Amazing Fish Stew

It's been a while since I've added a guest recipe but this one I definitely have to share (the amounts are mine). I'm a member of the fantastically inspiring Facebook group Foodie Translators where some very talented people present mouthwatering dishes and baked goods. A few days ago, one member put up this dish and I just had to try it out. It was just WOW! and will definitely become part of my regular prepertoire. Thank you for the inspiration, Dagmara. Next time, I'll make sure I have fresh fennel in the house as in Dagmara's dish.

1 red onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 celery stick
fresh thyme
fresh rosemary 
2 sweet red peppers
1 courgette
250 g cherry tomatoes 
juice and zest of a lemon
100 ml white wine
250 ml fish or vegetable stock
saffron
350 g fish (I used a fish pie mix containing salmon, cod and smoked haddock)
a good handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

Finely chop the onion, garlic, celery and herbs and sautée in EVO till softened. Slice the sweet red peppers, core and slice the courgette, add and continue sautéeing, then deglaze with white wine. Add stock with saffron, pepper and salt and quartered cherry tomatoes, zest of a lemon, reduce, top with fish chunks, cover and poach for 10 minutes or until fish is done, spoon sauce over the top. Sprinkle with fresh herbs, parsley in my case, squeeze some lemon juice over the dish and serve with crusty bread or rice.

Chocolate Spread

I'm personally not keen on Nutella as I find it far too sweet. Also, it's made with eggs from battery hens, which is an absolute no-no for me. A friend of mine who used to be a Nutella addict now makes her own so I asked her for the recipe because I want to spoil our Airbnb guests. The first time I used chocolate with 60% cocoa solids and though the result was nice it was still too sweet for me. So next time, I'm going to try chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids, probably opting for 80%+. Since I don't tend to use white sugar I'm also wondering if I could use fine, unrefined sugar instead of icing sugar. I will report!

90 g icing sugar
60 g ground hazelnuts
100 g chocolate
70 g butter
100 ml milk

1. Place the chocolate in a saucepan and melt in a bain marie.

2. Place the sugar, hazelnuts and melted chocolate into a bowl and stir vigorously.

3. Next, add the butter and the milk, mix a and return to the saucepan. On very Using the bain marie method again, heat over a low heat (do not boil) while stirring continously with a wooden spoon until you have a homogeneous and liquid result (after approx. 3 to 5 minutes). Pour into sterilised jars and place in the fridge for a few hours. The chocolate spread needs this time to get harden so it can be spread.

Tip: Place in the fridge over night so it's ready for breakfast. Store it in the fridge.

Baked Chocolate Cheese Cake on Gluten Free Almond-and-Chocolate Base

When I saw this recipe on Indre's blog I knew immediately I had to try it out, the base alone sounded wonderful. Here in the UK, it's really hard to get the German "quark", if I'm lucky I can find the French fromage frais but mostly with 0 % fat and that means additives to give it its consistency. I was going to try ricotta but the local supermarket didn't have any in that day and I almost went for Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche when I spotted fromage frais with 0.2 % fat. I decided to make an exception and buy it. I don't object to the low fat content but the drawback is that thickening agents have to be added to make it thick and creamy. And I try to avoid all sorts of additives. Next time I'm going to use ricotta.

Update 27/06/14: Ricotta worked a treat! Will try a baked German cheesecake with ricotta next.

The other item I can't get here is chocolate custard powder so I researched this on the internet and made my own. I also reduced the amount and type of sugar, added a pinch of salt. The changes I made to the recipe are printed in italics.

As I expected, the base is fantastic – as is the topping – and I already have plans to use if for other cakes, the recipes for which I'll no doubt publish in this blog.

200 g ground almonds
200 g dark chocolate, min. 70% cocoa solids
1 pinch of salt
200 g butter
200 g sugar/150 g fine unrefined sugar
4 eggs
vanilla extract
1 sachet (15 g) baking powder

Topping:
1 sachet of chocolate custard/30 g custard powder mixed with 10 g cocoa/ home-made chocolate custard powder made of 10 g cocoa, 30 g cornflower and a little vanillin
250 g fromage frais or ricotta
100 ml milk
150 g sugar/120 g fine unrefined sugar
2 small or medium eggs

1. Melt the butter and chocolate over a low heat in a saucepan. Leave to cool
2. Beat the almonds, sugar, baking powder, vanilla extract and eggs together.
3. Mix in the chocolate butter.
4. Pour the mix into a greased spring tin/silicon mold (26-30 cm)
5. Bake for 45 min. at 180 °C/gas mark 4.
6. Mix the chocolate custard powder with the fromage frais/ricotta.
7. Add the milk, eggs and sugar and beat to a creamy consistency.
8. Spread over the base after the inital baking time of 45 minutes, then bake for another 35-45 minuts.

