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Thursday 4 October 2007

Enjoying German Specialties

After processing all the pictures I've taken while traveling through Germany, I came to realize that I didn't photograph that many meals at all... Anyway, here are a few food related memories. A little bit late, I know - having just arrived in Australia again, I went to Western Australia for work. I was already looking forward to paying another visit to my favourite Australian grocery store as I did last time. However, my only day in Perth turned out to be a Sunday. All I could do was staring through the shop window at the huge bags filled with millet flour, pearl barley, and other hard-to-get foods. Of course, it should be possible to get the same stuff here in Sydney - however, they'll cost me an arm and a leg, I'm sure...

Where was I? You see, no matter how much I've enjoyed the stay in my home country, as soon as I had set my food on Australian earth, the daily life just sucked me in again.

One of the first things I did at home was baking a real German Cheese Cake (pictured above). Made with real quark instead of cream cheese or ricotta, it has a slightly tarter taste and a much lighter texture than American cheese cake. Eating it on a sunny terrace made it taste even better...

After having eaten my way through this and this, I attended the next feast, the wedding of a dear friend.

Another opportunity to indulge in Bavarian doughnuts (a very local food, this version from another part of Bavaria looks slightly different from mine), layer cakes, and God know what else. I'd rather not list all the cakes I've tried and I haven't even said a word about the savoury dishes...

At my parents' place, I used the occasion to watch once again how to make a real Bavarian pork roast. For traditionalists, this is the only way to celebrate a proper Sunday lunch. Whilst I'm not against having something else for lunch, I really enjoy it once in a while. So far, I didn't dare to try my hands on it. Provided I'm still able to decipher my handwritten notes, I'll dare cooking it some time soon. Hopefully, this time I'll be able to take a nicer picture - this one was taken just before shoveling in...


Furthermore, I made some pralines to give away as a birthday present. The cutest ones were these pistachio marzipan hearts - the recipe will follow soon. For some reason I thought using couverture would save me the tedious tempering process. First, I didn't want to go through all this trouble. Secondly, I don't have a candy thermometer. However, this was a misconception and the chocolate coating lost its shine after three or four days. However, they still tasted pretty good; even though I usually don't like marzipan. But who wouldn't love anything heart-shaped?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Geman cakes are great, aren't hey?

Eva said...

Oh yes, you bet! It's really too bad that quark costs a fortune down under. Otherwise I'd have this cheese cake once per month...

Anonymous said...

Perfekter Käsekuchen! Genau so sah der bei uns zu Hause aus.

Unknown said...

Leeecker!

Eva said...

Dankeschoen, Petra! Selbstgebacken ist halt doch immer noch am besten...

Maci - Der Kuchen war in Windeseile aufgegessen!

Unknown said...

Das glaub´ich! Bei mir wird so etwas auch nicht alt! ;o)

Retno Prihadana said...

Yumm...Käse Kuchen, leckerrr! I used to buy it, haven´t tried to make by my own yet! Nice photos!

Anh said...

Eva, when I have a chance to visit Germany one day, I will stuff myself with all these delicious desserts you posted here!

Eva said...

You definitely should..;-) Whenever I'm not baking with fruits then cheesecake is my first choice! But hang on, I forgot about chocolate...

Eva said...

Thanks Retno! This cheesecake isn't difficult at all, I'm also planning to blog the recipe for this version. Forgot to write it down before I left home but I'm getting it soon...

Anonymous said...

Zu lustig, der Kuchen bei meiner Oma sah nicht nur genauso aus, er wäre wahrscheinlich auch auf den gleichen Tellern serviert worden ;) Würde mich auch über Dein Rezept freuen!

Eva said...

Na da bin ich aber mal gespannt, ob das Rezept ebenfalls aehnlich ist! Ich hoffe, dass ich es heute noch per Telefon diktiert bekomme...