The second was a lange rote in the Münsterplatz in Freiburg, and the third was in much friendlier temperatures altogether in the wine loving town of Ihringen. At all other times our paths and that of any suitable place to eat didn’t cross until late in the afternoon. In southern European parts that wouldn’t have been a problem as we’d just push dinner back by an hour or two. In rural Germany, where dinner is eaten at what we think of as late afternoon, that’s not really an option. So in the space of a fortnight we became very well acquainted with kaffee und kuchen society.

In Ihringen at the southern end of the Kaiserstuhl we had the luxury of being able to pick what we wanted from the menu without fear of being too full to eat dinner. Being faced with an assault of words we didn’t understand we asked the waitress for help. And she introduced us to the culinary revelation that is flammkuchen, a traditional south German dish, which was prepared from scratch in the kitchen of Café Rebstock.

Admittedly, flammkuchen looks like a pizza, but there are important differences; the base is thin and crispy but the sauce topping isn’t tomato based, it’s a creamy blend of crème fraiche, Greek yoghurt, salt, pepper and nutmeg. The topping is wonderfully smoky; fried bacon and slices of onion fried in the bacon fat sprinkled with oregano.

Boy, was it good. We probably made far too many embarrassing noises as we devoured it.

It made such an impression that on our return home to almost bare kitchen cupboards after a month of travelling, the first thing we prepared for dinner was a cobbled together flammkuchen. It was quick and easy to make and consisted (mostly) of the sort of ingredients that are always present in our kitchen, even after a month away. Our sauce was a blend of Greek yoghurt and feta cheese (all we had). For a first attempt it worked exceedingly well. In fact it was bloody marvellous.

Sorry pizza, but you’re passé in our house. Flammkuchen is the new crispy kid on our culinary block.

Jack is co-editor, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to online travel sites and travel magazines. Follow Jack on Google+

We first saw it years ago in a series of vegetarian recipes called ‘posh nosh for less dosh’ which describes it perfectly.

This is a dish guaranteed to impress.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients for Herby Feta Cheese on Golden Potato Rostis (for two people)

Herby Feta Cheese

• 250g block of Feta cut into four equal slabs
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
• 75ml olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 4 sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
• Capers
• Chives to garnish

Golden Potato Rostis

• 1 large (or 2 medium) potato, peeled and grated
• ½ medium onion, grated (a nightmare of a task if you’re like me)
• 1 lightly beaten egg
• 25g plain flour
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Spicy Jam

• 1 large red onion thinly sliced
• 2 red chillies, de-seeded and finely chopped
• 6 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 50g sugar
• 25g butter

Preparation for Herby Feta Cheese on Golden Potato Rostis

Spicy Jam

• Heat the butter in a saucepan, add onions and cook gently for 5 minutes until  soft. Add red wine vinegar and sugar, turn the heat to low and cook for 25 minutes.
• Mix in the chopped red chillies and cook for a further 5 minutes until the mixture is wine coloured with a slightly caramelized texture.

Potato Rostis

• Whilst the sweet and spicy marmalade is cooking, squeeze as much moisture out of the grated potato as possible (it doesn’t matter if it still retains some moisture). Pat dry with kitchen paper and place the potato in a bowl with the grated onion, beaten egg and flour.
• Mix well until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined and separate into four rough balls in the bowl.
• Heat a drizzle of vegetable oil in a frying pan and, using a dessert spoon, place the potato rosti balls in the pan. How many depends on the size of your pan, we only manage two at a time. Flatten the balls with the back of the spoon until they are flat and circular shaped.
• Fry on each side for 3 minutes until golden brown.
• Remove the rostis from the pan, dry on kitchen paper and keep warm in a low oven.

Herby Feta Cheese

• The olive oil and herb dressing can be made in advance of the cooking. Simply add the olive oil, herbs, garlic, thyme and a dash of salt and pepper to a jug and mix.
• Heat the grill and a few minutes before the spicy jam is ready, place the four feta slices on a baking tray and drizzle some of the herby dressing over the top.
• Place under the grill and cook until the cheese is only just beginning to melt. Any longer and it will turn to mush, be difficult to work with and ruin the appearance of the dish.

