Author Archives: Kathrin

Feb6

Taking Part In My First Cooking Challenge!

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Kathrin

Taking Part In My First Cooking Challenge!

Hello everyone!

Today I have something very exciting to talk about: I took part in my very first cooking challenge!!

Jassy from the lovely german blog ‘Was Du Nicht Kennst‘ – meaning ‘What you don’t know’ requested that the participants of the challenge cook dishes or whole meals from a basket full of special ingredients that she chose in advance. While it does not matter if the results are dishes, snacks or even whole meals you were only allowed to choose from a short list of ingredients to pair the ones from the bucket with.

Don’t worry if this was a bit diffcult to understand at once, I’ve written them all down for you below.

So this was the list of the ingredients we all had to use:

* Pumpkin (Hokkaido)

*Leeks

*Parsnips

*Carrots

*Lemon

*Mascarpone

*Pasta (doesn’t matter which)

An those were the ones we could add, if we needed them:

*Spices, herbs, sugar

*Fats of any kind

*Broth and vinegar

*Starch

*Flour

*Milk

*Eggs

*Hard Cheese (just one kind)

*Nuts (any kind)

What would you have come up with to create from these ingredients?

I have to say, I’m quite proud of myself of what I came up with. Although I have never had parsnip in my life before and I have never made anything with mascarpone because it has quite a lot of fat I chose to try my best! I remembered that my friend Luca from Oh la vache! had sent me a link to a recipe of his of a soup of parsnip with lemon. So I had checked of two ingredients of the list already, AND because I hade the recipe I knew it would turn out well!

For the other two dishes I had an idea of how I wanted them to be and searched the internet for some basics.

So what did I choose to make?

Starter: Parsnip Soup with Lemon

Main Course: Pumpkin & Leek Lasagna

Dessert: Fluffy Carrot Muffins with a Creamy Mascarpone Frosting

I will post the recipes seperatly so you just have to click on the name in the list above and you’ll find them there!

I hope you enjoyed this challenge like I did!!

Lot’s of love! Talk to you soon!

~ Kathrin

Dec15

The Best White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Kathrin

The Best White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies

Hello everyone!!

This year I took part in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

It’s a great opportunity to get to know other food bloggers in your own country (and in my case even Austria!) and to taste their awesome cookie creations!

Each participant has to send a dozen cookies of their choice to each of the three recipients that were chosen for him and the participant will get three packages filled each with different cookies from three other participants! You won’t know who will send you cookies, what type of cookies you’ll get or where they are from – it’s a fantastic surprise!

AND to make it even better we’re all doing it for a great cause: to support Cookies For Kid’s Cancer!

Well, I chose to make White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies, a recipe that was slightly adapted from Del’s Cooking Twist. Del’s pictures looked sooo yummy, just like the perfect cookie and then she even calls them THE BEST – I just had to try them. So I made them – 4 times the recipe at once as I wasn’t sure how many cookies I would get and I needed enough to send them. Well let’s just say I made PLENTY. But – and I’m definitly not lying – they really were the best!!

So what you’re waiting for – grab some butter, sugar and a big bowl and start baking!!

The bloggers I send them to were:

Julia from Verily Me

Sönne from Spätzlegirl

and Laura from Laura kocht

The Best White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

They are sooo good!! Stop reading and start baking!

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Recipe type: Cookies

Ingredients

170g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted
125g (2/3 cup) light brown sugar
50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (or 2P. vanilla sugar)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
270g (2¼ cups) plain flour
1⅕ tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup white chocolate chips or chopped
½ cup cranberries

Instructions

Whisk together butter and sugars until disolved. Add vanilla, egg and egg yolk. Stir until well combined.
Then add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and mix carefully to combine.
At last mix in white chocolate and cranberries.
Take a large sheet of cling film and place your dough in the middle and flatten it out a bit until you get a disk in the thickness of 2cm. Place in fridge at least for 2 hours, preferably overnight.
When ready to bake: Preheat oven to 160°C (325° F) and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
Form balls that are higher than wide and place them with enough space in between on the baking sheets. Bake for approx. 8-12 min, depending on the size of your balls and how chewy you want your cookies. If you want them very chewy they should look slightly underbaked in the middle when you take them out and they will sink in a bit.
Enjoy!

