I was much honored to receive an invitation from Leemei of MyCookingHut to be a guest writer on her Blog. Although occupying a full time job and running my own SugarHeadBlog, I gave this opportunity prime time of  highest priority.

To read my post on her Blog follow this link

As an Executive Pastry Chef I am every minute connected to food, sampled perhaps most delicious dishes from around the world and have many favorite foods. I therefore chose a dessert from my home country, Switzerland which is normally presented as a tart. Engadiner Nut Tart or in Romantsch; “Tuorta da nusch”. I have changed slightly adjusted the basic ingredients and added some to transform this tart into a dessert to be served in a glass. As in all dishes and in particular to this; the basic ingredients need to be of the best quality. Chinese Walnuts is a big no-no; they look great but taste horrible. For the Brandy I used a Riesling, Chardonnay und Cabernet-Sauvignon Grappa, four times distilled from Austria.
Since I live and work in the Middle East I used Katayef do decorate this dessert. Nowadays this ingredient is easily available in the frozen section of super markets and is very versatile for home cooking!

For the Nut filling:

300 gram Sugar, castor
20 gram Honey
10 gram Lemon juice
60 gram Butter, unsalted
100 gram Cream 35%
45 gram Grappa
2 gram Fleur de Sel
3 gram Lemon zest
200 gram Walnut kernel

Cook the sugar with honey and lemon juice to a dark brown caramel. Carefully add the soft butter, bring to a simmer. Add the walnut kernel, fleur de sel with the Grappa and last the Lemon zest. Bring all ingredients to a boil and pour into a dish to cool completely.

For the Crumble:

150 gram Flour, pastry
80 gram Sugar, castor
60 gram Butter, unsalted
10 gram Baking Powder
2 gram Vanilla Sugar
5 gram Lemon zest
30 gram Egg yolk

Sift the flour with baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add vanilla and castor sugar and combine with butter. Add the lemon zest and egg yolk and rub to a crumble. Place on baking tray lined with was paper and bake at pre-heated oven of 180°Celsius for 16 minutes. Set aside to cool.
For the Katayef décor:

100 gram Katayef, shredded dough
10 gram Butter
20 gram Sugar, castor
20 gram Icing sugar for dusting

Form with some of the shredded dough a round nest and place into buttered muffin moulds. Tab with a water glass flat and brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with sugar and bake covered at 180°Celsius for 8 minutes. Set aside to cool before dusting with icing sugar

Assembly:

Spoon some of the crumble on the bottom of the glass followed by the nut filling. Cover with the remaining crumble and decorate with a Katayef disk as décor.

Weisswurst & Beer

Der Heilige Aloisius; a very interesting story from Bavaria, Germany, 1962 ! View the clip

You might ask yourself  “why do I need to know how to eat Weisswurst?’” Well, Weisswurst is a very traditional dish in Bavaria, Germany. Therefore eating Weisswurst the wrong way runs the risk of breaking with traditions, dining etiquette and, in the worst-case scenario, offending the feelings of Bavarian natives.

This entry will give you the facts you’ll need to know to enable you to eat Weisswurst properly. With this knowledge you will be able to confidently withstand any critical glares you may receive from the native audience when ordering Weisswurst in a real Bavarian public house.

Of course, first you should know what Weisswurst is. Weisswurst is a white sausage which is made of veal, pork and spice, which are all stuffed into animal intestines. Afterwards the whole thing is scalded in hot water.

What are the main considerations of the art of eating Weisswurst? Firstly, side orders; and secondly, the technique of consumption.

Side Orders

To properly eat Weisswurst you need three additional things: mustard (Senf), pretzels (Brezn) and beer (Bier or Weissbier).

Mustard

A few words on mustard. There are several kinds of mustard available, but only a few mustards are an appropriate side order for Weisswurst. The mustard you need is called ‘sweet mustard’ or ‘Weisswurst mustard’. ‘Weisswurst mustard’ is coloured brown with a slight touch of green and tastes very mild and a bit sweet as opposed to hot mustards which are of a yellowy-green colour and taste very spicy. All other kinds of mustards (‘half-hot mustard’, ‘hot mustard’ or any kind of mustard blends) are definitely not for use with Weisswurst.

Some people eat their Weisswurst with the wrong mustard or even worse, with ketchup. This is considered to be a sin in Bavaria. Some very traditional public houses won’t even serve Weisswurst with something other than ‘sweet mustard’. If you order Weisswurst in a public house like this you will get Weisswurst with the correct mustard, or no Weisswurst at all.

If you order Weisswurst, you normally don’t have to worry about ordering the correct mustard, because it will be served automatically, or it will already be on the table.

