Asparagus & Strawberries – a dream team

May and June, fresh green, herbs in abundance, asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb – culinary the best time of the year. While asparagus was always associated with smoked ham and hollandaise sauce, asparagus is popular with us today as a salad or crunchy roasted. And the combination of salmon, asparagus, strawberries, pine nuts and fine oil is just gorgeous.

Strawberries, yoghurt, basil – the perfect cake

At our home, our daughter is the backing-expert. I also bake well, but I prefer the hearty things. For our daughter baking means to relax, to come down, you could almost say: “to chill”. At the age of 14, she baked this fantastic strawberry yoghurt cream cake with basil for her brother’s birthday. Respect!

Chicken in Vermouth – finally again a Captain’s Dinner

We have Chicken in Vermouth when our family calendar is marked with two letters and a laughing smiley. There are also days marked with a crying one. The letters are the initials of my dearest, obvious what the emojis stand for: Signing off and on, that’s how it is called in shipping terms. It means to come home and to go aboard a ship. Today the emoji is beaming in our calendar! Time for Chicken in Vermouth!

Eye candy & culinary delight

What happens when the king of vegetables meets the queen of shells? Well, it can only be magically delicious, right? When wild herbs, sugar snap peas, young peas and pomegranate seeds join asparagus and scallops, the taste sensation is perfect. And the best thing is: this delicious dish is on the table in half an hour!

Delicate and juicy – beef

Tafelspitz [boiled fillet] – Austrian cuisine’s classic. Needs a bit of time, but requires little work. And best of all, the beef stays super-juicy as it is cooked in broth. Together with asparagus or the Frankfurt Green Sauce a real Sunday roast.

Frankfurt Green Sauce: The secret of 7 herbs

One can disagree about many things or even argue – but not about the seven herbs of the original Frankfurt Grüne Sauce [green sauce]. Even my great-grandmother in the Forest of Odes kept her recipe and looked after and nurtured the seven herbs in her garden. The recipe is passed on from generation to generation, re-written, varied. And which herbs are they?

Shore leave Tenerife: Market Day & Tapas

Take a little break! A walk. A market visit. A lunch. A few errands. A very “normal”, small shore leave. Three hours with the captain ashore in Santa Cruz de Tenerife:

Pasta makes you happy

Spaghetti Bolognese – that’s where it starts. Only in Germany this spicy tomato-vegetable sauce with minced meat is called like this. The Italian calls it “Ragú” and there are thousands and a recipe variant. In search of meatless recipes, we simply replaced the minced meat with lentils. And lo and behold? No Bolognese, no Ragú – but delicious!