muse & chef

I like the classic mexican guacamole, but at the same time I like to variate avocado towards new taste experiences. And so this time I added to a mashed avocado some salmon cut into small pieces. You can either use raw sushi quality salmon, as for a seviche or smoked salmon. Further I add also little cubes of balsamico onions. How you can make balsamico onions home made you can read in the post before – two kitchen greetings. This ingredients are seasoned with some sea salt, little peper, orderly chili powder, a teaspoon orange jam, jelly or fruit paste and the juice of a half fresh lemon. And if you want surely fresh coriander or parsley make it taste, look and feel more fresh and green. Enjoy and I like to eat this with water crackers or a good and toasted bread with of course white wine. And as this is kind of a chilian guacamole for me – a Sauvignon Blanc from Chile is my wine recommendation.

For me a Greeting from the kitchen – and especial at home and privat – is an announcement. A preparation and conformity for what will come more or less soon. And so I make my Amuse Geul or Amuse Bouche how the Frenchman say – mostly out of ingredients that will later on also be served, but in a different way. And as I like my Greeting from my kitchen be presentet and eaten from a chinese soup spoon it is therefor a miss en bouche what can be translatet as mouthing or something to put in your mouth all at once as it is served on the spoon. Some may no this spoon thing also from the german TV show the taste, but I many years ago experience that spoon feeling at the Restaurant Mess in Hamburg Caroviertel. I worked there a short time as a trainee and unfortunately the Restaurant doesn’t exist any more. But never the less I want to sent a Greeting to my chef at that time Mr. Kunst. Yeah, that was really his – Mr. Art and thanks for teaching me in a short time a lot and we both now, why it was just a short time, but you were surely not the reason. But now to this little spontaneous kitchen Greeting, that just reflects a little what I learned in this kitchen, but later one in this blog I will surely once take Mr. Art as a more bigger Muse for a different culinary greeting. Meanwhile I hope every one enjoys this Asien-Italien Fusion.

Here we go: cut into a slice a balsamic onion, that you can make by your self or ready made at a supermarket in a glass. If you wanna make it put some honey in a heated pan, than add peeled onions or shallots and let them get some roasted flavors and let them caramelize and then after around 5 to 7 minutes you deglaze with balsamic and let it coke some more minutes if you want to use this as a antipasti and many minutes more if you want to use this a sauce or side dish for a meal. Especially with meat this matches perfect. But how to make a jus is another story – with a lot of time and wine that has to added. Meanwhile drinking wine and cooking this I have sliced some cherry tomatoes into 4 quarters and have put them at 150 degree in the oven. Without the inside of the tomatoes and just a little salt on this tomato filets. Around 15 minutes are okay, but if you have time to start even earlier, so they can dry more, the intenser they get. Besides the onion slice lies now on all 4 spoons a little dry tomato slice and a little balsamic. And sure you can also by dry tomatoes at the supermarket, but you don’t get medium dry ones there and if you get them swimming in oil please dry them a least a little 😉
Now on two spoons I add a little soy sause, dry oregano and fresh parmesan splinter. On the other two spoons I add a salmon cream out of the dry fish, the tomato inside rests, tomato mark, very little mayonnaise, chili powder and fresh lemon juice. Voilà enjoyment and I did it with a special person and a chardonnay white wine is for me a perfect match to the complementary spoon mouth stimulation.

I love the flavored pretzel pieces by an american company that exits since 1909 and is linked with Hannover, a german town in the north of Germany and near Hamburg. But as the pretzel comes original from the south of Germany (as I do) I allowed myself to make a home made pretzel snack that reflects my styl of taste. Because so much I like the flavor honey mustard and onion I would like to have at the same time this snack more sharp and more spicy. And so my pretzel snack is made with a bavarian sweet mustard that I painted with a brush on a normal pretzel from a bakery that I have cut before into pieces. And after that I add some chili powder and happy to have a mapuche spice called mercan I use chili from the chilian natives and I bought it also in my second home country. After painting and powdering I put the pretzel pieces into the oven at 150 degree for 12 minutes. Depending on how hard or crunchy you want your snack let it longer inside the heat and the pretzel for this snack must not be fresh 😉 And to this snack, as you can see cheddar cheese cubes match perfect and in shops you get also the brezel snack with that flavor but I prefer to have the cheese apart. Enjoy this with or with out german beer. Cheers.

Everything you fry and coat with a egg mass can be called Poor Knight. But you must not call it that way and I call my zucchini variation made that way zucchini taler. To the raw egg mass I add salt, peper, chili, thyme and ideally freshly grated parmesan. After cutting the zucchini in slices I pull them through this egg parmesan mass and fry them. Starting next I fry some scampi with Mediterranean herbs, Chili and sea-salt. Please don’t fry them to long and around one minute per side at a medium temperature and then add at the end some fresh lemon juice. The best is to prepare before frying the rolls of smoked salmon and before rolling them in kind of little roses I reap some honey dill mustard on. The Plate is painted with a tomato pesto which I bought in this case ready like the sweat dill mustard. Additional some cress and then mount on every zucchini taler a Scampie and Salmon roll. Drink to this earth water lily adventure your favorite white vine and chardonnay for me fits as good as Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling even if they are all very different. Enjoy – and eating just zucchini taler as a side dish, tapas or snack is also great and once I made just the Zucchinitaler for a buffet in a kindergarden where I worked at that time as cold finger food. Even fried it still is a healthy pleasure and that way here it is spectacular starter.

