Lambs shanks St. Patrick

I had been thinking about what to do for St Patrick’s day (it was on the Saturday, but I didn’t fancy anything heavy on Saturday evening so decided to make lamb shanks on the Sunday. It was made Irish by doing it in Guinness and serving with champ and cabbage and bacon.

I had popped into my local Turkish shop, the one with the lady butcher, I had a look and they had loads of lamb and mutton, but I couldn’t see any lamb shanks, on inquiring, she went into the butchery place at the rear and came back with four. She said, take all four and I’ll give you a special price. I said, ok, what are they going to cost? She said €20 for the four. What a bargain they weighed in at over 2 kg. (Though until a couple of years ago they would have cost only half that)!

Ingredients:

4 lamb shanks

1 large carrot

1 piece of celeriac

White of a leek

1 large onion

1 sprig of parsley

1 sprig of mint

½ l of stock (what ever you have at hand, chicken, lamb or vegetable)

1 can of Guinness

Splash of port

Bouquet garni (Thyme, marjoram, sage)

1 tsp of rosemary needles

2 bay leaves

1 piece of mace

2 cloves

4 garlic cloves

100g of bacon chopped into lardoons (I used ready prepared speck)

Salt and pepper mixed

Next day, I was going angling so was up early (though as I am always up early this was nothing new).

Rubbed the shanks all over in the salt and pepper mixture

Diced and sliced the vegetables, nothing pretty as it was to add to the stock and be cooked for a good few hours

I softened the speck and onion in a little oil in a large frying pan at the same time browning the shanks in my skillet.

Popped 3 garlic cloves or it may have been 4, into the bottom of my large 6½ litre SC put ½ of the bacon and onion mixture into the SC along with the vegetables, then in went the herbs and spices.

Pour in the stock, then the rest of the onions and speck.

Pour in the Guinness and the slug of Port, lid on and out fishing.

A little aside, I got to the lake, paid for my day ticket (maximum 10 fish), got a nice pitch and sat about chatting to a few of the others that had been even earlier, many had about their limit. I got a bite almost straight away, out came a nice Lachsforelle oh ho, this is going to be a good day thought I. Alas just then the heavens opened up and it poured down. It looked as if it would be a long one, so I took my fish to the station and had it gutted and cleaned. The owner said, you not staying? I said no, it looks as if it will be quite a long rain spell, he then gave me a voucher for ½ a days fishing saying pop back in a couple of weeks. Now I thought that was a nice gesture, he didn’t have to but he is just a very nice man.

So as I had a bit of time to spare I decided to go to the Steinhorster becken a set of lakes that had been set up as a relief against flooding on the river Ems, this has been turned into a nature reserve, but it was still pouring down and even the birds didn’t feel like flying in this weather.

I next popped down the Ems a little further to the Rietberg wet lands, here the rain had let up and I was able to have a good view of the geese and herons in the wet meadows and take a few photos.

Next it was home, out of my wet clothes, pealed the spuds and celeriac, into salted water and then the spitzkohl (pointy cabbage). Everything ready for later, phoned a taxi and went out for a pint or three as one does on a rainy Sunday.

Returned home to the smell of delicious lamb wafting through the apartment.

Popped the spuds and cabbage on. Diced a leek, and some bacon, softened this in a little oil, removed a couple of ladles of stock from the SC put it into a small sauce pan and reduced it until it was thick and glistening.

Mashed the spuds with loads of butter and cream, 1 table spoonful of mustard and S&P to taste. Stirred in the chopped spring onions and there it is Champ.

Mixed the blanched cabbage with the leek and bacon, added a teaspoon of fennel seeds adjusted the seasoning and that was it ready to go.

The finished meal.

The cabbage, leek and bacon to the left the lamb shank in the middle with fantastic Guinness sauce and to the left the Champ.

