Lahmacun

 

 

 

Attention! Preparation time around 90 minutes!

Preparation You'll need: A Chamotte stone It must be in the oven (middle rack) at 300℃ well over an hour before baking! A large bowl for the dough A medium bowl for the filling One plate for the other ingredients
Ingredients for the dough (for 2 people) 240 g wheat flour about 1 tsp. salt ½ TL sugar 1 Tbsp. good olive oil 8 g yeast 150 mL water (lukewarm)
Ingredients for the filling (meat) Approx. 220 g minced meat, best is lamb (lamb saddle). Beef is also ok. 1 small onion 1 Tbsp. tomato paste ½ bunch parsley 1 Tbsp. good olive oil 3 cloves of garlic 1 large tomato 1 tsp. cumin (whole) 2-3 Tbsp. chilli flakes each ½ tsp. salt and pepper Fresh ingredients for the filling (to be placed on the table) 1-2 leaves iceberg lettuce 1 small onion 1 medium tomato Cacık (150 g Süzme, ¼ Salad cucumber (in small pieces!) - see recipe) More chili flakes Possibly raw red cabbage in thin strips How about some Ayran to drink?
The dough If not already done, the pizza stone should be in the oven now (middle rack)! Put 240 g flour in a large bowl and add 8 g yeast, 1 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt and 150 mL lukewarm water. Mix everything well and knead strongly for at least 7 minutes. Place in a warm place for half an hour. Then knead again for a few minutes and place again in a warm place for 30 minutes. In the meantime, get on with the rest.
Preparation of the Cacık Whip 150 g yoghurt in a bowl with an egg whisk. Finely chop 1 clove of garlic, peel a quarter of a cucumber, first quarter it lengthwise and then cut it into thin slices. Add everything to the yoghurt, generously season with ground pepper, as well as 1 good pinch of salt. Stir well and place in the refrigerator.
The filling Put 220 g minced meat in a medium bowl. Grind 1 tsp. cumin in a mortar. Peel 1 large tomato, remove seeds and only cut the walls into small pieces. Chop 1 small onion, 3 cloves of garlic and ½ bunch of parsley finely. Add everything together with 2-3 Tbsp. chili flakes, 1 Tbsp. tomato paste, 1 Tbsp. olive oil, ½ tsp. each of salt and pepper to the minced meat. Knead the mixture well with your hands until everything is well mixed. Keep closed and cool. The other ingredients: Cut 1 medium tomato into slices, cut 1 small onion into rings, cut 1-2 leaves of iceberg lettuce, plus, if you have a small amount of raw red cabbage into stripes. Place everything in a plate on its side, this is simply placed on the table for self-service. Prepare the Cacık according to the recipe (note the amount of ingredients!). Store in a cool place.
The flatbread Divide the dough in half and roll out the first half on a floured surface into a thin patty (approx. 3 mm). Place on a floured wooden paddle and spread each with one of the remaining quarters of the meat mixture. The pizza stone should already be preheated at over 250℃ (grill; the higher the temperature, the better) for about an hour. Now place the lahmacun on the stone and bake until the edge is medium-brown (not too much, or the patty will break when rolled up!). This is quite quick, only takes about 3 to 4 minutes, so don't take your eyes off it. Meanwhile, you can roll out the second dough. Once the first is ready, remove from the oven and then prepare the second. To eat, serve the two lahmacun on large plates as patties, along with the plate with the prepared salad (onion, iceberg, tomato) and cacık and chilli flakes, and place the bowl with half the filling on the table for self-service. Everyone can now top the fladbreat with the other ingredients as they wish and then roll it up. This is how lahmacun is eaten.

Spätzle

Pronounciation: ʃpætslə

Les Spätzle représentent l'accompagnement le plus important pour ma tribu, les Souabes. Vous pouvez les accommoder avec une viande en sauce, avec des épinards et un oeuf frit, ou tout simplement avec beaucoup de fromage fondu.
Important: Elles ressemblent à des pâtes, ont le goût des pâtes, mais devant un Souabe ne les appelez surtout pas "pâtes"

