Kässpätzle - Germany

Kässpätzle means cheese spätzle, spätzle being a type of egg noodle. This dish is known throughout all of Germany and beyond, however, it is said to be a Swabian dish originating in Baden-Württemberg for which Stuttgart stands as capital.

Although nothing alike, these noodles are so much easier to make than Italian pasta and you can't go wrong really... Some people say this is the German version of macaroni cheese, which doesn't do it justice. This dish is a delicious winter warmer. You could serve this with a glass of spicy Glühwein to warm you up on a cold winter's night. I have also made Kässpätzle and added in some fresh chopped spinach or sliverbeet before baking it in the oven.

Of course you can buy the spätzle ready made, but making the noodles is so easy and you can really taste the difference. This is an original Swabian family recipe a friend gave to me. We recently visited him in Baden-Wüttemberg and made it together. It was yum! :)

Serves 6 - 8 
4-5 brown onions sliced
Oil or butter for frying 
500g plain flour
3 eggs
approximately 1/4 -3/8 L water
1-2 teaspoons salt
250grams of grated Gouda, Edam or Emmantaler cheese or a mixture

Heat a pan with some oil or butter and then add the sliced onions. Fry the onions over medium heat until golden and caramelised and set aside.

Place flour in a bowl. Add eggs and salt and some of the water and stir. You can use a whisk if you have a strong one (as the dough becomes quite sticky and thick) or use a wooden spoon, stirring an d mixing until the flour lumps dissolve. Add water until you have a fluid but thick and stick consistency. Keep stirring until you see large bubbles appear as you mix it. NB these are not like the bubbles you see when you make pancakes at the top of the mixture. These are large bubbles that form whilst stirring.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil with a tablespoon of salt.When the water is boiling place some of the spätzle dough onto a bread board and smooth it out into a a layer a few millimeters thick. While holding the bread board over the boiling water, use a large knife to scrape strips of of the sticky spätzle dough off the bread board directly into the boiling water and repeat until all dough has been made into spätzle noodles.

Once the spätzle is cooked it will float to the top of the pot. Scoop it out as you go and place it in a a large baking dish layering it with spätzle , caramelised onions and cheese.

Repeat until you have used all the onions and spätzle . Top with cheese and place in a preheated oven for about 20-30 minutes or until golden on top.

Gâteaux de Comminges - France

Usually when I visit my uncle Jean Odon and aunt Claire in France I get many stories of the history of our family as well as this cake! :)

This recipe is a family heirloom that goes back five generations. Jean Odon tells me that this recipe was passed on from his great aunt to his great grandmother (or my great, great grandmother!), La Maréchale Lyautey.  From then on it was made for special occasions and birthdays for the de Comminges family and the name Gâteaux de Comminges was born.

It is very easy and quick to make but the moistness depends on cooking time and is best when it is slightly undercooked. I have doubled the recipe in the past and it has come out cooked but all gooey and moist in the middle which was so good! If you have a hotter oven than usual watch it carefully. If you do happen to overcook it a little it should still be moist and fluffy. I hope you enjoy it as much we do! :)

Cake Ingredients

125g good qualitydark chocolate (70%)

125g Butter 

3 eggs separated

125g almond meal

80g plain flour

125g caster sugar

Chocolate Glaze –Ingredients

80g good quality darkchocolate (70%)

1 tablespoon of cremefraiche (you could also use thickened cream).

Cake - Method

1) Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2) Grease a 24cm cake tin with a bit of butter andcoat it with a light dusting of flour and remove the excess (instead you could line the tin with baking paper). I find spring form cake tins to be the easiest option but anywill do.

3) Melt the chocolate and butter in asaucepan over low heat. Allow to cool slightly.

4) While the chocolate is melting beat the 3 egg yolks until combined

5)  In a separate bowl mix the almond meal,flour and sugar.

6) In another bowl beat the 3 egg whites untilstiff peaks form.

7) Gently Mix the 3 egg yolks into the chocolate mixturealong with the dry ingredients.

8) Very gently fold in the beaten egg whites untiljust combined.

9) Pour mixture into cake tin and bake in theoven at 180°C for approximately 20-25 minutes.

10) Removefrom the oven allow to cool slightly before turning out onto a rack or a plate.

11) To makethe chocolate glaze melt the chocolate as in step 3 and stir through the cremefraiche. spread over the cake immediately

12) You canserve the cake warm or cold with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and some strawberries sprinkled with some sugar would also compliment it nicely :)

 

Tsering's Momos in Ladakh - India

View from our room :)

Leh, the capital of Ladakh in Northern India, sits in a valley at around 3500 metres and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of snow dusted peaks. In spring time it's dotted with the blossoms of apricot trees. Here you feel worlds away from the hustle and bustle of India, not to mention the change in climate, culture, language, and culinary delights!

Given the extreme climatic conditions of this mountain desert, which is only accessible by road from May to September, Ladakhis are very self sufficient. Many of them grow their own vegetables by strategically channeling the water from the mountain streams. In the short peak tourist season from June to August the valley turns from brown to a luminous green.

