• Keep your kitchen knife sharp. Know how to sharpen and hone your knives! A dull knife requires more pressure which may cause slipping and injury.
• Keep ‘em clean! Avoid cross-contamination when cutting different foods by cleaning and sanitizing your knives after every use. Never drop (and forget) them in a full sink. Someone might reach down there and soon the water will turn red…
• Practice proper storage. This will prevent damage to the blade and help retain the edge. Use sheaths, knife rolls, racks, or magnetized holders.
• Use cutting boards. Metal or glass can dull the blade.
• Don’t horse around! Someone asks you to hand them a knife – don’t toss it. (Oh, believe me – I’ve seen it happen!) Lay it down on a surface and let them pick it up.
• A chef’s knife is not a bottle opener. Nuff said.

Photo Credit. Thank you!

A good kitchen knife may cost a few dollars more, but if you treat it with respect and care it will last forever. Look for the following quality components (click on the highlighted terms for a pop-up box with more information):

• High-carbon stainless steel blades
• The tang is a continuation of the blade extending into the handle
• The perfect handle is made from rosewood
• The rivets secure the tang to the handle and should be completely smooth and flush with the surface
• In a well-made knife, there is a bolster, which is a collar at the point where the blade meets the handle

Here is the promised knife skills video course. Also, in the last video you will find valuable tips on honing your knife. If you enjoy these types of video lessons, there is a whole lot more available where these came from. I’m very excited to fully endorse the Rouxbe Online Cooking School. Where else can you get a culinary education for a mere $15 per month? Click on the link above or simply click on the links at the end of the videos. You’ll even get a free 2-week all-access trial period!

Ingredients for a basic, simple pesto:

• 1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, pre-chopped or grated to make it easier on your food processor (too big chunks might get stuck on the blade and then put too much strain on the machine)
• 1 clove of fresh garlic
• the leaves of 2 bunches of fresh basil
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Run everything through your food processor until you like the consistency. The basil leaves should be added in batches, especially if you double or triple the recipe. That way you can scrape down the sides of the bowl for a more evenly processing. The cheese has a high salt content already, but taste your pesto and see if you want to season it some more.

Variations On A Simple Pesto Recipe

• use roasted garlic instead of fresh cloves (I like that one a lot!)
• toast the pine nuts before adding to the mix
• spike your pesto flavor with some lemon or lime juice (or zest)
• add other fresh herbs such as cilantro or parsley to the basil leaves
• use different hard cheeses such as gruyere – instead of, or combined with parmesan
• try toasted pecans or hazelnuts (filberts) instead of pine nuts

How To Serve And Cook With Pesto

• spread on crackers and toasted bread
• spooned on sliced tomatoes or cucumbers
• scooped into mini tart shells, topped with goat cheese and baked
• stirred into vegetable soup or stew
• mixed with pasta sauce (marinara or bechamel)
• spread on a fish fillet, topped with a bread crumbs/parmesan mix and baked
• mix with cream cheese and use as filling for chicken breast or thick pork chops on the grill

This should give you some ideas for delicious uses of simple pesto, or for creating your personal version of this classic recipe. If you like the video, there are many more of them available over at Rouxbe Online Cooking School. They let you browse most of their materials for free for a 2-week trial period.

Find out more in my previous post on the Rouxbe Online Cooking School.

Photo courtesy of thebittenword. Thank you!

I am currently enjoying a Premium Membership myself. Let me assure you – this site rocks! It’s like going to chef school with a personal instructor, whenever you want to and from the comfort of your home. I’ve graduated from the Texas Culinary Academy in 1993, but this is like a refresher course to me, only much better because of the contemporary design and a tremendous professional quality. Just watch these sample videos:

Following is my note of full disclosure. Yes, I will make a couple bucks (literally) if you decide to sign up for a membership. However, the first 2 weeks are free and you can grab as much knowledge as you can. And the membership fees are actually very low, if you ask me. I think it’s a win/win situation and a fantastic deal to boot!

Full Disclosure Note

I am now a Rouxbe Cooking School affiliate partner. Rouxbe is the world’s first-ever online cooking school. I partnered with Rouxbe to help you improve you cooking skills. As part of their affiliate program, I have the power to give you a free, full-access, no-videos-barred, 14-day pass to their site. All you have to do is go to the Rouxbe Online Cooking School and redeem the 14-day Gift Membership. After the trial, you can join for as little as $15 per month; however, there is no obligation. It’s awesome! Check it out.

