703. Pork Schnitzel

I already made turkey schnitzel for the blog before, but pork schnitzel was on the list as well. It seems a little bit like overkill to me, but I love schnitzel so I’m not going to complain! It makes a really great dinner as it’s quick and easy, and you can have it with so many things - with chips, with salad, in a sandwich, with mashed potatoes etc etc

703 down, 1093 to go

689. Tilsiter

Lately every time I’ve gone shopping in town, I’ve had to pop into Wally’s Deli to pick up a treat or two. Usually I end up getting at least one piece of cheese as they have such a great selection. On this occasion I picked up the tilsiter, which is a German cheese, though in terms of flavour and texture it was most similar to Swiss cheeses. I used it in a few things, including these mini cheese on toasts made on an English muffin.

689 down, 1107 to go

641. Schweinebraten

Schweinebraten is a German version of roast pork where you baste the meat with beer whilst it’s cooking. I love roast pork so I was really excited to give this one a try as an alternative Sunday dinner. As I knew I would be basting it I got a piece of pork without crackling and roasted it mostly covered in foil so that the beer would steam around the pork for the whole cooking time. The result was fantastic - the pork was super moist and flavourful. I cooked potatoes and onions in the same dish as the pork so these absorbed all of the sweet beer flavour too. I shall definitely do this one regularly from now on.

642. Braised Fennel

I served some braised fennel with it. I braised it in a saucepan just by frying it in a little butter, then simmering it in chicken stock until all the stock was absorbed and the fennel was barely solid any more it was so tender. The flavour was fantastic. Even Pie loved it and he usually hates fennel because of the aniseedy flavour it has. Over all this was a totally successful meal.

642 down, 1154 to go

623. Black Forest Ham

Black forest ham was really not how I expected it to be at all. Having had a few other German hams I was expecting it to be more of a country-style ham; thick cut with a really meaty texture and a smoky flavour. However it’s actually very similar to a prosciutto and I found myself using it pretty much interchangeably with that. I used some to make one of my favourite picnic-style lunches, and had it with hummus, olives, pitta and veggies.

623 down, 1173 to go

579. Gingerbread

Hi all, I’m back from my Christmas break with my second annual batch of festive foods!

There are so many kinds of gingerbread it was really hard to pick which one to try for the list. There is the rich, soft almost cake-like stuff, the crunchy gingerbread men cookies, these super crispy and chewy biscuits that my mum used to make, and of course there is the solid slabs which are just perfect for house building. I went with the latter partly because it would take the best picture, and partly because the witch’s house is probably the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about gingerbread. Taste-wise it isn’t actually the best - it’s made to hold up the house not to taste delicious - but it’s definitely the most fun.

579 down, 1217 to go

441. Numberger Elisenlebkuchen

One of my favourite things about my job (and by one of, I mean by far my favourite) is that I get a lot of free and cheap food. Good food too. I loved these cute little lantern tins and so I had already ordered myself one with my staff discount, then we got given one in our Christmas goody bags so I ended up with two. I was more than excited. The bonus was that not only are the tins adorable, they are filled with delicious iced and chocolate-coated Numberger Elisenlebkuchen. Lebkuchen are German spice cakes - similar to gingerbread - and this particular type is the finest kind you can get. It has to pass certain tests to qualify as being called it, like having a certain percentage of nuts. The taste is just sublime. I have always loved lebkuchen but these are just out of this world. I have been rationing them since Christmas and I now have one of these little packets left. The good news is that we are still selling them for this Christmas so I will be able to stock up again!

441 down, 1355 to go

430. Stollen

So Stollen is kind of Christmassy I know, but I got one in my goody bag from work and then didn’t end up eating it until a few weeks ago. Who says that you can’t eat it at any time of year anyway? This was a rum stollen and the rum was definitely a welcome addition. I always thought stollen was ok before but the rum actually made it good. I have a bit of a thing for rum-soaked fruits, my brother’s homemade rum raisin ice cream is one of the most delicious things ever. I’m going to have to get him to make me some soon.

430 down, 1366 to go

424. Weizenbier

Another one from Quebec, this was a white wheat beer I had at a bar/restaurant on one of our evenings in Montreal. We left after one drink and nachos in the end because our waitress was just awful, but the beer was great at least. I’m not a huge beer drinker in general but there are a few kinds that I like. Kriek (Belgian cherry beer) is by far and away the best, but weizenbier is pretty damn good too. It’s smooth and a little sweet and not at all bitter. Also, I really enjoy drinking out of a tankard.

424 down, 1372 to go

420. Black Forest Gateau

Black Forest Gateau is kind of an old-fashioned dessert; people tend to think it is very 70s, but I love it. The fact that chocolate and cherries and cream are three of my most favourite things in the world obviously helps. I would put the recipe on here, but I made some of it up and now I forgot what I did… so sorry about that. But basically I just made a really rich cocoa sponge (I used just cocoa rather than chocolate so that it was nice and bitter and not sweet). Then I mixed canned black cherries with some black cherry wine that I had. Traditionally you use Kirsch, which is a cherry brandy but I had the cherry wine and it has more of a cherry flavour so I decided to go for it, and it was a good choice. Once the cherries had marinated in the wine for a little while I drained them, then poured a lot of the juice onto the halved sponge so that it all soaked in. Then just filled the cake with the cherries and whipped cream and put more whipped cream on top. It was awesome. Probably one of the best cakes/desserts I’ve ever made.

420 down, 1376 to go

411. Durum Wheat Spaghetti

Of course I’ve eaten spaghetti plenty of times since I started this challenge, but I wanted to wait until I had something exciting with it to post it on the blog. I’d seen this posted on tumblr a few times - where the spaghetti is threaded through 412. Frankfurters, and so I decided to give it a go as it looked a bunch of fun. It was. And tasty too. I made the sauce out of red pesto and clamato. Damn good.

412 down, 1384 to go