Jamaican Jerk Burgers with fried Plantains

As I said before my mom brought me an oldfashioned meat grinder from Austria and I just had to try it out. I got a nice beef tenderloin from Costco and it had to be trimmed and cut in portions anyway, so I used some of it (some trimmings and the pieces to small to keep as steak)  to try out my new toy and ground it.

I like to play with different flavor combinations and thought why not use the traditional Jamaican Jerk flavor for a nice and juicy burger. So off I went on my search on which spices to use for the Jerk seasoning. I found a couple of variations online and took it from there, but every recipe had Allspice as the main ingredient for Jamaican Jerk seasoning.


You'll need the following spices for the Jamaican Jerk mix:

• 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
• 1 teaspoon allspice, ground
• 1 teaspoon dried onion powder
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
• 1 tablespoon salt

This obviously makes more than you need for the burgers, so just keep the rest for later use.

So now here are the other ingredients you need for the burgers:

1 hand full chopped parsley

1/2 medium size onion finely chopped

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs (unseasoned)

1 large egg

1 tablespoon Worcstershire Sauce

In a large bowl mix the ground beef with all the ingredients and two tablespoons of the Jamaican Jerk mixture so the spices, onion, breadcrumbs and egg is nicely incorporated in the meat. Divide into four large burger patties.

Preheat your grill so it's nice and hot, grill the patties about 4 minutes on each side (depends on how you like your burgers). Don't press down on the patties, it makes them dry as the juices will come out. Then serve on a nice slice of toasted fresh bread, some fried plantains and a side salad.

Bon Appetit!

Oven baked Salmon, easy and delicious

Yesterday evening I wanted to keep our dinner light and easy. This recipe is just what the doctor ordered. It is so super easy, everyone even the most cooking challenged can do this.

You need the following (two portions):

1 lb salmon fillet
1 medium onion (cut in rings)
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
handfull of chopped parsley
salt & pepper
Olive oil
soy sauce

baking dish
aluminum foil

Start off, peeling and then slicing your onion
then finely chop garlic and gather all your other ingredients

There, the chopping and preparing is done already. Now just line your baking dish with aluminum foil (use enough foil so you can make a tent over your fish).

Lightly sprinkle the baking dish with some olive oil, then layer in about half of the onion and the garlic. Lay the salmon on top, season with salt and pepper, then top it with the remaining onions, garlic and the chopped parsley, sprinkle on some more olive oil and a couple splashes of soy sauce. Close the foil over the fish and bake in a preheated (400 F) oven for about 20 minutes, depending on how thick your fish is.

Serve with a fresh salad and some rice! There you go, a easy, healthy dinner everyone can make.

Bon Appetit!

Mutu's Italian Kitchen, Durango, Co

Mutu's Italian Kitchen is the 3rd restaurant we went to during our stay in Durango. My friend Ulani had recommended it to me and as I LOVE Italian Food, I convinced my mum and her husband to go there. Oh what a good choice that was.

The restaurant interior is greatly designed, airy and warm, which creates a super nice atmosphere. Live Jazz was being played in the bar area, but it wasn't too loud so you could carry a nice conversation in the dining room.

Mutu's has a great menu, but it's not too big so you have a good choice of items and you're not being overwhelmed by having to choose from a menu the size of the latest Steven King novel.

To my delight Mutu's had "Beef Carpaccio" on the appetizer menu and I just had to have it. It's been a while since I had that dish and I just haven't found great Carpaccio in LA. Let me tell you it was delicious, perfectly sliced and arranged on a beautiful plate, it came with nicely shaved Parmesan, Arugula and Capers, as well as some nicely toasted fresh Italian bread. YUMMY! I couldn't have asked for more.

As my main course I ordered the Lobster and Crab Ravioli with Lemon Butter Sauce..... DELISH! I should have taken pictures! The plate was super pretty to look at and it just tasted DIVINE!

I had a nice glass of "Gewuerztraminer" with it, just cause I love sweet and fruity wine and for dessert we ordered the home made Vanilla Ice Cream! Oh man, I didn't think you could make something usually boring like Vanilla Ice Cream that good.

If I ever go back to Durango, I'll definately pencil in a visit to Mutu's!

Annual Easter Get Away, this year Durango Colorado

Every year around Easter time, I get a little get away at the courtesy of my Mom Chris and her generous husband Stefan. They spend some time in Moab, UT each year for Jeep Week and I get to either join them for a few days there or, like this year, we're going somewhere else to explore different things.

The choice this year was Durango, CO after we had to abandon the idea of going to Yellowstone, as the park is pretty much closed from mid March to the end of April for repairs and to prepare it for the summer season. So we were looking at other places to go and someone told us to check out Durango, a beautiful old school Western Town up in the Rockies. What a good choice! The town is very pretty, hospitable, the people are friendly and the restaurants were EXCELLENT. For a town that small, the culinary offerings are spectacular.

I'm going to tell you about all the places we ate and what I liked most about each restaurant. There were so many to chose from. So many were highly recommended but we only had 4 nights for dinner so we had to chose a few.

