The most enjoyable pastime

Alright, admittedly the second most enjoyable pastime, but cooking definitely is unimpeachably on place two.

As I'm currently in the situation most people may call «unemployed», however which I prefer to dub «extended application period» [1], I have plenty of time for (a) applications [2] and (b) the creation and refinement of dishes. By the time I eventually get my studentship I could probably hire as a chef.

So yesterday's dinner was *ahem* «Pork chops in a mustard-white wine sauce severed with fresh parsley potatoes and seasonal vegetables [3]». As far as one can refer to anything shopped in Sainsbury's as «fresh» - well, the temperatures are for sure «fresh» [4].

To the recipe. We need: Pork loin steaks (preferably with bones, as it keeps the meat juicy), salt, pepper, flour, thyme, marjoram, white wine, Dijon mustard, cream, waxy potatoes, butter, parsley, carrots and leak (our «seasonal» vegetables).

Pork chops and white wine sauce:

• Season the pork chops from both sides with salt and pepper, then flour one side. Start frying at high heat in some oil with the floury side down until nicely golden. Depending on the thickness of your steaks this takes 2 to 3 minutes per side. You should have a close eye on it, as heated flour tends to stick even to non-stick pans.
• Put the steaks on an ovenproof plate, cover with tin-foil and transfer to a preheated oven (80-100 centigrade will do).
• Now pour a glass of white wine into your frying pan (do not clean in between!), add a tea-spoon of mustard, some thyme and marjoram. Let it simmer until the alcohol is evaporated, then pour in a small cup of cream and leave with an occasional stir at low heat until the sauce thickens.

And our side-dishes:

• Peel the potatoes (unless you want to make mash you should use a waxy brand), cut into reasonable chunks, place in a pressure cooker with a tiny amount of water (5-10mm high) and heat until the pressure-meter reaches the second ring. Turn down the heat and leave at high pressure for seven minutes. Since I've never boiled potatoes normally, I'm afraid I can't advise you on this. I suppose if the boiled potato slides off a fork easily it's done.
• In a pan/pot melt some butter, add chopped parsley and sway the potatoes gently in the mixture until they are covered in a tasty butter-parsley coat (they shouldn't be green though!). Season with salt.
• The rest is even easier: Chop carrots and leak into little wafers and rings respectively and fry gently in some butter until soft-ish.
• If you are eager, also boil some green-beans in salted water. Alternatively, peas, sugar-snap or any imaginable vegetable will do as well (okay, I wouldn't recommend aubergines as they tend to sponge up all the grease).

Unfortunately, my camera was out of battery. You'll have to use your imagination for the looks of the dish.

[1] My BHF application failed on the project, so I'm on the market once again.
[2] Cover letter or CV anyone? I am a pro by now!
[3] Hooray for globalisation! Wonder where they are in season right now.
[4] For anyone who's now confused due to a lack of delightful British shopping experience: the refrigerating units don't have doors and thus supermarkets turn into a cold-distribution centres.

Spaghetti Bolognese refined!

As I promised earlier today the revised and improved recipe:

We need: 250g minced beef, 250g minced pork, 3 to 4 onions (depending on size), 200g tomato puree, 1 can of chopped tomatoes (400g), 1 red pepper, 1 carrot, olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, basil, oregano, garlic (the more the better), Parmesan. That should be enough to feed up to 8 people (depending on the amount of pasta you make and how hungry your fellows are).

• As every good meal it starts with chopping up onions and frying them until slightly golden.
• Knead the minced meats to a homogenous mass and fry it with the onions. Some folks might want to increase either the beef or pork content, I made the best taste experience with a 50/50 mixture. It's crucial to rip the meat into smallest possible pieces while frying as this ensures a better "taste distribution".
• Season with salt and pepper. The sauce requires quite generous amounts, since the saltiness will be "diluted" by the pasta.
• Chop the carrot and red pepper into smallest pieces (again, taste distribution) and add into the pan.
• When the meat is fully fried chuck in the tomato puree and fry it a little before adding a cup of water.
• Add the canned chopped tomatoes and garlic (or use a garlic press).
• Season with Rosemary, Oregano and Basil. It's enough to slightly cover the pan with each of the herbs. If you add too much the taste is going to turn somewhat bitter.
• Simmer on low heat for another 15 minutes to allow the essences to distribute evenly. Now is the time to throw some Spaghetti into salted boiling water.
• When the pasta is aldente, serve on hot a plate with a tumbler full of sauce and small heap of Parmesan. Traditionally, Italians eat the dish with forks only. Et voila, bon appetite.

What was left after 700g of pasta and 30 minutes of today's dish:

Hmm, my entries are actually not nonsense any more, I should reconsider the blog's purpose.

Spaghetti Bolognese refinement

My friend Philipp is absolutely obsessed with my Spaghetti Bolognese. So until the end of the academic year we will waste our Saturdays in recipe fine-tuning. So far we have agreed that a mixture of minced beef and pork is probably better than beef only. We might have to reduce the amount of rosemary as well.

Stay tuned, I will post today's attempt later.

Gran's old recipes - Sachertorte

Prelude: British people think that butter cubes with vanilla taste and sugar make good deserts. As a child from the land of marvelous sweets and plain fare I'm authorised to introduce some culture to these people (wow, what a hackneyed introduction). Before I came to the land of microwave spaghetti from a tin can, my granny was kind enough to provide me with an almost ancient cookbook, she once taught her student with. Accordingly, the author uses quite archaic language, keeps talking from the "housewife" and how to achieve very cost-efficient meals. Astonishingly, the book manages to accommodate 600 recipes plus "hints for the housewife" on a mere 245 pages.

Enough waffling, let's get this bitch started. Since I was boasting about the Austrian kitchen culture with the Sachertorte, it deserves the honour to be "published" first.

The original German text talks about two batters, a cheaper and a better one. Forget the cheap batter, we go for the fine stuff.

Batter: 100g butter, 200g white sugar (preferably powdered), 3 eggs, 40g dark chocolate, 1 tablespoon cacao powder, 125ml milk, 250g flour, 1/4 pack of backing powder.

Whisk the butter, sugar and egg yolks until smooth and foamy. Add the molten chocolate (bain-marie, wather-bath), cacao powder, flour (sieved with the backing powder) and milk to the above mixture and stir to a homogenous mass (add in sensible portions). Subsequently, beat the egg whites with some sugar to a quite solid mass and carefully lift it under the rest of the batter.

Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for roughly an hour at "medium heat" (that's what the text says; my interpretation is around 160°C). After cooling, the cake can be halved horizontally and filled with jam (usually apricot).

Icing: 200g white sugar, 125ml water, 3-4 "ribs" from a dark chocolate bar (20g butter).

Boil the sugar and water until it gets quite viscous (the book talks about a "pearl consistency", meaning that a drop of the hot mixture will bubble off a spoon on a thread of the fluid), cool slightly and slowly add the chocolate. The butter results in some extra shininess of the icing, but need not be added. Pour the warm (not hot) mixture over the cake. Usually, that's the part when the kitchen becomes quite messy.

Recipes from a (bio)chemist, for chemists. Probably the most useful post on my whole blog.