FFOF

German FFOF

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Hallo! It’s been a while since FFOFs for us. A FFOF (Flickr Fuck Off Feast) is a meal where we cook food that that relate to a particular theme. Alastair and I missed the Greek FFOF due to parental issues (mine came to visit) so I was determined to make the next one. The theme this time was German.

I found it a difficult theme and it took me a lot of googling before I settled on the dishes that I was going to make –
“>zwiebelkuchen (onion pie) and
“>hasenpfeffer
“>(sour rabbit stew).

I woke up on Saturday with a very sore throat – the first time that I’ve been sick this year. I had been very proud of my immune system up to that day. Bro and I headed out to pick up groceries, and I started cooking when I got home. Disaster. I haven’t had such a bad day in the kitchen for a long time! I was sick. My head was fuzzy. I broke a glass. I made the pastry for my pie, but my butter didn’t seem cold enough and I forgot to add salt. When I went to blind bake my crust, I forgot to put baking paper between the pastry and my baking weights (beans and rice). I realised my mistake after it had been in the oven for five minutes. By then it was too late – the pastry had melted just enough to trap all the small grains. #$@%$&$(*#@$@

I was not a happy baker! I must admit that I had a little tantrum and refused to start again. Fortunately, I still had the rabbit stew.

I combined two recipes that I found online (
“>this one and
“>this one), but focussed on the first one. I found it a bit strange. The recipe said to mix 1/2 cup of the marinade with 1/4 cup of toasted flour. That gets added to the pot, in goes the rabbit, and it stews until the meat is tender. Well, there wasn’t any liquid in my pot after I did all that, so I had to add a fair amount of water. It made me wonder how good the recipe was.

German FFOF

Rhys and Kath were the hosts for the evening and they provided us with a mug of mulled wine when we arrived. Lovely! It was perfect for such a cold, rainy night. The mug on the right belonged to Kath’s grandmother – dating back to the 50s!

German FFOF

Jaye and Tim bought some appetizers – blue cheese with a slice of pear. I really like blue cheese with a bit of fruit.

German FFOF

The next dish on offer was something that I doubt will be topped in any FFOFs to come. Tim made beer soup. Yep, beer soup. It consisted of a six pack of German beer, sour cream, sugar, and cinnamon. It was really sweet, very creamy, but with a beer after taste. NASTY. It was wrong, just wrong. And what a waste of beer!

Rhys had made some nice bread rolls that we somewhat spoilt, as we ate them with the beer soup (desperately trying to mask the taste of the soup, I suspect).

German FFOF

Fortunately, the rest of the food was more palatable. Jaye made potato dumplings, with a peach inside. Apparently it was a side or a main – our opinion that it was dessert. The dumplings were served with a brown sugar and butter sauce, and they were rather nice, although quite heavy and stodgy.

German FFOF

We then moved on to my bunny stew. The bunny was okay. The recipe said that it was an acquired taste – I certainly agreed! It had a herby, spiced flavour, with a sour after taste, and unfortunately it was a rather unappetisingly beige brown. Rhys and Kath provided some “German” potatoes.

German FFOF

The next course was Pete’s kartoffelpuffers (potato pancake). They were fried in lard and then topped with cranberry sauce. So good, but so bad.

German FFOF

And finally, when we thought we couldn’t eat any more, we finished off with dessert – apple strudel – from Pete and Jodes.

Another FFOF over, and a good time was had by all. This one was particularly memorable due to the beer soup. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget how it tasted!

Poulpe provencal

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Octopus

This was the second dish I made for the French FFOF. I wasn’t wowed by this – I wasn’t impressed with the flavours. I just thought something was lacking.

If I made it again, it would need a bit of tweaking.

Poulpe Provcencal

From Cooking French

500g ripe tomatoes
1 kg baby octopus
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
350 ml dry white wine
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
2 sprigs thyme
2 tablespoons roughly chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

Score a cross in the base of each tomato. Place the tomatoes into boiling water for 20 seconds, then plunge into cold water and peel the skin away from the cross. Cut each tomato in half and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and discard. Chop the flesh.

To clean the octopus, use a small sharp knife and cut each head from the tentacles. Remove the eyes by cutting a round of flesh from the base of each head. To clean the heads, carefully slit them open and remove the gut. Rinse thoroughly. Cut the heads in half. Push out the beaks from the centre of the tentacles from the cut side. Cut the tentacles into sets of four or two, depending on the size of the octopus.

Blanch all the octopus in boilding water for 2 minutes, then drain and allow to cool slightly. Pat dry with paper towels.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the onion and cook for 7-8 minutes over medium heat until lightly golden. Add the octopus and garlic to the pan and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Add the tomato, wine, saffron and thyme. Add just enough water to cover the octopus.

Simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Uncover and cook for a further 15 minutes, or until the octopus is tender and the sauce has thickened a little. Season to taste. Serve sprinkled with parsley.

Croissants

Croissant

One of the dishes I made for the French FFOF (flickr fuck off feast) was croissants. I followed the recipe outlined here, but omitted the vanilla essence.

They weren’t difficult to make, but very time consuming. I left 5 hours on the actual day to prepare them, and that still wasn’t enough time. My croissants came out quite flat – I didn’t have enough time to let them rise before baking them. Part of the problem may have been that I rolled the dough too thinly.

Croissant

Despite the flatness, they were still buttery and flakey and crisp on the bottom. Alastair enjoyed them so much he ate almost half the batch, ruining his appetite for the rest of the FFOF. Although I noticed that he still had room for Tim’s creme caramel

French Feast

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Creme caramel

The latest installment of the FFOF (Flickr Fuck off Feast) was held on Sunday. A FFOF is basically a meal where we decide on a theme, and everyone brings a couple of dishes relating to that theme. The concept started with Tim and a group of his friends, and he spread it to us. We’ve had several FFOFs now – Indian, Japanese, Spanish, Moroccan, and now the latest – French.

Alastair and I played the gracious, but rather non-French, hosts.

As always, there was a ton of food!

For dessert, Tim’s creme caramel seen above.

Caramel

We spent a lot of time trying to get the toffee out of the bottom of the creme caramel moulds until someone (coughmecough) was smart enough to use the microwave.

Berry and cheese

Pete’s berry covered brie.

French Onion Soup

Rhys made french onion soup. Mhmm good.

Potato and beans

And now a trio – Dany’s potatoes (I know there’s a fancy name but it escapes me right now!), Kath’s green bean and goat cheese salad, and Dany’s onion tart.

Cheese

Dany’s pate and CHEESE.

Fried cheese

Jaye’s fried cheese with cranberry jam. Mhmmm deep fried goodness.

There was more food than this – Jodes’ blue cheese and asparagus triangles, Jaye’s lentils, and Kath’s fauxscargo. Plus the two dishes I did – croissants and braised baby octopus. Posts about those to come!