The Best White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies by Ginger, Lemon & Spice

And what type of cookies did I get?

There were Mocca Melting Moments from Kevin of Law of Baking

Orange and Cinnamon Stars from Kathy of Kathys Küchenkampf

and Marshmallow and Chocolate Cookies from Katja of Hoetus Poetus

Have a great evening!

~ Kathrin

Nov23

What I was up to in November

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Kathrin

What I was up to in November

Hello everyone!

It has been a busy month for me, getting a part time job at a store that sells home decorations, gifts and household items, singing solo on both a wedding and my gospel choir’s winter concert and most of all preparing and creating my first wedding cake ever!!

Baking a wedding cake has been on my bucket list for quite some time now, but I never thought I would do it so soon. I was sure I needed lots of practice before then, baking my way through all family birthdays and other occations and ‘forcing’ everyone to try what I created. I thought for sure there were many failures along the way, learning how to create the perfect fillings and shape the smoothest fondant finish and decorations.

But then there was this day when I heard that the most lovely couple of friends of mine that I know from our gospel choir and that had invited me to their wedding in early november had to struggle so hard with private problems and finishing their exams before the wedding date that they couldn’t go on like this anymore and decided to call of all wedding festivities.

Me and my friends from the choir were shocked that this lovely couple had to struggle so hard with problems they could do nothing about and under the direction of our choir leader it was decided that they should have their wedding party and we all help to make it happen.

Quickly there was a place found, where the festivities could take place, plans were made, a caterer found and cakes were baked. There were lots of helpers found that cleaned all the dishes, made sure that everyone had to drink and nobody had to go home hungry.

It was an enormous amount of work that especially our choir leader had to deal with ahead of the wedding day but it was all so worth it!!

Since I knew bride and groom already for more than 6 years, singing besides them and having great times after rehearsals in a pub nearby I knew I had to do something special and I offered to make their wedding cake. But it was all kept a secret until the moment I revealed it to them! And they were so surprised and happy, I really loved the look on their faces 🙂

The cake on the top was a Pear & Vanilla Cheesecake and the one below was a Chocolate & Orange Buttercream Cake.

The decorations are made of black & white fondant and the flowers are dried pineapple.

Of course being the perfectionist that I am I wasn’t totally happy with the final result but as we all helped to make this day possible and everybody helped the way they could I can say I was quite happy how it turned out! 🙂

I didn’t have time to set up a proper backround and think about the perfect angles to shoot the cake, so I’m sorry that the pictures aren’t as professional as the once I do usually. Also I was quite nerve wrecked on that day, singing the solo in the church and worrying the cake would make it safe and sound to the party and onto the table later that I just gave somebody else my camera and asked them to shoot a few pictures during the reveal. 😉

Thank you for reading!!

Love,

~ Kathrin

Oct17

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Kathrin

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Hello everyone!

As promised here is the Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe with Yoghurt and Olive Oil you voted you wanted to see next!

This is another recipe I made to use up this enormous zucchini I got from my grandma’s garden. Maybe you remember my Zucchini Corn Muffins from the last post?

Very moist and with indulgend chocolate bits throughout the bread this is every chocolate lovers fantasy! Nobody would ever think that there are three (!!) cups of zucchini inside!

I did also freeze some slices of the cake and liked it still but it is best eaten fresh.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Yoghurt and Olive Oil

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

90 mins

Total time

1 hour 50 mins

A very moist and flavorful chocolate bread that uses up a whole lot of your zucchini harvest!

