Austria

On Sunday, we made an Austrian dinner. We focused on regional specialties of Salzburg.

The Menu:
Appetizer: Cheese dumplings (with a lager for the grownups)
Main Course: Broiled trout
sauerkraut
apple slices
Dessert: Salzburger Nockerl (a souffle-like dessert, served with jam)

While planning the meal, I discovered Wikipedia's cookbook, which I used for the cheese dumpling recipe and the Salzburger Nockerl recipe.

Steve and I loved all of it. M didn't care for the sauerkraut (too "pocky" -- M's word for sour). The cheese dumplings went especially well with beer.

My nockerl fell after coming out of the oven. But after reading this, how could I feel bad? To paraphrase them, "if they can’t make it in Vienna, you might think twice before trying it in Minnesota."

Chinese New Year

新年快乐! Happy Chinese New Year!

We celebrated last night by making a Chinese meal, technically in M's words a "Review of China" (review means our second or subsequent dinner from the same country). This meal may have been our biggest hit yet, little dinner conversation save "This is GREAT!" and almost nothing left for lunch the next day.

We made paper lanterns to decorate the table. Very easy craft for the kiddos, even Dad can make them. :)

The menu:
Chinese noodles with tofu and hazelnuts,
Clams steamed with ginger and scallions,
and
Toffee and Sesame Bananas for dessert

The recipes for noodles and the bananas came from the BBC's Good Food website, which I will be frequenting much more often.

M's Interruption
M is enjoying a Presidents' Day play date with a classmate. Right now they have the Football Guys out -- if you don't know about Football Guys, well, you should, check them out here.

Before his friend came over, M dictated his Interruption to me:
"Noodles...clams...toffee bananas, very flavorful. Yup, this was a very flavorful dinner."

Recipes
Chinese Noodles with Tofu & Hazelnuts -- I used my new KitchenAid pasta making attachment for my stand mixer. This is a wonderful recipe, but even better with homemade pasta!!

250g packet medium egg noodle
2 tbsp olive oil
handful coriander , roughly chopped (that's cilantro to the Americans)
300g mangetout (that's sugar snap peas)
1 red chilli , seeded and finely chopped (I left this out)
handful toasted hazelnuts , roughly chopped
349g pack silken tofu , cut into cubes
3 tbsp Chinese yellow beans sauce

1. Drop the noodles into a pan of boiling water, cook for 4 mins, then drain. Drizzle over a little oil and mix in half the coriander.
2. Heat a wok over a medium heat. Pour in the remaining oil, then throw in the mangetout and stir-fry for 2 mins. Add the chilli and cook for 2 mins more until the beans are just tender.
3. Tip the hazelnuts, tofu and yellow bean sauce into the wok and stir to warm through. Finally, stir in the remaining coriander, season if you want to, and serve with the noodles.

Toffee & Sesame Bananas
This is as heavenly as it sounds. I found vanilla bean gelato at the local supermarket. Muscovado sugar isn't easy to find around here. But, oh, oh, oh, it was worth the extra trips. It has a strong molasses flavor and makes a perfect toffee sauce.

* 6 large bananas , peeled and quartered
* 8 tbsp light muscovado sugar
* 2 tbsp butter
* 200ml double cream
* 2 tbsp sesame seeds , toasted
* good-quality vanilla ice cream, to serve

1. Toss the bananas in 2 tbsp of the sugar. Heat a griddle to medium, then cook the bananas, a few pieces at a time, until sticky and showing griddle marks. Keep warm in a low oven.
2. For the sauce, put the remaining sugar, the butter and cream into a saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has melted. Stir in the sesame seeds. Can be made up to a day ahead. To serve, put a few pieces of banana into 8 serving dishes, spoon over some of the caramel, then top with a scoop of ice cream.

Late Post: Haiti

In late January, we made an Around the World dinner from Haiti.
It was a big hit: salmon, black beans, and rice are always favorites here. Haitian black beans and rice are flavored with cinnamon, not a spice I usually use in bean dishes, but I might now. Yum, yum, yum.

For dessert, I made Pain Patate, a sweet potato pudding. Steve and I loved it. M wasn't as impressed as us. Here's a link to the Pain Patate recipe.

On a non-culinary note, if you want to read a different take on the situation in Haiti, I strongly recommend this blog entry by travel guidebook writer Rick Steves.