Surreal Georgia

Oven-Gyros And Boiled Carrot Salad

OK, for a complete dinner potatoes are missing, but today it's my free day and so the dinner has to be something which is quickly done: Oven gyros and boiled carrot salad.

At first prepare at least one pound of fresh carrots. Boil them in a pressure cooker for about a half hour until they are done. It depends on how thick the carrots are. Don't cut them into pieces!

You need the juice of one or one and a half juicy lemons.

Put the juice into a bowl and make a little sugar mountain that just looks out of the juice with it's top.

Stir the juice and then add about one cup of cream while stirring. Never change the order and never forget to stir!

It looks like this now.

You need one chopped onion.

Add the onion and stir again. Now the salad dressing is almost done. I made a double portion for some iceberg lettuce tomorrow. You can store this dressing 1 - 2 days in the fridge.

Just saying: This is the lazy version of cooking! I bought some gyros. This is pan-gyros (the Greek version of Doner kebab), which means that pieces of meat and onion are marinated in oil and special spices. I think you can get something similar in the USA, too. Because I don't feel like frying it in a pan I took a gratin dish with a little liquid frying fat.

Put the meat into the dish and...

put some fat over the meat.

Put the dish into the oven. The temperature is about 400°F. The good news is that you need not care about the meat at least the next half hour. So you can play a little game on the computer or tidy up the kitchen and set the table.

The carrots are done now. Put them out of the pot and let them get cold.

Cut the cold carrots into pieces.

Like this!

Mix the carrots with the dressing. Use much of the dressing, because the carrots will soak a lot of it when the salad rests a bit. Season with salt.

A look into the oven shows: The meat is done, too. O dear, the fat sprattered all over the dish. Now you know why I use this special baking paper! We use to take only the meat and onions out of the dish and leave the fat in the dish. It's not necessary to eat it. If you have got potatoes you can use a bit of the fat as a sauce for the potatoes, because it's very spicy.

Enjoy your meal!

 

****************************************************************************************

Check out:

http://margareetaville.blogspot.com/

 

Cooking Marathon: Part 2

My uncle just drove home and it was an awesome day with him. Since my father is dead he has become a second father to me. I love him dearly.

But you are waiting for part 2 in the kitchen, which took part this morning:

 

 

First of all I started to prepare the dessert: Put about 1 pound of creamy quark into a bowl.

 

 

Add the core of a vanilla bean.

 

 

Add three big spoons of sugar.

 

 

Add some cream.

 

 

And the best of all: Add rum!

 

 

Put into small bowls and decorate with blueberries. Shortly before serving add some whipped cream on every bowl. Done! Of course you can take any other fruits instead of blueberries.

 

 

Now back to the dumplings: Put the mashed potatoes into a bowl, add some salt and nutmeg.

 

 

Now add flour. Use as much as you need to get a paste which is still sticky, but allows forming dumplings.

 

 

Here it is!

 

 

And these are the dumplings. Put them into a big bowl of salted, boiling water (like noodles). The water mustn't boil too strong, because this would destroy the dumplings. They begin to swim at the surface when they are done. Put them out of the water and serve them at once! - Note: Don't prepare the dumpling paste too early. It becomes fluid if you don't boil it at once. So prepare these dumplings shortly before the dishes are all done.

 

 

Now, while the dumplings are boiling, the mashed veggies have to be done: Take some sweet potatoes, remove the skin, cut into slices and cook until they are done. I did this before I made the dumpling paste, so that dumplings and mashed veggies were done at the same time. I also warmed up the meat and the pears and the red cabbage in the oven much earlier, so that everything was preapred when the dumplings were cooked.

But back to the veggies:

Do the same with parsnips in another cooking pot.

After the veggies are done add a big piece of butter and some cream. Then use an immersion blender to mash them. Season the mashed parsnips with salt and the sweet potatoes with salt, freshly ground pepper and pimento.

