THE BRETT SESSIONS | VOL.2
OUR CULINARY HEARTBEAT
BY THE STOVE
ON THE STOVE
Joseph & Johannes Schreiter
TEAM FRANKFURTER BOARD
GREEN GAZPACHO
YELLOW SNOW GAZPACHO
OYSTER MUSHROOM WITH TAHINI
Gazpacho.
The GREEN GAZPACHO by Johannes with lots of avocado and arugula is already legendary in our family, even though we’re not really big soup lovers.
And even though the soup is very healthy in terms of its ingredients, it is by no means light: both the avocado and the added oil ensure that each spoonful tastes long, deep, and deeply satisfying.
The meal was accompanied by pure soul food: fried oyster mushrooms with herbs, tahini & lemon. Fabulous on its own, but also as a sandwich or as a topping on salad or pasta – always a home run.
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The idea for the YELLOW GAZPACHO came to us spontaneously: The green gazpacho is very rich in contrast and exciting in flavor, very refined despite its solidity – but at its core very simple.
We therefore wanted to capture this exciting basic flavor but give the dish a different interpretation, better balance the contrasts, and create a new overall taste sensation.
But as is sometimes the case – nothing really came together on the first try, and at the end of a long day of filming the whole team was really frustrated; you can see it in the video.
It wasn’t until we were cleaning up that we had the idea to freeze the basic melon and bell pepper soup and turn it into granité.
So we added a little more seasoning to compensate for the loss of flavor due to the cold, put it in the freezer overnight, and the next day everything came together beautifully:
Yellow gazpacho granité on a "soil" of pumpernickel and herb butter, with mint and lime broth, sour cream, and red onion.
And even if we were to make some improvements next time we serve it, this dish is truly spectacular:
The granité is sweet and aromatic, with an exciting flavor development thanks to the melting ice cream; the pumpernickel base gives a broad foundation to the lightness of the other ingredients, complemented by the fresh, sharp acidity of onion and lime broth.
All in all, unmistakably gazpacho, but somehow wilder, more extravagant. Very beautiful.
(And it must be admitted: By the time the working title “Yellow Snow” was coined, the mood had definitely lifted. Boys will be boys.)
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With that in mind – enjoy recreating the recipe! We’re always happy to receive feedback on the recipes!
Johannes, Joseph
& Team FRANKFURTER BRETT
Green Gazpacho
// It’s summer in the soup.
I first discovered the green version of gazpacho in Ottolenghi’s book "Enjoyable Vegetarian," which was a culinary revelation for me.
An ice-cold, bright green vegetable soup that is creamy and rich thanks to avocado and oil, and bursting with flavor from the herbs, spices, and chilies.
My version is even more intense and spicy.
You can add a few strawberries or pomegranate seeds at the end on your plate to add sweet accents.
The intensity of flavor and calorie density make it a summer main course, served with crispy white bread and white wine, and everything is perfectly balanced.
The main ingredients are cucumber, fresh spinach, avocado, and herbs.
The dish is further enhanced by celery, fennel, roasted and crushed spices, and small green chilies.
The proportions aren’t really that important here.
The ingredients combine so easily that the result is always good.
I like to make a larger batch in summer because you can simply take the soup straight from the fridge and eat it.
- THE BRETT SESSIONS | VOL.2
- “GAZPACHO"
for about 5 Liters
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- 4 cucumbers
4 avocados
½ celery stalk
1 kg leaf spinach
½ large fennel bulb
1 bunch spring onions, peel rubbed off
½ Lemon
3 cloves garlic
3 small green Thai chilies (Asian supermarket, I always keep them in the freezer)
A few strawberries to garnish, 100 ml olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Some water (or ice cubes) to adjust the consistency later Herbs
150 g basil
1 handful parsley
1 handful chervil (optional), 1 handful fresh coriander (optional) (As mentioned before, the herbs used and their proportions are flexible and can be adjusted to taste)
Spices:
2 tablespoons whole cumin
1 tablespoon whole caraway, 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, 1 tablespoon cardamom
1 tablespoon black or green pepper
PROCESS:
Coarsely chop all ingredients except the spices and blend thoroughly.
Pour everything into a pot.
Keep a hand blender ready for seasoning and final adjustments; this is the best way to do it.
Roast the spices in a pan until they pop and release their aroma. Then crush them in a mortar or, like me, grind them in an electric coffee grinder. In the first step, add about 70% of the spices.
