Auswanderer Quatsch

Either in Noirmoutier or near the Pointe du Raz, the sun rose, the sun sat… that was this summer in France.

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to get underground and visit the construction work of Nürnberg’s new metro line. This U3 line is actually a first of a kind since this is the first entirely automated line sharing some tracks with a standard one. You can imagine to what kind of issues it can drive to… the test phase was kind of interesting

A part of the line is already opened, but four Stations are still to be build or finished ; including the one right at our door… that I could visit.

Not much to say, just a hard construction work 20m under the ground. Here are a few pictures to illustrate the visit. You can see the hard work still going on, either in the tunnel or in a future station… I’m really looking forward to seeing how it looks like when it’s finished:

This part of the tunnel is (almost) over and just waiting for its “technological decoration”, meaning electricity, tracks and technology (made in S..m.ns):

Nice isn’t it?

The week went by pretty fast. New job, a lot to do, learn and discover… but let’s talk calories, that’s way more fun! Rolyat, this post is for your belly only

My Chocolate Nemesis

The original recipe (for 8-12 pieces) required 200g chocolate, 200g sugar, 200g butter, 100g flour and 4 eggs. After at least 10 years playing with it I reduced the measures to 120g butter, 150g sugar and only 2 eggs, I also add walnuts to make it more brownie-like:

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a pot, when you get a nice fluid consistency, stop heating,
2. Add the flour and stir until you’ve got no “clots” (balls) anymore (the less butter you use the harder it is to keep it fluid),
3. Add the suggar, it should become quite dense,
4. Add the eggs (yellow and white together) and stir again until you have a really uniform dough,
5. There you can add some walnuts, put the whole in a round cup (I use a “tart” cup, about 3cm high and 25cm across) and add some walnuts on the top for the decoration,
6. Put it in the oven at about 180°C for ~15 min (best is to go with feelings),
7. In the last minutes, I check with a knife that the middle of the cake is still “moist” since I want it to be brownie-like… but you can do it however you want.
8. Eat and enjoy your post calorie-nuke nap!

Apfel vom Blech

Let’s talk about apples! For this recipe you will need (for about 20 pieces): 5 apples, 1 lemon (juice and “scratched skin”), 250g butter, 220 sugar, a tea spoon of vanilla-sugar salt, 5 eggs, 375g flour, 3 table spoons baking powder, 50g sliced&grilled almonds and 100g apricots-jelly:

1. Peel the apples, remove the heart and slice them in order to get nice, 1cm large, “apple-rings”,
2. Melt the butter and put it together with 200g sugar, the vanilla sugar, the scratched lemon skin, a pinch of salt and stir it for 8 to 10 minutes (yes that’s awfully long) with an electric beater (it must become creamy),
3. Add  the eggs one after the other and stir 30s more for each egg,
4. Add the flour, baking powder and the lemon juice, stir and lay it on a oven plate (on baking paper),
5. Spread the apple rings (don’t hesitate to press them a little) on the dough,
6. Sprinkle the almonds and 20g sugar on top and put in the (already warm) oven at 200°C for 30-35 minutes,
7. Warm up the jelly and spread it on top of the cooked cake… done!

Streusel-Zwetschgen

For this last one you will need a bit more time. First of all, gather (for about 20 pieces): 200g sugar, 400g butter, salt, 600g flour, 2 table spoons baking powder, 1 TS cinnamon powder, 1 egg, 1.3kg damsons (“prunes”) and 4 eating spoons of breadcrumb:

1. Make a dough with the sugar, butter, 1 pinch of salt, baking powder, cinnamon and and the egg,
2. Spread 2/3 of the dough on a oven plate (on baking paper) and put the remaining 1/3 for 1 hour in the fridge,
3. Remove the cores of the damsons and cut them in halfs,
4. Make some holes in the spread dough with a fork and spread the breadcrumb on top of it,
5. Spread your damsons on the dough (flesh-side up),
6. Break the rest of the dough in many little pieces and spread it on top of the damsons like you would do it for a “crumble”,
7. Put it in a 180°C warm oven for 40 minutes,
8. Enjoy!

I just realized how inexistent my English cooking vocabulary is… shame on me. If you have any vocabulary comments or if some things are unclear, please comment and I’ll edit the post!

Only one thing left to say:  ”bon appétit”

When I woke up this morning, I realized my last post needed some more explanations. Well… that’s often the case when you post right after an evening where alcohol was the central subject.

Fraulein C., a good friend of Mlle.V, received a guest from Ireland this week, so we decided to throw a Whiskey-Tasting-Halloween-Party. Björn, Jürgen, Mr. L and I cared for the supplies, all in all we had 8 bottles to try.

With Internet’s help, we managed to sort the bottles from sweet to strong/hard… here is what we could taste:

• Woodford Reserve, a Bourbon Whiskey from Kentucky USA, 6-12 years old if I understood well: very sweet,
• Jameson, Irish Whiskey, 12 years old “special reserve” : very mild, surprisingly not aggressive at all, very nice to begin with,
• Bushmills, Irish Whiskey, 12 yeard old single malt: still part of the “sweet” category, definitely in the top two,
• Johnnie Walker Red Label, Scottish whisky, blended: I do not mean to offend you J. but well… Wikipedia says “intended for making mixed drinks” and I agree >_<
• Johnnie Walker Black Label, 12 years old: not so aggressive but not really much better :-/
• Bowmore, 12 years old, Islay Island: very strong with a hard aftertaste… not really my taste,
• Lagavulin Single Malt, 16 years old, Islay Island: also a really strong whiskey with notes of smoke but without the strange aftertaste of the Bowmore, also a really interesting one.

That was a really interesting evening, even more considering that I did not have any headache the day after. We also learned that the Irish Whiskey is written with a “e” before the “y”, but not the Scottish one. Thanks again to all the participants for their presence (and bottles). We now know that there is a Whiskey-only store in Nürnberg that I will probably visit in a near future.

What a tryout evening, thanks guys… :]