Finally some cooking again.

And that´s it.
My only good note for this one is that if you keep ginger in the freezer it grates much easier than it does fresh. It peels really easy and you don´t have to fight the fibre-thingies that usually are a pain in the ass...

So Gesa: anytime again. It was delicious and fun. We´ll try baking next, right? Yay!

It sounds so complicated and yet...
Ingrediences
Paneer Cheese:
1 liter Milk
4 TS Vinegar

Sweet Mustard:
100gr Mustardseeds
10gr Salt
50gr Sugar
60gr Vinegar
40gr Water

See, not many ingrediences, right? Usually that means it´s easy. And it is!
I hereby admit to being obsessed with cheesemaking! Yes, I can´t deny it. Any documentary about cheesemaking on TV, I´m glued to the screen. No clue why but I´d love to make cheese myself. This is the best I can do at home so...
For the Cheese bring the milk to boil. As soon as the milk starts coming up, add the vinegar and take it off the range. let it stand there for a few minutes. The whey should seperate itself from what it to become our cheese. Pour it all into a clean cloth or use a self made "tofu press" like mine. Basically you need to get rid of the whey and kinda press the rest into a shape. The harder you press, the firmer the cheese will be in the end. You can pour it into a cloth, tie the four ends together and just let the cheese hang there overnight, maybe over your kitchen sink or the bathtub. You´ll have a lovely cheeseball in the end.
I let mine sit there for about four hours and it was so firm that it could be cut. You can, of course, go with whatever you like and just use it immediately as creamcheese or something.

Yeah, that´s it. Easy, right?

The Mustard is just as easy, just takes more time. This recipe is for Sweet Mustard, hence the sugar. You grind the mustard seeds as fine as you like. Traditionally sweet mustard still has some intact seeds in it so I didn´t really pulverize it. This done you bring the water to a boil and pour it over the mustard...stuff. Let it cool for about 5 Minutes (yes, it´s okay to stir and mix it). Add the rest, mix well, put in a glas, let it rest in the fridge for at least two weeks.

Careful, it´s very hot at first and gets milder with age. I also found that it smells of vinegar but doesn´t taste much like it. Oh, and I used Apple Binegar because I like that best. My lovely tandem partner M`s husband even tasted the apple. Wow.(And they both said they liked it...)

And again: easy. I wanted to make fig mustard and apple mustard with it but didn´t have the time yet. And now it´s almost used up already because it´s good. I guess I´ll have to make more. Betting this´ll make good christmas gifts.

Milk minus whey plus vinegar in my "tofu press".

Cheese is ready!

I have so much more stored here but uni eats my time and my soul so bear with me. I promise I´ll do my best to update more often.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN Everyone!!!
Long time no see! Sorry about that, but University & work keep me pretty busy. I´m cooking and all but lack the time to post. I promise this`ll get better.
Today I am going to have a little halloween fun with some friends and this is what I´ll bring:

It´s Martha Steward`s White Sheet Cake made into bright orange minicupcakes.
Ingrediences:
Cupcakes:
1 1/2 Cups Butter (roomtemperature)
3 Cups Flour
2 ts Baking Powder
1 ts Salt
2 1/4 Cups Sugar
1/2 ts Vanilla extract
1 Cup Milk
8 Eggwhites

Frosting:
80g Creamcheese
60g Butter
2 Cups confectioners sugar

Since it´s Martha Steward`s go here for instructions. It´s real easy, though. The frosting recipe I found at all-about-cupcakes.com, really easy as well.

I used Wilson`s frosting colors and liked them. The orange works great in the cupcakes. I tried to make black cupcakes before this but they ended up looking grey and dead and not in a good way. I also bought the little sugar bats and pumpkins, before anyone asks me whether I made those myself.

Apart from coloring Martha´s recipe and misusing it for minicupcakes instead of making "a festive flag cake" I also added lemon flavor for a little twist (which would have been better with black cupcakes, though...). Not real lemons, just flavor since I´m allergic. And this time I only used half the recipe because I don´t need a gazillion minicupcakes. Works great. And they´re so tiny and cute. Just one bite. I love minicupcakes.

It´s so easy and hardly any work... I should do this more often.

Das ist so einfach und kaum Arbeit... Ich sollte das öfter machen.
Ingrediences:

Chicken parts

A carrot or two

Leek

Parsleyroot

Parsley

Celery

Onion

A bay leaf

Some salt

Water

Basically, you put all of that in a big pot and boil gently for about two hours. I cut it into smaller pieces first but that´s not a must.

Here are some of the things you can do:

- You can use a whole chicken or just parts. (I took a chickenbreast with skin because all the fat is in the skin and fat gives taste. I also wanted the meat because I made a lovely stew with it (more later))

- Add more spices like cloves (which I hate) or anything else you´d like.

- Add different veggies. This time I had some cauliflower in it.

- If you leave the chicken out completely you´ll end up with... Right: Vegetablebroth.

- Use as much water as you like. More water means: more stuff in to give taste. My mother and grandmother used to cook a whole chicken in a huge pot... But they had large families to feed.

- Use skinned chicken if you think all fat is bad.

- Cook it without the salt first and add that in the end according to taste (that´s what I do)

- Make icecubes from any leftover broth and use it when you cook later.

In the end: yes, stuff you buy is probably cheaper. It´s probably much easier if you use the grained stuff. But is it better? No! Making your own broth makes you feel incredibly accomplished and it tastes much better. You also know what´s in it. So:go!

Chickenbreast!
Hühnerbrust!

The greens.

Das Suppengrün.

Everything in the pot.

Alles im Topf.

Everything cooked. See how much water vanished?
Alles gekocht. Man schaue, wieviel von dem Wasser verschwunden ist.

