Krautsalat (German cabbage salad)

Krautsalat is one of the things S always buys and eats loads of when he visits Germany. I’d never tried to make it for him before but we had an excess of cabbage and it seemed like a good idea. He’d been into caraway recently so I though it should be the kind with caraway in it. This recipe seemed like just the thing.

We had a hyper German dinner, with this and some boil in the bag knoedel from Aldi - surprisingly good boiled, cooked, then fried in slices with onion and mushrooms. S was v enthusiastic about both, I should make krautsalat again... maybe I should even try making knoedel from scratch?!

1 kg white cabbage 

1 tbsp salt 

2 tbsp sugar 

3 onions 

1 tbsp caraway seeds 

140 ml sunflower oil 

150 ml white wine vinegar 

1 tbsp mustard (I used whole grain)

Clean the cabbage and remove the stem. Slice thinly and place in a large bowl. Add the salt and sugar and mix with hands for 5-10 min, until the cabbage goes a bit floppy. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for approx. 24 hours.

The next day, peel and thinly slice the onions. Heat a medium saucepan over high heat and toast the caraway seeds briefly. Add oil, vinegar and onions to the pan and let cook gently until onions are soft. Add the mustard and mix to combine. Remove from the heat and let cool a bit.

Take the cabbage out of the fridge, add the onion mixture, and it is ready to eat. Keeps in the fridge well for a few days.

This is totally perfect, an excellent use of cabbage. It's quite quick and easy even though you have to remember to start it the day before you want to eat it. I did try making knoedel at some point, they were ok, need practice!

Real Seelen

I first made something like Seelen for S (from this recipe) a few years ago, and he loved them! He didn't stop talking about them, and I made my approximation a few times since he liked them so much. They are regional bread from where he grew up in Germany, and apparently they are hard to get even elsewhere in Germany.
But I could never track down white spelt flour in the USA, not even in the fanciest grocery shops (or Eastern European ones). Not long after coming here, we went to Lidl (another German thing S loves), and found white spelt flour there! And pretty cheap too. So we decided that real Seelen were in order.

They don't take too many ingredients or special equipment, so it seemed do-able, even without my own kitchen. Finding the other ingredients was actually kind of a challenge. We had salt, that was fine and easy. I thought caraway might be easy too as it seems quite popular - there is a caraway seed cheese I see everywhere and want to try, but it only comes in gigantic blocks so haven't yet. But we didn't find caraway in any of the grocery shops we checked. The Turkish market had a bewildering selection of spices though, leading to a fairly lengthy debate between S+I over whether cumin (spidskommen) and caraway (kommen) seeds were the same or not (they're not! but he wouldn't believe it!). Anyway, we got the caraway there, and the next challenge was yeast, Again, I checked near the flour on the shelves of various grocery shops, until S found some in the fridge in a wholefoods shop - of course! Fresh yeast is the way here, dried yeast seems to be hard to find.

So, real seelen - not only with white spelt flour, but also with fresh yeast!

(makes 12 - I doubled the recipe as I had 1000g flour, 42g yeast, and no scales... and S loves seelen)

1000g white spelt flour
42g fresh yeast
600 ml warm water
4 tsp salt

For sprinkling: caraway seeds and coarse sea salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and knead all ingredients for about 10 minutes to get soft and fairly sticky dough.  Leave to rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, kneading briefly after 20 min and after 40 min.

When the dough has risen turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and split in two.  With wet hands shape one piece into a square of about 20 cm.  Use a wet knife to cut the dough into six strips. Transfer the strips onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.  Repeat with the other half of the dough (you'll need two baking sheets). Irregular shapes are fine, even good.  Cover with a clean dish towel and leave to rise for another 20 minutes.  Heat the oven to about 240C / 460F and place a bowl of water on the bottom shelf.

When the Seelen are ready to go into the oven wet them again with your hands and sprinkle with caraway seeds and coarse sea salt.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.