Tsering and her husband Thukstan are the owners of Tse-Tan Guesthouse which is North of the city centre, and arriving at their guesthouse was like arriving home, with their warmth and hospitality immediately obvious. Like the majority of Ladakhis, Tsering and Thukstan grow their own vegetables and have a little green house for the cooler shoulder seasons.

Tsering and Thukstan

To prepare all the meals Tsering sits on a cloth on her kitchen floor and their guests, whom they treat like family, can be as involved in the process as they would like. Ladakhi food has some similarities to Tibetan cuisine as they eat Tsampa (roasted barley flour), salty butter tea Thukpa (noodle soup) and of course Momos (stuffed dumplings). With barley as their staple grain it is used and manipulated in many different ways for countless dishes.

One evening we sat on Tsering's kitchen floor and made delicious Ladakhi style Momos. Momos are generally stuffed with cooked vegetables or meat and eaten with a chutney or chilli style sambal. They can be made with any kind of flour, but here we made them with barley flour. Making the momos from scratch, dough and all, can be quite a long process so it was nice to do it together as a group. I am sure Tsering appreciated the help! :)

Here I have included a rough recipe guesstimating quantities with enough to serve 5 people. The most important piece of equipment you need to make these is a large mutli-layered steamer as well as a grater. Feel free to be as creative with the filling and chutney as you like. Barley flour is used for the dough as it is grown locally but you could also use wheat flour. You can prepare the filling and chutney ahead of time.

Momo dough
Mix approximately 9 cups of barley flour with a teaspoon of baking powder and 2 teaspoons of salt. Have about a litre of water handy and gradually add this to the flour mixture. Don't add it all at once! Get your hands in there and be sure to mix and knead it well after each addition of water. Knead this and add water until it is a good consistency to roll out using some extra flour to coat the surface, to about 2-3mm thick. Use the end of a glass with a diameter of approximately 6-7 cm to cut circles in the dough.


Momo Filling
Oil for frying (here we used mustard seed oil)
1 small head of cabbage grated
3 carrots grated
1 small red onion grated
A few handfuls of spinach or swiss chard (silverbeet) finely chopped
100 grams paneer finely chopped
Handful of coriander and handful parsley finely chopped
Handful of rice vermicelli soaked in boiling water, strained and chopped finely
A few teaspoons of garam masala
Salt and pepper to taste
A few tablespoons of ghee

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large pot. Add cabbage, carrots, spinach and red onion and sauté with a few teaspoons of garam masala and salt and pepper until fragrant. Mix the chopped paneer with the coriander and parsley. Remove pot from the heat and stir through the herb and paneer mixture along with the chopped vermicelli and a few tablespoons of ghee. Set aside.

Momo Chutney
A few carrots very finely grated
5 tomatoes very finely chopped
3 green chillies very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves very finely chopped or grated
1 inch piece ginger very finely chopped or grated
A handful of parsley and mint finely chopped
Juice of 1- 2 limes
Garam masala and salat and pepper to taste

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowel and set aside.


Assembling the Momos
This is very tricky to explain but I'll do my best. Place a circle of dough in your left hand and put a teaspoon of Momo filling in the centre. It is easier to use less than more filling when practicing. Hold the Momo filling in place using your left thumb. Take your forefinger and thumb of your right hand and pinch together the edge of the dough, repeat by gathering another punch of dough squeezing it together with last working in a circle. Until all the edges are gathered together. Hmmm understand!? Perhaps YouTube will have better explanations for you! :) Have patience as it can take some practice!


















Cooking the Momos
Rub a little oil on the base if each steamer and place all the Momos inside making sure they are not touching each other. Fill the base if the steamer with water, bring it to the boil, and simmer to steam the Momos for about 30 minutes or until the dough is cooked. Remove from steamer and serve with chutney.

Enjoy your Momo party! :)

Caramelised Yoghurt - Kolkata's Mishti Doi - India

Think creme caramel style yoghurt! This was so delicious and something I look forward to re-creating when I get home! :)

From what I've read there are a couple of ways you can make this. I think the easier version is by combining the yoghurt with condensed milk and carnation milk an then baking it in the oven. See here for a recipe I found online

Otherwise the more original version is made by caramel using sugar and mixing this with the yoghurt before baking it. See here

If you're at all inspired to give it a go let me know how it turns out! :)

Lassi in Varanasi - India

The Ghats of Varanasi

Even in India, the place famous for lassis it can be difficult to find a truly good one. They can be found everywhere, however from what I've seen, creating the perfect lassi lies in the technique. Many places now resort to using a blender and adding so much milk and / or water that the consitrncy of the yoghurt is lost. In Australia the standard lassis you can buy in Indian restaurants are usually flavored with a sickeningly sweet mango purée. Sometimes both of these methods can occasionally still produce something palatable however my quest is always to find the real deal.