Then mix in the oil and adjust the soup with water to a nice smooth consistency, as you can see in the video. If you want to eat immediately, you can also use ice cubes instead of water. Season to taste with salt and lemon juice.
Now that everything is finished, you can adjust the amount of spices and chilies to your own taste. As a topping at the end, you can use herbs and onion rings besides strawberries.
You can purée the chilies in a separate container of water and only add them at the end.
to set the desired final sharpness.
These little things have quite a lot of punch.
That's the same way you can handle the spices.
Only add them one by one at the end.
Snow of yellow Gazpacho
// Frozen yellow Gazpacho on pumpernickel earth. A fireworks display.
The yellow version of our gazpacho is basically made of honeydew melon and yellow bell pepper, accompanied by gently fried onions, ginger, sweet-intense roasted garlic, roasted anise seeds, mild olive oil, and plenty of lemon juice.
A good dash of simple sour cream, the finest onion rings, fermented black garlic, and a tangy mint-coriander-lemon mix go with it like a slap in the face.
As the unifying base of the whole, we have brought out one of our common favorite components as the foundation: Butter-fried pumpernickel crumbs with pine nuts, a little sugar, and thyme.
The dish is a bit more elaborate but can be prepared well. Thus, you can practically prepare the appetizer at the same time and impress guests right from the first course with a ringing of bells.
When eating, the gazpacho snow suddenly fills the mouth with ice-cold sensation but melts immediately and releases its delicate flavor, then the warm, crispy pumpernickel earthiness comes forward with buttery pine nuts.
As the soup and the pumpernickel are altogether very sweet, there are 3 different sour accents:
The sour cream forms a mild - creamy acidic accent, the pesto adds a tangy, lemony acidity, and the garlic a fermented, nutty acidity.
This tastes different with every spoonful, so the dish remains exciting throughout, thanks to the ever-changing balance of flavors between sour and sweet.
Add to this the ethereal notes of mint and the mild sharpness of onion.
Truly delicious.
Measured by the stress factor of this dish during filming, the final result is surprisingly beautiful and balanced.
- THE BRETT SESSIONS | VOL.2
- „YELLOW SNOW Gazpacho "
for approx. 4-6 people, depending on portion size
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FOR THE SOUP:
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4 YELLOW PEPPERS, COARSE CUBES
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3 VEGETABLE ONIONS, COARSE CUBES APPROX.
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1KG HONEYDEW MELON
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1 GARLIC BULB SAME AMOUNT OF GINGER
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1 TABLESPOON OF ANISE SEEDS
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6 TABLESPOONS MILD OLIVE OIL LEMON ZEST
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½ LEMON LEMON JUICE TO TASTE
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COMPONENTS:
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PUMPKINICKEL EARTH:
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150G PUMPKINICKEL
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50G PINE NUTS
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2 TABLESPOONS OF BUTTER
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1 TABLESPOON OF BROWN SUGAR
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A LITTLE THYME
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SALT AND PEPPER
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PESTO:
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1 HANDFUL OF GREEN CORIANDER
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1 HANDFUL OF MINT
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1 HANDFUL OF PUMPKIN SEEDS JUICE OF ONE LEMON
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½ TABLESPOONS OF SUGAR
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SALT SMALL RED ONION RINGS FROM INSIDE THE ONION
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SOUR CREAM RED CRESS
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3-4 CLOVES OF BLACK GARLIC, SLICED 3MM THICK GREEN OR RED CRESS A FEW VERY FINE MINT AND CORIANDER LEAVES FOR GARNISH
STEPS:
Wrap the garlic in aluminum foil and place it in the oven at 180°C for 45 minutes.
> Coarsely dice the onions and fry them in olive oil with a little salt and the aniseed over medium heat for a long time until they are really soft and sweet.
> Roughly dice the melon and peppers, mix them with the fried onions, put them in the blender in batches, and blend on the highest setting for about 1 minute. > Finely chop the ginger or grate it and add it.
> The garlic too. Yes, the whole bulb. Or at least 80%.
> Combine everything in a pot and mix. On top, you’ll get some fine fibers and peelings. I skimmed these off with a coarse-mesh frying spoon—not completely, just enough so the soup has a much coarser texture than water but no longer consists of 50% fibers. If you strain it through too fine a sieve, only yellow water remains, which is not the goal. The desired consistency is similar to a smooth, creamy lentil soup.
