Dandelion salad/ Loewenzahnsalat

about 500 gm dandelion
3 hard-boiled eggs
200 gm bacon bits (optional)
2 tabsp lard (optional)
2 big onions, diced
oil
vinegar
salt to taste

After cleaning and washing the dandelion, cut the leaves into 1-inch pieces. Place in big salad bowl.

Fry the bacon bits in oil till just before they turn brown. Add the diced onions and fry till they turn "glasig" (translucent). Add the lard and heat up the mixture. Remove from heat. Let cool a bit. The add 1 to 2 serving spoonfuls of vinegar to it. This is the salad dressing.

Shell the eggs and dice them. Add them to the cut dandelion. Add the onion, bacon and lard salad dressing which can be warm but NOT hot. Season with salt and toss well.

Baklava - low sugar version

Ingredients A:
100 gm chopped nuts
40 gm dessicated coconut
70 gm fine brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients B:
melted butter
about 12 sheets filo pastry (can be bought in most supermarkets in New Zealand. In Germany, if supermarkets do not stock them, try Turkish shops)

Mix ingredients A in a bowl. Put aside.

Spread 1 sheet of filo pastry onto a tea towel. Brush it lightly with melted butter. Then spread another sheet on top of the first buttered sheet and brush this one with melted butter, too.

Sprinkle the nut-coconut-sugar mixture evenly onto the buttered pastry.


Roll it up and cut into 5 cm pieces. Bake at 175deg. C for 15 to 20 minutes till golden brown.

Serve hot or cold.

Egg tart Chinese style

For the pastry:
2 cups flour
125 g butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 egg yolk
30 ml milk
vanilla essence

Cream butter with icing sugar. Add egg yolk, milk and vanilla essence. Add flour. Line cups (cup cake size) with dough.

For the egg filling:
4 x size 7 (biggish) eggs
1 cup sugar
slightly under 2 cups boiling water
300 ml unsweetened evaporated milk
few drops vanilla essence

Melt sugar with water. Whisk egg with milk. Add syrup, then strain. Pour egg mixture into pastry moulds.

Bake immediately in preheated oven at about 180 deg. C. for 35 mins.

Spanish tortillas à la Fenella

8 big potatoes
1 onion, diced
4 eggs
salt to taste

Boil the potatoes. When they're done, peel them and mash them slightly so that they are chunky. Set aside.

Fry the diced onion.

Beat the eggs. Add fried onions to the egg, then the mashed potato. Add salt to taste.

Pour mixture into pan and cook on both sides on medium temperature.

Optional -You may some add serano schinken to the mixture.

Seafood paella à la Bertha

600 gm risotto rice
1 medium cuttlefish/squid
12 prawns
100 gm clams
250 gm mussels
1 white onion
1 green bell pepper
4 small ripe tomatoes
2 dl olive oil
3 cloves garlic
salt
1.5 l fish broth
Optional: pork ribs 300gr, chicken (adobo cut) 200gr, green peas, green beans, artichokes’ hearts, etc.

Heat up the oil in a flat pan and fry cuttlefish; and prawns a little bit only. Remove and in the same oil fry onion, green pepper and tomato very finely chopped. Let it fry until water is evaporated and colour is dark red or brown. Add cuttlefish back in the pan and the rice, and stir well with a spoon.

Add hot boiling broth on it; add prawns, clams and mussels (previously opened with steam).

Cook at high for about 4 minutes, taste and add salt if necessary; and add the garlic, chopped.Cook for about 16 to 18 minutes at low fire.

Coconut chutney

1 freshly grated coconut
half cup yellow peas (boiled, well-drained and cooled)
1 green chilli
1 pip garlic

Blend the above together.

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1 teasp mustard seeds
1 teasp white dal
2 tabsp oil

In a pan, heat the oil, add the spices and fry till the dal "pops". Remove from heat and add immediately to the coconut blend.

Serve with dosai.