They definitely look different -lighter, more golden, with a very slight sheen. Perhaps a little more dense. But the taste is dominated by the caraway and salt so I find it hard to make out a difference in taste from the spelt. No complaints though, and it took us only two days to demolish the whole lot!

Apple and fresh cranberry chutney

I remembered fresh cranberries are in season, bought a bag, and commenced experiments. Raw they are very sharp - they need some kind of sweetness or dilution. I baked: cranberry and apple crumble, cranberry and pumpkin muffins. Wanted to go somewhere savoury with the rest of the bag. Considered some ideas from the Cranberry Slam at Egleston Farmers' Market. The most interesting was somewhat complicated, with several steps including fermentation. I decided to borrow some of the flavours but just make a chutney - that way my savoury cranberry stuff would keep for a while, into times when fresh cranberries are nowhere to be found. I based it on this recipe, tweaking the spices and flavour additions.

(made 2 small jars - sensible to scale up if you have a full bag of cranberries!)

450 g apples (~ 2 large ones), peeled and chopped into chunks
135 g onions (~2 small ones), peeled and chopped or sliced
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~2 cm piece root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
zest of 1 little orange
1/4 tsp caraway seed
1/4 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp coriander seed
1/4 tsp mustard seed
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
75 ml cider vinegar
150 g sugar
150 g fresh cranberries
 
 Put all ingredients except the cranberries in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for ~50 min, until everything is reduced, thickened and broken down. Add the cranberries and cook for ~10 min more - try not to let them all burst. Spoon into sterilised jars, seal while hot and then let cool before labelling. Tastes best if allowed to mature for ~1 month before opening.


This looks very pretty and festive, with seeds, strands of orange zest and ruby cranberries pressed up against the glass. Haven't tasted the mature version yet but am hoping it is not too sweet.

Edit: well, it is a bit sweet (although very pink-red and pretty). The explosions of whole cranberries are really delicious, same with the spice seeds, but the background is mainly like applesauce and just a bit too sweet. Cooking apples instead of eating apples would probably be a good idea, if possible. But anyway, this did go very well with nut loaf for Christmas.

Beetroot soup

We had a lot of beetroot, thanks to A. They were a different variety than the last lot: the shape was longer and the colour lighter. After the watermelon radish I half expected to cut into them to find something surprising (Chioggia?), but they were just plain old beets. Not that I am complaining, I love the good old deep pink ones the best. I have been reminding myself to save some for something Valentines pink, and made some into dip at the weekend, but most of the rest became soup last night, in a flurry of slow-cooked comfort food making that also featured mixed grains and sweet and sour red lentils. It's not incredibly cold any more (back up to -3C), but the constant chilliness is starting to drag a little, despite it no longer being January and it almost being still light at 5pm...

S suggested Borscht at the weekend, so I wanted to do something a bit like a borscht. I knew most were with meat, didn't know that most also contain cabbage, carrots etc. Fancied something a little simpler and totally beetroot-focused, and came across this recipe - based it on that.

2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp caraway seeds
3/4 tsp brown mustard seeds
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
2 small onions, peeled and chopped
1 lb fresh beetroot, peeled and grated
1-2 bay leaves
4 cups veg stock
1 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp dark soy sauce
salt+pepper

horseradish to serve - or horseradish yoghurt (recommended! 4 tsp grated fresh horseradish mixed with 1/2 cup plain yoghurt)

Heat oil in a large saucepan with a lid. Add seeds and fry until fragrant and starting to pop (about a minute). Add onion, cover and cook til softened. Add beetroot, bay leaves and stock. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add vinegar, soy sauce and salt and pepper, taste and add a little more if needed. Serve hot, with a tsp or so of prepared horseradish from a jar swirled into the middle.


Something simple and earthy becomes something vibrant and wonderful with the addition of vinegar, caraway and horseradish - I can see why borscht is so popular and so divisive. Now I am daydreaming about more of this for dinner, this time with gnocchi cooked in it and chopped fresh coriander on top... And I did that, and it felt like the best idea for a quick, warming, light Winter supper. I should really make soup more often.