> Then add the oil and season to taste with salt and lemon juice. The soup has a complex, rich sweetness from the paprika, melon, garlic, and onions, which can seem a bit dull and one-dimensional. A few squirts of lemon juice and salt suddenly bring out the full depth of flavor—the garlic, anise, and ginger—the lemon juice itself should remain clearly noticeable, enhanced by the grated peel. It’s better to season a bit more because freezing dulls the taste.
> Pour the lemon juice into a flat container and place it in the freezer until completely frozen. It should be flat to make it easier to get into the blender and to freeze faster. Later, just break it by hand and bam! Into the blender!
> Pumpernickel crumble:
Crumble the pumpernickel coarsely with your hand, put it in the pan with all other ingredients and fry it over medium heat until the pumpernickel becomes slightly crispy and the pine nuts turn golden brown. Set aside, preferably keep warm.
> pesto:
Put everything together in the blender, puree finely, keep ready. The black garlic is now found in every supermarket. So far I couldn’t do much with it, here it fits really well. > Cut it into 3mm slices and prepare it together with the plucked leaves and the cress for serving.
> Onion rings Take either a shallot or a small red onion and cut fine onion rings from the inside and keep them ready.
Dressing:
Quantities depend on portion size, you have to rely on your gut feeling here.
> Take the gazpacho out of the freezer, put it in the blender and mix into powder. Pour the desired amount into the glass with a tablespoon. > Pour 2 tablespoons of the pesto directly in 2 places, it should be at the bottom of the glass.
> Pour 2-3 tbsp of pumpernickel earth on one side of the glass, so that you can also spoon past the earth
> Place a teaspoonful of sour cream on top of it
> Then place onion rings, cress, the leaves, and on top of that the black garlic. When arranging the accent components on fine plates, I always try to create small islands where all the components are gathered instead of scattering them all over the place. And I make sure that all components can be spooned and tasted individually. So you can taste the dish in individual parts, but also combine them as you like. The snow keeps surprisingly long, no panic. If you are well prepared, you can serve it almost casually and casually give your guests a really spectacular dish.
Oyster Mushrooms
// Pure soul food
One of the best mushroom recipes ever – in my opinion.
Very simple, 3 steps and 20 minutes of work – a very rewarding dish.
The best thing is to take large oyster mushrooms from the market, fresh and beautiful.
Concept and taste
Tahini has the mysterious property that it becomes wonderfully crispy in the oven at high heat and circulating air when spread thinly on oyster mushrooms.
So, you make a kind of tahini sauce with the finest onion cubes, herbs, and spices to taste, add some water to adjust it to the consistency of wall paint, and brush the mushrooms, which lie individually on baking trays, with the sauce on both sides.
Then put them in the oven for 10 minutes at 220°, and it’s ready.
On top, thinly sliced fennel, peperoncini, and parsley, tarragon or oregano, just as you like.
If they are well done, the mushrooms are really crisp and crunchy at the edges.
The mushroom aroma combines very nicely with the sesame sauce, sweetly cooked onion cubes and spices.
A hearty, rounded, yet unusual feel-good dish, which is prepared very quickly.
In the video I have chosen a rather traditional German spice bouquet, with caraway, juniper, cloves and some cinnamon, that fits very well.
But an oriental mix with cumin also fits very well.
- THE BRETT SESSIONS | VOL.2
- „CRISPY OYSTER MUSHROOMS WITH TAHINI AND FENNEL."
INGREDIENTS:
Tahini sauce:
200g tahini
1 vegetable onion, finest cubes
3-4 tablespoons parsley stalks, finely chopped optional
3 tablespoons fresh oregano, finely chopped
1 garlic clove Lemon grated
STEPS:
Preheat oven to 220° convection.
> For the sauce, mix all the ingredients together.
> Then stir in water until it is nice and easy to brush.
> Finely grind the spices in a spice mill or mortar and add to the sauce.
> Season to taste with salt. It is important that the mushrooms are separated from each other, so you will probably need 2 baking trays.
> Lay out baking paper on them. (If you put some water on the tray and press the paper on it, it will hold by itself)
> Spreading mushrooms
> generously brush the sauce on both sides Once the oven is ready and hot, slide it in and set the timer to 10 minutes. You can open the door from time to time to let moisture out. This way the mushrooms become even crispier. Meanwhile, slice the fennel thinly, mix with the parsley leaves and peperoncini, season with lemon juice and salt. As soon as the mushrooms are ready, arrange them nicely on a plate and put the fennel mix in the middle.
RECIPE: JOHANNES & JOSEPH SCHREITER | IMAGES & VIDEOS: FRANKFURTER BRETT GmbH
