Sushi for the Kikoklu

It was to be a our Autumn cookery club meeting. It was this year at our dear friend Kalles and as the one hosting the venue he would be making the main course.
Kalle had turned his artistic side (he does have more than one) into transforming "the" wall papering table into an Autumn field full with russet, gold and yellow hues.

So with prior arrangement it was to be:

Carolyn's pre-prandial drinks and tab-nabs

Blue diamond cocktail

Saft einer halben Limette - Juice of half a lemon

2 cl Blue Curacao - 2cl Blue Curacao

Sekt, gut gekühlt zum Auffüllen - Fill with chilled sparling wine (Sekt)

Obst als Deko am Glasrand - Decorate with a bit of fruit on the glass rim

And the tapanade, cream cheese amuse bouch

Linda was next and she had made a savoury souffle with an anchony sauce.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cheese_and_spinach_94388
This was a Chris Evens recipe from the BBC food website

Then came Marianne with her duo of soups the paprika basil along side a pumpkin and orange one. Served with Kalles fresh baked bread.

Next came mine, I had decided to do the fish course and so I went East (though all of the ingredients came from the West). It was to be Sushi: Marianne and Martin had taught in Japan for a few years so this was not alien to them, the others coming from the Baltic or Ireland just loved fish.

I had made a wide variety of Sushi served with a spiced sprout and fish tartare salad.

California roll - filled with tartare of tuna and halibut rolled in flyingfish roe (Maguro-ohyō Uta Maki)

Thick roll - filled with salmon, avocado and cucumber. (Sake Futo Tekamaki)

Thick roll - filled with tuna, avocado and cucumber (Maguro Futo Tekamaki)

Crab and trout caviar ships (kani Gunkanmaki-Zushi)

Trout Caviar and prawn ships (ikura -ebi Gunkanmaki-Zushi)

Laquered smoked eel (unagi donburi-Zushi)

Fresh water prawns sushi (Ebizushi)

First I made the Sushi rice, I have of late bought myself a rice cooker, this takes all of the hit and miss out of rice coking but better, you don't have to keep an eye on it at all.

Wash the rice until the water runs clear

The wooden cooling bowl(Hangiri)

Make the sushi addition (Sushi-zu)
40ml of rice wine, 2 table spoons of sugar and 1/2 a tea spoon of salt, heat until all is disolved

adding the sushi-zu to the rice

Fold the sushi-zu into the rice and cool.

The rice requires cooling quite quickly, originally with a hand fan and now-a-days with an electric one,but having neither, I mixed, and covered with a clean tea towel turned back about 1/4 and put out on the balcony to cool.

While the rice was cooling I filleted, sliced and prepared the rest of the ingredients

The smoked eel

skinning the eel

skinning the salmon on the right the tuna

slicing the avocado

deseeding the cucumber

I first made the Calafornia roll

rice on top of kitchen foil

lay a nori sheet on top and a smear of wasabi in the middle

add the tuna and halibut tartare in the middle

rolling the whole lot

The finished roll wrap tightly and store until needed and then rolled in flyingfish roe

Making the maki came next.

I next made the laquering sauce for the eel sushi, this was made out of oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar heated together until it became thick and treacle like. The sushi rice was formed in the palm of the hand and laid on a strip of Nori, the eel was then laquered and the nori stips over lapped.

Below are:

California roll - filled with tartare of tuna and halibut rolled in flying fish roe (Maguro-ohyō Uta Maki)

Thick roll - filled with salmon, avocado and cucumber. (Sake Futo Tekamaki)

Trout Caviar ships

The crab and fresh water prawn ships (ikura -ebi Gunkanmaki-Zushi) at the front the spicy sprout salad and the gari (pickled ginger)

The ships (Gunkanmaki-Zushi) are made by forming a strip of nori into a cylinder, sticking the edges with a dab of water, roll some rice into a ball and squash it down into the base of the cylinder, then top it with the filling.

The laquered eel and fresh water prawn sushi.

I think that everyone enjoyed the sushi and I shall be doing it again, may be to an Far Easten theme!