Rye and black pepper loaf

I bought some rye flour the other day and got excited about bread baking prospects. I browsed Dan Lepard's recipes on the Guardian webpage (I am in love with his recipes: they are just the right mix of adventurous, interesting, simple and downright tasty) until I came across this one. The mixture of rye, black pepper, caraway and poppy seeds sounded like something I should love 100%, and the use of coffee intrigued me.

325ml regular black coffee, warm or cold
150g rye flour
2 tsp crushed black pepper
2 tsp anise, fennel or caraway seeds (used caraway)
1 tsp dry instant yeast
1½ tsp salt
325g strong white bread flour, plus extra for shaping
fake milk and poppy seeds, to finish

Put the coffee in a saucepan along with half the rye flour, the pepper and your seeds of choice. Whisk, heat until thick and just boiling, then spoon into a mixing bowl and set aside to cool until warm. Add the yeast, mix well, add the salt, the remaining rye flour and the white flour, then mix to a smooth dough. Cover, leave for 10 minutes, then knead for 10 seconds. Cover, repeat twice more at 10-minute intervals, then leave for 30 minutes.

Line a baking tray with nonstick baking parchment. Using a little flour, pat out the dough into a 20cm square, then roll up tightly. Place the dough seam side down on the tray, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 45 minutes. Brush the top with soy milk, sprinkle with poppy seeds, cut six diagonal slashes across the top and bake at 220C/425F/gas mark 7 for 40-45 minutes.


I had a brain freeze and got utterly confused about how long it had been proving for - there's a good chance it had not been long enough. It is still lovely though: the black pepper, caraway, poppy seeds and darkness go very well together, and very well with the celeriac and porcini soup I made at the same time.

Apple, treacle and caraway muffins

As soon as I saw this recipe I was dying to make it: apple, treacle and caraway seeds are three of my favourite things right now, it sounded like a wonderful combination, and Dan Lepard's recipes are almost always gorgeous. I had all the ingredients (more or less) at home (including eggs as I am picking up Alvin's CSA while he is in Borneo), so all I needed was time.

(makes 12)

120ml veg oil (or 50ml oil plus 100g melted butter)
50g treacle (used blackstrap molasses)
175g soft brown sugar, any sort
3 medium eggs (used 2 large ones plus a bit of linseed-water mix)
3 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp caraway seeds
150g plain flour
150g spelt or rye flour (used wholemeal as had no spelt)
2 tsp baking powder
3 small apples, peeled, cored and diced
Flaked almonds, to finish

Heat the oven to 190C/375F/GM5. Beat the oil, treacle and sugar until smooth, then beat in the eggs one at a time, until evenly mixed though. Add the vanilla and caraway, mix well, then add the flours and baking powder, and stir just to combine. Fold in the apples, divide the mixture between lined muffin cups, filling them almost to the top, and scatter almonds on top. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and carefully lift the muffins from the tray and on to a rack, so they don't sweat as they cool.


These were every bit as great as I hoped. The caraway, vanilla and treacle all seemed like quite large quantities of quite strongly flavoured ingredients, but together they meld and make each other brilliant, backing up the soft, sweet apple perfectly. Somehow seasonal, with the treacle and apple and very British caraway - perhaps I'll make them next Bonfire Night.

Savoury caraway-wholemeal muffins

While looking for the carrot muffin recipe, I came across this one and thought it sounded interesting - why not make double the muffins for the same amount of washing up?

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1/2 cup plain flour (original recipe 1 cup rye flour and 1 cup wholemeal)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1/4 cup veg oil
2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 1/2 cups almond milk mixed with 1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Heat the oven to 375F. Prepare muffin tins.

Mix the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl with a fork. Stir in the cornmeal and the caraway seeds.

In a separate bowl, beat together the linseed mixture, oil, blackstrap molasses and milk mixture. Add wet to dry and mix until just combined.

Spoon into muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes, until lightly browned and a skewer comes out clean.


