Hauptgang

After 25 years in Germany my eating habits have changed somewhat. Here the Frankfurter, which belongs to the group of scalded sausages (Brühwurst), accompanied by Swabian pasta (Spätzle), an irregularly formed pasta with loads of eggs, and braised lentils with vegetables (Linsengemüse). Hearty and delicious. Just the job for fueling up before climbing a mountain …

It’s amazing what a bit of deco can do to turn a dish from one which looks quite good to one which looks extraordinary. A bit of leek straw can do the trick. Take a leek and after washing thoroughly, cut it into 8 cm long thin strips. Blanche shortly in boiling salted water and …

There’s chicken and there’s Burnt the Chef’s chicken. Take some drumsticks and marinade in bbq sauce with a spoonful of soy sauce and grated lemon zest for around 6 hours. Then comes the layering bit. On a foil-lined baking sheet (makes washing up easier), slice peeled potatioes, red peppers, red onions and lots of garlic. …

The kitchen has turned into a pasta production centre. This was only a small part of the whole (160 tortelli in total). First off, make an egg-rich dough (250g flour „00“ grade, 250g semolina, 4 egg yolks, 3 eggs, 1 cl olive oil and 5g salt makes enough pasta dough for six hungry people). Tortelli …

Austrian cuisine is hearty. It’s mountain food: the sort of calorie intake that is allowed because you have just had a massive calorie outpouring climbing up and down the mountain. This is the savoury version – potato dumplings which, when cut open, reveal pork scratchings in a rich sauce, topped with crisp fried onions. Add …

The original spaghetti carbonara: take good quality spaghetti, trenette or linguine (ideally „al bronzo“ ie with a roughed-up surface so that the sauce sticks better), use guanciale (cured and air-dried pig’s cheek, not smoked) and not bacon, please, as well as eggs with additional egg yolks rather than cream, Pecorino cheese (ideally from Sardinia), parsley, …

Store cupboard supper: you know it only too well – that kohlrabi lingering in the veg drawer of the fridge shouting „cook me“ – and the bulk buy of smoked salmon from a couple of months ago taking up too much space in the freezer. This calls for a flight of fantasty from Burnt the …

Actually, we can’t remember what the celebration was all about. But we do remember what the food (and of course the wine) was: saffron risotto with Dublin prawns. Bernd loves a risotto. He learnt how to make this archetypal Italian dish in Milan with Gualtieri Marchesi, the first three Michelin star chef in Italy. And …

Don’t you just love a bit of alliteration. To be more precise: this was salmon teriyaki (with miso, lemon zest, honey and jalapenos) with pan-fried green asparagus and shiitake mushrooms seasoned with coriander and mint. The herbal green notes in the dish harmonised beautifully with the capsicum and tomato leaf, clean-as-a-whisktle character of this 2020 …