A Spanish evening amongst friends, Tapas Ole, Qui????

Albert our New member



This evening had been planned for quite a while! Ever since I thought it would be nice to have a Spring get together with a warm theme!

The menu was left up to each what they would provide, but to prevent double banking, we did get in touch via e-mail to give the name of the Tapas.

So it was to be:

Me - Festive octopus, Kidney tartlets and Paella

Linda - Meatballs in a tomato sherry sauce, deep fried calamari rings and aioli, Creme Catalan with a surprise

Carolyn - Potato/tuna salad, Catalonian  avocado salad

Marianne - Tomato bread, Andalusian liver, Manchego cheese

Martin - Green asparagus and fresh water crayfish tails salad in a glass, Bullfighters beef salad (with love), Brandy de la Casa

Kalle - Anchovy sandwiches (Pan con Anchoa), figs and blue cheese, skewered apricots, chorizo and muscadet raisins.

My preparation started on Friday evening after a 4 hour drive from Rheda to Kiel (365km), I am licky in that as I come off the Autobahn, Citti Markt has its slip road. Citti Markt is a foodies Paradise, it has just about anything that you would wish for. As I was looking for Octopus and didn't want to leave it to the chance they would have it at the fish market the next day. I headed straight for the Gosch fish stall. Gosch is perhaps the premiere name in fish in Germany, they started off as a fish restaurant on the Island of Sylt and then because of its success, expanded through out Germany, being taken on a wave of well shod and designer clothed prominent TV presenters, actors, pop stars (and those that think they are) and other riff raff that believe they are a lot better than the average punter.

But I digress, I saw that they had fresh octopus and also swordfish, so bought both, next round through the meat counter and bought a pack of  4 quails and a tin of 12 snails (not from the meat counter but it did sound nice). I also noticed that they had frozen shell on prawns €5,99 kilo, now that was a bargain too good to miss.

So that evening Linda had defrosted my last 3 codling that I caught in September, she also was making chips so it was to be fish and chips done in my Christmas prezzie a Cuisinart Friteuse.

Saturday morning up bright and early as we wanted to get to the Turkish butchers before the Turks. I needed kidney's, which they had  and Linda wanted a shoulder of lamb which the butcher boned and also gave her a big bag of bones for stock. We also picked up a few other odds and ends that are readily available in large bags for a cost of about 50% of normal super markets.

We then made a dash across the Kiel market to get a few odds and ends, mussels for me and a fresh squid for Linda, a bit of veg and then it was home to do the prep.

I started with the preparation of the octopus, this entailed de-beaking de-eyeing and skinning the beast.

It was then put into a pan with a chopped onion, a crushed clove of garlic and a handful of freeze dried root vegetables. A slug of red wine vinegar and about 1/2" of water brought to the boil and then reduced to the lowest heat, lid on and allowed to braise for a couple of hours.

Next was preparing the Paella.

I got all of the individual ingredients ready:
500g Broad beans (blanched)
2 Red Capsicum diced but keep some for decoration in slices
800g Prawns
1 kg Mussels cooked in a court boullion and removed from the shells (keep 8 uncooked to put in the paella for decoration)
4 quail
2 slices of sword fish steak cut into 6 portions
24 snails (tinned)
1 tin tomatoes
500g Paella rice
1.5 litres of stock (made from the quail, fish shells, skin and bones)
1 packet of saffron powder
6 anchovy filets

Sliced and blanched some greed broad beans, sliced a couple of long red capsicum, pealed and deveined the defrosted prawns, reserving 8 monster ones for decoration, put the mussels into a courte bouillon except for the 8 for decoration. These where removed from the shells, the liquor (strained) can be added to the stock if you're abit short.





 Skinned and removed the breasts from the quails and drained the snails.

defrosted prawns



slitting the deshelled prawn




deveining



deboning and skinning the quails

 
Put the  prawn shells and the sword fish skin into a pan with some vegetable stock, with the juice from the tinned tomatoes and in another pan went the quail wings, skin and bones with a handful of freeze dried veg, a few herbs, thyme and rosemary and a litre of chicken stock.


When the fish stock is ready (no more than 10 minutes) pour through a sieve, and return to a clean pan, pour about a cup full over the saffron keep to one side. Now strain the quail stock and add to the fish stock and add a bit of paprika

It was time for a break as Linda had made us a couple of sandwiches and some fresh brewed coffee, feet up and watch a bit of Saturday Kitchen, bloody lousy reception on a Saturday morning.

That finished Linda started on her concoctions, she was making meat balls in a sherry tomato sauce and the desert of Creme Catalan and a dark chocolate mousse. She also had skin and clean the calamari.

