Tag Archives: American

breakfast, main dish, meat & fish, sweet tooth

In the summertime…

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*photo from unsplash

…when the sun is scorching down on the earth. When the sky is clear and blue and wide, so far away and seemingly so near. When the noon is burning on our arms and glimmering on the streets. When the middle of the day seems to enclose around endless heat. When the soil is dry and the roses and herbs spread their scent over the gardens in the afternoon and when the evening brings the long awaited relief…

…I will embrace the night.

I will kick off my shoes and open the windows wide. I will rejoice in the wind and dance under the stars. I will listen to the crickets sing, close my eyes and silently cheer for the approaching thunderstorm in the west as the best part of my day begins here, right now. And I will stay up so late that my yawned “good morning” will actually mean “oh, look, it’s noon already” while I will once again realize with a lazy smile that during summer the days are indeed longer but shorter alike, because the nights are so very, very beautiful.

And celebrating that with a thorough brunch on the weekend only feels right.

Chicken and Waffles

Ingredients for 4 portions
(after this lovely recipe—thanks so much to M. for the tip!)

For the chicken: 

  • 2 medium-sized chicken breast (about 500 g)
  • 200 ml buttermilk
  • 2 tbs roughly chopped mint leaves
  • 2 tbs roughly chopped coriander leaves
  • 3 pepperoni
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 tsp salt
  • about 50-100 g wheat flour for dredging
  • oil for frying

For the spicy maple syrup: 

  • 200 g maple syrup
  • 1 tsp freshly ground coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp freshly ground cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp paprika flakes

For the waffles: 

  • 100 g wheat flour
  • 50 g rice flour
  • 1 tbs cane sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 200 ml buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 50 g melted butter, cooled down
  • additional butter for frying the waffles

On the day before:

Cut the chicken breasts in 2 or 4 pieces each. Cut off the stem of the pepperoni and using a blender mix it with the buttermilk the herbs, the garlic and the salt until creamy. Pour the marinade over the chicken in an airtight container and put it into the fridge for 12-24 hours.

Toast the spices for the spicy maple syrup in a pan on medium heat for 1-2 minutes until their scent rises up, add them to the syrup, and set aside to infuse for 24 hours at room temperature.

In the morning:

For the waffle dough mix the dry ingredients and whisk in the buttermilk, the egg, and the melted butter until you have a smooth batter. Cover the bowl and let it rest for about an hour at room temperature. Heat up your waffle iron and prepare the waffles according to its instructions.

Shake off the excess marinade of the chicken, and dredge it in the wheat flour. Fill a pot with vegetable oil about as high as your little finger is long and put it on medium heat. Sprinkle a bit of flour into the oil to check if it’s good: when it sizzles and starts to turn golden and brown it is. Now add the chicken and fry in the oil for about 7 minutes on both sides. When it’s done let it drain on paper towels.

Serve the fried chicken on top of the waffles and drizzle it with the spicy maple syrup.

bread, how-to, main dish, meat & fish, soul food

Searching for the Sun

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Classic Hot Dog - Birds

Misery is here. It’s creeping through locked windows and doors, sneaking up on us like an unwelcome guest. It is carried by dark, thick clouds that keep denying us a lasting glimpse of the wonderful spring sun.

You almost tend to get hermitical. Not being able to spend your time under a blue sky for weeks when this–spring–usually is the one time of the year that urges you to spend your free time outside. To get yourself some energy. To soak up joy. And sooner or later you are simply displeased with everything. Including (let’s be honest here) with yourself.

So, distraction is what we need from all this shit. A new book. Tying knots into the socks of your most favourite person. A bunch of flower to brighten up the greyness. Tickling each other’s ears (or one’s own). Making plans for a trip. A Sunday, dedicated simply to soul food.

And because the weather outside truly is dreary, we’ll make the hot dog almost completely on our own. It is definitely worth the trouble anyway. And when you bite into that self-baked brioche roll, rejoice in the homemade ketchup, and you can’t even decide on which side of the filled bread you want to stop the dripping content first… you will smile again. I promise.

Classic Hot Dog

Hot Dogs

Ingredients for 6 hot dogs
the brioche rolls are our own, the rest is after a recipe out of Stevan Paul’s „Auf die Hand“

For the ketchup:

  • 100 g onions
  • 2 tbs oil
  • 120 g sugar
  • 2 tbsp tomato mark
  • 1 tsp paprika powder
  • 1 pinch of Pimento powder
  • 500 g canned tomatoes, pureed
  • 100 ml water
  • 50 ml white wine vinegar

For the brioche rolls:

  • 100 ml milk
  • 10 g fresh yeast
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 230 g wheat flour + more 
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 40 g unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 egg
  • for the coating: 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp milk

For the cucumbers:

  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1-2 pinches of salt

For the hot dogs:

  • 6 hotdog sausauges
  • 1 onion
  • 5 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tbsp mustard
  • 1/2 tbsp grated horseradish
  • 1 hand full of salad leaves, washed
  • mayonnaise
  • the cucumbers from above
  • 6 hot dog rolls

Ketchup: Peel the onions and chop them roughly. Gently sizzle them in oil for 10 minutes, then add the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, so everything just bubbles, and let it cook openly for 1 hour. Puree everything, put the pot back onto the stove and cook for 15 more minutes. Strain the sauce through a sieve and press everything through with a tablespoon. In the end there should remain only about 1 tbsp of solid ingredients in the sieve. Fill into sterilized jars, store them in the fridge and use them up within 2 months.

Brioche rolls: Combine all ingredients in a bowl and knead for at least 5 minutes. Dust a working surface with additional flour and keep on kneading the dough in it until it just doesn’t stick anymore. It will still be soft and slightly damp. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover it, and let it rest for 2 hours.

