Chicken in Banana Leaves
We live in Florida. We have Banana Trees in our backyard. Husband and I watch a lot of
cooking shows and they use Banana leaves to wrap stuff in it all the time. Basically everything
you would wrap in Aluminium Foil you can wrap in a Banana leave. Its more economical and
gives it a slight earthy flavor. The meat stays juice too. If you don't have Banana Trees in your backyard or someone with Trees, you can find them in the frozen section of your grocery store.
You can use whatever recipe you like and wrap it in the Leave. For a start, you can try this chicken recipe.
This is what you need:
- Chicken drums
- 1 TBSP Annatto Seeds (or Chili powder)
- 1 TSP whole Peppercorns
- 4 Allspice
- 1/2 TSP dried Oregano
- 1/4 TSP cumin seeds
- 1 TSP finely shredded Orange Peel
- 3/4 cup Orange juice
- Salt
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 cup chopped Onions (1/2 big one)
This is how you do it:
Put all the spices in a spice grinder (like a coffee bean grinder) . Add the Orange juice, peel, onion and garlic along with the chicken drums in a large zip lock bag. Add the spices and marinade it for 6-12 hrs..
Remove the chicken from the marinade and wrap them in Banana leaves. You can put up to 2 in one leave. I put just one in though. Lay them on a oven tray.
Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit bake for 1 hrs
I served Peanut Butter sauce with it and rice. Was very tasty.
Guten Appetit
Gluehwein, white
Warm spiced wine is a typical thing us germans do in Winter. Especially at those famous
Christmas Markets. It's easy to make yourself. The one Aldi is offering though is terrible.
If you tried that one and you didn't like it, I don't blame you. But don't take that as they all
taste like this.
Biggest rule in cooking in general is: use the wine you would drink!!!! So, if the recipe says
for dry wine and you like Moscato (like me), use Moscato. When you can't stand sweet wine,
don't use it just because the recipe says so.
Usually for Gluehwein they use dry wine and add sugar. Why not use a sweet wine already?
Again, if you don't like sweet wine, use the dry and add as much sugar as you can tolerate.
For my recipe I use Moscato. It works with red and white wine. But instead of Apple juice for
the white Gluehwein, use Orange juice for the red Gluehwein.
This is what you need:
- 1 bottle of your preferred wine (in my case, Moscato) (add 3 TBSP Sugar to dry)
- 300 ml of organic Apple juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 Star Anise
- 3 Cloves
- 2 slices of Orange
This is how you do it:
Combine everything in a large sauce pan. Heat up but don't let it boil. Remove all hard parts
and enjoy your hot Gluehwein on a cold winter day.
Guten Appetit
Pan Vegetables
This is an invention from me. I had this recipe with just eggplant, potatoes and Zuccini but I
thought I can pimp this up a bit. So I did lol.
This is what you need:
- Raw, peeled and diced Potatoes
- Zuccini, diced (if you don't like them, keep them out)
- Eggplant, diced (also, don't use when you don't like them)
- 1 Bell pepper
- 1 glove Garlic
- Chili for the heat (as much as you can take on heat)
- smoked wurst like Kielbasa or Cabanosi
- sour cream with herbs (like Aldi is selling)
- 1-2 peeled tomatoes, seeds out
This is how you do it:
Basically what it is, all Vegetables you like just dice and pan fry them soft with a bit oil. You can add smoked sausage, but you don't need to. The Garlic should be the last thing added since it burns fast.
At the very end, salt and pepper and add sour cream with herbs until its nice and creamy. The Tomatoes are giving it a bit liquid and freshness.
I usually just eat it like this but it's also tasty to steak.
Guten Appetit
Star of Bethlehem
Vogelmilch
This is a very common dish from the germans in Romania. No matter if Siebenbuergen or
Banat. In romanian it's called Lapte de pasare. In german Vogelmilch what literally translates to Bird Milk. It's a semi sweet dessert you enjoy when it's luke warm or cold
This is what you need:
- 1 l (4 cups) of milk
- 3 Eggs, devided
- 4 TBSP Sugar
- 1 Vanilla bean or substitude with a TSP Vanilla extract
- 1 pinch of salt
This is how you do it:
Bring the milk, Vanilla bean and salt to a boil. Whip the Egg whites until they stiff peaks.
When the milk is boiling, use a TBSP and cut little clouds of egg white and put them gently into
the hot milk. Boil for a minute then turn them around for another 30 sec.. Remove from the milk
and put them in a bowl.
Whip the Egg yolk with the sugar until creamy. Add the mixture to the milk and stir constantly until
it's thickening.
Let the vanilla sauce sit for a bit to cool off. Then add them to the Egg white clouds and enjoy.
Guten Appetit
