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