16 friends from 8 nations sharing the passion for great food and all set to indulge themselves in a night of fun and laughter and of course glorious food. Ok, the timing was slightly off by a day, but due to everyone’s schedule couldn’t have been on that last Thursday of November. So in anticipation for Friday night’s dinner, I hadn’t eaten since late morning and was starting to get really hungry (good thing I don’t get easily cranky because of food deprivation…)

Our dear friends Craig and Dagi, who initiated our weekly Friday night’s sneak-preview-cinema-get-together which we couldn’t live without anymore, compiled a fantastic, very traditional and lovely decorated Thanksgiving menu. Including the usual suspects such as sweet potato puree, gravy, green beans, baked rosemary potatoes, caramelized carrots, additional chestnut-celery stuffing, pumpkin pie and the main actor, an 18 pound bird to go with. Needless to say, I’m sure both have had plenty of turkey sandwiches since. Due to oven-space issues the turkey was kept warm under a cozy duvet until it was served, which I’m sure made someone earn some turkey karma points that night ;) Besides the scrumptious creations from everybody else (pumpkin soup, sweet corn muffins, corn on the cob, Cumberland sauce, toblerone mousse, apple pie, …), my humble contribution were two pecan pies one with dried apricots, the other one with loads of chocolate coating.

New to the pecan pie business, I had to first educate myself a bit on the topic and do some research on the net…and finally found a recipe (Chocolate Pecan Pie) I wanted to try and was so surprised when I read who had written it down: Petra gave me great inspiration and a sound basis to work with, I simply made a few adaptations here and there. Delicious – but serious business! – now I’m all good for next year ;)

Apricot Pecan Walnut Pie
For the pie bottom(s)/dough please see here.

Bring apricots and water to a boil and let simmer (at low heat) for about 10 minutes. Then drain the apricots and blend well with the roasted pecan and walnuts, sugar, jam and cinnamon.

Spread the topping evenly across the (unbaked) tart shell and bake at 170 °C (340 °F) for about 30 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.

Chocolate Pecan Pie
The original english instructions can be found here at epicurious. Below, what I’ve done differently:

Chop the milk chocolate and add the honey in a mid-sized bowl. Melt sugar in a saucepan and let simmer until it takes on a golden color and starts to bubble slightly, then stir in heavy cream (be careful, this could get messy!) until the mixture’s consistency looks even. Remove from stove.

Pour the mixture over the chopped chocolate/honey and stir until the chocolate has fully melted, add the pecans and pour the mass evenly over the already baked pie shell. Chill for about two hours.

For the final touch, melt semi-sweet chocolate and heavy cream in a pan while stirring. Once melted, pour over the tart and chill again for another two hours.

Important note: For the real deal, both tarts have to be served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream ;)

Compared to the plethora of wonderfully designed food magazines available in other countries, Germany unfortunately can’t quite keep up. The number of locally on-hand magazines is definitely manageable, including periodicals such as ELLE bistro, Der Feinschmecker and of course essen & trinken. On the other hand it doesn’t necessarily imply that they are of lesser quality; just happens that I ran across a recipe in the last edition of essen & trinken that, in light of O.’s liking for tasty espresso, asked for replication.

The making is pretty straight forward, however, next time I’d adjust the ratio between water and espresso in favor of the espresso. Just enough to give it more punch. The quality of the coffee I believe is key, blends that include any or a larger portion of Robusta beans may have a bitter/acidic influence on the taste and you would likely have to compensate with a bit more sugar. Try to go with Arabica coffee beans (single harvest are best) and have your favorite coffee shop grind them for you just when you need them, or as an alternative buy a few double espresso shots…

For the espresso jello, soak the gelatin sheets in cold water for 10 minutes. Add water and brown sugar to a pot and bring to a boil. Remove when sugar is dissolved, then add the espresso and the well squeezed gelatin.

Choose a pan with proper proportions: for instance if you’d like to make larger cubes it may have to be a smaller one, with higher rims. The one I used was 16x16cm (6x6inch). Foil-line the pan; once firm, you can lift the foil right out and cut the jello cleanly. Chill for at least 6 hours, or better over night.

For the coconut sauce, first heat up heavy cream and coconut milk. In a seperate bowl, combine egg yolk and sugar and beat until the mass becomes creamy and pale in color. Now slowly add the warm milk to the mix, while stirring until well blended. Return the mass back to the pot and constantly turn and stir at medium heat (it should not boil!) until the mix has further thickened.

Strain the sauce through a sieve and serve with the espresso cubes.

Note: While O. dove head first into the coconut sauce/espresso jello combination, I preferred a scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with them Рreminded me of Caff̬ Affogato (espresso on vanilla ice).

cooking whispers really doesn’t quite cut it – I’m not sure there is an adequate way to translate this title, thinking about it, I’m not even sure it’s a regular German expression. Anyway, someone must have thought of something when he or she named this years inaugural culinary event on the Praterinsel between Haidhausen & Lehel. What Kochgeflüster essentially comprised was a mix of food and wine sampling from different regions worldwide and watching seasoned, even awarded chefs cook live.

The location couldn’t have been chosen any better, objectively and from my own selfish perspective: from our apartment merely 10 minutes walk, in beautiful vaults on a tiny island (Praterinsel) surrounded by the Isar.

Out of all scheduled performances, seminars and happenings, one we definitely did not want to miss out on was the show cooking with Hans Haas from Tantris, Holger Stromberg G*, Hans Jörg Bachmeier from Blauer Bock.

With Holger Stromberg the event organizer had also invited a representative of the “Junge Wilde” – an innovative association of young chefs in Germany. All collaboratively working together, creating wonderful and tasty courses including venison, trout and calf’s head.

The venison, seared and then cooked at low temperature together with the Udon noodles tossed in a white port marinated (over night) dried fruits sauce was excellent. Everything cooked to perfection, they still took the time to answer any of the audience’s questions – we even got clear hints, as to where they prefer to buy their meat.

A couple of feet away Hans Haas (decorated with 2 Michelin stars) prepared a low temperature cooked trout with leek potato puree in a brown butter sauce. This dish was unreal (fantastic!) and he made it look so easy, on the other hand not everything was made from scratch – they came well prepared and thus saved a few steps ;)

Hans Jörg Bachmeier worked on the calf’s head, which indeed looked very well prepared as well, but didn’t exactly line up with what we were in the mood for…

To go with the food we sampled something sparkling…which in no time made us a little tipsy… need I say more?

Having visited quite a few culinary events here in Munich and close-by, I can safely say that this one was one of the best, if not the best. Well picked premises, extensive wine and food selections (that would easily have justified a second visit), combined with enthusiastic chefs presenting mouth watering dishes. We’ll be back next year, that is a given (provided there’ll be a 2006 event, that is).

R A N D O M I M P R E S S I O N S