Indian Ghost Pepper Chili Prawns on Rice

I am growing different kinds of hot peppers for years on my balcony. Depending on the kind of summer we have here in Germany, the peppers are mild to hot. But always good enough to cook with them.

This year I bought a chili plant in April in a large garden center and was curious about the outcome. INDIAN GHOST PEPPER

More or less in the same class as the Carolina Reaper. This plant was available too, but I did not buy it.

Now most of my peppers are ripe and ready to harvest, I plucked 8 off the plant. 

With my prawns I wanted to test the heat of one. Careful as I am, I took gloves and a glass cutting board and a special knife. I cut off the top and sliced the chili lengthwise. Then I started to cough. Weird! I took out the seeds and the membrane and coughed a bit more.

Since I only cooked one portion of prawns and had a bit of leftover rice, I finely chopped 1/3 of the chili and used it for the dish. That was plenty of heat and it kept growing while I ate.

Recipe for 1:

1/3 Indian Ghost Pepper Chili

150 g cooked prawns, 1 cup cooked rice

2 spring onions, 60 g fine cut cabbage, salt and pepper

2 tbsp Mirin, 3 tsp Ayvar, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tsp creme fraiche

Chop the onions and start them in oil. Add the cabbage, chili and cook for 5 min, season with salt and pepper. Pour in some Mirin. 

Now add the prawns and let them heat through. Add the Ayvar.

Heat the rice in the Microwave and top it with the prawns.

Take care with the chili heat, it will burn twice.

Bolo Toast

Working with leftovers is something to get creative. Since I can't stand for a very long time in the kitchen. I have a busted knee for more than 2 weeks now. Standing more then 10 min in the kitchen hurts. I hope my knee will get better soon. That hinders me while cooking.

Some of my bolognese from last Sunday is sitting in my fridge. This toast is a good way to eat some of them. It is so easy and tasty.

Ingredients:

3 slices of toast, goat cream cheese, 9 tbsp bolognese, grated mozzarella, ground pepper

Preheat the grill on the oven to 180 C

Lightly toast the bread. Spread a thin layer of goat cream cheese on top. Heat up the bolo and spoon 3 tbsp on each slice of toast. Get the cheese on top and some pepper.

Bake for 6 to 8 min to melt the cheese.

Chanterelle and Bolo Rice

Now it is chanterelle mushroom season. Sice we are in a severe drought in Europe these mushrooms are rare and expensive. The quality is on the low side. But it is also tomatoe season in my garden. I harvested a kilo of them over the period of 4 days. 

This time I went for my kind of Bolognese sauce. I started with the prep for my usual tomato sauce with all the tomatoes and after 5 min of the cooking time, I added the beef mince in small pieces through the hole in the lid of my Thermomix on the running blade. After 35 min at 100C the Bolo was done.

I cleaned the chanterelle mushrooms and sauteed them with a spring onion in a little oil. Just some salt and pepper and done. The dish was served with Jasmine rice.

Ingredients:

850 g tomatoes, 2 onions, 5 cloves of garlic, 30 g olive oil, 30 g balsamico, 1 tsp sugar, 50 ml white wine, 2 tbsp tomato paste, 1 tsp herbes de Provence,salt, pepper, 1 red chili, 400 g beef mince

250 g chanterelle mushrooms, 1 spring onion, 1 tsp oil

Sausage with Onion Spaetzle

My friend is from the South of Germany near the Bodensee. She is a master in preparing Spaetzle. This are some soft doughy pieces if pasta. Some translate it as little sparrows.

She loves to eat them with mountain cheese and onions. But I wanted something else, no cheese.

I went for a mix of red, yellow and green onions and added some garlic. With a little oil it went in a wide pan. After the first 5 min, season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and cover with a lid. The onions need about 20 min. Just stir them every 5 min. Add a tsp honey and let the onions caramelize. Good quality balsamic vinegar at last

Set the onions aside. Clean the pan.

Add some butter and toss in the spaetzle. After 3 min add the onions to them.  Scrape them to the side of the pan.

Flour the sausage on both sides, add a bit more butter and brown the sausage on both sides.

 Ingredients:

120 g cooked spaetzle, 1,5 cm thick slice ham bologna

Onion mix, oil, salt, papper, honey, balsamic vinegar, flour

Chicken Wings on Turkish style Veggie mix

 I only wanted to use one dish.

And oven baked chicken wings sounded interesting. They were sitting on a huge bed of different veggies and that had a little kick  due to some spices.

