Cool Gingerbread Houses

I'm inspired to try some modern gingerbread houses next year. Or maybe for a Christmas in July party?

Falling Water Gingerbread House:

via Quilting Craft Gossip 

The Wedge House:

via ArchDaily 

Fenway Park: 

Notre Dame: 

National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, DC):

 
I love the icicles...they remind me of the ones on St Bart's in New York after Christmas. 

 via MightyGirl

St. Basil's on Red Square: (I think...)

via BuzzFeed

And, while not a building, the Gingerbread Serenity is pretty clever!

via Geekosystem

Update on Friday, January 14, 2011 at 15:28 by Frau A

And then there's the original gingerbread house...the one the witch built to trap Hansel and Gretl. I never quite made that connection until I saw these gingerbread houses in Nürnberg. Not only do they have a picture of the old lady inviting a boy and girl in, they're even labeled "Hexenhaus," which means "Witch's House."

 

A Southern, deep-Fried Christmas

Herr J and I spent Christmas with my family in coastal South Carolina.

Every family has its own traditions, but deep frying the Turkey has become quite popular for Thanksgiving and Christmas in the South. Not only is the turkey tasty and juicy, but the process is fun. To put it in man-friendly terms, there is fire, hot oil, drinking outdoors, and the potential for serious injury and/or property damage. So, who wouldn't love it?

 

The Setup:

To fry a turkey, you need a couple of things...a huge pot with a propane burner, peanut oil, thermometer, and a rack or basket for the turkey.

For safety, it's also best to have an outdoor non-flammable surface and heavy gloves.

And for enjoyment, a couple of soccer-mom chairs and some adult beverages.

Step 1:
Heat the oil until it reaches 350°.

Because different sized turkeys will displace different amounts of liquid, you'll want to measure how much oil to use. Using too much will cause a spill (and an unpleasant oil fire), and too little will also be a problem. Dad's brilliant method is to test it with your turkey and water to determine the correct amount to cover the turkey. He then removes the turkey, marks the correct water level, and refills the pot with oil up to the mark.  

See here for videos demonstrating exactly why you don't want the oil to overflow...or why not to fry on your deck. ("7 Best Deep-Fried Turkey Disasters")

Step 2:

Best to marinate the turkey the night before - here he used butter and spices. Some people put a rub under the skin or use injectors to inject spices into the turkey. We prefer our turkey to taste like turkey rather than spices, so we went with the simpler method.

Place turkey on the turkey frying rack. Carefully lower into boiling oil.

 Step 3:

Continue to cook (covered, keeping the oil around 325°F) until a meat thermometer reads 170° F in the breast and 180° F in the thigh. It should take around 3 minutes per pound for a whole turkey. Then carefully remove turkey, cool a few minutes, and serve.

Along with the turkey, we usually have prime rib, collards, spiced peaches, rice, green beans (the only green vegetable I would eat as a child...now I also eat asparagus), dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes, and biscuits. And a table full of wonderful homemade desserts....German Chocolate Cake, pecan pie, pound cake (my aunt make the best pound cake in the world!), sweet potato pie, this year's new feature Lemon Coconut Spice Cake, and whatever other cookies or candies people have given us for the holidays. And then we go into a food coma watching football....

What are your Christmas dinner traditions?

More Cupcake Madness, this time with Beer

Guinness chocolate cake, Guinness icing, in the shape of a perfectly poured pint!

Recipe can be found here at The Island of Dr. Gateau

via Must Have Cute

Feng Shui Texas Chili

Inspired by Toytown's Annual Chili Cookoff and motivated by the cold weather, we decided to try our hand at making chili this weekend.

I wanted a hot chili, with lots of shredded beef, so we used Kent Rathburn's recipe (see below - unfortunately I just saved it on email from an old Jasper's newsletter, so don't have a link to give).  It's a hearty Texas style chili (without beans, and often without tomato), and ours tasted a bit like Carolina barbecue after we had finished. Authentic or not, it was tasty and a really good first effort. We'll work on perfecting a good Texas/Asian chili this winter!

It's always a bit of an experiment when using an American recipe and trying to figure out what the ingredients are in German supermarkets, but we figured goulasch beef would be an excellent choice. and it was - not only did it fall apart perfectly, but we didn't have to do any cutting!

