Chow Down to Eurovision 2015 - Austria

Good Evening Europe, this is Melbourne airport calling....
Now we have finally arrived at the ultimate country in the Chow Down to Eurovision 2015 #Building Brunches!......I know it's only taken a year...I have been a tad busy!

So as I write this from the lounge, waiting to board my flight to Stockholm and Eurovision 2016 #MrSauceatESC (official hashtag) I will not get on the plane until this is finished.
I hear them calling me...they keep calling, cal-al-al-ing! (see what I did there)

This potato salad to accompany wiener schnitzel would be the most authentic and researched dish in Chow Down to Eurovision. Following a market tour of Vienna Naschmarkt this dish was created on location in Vienna, in an apartment walking distance from the stadhallen....it couldn't have soaked up more essence of Eurovision if Conchita had peeled the potatoes herself!

Potato Salad with Wiener Schnitzel
Ingredients

• 3 potatoes
• 1 white onion
• 1-2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil (or pumpkin seed)

Method

• Boil potatoes
• Roughly slice/dice potatoes
• Slice onion
• Combine potato and onion and dress with vinegar and oil
• Season with salt and white pepper

Now while the dish was well researched it was thrown together on my last night in Vienna!

Some readers may be shocked to know I didn't bake the bread for the crumb on the schnitzel....though in actual fact I didn't make the schnitzel at all....in actual fact I didn't even buy the schnitzel as AB did go down to the take away under the apartment and bought the schnitzel while I made the potato salad! Bless him!

Far from the comfort of  Don't Boil The Sauce! HQ there is always a way to get the job done. 

The Makemakes along with Ann Sophie scored 0 points in Vienna which is outragous for a host country, so with 2016 being the year to change the voting systems I have declared Austria and Germany the winners of Chow Down to Eurovision 2015!

Previous Austria Chow Down to Eurovision:

2014 Conchita's Phoenix Linzer Torte

2013 Lamb on Hay

See You In Stockholm!!!!

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Austria

Guten Abend this is Austria calling, we hope you are enjoying this really really wonderful show.

Last year Austria provided us with a delightful lamb cooked in hay which bought them a place in the Final

As I've previous mentioned, many of this year's contestants have provided the inspiration for their countries' Chow Down to Eurovision dish.

So while I had thoughts of cooking my way through My Favourite Things, I couldn't go past this year's contestant for Austria Conchita Wurst and putting her song into a cake.

This torte is loosely based on a recipe for Linzer Torte from the Austrian National Tourist Office though I have added a touch more glamour.

Austria's highest placing act in the recent times was Alf Poier with Weil der Mensch zählt they came 6th and it's guaranteed to have you singing along by the end.

 

Conchita's Phoneix Linzer Torte

• 250g butter
• 250g plain flour
• 150g hazelnut meal
• 100g icing sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 750g raspberry jam approx. (recipe at bottom)
• 150g marzipan
• Gold lustre dust (from some supermarkets or cake decorating suppliers)
• Black food colour

Method

• Place butter, flour, hazelnut meal, icing sugar, cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor
• Pulse to crumbs 
• Add egg and process till it starts to come into a ball
• Shape into a ball and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes-1 hour
• It is a very soft dough
• Line a 25cm tart tin with the pastry, it may be too soft to roll completely but it can be pushed into shape in the tin
• The left over pastry will be the border and the bird (or lattice if not making the phoenix)
• Brush the inside of the tart with egg white
• Preheat oven to 180°C
• Fill the tart with raspberry jar (stir it up so its easier to spread)
• Roll some of the remaining pastry into a sausage and place around the inside edge of the tart
• Roll out a small piece of pastry and use a cutter or free hand to shape the phoenix body
• Place on top of the jam
• Refrigerate the tart for 15 minutes
• Bake for 35-40 minutes
• Let cool in the tin
• Once cold place on serving plate and decorate

My phoenix is made from an Easter cookie cutter and silicon feather press, cake decorating shops would have similar or ebay...always ebay!