Now everything was done and warmed up at the same time, so we had a fantastic dinner:

• Roasted beef with brown sauce
• Red cabbage with apples
• Hot red wine pears
• Mashed sweet potatoes
• Mashed parsnips
• dumplings
• Blueberry quark with cream afterwards

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of our plates with all the dishes on it. I couldn't take photos when we were going to eat.

A few hours later we had a nice coffee time with the cake Anna made and the marzipan fruits.

 

 

Lemon cake with chocolate seasoning

 

 

"Healthy" marzipan fruits for getting some vitamins ;o)

My uncle just rang me up to tell me that he is at home again and that the dinner was gorgeous. He was very quick, because it took for him the same time I needed for doing the washing up and writing this post.

Good night! I'm really tired now and looking forward to watching some TV and relaxing.

 

****************************************************************************************

http://margareetaville.blogspot.com/

Cooking Marathon: Part 1

OK, my uncle wanted a traditional German dinner. Whew, this means a lot of work, really a lot of work, to be honest it needs two days of cooking to get it all done until Sunday 12 o' clock.

A German dinner is roast with dauce, vegetable or salad and potatoes. OK, that doesn't sound after too much work, but it should be a festive meal, so there have to be several kinds of vegetable and dumplings and also a dessert and normally a soup which I didn't prepare, because we don't want to break through the ceiling afterwards. 

The cake and marzipan fruits for coffee time in the afternoon were already prepared. My daughter overtook this part the day before yesterday.

Now it was my turn for preparing the rest, the dinner:

 

 

First of all the meat. I bought about 4 pounds of beef, the best I could get. The first step is to cut smoked fat pork into small pieces and fry it in my big pressure cooker.

 

 

The next step is to put the prepared roast into the pot and fry it from all sides, quickly with high temperature.

 

 

While it is frying you can prepare some vegetable. I used two Spanish onions, a big parsnip and one or two big carrots. Cut them into pieces after preparing them. Instead of the parsnip you can also take a piece of celeriac.

 

 

The meat is done when it looks like this from all sides.

 

 

Now add a half cup of water...

 

 

... and the veggies.

 

 

Close the lid and let it cook. You can look after 1 hour for the first time and then every half hour if the beef is done. Yesterday it took about 2 hours for this really big roast. It is done when you press on it with a fork and the pressure marks remain on the meat.

 

 

In the meantime it was time enough to prepare red cabbage. To be honest I take the already prepared which you can get in glasses or cans.

 

 

Add one chopped apple.

 

 

Add one chopped onion.

 

 

Add ground doves (the brown powder).

 

 

And this is my super weapon: Red currant jelly. Use two or three big spoons!

 

 

OK, now you have to mix all.

 

 

Put it on the stove and let it slowly get hot until it is boiling.

 

 

Now the easy task: Red wine pears. Take some canned pears and glog or red wine.

 

 

Put the pears into a cooking pot. You can use the juice for different purposes. It is not needed yet.

 

 

Fill the pot with red wine and add some doves and a cinnamon stick. Cook slowly until it boils. Then remove it from the stove and put it away for the next day. Remove the doves and cinnamon sticks. The next day the pears will become pink! The can be warmed up tomorrow. (You eat only the pears as side dish, not the wine.)

 

 

OK, now the dumplings. Because Anna and I don't like them very much, but my uncle, I prepared only three potatoes. Wash and remove the skin!

 

 

Let them boil for about 40 minutes until they are done.

 

 

Back to the red cabbage! It needs some starch. So fetch a cup and a spoon and a package of corn starch.

 

 

Put 5 or six big teaspoons into the cup and add water. It doesn't matter if you prepare too much starch. It is cheap and you can throw the rest away.

 

 

It must look like milk. Now it is preapared and the red cabbage is boiling.

 

 

Pour some starch step by step into the boiling cabbage and stirr. First it looks white, then it becomes transparent. Add as much starch as you need for making the red cabbage creamy without any liquid remaining in the pot. The starch must get transparent, otherwise it tastes after flour what we don't like. After adding the starch never boil again because all would become liquid again. You can make it hot, but don't boil it!

 

 

Done. It can be warmed up tomorrow!

