Japanese Crab Spaghetti Sauce

Served with Spaghetti.

For nearly 12 years I ordered my Japanese shortgrain rice in a Japan shop in Hamburg. Always getting additional stuff at the same time. I ran out of rice and wanted to order a new 5 kg / 11pound bag. But the shop did no longer exist.

I needed a new onlineshop. In Germany the largest Japanese comunity can be found in Düsseldorf. Little Tokyo has lots of shops and restaurants. I found a new shop there.

But only ordering rice is boring. I had to scroll through the complete onlineshop and found more things. A 10 kg package came yesterday. Two kinds of Spaghetti Sauce came, one with crab and the other with mentaiko or cod fisheggs.

The squischy bag contained a liquid. But there were no chunks to feel. I bought some Surimi or false crabmeat to bulk out the sauce and used a small green onion too. Both sauteed in a little oil and the microwaved sauce went on top. That was a tasty spaghetti dish. Just some parsley for color.

Valentine Hearts savoury

Puff Pastry is so versatile. Why not bake some hearts.

The idea for it I found at "s-küche", but changed it to my own preferences.

Most would fill these hearts with a sweet jam or pudding, but savoury works fine too. At the Eastern European supermarket I bought a jar of mild Ayvar that had a very thick consistency. 

That is needed to prevent the hearts from being too soggy. And the flavour of the aubergine tomato sauce was very intense.

On top went freshly toasted pine nuts that were crushed in a pestel and mortar then. A good amount of fresh chopped herbs and grated Parmesan and fresh ground pepper.

The ayvar is spread on the puff pastry, then pine nuts, herbs and cheese and pepper went on top. Rolled up from both sides to the middle and wrapped in the baking sheet to spend 45 min in the fridge to get firm again.

Cut in 3,5 cm pieces and spaced on baking paper. Use a chopstick and pull the underside out and pinch it together. Try to seperate the tops of the hearts a little.

Bake at 200 C fan for 15 min.

Ingredients:

1 roll of butter puff pastry rectangular

Jar of mild Ayvar - about half of it

35 g pine nuts

50 g Parmesan

6 tbsp dill, basil 

Black pepper

Potato Bake with Leftovers

An oven dish is a nice way to get rid of bits and bobs from your fridge.

I cooked a pot of potatoes yesterday and they stayed in the fridge over night. I had some meatloaf left, a bit of leek and a package of thin sliced bacon.

Since I am watching the Asian Le Mans Series during lunchtime, I wanted something quick to prepare and just stuff in the oven.

In a pan the leek, onions, bacon and meatloaf went in. After 5 min it was done. The potatoes were sliced and dumped in the dish. Both combined. 

The only two things missing were a sauce and cheeses.

The dish went in the oven at 180 C fan for 30 min

Ingredients:

Oil

500 g cooked cold peeled potatoes

1 red onion, 2 spring onions

75 g thin bacon bits

50 g leek

100 g baked cold meatloaf

Sauce:

200 g double cream

100 ml milk

3 tsp mustard with veggies

1 egg

Pepper

25 g Grana Padani chips

Topping:

50 g grated Mozzarella

Berliner or Donut savoury filled.

Berliner or Pfannkuchen are not the name of this deep fried goodness here in Hesse, we call them Krebbel.

Now the time is the high time of these things. You will get them with the craziest sweet fillings until the start of lent on Ash Wednesday.

Nutella, Vanilla, Bailys Cream or Pistacchios are the runnners at all the bakeries.

But I well remember sometimes a single one was filled with mustard. A nasty surprise when all friends tuck in in a moutain of Berliners.

But now it got out of hand. Some bakeries started to sell the sugar covered Berliners with raw pork with raw onions, curry sausage, döner meat and strong cheese creams like Obatzta.

I bought an unfilled sugary goodness this morning and headed to the butcher to buy raw but seasoned ground pork (Mett). A German breakfast favourite.

Red onion slices and pork on a sweet pastry - not such a bad idea. The combination was strange the first bite, but then the brain worked it out positiv.

But the sweet filled Berliners or Krebbel will be my go to still. This one was filled with Mocca cream.

Quail Eggs Korean style on Rice

An other way to eat eggs for breakfast. 

I did a more intense way of this dish a while ago. But this is a quick way to have a tasty topping for a bowl of shortgrain rice in the morning.

The eggs do not sit too long in the sauce and the sauce has no heat or garlic in it. A more European way to start the day.

The first thing to do is always to cook the tiny eggs. That will be done in 3 minutes. Then crack the shell a bit and store them in cold water. That makes the process of peeling them a little better. But it is still fiddely.

The sauce contains soy sauce, mirin, toasted sesame oil, dark vinegar and a little sugar. Also some water to tone down the intensity.

A green onion, some red bell pepper and some parsley and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Nothing too Korean. But add garlic and Gochugaru and you get the right Asian taste.

Ingredients for 2:

14 quail eggs

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp Mirin

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 green onion

1/2 red bell pepper

Parsley

Sesame seeds

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