Asparagus, Beans & Burrata with Lemon
One of the most satisfying experiences for me as a cook is using the ingredients that I have right on hand in my kitchen and whatever fresh produce is in the fridge and on the counter and then spontaneously turning these finds into an utterly scrumptious dish. No planning, no overthinking, just playing around with what I have right in front of me. That’s pure joy, creativity, and improvisation, but also frugal efficiency. This is my favorite way of cooking at the moment, especially around noon.
With a dish in mind that I enjoyed in Rome a while back - burrata, olive oil, and a generous amount of lemon zest - I only had to add a few handfuls of asparagus, beans, and peas from my fridge, blanch them first (crisp and al dente, not soft!) to turn this Roman starter into a proper meal. A plate full of vegetables (or fruit even), crowned with creamy burrata and freshened up with lemon is quick to prepare and tempting for lunch and dinner. Although this dish would have perfectly fit into my soon (kind of) to be published 3rd book, this recipe won’t be in there. I just came up with it now, but it captures the vibe of my new book NOON better than any words can possibly do. So I’m sharing it with you here on the blog to show you what this book is about and why it was and still is such joy to work on it (I’m currently finishing the German translation).
NOON is about simple recipes that are fun to prepare and to eat. It’s about food that makes our mind, soul, and body happy; food that is nourishing and comforting and that gives us energy for the rest of the day. However, while it pleases the body, there’s no reason why our lunchtime shouldn’t be just as exciting as our dinner.
“As someone who eschews breakfast and counts down the hours to lunch, NOON is right up my proverbial alley. Peters’s recipes showcase the power of food to excite, to create a mood, or to transform a situation as much as to nourish the body. The joy of a midday feast is something within our reach with this beautiful book.”
―Helen Goh, co-author of Sweet
When I started writing NOON in January 2022, I noticed that midday is the time of the day when I focus on my own needs rather than thinking about what I’d love to cook for and share with others. This makes lunch, the preparation but also indulging in it, the ultimate form of self-care. It’s a break that gives us time for ourselves and our own needs. Every day. That’s a great gift.
The 115 recipes in the book circle very much around vegetables but there are also meat and seafood dishes. What they all have in common is that they are colorful, with layers of flavors and texture, sometimes they surprise with an unusual combination, or with tips and tricks to make our midday break tastier yet not fussier. The recipes in NOON help put a spotlight onto a meal that is often neglected in our busy schedules.
And we have a cover! I’m in love with it and with the recipe that we chose for it: Ada’s pink Polish Chłodnik Soup.
NOON will be out on September 5th in English (published by Chronicle Books) and on September 20th in German (published by Prestel, luckily, with the same title). If you’re as excited about it as I am, it would be great and very helpful if you pre-order, you can find the links here or pre-order worldwide at your local bookstore. These days, with shifts and changes in the publishing world, book pre-orders have become essential for authors. So your help and support has a great impact on the book and which course its journey will take, even before it’s been published.
“Meike Peters’s NOON is a delicious contemplation of how food can bring pleasure and comfort any time of the day. Her vibrant vegetable- and fruit-packed recipes are colorful, enticing, crave-worthy, and completely doable at lunchtime. Peters’s book serves as a reminder that we should all aim to bring balance to our busy days and savor the small moments around this oft-forgotten meal.”
―Hetty Lui McKinnon, food writer and cookbook author
In September / October I will be on a NOON book tour (you can find updates about the tour here). In New York you can join me for a talk with Hetty McKinnon at Rizzoli Bookstore and in London I’ll have a ticketed event at Hanna Geller’s Building Feasts with a conversation with Helen Goh (tickets will be available soon). Before I’ll let you enjoy today’s recipe of Asparagus, Beans, and Burrata with Lemon, I will share a little more about NOON with you. I already wrote about it in a previous post (you can read it here), but this book came with a lesson:
When I had the unexpected idea - or rather the complete vision for NOON within a few days - I had no publishing deal yet and the early feedback to my idea was rather hesitant. I was told that people want cookbooks for dinner, not for lunch. But somehow my instinct strongly told me to stubbornly move on with it and not change a thing. So I started cooking and taking pictures and did nothing but this for about two months. Only a week before I was done shooting the recipes, I got a little nervous and started talking to publishers again.
Long story short: all of a sudden I kept getting offers but most luckily, my editor of my first two books, Holly La Due, picked up on the idea. Now editorial director at Princeton Architectural Press, whose cookbook department had just become a part of Chronicle Books, Holly pitched NOON to Chronicle for the fall of 2023 (usually this would be far too tight but I was impatient and wanted it out as soon as possible). Serendipitously, Chronicle jumped on the idea of a lunch book and, as another book had just dropped out of their program, NOON took its place, scheduled for the fall of 2023.
When I got the message from Holly on March 26th 2022, two months after I had first shared my idea with her, I had no idea that from then on, everything would smoothly fall into place. Sometimes we really have to sit back and wait and do nothing - or just cook recipes and take pictures of them anyway - and everything will come together exactly how it should. It’s so easy to say though once we know how the story turned out and so hard to do while we have nothing but our gut feeling.
Thank you for following my book journey for the 3rd time!
Meike xxx
NOON: Simple Recipes for Scrumptious Midday Meals and More
YOU CAN PRE-ORDER NOON HERE
Support local: pre-order from your neighborhood bookstore
Asparagus, Beans and Burrata with Lemon
The vegetables don’t need to be warm so you can prepare them in advance. You can even keep them in then fridge overnight and assemble right before you want to enjoy your lunch.