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Recipe type: Cake

Serves: 20 slices

Ingredients

2 eggs
270 g (1 cup) sugar
190 g (1½ cups) flour
25 g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
80 g (1/2 cup) olive oil
120 g (1/2 cup) plain yoghurt (I used 3,5 % fat)
1 tsp vanilla extract
440 g (3 cups) zucchini (finely grated and water pressed out)
130 g (1 cup) dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate pieces

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter and flour a big loaf tin (or two smaller ones).
In a large bowl mix eggs and sugar for about 5 minutes until pale, fluffy and very creamy.
Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt at once and mix on slow speed until incorporated.
Then pour in olive oil, yoghurt and vanilla and mix through.
Fold in zucchini and chocolate.
Pour your mixture into your loaf tin(s) and bake for 65 minutes. Check if the chocolate bread is ready by inserting a wooden skewer. If there is still wet dough on the skewer leave it in the oven for longer. (mine needed 20 minutes more when baked in one loaf tin)

Adapted from Give Recipe

Have a great day!

~ Kathrin

Sep23

Zucchini Corn Muffins With Cheese

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Kathrin

Zucchini Corn Muffins With Cheese

Hello everyone!

Today I have something for you, that I have never made or even tried before then:

CORN MUFFINS!

I saw corn muffins or bread on different blogs and it always looked so yummy with it’s light brown top and golden color! I know that they are/it is often eaten with chillis or other warm comfort dishes, so I needed to try!

With what do YOU like to eat your corn muffins or corn bread?

These ones of course have a special little twist. They have shredded zucchini in them, which makes them a little healthier!

Since my mum forgot to pick a zucchini in our little backyard it grew quite big – like REALLY big. I haven’t seen one this big before!! It was like a baseball bat, but about three times as thick!!

I didn’t have my camera on hand (big mistake 😉 ) so I don’t have a picture, but please just believe me when I tell you – this thing was enormous!!

I googled and searched all my sources to find recipes to use up my zucchini monster. And this is one of the recipes that has made it to the final list! (which means, there will be more! *wink* 😉 )

I adapted this recipe from Two Peas and their Pod and I am quite pleased how they turned out!

I hope you give them a chance! Have fun baking!!

Zucchini Corn Muffins With Cheese

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

40 mins

A yummy side for any chilli! Or simply perfect as a snack.

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Cuisine: American

Serves: 12

Ingredients

1 cup buttermilk
45g (3 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled
3 tbsp canola oil
2 large eggs
150g (1 cup) flour
120g (1 cup) corn flour
4 tbsp sugar
2½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup shredded zucchini, liquid squeezed out
½ cup corn kernels (frozen or canned)
1 cup shredded Cheese (I used Gouda)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 300°C (400°F). Line the 12 molds of a muffin pan with paper cups.
In a bowl mix eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, and rapeseed oil until well blended. Add flour, corn flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix well but start slow.
Fold in zucchini, corn and cheese and divide the batter evenly between the 12 molds.
Bake for 15-20 minutes in the oven until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes then remove them from the pan and serve.

See you soon,

xoxo ~Kathrin

Aug31

Cherry Bakewells

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Kathrin

Cherry Bakewells

Hello everyone!!

How was your summer so far? At least in Germany it doesn’t feel like summer at all – it is quite cold and rainy at times. The few hot days we had are already weeks ago and I didn’t have any time then to go to an open air pool or do something else summery 😉

So please tell me you had a great summer and make me jealous!! 🙂

What I have for you today is my recipe for homemade Cherry Bakewells.

Sharing this recipe with you feels like letting you in on a very big secret!!

I still can remember when I had my first Cherry Bakewell ever – it was during my Au Pair stay in Ireland. The family I stayed with had them at home one day, in their box, looking very pretty with the thick white icing and the shiny little glace cherry on top. I have never seen anything like those little tarts in German stores, I guess nobody really had enough patience to produce such little pastries in masses for a store to sell! 🙂

So I went ahead and tried one – rich and sweet softness, a buttery pastry outside with a moist filling with berry flavors and just a hint of almond! I fell in love right there and then!!

And now, every time I go back to Ireland (which is quite often as you may have read here, here or here) I just HAVE to buy at least one box of Cherry Bakewells to eat right there or take home with me. They are the perfect little treat and spend sweet comfort and utter satisfaction. The only problem is, or at least was, that I couldn’t find them anywhere in Germany and the ones I took home from Ireland where gone all too quickly!

