Carinthian Kasnudeln handmade

Hi folks, hallo zusammen,

last week I made "Kärnter Kasnudeln" myself for the very first time! I was really proud, also because they turned out really fine. :) For those of you who don't know these delicious filled steamed buns: "Kärnter Kasnudeln" are an Austrian specialty, from Carinthia to be exact. They are filled with a potatoe-curd-herbs-mixture. I love those filled noodles, but in the past I've always bought the ready-made-version from the supermarket. To make them oneself is actually a bit elaborate, but the result is definitely worth the effort.

letzte Woche habe ich zum ersten Mal Kärntner Kasnudeln selbst gemacht! Mann da war ich stolz auf mich, vor allem weil sie auch wirklich ziemlich gut geworden sind. :) Für alle, die diese leckeren gefüllten Teigtaschen nicht kennen: Kärntner Kasnudeln sind eine österreichische Spezialität und zwar aus (logisch) Kärnten, dem südlichsten Bundesland. Gefüllt werden mit einer Topfen-Kartoffel-Kräuter Mischung. Ich mag die total gern, wobei ich bisher immer faul die Fertigvariante aus dem Supermarkt besorgt habe. Sie selbst zu machen ist dann in der Tat auch etwas aufwendig, aber dieser Aufwand lohnt sich definitiv! 

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

Hello everybody,

today I want to share a vegetarian recipe for stuffed peppers. Personally I think that the cold autumn weather virtually screams for more colour on the plate, which is why I went for red and orange bell peppers.

Veggie Love Story: Tomato Avocado Salad

Hello you lovely people,

I apologize for making myself so scare for the last few days, but it's been season opening week at the theatre and my last work week there in general (I decided to go back to university! :) ). Therefore everything has been a little bit stressful...
In compensation I am going to share a really good, quick and easy recipe for a tomato-avocado salad. I served it last week at my birthday brunch and it was eaten up almost immediately. I figure that's a good sign. ;)

Chocolate Peach Crumble Cake

Hello you darling people,

today I wanna share another recipe for a delicious cake: a late summer chocolate peach crumble cake. Yummy!

Happy Birthday Tulip and Lily (plus Giveaway!)

Hello everybody,

I almost can't believe it but today it's this little blog's first birthday! :)
What started out as a little "I wanna try that"-sort of thing in the meantime became one of my most favourite pastimes and most important outlet for little creative projects and culinary experiments. Katja aka Lily found out, that instead of writing, she prefers to work behind the camera and now makes most of the outfit pictures in which I try to pose... ;)

GIVEAWAY!! To celebrate the day we need cake of course, which is why I'm going to share a recipe for heavenly chocolate-espresso-muffins today! In addition - because what would be a birthday without presents - I decided to put together three little, birthday-themed surprise packages for you, lovely readers, each including three recipes and ideas for a colour-themed birthday dinner and a little DIY. If you want to win, just leave a comment under this post until October 3rd (open for EU-citizens only. Sorry everybody else!). Winners will then be announced October 4th. :) 

But first things first - let's start with the muffins!

What you'll need

• 1 egg
• 90g sugar
• 125g butter
• 150ml butter milk
• 130ml espresso (cold)
• 100g dark chocolate (chopped)
• 240g spelt flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 package chocolate blancmange powder
• 100g dark chocolate with pistachios 

How it works

Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare some muffin paper liners.

In a bowl cream together the egg and the sugar. Stir in the butter, the buttermilk and the espresso, then add the chopped chocolate. In another bowl whisk together the spelt flour, the baking powder and the chocolate blancmange powder. Then slowly incorporate the dry mixture into the creamy mixture.

Fill the paper liners, each 2/3 full with batter and bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

For the final touch melt the dark pistachios chocolate over a pot with boiling water and coat the muffins' top sides with it.

Blow the candle and enjoy! 

Have a great day!

