Potato Salad with Beef Broth

That may sound crazy, but it tastes great. 

Using a good broth to let the potato slices soak in is essential. And the broth needs to be hot when it is added to the potatoes.

But that is easy. The onions need to soften in some oil in the pan. They need to be seasoned with lots of freshly ground pepper, but not too much salt. The raw ham is salty and the broth has salt too.

When they are done, add the vinegar, the mustard and the hot broth to the pan. Now pour it over the potatoes and add a bit more oil to them.

Gherkins  and chives are a good company for potatoes in a salad. Get some in.

At first it will look as if the potatoes are drowning in liquid. But stir and let it sit at least 30 to 45 min.

The broth will be soaked up.

Ingredients:

1 kg potatoes, the salad kind

1 onion, 2 green onions

60 g raw Black Forest Ham

5- 7 gherkins

2 tbsp chives

1 tbsp mustard

225 ml beef stock

3 tbsp grapeseed oil

3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper.

 

 

 

Sweet Potato with Tex-Mex Beef Topping

No readymade Tex-Mex seasoning was used.  

I cooked the sweet potato my ususal way, first 5 min in the microwave and then brushed with coconut oil for 20 min at 200 C in the air fryer. But wrap them in foil and put them in the oven if you like.

I bought ground beef yesterday at LIDL. All other ingredients were in stock. LIDL does not have Mexican seasoning in their regular offerings. Sometimes as specials at Mexican week.

But I use the single spices and herbs I have at home. One is cumin and the other is coriander and for heat fresh and dried chilis.

A little salad goes well with a filled sweet potato. This makes it a complete meal in my eyes.

While the sweet potato was doing its thing, I started the ground beef in a dry pan without any oil. There is enough fat in the meat. It took a couple of minutes to brown completely, seasoned with salt, pepper, ground cumin, coriander and smoked paprika.

The onions and garlic went in with the chopped habanero pepper. A bit of sweet corn, cherry tomatoes and red bell pepper came next. It takes a bit until the meat is ready. Check the seasoning and heat and add more chili if you like. The juice of a lime finishes it beautifully.

I've cut the sweet potato in halves and spooned meat mixture on top. Served with some Greek yogurt (10% fat).

The salad was just more red bell pepper, some sweet corn and chicoree.

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes

1 tbsp coconut oil

500 g ground beef

1 yellow onion, 2 green onions, 2 garlic cloves

1 habanero chili

1/4 red bell pepper

1/2 small can drained sweet corn

7 cherry tomatoes

Salt, pepper, ground cumin, coriander, garam masala, smoked paprika

1 lime

Greek yogurt

Pizza Hawaii

Sorry Italians!

Sometimes I need to satisfy a craving. A sweet and salty pizza. But I do not overdo it. Just enough pineapple chunks to have some sweetness.

I defrosted a ball of homemade pizza dough over night on the fridge and later rested it on the counter for 90 minutes to get it back to room temperature and the yeast back on.

Just enough for one serving. Cooked ham, some veggies, Mozzarella and a few pineappke chunks were at home. Time to roll out the dough on some baking paper.

As a pizza sauce I mixed a tsp of red Pesto with 2 tbsp of creme fraiche.

Black pepper and Italian seasoning on top and the pizza was ready to go in the oven at 250 C for 11 min.

Air Fryer Ham wrapped filled Pasta

The filled pasta are Swabian Maultaschen, this time with beef instead of pork. I saw them at the supermarket and had to give them a try.

Wrapping them in raw smoked ham is not the way to prepare them if you want to go pork free. Wrapping a pork filled pasta would have made more sense.

But you know me, always doing things my way. 

I cut the Maultaschen in the middle and wrapped them in one slice of very salty ham. The Air fryer had just enough room for 8 pieces, the two whole ones went in a beef broth to cook

From an other recipe, there was still Hollandaise sauce left in a package. I warmed it in the microwave and served it with the packages.

They were good, but I think the Air fryer is not the right way of preparing the filled pasta. It dries them out too much for my taste.

Pork Schnitzel with Onion Sauce

A long day of driving on the Nordschleife - Green Hell- at the Nuerburgring came to an end.

We started Daylight Saving Time today, that meant 1 hour forward and my alarm clock went off at 5:15 (4:14 winter time). I started my 2 hour trip to the Ring at 6 AM and it was pitch black.

A croissant from a Gas station stop and a hard boiled egg was my breakfast. 

At the Devil's Diner I had some French fries for lunch. 

Now I am sitting at the Restaurant Lindenhof in Nuerburg and enjoy my dinner. Schnitzel with French fries and topped with caramelized onions and a salad.

 

Red Pepper Rice Salad with Pork Belly Asia style

Asia style salads to use up leftover rice are wonderful. Pick and choose the ingredients and the dressing pushes it in right direction.

I had 3 slices of pork belly, about 1 cm in thickness each. I marinated them in some Lee Kum Kee Chinese Red Braising Sauce ( I don't know why it is called red, because it is pitch black). 20 minutes are enough.

I grated half a carrot, chopped a green onion and a very big red bell pepper. The rice needed 2 min in the microwave to get fluffy again. Mix it together and put it in the fridge for 15 min.

The pork belly slices went in the pan with a tablespoon of oil and were cooked on medium heat and often flipped.

The salad dressing:

2 tbsp grapeseed oil

1 tdp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp Tamari

1 tsp agave syrup

Japanese pepper, lemon salt

Asparagus and Bacon Tart

Tarte Asperge et Bacon á l'Huile.

I used a recipe from one of my many Goumand magazine issues as the reference. But made it my own version.

The dough is special. I've never used that much olive oil in one. It came out of the Thermomix as a very crumbly mass. But a little floured surface and a bit of kneading made it in a easy to roll out dough. 

It was rolled out directly on the buttered baking dish. No baking paper added. It worked fine. The dish went in the fridge for 30 min then.

The green asparagus ends were cut off and it went in the steamer for 13 min and rested for 5 min in it.

I did not use bacon but Italian raw ham. A much tastier choice.

The cream on top was easy to prepare, just eggs, skyr, creme fraiche, Emmenthal cheese and seasoning, lots of seasoning.

Preheat the oven 180 C. Bake the tart for 30 min.

Dough:

250 g flour

1 tsp salt diluted in 120 ml cold water

4 tbsp good quality olive oil

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

Additional flour for work surface

Butter for the baking dish

Topping:

400 g green asparagus, ends cut off

100 g raw Italian ham

3 eggs

100 g Skyr

200 g creme fraiche

Piment d'Espelette

Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, dried chives