Zutaten:

Hühnerteile

Eine Karrotte oder zwei

Lauch

Petersilienwurzel

Petersilie

Sellerie

Zwiebel

Ein Lorbeerblatt

Etwas Salz

Wasser

Im Grunde genommen packt man einfach alles in einen großen Topf und lässt es für ca. zwei Stunden köcheln. Ich hab alles in kleinere Stücke geschnitten, aber das ist kein Muss.

Hier sind einige der Dinge die man machen kann:

- Ein ganzes Huhn verwenden, oder auch nur Hühnerteile.

Ich habe eine Hühnerbrust mit Haut genommen weil all das Fett in der Haut ist und Fett gibt Geschmeck. Ich wollte außerdem das Fleisch weil ich damit lecker Hühnerfrikassee gemacht habe.

- Andere Gewürze zusätzlich verwenden, z.B. Nelken (die ich hasse) oder was man sonst so mag.

- Andere Gemüse dazu nehmen. Ich hatte dieses Mal noch Blumenkohl dabei.

- Wenn man das Huhn komplett rauslässt, hat man am Ende... Richtig:Gemüsebrühe.

- Soviel Wasser verwenden wie man mag. Mehr Wasser bedeutet: Mehr Zeug rein zum Geschmack geben. Meine Mutter und Großmutter haben immer ein ganzes Huhn in einem Riesentopf gemacht... Aber die hatten auch große Familien zu füttern.

- Hautloses Huhn verwenden wenn man meint, alles Fett sei schlecht.

- Zuerst ohne Salz kochen und dann am Ende je nach Geschmack hinzufügen (das mache ich in der Regel).

- Die Restbrühe als Einswürfel einfrieren und verwenden wenn man sie später mal braucht.

Am Ende: Ja, das Zeug, das man kaufen kann, ist vermutlich billiger. Es ist vermutlich einfacher, wenn man Brühwürfel o.ä. verwendet. Aber ist es besser? Nein! Wenn man seine eigene Brühe macht, fühlt man sich, als hätte man etwas geleistet und sie schmeckt einfach viel besser. Und man weiß was drin ist. Also: los!

i baked. again.

ich hab gebacken. schon wieder.

Ingrediences:

150g cornmeal

150g polenta

150g wheatflour

125ml milk

60g Butter

2 eggs

4 TS sugar

1 TS Bakingsoda

Basically the recipe I had said "just pour it all together". I mixed the different flours first, added the bakingsoda and the sugar. Then the butter and milk. I kept stirring and it looked real crumpy and I was starting to panic because how the hell was that supposed to become a smooth and yummy bread dough and.... then I realized I still had to add the eggs.
Eggs added it became a dream dough. Not as thick and rubbery as real bread dough, more like cookie dough. I had to stir it for quite a while because I used cold butter instead of making it easy for myself and using it at roomtemperature (which unfortunately means I´d have to think about what I want to do beforehand and it seems I´m pretty much incapable of doing that), the butter had to be mixed in well. So if you make this: butter at roomtemperature. Much easier.

The bread needs to stay in a 180°C oven for about 25mins. But careful: don´t bake it too long it´ll get dry pretty easily.
If you leave out or reduce the sugar this bread pretty much screams spinach-filling or cheese crust...
We wanted to eat this yummy, yummy cornbread with some pasta with a zucchini creamcheese sauce but we rediscovered the corn on the cob I bought on saturday, sitting there, wanting to be eaten and not getting better so we kinda had a corn fest.

Sugar, bakingsoda and butter looking pretty on the flour.
Zucker, Backpulver und Butter hübsch anzusehen auf dem Mehl.

The dough. See the white streak? Butter I couldn´t mix because it was too hard!
Der Teig. Der weiße Strich vorne? Das ist die Butter die zu hart war um sie zu vermischen.

The Bread.
Das Brot.

Corn on the cob. My alltime favorite fall-food.

Maiskolben. Mein lieblings Herbst-Essen.

Zutaten:

150g Maismehl

150g Maisgries

150g Weizenmehl

125 ml Milch

60g Butter

2 Eier

4 TL Zucker

1 TL Backpulver

In dem Rezept das ich hatte, stand im Grunde "einfach alles zusammenmischen". Ich hab die verschiedenen Mehle gemischt, dann das Backpulver und den Zucker dazu. Dann die Butter und die Milch. Ich hab weitergerührt und es sah wirklich krümelig aus und ich begann, in Panik zu geraten weil wie zur Hölle sollte das ein glatter, leckerer Brotteig werden und... dann ist mir aufgefallen, dass da noch die Eier fehlten.

Mit den Eiern drin wurde das ein Traumteig. Nicht wie echter Brotteig, so dick und gummirig, eher wie Cookie-Teig. Ich musste ihn für eine Weile rühren weil ich kalte Butter benutzt habe anstatt welche in Zimmertemperatur (was bedeuten würde, dass ich mir vorher darüber Gedanken machen müsste, was ich machen will und es scheint, dass ich dazu nicht in der Lage bin), die Butterstücke mussten ja verrührt werden. Also wenn man das macht: Butter in Zimmertemperatur. Macht es so viel leichter.

Das Brot muss für 25min in einen 180°C Ofen. Aber vorsicht: Nicht zu lange backen, es wird schnell trocken.
Wenn man den Zucker weglässt oder reduziert, schreit dieses Brot geradezu nach einer Spinat-Füllung oder einer Käsekruste...

Wir wollten dieses leckere, leckere Brot zu Pasta mit einer Zucchini-Frischkäse Sause essen aber wir haben die Maiskolben wiederentdeckt die ich am Samstag gekauft hatte und die gegessen werden wollten und nicht besser wurden also haben wir eine Art Mais-Fest gemacht.