I dreamed about making them at home for soo long and finally having them recreated I can say it was a lot easier than I thought!! Of course, it takes some time, and shaping the pastry cups needs some practice but by the end the result – holding my own homemade Cherry Bakewells in my hands and knowing that I can now have them any time I want – was totally worth it!!

And as an added bonus: They freeze perfectly!! I just popped them in a reclosable freezer bag and whenever I felt the urge of a little comfort in sweetness I just took one or two out and let them come back to room temperature. This only took about 2 hours and they tasted just perfect!

Cherry Bakewells

Prep time

45 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

Perfect little homemade Cherry Bakewells that taste even better than the store bought ones!

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Recipe type: sweet pastry, little cakes

Cuisine: English/Irish

Serves: 12

Ingredients

Pastry:

225g (3x ⅔ cups) flour
150g (2/3 cup) butter, softened
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 egg yolk
cold water as needed

Filling:

12 Teaspoons strawberry jam (I used homemade strawberry & elderflower jam)
50g (1/4 cup) butter, softened
50g (1/4 cup) sugar
1 egg
50g (3/8 cup) ground almonds
50g (3/8 cup) flour
¼ Teaspoon of baking powder
a few drops of almond flavour or essence (we have Bittermandel-Öl in Germany)

Icing:

175g (1½ cups) icing sugar
1-2 Tablespoons of water
12 glace cherries

Instructions

Pastry:

Rub butter into flour and sugar until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolk and cold water one teaspoon at the time until dough comes together.
Wrap in cling film and store in fridge for at least 30 min.
Meanwhile prepare your muffin tin by greasing all molds with butter or margarine.
Take dough out of the fridge and devide into 12 portions. Line the muffin molds with pastry dough by rolling every portion into a circle big enough to fill it or devide each portion into 2, shaping one into a snake that covers the sides of the muffin mold and one into a ball and press it down to form the bottom. Shape the dough with your fingers into pastry cups.

Filling:

Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Spoon 1 teaspoon of strawberry jam (or any other kind you like) into each pastry cup.
Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and mix until well incorporated.
Put flour, baking powder, ground almonds and almond flavour into the bowl and stir well.
Devide the mixture between the 12 pastry cups and make sure that the jam is completely covered.
Bake your Cherry Bakewells for 20 minutes until golden.
After taking them out of the oven press the filling mixture softly back down again with the back side of a spoon to form a little mold for the icing. Let the bakewells cool down before taking them out of the muffin tin.

Icing:

Mix icing sugar with the water (don't put it all in at once, just add little by little until you have a thick white glace) and spoon on top of the bakewells. Top each tart with a glace cherry as long as the icing is still wet.
Let the Cherry Bakewells completely cool down and enjoy!

Notes

They freeze very well - just take them out of the freezer and let them come back to room temperature!

Cherry Bakewell Tarts by ginger, lemon and spice

What are you waiting for? Get Baking!! 🙂

Love,

~ Kathrin

Mar17

Around The World: Ireland – Barmbrack

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Kathrin

Around The World: Ireland – Barmbrack

Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhaoibh!

Happy Paddy’s day to all of you!!

This is actually the last recipe of Irelands feature in the Around the World, Week by Week series!

I hope you enjoyed the week, learned something new and continue to challenge your tastebuds by trying out something unknown and from a different food culture!!

I do have some pictures here from some of my previous trips to Ireland, so sit back and enjoy the little slideshow. Maybe I made you wanna go and visit this beautiful country now yourselves? 🙂

By the way, all the pictures are non-photoshopped, just like it was when I took them! You’ll never know in Ireland, the weather changes a lot over there 😉

As always, leave me your comments below, I need some interaction with you guys!!! 😀

Tell me what you think about the series, the recipes; have you made your own experiences with food, culture or people?

The Irish Barmbrack bread is usually baked and eaten around Halloween time. It is full of Irish tea soaked dried fruit and spices and just tastes heavenly!!