After the fish course came the mains, this was Kalles Swedish speciality, spiced corn fed chicken cooked over a bed of root vegetables, with his fantastic home made bread.

beetroot, onions, carrots, garlic, parsnip

And the final was Martins dessert (this could be called the "Initialed Course")

Zitronensahnepudding auf Himbeerspiegel (von Martin)

1 Becher Schlagsahne mit

Vanillezucker und wenig Zucker ziemlich steif schlagen

500 g Magerquark dazugeben und kräftig weiterschlagen

Saft von zwei Biozitronen und feinen Abrieb der Zitronenschalen dazu geben

Mit Zucker abschmecken

2 Tütchen weiße Gelatine nach Vorschrift 10 Minuten mit etwas kaltem Wasser in einem Topf einweichen dann erhitzen, anschließend unter die Masse rühren

Alles noch einmal schön aufschlagen

Gläser oder Tassen mit kaltem Wasser ausspülen und die Masse gleichmäßig hineingeben und verteilen (mind. 5 Stunden im Kühlschrank anziehen lassen).



Himbeerpürree:

1 Paket tiefgefrorenen Himbeeren (ca. 200 g, keine Kilotüte) auftauen lassen, mit einem Pürierstab und Puderzucker pürieren. Masse durch ein feines Sieb streichen und die Kerne entfernen.

Das Pürree als Spiegel auf die Teller gießen.



Zum Servieren:

Die Puddingformen kurz in heißes Wasser stellen, ggf. ein Messer in das heiße Wasser tauchen und den Pudding damit leicht vom Rand lösen. Pudding auf einem Teller mit dem Himbeerspiegel stürzen. Wenn die Puddingformen aus dünnem Glas sind genügen meist 5-7 Sekunden im heißen Wasserbad, um den Pudding stürzen zu können. Bei Gefäßen mit dickerem Rand kann es etwas länger dauern.

Verzieren mit Abrieb von Bio Orangenschale und/oder Limettenschale.

Alternativ zum Himbeerspiegel kann man das Pürree auch in eine Plastikflasche für Dekozwecke (mit engem Ausgang) füllen, um damit Muster auf dem Pudding und dem Unterteller malen.


Martins Lemon cream pudding on a raspberry coolie

1 pot of whipping cream (250ml)

1 pkt of vanille sugar

500g low fat quark

2 lemons Juice and zest

sugar to taste

2 pkts of white gelatine ( follow direction on the packet, but it will be to add to a small amount of water and allow to swell for about 10 minutes, then disolve over a low heat.

Add the vanille sugar and a small amount of castor sugar to the whipping cream and beat until quite stiff, add the quark and beat quite hard ( at this point can I say any one under the age of 18, look away).

Add the lemon juice and the zest and mix in, adjust the taste with sugar (or sweetener in my case? Martin you fed me SUGAR)

Add the gelatine and give it all another thrashing or do I mean beating or should that be a whipping, I am feeling quite faint I think that I will have to lie down

Pour into 6 glasses that have been swilled (such a nice term is that) out with cold water. Bump the glass on the work surface to level the tops and release any trapped air. Pop into the frdge for 5 hours.

Raspberry coolie

200g packet of  frozen raspberries (if in season use fresh), purier in a mixer or as Martin says with mixing stick add a bit of icing sugar to taste, push this through a fine seive to remove the seeds (they get stuck under false teeth and there is nothing worse than our fair ladies poking around in their mouth at the dinner table).

To serve pour the coolie onto the serving plate to form a mirror, warm the glass in hot water for 5-7 seconds (was Marianne standing with a stop watch?) and carefully slide the pudding out of the glass and onto the plate on top of the raspberry coolie. ( Martin has also informed you that the length of time the pudding takes to release itself from the glass in exponentially proportionate to the thick ness of the glass, well that is what he meant)

You can now decorate with Orange and/or lime peal, cut with a microplaner or one of those chefy things that cuts fine strips (ahem I have a one).

As an alternative to the coolie mirror, you can pour it into one of those cheffy plastic bottles with a long nozzel and write peoples initials on the top ( as you can seeMartin has a one of these), did I tell you Martin has been to art evening classes to learn all about this??? hee-hee.

Very nice Martin

cheers my dears

Moules and a red Thai curry

October 22nd-23rd

I was spending a weekend in Rheda as it was our 4 weekly kegelabend. I was up very early on Saturday morning just so that I could get out and about looking at the wildlife and do my shopping before the rush.
I hadn’t thought about what I was going to eat over the weekend I decided to see what was on the market.

I noticed some nice Schnitzelfleish by my butchers stall, so I decided to do a red Thai pork curry for Sunday lunch and as the fish stall had some nice looking Mussels it was to be Moules Marinier for Saturday.