I just needed the time to prep all the veggies and get the sauce together. What I forgot was that acid of any kind prevents potatoes of getting soft soon. They were done but still had an outer skin on the tougher side.

Ingredients for 2:

6 chicken wings seasoned with salt and pepper

4 potatoes, 1 red bell pepper, 1 bok choy, 1 spring onion, 1 large yellow onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 red chili, 6 medium small tomatoes

Sauce:

2 lemons squeezed, 150 ml hot water, 3 tbsp tomato paste, 60 ml olive oil, 1 tsp smoked paprika, salt, pepper, Pul Biber, oregano, majoram

Preheat the oven 190C

Cut the veggies in rough chunks, they need some size not to cook to mush in the oven. Place them on the bottom of a baking dish. Set the wings on top. Pour the sauce over.

Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 30 min, uncover and bake for 25 min more.

Ssamjang spicy Vegetables with Mee Noodles

Korean Ssamjang paste is usually used to dip vegetables in. Buy it hot or mild, your choice. I chose spicy, what else?

But there are lots of other options to use the paste. It is different from Gochujang paste. I had a bunch of vegetables ready to use. A mee noodle dish was a good choice today. The leftovers will be great for tomorrow's lunch while working from home.

Recipe for 3:

250 g Mee Noodles

40 g raw ham bits, 1 spring onion, 1 tbsp garlic paste, 2 tsp Ssamjang spicy paste, 1 carrot, 1 bok choy, 15 mini cherry tomatoes, 2 tbsp Oyster sauce, 4 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp agave syrup, pepper, 1 tsp sesame oil.

2 tbsp sesame seeds, oil

Cook 1,5 l water and place the mee noodles in a bowl. Pour the water on top and let them sit 15 min. Drain.

In a Wok heat up some oil and toss in ham, carrots, spring onions, garlic paste, and Ssamjang paste. Add oyster sauce and soy sauce and syrup.

Last bok choy and mini tomatoes are going in. Add the drained mee noodles. And mix well. Finish with sesame oil and seeds.

Tomato and Bean Salad with Yogurt Cheese Sauce

This is a warm summer salad. Lots of fresh herbs are going great with this salad.

I bought a 500 g bag of green beans. I divided the bag for a regular green bean salad to eat with some grilled pork neck steaks. 

The small the cherry tomatoes are, the better they work for this recipe. They go whole in thr oven and will stay that way even after 10 min at 180 C. It is great when they pop open in your mouth and release their sweetness. Larger ones have to be cut once. 

Ingredients:

200 g green beans, 3 sprigs savoury, 1 spring onion, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp herbes de Provence, 1 pinch garlic powder

1 large hand full small cherry tomatoes, thyme, rosemary, tarragon, oregano, parsley, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, 2 tbsp pine nuts

SAUCE:

125 g Greek full fat yogurt, 30 g grated hard Mozzarella cheese, 3 sprigs basil

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Mix tomstoes with all fresh herbs, salt and pepper and add the pine nuts. Drizzle with oil and bake for 10 min.

Top and tail the beans. Cook them in salted water with savoury until nearly done. Put in ice water to cool down. Heat up oil, toss in herbes de Provence and garlic powder, the spring onion and the beans. Cook for 5 min.

Mix the sauce. Build the plate. Start with the beans, pour the sauce over and toss the hot tomato nut mix on top. Just get the stems from the herbs out. 

Best served with baguette.

Taramosalata Greek style

This is a pink cream I stumbled upon on my second trip to Greece 20 years ago. That time I was unimpressed and thought: Why do they call it a salad?

On different trips to Greece later I started to like it. It is some kind of acquired taste.

Getting the cod roe is not so easy here. It is the main component for the taste. But not in quantity. Potatoes are more. But use old bread rolls if you like. But I like the other version more.

Ingredients:

3 cooked cooled potatoes

1 shallot

100 g pink cod roe

1 cup olive oil

2 lemons juiced

Pepper

I used my Thermomix and cooked the potatoes in the basket, drained and cooled them

The shallot was minced in the maschine next, then I added potatoes and cod roe. Mix at speed 5 for 2 min. Now comes the fun part. Put the stopper on to the lid and pour the olive oil on the lid. Let it drip while mixing on slow speed, add the lemon juice later and finish with pepper. Cool in the fridge for 1 hour to set.

I prefare to eat it with raw vegetables as a dip. But bread will work as well.

White Pizza

I had a French pizza dough in the fridge and lots of bits and bobs to clear out of the fridge. What a good idea to make a pizza.

