water brought to the boil, skimmed, and then the heat reduced to a slow boil (the surface of the liquid barely moving)  with addition of root vegetables (leek, onion, celery, carrots) over several hours. near the end of the cooking period, the root vegetables had done their job and were removed and replaced with fresh vegetables the would be served with the tafelspitz.

A creamed horseradish sauce was also there for those that liked it (I do), it also goes very well with beef.

The Frankfurt green sauce. (Goethe's favourite dish)

I was lucky as Marianne had kept the packing that the herbs that make up the base of the sauce came in and it gave precise instructions as to the contents and the process to make the sauce.

Ingredients:
Parsley
Chives
Chervil
Watercress
Pimpernelle (sometimes called salad Burnett)
Sorrel
Borage  

2 hard boiled eggs
1 pickled Gherkin
1 onion
Dice the above and then chop the herbs mix together with:
1 grated clove of garlic
2 dsp. mustard
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
and enough mayonnaise to make a thick sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste.

We drank a wonderful Baden white wine with the meal.

The Frankfurt Green Sauce

The potatoes boiled in their skins

The Tafelspitz (Rump) and the vegetables

My Main Course

To finish (after a break and another natter on the couch) Kalle had made apple flower individual cakes, as normal perfect and exquisite in taste. A beauty to behold.

Linda admiring and Kalle about to enjoy it

We drank a Tawny Port with this (as well as an Aquavit) 

Cheers

Cheers

Cheers

Alas Linda was driving

We all had a wonderful afternoon and are looking forward to our next meeting at Carolyn's