Kaiserschmarren

THIS IS NOT MY RECIPIE - BUT IT IS STILL GOOD
We grew up having this dish for lunch in Austria, I love making it for breakfast now it is delicious.
Kaiser is the German word for emperor. Many dishes in the Austrian cuisine have the prefix Kaiser in their names, those are dishes that were devoted to the Austro-Hungarian emperor.
A Kaiserschmarren is a common Austrian sweet dish. It is served often as a complete meal in itself following a tasty soup. Austrians quite often eat a sweet dish after the soup for lunch. For example Palatschinken - Austrian pancakes filled with hot apricot jam, a Scheiterhaufen - baked layers of apples with raisins and white bread and topped with sugared, stiffly beaten egg whites or, as here, a Kaiserschmarren.

serves 4
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
4 eggs (divided)
a pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons raisins (optional)
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

In a bowl mix milk, salt, flour and egg yolks very good until you have a smooth batter. Seperately beat the egg whites with the sugar until it is stiff. Now combine the batter with the stiffly beaten egg whites. Be careful and just fold it in, don't mix it to well, otherwise the egg whites won't hold, as we say.

In a wide pan melt butter and add raisins. As the butter heats stir it with the raisins and the raisins will absorb a bit of the butter, they will regain their initial grape size.

Now add the Kaiserschmarren batter and stir only a little bit, so that the raisins not only stick on the pan's bottom but also are inside the dough, otherwise the raisins will brown too much. You can of course also just mix the raisins into the batter before you pour it into the hot pan.

Lower the heat and cover the pan. This thick pancake should brown on one side and all will rise a bit now. After two minutes or so lift the pancake a bit with a spatula and have a look. When the pancake is golden to brown colored turn it in the pan and bake on the other side.

When browned and baked tear the pancake into mouth sized pieces with the help of a spatula. Add granulated sugar and on moderate heat let the sugar almost caramelize, stir and serve on a warm plate. Dust with powdered sugar (icing sugar.) Serve cold sweet apple sauce or plum preserves with this Kaiserschmarren.

As you can see we served it with mixed berries that were frozen, I just popped it in the microwave for 3 mins with some sugar.

I borrowed this recipe from a website of an austrian cook and it is authentic and tastes just like we used to have on our skiing hols in austria. As you can see we have another member of the English family hooked on Austrian pancakes.

Lemon Crunch Pie

This is a favorite in the English family because it is a really refreshing dessert. You make a graham cracker base (we traditonally used digestive biscuits in the home land). In a bowl add a tin of condensed milk and the juice of 8 lemons, whip these together. Then add 1/2 a pint of whipping cream and beat it until it becomes fairly stiff. then place in the fridge to set completely and serve all by itself. If you want to know how much we like this dessert, Heather and i have been known to eat a whole half between us in one sitting, it always leaves you wanting another slice.

Italian Chicken Pasta

This is a dish I invented a couple of years back and we decided to put it back on our menu again. I dice 2 chicken breasts and brown them in about a teaspoon of olive oil. Once browned I remove them from the pan and add about another teaspoon of oil and add a finely sliced onion and clove of garlic. Once they are soft I add in 2 cans of diced tomatoes, parsley, basil, oregano and rosemary. I then bring it to a boil and put the chicken back in the sauce, I then season with a little salt and pepper and a a teaspoon of sugar to cut the acid. I then reduce the sauce for about 15-20 mins and taste to ensure it is seasoned. I then add the sauce to some freshly cooked whole wheat thin spaghetti and toss together. We have our parmesan cheese on hand for a couple of sprinkles for taste. This is incredibly tasty and healthy, our kids also loved it as you can see, and it always leaves leftovers for lunch the next day.

Easy, basic, good food.

I always love to cook simple food that just tastes good. The best meals I have had are the ones that are good home cooked simple food. So I cut 2 chicken breasts in half and scored the tops. I rubbed on fresh ground pepper and garlic salt and cooked them under the broiler. I added the same seasoning to a fresh tomato that I halved and put that under the broiler also. I made some very smooth mashed potatoes, I hate lumpy mash so I always cut my spuds into little pieces and boil them to death so that when they are mashed all you need is butter and milk with a little pepper and they are smooth and tasty. I then made some of my Mum's famous onion gravy and brocolli, our households favorite veg. This was a hit with all the family, very easy to make, simple clean flavors and fairly healthy.