Altmark-Style Wedding Soup

This is a soup that hails from the Altmark region of Germany.  It is tradionally served on the day of a wedding to bring good luck in the future of the marriage, but it is commonly also made for special occasions.  This version of the soup use white asparagus which are a seasonal vegetable in Germany during May.  They can however be purchased year-round.  If white asparagus are not available, then green asparagus will be a suitable replacement (they do not need to be peel however). The soup is also traditionally served at the table with a bottle of Maggi Würze.

Ingredients

1 soup chicken
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. white asparagus
4 eggs
vermecelli noodles
water
onion

Put the soup chicken in a large pot and cover with water, cut the onion in half (with skin still on, it gives the broth a little color) and add salt and pepper, if you are using white asparagus, peel the asparagus and cut off the ends, add these to the stock.  Bring to a boil, cover, then simmer for 1 1/2 hours (30 minutes in a pressure cooker) until the meat is coming off the bones.  Remove chicken from pot, and strain the broth.  Return broth the the pot.  Take the ground meat and season to your liking (I used lovage or Liebstöckel, but parsley should also work well) and add salt and pepper.  Roll the meatballs about 1 inch in diameter.

Bring the stock to a boil, add the meatballs one by one to prevent sticking.  Then slice the asparagus

Now add the asparagus to the pot. 

The next step is to crack the four eggs in a small saucepan and beat until smooth.  Place the saucepan into a larger saucepan filled with boiling water.  The heat from the boiling water will begin to cook the egg, wait until the egg is completely cooked, then remove from pot.  Cut the egg into small cubes and add to the soup.  Finally, add the small vermecelli noodles to the soup.  Continue cooking over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until noodles are done.  Serve the soup ladled into bowls with a bottle of Maggi Würze at the table. Guten Appetit!

Flan

This is my all-time favorite dessert, and my all-time favorite recipe.  After some steady nagging, my mother finally revealed to me her secret Flan recipe that kept a young Alex content for so many years.  Since I believe in sharing (a principle I also learned from my mother) I am gracing the world with this wonderful recipe.  This ingredients are suprisingly easy, the work lies in caramalizing the sugar, and making sure the oven is completely unheated before you place the flan in.  Don't worry at first if the sugar doesn't look like its caramalizing properly, keep the heat steady and it will eventually liquify, make sure you are swift in putting into the mold, or else it will reconstitute.  The water bath or bain-marie is a must, this recipe will not turn out otherwise.  I've experimented with various molds, I even used a flower-shaped mold one time and it turned out perfectly.  Once the flan has cooled (either to luke-warm or several hours of refrigeration, depending on preference) run a knife along the outside edges, give it a gentle shake to ensure the flan is not sticking to the mold and place a plate over the mold and flip! If you've done everything properly, you will have a beautiful flan.  Since you've already went through all the work of making the flan, might as well take a few extra minutes to decorate with flowers, fruit, mint leaves, anything to make the presentation even better!

Caramel Sauce:

¾ cup granulated sugar

Custard:

1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1 can of evaporated milk (12 oz.)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat sugar in a small saucepan on medium heat until it caramelizes, stirring all the while. Pour caramel sauce into flan mold or any oven-safe dish, it will immediately harden. Mix custard ingredients together and pour over-top of harden sugar sauce. Place mold in oven in a roasting pan and pour 1 inch of water in pan Set oven to 350 degrees, do not preheat. Bake for 1 hour. Flan can be served slightly warm or cool. To serve, run a knife around the edges of the mold, place a plate over top of mold and flip. Be careful not to spill any of the caramel sauce.

Kısır - Turkish Bulgur Salad

There is a very large Turkish expatriate community living in Berlin.  One of the things I am constantly noticing at the Turkish Imbiss is this salad.  I've tried cooking Bulgur before and found it to be pretty tasty.  The fresher the ingredients are in this salad, the better it will taste.  Bulgur is suprisingly easy to prepare, even easier if you have a water cooker to boil water quicky.  The majority of the work in this salad is all of the chopping.  This recipe makes enough for several people, it can easily be multiplied.  Get a couple of friends together and have yourself a Kısır Party!  Prepare little Kısır cups to-go, keep in a bag or a lunch box and it will keep for several hours without regrigeration.