Feel free to adapt this recipe to the seasons, thinking of juicy fruit and bitter radicchio or raw fennel in summer or early autumn.
Serves 1
2 white or green asparagus stalks, trimmed
1 small handful green beans
1 small handful flat beans
1 small handful fresh or frozen peas
110g / 4 ounces burrata or mozzarella di bufala
olive oil
freshly grated lemon zest
freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1/2 large lemon)
flaky sea salt
black pepper
ciabatta or baguette, for serving
Peel the white asparagus; green asparagus only needs to be trimmed.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the white asparagus for about 7 minutes or until al dente (green asparagus needs about 3 minutes). Leave the pot on the heat and, using a slotted ladle, transfer the asparagus to a colander then briefly rinse with cold water and drain; cut each asparagus into 3 pieces and set aside.
Add the green beans and flat beans to the pot with the boiling water and blanch for 4 to 6 minutes or until al dente. Leave the pot on the heat and, using a slotted ladle, transfer the beans to a colander then briefly rinse with cold water and drain; cut the beans in half, or into smaller pieces if you prefer, and set aside.
Add the peas to the pot with the boiling water and blanch for 1 minute then drain and briefly rinse with cold water.
Arrange the asparagus, beans, and peas on a large plate. Place the burrata on top of the vegetables then drizzle the vegetables and burrata with olive oil and lemon juice (be generous with the lemon juice). Generously sprinkle with lemon zest, season to taste with salt and pepper, and enjoy immediately with thick slices of ciabatta or baguette to dip into the oily juices.
German Apple Pancakes and my Berlin Book Launch Event
The BOOK is out and I've done so many things for the first time in my life in the past three weeks that I'm still a little shellshocked. I've been on TV, which I never ever thought I'd be able to do and to say that I was nervous doesn't even come close to the feelings that shook me up inside (thank you Ben for being such a patient host!). I held more speeches than in my entire life before the book came out. My natural styling and rather casual dress code of jeans and shirt got replaced by pretty dresses, uncomfortable shoes, and more make up. And I changed planes like buses in the past few days. Once (it feels like a long time ago) I was scared of flying, but I've seen so many airports recently, that I think my phobia gave up. Now, I'm back in Berlin, I have a little break to breath deeply and to get some rest before the craziness continues and takes me across the Atlantic, to New York.
In the next few weeks, I'll share some impressions of my book launch events with you. We'll start in Berlin, my home town, and then we'll move on to Malta, London, New York, and Washington.
Berlin is my love, I've felt at home in this city since I first opened the door to my apartment almost 12 years ago. One of my favourite spots in this vibrant melting pot is the roof terrace of the stunning Hotel de Rome. It was around a year ago that I decided to have my first book launch event on this terrace. It's a tranquil oasis, it allows you to enjoy the whole city with all its prettiness and construction chaos from afar, but most importantly, you're right under Berlin's clear blue sky. We were lucky, on that early evening on the 26th September, the temperature was mild and the sunset was golden. I couldn't have asked for more.
The day before the event, in the early morning of a quiet Sunday, my family from Berlin and Malta - thank you Ursula, Alexandra, Emma, Julia, and Matt - joined me in my kitchen to help me bake the cakes for my event. I made a wise decision a few months ago, I only took care of the sweets for my event, the Hotel de Rome's fantastic chef, Jörg Behrend, and his team prepared the savoury recipes from my book. They did an amazing job, they actually managed to make me speechless. The food looked like the dishes in my book and tasted like the creations from my own kitchen.
What I've learned during the past three book launches in Berlin, Malta, and London is that you can plan every single detail of an event, but you have to accept that it will be unbearably stressful in the last 20 minutes. During these minutes it may feel like it's never going to work, but then, all of a sudden, in the last minute, everything falls into place. At 6pm sharp, our buffet was set up and Karl Chetcuti was ready to pour the glasses behind the table where he presented five delicious wines from the Meridiana Wine Estate Malta. Cynthia Barcomi - who gave me a heart touching quote for the back of my German book - looked gorgeous in her pink dress and we were both ready (maybe she was a little more ready than me) to have a public talk about my book. My pulse was pumping, wine, food, and the view was enjoyed to the fullest by our guests, and our roof top party got going.
It was the first time that I held a speech about my Eat In My Kitchen book, the first time that I stepped out into the spot light to talk about the process of working on this book. I couldn't have been more thankful for Cynthia guiding me through these exciting minutes, though this new experience, like a sister. My voice and knees were shaking, but my heart was full of joy. The first sip of Meridiana's crisp Astarte white wine after our talk was maybe one of the best sips I ever tasted in my life. I felt relieved.
I want to thank all my guests who came to celebrate with us. I'll never forget the amazing support I keep getting from Türkan, Jörg and the whole Hotel de Rome family, from Karl and Meridiana, from all my family and friends who are there for me no matter how crazy my life is at the moment. Thank you! I want to thank Jules Villbrandt for taking all these beautiful pictures, through your captures I can relive that day again and again. Prestel Publishing, and especially Pia Werner who came from Munich for our celebration, thank you for working on this book together with me.
You might have realized that I sneaked in a few pictures from my own kitchen. I can't write on this blog without sharing a recipe with you, it feels strange. So I decided to come up with very, very simple recipes while I'm on the Eat In My Kitchen book tour, recipes that fit into my tight schedule and that also have a connection to each country we celebrate in. Today's recipe is a childhood classic of mine: German apple pancakes. They aren't light or fluffy, these are thick, dense, eggy German pancakes, rich and filling. And - following my family tradition - they have to be topped with sliced sour apples and lots of cinnamon sugar. Enjoy!
