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Hello Summer!

We wish you a lot of fun and a re­la­xing summer break:

to the va­ca­tio­ners – nice rest

the others – little stress

and to ALL – nice me­mo­ries of the summer 2023

We are there for you as usual also during the summer break!

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Allround Service

NEW in our ser­vice portfolio

Our world is be­co­ming in­cre­asingly glo­ba­lised, varied, and in­ter­linked – de­spite all the issues that con­front us daily.

And we are ready to play our part in all these ch­anges – with an ex­panded range of lin­gu­i­stic ser­vices, not least for our con­fe­rence in­ter­pre­ting clients.

NEW in our ser­vice port­folio: lan­guages in­clu­ding Hindi, Urdu, Pun­jabi, Hebrew, and Vietnamese

We’ve just de­mons­trated the ef­fec­ti­ve­ness of our ser­vices at an out­stan­ding dealer event for Skoda in Prague. We are de­lighted about the po­si­tive feed­back for our on-site ser­vices and our in­ter­na­tional in­ter­pre­ting team com­pri­sing mem­bers from num­e­rous count­ries. We are also gra­teful to them, of course.

You can count on our ex­per­tise for your lan­guage needs. Please do not he­si­tate to contact us if you have any ques­tions or queries re­gar­ding our lan­guage services.

We look for­ward to get­ting to know you – in person or online, the choice is yours.

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Allround Service

All­round Ser­vice in a fresh new look

We reckon that the in­cor­po­ra­tion of new tech­no­lo­gies should be ce­le­brated with a new design. If you share our opi­nion, why not browse th­rough our web­site and tell us how we’ve done.

We are con­fi­dent that the use of in­tel­li­gent so­lu­tions, such as ma­chine trans­la­tion (MT) with post-editing per­formed by ex­pe­ri­enced edi­tors and the im­ple­men­ta­tion of in­ter­pre­ting plat­forms (RSI) for your in­ter­na­tional mee­tings, mean we can re­spond faster and more fle­xibly to your spe­cific needs!

They save time and money. Of course, the se­cu­rity stan­dards we employ here remain of the hig­hest order. We will de­di­cate our­selves to the achie­ve­ment of your pro­jects – we’ve been doing for it for 40 years al­ready – and we look for­ward to your feed­back and in­qui­ries. Thank you 👏

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Allround Service

We update our web­site regularly

40 years of All­round Ser­vice – from a one-woman show to a pro­fes­sional agency – the journey and de­ve­lo­p­ment is clear from loo­king at our busi­ness card. And here’s our newly de­si­gned web­site with hel­pful in­for­ma­tion about our in­no­va­tive ser­vice op­tions and our cur­rent standards.

Ri­cotta Gnocchi

Ri­cotta gnocchi is not a recipe spe­cial to my family. Alt­hough the dish is eaten in almost all parts of Italy, it is fre­quently unknown to some people. To me, it re­calls sweet me­mo­ries of my child­hood. It takes me back to my summer ho­li­days at my grand­par­ents’ in the moun­tains of Tren­tino, a place where I was simply just happy. A bit like Marcel Proust and his bel­oved Made­leine. These ri­cotta gnocchi awaken my mé­moire in­vo­lon­taire.

Unlike the big city where I was raised, in Tren­tino they still always use fresh pro­ducts sourced from local suppliers.

As a child, I loved going shop­ping with my nonna to buy fresh ri­cotta in the dairy shop. And then I’d often eat it straight away for break­fast. I’d spread it on bread with a bit of sugar – a great way to start the day.

I rang my nonna a few days ago to ask for her ri­cotta gnocchi recipe.

A very simple, yet tasty dish. Here’s the in­gre­di­ents you’ll need, and how to prepare it…

For 2-3 persons:

  • 250 g firm ri­cotta (al­ter­na­tively you can use ri­cotta bought from a su­per­market, even if the qua­lity is not quite the same)
  • 100 g wheat flour, type 00 (the kind you use to make pizza). You might have to add a little more flour to pro­duce a dough that is firm, but still elastic
  • 2 tbsp. grana padano cheese
  • 1 egg
  • A pinch of salt
  • Butter
  • Sage
  • Op­tional: grated truffle

Bring some water to the boil (salted to taste).

While the water heats, put the ri­cotta, egg, some of the flour, salt and grana padano into a bowl. Knead ever­y­thing tog­e­ther with your hands to make a dough. If it’s not firm enough, add some more flour.

Once the dough is ready, put it out on a work sur­face dusted with flour, and roll into medium-sized balls (or any other pre­ferred shape).