Place the potato rostis on a plate. Spoon some sweet and spicy marmalade onto them, carefully place a slice of herby feta on top and drizzle the remaining herby dressing over the dish.

For a finishing touch, place a sun-dried tomato on top of each slice of herby feta and casually fling a few capers around to complete the sweet and savoury combination then arrange the chives on top. We have two rostis person for a main meal, or one each as a starter.

Tip: lining the baking tray with aluminium foil makes cleaning up afterwards a little bit easier.

Jack is co-editor, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to online travel sites and travel magazines. Follow Jack on Google+

It is also delectably delicious and a perfect summery Saturday night dish.

Until we tried this recipe we thought of salmon as a bit of a bland fish without much of a personality.

Salmon in a cava sauce totally converted us, making us realise that too many chefs in restaurants over the years had done the beautifully coloured fish a disservice – cooking all the tasty goodness out of it.

The trick is to keep the fish simple and concentrate on the sauce. Whilst Rick Stein is rich enough to make this with Champagne, we use a bottle of cheap cava. Although always tasty enough to warrant a ‘wow, how good is that’ we’ve never quite managed to get it to look like it does in the photograph in Rick’s recipe book; buttery yellow and thick. Last night we halved the ingredients for the sauce and eureka, perfect.

Ingredients for Salmon in a Cava Sauce (for two people)

• 2 new potatoes (actually do as many as you like, we’re keeping the pot intake low)
• 2 salmon fillets
• Bottle of Cava (you only need about 3 fluid ounces, drinking the rest of cava helps with creativity)
• 1/2 small onion (should be a couple of shallots but they’re crazy expensive where we are).
• ½ pint (300ml) fish stock
• A handful of chives (don’t be shy). Chop, leaving four chives for essential decoration
• ¼ teaspoon of sugar
• ½ oz butter
• 3 fluid ounces of double cream

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Preparing Salmon in a Cava Sauce
We serve this with new potatoes boiled in their skins and a handful of green beans. The whole thing can be flung together whilst the potatoes are boiling.

Keep the salmon relatively thin. Our salmon fillets always come with skin attached, so that’s cut away and the fillets are carefully sliced in half so that they’re about 1cm thick.
Chop onions/shallots finely.
Melt ¼ oz of butter in a small pan, add chopped onions/shallots and cook till softened.
Once onions are soft add 2 fl oz of cava and boil for two minutes.
Add stock and sugar then boil rapidly until reduced by half.
Pour in half of the cream and continue to boil until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Turn to low, or even off. You don’t want this chunky, it doesn’t matter if it’s a bit on the runny side.
At this point put the salmon fillets on a greased tray, brush both sides with olive oil and sprinkle salt.
Cook each side for 2 minutes under a hot grill to make sure it’s still perfectly moist and full of flavour.
Whisk the remaining cream, with a tablespoon of cava, into stiff peaks.
With the salmon grilling, bring the sauce back to the boil and whisk the remaining butter and cream into the sauce.
Add the chopped chives.

Dish the salmon and veg and pour the sauce over the fish as artistically as you like, garnishing with the remaining chives (the green looks just peachy against the pink salmon).

Serve and consume with what’s left of the cava.

We feel it’s important to reward our efforts with a glass of cava during cooking and also think this classy dish deserves a suitably cool soundtrack. Salmon, cava and Stevie Ray Vaughan – a perfect Saturday night combo.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to online travel sites and travel magazines. Follow Jack on Google+

Tom was a senior chef at London’s Moro restaurant. In the atmospheric and golden setting of a traditional village at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas in Andalusia, he taught us, and a few other foodie/walking fans, how to prepare a selection of exotic looking and tasting Moro dishes.

