Maifest and Jerk Chicken!

Yesterday was May 1st, day of labour and holiday in Germany.

Especially in the cities Berlin and Hamburg on this day there are a lot of riots between punks and police going on at night. Flying stones, burning cars, fights, teargas...everywhere.

But a couple of years ago some people decided to start a counter movement called "Maifest".

Someone even sold cookie monster muffins there!

Therefore stages are set up in Berlin Kreuzberg, the centre of the riots, where different bands and djs perform and along the streets people sell all kinds of street food and drinks.

 

From kids, families and Turkish mamas to Chinese, Africans, Mexicans, caipirinha, beer, wine, orange juice, vegan, meat, cake, ayuveda, organic, meatballs etc...you can find anyone and anything here!

Everyone is happy and acting peaceful.
No matter if families or mums with prams, punks, ravers, metalheads, hipsters or turkish hiphop and beakdancers.

It's a big celebration, at least as long as the sun isn't setting.

As soon as it gets dark I would highly recommend to leave this place.
The best indication is when the stands start packing up hectically or when the special police squads put on their helmets and start grouping  and running around...
Well in the last case it might already be too late.

You can smell and see the smoke from far away.

However, I mainly come there for the food and the atmosphere.
My favorite stand is the one with the jerk chicken of carribean soul food restaurant Ya-Man.
Each year they sell chicken legs that they smoke in their converted metal drums.

Tonight we will eat the leftovers from yesterdays chicken...
I'm already hungry.

SO GOOD!

German Sweet&Sour Eggs

Sweet&Sour Eggs ("Süß-Saure Eier") or "Mustard Eggs" ("Senfeier") is a typical East German dish. 

I remember mentioning it to people from the West who just cringed because the name suggests something rather gross than tasty.

But it is delicious!

The description "sweet&sour" refers to the sauce with which the eggs are served.

It's a roux-based sauce containing vinegar and mustard for a sour note and sugar that adds the 

sweetness to it.

What you need:
6-8 large eggs
60-80g butter 
approx. 3-4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
¾-1 ltr. cold water and milk (e.g. ¼ milk, ¾water)
white wine vinegar
white sugar
1-2 tsp mustard
150-200g smoked bacon cubes
salt, pepper
chopped chive or parsley for decoration

Directions:

Fry smoked bacon cubes in a pan until brown.
Prepare a roux; melt butter in a saucepan. Whisk in flour until crumbly.
Now slowly pour in the water-milk mix and continue to whisk.
If the sauce gets too thick add a bit more water or milk.
If it is too thin just mix some flour with water in a small bowl and pour this mixture into the sauce.
Now season with whit wine vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and mustard.
Start with 1tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, one tsp salt and one tsp mustard.
You will probably have to add more.
But you rather start with small amounts and try in between before adding more.
Your goal is to have a sauce that is sweet and sour at the same time.
You can taste the mustard such as the vinegar, the salt and the sugar without having one ingredient covering up the others.
Now add the bacon cubes and chive or parsley.
In the meantime boil the eggs for 6½-7 minutes (depends on the size of each egg).
The egg yolk should still be soft inside.
Chill them in cold water for a moment.
Then peel off the eggshell and add the eggs to the sauce.

Serve with potatoes.

Pear & goat cheese tarte with smoked bacon and mustard dressing

In the latest issue of German food magazine Essen&Trinken I found this nice tarte:

I made this recipe using ready-made pastry that you can buy frozen in every grocery store.
You defrost two sheets of pastry, put them on top of each other and roll them out on a floured working surface using a rolling pin.
The pastry needs to be bigger than the tarte pan.
Place the rolled out pastry in the tarte pan and slightly press the pastry to the border of the pan.
Top it with one thin sliced pear, smoked bacon cubes(40-80g) and goat cheese (100-150g).
In the recipe they recommend using cream cheese, but I decided to take camembert instead.
The dressing is made out of:

2 tbsp of maple syrup
2tbsp of lemon juice
1tbsp of extra hot mustard (eg. Dijon)
1tbsp of whole seed mustard (eg. Dijon)
1tbsp of thyme (fresh if possible)
salt and pepper

You mix all these ingrediences together and sprinkle most of the dressing over the tarte.
Preheat the oven to about 200-220°C and bake the tarte for about 20-25 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serve with the rest of the dressing.

PS:

• If you are not a fan of goat cheese just replace it with cow milk based cheese instead.
• Be careful with the dressing. It is quite intense! You can use less mustard or use a milder kind.
• next time I will fry the bacon before adding it to the tarte for more smoky flavor ...