Yours,
Steffi

All images by Steffi Reichl

Hello Mushroom Season: King Oyster Mushrooms with Polenta Sticks

Hi folks,

I love this time of the year - I love the mushroom season. Besides chanterelles my absolute favourites are king oyster mushrooms. Some days ago I bought some for dinner and David and I made the most delicious and really simple mushroom dish with polenta sticks and green salad. Here comes the recipe. :)

What you'll need (for 2 persons)

• 250g polenta
• 1 l vegetable stock
• salt
• nutmeg
• pepper
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 20 g butter
• olive oil
• 200g king oyster mushrooms
• 3 garlic gloves
• 2 spring onions
• (tamari) soy sauce 
• green salad
• salad dressing of your choice

How it works

We start out with the polenta. Pour the vegetable stock into a pot, add the salt, some grated nutmeg, pepper and the butter and bring everything to boil. Stir in the polenta with an eggbeater and cook it up. Then add the Parmesan, turn down the heat, and let the polenta expand for about 10 minutes. Stir regularly to prevent the polenta from scorching.

Put the polenta into a rectangular pan (we used our baking dish) and let it cool down completely. This will take about an hour. Now you can go and watch an episode of your favourite TV show or something or bake a cake like I did (more on this soon)... ;)

Cut the mushrooms and the garlic gloves into thin slices and chop the spring onions. Heat up some olive oil in a pan and gently roast the mushrooms for a few minutes. Add the garlic gloves and spring onions for two more minutes and deglaze everything with soy sauce. Salt and pepper to taste and put the pan aside.

Turn the baking dish upside down and cut the now cold and stiff polenta into sticks. Heat up some olive oil in a pan and roast the polenta sticks for a few minutes until they are warm and a little crispy on the outside.

Conclusively dress the green salad with a dressing of your choice (we made a simple dressing with cider vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil) and you are ready to serve.

Bon appétit!
Tulip

All images by Steffi Reichl

Delicious and Healthy: Minestrone

Hi there,

my mother's vegetable garden is exploding right now. Green beans, tomatoes, celery... everythings ready to be harvested. Good for me, as I'm therefore currently getting the best organically grown vegetables directly from the garden. I decided to use them to make a really tasty and substantial vegetable soup: Italian minestrone. 

What you'll need (for 4 persons)

• 3 garlic gloves
• 2 spring onions
• 1/2 handful celery leaves
• 2 big carrots
• 2 potatoes
• 1 handful green beans
• 1/2 zucchini
• 60g butter
• olive oil
• 1 1/2 l vegetable stock
• 100g tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 handful fresh basil 
• grated parmesan
• salt and pepper
• 85g spaghetti (broken into small pieces)

How it works

Chop the garlic, spring onions, celery leaves, carrotts, potatoes, green beans and zucchinis. Heat the butter and the olive oil in a big pot and brown the garlic and the onions for two minutes. Add the celery leaves, the carrots and potatoes and continue roasting for another two minutes. Add the green beans and the zucchini and...what do you think?... brown for two minutes.

Cover the pot and cook the vegetables stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Then add the vegetable stock, the tomatoes, the tomato paste and the basil and add salt and peeper to taste.

Cook the soup on a low heat for about an hour. Then add the spaghetti pieces and cook for another 10 minutes.
Put the soup into bowls, sprinkle grated parmesan over it and enjoy! :)

Have a great weekend!

Yours,
Tulip

All images by Stefanie Reichl

Fast and Tasty Egg Spread

Hi folks,

today David and I went to Vienna's third bike picnic at Galopprennbahn Freudenau, an old race track in Vienna. It's a lovely event where one dresses in retro British outfits (for the tweed ride), relaxes on picnic blankets and meanwhile listens to Charleston and Lindy Hop. :)
However, as the name already suggests it's a picnic. Therefore I decided to make a portion of tasty egg spread with curry to take with us on the race track. Here comes the recipe:

What you'll need (for 2 hungry persons)

• 4 eggs
• 2 spring onions
• 2 tablespoons curd
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 teaspoon curry powder.
• salt

How it works

Boil the eggs for about 10 minutes.

Peel the eggs. Cut them and the spring onions into small pieces. 

Put the eggs in a bowl, add the curd, the sour cream and the curry powder and mix well. Then add the spring onions.

Put the egg spread on a slice of bread and enjoy! :)

Have a great evening!