Sprinkle some flour on the shaped gnocchi, and im­merse them in the water.

Add the butter and sage to a frying pan, and heat until the butter turns brown.

As soon as the gnocchi have risen to the sur­face of the water, remove them from the water using a skimmer spoon, add to the pan and fry in the sage butter.

Sprinkle with grated truffle or grana padano ac­cor­ding to preference.

Buon ap­pe­tito!

Aus­trian-style Apricot Dumplings

Our recipe for this Week comes from Aus­tria, and it’s in­tro­duced to us here by Jes­sica May.

I can still cle­arly re­member how my grandma often made apricot dum­plings during the ho­li­days. I always found this quite spe­cial, and it seemed like grandma’s very own in­dul­gence routine.

No­wa­days, apricot dum­plings are usually eaten as a des­sert. They used to be thought of as a main course, as indeed were the ma­jo­rity of Austria’s other pastry dishes.

Did you know that this one-time luxury dish, which then became part of the menu of or­di­nary house­holds ever­y­where, is now pro­tected as part of the nation’s cu­linary he­ri­tage? Un­be­lie­vable, but true!

It is one of the tra­di­tional dishes to have its recipe kept in a safe in the Aus­trian Na­tional Li­brary in Vienna, so as to pre­serve it for posterity.

So, here is grandma’s very own in­dul­gence routine:

  • Pre­pa­ra­tion time: approx. 30 minutes
  • Res­ting time: approx. 1 hour
  • Cooking/baking time: approx. 30 minutes
  • Total time: approx. 2 hours
 In­gre­di­ents for making 5 portions:
  • 500g quark (curds)
  • 100 g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 250 g flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • some wheat se­mo­lina, to bind the dough
  • 10 apri­cots
  • bread crumbs
  • sugar
  • butter
  • op­tional: cinnamon

This is enough dough to make 10 dumplings.

Knead the curd, eggs, butter and salt into a smooth dough, add ap­pro­xi­m­ately 1 – 2 tbsp. se­mo­lina, and knead again tho­roughly. Chill for about 1 hour to allow the se­mo­lina to swell.

Pit the apri­cots You could use plums in­s­tead of apri­cots, if you prefer.

Shape the dough into a roll, and divide it into 10 equally-sized pieces. The dough can be a little sticky, so always dust your hands with some flour when en­ca­sing the fruit in the dough. The dough casing should be about 1 – 2 cm thick de­pen­ding on the size of the fruit

Steep in slightly salted, gently sim­me­ring water for about 20 – 30 mi­nutes (de­pen­ding on whe­ther you are using fresh or frozen fruit). The dough should rise nicely, and the fruit be soft on the inside.

At the same time, melt some butter in a pan, add the bread crumbs and sugar, and brown slowly over a gentle heat. You can decide how much butter, bread crumbs and sugar to add. It’s all down to your in­di­vi­dual taste.
Once cooked, drain the dum­plings, add to the browned bread crumbs in the pan, coat all over and serve hot.
If you like, you can sprinkle them with some icing sugar and cinnamon.

Enjoy!

Jiaozi – Chi­nese Dumplings

The New Year is just around the corner, so what better time for a very tra­di­tional Jiaozi recipe from our Aus­trian sis­ters, Qi­onglin and Yuru WU.

Jiaozi is a well-known dish th­roug­hout China. The recipe varies from one region to the next. There are also dif­fe­rent fol­ding tech­ni­ques, and the fil­ling can be pre­pared ac­cor­ding to va­rying tastes … using ve­ge­ta­bles or sea­food, for ex­ample. The Jiaozi we are showing you here, are made using mixed minced meat, car­rots and ox­heart cabbage.

Hen­dian (Yuru WU)

Jiaozi is a dish tra­di­tio­nally pre­pared and eaten tog­e­ther by the whole family at New Year – and that’s how we do it in the WU home, too. Our grand­par­ents and par­ents, and we the children, all gather round the dining table, and ever­yone has a part to play:

Papa, head chef of the WU family, pre­pares the fil­ling, while Mama gets the dough ready. Then, once it’s all ready, Grandma rolls out the dough in the tra­di­tional manner, while we siblings fold the Jiaozi into their dum­pling shape.

As a family, we all really enjoy it, and it’s a great way to start the New Year together.

