German lentil Soup

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The lentil soup is pretty much a family staple food in Germany. Although this is a classic soup / one-pot-dish, every family has their own variants re the ingredients, meaning every family develops their own traditions how they like their lentil soup best.

For some it’s just soupy with lentils and sausages, for others it’s a full blown meal with loads of veggies in it. Here is my version of it with suggestions as my Bavarian grandmother would cook it: with “Speck”.

(Although Wikipedia traces its origins to Austria and Italy, Speck is very traditional to Germany. It is not for the super lean cuisine conscious folk, but I challenge anyone who experiences the delicious and mouth watering cooking smells wafting enticingly through the home not to develop a very healthy and hearty appetite!!

Lentil Soup basic ingredients

Lentils (preferably the “green lentil” variety – you can also use brown lentils, but definitely not yellow split lentils)
Uncooked joint of smoked ham
Speck
Onions
Potatoes
Celeriac (half is enough)
Carrots
Soup Greens (Suppengrün) – a traditional ingredient in soups and consists of: 1 leek, ample amounts of flat leaf parsley, lovage, the green leaves of carrots (if you can get it), bay leaves and other fresh herbs as you have them.

Ham stock cubes (optional, please taste the end result of your soup first before adding the stock cubes, as you do not want it too salty. If however you do not have any speck and/or a joint of uncooked smoked ham, then you do need the ham stock cubes to give it some flavour!)

Tomato puree (amount according to taste)
Vinegar (I used 2 Tbs. in my soup – again it is according to personal taste. Some families serve the vinegar at the table for diners to add to their own dishes as reqired)
Sugar (1 tps or more according to taste) – I personally prefer the alternative to sugar which was also frequently used by my Bavarian grandmother: chopped up prunes for fruity sweetness.
Water

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Smoked sausages (optional – if you cooked the soup with the ham and have plenty left over for another meal at some other time (next day or frozen for some other time), I then tend to add the smoked sausages just heated through with the rest of the soup.

Cook’s tip:
For some reason the lentils and vegetables just leech out the flavour of the smoked pork. It is perfectly fine to add a whole joint of uncooked smoked ham into the soup, provided you don’t cut it up into small pieces. What you definitely do not want to do is to add the smoked saussages at the beginning of the cooking process, else you wind up with all the smoked saussage flavour in the soup and some sort of meat texture without flavour as the saussages.

Method:

Soak the dried lentils in water over night. Before cooking drain the soaking liquid and rinse the lentils well (this helps reduce the “wind” production so typical with pulses )

I did not have speck or sausages at hand during this particular meal preparation.

If you have speck (here in London they sell speck in Polish shops or supermarkets that sell Polish produce), then here’s what you do:

Cube a good amount of Speck and gently fry / sauté till it releases the fat and until browned. Remove Speck (it will be added later when the soup is done) and then fry the onions in the fat created by the Speck. Do not remove any of the delicious and flavoursome Speck fat!

The Joint of uncooked smoked ham cooking with the lentils, vegetables and soup greens

Finally, before serving, add the rest of the ingredients according to taste (including the speck you had put aside earlier). Allow to heat through for a few minutes and then serve with a garnish of parsley.

Ghanaian - West African - Peanut Soup

This recipe originally was given to me by my Ghanaian friend, Patricia, but I needed to tweak it to suit my taste buds (read: add more chillies and give it more oompf!!). My dear friend still thinks she should tone down the spiciness for her Caucasian food lover … not so, please! I prefer a wild taste bud party with fire!

I have also discovered that this dish is ideally suited for a large slow cooker and cooked for best part of a day on a low heat. That way the chilli spiciness is not harsh but mellows in beautifully and allowing all the flavours to mature and blend nicely.

If you’re up for an unusual peanut soup with chicken or any poultry, here is the recipe:

Peanut Soup Ingredients - most of them

Ingredients:

Chicken or any poultry of your choice
onions
medium large piece of fresh root ginger aprox 8cm long – sliced and roughly chopped
garlic
red bell pepper – diced
2 or more chillies – Schottish bonnet with seeds
3 Tablespoons of Sambal Oelek (optional)
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1 Tablespoon sugar
2-3 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
Tomato puree – nearly one tube
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Peanut butter – the equivalent of about 1 large jar – half crunchy half smooth peanut butter
peeled and cubed sweet potato
chicken broth – stock cubes
Maggi cubes
spinach or curly kale with the thick hard stems cut out (I used spinach)
water enough for a soupy consistency. You might need to add some more during the long cooking / simmering process.