Roti pratha à la Naseema

Wheat flour
Water
salt

Make a well-kneaded dough with the above ingredients. The dough should be stiff. Set aside for 2 hours. Then roll out the dough as thin as you can with a rolling pin. After that, fold the dough into a longish strip, and roll it into a "snail". Set aside again for an hour. When you want to make the roti prathas, roll the "snails" into half centimetre thick round rotis. FRy them in the pan with a little ghee/oil. Serve immediately with curry.

Dosai (Indian rice pancake)

Ingredients:

11/2 cups rice
1/2 cup urad dal (white with black hull)
salt to taste
oil

Soak rice and dal separately at least 6 hours or overnight in water. Grind to a paste. Mix them together and add salt with water to make a thick batter. Leave overnight at room temperature.


Heat non-stick pan or griddle with a little ghee/oil. Spread the batter in the pan in a circular motion to make a thin dosai. When it browns on one side, turn half of it over to make a semi-moon and remove from heat. Serve immediately with curries and chutneys.

Chinese dumplings à la Tianpei (Gyoza)

For the wrapper:
1 kg white flour
enough water to make a stiff dough

Knead the dough till it is smooth, no lumps. Set aside while preparing the filling.
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For the filling: the following proportions can be adjusted as you like
500 gm minced pork/chicken/beef
1 piece ginger root about 2 cm, shredded fine with a knife
chinese chives, cut fine (substitute with onion if chives is not available)
chinese cabbage, shredded fine, squeeze out excess water if any (usually the older leaves contain more water)
star anise
olive oil
salt
light soysauce
sesame oil

Mix the meat well with the shredded ginger, chinese chives and chinese cabbage.

In a pan/pot, heat about the star anise in 4 tbsp olive oil. When the oil is fragrant, remove from heat. Pour the oil into the meat filling. Mix well. Add salt, soysauce and sesame oil (about 2 to 3 tbsp) to the filling to your taste.

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Now work the dough to make wrappers. Form the dough into sticks of about 2 cm in diameter. Then cut them cross-section into 2 to 3 cm pieces. Flatten each piece to make a thin round wrapper. Place a teasp of meat filling in the centre of the wrapper. Close the wrapper to make a half-moon cushion. This takes practice, and is a lot of work for novices.

Gently heat a bit of oil in a pan. Place the dumplings in the pan and let fry for a minute without stirring. Than add enough water so that about the dumplings are mid-way in water. Cover the pan and bring to a gentle boil, then let simmer till water is evaporated. Then let the dumplings cook a bit in the pan till the bottom of the dumpling is slightly browned. Remove and place on serving plate. Important: do not stir the dumplings at any time till they are ready to be removed from the pan.

Serve with shredded fresh young ginger and soysauce.

Sweet sour pork

500 gm pork diced into bite-sized pieces (use a cut that has a bit of fat)
1/2 teasp 5-spice powder
2 heaped tbsp cornstarch/potato starch (Staerke)
salt
oil for deep frying

For the sauce:
1 piece squeezed garlic
1 teasp tomato paste (Konzentrat)
1 tbsp cornstach
250 ml water
4 tbsp vinegar
2 to 3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp dark soysauce

Prepare the meat by salting the diced pork slightly. Mix the 5-spice powder and cornstarch together so that you get a slightly reddish/brownish powder. Roll the meat in this powder so that the pieces are well-coated.

Heat enough vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, canola, ... but not sesame or olive) in a pot, pan or wok to deepfry the meat. The oil has to be hot before the meat is placed in the oil. Deepfry till the coated meat is light brown. Remove from oil and drain on kitchen paper or a metal mesh sieve, then place in a serving dish in a warm oven to keep warm.

To make the sauce: mix the tomato paste and cornstach with the water so that there are no lumps. In a small pot, heat a tbsp of the oil left over from deepfrying the meat. Brown the garlic, then add the tomato paste emulsion while stirring all the time so that there are no lumps (yet again). When the sauce has thickened, add the vinegar, sugar and dark soysauce. You may have to adjust the proportions to your taste. If the sauce is not thick enough, add a bit more cornstarch which has been mixed with water.

