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Alicia here to continue my culinary adventure through France. 

This week I chose Flammekueche, which I have made before, and loved! Flammekueche is from the Alsace region on the Eastern Border of France by the Rhine river. The region has a long and storied history. Many wars have been fought over the region and it has been conquered or just annexed by France and Germany. Alsace even has it's own dialect (language) that is being promoted recently to be learned in schools. Alsace is part of France now, but the region still has German influences in its culture. 

And that's why Flammekueche sounds German, but is a French food. I figure this fusion food is perfect since we have both French and German ancestors (remember we did German food in January).

Flammekueche is a thin crust onion and bacon tarte with a cream base. But in France it's more refereed to as a pizza. And also it's really delicious!!! Full disclosure, I have made this before. Last year Adrian and I did a very similar experiment, and I made Falmmekueche. I haven't stopped thinking about it since. I don't know why I didn't make it again until now. It's actually very fast and easy. It's one of the reasons I love it. I think there's a perception that French food is fussy and difficult, but not all of it is! And this is one of those recipes that can be a regular in your menu line-up!

Last time I think I used ricotta cheese to make the cream. But this time I saw some other recipes that lightened the recipe up by using greek yogurt for the cream base. If you were in France you would probably use something likebreakfast cream, but that is not very common here in America. I decided I would just get a single serving size of 2%  plain Greek yogurt, so I didn't have to have a whole carton of Greek yogurt. It was about 6oz of yogurt and 2 heaping TBS of natural sour cream. 

​This recipe calls for nutmeg and you do not want to skip it. It is so delicious! And it compliments the strong flavor of the onion so well. 

I also used store bought thin crust dough because we were having a really busy day, but usually I use our crust recipe (and I like ours better). But store bought works in a pinch. I accidentally over-baked it the first time around in the oven, but even though the crust was more brown than I would have liked, it still came out quite tasty!

Flammekueche ( Alsatian Pizza)

I hope you'll give this a try.

​And if you want to try out more French recipes, take a look at this awesome class put on by Panna! Panna is like Netflix for cooking videos by Michelin-starred Chefs, and they've just started a new class on French cooking! You can buy just the class (10 lessons) for $60 or sign up for the site for $5.99/month. There's also an option to join for life at $200. They have a free trial period, so you can sign up and if you don't like it, you can cancel your subscription. But I think you'll like it!

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Alicia here! I'm finally back. You probably thought I abandoned the blog and my culinary travels, but in reality we got hit with the flu at my house and then my back went out. Such a time to be alive. But we did actually make an Ecuadorian meal every week this month as promised. And I will be sharing all of them with you this week!

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, each month this year my family is choosing a different country from our heritage and making a traditional meal from that country each week. Then I am sharing our recipes and meals on the blog! Last month was Germany and it was so delicious! Check out my previous posts from January.

This month we decided to do Ecuador. My husband is from Ecuador and lucky for me Ecuadorian food is really flavorful and delicious. He's from Guayaquil, which is a coastal city, so that means a lot of seafood. Another plus for me because I love seafood! We have shared some non-seafood Ecuadorian recipes previously on the blog (here, and here), and I will have one more non-seafood recipe this month for you!

The dish I'm sharing with you this post is Encebollado. It's one of my favorite dishes. It's a soup that is actually commonly eaten for breakfast or lunch (or brunch) in Ecuador. Whenever I suggest it for dinner my husband is says it's weird to eat for dinner. It is a warm soup though, despite being for breakfast. Tuna, yucca, and onion are the main ingredients in this delicious soup. The strong onion flavor is a great contrast to the subtle flavors of the yucca and tuna, and a great compliment to the lime juice added in right before serving.

We usually make this from the can. Every time some one comes from Ecuador or we go, this is my favorite thing to bring back. So currently we have 8 cans of the soup in our pantry. But we have also made it from scratch on occasion. At these times my husband will call home and get the recipe from there. But today we decided to link you to Laylita's recipe. The only difference between her recipe and what we do is that we don't use pickled onions. We just add fresh red onions to the soup and let them soften in the broth (they still have a little crunch though).