Peanut Soup - chicken or any other poultry onions, chillies and stock cubes

Cook this until the poultry is done enough to take the meat off the bones, and discard the bones.

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Peanut Soup - meat taken off the bones

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Once you’ve taken the meat off the bones, add all the rest of the ingredients except the spinach and water as needed.

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Peanut Soup - adding spinach

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After about 4 1/2 hours of cooking I added the spinach plus some more tomato puree. As you can see on the picture, the soup was looking rather pale still at that point.

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Peanut Soup - ok and yummy but not yet great

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After the soup had been simmering for about over 5 hours in the slow cooker, we all were very hungry. It was cooked through ok and it was enjoyable, so we dished out and ate.

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However, I left the slowcooker on and after a further eight hours simmering it really had become amazingly delicious. The soup had lost its peanut buttery flavour and texture, was less harsh re the spices (OK, I did put additional Sambal Oelek into it) and had developed into a mellow all rounded spiciness with plesant heat without the raw fire.

Sambal Oelek

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My favourite Sambal Oelek! I always have a large jar in the fridge ….
I probably have a Sambal Oelek addiction …..

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Oh, By the way …
the first photo of the soup in the white dish at the top was taken after the additional loooooong cooking time.

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Autumnal Vegetable Soup

Unfortunately the battery of my camera was dead, so I used my iPhone to take the pictures. The soup is delicious and quickly made … definitely a winner!

Autumnal Vegetable Soup Ingredients

Butternut squash, pumpkin or whatever you find at your greengrocer’s
Carrots
Onions, several
Tomatoes
Sweet Potatoes (baked)
Garlic,
Mixed Dried Herbs
Fresh Parsley
Fresh Basil
Chicken Stock Cubes
Marmite / Vegimite (one heaped teaspoon)
Tomato Puree
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to season
Pinch of sugar
Cream or soured cream or just a splurge of olive oil

Method:

Bring a saucepan of water to boil and add stock cubes and dried herbs. Chop up the butternut squash or whatever you have plus the carrots, onions and fresh parsley and add it to the the boiling chicken stock and let it cook till the hard root veggies are soft.

Mean while either roast the sweet potatoes or take some previously roasted sweet potatoes.

Autumnal Vegetable Soup with tomatoes blanching

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Scoup out the flesh of the sweet potato and add it to the mix.

Autumnal Vegetable soup - mixing

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Add the basil leaves, crushed garlic and mix everything with an electric stick blender.

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Now add the remaining ingredients according to taste.

Autumnal Vegetable Soup ... served

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Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Cream Chese Icing

These cupcakes Charis baked yesterday, too. I must say they were incredibly delicious. We could not stop licking our fingers *accidentally* dipped into the Nutella cream cheese icing. The cupcake base is beautifully chocolatey moist.
Really yum!!

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

115g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
85g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g soft dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, separated
185g plain flour, sifted
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¾tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
250ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature
1 tsp good-quality vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170˚C (fan)/190˚C / 375˚F /gas mark5 and line a couple of

melting dark chocolate - the light reflection from the camera flash makes it appear to be milk chocolate. It was high grade dark chocolate

12-hole muffin trays or four 12-hole mini muffin trays with the appropriate size cupcake cases.

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Break the chocolate into pieces and melt. Put the pieces in a heatproof bowl or glass jug over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until it has completely melted and is quite smooth. Stir in the two heaped teaspoons of instant coffee into that mix. Leave to cool slightly.

beaten egg yolks added to the creamed butter and sugar mix

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In a large bowl cream the butter and the sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth, which should take 3-5 minutes using an electric hand mixer. In a separate bowl and with clean beaters, beat the egg yolks for several minutes. Slowly add the egg yolks to the creamed mixture and beat well. Next, add the melted chocolate to the mixture and beat well.

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Combine the flower, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a separate bowl. Put the milk in a jug and add the vanilla extract to it. Add one-third of the flour to the chocolate mixture and beat well. Pour in one-third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and the milk have been added.

carefully fold the egg whites into the batter

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In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. Carefully fold the egg whites into the batter, using a metal spoon. Do not beat or you will take all the air out of the mixture.

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Carefully spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about

we used two teaspoons to carefully fill the slightly liquid batter into the cases

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Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes (regular size) or 15 minutes (mini size). To check they are cooked, insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cakes – it should come out clean.

Remove from the oven ad leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before carefully placing them on a wire rack to cool. Once they are completely cool, ice them with the Nutella cream cheese icing.