Guten Appetit

Mediterranean Rabbit Pie – Mittelmeer Kaninchenpastete

You will require a rabbit preferably wild, but a hutch rabbit is not to be sniffed at!
1 tsp of fresh ground game spices
Pepper for seasoning
2 heaped tsp of mustard (medium heat such as Dijon or as I used Bautzener)

1 large onion
1 clove of garlic crushed and chopped
100g of bacon or speck chopped into lardoons
1 piece of peeled celeriac or a stalk of celery diced
2 carrots peeled and cut into discs
3 parsley roots peeled and diced
3 cm piece of a thick leek, white only cut into rings
1 handful of brown mushrooms
100g each of frozen chanterelles and cepes
2 bay leaves
A few sprigs of thyme and marjoram
1 teaspoon of rosemary needles
1 level table spoon of dried wild garlic
1 level table spoon of dried oregano
1 piccolo of sekt (I wanted to use cider but had none)
Olive oil for frying (I used olive oil because of it’s Mediterranean influence but you can use whatever cooking oil you have at hand)
1 Schnapps glass of white wine vinegar
1 Table spoon of sherry vinegar
2 anchovy fillets
1 Tsp of capers
1 small handful of Kalamata olives (bought from my local Turkish butchers)
500ml of vegetable stock (marigold low salt -I would have used home made chicken stock, but I had taken it out of the freezer, left it in the warm kitchen for a couple of days to defrost and it had turned sour)

First put your rabbit in water overnight to get rid of any blood, this had been a ferreted rabbit so had no shot to be picked out.


Remove as much of the second skin as possible (it will shrink and can go tough). Joint the rabbit and place in a bowl with vinegar water (this will whiten the flesh)

In the mean time chop all of your veg. etc.
Put a dessert spoon of oil into a frying pan and slowly fry the bacon pieces, then add the onions and garlic, don’t burn! Add the rest of the veg. and soften a little, add the dried herbs and sauté to get everything coated with the herbs and oil.

Remove the rabbit pieces from the water, dry with kitchen paper and season with the game spices and pepper, brown in a little olive oil

and add the mustard,.

Pour in the  stock and then add the sekt, bubble up to remove the alcohol.

Add the sautéed vegetables, give it all a good mixing add the bay leaves and the bouquet garni (the fresh herbs bound together for ease of removal), chop the rosemary needles and add.

Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer, after about 15 minutes add the, chopped anchovies add the olives, capers and mushrooms, continue to cook until the rabbit meat is just about falling off the bones.

Carefully take the rabbit pieces from the stew (as this is what it is now) and remove the meat from the bones, pour the rest through a funnel sieve, you now have the Mediterranean stock to make the sauce. Mix the rabbit and vegetables together and mix in the sauce that you are about to make.

For the sauce

Enough stock from your rabbit vegetable cooking liquor
200ml of cream
Knob of butter
1tbl spoon of flour

First make a roux with butter and flour, adding the stock little by little until it is quite a thick sauce, remove from the heat and stir in enough cream so that the sauce coats the back of a spoon season to taste, though you shouldn’t need any extra seasoning. It should have a deep herby, mustard and slightly tangy acidic flavour.

Make your short crust pastry ( (Be-ro method) though I used all butter, the recipe calls for half lard and half marg, as I didn’t have any lard to hand and  I never have margarine in my kitchen.

1 beaten egg for the egg wash. 225g of plain flour
100g of butter
Pinch of salt
Enough cold water to just bring it all together into a firm dough.

I allowed the pastry to rest in the fridge for a couple of hours (the time it took to get a taxi to the pub, down 4 pints and get back home).
Divided the pastry into two balls. 1 ball to be slightly larger than the other. Grease your loose bottom tin (for our German readers Tchibo has them in at the moment, they are great for flans and this type of flat pie!).
Roll out the larger ball. Line the bottom of the tin, put in the filling and cover with the top disc,

sealing the edges. Wash with the beaten egg.
Put into a medium hot oven until golden brown.

I also had braised chicory in a cheese sauce
2 heads of chicory halved and braised in a little vegetable stock with some sliced mushrooms.
Make a roux, add the liquid from the braised chicory and some of the left over stock add a handful of grated cheese (I used Edam but any cheese will do). Pour the resulting sauce over the braised chicory and mushrooms, put this into the oven alongside your pie for the last 10 minutes.

Polenta medallions
100g medium polenta
250ml of vegetable stock
A good knob of butter
Pepper to taste

Bring the vegetable stock to the boil; pour the polenta into it in a steady stream while stirring, reduce the heat and keep stirring for about 10-15 minutes, add the butter and stir it in and cook it until it is smooth. Pour out onto a smooth surface and spread about 1cm thick allow to cool. Cut out discs with a 5cm circular cutter (I got 2 and then formed the remains into a 3rd). Fry in an oiled skillet until golden brown.

Serve immediately with your rabbit pie, braised chicory in a cheese sauce and minted peas.

