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More and more people appreciate the original coffee taste of filter coffee. In particular, the hand filter method is more popular than ever. You can read everything about the preparation and its advantages here.

What is hand filter coffee?

If you want to prepare a coffee with the hand filter, you only need two utensils: the filter holder and a filter. In addition, of course, the appropriately ground coffee powder and hot water are required for the preparation. Hand filter coffee is characterized by a clear aroma and full-bodied taste. The difference between filter coffee and hand filter coffee is already evident in the name. While normal filter coffee is usually prepared in a machine and the brewing process runs automatically, with hand filter coffee the water is poured over the ground coffee by hand.

This is how you prepare the perfect hand filter coffee

The hand filter method is a little more complex than the automated brewing process with the coffee machine. It takes several manual steps and of course your time. But it’s worth it. We explain how to brew hand filter coffee correctly.

Ingredients needed for one liter:

60 grams of ground coffee with a medium degree of grinding
1 L of water with a temperature between 93 and 96 degrees

Step 1: grind beans

For the preparation with the hand filter, the beans should be ground to a medium degree of grinding. The coffee powder is perfect when it is a little finer than for the French Press, but not as fine as for an espresso. The ground coffee should be as fresh as possible so that the extraction process works optimally. In addition, the ground coffee loses more and more aromas the longer it has been roasted and ground. The reason for this is oxidation.

Step 2: Fold filter paper, insert and rinse

First fold the filter paper at the lower end. Why? It’s very simple: the filter fits exactly into the filter holder due to the buckling. So there is no slipping that could cause coffee powder to get into the drink. Then insert the paper filter into the hand filter. Before brewing, the filter should be rinsed once with boiling water to remove any flavors.

Step 3: Add ground coffee

Put the ground coffee into the filter. Pay attention to the crowd. For one liter of coffee you need about 60 grams of powder. For a cup with 250 ml you calculate with about 15 grams of coffee powder. How many spoons that is depends on the size of your spoon. Just weigh the amount and you have the perfect dosage of coffee spoon to ground coffee.

Step 4: Boil water and let coffee swell

Boil the water, ideally it should be between 93 and 96 degrees. There is a reason for this: the coffee beans contain oils. At the specified water temperature, these combine best and ensure an aromatic taste. In the first step, pour enough water onto the coffee powder until it is completely covered. Now the coffee begins to swell, which is also called “blooming”. This “pre-brewing,” where small bubbles appear, should last about 30 seconds.

Step 5: Top up with water

After about 30 seconds, slowly pour the remaining water into the filter in a circular motion. Gradually add more water to the filter until you have the desired amount in the jug. When pouring the water, make sure that the ground coffee is wetted and not the edge of the filter. This prevents the water from running past the powder. It should take a total of two to four minutes – depending on the amount of water – until you have poured the liquid completely over the ground coffee.

You can prepare horseradish in the form of dips, sauces and soups, for example. If you bought too much or had a particularly rich harvest, horseradish can also be easily preserved.

Horseradish is a particularly hot type of radish that is in season in Germany between October and January. The horseradish root is considered healthy because it is rich in vitamin C and is said to have an antibacterial effect due to its mustard oils. At the same time, the mustard oils ensure the characteristic spiciness of horseradish, which gives various dishes their special flavor.

In this article, we will show you how you can prepare horseradish and how best to store it.

Cook horseradish: This is how you use the root

Due to its sharpness, horseradish is hardly edible on its own. In the kitchen, it is therefore used in small amounts to flavor sauces and similar dishes – often in combination with cream or other ingredients that reduce the heat somewhat.

The classic horseradish sauce is traditionally often served with meat or fish, but it also goes well with potatoes, dumplings, vegetables or vegetarian patties. You can also prepare salad dressings, dips or soups with horseradish.

If you are particularly fond of horseradish, you can plant it in your own garden and harvest the roots yourself. You can find detailed instructions on how to do this in our guides on harvesting and planting horseradish. If you buy the horseradish at the weekly market or in the shop, you should do so in season if possible and pay attention to organic quality. In this way you avoid unnecessarily long transport routes and residues of harmful pesticides.

When cooking, you often only need small amounts of horseradish root. Because of this, it’s easy to end up buying or harvesting more horseradish than you can cook. So that you don’t have to throw away the excess horseradish, you can make it last longer. We’ll show you a simple method to do this.

