Rinderrouladen

Posted by gmirage1 on Jan 6, 2012 in Austrian/German, beef | 11 comments

At first look you’ll know that this is like Morcon, a rolled meat with fillings of vegetables, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, hotdogs and pickles served on special occasions back home. Rouladen simply means rolled meat. The German and Austrian counterpart has less filling and has a different sauce from what I remember my mom makes. Well, I don’t expect them to be the same, that’s one good thing about food, there are similarities and differences that you get to enjoy whichever you like.

Roulade:
4-5 Beef Roulade (thin strips)
8-10 slices of bacon
2-3 onions
1-2 tablespoons spicy mustard from Dijon
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons butter
freshly ground white or black pepper
Sea salt or coarse salt ground pepper

Sauce:
2-3 onions
1  carrot (cut in half)
1 / 4 celeriac
1 clove of garlic
1 large tomato
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 l beef stock, chicken stock, veal stock, vegetable stock, broth or bouillon cubes
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
freshly ground white or black pepper
Sea salt or coarse salt ground pepper
butter

Preparation:
1. Peel the onions and cut into rings.
2. Wash the roulades and pat dry with kitchen paper.
3. Clean the carrots, peel and cut half of it into thin strips.
4. Sprinkle roulades with salt and pepper, brush with mustard and top with two slices of bacon, onion rings and carrot strips.
5. Roll up and fasten with toothpicks or roulade needles.

Procedure:
1. Wash tomato with hot water and quarter them.
2. The fat can be extremely hot, fry the roulades on all sides, add salt and pepper.
3. Dice the remaining carrots.
4. Remove the roulades from the pan and pour off most of the fat.
5. Fry the diced vegetables and herbs (onions, carrots, garlic, celeriac, thyme, bay leaf) in butter. Let contents of the pot thicken with tomato paste.
6. Scrape off the browned bits with a wooden spoon from pan bottom.
7. Bring the sauce to a boil and place the roulades.
8. Then add in chopped tomato.
9. Let boil and let simmer for about 1 hour and 50 minutes.
10. Pour sauce and season to taste.

Serve with rice or pasta.

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for:

Food Friday, Yummy Sunday

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Posted by gmirage1 on Dec 25, 2011 in Baking, Cupcakes, Featured | 18 comments

Winter is getting the better of us. We’re becoming much like squirrels…we only get out of the house when need be. That is to go to school and buy food. That is why I am so thankful for the corner shop that sells vegetables and fruits in bulk, they also have meat that I can get for less – well, compared to grocery prices. Most importantly, eggs in abundance. I can get 30 eggs for 4euro whereas 10 eggs at the grocery shops cost 2euro already. The eggs are important for hubby and I, building up muscles from protein, for the macarons that we so love to make and for the cupcakes…for the same reason as the macarons.

There are a number of red velvet cake and cupcake recipes around but I wouldn’t go test each of them as they did here. Though I got to be thankful I know now which recipe I should follow next. These cuppies were made some months ago, unearthed from archives and posted oh so late. ^_^ I anyway hope you enjoy these eye candies. This is from one of my favorite bakers, Stephanie Jaworksi of Joy of Baking.

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for:

Food Friday, Yummy Sunday

Chilli con Carne

Posted by gmirage1 on Dec 10, 2011 in Chili | 25 comments

 I am not much a fan of spicy food, hubby is and the kids took that from him. Wasabi peanuts? Go ahead, they’ll munch on those as they would popcorn. If there’s one chili dish to exempt, it would be chili con carne and when I cook it, it’s not really that spicy. Actually I am missing the chilli hotdog that hubby and I like from 7-11, a 24-hour store back home. Being often out late due to the nature of our work (publishing), 7-11  has become a favorite hangout when we get hungry in the middle of the night.

For the recipe I follow this one I found online sans the yogurt and coriander garnish. I also had to put less spicy ingredients, the kids and hubby could spice theirs later. I dropped in red beans too and since I removed the yogurt, I topped it with cheese instead.

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Food Friday

Gnocchi, Tuna and Ricotta

Posted by gmirage1 on Dec 3, 2011 in Italian, pasta | 9 comments

I’ve recently found a food fondness (alliteration not intended) that has been long forgotten. Gnocchi, those thick, soft dumplings I like eating with tuna sauce reintroduced itself in our kitchen after a year of absence. ^_^

I think I’ve been overlooking that particular shelf…hmm more of I can’t see it for the height of me. Yep, I sometimes ask someone to help me get the item from up the shelf. I’m 5’3″ and shelves are made for taller people. hihi.

