A quick walnut cake with 150 g of walnuts, just 40 g of flour and two tablespoons of Armagnac, for 6 people and mixed in ten minutes. To go with it, we recommend the Pineau des Charentes Blanc by Jean-Luc Pasquet.

Who said it always has to be French around here? Asian cuisine, in particular, features many dishes with fish, and we love to be pleasantly surprised! This week, our head chef Thomas Vetter has drawn inspiration for a culinary encounter unlike any other: fresh summer rolls with Breton sardines – a recipe made for spring. Freshness, spice, zest, and everything you need to simply pick it up and enjoy!

Spring is unfortunately still nowhere in sight, teasing us with bright sunbeams and laughing in our faces when we wrap our scarves even tighter around our necks. The good thing about this transitional season is that we still fancy some proper comfort food, and we’re certainly not wrong for wanting it. Today’s recipe is a fusion of tender cooked Spanish pulpo with “batatas ao murro,” a typically Portuguese way of preparing smashed potatoes, which are either battered with a fist or traditionally thrown against the wall so that they burst. With such an opportunity to let off steam, the term comfort food takes on a whole new meaning... The pulpo I use for this recipe arrives pre-cooked in Berlin from Catalonia—freshly delivered once a week. Anyone who has ever tried to cook an octopus tender themselves and failed will be very glad to have this task taken off their hands. But there’s no need to feel bad about it—in Portugal, there’s an actual job for this: that of the pulpeiro, who spends the whole day doing nothing else but cooking pulpo tender. Ingredients: Potatoes Pulpo Olive oil Rosemary Salt and pepper or piment d’Espelette for color A green salad to accompany, if desired Preparation: Die potatoes with their skins on (scrub them first) and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake in a preheatedoven at 250°C for approximately a half an hour until they are cooked through. After baking, hit the potatoes with your fist or the palm of your hand so that they burst. Alternatively, of course, you can throw them against the wall... Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and warm the pulpo in its packaging in the water for about 15 minutes. This gentle heating method allows the pulpo to steep in its juices and prevents it from drying out. Arrange the potatoes on a plate, slice the pulpo and add it to the plate. Sprinkle both with salt and piment d’Espelette. Serve with a green salad if desired. Our wine recommendation to go with it:

Thin puff pastry, a thick layer of braised pink onions from Roscoff, anchovies and black olives: Pissaladière is the street food of Nice and tastes delicious warm or cold. Serves 6, with our recommended wine from Provence.

Potato-based aioli, garlic confit from the lukewarm oil, and a bread salad fried with the confit oil: three recipes from our garlic festival for the pink garlic from Lautrec. To go with it, a rosé from Provence.

Ten toes pink garlic, water, an egg and a spoonful of mustard: the traditional garlic soup from Lautrec is ready in twenty minutes and is finished with a little mayonnaise to bind it. For 4 people, served with a Sauvignon from the Loire.

This week’s recipe is more of a “serving suggestion” or “guide to feasting without much effort” for those days when we simply don’t want to spend a long time in the kitchen. The rosé is already chilled, the evening sun bathes the balcony in golden light, and guests are already waiting? Or the weekend lies ahead with a promising blue sky and no plans, and we feel like a spontaneous picnic in the countryside? Bingo! This menu takes less than 20 minutes but will leave you feeling thoroughly satisfied and happy—promise!

My neighbor is a Californian with Philippine roots, and when he invites us to spontaneous dinner parties in his kitchen, not only is the crowd around the table wonderfully diverse, but the unforgettable menus he serves up are to die for too. Inspired by these delightful evenings and their creatively composed combinations of dishes, I decided to venture into cross-border fusion once again for our new recipe of the week: Kedgeree with lentils and leeks, a spicy Anglo-Indian dish made with French green lentils, Portuguese smoked mackerel and free-range eggs from Brandenburg. Comfort food with an international twist!

Summer is here, everyone is happy and finally tomatoes taste like tomatoes again! Is that the reason why everyone is happy? Happy and good mood is definitely made by this simple couscous tomato salad from the wonderful cookbook "Genussvoll vegetarisch" by the British-Israeli celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi, which was published by Dorling Kindersley. It is of course also healthy and light, it looks great and colorful and is also quick to make.

It's summer and we are enjoying the many long, balmy evenings, during which we celebrate the otherwise understated aperitif culture. With Mediterranean finger food, we like to have a sparkling drop in the glass. Rosé, Aperol Spritz and white wine spritzer are always a good choice. But sometimes we can also go for something with a higher alcohol content. For example, have you heard of Portonic? Or how about a Gin-Seng Tonic?

It is not yet too cold, and so dishes that are not too heavy still fit on the table. Yes, fish, butter and tomatoes sound more like spring, but the herbs bring enough wintery aromas to allow this cod to be served even before Christmas. We used cod for this recipe, although haddock, pollock or trout (which should be prepared whole rather than portioned) would also work well. 

The other day, I went canoeing on the Spree with some friends. It was wonderful—we felt like real freshwater pirates…! For our picnic on land, we had wonderfully chilled rosé (we had it in a bag towed behind us in the water) and delicious little puff pastry parcels that my friend Anne had prepared. I was inspired to make a sardine version of the recipe, which I "recreated" at home. It is super easy and looks really beautiful. Perfect for a picnic with friends or a dinner for two (or three, or four...)—as an aperitif, finger food, starter, or main course, perhaps with a green salad! Bon appétit! Ingredients (for 2 people) 1 pack of puff pastry (if you are not making it yourself) some sesame seeds 1 small eggplant 1 small zucchini 3–4 mushrooms Feta Zucchini cream and/or tapenade (black olive paste from Provence) 1 pack of sardines in oil (e.g., Sardines Saint-Georges by La Belle-Iloise) Olive oil Salt Pepper Wash the vegetables and cut them into cubes, while preheating the oven to 200°C. Heat oil in a pan and fry the vegetables until they are lightly browned and translucent, but still slightly al dente, and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on the countertop or a board and roll out the puff pastry on top. Press the sesame seeds firmly into the pastry. Then cut the pastry into equal squares (I get 6 pieces from one roll). Spread a dollop of zucchini cream and tapenade in the center of the pastry squares (this can be omitted to taste. Since I really like both, I made 3 pieces with tapenade and the others with zucchini cream. The pieces with tapenade are more savory, while those with zucchini cream are more "vegetable-forward") and add small mounds of the vegetables, crumbled feta, and small pieces of sardine. Caution: do not put too much filling on the pastry, otherwise the pieces will rise too much in the oven! Fold the corners of the pastry diagonally so that they form nice, firm parcels. Press the loose ends and sides together well. This requires a little dexterity, but it is important, otherwise the pieces will rise too much in the oven. Bake on the middle rack for 15–20 minutes until golden brown and serve hot. Bon appétit! We opened a bottle of Alento Rosé 2016 Alentejo to go with it, which paired wonderfully! A young, intense Portuguese rosé full of joie de vivre—an easy everyday wine that goes well with any food, but is also fun to enjoy on its own.