In the Bag Detox Special - Deadline Extended!

Due to popular demand we've extended the deadline of this month's 'In the Bag' event. You now have until Sunday 8th February to create a dish and enter it into the event. Happy cooking!

A Week in the Austrian Alps (Part 3)

One lunchtime we headed off up the mountain in a gondola to a restaurant right at the top, so high up you felt you were in the clouds. The views were amazing and with the sun shining brightly it literally felt heavenly. It was in this restaurant that I tried schnitzel, a traditional Austrian dish consisting of a thin steak of veal or pork which is covered in breadcrumbs and fried. It was so good but I have to say perhaps not the best choice for skiing again in the afternoon – I was so full after all that!

















I enjoyed the Austrian food and scenery even more than the skiing and I’d highly recommend the alps as a place to visit even if you don’t ski, or don’t ski much like me. According to tourist websites Saalbach is just as much of a great place to take a holiday in the summer as in the winter and I can certainly see why that would be. Staying in one of the beautiful wooden guest houses and hiking or cycling around the mountains must be simply breathtaking.

A Week in the Austrian Alps (Part 2)

Perhaps it was the cold weather, the exercise and all that fresh air, but I found everything in Austria so appetising. Even the Alpine scenery looked good enough to eat, with its gingerbread houses and Christmas trees dusted with icing sugar. I felt like I was walking on top of a Christmas cake and could take great bites out of everything.







We certainly ate well out there. We had breakfast and dinner each day in the hotel (except for a couple of evenings which I’ll tell you about) and lunched out and about in the resort. The hotel food was fairly basic but good and filling; pretty much what you’d expect from a ski hotel. One of the more memorable dishes was a carrot and honey soup, which was light and surprisingly delicious. I’d like to have a go at recreating it one day - it seemed simple enough; the carrot was grated and surrounded by what I suspect was a vegetable stock with just a touch of honey stirred through.

Lunch was always good, whether a hearty bowl of beef goulash eaten outside in a bar at the bottom of the slopes, a platter of cold meats and cheese or a good old hamburger and chips. Favourite pick-me-ups in the day included delicious apple strudel, which I wish I could have right now, and hot chocolate with rum and cream on top. Oh yes, we ate well.







Rob and I went out for a traditional Austrian meal one evening which we thoroughly enjoyed. We started with soup; Rob had a tomato soup and I had a delicious clear vegetable broth. For main course Rob chose a fantastic Tiroler Gröstl, which consisted of cubed potatoes, sliced beef and bacon cooked and served in a copper pan with a fried egg on top, and I had Tafelspitz: boiled rump of beef (from a local national park) with clear soup, root vegetables, roast potatoes and warm chive sauce. Although boiled beef doesn’t sound particularly appetising, let me tell you it was absolutely delicious.







Another thing I took a liking to was the Austrian beer. I’m not a beer drinker – wine is my drink usually – but this was lovely and light and, best of all, didn’t give me a hangover! It went down very well during the après-ski and a particularly enjoyable (if a little drunken) game of Jenga back at the hotel one night!





Another drink popular with our group was Glühwein, or ‘glowing wine’, which is mulled wine drunk in Germany and Austria and perfect for warming you up when you’re surrounded by all that snow. It was this that we were greeted with on a trip to a mountain restaurant further up in the resort, organised by the ski company for the hotel chef’s night off. When we arrived it was lightly snowing and it was really quite magical and romantic standing outside the restaurant drinking hot mulled wine looking down into the resort as the snow flakes fell. It was the perfect start to a wonderful evening. Like every restaurant and bar we entered, the restaurant was heated so well it was almost glowing and as we unwrapped our layers of clothing we warmed up and felt cosy and at home. The buildings we saw in and around the resort were all true to Austria and quite charming, made with beautiful wood, and this restaurant was no exception. One of the more interesting decorations inside was a rather scary looking creature which our rep explained was a Krampus who, according to Austrian folklore, is a demon who comes after bad children at Christmastime with a whip. It is customary for people to dress up as the Krampus during a Christmas parade through the villages. Christmas in Austria sounds wonderful, with festivals and Christmas markets, but I have to say the Krampus sounds absolutely terrifying, the poor children!