Preserve horseradish: Simple method with salt and vinegar

Ingredients:

200 g fresh horseradish
1 tsp salt
1 squirt vinegar (plus more for topping if needed)

Directions:

Wash the horseradish, peel it and grate it finely.
Mix the grated horseradish with a teaspoon of salt and a dash of vinegar. Important: Make sure that the vinegar is evenly distributed so that the entire horseradish mixture can be preserved. Otherwise it will quickly turn gray later.
Pour the mixture into a sterilized jar, covering the surface with a little extra vinegar if necessary. Then close the jar tightly.
It is best to keep the pickled horseradish in the fridge. Unopened, it will keep for at least four weeks. Just like with fresh horseradish, you can use it to prepare various horseradish dishes. Once opened, you should use the jar within a few days if possible.

By the way: As an alternative to this method, you can also preserve horseradish by freezing it. This is possible with both the unpeeled whole root and with grated horseradish, which you should mix with a little vinegar or lemon juice before freezing. The horseradish will keep in the freezer for about half a year. However, it may lose some of its flavor when frozen.

Sooner or later, igur-conscious people ask themselves how many calories are in coffee. The good news is that coffee itself has no calories. The bad news: Coffee variations such as cappuccino, latte macchiato and Co. make a big difference. Find out here what the calorie count of coffee is.

Whether for breakfast, in the office or after a delicious meal, coffee is one of the most popular beverages around the world. But do you know how many calories coffee has? This question divides minds: While some claim that the hot drink even helps you lose weight, others say that it can be a real calorie trap. But which of these is true now? The answer: both! But from the beginning…

What are calories anyway?

Calories are known to be those little animals that sew clothes tighter at night. No, seriously – first of all, calories are actually kilocalories, abbreviated to kcal. This is nothing other than the unit that indicates the energy contained in food. The precise definition is:

One kilocalorie of a certain food supplies exactly the energy required to heat up one liter of water by one degree Celsius.

If you want to lose weight, you have to consume fewer calories than your body actually burns. All those who want to gain weight must consume more calories than they burn. The average calorie requirement per person is around 2000 kcal.

However, factors such as gender, height, weight and level of activity also play a decisive role. For example, a tall, physically active person burns more calories per day than a smaller person who hardly moves.

A lightweight: coffee itself is low in calories

Coffee drinkers who enjoy their drink black can rejoice: there are actually no real coffee calories. However, if you take it very seriously, a normal cup of coffee has just 4 kcal. A regular espresso only has 2 kcal per cup. These are indications that figure-conscious people can certainly neglect in their diet.

On the contrary, black coffee can even be beneficial for burning energy. Because the drink can boost the metabolism in the body and ensure that fat is burned faster. The popular hot drink helps with weight loss. However, this only applies to active people who exercise, and only to black coffee without any additives.

Milk and sugar make coffee a calorie trap

Unfortunately, not all coffee is created equal. What you put in the coffee is also decisive for the calorie count. This means sugar and milk. If you like sweetening your coffee, add 20 kcal per teaspoon of sugar. Milk also contains calories, more or less depending on the fat content. For example, if you add a third of whole milk to your cup of coffee, you will consume 40 calories.

Coffee types such as latte macchiato or cappuccino that contain milk and sugar also have more calories. The more of it is drunk, or the more milk and sugar it contains, the more calories the drink has.

Of course, coffee can also cause weight gain because the body is supplied with energy that first has to be burned off again. This means that what is actually a low-calorie drink can quickly become a calorie trap.

Overview: This is how many calories coffee and individual types of coffee have

Because coffee has many facets, the calorie information varies accordingly. To give you an overview of which varieties contain the most calories, we have sorted the drinks according to their nutritional value:

Pretty figure-friendly: A cup of espresso has just 2 kcal.
The following applies: the purer, the better. Even a cup of black coffee doesn’t matter. She comes to 4 kcal.
A cup of latte that consists of half low-fat milk and half coffee has about 65 kcal.
All cappuccino lovers consume just over 90 kcal with a cup of their beloved pick-me-up. Each teaspoon of sugar adds 20 kcal.
A latte macchiato also has almost 100 kcal due to the milk. With the whole milk variant, it can quickly become 150 kcal. That doesn’t even include the sugar.

