For the Love of Food

Some friends and I were grilling our dinner on a homemade grill. It was fun.

This is a German recipe, that I modified, from the internet chefkoch.de

Ingredients:
1 kg (2 Lbs)Tomatoes, diced
1 small Onions, diced
2 cloves Garlic
3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 Tablespoon Basil, dried
1 Tablespoon Oregano, dried
1/2 teaspoon Thyme, dried
1/2 teaspoon Marjoran, dried
1/2 teaspoon Rosemary, dried and ground
750mL (3 Cups) of Beef Stock
2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
1 Tablespoon Gin*
Salt
Pepper
4 Tablespoons Crème Fraiche

Directions:
In a large pot saute the onions and garlic in the vegetable oil until the onions are soft. Add the tomatoes and all the dried spices and cook in the pot for 15 minutes with the lid on. Then pour in the beef stock and let cook for another 5 minutes. Then take off the heat and put entire soup into a food processor or blender and puree. Then return to pot and to medium heat and add the tomato paste and the gin. Stir until completely mixed in.

Once the soup is in individual serving bowls add 1 Tablespoon of Crème Fraiche to each bowl and stir in. This will make the soup much thicker.

*Gin is an absolutely necessary ingredient for this recipe. You can leave it out, but it will just not taste right. I heard you can also use Sherry, but I have never tried it.

Serves 4

These delicious lamb chops are marinated by our local butcher…if I ever figure the recipe out, I will definatly share!

Ingredients:
3 Cups of water
3 Tablespoons of Chicken bouillon
1/4th packet of Rice noodles (vermacelli)
1 Green Onion, cut into long 2-inch pieces
1/4 of a Leek (the white part), cut into rounds
1/2 teaspoon of Sambal Oelek* (red chili paste) per bowl of soup served

Directions:
In a medium sized pot boil water. Once water has come to a boil add chicken buillon and taste to make sure that it has a strong enough chicken broth taste, if not, add 1 teaspoon at a time until it is strong enough for you. Add green onions and leek and let boil for 1 minute. Then, add rice noodles and take off the heat imediatly. Let the soup sit in the pot for about 2 minutes or until the rice noodles has softened. Serve into bowl and place sambal oelek in each bowl if desired. Stir and eat soup.

*Sambal Oelek is very spicey and if you are sensetive to spicey foods, just leave it out, the soup also tastes great without it.

Serves 4

This is a partial recipe from “Bulgarsalat mit Paprika und Tomaten” that is in my “Salate” cookbook.

Ingredients:
300g Bulgar
Salt
juice of 2 Limes
Pepper
1 teaspoon Cu