Crema Catalana and Rhubarb compote

Crema Catalana and Rhubarb compote topped with an Italian Meringue

 

The Crema Catalana is not as many think and even some well known cooks declare with conviction a Spanish name for Crème Brule or Trinity Burnt Cream. It is a different animal, in fact as different as it is from one those packets declaring to be “original” Crema Catalana.

The Crema Catalana predates both of these and should really be called Crema San José as it is traditionally served on St Joseph’s day a Spanish High Christian Holiday and is Fathers Day in Spain. I think it is a great tradition and I think I will carry on the tradition.

Crema San José way predates the other interlopers and is thought to have been a Moorish-Jewish dish.

Another difference is the ingredients, it uses full milk (not a mixture of full cream and milk) and is flavoured with lemon and orange zest and Cinnamon bark. In the original recipes vanilla wasn’t used, but I used vanilla sugar for the pudding and the caramel topping. Also the pudding is cooked and then set in the refrigerator and not in a Bain Marie.

For six portions you shall require:

1.5 Ltr full milk

75g of caster sugar (mine was flavoured with vanilla as I make my own vanilla sugar)
9 large egg yolks (set the egg whites to one side you shall use three of them later)
60g of cornflour
Zest of 1 lemon (keep the lemon for the later dish)
Zest of 1 medium orange (about the size of a tennis ball)
1 Stick of cinnamon bark (about 7.5 cm long broken)

Method

Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks keeping the whites for later.

 

 

Put the zests and the cinnamon into a heavy based saucepan add the milk and heat just below boiling point (you will see the surface just start to move), cover and set aside to infuse for an hour.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until light and creamy, then add the cornflour and combine completely.

 

 

Strain the warm milk through a sieve into the mixture stirring to combine completely. Pour into a clean sauce pan (I washed the original milk one) and heat over a medium heat, stirring constantly (you don’t want it to “set on”).

Keep stirring until the custard thickens, remove from the heat and pour into suitable low bowls, I have Spanish red clay ones that are perfect for this. Place in the refrigerator overnight to set.

Just prior to serving sprinkle the top with sugar and either blow lamp the sugar or if you have a special iron, heat this up until red hot and use this ( I think I shall make myself a one as it will get a more even caramel disk), and on reflection I think that brown sugar would be far better than my vanilla sugar, but we live and learn (next time).

As it was spring and a perfect spring fruit (is it a fruit?) would be Rhubarb, I had decided to make a rhubarb and stem ginger desert topped with an Italian meringue. This would be just the thing to cut through the richness of the Crema Catalan.

You shall require

For the rhubarb/ ginger base

800g of young rhubarb cut into bite sized pieces (note: use young as other wise it could be too tart and stringy)

20g of preserved stem ginger in syrup sliced and diced very fine

10ml of the syrup that the ginger is preserved in.

1 tsp of ground ginger

½ tsp of ground cinnamon

A grinding of chilli ( wonder how many picked that one out)

125 ml of water

250 ml of caster sugar

Add the ingredients to a saucepan and bring to the boil lower the heat until the rhubarb is tender and the sauce has started to go syrupy (you can adjust the level of tartness to suit your taste, but don’t forget the meringue topping will be sweet and it is nice to have a contrast).

Set aside (this will keep for quite a few days in the fridge and can then be heated up just prior to serving and putting together.

Place your rhubarb composition into ramekins and make your Italian Meringue. Here I follow the Gordon Ramsey method, you don’t need thermometers and it works every time (for me and for him).

Italian Meringue

Whites of 3 eggs (saved from the Crema Catalana, you could use the rest now and make a big batch of meringue or freeze for a later day)

180g of caster sugar (again I used my vanilla caster sugar)

100 ml of water

A few drops of lemon juice from half a lemon.

Method

In a very clean bowl (rub it with the cut side of the lemon) add the egg whites and whisk until quite stiff,

add the squeeze of lemon juice, as Gordon said this will keep it brilliant and white.

Put the sugar and water onto a high heat when it boils, keep it on the high heat until it forms hard bubbles (they stay on the surface) it is now at the correct temperature,

remove from the heat and drizzle into the  whipped egg whites whisking at a medium speed all of the time,

when all of the sugar liquid is incorporated, turn the whisk up high and continue whisking until it is smooth and glossy (it should take on a fantastic lustre and hold the whish marks) it is now ready to use.

 

But first the Ramsay test!!!

Spoon this on top of the rhubarb and then when ready to serve give it a quick flame with the blow torch (you could put under a grill)

Serve them both together (you can heat any remaining syrup from the rhubarb until it goes almost to a caramel and drizzle this in ribbons over the top of the dessert.