Just to keep the meal Mediterranean, I also made a nice side salad with fennel, courgettes, tomato, red peppers, olives, capers, orange segments and feta cheese.

Note those are my diabetic pills  to the left of the fork!!!  
To drink, well, a cold Picpoul de Pinet from the French Mediterranean area.

And all that was left of my Sunday lunch! A few olive stones.

NB If doing it again for guests I think I would use pitted olives as I realise that some would bite into the stones and break their teeth.

Ruffini in Kiel Review

I had never been to Ruffini before this evening but Linda had a few years ago, so she had decided that as she hadn’t been out with our cookery club for a while that it would be great if we all got together for a nice evening together. Alas, our singing troubadour Kalle had a previous engagement so it was only the 5 of us.

Linda had booked the table and so we arrived a bit early: the restaurant was about 90% full. I would say that the only tables free and remained so all evening  where 2 small tables that had 2 place settings each, but in all reality would be better suited to single diners.
On arrival we were shown to our window table, located below 2 large, impressive paintings (being interested in art, I always find it nice when a restaurant decorates their walls with something other than cheap prints,

The décor is simple, light oak, straight-line tables (Amerikanische Elche), very plainly adorned with white table runners, white cotton napkins, a small glass vase with a few tulips and 2 tea light candle holders. This is to my taste,(unless in a formal army mess that has the regimental silver on the tables) as I find that less is better and I do not like a lot of clutter on dining tables: let the food speak for itself.

The lighting was subtle and indirect with wall up/down lighters, giving off a downward orange hue, and subdued white light upwards. This gave the whole of the dining room a nice warm glow. Having done quite a bit of theatrical lighting, I lay a lot of worth on lighting that is pleasing to the eye and this did. Obviously someone had given the whole atmosphere a lot of thought: plain, pleasing and not trying to upstage the food. There was also no back ground music (I do find that this can be a bit of a pain and can spoil the table conversation).

Linda and I were shown to our seats and immediately 2 menus arrived and a loose leaf with the ‘days specials’. The menu is not large, but does cover something for everyone; they have a vegetarian option on the starter and main and also on the special menu an abundance of fish dishes for the pescetarians and we carnivores aren’t sold short either.

Slowly the rest of KiKoKlu arrived and the wine was ordered. They have a small, but well sorted wine list. I find it a bit strange that they offer the open wine by the 0.15ml glass. I ordered the house red, an Italian merlot, Marianne the house white, Linda water, Carolyn an Italian Chianti "Polonero" and Martin a Bavarian Weizen bier (a cloudy wheat beer).

With the our wines came a basket of bread, a white soft wheat bread and a dark sweetish malty bread, accompanied by butter, cauliflower cream and a couscous, all very interesting.

I had ordered a Sicilian fish soup, this contained cockles and prawns in a thick, picant tomato  fish broth, very tasty and you could actually taste the fish in the soup. I found this a very well rounded soup.

The empty soup bowl, given truth to the fact that I had eaten it all with the exception of the shells

Linda had the vegetarian option of beetroot carpaccio with warm goat’s cheese, a few leaves of peppery rocket dotted with horseradish sauce. Linda said this was excellent.

Martin had the veal loin with tuna and caperberry sauce (Vitello Tonnato)

This was slices of veal, served with a small rocket and caperberry (those large juicy ones) salad and a tuna dressing. Martin enjoyed it: as you can see the veal is nice and pink.

Marianne & Carolyn had the house starter variation (RUFFINI Vorspeisen-Variation)

This consisted of a medley of warm and cold starters served in large shot glasses, and they both said they had enjoyed them very much.

Next came the mains,

Both Linda and I chose the ox cheeks,but the waitress said that she was sorry as they only had one portion left, so I, being the gentleman, allowed Linda to have them. I then ordered the roast beef. Marianne ordered the calf loin (Kalbsrucken) as did Martin. The waitress again said unfortunately they only had one portion left. Martin, not being a gentleman, said he would have it, LOL, so Marianne also ordered the roast beef.

Carolyn ordered the sea food pasta. This consisted of various seafoods including scallops and scampi, also olives and caperberries on a bed of Tagliatelli in a rich tomato sauce. Carolyn really enjoyed it.

