Koenigsberger Klopse. Not for capers haters.

This is a real granny dish. My grandma cooked it, telling me it reminded her of her own childhood - and I also found similar recipes in my oldest cook book, which dates form 1926. Seems it's named after the town of Königsberg, which is now in Russia and called Kaliningrad. Quite a bit of history, ain't it?

Anyway, basically you make meat balls, cook them in a savory broth and serve them in a Béchamel sauce with capers. Tons of capers. So please, do not make this for anyone who hates them.


And the secret ingredient is - if you like to call it like that - anchovies. I know, they're gross. I mean, really. And this might seem totally unreal coming from me, who absolutely despises every food that comes out of the ocean: you MUST put in anchovies! Otherwise it just won't taste good. Trust me, you won't taste any fishiness, instead this small amount of fish acts as a flavor enhancer (unless, of course, you are allergic to fish protein. Then leave it out, for heavens sake!). And why are sardine packagings always so pretty? 

OK, let's travel back in time:

Burgers. It's a celebration!

This blog now exists for 2 years - amazing how time goes by. And what had started as experiment and more of a recipe catalog for myself, now has lots of regular readers and over 100 facebook fans. Thank you so much!

My life is about to change drastically: I have quit my job (which I had for 11 years) and will now be a student again. I will be concentrating on web design, so don't be surprised if appearances or features of this blog change once in a while. Please don't be afraid to tell me what you like - and maybe don't like.

Real burgers have become some kind of celebratory meal for me, so while most of you watch the Superbowl, I will celebrate this blog's second anniversary and the changes that lie ahead.

Paella. Bringing some summer into your kitchen.

Winter really is harsh this year - it has now been snowing for at least 24 consecutive hours and it doesn't seem to stop. I haven't seen the sun in a while, and if, it's so bitter cold outside, it feels like the cold is cutting into the skin. Hence the yearning for some summer vibes, easily delivered by a Paella. 

Similar to Risotto and Djuvec, Paella is a Mediterranean rice dish. They all have in common that you first fry the rice in some oil and only then add water to cook the rice. For me, Paella absolutely tastes like summer, reminding me of some very nice days in Bilbao. So whenever I come to Spain, I buy some smoked paprika powder, some saffron and of course, Paella rice:


Paella rice is a small grain rice, very similar to risotto or Abrioro rice. So don't worry if you can't find special Paella rice in your supermarket - I have also made very tasty Paellas with risotto rice, even milk pudding rice. Hell, in my opinion, better make a Paella with long grain rice than no Paella at all!

Rouladen. German classic, nothing more to say.

According to the wikipedia, Rouladen are "bacon, onions, mustard and pickles wrapped in thinly sliced beef which is then cooked". This is basically correct, but tells you nothing about the taste and texture. Let alone the sauce. And of course, there are millions of recipes - almost every German hausfrau has their own. I, for example, like to keep the onions in the sauce, not in the rolls. And the sauce is based on red wine, which I happen to like very much and have known since childhood.

My mother-in-law on the other hand, makes the sauce with tons of mustard. And my grandmother used to make a simple brown sauce. Over the years, I have developed quite a mixture of all of those recipes. Serve it with any starch you like, but I prefer either mashed potatoes or spaetzle.

Grilled cheese and tomato salad. Dinner for one.

Cheese and tomatoes have always been a great combination in my eyes. And a grilled cheese sandwich is some of the easiest soul food I know. Here's a little secret: put some drops of Kirsch (Kirschwasser) on the bread slices and it will taste just like cheese fondue.

Chili. Hot stuff for cold days.

Chili. I guess there is not much to say. Of course, there are different beliefs: beans or no beans, ground meat or pieces, vegetables or no vegetables. This may sound totally crazy, but I like all kinds of chili. But depending on my mood, I sometimes prefer one variation over the other.

What's really much more important: the spices and liquids you add. And in my case, it's whiskey (with a nice amount of peat), red wine and dark ale. Fresh and dried chilies are a must.

Hot pumpkin soup. Getting ready for Halloween.

