Roulés croustillants

They should have been cut in slices and baked as singles, but that would have ment 30 minutes cooling time in the fridge.

I used the more foolproof method and skipped that step.

This is one recipe of my newest Gourmand magazine issue - a meatless kind.

That does not mean that it lacks in taste. I bought a pretty expensive Swiss mountain cheese for it and grated it. Smelled wonderful.

Chopped sundried tomatoes in oil mixed with cheese, green pesto, smoked paprika, Piment d'Espelette, salt and pepper were the filling.

Spread out round puff pastry smeared with the mix and rolled up. I brushed it with egg yolk and sprinkled sesame seeds on top and some green paprika powder.

Easy method to skip cooling: cut 2 inch parts without cutting through the bottom.

Bake it at 200 C for 18 to 20 min. Soak up some pesto oil with a paper towel when it comes out of the oven. 

Cut finally through the bottom an serve. But if you have enough time, cut discs and brush them with egg yolk and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

1 round puff pastry

100 g Swiss alpine cheese, grated

3 tbsp green pesto

8 sundried tomatoes in oil

Smoked paparika, Piment d'Espelette, salt and pepper

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Green paprika powder

 

Banana Chocolate Pound Cake

What to do with 4 travel tired brown bananas? Carring them in a car in a bag on a long trip does not do any good to them. A bit bruised, they needed to go today.

First thought was my regular banana bread. But there are 5 different recipes here on the blog already. Time for something new.

This is an easy Thermomix recipe. Chuck the ingredients step by step in, mix in between and in a very short time you have a nice gloopy batter.

Butter and flour a ringform or poundcake form and fill it in. The moment before it went in the oven, I remembered an opened little package of chocolate chips. Sprinkled on top and the cake went in the oven.

Preheat the oven 175 C.

Ingredients:

250 g soft unsalted butter

4 eggs

240 g sugar

Pinch of salt

4 bananas ripe

2 tsp vanilla sugar

3 tbsp rich cacao (I used Red Cameroon Cocoa)

200 g AP flour

100 g cornstarch 

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

20 g chocolate chips

Chuck butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and eggs in the Thermomix. On speed 4-5 for 3 minutes.

 

Add broken up bananas, speed 5 for 1 minute.

Add all the other dry ingredients and again with the help of the spatel give it 1 minute.

Check for flour pockets and stir by hand to be sure. Pour in the baking dish and scatter the chocolate chips on top.

Bake for 50 minutes. Dust with icing sugar when cold.

Sweet Corn Cream Sauce with Chorizo on Pasta

After a long drive you need some comfort food. Pasta is one of them.

A sauce is always the star of any pasta dish. Since I was not out getting groceries on my way home, i checked for staples. A medium can of sweet corn is a basic ingredient. Combining that with onion and garlic is a good start in the right direction. 

For seasoning I used "Balkans" favourite: VEGETA and lots of fresh ground pepper. The creamyness came from pasta water, a stick blender and a good helping of creme fraiche.

The short pasta was folded in and fresh chives for some green deco.

A while ago I bought a mild Chorizo sausage. That is a keeper for month in the fridge. I cut off a couple of slices and they went in a dry pan to crisp up and loose some bright red fat. They were the topping on the pasta.

Ingredients:

200 g short pasta

200 g can sweet corn, drained

1 tbsp butter

1 medium yellow onion

3 garlic cloves

2 tsp Vegeta

Pepper

4 tbsp creme fraiche

Chives

80 g mild chorizo

Apricot Compot with Semolina Porridge

Buying great looking apricots does not protect you from disapointment. They were sour and hard. 

But I was leaving for a trip the next day and I did not want to throw them in the organic waste. Fruits that are unripe and hard can be transformed when they are cooked and made in a compot.

I used apple juice and vanilla sugar and cut the apricots in bite size chunks. They needed more than 10 minutes to soften. 

A semolina pudding or porridge goes well with all kinds of stewed fruits. That was the solution to my food problem.

Recipe for 2:

500 ml whole milk

1 tsp butter

6 tbsp soft wheat semolina

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1/2 lemon zest and juice 

COMPOT:

6 apricots

2 tbsp vanilla sugar

200 ml apple juice

Destone the apricots and cook the fruits first. They should cool down.

Heat up the milk with butter, salt and sugar to a boil, whisk in the semolina and continue whisking until the porridge thickened. Reduce the heat while it boils.

Take the pot of the heat and break an egg in and whisk. Then add zest and juice from the lemon. Stir in the apricots.

Paysanne Pizza meets Flammkuchen

Food served at a racetrack can be a challenge sometimes. But I am in France in Alsace and they are known for good food.

A long morning of driving fast in circles makes hungry and pizza sounded good to me. I was here on this track last year and still remember the good quality pizza I ate then.

A bacon and onion topping on a pizza is here called "farmer's wife" style pizza.  But these ingredients can be found on most Flammkuche in the Alsace region.

The bottom of the pizza was very thin and crispy like the Flammkuchen.

But it was a tomato sauce base with the toppings and some additional cheese on top.

The Flammkuchen comes with a white creme fraiche base and no cheese on top.

All things considered I will call it a Pizza.

Yogurt Peach Cake with Coffee

After a 285 km drive South I needed a time to breeth and relax. A cup of coffee and a slice of some cake helps.

I needed to get groceries for my stay at an AirB&B and the supermarket came with a bakery up front.

It was pretty busy, because the next day was a church holiday. Many people bought cakes anf bread.

It took a while to get my coffee. But that gave me enough time to decide what kind of cake I wanted.

A light yohurt mousse on a thin chocolate spongecake base with peach slices. 

Lemon flavoured Milk Ice Cream

I was not so sure what to expect when I took the KOMET dessert package out of storage. 

The picture on the front showed a lovely cup of ice crem scoops and a dessert bowl. The powder package was good for two versions.

But I wanted ice cream.

The preparation was pretty easy. Just mix 250 ml of fridge cold whole milk with the powder for 3 minutes on high speed and you get a foamy and creamy bright yellow dessert.

I filled it in two containers to freeze it for 4 hours minimum.

The remaining cream I licked out of the bowl. Good as a mousse too.