Witches fingers

Time before Halloween is always busy in our family. I can't sucrifice time enough to prepare good for the big party day. So this year I decided to make something delicious and frightening that can be done quickly. I had a lot of fun to form the fingers. It is just so easy but still yummy and and creepy. Perfect choice for a Halloween party. I was done within 30 minutes including preparation, baking and decoration. Everybody loved it.

Ingredients:

• 125 g flour
• 75 g butter
• 100 g ground almond
• 75 g icing sugar
• 1 egg
• ca. 20-25 pieces of almonds

Directions:

Mix flour, ground almond, icing sugar, butter and egg and with your hands until you get a nice smooth dough. 
Divide it into ca. 20 pieces, roll little balls from them, then form them into a rollers (as long and as thick as your own finger). 
Put the little fingers on baking paper. Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Form two knuckles (just like on your on hand). 
Take a sharp knife, and cut small rimples into the cookies to get a finger-like appearance. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius digrees (356 F). Bake the cookies for 10 minutes in preheated oven or until the fingers get a slightly golden colour.
Get a pot of red cranberries jam (strawberry might work as well, the point is that the colour of the jam is red). Put the end of the fingers into the jam to have a little bloody outfit to them.

Carrot- walnut cake a'la Ilse

A lovely friend of our family gave this recipe to me after I was lucky to taste it at her home. It was so delicious that I must have asked for the recipe. It's incredible. I seriously couldn't stop myself/ourselves. We almost eat up the whole cake.

Next time I'll try the cupcake version of it. Can't wait to share my experiences.

Ingredients for the cake: (24cm springform pan)

•  3 eggs  
• 200 g sugar  
• 1 pinch of salt  
• 200 ml sunflower oil  
• 250 g flour   
•  2 Tsp. grounded cinnamon   
•  ½ package of baking powder   
•  3 ounces rasped carrots   
•  2 mashed bananas 
•  80-90 g chopped walnuts  
• Butter (for greasing the springform pan)

Ingredients for the glaze:

• 25 g butter (at room temperature)  
• 2 ounces of icing sugar
• 3 Tbsp. cream cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 170 Celsius degrees (340 F). Mix eggs with sugar and pinch salt and beat until soft creamy. Turn the mixer on the lowest setting and slowly pour oil to it.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder over the egg mixture and mix gently with a wooden spoon (You can do it with your mixer on the lowest setting, it works perfectly as well.)

Add rasped carrots, smashed banana and crushed walnuts, stir gently and pour the mix into greased springform pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (toothpick test/doneness test).

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Let cake cool off!

For the glaze: Combine all ingredients and beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake. 

 

Exotic chicken served in pineapple

Once a waiter asked me whether I am open for a surprise. Seeing my astonished face, he explained his plan to me. He wanted us not to order from the menu card, but let him guess what our hearts wish the most. Well, we said oookaaaaayy. The result was frenetic. I am still wondering how he could figure it out. To cut a long story short: here was the first time I got chicken served in pineapple. Loved it. Fortunately I found the recipe in a magazine, so decided to cook it to my love. 

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken breast fillet cut in small pieces
• 3 small paprika (if possible colorful)
• 1 whole pineapple (can is also good, in this case you serve your dish on plate)
• 1 medium sized onion 
• salt, pepper
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 chives garlic (pressed)
• peanut oil
• Himalaya basmati rice (Riceland product)

Directions:

Cut pineapple into two pieces and remove the inside. Don't throw away the shell, it can be used as a "plate". Make sure you remove the middle piece of the pineapple (core) as it is pretty hard. Cut pineapple into small piece (according to the size of chicken pieces).
Chop onion into small pieces, preheat oil in a wok, and simmer onion to glassy. Add chicken, flavor with salt, pepper and bake it until meat gets white. 
Wash and cut paprika into small pieces. Add to the wok with pressed garlic and soy sauce.
Cook the rice.
When paprika is done (so not hard any more), add pineapple cubes. Stir carefully. Taste it, if something needed (salt, pepper, soy sauce etc.).