Go to: Rouxbe Online Cooking School

I call it “Dr. Kracker Migas”. It’s kind of a free-form version of a migas recipe, but instead of corn tortillas I use Dr. Kracker Apple Crisps. They are made with organic whole spelt flour, organic flaxseeds, dried apple, whole oats, organic sesame seeds…and that’s a lot more nutritious than corn alone!

First, I browned some pork sausage meat and a squashed cooked potato in a little olive oil. The I added a handful of broken-up krackers.

Next, I placed a couple eggs in the pan (on top of a pat of butter), and then I topped these with diced tomatoes and some shredded Mexican cheese.

Finally, I seasoned my “most nutritious breakfast” with some freshly-ground garlic/sea salt mix, a few dashes of Old Bay Seasoning and a little extra black pepper. I garnished the dish on the plate with some diced avocado and a sprig of fresh dill.

What I really love about this recipe, is that the crackers soften a little from the heat, yet they retain a sufficient crunch and togetherness. So when you bite into them, you can actually savor the distinct, wholesome grain and seed flavor of the bread, but all other ingredients mingle along truly wonderfully.

Dumplins are called Semmel Knoedel in Germany. “Semmel” stands for (dinner) roll, and “Knoedel” is the German word for dumpling.

Knoedel With Sauce

To make dumplings, you may use any stale white bread such as leftover dinner rolls. French bread and hard rolls are best. Packaged, sliced sandwich bread is not suitable for this type of bread dumpling.

How To Make Dumplins

• Cut stale hard rolls into 1/4-inch slices to fill up 4 to 5 quarts
• Pour 4 cups of lukewarm milk over the bread, mix thoroughly and let sit for 30 minutes
• Cook 2 cups of chopped onion in 1/2 stick of butter until translucent and lightly brown
• Finely chop 1 bunch of parsley (leaves only) and cook for another minute with the onions
• Add the parsley/onion mix to the soaked bread, together with 4 eggs and 3 cups of cracker meal
• Season with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Combine all ingredients well and then shape yer dumplins with wet hands (dip in cold water in between)
• Boil the dumplins over medium high heat – the water should be ‘rolling’ but not going crazy, ok? – for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size

Dumplin Mix

The Secret Tip To Keep Bread Dumplings From Falling Apart!

You might have wondered about this already – I’m using cracker meal as a binder for my dumplin batter. Up until a few months ago, this “secret” ingredient was not part of my usual dumpling recipe. I stumbled upon this idea when I found myself in sort of an emergency situation.

I needed to make bread dumplings for the dinner prep at Ilsa’s Kitchen, a new German restaurant I helped open in Spicewood, Texas. The only stale bread I had available were challah rolls and packaged white toast. No way these unstructured breads would hold up in boiling water. The raw batter was already crumbling in my fingers! That’s when I had the idea to use cracker meal – lots of it in this case – to help with holding it all together. It worked and I thought, how much will this work even better with the correct bread base.

Please consider my recipe quantities as guidelines for your own cooking experiment. Some factors can influence the consistency of the dumpling mix – mainly the dryness and type of the bread – it is hard to give exact measures. But don’t despair – it is still a very easy recipe to make.

• The batter should be very sticky and mess up your dry hands. That’s why you dip your hands in cold water during the dumplin shaping process.
• If squeezed together firmly, the dumpling should feel tight and heavy like a baseball.
• For the first couple of times, throw a test dumpling into some boiling water. If after 10 minutes it still holds together, you’re fine. After that you should get a good feel for the consistency and be able to proceed without test runs.

German Bread Dumpling

German bread dumplings are wonderful with beef and pork roasts, creamy chicken dishes, wild mushrooms in cream sauce, and many more saucy preparations.

Cooked Dumpling

Leftover dumplins are marvelous for breakfast or a light lunch. Slice ‘em and brown ‘em in butter and serve ‘em with fried eggs, scallions, chopped ham, and whatever you like. Good stuff!

Please stay tuned to this blog for last-minute updates and the final location info for our Austin, TX mobile restaurant!

Bavarian Bistro - German Food in Austin, Texas!

What kind of Bavarian food will we serve?

