Roast with redcurrant jelly

My parents' garden always had (and still has) a number of different trees and bushes. Amongst the latter there is one or two redcurrant bush(es). Going through the garden as a child, picking fruits and berries and eating them taught me that redcurrants are notably more sour than the majority of other things found in my parents garden. Oddly enough, I remember it as if I didn't like them all that much - which is mainly odd because I loved a host other strongly sour things I could lay my hands on in that garden, such unripe apples and unripe gooseberries.

My mother would prepare redcurrants in a couple of different ways, but all of them were used as sides to meat dishes - something I found particularly odd as a child and which I have only grown to appreciate much later in life.

When my parents visited me last summer, they brought me a small jar of redcurrant jelly - the making of which would justify a post all of it's own if I ever get around it - which has been sitting in my kitchen pantry waiting for me to cook a proper roast to serve it with..

Ingredients:
- oil
- 1 small roast (beef)
- salt and pepper
- several small onions
- raw peanuts
- potatoes
- lettuce
- grape tomatoes
- mushrooms
dressing:
- grainy mustard
- oil
- red wine vinegar

The roast was seasoned with salt and pepper, then seared on all sides in a little oil on a hot pan.

An oven proof tray was filled with a layer of halved small onions, added enough water to almost cover the onions, and the pan-seared roast was placed on top before roasting in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for an hour.

While roasting the beef, raw peanuts were roasted in a large pan and then set aside in a small bowl (and I guess at least half of them disappeared as snacks while the rest of the meal finished).

The potatoes were boiled till tender in lightly salted water.

A simple salad was made from lettuce and grape tomatoes - a dressing was stirred from grainy mustard, red wine vinegar and oil.

A few minutes before it was time to take the roast out of the oven, rinsed and sliced mushrooms were roasted in a pan - when the roast came out of the oven, it was placed on a cutting board to rest for some minutes before slicing it and the water and onions were mixed with the roasted mushrooms.


Served with redcurrant jelly, now that I'm old enough to appreciate this combination..

Bier für Freunde

The German title translates as Beer for friends ^[1] and I guess it is the slogan for Wartmann's in Frauenfeld (Switzerland).

I can't say that I had very strong reasons for choosing Wartmann's for my beer shopping cart, but I was certainly not disappointed with this wine-size No.4: the Blanche Grand Cru. The little folder of information coming that came with the bottle compares the style to German Weissbiers, but it has a lot more in common with the Belgian beers mentioned on the homepage. Either way: A very flavourful and well-crafted beer.

Now, I would like to taste No.1, 2, and 3...

^[1] Appropriately I gave two of the three bottles I bought to a friend.

Sesame crusted köfte & cabbage salad

Many years ago, when I was still a child and my parents were encouraging (strongly) me to help with the cooking at home, I read somewhere about sesame crusted meat balls and was allowed to try to make them - although I seem to remember my parents being very sceptical about the concept. The final result didn't make a lasting impression on me (and the fact that we never made them again also speaks for their having not been received so well), but the concept was still somewhere in my head when recently faced with the challenge of using yet more sesame seeds before the impending (and dreaded) move.. In the end, an advertisement in a food magazine lead me to try out this version.

Ingredients:
yoghurt sauce:
- 3 dL (~ 1 1/4 cup) plain yoghurt
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp sambal oelek
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
köfte:
- 640 g (~ 1.4 lb) ground lamb
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 20 g (2/3 oz) fresh mint, chopped
- 2 small onions, finely chopped
- 3/4 dL (1/3 cup) bread crumbs
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 egg
- 50 g (1.75 oz) white sesame seeds
- 50 g (1.75 oz) black sesame seeds
cabbage salad:
- 1 head red cabbage, finely sliced
- 1 small onion
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 20 g (2/3 oz) fresh coriander, chopped
- 285 g (10 oz) corn kernels
- 2 raw pepperoncini, finely diced

First yoghurt sauce was made by stirring all the ingredients together. Then it was covered and stored in the fridge while making the rest.

For the köfte all the ingredients except for the sesame seeds were mixed and rolled into balls approximately 2-3 cm (1 inch) in diameter, then coated by dipping them into a mixture of black and white sesame seeds. The coated meat balls were lined up on a baking sheet and baked in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for 18 minutes.

The cabbage salad was made simply by stirring the ingredients together.

Served while the köfte were still hot from the oven.

I liked the result, and I seriously doubt that the meatballs I made in parents kitchen many moons ago were anything near as good.

Altes Tramdepot

On a recent trip to Bern, we decided to lunch at Altes Tramdepot, which turned out to be a large open room with long benches and hearty country-style food (which was quite welcome in our case as we were there on a cold day). The Old Tram Depot is also a small brewery - with four house beers on tap the selection isn't particularly wide, but the quality was good. We started with the 'helles' and 'märzen' (pictured below) and later had a round of the seasonal Canadian red ale. All in all we were quite pleased with everything, so if you find yourself thirsty in the capital of Switzerland, I suggest that you head down to the bear pits to visit Altes Tramdepot - on a warmer day, it would be perfect to sit on their terrace and enjoy the view over the river Aare and the historial town centre.

Lentil Salad

Looking for new ideas to use the last bit of lentils, I turned again to google for inspiration.. and landed (again) on food network. As a bonus, the recipe also requires red wine vinegar and bay leaves - two things I have way more of than I can reasonably use before moving. I won't claim that I've really added anything to Alton's recipe here, but it's brilliant, so it bears repeating..

Ingredients:
- 225 g (1/2 lb) brown lentils
- 2 small onions, quartered
- 1 glove garlic, whole
- 2 bay leaves
- salt
- pepper
- 4 slices thinly sliced bacon, fried and chopped
- 1/2 dL (1/4 cup) red wine vinegar
- 1/4 dL (1/8 cup) olive oil
- 1 tsp grainy mustard
- 10 g (1/3 oz) fresh thyme

The rinsed lentils were placed in a pot with water, onion, garlic, salt, and bay leaves. It was brought to a boil, covered, and let simmer for half an hour. The bay leaves were picked out (but I left in the onion and the garlic as I saw little point in removing them), and drained off excess liquid. The boiled lentils were allowed to cool off a little while preparing the rest.

The vinegar, oil, mustard, pepper, and thyme was whisked together in a large bowl.
The bacon was fried, and then chopped.

At last everything was stirred together - served immediately with a big of dark bread (although it was also delicious cold after hours in the fridge).

Krušovice Dark

Some months ago a new store opened up close to here - this store carries a curious blend of goods, including quite a number of specialities from eastern Europe.

I was quite happy to see that this includes a good number of Czech beers - something I've had far too little of since my trip to Prague many moons ago.

For reasons I can't quite divine I chose to pick a couple of Krušovice Dark. A deliciously smooth and balanced dark beer - of which I have to say 1 litre went down surprisingly fast...