2 cups fine bulgur (avaiable at most grocery stores in the Middle Eastern section)
2 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon red pepper paste (spicy or regular, or just another teaspoon of tomato paste)
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 medium lemon
2 tablespoons pomegranate paste (nar ekshisi in Turkish, usually the bulgur)
1 English cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup chopped green onion
Crushed red pepper (optional, add depending on how spicy you want it)
Salt

Preparing Bulgur: Place Bulgur in a medium bowl or pot and add boiling water, place a cover over the bulgur and set aside for 20 minutes.  You can now begin chopping your other ingredients.

Once the bulgur is set, add the tomato and red pepper paste, pomegranate paste and olive oil and stir to mix well.  Then you can add all the other ingredients and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate for a few hours so all the flavor can mix.

Leek Soup Saalfelder Style

This is a recipe that I found in a cookbook from the Thüringen region of Germany.  This dish comes from Saalfeld. It's basically a chicken soup with lots of leeks.  Once the soup is finished, its hard to notice all those leeks in there, but they sure do give the soup a great taste.  The recipe also called for Parsley, I decided on using an Herbes de Provence blend I found at the Maybach Ufer Market here in Berlin.  Although this soup is super tasty if made on the same day, its even better the day after.

Serves 4
Ingredients

1 soup chicken
5 leeks
1 lb. potatoes
2 carrots
2 tablespoons Parsley or other herb blend
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Place chicken in a large pot and cover with water, add a little salt and pepper, bay leaf and 1 tablespoon of herb mixture.  Bring pot to a boil, then cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hour.  When done, the chicken should be falling off the bone.  Remove the chicken from the pot and strain and reserve the broth.  Place chicken on a plate to cool off.  While the chicken is close to being done,  wash and dry the leeks, cut them into 2cm long rings.  Wash and peel the potatoes and carrots and cut them.  Add these and the other tablespoon of herbs to the broth and cook an additional 20 minutes.  Pull the meat off the chicken and dice.  When the potatoes are done, add the chicken.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Pork Ribs Adobo Style

This is a recipe given to me by my Tita Paqui, my aunt living in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.  She made this dish for me when I was visiting her this past few weeks.  The seasoning blend makes me thnk this recipe has been passed down as part of the Maurish tradition in Spain.  The use of pork ribs I find to be a bit ironic, since Spain was predominantly Muslim during the Maurish period.  In any case, this make a super dish is great.

Ingredients

2 - 3 lbs. pork ribs, cut into serving size pieces
2 onions, sliced
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
water

Heat up olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven.  Brown the ribs on each side one by one in the olive oil.  Remove from the pan.  Fry the onions in the pan until translucent, then add garlic.  Add the paprika, cumin, oregano and bay leaves to the pot.  Then stack the ribs into pot.  Add the wine vinegar and add water to cover the ribs.  Bring to a boil and cover, reducing heat to low and simmer for 1 hour.  After about 1 hour, remove lid and bring heat to a medium-high and cook until the sauce thickens.  Serve over fried or boiled potatoes or rice.

Andalusian Country Potato Salad with Tuna

Serves 6

This is a recipe that I acquired from my mother.  Its traditionally a potato salad that farm laborers would take out to the fields with them.  Unlike most traditional potato salads, it is not mayonnaise based, which reduces the calories, but not that taste.

3 lbs. potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
1 bunch green onions, green parts sliced
2 cans tuna (I used Bonito or White Tuna)
6 boiled eggs
1 can green olives stuffed with anchovies, sliced (reserve canning liquid)
bundle of Parsley, minced
salt and pepper
olive oil about 1/4 - 1/2 cup

 Place potatoes and eggs in a large pot and bring to a boil.  Boil for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender, rinse with cold water then drain.  While the potatoes are boiling, slice the green parts of the green onions, slice the olives and mince the parsley, set aside.  In a large boil mix add the potatoes.  Peel and diced 5 of the boiled eggs and add them to the potatoes, then add green onions, olives and parsley.  Then add the tuna and 1/4 cup of the reserved olive juice.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Then carefully stir until all the ingredients are well mixed.  Garnish with the remaining boiled egg, sliced.  Refrigerate for about 3-4 hours to allow all the flavors to blend.  Enjoy!