Cooking with Beer

Since beer is plentiful and wonderful here in Munich, I often try to find new ways to cook with it. In this recipe I decided to combine it with another love of mine - cheese.

(click the image to enlarge recipe)

While fondue isn't typically thought of as a summer dish, this is not incredibly heavy and does not need to be served super hot. If it becomes too thick, simply add a bit more beer while on the stove.

I also used an herbed salt for a bit more flavor, but it's an easily adaptable recipe and leftovers can be eaten cold the next day.

If you live in Germany, I highly recommend it with the Provence style potato wedges in the freezer section - they are excellent.

chèvre rosemary cheesecakes

This weekend I decided to bake some chèvre rosemary cheesecakes with a biscotti crust that I saw on food gawker.

Lately I've had a bit of an obsession with rosemary - and I love goat cheese. It helps to have a willing person to test my recipes on, although Stefan's not as harsh a critic as I am. I should be happy about that.

These we both agreed were really delicious. I only made 1/3 of the original recipe considering we're only two people and I'm trying to be healthy, but it still made 10 small cakes.

I also used low fat cream cheese and butter, but the recipe still worked. I'm sure it would be even better with real butter and cream cheese.

Once again, food gawker doesn't disappoint. 

Salmon Cakes

Tonight Stefan came home from work a bit early and we made dinner together. It's quite a feat considering we have the tiniest of tiny kitchens and there's not much counter space. But, as the old saying goes, if there's a will, there's a way.

I always love being able to make a proper meal rather than having the options of eating alone or at 10 o'clock at night.

While searching about for something that looked delicious on Food Gawker, my old go to resource on nights like this, I searched for salmon and found a great recipe for Salmon Cakes that are similar to Crab Cakes.

I was also able to incorporate Panko, which is a Japanese breading, that my mom raves about. I had to visit the specialty Asian grocery for that. Whenever I go to an ethnic grocery I get inspired and think that I should visit more often. 

Tonight was definitely proof of the delicious things that can come out of working together and enjoying the fruits of our labor. 

Molecular Cooking Course

Stefan and I attended a molecular cooking course last night, which was very interesting, informative, and delicious. Chemistry has never been a high point of mine, but I love seeing the interesting things the reactions are able to do in the kitchen. As soon as food is involved I'm hooked!

We were the only couple from Munich among the sea of characters. I am certain I took way too many photos and Stefan asked for the chef to repeat ingredients multiple times, but we were there to learn so we took advantage of being students.

The course began with an aperol apéritif. The aperol was dropped to form small liquid filled spheres, which were then covered with an orange juice foam.

What I love about these is that you can use any liquid, alcohol or alcohol free. Also, depending on the width of the syringe you could vary the size. The process of making them was also a lot of fun. These can be used in a variety of ways and even be put into drinks.

The longer it was kept in the solution the thicker the skin of the aperol would be. We were intrigued and it was a great way to start the evening.

Next was a hokkaido pumpkin soup that was changed into solid forms. We enjoyed them with chestnuts and an infused chestnut sauce mixed with olive oil. They were so simple and so pretty.

It was a very autumn type of meal and I loved it. It also gave me something new to do with all of my silicone baking molds.

Not only did we learn how to make foams and spheric creations, but we also learned how to make tagliatelle from liquid, frozen yogurt using liquid nitrogen, low cooked vacuumed packed meat (cooked sous vide), and espumas.

Stefan quickly became a pro at making and cutting the tagliatelle. Depending on how thick the liquid was poured it would create a thin film or a thicker noodle. Again, this could be adapted to making any kind of liquid a solid and slightly gelatin.

The liquid nitrogen frozen yogurt, which was very creamy and delicious. I think watching it be created was a lot of the fun.

This was also one of the points where a pet peeve of mine particularly regarding Germans came out - double dipping. People continually stuck their used spoons back into the bowl, which completely disgusts me. Call me a germaphobic (Thanks Mom!), but I don't understand why it's necessary to contaminate things with saliva when there are plenty of spoons available.

Next was the main course, meat cooked sous vide. I'm not one for meats, although I did try this since it was supposed to be so special. It was very moist and flavor infused, thanks to the lemon leaves and seasoning that it was packed with. I gave the rest to Stefan to finish. The moisture and tenderness was due to the vacuum sealing, so the liquid couldn't escape.

Dessert consisted of fresh mango slices that were covered in our espresso tagliatelle, chili strands, and a coconut milk espumas. It took some time to create, but was also very good.

I really love the versatility and interesting things that we learned to do with everyday foods. It's especially nice that many of the recipes simply call for liquids, which can easily be exchanged to create more variation. I can't wait to learn more about all of this.

Hopefully we'll be experimenting in the near future and will create some fun new fusion meals. It looks like it will be quite some time before we make it to elBulli - reservations for 2009 are already booked.

Edit (May 09): It appears as though Molecular cooking is catching on here in Germany. Since attending this course I have seen several stores carrying the needed mixtures to achieve the interesting results.

Here are a few resources that you may be interested in:
Molecular Cooking + Restaurants Resource
Texture Pro
Molecular Fun (German)
A cook book called 'Alinea' by Greg Achatz (from the restaurant Alinea in Chicago)