Maultaschen or Swabian filled Pasta

I have not filled Maultaschen in a long time. 

At supermarket KAUFLAND I discovered a roll of Maultaschen pasta dough. Not a producer name that was known to me. A small Swabian factory, I googled later.

The dough has to be very thin, but with good structure.

Usually the pasta is filled with pork, but I wanted some beef in mine.

I had a Bok choy in my veggie drawer of my fridge and it needed to go. But use spinach as everyone else. A carrot to bulk it out and a bunch of spring onions and 3 garlic cloves.

I blanched the bok choy in salted water and used the same water to cook the carrot. Drained of excess water these went in my mini chopper together with the onions and garlic.

The soaked bread (1 croissant 1 slice of baguette) were squeezed and chopped too.

Everything needs to be smooth to go in the pasta. I put in the beef, 1 egg and some breadcrumbs to soak up a bit too much moisture. 

Season it with salt, pepper, herbes de Provence, Piment d'Espelette, Piri Piri seasoning.  When you think you've put enough seasoning in, just add 1/3 more of everything :-)

Unroll the pastry sheet and with two tablespoons layer 2 inch wide 1/2 inch high sausage of the meatfilling on it. Brush the one side with water and fold it over and press down.

Use a pizza cutter to cut parcels. The industrial made ones are closed on all sides, the homemade ones are not. Store them on a plate sprinkled with semolina. Use more semolina when you put more pasta on top of each other.

Use a wide pan with salted water and carefully put some Maultaschen in. Do not overlap. If they stick to the bottom of the pan, scrape them loose. After 8 min, they are done. Store them on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.

I ate mine with some Sriracha Mayo.

Ingredients:

1 roll Maultaschen pasta dough

500 g lean ground beef

1 egg

1 croissant, 1 slice of baguette soaked in water

3 spring onions

3 cloves of garlic

1 bok choy

1 carrot

4 tbsp breadcrumbs

Salt, pepper, herbes de Provence, piment d'Espelette, Piri Piri

Bacon Spinach and Egg Puff Pastry

The eggs are scrambled and there is cheese scattered on top of the eggs.

This is more a brunch pastry or light lunch version. But who does not like a good amount of fluffy eggs?

Cleaning out my freezer and fridge slowly shows me a lot of half empty packages. One was frozen spinach. The bulky cardboard box needed a lot of space. I took it out in the morning and tossed it a microwavable container to start to defrost on its own. It just needed 3 minutes later to be ready to squeeze the water out.

The scrambled eggs needed to be soft and not too much cooked. I used some potato starch and milk and beat the eggs in with seasoning. In a pan with foaming butter and swiftly scrambled to a soft consistency. Out of the pan on to a plate to cool down.

Chop a green onion and open a package of thin bacon strips. Put that in a little oil in the cleaned pan where you made the eggs in. They need a couple of minutes, season and add the spinach. Pull it apart and cook for 5 min. Do not forget the nutmeg. Set aside to cool down completely. 

Unroll the puff pastry on the baking sheet and cut the sides in wide strips. Layer spinach mix first, then eggs on top. Next Parmesan strips and last fresh parsley.

Ground pepper on top all over and fold the strips of the puff pastry over to close it. Brush with creme fraiche and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake at 200 C fan for 25 min.

Ingredients:

1 rectangular puff pastry

300 g defrosted spinach

1 green onion

75 g bacon strips

1 tbsp oil

4 eggs

1/2 tsp potato starch

30 ml milk

Dried chives

2 tbsp butter

Parmesan slithers

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

2 tbsp creme fraiche

Sesame seeds

Thuringa Sausages with short Pasta

I am a fan of the Thuringa Bratwurst. A raw sausage that gets its brown color from a good pan or grill.

The sausage meat has a seasoning that makes it special. It works well as part of a sauce or stew when you take the casing away and rip the meat in pieces. Better than ground pork from a package.

I wanted an easy meatsauce with short Rigatoni pasta. Something that clings to the pasta, not runs over your plate.

I had a head of chicory and some cherry tomatoes to get rid off, so they went in together with onion and garlic. A bit of cream needed to go and some veg stock. A good dish to prevent food waste.

Ingredients:

250 g short Rigatoni pasta

2 Thuringa sausages

2 tbsp oil

1 red onion

4 garlic cloves

1 chicory

100 g cherry tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato paste

Pasta water

100 ml double cream

Salt, pepper, Italian herbs, smoked paprika

Start the Rigatoni.

Brown the ripped sausages and add onion and garlic. Season and add tomato paste.

Next add some pasta water and the chopped tomatoes. Cook for 3 min and add the chicory.  Next the double cream and more pasta water.

Add the drained pasta and serve with some cheese.

 

Bulalo Beef Shank Soup Filipino style

A Winter comfort soup from South East Asia? Winter? Well, the Philippines have some Mountains and rainy season. Comfort is what people need to feel good.

This is a nose to tail recipe. It uses mostly marrow bones and beef shank. But only marrow bones would do the trick too. 