I was wanting to watch football focus, but Linda called and asked if I could turn the calamari inside out, well of course I could and as I was on my feet again, I decided to core and dice the kidneys and finish these off as it was to be a cold starter.

Kidney tartlets in a sherry sauce: (these are one bite Tapas)

3 lambs kidneys skinned, cored and diced

1 shallot fine dice

1 clove of garlic crushed

Slug of Sherry

2 table spoons of Turkish paprika paste (this comes in various levels of heat, careful some can be very piquant)

1 table spoon of olive oil

2 desert spoons of crème frais

a small chopped chilli

some fresh thyme (to suit your taste)

S&P to taste

Pastry cases:

75g  plain flour

25g of semolina flour

65g of softened butter

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of lemon juice.

Mix the flours and salt together., cut the butter up into cubes, rub between finger until like soft bread crumbs and add the lemon juice to bring together form into a ball and chill for half an hour. Now roll out, cut with a small pastry cutter and put into mini muffin tins, bake in a preheated oven 180°C until golden brown (keep an eye on them as it doesn't take long). Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, now fry the shallot and garlic until translucent, add the kidneys, chilli and thyme and saute to colour them, add the sherry and allow to reduce, add the paprika paste and crème frais, bubble up to thicken.

I kept both of the individual items separate until bringing together just before serving, these can be served warm of cold, we had them cold.

The octopus was by this time well and truly tender, I added some red wine and smoked paprika powder, reduced whilst stirring and that was it, finished.

The Paella



Adding the swordfish to the quail and red capsicum

 Heat a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil in the centre of the Paella (the paella being the name for the cooking utensil) add the garlic and fry until golden, remove and discard. Now add the onion and fry until translucent, push to the side of the paella. Add the quails and fry until golden, push to one side. Add the sword fish pieces and again fry until they take on colour. Add the diced paprika, beans, snails and shelled prawns and mussels. flash fry and now add the rice to the middle of the pan (you may have to add a bit more oil) and fry for a few minutes until all the grains are glistening and coated in oil, move the fish and meat etc around so that you have an even mix in the pan. Now heat up the stock and pour 1/3 over the whole lot and allow to boil, add the saffron and stock, and drizzle it evenly all around the pan.  Now add another 1/3 of the stock and lower the heat and it should just be simmering, I chose to do mine in the oven (180°C) as otherwise it would mean keep moving the pan around on the too small plate. After about 20 minutes give it one last stir and add the last of the stock, pushing in the remaining mussels, prawns, paprika  and tomato strips. Cook until the rice is wonderfully soft and the crust has formed on the bottom. Cover with foil or better a tea towel(or as is traditional, wrap in layers of  news paper) this will help to absorb any remaining liquid.

frying the quail breasts and legs



adding the prawns to the rest of the ingredients



The Paella starting to cook

The paella about 2/3 done just getting the last stock

Linda

Crema Catalana and a surprise (Marquesa de Chocolate Valenciana)

250ml of milk
250ml of single cream
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon of corn flour
75g of sugar
4 strips of lemon zest
1 cinnamon stick
Demerara sugar for the caramel


Simmer the milk and cream with the lemon zest and cinnamon, then leave for 20 minutes to infuse. Beat together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour, strain the warm milk/cream through a sieve into a clean pan and bring back to a simmer, pour this over the egg mixture, return to the saucepan and over a low heat allow to thicken, pour into ramikins and chill to set. Just prior to serving, dust the top with the demerara sugar and give it a blast with the old bunsen burner.

The Marquesa surprise

100g of finest dark 80% chocolate broken into small pieces
3 table spoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
30g of unsalted butter in dice
2 large egg yolks
3 large egg whites
2 table spoons of caster sugar

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a bowl over just simmering water, when melted stir in the cocoa powder, take from the heat and melt in the butter beating to make it glossy. Separate the eggs and stir the 2 yolks into the mixture, whisk the whites into soft peaks, add the sugar and whisk for a further 3 minutes now fold the chocolate mixture slowly into the merangue. spoon into small coffee cups and chill until ready


Linda's meat balls in a sherry tomato sauce

500g of mixed pork and beef mince
100g of minced speck
50g of green olives destoned
2 slices of stale bread
4 table spoons of lemon juice
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
good pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne

2 eggs beaten and flour for coating
oil for frying.

