Mousse au Chocolat

Ingredients

180g strong dark chocolate

30cl Milk

30g butter

3 eggs

15g sugar

Break chocolate in small parts and put in a boiler. Add milk, butter and cook on low heat. Toss regularly until it is getting melting.

Put it in a bowl. Add the egg yolks and toss slowly.

In another bowl whisk the white eggs

Incorporate white eggs and whisk in chocolate mixture.

Put the “Mousse” in the fridge for minimum 4 hours.

Bon appétit!

Mousse au chocolat, Brezels & żubrówka - Intercultural evening in OKO

Intercultural evening is now a thing of the past but we promised you recipes for some of our national goodies. There is the first one, for Polish PIEROGI.

For me pierogi is one of meal 'to die for'. Normally a recipe for dough is a little bit different (there are only 3 ingredients: flavor, water and egg) but in my family we prefer doing dough in the way as you see. It's more smooth and tastes better. Pierogi can be filled with meat, potatoes, cottage cheese, mushrooms, strawberries - be creative!
And: Smacznego!

Ingredience:

kostka margarínu
2 hrnky vody
kilo mouky
1 vejce
sůl

Postup:

Do hrnce dejte vodu a margarín a uved'te do varu. Pak přidejte 2 hrnky mouky a společně promíchejte. Po vychladnutí přidejte zbytek mouky, vejce, sůl a vypracujte hladké těsto - hotové těsto poznate tak, že se nelepi.
Z vyváleného těsta vykrajte kolečka, dejte dovnitř směs se žampiony a kysaným zelí a zabalte. Pierogi uvařte v osolené vodě (asi 5-10 minut - až budou plavat navrch). Na konec usmažte cibule a pierogi dozlatova na pánvi potřené olivovým olejem.

***
And here are the receipes for the cherry cake (in English) and the Brezels (in German):

„Kirschmichel“ – Cherry cake

Ingredients:

8 Rohlík (1-2 days old)

500 ml Milk

50 g Butter

4 Egg (yellow part)

4 Egg (white part)

1 Kg Cherries

75 g Sugar

Cinnamon

- cut the Rohlík in slices and put them in a bowl

- then heat the milk, spill it over the Rohlík and wait ca. 10 minutes

- now mix the butter, the yellow part of the egg and the sugar

- then fold in this mixture with the Rohlík

- now whisk the white part of the egg and fold it in the Rohlík mixture

- and at last fold in the cherries

- now put some butter in a casserole and give the mixture inside

- then sprinkle some cinnamon on it and put it in the oven

- bake it for 45 minutes, 200 degrees

Brezeln

500 g	Mehl (Type 550)
300 ml	Milch
1 TL	Salz
1 Würfel	Hefe
1 TL	Zucker
40 g	Margarine oder Butter bzw. Schmalz
etwas	Salz, grobes, nach Bedarf
1 Liter	Wasser
3 EL	Natron (von Kaiser)
etwas	Mehl für die Arbeitsfläche
	Fett für das Blech

Zubereitung

Die Hefe mit ein paar Tropfen von den 300 ml Milch und dem Zucker verrühren. Ca. 1/4 Std. bei Zimmertemperatur gehen lassen.

Dann diese Hefemasse mit Salz, Mehl, der restlichen Milch und den 40 g Margarine oder Butter bzw. Schmalz zu einem elastischen Teig verarbeiten und nochmals etwa 1/2 Std. im Warmen gehen lassen. Der Teig sollte sich dabei verdoppeln.

Auf einer bemehlten Arbeitsfläche gründlich von Hand durchkneten und eine Rolle daraus formen. Diese Teigrolle in etwa 16 - 18 gleiche Teile teilen. Aus jedem Teil eine ca. 30 cm lange Wurst rollen, die in der Mitte eine Verdickung hat. Daraus dann Brezen formen und nochmals 15 Minuten gehen lassen.

Dann in den Kühlschrank geben und unabgedeckt 1 Std. stehen lassen. Vor dem Ende der "Kühlschrankstunde" nun 1 Liter Wasser aufkochen und darin 3 EL Natron lösen. ACHTUNG! Langsam einrieseln lassen, das Natron wallt ziemlich auf.

Die Brezen einzeln für 30 Sekunden in das kochende Natronwasser geben (die Brezen schwimmen), mit einem Schaumlöffel herausholen, abtropfen lassen und mit dem groben Salz nach Geschmack bestreuen. Danach auf ein gut eingefettetes Backblech legen (kein Backpapier verwenden, die Lauge zerstört es!). Wenn das Blech voll ist, in den kalten (!) Backofen schieben.

Einen Wecker auf ca. 18 Minuten stellen und auf 220°C (Gas: Stufe 4) heizen. Wenn die Brezen nach ca. 18 - 20 Minuten goldbraun sind, sind sie fertig.

fotky ZDE

To be or not to be... vegetarian

The easiest distinction between vegetarians and not-vegetarians is that the first group doesn't eat meat and the second one does. That's true, but for God's sake! not only meat! We eat (we need! we expect!) vegetables, mushrooms, salads, pancakes, lentil and fried cheese with tatarská omačka...

In Sebuzin, where we had mid-term training, ladies serving up the lunch asked us every time do we eat normal. They simply wanted to know aren't we vegetarians, what in my opinion all the time confuses a little bit kitchen's daily life. I can imagine how the cooking staff spend few hours brainstorming ideas and recipes how to put menu together when they hear there will be some vegetarians on board. ;) Anyway, the findings are always amazing.


