Christmas Sauerkraut Cream

Sauerkraut Cream was, is and always will be serve as a Christmas Eve lunch at 12:00. Of course it is no dogma to be serve anytime during the year – it is very simple and very tasty lunch. Just for explanation of my own nomenclature – I do differentiate two different kind of soup containing sauerkraut: 1) Sauerkraut Cream (today’s recipe) – is white, creamy consistency, very simple to make and very tasty and 2) Wallachia Style of Sauerkraut Soup – is red, contains paprika, smoked pork and sausage – very tasty as well and my recipe will be published soon on my blog too.
I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and thank you for all your nice e-mails, wishes and comments. Have a great Holiday!

Ingredients:

2 cups sauerkraut (with juice)
1 hard boiled small potato
2 cups cream
1 tbsp flour
1 hard boiled egg

Directions:

1. Bring sauerkraut to boil. I do usually use the one in jar. The raw one will need some more time – depending on your preferences of crunchiness.

2. Add hard boiled potato (cut into cubes) and mix four with cream and pour over. Cook for couple of minutes.

3. Serve with hard boiled egg, add some salt and event. black pepper (but it is not necessary).

Miso soup

In my work I have an excellent team of colleagues and not only work-related-topics are discuss on our breaks and “lunches together”. Most of us love to cook and bake and thanks to our international team we all have the privilege to discuss and try international cuisine. This recipe and introduction to the Japanese cuisine and culinary I got from my colleague Jan.
Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a stock called "dashi" into which is mixed softened miso paste.
Miso paste defines character and flavour of the soup and can be categorized into red (akamiso), white (shiromiso), or mixed (awase).
The most common dashi soup stocks for miso soup are made of niboshi (dried baby sardines), kombu (dried kelp), katsuobushi (thin shavings of dried and smoked bonito, aka skipjack tuna), or hoshi-shiitake (dried shiitake).
According to Japanese custom, the solid ingredients are chosen to reflect the seasons and to provide contrasts of color, texture, and flavour. Thus negi and tofu, a strongly flavoured ingredient mixed with a delicately flavoured ingredient, are often combined. Ingredients that float, such as wakame seaweed, and ingredients that sink, such as potatoes, are also combined. Ingredients can include mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, seaweed, onion, shrimp, fish, and grated or sliced daikon.
Miso soup can be prepared in several ways, depending on the chef and the style of soup. Japanese recipes usually call for most vegetables and meats to be cooked in the simmering dashi, particularly mushrooms, daikon, carrots, potatoes, tofu, and fish. The miso is suspended separately in some dashi stock removed from the simmering mix, to keep the miso paste from cooking, which alters the flavour, kills beneficial bacteria, and reduces the health benefits of biologically active miso paste. When the vegetables are cooked, the stock is removed from heat, the miso suspension is added and mixed into the soup, any uncooked ingredients are added, and the dish is served.
The soup is usually served in a bowl and drunk directly, the solid ingredients are eaten with chopsticks.

 

Ingredients:

2L water
1 package of katsuobushi
2 slices of kombu
1 small carrot
3 tbsp miso paste
1 package tofu
1 green onion (negi)
1 sheet of dry seaweed
 

Directions:

1. Add package of katsuobushi, carrot and kombu into the water. Cook for approx.20 minutes.

2. Strain through strainer.

3. Cut tofu and carrot into the longer slices and add it to the boiling broth. Turn off.

4. Mix approx. 1/2 cup of hot broth with miso paste and a blend until smooth. Add this mixture back to the broth.

5. Cut one sheet of seaweed into the small strips (using scissors) and chop green onion fine.

6. Serve in the bowl.

Mom’s Cream of Bean Soup

I’m not sure, if I mentioned in my previous articles, how much I do like soups. So far I didn’t presented them here on my blog, but if there will be an interests, I will do it with pleasure.
This special Cream of Bean Soup is very simple but very tasty one. My mom used to use always one special kind of beans – called Scarlet Runner Beans (in German Feuerbohne or Käferbohne). And the reason was that this kind of beans gives the cream a special dark pink colour. Because I wasn’t able to buy this particular variety so far in BC, I’m using Pinto Beans, which make the colour not so intense, but quite close to the original colour.

Ingredients:

2 cups of beans (soak over night in plenty of water)
2L water
1 smaller carrot
1 small parsley or parsnip
piece of celery root
1 cup cream
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Rinse soaked beans and add some fresh water. Cook until almost done (approx.30 minutes).

2. Shred vegetables on a coarse grinder and add into the soup.

3. After approx. 10 minutes mix flour in a cream and pour it to the soup and bring it to the boiling. Stir regularly.

4. Add some salt and pepper for taste.

Clam chowder

Clam chowder is one of the famous chowders. From my point of view I faced two different kind of clam chowder (at least here in Canada) well known: New England (white with cream) and Manhattan (red with tomatoes). My favourite one is the the white one and I would like to present to you my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 can clams
1 small carrot (chopped)
2 bigger potatoes (chopped)
1 parsnip or parsley (chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
some pieces celery (chopped)
4 cups of water
1/2 cup of cream
1 tbsp flour
1 cube of vegetable broth
chopped parsley leaves, salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Chopped vegetables add to boiling water with a cube of broth and cook shortly.

2. Add can of clams incl. nectar.

3. Cook shortly.

4. Refine with cream, add mixture of flour in water for thickening and for some taste pepper and event. salt. Serve with crackers and decor with chopped parsley leaves.

Pumpkin cream with almonds

Thanksgiving is celebrating here in Canada every second Monday in October (in USA every fourth Thursday in November). Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal, generally centered around a large roasted turkey. This year was a little bit special because we prepared Thanksgiving dinner with my friends they unfortunately suffer of many and different food-allergies, so the choice of ingredients was a little bit limited, but I think we did very well and you can in the next coming days try the simple, tasty and most of allergen-free meals.

Ingredients:

1 middle size pumpkin
1 bigger onion (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups crushed almonds
1 cube vegetable broth (or 2 cups of broth)
2 cups water
salt, pepper
Optional you can use pumpkin seeds and parsley leaves for plate decoration and couple of drops of truffle oil or sesame oil.

Directions:

1. Wash pumpkin, cut into halves and clean inside (seeds can be wash, boil in salty water and dry in the oven).

2. Cut the pumpkin halves into smaller pieces and peel them.

3. Shred this pieces on coarse grater.

4. In a pot heat vegetable oil, add chopped onion and garlic, after couple of minutes add shredded pumpkin and water (with a cube of vegetable broth) or broth. Boil for 30 minutes.

5. Then mix with hand mixer fine and add some salt and pepper. On the plate decorate with some pumpkin seeds and parsley leaves. You can add event. couple of drops of truffle oil or sesame oil for exquisite taste.