This cake will keep covered and stored in a cool place for 3-4 days.

Chocolate Cake (gluten free)

When I saw this recipe on Éva's blog Emil und die großen Schwestern, I had to try it straight away as it seemed so simple. Thanks Éva for allowing me to add it to this recipe collection.

Éva suggests reducing the amount of sugar for a more chocolatey taste. The amount and type of sugar in brackets is what I used. I've added a pinch of salt because it brings out the taste of chocolate.

With regards to the different types of sugar, I have to admit I've not tried it with white sugar because I never have it in the house. Both the unrefined and the moscovado lead to stunning results, the unrefinded giving a caramel flavour and the moscovado making the cake even richer in flavour and adding a treacly, toffee-like flavour. Absolutely wonderful!

6 eggs
200 g fine sugar or 150 g fine unrefined, brown sugar or 150 g moscovado
125 unsalted soft butter plus a bit extra for greasing the tin
pinch of salt
250 g chocolate with at least 70% of cocoa solids
cocoa powder or icing sugar for dusting
soured cream or Greek yoghurt  and a handful of raspberries, if they're in season, for serving

Separate 4 of the eggs and place the egg white and yolk into two mixing bowls. Beat the egg yolk with 100 g/75 g of sugar until creamy. Add the butter and the two remaining eggs and beat until all the ingredients are combined.

Melt the chocolate in a bain marie, add the salt and mix with the batter stirring continuously.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then beat in the remaining 100 g/75 g of sugar. Carefully fold into the chocolate mix.

Pour the cake mix into a greased 25-30 cm flan dish. Bake in the oven at 175° C/gas mark 4 for 40-45 minutes. Do not open the oven for the first 30 minutes. To prevent the cake from drying out avoid fan-assisted oven/setting. The cake is meant to crack on top while baking.

Dust with cocoa powder or icing sugar.

Variations:
Try adding chili flakes, rosemary, lavender, xmas spices or similar to vary.

I have tried fresh raspberries and fresh blueberries which I scattered over the top and pressed down with my finger. The didn't sink to the bottom of the cake. And with the blueberries, I used moscovado sugar. OMG! It was unbelievably delicious. Maybe too rich. Next attempt: Half and half, i. e. moscovado sugar in the pastry, light brown sugar with the egg white.

August 2014: Two chocolate cakes with moscovado sugar and fresh blueberries.
They looked so good I didn't bother dusting them with cocoa.

Smoked Haddock Ceviche

Normally, a ceviche is made with raw fish and the lime and lemon juices do the "cooking" of the fish. But we had this at friends' and I thank Hamish from London for introducint us to this delicious alternative.

250 g undied smoked haddock
1 bunch of fresh dill (approx. 30 g)
1 whole bulb garlic
chilli flakes/dried chillis
juice of 3 limes
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt

1. Wash and spin the dill. Coarsely grate the garlic and if whole chillis are used, chop them up. Place in a serving bowl.

2. Check the haddock for pin bones and remove them. Cut at an angle into 1 cm strips. Add the fish to the serving bowl.

3. Roll the limes with the palm of your hand on the work top exerting a little pressure. They produce much more juice this way. Squeeze the limes and lemons and pour over the fish.

4.  Add the olive oil, season with pepper and salt and mix. Cover with cling film and marinate for at least half an hour, longer if possible.

Swiss Walnut Tart (Engadiner Nusskuchen)

I came across this recipe via a community sister of a home décor website I'm active on and simply had to try it out. It's wonderful - and I don't normally eat cakes! One little thing: I find the shortcrust pastry a wee bit sweet so reduced the amount of sugar, originally 150 g. Also, I always use fine unrefined brown sugar instead of white sugar. In this case I think it probably enhances the overall butterscotch taste. But anyone who loves pecan pie, banoffi pie, florentine biscuits etc. has got to try this! :))))

Shortcrust pastry:
160 g butter, softened
100 g sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
300 g flour

Filling:
20 g butter
300 g sugar
250 g coarsely chopped walnuts
250 ml whipping cream, warmed

1 egg yolk for brushing

1. Work the softened butter, sugar, flour and egg into a shortcrust pastry, then chill.

2. In the meantime make the filling:

Melt the butter over a low heat in a saucepan, add the sugar and over a medium to high heat keep stirring until the sugar has melted and you have a smooth, thick caramel. If there are lumps, don't worry just keep stirring until they have dissolved.