So far during my travels around India the best most authentic lassis i have found have been in Curd Corner in Kolkata and from a place on the street in Paharganj, New Dehli and in a hole in the wall style shop in Varanasi called Blue Lassi. I think the best most beautifully presented lassi was from Blue Lassi found in the winding back streets behind the ghats. Here they served the lassis in earthern ware clay pot style cups and decorated them with cream, fruit, slithers of pistachios and saffron orange blossom water.

What I've observed, creating a real lassi involves the following steps.

Shallow stainless steel or earthenware vats are filled with hot milk the night before and by morning the yoghurt is set with a thick layer of cream coating the surface.

In a large stainless steel mortar using a large wooden pestle or 'muddler' your fruit of choice is mashed, then a cup of yogurt is added, with a little bit of milk and a ton of sugar (usually at least 3-4 tablespoons!). This is then mixed by rolling the wooden muddler between two hands until frothy. If ice is used this is usually rolled with the milk to make it cold before it is strained and then added to the fruit and yoghurt. The lassi is then poured from the stainless steel mortar into a glass and topped with a slice of cream taken from the top of the yoghurt in the vat :)

Mmmmmm I ❤ real Lassis!!!! :)

Banana Lassi

Apple Lassi

Bengali Sweets in Kolkata, India

Girish Ch Dey & Nakur Ch Nandy... Sounds crazy and I have absolute no idea what it means but I came across this place while looking on trip advisor. As it was rated as the number one place to eat sweets in Kolkata I couldn't miss it!

I was a little wary at first as I am not a huge fan of the traditional Indian style, milk powdered, buttery, spiced sweets, and after having a ridiculously violently ill experience after eating the deep fried, sugar syrup soaked Jalebi and Gulab Jamun, I usually avoid them at all cost! However, these sounded different with a description entailing a combination of a cottage cheese type of milk product and jaggery (rapadura sugar).... Thankfully they were! 'Mishti' means sweets and there are most likely hundreds mishti shops around Kolkata that sell something similar but I wanted something trust worthy, highly recommended and popular to make sure I wouldn't be spending my night on the train hugged around a filthy toilet.

Apparently established in 1251, this place has had a long lived reputation! There were middle class Indians crowding around the counter and one customer who (thankfully!) spoke English was buying a huge shopping bag full of them to take back to Mumbai.

With a selection of sweets all same same but different, butterscotch, raisin, chocolate, rose water and a pink one (!) all balls and squares. They were soft and squishy with almost a cookie dough type if texture and super sweet but delicious! However eating too many of these could make you sick pretty quickly!

Kati Rolls in Kolkata - India

When I think of Indian food in Kolkata I think of the delicious Kati Roll. Like no other Indian food I've tasted before the Kati Roll is a Bengali speciality found in small little 'hole in the wall' style eateries around Kolkata. They are fast food, Indian style.

Dough balls are manipulated and gently tossed to form a circle of flat paratha like bread and are then placed on an oily hot fry pan. An egg is then cracked on the base and mixed until it coats one side of the flaky flat bread and it is flipped and fried until the whole thing is golden. This is then piled with lashings of finely shaven sweet red onions along with your filling of choice - mine was paneer which is spiced and fried and vegetables (more like curry spiced mash potatoes). They then top it with spicy tomato sauce. The hole thing is then rolled into a wrap style role and kept together with paper... Yum! I want one now! :)

The Cake Lady of Darjeeling - India

Sticky Date Cake with Palm Sugar Icing

I heard about Helly the cake lady from an article in Sbs food magazine, Feast which made me even more sure that I had to visit the hill station of Darjeeling in India's North east. You won't find cakes this good anywhere in India let alone your local coffee shop at home!

Helly, originally from New Zealand moved to Darjeeling 3 years ago and has started a business baking the most beautiful moist cakes and selling them to the tourists and coffee shops.

There is no better way to enjoy a freshly brewed Darjeeling tea than with one of these! :) Helly uses local and organic ingredients wherever possible so the cakes often come with new and interesting decorations using special types of seeds and all sorts of special stuff she sources from the hills of Darjeeling.

We tried the Chai Carrot Cake, the Lemon Syrup Cake with Lemon Cream & the Sticky Date Cake with Palm Sugar Icing... Mmmmmmm

My Food Safari

As some of you may know, we are huge fans of Maeve O'Meara's Food Safari show on Sbs. Over the next four months (when I have wifi access), I will be bringing you my very own food safari. I will be blogging about lots of the yummy things I will be eating on my travels starting in... Nepal :)

Posts will only be short snippets and photos so I can recall and perhaps recreate some of these recipes when I return to my own kitchen. I hope you enjoy and it gives you some inspiration to try something new at home :)

Kaju Fried Masala - Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal

Pre-dinner snack. Cashew nuts fried with ground cumin, ground coriander, tomato, onion, radish, carrot served with coriander.... This would be so great served as an entree in a lettuce leaf! Fresh, flavorsome and yummy!! :)