Sea Salt Caramels With Bittersweet Chocolate

Whereas usually I bake cookies for christmas last christmas I decided to surprise my loved ones with homemade chocolates instead. I always thought the combination of caramel and salt is ingenious. Caramel simply tastes better with a dash of salt. 

So I decided to make chocolates with a salted-caramel filling and searched the internet for a good recipe.

This one here on About.com sounded quite promising, and I decided to give it a try.

Ok, I need to confess something here. I kind of messed the recipe up. But making caramel and chocolates can be quite tricky, and so it happened that I misread a few things and didn't pay proper attention. Mine turned out way too heavy and too salty. Otherwise they would have been delicious, I swear. But I will point out exactly where I did wrong so this won't be happening to you, as well. Yes, I will at some point make them again. And for all the family members who were wondering why I had decided to kill them with a butter and salt overdose: Sorry...it was so much work that I simply could not toss all these little "goodies". I really hope they weren't that bad....

Anyway, here we go!

You'll need:

320 ml / 1 1/3 cup heavy cream

400g / 2 cups granulated sugar

120ml / 1/2 cup light corn syrup (or rice syrup, which you can get in organic stores/Bio-supermarkets)

80ml / 1/3 cup honey

6 Tbsp (85g or 3oz!!!) cold butter, cut into small pieces 

- Mistake No.1: I used about 200g (2.5oz) butter...

1tsp vanilla extract

3tsp sea salt (fleur de sel) 

- Mistake No2: Only 2tsp go into the caramel, the 3rd one is for garnish

450g / 1lb bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Directions: 

Prepare an 8-inch baking pan by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Place the cream in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and bring it to a boil. Stir in the sugar, corn syrup and honey and stir until it begins to boil. Periodically wipe down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent sugar crystals from forming.

the caramel already turned a little browner but needs to get way darker

Cook the caramel, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 257 degrees on a candy thermometer.                 

I didn't have a candy thermometer, and it still worked out fine. You just really have to pay attention. Never leave the pot alone or get distracted. It takes a while until the caramel turns brown. It takes another while until the caramel gets darker brown. But then everything goes really quick and before you know it you may end up with burnt caramel. A thermometer may be a help but it's all about how quickly you can pull the caramel off the heat.

I also read on David Lebovitz's blog that you should avoid stirring the caramel if you can. Only carefully scrape the bottom of the pot every once in a while to prevent the caramel from burning.

You can see here, how dark my caramel got. The yellow part is the massive amount of butter, I stirred in...

Remove the pan from the heat immediately and stir in the butter, vanilla, and 2 teaspoons of salt.

Pour into prepared pan and let set at room temperature until firm enough to cut.

I couldn't cut my caramel at all. It was way too soft.

Cut the caramel into small squares or strips with a chef’s knife.

That's why I pulled out little bits and formed them to chocolates.
Btw, you see those tiny brown spots? That just indicates that my caramel almost burned.
I guess I was lucky.

See, due to the fact that I used far too much butter my caramel was way to soft to be cut. I had to put the whole pan intothe freezer, then pull out some caramel balls with my hands, form them and again put them back into the freezer. otherwise they would have just melted away once the melted chocolate would have hit it...

Temper the chocolate and dip the caramels in the chocolate one at a time. Place them on a baking sheet covered with waxed paper or foil to set. While chocolate is still wet, sprinkle on the remaining salt and allow to set completely.

PS: Even though I messed up a bit here, I can only highly encourage everyone to try making these chocolates. They will be absolutely delicious, when done right and make a wonderful gift!

How to make the perfect bird (works guaranteed)!

Happy New Year everyone,

I'm back from my Christmas&New Years holiday break with a full sack of plenty of things I finally wanna post about. What held me back was not only the usual christmas madness, but also the fact that quite a few of my potential posts are about christmas presents I made and food I actually ate over christmas. So that's why I couldn't post it before.
After Christmas Wil and I also went away for a couple of days to a German island called Rügen to recover from those busy days (and to get rid off our extra holiday-pounds). We walked probably 10-15 km (that's 6-10 miles) per day, at least, went swimming (in a pool/waterpark) and ate lots of fish and good, good food paired with fabulous wines and drinks...

But back to Christmas. We spent it at my Mum's house this year and she made tons of good food. For Dec.26th my Mum and I prepared a goose. As you know from my previous post, I'm not that experienced with whole birds and my first attempt still turned out a bit dry. That's why I watched every step of my Mum and read the recipe thoroughly.