For those whose have yet to discover this culinary gold mine, Moro is a vivacious blend of North African and Spanish cuisine with flavours that swirl around your mouth like a flamenco dancer stomping her feet to a Gnawa beat.

In other words, it’s terrific nosh.

As well as being enthusiast eaters, we love getting our hands floury. Cooking has always been a therapeutic pastime.

Since Tom shared his secrets in Las Alpujarras we’ve regularly dipped in and out of the Moro well.

Last night we stuck on Amy Winehouse, poured a generous glass of wine and rustled up a couple of our favourite Moro recipes – beetroot borani and walnut and red pepper bulgur (in our case couscous) with soft and floppy flatbreads sprinkled with za’atar (a blend of Middle Eastern spices that raises the game of anything it’s sprinkled on).

Moro cooking isn’t for anyone who likes to be in and out of the kitchen with their dinner before the commercial break is over. It’s slow cooking.

Beetroot takes an hour and a half of bubbling away whilst a red pepper chars and blisters slowly on a cast iron griddle. The cast iron griddle is a magical pan. Anything cooked on it just tastes better.

Roasted red pepper is a revelation. Alone it adds pizazz to couscous; accompanied by smoky paprika, mint, parsley and harissa it takes you by the tongue and drags you at breakneck speed through a Moroccan spice market.

Walnuts are cracked, pieces of nut ricocheting around the kitchen, herbs are chopped and feta crumbled whilst Amy sings about her F-me pumps.

After the pepper is blackened, the flatbreads take their turn on the griddle whilst the beetroot is turned into a thick paste courtesy of a hand blender whose enthusiasm to do the job sends beetroot splatters around the kitchen, leaving it looking like Freddy Krueger’s paid a visit.

It takes time but the kitchen is filled with a rainbow army of ingredients and aromas swirling with Eastern promise.

And then it’s done. And it’s eaten in a fraction of the time it took to prepare.

That’s how it is. The journey to get to the destination is part of what it’s all about.

Saying that, such are the flavours in Moro dishes, one teaspoon of beetroot borani or walnut and red pepper couscous would more than justify hours of preparation.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to online travel sites and travel magazines. Follow Jack on Google+

Recently we had a French moment and dug out an old recipe to accompany a bottle of Bordeaux. It had been a while since we’d cooked boeuf au gratin and we’d completely forgotten how its sublime, French countryside flavours bring on a completely over the top bout of the ‘bravos’.

The recipe is for four people so, if preparing it for two, it doubles as a pretty tasty lunch the following day. Whilst it was almost impossible not to wolf our portions down in record time, we exercised remarkable self discipline by not devouring the lot over dinner. However, it was touch and go.

The Sunday best name for this wonderful combination of minced beef, herbs and mash potato with a crunchy, cheesy breadcrumb topping is boeuf au gratin. We call it French shepherd’s pie.

And it’s as easy as pie (a French shepherd’s one) to throw together with a result that is quite simply magnifique. It might not be the most sophisticated looking of dishes, although it does have a certain rustic farmhouse charm. I defy any meat eater not to be bowled over by it.

Ingredients for Boeuf au Gratin

• 1 lb potatoes
• ½ lb minced beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• ½ pint (300ml) tomato sauce. (Last time we used tomato purée flavoured with basil to make the sauce – it was a mistake buy as I never spotted the ‘flavoured with basil’ bit but it did give the dish an extra oomph.)
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley
• 1 cup of fresh breadcrumbs
• 2 oz grated cheese (use whatever tasty, hard cheese you can get your hands on. We usually use cheddar.)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

For four people

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Preparing Boeuf au Gratin

• First of all pre-heat the oven to 200C and get the potatoes on the go. Cook for 20/25 minutes in gently boiling, salted water until soft. Mash and set aside.
• Whilst the potatoes are boiling, fry onions in the oil (if you want to be very French, use butter) until soft and slightly golden.
• Add the minced beef and cook until browned.
• Then mix in the garlic, tomato sauce and herbs.
• Season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Grate the cheese and prepare the breadcrumbs. Mix both together.
• Spoon the herby beef sauce into an oven-proof dish, Le Creuset is ideal obviously, (Funnily, a French friend who’s into cooking had never heard of Le Creuset) and let it cool slightly. It shouldn’t be sloppy otherwise the potatoes might do a Titanic when you spoon them on.
• Spoon the potatoes on top in blobs and spread roughly, using a fork, to cover the beef.
• Sprinkle the cheesy breadcrumbs over the top and place in the oven for 20/25 minutes.

