urban odds & ends

If you like mint, please try this ice cream! It was actually so delicious, that I hadn't a chance to make a picture :-D This is the first custard based ice cream I tried and this ice cream is really creamy and smooth - it's definitely worth the extra effort. The mint is really refreshing, I used nana mint, a special mint sort from morocco - quite delicious as tea, too.

Chocolat Chip Mint Ice Cream makes ~ 1L
adapted from David Lebovitz

5 large egg yolks
250ml  whole milk
500ml  heavy cream
150g  sugar
80g  fresh mint leaves - preferably nana mint
140g chocolate, chopped
salt

In a medium pot heat the milk, half of the heavy cream, sugar, a pinch of salt and mint. Bring to boil, then remove from heat and allow to infuse for around an hour. Remove the mint and squeeze gently to extract as much mint flavor as possible. Discard the mint. Pour the remaining cream in a bowl and set a strainer on top. Rewarm the infused milk. In a seperate bowl, combine egg yolks and whisk them up. Now pour slowly spoon by spoon (approx 5 spoonful is enough) the hot milk into the egg yolks while constantly stirring. This step is called tempering so you're yolks getting heat resistant for our next step. Pour the yolks into the hot milk and stir until the mixture thickens. Immediately strain the mixture into the prepared bowl and stir. Refrigerate the mixture thoroughly. It's recommended to leave it over night in the fridge, but I used it after 4-5 hours and the results were excellent. Freeze the cream with your ice cream maker. Warning!!! Please stop yourself eating the whole nom out of the machine ;) While the mixture is freezing, place a heat proof bowl over a hot water bath to melt the chocolate.

When the ice cream is ready, scrape a little in a container and tickle some of the chocolate in thin lines over it. The chocolate cools immediately. Quickly stir it into the ice cream breaking up the chocolate. Continue layering the ice cream and adding the chocolate. Freeze until firm.

Finally the soccer World Cup started and our bbq is permanently running again on our weekends. We are really enjoying eating noodle salad as accompaniment, but after some time it's getting boring though. So we introduced this carrot salad in our bbq routine. It's a little bit spicy, a nice salty punch given by the feta and refreshing with a good amount of fresh mint. And as a nice addition you load yourself with beta-carotine, which is good for cell-protection that is important during the summer months.

This is the second part of my Krakow Guide and today I'm going to tell about our visit in a restaurant called Arenda in the Kazimierz district. Kazimierz is located south-eastern from the old town. It was originally occupied mainly by the jewish community and was partly used as a setting in Stephen Spielbergs movie Schindler's List.



It's really nice for having a walk through the narrow streets and enjoying the little artsy shops, cafés and the old houses. We arrived by tram at Stradomska station and walked down the street until Stradomska changed to Krakowska. From there we headed into the narrow streets in direction to Plac Nowy Zydowski (new jewish plaza) with the old slaughterhouse in it's center.



Nowadays, there are little kiosks in it selling the best zapiekanki (polish pizzas) in whole krakow. Beyond that you can buy antiques or visiting the flea market which takes place every sunday. Not far from Plac Nowy you can visit at least five synagogues and the old jewish cemetery.




Around noon we decided for a lunch at restauracja Arenda, just a few meters away from Plac Nowy (see review below). After lunch we continued our tour walking down Estery, looked at the artsy shops, went by Skałka, a small hill and walked around the St. Stanislaus Church.





At least we visited the Ethnographic Museum, which gives an insight into the polish culture and developement through the years. In the ground floor you'll find some replicas of a traditional polish hut and some workplaces of the last century, like an olive press. In the first floor is an exhibition which shows the life from birth do death of polish people in the past. Overall I found it very interesting and there are many parallels to the german rural culture.



Restauracja Café Arenda



Kind of Food: Traditional Polish
Price: 9-25 PLN for starter, 25 - 60 PLN for main and 10 - 16 PLN for dessert
Points on the NOM-scale: **

The interior of Arenda is surprisingly modern in contrast to the building it's located in. The walls were decorated with colorful baroque wallpapers and the restaurant is devided into two rooms, the first you enter is used as a café.





To the left is a second room - the dining area with around 15 tables. Since we were the first guests that day, the service was fast and very kind and we placed our orders shortly. It was a pity that the choosen starter wasn't available, because the chef's had not prepared the pierogie yet.So I had to skip the pierogie filled with wild boar and ordered the grilled vegetables instead. As main I took the salmon with herbed rice. Stephan had an onion soup and as main dish pierogie with cream cheese and butter. The starters approached fast and were presentated nicely. I had a large variety of vegetables: pepper, eggplant, zucchini, artichoke, onions and even some delicious fennel and a halved garlic bulb, grilled until the garlic was creamy. I really liked it though the vegetables could have been covered in a little less olive oil. The mains were okay - my salmon was a little bit underseasoned and on the dry side. The herbed rice was risotto style with cream cheese and plenty of parsley. The homemade lemonade I had there was very refreshing and good. Altogether we had a good lunch in a nice ambience. If you plan to visit Arenda, please try the pierogi with wild boar and let me know if I missed a culinary experiece - thank you ;)



Restauracja Café Arenda

ul. Nowa 3A
31-056 Kraków, Kazimierz
012 430 15 47
e-mail: restauracja@restauracja-arenda.pl 

Monday-Saturday: 12.00 to 23.00
Sunday. 12.00 to 22.00

These are so cute, aren't they? I found it over at the decor8 blog and the balloons and other japanese papergoods are available on UGiSU (they ship all over the world - yay!).

