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.
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.
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.
Seed crackers are a tasty, healthy snack and are made using a great variety of seed types. What’s more, the chickpea flour version doesn’t even have any carbs! They are the perfect accompaniment to a glass of wine or beer and taste great with salad, cream cheese, guacamole or pesto, or can simply be polished off on their own. Our boss, Monica Nadal, became such a fan that she absolutely had to have the recipe, and thus was born the idea of introducing you to some of our favourite dishes and treats.
At first glance, you could indeed be forgiven for thinking, “Wow! That’s a lot of ingredients!” (available in drugstores and organic food shops, by the way), but although the ingredient list is long, the preparation time is short. You may, however, be faced with one tiny problem: these crackers are so tasty that you’ll have to keep making them, over and over again.
Enjoy the baking, and the nibbling, of course!
Wörnbrunn – from Veronika Becker
For approx. 50 crackers
Preparation time: 15 min.
Baking time: 30 min.
Calories per cracker: approx. 35 kcal
Ingredients:
80 g sunflower seeds
15 g pine nuts
80 g chickpea flour (alternatively wholemeal spelt flower)
40 g hemp seeds, hulled
40 g linseeds
10 g chia seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
Salt, pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp mild paprika powder
4 tbsp olive oil
Preparation
Heat oven to 175°C. Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Coarsely chop the sunflower seeds and pine nuts.
Mix the chopped seeds and nuts in a bowl with the chickpea flour, hemp seeds, linseeds, chia seeds, caraway, ¼ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, thyme, rosemary and paprika powder. Add the olive oil and 150 ml water and stir into a dough using the beater attachment of your hand mixer.
Pour the dough onto the tray and spread thinly using a tablespoon or spatula. Place the tray in the oven (middle rack) and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove the baking tray from the oven and cut the layer of dough into squares (approx. 5 x 5 cm). Then bake the seed crackers for a further 20 minutes, until crispy.
Seed Crackers (Source: Hannah Frey/ Zuckerfrei, die 40 Tage Challange )
The next in our series of recipes is one from Tunisia, brought to us by Samah Djebbi.
Back home, Sunday was always “Couscous Day with Tagine” for us. As children we’d always be helping Mama to prepare the food – peeling and chopping the vegetables and such. And you can be sure that we’d always try and pinch some of the fried diced potato … however loud Mama’s indignant protests, it was simply to delicious to resist! I often find myself thinking back on those days, and it’s always with a smile.
Sunday is Couscous Day with Tagine, no question. And it’s a childhood tradition that I carry on with my own family today. Now it’s my two sons who lend me a hand, and they too will happily pilfer some of those scrumptious potato cubes intended for the tagine.
La Marsa – from Samah Djebbi
Tagine is a kind of hearty soufflé, which can be served as a side dish or main course with some salad. There are various ways of making it. You can prepare with tuna, minced meat, or mozzarella. The version I’m showing you today is our own personal favourite – tagine with cheese and chicken.
Ingredients:
8 potatoes
2 chicken breasts
1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley
8 eggs (size M to L)
Salt and pepper
Ground coriander
Turmeric
200 g grated cheese, e.g. pizza cheese, Gouda or Emmental
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
Oil for frying
Preparation:
Wash the potatoes and chicken, and dice into small cubes. Wash the parsley and chop finely, dice the onion. Fry the diced potatoes in a frying pan with plenty of oil, and allow to drip dry on some kitchen paper. Heat some oil in a saucepan and sauté the onions. Now add the chicken and the crushed cloves of garlic, season well with salt, pepper, coriander and turmeric, and sauté. Add a little water and simmer. Once the chicken is cooked well through (about 15 minutes), add the washed parsley and steam to leave a viscous liquid consistency at the end.
Now whisk the eggs in a bowl, then add all the remaining ingredients (chicken, potatoes and cheese), and mix everything well together. Add a little more seasoning if you like, and pour everything into a greased oven-proof dish.
Bake for around 30 min. in the oven at 180 °C, upper/lower heat on, until golden brown.
