sweet'n'sour

I wanted to give you the recipe of a delicious dessert, meringues with lemon foam. It’s definitely one of my favorite desserts because the sourness of the fluffy, yet highly aromatic lemon foam goes perfectly with the sweet meringues. From the looks of it you might assume that cooking this dessert would be a great effort but fortunately it’s quite easy to cook.

For 4 portions you need:

lemon foam: 1 tbsp. lemon rind, 100ml lemon juice, 80g sugar, 4 sheets gelatin, 300ml buttermilk

meringue: 1 tsp. butter, 2 egg whites, 80g sugar, salt

garnish: 1 tsp. lemon rind, raspberries

Whisk the lemon rind, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan and let it simmer over low heat for 2 minutes. Stir every once in a while.

Remove the saucepan from heat. Add the gelatin, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, to the mixture and stir until the gelatin has dissolved.

Add the buttermilk, stirring until smooth.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into the isi Whip bottle. Screw the head firmly onto the bottle. Insert a cream charger and screw onto the head to release the gas into the Whipper. Refrigerate until chilled and set, for at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 100°C fan-forced. Grease a sheet of baking parchment and place it on a baking sheet. In a clean, dry bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. 

Gradually add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar dissolves and foam is stiff, thick and glossy.

Spoon meringue onto the prepared tray, using serving spoons. Bake for 1 hour until meringue is just firm to the touch but not browned. Turn off oven. Leave the meringues in the oven, with the door ajar, for 1 hour to cool completely.

Cut off the top of the meringues and crumble it to pieces. Divide the meringues among serving plates. Take the isi Whip bottle and shake it vigorously. Hold the bottle with the tip pointed straight down and press the lever to dispense the foam onto the meringues. 

Sprinkle the meringue crumbs on the foam and garnish with lemon rinds and raspberries.

enjoy ;-)

Chocolate-Banana Pancakes without measuring scales!

When I tried to find something to blog about I thought I could try something unique and crazy. Since I love chocolate and I wanted to have a sweet meal, I tried out pancakes. I collected several recipes for pancakes and made my own recipe. The only difference is that the recipe is completely made without measuring scales! It is super easy to make and tastes wonderful. 

You should have most of the ingredients already at home. The amount will serve 2 people. This will make about 6-7 pancakes. Do not underestimate that little amount, it fills a lot!


Ingredients:

Dough:
Milk, Cake Flour, Butter, 1 Egg, 1 pg. Baking Powder, 4 pgs. Vanilla Sugar, Salt

Additional:
2 Bananas, Chocolate Sauce, Whipped Cream

Instructions:

Step 1: First fill a normal sized cup with cake flour and add it into a large bowl. Add the vanilla sugar, baking powder and a half teaspoon salt to it. Mix it until you have a consistency like on the picture without lumps. Create a cradle in the middle.

Step 2: Break the egg into a small bowl. Stir it with a whisk until it has a creamy consistency. Melt 3 teaspoons of butter in the microwave or a pan and add it to the egg. Then add 1 cup of milk to it and stir well. 

Step 3: Now place a medium sized pan onto your oven and turn the heat to 3-4. While the pan is heating up you can prepare the bananas and the plates and finish the dough. Cut the bananas into slices. Add the egg-milk-butter mixture to the dough. Now take a wooden spoon and mix the mixture and the dough with an up and down movement (a little like an 8-roatioan). 

Step 4: When the dough is ready and the pan is heated up, take a crested trowel to portion your pancakes and place it into the bowl. Put a small amount of butter into the pan and coat it. Now it's time for the first pancake. Take half of the crested trowel filled with dough and slowly put it into the pan. Slightly spread it from the middle. Wait 10 seconds (it really depends on your oven if it's ready to flip or not) and poke it with a spatula on the edge. If the dough doesn't stick to it then it's ready to flip. Wait another 10-15 seconds and your first pancake is done.

 

Step 5: Place your pancakes onto a big plate. Now take one and place it onto the plate you want to serve them on. Add bananas and chocolate sauce on top of it. Take another pancake and repeat until you have 3 pancakes on the plate. Now finish your pyramid with chocolate sauce and surround them with whipped cream. Now your delicious dessert is ready to be eaten!