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For the Nutella cream cheese icing:

Nutella, Philadelphia, butter

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Ingredients:

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57g butter, room temperature, cut into cubes
227g cream cheese (Philadelphia), room temperature,
120g Nutella
1 tsp. vanilla
340-450g powdered sugar, sifted

.... and the icing (as you can see, we did not keep to the recipe, instead adding it all together, it work fine and was soooo delicious)

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To make the icing, beat the butter and cream cheese with an electic hand mixer on medium high for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the nutella and vanilla until completely incorporated. (Actually we just mixed the Nutella, butter and Philadelphia in one go).

Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until desired consistency, until stiff peaks are reached.

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Spoon the icing on the cupcakes.

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Ready to bite into this thing!

it was Charis' job to sample her creation first!

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing

Today, my daughter Charis baked two lots of cupcakes, and I acted as her chef’s assistant, plus taking pictures. Here are the Earl Grey cupcakes with a really delicious lemon buttercream icing.

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g sugar
2 large eggs
300g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
125ml milk
½ tsp. Almond extract (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
4 Earl Grey teabags (Next Time: 2 -3 Tbs loose leaves of Earl Grey tea – it’s best to use a good quality loose leaf tea for these cakes. If you don’t have loose leaf tea on hand, you can open two teabags and use the tea inside.)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175˚C (350˚F/gas mark 4 and line a whole 12-hole muffin tray with the appropriate size cupcake cases.

Earl Grey teabags infusing in hot milk

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Cover with cling film and leave to infuse for about 30 minutes, then discard the teabags (next time add tea leaves directly into the milk and allow them to steep).

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eggs sugar butter mix

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Sift dry ingredients together. Fold half of the dry mixture into the wet; add the milk (with the tea leaves) and the remainder of the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined and do not over mix. The mixture will be soft and light, and will be flecked with little black tea leaves.

Cake mix in the little cupcake cases

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Lemon Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2-3 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
Grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons (you need at least 2 tsp)
500g icing sugar, sifted.

Method:
In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and half the icing sugar until smooth – this can take several minutes with an electric hand mixer. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat again until smooth and creamy.

Earl Grey Cupcake

Moroccan Mint Tea

It was a Moroccan themed food evening that concluded with the ubiquitous mint tea.

The main meal was delicious: Moroccan lamb stuffed aubergines, and I should have added the recipe here to my food blog. The problem was that I managed to take absolutely abysmal photos. The aubergines looked more like dismembered unfortunate caterpillars. Well my dinner guests, who absolutely loved the flavours and the food, suggested that I should make that dish again *soon* and then take better pictures.

Anyway, here is the recipe for the Moroccan mint tea:

Actually it’s very, very simple. You need Green Tea, to be more precise Chinese Gunpower Tea, a good table spoon ful.

Bunch a lot of fresh mint, torn into pieces, together with the Green Tea into a tea pot and pour hot water over it. Allow the tea to steep for nearly 10 mins. over a tea light candle heater (or anything else to keep it hot), pour into little glasses with a sprig of mint, and enjoy.

I personally like my Moroccan tea sweet so I am generous with the sugar, but my dinner guests preferred it unsweetened. Thus I served the sugar separately.

Spanish Rice with Chicken

Well, Germany did not win the World Cup, yesterday, Spain did. Congratulations and well done for a great team performance! Actually, lucky me, I have more Spanish family than German family, so there was still a reason for celebrating!

So, here is my version of Spanish Rice

I had some left over chicken from the other day when I made a delicious clear chicken soup, so this dish is great for left over meats, or serve it as an accompaniment for other meats, such as grilled or roast meats.

Ingredients for Geli's Spanish Rice

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Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil (or as much is needed)

1 onion, chopped

Several garlic cloves, minced (sorry I can’t give you the exact amount of garlic, I am extremely heavy-handed with garlic …. I was conservative tonight as I was considerate for my daughter and her work colleagues tomorrow)

Aprox 500g of long-grain white rice (2 cups for my US friends)

700g of * chicken stock (or 3 cups). I used the soupy stock from the chicken I made the other day, and it was superb. If all fails use chicken stock cubes)

1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste

1 tin / can of chopped tomatoes

Heaps of oregano and thyme (dried but even better if you have some fresh)

A good handful of peas

Chopped flat parsly

Several different types of chili peppers (the larger variety is not as hot as the small ones, yet they give some nice flavour)

Black olives (any black olives will do, but my personal firm favourite are Greek Kalamata olives!) I can’t stand the prepitted olives you can buy at shops, they don’t have any flavour. I do cut the stones out for the cooking and it is easier on an unsuspecting tooth later on. However, do serve a bowl of olives on the table so that diners can help themselves.