Tomato sherry sauce

800g tin of tomato pulp
1 onion finely diced
a good slug of fino sherry (I am sure Linda had a heavy hand that day)

For the sauce fry the onion until just taking on colour, add the tomato and reduce over a very low heat

Linda frying the meat balls, sauce in the large pot, small pot has the fish stock for the Paella and the saffron stock mixture in the plastic container

While your sauce is reducing, soak your bread in the lemon juice then squeeze out, add all of the ingredients to food processor, roll into small balls. Cover in egg and dust in flour, Heat the oil in the pan and fry the meat balls until golden brown and cooked through. Now pour the sherry into the sauce and mix well pour over the meat balls.
Serve warm.


Deep fried Calamari rings

The Aioli for the calamari rings

We had a wonderful evening starting with a chilled bottle of Spanish Cava, the usual chit chat and idle banter that takes place amongst friends. We then started preparing and plating up the food.

Martin

Asparagus and crayfish tails in a glass

Bull fighters beef salad (Fenchel, sliced beef, oranges, olives)

Carolyn

Catalan avocado,pine nuts, anchovy and olive salad

Potato and tuna salad (Papa Aliñàs)

Ingredients:


Waxy potatoes (for tapas, approx. 1 (German-sized) medium potato per person)

½ onion, very finely chopped

3 red peppers, roasted and skinned

Green olives, pitted

Flat-leaf parsley

Olive oil

Sherry vinegar

Salt,

Black pepper



Accompaniment:

Tuna, good quality chunks preserved in olive oil or fresh (then cooked)



Method:

Boil, peel (or peel and boil) and dice potatoes, thinly slice red peppers, and slice olives and chop parsley.

In a bowl, mix potatoes, peppers, olives, onion and parsley. Dress generously with olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve tuna chunks separately.

According to Spanish source, other vegetables can also be used (chopped hard-boiled eggs, white asparagus, peas).

Marianne


Tomato/ onion bruschette (Spanish style)

Andalusian Liver

Manchego cheese and olives

Kalle

Anchovy fried bread sandwiches

Apricot, chorizo and muscadet raisins on a skewer drizzled with honey

Fresh figs and blue cheese

To drink besides the Cava (Marianne)

A wonderful white wine from Carolyn

Linda provided a Spanish red

Martin had a very nice Osborn Brandy

and yours truly supplied 2 bottles of San Miguel beer. (1ltr each)

And if you notice not a sardine in sight.



not a lot left!!!!



The evening was interspersed with the wonderful digital slide show of Mariannes Sabbatical tour of Southern Africa



Slow roasted shoulder of hoggat and a nice Sundays drive in the sun.

It was a visit to my Turkish butcher (ess) that turned me in this direction, I had originally gone in to get some boned chicken thighs for our evening meal (Linda was coming down from Kiel), I saw that she had some nice looking hoggat shoulder (here most of the meat is either hoggat or mutton and Lamb must normally be ordered (except in the grill season when there are piles of chops and cutlets ready to be BBQ'd). I had also got a bag of  sheep bones to make a nice stock for the finished sauce.

Bones ready to be boiled together with freeze dried veg  a bit of garlic and a litre of vegetable stock. This was all prepared and strained through a seive ready to add to the sauce that the roast had been cooked over.

I bought a nice shoulder and as she had 5 kidneys (not herself but to sell from the counter) I took them as well. (I decided to do a trial for the comings weekends Kikoklu Tapas evening.

I wanted to do it real slow, cooked in my blue Aldi cast iron casserole, with loads of vegetables, herbs and spices.

I first cut the haxe (shank) off, this would be used to rest the main shoulder on.



 I done the normal spiking with garlic, rosemary and anchovies, rubbed it all over with sea salt and cracked black pepper. .

Diced up a carrot, a piece of celeriac, some scallions, a couple of small onionss. I added these with a bit of speck and a couple of table spoons of neutral oil. I fried these until the onions became translucent and the speck took on a bit of colour. I

popped in a few fresh herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme and origano) put a load more dried herbs de Provence on top of the leg.

Drizzled the shoulder with a bit of olive oil, poured  a good 1/4 bottle of Pinot Grigio and popped into the oven at 150°C

and went out for a drive in the smashing spring sun. We drove through the fields and back roads where I shoot, these where full of game and wild life, the trees are just taking on their first green sheen, the colour just prior to bursting into leaf, in fact the hedgerows are full of the bright yellow of  forsythia and the willows hanging with catkins throwing their dusty pollen into the air to cause mayhem to all hay fever sufferers, that in this case is ME

When we returned, the flat was smelling of that smashing Sunday roast smell, that I remember from my young days at home, I had prepared all of the vegetables before going out so it was just a matter of  putting on the cauli, spuds, beans and carrots, straining the liquor from the Aldi blue, adding some of the stock prepared earlier and reducing to a nice gravy, I do not like gloopy sauces.