I really couldn’t wait to have my first slice until I finished shooting, the smell was incredible and that I didn’t had breakfast yet really didn’t help either 😉

Traditionally they are several symbolic things baked into a loaf of Barmbrack:

– a coin, which meant you would enjoy good fortune or be rich
– a pea which meant the person would not marry that year
– a small piece of cloth to forecast poverty
– a stick, the person would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes
– a ring, to foretell marriage within a year

Also it was important that only the baker was allowed to slice the bread and divide it amongst the people!!

As the Barmbrack has no butter in the bread itself it is served slatherd with some good Irish butter.

Irish Barmbrack

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Recipe type: Sweet Bread, Cake

Cuisine: Irish

Serves: many

Ingredients

prepare fruit (best the night before)

400g dried fruit (I used raisins, dried pineapple, cranberries and mixed peel)
300ml hot Irish black tea
50ml Jameson Whiskey

dough

250g flour
125g brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp clove
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 egg
1 heaped tsp dried orange zest

Instructions

Chop the dried fruit if necessary so that everything is the size of the raisins. Put in bowl, cover with tea and whiskey and let soak overnight. If it's too late for that, let it at least soak for an hour!
Put the fruit into a sieve but save the tea/whiskey liquid.
Prepare a loaf tin: coat with butter and line with a stripe of baking paper for easy lifting. Preheat oven to 170°C (325° F).
For the dough put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix a bit with a wooden spoon. Add the egg and the retained liquid from soaking the fruit. Mix until combined. The dough should be quite wet!
Now add the fruit and fold in. Be careful to not break it up too much.
Put the dough into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
The Barmbrack is ready when an inserted wooden skewer comes out clean (no unbaked dough)!
Let cool completely then slice up generously (a bread slicing machine worked perfect) put some butter on top and ENJOY!!

Notes

The Barmbrack even tastes better the next day!

Here are the other recipes I shared during this series:

Breakfast – Irish Scones with Raisins

Fast Food – Egg Salad Sandwich & Crisps

Drink – Jameson Whiskey with Ginger Ale

Soup – Seafood Chowder

Main Dish – Irish Stew with Guinness

Dessert – Fruit Crumble

Bain Sult As! Slán!

~ Kathrin

Mar15

Around The World: Ireland – Fruit Crumble

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Kathrin

Around The World: Ireland – Fruit Crumble

Hello everyone!

Today I have a dessert for you, a delicious fruit crumble with oats in the crumble mixture which makes it extra delicious and crispy!

Fruit crumble is something my Irish guest mother made for us on a sunday dinner, served with big slices of ice cream shaped like a cake. It was sooo delicious!! I remember that day, it was sunny and the whole family was sitting around a big table. Great memories!

I have already shared a lot of great pictures from my last trip to Ireland so I strongly recommend you pop over there and look at those pictures! I hope I can show you some more pictures of previous trips tomorrow, I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

But for now it’s FRUIT CRUMBLE TIME! 😀

Don’t forget: If you have any questions about Ireland, or if you have made your own experiences with Irish food, the people, the culture or the country please leave a comment!! I would love to hear about it!

Fruit Crumble

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

55 mins

A simple dessert that everyone likes! Very easy to prepare, but takes some time to cook. Just put in the oven when you serve your main dish and you will have a hot, fresh end delicious fruit crumble as dessert!

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Irish

Serves: 3

Ingredients

750g fresh fruit (I used pears, plums and strawberries)
1 tbsp sugar
50g flour
50g oats
30g sugar
50g butter, softened
optional: ice cream and/or whipped cream to serve

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180° C.
Wash and chop the fruit into big chunks. Strawberries and plums can stay bigger, pear needs to be a little smaller, because it takes longer to cook.
Put the fruit into a casserole dish and mix with 1 tablespoon of sugar (or more, if your fruit is not sweet enough)
Pepare the crumble mixture: Put flour, oats, butter and sugar into a bowl and mix with a fork or with your fingers until combined. Sprinkle on top of the fruit. I like the crumbles to be in bigger chunks, so I press them together with my fingers and then put them on top.
Bake the fruit crumble for about 45 minutes. If the crumbles get too dark, cover with aluminium foil.
Serve with generous dollops of ice cream and whipped cream and dig in!