The secret is, surprise, surprise, SLOW-COOKING! We already knew this, right? So, I will need to get a proper oven at some point, that will allow me to reduce heat to lower than 150°C/302°F, or try the brining-method, next time.

But yeah, this here definitely works. My Mum found the recipe on some website, where over 150 people had commented how great this recipe is and how well it turned out (none of the comments were negative).
I'm sure you can cook any bird with this method perfectly. Depending on the size some just won't need as long as our goose.

We served it with German potato dumplings, red cabbage and green cale (the one that I made earlier)

The perfect bird (in this case goose) cooks as follows:

The night before

• Make sure it is completely defrosted (if you bought afrozen one) and all organs are removed. They usually come in a palstic bag inside the bird.
• maybe remove some quill and left-over feathers.
• rub the bird with salt from the outside and inside. You may wanna use more salt inside, so that the meat won't taste as bland in the end.
• Stuff the bird with whatever you like. I heard some fill the carcass with dried rice so that the bird blows up while cooking and looks all nice and round...well, I think I prefer good flavour. We stuffed our goose with quarters of onions and apples, prunes, and the roughly chopped organs, as well as some dried lovage (herb). With a goose you cannot really eat the stuffing afterwards, cause it is soaked in goose fat and really not that pleasant anymore. But it adds a nice flavour. With any other bird, except for maybe duck: Go for it! I always love the stuffing.
• Put the bird on a (deep) baking tray and bake at 180°C/356°F for about an hour.
• Turn down the heat to 80°C/176°F and cook the bird overnight for at least 7 hours. The first person that gets up in the morning gets to turn out the oven. I think we had it in for 9 hours in the end (the goose weighed 5.4kg).

The Bird

Day of goose dinner

• The goose can now stay in the cold oven until lunch/dinner, whatever. You only need to heat it up for about another 60minutes (not longer!) at 180°C/356°F before you want to eat.
• In order to make the skin nice and crsipy, resolve salt in some water and brush the the breast and legs with this mixture. You can also brush the bird with maple syrup, jam or honey for some sweetness. If you have a broiler, turn it on maximum heat and broil the bird for about 5minutes or until the skin has browned.
• Carve and serve with whatever side-dishes you like!

It was bigger than it looks here! It's a very big knife and fork....

Oh yeah, I forgot about the sauce!
Pour the drippings from the tray into a bowl. Wait a few seconds. The fat (and that's a lot with a goose) will separate and be on top (light-golden and almost clear) so that you can easily recognize it and with a spoon skim it off the rest (dark brown) that will be our sauce.
You may wanna mix in some plum jam (or maple syrup, honey etc) and red wine, as well as a tiny little bit of the stuffing. That way the sauce gets a bit thicker, as well. Just blend everything together with a hand blender until smooth and heat it up again. Season to taste if necessary.

Always happy carving

This really should work with any bird. A chicken or duck might not take that long. But really, there is not much that can go wrong with 80°C/176°F. It won't get hotter than that. The best indicator that it is fully cooked is when the meat comes off the leg bones...

Last but not least


Even though I thought the goose turned out pretty good and was delicious, my Mum still thought the breast was a little dryer than necessary.
So in the first hour at 180°C/356°F try to cook your bird upside down, the back up the breast is lying on the tray. For the slow-cook marathon you can turn it around again.

Ready for the feast. Oh I could eat this again, right now!

PS:

Don't forget the Schnaps afterwards. You will definitely need one after such a heavy meal. Espresso will work as well, of course...

Glazed maple syrup chicken with chestnut-pear filling

I have to admit, I never really cooked a whole bird before. Breast, yes. Legs, yes. But a whole bird? Never. I know it's not that difficult on the one hand. But on the other things can go wrong easily, as well. My biggest fear is dry meat.

I found this recipe on the website of German Brigitte magazine and altered it a little bit. I didn't want to go with something as elaborate as goose, duck or turkey right away. But this chicken with chestnut stuffing sounded perfect. Just a chicken, but with some fancy and wintery extras and ingredients. Wohoo!

Unfortunately it turned out a little too dry in the end. I decided to cook the chicken in a terracotta cassserole (Römertopf) instead of steaming it beforehand, as the original recipe suggested. The terracotta gets soaked in water for at least ten minutes before and keeps whatever meat is inside nice and moist. Unfortunately the chicken looked quite pale, even though the meat was already cooked. So after removing the lid I had to cook it for another 30-45 minutes in order to fry/broil the skin.

