For your enjoyment…

Are you like me on weekends or special holidays or when you have guests? On those occasions I like to cook something very special, not the usual fare. Then I’m either spoilt for choice or nothing occurs to me. If even the most intensive search on the internet comes to nothing, or leafing through piles of cookbooks fails to offer a solution, try out our Recipe of the Month! 

From chefs of the Schick restaurants in Vienna, every month there will be a new, seasonal recipe from Austrian-Spanish or Viennese cuisine for you to cook and enjoy at home!

In April 2013 – recipe by Johannes Reiser – Chef at the decorated Restaurant “Das Schick”:

Crispy apricot balls & Créme Catalane

Ingredients for 4 servings:

Créme Catalane:
3/4 l milk
1/4 l whipping cream
60 g corn starch
200 g suga
zests from one orange
zests from one lemon
1 demitasse spoon (espresso spoon) of cinnamon
1 demitasse spoon of bourbon vanilla
2 tbsp. brown sugar
6 egg yolks

Apricot balls:
1 package (200 g) dried apricots, pitted
3 tbsp. apricot marmalade
juice of 2 lemons
2 – 3 tbsp. apricot schnapps
sugar, to taste
finely chopped pistachios for rolling 

Preparation:

Créme Catalane:
Stir 1/4 l cold milk with corn starch until smooth. Bring the remaining milk, together with whipping cream and the condiments, to a boil. Allow to steep for a bit to enhance the taste.Beat egg yolks and sugar until foamy.

Strain milk and spice mixture through a fine sieve. Add corn starch mixture. Bring milk, spice and corn starch mixture to a boil, then remove from stove. Finally, add egg yolk mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill cream into molds. Sprinkle with brown sugar and scorch briefly prior to serving.

 Apricot balls: 

Finely chop dried apricots. Mix apricots with slightly heated marmalade, lemon juice and apricot schnapps, possibly adding sugar to taste.Refrigerate apricot mixture. Form small balls, roll in pistachios, then place in freezer.

Fry in hot oil prior to serving.

Arrange apricot balls together with Créme Catalane – as in our photo for example – serve immediately, and… enjoy!