For Stephan and me it was the second time we visited Krakow. The last time was almost exactly two years ago. Only this time I did actually a little prep work what we want to see and - of course - eat there and I came up with a list containing actually more restaurants than days of our stay - even if we would eat twice a day ;) So here's the first part of my little Krakow guide, which will contain restaurant reviews and things to do / to see. I hope you're going to visit Krakow and enjoy this cute town as much as I did! :)


Dining in Krakow

There are many really good restaurants, everyone on my list was easily approachable within walking distance from our hotel located in the old town. I actually had the feeling that every second restaurant I've gone by had a guide michelin recommandation sticker sticking on the door. I'd like to mention at first, that - besides the hullabaloo with the Euro - the exchange rate was pretty good. We got for 1 Euro about 4 Zloti, so dining in a restaurant was pretty cheap (in comparison to Germany) for food of this quality.

The first restaurant I'd like to show serves traditional polish cuisine. The polish cuisine is rich of simple food, I would say inspired by the rural culture of the country.


Restauracja Wesele





Kind of Food: Traditional Polish
Price: 9-25 PLN for starter, 19 - 60 PLN for main and 10 - 15 PLN for dessert
Points on the NOM-scale: **

The Wesele is located directly on the main market place, Rynek Główny, and serves tradition polish cuisine. The interior is also a polish statement, mainly colored in the colors red and white. Looks a little kitchy but also very welcoming. The service is english speaking and attentive. We visited Wesele right after our arrival in Krakow for lunch. We ordered  Mountain sytle grilled sheep cheese served with cranberry jelly  and Mushrooms with onions lightly fried in butter and cream, served on fuilette as starter and for the main Pierogie "Ruskie" Russian style dumplings (stuffed with potatoes, cottage cheese and fried onions) and Goose breast on a a bed of golden pears roasted with honey and red wine serves with a side of dwarf apples and cranberries.
I really liked my food, grilled sheep cheese - it was halloumi style cheese - is everytime a winner and a comfort food for me. And since I'm a pierogie lover I really liked them. Stephan also liked his food, but the goose was a little on the dry side - nonetheless it was good. And the sauce reminded me of mullet wine ;)


I would recommend visiting the Wesele since it serves good traditional polish food, but in my opinion it didn't come up to the expectation a guide michelin recommended restaurant has set.


Restauracja Wesele


Rynek Główny 10
31-042 Kraków, Polska
+48 (12) 422 74 60

All week: 12:00 am – 11:00 pm

I made this pizza just yesterday and wow(!), this could become one of my favourite pizzas! It tastes and looks like spring and its - beside of preparing the dough - made in almost no time.

Asparagus Pizza makes on big pizza
adapted from smitten kitchen

Pizza dough (see recipe below)
200g asparagus, shaved
1 ball mozarella, cut into cubes
1 handful of grated parmesan
10 leaves fresh oregano, finely chopped
1 garlic glove, finely sliced
salt & pepper
olive oil

First prepare the pizza dough. I'm using an adapted recipe of Jamie Oliver for years and it's still my favourite. You need for one big bizza 150g strong flour (I use 550), 50g finely ground semolina, 110g lukewarm water, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cane sugar, 1 tsp olive oil and 1/3 cube fresh yeast.

In a bowl mix lukewarm water with the yeast and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Let it rest for 10 minutes then pour the olive oil into the yeast-water. In the meantime combine flour, semolina, salt and sugar in a second bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour the yeast-water into it. Now bring the flour gradually from the sides using a fork and swirl into the liquid. Keep going until all flour is incorporated. Put it on a clean, floured surface and kneed well, approximately 10 minutes, until the dough looks silky and smooth. Place the dough in a flour-dusted bowl and cover it with a damp kitchen towl and let it rise on a warm and not drafty place until the dough has doubled in size. This should take at least one hour. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it one more time, around 10 seconds. Then you can roll it out or stretch it in a round or oval shape with prefered thickness - I like mine about 5mm high. It doesn't need to look perfect ;) Cover with the kitchen towl and let it rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven as hot as it gets. For me it's 250°C (480°F).Now we can prepare our asparagus. Hold the asparagus stem in your hand and make slices with a peeler. It works best when you shave in the direction away from your body. It's completely fine if the slices aren't the same size or leght. It gives a bit more texture and it gives the pizza a rustic look.
In a bowl toss the shaved asparagus with oil, salt, pepper and garlic slices. You'll see that there's some time left until the 30 minutes are over... then you can wait or you're like me and assemble the pizza :) At first comes a layer of grated parmesan. I make those things without measurment... I just take my microplane and grate the parmesan directly over the pizza. Next comes the mozarella, I love to use buffalo mozarella - it definately has more depth. Now sprinkle with the oregano and at least the asparagus goes on top. Bake pizza on an oiled tray around 10 - 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the asparagus is lightly charred. Enjoy!