Join Us For Dinner - Portugal Style

Since both of us, Nora and Magdalena, are probably two of  the worst cooks you will ever meet, we were kind of worried about this blog post. Finding something that we both like and are able to prepare caused us quite a headache. It was during one of our countless discussions about football that we suddenly had a brainwave! In honour of our favourite football player, Cristiano Ronaldo, who was going to play an international match for his country Portugal the next Sunday, we decided to cook his favourite dish and then watch the game together.
Rumour has it that Ronaldo's favourite dish Bacalhau à Bras has its origins in Bairro Alto, an old district of Portugal's capital, Lisbon. Bacalhau stands for the type of fish used for the dish, whereas Bras is allegedly the surname of the creator. As for the dessert, we decided to prepare a traditional Portuguese caramelised vanilla pudding.

Quite frankly...in the beginning we were both a little sceptical about the fish meal. However, once we were halfway through the recipe our worried facial expressions quickly faded to a smile. Considering the fact that our cooking skills are quite limited, we still managed to do a pretty good job...but see for yourselves! ;)


Ingredients (2 servings)


Main Course: 

• 250 g salt cod
• 1 onion (150 g)
• 250 g potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• 15 g black olives
• parsley (to taste)

Dessert: 

Caramel

• 20 g sugar
• 3 tablespoons water

Vanilla pudding

• 37 g custard powder (Vanilla)
• 40 g sugar
• 500 ml milk

Preparation

- Bacalhau à Bras

• Place salt cod in water and soak for at least 12 hours. Drain and cover with fresh water every few hours. 

• Cut salt cod into small pieces.

• Grate potatoes into fine matchsticks and cut onions into fine rings.
  
  

• Beat eggs, then add salt and pepper and mix well. 

• Fry potatoes in a pan and set them to one side. 

• Place onion rings in a deep pan and sweat until golden. 

 
• Add potatoes and mashed garlic and stir whilst adding the lightly beaten eggs with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat before eggs solidify!

• Garnish with parsely and black olives and serve with red wine (or mango juice if non-alcoholic drinks are preferred).

- Caramelised Vanilla Pudding

• Mix custard powder, sugar and 6 teaspoons of milk in a small bowl 

• Bring remaining milk to a simmer 

• Add custard mixture and mix well

• For the caramel, warm sugar and water over low heat and stir until it turns caramel-coloured

• Pour caramel over pudding and garnish with chocolate sprinkles 

BOM PROVEITO!

Although it took us quite a while to prepare this special meal - three hours to be exact - and the result was not perfect, it was definitely worth it in the end. After we had finished cooking and had taken all the pictures for our blog post, we sat down in front of the TV, watched Cristiano play with his national team and enjoyed our delicious meal. To our great joy Portugal won the game. The perfect ending to a really fun evening! ;)

Who am I?

Hey, guys!

My name is Thomas. As of now a few of you may know me, I guess most of you don’t, but I bet that at least you’ve noticed me at the Department of Translation since I usually stick out a mile, literally. I grew up in a quite remote part of Hitzendorf, about 20 minutes from Graz and still live there with my parents and my sister. That means I have to commute between home and university but I don’t mind because I can’t imagine living in a city for longer than a couple of months. The landscape, the animals, my pets, the quiet, not for all in the world would I swap living on a farm, with living in a city.

Despite my appearance I’m rather introverted and not very talkative. In case you end up having small talk with me and wonder why I’m so quiet, don’t worry that I’m not interested, it’s just that I’m more of a listener than a talker.

For this reason I’m not going tell you much but the most interesting and outstanding passion of mine - patisserie. Since I was a child I’ve always helped my mom with the cooking and I especially loved baking. Over the last few years however I tried to hone my skills even more and be keen to experiment with new ingredients and new flavors. Due to the extravaganza of the desserts I usually spend hours in the kitchen. My motto is “no risk, no reward” so the outcome is not necessarily delicate but at least I want it to look as good as in the magazines. As far as presentation is concerned I’m pretty much a perfectionist. Seeing photos of my desserts one could easily think that I cook in a careful, systematic way, yet no one knows that the moment I enter the kitchen there is utter chaos.

lemon meringue tart

basil panna cotta with marinated strawberries

iced honey blueberry charlotte

papaya parfait with caramelized coconut-popcorn

Now that I’ve whetted your appetite, it’s time to say goodbye. Have a nice evening ;-)