Divide into 6 equal portions, knead them shortly, then form them to balls. Roll them between the working surface and your hands until they have a long shape, just like a sausage. Put them onto a baking tray, covered with a sheet of baking paper, cover it with a dry and clean cloth and let it rest for 30 more minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Mix the remaining egg yolk with the milk and brush it onto the rolls. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Cucumbers: Cut the cucumber into thin slices. Put everything in a pan and heat it up. Cook on medium temperature until the cucumbers are soft.

Hot dogs: Heat up the sausages. Peel the onion and cut it into dices. Mix the ketchup with the mustard and the horseradish. Cut the brioche rolls lengthwise, put in a sausage each and a bit of salad. Garnish with the hot dog sauce, mayonnaise, cucumbers, and onions. Enjoy warm.

bread, main dish, meat & fish, soul food

Film food: The Heart Warmer

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Heart Warmer Burger

It is so comforting to make burgers with an agitated mind! The hands are moving almost automatically; the brain knows what nice things to do out of flour, milk, egg, butter, and yeast and a somewhat odd looking piece of transverse rib, while the thoughts are actually distracted completely. They are far away, still so lost in reverie and concerned with the impressions just experienced. The feelings do not care at all about the fact that it was not real and „just an anime series“ which you almost inhaled during the past hours: The head is still full with the pictures, filled with the music, and the impact. The heart is still racing and also feels a bit numb. The thoughts are in uproar, while I almost feel a little sad because it is over and I had to leave that world… So they really still exist, those gripping TV-series, that just won’t let you go and that achieve to really bother you deep down! Even if you have to look at the subtitles for understanding everything. Continue reading Film food: The Heart Warmer →

soul food, sweet tooth, vegetarian

Just for ourselves!

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Donuts

Have you thought about yourself today?

Have you already done something that is just for you? Have you already told yourself: „It doesn’t matter what the others think!“… and did you really mean it?

Have you already treated yourself today? With a calm gaze to the blue sky, a joyous lifting of your arms whilst cheering gladly or maybe rather a nocturnal howling with the wolves? Have you given yourself a small gift today? Just because it’s Friday?

Have you already taken a look deep inside your soul today, to find your greatest wish? Have you done anything for your body today? Have you infected anybody with an honest laugh?

Have you accomplished an irritated look from others with your wonderfully crazy actions today? Have you already beamed so much for joy that sparkling lights surrounded you and almost used up all your energy?

Maybe now it’s time for all these things. Maybe you find your way back to yourself again, to what you really are. To the person that is your existence, without masquerade – without hide-and-seek – your true self!

Maybe a donut will help you with that. A freshly fried, fluffy, vanilla-creme-filled, sticky, sugar-sweet donut! It surely will give you inner calm and it has the secret sugar rush superpower to give you back those pumped dry energy reserves. Wanna bet?

Donuts

Donuts

Donuts With and Without Vanilla Creme Filling and Sugar Icing

Ingredients for about 12-16 donuts

for the donuts (thank you for the recipe, Jens!)

  • 21 g fresh yeast
  • 175 ml lukewarm milk
  • 65 g sugar
  • 420 g flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 35 g soft and unsalted butter
  • 500-750 ml (vegetable) oil for deep frying

for the vanilla creme (enough for 1 whole donut recipe as above)

  • 75 g sugar
  • 20 g corn starch or corn flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 250 ml milk
  • 2 big egg yolks
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 30 g unsalted butter

for the icing

  • 30 g unsalted butter
  • 90-120 g icing sugar
  • 1-3 tbsp milk
  • food colouring (optional)
  • sugar sprinkles (optional)

Donuts

For the donuts put the yeast in a bowl and dissolve it with the sugar in the milk. Let the yeast start running for about 5 minutes.

Add flour, salt, vanilla, egg and butter to the milk mixture and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth. Is it still a little too sticky now, add a bit of more flour to the dough. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 60-90 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the vanilla cream: Put sugar, corn starch and salt it a pot and stir until it is mixed up. Add the milk, egg yolks and the vanilla and bring it to a boil. As soon as the first bubbles from boiling start to surface turn down the heat a little bit and cook over medium heat while whisking constantly until the mixture thinkens. Remove the pot from the stove and whisk in the butter. Let the creme cool down to room temperature.

Put the donut dough on a working surface and roll it out until it is as thick as your thumb. Cut out the donuts and if you want to have donuts without filling as well cut out smaller holes in the middle of the donuts. Keep these small balls, they are delicious too! For the donuts themselves I used a glass with a diameter of about 7 cm and for the holes I used a cutter with about 3 cm diameter. After cutting out the first batch knead the rest of the dough, flatten it out again and cut out more donuts. Put the donuts and donut holes on a flour dusted surface and cover them with a clean, dry towel or cloth. Let them rest for about 60 more minutes until they have visibly grown and look all nice and fluffy.

Pour the oil in a pot and heat it up to 150°C (about 325 F). Put a small piece of dough in it: As soon as it has risen to the top and starts to turn brown the oil has the right temperature. If you have one at home you can also use a deep fryer by the way!

Fry the donuts and donut holes from each side for about one minute until they have browned nicely to your liking. Place the cooked donuts onto a paper towel and allow them to cool.

Meanwhile you can prepare the icing: Melt the butter and whisk in the icing sugar and 1 tbsp of the milk. Add more icing sugar or milk until the icing has the consistency you wish: It should be a little bit runny but not too much! Add food colouring to your liking.

Using a pastry bag or something similar squirt the vanilla cream into the donuts you want to be filled. Dip the finished donuts in the icing, turn over and decorate them with sugar sprinkles. Roll the donut holes in icing sugar.

Best eaten fresh!