 

 

Don't forget: The cook needs a glass of wine in the meantime!

 

 

Now the potatoes for the dumplings are done Mash the potatoes with a fork and cover them with a foil. They have to wait now until tomorrow, because you can only form dumplings of cold mashed potatoes.

 

 

In the meantime the beef was done and I opened the preassure cooker.

 

 

Put the beef into the oven until it is brown. Temperature: about 270°F

 

 

This is what remained in the pressure cooker: It looks like a vegetable soup. It must now be boiled until all the water is gone and the vegetable is moldered. This will take some time and you can do some computer games in the meantime.

 

 

Now the water is all gone and only the fat and some Veggie paste remained. Fry until the paste is deeply brown. This will be the aroma for the sauce!

 

 

Now add about 2 or three cups of water, boil again and use starch (as I described it for the red cabbage) to get a pasty sauce.

 

 

Now add one cup of cream and season with salt, Maggi and freshly ground pepper and if you like some red wine.

 

 

Get the roast out of the oven!

 

 

Because we didn't eat it at once, but I wanted it to warm up the next day I cut it into slices...

 

 

...and poured the sauce over it. The next day I can cover it with aluminium foil and put it into the oven for warming it up.

Done for today, half past 10 in the evening!

 

****************************************************************************************

http://margareetaville.blogspot.com/

 

Pepper Salad

 

 

One of my favorites and so quick that you can make it even if you don't have any time for being in the kitchen:

Make a vinaigrette of oil, only very few vinegar, salt, sugar (sugar improves the taste, so always use it!), fresh herbs (OK, use dried ones if you can't get fresh herbs) and a chopped onion.

Cut peppers of all colors into pieces. My favorite peppers are yellow, orange or red.

Cut a package of Greek Feta into pieces.

 

 

Mix all! If you like you can also add some green olives or tomatoes (use the small ones for better taste).

Perfect with a slice of bread and butter or of course with some grilled meat or grilled sausages. But today I like to eat some bread. 

 

 

It's very simple but tasty and healthy and it is done in less than 10 minutes, tidying up the kitchen included.

 

****************************************************************************************

http://margareetaville.blogspot.com/

 

Beverages (Photo Challenge)

 

Milk! OK, not really. But these old milk cans are awesome with flowers in them.

Glog - you can buy it in bottles, but I prefer preparing it myself.

Carrot-juice. Not really. Read the full and funny story here! LOL.

And last but not least my favorite beverage: coffee! It's Anna's porcelain. She loves yellow and orange.

*****************************************************************************************

 Photo Challenge!

http://margareetaville.blogspot.com/

http://bustershouse.wordpress.com/

http://jayahrsblog.blogspot.com/

 

 

Cream Soup Made of White Roots

Today I made my favorite soup: Creamy and spicy, a soup with celeriac and parsnips. 

 

 

Buy a big celeriac-root! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeriac) In Germany all varieties of this plant are called "celery" and if you say only "celery" it's always this plant with the big root here. We mainly use the root for all dishes. Other varieties are "Staudensellerie", which you in America call "celery". 

Take the celeriac and lots of parsnips and prepare them for cooking (wash, remove the skin).

Take a piece of fresh ginger (about the size of a small thumb), remove the skin and chop it into little pieces.

Take the biggest pot in your kitchen. I always have to take the biggest pot, because I love soups and I can't prepare enough of them. It doesn't matter. You can eat it also the next day or maybe you can put half of it into the deep-freezer. - OK, put all the veggies and the ginger into the pot and add about a half liter of apple juice. Fill with water until the veggies are covered with liquid. Add about 3 teaspoons of instant beef bouillion.

Now it looks like this. Stir and cook about 40 minutes until the veggies are soft and done.

You can tidy up the kitchen in the meantime and prepare the further cooking. You need salt, a good pepper mixture, about a cup of cream and an immersion blender.

Yummy, it smells yummy. The veggies are done now.