Here I must say I was just a little disappointed. It was not late in the evening (around about 20:00). I think that as it was a Saturday they should have been able to cater for all the wishes on the menu (I can understand if it was something like catch of the day, where you have only a limited amount of fresh fish). Especially something like Kalbsrücken, which isn’t exactly a rarity here in Germany. I could understand It happening in England where they have a misguided idea that all veal on the Continent of Europe is milk-fed, cage-reared. Here in Germany that has never been the case and it is to be had in every butchers. The ox-cheeks is another matter, as these have to be braised long and slow, so when they run out, they run out, that’s it there is no way you can cook ox-cheeks in ½ an hour.

I was also a little disappointed that I was served cold roast beef and horseradish sauce with a salad in a vinaigrette dressing and sautéed potatoes (my fault for not reading the special menu properly). I was expecting a warm roast beef. Nevertheless, both Marianne (she also had been expecting it warm) agreed it was very tasty, though knowing what I do now, I think I would have chosen one of the fish dishes or the roastbraten with beans and roast potatoes, but as I said, no fault of the staff or chef.

Martin had the calf loin withn crispy bacon and sugar snap pea pods and carrots all served on a bed of potato rosti, with balsamico reduction.

Martin said his Kalbsrucken was delicious. He may have said this to annoy Marianne, but I think not, and it did look very nice indeed.

The ox-cheeks that Linda had where succulent, melting and full of flavour. I am only sorry that I didn’t get a full portion, but just a taste. The sauce was wonderful, thick and very tasty. This was served with market spring vegetables and spätzle

Ruffini- is a nicely situated restaurant, which serves well-cooked unpretentious food. It is not, and doesn’t claim to be, “fine dining” of the Michelin star class. It has civil prices (€192 for 5 including drinks), we all enjoyed our meals and I will most certainly return. We (Linda and I often visit another restaurant in Kiel called Der Bauch von Kiel, I think that this is not far behind this, though one plus that the Bauch has is that it has a bar with a super Barman and they don’t run out of food.

Linda sent an e-mail to Ruffini early Sunday morning not exactly complaining, but pointing out that we were a little disappointed that they had not had 2 things on the menu, we had then gone out for breakfast to a smashing student-retro café from the 70s (but today’s prices) for breakfast, on returning Linda was working on her PC and she received a return e-mail from the chef and owner apologising for the restaurants inability to serve either the ox-cheeks or the Kalbsrucken, the reason for the running out of the ox-cheeks had been that this had been on the special menu and that a lot of the guests that day had ordered it. The Kalbsrücken had been an oversight on his part as he hadn’t ordered enough. He said he was very sorry and offered us free aperitifs on our next visit. I find this a very fine gesture and will most certainly visit again.

e-mail from Ruffini

Hallo Frau Richmond,

vielen Dank erst einmal für die Kritik.

Der gestrige Abend war leider kein normaler Samstag-Abend. Wie Sie sicher bemerkt haben, waren bei Ihrem Eintreffen schon viele Tische belegt oder wurden gerade für die "Zweite Sitzung" wieder hergerichtet- dazu gehörte auch Ihr Tisch, an dem eine Familie von 17.30h bis 18.45h gesessen hatte-. Wir hatten um 17.30 bereits

4 x 4er Tische und 3 x 2 er Tische. Was haben all diese Gäste gegessen?? Ochsenbäckhen und Kalbsrücken...Dies ist jetz keine Ausrede, es war wirklich so. Das Ochsenbäckchen stand auf unserer zusätzlichen Abendkarte. Für diese Karte kaufe ich immer spezielle Menge am Tag ein, so daß über den Abend reichen sollte, das tat es leider aus geschilderten Gründen gestern nicht.

Für den nicht mehr bestellbaren Kalbsrücken kann ich mich nur entschuldigen. Ich habe schlichtweg vergessen, einen für den gestrigen Abend zu kaufen, so das der Vorhandene bei Ihrem Eintreffen auch schon ausverkauft war.

Bitte betrachten sie dieses Schreiben als einen Gutschein für Ihr nächstes Treffen bei uns...die Aperitive gehen selbstverständlich auf unsere Rechnung.

Ich kann mich nur nochmals auch im Namen meiner Frau bei Ihnen entschuldigen und wünsche Ihnen trotz der kleinen Entäuschung einen schönen Sonntag.

Viele Grüsse und hoffentlich bis zu nächsten Mal

Marc Sauerbaum

Restaurant Ruffini

P.S. Bitte bringen Sie dieses Schreiben zu Ihrem nächsten Treffen bei uns mit, falls meine Frau und ich nicht anwesend sind...damit unsere Damen Bescheid wissen.