Préparation Pour faire des Spätzle, vous aurez besoin de: une grosse marmite de 5 à 6 litres un grand bol pour faire la pâte une assiette creuse pour les entreposer juste après la cuisson une cuillère en bois trouée pour battre la pâte une planche à découper bien plate une écumoire une raclette
Ingrédients (pour 2 personnes) 140 grammes de farine 2 gros oeufs ½ cuil. à café de sel 1 cuil. à soupe d'huile de tournesol 30-50 millilitres d'eau
La pâte Mettre tous les ingrédients dans le saladier, sauf l'eau. Ajouter ensuite environ 2/3 de l'eau, bien mélanger la pâte avec la cuillère en bois jusqu'à ce que tout soit bien mélangé. Ajouter éventuellement de l'eau par petites doses si la pâte devient trop ferme. Elle doit devenir très molle, mais pas trop liquide. Lorsque la pâte est prête, fouette-la le plus fort possible avec une cuillère en bois pendant 2 à 3 minutes, de manière à faire entrer de l'air dans la pâte. Lorsque tu as terminé ce travail difficile, mets le saladier sur le côté et couvre-le d'un linge sec. La pâte doit maintenant reposer pendant environ une demi-heure, pas beaucoup plus longtemps, sinon elle devient trop ferme.
Faire les Spätzle Avant de faire cuire les spätzle, l'eau doit bouillir dans la casserole. Comme cela prend généralement un certain temps, tu devrais commencer après 15-20 minutes. Fais bouillir environ 4-5 litres, puis ajoute 2 cuillères à café de sel. L'eau devrait bouillir tout le temps. Après avoir laissé reposer la pâte pendant environ une demi-heure, prends la planche et le racloir et mouille-les tous les deux. Verse ensuite une partie de la pâte sur la planche mouillée et étale-la de manière à ce que la pâte ait une épaisseur d'un demi-centimètre. Ensuite, mouille tes mains avec de l'eau froide (pour les protéger de la vapeur chaude), pose l'extrémité de la planche sur la casserole et racle de petits morceaux de pâte allongés dans l'eau bouillante. Les morceaux doivent être longs comme des petits vers, peut-être 7 cm, et de 3 à 5 mm de diamètre (approximativement, selon les goûts). Je les aime assez épais, mais beaucoup de gens les préfèrent plus fins. Les morceaux doivent rester dans l'eau bouillante jusqu'à ce qu'ils remontent à la surface, environ une minute. Je les laisse ensuite flotter encore un peu. Ensuite, tu peux les repêcher avec l'écumoire et les mettre dans un bol. Répéter ces étapes jusqu'à ce que toute la pâte soit utilisée.

Pepper Sauce

Sauce for beef steaks (some do it with poultry, too)

Preparation time around 30 minutes

Preparation You'll only need: Small pot
Ingredients (for 2 persons) 1 Tbsp. mixed peppercorns ½ tsp. fermented Pondicherry peppercorns 2 medium shallots (or half a normal onion) 30 g ghee or butter 60 ml port 100 ml beef broth 150 ml cream A little flour for thickening 1 pinch of salt Green salad and Vinaigrette
Preparation Coarsely crush the coloured pepper in a mortar. Melt 30 g of ghee or butter in a pot at medium heat. With normal butter, bring to froth, just heat up the ghee well. Add both kinds of pepper and stew for 10 to 15 minutes at low heat. Meanwhile, chop the shallots very finely. At the end of the 10-15 minutes add to the pepper sauce and continue steaming until they are glassy (goes quite fast). Deglaze with 60 ml port, add 100 ml beef broth and reduce to at least one quarter over medium/high heat and frequent stirring. Finally add 150 ml sweet cream and mix well. Season with salt and check consistency. If you want to make the sauce a bit thicker, add some flour (around 1 tsp.).