Notes

Some freshly cut mint tastes great on this too! Or try to put a little cinnamon or vanilla into the crumble mix for a different taste.

Here are the other recipes I shared during this series:

Breakfast – Irish Scones with Raisins

Fast Food – Egg Salad Sandwich & Crisps

Drink – Jameson Whiskey with Ginger Ale

Soup – Seafood Chowder

Main Dish – Irish Stew with Guinness

Pastry – Barmbrack Sweet Bread

~ Kathrin

Mar14

Around The World: Ireland – Irish Stew with Guinness

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Kathrin

Around The World: Ireland – Irish Stew with Guinness

Hello everyone!

Today was quite a busy day for me, so I won’t talk much but give you this scrumptious recipe for Irish Stew!!

Irish Stew is a very traditional dish and is usually made with Lamb Meat. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any this time which was very strange but what should I do – I just used Beef instead which works perfectly, too! You might have to cook it a bit longer, and the taste is a bit different, but well 😉

Also during my research I stumbled upon many many recipes for Irish Stew, all a bit different – some with leeks or cabbage – but I stuck to the primary ingredients in my version here. At least regarding the vegetables because I gave it my own twist during the seasoning part!

Please give this dish a try and tell me, if you liked it!! 🙂

Don’t forget: If you have any questions about Ireland, or if you have made your own experiences with Irish food, the people, the culture or the country please leave a comment!! I would love to hear about it!

Irish Stew with Guinness

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

2 hours

Total time

2 hours 10 mins

A very hearty, flavorful and comforting dish that takes some time to cook, but it is so worth it!

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Recipe type: Meat Dish

Cuisine: Irish

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

500g lamb shoulder (beef works too)
1 Tbsp flour
2 Tsp freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp vegetable oil (rapeseed)
2 onions, chopped
3 bay leaves
small handful of fresh thyme, cut finely
1 can of Guinness
400ml lamb stock
salt, pepper, garlic powder (about 1 tsp)
750g potatoes
4 carrots
brown sugar (about 2 Tbsp)
optional: lemon juice
small handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

First prepare the meat. Cut of all the white stuff you don't want to eat (sinews, fat or what ever) then cut the meat into chunks about the size of 2cm per side. Toss the meat into a freezer bag and add the flour and pepper. Blow a bit of air into the bag carefully and close it tight and shake it till all the meat is covered in flour.
Take a large pot and put it on the stove on high heat. Once it's hot add the oil and the meat. When the meat starts to brown on one side turn the meat around and add the onions on top. Fry until you have a nice brown color, even on the bottom of the pot.
Now add the thyme and bay leaves and fry for a minute then add the beer and the stock and stir with a wooden spoon to loosen the colored parts from the bottom. Cover with a lid.
Once the liquid is hot and boiling turn down the heat to low and let it simmer for 1,5 hours. Meanwhile peel and chop potatoes and carrots roughly. At this stage I was testing the meat, if it was softening up nicely.
Then add salt to season. I needed at least 3 teaspoons of salt and added more pepper and some garlic. Add the potatoes and carrots to the pot and cook for another 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are softened up.
Now it is the time for the last tasting: I added the juice of a small lemon and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Season to your own taste!
The last step is to stir in the parsley and you're done!
Serve generous spoonfuls in bowls and simply lean back and ENJOY! You did it!!

Notes

I made this dish in a pot on the stove, because I don't own a casserolle pan. It was no problem at all, it was fantastic! So you can do it in a casserolle if you want, or like me on the stove.