We had planned to try to make chili with a little Asian flair in the spices, but when I saw the packages available, I knew we had the perfect starting point....what could be better than using a lucky amount of 0.888kg of beef????  Hence the "Feng Shui" part of the recipe.

And, of course, it's a great excuse to make cornbread! 

We had a little accident resulting in too much salt in ours to start with, but were able to remedy it with some tasty Andechs Berg Bock Hell, giving it a nice little bit of sweetness to balance out the spices. We also added some cardamom for taste and substituted cayenne powder for ancho, as none was available here.  If you want your chili super hot, you can do as we did and use roasted habanero peppers in place of the poblanos. However, it's REALLY hot...trust me....Despite all precautions of wrapping hands in baggies and not touching my face, etc....running the knife under water managed to send all the habanero spiciness into the air, and me running outside to gulp down cold air to stop the burning....always an adventure in the kitchen around here! 

Also, we don't have a grill, so we just browned the meat in the soup pot, then removed it to cook the onions. Worked well! Cooking long and on low will make the meat fall apart perfectly.

Beer-Braised Sirloin Chili

(Recipe from Kent Rathburn)
Marinade:
2 lbs top sirloin steak, trimmed
2 Tbsp canola oil
Juice of 4 limes
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp black pepper, coarsely crushed
1 jalapeno pepper, stem/seeds removed, minced
1 Tbsp salt

Chili:
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 large onions, peeled and diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp ancho chile powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
2 bottles (12 oz each) Mexican beer
2 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled, seeds and stems removed, diced
1 tsp salt
Juice from 2 limes
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1. Cut the steak into four pieces, each about 8 ounces.

2. Marinate beef in the oil, lime juice, garlic, shallots, cilantro, pepper, jalapeño, and salt for at least three hours, or overnight.

3. Prepare the grill (using hickory or mesquite if possible). Cook the meat to medium doneness on an open flame. Let the meat cool, then dice into one half inch cubes. Set aside.

4. In a large sauce pot, add the oil and sauté the onions and garlic until translucent.

5. Add in meat pieces and cook on medium heat until most of moisture is gone.

6. Stir in ancho chile powder, cumin, and coriander; then deglaze with beer.

7. Continue cooking on medium heat until meat is tender and sauce starts to thicken.

8. Add diced chilis and finish with kosher salt and lime juice. Garnish with green onions and chopped cilantro.

Feeling Tarty: The First Dunkelweißbier Round

The German Beer Wars have also been a great excuse to play around in the kitchen. Luckily I have a willing guinea pig who will eat almost anything.

Tonight’s competitors: Dunkel Weißbier and 3 courses of tarts. 

 Tonight's Competitors, and the growing collection of bottlecaps

We kicked off the Dunkel Region with some Dunkelweißbiers from the Bavarian heavy hitters Paulaner, Erdinger, Franziskaner, and König Ludwig.  Erdinger and Franziskaner make only Weißbier - Erdinger is a private brewery outside Munich that brews 9 varieties, including seasonal, light, and non-alcoholic; Franziskaner brews 5 varieties and is part of the Spaten-Löwenbräu-Gruppe, now owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.  Of the 5 Franziskaners, we have 3 in the tournament (the other two are Light and Alcohol-Free, thus not in the competition).

König Ludwig, the royal brewery, brews a wide variety of beers, covering the main types and seasonal and regional beers. Their weißbiers are pretty well-regarded around here, so we were curious to see how they stacked up with the wießbier specialists. 

 

In the first competition pitting Erdinger Dunkel vs König Ludwig, we found the König Ludwig to be extremely smooth and drinkable.  It was surprisingly light for a dunkelweißbier, which is why we had to pick the Erdinger Dunkel as the winner. It had a lovely dark color and wonderful classic dark beer flavoring combined with the sweetness and fullness of the weißbier. 

In the second, the Franziskaner beat out Paulaner's Hefe-Weissbier Dunkel due to it's slightly more complex flavorings. 

The next round was similar, with the Erdinger noticeably darker and more flavorful than the Franziskaner. We'd happily drink either, but the Erdinger just had a better, richer taste and therefore earns a spot in the Sweet Sixteen.