In the mean time I made a sauce for the cauliflower, I made a flour, butter roux, adding the remainder of the stock, I diced up some blue French cheese and added this. Poured it over cauliflower, a couple of scrapings of nutmeg, a small handful of Parmasan and popped it into the oven to brown.



Served with new minted redskins, mint sauce and a cauli in a blue cheese sauce

accompaniied with green beans, baton carrots and diced tomatoes in a creme frais sauce.

The finished plate

Pressed ox-tongue

This weekend was fantastic, the weather was a dream and I was able to get out into the woods and fields. This is about the last time in the year prior to the breeding season to do a head count, for the game and the wild fowl.

I had been out counting geese in  a nature reserve and returned along a road that took me past an Abatoir (the largest in Europe) so I popped in to see what was fresh, I noticed that  there was brined ox-tongue. Well said I (to myself of course) I havn't done that in a long time so for the princly sum of €10,- I got a 2kg tongue.

So here is what I done with it!

I cut a bit of the gristle and unsightly parts away and next I put the herbs and spices that it would be boiled in together. I use a pressure cooker for this as I find it is best and also it works every time.

Ingredients:

2kg (or there abouts) ox-tongue

25g of dried soup vegetables

1 onion studded with a bayleaf and 5 cloves

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon of pepper corns

1/2 an egg cup of course sea salt with herbs in. ( I got it from France last year, if you havn't got any don't top yourself, just use  normal salt and a bit of herb de provence)

6 juniper berries

1 sprig of thyme (dried)

4 cardamom pods

a piece of mace

a piece of cinnamon

1 large stalk of parsley

1 dried chilli (my last one from the balcony)

1 teaspoon of fennel seeds

1 litre of good stock (marigold vegetable)

enough water to cover.

Trim the tongue, place this in the bottom of the pressure cooker, place all of the other ingredients into the PC (is that PC?)

Pour in the stock and then enough cold water to just cover the whole lot.

Put it onto the stove at max presure and watch a bit of tele for 2 hours.

When it is ready (it will be after 2 hours) remove from the liquor (this is a great stock for soups and stews it also freezes well but strain through a sieve).

Now comes the ooch my fingers are burning part, remove the tough outer skin on the tongue, it should if cooked properly come away quite easily,better to use 2 forks (I didn't, finger still red).

I have a spring form that I make my pork and game pies in. this is ideal for pressing tongue, place the  tongue into the form, pour some of the liquor to cover, now put a saucer on top and an 800g tin of something on top of this. Leave in a cool place to set, that it, easy peasy.

 

Serve hot or cold, if serving hot make a madiera sauce and warm slices of the pressed tongue in this, serve with new potatoes and Asparagus (it will be here soon).

Cold! Well a nice bit of course grained mustard, some pickles and fresh cut crusty bauernbrot goes very well with it!

Tuesdays evening meal

Rosemontag Rheda 2011

Well I made it through to the end, the day of the processions  is here! Rosemontag, when all the great carnival committees through out the world gather to show off their floats, dancers and costumes, Rio, Venise, Cologne, Maiz, Rheda, what did you say? Where the hell is Rheda, well may you ask, it is situated on the river Ems just a little south of Gütersloh in the federal state of Nord-Rhein-Westphalia. Now that you have got your bearings you may be able to find your way there next year.

The day started off quite early about 00:01 I know it normally does, but it could be, that as it is carnival weekend I may have missed it. We had arranged to meet for breakfast, Anja (the landlords wife of my local) said 10:00, I remember that through the grey veil of my recollection from the evening before, I had said what! I will be out of the fight before the bell has rung, no.no 11:00, the parade doesn't start until 13:00. At 15 mins past 11 my mobile rung, yep it was Berni, my old footy mate and Anjas husband, "where are you", to which I replied "talking to you on the telephone". To which he replied, I know that you silly man (or words to that effect), why arn't you here? I said well as you said 10:00 and I said 11:00 I have decided to split the difference and come at 10:30. I had actually been searching high and low for the final touches to my carnival costume since 09:00 but at last I found it, my hip flask! I mean you can't go out half dressed on Rosemontag.

Berni had as usual put on his normal fabulous spread, cold meats, sausages, Hackepeter (raw spiced pork mince), cheeses and jams. There is always a big pot of scrambled eggs. coffee and tea for those that wanted it. He always says you can't drink on an empty stomach and by the size of his, he must do a lot of both.