And enjoy the decadence, we did!

A restaurant review - Herrenhaus Stockelsdorf.

We had been working very hard over the last couple of weeks, what with packing, moving furniture and boxes, wall  papering and painting so for Sunday lunch before I set off back to NRW we decided to go out for Sunday Lunch. We decided on the local restaurant “Herrenhaus”, this is a one time country house of a local Fayence and tile manufacturer (faience) from the mid 1700s.

We had been to have a look at the outside and the park a few weeks ago and thought it looked very nice and the menu well balanced and reasonably priced.

We travelled in our mobile home and very luckily got the only free parking space, so if visiting on a Sunday it is advisable to reserve and walk (Linda did walk home) it is only a short walk from our new home.

We arrived and it seemed that a lot of families from grandparents through to the very young had decided that the first spring weather was a good time to go out mob-handed for Sunday lunch, just our luck!

We entered into a large vestibule, with various pieces of pottery in a glass display case, there was a reception going on so we actually missed this on the way in and it was not until later after reading a bit about the history of the building that I went out and had a closer look.

As I said the restaurant was quite full, but we got shown to a very nice window table overlooking the park garden with its small lake (still in the main frozen, so the ducks and moorhens were skating on thin ice).

A very pleasant waitress came almost at once and handed us the menu’s, also delivering a silver bread basket with fresh backed rolls and a small plate of sundries tomato and herb butter. We ordered a bottle of water, as I was driving and scrutinised the well balanced menu. Linda had at first thought about having the duck with red cabbage, but some one on the adjacent table had just been informed that the duck was finished (probably fell through the ice). So she settled for the “Angebotsmenu” this is a set menu that they offer for a period and this is at the moment the braised leg of lamb menu.

I had, though I can never have enough, a surfeit of lamb over the past 2 weeks and had seen that they had Grünkohl on the menu and I must say that the last time I had Grünkohl had been before Christmas so it was time to get my winter fix.

So Linda’s fixed menu was:

Wild garlic cream soup

Braised leg of lamb in a rosemary sauce with green beans and potato gratin
Rhubarb compote with vanilla ice cream

Mine was a far more rustical selection:

I ordered the Brochette as my starter,

followed by one of my all time favourites, Green Curley kale with pigs cheek, Kassler, special smoked sausage and what was termed as browned potatoes.

Not only did we get a well stocked bread basket and the tomato butter, but along came the waitress with two amuse bouche served on those Yuri Gella presentation spoons. This consisted of a cream cheese filled smoked salmon roulade on a cucumber slice, a very nice touch and very tasty.

Linda’s Soup and my brochette arrived, Linda’s soup had a foam island floating in it, it looked very nice and she said it was excellent.

My brochette consisted of 4 nice sized roasted crouton topped with a very good portion of a diced tomato and herb salsa, these surrounded a small salad with a very nice raspberry dressing, I realise that it isn’t what one would or should call out of the ordinary, but it was well presented, well rounded and most of all tasted nice to boot.

Next in came the mains.

Linda’s lamb which she said was soft and tender and very tasty. The vegetables and sauce really well cooked and presented.

I had ordered the Grünkohl as having lived for the past 20 years in East Westphalia where they believe that they invented the dish, I always like to make a comparison. This was served with the Schweinebacke (pigs cheek), a slice of kasseler (cured and then smoked pork loin) a Kohlwurst (a sausage specially manufactured to accompany the curly kale) and what was termed “ gebräunten Kartoffeln” (browned potatoes).

I found the composition well rounded and was a bit perplexed when I was asked if I wanted sugar for the Grünkohl, now I had heard of this strange custom but have put it down to me not quite getting the dialect, but no they do actually sprinkle sugar on their savoury cabbage, ah well there is nowt stranger than folks.

On reflection, though it was very tasty, I think I prefer mine done in the Westphalian way, with cured ham hock, smoked mettenden, Kasseler and fried potatoes and no sugar.

We both thought the meal was very tasty and it showed on our cleaned plates.

 

Linda’s desert came it was a nice portion of stewed rhubarb with a fair dollop of vanilla ice cream. Here was the only part that didn’t turn out well, Linda discovered a piece of sharp plastic in her rhubarb, this took the edge (sorry, couldn’t resist) off her meal, the waitress was very apologetic but alas a minus point.

We had a very nice meal, with only the one small fault. I must compliment the waiting staff on their very professional and speedy service. They where very friendly and it was a joy to eat at the restaurant and we shall certainly return, I like the idea of them having various events, musical concerts etc in the park garden. So we are now planning for the Whitsun Brunch in May and also Swedish mid-summers festival in June.

Just in passing I do like the look of their vaulted cellar bar!!!!  

