Bread baking rye:wheat 50-50

I'm baking pretty much once a week now. This bread is rye * wheat 50-50. This time I accidentally "over baked," which ended up making the best crust. Having a shitty oven helps to never burn the bread but actually bake properly... haha.

This time I used liquid Sauerteig (Aurora brand) instead of the dry Sauerteig. Sauerteig is sold in (big) supermarkets in the baking section :) This particular one (see below) is with Dinkel (Spelt in English) but works fine with Rye bread :)

I used a spoon of honey in the background "waldhonig" (forest honey) as opposed to sugar for the bread. When you bake it you don't really taste the honey flavor... Waldhonig on its own has a strong aroma so either people love it or hate it... but totally worth trying ;)I like it.

I also saved a spoon of this Sauerteig and going culture it for the next batch of bread :) (Keep it in a jar, add some water and rye flour) Shall see if it goes well...!

Asparagus time!

Asparagus aka Spargel in German is probably every German person's favorite dish and definitely marks spring time here. More than the weather sometimes... In Japan we only eat the green ones and they are a lot thinner. I miss those but I have come to also love the thick and white ones you can get here :)

When I first saw the white ones I wondered why are they actually white? Well, I looked at up and the white ones are white because they were deprived of light ("etiolated"). The asparagus couldn't produce the chlorophyll, which make the plants green.



Today's asparagus dish (not white but green!):
Green asparagus with fried ham and carrot risotto (without alcohol)

Asparagus was fried (peels on, only cut off the really hard bit at the end, fry until soft)
Fry the ham according to the way you like it (crispy?)

Carrot risotto
2 cups of rice
2 small carrots
1 small onion
About 4 cups of broth (made of fresh parsley)
Some butter and oil
Some hard cheese (parmesan)

Prepare the broth in a small pot: hot water (doesn't have to be boiling) with fresh parsley (you could just add instant broth but I don't really like the taste of it)

On a deep enough pan or a pot fry diced onions and carrots and risotto rice (sushi rice or milchreis could also be a substitute) until translucent.with a bit of oil. You can add white wine here if you want but don't have to. In a lower temperature, start adding the broth one ladle at a time to the rice mixture and continue steering. Do this until the rice looks cooked (c.a. 30 minutes). The amount of broth should be enough but adjust according to taste.
Add S&P and a bit of butter (1 spoon) for a bit of taste.
Sprinkle some cheese at the very end!

冷やし中華 Hiyashi Chuka

A typical summer dish in Japan is Hiyashi Chuka, which literally means Cold Chinese (noodles). Basically it is a cold noodle dish with lots of colorful topping. The most traditional combination is tomatos, cucumber, eggs and ham. It comes with yummy sauce too.

During the last days Munich had summery weather and I decided to make Hiyashi Chuka for dinner. In Japan we would use special Chinese noodles for this dish but since I am living in Munich it's not easy to get a hold of them. I use normal spaghetti pasta with a bit of a twist.

Here is my quick way of making Hiyashi Chuka


Noodles:
Overcook the spaghetti (1-2 minutes more than the usual) in the way you usually cook, but add a tbs of "Natron" to make the pasta a bit more like Chinese noodles. After the noodles are boiled, make sure to rinse them with cold water. It gives the nice texture to the pasta.


Topping:
Basically you can have any topping you like. The more color the merrier. I put ham this time but of course it could be a vegeterian version as well :) I like sprinkling some sesame seeds on the very top.

Sauce:
Lemon juice
Sesami oil (can also add a bit of sesami or even Tahin)
Soysauce
Vinegar (sour ones are better than something like Balsamico)
You can adjust the ratio according to your liking.

I am sure I would be making this dish quote often during summer months ;)

Chocolate cookies (maybe the best)

Recently I baked yummy chocolate cookies. I am usually a very humble person but these were really good. Addictive. The cookies are good right after (and maybe a day later) for its "fudge" texture [in Japanese we call it しっとり "shittori"]. They are also good when they become a bit dry (day 2 or later). The former reminded me of the Japanese cookies brand "Country Ma'am". The latter tasted like the cookies I had from Fortune and Mason (friends brought it from London once ahhhh....)

This recipe is not mine and this is the link to the original recipe :)



I would have like to just put the link, but unfortunately it's not in English so this is the rough translation of the original (with some commentary).

Chocolate cookies (yields about 40 pieces)

• 200g of dark chocolate (I used a block of Côte d'Or (Belgium brand) "Culinaire" --which in my opinion is the best chocolate for baking! I brought it in Belgium over Easter. Unfortunately they are not sold in Munich)
• 100g sugar
• 50g butter
• 2 eggs (M/L)
• 200g of all purpose flour
• 2 tbs of baking powder (must sieve)

Melt chocolate and butter (*); whisk sugar and butter together until it becomes creamy and add the (*), flour and baking powder
Put a lid/cellophane and put it in the fridge to cool (1-2 hours, but naturally can be more). Take out the dough and make small balls (c.a. 10g). Bake in pre-heated oven about 15 min (175 C). Eat hot or cold.

The cookies grow so don't put them too close to each other or make them too big :) 10g is about a tbs.

Alternation to the original recipe:
The original recipe calls for powdering the dough with powder sugar at the end before baking. They look prettier as you can see in the picture of the original recipe if you follow the link. But cookies are sweet enough (I could reduce the amount...) as it is. I also made my cookies flat cos that makes it bake faster =) even them I had to put the oven at a higher temperature than asked (200C) and baked longer (c.a. 25 min). I have a really crappy oven.

I baked with yummy Belgium chocolate- next time I would probably use one from the local supermarket so shall see if there would be any difference to the taste!

Bavarian breakfast

My sister was visiting last week and for this special occasion we did a "Bavarian breakfast" except for the weissbier part. We had white sausages from the butcher and home made Obatzda "orange cheese butter."

Here is my variation of how to prepare this meal:

*Munich's white sausages!*
Heat (not boil) white sausages with a slice of lemon (I put a whole one this time) and some parsley for extra nice favor! Better to buy organic lemon and always rise off the peel with luke warm water before putting it in the pot. Of course you could just heat up the sausages, but adding these two make it even better!

*Obatzda*
Obatzda is best when it is prepared a bit in advanced -- preferably the night before so it can rest for some hours in the fridge (the onion becomes milder too). For this recipe, I used half a butter (c.a.125g) and one small Brie cheese (75g) and 1/2 of a small onion (diced, and rinsed with water). Mix the cheese and butter until it is soft and add the onions. You can add a hint of beer for extra flavor (optional). at the very end add a spoon of "Edelsüß" paprika powder and mix well to get the beautiful orange. Make sure to only put this particular paprika powder because the taste as well as the color would be completely different if you use another kind.

















I bought the sausages at "Vinzenmurr." it's a Munich butcher "chain" so nothing special but I find their sausages quite delicious after comparing a couple. If you know a good place drop me a line! :) I'll be up for trying out new ones!