Light Lunch Along The Autobahn

On our way from Kärnten to Steiermark, we stopped by a restaurant along the autobahn (German for highway) for a quick grab at lunch.

It was a traditional Austrian restaurant and there were already quite a number of motorbikes parked outside when we arrived.

As we were rushing for time, I decided to go for soup and a simple salad.

Asparagus was in season, both the white and green version, and there was quite a long list of asparagus-themed dishes in the menu. I ordered the Spargel Cremesuppe (which simply translates to asparagus cream soup) to be accompanied by Gemischter Salat mit Putenstreifen (mixed salad with turkey strips).

Despite the simplicity of the dishes, it took the kitchen quite a while before I was served the soup. Nevertheless, the wait was worth while.

The soup was piping hot with melted cream and sprinkles of bread crumbs nicely soaking up the essence of the soup. Despite being a savoury dish, there was a slight tinge of sweetness in it which I'm guessing was due to the asparagus.
The salad had a generous serving of grilled turkey strips atop a plate of nicely laid out corn, carrot strips, cucumber slices, green salad, potato salad and beans dribbled in yoghurt dressing. The dish would have been perfect if not for the turkey strips which were a little on the salty end.
An hour or so later, I managed to waddle out of the restaurant, into the car - once again hitting the autobahn.

Semmelknödel with Schinken in RindSuppe

I was never a fan of knödel, of any kind, to begin with. So to be honest, I was not especially thrilled to be presented with 5 knödels on a fine Sunday afternoon. The knödels I received were essentially bread dumplings with bits of hams incorporated in it.

After having lazed around for most part of the Sunday, I decided to finish up these dumplings on the very same day, served in a beef-based soup for a light dinner - the traditional Austrian way.

The preparation was simple with the dethawing of the frozen dumplings, heating up of the soup and finally throwing the dumplings into the boiling soup. The soup was then garnished with some chopped chives before serving.

And guess what?!?! I liked it! I really, honestly enjoyed it!

Thumbs-up to Werner for a job well done! :)

Chicken Rice, Chicken and Cabbage Soup (鸡饭，白鸡，白菜汤)

Chicken rice aside, the chicken and cabbage soup are traditional dishes served up on the table by the Teochews during festive ocassions or when praying to the deities.

Chicken Rice, Chicken & Cabbage Soup

Ingredients:

a whole chicken

salt

button mushroom

cabbage (白菜)

ginger (sliced)

Method (Chicken):

(1) Buy the chicken a day before. Rub salt on both the inside and outside of the chicken. Wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it overnight.

(2) Dethaw the chicken. Pour boiling water over it before rinsing it with cold water.

(3) Cook another pot of hot salted water and just before it boils, add the chicken. Remember to flip the chicken while cooking.

(4) After about 20 minutes or when the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and chop it prior to serving. Garnish with parsley. Do not throw away the chicken stock in the pot as it will be used for cooking the rice and soup.

Method (Chicken Rice):

(1) To the washed rice, add the ginger slices, chicken stock (leftover stock after boiling the chicken) and salt.

(2) Then leave the rest to the reliable rice cooker.

Method (Cabbage Soup):

(1) To the remaining chicken stock, add button mushrooms and cabbage.

(2) Additional salt can be added for taste.

Verdict:

(+) Everything in this recipe goes right into the stomach...nothing goes to waste!

(+) The cabbage soup can even be used to cook noodles or the hot soup be simply poured onto cold rice!

(=) An easy recipe to hold on to the traditional Teochew culinary culture...

Potato Soup

After staring at a couple of old sagging potatoes with new shoots sprouting for like days, I finally decided to mash everything up in an attempt to turn them into soup - edible ones that is.

Potato Soup

Ingredients (serves 4):

50g butter

450g potatoes (peeled and diced)

2 onions (peeled and finely chopped)

435ml milk

435ml chicken stock (alternative would be vegetable stock)

moderate amount of salt

moderate amount of ground black pepper

Method:

(1) Heat butter in a saucepan and stir-fry potatoes and onions gently for about 5 minutes until onions are soft.

(2) Add milk and stock. Season with salt and pepper to taste and bring to the boil.

(3) Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender. Set aside to cool.

(4) Place cooled potato mixutre in a blender and puree. Return soup to rinsed-out pan and reheat.

Verdict:

(+) Fool-proof and easy method

(=) Easily tastes as good as those served in the restaurants without the use of creams

Weisskirchen - Food and Sights

Spent a relaxing weekend at the small town of Weisskirchen, Steiermark. It is summer now, sometimes at a scorching afternoon high of 35°C.

It is also the mushroom season and interestingly, I was informed that there is a local regulation stating that each person can only harvest a certain quantity of mushroom from the forest. With that, I decided to try my luck hunting for mushrooms in the nearby forest.

I'm lucky enough to spot some mushrooms but unfortunately, they were either poisonous or already half-eaten by insects.

Along the way, I also found some wild blue berries growing from the bushes but they were extremely sour to the taste. So much for having absolute zero patience and being a glutton.

