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.

Rinderrouladen-Beef olives in a paprika mushroom sauce in the slow cooker

I was buying some steak at my local butchers and piled up right next to the piece of entrecote from which the steaks where going to be cut, a good 1.5cm is my standard entrecote weighing in at 350 -400g, were Rinderrouladen. I said they look very nice ,I think I will have 2 of them.

As the next couple of days would be a bit hectic, I thought I would cook in advance for a couple of meals.

The Rouladen

so the ingedient  for 2 people are:

2 large Rouladen cut from the rump of a well hung piece of beef (hee hee)

The rest automatically follows in varying proportions depending on supply and demand.

100g speck or airdried ham (I made one of each)

2 tea spoons of mustard (I used a one from the firm Altenburger, it is specially made for rouladen)

12 fresh sage leaves

1 Spreewalder gerkin sliced longways into thin sticks

1 banana shallot sliced the same as the gurkin

Salt and pepper

For the sauce.

1 good handful of freeze dried vegetables

100gr  cooked beechwood smoked pork belly diced fine

2 teaspoons of marigold vegetable bouillion

1 level tea spoon of tomato paste

1 heaped te spoon of mild paprika paste

1 roasted paprika (out of a jar) sliced in strips

1 onion diced

2 cloves of garlic diced

50g of schinken speck (cured  raw ham but with a good layer of fat)

150gr of small mushrooms (or lager ones, diced or sliced)
1 table spoon of oil

1 gerkin diced

1 bay leaf and sprig each of rosemary, thyme and oregano


Lay the beef out on a board, salt and pepper both sides.

Spread each with the mustard.

Top of this comes the speck or air dried ham (some use boiled ham) on top of this place the sage leaves
Now place half of the sliced gerkin and shallot at one end of the roulade.

fold the  long sides inward  to make a uniform oblong, then roll it up to make the rouladen form.

Pin the end flaps with a needle (or tie with kitchen thread, or there are special rings on the market to make this even easier) and do the other exactly like the first or even better as you now have got the hang of it.

Put the freeze dried in the slow cooker (SC), along with the cured  cooked belly

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion, then the speck, then the garlic, saute all together until the onion is translucent and the speck just starting to colour.

Add this to the SC on top of the rest of the sauce ingredients, leaving as much of the oil behind as possible.

Put the bouillion stock along with the tomato and paprika paste into a measuring jug and fill with 330 ml of boiling water, mix well and pour this into the SC.

In the same pan that the onions etc. had been fried in now brown the rouladen all round.

Add these to the SC, add the sliced paprika and the small mushrooms whole. Add all of the herbs.

Put the rinder rouladen on top of all the lot and push down as far as possible (don't worry about them not being covered in liquid as they will cook in the moist air that is formed under the sealed SC cover.

Now pop on the lid  set to high and leave to cook for 3 hours or 4 or 5 it doesn't matter as the SC will not dry out)

I made champ, Savoy cabbage in a speck, onion, crème fraiche sauce to go with this along with some fresh minted broad beens.

It was a nice change from the currywurst, bratwurst, chips and frikadellen over the past few days, that I had eaten on the hoof at various carnival parades.

Savoy with shallot, speck in a crème fraiche sauce.

Fry some speck (or smoked bacon) along with a sliced shallot, very finely slice some Savoy cabbage add this and saute briefly (I like mine still with a bit of crunch) add a carton (150g) of crème fraiche. salt and pepper and a few scrapings of nutmeg (I like nutmeg, so a couple more for me). Bubble up and it's ready to serve)

Champ (no secrets here)

Boiled the floury spuds in well salted water  until just starting to break, pour off the water (I boil mine in a sieve attachment), return back to the hot pan , cover with a clean tea towel and place the lid on top, this will remove any excess moisture. next squeeze through a ricer, add some butter and a little cream, add a good handful of finely sliced scallions (spring onions) salt and peper to taste.  Turn out into a dish , make a well in the middle and fill with melted butter.

Fresh minted broad beans.

Freshly shelled broad beans, boiled in salted water along with  a desert spoon of dried mint (I find that dried mint works better in this case)

And as they say in Germany Guten Appetit