You can see all the pictures of the book launch in Berlin taken by Jules Villbrandt here.
German Apple Pancakes
Serves 2
plain flour 130g / 1 cup
ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for the topping
milk 240ml / 1 cup
organic eggs 3
granulated sugar 2 tablespoons, plus 2 tablespoons for the topping
a pinch of salt
firm sour apples, peeled, cored, and sliced, 1-2
butter, about 3 tablespoons
Sieve together the flour and 1/4 teaspoon of the cinnamon.
In the large bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the milk, eggs, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and salt for about 1 minutes. Add the flour mixture, gradually, and continue whisking until well combined. There shouldn't be any traces of flour left.
For the topping, combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large, heavy or non-stick pan over high temperature. Reduce the heat to medium, pour in half the batter, arrange half the sliced apples on top. Cook for about 2 1/2-3 minutes until golden at the bottom and just set on top, mind that it doesn't get too dark. Flip the pancake onto a large lid, add 1/2 tablespoon of the butter to the pan, and let the pancake slide off the lid into the pan. Cook on the other side for about 2 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar to taste. Enjoy immediately, the pancake tastes best when it's warm.
Add 1 tablespoon of the butter to the pan and bake the 2nd pancake in the same way, adding the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of butter before you flip the pancake. Sprinkle with sugar and enjoy.
Eat In My Kitchen is out! From the book: Radicchio, Peach & Shallot with Stilton
The Eat In My Kitchen book is out and I'm the happiest person on the planet!
One of the exciting - and often quite challenging - things in life is that you never really know where the journey will take you. It's like being on a ship out on the open sea. Sometimes it seems like you can control the direction, but it might just be an illusion, and in the end you can only ever go with flow instead of fighting against it. Since I understood this, my life rolls more smoothly than ever. I wasn't one of those kids that had a clear idea of their future and what it should bring. At the age of 18 I was still a bit clueless about my place in this world, so I decided to go to university and study architecture. I was a good girl and left 4 years later with a diploma in my pocket although I knew I wouldn't want to work as an architect. Instead, I worked happily in the music industry for 15 years. But things changed, I changed, the music business changed, my direction in life changed. I decided to start a food blog on a cold winter's day in November 2013, and this decision had more of an impact on my life than I could have imagined back then. I shared a new recipe every day in the first year of Eat In My Kitchen, and although I felt creatively extremely stimulated after those 12 months, I was also exhausted. My writing and photography improved tremendously in that year, and my cooking and baking evolved as well - I became more experimental. However, I had to slow down the pace, it was too much. But the solution was easy: less posts on the blog and I found a rhythm that allowed me to enjoy every single part of being a blogger (it still feels weird to say that).
In the even colder days of February 2015, life, the universe, destiny, luck, or whatever you may call it, had different plans. Holly La Due from Prestel Publishing in New York came into my life, she sent me an email in the morning, we skyped in the afternoon, and sealed our deal in the evening - all in one day. Holly's decision to ask me if I'd like to write a cookbook, changed my life so drastically that I'm still processing what's been happening in the past year and a half. I never really got used to seeing myself as a blogger, life was too fast, and now I'm a cookbook author. I still have these moments, when I look at my book using one of the recipes in my own kitchen, and I get a little shock and feel, "wow, that's my book". I guess I need a little more time.
Most of the time in life it's not just us alone, not just a single person who creates, we're woven into a net of people, ideas, and visions. Whoever pulls the string on one side of the net, affects the whole result. This heavy blue book full of recipes, Eat In My Kitchen - to cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat, is not just lying on my table anymore, today it's been sent out into the world, now it's on the book shelves and maybe lying on your table. And this makes me feel peacefully happy and thankful, I could squeeze the world.
This book has been a gift for me from the start. Being able to turn a vision into a physical object makes me feel very humble, I know that this book carries a part of every single person who's been involved. Thank you, to the most amazing team and friends all over the world:
Holly, Jamie, Jan, Lauren, Karen, Luke, Stephen, Angy, Emma, Oliver, Andrew, Will, Marisa, Ron, Monica, Ellen S, Jen, Pia, Julie, Adeline, Ellen M, Cynthia, Molly, Malin, Yossy, the Cini family, Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley, Joanna, Karl, Jo, Iggy, Marina, Türkan, Jörg, Kitty, Hetty, Mama, Uli, Ursula, Uwe, Jenny, Edith, Emma, Alex, Julia, Nina, Kim, Jessica, Luke, Matt, Muxu, Daphne, Nadine, Jan, Essa, Sandra, Chris, Alexandra, Doris, Chris, Anna, Jimmy, Gina, Pattie, Jayne, and all my loved ones.
Thank you my wonderful food loving blog friends, you've come back and visited these pages for almost 3 years. Your passion, enthusiasm, your questions and comments, your emails and pictures, made me enjoy my kitchen and my food even more than I already do. You drive me on to dig deeper into culinary traditions and to come up with new ideas every day. Thank you and a big hug!
Today I'll share the second recipe from my book with you, the colourful salad that made it onto the cover of my book and that became one of my favourites. It's a luscious composition playing with contrasts: bitter crunchy radicchio, soft and juicy peaches, sweet oven roasted shallots, sharp Stilton, and a little thyme. It's a beauty on your picnic blanket, a fresh addition to your brunch table, and the easiest starter for a dinner party.
The pictures of me and the picnic scene in this post were taken in July, at Villa Bologna in Malta, for an article in Eating & Drinking Magazine.
