Sauerkraut is one of those things: if it's well made, I could eat it. And then it's supposed to be so healthy too...! Nevertheless, it's rare that I get a spontaneous craving for sauerkraut... But since my sister Anaïs started raving about our Basque-Alsatian sauerkraut a while ago, I've just been waiting to finally try it myself . It's a good thing that I recently came across Karin Iden's recipe for a sauerkraut casserole with potatoes and apples while browsing through various kitchen blogs (many thanks to Valentina's cookbook!). The original recipe is vegetarian and is meant to be prepared with fresh sauerkraut, but since I like to adapt recipes to suit my taste and mood, today we're making the casserole à la Causse, i.e. with juicy duck confit and ready-made sauerkraut from the can. Ingredients for 4 servings 4 medium-sized potatoes, mostly waxy 1 tsp rapeseed oil 2 crumbly apples 1 can of sauerkraut 1 jar of canard confit some salt and freshly ground pepper or piment d'Espelette Nutmeg, freshly grated 1 egg some crème épaisse 2 tbsp medium hot mustard If you like, you can also add onions and garlic. I'm not a big fan of them, so I leave them out. preparation Preheat the oven to 200 °C (gas mark 3, fan oven 180 °C). Peel and wash the potatoes and cut into slices. Mix a tablespoon of crème épaisse into 200 ml of water and bring the potato slices to the boil. Cover and cook for 10 minutes until almost done, then remove from the heat, drain and allow the steam to evaporate. Wash the apples, quarter them, remove the core and cut the quarters into slices. Grease a fireproof dish with a little rapeseed oil. Distribute the sauerkraut, potato and apple slices evenly in the dish. Season with nutmeg from time to time. Mix the egg with 2 tablespoons of crème épaisse, a little water and the mustard. Season with salt and pepper (carefully!) and pour over the ingredients. Bake in the preheated oven on the second rack from the bottom for 40 minutes. Garnish with chives, serve hot and pour the wine. Bon appétit! The result is a rich, hearty casserole that will make you happy and will make you lick your fingers. The apples add a lovely sweet freshness that loosens the whole thing up and prevents it from becoming too heavy. If you notice that the apples and potatoes are not quite cooked yet, but the top crust is already starting to turn dark, place some aluminum foil over the casserole for the rest of the time in the oven. This way, nothing can burn! Our wine recommendation: the Invincible Number One DOC Douro Tinto 2021 The original recipe comes from Karin Iden's cookbook "The new cookbook through the year: 365 seasonal recipes"

Bacalhau. This traditional Portuguese staple, this infamous cod-salted dish... For many of us non-Portuguese, it's still a strange curiosity that we're hesitant to try or avoid. What does it actually taste like, what can you make with it, how do you prepare it, and what does it go with? The internet is brimming with recipes for and with bacalhau, many of which sound really good and can be made with ingredients that are easily available in our latitudes. I pored over and pored over and clicked through many options. But as so often happens, the good stuff was much closer than I expected: I found what I was looking for in the outer packaging of Miss Can Patriot (3 cans of bacalhau in various sauces). It contained a simple, quick, and truly delicious recipe for bacalhau with chickpeas. In the absence of "fresh" salt cod and to combine two varieties, I chose the bacalhau with garlic in olive oil from the Portuguese brand Tricana (Conserveira de Lisboa) . It would help me uncover the secret of bacalhau. Even on its own, straight from the can, this fish was a revelation! Beautiful pieces of fillet swim in light oil, exuding an intensely fishy aroma, but don't let that put you off. The fish itself tastes aromatic but much more delicate than its aroma suggests, captivating with a subtle salty note. The garlic is only subtly evident, perfectly rounding off the whole dish. We almost ate the whole can without it, but I was curious about the recipe. Here's how it's done: Ingredients: 1 can of bacalhau 1 can of chickpeas Parsley 1 onion 1 egg some salt and pepper to taste (The quantities can be varied according to your taste. For example, I used only half an onion and only one egg. I also prefer coarsely chopped ingredients, as this preserves the different colors, flavors, and textures. If the salad sits for a day, the fish flavor becomes even more pronounced and the whole thing gains flavor.) Hard-boil the egg, peel it, and roughly chop it. Roughly chop the onion and parsley. Mix everything with the torn and drained bacalhau and the chickpeas. Season gently with salt and pepper, and you're done! It was really quick, and the result tasted fantastic! A fresh, spicy, balanced explosion of flavor that brought summer to our plates and pairs well with a strong, cool white wine. We can also imagine pairing it with coriander... and we already have a few more ideas for bacalhau recipes in mind. And you, can you think of something? Our wine recommendation: Vinho Verde Camaleão or Alfaiate Branco 2016

