Even if some of us get grief lines when we look at the scales - life is too short to torture ourselves with diets. Star chef Toni Mörwald has a recipe ready for us for every day of the year: vegan, vegetarian and totally normal - i.e. colourful, balanced and varied.
The year 2023 has only just begun and, despite the spring-like New Year's weather, has not yet warmed up - so there is still a lot to come. A (almost) unsolvable task for me in the first days of the new year: a cookbook tome with recipes for every day of the year!
In fact - 365 recipes that of course start with an anti-hangover remedy for New Year's Day ("Bloody Mary in the soup bowl") and just as naturally end with a fantastic dish for the New Year's Eve party ("North Sea shrimp cocktail with sour cream and buckwheat blinis" ). The party 22/23 is over, the cat has given up - but you know ... same procedure as every year. Between the bloody mary and the seafood lies the "rest" of the year with recipes for breakfast, appetizers and small dishes, salads, soups, main courses and sweets. The author of this truly weighty work is the Austrian star chef Toni Mörwald.
For more than three decades, the four-toque chef (Gault Millau Austria) has been proving in his restaurants that he has the right dish ready at any time and for any occasion. In his new standard work "365 recipes for every day", Toni Mörwald shares his wealth of knowledge and shows us how culinary diverse 365 days a year can be. Whether delicious meals for every day or clever holiday dishes for several people - the recipes have been tried and tested over many years and are easy to prepare. The focus is on local traditions, but international influences also find their place. The cookbook is supplemented by the favorite recipes of family and friends as well as product tips and anecdotes about Austrian customs. This extensive cookbook was published by Brandstätter Verlag.
Toni Mörwald is a guarantee for a varied and creative cuisine. His credo: "Mealtime is lifetime". It can hardly be said better, shorter and more memorable that food fulfills an important function for our interpersonal coexistence.
"Eating is good for us. Eating together is even better," says Mörwald. That's why he wrote this book; That's his wish: "Let's make the dining table the active focus of our everyday life again. Monthly, weekly, daily. As often as you can. After all, communication and being together are just as important for survival as the food itself." The family dining table is often lonely and deserted today because living conditions have changed. For sociability and cosiness, however, you don't have to cook up a lot or celebrate an extensive menu. The big effort is reserved for holidays, which is why the focus of the book is on quick, simple dishes that can be easily integrated into everyday life.
The experienced chef offers his proven culinary knowledge on 600 pages. "I grew up in a time when it was a matter of course to use food as completely as possible, from snout to tail and with Butz and Stingl. I learned to cook according to the culinary cycle of the year and to give the products their time. Until Today the right handling of our food is the basis of my kitchen. Only those who cook according to the course of the seasons can experience a taste and pleasure of unbelievable dimensions." That's what Toni Mörwald stands for. The 55-year-old can look back on an extensive "kitchen life". Toni was four years old when his father, a farmer and wine grower, took over the village inn from Aunt Rikki. From then on, the "Zur Traube" inn was his second home; He was 22 when he took over.
Toni Mörwald's recipes are based on the tradition of Austrian cuisine, sometimes reinterpreted by him and provided with international influences. Each culinary theme within a year is honored with at least one recipe. Not all recipes are his own, the favorite recipes of his family and friends are also written in the book.
"With this book I would like to take you on a culinary journey through the year. The season and nature take over and determine what goes on our plates. Every day has its own recipe. There are dishes for morning, noon and evening, which, that go quickly, and those that take a little longer, as well as my Rumtopf, which is prepared in June, gradually filled with seasonal fruits and only tasted in the Advent season. Our pleasure should be worth a little effort."
There are no limits to your imagination and creativity - on the contrary. Of course, not everything can be mixed up, it is clear that tomatoes or strawberries only taste really good when they are in season; the rest of the year they have no more aroma than wet paper towels. But you can juggle with the daily recipes, after all, the goulash soup is not only warming in February. I immediately checked what Toni would put on my table for my birthday. Well... Not bad, but not on my birthday! Sauer makes fun, as the saying goes, but only in three days. I don't like it at all! However, the recipes one day before and one day later are really to my liking. Thanks for the suggestion!