Radicchio, Peach, and Roasted Shallot Salad with Blue Cheese
SERVES 2 TO 4
FOR THE SALAD
8 shallots, peeled and cut in half lengthwise (or 4 small red onions, peeled and cut into quarters)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Flaky sea salt
Ground pepper
5 ounces (140 g) radicchio, soft leaves only, torn into pieces
4 ripe peaches, peeled and cut into 8 wedges each
2 ounces (60 g) Fourme d’Ambert, Stilton, or any crumbly blue cheese, crumbled
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
FOR THE DRESSING
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
Fine sea salt
Ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Spread the shallots on the lined baking sheet, drizzle with the olive oil, and season to taste with flaky sea salt and pepper. Gently mix with your fingers and roast for 10 minutes. Flip the shallots over and roast for another 5 minutes or until golden brown and soft. Peel any hard or burnt layers off the shallots and set them aside. You can prepare the shallots in advance; they don’t need to be warm.
For the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, both vinegars, and the honey; season to taste with salt and pepper.
Arrange the radicchio, peaches, and shallots in overlapping layers on plates, sprinkle with the crumbled cheese and thyme, drizzle with the dressing, and serve immediately.
From my cookbook: Chocolate Olive Oil Bundt Cake with Candied Orange Peel
Berlin, 2016:
The first picture of today's post caught the moment I held my Eat In My Kitchen cookbook in my trembling hands for the first time. I had to sit down, or rather, I fell into my beloved old chair in my living room. This chair has seen many emotions, sad and happy, it's been with me all my life and it's the place I want to be when the world around me becomes a little overwhelming.
So this chair had to catch me once again. My knees were wobbly and I didn't know if I should laugh or cry, so I did both. I received a package from my publisher and I knew what it was before I even opened it: two books, my books.
Tomorrow is a very special day, my German book, Eat In My Kitchen -sssen, backen, kochen und genießen, will be published and in a week the English book will follow: Eat In My Kitchen- to cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat, on October 4th. The book is already on Epicurious' list of 'The 25 Most Exciting New Cookbooks for Fall 2016' and my heart is jumping with joy!!
So many people keep asking me how I feel about my big publishing day(s), whether I'm excited, proud, or nervous. To be honest, I can't really say how I feel. Maybe confused and overwhelmed? As much as it felt normal to write this book at one point, to cook and bake the recipes, and to take the pictures, strangely enough it's starting to feel normal to know that it'll be out soon. It may sound weird and maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'll have a nervous breakdown at one point, maybe when I present the book in front of an audience (in the next few weeks, all over Europe and in the US), or when I see it at in bookstores, or when I watch people pulling it off a shelf and buying it. I don't know.
Luckily, I don't have much time to think about it, which is sometimes the best thing that can happen. Eat In my Kitchen feels as intuitive, natural, and close to myself as it can get. The physical book just as much as this blog. I'm in my comfort zone, constantly, which I consider to be the greatest gift. I don't take anything for granted in life, I'm here and I want to learn, grow, and experience everything. I don't know if I'll fail or succeed with this book, but it's also nothing I want to worry about. Every recipe, every story and picture that fill the 256 pages of this book, is totally me, to question or doubt its relevance, would be fatal. That would mean questioning my passion and my beliefs, before this book even sees a shelf in a bookstore.
I can say that I'm unbelievably happy that this book exists. With a big smile on my face, I stand behind all I've created and written in the past year and a half to fill its pages, in both the German and the English book. I went through many lows and I took the highs with great pleasure, I suffered and I cried, I changed some decisions and stood strongly behind others. I've been through my battles, while working on these pages. But now I let go. A month ago I wrote about this transition, this process of letting go of a project. Tomorrow, this process will be complete.
Today sees a premier on the blog, I'm sharing the first recipe from my book with you and, also for the first time, I'll share a recipe in English and in German. I get many requests to write my blog in two languages, and as much as I'd love to do that, I simple don't have enough time. I appreciate the effort of so many of you who aren't that familiar with the English language but still give it a try and follow my recipe instructions in a foreign language. Today, my German readers, you can relax and bake the most delicious, spongy chocolate olive oil Bundt cake, topped with a thick chocolate glaze and sweet and crunchy caramelized orange peel. I love this cake!
Next week, I'll share another recipe from my book with you, on the 4th October, on the day when my English readers can hold the book in their hands for the first time. I'll be in Malta at that point, celebrating the book at my launch at the gorgeous Villa Bologna before my journey takes me to London, New York, and Washington. I'll try my best to keep up with writing about all this here on the blog - and I also intend to start sharing videos on Instagram, so please come over and join my journey in the next few weeks and months.
Today I want to thank my amazing team here in Germany, all the wonderful women and men who made this book possible. Thank you everyone at Prestel in Munich, especially Pia, Julie, and Adeline. Thank you so much Ellen Mey for being my editorial guidance.