Bratwurst and schnitzels, of course! But not just any kind of ol’ bratwurst. We plan to introduce a real treat to Austin’s foodies: Nuernberger Bratwurst! A leaner and more flavorful version of the old standby, Nuernberger Rostbratwurst is a favorite Oktoberfest food but also a regular, year-round lunch item all over Bavaria and Germany.

Have you ever heard of Leberkaese?

Leberkaese is a truly tasty Bavarian sausage loaf made from lean cuts of beef and pork ground with bacon, onion, and spices. A hot slice off the griddle, placed inside a top-quality sourdough roll with mustard and sauerkraut…do I need to say more?

Yes, we will have great bread! We simply refuse to serve great sausage and kraut on a flimsy hot dog bun. Good bread is such an important part of a great meal!

We wouldn’t be an authentic German restaurant if we didn’t have Wiener Schnitzel on our menu. Our special breading gives this huge slice of tender pork loin a beautiful crunch with a touch of spicy heat.

Aside from myself (pun alert!), we will feature two more krauts at the Bavarian Bistro: red cabbage with bacon, onion and green apple, and a very special sauerkraut recipe. Where others might take a more convenient and cost-saving route…we are proud to give our most creative attention to all aspects of our foods, whether they are side dishes, entrees, or desserts. Everything at the Bavarian Bistro is authentic and flavorful, and, where possible, made from scratch.

“Um…desserts?”, you ask. Well, we will start out with my own (locally famous) specialty: Chef Keem’s Tres Leches Coconut Macaroons. And we’ll take it from there, ok?

My rouladen recipe is fairly simple and easy to do, as you can see in the video “How To Make Roladen” below. However, for optimal flavor development, we need to pay attention to a few important points…

• Carefully brown the beef rolls from all sides in hot oil. This will create a fond at the bottom of the pot, which after deglazing with red wine will be the flavor foundation for the sauce.
• Remove the rouladen from the pot after browning so you have room to develop some extra flavor-building fond with chopped onions and garlic.
• After simmering the meat and vegetables in beef stock, take the rolladen again out of the pot and place them in a warm dish, so you can work on refining the sauce.

Roladen

Rouladen Recipe

1. Pound thin an 8 to 10-ounces slice of beef inside round or top round, but make sure not to tear the flesh too much or the filling will run out. Season well with salt and pepper, or any seasoning mix of your choice. “Cajun” works nicely.

2. Distribute evenly over the meat: 1 Tblsp thinly-sliced smoked bacon, 1 Tblsp chopped onions, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 Tblsp mustard (any kind), and 1 pickle spear. (In the video, I have the first 4 ingredients already mixed together for a speedier production of a whole bunch of these babies.)

3. Roll the roulade into a fairly tight contraption and fasten the end flap with two tooth picks.

How To Cook Rouladen

1. Cover the bottom of a heavy pot with vegetable oil and bring it to a medium-high heat; brown the roladen from all sides; remove from pot into a bowl or other dish.

2. Add a little more oil to replace what’s been absorbed into the meat. Depending on the amount of rouladen and the size of your pot, add one bay leaf and anywhere between one and four cups of chopped onions and one to four tablespoons of minced garlic; cook until translucent and lightly browned.

3. Pour 2-4 cups of red wine into the pot and loosen the brown bottom bits with a spatula while simmering the liquid; keep simmering until reduced by one third.

4. Place the roladen back into the pot and cover them with store-bought or homemade beef stock (broth).

5. Bring the liquid back to a gentle simmer, cover the pot, and cook for about an hour.

6. Remove the beef rolls and keep warm in a covered dish.

7. Whisk a cup of sour cream and some cold roux into the liquid to add body and flavor to the sauce.

8. Don’t forget to remove the tooth picks before serving the roladen covered with sauce. Great side dishes include mashers, pasta, rice, potato dumplings, bread dumplings, carrots, green beans, red cabbage, Bohemian sauerkraut…well, pretty much everything you like.

Now watch the video and let me know in the comment box below if you have any questions, ok?

Check out these excellent meat tenderizers and a couple of high-quality pots for your beef rouladen adventures. Everything works so much better if you have the right tools, right?

UPDATE! I have left Ilsa’s Kitchen and joined an exciting new venture: The Bavarian Bistro

Ilsa's Kitchen Dining Room

Find more info about opening hours, directions, and a few first food pictures by visiting my new Squidoo lens about “Ilsa’s Kitchen“.