Ken & Sue's, Mutu's, Francisco's and Serious Texas BBQ were our choices. All great, all different and all being reviewed a bit in the following posts.

Oh don't let me forget, my mom brought me an old school meat grinder, so I think I'm soon gonna try what I can do with that toy.

We did different things each day and as soon as I have all my pictures downloaded and caught up on my sleep, I don't do so good after only a few hours and a plain ride. I'll get back to this blog and let you all in on my Easter Trip to Durango.

Turkey Burgers with Harissa and Caramelized Onions

We eat a lot of turkey and therefore I need to make it taste differently, so we don't get bored with it. Last night I decided to give it a twist in a different direction. I used to live close to Strassbourg (France) and we'd eat "Merguez", a spicy traditional lamb saussage, in a bun with a bunch of Harissa on it.

Harissa is a traditional spicy hot chili paste, commonly eaten in Morroco, Tunisia and Algeria, whose main ingredients are piri piri chillies, tomatoes and paprika. It is widely used and a staple ingredient in Northern African cuisine. You can either order this paste online or find it in specialty stores like, "Bay Cities Italian Deli" in Santa Monica.

As we didn't want just regular turkey burgers, I came up with this spicier version, topped with caramelized onions and served with nice side salad. Below are the ingredients you will need:

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 small onion (finely chopped)
Handfull Parsley (finely chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped or pressed)
1 egg
1 1/2 Tbs Harissa (depending on how hot you want it)
1 ts Paprika
Red Pepper flakes
Salt & Pepper

Mix the above ingredients well in a large bowl and form 4 to 5 turkey burgers, cover and set aside.

For the caramelized onions, just slice 1 medium onion into fine rings or strips and melt 1 tbs of butter in a large skillet, reduce the heat and add the sliced onion, saute in the pan until they are soft and golden brown, add additional butter as needed, keep warm.

When the onions are almost done, you can heat up your grill. Once hot, reduce heat to medium flame and grill your turkey burgers until cooked through. If you do not have a grill, they taste just as good if you fry them in the pan.

I don't like to eat too much bun with my burger, so I arranged them on a nice slice of Whole Grain/Hazelnut Toast and served them with a side salad and some oven roasted baby onions.

Bon Appetit! En Guete! Mahlzeit!

Inside Out Peppermint Patty CupCake

So, finally yesterday I got around to making the cupcakes I've been talking about. Somehow I got derailed every evening and just didn't get to it, may it have been Movie Night, Dinner or just working late.

I decided, to do something a little bit different and, because I like "After Eight" mints and "York Peppermint Patties", I felt I could incorporate those flavors in a cupcake. To work I went with just a basic batter recipe.

Here is what you need to make 12 delicious "Inside Out Peppermint Patty" Cupcakes,



For the batter:
125 g butter (unsalted), soft and cut in small cubes)
125 g flour (sifted)
125 g sugar
125 ml milk coffee (latte)
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tbs coffee (ground)
2 Tbs cocoa powder
1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips
Splash of Amaretto or Rum




In a medium size bowl, whip the butter until it is soft and creamy, slowly add the sugar and the egg, while continuing to mix on high speed (you can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer). Then start mixing in flour and milk coffee, little by little, so the batter gets nice and smooth, once all that is added, add in the cocoa powder, the ground coffee and a couple splashes of Rum or Amaretto. Finally mix in the dark mini chocolate chips.


Fill the batter in the prepared cupcake pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Cool on a rack. While the cupcakes cool down you can prepare your frosting. I used a ready made "Pillsbury" Vanilla Frosting for this, but you can make your own. I just didn't have time to do it this time.


For the Frosting:
1 tub Vanilla Frosting
1 Tbs Peppermint extract


Mix the vanilla frosting well with the peppermint extract, so you have a nice creamy texture. Fill it in a pastry bag. Take a skewer and poke a little whole in the bottom of each cupcake, then pipe some of the frosting inside each cupcake. Change out your nozzle to a star nozzle and pipe remaining frosting on the cupcakes.
Decorate cupcakes with a mint leave and half and "After Eight". You could also just use chocolate sprinkles or thinly shaved dark chocolate.


Enjoy! 

CupCake Day

Tonight I'll be making cupcakes... My mom  recently gave me a basic cake recipe, that I think can be adapted to all kinds of flavors.... so I have a few idea's I'm toying around with. You guys will just have to check back on what I decided to do....

I could go the more unusual route or then go the safer way.... I have the ingredients for both..... all I'm missing is the mini cupcake pan.... oh and I'm still waiting on my madeleine pan....

So check back tomorrow for the cupcakes>

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Tournament Challenge

Tournament Challenge

I know absolutely nothing about College Basketball, but I'm gonna try and win!

Fat Free Orange Almond Cake

This is a very light, fluffy cake without any fat, well almost, the only fat in this cake is from the almonds, but we're not adding any butter or oil, so this one is really light! Obviously it will contain sugar and a little bit of flour but really this is one that you can easily serve to someone that's health conscious.

