Hot Plate Cooking in Germany

So it’s been a while and not for the lack of trying, but I haven’t been in a kitchen cooking for over a month. My new home in Germany did not include a kitchen which took 3 weeks to be delivered. Now it’s here but it still isn’t installed, so it could be another week before I can actually begin cooking

We do have a hot plate which runs very hot! I am unaccustomed to hot plate cookery so I had some mishaps. Everything can literally burn in 2 minutes if you aren’t careful. I decided to make a nice applesauce that burned so quickly, make the entire apartment smell terrible and resulted in my sobbing uncontrollably. I’ve never burned applesauce.

Just today our refrigerator works, so I can begin at least eating cereals and things. But alas, this is a post on hot plate cooking. I made pastas aplenty, grilled meats and potatoes, pancakes, soups and stir-fry. Surprisingly, without a refrigerator, there isn’t a whole lot I want to try since everything goes bad quickly.

Here are some pics and if you are interested, I can totally give you recipes.

Alright this looks simple and it is. You have to use the rules of pasta making here. Olive oil in a pan with a minced garlic clove. sizzle and pop. Add onions and lots o’ tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano and thyme with a bit of salt. Let simmer for a while. Boil your pasta and reserve some of the boiling water. Add it to your sauce. Take your pasta and add it to the sauce on the stovetop, mix for about a minute or two. The result is gourmet pasta, very simple with an abundance of flavor and rather healthy thank you!

Underboiled then grilled potatoes with blanched and then seared green beans, and of course, grilled chicken. Btw, I only have one hot plate so in the end, I have to put everything in one pan to make them all the same temp.

These are rather large shells I got from the Italian section in the German supermarket. The entire package was in Italian and I had a feeling these would be fantastic. I made a meat sauce for this one, used fresh herbs and lots of vegetables. The result was awesome. The German ate a lot of pasta that night.

I decided one night to use our little grill and make a gigantic pizza on it. I didn’t have a bowl and our apartment is freezing cold, so I had to buy pizza dough (gasp). I made a sauce, cut up lots of veggies (they have fresh produce everywhere in Germany and for real cheap) and grated mozzarella. The crust puffed up but not perfectly- the edges came out a bit doughy but overall the flavor was there. I was happy with it. Will have to try again and take pictures next time.