So for the Moules (1 portion +)

2 kg mussels (pre cleaned as it saves a lot of work)

1 carrot diced

White of a leek sliced

A Piece of celeriac diced

3 shallots diced

2 table spoons of olive oil

Wine glass of white wine

Slug of Cinzano bianco (or similar vermouth)

1 large tomato diced

300 ml of vegetable stock

1 dessert spoon of crème double

Soften the vegetables in the oil (I like mine still with a bite of bite, chefs call this, a la dente)

add the washed and cleaned mussels, add the wine and bring to the boil and add the tomatoes, put the lid on and shake the pan to make sure all of the mussels get the liquor over them.

When they are open they are ready (do not over cook them, please),  add the stock and Cinzano and crème double, bring to the boil and quickly serve.

Serve with fresh baguette.

This is one of the quickest cooked meals on the planet, I do love my moules, I gave the frites a miss this time.


I had some mussels left over and quite a bit of sauce, I removed the mussels from their shells, put the sauce etc into a container and blitzed into a soup, adding the mussel meat, this went into a container for Monday’s lunch.

Thai red pork curry


100 g of pork mince

200 g of lean sliced pork (I used Schnitzelfleisch) sliced

2 dessert spoons of neutral oil (corn oil)

1 dessert spoon of light soy sauce (Japanese)

1 teaspoon Cumin seeds

1 teaspoon Fennel seeds

1 teaspoon of Garam Marsala

2 carrots sliced into matchsticks

2.5 cm piece of ginger cut into small dice

A slice of celeriac cut into small dice

The white of leek. Sliced length ways into matchsticks

2 shallots thinly sliced

3 spring onions sliced

3 red Chillies, seeds and pith removed and sliced

Small handful of chopped coriander

1 large tomato diced

1 piece of cauliflower diced (I like this added as it gives a nice crunch)

3 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped

1 stalk of lemon grass crushed and finely sliced

100 g of shitake mushrooms sliced

200 ml of coconut cream

Dark Soy sauce to taste

100 g of soya bean sprouts

3 pieces of lemon peel shredded (or a tea spoon of grated lemon peel)

2  heaped tea spoons of my home made red Thai paste (see my Tom yam recipe)



Back row: minced pork,  marinating pork strips, coconut cream, tomatoes, curry paste.
Top Middle: Oil, cauliflower,carrots,garlic, shallots, bean sprouts
Lower middle: chilli, celeriac, ginger,leek, lemon zest, lemon grass
Front row: heavy dark soy sauce, spring onions, shitake mushrooms, coriander




Method
Marinate the pork with the fennel, cumin and Garam Marsala along with some soy sauce and oil for about 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the garlic, shallots and ginger, add the marinated pork over a high heat, browning it quickly, add the pork mince and also fry quickly.

Remove and set to one side. Now add the curry paste and fry (you will in all probability not need any more oil).

Add the rest of the vegetables and lemon grass etc and fry quickly,

add the shitake mushrooms and Chillies,

add the pork, then the bean sprouts and tomatoes, finally pour in the coconut cream, stir, adjust the seasoning (I only use soy for the saltiness but a little pepper may be to your taste).

Serve straight away with fresh boiled rice, another quick and tasty meal, I think the preparation takes longer than the cooking.

Roast wild goose

I have been depleating my deepfreezer as it is becoming to hard to find things. I was looking for something to thaw out and heat up when I came in from work on Thursday night and chanced upon a wildgoose, shot at the end of last season (mid January) I thought that would make a nice Sunday roast, so out it came to slowly defrost.

It wasn't a large bird (about the size of a large duck), they may seem big at first but they are no way comparible with a tame reared with clipped wings. They have a much more gamey flavour and not half as much fat as the farmed goose.

I washed it inside and out, rubbed it with salt and pepper and popped half a lemon up its anal vent. I placed it on a trivet of roughly cut root veg in a roasting tin, added a 1/2 ltr of vegetable stock, covered with foil and popped into a pre-heated oven at 200°C for 30mins and then reduced to 180°C until done (the juices run clear).


In the mean time I made some forced meat stuffing balls and roasted these in the lower part of the oven at the same time.

Stuffing recipe,

250g of 50% pork and 50%beef mince
150g of bread crumbs
1 large shallot diced fine
1 spoonful of garlic powder (I use powder as you do not come across lumps)
A good handful of fresh herbs (I used sage, parsley, thyme and oregano)
1 large egg
Salt and pepper to taste
Knob of butter
Some stock to moisten

Mix all ingredients together and form into balls (if the mixture is to dry and breaking up add some goose fat)

Butter a small roasting tin place the balls on this, cover and put in at the bottom shelf in the oven when you reduce the heat to 180°C.

