I love the taste of elderflowers and as most likely mentioned before I like foraging for edible plants. As soon as I spot the first delicate white elderflower blossoms in one of the parks or gardens here in Vienna, I know it is time to hunt for my favourite wild plant. Elderflower cordial is a must, but this year I went slightly overboard and collected enough elderflowers to not only restock my syrup supplies but also to try something new: elderflower jelly.
I have been making bread for some time now, but when I realised I never tried to make pretzel buns before, I had to start a little pretzel experiment. And it was actually quite successful.
I highly enjoy foraging – hunting for edible plants and fruits in the woods and meadows. My favourite hunting grounds for edible plants here in Vienna are the Steinhofgründe. This large area of meadows, woodlands but also some old fruit trees is one of the natural recreation areas in Vienna and a great place to go for a walk or to enjoy a picnic on a sunny day.
After a long winter, we all look forward to spring again. Apart from warmer temperatures and longer hours of daylight, I long for the return of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. For me green asparagus is the spring vegetable I always look forward to the most.
In my opinion green asparagus should simply be seared in a bit of olive oil and seasoned with salt and lemon juice. Prepared this way it is a versatile side dish but can also be added to pasta or risotto dishes. For this light salad, the asparagus is paired up with eggs, cottage cheese and sprouts.
Officially it is spring and the warm weather of the last few weeks had us thinking winter is indeed over. April in Austria however usually brings back cold temperatures for a few days. This week it was even snowing again – the perfect weather for a soup to warm you up.
Especially a broth made from beef and served with various dumplings or noodles is a traditional Austrian dish. My favourite dumplings for soup are “Grießnockerl” – semolina dumplings – however, I prefer vegetable broth instead of the beef broth.
I was asked to come up with a recipe for a leek salad (Lauchsalat in German) by my friends at lauchsalat. To be clear right from the start, their blog is not dedicated to this one particular dish – the guys at lauchsalat are rather committed to sport and share their experience doing triathlon. Where does leek fit in there? You can find an explanation on their blog.
But let’s get back to cooking – a leek salad it should be. I was a bit skeptical in the beginning – leek salad is not necessarily a popular and highly requested recipe. But I also like to challenge myself – so: challenge accepted!
This brioche bun is a very traditional Easter treat in Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. Its origin however lies in Northern Italy. In contrast to the Austrian Easter tradition though, the Italian pinza is a traditional Christmas treat.