Around The World, Week by Week: Ireland - IRISH STEW by gingerlemonandspice

Here are the other recipes I shared during this series:

Breakfast – Irish Scones with Raisins

Fast Food – Egg Salad Sandwich & Crisps

Drink – Jameson Whiskey with Ginger Ale

Soup – Seafood Chowder

Dessert – Fruit Crumble

Pastry – Barmbrack Sweet Bread

~ Kathrin

Mar13

Around the World: Ireland – Seafood Chowder

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Kathrin

Around the World: Ireland – Seafood Chowder

Dia dhuit everyone!

This is Irish for hello 🙂

In Ireland they have their own language, Gaelic or Irish. It is a very funny sounding language and difficult to pronounce if you just see the written form! Every child in Ireland has to learn Irish at school and it is still very important there! By law every sign and plaque has to be translated and names of companies such as the ‘Bus Éireann’ (national autobus company) or An Garda Siochana (which is the police) are in Irish, too. It even is very important in the law business and if there is doubt the Irish version of the law is always the legal one. The government does a lot to preserve the language and even sponsors TV programs that send only in Irish.

As you all know already Ireland is an island, which means fishing and eating seafood is quite popular in this country. I remember once buying and transporting a whole half side of a salmon back home to Germany, because my dad wanted to have it! Unfortunatly I had to buy it in the last city I was in (which was Killarney, I did a little backpacking tour on this trip) and the supermarket I wanted to go to because I thought it was big enough was like 2 or 3 miles outside of the city. So what did I do? Of course I walked there because I made a promise, and back walking I went with the half side of a salmon so big, that it didn’t fit into my bag. I still think the passing drivers were laughing at me 😉

In Germany eating salmon is something special. If you are at a buffett and they serve smoked salmon it’s always the first thing that’s gone! People love it, but it definitly is not an everyday food here. But when I told anybody Irish about my plan to buy some salmon to take home (I had to ask for directions!) they were all quite amused 😉 Sure they eat salmon as well, but it does not have the same status as in Germany! Quite a funny thing to notice 🙂

For today I have a Seafood dish for you, that I range in the category of soup – a very chunky one, but still 😉 Since I couldn’t really find traditional Irish salads I thought soup was a good alternitive!

This Seafood chowder has fresh salmon and haddock and smoked mackerel (which I would maybe substitute for a less fatty smoked fish when I do this again) and I even had big prawns in there. But you can use any fresh (white) fish or add mussels if you like them (I would have, but they were only sold in 2kg packs – waaay too much for me).

It is a very delicious dish! I wasn’t sure if the flavors would work together, especially what the smoked fish does in this chowder, but it really was perfect! Traditionally it is served with a big slice of brown soda bread, but I had it with a selfmade rough sourdough bread. Scrumptious!!!

Irish Seafood Chowder

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

40 mins

A tasty chowder packed with different kinds of fish and seafood! It doesn't take too long to prepare but it is very rewarding in flavor!

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Recipe type: Soup

Cuisine: Irish

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter
1 onion
50g Speck (german bacon, or pancetta)
1 tbsp fresh thyme, cut finely
2 bay leaves
400g potatoes
500ml fish stock
salt, ground black pepper
150g white fish (haddock)
200g salmon
100g smoked fish (I had mackerel, but a less fatty fish would be better)
2-4 fresh big prawns without head but in shell
175ml cream
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
if you want: smoked salmon to garnish

Instructions

Cut the onion and speck into small cubes and set aside. Peal and chopp the potatoes.
Take a large pot and melt the butter in it over medium-high heat. Add the onions and the speck and fry until softened. Put in thyme, bay leaves and potatoes and fry a little longer. Add the fish stock and season generously with salt and black pepper.
Let it simmer for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are nearly done while you prepare the fish. Skin and debone your fish and cut the flesh into 2cm pieces. Don't make them too small, especially the white fish because they will break up a bit in the chowder anyways.
Add the white fish, salmon, smoked fish and prawns into the pot and cook gently for another 5 minutes.
Take the pot from the stove and stir in cream and parsley. Be very gentle to not break up the fish too much!
Serve the Seafood Chowder in bowls and garnish with smoked salmon cut into stripes or rolled up as roses!