1 Tablespoon of powdered turmeric

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*Check the instructions on the rice package for the proportions of liquid to rice. They can range from 1:1 to 2:1. If your rice calls for 2 cups of water for every cup of rice, then for this recipe, use 4 cups of stock for 2 cups of rice. (Can you imagine, I just wrote “cups” as a measurememnt, not gramms – ‘g’ and mililitres – ‘ml’ ???!!!)

Can some reader please help me with the names of these large chili peppers? At my local greengrocer I tend to just bag what I see I might need without knowing the correct names … Thanks!

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Method

In a large saucepan brown the rice, onions and garlic in olive oil, medium/high heat. Cook onion rice mixture, stirring frequently, till onions are golden and softened. It is difficult but the rice should be fried to brown, almost to the point of burning. This will bring out the best flavor in it. (I cooked it less than I should have )

Next add all the other ingredients to the rice. Bring to a simmer. Cover. Lower heat and cook 15-25 minutes, depending on the type of rice and the instructions on the rice package. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Serves 4 to 6.

Note to self: Next time add sundried tomatoes and chorizo sausages. Also there were not enough chili peppers.

Basic German Streuselkuchen (with yeast)

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My daughter Charis was supposed to have baked cupcakes today, but changed her mind after a late night So, as there was plenty of butter in my kitchen, I thought I’d knock up a Streuselkuchen (crumble cake).

It has a light and moist yeast base and a really yummy crunchy buttery crumble topping. next time I’ll add some fruit into it.

Ingredients

For the Dough:
4 cups Plain Flour (All Purpose Flour)
115g Unsalted Butter
1 Egg
100g of Sugar
1 sachet Active Dry Yeast
1/4 teaspoon Salt
250ml Milk, lukewarm

For the Crumb Topping:
250g Unsalted Butter, cut into tiny cubes
250g of Sugar
1 sachet of Vanilla Sugar, or vanilla essence if you don’t have vanilla sugar
500g Flour

Additional Ingredients:
2 -3 tablespoons Powdered Sugar

Method:

Dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar in half of the wam milk (not too hot), add the yeast and 2 tablespoons of the flour. Cover and allow this mixture to sit in a warm place for 1 hour.

Combine remaining dough ingredients then add in the yeast mixture. Mix with dough hooks/spirals (if you have a mixer) until a smooth dough forms, then knead by hand. Allow dough to sit in a warm place until double in volume.

Before putting itnto the oven, give the dough anough good kneading. The dough should not be sticky. If necessary ad a bit more flour.

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

Grease (butter) a baking sheet / flat rectangular tin. Transfer dough to baking sheet / tin and spread it evenly.

Prepare the crumbs by mixing the butter, vanilla sugar /essence, cinnamon and sugar. Gradually work in flour until mixture becomes dry and crumbly. The way you work it in is by rubbing your fingers or hands in the floury mix

Sprinkle crumbs over dough, distributing them evenly.

Allow cake to sit and rise for another 30 minutes.

Bake cake for around 30 minutes or until crumbs and crust become golden brown.

Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely.

Before serving, sift powdered sugar onto top of cake for decoration.

You're invited to be inspired to try some German Rhine wine

Join me to rediscover the diverse and elegant wines of Germany. Dry as well as sweet, red as well as white, if you think you know German wine? Drink again!

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>>>Note:<<< Right at the bottom of this post, there is a very interesting and informative video clip below that starts on its own, so please scroll down to pause it till you're ready to view it.

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Let’s start where German wine is produced. One of the most northerly wine producing countries in the world, Germany is split into thirteen wine regions. With the exception of two small eastern regions, they are all concentrated in the south and south-western part of Germany.

This cool climate here results in a long growing season, allowing the grapes to ripen slowly, maintaining fruity acidity, developing natural sugars absorbing minerals from the soil.

Generally lower in alcohol, German wines are uniquely refreshing and aromatic. If you tried German wine before, chances are that it was white. Germany’s flagship grape variety is Riesling, accounting for over 20% of vineyard area. Germany produces two-thirds of the World’s Riesling. Styles ranging from bone dry to lusciously sweet. The lower Rheingau Riesling tends to be light, refreshing with hints of lime and flowers on the nose, sometimes honey, mouth watering acidity, and mineral flavours on the palate.

By contrast, Riesling produced in the warmer Pfalz or Rhein Hessen region, is often dryer in style with stone fruit aromas, fuller body and rounder mouth feel.