Here in Germany, some people started to celebrate Halloween - nowadays, you can even go to parties. But 15 years ago, living in a small town, my friends started the tradition of cooking American food, preferably something hot and watching horror movies. Over the years, we made tons of different things - chili, homemade burgers, spaghetti with meat balls. But one thing remained consistent over the years: pumpkin soup as a starter.

This one is creamy, meaty and bacon-y and of course: hot. But let me assure you: except for the crème fraîche I used for serving, it's vegan!

Strammer Max. Dinner for one.

As Flo is often working the late shift in the last weeks, I spend many evenings alone. Which is absolutely fine by me, if it weren't for the fact that cooking and eating alone is not really fun. At least for me. So most times, I stick to something quick and simple to make. And in the best case it's filling, too.

Strammer Max is one of those simple dishes - it's more of an open-faced sandwich with ham and fried egg. Ready to eat in minutes and giving you that warm, fuzzy feeling, even if you have to defend it against the cats.

Carrot dip. The mean brother of baby food.

This looks so innocent, doesn't it? I really reminds you a bit of baby food, if it weren't for the olives, right? Go ahead, take a bite. At first, you think: "What is she talking about? Just regular carrots. A bit on the sweet side." And then it will hit you: the tartness of the lemon juice. The slight bitterness of the olive oil. The complexity of the spices. And last, but not least: the slight burn of chili in your throat.

This is a great dip and it goes very well with all those other oriental-inspired dips, hummus, baba ghanoush and tzatziki. Just serve them all with some pita bread and olives and you have a simple, but very satisfying dinner.

Coq au vin. The chicken version of Beuf Bourguignon.

Ever since the movie "Julie & Julia" came out, everyone seems to be crazy about Julia Child's version of Beuf Bourguignon. I know, Beuf Bourguignon is a great dish, but sometimes you just can't find the right beef in the supermarket or at your butcher's. Or you just don't want to spend the money. On the other hand, 4 chicken thighs only cost around 2 Euro. Seemed like a deal to me.

Oh, and there's a simple rule about cooking with wine: don't use anything that you wouldn't drink. But you don't have to use the most expensive one; a simple wine in a real bottle will do fine. Real French gourmet food for a couple of bucks. Perfect.

Picadillo. With cinnamon and raisins.

Picadillo is one of the most versatile ragús in South American cooking. You can simply eat it with rice, preferably accompanied by a fried banana. Or use it as a filling for empanadas or pastel de papas - which is best described as the Argentine version of Shepard's Pie. But more on that in another post, first we are going to make the Picadillo.

Steak au poivre. Even purists will love it.

When it comes to steak, I'm a purist. Salt, pepper, maybe a tad of herb butter and I'm happy. No crazy marinades, no BBQ sauce, no oysters, thank you. Oh, and medium rare, please.

But sometimes you may need a tiny bit more, maybe a little sauce to make the fries go down easier. And this is where Alton Brown comes in. In his show "Good Eats" he did not only present how to manage to get steaks out of a whole fillet, he also made a very minimalistic sauce. Just cream, cognac and pepper. It's a dream, it goes perfectly well with a steak without totally smothering its taste. Just what I like.

Spinach Salad. Like breakfast in the evening.

This is not even a recipe - just a combination of ingredients. Basically, it's almost everything you would eat for an English Breakfast: bacon and eggs, fried tomatoes and some spinach. OK, the mushrooms and the breakfast sausage are missing, but mushrooms are out for me because of their sorbitol content - and there is no way I will ever eat a breakfast sausage again.

Just arrange everything a bit differently and you'll have an excellent lunch or dinner salad.

Spaghetti Bolognese. Hearty, chunky, highly aromatic.

Isn't curious that half the world eats Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce, except the Italians? They think we are all crazy eating fine, delicate noodles with a thick and chunky ragú. Or even worse: with meatballs.
I admit, getting the appropriate amount of pasta and sauce into your mouth is not really easy with this combination. Either you roll the spaghetti on your fork and all the ground beef falls off. Or you try to scoop up some sauce and the long pasta strands falls of. Feel free to cook rigatoni, ruote, conchiglie or whatever you like. But I stick with Spaghetti, because nothing beats the taste of childhood memories.

