Haydenei

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Sometimes you stumble across recipes, your not so sure about. Some of them even sound absurd. I already wrote about one of these absurd recipes – the sauerkraut chocolate cake – but it’s not about the cake but about a red beet mango soup. A dish which is a delight for the taste and the eye and an interesting combination of flavors and vivid colors.

Usually, a thick soup is not the typical thing for the summertime. But with all the rain and the low temperatures, which are not suitable for a summer, the dish would probably work fine.

Ingredients for 4 servings

• 600g red beet
• 3 ripe mangos
• 800ml chicken stock
• 50g shrimp
• 60g ginger
• 20g fresh horseradish
• Olive oil
• 3 Table spoons lemon juice

Preparation

Step 1:

Peel the red beet and ginger and chop it. Braise the ginger lightly in 2 table spoons of olive oil. Add the red beet and the chicken stock. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

Step 2:

Peel the mangos and remove the stone. Take about 80g – 100g of the mango and blend it with 1 table spoon of lemon juice and 2 table spoons of olive oil in a kitchen blender.

Step 3:

Blend the red beet, the chicken stock, the rest of the mango and the rest of the ginger. Afterwards, let it simmer for another 20 minutes.

Step 4:

Peel the horseradish and grate it. Fry the shrimp in some olive oil and place it on some kitchen paper. Season the soup with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. If you want a finer soup, you can strain it through a fine strainer, before you serve it.

Step 5:

Put some of the shrimp in a soup plate and fill it with the soup. Afterwards garnish it with some fresh horseradish and mango puree.

Goulash is one of those recipes of which you can find gazillion variations. Originated in Hungary the recipes are passed on from generation to generation. Even though they vary considerably from one family to another, they all have bell peppers in common and they taste fabulous. Especially in the cold time of the year they are a welcome dish to counter cold and bad weather outside the house, because they bring warmth to body and mind. And like chilli con carne, it is suitable for occasions, on which you have to feed a crowd, have to prepare in advance, keep it warm and heat it up again if you guests only eat part of it. As an alternative you can freeze it and thaw it later on.

Like many others, my parent told me how to make a good goulash. This recipe even enabled me to convince my wife, who had her reservations when it came to goulash.

Recipe for 4 servings

• 700g beef
• 700g onions
• 200g bacon
• 2 bell peppers
• 1 Tablespoon of hot paprika
• 1 Tablespoon of sweet paprika
• 2 Tablespoons of tomato puree
• 250ml broth
• salt
• pepper
• butter

Preparations
Step 1:
Cut the beef to 4 cm cubes and sear it in portions.

Step 2:
Get out the hankies and dice the onions and bell peppers (they don’t have to be too fine). Put the onions in a heavy sauce pan and roast them with butter until they are glassy. Add the diced bacon, the diced bell peppers, the paprika and the tomato puree and roast it a little more. Add the seared beef and pour the broth until it just covers the beef.

Step 3
Simmer it with medium heat for about 40 minutes until the meat is tender. Add salt and pepper. If you like, pimp it with a bit of sour cream. But the sour cream is purely optional, I don’t use it.

Spätzle as a side dish
At home, my parents used to make bread dumplings to go along with the goulash. If you don’t want to prepare them, try Spätzle instead. They make a pretty good side dish. The convenience food industry offers a variety of Knöpfle and Spätzle here in Germany, which you just have to heat up, but they are nothing compared to home made Spätzle. And they are so easy to prepare. Knöpfle and Spätzle are just different in the way they look, but are more or less the same.

Recipe for 4 servings

• 250g all purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 50ml milk
• 10g salt
• 1 Tablespoon walnut oil (optional)

Preparation
Step 1
Sift the flour and beat it with salt, eggs, milk and oil until it forms a smooth batter, which builds bubbles. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Step2
The easiest way to do it is to use a spätzle press or potato press. Put the press over some boiling salted water, put press some of the batter into the boiling water. After a short while, use a skimmer or perforated spoon to get the spätzle out of the boiling water. That’s it. You can also use something which might be literally translated as spätzles fad. Or you can cut or scrape the spätzle. The latter one is the traditional way to prepare spätzle. You use a kind of scraper and every time you cut of a piece of the batter into the boiling water. It takes practice to get good at it, but it’s supposed to be as easy as the other ways. But if you just want to try it, just use a spätzle or potato press. It’s easy and tastes great.

Since our traditional Christmas Eve Dinner was Raclette I used the Holidays to cook a little bit more elaborate. I didn’t search for recipes beforehand, but got my inspiration while cooking. This wasn’t an easy task since the refrigerators are fully loaded just before the Christmas Holidays. As opposed to the rest of the year, you have a great variety to choose from and my choice fell in a pair of legs of rabbit. I also added ingredients which I probably would need for a good recipe. When I arrived at home, I searched how to prepare rabbit, since I had never tried to cook that before.
Along my search I also looked up what the difference between rabbit and hare was, because I wasn’t sure of that. Here in Germany some pet owners call their rabbits also hare and the English jackrabbits is in reality a hare. In general hares live in the wild and rabbits can usually also be held as pets. In Germany hares are a protected species and can only be hunted during specific times. There are more differences, have a look here for example.

After some more searching I found a recipe for a braised rabbit. But since you have to marinate the legs for a day in red wine, it’s nothing for right away cooking. And due to the red wine, the meat also changes color to violet and that also accounts for the strange color in the picture of the two legs in the saucepan.
After the meat was marinated for 24 hours and afterwards braised for another 1 ½ hours you get a real tender and delicious meat.

Ingredients:

• 2 legs of rabbit

For the marinade:

• 100g onions
• 70g carrots
• 70g celeries
• 70g leek
• 1 Tablespoon parsley
• 500ml red wine
• 2cl Cognac or Calvados
• 2 bay laves
• 1 garlic clove
• ½ Teaspoon pepper corns
• 1 orange (juice of)

Also

• 100g streaky bacon
• 50g onions
• 50g carrots
• 1 Teaspoon flour
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 2 Teaspoons paprika (noble sweet)
• 2 cloves
• 1 twig of thyme
• 1 Orange

Step 1:
Wash and dry the legs of rabbit and remove surplus skin. Place the legs in a plastic bag, add the chopped vegetables, the sliced onions, pressed garlic clove, crushed peppercorns, bay leaves and parsley. Pour in wine, cognac and orange juice and put the closed bag in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Step 2:
Take the meat out of the marinade and dry it. Strain the marinade and keep the liquid for later use. Chop the bacon and render it in a heavy sauce pan. Roast the legs from all sides.

Step 3:
Add chopped carrots and onions and sprinkle with flour. Roast it for a few minutes and add marinade, salt, paprika, thyme and clover. Let it simmer for 80 minutes until the meat is tender.

Step 4:
Remove the meat, strain the sauce, add the orange as juice or slices and let it boil up. Add the meat and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve with side dishes.