Minimize calories in coffee – this is how it works

Anyone who pays attention to their diet and energy intake in order to maintain their weight or even lose pounds should opt for the lower-calorie coffee variants.

If you don’t want to do without latte macchiato or cappuccino, it’s best to choose low-fat milk. Instead of milk, you can also use milk substitutes such as soy or almond milk. This reduces the number of calories, the coffee gets a pleasant aroma and people with lactose intolerance can also enjoy it without regret.

You should avoid sugar if possible. However, if you really need something sweet in your coffee, you can use sugar substitutes. Try it with sweeteners from the health food store such as agave syrup, maple syrup or stevia. These substitutes contain significantly fewer calories than sugar, but still taste almost as good.

You should also be careful with coffee variations that you get on the go. Here, large mug coffees can contain added syrup and cream and can quickly exceed the 300-calorie mark. Then the drink sometimes turns into a small meal, at least if you go by the calorie count.

A cup of macchiato promises coffee enjoyment like in Bella Italia. But what is the difference between an espresso macchiato and a latte macchiato – and how can the specialties be perfectly prepared?

The fine difference between espresso macchiato and latte macchiato

Espresso macchiato and latte macchiato sound similar in name, but they are two different drinks. The espresso macchiato (also known as macchiato for short) is a genuine Italian specialty. With this type of coffee, the espresso is “stained” with milk (macchiato). It is characteristic of the drink that the barista only adds a little milk froth to the espresso.

The latte macchiato, on the other hand, consists of espresso and significantly more milk. Conversely, with this variant, the milk is “stained” by the espresso.

How do you make latte macchiato?

The perfect latte macchiato is served in a glass, because this is how the color nuances of the espresso and the milk can be seen. The hot drink consists of a total of three layers: the milk is at the bottom of the glass, then the espresso follows in the middle and the relatively firm and creamy milk foam is enthroned at the top.

How can the layers be separated? Quite simply: When pouring espresso and milk froth, caution and the right order is required.

First pour the milk into the glass.
Now add the milk froth.
Finally, carefully pour the espresso through the milk froth.

Prepare espresso macchiato: Here’s how

The preparation of an espresso macchiato does not require quite as much skill as the latte. To serve the perfect espresso macchiato, first froth the milk. Tip: The froth is particularly firm and retains its consistency longer if you use milk with a high fat content.

Prepare the espresso separately. First pour the espresso into the cup and garnish it with the milk froth.
The delicious hot drink is available in different versions:

● Italians like to drink a doppio macchiato, which consists of twice the amount of espresso. This variation is also often served in a glass. Incidentally, an espresso macchiato tastes particularly good when the cup is warm.
● Cold macchiato is a pleasure, especially on warm summer days. This is prepared without foam. Instead, the espresso is simply mixed with some cold milk and called espresso macchiato freddo.

 

You can easily freeze strawberries without losing much of their flavor. Not only whole fruits are suitable for freezing, you can also preserve strawberry puree in this way. You can find out more about the various options here.

You can freeze strawberries after the strawberry season and thus preserve them. Depending on the weather, the strawberry season varies slightly from year to year. However, the bright red fruits can usually be harvested between May and July. Then they also have high season in supermarkets and organic shops. In order to have delicious strawberries for the rest of the summer and even in winter, we show you different ways to freeze them.

Freeze strawberries: instructions for whole fruits

You can easily freeze fresh strawberries – whether from the organic market or harvested yourself – as whole fruits:

It is important that you wash the strawberries thoroughly before freezing. It is best to clean them in cold, standing water, for example in a large bowl or in the sink, so that you do not damage the fruit.
Now remove all stems and remaining foliage.
Then pat the berries dry with some kitchen paper or a towel. They must not be wet when freezing, so that a layer of ice does not form.
To prevent the fruit from sticking together later when defrosting, freeze them first: place berry by berry next to each other on a flat plate or tray. The berries should not touch each other. Then place everything in the freezer for an hour or two.
To make room again, you can then fill the strawberries into their final freezer container. Place the pre-frozen berries in a stainless steel freezer box and store in the freezer. Frozen fresh strawberries will keep for about eight months.