 

For anyone visiting Lübeck for the Christmas Market or the Travemunde Woche, it is well worth a small detour (it is signposted) but book a table as I am sure in summer places are at a premium.

 

http://www.herrenhaus-stockelsdorf.de/index2.html

 

Faience (Fayence Ger)

This was the forerunner of the fine Chinese porcelain of Meissen, Wedgewood, Limoges and Copenhagen, it was delicate earthenware pottery with a tin-oxide on a lead slip glaze. The process was first introduced into Europe from Faenza in northern Italy and was soon copied through out Europe. Delft being a famous production centre, as was many of the other pottery manufacturers in Northern Europe, one of which was the Georg Nikolaus Lübbers of Stockelsdorf .

The original process is thought to have been refined in Persia or the Indus region, but beads have been found in Egypt from pre-Christian times so the process may well have been first refined in the Nile valley and then taken to the land of the two rivers by traders only to return westwards via Persia and then on to Italy. A similar process was also used on the Balearic Islands and traces of this pottery can also be found in other Mediterranean areas, whether by trade or manufacturing process may be we shall never know.

Stuffed Leg Of Lamb cooked in Guinness

St Patricks Day and a stuffed leg with a drop of the Black Stuff

I had been considering doing something for St Pat’s day (Sunday 17 March) so where better to start than with a piece of lamb and a bottle of Guinness. Now getting the lamb in Germany is difficult but is easier than getting the Guinness, I popped into my local Turkish butcher (the best place to get lamb in Germany) and staring me in the face was a nice piece of the top end of the leg, it was just over 1 kg with the bone in, so would do me for two meals.

I then had to traipse the supermarkets and Getränkemarkts (off licences) and was giving up hope of finding a few bottles of Guinness, when I thought about a small one just around the corner from my house, I could have saved myself a lot of heart searching if I had thought of it first.

So it was to be stuffed leg of lamb in an onion and Guinness confit sauce, served with French beans and Champ. Well that is what it should have been, but though I had bought the potatoes I had forgotten the scallions, but I had bought some young leeks so these made a fine substitute.

The quantities can be upped to suit  the number eating, but this would have done two just fine.

1kg of fillet end of a leg (you can get your butcher to debone it, but doing it yourself isn’t difficult)

¼ packet of sage and onion stuffing

250ml marigold vegetable stock

1 large shallot (diced)

3 cloves of garlic (crushed and diced)

3 sprigs of rosemary

6 large leaves of fresh sage

2 large onions

Small handful of freeze dried soup vegetables (or fresh if you have them)

Salt and pepper

Olive oil for frying and sautéing

2 bottles of Guinness

So first debone your piece of lamb, slit along the length of the bone, open it out and work your knife along the bone releasing the flesh, (you could use the bone to make stock, but as I had some I didn’t need too)

 

Make your sage, rosemary and onion stuffing, I used a packet with additional shallots, sage and rosemary. I made up a cup of vegetable stock, added this to the packet sage in a bowl and left to soak while I chopped the herbs and sautéed the shallot and garlic, added these and allowed to swell.

Open the meat out skin side down on a board and butterfly it, by making small incisions so that the piece of meat is flat, salt and pepper the meat and I put a sprig of rosemary into the centre.  I then filled the centre with the stuffing and rolled, binding together with kitchen twine, pinning another sprig of rosemary under the twine.

 

Switch the oven on and set to 220°C.
In the mean time I had finely sliced the onions and another couple of garlic cloves, heated a couple of table spoons of Olive oil into my trusty cast Iron casserole (one of the best buys from Aldi ever) and slowly softened the onions allowing them to take on a little colour. 

 

Removed from the casserole and added some more oil, heated up high and browned the lamb all over, turn the heat down and return the onion and garlic to the casserole. 

 

Add a bottle of Guinness and the vegetables, lid on and into the oven for 20mins, then turn the oven down to 180°C and forget about it for 1 to 1½ hrs, by this time the lamb will be melting (this is not a rare cooked leg of lamb, that is for another day), the onions and Guinness turned into a fantastic confit, I now removed the meat covered and set aside to rest.

I added 400ml of beef stock, just because I had some, but it could have been any stock or wine or more Guinness. This made a fantastic rich sauce,

 

I had boiled some potatoes, sautéed some finely sliced young leeks, mashed the potatoes with a good knob of butter and a slug of milk, and added the softened leeks.

