Kotletki

For this dish, we use the Russian name, although in reality these are just (European-style) hamburgers. The difference to American hamburgers is that in addition to meat, there are eggs, bread crumbs, and, if desired (and the children definitely don't desire) finely chopped onions.

1 package of ground chicken (preferably, for me; of course any other meat can be used)

a little salt

2 eggs

bread crumbs

1 finely (hey, or not so finely, as I prefer; or omit, if cooking for children) chopped onion

mix everything together, and add as much bread crumbs to give it a dough like texture. Make little patties using a soup spoon. The patties should be pretty thick (about 2.5cm (1") and about twice that in diameter).

Pour bread crumbs on a pile in the center of a plate and roll the patties in it. This will make a nice crust.

Fry in hot olive oil for about 6 minutes on each side, turning often.

Not unexpectedly, children like it with a lot of ketchup... great sides are rice and broccoli.

Butterzopf

Another recipe provided by my sister... the famous Butterzopf. A cornerstone of the Sunday morning breakfast, this specialty bread is as tasty as it looks. Recently I had the opportunity to go through the recipe. So here it is.

Butterzopf dough:

4 cups (1kg) flour

3 dl milk

60g butter

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

fresh yeast 20g (actually I used 1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast)

1 egg

combine into dough

let rise

make two dough 'sausages' to create the zopf. The actual "zopfing" process is quite difficult to explain. A video of the process is available here .

Paint the Zopf with egg yolk. OK, that was a bit too much. (A confectionary brush would help!)

Put in the cold oven 220C (425F) 30-40 min

The result: quite appealing. Very rustic looking, certainly not the most beautiful Zopf ever, but extremely tasty!

Children's favorites

What are favorite children's foods?

I have found that the following are favorites:

1) Pasta

2) Corn on the cob

3) Melted cheese sandwich

4) (surprise!) Artichokes (fun to eat!)

More puff pastry recipes

Speaking of puff pastry sheets - this has inspired my sister to send a couple of recipes, one of which I have been cooking for a long time, but the other was new to me. The message is that with puff pastry, you can also make magnificent piroshki-like items, filled with things such as broccoli or feta cheese. Personally, I have cooked the variety with mushrooms since the dawn of time.

Broccoli-piroshki

cook broccolis, crush with a fork, mix with ricotta cheese, and eggs.

take the puff pastry sheets and make holes with a fork. Then pile the mixture on one half of the sheet and cover with the other half. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 200C (400F).

The filling can also be made with mushrooms (grill onions, then add mushrooms, add ricotta), or with feta cheese (ca 200g feta cheese, 2 eggs, mix well).

Unfortunately, these items have so far proven unpopular with the children!

Müesli

A great way to start the day is müesli, or Birchermüesli, as it is sometimes referred to, after it's proponent, the Swiss physician Bircher-Benner, who concocted it for the patients in his hospital. It is our traditional Sunday morning dish. Of course, you can buy a müesli mix, but you will end up eating a lot of sugar, as these mixes are way over-sweetened.

Having experimented with müesli for years, I finally found the perfect recipe, and interestingly, unbeknownst to myself, it is very similar to Dr. Bircher's own original recipe, which is similarly simple.

Of note is also that the word "Müesli" is one of the very few Swiss German words that have gone international... (another unlikely word from Swiss German origin is "Putsch" (as in overthrow of a government)).

Mix:

2-3 cups of oats (Quaker Oats work just fine)

1-2 small vanilla yoghurts

coarsely grate an apple into the mix

add a handful of dried and chopped dates

add organic milk to get the müesli consistency

Of course you can expand this basic recipe with whatever your heart desires: cut strawberries, banana pieces, dried raisins, cherries, whatever. However, I have to say that I really like the plain variety a lot.

Apple tarts

One of the simplest things to make is apple tarts, using pre-made puff pastry dough. Puff pastry dough is exceptionally difficult to make on your own, so you don't need any excuses to buy one. I use Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets. (I'm sure we'll meet the puff pastry cups in a later post!)

Thaw the puff pastry sheets and cut them in stripes of about 7.5cm (3in). Slice up an apple and arrange the slices on the dough. (Of course you can also use pears, peaches, or apricots...)

Bake for 15-20minutes at 400F (200C).

Often, the baked apple tarts are covered with confectionary sugar, but this is not really necessary.

I would like to know how to put some almond paste between the dough and the apple slices...

Quiche

Experimenting with quiche here.

Crumbly dough:

1 1/4 cups of flour

salt

4ounces of butter (about 100g) - actually, after tasting it, I think half of that would also be enough!

6 teaspoons of water

mix dry ingredients, add butter (soft), add water, put together the dough. Let stand for 20 minutes in a cool place.

Flatten dough and put in the greased form (use olive oil).

Use a cup of milk (this replaces cream - fewer calories!), 4 ounces of grated parmesan or cheese of taste, pepper, cut ham, fried mushrooms, fried onions, or what else you can think of, 4 eggs, mix everything well. Pour into the dough in the form.

Bake for 45min at 400F or until nicely golden and crusty.

This is great with a salad. Needs yet to get children-tested!