In addition, Toni Mörwald tells interesting facts about products and customs. Just one example - not only for Catholics, for whom the Christmas season ends on February 2nd with Maria Candlemas. You're probably much more likely to think about getting rid of the Christmas tree that's been needling. But: Can't we also make something culinary out of it? Of course, says Toni Mörwald and provides the recipes for Christmas tree vinegar, Christmas tree syrup and everything you can do with the Christmas tree ash. You can bake root vegetables in the ash or brush meat, vegetables or baked goods with an ash-honey glaze.
It was really difficult for me to choose just a few for you from this abundance of recipes. I simply chose a dish to my liking from each season. You have to live with that now!
Preparation:
Heat oil in a soup pot. Sweat the onion and garlic in it, add the bacon cubes and beef cubes and roast everything on a low to medium flame until lightly golden brown. Pour off excess fat carefully. Dust with flour, season with caraway and marjoram. Mix well and remove the pot from the fire.
Stir in the sweet and hot paprika powder, add the bay leaf, mix in the tomato pulp. Pour boiling hot beef broth over. Put the pot back on the fire and let the soup simmer for about 1 ½ hours until the beef is tender and soft. Approx. 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, cut the peeled potatoes into small cubes and add them to the soup. Season to taste with salt before serving.
Viennese ball
Now is the time for the big Viennese balls! The culinary art plays a rather subordinate role in the beautiful ballrooms. A fine dinner before the ball is classic, but a visit to the sausage stand or a Viennese breakfast in a traditional coffee house are also a must.
At the ball itself, there are usually Sacher sausages [especially long Frankfurter or Viennese sausages] with mustard and horseradish, rolls or even goulash soup. In any case, a lot of sparkling things to do with it.
Preparation:
For the roaster, mix the strawberries with sugar, bring to the boil in a saucepan and then leave to stand for a few minutes.
For the curd dough, mix together the butter, eggs, curd and salt. Stir in the semolina and let the dough rest for 3 hours.
Cut out dumplings with an ice cream scoop (the mixture is too soft to form dumplings) and place in hot but not boiling water. Bring to the boil once, let steep for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, put butter in a pan for the crumbs and melt. Roast the crumbs and sugar until golden brown, flavor with cinnamon and vanilla sugar. Lift the dumplings out of the water and roll them in the sugar crumbs.
Preparation:
Mix the basil, sage, pine nuts, Parmesan, breadcrumbs and olive oil well for the oven tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Halve the tomato and place cut-side up in an oven dish. Spread the oil-herb-crumb mixture on the cut surfaces. Scatter over the olives and gratinate the tomatoes in the preheated oven (top heat with grill) on the middle shelf for about 10 minutes.
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade well.
Score the skin of the mackerel a few times on both sides. Rub the outside of the mackerel with salt, brush with the marinade and grill over a gentle heat on the grid for 10 minutes on each side, brushing with the marinade again and again.
Arrange the fish and tomato, sprinkle with rocket and lemon zest and drizzle with the remaining marinade.
Tip. Serve with fresh ciabatta.
A recipe by Reinhard Wolf: As a passionate hunter, Reini has dedicated himself to venison dishes. The wild boar herb meat also works with a domestic pig shoulder, but the wild version is more digestible and lighter.
Preparation:
Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces, finely chop the onion.
Fry the onion in oil, stir in the paprika powder. Deglaze with vinegar, add the tomato pulp and roast briefly. Add the pieces of meat, salt, pepper and cumin and stew for about 20 minutes.
Pour on the beef broth, add the rice and stew gently for about 1 hour.
Tip. A green salad or Chinese cabbage salad is recommended as an accompaniment to the rice meat.
I wish you every success and a healthy and successful year 2023, your Heidi Driesner.