Yours,
Tulip

All images by Stefanie Reichl/David Auer

Super-tasty Corn Fritters with Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

Hey you guys,

I hope you all had a beautiful week and an even better weekend so far! :)
I just made the best corn fritters with oven-roasted tomatoes and of course I want to share the recipe with you. I made these fritters for the first time myself and they are really easy to make, you won't need longer than half and hour to prepare them and they simply taste wonderfully. :)

What you'll need 

• (small) tomatoes on the vine 
• 450g canned corn
• 2 spring onions
• 3 eggs
• 100g flour
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 handful of fresh basil
• salt
• pepper
• vegetable oil
• salad
• lemon
• blueberries
• vinegar

How it works

We start with the oven-roasted tomatoes:
Put the tomatoes into a baking dish. Cut the garlic and the basil in small pieces and give them to the tomatoes. Add salt, pepper and olive oil and roast the tomatoes for about 15 minutes at 180°C in the oven.

For the fritters drain the corn well and put it aside. Whisk the flour and the eggs, then add the corn and the cut spring onions and flavour the mixture with salt and pepper.

Heat up some oil in a pan and fry the fritters (1 tablespoon of the corn mixture per fritter) for 2-3 minutes on both sides until they are golden brown.

As a side dish I decided to make a nice salad with corn salad and blueberries. I simply mixed the salad with the berries and added some salt, pepper, lemon juice, vinegar and oil. Yummy! :)

Enjoy!!

Have a great day!

Yours,
Tulip

PS: If you want to add some protein to the dish I would recommend either chicken or if you want to stay vegetarian fried smoked tofu.

All images by Stefanie Reichl

Baked Elderflowers with Maple Syrup

Hello everybody,

sorry for the long break, but we had a crazy week at work with this year's season finale (and season finale party ;)...
Today I want to share one of my favourite (sweet) summer recipes with you: baked elderflowers with maple syrup. At this time of the year you can find elderflowers almost everywhere in Austria. I got mine from Steinhofgründe as Katja was so nice pick a bag full for me at one of her evening runs.

What you'll need (for 4 persons)

• (about 10-12) elderflowers (try to mix bigger and smaller ones)
• 300ml soy milk (or normal milk)
• 150g spelt flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup for the dough
• vegetable oil (I used canola oil but any kind of vegetable oil will do)
• maple syrup

How it works

Put the elderflowers heads down into a bowl of water for a few minutes and carefully wash the stems. For the dough mix the soy milk, the spelt flour, the baking powder and the maply syrup with an eggbeater. Stir well!

Heat up the oil in a pan. Pull the elderflowers through the dough and put them into the hot pan. 
When the dough starts to get solid you can cut of the long green stems of the elderflowers. Flip the elderflowers and bake until both sides are golden brown.

Put the elderflowers on a plate and sweeten then with maply syrup. Done! :)

Have a great day!

Yours,
Tulip

All images by Stefanie Reichl

Vegan pancakes with veggies

Hey folks,

today I want to show you an easy & healthy lunch idea: vegan pancakes with vegetables.

Ingredients
Dough:

• 1 cup spelt flour
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Vegetables (you can take any veggies you prefer):

• 1/2 broccoli
• 1 tomato
• 4 mushrooms
• mediterranean herbs
• salt

In a large bowl, combine all dough ingredients and chop the vegetables.

Heat a large non-stick pan or skillet over medium high heat, and wait to start until pan is nice and hot. Drop the dough into individual pancakes, sized depending on how big you want yours to be! The dough will be thick, but it will spread and cook through as it heats. Once you see bubbles forming on the top surface, it’s time to flip!

In the meantime cook the vegetables in a seperate pan and add the herbs. Flip and cook the dough another minute or so until all of it is cooked through and both sides are evenly browned.

Et voilá! Enjoy your savoury veggie pancake :)

All images by Steffi Reichl

Pot-roasted apricots and peaches with basil mascarpone cream

Hey folks,

I hope all of you had a great Sunday so far! :)
If you're looking for an easy, warm and summerly dessert that tastes like heaven I might have the right recipe for you... ;) The basic idea is to pot-roast apricots, peaches and oranges and combine them with roasted coconut flakes, cashew nuts and a delicious marcarpone cream with fresh basil. Yes, you guessed right, this is no recipe for fans of calorie counting but in any case it's delicious!