Remove from oven, allow to cool, then turn over onto a plate. Cut into pieces of the required size, and serve.
This dish is a Chinese-Mauritian fusion and is very popular amongst Mauritian households. It typically consists of a filling of chicken or pork cooked in a wok with oyster/soya sauce and some veggies at the bottom of a bowl. It is then topped with fluffy basmati rice patted down which is turned out onto…
Back home, Sunday was always “Couscous Day with Tagine” for us. As children we’d always be helping Mama to prepare the food – peeling and chopping the vegetables and such. And you can be sure that we’d always try and pinch some of the fried diced potato … however loud Mama’s indignant protests, it was…
Seed crackers are a tasty, healthy snack and are made using a great variety of seed types. What’s more, the chickpea flour version doesn’t even have any carbs! They are the perfect accompaniment to a glass of wine or beer and taste great with salad, cream cheese, guacamole or pesto, or can simply be polished…
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…
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…
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 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…
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.
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…
Our first recipe comes from Mauritius – brought to us by Lewis Nadal:
This dish was passed down to him by his grandmother: Called bol déviré (upside-down bowl), some Mauritians also know it as bol renversé (magic bowl).
Bol dévire is a fusion of Chinese and Mauritian cuisine, and is very popular among Mauritian families. It’s one of the Nadal family’s favourites, too. This basis of the dish generally consists of shrimps and chicken, pork or beef, fried in a wok with a sauce (oyster, soya and fish sauce) and vegetables. The final step is to cover everything with fluffy basmati or fragrant rice, and turn it upside-down onto a plate. The dome-shaped dish is topped off with a fried egg, and some chopped coriander.
Mauritius – Urlaubsfoto von Monica Nadal (Anfang Januar 2020)
Let’s hear what Lewis Nadal has to say about it: “My grandmother would cook this dish a lot on Sundays, and as a child I really loved watching her closely as she did so. Today it’s something I enjoy making for my own family, and now my little granddaughter likes to watch and help me, too.”
In Mauritius there are various ways of preparing this dish; this one is my grandmother’s recipe.
Portions: 4
Preparation time: 30-60 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
500 g chicken breast, pork and/or beef cut into strips (any combination if that’s to your liking) 250 g ready-to-cook shrimps or 4 peeled king prawns per portion 4 tbsp. sesame or vegetable oil 1 tbsp.soya sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce1 piece of ginger (about the size of a thumb) grated or finely chopped 5 stems of parsley 4 sprigs of thyme (pluck or strip off the leaflets) 1 red onion finely diced 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. ground pepper 2 tbsp. cornflour 250 g brown or white mushrooms thinly sliced 1 red pepper cut into strips 1 bunch of pak choi coarsely chopped 3 carrots cut into thin strips (tip: use a Julienne slicer) 350 g uncooked, washed basmati or fragrant rice 4 eggs 2-3 tbsp. vegetable oil a handful of fresh coriander, coarsely chopped
What else do you need:
4 bowls, each with approx. 400 ml capacity
Preparation
Cook rice until done, then set aside.
Heat the oil in the wok. Add the prepared garlic, ginger and herbs, and fry for 2 minutes. Then mix in the meat with the pepper, and add the shrimps together with the mushrooms, and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Now the sauces are added. Continue cooking over a medium heat, stirring continuously. Stir 2 tbsp. water into the cornflour to make a smooth paste, and stir into the wok. Keep stirring continuously, mixing all the ingredients, adding salt to taste. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
Fry the eggs separately in a small non-stick frying pan, place a bowl over the pan, and turn over quickly (Warning: please be careful not to burn your hands at this point). Scatter a little coriander in the bowl with the fried egg, then add the shrimps and portion out the meat and vegetable mix from the wok into each of the bowls using a ladle. Then fill each bowl to the rim with rice. Place a dinner plate facing down over the bowl, and serve. Next, the masterpiece is flipped over at the dining table (hence the name bol déviré – “upside-down bowl”). Now gently turn the bowl back and forth before removing it.