So as simple as this recipe gets you’ll need:

a can of tuna
a can of tomato sauce
ricotta
a pack of gnocchi (you can make them too)
garlic
onion
olive oil
basil leaves
pepper
quattro formaggi (optional)

If you bought gnocchi, simply follow the cooking instructions.  If you’d like to make them on your own, here’s Mario Batali’s Gnocchi recipe. There are gnocchis that have ricotta already so if you get those then opt the ricotta out.

Saute garlic and onion on olive oil.
Pour tomato sauce and let simmer.
Stir in ricotta and tuna flakes.
Flavor with pepper and set aside.
Pour sauce mixture over gnocchi, garnish with basil leaves and cheese.

Serve as is or with baguette.

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Food Friday

Beef, braised

Posted by gmirage1 on Nov 19, 2011 in beef | 12 comments

Back when hubby and I are still dating we would have favorite restaurants and certain dishes that we order in pair like our palate and tummies are synchronized. ^_^ There was a restaurant, whose name now lost in memory, that served a dish we still remember – it’s savory aroma still reminiscent of our visits. They have the best braised beef – a side dish of carrots and green onions on top of rice – that we often have for dinner. Been attempting to duplicate it since we moved here but to no avail.

I did at one time followed a recipe I found online and posted it here, it tastes more of the Chowking version. It wasn’t easy to do too…so when I found this braised beef sauce at the Asia shop I was relieved and ecstatic. We were having braised beef often ever since.

Braising is a long process. Here is a detailed procedure, complete with photos that I found online. What I do, for lack of time or for laziness as well, is to put the beef in a pressure cooker – a lot of them actually in different cuts meant for stew and gulasch. After half an hour of cooking, I’d let the meat cool down and marinate it with the special sauce (would check the brand later) for 20 minutes or so. I then heat up oil and put the marinated meat in, cooking until the sauce somewhat looks it’s been absorbed and pour all sauce in. I turn off the heat then and let the sauce thicken up.

Hubby often asks for boiled egg and carrots for side dishes but mashed potato and broccoli are the kids’ request. Serve with rice, and yes, so tender are the meat you can use chopsticks for them! ^_^

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for:

Food Friday, Yummy Sunday

Mohr im Hemd

Posted by gmirage1 on Nov 10, 2011 in Austrian, Desserts, Featured | 9 comments

Mohr im Hemd is an Austrian dessert of chocolate cake pudding served with hot chocolate and whipped cream and most of the time, ice cream. Its basic ingredients are chocolate, bread crumbs, sugar, egg yolks, almonds and red wine and has the shape of a small Guglhupf but the above form is acceptable too. ^_^ Like the plum  pudding, it is cooked in water bath, doused with hot chocolate sauce and garnished with whipped cream and some berries of your choice.

Mohr im Hemd means moor in a shirt. The term Moor (black man) is used only rarely, and today – often perceived as negative – because of its colonial and racist partial use. The dessert is so named because the whipped cream is often put on top of or around the cake…pertaining to being worn.

For this post, I don’t have a recipe to share as this was something that son1 asked me to buy prepared, I only did the heating and plating…He loves this dessert to bits and I won’t say no either — you know how I’ve always said Austrian cakes are sour…this one is an exception.

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for:

Food Friday, Thursday Brownies

Simple Carbonara

Posted by gmirage1 on Nov 4, 2011 in Featured, Italian, pasta | 15 comments

I would like to call this simple dish four-ingredient Carbonara but counting everything in – including pasta, there’s actually more and I forgot to include  two other ingredients in this photo – parmesan and pepper. So let’s say four-ingredient Carbonara sauce. ^_^ Italian Carbonara doesn’t have cream; that’s what I’ve been reiterating in my posts and I’m sorry I just have to say it again. Then again, it always gets creamier with well, cream…and that’s perhaps what we we’re used to having.

Carbonara sauce has 4 basic ingredients, that’s egg, bacon, cheese and black pepper. Going more particular, the bacon used is either guanciale or pancetta but hey any bacon is ok. For the cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano/parmesan is preferred but I sometimes use the more similar Grana Padano.

Here’s what you need:

250g pasta of your choice (I often have Spaghetti or Tagliatelle)
100g bacon
100g parmesan
2 eggs
pepper

additional:

olive oil
garlic
onion

To cook, saute bacon in olive oil. Prepare pasta per package directions. In a bowl combine raw eggs, a drop of olive oil, cheese and pepper, mix well.

Put pasta in pan while still hot but remove the pan from heat. Stir in raw eggs mixture with pasta. Season with salt and pepper but I find the bacon salty already so I opt to leave out salt. Top your Carbonara with lots of parsley.

This is where your preferences come in. You can add peas, mushroom, broccoli or other vegetables. I sometimes put in tuna in lieu of bacon. Will have to share that recipe too. Enjoy your meal!

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Food Friday, Yummy Sunday