I bought 2 beef shanks this week and wanted a slow braised sauce heavy dish. But then I stumbled over this dish on Pinterest. I went out today to get me some marrow bones from the butcher as well as fresh corn on the cobb (in Winter?) and Bok Choy.

For a very clear broth I put bones and beef in enough water to cover it and let it come up to a boil. After 5 minutes I had a thick protein foam on top. Usually I use a slotted spoon to take some foam off. But that much, no way. I poured everything in a colander and washed the bones and meat and cleaned the pot from all the scum. In the end that made a super clear stock.

The clean stuff went back in the pot and I used 1 carrot, 1 piece of celeriac and 10 cm of leek, some fish sauce, lots of black pepper and 4 bay leaves. Enough water to cover everything. My pot was a pressure cooker and I closed the lid thight and let it come up to boil until the marker came up. Then reduced the heat and cooked the soup for 45 minutes. 

Steamed off and I took out the meat from the beef shanks. It fell off the bone and was easy to shred. The veggies were discarded. Checking for seasoning with more fishsauce and black pepper.

Pieces of corn, sliced bok choy and spring onions went in and cooked open for 15 min. During this time I prepared the Basmati and a fried egg. Rice and egg are eaten with the soup. I scraped some bone marrow out of the bone on my plate.

Recipe for 4:

2 large beef shanks

4 marrow bones

1/4 cup fishsauce

Lots of fresh ground black pepper

4 bay leaves

1 carrot, piece of celeriac, bit of leek

4 spring onions

1 large bok choy

1 corn on the cobb

Basmati rice 

4 Fried eggs

Gingerbread Muffins

My BFF baked them for me.

The traditional Christmas flavours are not so dominant in these muffins. They are more nutty than christmassy.

They are easy to bake and are a nice gift in the cold January. But if you like the flavour more intense, add a third more  of the spices.

Recipe for 12:

80 g walnuts

2 eggs medium size

80 ml neutral oil

150 g brown sugar

200 g yogurt 3,5 %

150 g AP flour

100 g ground hazelnuts

2 1/2 tsp gingerbread seasoning

2 tsp baking powder

Topping:

12 chocolate covered almonds

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Chop the walnuts roughly. Mix eggs, oil, sugar and yogurt. In a second bowl mix the other dry ingredients, except the walnuts.

Pour the egg mix over and stir well. Add half of the walnuts and fill the paper cups. Put the other half of the walnuts on top.

Bake for 25 min and when the muffins have cooled down, stick the almonds in.

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Chicken Thighs and Spring Onions Korean style

This is a recipe from Aaron&Claire on YT. A 15 minute meal.

But only as long as you can get boneless and skinless chicken thigh meat. Otherwise the preptime is a bit longer. But on the upper side, you get enough cast offs to cook a great chicken stock for a future dish.

Don't throw away the raw bones and skin and fat pieces. Just grab some veggie and pour in water and cook for 1 hour. Pour it through a sieve and put in a Mason jar and stick that in the fridge.

Marinate the chicken chunks:

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp Mirin

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp cornstarch

Fresh ground pepper.

Just stir it well with the chicken and set aside for 30 minutes. 

Now start the rice first. Everything else will be done fast.

Ingredients:

4 spring onions

400 g chicken thighs

1 tbsp olive oil

Pickled ginger

Lemon juice

Sesame seeds

Cut the spring onions in 2 inch pieces. Heat up the oil in a wok and cook the onions until they have a brown touch. Get them out.

Add a little more oil and place the chicken in. Color on both sides until the meat is cooked theough. Add the onions back and toss through.

Serve on rice with ginger and lemon wedges and sesame seeds.

 

Borlotti Beans in Tomato Sauce with Pasta

Poor peoples food from Italy.

But I cheated and added some smoked sausages to the sauce.

These beans are creamy and nutty tasting and go very well with tomato sauce. Serving it as a Primo with Medio Rigatoni al bronzo.

But a tomato sauce based dish without a couple of veggies in is not the Italian way. You have a garden or a market somewhere in town, veggies are easy to bulk out any meal.

Recipe for 3:

1 can Borlotti beans

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 tsp vegetable stock paste

175 g smoked sausages

2 tbsp olive oil

50 g leek

50 g celery

2 green onions

3 garlic cloves

6 tiny red chili

2 stalks of majoram

Salt and pepper and smoked paprika

Grated Parmesan so much as you like

Chop all the veggies and drain the can of Borlotti beans.

Heat up the oil and sautee the veggies for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sausage chunks and cook them for 3 more minutes. Chilis and majoram in.

Then in with the crushed tomatoes. Pour some water in the can to clean it and add it to the pot as well.

Veggie stock paste helps with the taste, as does the smoked paprika. Let that cook for 10 minutes or until the veggies are soft. The Borlotti beans only need to heat through in the sauce.

Finish the dish with a good helping of Parmesan and eat it with short pasta or Italian bread.