Pour the sauce over the meat or serve separately in a saucier. If available, garnish with shredded fresh coriander and spring onion.

Muesli

500 gm rolled oats
150 to 200 gm almond sticks (or other chopped nuts)
100 gm butter
120 gm honey

Mix rolled oats and nuts in a big mixing bowl. Melt butter and honey in a pot. Pour over the oats and nuts and mix well. Spread the mixture evenly and thinly onto a baking tray. Bake at 120 deg. C. for 45 to 60 mins till golden brown.

Remove from oven. Let cool, then put away into an airtight container.

Zwiebelkuchen / Onion quiche

Dough for 2 pie dishes:
1 tbsp yeast
225 gm wheat flour
100 gm butter
Water

Mix the above ingredients, knead well. Then roll out with a rolling pin into a thin sheet. Line the pie dishes, also the sides, with the sheet of dough. Prick the bottom of the dough twice with a fork. Bake at 175 deg. C for 20 mins till almost done.

Filling for quiche:
4 big white onions, cleaned and sliced into half rings
100 gm grated emmenthal cheese
bacon bits, optional
3 eggs, beaten
same amount of cream with milk
Olive oil
Salt to taste

Fry onion rings till limp but not brown. Place onion rings in the pie dishes on top of the dough. Then sprinkle the grated cheese and bacon bits evenly on top of the onion. Pour the egg, cream, milk mixture evenly over the onion and cheese.

Bake at 175 deg. C for half hour in preheated oven.

Harissa salad dressing

1 teasp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp lime juice
4 tbsp water
4 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Mix the above ingredients well. The dressing goes well with fresh salad and couscous.

Baked pork ribs all-in-one

Recipe for 2

10 to 12 pork ribs
2 big potatoes, peeled, cut into wedges
1 big carrot, peeled, cut into wedges
6 shallots, peeled
1 capsicum, cleaned, cut into 8 to 10 pieces
4 cloves garlic, crushed
8 cloves garlic, skinned but leave whole

1 tabsp olive oil
1 tabsp vinegar
1 tabsp paprika edelsuss (capsicum powder)
salt to taste

Marinate the ribs and vegetables with the oil, vinegar, paprika and salt for half hour. Then leave it in the oven at 200 deg. C. for an hour to 75 mins. If there's not enough time, just bake it straight away after seasoning the dish. Serve with a salad.

Rote Gruetze

Recipe for 2

200 gm fresh or frozen red berries (strawberries, raspberries - himbeeren, blackberries - brombeeren, cranberries - preiselbeeren, etc.)
2 to 3 heaped tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch (Staerke) mixed smoothly with 3 tbsp water

Bring the berries to boil in a small pot. Add water only if the fruits stick to the pot, and then only as little water as possible. Add the raspberries last as they tend to disintegrate easily. Add the sugar as soon as the fruit mixture boils (bubbles). After half a minute, add the cornstarch mixture. Stir well to thicken the Rote Gruetze. Remove from heat. Serve chilled with vanilla sauce (Dr. Oetker Vanillesosse).

Nudelauflauf

200 gm dried spiral pasta, boiled till ready
2 onions, diced
100 gm of diced bacon (optional)
1 tin diced champignon
2 tablespoon tomato paste/concentrate
5 pips of garlic, chopped
150 gm grated emmental cheese
1 egg, 100 ml cream, 50 ml milk

In a pan, brown the onion and bacon in 3 tablespoons olive oil. Turn off the heat. Add the champignon, tomato paste and garlic. Stir to mix well. Add the pasta and grated cheese. Stir again to mix well. Spoon the mixture into an oiled bakeproof dish. Sprinkle a thin layer of grated cheese on top.

Beat the egg with the cream and milk. Pour the mixture over the pasta.

Bake for 30 to 40 mins in an oven at 175 deg.C or till the top is slightly brown.