Served it with Curly Kale (Grünkohl) and fried potatoes, bacon and onions  (Bratkartoffeln mit speck und zwiebel).

It was very tasty and as eating flying game is a bit of a lottery (you don't know its age until it drops from the sky) this one was young and tender.

Cod, Duck and the Fliegender Hollander

 Mamtas Apron adorning me

Well this past weekend I had a half way decent run up to Kiel and arrived at about 16:00 and Linda had not finished cooking (well I should say the Slow Cooker had not finished cooking) she had made a smashing beef stew, it can be seen that winter is setting in!

Saturday was our trip to the market; it has moved for the duration of the Baltic Horse show and was now situated just at the bottom of Linda’s street.

I was actually out just as the stall holders where setting up as but we needed some rolls for breakfast from our local French bakery (wonderful place).

We then watched a bit of TV (rugby) and then set off to do our Saturday shop, we had agreed that a bit of fish would be nice for Saturday evening and Sunday would be roast duck (Linda had bought a one a couple of weeks ago and it had been languishing in the freezer.

For Lunch Linda made a very nice butternut pumpkin and carrot soup. (own concoction)

We bought a nice piece of cod filet and then plodded around the stalls buying our vegetables, it was a chilly but bright day as it was to be all weekend.

I decided to do the cod in Panko bread crumbs served with sautéed potatoes and minted peas, Linda was going to make a Nathan Outlaw sauce tartar from the Great British Menu
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/turbottartaresaucean_91137




The egg, panko crumbs and cod


Alas when we had all of the ingredients together found when I looked at the recipe that it took far too long and needed quite a bit of time to marinate.

So the menu changed to Panko crumbed cod on a bed of lentils, minted peas and sautéed potatoes








The breaded cod ready for frying



Sauté potatoes witha bit of speck

















The lentils, simmered in a vegetable stock with a few shards of veg and some herbs

The finished meal
















Sunday we had decided to go out to Schilksee and Strande, this is where the Olympians of 1972 resided and was the centre of the sailing regatta. The Olympians lived in a long and for that time architectially advanced building. This was called "Die Fliegender Hollander" The Flying Dutchman, it could be after the sailing class or after Wagners Opera?

Though it no longer has the hustle and bustle of that summer, it is still a very busy tourist area in the summer, complete with the typical beach chairs.

Looking out across the Förder towards Laboe

We had our breakfast, it was a Brathering roll for me and a smoked salmon roll for her hee hee! (end of the Two Ronnies).

We had a nice walk along the prom, we visited the small inshore fishing fleet on the jetty, that was selling the weekend catch, in the main Plaice (Goldbutt) and Codling.



The fleets in Town



Gutting his catch



The end of the sailing season















On returning home it was time to prep the duck and get the veg on the go. I had decided it would be red cabbage, sprouts and peas and Pommes Boulanger. The red cabbage was easy it was a case of opening the packet and placing in a pan to warm through, the peas where left over from yesterday.




layer the spuds, onions and pepper




pour over a splash of duck fat



The finished dish ready for the oven

I thinly sliced some potatoes and onions and put them in a dish in alternate layers, pouring a bit of duck fat (I had reduced the fat that is always left inside of the body cavity) over the individual layers along with some stock and fresh ground pepper.

The finished dish out of the oven

This went into the oven under the duck, covered with a layer of aluminium foil, this was removed after the duck has been taken out of the oven to rest and the Boulanger is moved up to the top shelf. Wonderful crispy topped dish.

The duck was washed inside and out, dried and then salted and peppered inside, inside the cavity went ½ of a lemon, cut into 4 and an onion cut into chunks, also a sprig each of Thyme, Rosemary and Sage,

 this was bound and trussed, pricked under the legs and wings

and into the oven on a bed of chopped vegetables and stock at 210°C breast side down to brown the back skin and release the fat,

in the mean time I put the giblets into a pan with some vegetable stock and a couple of slivers of lemon rind and on to simmer.

After 30 minutes I turned the duck and ladled the breast with stock from the pan,

after another 15 minutes I reduced the heat down to 180°C and continued to ladle the stock over the breast,

It is ready when you prick the breast at it thickest part and the juices just run clear. (I like my ducks a little rarer, but you have to take other folks tastes into account, don’t you??)



Sprouts and peas




The duck ready to carve



The giblet gravy and red cabbage



The finished meal, served with black cherry preserve (French)