What you'll need

• 8 apricots (fresh or canned)
• 4 peaches (fresh or canned)
• 30g fresh ginger
• 2 organic oranges (organic is important as we'll use the orange zest as well!)
• 1 organic lemon
• 20-30g maple syrup
• ca. 30g cashew nuts
• ca. 20g coconut flakes
• 2 handful of fresh basil leaves
• 250g mascarpone
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

How it works

For the basil mascarpone cream combine the basil leaves with the mascarpone and add one tablespoon of maple syrup. Blend everything with a hand-held blender.

Wash the peaches and the apricots, cut them into half and remove the stones. Peel the ginger and cut it into small pieces. Wash the orange and the lemon using hot water and peel them with a sharp knife. Cut the fruit into half and press out the juice.

Heat up the maple syrup in a pan and add the apricots, peaches and ginger. After a few minutes add the citrus fruit's zest and juice and boil slowly. Allow the juice to reduce, then turn around the fruit, add 50 ml water and continue boiling until the juice gets a syrup-like consistence.
Roast the coconut flakes in a dry pan for a few minutes. 

Serve the fruit together with the roasted coconut flakes and the basil mascarpone cream and enjoy! :)

Have a wonderful evening!

Yours,
Tulip

All images by Stefanie Reichl

Vegan Cauliflower Curry with Potato Crisps

Hello everybody,

yesterday a dear friend of mine, Romana (she also recommended these books for you some months ago), came to dinner. As we wanted to impress her a little bit David and I chose to cook a really good vegan cauliflower curry and a really nice dessert with oranges, peaches and apricots. The recipe for the curry is again out of "Von der Schale bis zum Kern" by Bernadette Wörndl - I know we keep coming back to this one but it's simply a wonderful cookbook! However, as I didn't have all the ingredients at home I had to change the recipe a little bit but it turned out really tasty nevertheless. Here comes my version... :)

What you'll need (for 4 persons)

• 1 cauliflower plus leaves
• 6-8 medium-sized potatoes
• 2 spring onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons curcuma
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 2 tablespoons curry
• vegetable oil 
• ca. 50 g cashew nuts
• ca. 2 cm fresh ginger
• 400ml vegetable stock
• 400ml coconut milk 
• salt 
• pepper and/or chili
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• curcuma of your choice

How it works

Cut the cauliflower in little florets and the leaves in small pieces. Peel the potatoes and quarter the potatoes. Don't throw away the peelings - you'll need them for the potato crisps! Cut the spring onions, the garlic and the ginger into small pieces and brown them together with the mustard seeds, the curcuma and the cashews  in vegetable oil for a few minutes.

Add the cauliflower, the potatoes and the curry and fill up with stock and coconut milk. Let the curry cook for about 20 to 25 minutes over a low heat. Add the cauliflower leaves and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper/chili to taste.
In the meantime put a sheet of baking paper into a baking dish and spread the potato peels over the paper. Add salt, pepper, curcuma, maple syrup and olive oil and mix everything well with your hands. Put the potatoes into the oven at 200°C and roast them for about 20 to 30 minutes until they are crisp.

Put the curry on a deep dish and spread the crips over it. Enjoy! :)

Have a nice day!

Yours,
Tulip

All images by Stefanie Reichl

Mango Chocolate Cake

Hi folks,

today I wanna share a recipe for a simple and tasty mango chocolate cake with you. Furthermore the cake is kind of healthy as it's almost completely free of refined sugar. Instead I used maple syrup and that worked just fine. :)

What you'll need

• 150g flour (I used spelt flour)
• 3/4 tablespoon baking powder
• ca. 40g maple syrup
• 1 package vanilla sugar  
• 15g cocoa powder
• 100g ripe mango
• 100ml buttermilk
• 2 egg whites
• coconut flakes

How it works

Preheat your oven to 170°C. Combine the flour, the baking powder, the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the cocoa.

Blend the mango using a hand-held blender. Mix the mango and the buttermilk with the dry ingredients and stir well.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold in the cake batter.

Put the batter into a buttered and floured cake tin and let the cake bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Leave the cake to cool for some minutes, than sprinkle coconut flakes over it. Cut the cake into pieces and enjoy!
For an extra kick of sweetness you can add some more maple syrup to the cake and whipped cream also goes perfectly with it.

Have fun baking!

Yours,
Tulip

All images by Stefanie Reichl