1. food and drink
2. desserts and baking

P16
At Home
April 7 – 13, 2011
The Epoch Times
Getting an apple strudel diploma
By JOYCE L.
FAIOLA
By SUSAN HALLETT
According to my Larousse Gastronomique,
strudel is the national cake of Bavaria, a
state in the southeast of Germany. It is
“made of noodle pastry with extra butter
and rolled out as thinly as possible. It is
then spread with diced apples, butter, and
chopped almonds, and flavoured with cinnamon and a little brandy.”
The Viennese believe apple strudel is “one
of the best-known dishes in the Viennese
cuisine repertoire.” True fans of this famous
dessert will be delighted to know they can
take a master class at Schonbrunn Palace’s
Café Residenz in Vienna. Graduates of the
one-hour seminar, which is followed by 90
minutes of baking/packaging time, will receive diplomas and be entitled to call themselves Viennese Strudel Bakers.
Classes are given for groups of up to 25
people in German or English. Prices start
at 21 Euros (around $25-$30) per person
plus a flat rate for seminars starting from
190 Euros.
This is a European recipe using measurements of weight and not easily converted to metric or imperial measurements. For accurate results a food scale is
recommended.
Old-Viennese apple strudel recipe
Recipe Courtesy of Schonbrunn Palace
Strudel
• 250 g flour -Type 700 (See editor’s
note)
• 2 g salt
• 50 g egg
• 100 g lukewarm water
• 20 g oil
An instructor at a master class at Schonbrunn Palace’s Café Residenz in Vienna. Copyright Fotostudio Schuster, courtesy of Hofbackstube
Schönbrunn
Filling:
• 50 g butter
• 100 g butter-breadcrumbs
• 140 g sugar
• 10 g cinnamon
• 170 g raisins
• 10 g lemon juice
• 1100 g peeled sour apples, cored and
sliced
• A shot of rum
• Extra butter
Mix all ingredients to a soft dough and
knead it until it loosens from hands and table.
Tip: Form it into a ball and let it rest in vegetable oil for 30 minutes. Put the dough on
a flour-covered linen cloth and roll it into a
rectangular shape. Extend it on the back of
your hands to a wafer thin layer.
Heat the butter in a pan, add the breadcrumbs and roast them until they take on a
gold-brown shine. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Mix all ingredients together.
Put the filling in the extended layer of
dough, cut off the thick ends and roll it carefully with the cloth. Put the strudel onto a
buttered baking tray and bake it in the oven
at 190º C (375º F) until it takes on a goldbrown shine. Tip: Put butter on the strudel
as soon as you take it out of the oven.
Chives: The easy, enjoyable herb
By BRENDA HYDE
do not need fertilizer, mulch, or extra
water. They are self-sufficient little plants
that only need to be watered during dry
periods.
Chives are one of the easiest and most enjoyable herbs you can grow. They are the
first to pop up in the spring, and are often
ready to harvest before the last frost.
The flowers are wonderful, spicy little
globes of purple that can be used in salads. The plant is a perennial and returns
each year. It grows in full sun, but can
handle a small amount of shade. Chives
can be grown from seeds, which are very
tiny and do take a while to germinate
and grow.
The best approach is to buy one or two
plants at a garden centre (not the grocery store), and plant them in a sunny
spot with good soil. I have found chives
CHIVES IN COOKING
Chives are best used fresh. They can also
be frozen in small plastic bags and used
right out of the freezer. Before I started
gardening with herbs, I only thought of
chives for topping baked potatoes, but
they are good for so much more!
You can add them to scrambled eggs
or any egg dish, dips, sauces, breads, biscuits, and of course any potato dishes.
The following recipes are easy and versatile. You can substitute margarine for the
butter if you need to. Remember, these
toppings are savoury, so you
don’t need much. The great
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HERB SAUCE
Makes 125 ml (1/2 cup)
sauce
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) butter
• 25 ml (2 tbsp) lemon
juice
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) chopped
chives
• 1 ml (1/4 tsp) oregano
• 1 ml (1/4 tsp) salt
• Dash pepper
Melt butter, add other ingredients, and
simmer for 3–5 minutes. Pour over cooked
vegetables.
HERB BUTTER
Makes 250 ml (1 cup) butter
• 250 ml (1 cup) butter
• 25 ml (2 tbsp) parsley
• 25 ml (2 tbsp) chives
• 1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
Mince herbs and mix all with roomtemperature butter by hand or with mixer.
Chill for at least 3 hours before serving.
Wonderful with vegetables, eggs, fish, or
bread.
SPICY SOUR CREAM
Makes 250 ml (1 cup)
• 250 ml (1 cup) sour cream, light, nonfat, or regular
• 1/2 clove garlic, minced
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) chopped chives
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) basil
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) chopped sage
• Salt and coarsely ground pepper to
taste
Mix together all ingredients. Herbs
may be varied but must be fresh for this
recipe.
HERB CHEESE SPREAD
Makes 550 ml (2 1/4 cups), or 36 servings (15
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Editor’s note: European flour is rated
by the amount of ash content and Type
700 flour is difficult to find in North
America. An option would be to use frozen puff pastry as an alternative.