So very soon the book will be available in bookstores, and in case you can't find it on the shelves, you can order it at any bookstore in the world, or here:
Chocolate Olive Oil Bundt Cake with Candied Orange Peel
from Eat In My Kitchen - to cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat, published by Prestel
SERVES 8 TO 12
Dry breadcrumbs, for sprinkling the Bundt pan
2 cups (260 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
5 ounces (140 g) bittersweet chocolate
⅔ cup (155 ml) olive oil5 large eggs
3½ tablespoons (50 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest
3½ tablespoons (50 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
FOR THE CHOCOLATE GLAZE
5 ounces (140 g) bittersweet chocolate
1 tablespoon (15 g) unsalted butter
1 to 2 teaspoons sunflower oil
FOR THE CANDIED ORANGE PEEL
¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 small handful very thin strips of fresh orange peel
Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C (preferably convection setting). Butter a 7½-cup (1.75 l) Bundt pan and sprinkle generously with breadcrumbs.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large heat-proof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, melt the chocolate. Let cool for a few minutes then add the olive oil, eggs, milk, orange zest, and orange juice, and beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes or until smooth. Add to the flour mixture and quickly mix with an electric mixer for 1 minute or until well combined. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes (slightly longer if using a conventional oven) or until golden brown and firm on top. If you insert a skewer into the cake, it should come out clean. Let cool for a few minutes then shake the Bundt pan a little and turn the cake out onto a plate. Let cool completely. Trim the bottom of the cake to even it out.
For the chocolate glaze, melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil and whisk until smooth. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake, evening it out with a knife or leaving it in voluptuous drops.
For the candied orange peel, in a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. When it starts to caramelize add the orange peel. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the peel is golden and soft—mind that it doesn’t burn. While the caramel is still liquid, quickly transfer the candied peel to a piece of parchment paper. Let cool for 1 minute then peel it off the paper and decorate the cake while the glaze is soft.
German recipe:
Schokoladen-Gugelhupf mit Olivenöl und Kandierter Orangenschale
aus Eat In My Kitchen - essen, backen, kochen und genießen, veröffentlicht bei Prestel
FÜR 8–12 PERSONEN
Semmelbrösel, für die Gugelhupfform
260 g Mehl200 g Zucker
3 TL Backpulver
1 TL Speisenatron1 Prise feines Meersalz
140 g Zartbitterschokolade
150 ml Olivenöl
5 Eier
50 ml Milch
1 EL Orangenabrieb
50 ml frisch gepresster Orangensaft
FÜR DIE SCHOKOLADENGLASUR
140 g Zartbitterschokolade
1 EL Butter
1–2 TL Sonnenblumenöl
FÜR DIE KANDIERTE ORANGENSCHALE
50 g Zucker
2 EL Wasser
1 kleine Handvoll sehr dünne Streifen Orangenschale
Den Ofen auf 180 °C (Umluft) vorheizen. Eine Gugelhupfform (1,8 l) einfetten und großzügig mit Semmelbröseln bestreuen.
In einer großen Schüssel Mehl, Zucker, Backpulver, Speisenatron und Salz vermischen.
Die Schokolade in einer großen Schüssel über einem Wasserbad schmelzen. Ein paar Minuten abkühlen lassen, dann Olivenöl, Eier, Milch, Orangenabrieb und Orangensaft dazugeben und mit einem Handrührer etwa 2 Minuten glatt rühren. Zu der Mehlmischung geben und mit dem Handrührer etwa 1 Minute gut verrühren. Den Teig in die vorbereitete Gugelhupfform gießen und etwa 35–40 Minuten goldbraun backen, die Oberfläche sollte fest sein. Ein Metallstäbchen sollte nach dem Einpieksen in den Kuchen sauber sein. Ein paar Minuten abkühlen lassen, dann die Gugelhupfform ein wenig rütteln und den Kuchen auf eine Platte stürzen. Komplett auskühlen lassen und, falls nötig, den Boden gerade schneiden.
Für die Schokoladenglasur Schokolade und Butter in einem Topf bei niedriger Hitze schmelzen. 1–2 TL Sonnenblumenöl dazugeben und glatt schlagen. Die Glasur über den ausgekühlten Kuchen gießen, mit einem Messer verteilen oder in üppigen Tropfen herunterlaufen lassen.
Für die kandierte Orangenschale Zucker und Wasser in einem kleinen Topf zum Kochen bringen. Wenn es anfängt zu karamellisieren, die Orangenschale dazugeben. Bei mittlerer Hitze etwa 3–4 Minuten köcheln lassen, bis die Schale golden und weich ist – aufpassen, dass sie nicht anbrennt. Während der Karamell noch flüssig ist, die Orangenschale schnell auf einem Stück Backpapier ausbreiten. Ein paar Minuten auskühlen lassen, von dem Papier abziehen und den Kuchen damit dekorieren, solange die Glasur noch weich ist.
meet in your kitchen | Somer Sivrioglu's 'Anatolia', Sydney, and Cheese and Egg Pizza
Some books make you fall in love with its captivating pages from the moment you lay your hands on it. Anatolia, by Somer Sivrioglu and David Dale, is one of them. This outstandingly beautiful cookbook is rich in pictures, stories, and recipes. It takes you to another world of flavours, ingredients, and unknown combinations and it makes you want to go straight to your kitchen to bring this exciting new discovery right into your home - or at least a bite of it.
The first recipe I tried from this book, was pide, thin Turkish pizza. Somer makes it with an aromatic minced lamb topping, which is divine, however, when I gave it a second go, I sneaked in a dark Provençal olive tapenade, and shared it on eat in my kitchen. Somer liked my version so much that he shared it on Facebook, we started chatting, and here's the result: Our cross-continental Berlin-Sydney meet in your kitchen feature!
My guest grew up in Turkey, in Istanbul, where he lived with his family until he was 25. But one day, the young man decided to explore life on the other side of the world and moved to Sydney. His dream came true and he started an impressive career in food that led to two fantastic restaurants and an award-winning cookbook. Somer runs the popular Efendy that opened in 2007, featuring contemporary Turkish cuisine in the Balmain district. Anason - his second 'baby' - was next, which only just opened its doors to the public world, but it's already one of Sydney's new culinary hot spots.