Tip: Only use freshly harvested soil without dents or holes for freezing. Damaged fruit spoils faster even in the freezer – better eat it now.

Freeze strawberries as a puree

You can also puree the strawberries before freezing them. After defrosting, you have fresh strawberry puree at hand that is perfect for pancakes, with homemade Bircher muesli or to be enjoyed on its own. You can also cook strawberry jam or combine it with rhubarb to make strawberry rhubarb jam.

Wash the undamaged, fresh fruit in standing, cold water (as described above).
Remove the stems and foliage, then gently pat the strawberries dry with a towel.
Place the strawberries in a tall container and puree them into a smooth cream.
If you want the puree to be even creamier and finer, spoon it through a fine sieve before freezing. So you can easily catch the small seeds.
Pour the strawberry puree into a freezer bowl or glass.
Tip: You can also pour your pureed strawberry puree into ice cube molds. Frozen strawberry ice cubes taste wonderful in sparkling wine, mineral water or homemade cocktails.

If you freeze fresh chanterelles, you can keep them for a few months. In this article you will learn how this works.

Chanterelles are in season from the end of June to September: If you know what you’re doing, you can pick lots of delicious mushrooms on a walk in the forest. You’ll often find more than you can eat in one meal. You can freeze the chanterelles to keep them from going bad. With just a few moves, the mushrooms stay fresh and you can extend the chanterelle season.

Tip: Often chanterelles from the region are offered at the weekly market. Worth buying here and freezing them for fall and winter.

Freezing chanterelles: How to prepare the mushrooms

To prepare the chanterelles for freezing:

Thoroughly brush the chanterelles with a small brush.
Wash them off very gently.
Cut out bad spots with a small knife.
Blanch the chanterelles in salted water for a few minutes. This way they don’t taste bitter after defrosting.
Scoop the mushrooms out of the water with a spoon and gently dry them with a towel.
Let them dry a bit before you freeze them.

How to freeze chanterelles

You can easily freeze chanterelles in just a few steps:

Arrange the mushrooms on a board or tray.
Then place this in the freezer.
Take the board out again after about half an hour. Now the chanterelles are “pre-frozen” – so they won’t stick together when you freeze them afterwards.
Now fill the mushrooms in a freezer container and store them in the freezer.
Tip: Don’t use plastic bags to freeze the chanterelles. Instead, you can use, for example, freezer-proof glasses, cans or cotton bags.

Mushrooms that you collect yourself can stay in the freezer for up to ten months and still taste good. Mushrooms from the supermarket, on the other hand, lose their taste more quickly.

Fennel green is healthy and brings a lot of aroma. Instead of throwing it away, you can use it to flavor many dishes. You can find out how to use it and how to make a delicious fennel green pesto here.

Almost all parts of fennel are edible: apart from the hard stalk, you can use everything it has to offer – even the green fennel. It’s too good to end up in the trash. Because fennel green not only tastes very spicy, but is also healthy.

In Germany, the fennel season runs from June to November. Outside this period, the vegetables come from Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Italy.

Fennel green is so healthy

Fennel is considered an extremely healthy vegetable. It contains many minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron, which, among other things, ensure strong nails, healthy hair and strong bones. In addition, it provides vitamins A, C, and B, as well as essential oils.

A study found that there are even more minerals in the green fennel than in the tuber. In addition, fennel green contains omega-3 fatty acids, including α-linolenic acid, which according to the study should have anti-cancer properties.

Various essential oils have also been detected in fennel greens, including anethole, which is considered to be expectorant and slightly antibacterial.

100 grams of fennel green have the following nutritional values:

Energy: 84 kcal
Carbohydrates: 18.44 g
Protein: 1.16g
Fat: 0.6g

Here’s how you can use fennel greens

Especially in summer you can get particularly fresh fennel from the region. Not only the tuber is then suitable for many delicious dishes, you can also process the fennel green. We present you a recipe for fennel green pesto. In addition to the pesto, you can also try the following ideas with fennel greens:

Use it like parsley and season fish and meat dishes with chopped fennel greens. But the spicy aroma also goes well with salads and vegetables such as kohlrabi and cauliflower.
Top various dishes with fennel greens, for example bread topped with cucumber.
Try a classic Italian dish with fennel greens: pasta with fennel.
Tip: Find out the right dosage of fennel herb. The intense taste can quickly ensure that other flavors are masked.