It may come as a surprise to you that Germany also produces red wines. In fact, it’s the third largest producer of Pinot Noir in the world after France, and America, known locally as Spätburgunder. These grapes are grown in the more southerly wine regions, such as Franken and Baden, Würtenburg and the Phalz. Velvety smooth with a slightly sweet fruity aroma, Spätburgunder with its delicate cherry note, is an ideal accompaniment to game dishes.

For most part of my youth, I grew up in the Rheingau surrounded by vinyards, as you would have read in the section about me.

The Rheingau wines are particularly dear to my heart. They are low in alcohol, meaning you can actually drink another bottle … but not low in flavours.

The majority of people tend to know of the Riesling grape from that area, however there are several others, such as Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, and Gewürztraminer.

For now I’ll just focus on Riesling with its massive crisp, refreshing and fruity acidity, layers and layers of flavours, minerals, lime honey, and all sorts of fruits. Riesling goes with a much wider range of foods than boring old Chardonnay.

Plus, Riesling can actually improve in bottles for decades!

Schloß Johannisberg – Chateau Johannisberg - my daily view as I grew up.

Wine should not be grown that far north, but the Romans did not know that, and they needed something to drink, so they planted vines on the slopes where snow melted first. Slopes, angled like solar panels, to give a chance for the Riesling to ripen

some of the vineyards are rediculously steep

People crazy enough to work these slopes, have clearly confused vertigo with viticulture.

The best slopes face south and south-west, thus, combined with the inclination, the sun gets directly into the vineyard, warms up the soil fast. Slate which is prevalent in these regions warms up and retains the heat, then releasing it to the vineyard during the cooler nights.

Due to differences within the slopes, you can have different micro climates. On one one patch you may have a Kabinett, and right next to it you’ll get a Spätlese, which is a superior quality.

Sometimes rocky cliffs break into the vineyard which collect the heat and reflect it back to the vineyard.

There will be more posts about German wines which will also explain the different quality grades and understanding the labels on the bottles. So, keep an eye open for those posts.

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Nutritious Pitta Bread Pocket for On-The-Go

We decided to take our own mini picnic, packed lunches along; and as my dear friend prefers the gentler English sandwich flavours, and I like to add chillies, etc. to mine, we pepared each our own.

I thought I would add this little lunch creation here, just to show how easy it is to quickly put together a pitta bread sandwich packed with flavours and nutritious goodness to inspire you to do your own.

The Ingredients I used are really simple:
(Click on images to enlarge them)

1 pack of “Sweet Chilli Chunky Chicken” (really you can use any cooked chicken or meat bits, left overs, etc.),

1 hard boiled egg,

olive oil,

some Himalayan salt or any good quality sea salt to taste

some PiriPiri (hot chilli pepper) mix sprinkled on to your liking,

some raw stir fry vegetable mix to add some crunch

some water cress

and of course some sprouted seeds (here alfalfa seeds) a staple in my kitchen. So easy to grow!

Method

First, mash up the hard boild egg with a fork and create a paste with the olive oil and the seasoning. I prefer to use olive oil rather than margarine or mayonnaise, simply because it’s healthier and to my mind the extra virging olive oil tastes so much more yummy.

Then slice open the pitta bread, spread the egg paste inside, and then heap in all the other ingredients …. done!

Add a crunchy apple, a small banana (in a bananaguard, else it gets squooshed brown and nasty), and a bottle of water, and ….

you’re ready to go! …. Easy!

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Just need to add some photos from Kew!

The iconic Palm House .... lovely hot and humid in there!

inside the Palm House, going up to the second level

View from the top gallery walk around

Palms, palms, palms and anything that grows on them ....

Outside on the huge grounds

Peacock strutting around on the grounds

Lakes and various royal buildings all over the place

He was clearly showing off ... so I came a bit close to him

Another royal abode. The flag was up, thus the residents were in the house .... in the foreground a young river Thames. The river bed was nearly dry because the tide was out.

OK enough now with my photo craze of this incredible place …. ooh maybe I should add the tree walk, high above the grounds;

Tree top walk

…. and of course I could wax lyrical about the scientific side. As my late father was a botanist (phytopathologist – plant diseases), I clearly grew up with him imparting his love for plants. What I find fascinating is that that Kew Gardens has a unique conservation project going. In underground sealed and temperature regulated areas they are collecting and storing seeds of the entire plant world on this planet – just in case some species becomes extinct or a catastrophe happens … amazing.

OK enough now! This is a food blog afterall, but I hope you found my little discursion interesting!