I think nearly everyone interested in food has heard somehow of pretzel and that there is a German connection behind this bakery. There exits many different pretzel snacks around world and the snacks come from the so called laugen bread which exits in eben more forms in Germany. But surely the pretzel typ is the most known and common. This bread typ is treated with a special and name giving lye – the lauge and so we say Laugengebäck and you can say lye bakery. But how this a little bit more tart tasting wheat bread was invented is a myth. And there a many of them and especially in the south where it was invited. The bavarians have a Version and the Swabians have another one and being a Swabianlationo I call this bread our invention.
So for Christ sake here we go: cut the lye roll, a Laugenstange or baguette into slices and turn them in a row egg mass that you have previously seasoned with sea-salt, peper, chili, oregano and ideally fresh grated parmesan. And you sure have to mix and scruple that before the bread passes through and you fry the slices. The Salat in the middle has also a little parmesan but what makes the dressing even more special is a sweat mustard. And as a friendship approach I state clearly this is a great Bavarian invention and together with a little peper, salt, vinegar and oil you get a great salad dressing. In this case I used an apple cider vinegar instead of a much more strong but surely also good red balsamico vinegar from Itlay and a white balsamic would also make it because the sweat mustard is the match maker. I hope you enjoy this one day with or without being or becoming a fan of the soccer club Bayern München. Because as I live in Hamburg St Pauli and the colors of this soccer club are white and brown as this special bread I want to devote my Laugen Armer Ritter – this Poor Knights to my Club 1.FC St Pauli from 1910.

In the old days french toast was also called and know as german toast. In France they say to the same dish pain perdu – lost bread. And around 1500 in Germany this recipe from old bread was first mentioned as Arme Ritter and still we use this name. Translate that means Poor Knight and in England they know this delicacy also under that name and where it can be part of an english breakfast. But already the people in Roman times shortly after Jesus Christ was born fry bread. And not because of that, but having old sweet Christmas bread around that time I invented once Poor Knights from what is here called Christstollen.
So for christ sake here we go: cut your christmas bread into slices and turn them around in a row egg mass and fry this with a little oil or butter. As this bread with raisins and other dry fruit pieces is already quiet sweat I just add to the egg mass salt, very little peper and in this case some cinnamon. And not liking sugar I scratch off the powdered sugar on top – before cutting the slices. But still this is a sweat and the first part of my Poor Knights variations. But as dessert it should be eaten last and it is surely a royal pleasure. And on New Year‘ Eve I served my Christstollen Armer Ritter with fruits and a home made dark chocolate sause with a little sea-salt, Chili and cherry brandy – the so call Schnaps. Cheers and I hope you enjoy this one day with or without Christmas bread.

My habit of always buying blue berry when they come from my second home country Chile led me to create this drink, because I’m not a big fruit eater. And so the inspiration for this drink was this very healthy fruit that in German summer of corse can be made with Blaubeeren from my first homeland.
The mixing is so simple as the drink is good. Cut a little fresh chili or take a powder and then add fresh lemon juice to mash all direkt in the glass. Then let blue berry join this on going mash up and the amount of gin and tonic is up to your taste. With ice you will rock through the night and a few days ago I mixed this to go for two friends that celebrated their birthday. And long time ago I made a more smoothie version for the lovely woman that lived at that time next to me and had also birthday. Because of the color this is for me also a love drink and a great aperitif. Enjoy and some cheese cubes match perfect with the rest of the blue berry 😉

I grew up in the south of german and there exits a famous dish called „Zwiebelrostbraten“ (beef with a lot of onions). Inspirited by that meal I invented long time ago a south american version of this delicacy, which I’m presenting today with veal. Instead of cooking it with a steak what also fits. But as this young beef, the so called veal from the calf is not so dominate and strong in it’s taste compared to the grown up animal, it fits better with my guacamole topping.
So here we go: cook the violette potatoes or any other kind of potato, prepare a guacamole and then fry the veal with the cooked potatos. Salt for everything and peper just for the calf at the end.
For this guacamole I cut a red onion in very little pieces. Chefs call them brunuoirs. Then add the juice of a half lemon and salt to the onions in a little bowl and mix this for 10 Minutes. If you are a smoker do also that meanwhile. If not start immediately to cut a Tomato in to little cubes and enjoy the music you’re listening or chat ;). Then give the tomato to the onions and add the avocado. With a fork you mash and mix all that and according to your taste you add chili and fresh parsley or coriander.
The most important thing is to taste. New things and also what you are cooking at the moment. If you are happy with the taste serve the meal as shown in the foto or the way you like.
I hope you enjoy this and I did it with a red wine, but especially in summer rosé is also a match.

a easy to do starter, side dish and snack – serrano chips.

Just give the serrano ham on a baking paper for 15 Minutes in the oven at 150 degree. Ready steady go and on New Year’s Eve we had the chips among other things with fried pumpkin cubes. But that is already an other recipe… and the garnish in the middle is a little bit Chinese beef jerky 😉 Enjoy – the chips – hot, lukewarm or cold.

This is one of my favorite vegetarian starters I have created:

Chili flakes – spring onion – honey melon – cucumber – sambal or chili paste – water salt cracker

The Muse (idea giving person) behind this creation is my former chilean girlfriend, that didn’t like cucumber because she found it irritating that the consistency is so similar to melon, but the taste is not sweet. I love this starter meanly because of that reason. Sweet and sour meet with chili and lemon – the secret ingredient plus a little honey and that kicks this starter to the limits of taste control and palate pleasure.

I call it: Cantalupo à lo chileno, Chili-Honig-Melone-Gurken-Zauber or cantaloupe chili styl