When you eat encebollado make sure you have plenty of lime. I like a lot of lime juice in mine (at least one whole juicy lime) while my husband enjoys it with a smaller amount. 

Traditionally eaten with a crusty bread roll, plantain chips, and a nice cold Coke.

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In March we'll be doing Ireland! so stay tuned next month for that. You can also get an Irish themed date night from Dating Divas for just $2.99 right now. The date's all planned all you have to do is print!

This is my last German dinner post! Just to recap, each month I am choosing a country and then once a week cooking a meal from that country. January has been Germany. See my previous posts on this adventure here, here, and here!
 
It has been a very delicious and fun experiment so far. And as a bonus I have made a German dessert that I’ll be sharing with you on Thursday! I’m taking over Renny’s Recipes this week, so stay tuned.
 
Today’s dish is rinderrouladen and potato dumplings. Both of today’s recipes are from Germanfoods.org.

A rouladen is a roll-up and a rinderrouladen is a beef roll-up. It’s so good you guys and I didn’t even make it right (I think)! I really was trying to make an original recipe for you here but I feel like it still needs perfecting. As such, I will just link you to one of the base recipes I used and tell you my tips for it. Hopefully in the future I can update this with the recipe. (Because I will be making this again.) It was so delicious!
 
It’s a really thin cut of beef round or chuck. I used bottom round and chuck to try them both. Then rolled up inside is bacon or ham, caramelized onions, and a pickle.  Then it's braised in beef stock for about an hour. I couldn't tell the difference between the two different cuts of meat.

Here are my tips:

• Find a butcher to cut your meat really thin. Most recipes I saw called for between 1/16” and 1/8” thick. I feel like the thinner the better. My meat was closer to 1/8” and I felt the rouladen was bulkier than it should have been. I did try to flatten it a bit more, but I don’t have a meat mallet so I used the back of my metal ice cream scoop. It worked ok. But this brings me to my next point.
• Have “rectangular” shapes about 4’’ x 6-8’’. None of the recipes told me which way to put the filling and roll it up. But you need to be able to tuck the ends in to make a of pocket of meat. So I think it might be easier to put the stuffing in long-ways and roll it up. I dis it short ways and the roulade was very fat.
• Use bakers twine to tie it up. It will be so much easier. You may also want to use some toothpicks in the ends to help tuck them. I didn’t have string or toothpicks. I use giant skewers that I broke in half and weaved through the rouladen to try to hold it together and close the ends. While it worked it didn’t keep them tightly packed so they came out pretty big. (Big and DELICIOUS!)
• Add some grainy mustard before you put the bacon on. It takes the flavor to the next level. Trust me. It’s so good.
• Use a pickle even if you don’t like pickles. My husband hates pickles but actually liked it in the rouladen. Make at least one with a pickle and try it. (I did half with and half without and the pickle and mustard combo was my favorite).
• Judge how many onions you think you'll use. I most definitely did not use 2 whole onions. I used more like half of one onion, but if you roll it the other way you might fit more. Try it!
  

This could be a great thing to make for a special occasion, like Valentine’s Day at home, a birthday, or anniversary.. The meat can be kind of expensive so it’s not an everyday meal.

I have never in my life made dumplings, nor watched anyone make them. And though I have had these before and really liked them, mine turned out like weird mashed potatoes with toast stuffed inside. Also mine came out huge and only half the batch came out of the water in tact. I think watching a video of someone making these would have been beneficial for me.
 
Don’t get me wrong they were still good with the gravy, but I wished I had just made mashed potatoes. I’m calling it user error. I didn’t use the recipe I’m linking too, but I wish I had because it seems more detailed in the instructions.
 
Because I need to practice these more I have no tips for you. But if you try them let me know how they turn out. I found a mix for them on Amazon that I might have to try.

Have you tried any of the German recipes yet? Stay tuned for a German dessert on Thursday!