For the next 25 minutes the aroma coming out of that oven will drive you insane with hunger.

The meaty, herby pie that emerges from the oven exceeds the promise of the aromas that have been tainting yout nostrils. Spoon generous portions on to warm plate and dive in. And if you have to eat it all in the one sitting, don’t beat yourself up about it. You’re only human.

On the rare occasions when we aren’t totally distracted by the smell of French shepherd’s pie cooking and remember to put together something to accompany it, we simply fry courgette slices in butter and garlic.

Bon appettit.

Tip: Place the ovenproof dish on a baking tray before putting it in the oven as French shepherd’s pie has a habit of getting over excited with little rivers of sauce spilling over the side of the dish.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to lots of other places. Follow Jack on Google+

These are just the bees knees when munched on the street, but they taste great when thrown together at home as part of a Thai meal or as a light lunch.

Preparing Thai fish cakes is as easy as falling off a log. Anyone who’s witnessed them being cooked in Thailand will have spotted that making them involves spooning a dollop of yellow paste from a container into hot, smoking oil and tod mun pla more or less cooks itself.

The only problem is there are all sorts of variations of recipes out there featuring slightly different ingredients.
After testing out a few, the one we like the most uses some basic South-East Asian ingredients to ensure an authentically Thai taste.

Ingredients for Thai Fish Cakes

1 fillets of firm boneless white fish cut into chunks
1 tsp finely chopped lemon-grass
1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 hot chillies (1 red, 1 green), finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp ground cilantro (coriander)
1 tbsp roughly chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil

For two to four people (two people as a light lunch, four as a starter)

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Preparing Thai Fish Cakes

Most of the work involved is in pulling the ingredients for Thai fish cakes together. Once that’s done all you have to do is throw the ingredients into a food processor and blend.

• Roughly chop the fish into chunks and place the fish in a food processor. Blend for a few seconds.
• Add the lemon-grass, ginger, turmeric, fish sauce, ground and fresh cilantro, chillies, beaten egg and 1 tbsp of plain flour.
• Blend until the tod mun pla mixture takes on the consistency of a thick, paste-like batter.
• If necessary, add more plain flour until you get the pasty consistency.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan until hot.
• Using a dessert spoon, scoop out some of the mixture and plop it carefully into the hot oil, flattening it to a circular shape with the back of the spoon. Keep plopping until all the mixture is used (it will probably be necessary to fry the fish cakes in batches).
• Fry the cakes on both sides for two to three minutes each side until crisp and golden.
• Once both sides are golden, remove from the pan and dry on absorbent paper.

We normally serve the Thai fish cakes with a salad accompanied by a wedge of lemon wedge, soy sauce and a sweet and sour chilli dip. If we’re doing the full Thai thing we follow it with Thai green curry with fish.

Cooking Tip: For the fish use a firm white fish. Cod, hake, pollack and haddock are good choices.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+

The secret was passed on to me by London Chef Tom Ryalls whilst he was demonstrating the art of Moro cookery in Las Alpujarras.

It is simple in the extreme and you need no culinary skills whatsoever to be able to reproduce it.

Step One: Setting the scene
All you need is a jar of small pickled onions, pickled guindilla chillies, green olives (pitted), anchovies and some cocktails sticks.

Step Two: Creating Tasty Tapas in Ten Seconds
Pierce the fat end of the chilli with the cocktails stick; thread the pickled onion on to the stick and then envelope with the thin end of the chilli. Next spear the anchovy at one end, skewer the olive and fold the other end of the anchovy to be held in place by the stick.