Remove from the kitchen stove and make a very creamy soup out of it by using the immersion blender. Then add the cup of cream and stir again with the immersion blender until you get a very, very creamy soup without any vegetable pieces. Season with salt and pepper. It must be a bit hot and spicy, because you don't want to eat baby mash. If the soup is too stiff, add a bit cream or apple juice.

 Serve with some whipped cream on it. What a pleasure! And it's so quick and easy to prepare.

****************************************************************************************

 

http://margareetaville.blogspot.com/

 

 

Good Food: Pepper Soup

Good food, this is the topic of our photo challenge today and it gave me the idea of posting at least every month a simple and tasty recipe to try for my blogger friends. Maybe some of them will also post a simple recipe every month, so we could start sort of an intercultural/international seminar of cooking and baking. Wouldn't that be fine? The ingredients of course, must be available everywhere in the world, so it will work cooking after these recipes.

For today I thought of a warming and tasty kind of stew, which is fine for such cold weather we have got for the last week, something that makes you warm inside and that doens't take long to prepare:

 

 

Pepper Soup

6 smoked pork sausages, 1 big Spanish onion (you can also take normal onions 2 or 3), 6-8 peppers in red green and yellow (or in one color only), 4 small cans of kidney beans, mild but spicy curry ketchup, some fat for frying

First of all cut the sausages into thin slices. If you don't get this kind of sausage, I'm sure you find something similar that can be used. These kinds of Westphalian Mettwursts are raw and smoked. They give the soup a spicy and smokey flavor. Cut the onion(s) into small pieces.

Then fry both in the biggest pot you can find until the sausages and the onions are brown and well fried. As you can see my kitchen is very cold at the moment, so you can see all the steam that comes out of the onions when frying them.

 

While the sausages and the onions are frying (you need not stir all the time), cut the peppers into pieces.

Add the peppers.

Open the bean cans and add the red and syrup like liquid (not the beans)!

Here you see the liquid of the four cans. It's not enough liquid to get a soup. So add water until the pot is well filled and cook until the peppers are done (about half an hour).

The last step is adding the beans (they need only to get warm) and 8 big spoons of ketchup. you can take more or less, like you want. Done!

 

Guilty Pleasure (Photo Challenge)

Without any words....

Sweet

From time to time we use to make some chocolates. Theese are made with marzipan and amaretto.

 

Stew a la "Through the Fridge"

Until now we haven’t had any real winter. This morning it started to snow for the first time. But now most of the snow is already melted away and it has grown a little bit warmer. In my garden you can see the remains of a few hailstorms this afternoon.

   

Hail in my garden

      

For me it’s a quiet day today, the first time after a long period of stress. After my daily work was done (laundry, I hate doing the laundry) I decided to cook some stew. The simplest recipes are mostly the best for my opinion. So I examined my fridge. I found some knuckles of beef in my fridge and they are just right making some soup of them. So I put them into a huge pot with water and salt and a few stock cubes and boiled them for about 1 ½ hours until the beef was very soft.

      

Meat broth

      

Then I removed the beef (you can cut it into pieces and eat it with the soup, but we don’t like it) and poured the remaining meat broth through a sieve. In the meantime I already had cut celery, carrots and potatoes.

    

Prepared ingredients: smoked pork sausages, leek and a bowl with celery, carrots and potatoes and Maggi

      

You can take as much of each vegetable as you like, it’s no special recipe. The vegetable had to boil in the meat broth until it is done. Then I added tiny rings of leek, smoked pork sausages (one for each person cut into small slices) and onions (cut into very, very small cubes). The last three ingredients mustn’t boil long, because they shall stay fresh and a bit „al dente“. Season with salt, black pepper and Maggi! Good appetite!

    

Finished!

    

By the way: Do you remember Santanocerus from the Christmas-market at Dortmund? I also found a Magginoceros, which can be admired at Dortmund, too, because there is a special Maggi-Shop.

    

Magginoceros

    

    

*******************************************************************************************************************************

    

Link:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggi

Pictures:

• Magginoceros: Creative Commons License

• all other photos are taken by Georgia; all rights reserved