To let the phoenix rise

• Press a small amount of marzipan into the feather press
• It is easier if you dip the press in icing sugar and shake off the excess first
• Make about 25-30 feathers
• Using a small paint brush dust the feathers with gold lustre dust
• Dust the pastry with lustre dust, if you have left your tart in the oven for 2 minutes too long like I did....oops
• Arrange the feathers over the tart like a phoenix, the jam will help secure them
• It's optional, but you can add a beard to your phoenix with black food colour and a paint brush, If Conchita has taught us anything it's everything is better with a beard!

 

To make the jam

• Put 1kg of raspberries into a saucepan
• Add 700g sugar and the juice of 1 large lime
• Stir over low heat
• Heat to 105°C and stir for about 5-10 minute
• Test the jam by placing a spoon full on a plate that has been in the freezer.
• Let it cool
• If it wrinkles up when you push your finger through it, it's ready
• Store in sterilized jars
• This makes more than is needed for the tart but there are always, toast, muffins, scones, or crumpets needing to be eaten!

Wurst, Conchita Wurst will ignite Copenhagen like the love child of James Bond and Shirley Bassey with Rise like a Phoenix.

Will she set fire to the stage and fly straight into the final?

Viel Gluck!

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Austria

The first stop on our European trek towards Malmö is Austria. Home of the Von Trapp family singers, Sachertorte, Pez dispensers, and chef Sarah Wiener. I will happily admit I am a little bit in love with Sarah Wiener. While preparing this Chow Down to Eurovision, I watched her TV series where she travels the Alps and cooks the local recipes. It seems only fitting that Austria is represented by a version of her recipe for Lamb on Hay, that was inspired by the Austrian town of Tyrol. I love the way she goes traveling to befriends the locals and learns their way of life and cuisine. At the end of the visit she will either replicating her host's dish or come up with her own inspired invention. I was very hesitant to use the hay as it just reminds me of Sailor's box, she is cute but she is also very capable of producing the not so cute.

                                Sailor "Yum hay, HEY are you eating my tea?"

When it comes to Austria in Eurovision my favourite act would The Rounder Girls, Eurovision meets Sister Act. Their song All to You came 14th in 2000, they were robbed, all that big haired wise cracking should have came at least top 10.

 

This recipe is based on what Sarah demonstrated on Sarah Wiener in the Alps season 1 episode 9, I used a different cut of lamb and cooked it slower and longer, oh and also I, unlike Sarah, didn't climb up a hill to select the lamb that was getting a one way trip down the hill to become lunch.

Lamb on Hay
Ingredients

• 1.5 kg of lamb shoulder, cut into large pieces.
• 2-4 lamb shanks
• Mustard to coat the lamb, I used whole grain Dijon, but any will do.
• 1 large bowl of hay (optional see note)
• A few sprigs of Rosemary
• About a handful other herbs, made up of thyme, lavender, parsley
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 medium carrots chopped
• 2 small onions chopped
• 1 celeriac chopped (I forgot and bought leek)
• 1 1/2 cups red wine
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
• Oil for browning lamb

Method

• Coat the lamb with the mustard and brown in a fry pan with a little oil.
• Place the lamb in a baking dish on top of optional hay (read the note below)
• Scatter lamb with garlic and herbs
• Fry the onions leek and carrots in a deep fry pan with a little oil
• Add the stock and red wine to the vegetables and simmer on medium heat for about 3 minutes
• Pour the vegetables and stock over the lamb
• Cover baking dish with foil
• Roast in a 170°C oven for about 2.5 hours, uncover for the last half of the cooking.
• The lamb should fall away from the bone.
• Remove the lamb pieces from the baking dish and place on serving plate.
• Discard the vegetable stock
• Serve with a baked potato topped with sour cream and finely chopped chives.

Note:  I wouldn't use the hay again, I couldn't taste the difference. I think you need to get it from the Austrian Alps before it has any major effect. Really all the stressing about the food safety, thinking if there had been any mice running through this hay before it got to me and associating it with bunny's left overs, just wasn't worth any flavour enhancement that was supposed to be there. My advice, love Sarah but ditch the hay.

This year Austria will be represented by Natalia Kelly singing Shine

Viel Glück!