That caused some dryness in the breast sections. But hey! My first bird! Next time I will just take the lid  off earlier, so that this won't happen again. And besides that, it was delicious!

Here's what you need:

1 red onion, chopped

400g/14 oz. chestnuts (pre-cooked, peeled and vacuum-sealed)

80g/2.8 oz. butter or margarine

1 pear, core removed, cut into cubes

2 celery stalks, chopped

5 twigs of fresh majoran (I only had dried one)

(A few fresh twigs of rosemary and thyme)

3 tbsp maple syrup

salt, freshly ground pepper

1 chicken (organic, approx. 1.5kilos/3.3 pounds)

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

200 ml / ¾cups white wine/cidre (or apple juice)

400ml / 1¾ cups chicken broth (in a glass)

150g / ⅔ cups creme fraiche

Directions

Halve 250g (a bit more than half of the total amount) of the chestnuts.

Mix with onion cubes and sauté both with 20g /0.7oz. butter until onions are translucent.

Mix in chopped celery and pear cubes. Remove the leaves from 3 majoran twigs and add them to the mixture, as well. Stir in 1tbsp maple syrup and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Rinse the chicken under cold water, cleaning the in- and outside and dry it with paper towel.

Rub it with salt (in- and outside, as well).

Fill the chicken with as much chestnut-pear mixture as possible and close it up with tooth picks or small iron spits.

Carefully place some herbs (twigs of rosemary, thyme, majoran) directly underneath the skin. Just try to separate the skin from the meat and push the herbs between. That adds some extra nice flavour!

Preheat the oven to a maximum of 180°C (the lower the longer it needs to cook, but the better and more tender the meat gets.

In the meantime soak a terracotta casserole for at least ten minutes in warm water.

Brush the bottom of the cassserole with a bit of oil. Place the chicken in the casserole, close the lid and cook the chicken for about 30-45minutes. In the meantime melt 40g/1.4oz butter. Remove the lid and cook for another 30-45 minutes at 180°C. To give it a proper tan while keeping it moist and adding some flavour brush the chicken top with melted butter and maple syrup, one at a time, every 10-15minutes. If the skin gets too dark before the meat is fully cooked, just cover it up with some aluminium foil. You know that the chicken is done when the meat comes off the leg bones. This is a pretty good indicator for all kinds of poultry. Once you notice it cook it maybe 10-15 minutes longer, just to make sure. But it should be about perfect!

While the chicken is in the oven puree the rest of the chestnuts (you might wanna add some of the chicken broth to make it easier to puree). Sauté garlic with the leftover butter in a saucepan. 

Add chicken broth and white wine, bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes, do not cover.

Stir in creme fraiche then the pureed chestnuts. Season to taste with salt, pepper and maybe some of the maple syrup and serve the sauce with the chicken.

Yum!

PS: If you have a tip on how to get chicken unresitibly moist, let me know. One info ahead: the minimum temperature of our gas oven is 150°C. That's as low as it gets...

The original recipe didn't use rosemary and thyme just majoran and didn't glaze the chicken with maple syrup, just melted butter. They also added honey instead of maple syrup to the pear-chestnut mix.

Why Onglet and Bavette is the new Filet

I love a good medium-rare Filet Mignon. It's tender and when prepared correctly almost melts in your mouth. The only problem with filet, compared to other parts of a cow, is that it is not as flavorful. It doesn't have much fat and comes without a bone, which both usually add quite a bit of flavour to the meat. It's also kind of "lazy" meat and doesn't get used much by a cow, means, it sits nicely protected in a body part where there is not much muscle activity, which as well, would make more flavourful meat.

There are however parts that get used a lot and are quite active. That's where butchers cut steaks such as Bavette or Onglet. Bavette, which is also called Flank-steak is cut from the abdominal muscles of the cow. Onglet, or Hanger-steak, is V-shaped and obtained from the diaphragm of the heifer or the steer. Both are significantly tougher than other meats. Therefore it's best prepared when marinated and quickly seared on both sides for about 3 minutes in a hot cast-iron pan. When served you're better to cut it into thin slices. With thin and tough cuts like this, you should only salt the meat after searing it.

original image found on wikipedia

Especially Onglet used to be what butchers would rather keep for themselves. Everyone likes their meat to be as tender as possible, so there has not been much interest in those kinds of cuts, until now.
But a butcher's preference can't be that bad, right? And really, it's not that tough if you prepare it right. Just make sure it stays medium rare or absolute maximum medium. Then everything should be fine.