This man is busy and I don't know how he managed to write a cookbook on top of his packed schedule as a chef, but he did, and the result takes the globe by storm: Anatolia: Adventures in Turkish Cooking won the prestigious international IACP award (former winners are luminaries such as Thomas Keller, Claudia Roden and Julia Child). I'm sure it will keep its place in the front row of my book shelf for quite a while. Somer is a passionate chef, he loves food, and this shines through in every project that he pulls onto his table. Congratulations!
My weak spot for Turkish pizza made me go for another pide recipe from Somer's book, which I share with you today: slim pide filled with an aromatic cheese mixture of 4 different cheeses, green pepper, tomato, and a baked egg. This dish calls for a relaxed dinner on the balcony or in the garden, with a glass of chilled crisp white or rosé wine and a fresh salad on the side. May only the temperatures rise and summer begin!
Pide with Four Cheeses
Serves 4
For the dough
dry yeast 1 tablespoon
water, lukewarm, 50 - 100ml / 3 1/2 tablespoons - 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon
granulated sugar 1 teaspoon
plain flour 300g / 2 1/3 cups
strong flour 150g / 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons
whole milk, lukewarm, 50ml / 3 1/2 tablespoons
salt 1 teaspoon
For the cheese filling
4 cheese-mixture, grated or crumbled, 100 - 140g / 3 1/2 - 5 ounces (depending on how rich you'd like your pide), such as feta, aged ricotta, blue cheese, and mozzarella or provolone
egg 1
chopped fresh oregano 2 teaspoons (or about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon dried oregano)
For the topping
large tomatoes, thinly sliced, 2
large green pepper, cut in half, cored, seeded, and thinly sliced, 2
eggs 4
vegetable oil 2 tablespoons (I used olive oil)
Dissolve the yeast in 50ml / 3 1/2 tablespoons of the water. Stir in the sugar and set aside for 5 minutes. It should start to form bubbles.
Sift the flours into a large bowl, make a well in the middle, and pour in the yeast mixture and the milk. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or until it reaches earlobe softness. Add more of the water if necessary (I used all of the water). Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and let it rest and rise for 30 minutes.
Add the salt to the dough and knead for 3 minutes. Place the dough on a floured work surface and form it into a cylinder, then cut it into 4 equal pieces. Cover and let rest for another 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. If you have a pizza stone or tile, place it in the oven. Or leave a baking sheet in the oven so it will preheat.
Combine the crumbled cheeses in a large bowl. Add the egg and fold and mix until combined; stir in the oregano.
On a floured working surface, stretch the pieces of dough into ovals, about 30 x 20cm / 12 x 8" and 5mm / 1/4" thick; or use a rolling pin.
Transfer the 4 pides to 2 pieces of parchment paper. Spoon a strip of the cheese mixture in the middle of each oval, leaving a 5cm / 2" rim all around the edges. Fold over the 2 longer sides so they touch the filling but don't cover it. Join the folded edges at the top and bottom to make a boat shape. Press each into a point and twist to close tightly. Arrange 6 slices of tomato and 4 slices of pepper on each pide and break an egg into the middle. If you don't want the egg to be cooked through, bake the pides without the egg for 7 minutes, then add the egg, and bake for another 7 minutes or until golden brown.
Brush the tops of the dough with oil.
If you're using a baking sheet preheated in the oven, take it out of the oven and pull 1 parchment paper with 2 pides over onto the hot baking sheet; or transfer 2 pides with the parchment paper onto the hot pizza stone or tile in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy warm.
Growing up in Istanbul, Turkey, in the 1970s and 1980s, during a time of severe political unrest, how would you describe your life as a child and teenager? What are your memories of those days?
I was born and raised in Kadikoy, Istanbul, one of the last multicultural suburbs of Istanbul, where the few of the last descendants of Greek, Armenian and other non-muslim population lived after the rise of nationalist policies drove them out of the city they lived in for many generations. Although the 1970s were chaotic, we felt safe on the streets as the community values were very strong back then, everyone knew and looked after each other.
Why did you leave Turkey in your twenties and move to Sydney?
I came to study for my MBA degree and to live in another country to find my own voice.
What does having your own restaurants – Efendy and Anason – mean to you, is it a dream come true?
My restaurant, Efendy, and the amazing team gave me the chance to represent Turkish food in a country where it was only known as kebaps and Turkish bread before we opened.
Your mother worked as a restaurant consultant, do both of you share a similar philosophy when it comes to food, cooking, and running a restaurant? Does she give you advice and do you listen?
She ran a number of restaurants /meze bars and I learned a lot from working with her, as to sharing the same philosophy fundamentally, yes, but I challenge myself to progress and she is a bit more conservative. I think we are both challenging each other in that aspect. She gives me advice, typically I would ignore, or pretend to ignore, but do it later on anyway (laughing).
Who is your biggest inspiration in the kitchen?
My grandma, Akife, was my childhood influence, as she was one of the first modern females to complete a home economics degree and she took cooking classes as part of it. She was a great example of how to create excellence from scarcity.
How did the Turkish cuisine influence your perspective as a chef? How do you develop new recipes?
Turkish food is all about seasonality, abundance and variety. As a chef, it made me think about using the right produce at the right season and applying various drying, pickling, and preserving techniques to my cooking. I used to create the recipes and get my chefs to cook them at Efendy, but now I ask them to create recipes that means something to them, from their heritage, and I learn and coach them to fine tune them to put in our seasonal menus at Efendy and Anason.