In­gre­di­ents

for 4 – 6 people

Dough
  • 750 g flour (type 450)
  • 2.5 tbsp. salt
  • 400 ml lu­ke­warm water
Fil­ling
  • 500 g mixed minced meat
  • 250 g chopped carrots
  • 250 g chopped ox­heart cabbage
  • 3 tbsp. soya sauce
  • 1 tbsp. dark soya sauce
  • 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp. salt
  • 2 pin­ches of pepper
  • 3 pieces of scallions
  • 30 ml of oil
  • 20 g ginger
  • 4 garlic cloves

Pre­pa­ra­tion

For the dough, simply mix the flour, salt and water. When you see lumps be­gin­ning to form, knead the dough well with your hands. To test if the dough is soft enough, press it with your finger. If it re­gains its shape wi­t­hout any indent forming, then it is ready. If this is not the case, simply moisten your hands with some water, and con­tinue kne­a­ding the dough. Once it has been kne­aded, allow the dough to rest for a while. Do this by spre­a­ding a cloth or some cling film over the dough to pre­vent it drying out.

NOTE: The longer the dough re­mains wrapped in the cling film, the softer it will become, BUT don’t let it get too soft, so keep a close eye on it!

Now, let’s turn to the filling.

Add the car­rots and ox­heart cab­bage to the minced meat, and season ever­y­thing with the soya sauce, oyster sauce, salt and pepper. Mix the fil­ling well. Now, heat the oil and add the finely chopped garlic and ginger. After 30 se­conds, or once you can smell the aromas, mix the garlic and ginger, tog­e­ther with the oil, into the filling.

The fil­ling can be varied ac­cor­ding to your own par­ti­cular pre­fe­rences. For ve­ge­ta­rians and vegans, we re­com­mend sub­sti­tu­ting the meat for ve­ge­ta­bles with low water content.

Now it’s time to shape our dum­plings. Sprinkle some flour onto your work sur­face, and put about a third of the dough onto the sur­face. If your work sur­face is large enough, you can put all of the dough out in one go. Cover the rest of the dough. You need small round discs of dough to make the dum­plings. There are two ways of doing this:

  1. The quick method: roll out the dough until it is about 2 mm thick, and cut out the discs using a large cir­cular cookie cutter (approx. 10 cm in diameter).
  2. Tra­di­tional method: shape the dough into a roll, and using a knife, cut it into equally-sized pieces about 4 cm long. Using your hand, press down the small lump of dough until it is flat, and roll out into medium-thick discs (approx. 2 mm). The discs should be about 10 cm in dia­meter. Make sure that the edge is a little thinner than the centre, so that after sha­ping the dum­plings, they have the same thic­k­ness all over.

Now for the filling.

Place about 1-2 te­as­poons of fil­ling into the centre of the disc of dough, and seal. Take a look at the video to see how to fold the dum­plings pro­perly. You’ll soon get the hang of it with a little practice.

Place the sealed dum­plings on a tray dusted with some flour, and cover with cling film to stop the dough drying out.

Now you just have to cook the dum­plings in boi­ling water for about 7 to 9 minutes.

Fi­nally, serve with a small bowl of soya sauce. And they’re ready.

As we say in the WU house­hold, 请慢用 [qíng màn yòng] and 新年快乐 [xīn nián kuài lè]!

(Bon ap­petit and a Happy New Year!)

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Christmas Coo­kies

Christmas is just around the corner and for all of us who enjoy a sweet treat or two, Eli­sa­beth Feulner has just the very thing for those grey, rainy days … strea­ming Christmas songs while baking yummy coo­kies. A sure way to get in the Christmas spirit, and you won’t be able to wait for the fes­tive season by the time you’re cut­ting out these cookies.

The recipe I’m sug­gesting is one that I’ve been using for a long time now. There are two things going for it. First, you don’t ne­ces­s­a­rily have to be a baking ma­estro to make these coo­kies, and second – and the main thing, of course – they taste truly de­li­cious. Just be sure to re­serve enough time, be­cause de­pen­ding on the size of the bis­cuits you cut out, it can take a while to spread out each of the layers. I always tend to use re­la­tively small cookie cut­ters, be­cause I find this makes the coo­kies taste even better, and it looks like there’s more of them too.

Happy Christmas and happy baking!

In­gre­di­ents:
  • 150 g flour
  • 40 g sugar
  • 75 g butter
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 100 g mar­zipan paste
  • 50 g cho­co­late coating
  • 50 g apricot jam
  • Walnut ker­nels
Pre­pa­ra­tion:

Com­bine the flour, sugar, butter, egg yolk and a pinch of salt, and knead into a dough. Roll out thinly and cut out the coo­kies. Bake in the oven at 200 °C for 5 – 10 mi­nutes. Remove and allow to cool.

Spread some apricot jam on the coo­kies, and add a piece of mar­zipan. Then cover with the cho­co­late coa­ting and de­co­rate with a walnut kernel.