I really like these - the darkness and caraway are great, and they are proving a handy lunch addition - I keep them in the freezer and throw a couple in my lunch bag if I'm short: they take an hour or so to defrost. Perhaps another time I will try with the prescribed rye flour.

Chard, caraway and pomegranate molasses

One way or another, we came by a lot of chard recently - from Ang+Brian's Yard Birds; from Alvin's CSA extras and generosity, from my balcony pot...  My go-to, quick and tasty approach to any dark leafy greens (chard, spinach, beet greens etc) is to saute them with some garlic, but having gone through a few bunches like that I was feeling some variations.  Caraway was calling (probably partly because of this recipe), and I was thinking of making a chard, caraway and rice filo package (similar to this one), but then thought 'hang on, that would mean switching on the oven, bad move, how about I just do the rice and chard and not bother with the filo or oven?'.  So that's what I did.  The pomegranate molasses was a last-minute thought - I feel like chard needs a hint of something sweet-tart to bring its flavour out (could also try tamarind, or lemon/lime juice, or balsamic vinegar).

1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 bunch chard, stalks separated from leaves and both chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp caraway seeds
salt+pepper
2 tsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp toasted flaked almonds (optional)

Prep the vegetables then heat the oil in a large frying pan with a lid.  Add the onion and chard stalks and cook at medium with the lid on for a few minutes until they start to soften, then add the garlic and caraway seeds and cook for a few more minutes, until it is all quite well softened.  Remove the lid and cook for a minute or two more to brown a little.  Then add the roughly chopped chard leaves and salt and pepper, cover again and cook for a few more minutes, removing the lid after the chard begins to wilt and continuing to cook until the chard is all wilted but still a good strong green colour.  Finally, add the pomegranate molasses (and almonds) and taste for seasoning.



I made some basmati rice (1 cup) as I cooked the chard.  I bunged some cumin and anise seeds into the rice as it cooked, because it sprang to mind how much I liked the cumin in the rice from the Indian take-out place we always go to in Concord NH when we are up there at Pete's.  I also added a little (~2 tsp) coconut oil to the rice at the end of cooking.  Both seeds and oil worked well, and the chard / caraway / pomegranate molasses / rice mixture was definitely a winner, flavour-wise.  I did wonder if it could do with something a bit crunchy, so I'm thinking the filo package version could be bang on (almond addition also working on this).

Seelen (Swabian bread rolls with caraway and salt)

Another German baking effort, following a recipe from the same website as the last couple.  I mentioned to S that I was thinking of making Seelen, and he was super enthusiastic.  Apparently they are a forgotten favourite of his, and you only really get them in the Schwäbische Alb region, where he grew up.

500g white spelt flour (didn't have - used ~400g plain flour and ~100g wholemeal flour)
20g fresh yeast (or one sachet dry)
300 ml warm water
2 tsp salt

For sprinkling: caraway seeds and coarse sea salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and knead all ingredients for about 10 minutes to get soft and fairly sticky dough.  Leave to rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, kneading briefly after 20 min and after 40 min.

When the dough has risen turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  With wet hands shape it into a square of about 20 cm.  Use a wet knife to cut the dough into six strips.  Transfer the strips onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.  Irregular shapes are fine, even good.  Cover with a clean dish towel and leave to rise for another 20 minutes.  Heat the oven to about 240C / 460F and place a bowl of water on the bottom shelf.

When the Seelen are ready to go into the oven wet them again with your hands and sprinkle with caraway seeds and coarse sea salt.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.


These came out pretty good.  S said they taste almost like the real Seelen - the only obvious difference was the top is usually more golden and shiny.  Probably the lack of spelt flour didn't help (my best guess was the Russian store, they only had wheat and rye flour) - perhaps Amazon.

Greens, chickpeas and tamarind

I'd been looking at this recipe for a while - caraway and tamarind are two of the ingredients I am most into at the moment.  But hadn't had that much chard recently.  Used a mixture of chard, beet greens, kale and a little large-leaf spinach, since that was what I had in the fridge / in the plant pot on the balcony, crying out to be used before we leave on Thursday.  Apart from that I mostly stuck to the ingredients, although played pretty loose with the method and quantities.

