Potato Omelet with Manchego Cheese

LIDL had Spanish week. That's why I used Manchego cheese for this dish.

Potatoes, onions and eggs sounds like something you will find in Spain. But I added some carrot for color and precooked the veggies for 7 minutes.

A large pan with a good amount of olive oil was preheated. The drained veggies went in to get cooked.

I seasoned with Spanish hot smoked paprika, green paprika powder, salt and pepper and garlic powder.

Then I beat 3 eggs and seasoned them with salt, they went over everything to bind the omelet.

I topped it with a handfull of grated Manchego cheese and put a lid on to melt it.

Ingredients for 2:

6 small potatoes

2 spring onions

1 carrot

4 tbsp olive oil

3 eggs

50 g Manchego cheese

Salt, pepper, hot smoked paprika, green paprika, garlic powder

 

Spanish Seafood Restaurant visit

My friend invited me to her Birthday dinner and I had to choose the place.  The Spanish restaurant with a good fish selection was the best choice.

She has a lot of allergy problems and the newest one is with gluten. Fish seamed like a save choice.

She decided that we have a mixed seafood platter as a starter. I've warned her that the portion sizes were big.

It was very good.

Our entrees then came and I felt full the moment I saw them. Awesome fried fish and seafood and a salad or French fries on the side.

Both of us took a large container of fish home with us to enjoy the next day for lunch.

I had a Crema Catalan for dessert. Since she couldn't choose any of the three desserts offered, they brought her a plate of melon.

Great service and the restaurant was packed on a Tuesday night.

 

 

Linguine with hot creamy sauce

All vegetarian. Just some cream cheese for the final touch and to help with the heat. Short before an other trip to the Nuerburgring, I wanted to get rid of some veggies and an open case of cream cheese.

Beside the tomatoes was sitting the Suriname sauce bottle and I thought why not. Give this veggie mix a touch of South America.

The heat comes from a plastic bottle of Surinam Roti Chutney sauce. Hot with a hint of cumin and curry.

When the veggies are soft, use a stick blender to blend in a rough paste.

Two heaped tablespoons of cream cheese were added at last and then the linguine with pasta water went directly from one pot in the other.  

Chopped Grana Padano cheese was the finish.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 long red pepper

2 mini orange peppers

2 green onions

2 garlic cloves

8 cherry tomatoes

3 tbsp Surinam roti chutney sauce

Cream cheese

Salt and pepper

90 g Linguine

Leek and Guanciale Soup

Leek is such a basic vegetable and totally underrated. A place to shine in is a soup.

When you don't have bacon, the solution is Guanciale. A block of it lasts a long time in the fridge. Cutting down some slices and many dishes are getting an upgrade.

The cooking process is easy when all the chopping is done.

Put the guanciale in the cold pot and start the heat at medium high. Let it render out the fat

Add leek, onion and garlic to saute a couple of minutes. Chickenstock next to cook for 15 minutes. Season with pepper and a little salt.

In the meantime cut up some toast in cubes and in a little butter and oil brown it.

Ingredients:

60 g Guanciale

White part of 1 leek

1 green onion

2 garlic cloves

400 ml chickenstock

Salt and pepper

2 slices of toast

1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp oil

Green Curry Banana Soup - vegan

I stumbled over the recipe page of Chiquita.

Two leftover bananas from the last trip needed to go. I wasn't looking for something sweet.

The recipe I found was a bit too basic for me. It was advertised as vegan. But vegan does not mean less taste. So I added and changed a couple of things and used the recipe as an idea.

I made a soup base with green curry paste, ginger and garlic paste anf 1 carrot and 2 green onions. That was sauteed in oil.

Coconut milk and veg stock went in next to cook the veggies. I seasoned with salt and pepper.

The bananas were sliced and in softened in oil in a pan. I used some pink curry powder for color and flavour.

When the veggies were soft, I added 1/3 of the bananas to the soup and checked for spiced. If if still a bit too hot, just add a drop of rice syrup or agave syrup.

I put the soup on deep plates, some sliced baked bananas on top. Finished with pistacchios and red pepper balls and chives. I've kept it vegan!

Ingredients:

3 tsp green curry paste

3 tsp garlic ginger paste

2 tbsp neutral oil

400 ml creamy coconut milk

200 ml vegetable stock from paste

1 large carrot

1 green onion

Salt and pepper

2 bananas, sliced

1 tbsp oil

1/4 tsp pink curry powder

35 g pistacchios

2 tsp red pepper balls

Chives

 

 

Eggs in Horseradish Sauce

I haven't eaten that dish in many years. 

The surprise I had was a horseradish root that I found at the supermarket. It was the first time that I grated horseradish myself.

I remember well that my Mom mostly used jared horseradish, because with fresh horseradish the fumes went up her nose. When we had the root, my Dad was the one who had to grate it.

The fumes went up my nose too and cleared my sinuses.

The base of this sauce is a roux. When the base is done, add as much freshly grated horseradish until the punch hits you. Adding some jared one helped too.

Do not forget a little sugar and lemon juice to get a good flavour.

The boiled eggs went in to reheat and the sauce was served with potatoes and some chives

Ingredients:

6 hard boiled eggs

40 g butter

40 g flour

300 ml whole milk

50 g creme fraiche

50 ml Noilly Prat

6 cm grated horseradish root

2 tbsp from a jar

1/2 lemon juiced

1 tsp sugar

Salt, pepper

Chives

Potatoes

Boulettes sauce Piquillos

You can call it Meatballs in roasted canned red pepper sauce. It is a recipe from the region of Nouvelle Aquitaine, in the South West of France.

My BFF was on holiday in Alsace and she knows very well that I love cooking magazines. This "Petit Plats" is only found at Leclerc supermarkets, where I have not one near me.

The sauce piquillos is a very intense sauce. Roasted red peppers from the area are canned. I used a Turkish variety that comes close to it. Added to the peppers is soy sauce, rice vinegar and cornstarch. Then blended.

For the meatballs red onions are chopped and then sauteed in a little oil until soft. Transfered from the pan to a bowl to cool down.

Then the meatballs are made. Add ground beef to the cold onions, egg, breadcrumbs, fresh grated ginger and seasoning.

They go in a little oil in the pan where the onions were and are browned up to 7 min depending on size. Then get some of the fat out of the pan with kitchen paper and add the sauce. It needs to cover the meatballs and cook through so that the starch can bind the sauce.

Serve them over rice or with Baguette.

Ingredients:

500 g ground beef

2 red onions

1 tsp grated ginger

50 g breadcrumbs

1 egg

1 tsp dried chives, meatloaf seasoning, pepper, salt

1 tbsp oil

Sauce:

400 g/350 g jar of roasted red peppers

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

15 g cornstarch