SMBC #4: Pseudo Pancakes Part 2 - Kaiserschmarrn

A loooong time ago we promised here that there would be a second post to explain the phenomenon that random people would stop at our kitchen window to try our food creation. Well, it finally digitalised…

The dish in question is called “Kaiserschmarrn”, a simple but delicious Austrian dish made with pancake batter and combined with the subtle sweet-sour taste of home-made cranberry jam. Even though this popular dish is sweet, it is often eaten as a main course for dinner. Its name is a bizarre combination of the German word for emperor, “Kaiser”, and the word “Schmarrn”, which means nonsense or rubbish in the Viennese dialect. While it is confirmed that Schmarrn is a simple poor-mans-dish, first mentioned in a document in the 16^th century, there are many different legends on the origins of its noble sibling, the Kaiserschmarrn.

The Kaiserschmarrn was most probably invented at the court of the Austrian emperor Franz Josef I (1830–1916). According to one legend, this delicious dish was created in 1854 for the emperor's wife, duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie of Bavaria, commonly known as Sissi. Obsessed with maintaining a thin waistline, Sissi directed the royal chef to prepare only light desserts for her, much to the consternation and annoyance of her husband who loved pastry. Upon being presented with the chef’s confection, she found it too rich and refused to eat it. With a smile Franz Josef tried to safe the situation and replied, “Now let me see what "Schmarrn" our chef has cooked up”. It apparently met his approval as he finished his and even his wife's serving. Thereafter, the dessert was called Kaiserschmarrn across the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Lets now come to the preparation of the Kaiserschmarrn. On the internet one can find many complicated procedures involving baking in an oven and subsequent glazing with caramelised sugar, but this recipe is really simple. For four portions you will need:

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons of sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 120 g of flour
• about ¼ litre of milk
• raisins at pleasure
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• some good cranberry (or plum) jam
• icing sugar

Destroy it! The pancake is torn into bite-sized pieces.

And here is the preparation:

1. Separate the yolks from the egg white. Whisk the yolks with the milk, the salt, the sugar and the packet of vanilla sugar. Add the flour and give it a good mix to obtain a smooth batter. Finally add the raisins. 
2. Whip the egg white till it is nice and firm. Carefully stir it in the prepared batter. Don’t overdo it, too much stirring lets all the small air bubbles escape from the batter.
3. Melt a little butter is a non-sticky pan and pour in some batter. The Kaiserschmarrn has to be quite thick, about double the thickness of a pancake. Bake the Schmarrn on small heat till it is golden brown on the bottom, then turn and bake till the other side is ready. The finished pancake is brown and crisp on the outside and still relatively soft inside.
4. At the end comes the fun part: use your pancake turner to tear the pancake to bite-size pieces, giving the Kaiserschmarrn its characteristic shape. Finally melt a small piece of butter to the pan and toss the pieces of Kaiserschmarrn in it.  
5. Serve the Kaiserschmarrn on a large flat plate, strewn with icing sugar and a few spoon-full of cranberry jam to the side. Traditionally this dish is served with a glass of cold milk. 
   

PS: Don’t worry if the Kaiserschmarrn doesn’t turn out perfect the first time. Some say even good cooks struggle with the preparation of this seemingly simple dish, they don’t know how to make it good and fluffy. Kaiserschmarrn is a dish that is often served in alpine huts, a typical mountain food. And up in the mountains they really know how to make a good Kaiserschmarrn! 

Reality Check: Stir-fried Chicken and Beans with Sichuan Pepper

It's all well and good to spend several hours on a weekend shopping for, preparing, and making photogenic a dish to put up on a blog. But what about the rest of the week?

For those that might have an unnaturally keen interest in this blog, you might have noticed that we haven't had an SMBC for a while. We could probably blame it on The Shok who is currently back home in Malaysia, however, the truth is that we're all actually getting ridiculously busy with work (long weekends in the lab and such).

One still does need to eat though. PC's go-to food seems to be risotto and pasta. Mine is plain rice cooked in a pot with something stir-fried in a pan... because a) rice cookers are banned in college, and b) I only own one pot and one pan!

So to put up some 'normal' food as a reality check for this blog, I've decided to write up what I made a couple of days ago (and will be eating for the next few days).

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I've been craving the taste of ma-la (麻辣) for a while. Ma-la comes from the Sichuan province in China, ma being the tingly tongue-numbing sensation from Sichuan peppercorns,and la being the heat of chilli. Top it off with an excessive amount of chilli oil and you have the basis for many a Sichuan dish.

I recently bought some Sichuan peppercorns at Sainsbury of all places, plus a bottle of Lao Gan Ma (老干妈) chilli sauce at one of the asian shops on Mill Rd. I shall not explain the awesomeness that is Lao Gan Ma, but instead direct you to their website for you to appreciate their amazing Engrish. I particularly like the part about an ″aircraft carrier″ of chili processing industry. Old granny's gonna call some airstrikes if you don't finish every grain of rice in your bowl...

Everybody loves granny sauce. She must be filthy rich, so the question is, why does she look so angry?

Ingredients:
12 deboned chicken thighs 400 g green beans 2 cloves garlic Lao Gan Ma sauce (the black bean type) Dried chilli flakes	2 tbsp light soy sauce 1 tbsp dark soy sauce 1 tsp sesame oil handful of Sichuan peppercorns

First, cut the chicken into bite sized cubes and marinate with the soy, sesame oil, a couple of good dollops of Lao Gan Ma, and some crushed up Sichuan peppercorns.
Whilst marinating, chop the green beans into 3cm-ish lengths. Mince garlic into small pieces.

***Stir-fry tips when on a college hob***
Make sure the pan is really hot (this may take 5 minutes...). Cook the meat in small batches, otherwise all the heat will be sapped away, leading to watery steam-'fry' and tough meat.
I used a bit of canola oil for the first batch, but after that, there was plenty of oil in the marinade (thanks to Lao Gan Ma) so there was no need to add any more.

After frying the chicken and putting it aside, fry the minced garlic, more Lao Gan Ma, Sichuan peppercorns and chilli flakes (I had no fresh chilli) briefly, then add the beans. After a while, put a lid over the top to help cook it through. Add a dash of light soy if not salty enough.

Finally add back the chicken and heat through. All done! Best served with plain rice!

Om nom nom nom.

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I'm heading back to Sydney in a week's time! Going to knock down some serious food cravings, plus fill up on some home cooking =) 
Oh yeah, and stock up on Tim Tams.