How long did you work on your cookbook Anatolia? Can you describe the creative process of this wonderful book, which you wrote together with David Dale?
Three years from concept to print. As a first time book author, I was lucky enough to work with one of the best food journalists, David Dale, and he coached me thorough the whole process. We have been to Turkey twice together visiting cities all over the country, talking to masters of craft and adapting the recipes to Australian and European readers where they can cook with common ingredients that can be found at any farmers' market.
What is your favourite Turkish and your favourite Australian dish?
Turkish: Kalkan - Black-Sea turbot. Australian: Mud crabs cooked over the BBQ.
What do you miss about Istanbul?
I am lucky enough to go back every year. Eating seasonal fish and drinking raki on the Bosphorus with family and friends is one thing I yearn for and do every time I am back. In fact, I am in Istanbul at the moment.
What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?
I remember helping my grandma buttering the layers of her lamb borek, she had the scariest looking electrical round oven where all the cables and elements were exposed.
What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Sydney?
My favourite shopping spot was at Growers Market at Pyrmont, unfortunately they closed, so currently it’s Eveleigh Markets every Saturday. Favourite cafés: Le Cafeier in Balmain and Edition Coffee pop-up at Barangaroo, both located next to my restaurants and keep me going all day and night.So many restaurants to mention but I love the next-gen Turkish restaurants in Sydney like Pazar Food Collective, Stanbuli and Sefa Kitchen.
If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?
I would love my babaanne (paternal grandmother) to cook something from her Albanian heritage, as we lost her when I was very young and never learned that part of my culinary culture.
You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?
It won’t be on the table but the spring lamb on a spit would be next to the table and complemented with some mezes and seasonal salad accompanied by raki or a few nice bottles of Öküzgözü (Turkish red wine variety).
What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?
I loved my anneanne’s karniyarik and borek, nowadays, I love having a simple grilled fish or a nice steak on a charcoal BBQ.
Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?
Of course cooking with others, I don’t like cooking by myself or eating by myself.
Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?
Improvised, as it has an element of surprise and spontaneity.
Which meal would you never cook again?
Bombe Alaska (Baked Alaska). Many years ago, when I was working in banquets at a hotel, I made it for a wedding of 1000 people not knowing how it is made. Lesson learnt.
Thank you Somer!
What it means to write a cookbook - the EAT IN MY KITCHEN book is ready for pre-order!
It's coming to life: my book cover is out, the pre-order link is out, and I'm the happiest person in the world!
Writing a cookbook feels like being on a rollercoaster for months. It reveals emotions that I didn't even think I'd be capable of. Creating a book throws you up to the highest highs and drops you back to the ground, it makes you crawl into the deepest holes to bring out the best that you can possibly do - because it's a book. But it's all worth it, as it's one of the most exciting and satisfying experiences I've ever had in my life.
Usually, a book starts with an idea, a script, that the author thinks is worth sending into the world, or at least to an agent or a publisher. In my case, it was different, I was so busy with my blog eat in my kitchen, to keep the constant flow of a new recipe every day in the first year, that a cookbook didn't even come to mind. It felt strange seeing myself as a blogger, let alone calling myself an author. Some of my readers mentioned a book, or kept asking when I'd start working on a physical version of the blog, but I never saw myself as a cookbook author. I wrote about my recipes, that felt natural, as I've always been inspired by food, so coming up with new ideas in my kitchen is quite an easy task for me. My love for good food keeps the ideas flowing. So when Holly La Due from Prestel Publishing send me an email from her New York office a bit over 1 year ago to ask if I'd like to write a cookbook, I felt surprised, shocked, and overwhelmed. But then, after a few days, when the idea had sunk in, there was just happiness and gratitude for this great chance, and so I started working on what has become my first book:
EAT IN MY KITCHEN - To Cook, to Bake, to Eat, and to Treat is a collection of 100 mainly new recipes plus a few blog classics and six meet in your kitchen features (with Molly Yeh, Yossy Arefi, the Hemsley sisters and some more). I cooked and baked everything myself, alone in my kitchen at home, I took all the pictures, and wrote the book in two languages, in English and in German. To see it come to life more and more every day is rather overwhelming, and then, when I read the quotes about my book from two people whose work I admire so much, I was close to tears:
"Eat in my kitchen is a wonderful selection of recipes, bursting with colour, beauty and flavour. Each page offers a new temptation". - Sami Tamimi, head chef, Ottolenghi restaurants, co-author of Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Jerusalem
"Great food like great art speaks the truth. Meike’s recipes and photos are pared down, honest and revealing – I love what she does! She goes right for the sensory jugular leaving you wanting and needing more. Void of superfluous detail, Meike’s all about delicious food – brava!"- Cynthia Barcomi, pastry chef, founder of Barcomi's, and author of six cookbooks
The EAT IN MY KITCHEN book will be published by Prestel on the 4th October (in English and in German) but if you're as impatient as me, you can already pre-oder it online:
Amazon.de (the German pre-order link will be available on 8th May)
In the past 12 months, my life has been more than crazy. I pity my boyfriend and I can't thank him enough for sticking with me, despite my countless nervous breakdowns and the fact that he put on weight due to my excessive cooking and baking. But we managed, all together, with my fantastic publisher team in New York, Munich, and London, and first and foremost, with my inspiring, patient, visionary Holly. I can't thank you enough.