Save the fennel greens

Like any herb, you should also use fennel greens as soon as possible, because it tastes the most intense fresh. If the herb looks limp and wilted, it is no longer fresh. However, if you have more fennel greens than you can use right away, you can store them for a few days. This is the best way to do it:

Pluck the fennel greens from the stalks.
Fill an oblong container with cold water and place the fennel greens in it.
Seal the container and put it in the fridge – but not in the back where it’s coldest. There it can get too cold for the fennel greens.
Alternatively, you can freeze fennel greens:

Pick off the green fennel, chop it finely and fill it into ice cube trays.
Fill them up with oil and freeze them.
You can thaw the ice cubes for salad dressings, for example.

Recipe for fennel green pesto

Ingredients:

150 g green fennel
3 EL pine nuts, toasted
20 g Pecorino (optional yeast flakes as a vegan alternative)
100 mlorganic olive oil
salt to taste

Directions:

Wash the fennel greens and dry them well with a clean kitchen towel. Pick the fennel greens from the stalks and chop them finely.
Finely chop the pine nuts and grate the pecorino cheese. You can also use yeast flakes as a vegan alternative to pecorino.
Mix together the fennel greens, cheese or nutritional yeast, pine nuts, and oil. Season the pesto with salt.
Pour the pesto into a sealable jar and keep it in the fridge. Tip: If the aniseed flavor of the fennel herb in the pesto is too intense for you, you can replace half with parsley or carrot greens.

You want to freeze spinach because you had a good harvest? Or do you have leftover fresh spinach and want to preserve it? Find out here how it works and what you should consider when freezing.

Freeze spinach: Here’s how

Spinach is a healthy, regional vegetable. So it’s no wonder he’s so popular. Fresh spinach is especially delicious. If you have bought too much of it or your harvest has been very rich, you can freeze it without any problems.

How to freeze spinach correctly:

Wash the spinach and remove the stalks. These taste mainly bitter and are also not very pleasant when you bite them.
Briefly blanch the spinach. Blanched it is easier to freeze, and because you only heat it briefly, most of the nutrients are preserved.
To do this, add the spinach in portions to boiling water and let it cook for a few seconds.
Immediately afterward, place in a bowl of ice water to pause the cooking process.
Spin it dry in a salad spinner. It is important that the spinach is completely dry, otherwise too much liquid will collect due to the ice crystals when defrosting. You can also press the spinach dry between tea towels. Make sure, however, that it is not exposed to room temperature for too long. Because then nitrite can form in the spinach.
If the spinach is dry, you can freeze it in glass or stainless steel containers.
Tip: Depending on how you want to use the spinach, you can also cut it up or finely chop it before freezing.

You can also freeze spinach raw. However, the spinach should be as fresh as possible and you should clean it well so that no dirt or bacteria are thawed again later.

Need ice cubes but don’t have an ice cube mold? No problem! We have put together various ways for you to make ice cubes yourself at any time.

If you want to prepare ice cubes, the only option is usually to use molds made of plastic or silicone. You can also buy plastic ice cube bags everywhere, which end up in the garbage after one use. Both plastic and silicone are harmful to the environment and to your own health. Over time, for example, a silicone mold can release plasticizers into the ice cubes. Make sure that your ice cube mold is free of plasticizers such as BPA.

But if you don’t have such a shape or you want to produce ice cubes in an environmentally friendly way, you have to improvise. We have several ways for you to make ice cubes without an ice cube mold.

Make ice cubes without an ice cube mold

Use the shape of a box of chocolates. You can use any type of chocolate. We recommend buying chocolates made from fair trade chocolate. There are some seals for Fairtrade chocolate such as the Fairtrade seal. So keep the shape of a box of chocolates or you transfer the chocolates. You don’t have to throw these away, of course, but put them in a lockable box. The good thing about this variant is that you do not produce any additional garbage. Another plus is that you get ice cubes in special shapes. After all, chocolates often come in a wide variety of shapes. BTW: You can use other forms of candy as long as they are stored in a plastic mold.

