First Potato harvest!

Yesterday we harvested our first potatoes.

After the harvest of our balcony potatoes in Berlin had been rather "modest" (100g total...), we actually picked more potatoes yesterday than we were able to eat. And that was only our first pick!
They were absolutely delicious!

Wil made rosemary garlic potatoes, and the best part was, that except for the sour cream, olive oil, salt and pepper, all the ingredients were from our garden.

Originally we had planted four different kinds: Yukon Gold, Warba, Pink Fir Apple and Russet Burbank.

the lighter ones with the sometimes pinkish skin are Warba, the other ones are Yukon Gold, with maybe one or two Russet Burbank hiding....

We mainly had Yukon Gold and Warba yesterday, since the Pink Fir Apple and Russet Burbank weren't ready yet.

Yukon Gold which seems to be a very popular potato among Canadians, was a great firm potato with a nice classic potato flavor and golden yellow flesh -  a very good allround potato.

The Warba really surprised me. Softer, but not mealy, with pretty white flesh, at times reddish-pink skin tone it was much more flavorful than the Yukon Gold, almost spicy.

Homemade ice tea and rosemary garlic potatoes with sour cream and lots of other herbs.

For now the Warba wins the contest of best tasting potato in our garden. Let's see how the others compete, once they are out of the ground. I only heard good things about the Pink Fir Apple...

Mushroom Risotto

The mushroom season just started and the past days here in Berlin rather felt like fall then summer.

So Wil and I decided to leave the city behind for a few hours 

and take a train ride to the German forests to go on a mushroom hunt. 

Last year we almost came too late. 

Most mushrooms were picked already or rotten. 

So this year we wanted to make everything right...and were a little too early. 

Nevertheless we found some chanterelles!

I never found them myself and didn't know exactly where to look for them.

But then we spotted them underneath some birch trees.

I really have to say: mushroom picking is so much fun! 

It's like looking for easter eggs and you're outside in nature.

 When we came home I decided to use the chanterelles for a mushroom risotto.

For this you should mainly use dried mushrooms, since they are much more flavourful and aromatic.

But adding a few fresh ones, especially when you picked them yourself, gives it the final touch.

What you need:

500g Arborio/Risotto rice 

250g white wine 

2 Tbsp finely chopped rosemary 

1,5 to 2 l vegetable broth 

4-5 tbsp butter  

one medium sized onion, chopped  

2-3 finely chopped garlic cloves 

3-4 tbsp parmesan, freshly grated 

30-50g dried mushrooms (e.g. chanterelles, porcino) 

fresh mushrooms (approx 100-150g), 

cleaned from dirt and cut into small pieces. 

salt, pepper

photo by the wonderful Anna Coe

 In a bowl of water soak the dried mushrooms for at least 1 hour. 

In a large pan melt about 2 tbsp of butter. 

Add onion and garlic cloves and sautee them until golden. Add the chopped rosemary. 

Rinse the arborio rice under cold water until the water is clear. Add the rice to the onion, garlic and rosemary.

Pour 250ml of white wine over the rice.

On low to medium heat stir and let boil until the wine has evaporated. Strain the formerly dried mushrooms, but keep the water in which you soaked the mushrooms in. Add them and the fresh mushrooms to the rice.

Meanwhile in a saucepan mix the mushroom water and the vegetable broth and bring to boil.

Using a dipper slowly pour the broth-mix over the rice (1-2 full scoops at a time) and stir slowly until the rice  absorbed all the liquid. Then pour another one or two scoops of broth over it. 

Repeat the procedure until the 1,5 l of broth got fully absorbed by the rice. 

If the rice is still too tough you might have to add a little bit more liquid.

Risotto is supposed to be creamy and soft, but not mushy!

It's important that you keep stirring on low to medium heat.

When the rice is ready add salt and pepper and stir in 2 Tbsp of butter and 3-4 Tbsp of freshly grated parmesan. 

It gives the risotto the final creamy texture.

Serve with a small salad on the side!

Quiche aux champignons

I made this quiche the other day and it turned out pretty well.

It was a bit more work than I expected because you have to fry each ingredient before finally baking the whole quiche...

But it was worth the effort. 

Again I found this recipe in another France-themed issue of "Lust auf Genuß"- magazine. 

There they served it as four small tartelettes. 

Instead of four small tartelettes I made one big quiche because I only have one big baking pan.

I also changed a few other things, like using rosemary instead of parsley because it adds much more flavour and goes well with mushrooms, and instead of two shallots I chopped an onion because I didn't have any shallots at home...

Here's what you need:

200g frozen ready-made pastry (ca 4 sheets)

500g mushrooms (champignons, portobellos)

1 onion

100g smoked bacon

1 Tbsp ground/finely chopped fresh rosemary (ca 4-5 twigs)

2 Tbsp butter and some butter for greasing the pan.

3 eggs

200g cream

50g-75g Gruyere

Salt, Pepper 

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Defrost the ready-made pastry sheets.

Clean the mushrooms and cut into thin slices (do not wash them! Just gently brush off the dirt).

Dice the onion into fine little cubes.

Dice the bacon into cubes.

Melt butter in a pan, add the mushrooms and fry them at medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Remove the mushrooms and set them aside.

Now fry the bacon cubes in the same pan.

Remove the bacon and set it aside, as well.

Sauté the onion cubes in the bacon-mushroom fat.

In a bowl shortly whisk the eggs.

Mix in the cream and the finely chopped rosemary.

Carefully season with salt and pepper (bacon and gruyere already add salt to it!).

Take the defrosted pastry plates and knead them all together to one big piece of dough.

On a floured working top roll out the dough by using a rolling pin.

Make sure the dough is bigger than the baking pan. 

Place the dough in the pan and press the longer edges onto the border of the cake pan.

The pastry border should be approx. 3-4cm high.

Pierce the dough repeatedly with a fork.

Now one after another place the mushrooms, onion cubes, bacon cubes and the cheese on the pastry bottom of the pan and spread everything evenly.

Pour the egg cream on top of it.

Bake for approx. 40 minutes.

Let it cool down for a bit.

Served best with a salad and a glass of white wine.

PS: While typing this blog post a young obviously flight inexperienced pigeon landed in our chive&dill bed... So ugly and somehow cute at the same time. Also funny and disgusting at the same time.

"Visa vis" with the T-Bones

Wil got his one year artist visa at the Ausländerbehörde Berlin yesterday!
In order to celebrate he bought two giant T-Bones at KaDeWe.
He always wanted to get some of those.
Yesterday his dream finally came true.
And what can I say?
I'm still stuffed!

















That was probably 500g of meat per steak...

As good as it was, I kind of am now looking forward to vegetable season!

Donald Russell- a welcome visitor from Scotland

A few days ago Donald Russell from Scotland was

paying a visit to our little Berlin apartment.

That's one of the best beef you can get, 

especially in Europe/Germany. 

It is indeed a bit pricey (7.80Euros per 100g of filet). 

But you have to invest in good dry aged meat...

The filets came in a box and were dark red. 

Due to the dry aging they weren't very wet and 

bloody either.

We almost got no drippings out of it.

But believe me: that's always a very good sign. 

Who needs drippings when the meat is outstandingly 

flavourful and tender.

For filets they were surprisingly fatty and rich. 

A good sign, as well cause the fat made them even 

more tender and yummy.

precious looking filet

We took it out of the oven after 20-25 minutes...

...and it turned out to be perfectly medium rare!