Add the walnuts and warmed cream and bring to the boil. Leave to cool a little. Don't worry if there are hard bits and the mix isn't quite homogenous, that happened to me as well but they'll dissolve with the heat from the oven.

3. While the nut mix is cooling, get your shortcrust pastry out of the fridge and divide in two parts: 1/3 for the lid and 2/3 for the base.

Roll out the base or press into a 24 cm spring tin or flan dish bringing it up to form a rim. Use a fork to stab some holes into the bottom. Now add the nut mix.

Roll out the pastry for the lid and cover the cake. Fold any excess pastry over, with a fork stab a few holes into the lid and brush with egg yolk.

4. Baking times:

fan-assisted oven: 30-40 min at 180 °C on the second level from the bottom

gas oven: 40 min at gas mark 5 (200 °C)

Check if it's finished with a skewer - there will still be a little sticky caramel on the skewer.

If using a spring tin turn out of the tin and leave to cool on a rack, otherwise leave and serve in the flan dish. Optionally serve with whipped cream or to complement the sweetness of the cake with crème fraîche, soured cream or Greek yoghurt.

Imam Bayildi (meat version)

This is a family recipe from Fabiana who currently divides her time between Romania and Italy.

The origin of this dish is Turkish, its very old - presumably more then 300 years ago. The name derives from a legend about an Imam (Turkish title) who fainted (bayildi means faint, pass out in Ottoman) when he tasted this dish.

The original dish apparently did use the meat but then it was left out and nowadays people in Turkey prepare it mainly without meat, where as I do - I love it with meat and tastes great.

(serves 6)

aubergines (one or two per person)
300-500 gr mince (e.g. 50-50 pork and beef or lamb and beef)
3-4 onions
6-7 ripe tomatoes tomatoes or a 500 g tin of chopped tomatoes
salt
pepper
Mediterranean herbs (e.g. oregano, basil, thyme etc.)
whole garlic cloves, peeled (two per aubergine)
fresh basil, 2-3 leaves per aubergine
olive oil
1 glass of red wine
1 hot red chilli (optional)

1. You start by peeling one line of skin all around the aubergines, then split the aubergine lengthways and hollow out some of the flesh to make room for the filling. Chop up the scooped out flesh and sauté with the onion.

2. To make the filling finely chop the onion really and sauté together with the chopped aubergine in a pan with olive oil. When they're golden, add the mince. Fry together until all the meat is browned stirring occasionally to prevent the meat from sticking together. When the moisture has evaporated from the meat and onions add some red wine and then regularly add a little water and cook for 2 hours (keep adding water regularly). After two hours or so, add the chopped tomatoes and herbs of your choice and cook for another two hours. This procedure is pretty similar to the Bolognese Sauce (ragu Bolognese). Optionally add the chilli at this stage as well.

2. Sauté the aubergines all around in a pan with oil until they are a little colored. Then set aside on kitchen paper to drain. Place into a roasting tray.

3. When you are happy with the sauce let it cool a little. Take a spoon and start filling the aubergines with the meat sauce. Pour the remaining sauce around the aubergines. Then add 1-2 garlic cloves per each eggplant and 1-2 basil leaves per each eggplant. Put in the oven and bake for 40 minutes at 190-200°C/gas mark 5-6.

Königsberger Klopse (Meatballs in a tangy creamy sauce)

Here's another guest recipe, this time from Peter in Maidenhead.

This is a recipe of my mother’s which she, in turn, learned from her mother. Mum grew up in East Prussia just before and during the Second World War which is just about as far east as you could go in the old Germany. It is the area in the eastern “elbow” of the Baltic Sea just below Lithuania, and Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) is its capital.

The “Klopse” of the recipe’s name are in fact meatballs which are cooked in a typically East Prussian creamy, yet tangy sauce. The dish was a favourite Sunday dinner in the Königsberg region and even though we have become a bit blasé about meatballs these days, I think it still holds up well as a choice for an informal dinner party with friends or a Sunday lunch for the whole family.

A couple of advisories before we start: The recipe calls for “gemischtes Hack” as the basic ingredient for the meatballs. This is a 50/50 mixture of ground beef and ground pork. I would wholeheartedly recommend using this rather than straight minced beef and I would also recommend not going for the “extra lean” option. In my experience, meatballs turn out much juicier if the meat has a little bit of fat in it. An alternative to the ground pork is ground veal and I have also tried the recipe with half ground turkey, although I didn’t think this turned out as flavoursome as it could be.