Tortellini. Simply with cream and ham.

Cream? Again?

Zürcher Geschnetzeltes. Stroganoff the Swiss way.

Did you know that sweet sherry is a total pain to clean up? Some years ago, a bottle broke with less than half a cup of sherry left. It might not sound so much, but it was a tremendous disaster. Sweet syrupy drops rolling down in slow motion, sticking to everything in their way and running into every little groove. Photo albums, books, shelves, parquet floor, the TV set and various video game consoles got their share. Up to this day, the reset button of the Nintendo N64 still needs a bit of extra persuasion. Not to mention that some weeks ago, when I disassembled book shelves to replace them with new ones, I found various remnants of the sherry fiasco on those hard-to-reach places.

Sherry is a key ingredient in this dish, though I - ahem - stick to the medium-dry variety nowadays. You can leave the mushrooms out if you want to, even the green pepper corns if you must. And binding the sauce with cream cheese is such a clever trick: it brings a certain discreet acidity and as it is thick and often contains a little amount of starch, that saves you from stirring up a slurry. In my hands, corn starch always makes a mess. Luckily, no comparison with sherry.

Porridge. For when you're ill.

Porridge is the perfect breakfast or snack when you're ill. It's warm, but you don't have to stand long in front of your stove if you feel a little weak. It's nourishing, but light and soothing if your stomach is acting up. And it's an absolute no-brainer to make, which comes in handy if you feel like your head is exploding.

Pork tenderloin with onions and red wine. Heaven.

A couple of years ago, there was a cooking show on TV, called "Schmeckt nicht, gibt's nicht" - which translates to something like "no yummy, no way". Host was a guy named Tim Mälzer and I liked the 20-minute show because he actually managed to have his meals ready in 20 minutes, mostly without saying the dreaded sentence "and here we have it prepared in advance"... It gave you a kind of down-to-earth feel when a TV cook actually starts to peel an onion in front of the camera, instead of being surrounded by an endless number of thick-rimmed glass bowls, one for each cut and measured ingredient. What a waste!

Sadly, because the show was canceled some time ago, all the recipes were taken off the TV channel's website - not even the wayback-machine could bring them back. I was really happy when I found a printout of this recipe when I browsed through my binder! I hope I remember to print out more recipes from the Internet, they vanish so quietly...

Dates and bacon. Only better with parmesan.

In foodie questionnaires, one question that almost always pops up is: "sweet or savory?" Seems that I belong to the rather small group that answers: "both! at the same time!" I have always been a fan of sweet/salty combinations, like cheese and membrillo, toast Hawaii or arroz a la cubana (fried rice, eggs and bananas). As Flo finds those combinations ranging between barley edible to downright revolting, I sometimes make myself something he really doesn't like - when he's not there. For example, dates rolled in bacon, then fried until crispy. This is a classic combination, just like prunes rolled in bacon. Then I read somewhere about filling them with Parmesan. And let me tell you, this takes this party classic to a whole new level.

Side note for you fructose malabsorption guys: dates contain sorbitol, which deactivates the very few fructose transporters you have. For me, 4 dates are just the limit.

Fondue sauces. A rainbow of colors and tastes.

Fondue is our standard meal for special occasions. We have it almost every Christmas and New Year's and some other times of the year, too. I like it because it's festive, you get to eat beef tenderloin and for the fact that you can prepare everything in advance. So on the great day, you only have to heat the broth, set the table and everyone is cooking for himself and having fun. Not to mention the romance, coziness and warmth an open fire brings into your house.

And in fact, we prefer the "fondue chinoise" variant, that means cooking thin slices of meat in a broth. As opposed to "fondue bourginonne", which means cooking the meat in hot oil. That is, of course, tasty like everything that has been fried. But your house will also smell for days as it has been fried. And I'm really not the one to count calories, but food cooked in oil and served with mayo-based sauces simply is too fatty for my taste.