Hey Presto, you have created a Gilda in seconds. But now for the real magic.

Step Three: Magic in the Mouth
Wrap your teeth around the stick and pull the lot into your mouth at the one time, then eat it and weep.

What does it taste like? Does the chilli blow your head off? Suppose you don’t like olives?

I’m not going to answer any of these, save for the olive one – Andy doesn’t like olives but she eats Gildas.

Your just going to have to take a leap of faith and try it. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed… it’s a kind of magic.

Buzz Trips Fact File: We don’t know why these mini pinchos are called Gildas except that it is after a woman. Whether that woman was Rita Hayworth and her long black gloves who knows – certainly tasty enough to fit the bill.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+

The humble chickpea is one of the oldest cultivated foods in the world having been around for over 7000 years. It’s an incredibly versatile ingredient that is high in protein, cheap and can be used in all sorts of ways and you don’t have to be a true blue vegetarian to appreciate meals where chickpeas are the main attraction.

We’re massive fans of the chickpea and use it in stews (with and without meat), to make hummus and, one of our favourites that we keep coming back to again and again, falafel.

These fried, spicy balls are commonly dished up as street food in the Middle East where they’re often served with lettuce and salad and wrapped in pitta, or flatbreads. Our recipe for falafel is a variation on these hand-held savoury packages. Maybe I’m biased but this recipe makes seriously good falafel that boasts an exotically spicy personality. It brings eating street food right into the home… or wherever you happen to be.

Preparation takes about 30 minutes with actual cooking time around 10 minutes.

This recipe is for 4 People (or 2 servings for 2 people if you only use half the falafel and freeze the rest till you get a yen for  your next falafel hit).

Ingredients for Falafel

• 400g jar of cooked chickpeas (using cooked chickpeas makes things a lot easier)
• Tortilla wraps or pitta bread (2 per person)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tomatoes, deseeded and diced
• ½ small green pepper, diced
• 12 button mushrooms, sliced
• 6 oz grated cheese (cheddar, or any other tasty cheese)
• A small lettuce, shredded
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ras el hanout (turmeric if you can’t get ras el hanout)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• Plain flour (just have some ready to hand)
• ½ lemon
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• Tabasco sauce

How to Prepare Falafel

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Transfer to a bowl and mash with a potato masher till smooth.
2. Add crushed garlic, a quarter of the chopped onion, cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, coriander, ras el hanout, salt, pepper and mix thoroughly.
3. Add the beaten egg a little at a time and stir until the falafel mixture is moist, but not sloppily wet.
4. Dust hands with flour and, using a dessert spoon, scoop out some of the falafel mixture and roll into a ball (a 400g jar should make 24 decent sized balls). I wash my hands every 4-5 balls otherwise I end up with more of the mixture on my hand than on the ball.
5. Place each on a plate and, when all are looking nice and uniform, chill the falafel balls for at least 10 minutes.
6. Whilst the falafel is being chilled, put the shredded lettuce into a bowl and arrange the rest of the chopped onion, diced tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, grated cheese and lemon wedge on a plate.
7. After the falafel has been chilled roll them in flour (this helps prevent too much spitting of hot oil when they are being fried) and gently fry them in the olive oil for 10 minutes, turning regularly until the falafel balls are golden.
8. Remove, pat dry on kitchen roll and serve with the tortillas/pitta and salad.

How to Eat Falafel in Tortilla Wraps
This is the fun part. Serve 6 falafel balls per person (3 per tortilla).
Place some of the shredded lettuce on a tortilla and put 3 falafel balls on the lettuce. Arrange diced tomato, peppers, sliced mushrooms and chopped onion in between each ball. Squeeze some lemon juice over the falafel and then a couple of splashes of Tabasco. Top with the grated cheese, roll up the tortilla (folding in the bottom to avoid spillage) and get stuck in.

Then repeat… which is sometimes what can happen as a result of eating chickpeas.