Tip: You can use up the white of the eggs by making some mac­a­roons later on.

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Munich White Sausage

I was born and raised in Munich as were my par­ents and grand­par­ents before me, so, as a ve­ri­table child of Munich (or Münchner Kindl as the locals would say) when it comes to re­la­xing and en­joying some down­time, I’d re­com­mend a con­vi­vial break­fast of white sausage.

Who in­vented the white sau­sage? There have always been num­e­rous sto­ries sur­roun­ding its ori­gins, and they are all there to be read online.

Mün­chen – by Petra Schmidt

And what is the basis of the old saying: “White sau­sage must never hear the chimes of the midday bells”? Well, back in the days before ref­ri­ge­ra­tion, if the sau­sages were not pre-cooked, they would have to be eaten quickly other­wise they would spoil. Today, this rule is no longer ap­plied quite so strictly. The im­portant thing is to make sure you have some sweet mus­tard and pret­zels to hand, and a beer is the per­fect drink to ac­com­pany the meal.

For me, eating white sau­sage is also a way of life. Going to a tra­di­tional inn, you’ll often find yourself sit­ting and con­ver­sing with stran­gers at a table, and it’s a nice way to meet with fri­ends, too.

In­gre­di­ents per person:
  • 2 to 3 white sausages
  • 1 to 2 pretzels
  • Sweet mus­tard
Pre­pa­ra­tion:

Boil some water in a sau­cepan – add salt to the boi­ling water.

Now place the white sau­sages in the sau­cepan and remove pan from the heat. Simply let the sau­sages cook in the hot water for about 10 mi­nutes – and you’re done.

By the way – some fa­mi­lies still retain the tra­di­tion of eating white sau­sage for dinner on Christmas Eve night.

Enjoy!

Petra Schmidt

White Sau­sage with pret­zels and sweet mustard

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Black-Eyed Beans with Gari and Plantains

Our fourth recipe comes from Ghana in West Africa and is pre­sented by The­resa Messerer.

You may well be thin­king that my name has not­hing to do with Africa … but Eric, my partner’s, does. He was born in Togo and grew up in Ghana, and I love his re­cipes and cuisine.

Fufu is wi­t­hout a doubt the dish that is most ty­pical of West Africa. Fufu is a mash made from warm water and cas­sava flour that can be served with a va­riety of sauces. But be­lieve me, mas­hing fufu to make it nice and smooth and get­ting just the right ba­lance bet­ween water and cas­sava flour can be hard work wi­t­hout a bit of know-how. I’ve the­r­e­fore de­cided to show you a dif­fe­rent, but equally de­li­cious dish in­s­tead – beans and gari with ri­pened plantain.

Gari (also spelt “garri”) and beans are pretty much staple foods in West Africa. Gari, ob­tained from cas­sava, is used in a wide va­riety of dif­fe­rent ways: fried, boiled, mashed, grated or ground. When my fri­ends ask me what cas­sava is, I often say that it looks like an Af­rican potato. Cas­sava is also very com­monly found and ex­tre­mely po­pular in places like Brazil, Mau­ri­tius and other parts of Africa.

There must be a thousand va­ria­tions of this dish and va­rious ways of pre­pa­ring it and pep­ping it up with other ingredients.

Here’s my recipe – I hope you enjoy giving it a go too:

  • Por­tions: 4
  • Pre­pa­ra­tion time: 30 minutes
  • Coo­king time: 45–60 minutes
In­gre­di­ents:
  • 2 cups balck-eyed beans
  • 2 plan­tains (the riper the better)
  • 2 onions
  • 500 ml ve­ge­table oil
  • To taste: gari (cas­sava semolina)
  • salt
Pre­pa­ra­tions:

Black-eyed beans are cooked in the same way as rice, with plenty of water and a little salt. If the water boils away too quickly, simply add some more. A lot of water is needed to ensure that the beans turn out nice and soft. Simmer the beans for a total of 45–60 mi­nutes (+/-) until they are soft.

While the beans are coo­king, cut the onions into half rings and fry in plenty of ve­ge­table oil. The onions should swim a bit in the oil, which we will be using again later.

Slice the plan­tains and fry in the ve­ge­table oil until golden brown. It best to use a little more oil here too, so that the plan­tains stay nice and moist.

Once ever­y­thing is sizz­ling and cooked th­rough, serve. 

When ser­ving up, Eric is very par­ti­cular about the order of things: First the beans. Then drizzle some onion and some of the oil used to fry the onions over the beans. This gives the gari a nice crispy tex­ture. To finish off the dish, place the plan­tains on top.

Bon ap­pétit!

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