Bratwurst at Ilsa's Kitchen

A heartfelt thank you to all our guests from the first 3 weeks. Your generous feedback and praise gave us an extra boost of much needed energy. You are the best!

Please come see us at the latest addition to the vibrant scene of Austin, TX restaurants:

Ilsa’s Kitchen Bavarian Restaurant!

Ilsa's Kitchen Website

How To Make The Best Focaccia Bread Recipe Ever!

Find elaborate descriptions of the entire focaccia bread process in previous post about general focaccia bread info and focaccia bread recipe and method.

But what if your prayers have gotten longer and longer since Junior brought home the news about his approaching young fatherhood?

Grandpa’s hearing is nothing to write home about, anymore. So you repeat your menu announcement over and over until he finally gets it that “rabbit with noodles” has nothing to do with a rabid poodle…

Don’t get me started on “Thanksgiving dinner”!

I saw something today that has me dream of entire requiems for our pre-chow blessings: A dinner plate that actually stays hot for 45 minutes, but only in the center where the food is. The rim is cool enough to handle! (Remember when you tried to pull your enchilada plate a little closer, at the Mexican place, last week? Turned out to be a “blistering move”, baby…)

Honestly, I haven’t bought and tried them, yet. Just saw this today and thought I let you know about it, right away. This seems to be the perfect solution for an old pet peeve of mine: I hate it when food gets cold over etiquette or mindless chatter. Let’s have a look…

Product Description for InstaHot Plates from Amazon.com

* Patented Stefan-Boltzmann Technology, REALLY stores heat
* Really keeps food hot, tested by inventor for over 3 years
* It is still hot even after 30 mins. Rim stays cool for handling
* Requires only one minute preheating in full size microwave
* Delay action releases heat slowly, does not overcook or overheats food

“Heat Retentive Plates will eventually replace regular cold plates; they are a patented technology. This is a real break-trough; the first functional change to a ceramic plate in centuries the whole industry will be impacted even if they do not know it, yet. The restaurant industry will use them; today people expect to be served on a preheated plate, in the near future restaurant customers will expect that their food stays hot while they enjoy. HotSmart plates may even help people to lose weight by simply eating slowly while their food stays hot, you’ll get satisfied with less food (research “eating slowly”). Designed to bring the luxury of eating on a real hot plate at home on a daily basis, but the plates are elegant and appropriate for formal dinners. This “Heat Retentive Plate” was mentioned in El Paso Times, Popular Science and Inventor’s Digest magazines. EXPECTATIONS CHANGE At restaurants people’s present expectations are to be served on a preheated plate but they know it will cool down in 5 minutes; in the near future their expectation will be that the food remains hot while they enjoy and without the danger of burning their hands with the hot rim of the plate; HotSmart plates have a cool rim and do not overcook or over heat your food they use the Stefan-Boltzmann law to release heat slowly (at a controlled rate). You need to see it to believe it, that is the reason they are initially offered as individual units, but customers will be back for more.”

One happy customer wrote this: The plate is wonderful, it does the job just as advertised. The plate comes with instructions on recommended microwave time for the wattage of the microwave. My microwave is 1100 watts so I heated the plate for 1 minute, it was able to keep the food warm for over 45 minutes. A family member is a very slow eater (due to medical problems each meal takes a little over an hour not including dessert) and this plate was able to keep the food warm the entire time. Initially, I was looking for a metal platter/wood tray combo that restaurants use to serve fajitas or steaks to help keep food warm. I saw this and thought I would try it out; I am very glad I did. I think it is much better than the “sizzler” plates since:
1) it keeps food warm for a longer period of time.
2) it can be washed in dishwasher (some metal plates have to be hand-washed).
3) takes up less room in cabinet, do not have the hassle of metal plate and protective outer wood/plastic plate.
4) safer than metal plate since rim of this plate is safe to touch if you follow the instructions.
Plus, it is very pretty and neutral in design so fits with any decor. The only potential down side is that the plate is a little heavy, however, it is still lighter than the metal platter/protective tray combo. I am very impressed with this product and recommend it to everyone who likes their food hot. As I said, buy it and you won’t be disappointed.
A big THANK YOU to the inventor for coming up with this product

Personally, I think I’m gonna get a couple before Thanksgiving. Should make me less antsy around the gravy…