Most of us were normal. But after some time we all dreamed about being vegetarian! Why? Vegetarian portions were more varied and somehow even fancy, while not-vegetarian meant to have meat meal everyday. I liked it of course, food was unusual tasty, but on the other hand at the end I was sick of meat. OK, I eat meat, I like meat but normally I don't eat it everyday and actually I can live without meat for some time – what still doesn't make me vegetarian...

Curiously enough, described food incident it's not only Sebuzin's case. ;) I took part in more trainings, workshops, youth exchanges – both in Poland and abroad, where we were (speaking about meals) group of normal-eating-people and vegetarians, and it seems to me that veggies are really in special care.

So, a tip for the next time: pretend you are vegetarian! Your stomach will be grateful! ;)

Mid-Term Training

Like Joanna already mentioned in her last post, the two of us were on our mid-term training. Time is really running!

For explanation: Part of the EVS-programme is to participate on 4 trainings. 2 in your homecountry (before you go to the project & after you come back home) and 2 in the country where you're doing your EVS. Maybe you remember that Joanna and I went last October to our "on-arrival training" where we met a lot of other volunteers from different countries and got some advice for our stay in the Czech Republich (for those who don't remember it check this out).
So last week we were packing our things for 5 days in SEBUZIN, a very small village close to Usti nad Labem. After our experience in Rakovice (on-arrival training) without heating but with mice, we all hoped to come to a nicer place - and our wish was fulfilled. We stayed in a very, very nice place with heating, tasty food and very friendly people (http://centrum.originalatok.cz/).

We've met most of the volunteers from our last training again and had a lot of time to share our experience.

-How are you? homesick or not?
-How is your project?
-Have you travelled a lot (and where)
-....

So we had a lot of stuff to talk about and got some new ideas for the rest of our stay in the Czech Republic. Besides we had some workshops concerning our work (e.g ideas for conversation clubs) and our freetime (e.g.nice places to visit). We've made as well a trip to Litomerice & Usti nad Labem.

So all in all a nice training with nice people :)

Our group

Terezin and 'Death of the handsome deer'

On the way back home from mid-term meeting (yes, it is already half of our EVS!) we visited former concentration camp in Terezin. It was easily a real history lesson for all volunteers who went there with us.


But actually it is good occasion to mention one of my favourite book, written by Czech writer called Ota Pavel. Its title is 'Death of the handsome deer' and it has something in common with Terezin. Namely, Ota Pavel was descendant of Jewish family and his 2 older brothers and father were sent to this concentration camp during the II world war. In one of the chapters author describes how his father risked life to bring his sons one last meal before they were sent away to Terezin.


"In the third year of the war, the order came for my brothers to go to the concentration camp, and at home my Dad said: Before they go, these boys need to eat meat. (…) Dad was not allowed to ride his bike, except to work, he was not allowed to leave the house without permission, and he could no longer catch fish; after all, he wasn't living on the Riviera, but in the Protectorate, under the close surveillance of the police and the Gestapo. He went to see his most excellent friend in Bustehrad, Doctor Quido Jerabek, who wrote that he was too ill to go down the mines. Quido had no idea that Dad was planning to go to Krivoklat Castle for the weekend. Dad left our Bustehrad home - number 54, without his star, which he'd ripped off and stuffed in his pocket (…). Dad cycled that night through Zehrovice and Lany. Along his path, the stars shone, whereas the one in his pocket just sat and read 'JUDE'. He thought about all the things that can possibly be thought about; About how twisted and warped the world was, and how before he went around like a lord in his American Buick and now he crawled along the ditches on his creaky bicycle like a poor Jew. He rode along the serpentines of Krivoklat and pushed his bike up the hill above Visnovka, and then he peddled along the Berounka river, where the foam gathered in the pools where the pike swam, just like they had the year before. The water roared just as it had then too, and the adders sprawled across the main road in the heat." *


Lastly, he brought home meet from deer. And they all survived the war.


Ota Pavel writes about wartime frequently in his books. They all are touching and somehow optimistic and very anti-depressing, especially when he cast his mind back to the childhood and fishing, that was his hobby from when he was a child.


If you want know better Czech culture, it is a set text. And there is a film based on this book as well.


To read more about author click here.

*English translation by J. Naughton

How green you are?

Our new exhibition, you can visit in Společenské Centrum, is about environment. Our goal this time was to show easy stepss we can do in our daily life to help save the planet. Why? Small actions made by lot of people bring big change! So, we can have a no-bath-week and take shower instead or maybe let's leave cars in the garage sometimes and simply walk or ride a bike to school or work...

During today's workshops we taught how to sort rubbish into correct bins, talked about environmental issues like global warming, littering, air pollution, daily use of water etc.

In 2 weeks there will be next open day in Společenské Centrum, so don't hesitate to participate in this event. Těšíme se na vas!

Na fotky z dnešní akce se můžete podivat ZDE.

Back in Rychnov

Yes, Christmas time is over and we are all back in Rychnov to continue with our work. The time home was very nice for me because I saw my family and friends for the first time after 4 months. And somehow it was like I've never left home.
Before coming back I was afraid that it would be hard to get used to the life in Czech Republic again but until now everything works fine :)

Last friday I was with Nicola and the two volunteers of Decko at the prom of the Gymnasium in Rychnov. It was interesting to see how it is celebrated here. In Germany we usually have our prom in the summertime after finishing all the exams. Furthermore, I was surprised that everyone could dance ballroom dances here - not so usual in Germany.
All in all it was a nice evening and a good start for our next part of EVS.