Summer here is for a relatively short period of time compared to winter. So while it's here, everyone's taking the opportunity to enjoy the sun, buzzing insects and the bright colours that nature brings along with it - the white, white clouds, the blue, blue sky, the green, green trees, the red, red flowers and the brown, brown wheat harvest.

And of course, the Austrian cows which are a fantastically, photogenic bunch. :)

I also had the luxury of enjoying home-cooked Austrian food which were simply delectable!

Faschierte Laibchen mit Kartoffel puree

(Oven roasted meatloaf with mashed potato)

Fritattensuppe

(Pancake slices in beef broth - my all-time favourite)

Pistazien Kuchen

(Pistachio Cake)

Nuss Strudel

(Bread with nut fillings)

Happy 牛 Year (年初一)

It has always been the tradition in my family to observe strict vegetarian dietary rules before noon on the first day of Chinese New Year. Lunch would be served at around 11am and it would always be the same two vegetable dishes accompanied by Cheng Teng (sweet dessert soup).



In addition to the reunion dinner, we would all be looking forward to this special vegetarian lunch. As of today, we still do not know why our mother never recreates all three dishes on any of the 364 days of the year.

Any of the dishes when presented on any other day alone without the other two simply doesn't taste as nice. :)

Typical Weekend Dinner

Dinner on a weekday at home is considered relatively simple compared to the efforts put into preparing for dinner on weekends when more people are home.

Yesterday, this was what we had for dinner:

Tofu-tomato-button mushroom-minced meat soup

And I actually tried to recreate this soup some time ago. It really looks like a watered-down version compared to my mom's. :(

Stir fried Spinach and Mushroom in Oyster Sauce

One of my favourite! But I don't recall the taste of those juicy mushrooms. Hey!

Steamed Fish

I have no idea what fish this was. I only know one type of fish - Garoupa. But this does not mean I know how a Garoupa looks like. All dead fishes look the same to me.

Sweet and Sour Pork

Yummy! However, there's some fatty meat on the pork, so I'm torn between satisfying my taste bud and the potential threat of having a few grams added to the scale. So for every piece of pork, I had a piece of pineapple. Don't know why I did it...I just felt better somehow.

East Meets West

Mother is finally back home last Sunday! And today, I decided to show off my pizza making skills to her - afterall, it's the one proud dish I have successfully re-created during her absence.

However, I did not have the required 600g of bread flour as stated in the recipe so I made do with a smaller quantity and kneaded the dough based on my "ah-gah-ration" skills. This time round, the dough yielded two small pizzas which I managed to roll thinner compared to my previous attempt. For one pizza, I used chicken shreds to replace the hams slices while for the other pizza, I used roasted duck shreds.

Mother prefers the duck shred pizza while I prefer the ham slices. Dad is simply satisfied that the pizza is filling.

In addition, mother stir-fried a plate of vegetables and together with another bowl of white lettuce soup, we had a "East Meets West" theme dinner tonight!

Duck Shred Pizza

Chicken Shred Pizza

Fettuccini Ham Sauce & Fishball Tofu Soup dinner

Yesterday evening, I put my culinary "skills" to the test again. I made Fettuccini with Ham Sauce and Fishball Tofu soup for dinner.

FETTUCCINI WITH HAM SAUCE

Ingredients:

150g fettuccini

15g diced green pepper

15g diced onion

15g diced tomato

15g sliced mushroom

20g sliced ham

1 egg

20g olive oil

30g chilli sauce I left this out

30g tomato sauce

pinch of aromat seasoning powder I left this out

20ml chicken stock

(I did not follow the quantities stated in the recipe. It's all Ah-Gah-ration!)

Method:

(1) Mix the chilli sauce, tomato sauce, aromat seasoning powder and chicken stock. This will be the sauce for the fettuccini. Leave aside.

(2) Cook fettuccini and rinse with cold water.

(3) In a wok, heat up the olive oil.

(4) Add egg and fry slightly before adding all the other ingredients.

(5) Pour in the sauce and fry for a while.

(6) Add the fettuccini and stir fry for a while.

(7) Sprinkle oregano leaves as a finishing touch

Verdict:

(+) Easily done and produces a rather edible pasta dish. Tastes not too bad actually.

(+) Extremely low fat dish and very filling.

(=) A good alternative to cooking pasta with off-the-shelf pasta sauce.

FISHBALL TOFU SOUP

Ingredients:

1 packet tofu

fishballs, quantity up to individual's appetite

half chicken stock cube

Method:

(1) In a pot of boiling water, add the chicken stock cube.

(2) With the tofu still in the plastic container, dice it into rectangles with a knife.

(3) Add the fishballs and tofu.

(4) Once the fishball floats to the surface of the soup, it is ready to serve.

Verdict:

(+) Oil-free, light soup

(+) Can add bak-chor (seasoned minced pork) to make the soup more filling.

(=) Soup is ready in 10 minutes. A healthy alternative to those powder ready soup mixes.

My mom will be away from home for a month which means that there'll be more "opportunities" for me to display my culinary "skills". I think with her absence, we'll surely learn to appreciate the hardwork she has put into the family!