I had also steamed some green French beans, so there it was St Patrick’s Day stuffed leg of lamb, oops nearly forgot open up that other bottle and pour yourself a glass of the Black Stuff (wine just doesn’t go with this)

 

James and the Cook in Kiel restaurant revue

James and the Cook

It had been a busy morning, we had been out taking rubbish to the recycling yard, it all went very well and we got rid of a lot of electronic and other jetsam. Next port of call was to IKEA, to have a look at kitchen cupboards (you can never have enough), I have a top of the range, unused Miele all singing and dancing oven, which I am thinking of building in at eye level so this wanted checking out.

That done and I wanting to watch Saturday Kitchen on BBC, I dropped Linda off to go shopping at the market, we had agreed that fish would be on for evening meal and that Linda would be cooking the Hairy Bikers belly pork  with apples, sage and cider.

The bottom line is that the fish was left on the fish stalls counter and we went out to have dinner instead.

Not far away from us is a small restaurant, that we had often passed but had never visited, as it was a bitter evening and only a short walk to get there.

The restaurant is called James and der Cook, it has a menu based on Namibia and South Africa with a local twist (they use a lot of local produce), the menu is not large (not a bad thing) and does have a very good vegetarian selection (if you’re that way inclined). The wines list is also short but well selected, I would have expected more SA wines but they had only one on offer.

The owners  James Pennell,  the front of house and the cook, Andreas Hansen run a small (25 seat- 7 tables) restaurant, it is well situated at Eckernförder Straße 59 just a stone’s throw from the large Wilhelmsplatz so no problem with finding a parking space.

It has a rather non-descript appearance from the outside, it does have a couple of outside tables, so may be a place to sit and have a bite to eat while watching the traffic zooming up and down. The inside is simply but pleasantly decorated (not a lot of faff).  The kitchen is directly adjacent to the entrance and is open for all to see, this was previously an Indian take away restaurant and the kitchen is in the same place.

We had booked (as advised) and James gave us a choice of tables when we entered, he is an expat but has been around the world a bit before settling in Germany, he met his business partner Andreas and as both had been around the world and had a liking for Namibia, they had turned this into the main theme of their restaurant (though not only as they use a lot of local meat and fish).

We had a little chat with James expats to expats and then he informed us that Andreas was not cooking this evening as he also runs a cookery school and he had a course that evening. James also informed us that a couple of things were not on the menu.

The menu is a nice triangular shape and well sorted, it is not large (in the number of dishes), but covers most things, it even does vegetarian food and a lot of their recipes can be adapted to suit.

We ordered a Spanish wine, this was Cal Y Cantos and very nice as well. I ordered a goats cheese Crème Brûlée as a starter and Linda a curried fish and apple fish soup. My starter was very nice and the sweet crust cracked and added a wonderful  roundness to the dish, alongside was a fried potato cake (not as was on the menu a Rösti) and sautéed mushrooms (button and Shitake) with paprika. It was a very large portion and was very, very tasty.

Linda’s was not so nice, in fact she said it tasted as if they had just  put a spoonful of bought curry powder into the soup, she also said it lacked seasoning.  So mine was good and Linda’s not so good.

I had ordered the wild boar ragout, served with spring vegetables and spätzle for my main and Linda a stuffed chicken on a bed of Ratatouille served with roast potatoes .

Now as many will know I am a huntsman and pride myself in being able to source, hang and cook game and in particular wild boar. Alas this missed the point; it came served in a small cast iron pot (I think to give it a SA campfire feel).

The meat was nice and tender, but that was all that could be said of the dish, I found it lacking in flavour, it could have done with a bit of pepper and salt to season, in fact it was so bland that it could have been anything, but not the strong game flavour of wild boar. Alas the spätzle were not homemade, at the price of the meal I would have expected them to be. The vegetables were done a la dent, crisp and very nice, but I would question the reasoning behind serving them with a winter meal and would have expected something a bit heartier.

Linda said her chicken was very tasty and cooked perfectly, but that the Ratatouille was not at all what she would have expected and said the tomatoes were tinned, such a pity that they are taking short cuts that lowers the status of the meal.

The starter that I ordered was the one saving grace, even though it was my second choice as I would have liked the South African plate as this consisted of Ostrich salami, Ostrich ham and Babootie served with a sweet-potato and pineapple bake, this was a one that was off that evening.

We eat out quite a bit in Kiel (in fact we eat out quite a lot in many places) and feel that we have eaten at some of the very best restaurants in Kiel, but this is not one of them. Both Linda and I agreed that there was a lack of attention to detail and a lack of tasting in the kitchen as why else would they serve such bland food.

May be if the “Cook” part of the team had been in the kitchen it would have been more accomplished, I certainly hope so. I do not think that we have time to visit gain before leaving Kiel, and I must say that I will not be disappointed.
Sorry to publish such a negative revue, but in the on a scale of 1-10 in the Kiel restaurant scene it is pretty low down.