What it means to write a cookbook:
I had lots of doubts at the start of this process, not so much about my recipes, but mainly about my photography. I'm not a professional photographer, I've always been far more passionate about the food, and I hate editing pictures (thank you so much Jennifer Endom for taking over this job for my book). So in the first days of shooting recipes for the book, I questioned every little detail and I was sure it wouldn't be good enough. Luckily, I got over it at one point, I had to, and then it became much easier. I developed all the recipes in a relatively short amount of time, it felt like they've always been inside me, just waiting to be turned into a book. After a few skype calls with my mother - the best food consultant I could ask for - and with Holly, my recipe collection was set.
Being well organized is essential when working on a book, and luckily, that's how my mind works. I can be a bundle of emotions, but if needs be, my head is clear and focussed. It helped that I studied architecture, those days at university taught me how to structure my working steps well and keep an overview (at least most of the time). Lots of lists, excel files, and notes lead to a cooking and shooting plan, including information when certain ingredients are available, which tableware I would use, and which recipes I would cook together in one day. The cooking/ shooting process took me 6 weeks and I was done - and exhausted. I had a strict weekly plan for grocery shopping, working on the blog, as I still posted 3 recipes a week at that time, test cooking, final cooking and shooting, and for writing. There were two moments during the whole process of working on my book when I felt like I crossed my limits, physically and mentally. Taking pictures of food means you're constantly rushing, to shoot the dish quick enough so that it still looks fresh, and to catch the right light (I only work with daylight). I felt constantly stressed, running out of time, and I was willing to keep the weirdest positions for the prefect shot for longer than my back would normally manage. After those 6 weeks I felt 10 years older.
Believing that the worst - or let's say, the hardest part was over - I went to Malta for 4 weeks, as I wanted to write the stories and final recipes in my Maltese mama's house in Msida. It was a great time, not very productive, but we had fun. I went snorkeling every day, we met our friends and family, and my mother came to visit for my birthday. I couldn't complain. And then I finally met Holly for the first time in person. She came to Malta to make the final selection of the pictures for the book together with me and while I had her on the island, I showed her around. It was beautiful and I wish that working on a book would always feel this way. But my rather relaxed Mediterranean schedule soon came to an end.
Writing didn't work out as easily under Malta's burning hot sun as I had expected, too many distractions, day trips, dinner parties, and the sea of course, left me with a manuscript that I wasn't that happy with. Back home in Berlin, I had to sit down at the desk - our dining table - and re-write almost everything. But then after a few weeks back in the North, I was happy with the results and my boyfriend was happy, who's the most critical when it comes to my book, which helps me a lot. So I sent everything to Holly and our copy editor Lauren Salkeld, who helped me put the recipes in a proper, professional cookbook approved, form. And this - to my surprise - took months. We emailed back and forth, changed grams to cups and rucola to arugula, rewrote instructions to avoid misunderstandings, added spaces and deleted spaces, and then after 3 months, we were done and I felt close to a breakdown. From the start, I've been quite paranoid that there could be mistakes in the book. Be it in the writing, measurements, conversion, or whatsoever. Like a maniac, I read these pages countless times to avoid mistakes, and then every time we changed something again, I was so worried that more mistakes might sneak in (which did happen). The fact that I did the German translation right away didn't make it any better. Now, I worried about two books and not just one. You don't write a book that often in your life, and if you get the chance to do it, you want to do it right. People have expectations, they will be willing to spend their money on this book, and I want to give them something that they enjoy working with in their kitchen, a book that is inspiring, and that's also nice to look at. Everybody has been telling me from the start, "Meike, there will be mistakes, like in any other book," and I'm aware of this, but I want to keep them as rare as possible. Thanks to my proof-reading friends in LA and Berlin, we made it: Kisses to you, Pattie and Ursula!
There is one part of working on a book that I actually enjoy a lot, and that's when the designer comes in. I'm so glad to have the amazing Jan Derevjanik at my side, I trust her eyes and taste, we seem to speak the same visual language. Whatever she does, feels right and I never had to explain any of my visions to her. Be it the fonts she chose, the layout of the pages, colours, or the cover - which I love so much, it feels so much like me - Jan took a lot of weight off my shoulders as I knew I wouldn't have to worry about anything she does. Thank you for that!
So finally we're almost done and I slowly understand that there will be a printed book soon, my book. It still feels a little strange, and the moment I truly understood that "it's a book", was the moment when Holly sent me the cover design. When I saw EAT IN MY KITCHEN and my name written on the cover, and the picture of this salad that I can still taste in my mouth, I knew that we had created something great all together.
In autumn, we'll have book launch events in New York, Washington, London, Malta, and Berlin and there might be a few more, we just started working it out. So the journey continues, and wherever it may take me, I'm grateful for every single experience.And now, the biggest thank you goes to you, you wonderful eat in my kitchen readers, for being a part of this adventure! You made all this possible and I wish that you'll enjoy my book as much as I already do.
Meike xx
I've never shared a post on my blog without giving you a recipe, and although I intended not to write about food this time as the book is already so exciting, I can't help it:This is not really a recipe but it's my favourite food - although some people can't believe it. I love juicy white bread with olive oil, or dark German bread with butter. I need my daily dose of bread, I can't live without it. So to celebrate my appearance on Amazon as an author, we popped open a bottle of Champagne, broke chunks off a soft loaf of ciabatta, and drizzled them generously with fine Italian olive oil - I couldn't have asked for more!
Serves 2, when 2 want to celebrate
the best ciabatta bread you can get hold of, 1 loaf
the best olive oil you can get hold of, a few tablespoons
the best Champagne you can get hold of, 1 bottle
Enjoy with a special person!