No tomato sauce this time. I have a pot of rich creamy creme fraiche (French product) and mixed it with Parmesan, Italian herbs, salt and pepper and used this ad the base.

Then all the things I found went on top. Grated Mozzarella cheese was last.

Bits and bobs:

Salami with hazelnuts, chorizo, Padron peppers, sweet corn, red bell pepper, spring onion, brown button mushrooms

Olive oil, oregano, pepper, Mozzarella

Bake at 210C for 15 min and enjoy.

 

Chicken Tomato Basil Rice One Pot

So many veggies in a tomato infused pilaw rice. Nice to have the chicken thighs with it. But it will work without the chicken as well. Just use an other kind of stock.

My fight with my home grown tomstoes just started 10 days before. Now the season is in full swing. I loaded up my shirt in the morning with fresh plugged tomatoes. I was sure they were no ripe ones, because I harvested yesterday. I did not bring a bowl.

Since I just battled down my bout with tomato allergy, eating raw tomatoes was out. I put them in a blender and made liquid tomatoes. With the help of some chicken stock I had great tomato rice.

Recipe for 3:

3 chicken thighs, about 200 g each

1 stalk celery, 2 carrots,1 red bell pepper, 1 yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 5 green Padron peppers, 1 red chili, 250 g tomatoes, 4 stalks basil, 4 stalks thyme, 1 stalk majoram, 1 bay leaf

350 ml chicken stock, 50 ml white wine, salt and pepper, smoked paprika, oil, 2 tbsp tomato paste

190 g pilaw rice or medium grain rice

Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper snd brush with smoked paprika. In a cast iron pan heat up the oil and sear the chicken thighs on both sides for 5 min. Take them out.

Get onions, garlic and diced carrots in and give them 6 min.  Now in with the tomato paste. Add all peppers and chilis and season with salt and pepper. After 2 min add the wine and let it deglaze the pan. Get thr blended tomatoes in and the dried herbs. Add the washed rice and coat it well in the tomato sauce.

Pour in the stock and set the chicken thighs in the mix. Bring up to a boil, reduce the heat and put a lid on. Cook for 20 min.

Check if the chicken is done. Add the fresh basil and serve.

Corn and Tapioka Pudding Cambodian style

Bor Bor Pot.

Eat it warm. It is comfort food.

This is the recipe I was trying to buy small Tapioka pearls for. The 5th try was the large Asian supermarket downtown.

But through this search I became a fan of Bubble Tea. I ordered large Tapioka pearls online, Bubble Tea glas and thick metal straws. I finally get to enjoy the trend.

Fresh corn on the cobb is still available here. I bought an other batch. In this recipe there is no need to cook the corn before using it. I just cut off the kernels and they went in the coconut milk to cook.

The Tapioka pearls are the "fast" cook ones. The instructions on the back of the package showed a cooking time of 30 min. I put them in a bowl of cold water first for 15 min. That reduced the cooking time later to 20 min.

Since I had some sweetened condensed milk leftover from the last dish, I decided to use some of it instead of sugar. It worked well.

Recipe for 2:

1 corn on the cobb

250 ml coconut milk

1/2 cup small tapioka pearls

3 tsp sweetend condensed milk or sugar

Carrot Ketchup

This is no sugar bomb!

The recipe is from Chef Stephan Hentschel who cooks at Cookies Cream on Berlin. But as always I gave it my own twist.

Carrots are naturally sweet. Adding a bit of honey is enough to reach the sweetness you ate used to when having tomato ketchup. It works great with all kinds of BBQ meats, but cheese or veggie sticks are a good alternative. 

I served some of mine with a goat cheese roll I bought in France last week. The strong cheese flavour gets a mild counterpart.

Recipe for 500 ml:

150 g peeled carrots, 75 g peeled white onion, 1 clove of garlic

2 tbsp rapeseed oil, 1 tbsp runny honey

Pinch of allspice, ground coriander

5 g salt, pepper, chili flakes

1/4 tsp mild curry powder, 1/2 lemon

15 ml apple cider vinegar,

200 g chopped canned tomatoes

Grate carrots and onion, chop garlic. Saute it in oil a bit and add joney and spices. Zest of 1/2 lemon and vinegar. Put a lid on the pot and on medium low cook fir 10 mon. Add the canned tomatoes. Use a stick blender and make the mix into a ketchup. 

Use sterilized jars and fill the hot ketchup in. Store in the fridge.