Unfortunately, spring is still a long way off, stoking our hopes with bright rays of sunshine and laughing up our sleeves as we tie our scarves tighter around our necks once again. The nice thing about this stalemate is that we're still craving real comfort food, and we're not even half off track. Our recipe today is a fusion of tender, cooked octopus from Spain with "batatas ao murro," a typical Portuguese way of preparing popped potatoes, which are either battered with a fist or traditionally thrown against a wall to burst. With such a chance to let off steam, the term "comfort food" takes on a second meaning... The octopus I use for this recipe comes pre-cooked from Catalonia to us in Berlin – and it's freshly cooked once a week. Anyone who's ever tried to cook a squid tenderly and failed will be delighted to know that this batch has already been taken care of for them. But don't worry – in Portugal, there's a proper job for this: that of the pulpeiro, who spends all day doing nothing but cooking the octopus tenderly. Ingredients: potatoes Octopus olive oil rosemary Salt and pepper or Piment d'Espelette for color Depending on your mood, a green salad as an accompaniment Preparation: Sprinkle the peeled potatoes (clean them first) with coarse salt and bake them in the oven at 250°C for about half an hour until cooked through. After baking, hit the potatoes with your fist or the heel of your hand until they burst. Alternatively, you can actually throw them against the wall... :) Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat and heat the octopus in its packaging for about 15 minutes. This gentle heating allows the octopus to soak in its juices and prevent it from drying out. Arrange the potatoes on a plate, slice the octopus, and add them. Sprinkle both with salt and Espelette pepper. Serve with a green salad, if desired. Our wine recommendation:

My neighbor is Californian with Filipino roots and when he throws impromptu dinner parties in his kitchen, not only are the people around the table a colorful mix, but also the unforgettable menus he serves us. Inspired by these inspiring evenings with their creatively composed food combinations, I once again dared to try a cross-over number for our new recipe of the week: lentil and leek kedgeree, a spicy dish from Anglo-Indian cuisine made from green French ones Lentils, Portuguese smoked mackerel and free-range eggs from Brandenburg. Comfort food with an international twist!

It's summer and we enjoy the many long, mild evenings on which we celebrate the otherwise un-Teutonian aperitif culture. We like to have a sparkling drop in our glass with Mediterranean finger food. Rosé, Aperol Spritz and white wine spritzer always work. But it can also be a little more high-percentage. Do you already know the Portonic, for example? Or how about a gin-seng tonic?

For our current recipe of the week, we went on a culinary excursion to anabela's kitchen. Here we meet the Portuguese exile living in Berlin, who is preparing two summery salads with Portuguese fish specialties for us. We can look over her shoulder, listen to her memories of her old homeland and learn a lot about everyday restaurant life...

We love garlic! In all variations. Our favorite is the sweet and spicy pink garlic from Lautrec. Its aroma unfolds very subtly without overpowering the other ingredients of the dish. The new harvest has just arrived and the pretty pink braids are permeating the shop with their fragrance... and the home kitchen as well. For example if you have the Sopa Alentejana. The main ingredients? Bread, cilantro, olive oil, an egg and lots of garlic!