That done I realised I had forgotten my sack, this contains all of the minatures that I have accumulated over the past yeat. These I give to anyone that is daft enough to put their hand in my sack (shut it, you filthy minded rabble), they get what comes out and they cannot put it back. There are some foul tasting drinks in that sack I can tell you!! A quick dash back home to get it and off we jolly well go. When I got back there was a 0,4l of my poison, Bitburger just being finished. So cheers, the first of the day, I think. We sat and chatted about the footy and other things of national and international importance, some one did mention Gadaffi, but this was quenched straight away as no one knew what team he played for, never mind what position.

Anja then dropped the bomb shell, she said you are looking after us this afternoon, Berni is looking after the pub and you are looking after us, US!!! said I, yes "US" my sister is coming along as well. Now if I may explain a little, Berni and I have been mates ever since I arrived in Rheda in April 1994, now that is 17 years ago and he has never missed a Rosemontag parade either on a float or watching by the road side. I looked across at him and he averted his gaze, HE HAD BEEN SPAMMED. I felt the blood draining from my face, I nonchalently said to Anja, Oh that will be nice. We going to Doktor platz? No we are going down to the main road across from the fire station. Now for those of you that don't know Rheda I shall explain, Doktor Platz is in the centre of Rheda, it has an opticians, a hotel, a bank, but better still 3 pubs and also the festival tent is there and all of the stands and the music and well the girls. I will orientieer you a little further the main road is just that, the fire station, a bakers and a bike shop and not a pub in sight. I HAD BEEN SPAMMED.

I needed a couple of beers to start off, thank goodness that I had found my hip flask.

At 13:00 we set off down the road, I stopped every now and again to offer any passing lady to have a feel in my sack, I don't know why my two accompanying ladies kept telling my to shut up??

We had to cross the Ringstrasse, this is the street where all of the floats form up, as they had just started to move off to travel their circular route through Rheda prior to going along the Hauptstrasse (thats the one with the Fire brigade, the bakers and the bike shop and nowt else) on its way to the other half of Rheda-Wiedenbrück. We had to wait for the tail to pass the head of the procession, it took a while so we chatted with some other revelers, had a couple of swigs from my flask, passed my sack around and commented that this was the best weather that we had ever had for Rosemontag (I didn't remind them that it is also the latest in the year that it had been for over 80 years and that it would be another 80 before we will see it again so late).

I took a few photographs of the floats and foot groups and the music groups.



the music corp of the local Prince




don't know where these pretty maidens came from









even our disabled school got a political swipe in about the swine flue


















We then walked the 500 mtrs to the Haupstrasse to take up our position outside of the bakers, I ask you, I would normally be drinking a pils from one of the stands in Doktor Platz with my footy mates instead of chaperoning 2 middle aged woman. WE waited with a couple of other lads that had attached themselves to us, so we had a couple of swigs from my hip flask and they had a couple of minatures from my sack, it was getting low by now and there was some terrible stuff left in that sack.

At last the head of the Rosemontag parade appeared being led by the police car, now I must tell you Rosemontag brings out the best in everyone, even the police. He had a bag ogf sweets and was also throwing them out of the window. This was followed by the head of the Rosemontag committee (who I used to have a regular run in each year when we had our own float).

Then they came, each one greeted with a great Helau, helau! handfuls of sweets, flowers and even prepacked frikadellen, thrown with gay abonden..

a field of early sunflowers

the balloon has landed

The Burgermeister and the rest of the criminals

Nowt underneath????

Blau Funken

Where did she, he, it come from!!!

a load of penny whistles clowning around

This is not the real carnival prince, this is the Schutzen pair

A swinging group

The greeks even got a mention, though I think they would rather not have

Cap'n Jack Sparra



The Green Funken dancing girls not dancing











Well clothed Altstadter



Our local Bio-farm doing a bit of complaining about Dioxin



Romans, Friends lend me an Euro



Yep you've guessed the Red funken

The end was coming in sight with the main float of the prince and princess, their magnificent coach drawn by four prancing white horses, all made out of sterepore!

So  that was it for another year now lets get down to business!!!

Right girls, we going to Doktor platz for a drink? They looked me straight in the eyes and without batting an eye lid said Nooooooooo, we are going back to the pub, I thought Smith YOU HAVE BEEN SPAMMED!

So we returned to Berni and his then empty pub, as he is well off the carnival circuit, he had been all alone for the last 2 hours and I had been without a beer.

I managed to weedle beer out of someone and Gadaffi was happy with his Harem of two.

Never mind, the pub slowly but surely started to fill as the revelers returned from town and before you knew it life took a turn for the better, as it normally does after a few beers. I even managed a dance or three.


And that really is it for another 4 seasons.