Our meal in the restaurant was just the thing for a hungry party: ribs; corn on the cob and jacket potatoes smothered in soured cream. Dessert was Kaiserschmarr n mit apfelmus: sliced apple pancakes with apple sauce, and it was really, really good. We finished off the meal with a round of Schnapps which warmed us to our toes before we headed off into the cold, crisp night.

Look out for the final part of this post next week.

A Week in the Austrian Alps (Part 1)

I’ve just come back from a fantastic holiday in Saalbach, Austria, where I spent a week skiing, eating, drinking and wrapping up against the bitter cold. I have lots to tell you about what I did and what I ate but for now let me show you some pictures of the beautiful alpine scenery.

In the Bag: Detox Special

OK, so after all that excessive eating and drinking over Christmas who's in need of a detox? Well this month's bag contains just the thing:

Carrots
Celery
Beetroot

Let's get detoxing!

Entry Details
Make a dish using the ingredients and blog about it then send an email with ‘In the Bag in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk by Sunday 8th February with the following information:

• your name
• a link to your post
• a picture of your dish

Rules

Here are the loose rules - but ultimately remember the objective is to have fun whilst highlighting seasonal food:

1. Participants should attempt to use all the ingredients 'in the bag' for that particular month, but may leave one out if they prefer. The dish should be based around the seasonal ingredient, with it acting as a central ingredient.

2. Participants can include any "extra" ingredients that they see fit.

3. Entries should include a link back to the host for that month, and the post should be tagged "In the Bag".

4. Entries can be written any time during the month, as long as the URL is emailed to that month's host before the closing date.

5. Particpants from outside of the UK are most welcome to join in and substitute an item from their own local seasonal produce if necessary.

'In The Bag' is a food event run monthly by 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' and 'Real Epicurean'.

A Glorious Goose for New Year's Day

On New Year’s Day I finally fulfilled a long-held culinary desire: to roast a goose over the festive period. Every year when I watch ‘A Christmas Carol’ or read another wonderful sounding recipe for goose I think I’d love to cook one, but I just can’t bring myself to discard the turkey which I’ve eaten every year for Christmas lunch my whole life. But this year I thought I’d push the boat out and order not only a turkey from my butcher but a goose as well, for New Year’s Day – how decadent!

Rob and I invited the family for the feast but then I became concerned that there wouldn’t actually be enough goose to feed all 8 and a half of us as, although geese are large, they have large cavities and not a great amount of meat comparatively. Also I wasn’t sure what size we would get as the butcher could only give us a rough estimate. To guard against this I decided to also cook a chicken, which would also give the added benefit of me being able to offer an alternative if anyone didn’t like the goose.

Well I certainly needn’t have worried about the size of the goose – it was a very healthy 6kg – or anyone disliking it, but I am glad I cooked the chicken to bump up the meat offering as there was only just enough goose meat to go round. I thought they went rather well together actually, with the white, lighter chicken contrasting nicely against the dark, richer goose meat.

When it came to cooking the goose I pricked it all over to help the delicious fat escape and seasoned it well with salt and pepper. I decided to give it a hot blast for 30 minutes and then cooked it at a lower, but still hot, temperature for another 2 and a half hours and I was really pleased with how it came out. I served it with two stuffings – cranberry and sausage, and sausage, sage and onion – carrots, savoy cabbage and, of course, lots and lots of roast potatoes cooked in all that lovely goose fat which I regularly ladled out of the tray the goose was roasting in. You wouldn’t believe the amount that came out, but I’m not complaining; I still have lots in the fridge destined for more potatoes.

The goose was a real winner; everyone liked it. I thought it tasted a bit like a cross between duck and turkey. It was rich but not overpoweringly so, gamey but not too strong and moist but not fatty. I really enjoyed it and it certainly was festive when I brought it out in all its glory. I’m looking forward to cooking one again over the next Christmas period.

A Year in Pictures

Well the champagne has been popped, the glasses have been raised and here we are in 2009! I'm feeling very optimistic about this new year - 2008 was a generally a very good year for me and I hope that 2009 will be even better. But before I start looking forward I thought I'd take one last glance over my shoulder at the year that was, culinary speaking. So here is 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' 2008, in pictures (click on each photograph to view the associated blog post).

Wishing you all a very happy new year!

January



February



March



April




May



June



July



August



September



October



November



December