Another option is to prepare glasses in advance that you want to drink from later or that you want to serve. To do this, fill in some water (a few centimeters high) and place it in the freezer compartment. But make sure that the glasses are freezer-safe. So don’t use glasses that are too thin. You can then simply pour the drink onto the thin layer of ice.

Crushed ice is also possible. You can use any type of container that is freezer-safe.

Cool drinks with alternative ice cubes

There are other ways you can cool drinks:

You can use frozen fruit as ice cubes: for example, put grapes in the freezer for about two hours and then put them in the glass. Alternatively, you can buy already frozen organic fruit. If the frozen fruit is no longer needed, you can simply eat it – it tastes delicious and you haven’t wasted anything.

You can also slice and freeze lemons or limes. It is best to use organic ones. Then you can be sure that they are free of chemical-synthetic pesticides.

Another option is to pre-chill the empty glasses or just the drinks yourself in the fridge. These are then cool from the start and remain so for a little longer thanks to the cool glasses.

Since the main problem is the material of conventional ice cube molds, you can use stainless steel molds, which can be bought online. There are also so-called whiskey stones made of stainless steel that you can freeze and use again and again.

Try making ice cubes out of liquids other than water. For example, freeze organic juices, yoghurt or fair trade coffee as cubes.

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe is a simple and classic Italian recipe that doesn’t require many ingredients or time. We will show you a basic recipe and a vegan version.

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe means spaghetti with pecorino and pepper. Cacio is a special Roman pecorino made from sheep’s milk. You can get it in Italian specialty shops or, for example, at a cheese counter. Pay attention to organic quality in order to guarantee species-appropriate animal husbandry.

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe: basic recipe

For Cacio e Pepe for three people you need about:

400 grams of spaghetti
200 g Pecorino
Salt
black pepper (freshly ground)
Note: Note that pecorino is usually made with animal rennet. These are enzymes that are taken from the stomach of calves. Accordingly, Pecorino is not vegetarian.

How to prepare Cacio e Pepe

Place the spaghetti in boiling salted water. Don’t use too much salt in the pasta water, as the pecorino is already very salty.
Grate the pecorino.
Put the grated cheese in a cold pan. Now add a few tablespoons of the hot pasta water and stir the cheese into a creamy paste. Caution: In a coated pan, you should use a wooden spoon to stir, otherwise the coating could break.
Generously grind the black pepper, add it to the pan and stir the mixture well again.
About 2-3 minutes before the spaghetti is al dente, drain and reserve the pasta water.
Add the pasta to the pan with the pecorino mixture. Now add enough pasta water by the spoonful so that the spaghetti Cacio e Pepe can simmer gently for the remaining minutes.
At the end, the noodles should have soaked up the water and there should be almost no liquid left in the pan.
To serve, you can grate some fresh Pecorino over the portions of your fresh Cacio e Pepe.

Vegan variation of the spaghetti Cacio e Pepe

If you want to make spaghetti cacio e pepe entirely without animal products, you can make a vegan nut-based cheese sauce.

For 300 to 400 grams of spaghetti you need:

25 grams of almonds
25 g cashew nuts
1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
4-5 tbsp yeast flakes
1/4 tsp salt
60 g sauerkraut brine
120 g unsweetened plant drink
1 tbsp olive oil
freshly ground pepper

This is how the vegan version of Cacio e Pepe works:

Roast the almonds, cashews and sesame seeds in a pan without fat until lightly brown and fragrant.
Put the nuts, yeast flakes, salt, sauerkraut brine and plant-based drink with about 250 milliliters of pasta water in a blender and puree the ingredients into a creamy sauce. If the sauce is still too thick, you can add more pasta water in between.
Heat the oil in a pan and grind in some pepper.
Let the pepper roast briefly and then add the cheese sauce.
As described above, add the almost-cooked spaghetti and pasta water and let the pasta simmer in the pan until done.

Tip: Although almonds, cashews and sesame provide the creamy cheese note of the vegan Cacio e Pepe, they are problematic from an ecological perspective: They have to travel long distances to Germany and therefore have a bad ecological balance. Alternatively, you can replace them with the same amount of walnuts and sunflower seeds from German cultivation. When buying the products, also pay attention to organic goods if possible in order to avoid chemical-synthetic pesticides.