In a very hot (cast iron) pan sear the steaks on both sides for 2.5-3 minutes

Onglet is so strong in flavour that it almost tastes organy, like liver or heart. For some people maybe a bit too intense. Bavette is a little milder, so that might be a better to start off with. But really Onglet is pretty damn good. You should try it.

After searing, wrap the steaks in aluminium foil and let it sit for at least 6 minutes.

Here in Germany Onglet and Bavette are so unpopular, or let's better say unknown, that they get sold (if they get sold) surprisingly cheap. We bought both at Galerie Lafayette, that fancy department store on Friedrichstraße. They were well-aged and each costed around 10€ for about 500g. That's nothing over here, where 100g of filet usually ranges between 4 and 8€.

it's perfect when it's medium rare!

PS: we ate ours unmarinated. Just had it reach room temperature, rubbed it in crushed pepper corns and a tiny bit of olive oil and seared it from both sides for 2.5 - 3 minutes in an extremely hot cast iron pan. Than wrapped the steaks in aluminum foil and had them rest for at least 6 minutes.

Grünkohl - German Style Green Kale with sausages and ham steak

If you think this is going to be light and healthy and vegan-friendly, you better leave this page now.

German style green kale is one of THE grandma generation dishes, that, served as a main dish usually contains quite a bit of (goose) fat and meat, bacon and sausages. You can also find it as a side dish with goose. It's rich, heavy and savoury - a perfect meal for cold days or after a long day of physical work outside. In North-West Germany it is served with a special kind of sausage, called "Pinkel", which contains grit, groats, oats and minced meat and is hard to get in the other parts of Germany. I'm not that attached to this kind of sausage and think you can just leave it out or make a mixture of grits and minced meat (pork) yourself and add a little bit of that mix to the cale. I faked a whole "Pinkel"-sausage, cause I couldn't get it anywhere here in Berlin but wanted to do it right. But it wasn't that great...so not worth the whole effort. The other sausage that are quite hard to get if you don't live in or around Germany is "Mettwurst". It's like a soft salami, smoked and strongly flavoured.

In North America and Australia you may be able to find it in German or Polish grocery stores.

The grey thing in the back is my home-made pinkel sausage. Again, not worth the whole effort. Therefore just ignore it.

What you need:

1-1.5 kg green cale (frozen)

50g goose fat

3/4l meat broth, highly concentrated 

(if you use these cubes or powder, take the double amount of what is usually required for this amount of water )

450g onions chopped

approx. 100g minced meat (pork)

50g grits

a dash of allspice

salt, pepper, sugar

sugar

white vinegar

500g smoked bacon

4 ham steaks

4 Mettwürste

1-4 tbsp oat flakes

In large sauce pan heat up the goose fat. Add chopped onions and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add minced meat and a dash of all spice and mix everything. Cook until the meat is well-done and crumbles.

Now add the frozen green cale. Heat up the meat broth and pour over green cale. Close the lid and let everything simmer at low heat so that the cale can defrost. Stir in the grits. Add the bacon (as a whole!) and two of the Mettwürste. Before adding prick the sausages with a fork several times, to make sure they won't burst. Let everything simmer at low heat for about two hours.

Remove the bacon and sausages and set aside.

Now season the cale with salt, pepper, sugar, mustard and a bit of vinegar, if necessary.

Let it sit at a cool place (fridge, balcony...) overnight.

The next day, heat up the cale again. It should be kind creamy and viscid. If it is too liquid, just slowly mix in some of the oat flakes until the cale reaches the right density. Cut the sausages and bacon that went into the cale the day before into bite-sized cubes and add them back to the cale and bring everything to a boil. Make sure to stir every once in a while to avoid the cale from burning on the bottom of the sauce pan. 

Meanwhile in a second saucepan heat up some water. 

Add the other sausages, as well as the ham steaks and let simmer for around 8-10 minutes.

Serve the green cale the ham steaks, sausages and potatoes.

PS: 

The minced meat, grit, all spice and some of the onions that I added to the cale sort of replaced the "Pinkel" sausage here.