In terms of the food, all three were winners and the beef pie is always a crowd pleaser (and better yet, simple to make and freeze for later).

Tomato Tarts, Schwarzbier Beef Pie, and Pine Nut Tartelettes

Yes, yes, I know.... the beef pie isn’t exactly a tart, but it’s a great excuse to buy cute little ramekins…which just means I need to make chocolate lava cakes now!  Here are the recipes:

Tomato and Caramelized Onion Tartelettes – adapted from a BBC recipe here

This one works pretty much true to the recipe, other than I always need to add a little cold water when making the dough. It makes an impressive looking and tasty large tart. For tonight, I just made it in 4 tartelette pans rather than one large tart.

Schwarzbier Mini Beef Pies – adapted from an Australian recipe (I've also made with Guiness and it's equally tasty. Will try with Starkbier and some of the more flavorful Dunkelbiers soon) 

Ingredients: (Makes 6-8 pies, depending on your ramekin size)

• 2 kg (4.4 lbs) roast beef ("rinderbraten" in German supermarkets)
• 3 sliced onions
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 2/3 cup flour
• 400 mL (1 3/4 cups) Schwarzbier 
• 475 mL (2 cups) beef broth
• Puff pastry (Tante Fanny's here is perfect and flaky)
• 1 egg, beaten

 Instructions:

1. Cut roast beef into cubes and chop in batches in food processor. (Alternately you could use ground beef, but this has a better result)

2. In a large pot, brown the beef in 1 Tbsp oil, then set aside. In the same pot, cook the sliced onions and garlic in the remaining oil until golden. Sprinkle in 2/3 cup plain flour and cook for 1 min.

3. Return the meat to the pot with the onions.  Add the Schwarzbier and beef stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover the pot, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours until tender.  Uncover and continue to cook until sauce has reduced and thickened.

4. Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).  Spoon beef mixture into ovenproof ramekins. Cut out circles of the puff pastry to cover - size should be slightly larger than the top of the ramekin. Press pastry firmly onto dishes and seal. Brush with the beaten egg, place on a tray and bake for 25 minutes until golden.

I often make larger batches to freeze. After step 3, wrap in plastic wrap, then in foil to freeze. Make sure to thaw fully before cooking.

Pine Nut Tartelettes – from Tartelette

This one works exactly as written...it will seem that the dough will never come together, but in the end it does work and is worth the effort!

(If you haven’t discovered her blog yet, head on over there….the recipes always work out perfectly and the pictures are beautiful!)

Time for an iPad?

I’ve never been a first adopter and I’m content for now with my lightweight Kindle.  

But the kitchen makes me want an iPad. Specifically, this guy’s kitchen  

I wish I’d had one when I bought artichokes for the first time and said “what the %”#@ do I do with these?” Much more convenient than running to the computer to Google “how to cut artichokes” or writing down recipes on paper…and possibly watch a movie or TV while cooking.  When they invent the perfect create your own cookbook app, that might make me take the plunge.

And the low-tech version…

Haute Cuisine du Drive Thru

Check out this fun site where Erik Trinidad at Fancy Fast Food recreates fine dining entirely from items found at various fast food chains.

No idea how they taste, but they look quite impressive!

His repertoire is extensive (and strangely makes me use French words that made it into the English language)....a few favorites:

A beef carpaccio from Arby's (the Beef C’Arbysscio)

an Ossobucco creation from Burger King, the Osso BuKko

 

His descriptions often match his creations in their humor and creativity. In describing how to make the Soniccian Borscht, he writes:

Soniccian culture still hasn’t evolve from some of its former Soviet routines; one can not simply buy these fast food goods off the shelf or by ordering them from a person behind a counter. Instead you must order the items the old-fashioned way, by pushing a button on an antiquated intercom system while inside your vehicle. (At certain times during the day, there are often long waits in a long queue of other vehicles.) This ordering process is prevalent in Soniccia; even if you wish to go on foot and walk to the food establishment to buy goods, you must still push a button and order from the old intercom system. Only when your order is confirmed over the speaker does a person bring you your items — sometimes (but not always) using vintage roller skates from the early 20th century. Present day Soniccia is truly a unique nation with its cultural idiosyncracies.

I'm craving a little Chicken Chipotlioli....Enjoy!