Vacation Treats

I can't speak for everyone, but for me vacation is also a time of free indulgence....beer or wine with lunch, dessert...truly a time to relax and not worry about anything - including what you eat.

That approach led me to a couple amazing discoveries....luckily they are things not readily available here in Munich, or else I'd be in big trouble!

Vienna: 

In Vienna, we tried the authentic Sacher Torte. And I highly recommend anyone do so - the Sacher Torte in Vienna is far better than outside Vienna. But I also urge you to try some of the other many Viennese tortes on offer.  What we often forget is that Vienna is not just a city, it was the capital of an empire. And they brought the best from the wide reaches of the empire home for the aristocracy to enjoy.

It's exactly these forgotten days of empire (I doubt the grand Viennese have forgotten....just the rest of us!) that have integrated wonderful Hungarian dishes into the Viennese repertoire. However, I did not know that extended to cakes!

My big Vienna discovery was the Esterházy Torte, named for Paul III Anton, Prince Esterházy de Galantha, who was an imperial foreign minister in the Austro-Hungarian empire.  The family was loyal to the Habsburgs while most of Hungary was fighting against them.  The Esterházy family has quite a few dishes named for it, but this may be my favorite!

Initially a 19th century traditional Hungarian cake, it has become a beloved Austrian cake and supposedly is loved by Germans as well (I'm on the lookout for somewhere serving it!). It's a sweet cake, but not overly so, and light. Most of the sweetness comes from the thin fondant frosting on the top.

The several thin layers of sponge cake are made mostly from egg whites and almonds, with a little flour, butter, and spices. A cognac buttercream frosting (often with a little chocolate mixed in, as here) brings the layers together. There is supposed to be very thin layers of apricot jam (popular in most Viennese tortes) but I could not taste it at all - perhaps the tastes blends in and just keeps the cake moist? While many places show it with buttercream topped with almond slivers around the edges, everywhere we saw it in Vienna used a thin crust of fine chocolate.  And it is always topped with the thin fondant frostin layer, with chocolate "spiderwebs" drawn across the top. A very delicate and well-balanced cake. Most of the sweetness is in the fondant, while the buttercream is not too rich.

Helsinki:

In Helsinki, we made a different discovery. After a delicious Nepalese meal, we went in search of some ice cream. Perhaps it was the spices, or just that vacation feels like ice cream, but we wanted some. The weekend before, we had had the pleasure of stopping in Helsinki's Ben and Jerry's store! And while Finland has Sunday shopping hours, theirs are seasonal. Finding something open at 8pm on a Sunday when it's dark and there's snow everywhere....not an easy feat.  So we tried the train station, our old standby in Germany. We didn't find an ice cream store, but we did find a little supermarket in the basement. As we were perusing the ice cream cooler, we saw these and had to try them.

I had previously been a big fan of the Magnum bars that are so popular in SE Asia. These destroy them! There is no competition.

It's hard to describe how wonderful these bars are, so I just recommend you find one and try it for yourself. The vanilla ice cream is a perfect balance to the chocolate and peanut butter - anything else would have been too sweet. The peanut butter cookie dough is enhanced by the swirls of peanut butter running through the mix. And the chocolate coating uses a great blend of chocolate. But embedded in the chocolate coating are little crispy chocolate cookie bits that give it an amazing texture. The whole package is just chocolatey peanut butter perfection.

I'm so glad I haven't found anywhere here that sells Ben & Jerry's bars. They could be addictive!

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?

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!)