Susan Hallett is an award-winning writer
and editor who has written for The Beaver,
The Globe & Mail, Wine Tidings and Doctor’s Review among many others. Email:
[email protected].
ml or 1 tbsp each)
• 2–250 g (8 oz) cream cheese,
softened
• 50 ml (1/4 cup) butter, softened
• 25 ml (2 tbsp) chopped chives
• 25 ml (2 tbsp) minced parsley
• 5 ml (1 tsp) garlic powder
• 5 ml (1 tsp) fresh thyme (or 2 ml or 1/2
tsp dried)
Beat together cream cheese and butter
until fluffy. Add remaining items, beat well.
Place into a covered container. Serve with
crackers or bagels.
HERBED BAKED POTATOES
Makes 4 servings
• 4 medium potatoes
• 5 ml (1 tsp) salt
• 40 ml (3 tbsp) melted butter
• 40 ml (3 tbsp) chopped fresh herbs such
as parsley, thyme, chives (or 15 ml or 3 tsp
dried)
• 50 ml (4 tbsp) grated cheddar cheese
• 23 ml (1 1/2 tbsp) Parmesan cheese
Scrub and rinse potatoes. Cut potatoes
into thin slices but not all the way through.
Put potatoes in a baking dish. Fan them
slightly. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with
butter. Sprinkle with herbs.
Bake potatoes for 55 minutes at 180º C
(350º F). Remove from oven. Sprinkle with
cheeses and bake for another 10 minutes
until lightly browned, cheeses are melted,
and potatoes are tender. Check with a
fork.
Brenda is editor of oldfashionedliving.com
where you will find more herb and recipe features. Permission to reprint article given by
Momsmenu.com.
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Unlike Nora
Ephron,
whose newest
tome
claims
“I
Remember
Nothing,” I
re m e mb e r
everything.
Nora, who, like all New Yorkers, is self-absorbed (I know about this because I am an
ex- New Yawka), depressed me so much with
her book “I Feel Bad About My Neck” that I
bought 10 turtlenecks just so I wouldn’t have
to see my aging chicken neck.
Aging—it’s in our genes. (For some of us,
it’s also in our jeans). I’ve almost given up red
meat, booze (except champagne), and all fat
except anything with omega-3, and I’m into
melatonin.
As we age, our bodies secrete less of the
sleep hormone melatonin, which is responsible for inducing the deep REM sleep (follow
me here), which in turn acts as the trigger in
producing the cell-repairing hormones found
in young bodies. The reason for swallowing
melatonin, therefore, is more REM sleep
equals more youth-enhancing hormones.
Like Ms. Ephron, I could use a whole suitcase full of youth-enhancing hormones right
about now because I refuse to go quietly into
the night.
The other morning, about 4 a.m. (after
50, you’re asleep by 9 p.m. and wake up
hungry while it’s still pitch-black outside), I
watched part of a PBS show about aging and
all the things that happen to the aging brain.
Wouldn’t you know, these doctors were absolutely right—I hope Nora saw the show.
Anyway, the bottom line is that our shortterm memory starts to falter, but memories
of our earliest years come flooding back with
nauseating clarity. Suddenly, I remembered
that kid in first grade who stole my peanut
butter-and-fluff sandwich and substituted it
for his smelly egg salad.
Not only did I remember what he did, but
I also remember his name—Alan Berman!
This was proof positive that I was in the second stage of aging. (The first is denial.)
All that day, I kept remembering the smallest, most insignificant things. This total recall
seems to involve clothes and food too. I can
remember exactly what I was wearing when I
met my first husband, and what I was thinking when I put the outfit on.
I recalled my favourite Easter dress of palegreen, frothy lace with the pink silk ribbon
at the waist, which I wore when I was 8 and
in which I played softball after church. I can
vividly relive that delicious feeling of rounding second base in my patent leather Mary
Janes.
I can remember my favourite camp shorts
(made from soft, red-plaid cotton) with a
matching white sleeveless blouse with a Peter
Pan collar trimmed in the same plaid.
I remember my first babysitting customer
and how every night I talked on the phone to
my boyfriend (yes, Alan Berman again—I
liked his chutzpah) and devoured every piece
of chocolate in the house while Andy Williams albums played endlessly.
When I was 6, I was the neighbourhood
errand girl, walking to the little corner grocery store for all my neighbours and wheeling back the goods on their lists in my red
wagon. This is how I earned my candy and
popcorn money. No one ever got an allowance
in those days. We kids never even knew that
word existed!
It sure was great being a kid. Thanks for the
memories, and I look forward to more.
Humourist and freelance scribe Joyce Faiola
is a consultant and designer for the hospitality
industry and lives in New England. She is searching for an agent and publisher for her hilarious
nonfiction book “The Hot Seat: The Unsavory
Life of a Restaurant Consultant.” Her e-mail is
[email protected].
Fa lun D a fa
TRUTH COMPASSION TOLERANCE
...an ancient qigong practice
for mind and body
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