Mix chicken ragout with boiled rice (or you can serve separate as well), and fill it back into the pineapple shell. If you decide not to mix rice with ragout, start filling up the pineapple shell with a layer of rice, and pour ragout over it. Serve hot/warm.

Real Bavarian mood - Brotzeitteller

Oktoberfest in my beloved Munich is over this year. Unfortunately I don't live there anymore and I didn't have to opportunity to go there this year to celebrate Oktoberfest with all my friends I left there. (I hope next year, maybe) Sometimes I miss the good old times so much. I miss Munich, I miss everything from there.

Ingredients: (2 persons)

• 2 db Bavarian bread roll (or Bavarian pretzels)
• few slices of cheese (I used smoked cheese because I simply love that)
• meatloaf (Leberkäse) 
• any kind of German sausage
• radish (or as Bavarians call it, Radieserl) 
• pepper cut into thin strips
• 1 Tbsp. egg cream with chieves (if you have the possibility, use Obazda)
• sweet and Dijon mustard (for serving) 

Directions:

It's not a recipe, so you actually don't need any directions or hints. It's culinary adventure mixed with nostalgia. 
So long story short: Take a place. Much better if you take a wooden board or a wooden cutting board. (Unfortunately I don't have such a thing home, so I sticked with ceramic boards.) 
The key: Serve all the ingredients nicely on the board. Don't forget mustard and a lovely glas of real German beer (best choice is a light wheat beer.) Enjoy your meal!

Note: I missed a few things from my plate - which are very important on a traditional German Brotzeitteller plate - because I don't really like them or simply couldn't buy them at the place I live now. BUT to be precise, I can't finish this post without mentioning and offering them to you: Sülze (head cheese), pickles, Obazda (cheese spread).

Cevapcici

Today's Balkan themed grill party was a gread success! Cevapcici, one of the most emblematic dish of the Balkan region played the main role. So that I avoid to offend anyone, I just call it Balkan dish as each folk in this region claims the rights to call it "their own national food". It's an outstanding dish and so easy to make. Traditionally it can be served with mustard, mustard onion, ajvar, sour cream/créme freche or even with yogurt.

Ingredients:

• 500 g minced pork meat
• 500 g minced beef meat
• 500 g minced lamb meat
• 3 medium onions
• 8 cloves garlic (1 head is perfect as well)
• 2 Tbsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. red paprika powder (édes-nemes)
• 2 pinches chili powder
• 1/2 Tbsp. pepper
• 2 Tbsp. marjoram
• 2 Tbsp. tarragon mustard (mix mustard with tarragon)
• 1 egg
• oil for frying

Directions:

Finely chop the onion it is almost minced. Chop the garlic as thoroughly as you possibly can (or simply press it). Add these to the meat in a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper and all the other herbs. Mix it well with your hands. 

1. Take a kitchen plank and a large knife. Make small tight rolls while using the knife (ca. 6cm long and 3cm thick). The point is to make the rolls as tight as possible otherwise the cevapcici falls apart while you are baking them. If you are not sure, try to make it as tight as possible, then put them into the freezer for about 30 minutes, then cut the rolls into pieces.

2. Use a gnocchi, croquet and noodle maker machine (see picture below) and make ca. 6cm long and 3cm thick cevapcici rolls.

Preheat oil in a frying pan, fry the cevapcici while continuously turning them around until crispy. Make sure they don't stick to the bottom and/or get burned! It takes about 10 minutes.

OR: Heat your grill to medium high and cook the cevapici for about 2-3 minutes per side, turning once, until they are cooked through and a deep brown color. Do not overcook them.

For those who want to be professionals and real cevapcici experts, here is a small hint. 

Forrás: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FyXW18ZgdtI

 

Forrás: http://www.haztartasiaruhaz.hu/images/termek/711214_tok_szaggato.jpg