Pretzels

A few words on pretzels. Pretzels are also very important. Eating Weisswurst without pretzels is impossible for most Bavarian people, because they always go together. There are some arguments about the correct ‘Weisswurst to pretzel ratio’. Some people say you should eat one pretzel with each Weisswurst, others think that one pretzel is sufficient for a pair of Weisswurst – this is also the most common practice.

This also shows you that Weisswurst is normally ordered in pairs, ie normally you order one or two pairs of Weisswurst. It should be added that most adults won’t eat more than two pairs of Weisswurst, since you are very likely to get sick of it when eating more.

Beer

Now to beer. Weissbier is the most common drink that is ordered with Weisswurst. It is not a must, but it is strongly recommended. Ordering other kinds of beer is OK. Ordering other kinds of beverages will be tolerated, but be warned that some drinks are considered to be very strange in combination with Weisswurst. So, if your waiter looks a bit bewildered when you order Weisswurst with wine or milk, the reason is because the drink is not OK. Just order beer and everything will be fine. For kids, order ‘Spezi’ (Coke mixed with orange lemonade), or other fruit lemonades or juices.

Consumption Technique

For a short clip on how to prepara and eat Weisswurst, click here.

There are several ways of eating Weisswurst. The most common techniques are:

Zuzeln
First slicing, then peeling
Ripping and slicing
Zuzeln is the only way of eating Weisswurst that has a special name – the other methods have no explicit name.

All techniques result from the fact that you normally do not eat the peel of the Weisswurst. Of course you won’t die if you eat the skin anyway, but it is not common practice.

Zuzeln

Zuzeln is a term in Bavarian slang and means sucking. The technique is as follows; the first half of the Weisswurst filling is sucked through one open end of the Weisswurst. After that, the rest of the Weisswurst filling is sucked through the other open end. You may notice that in order for this technique to succeed, the Weisswurst must be open at both ends. Therefore you have to cut off the knots and metal clips that may sit on the ends of the sausage before starting to suck. You should also notice that you use your hands for this technique – don’t even try to work it out with a knife and a fork.

You should be warned that Zuzeln is the most complicated technique. If you are not trained to eat your Weisswurst this way, it might end in a mess. It is an art to use this technique without disgusting the other guests.

First you should probably watch this technique several times before applying it yourself. For your initial tries you should especially be careful with your teeth, since the Weisswurst peel is very delicate. If the peel becomes perforated by your teeth, sucking will become impossible. The second thing that is very hard to accomplish is the elegant handling of the empty Weisswurst half when starting to suck at the second end. Since the empty half looks like a condom – which is not very appetizing – you should cover it with the palm of you hand. The same applies if you have finished eating the whole Weisswurst. Then you should try to elegantly put the peel on the plate without dangling it around.

First Slicing, then Peeling

This is an easier technique for eating Weisswurst. First you have to cut your Weisswurst in slices of about one or two centimetres in thickness. After that the trickier part starts. You have to remove the peel from each of the slices. If you are skilled in handling a knife and fork this will be not so hard – for children it might be much harder. After that you just eat the slices.

Ripping and Slicing

This is the easiest, but also the most brutal technique. First you rip the Weisswurst along one side. Then you remove the peel, and finally you slice the sausage and eat the slices.

Conclusion

As you can see, eating Weisswurst is in fact an art. But don’t be shy – just try it – it’s worth it. Weisswurst is a real delicacy.

The Atlantis hotel on the Palm opened last year, I think the whole world got to know about it with its extravagant opening bash. I planned for this year to visit its outlets and for today visited with S it’s Italian restaurant Ronda Locatelli.

We arrived well on time, greeted by the hostess and escorted to my requested table on the terrace. At 13:00 the restaurant was empty and within an hour the terrace filled up with guests. We choose the “Gnoggi” with beef ragout and Swordfish skewers as starters. Both tasted excellent and I was looking forward to my main dish, slow cooked veal with polenta and cabbage. S had the mussels and they where cooked in a rich broth.

The Entrance & huge wooden fired oven

Giorgio Locatelli, chef-patron of London’s Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli, opened Ronda Locatelli  on 24 September in the Kerzner International-owned Atlantis The Palm Dubai hotel.

The 210-seat restaurant’s cuisine is based on the type of rustic pizza and pasta dishes that Locatelli used to serve when he was executive chef at London’s Spiga restaurant, while working for A-Z Restaurants in the early 2005.

Gnoggi with beef ragout

Locatelli’s role at the Dubai restaurant is on executive chef/restaurateur level. Day-to-day kitchen responsibilities is with head chef Alessandro Bottazzi, who has worked with him previously at Locanda Locatelli.

Swordfish skewers & mussels

For dessert I ordered the Vanilla Panna Cotta with coco Ice Cream, rather simple in its presentation but delicious and refreshing.

Slow cooked veal & Panna Cotta