You will need:

150 grams of sugar
4 egg yolks

2 oranges,  zest only
2 - 3 drops of bitter almond extract

4 egg whites
1 pinch salt
1 knife tip of backing powder

2 tabelspoons of sugar

125 grams almond meal
5 tablespoons flour

Mix the sugar and the egg yolks until light yellow in color and very fluffy, add the orange zest and the almond flavor and mix in. Set aside.

In a clean bowl mix egg whites, salt and baking powder until peaks form, then add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat quickly for about another minute. Set aside

Mix the flour and almond meal evenly, then alternating with the egg whites fold gently into the egg yolk mixture with a rubber spatula. Fill in a prepared, well buttered and floured 8 inch/22 cm ring mold.

Bake on the lowest rack of a preheated 350 degree oven for about  35 - 45 minutes (depending on the mold).

Glaze:

150 ml Orange Juice
4 tablespoons of powdered sugar
if desired 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or Cointreau

Mix well, then remove the cake from the pan, poke a couple of holes in it and drizzle with the glaze. Let cool and keep cool until ready to serve.

You can decorate the cake by peeling one of the oranges you zested.  Cut it in thin slices and layer on the cake evenly to make a nice pattern, then do the same with a banana. It looks nice and gives it an additional layer of flavor.

Serve and enjoy!

"Riz Casimir"

This dish is very popular in Switzerland and I loved eating this as a child, because it combined a nice mild chicken curry and the beloved sweet canned fruit, that we usually only got on special occasions as desert. Ah memories! Now let's start bringing those wonderful days back.

Most of the prep-work for this dish lies with the chicken and curry sauce, for the rice you really don't have to do anything than just cook a plain white rice as the base of the dish.

You need the following for the chicken curry:

3 large chicken breasts (cut in cubes or strips)
butter, for frying

2 tablespoons flour (if your GF use Rice Flour or Corn Starch)
1 tablespoon curry
Mixed the two, so they are combined.

200 ml chicken stock
200 ml milk (half-n-half, if you want a heavier sauce)

1 small can mixed fruit
dab of butter

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, and fry the chicken strips or cubes, to a nice golden brown until done, you might want to do this in two batches so the chicken cooks evenly. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan to an oven save dish and keep warm in the pre-heated oven.

Melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan, add the curry/flour mixture and roast in the pan for about 1 minute only. Then pour in the chicken stock and the milk, whisking continuously until it comes back to a boil. reduce the heat and season with salt and pepper, add back the chicken and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

In another small pan, melt a dab of butter and sautee the canned fruit for about 5 minutes, so they get coated nicely with the butter.

To serve:

Place some of your rice on a warmed plate, add the chicken curry in the center of the rice and garnish with some of the sauteed fruit. Sprinkle with a little bit of parsley.

Bon Appetit! En Guete! Mahlzeit! Buon Appetito!

PS: Instead of canned fruit you can always use fresh, pineapple, bananas, peaches etc.

Spicy Turkey Meatballs with Mushroom Gravy

This recipe is one of my favorites and everyone loves to eat this dish. You don't have to make the sauce if you don't like Mushrooms or gravy. The Meatballs by themselves are a treat as well and, they are super easy to make:

Here is what you will need:

1 1/4 lb of lean ground turkey
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (you can leave these out when cooking gluten free, you don't need them)
1 egg
1 Tabelspoon Sambal (Chili/Garlic Sauce)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Hot Paprika
2 dashes ground Cumin
2 dashes Cayenne Pepper
Parsley , handful chopped




Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl, so all the spices and the breadcrumbs are combined well. Then in a big mixing bowl combine the turkey, egg, sambal and the dry ingredients so they are nicely combined. Form bite size balls with your hands and set them on a plate or cutting board.

In a big frying pan heat up a generous dab of butter and some vegetable oil. Once the butter is melted and nicely combined with the oil, start setting your meatballs in the pan and fry until nicely browned (make sure they are cooked through). Do not overfill the frying pan, because that will bring down the temperature in the pan and your meatballs won't cook evenly. SO you might have to cook them in two batches. Once they are cooked set them aside in a ovenproof dish and keep warm in the pre-heated oven.

Once you've fried all your meatballs, you can start on making the gravy.
You will need the following:

2 cups white or brown mushrooms sliced
1 cup water
1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon cornstarch (Maizena)
Salt
Pepper
Sambal
Dash of Half & Half or Heavy Cream

Deglaze the frying pan with a cup of red wine and half water, stir until all the brown bits are dissolved, bring to a simmer, then add the mushrooms and let them cook until they are soft. Salt and pepper to taste and maybe add some more of the sambal if you want the gravy spicy. Once the mushrooms are cooked, mix the cornstarch in a cup with a bit of water, then add to the simmering sauce, this will thicken the gravy and you will not get any lumps.

Take the meatballs out of the oven and cover with the gravy, serve with pasta or rice and a nice side salad.