Quail in Morel Sauce

Goes well with a strong red wine, e. g. a Rioja

Preparation time around 1.5 hours

Preparation You'll need: A small pot with lid A fine sieve A large pan A casserole dish A medium ceramic bowl Several small bowls
Ingredients (for 2 persons) 4 quails (= approx. 1 kg) Morels: 20 g dried morels 200 mL milk For the stuffing: 50 g chestnuts (precooked) 2 Tbsp. Créme Fraîche (ca. 80 g) 1-2 twigs of thyme 2 apricots, half dried ¼ tsp. Piment d'Espelette or cayenne pepper 2 dashes of lemon juice 2 cloves of garlic For the sauce: 30 g chopped shallots 1 Tbsp. butter 2½ Tbsp. Cognac 250 mL white wine (dry) 5 Tbsp. Créme Fraîche (ca. 170 g) 1½ Tbsp. gravy thickener for dark sauces (in Germany I'd buy Mondamin Fix Soßenbinder) Further side dishes: 100 to 150 g chestnuts 4 Rösti (McCain) - Hash browns for you ;-)
Preparation Morels First put 20 g dried morels (for filling and sauce) into a not too fine sieve and rinse vigorously. Then let them simmer for 15 minutes in a small pot (covered) with 250 mL milk. In the meantime.... Chestnuts Prepare 150 bis 200 g Maronen according to instructions - usually, they only have to simmer weakly in water in their plastic packaging for about 5 minutes. Quails If necessary, chop off the head of the quails at the base of the neck. Rinse them, check the inside, that it's clean, dry them off with kitchen paper and fry them on high heat in oil. Let them cool down in a plate. Morels After the morels have simmered for 15 minutes, pass them through a fine sieve, catch the milk in a ceramic bowl, it will be needed for the sauce. Take around 20 g of the morels and cut them into small pieces (I seek for the not so nice pieces), they will be needed for the stuffing, set aside for a moment. The remaining morels can be put back with the milk. Stuffing Mash 50 g chestnuts with a fork in a medium bowl. Add: 2 Tbsp. Créme Fraîche, the chopped morels, 2 apricots (cut small), leaves of thyme (of 1 or 2 twigs), 2 dashes of lemon juice, 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped) and ¼ tsp. Piment d'Espelette or cayenne pepper. Mix well. Put the rest of the chestnuts on the side. Quails Preheat the oven at 200℃. Fill the quails with the stuffing, you could either use a pastry bag, or simply do it with your hands. Bake the quails in a greased casserole dish for 20 to 25 minutes (convection), brush them once or twice with the sauce collecting in the dish. Just before the quails are done, add the plates to heat them up. In the meantime... Rösti Slowly fry 4 Rösti in a good deal of sunflower oil (2 to 3 mm) in a small pan at medium heat. That will take its time and they should be ready around the time the rest is done, too. In the meantime continue with the sauce... Sauce Chop 2 or 3 shallots finely; 30 g are needed. Sauté them in 1 Tbsp. butter in a pan, add 1½ Tbsp. Mondamin, mix well. Deglaze with 250 mL white wine, stir well, let it simmer for 3 minutes. Add 2½ Tbsp. Cognac and let it simmer for another 3 minutes. Add 5 Tbsp. Créme Fraîche (ca. 170 g), mix well. Pour the morels with the milk into the pan, season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep the sauce warm (but don't let it simmer). Arrange the plates Since there are 2 quails per person, I usually serve in two courses. Therefore, arrange 1 quail, 1 Rösti and 1/4 of the sauce each on 1 preheated plate. Place the chestnuts separately in a bowl on the table. Keep the remaining quails and Rösti warm in the oven (switched off), the remaining sauce in the pan (set to lowest heat, bring to boil before serving).

Wakame Seaweed Salad

This is great with fish.

Preparation: You'll need: 1 small pot 1 small pan 1 medium bowl 1 large bowl
Ingredients (for 2 persons) 15 g dried Wakame seaweed ca. 1 cm ginger 1 clove of garlic 1-2 tsp. lime juice 1 tsp. sesame seed 1 Tbsp. (a bit less) rice vinegar 1 Tbsp. (a bit less) sesame oil 1-2 tsp. sugar 2 stems coriander 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
Toast 1 tsp. sesame seeds in a dry pan until they are getting a nice, not too dark, browning. Set aside. Soak 15 g dried wakame seaweed in a large bowl with plenty of hot water for about 10 minutes. For the seaweed salad clean 1 cm ginger, finely chop the ginger and one clove of garlic, put both into medium bowl. Add 1 to 2 tsp. lime juice. Rinse and pluck leaves of 2 stems of coriander, roughly chop them. Add to medium bowl, together with 1 to 2 tsp. sugar, 1 Tbsp. each of rice vinegar and sesame oil, and 1 tsp cayenne pepper. Mix well with a fork. Pour into colander and let them drip off a bit. Add them to the marinade in the medium bowl. Mix well and let the seaweed marinade for 10 minutes. Fold 1 tsp. sesame seeds in the Wakame salad.

Julienne de légumes

This is great with fish.

Preparation You'll need: A potato peeler, such as this one (I really like it). A large pan with lid
Ingredients (for 2 persons) 1 thin long courgette 1 or 2 medium sized carrots 3 spring onions 6 or 8 cherry tomatoes 2 boxes of garden cress olive oil salt
Preparing the veggies Cut 1 or 2 carrots and the courgette into thin slices - you could take the potato peeler mentioned above for that. Cut the green leaves of 3 spring onions into 4 or 5 centimetres long pieces. Leave the 6 to 8 cherry tomatoes as they are. Rinse the cress and keep on the side for when everything is on the plate.
Cooking the veggies Pour a good deal of good olive oil into the pan, set on medium heat, throw in the carrot slices, after 3 minutes, add the courgette slices and the spring onion leaves. Put lid on top and sauté for around 10 minutes. You might even go down to low heat. Turn the veggies from time to time with kitchen tongs. By the end check a piece of carrot, it should be soft but still "al dente". Being there, season with salt, add the cherry tomatoes, turn off the heat and set it aside for 2 minutes, covered. Finally, place on plates and generously sprinkle cress over the veggies.