4 tbsp seedless tamarind
400g swiss chard (stems and leaves), cut into 1cm slices
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp whole caraway seeds
1½ tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
1 tsp tomato paste (didn't have, so used extra tinned tomatoes and reduced more)
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
350ml water
1½ tbsp caster sugar
400g cooked chickpeas
1½ tsp whole coriander seeds, toasted and ground to a powder
salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 big handful coriander leaves

Put the onion, caraway and olive oil in a large, heavy-based pan and sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden.  Add the tomato paste (if using) and cook, stirring, for about a minute.  Add the tomatoes, water, sugar, tamarind and ground coriander, and season.  Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, adding chickpeas after 10 minutes and greens after 20min.  Adjust consistency and seasoning.  Finally, add the lemon juice, and serve with rice and coriander.


Is good.  The tamarind gives nice depth of flavour, while the caraway is surprisingly subtle... yet exciting!  Chickpeas, tomatoes and greens are otherwise quite a tried-and-tested combination.

Caraway and orange bread

I've been wanting to do something with caraway seeds for a while - felt like they were missing from the spice cupboard.  Found some in the Indian store at the weekend, and was inspired by our epic vegan thanksgiving feast to try making bread with them.  This one sounded fancy, so I went with it.  On reflection, the method is weird, another time I will use a method that's worked better for me in the past.

3/4 cup water

2 tbsp brown sugar

Zest of 1 orange, grated

1 tbsp marg

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 1/2 tsp yeast

2 cups bread flour

Heat water, sugar, orange, marg and caraway seeds in a small saucepan for 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Once the warm mixture is lukewarm, mix it with the yeast and 1 cup of flour.  Knead (it will be sticky), and let rise for 1 hour.

Add the rest of the flour (1 more cup) slowly and knead well.  Shape, lay on baking sheet lined with paper, and prove for 1 hour.

 

Bake at 180C / 350F for 50-60 min (until sounds hollow when bottom is knocked).  Let cool before eating (warm is OK).

 

 

The caraway-orange-bread combination was interesting and worked - nice mix of sharp spice and sweet orange.  But the method was odd - the second cup of flour was hard to get in, and the loaf ended up quite small, seemed dry, and didn't rise very well.  Looking at the pics on the original site perhaps a dense crumb was the intention, and it certainly wasn't inedibly dense or un-risen, but think I might prefer to make it lighter next time - perhaps using the method from the olive bread, or trying rolls?

Mung bean and carrot salad

Mung beans are something that usually sits in the cupboard and I only use for sprouting.  I felt this was me being somewhat unimaginative - this recipe suggested a good use.

140g (~1 cup) dried green mung beans
60ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds  (didn't have, so used 1 1/2 tsp of cumin plus 1 1/2 tsp fennel)
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tbsp white wine vinegar (didn't have - used cider vinegar instead)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp salt
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm batons
½ tsp sugar
20g coriander, chopped
Grated zest of 1 lemon

140g feta, broken into chunks

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil, add the beans and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until they are cooked but still retain a bite. Drain, shake well and transfer to a large bowl.

About three minutes before the beans are done, heat two tablespoons of oil in a small frying pan and add the seeds and chopped garlic. Cook on medium heat, stirring often, until the seeds start to pop – about three minutes – then pour, hot oil and all, over the beans, along with the vinegar, chilli and half a teaspoon of salt.

While the beans are cooking, lay the carrots in a pan large enough for them to form a shallow layer on the bottom.  Pour over about 150ml water – the carrots should be nearly submerged – plus two tablespoons of oil and half a teaspoon each of sugar and salt.  Bring to a boil and keep on a high heat for eight minutes, by which time the water should have evaporated and the carrots become slightly caramelised but still crunchy. Drain some liquid, if needed.  Add the carrots to the bean bowl, along with the coriander and lemon zest, (and feta if using) and stir gently.