Warming Gluhwein....

Just about everyone is out at their weihnachtsmarkt eating, drinking, socialising and doing the odd bit of shopping. It's a great place to be despite the particularly harsh winter in Europe this year. A great way to warm up is to stop at a gluhwein stall and enjoy a cup of this hot, sweet, fruity, spicy red wine. Before you know it, it's feeling like it's at least 0 C!

Delicious Dinnele at the Konstanz weihnachtsmarkt...

Dinnele is a traditional German food of peasant origin. Served straight from the wood fired oven. I think this is my favourite food stall at the market - always great.

Hmmm, which one to have? Potato and cheese; garlic and cheese; vegetables and cheese or perhaps one with speck? I love the garlicky, oil that is spooned over before eating.

Lazy Saturday lunch...

Another delicious visit to Cantina Rabaja. House made spinach ravioli in a sage butter sauce was followed by a warm compote of plums served with a vanilla praline parfait/semi freddo and hot cinnamon dumplings [which I think was knodel - a nice German touch]. Both dishes were made with the usual perfection that you can expect from Cantina Rabaja and they tasted wunderbar! It was all rounded off by a perfect short black and the best Linzer I've tasted - it was heavenly.

Little apples...

These perfect apples were growing in an orchard on Mainau Island, Lake Konstanz. Sadly I didn't get to try one [although it was very tempting to help myself to a sample].

Yesterday, on a walk to Gottlieben in Switzerland, I passed many trees laden with apples just growing on the side of the road. Clearly, some are wild and belong to no-one - if only i could reach the fruit! I'll have to settle for picking wild blackberries.

Reginbrot...

Reginbrot is my favourite baker in Konstanz. It was opened about 20 years ago by a guy that came from Berlin, so I'm told. All organic as well. They make the best baguettes I've ever tasted - fantastic crust.

Cantina Rabaja...

Cantina Rabaja is never a disappointment. For lunch on Saturday I ordered the house made tagliatelle with summer truffles and marsala sauce. It was wonderful.

Cantina Rabaja

Kreuzlingerstasse 7. D-78462  Konstanz

Telefon ++49 (7531) 917 884

www.cantina-rabaja.de

www.rabaja.de [their internet shop]

Market produce at St Stephansplatz, Konstanz...

Finally, after quite a hiatus from blogging, we've relocated to Konstanz [on the German/Swiss border] and are feeling settled in. So I'm glad to say, I'm now free to enjoy the great produce and food it has to offer.

The market I usually go to is in the old town at St Stephansplatz. It's very good and there's a real focus on 'bio' [organic] and thankfully, plenty of free range eggs.

At the moment there are plenty of berries, a large range of tomatoes and mushrooms [which I'm very excited about].

Pfifferlinge, the orange coloured mushrooms [pictured] from Gunnar Doberstein's stall [mushroom specialist] are in season now and very plentiful. They are a wild mushroom from Austria and it seems that everyone loves them! All the restaurants have a separate pfifferlinge menu in honour of the season. My favourite dish is Semmel Knodel or Servietten Knodel [will post photos soon] which is a traditional dumpling served with anything in a cream sauce, which in this case is pfifferlinge. A perfect combination.

The cheese maker is Rolf Keller, pictured here with his range of Bregenzerwalder Alpkase [alpine cheese: mild, medium and matured]. He makes a few other varieties including Tilsiter and Romadur. Rolf's cheeses seem popular with other market goers as well. Beautiful and fresh.

Nachtmarkt food....

Ahh, the food at the nachtmarkt. There's no mystery as to where those extra kilos came from but it was worth every bite. Sadly, nachmarkts around Europe are about to finish for the year and I'm sure there will be many lamenting the disappearance of the fried pastries, roasted raclette served over boiled potatoes, spaetzle, roasted chestnuts, spicy sweet traditional biscuits and gingerbread-like creations.

The top photo is a pizza-like pastry that's apparently German in origin. Once your order is placed, the stall owner flattens out the dough and places on the toppings you have chosen. It then goes into the wood fired oven. Just before it is served a 'sauce' is spooned over the top [seemingly a garlicky herb oil].

The next is langos [pronounced 'langosh'], a fried pastry made from a potato dough and hails from Hungary. It was served as a sweet or a savoury pastry. Delicious. My favourite option was the one featured in this photo: sour cream, garlic, cheese and salt. Keen to try making your own? Have a look at this recipe: http://homepage.interaccess.com/~june4/langospotatocakes.html

Last but not least is spaetzle which is, in my opinion, somewhat addictive. It's an egg noodle/dumpling which is considered to be a "Swabian specialty". Konstanz is a part of the medieval territory of Swabia, however spaetzle is found throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Alsace region of France. On this particular day, I ordered spinach spaetzle with mushrooms and Dr H couldn't resist the sauerkraut/speck version.

I'll post my spaetzle recipe, with photos, soon. So get your spaetzle maker, or even your colander, so that you're ready to go. How can you resist?

Hot chestnuts!

Such fun roasting chestnuts on a chilly night at the Konstanz nachtmarkt. As I remember, this was followed a steamy mug of gluhwein. Can you tell I'm daydreaming about spending 6 months in Konstanz next year?