Secondly, the dish involves pickled capers which will cause concern to some. My recommendation is not to tell anyone about the capers beforehand – you will most likely find that your guests love them in this dish (even if they were iffy about them beforehand). However, if you really can’t stand the taste of capers, then diced pickled gherkins will serve as an adequate replacement.

I hope you will enjoy this unique taste of the Baltic as much as I have – both as a child and as an adult.

OK, now on to the recipe...

(serves 4)

For the meatballs
500g ground meat (ideally 250g beef and 250g pork, not too lean)
2 dry white rolls (or slices of white bread)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 egg
marjoram, salt & pepper to taste

For the broth
1 medium onion, quartered
1 bay leaf
A few pepper corns and allspice berries
Approx. 0.75 litres (1 1/2 pints) of beef stock (a stock cube and water will suffice)

For the sauce
A large knob of butter (ca. 40g)
2 tablespoons of plain flour (ca. 30g)
1 small glass of pickled capers
3 tablespoons of soured cream or crème fraiche
Juice of 1/2 lemon
A good splash of white wine
1 egg yolk

Soak the bread in warm water, then press to remove excess moisture. Combine the meat, bread, chopped onion, and egg in a large bowl and knead thoroughly (use your hands for this, so that you can really feel the ingredients come together). Season to taste with salt, pepper and marjoram. Form meatballs roughly the size of an egg and put them aside on a plate.

Meanwhile, heat up the broth in a suitable saucepan and let it boil on a medium heat for a few minutes while you finish making the meatballs. Add the meatballs to the saucepan, bring the broth back to a boil and then cook on a low to medium heat for 10-12 minutes. When the meatballs start rising to the surface, they are usually done. Remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon and keep them warm.

Pour the broth through a fine sieve and reserve it. Melt the butter in the saucepan, add the flour and make a light roux. Gradually add the broth, stirring well all the time. Add the capers (including the pickling juice), lemon juice, wine and soured cream and cook on a low heat for a few minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper and maybe even a bit of sugar (if the sauce is too tart for your taste). Re-introduce the meatballs and let them simmer in the sauce for a good 5 minutes. Finally, take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the whisked egg yolk.

Decorate with extra capers in the serving dish. Traditionally, this is accompanied by boiled potatoes, grated carrots and pickled beets (or gherkins).

Any leftovers can be frozen and will make a quick and tasty supper on a slice or two of fresh granary bread.

Schmorgurken (Braised Cucumbers)

This recipe is from Birgit in Berlin. I hope you'll enjoy the story that goes with this dish as much as the dish itself.

This is a family recipe exactly how my grandmother used to make them. There are hundreds of different variations, as each family has developed their own over the years. But my grandmother’s was special: Since I am a vegetarian she made it meat free for me.
A few years ago I returned from hospital after a gall bladder operation and whined to my grandma that just that day they were going to have braised cucumbers at the hospital, and that I missed having my favourite dish. So she came over, bags full of goodies and cooked me braised cucumbers. That day I watched her closely and wrote everything down.
For this dish you best use garden cucumbers, these are the fatter, yellow-green type of cucumber rather than the green long things you usually get in a supermarket. If you can't get garden cucumbers, you can use normal ones too.

(serves 2)

500 g cucumbers
1 medium onion
½ red pepper
1 medium red tomato
Powdered vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel the cucumbers and halve lengthways. Deseed the cucumber with a teaspoon. This will produce quite a bit of juice, so put the seeds in an extra bowl and strain them keeping the juice. This way you don't have to add water to the cucumbers later which gives the dish a stronger taste. Quarter the cucumbers and cut them into thick slices (6-8 mm).
2. Cut half a pepper into very thin strips (2-3 mm). Quarter the pepper rings. Also slice the tomato very thinly. These slices will actually disappear in the stew, so you might want to peel the tomato first (pouring hot water over it makes the job easier) or pick out the tomato peel from the stew later.
3. Dice the onion and lightly sauté in butter or margarine until transparent. (You can also use olive oil, but butter tastes better).
4. Add the cucumber, pepper and tomato and stir for a couple of minutes. Pour in the cucumber-juice and two teaspoons of powdered vegetable stock, stir and leave to simmer on very low heat for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Serve with boiled potatoes.

Variation:
If you want meat with your meal, a common variation is to put very small meatballs into the stew. In that case you don’t need the vegetable stock. You can also serve the meatballs separately.