Leek and Potato Soup with Mett "raw pork"

Mett, the famous seasoned raw pork eaten on a bread roll with raw onions on top is the horror szenario for most foreigners visiting Germany. But for us it is so common, that nobody thinks about it. When it is daily freshly made and sold at butcher shops, nibidy gets sick from it, when eaten the same day.

But it is seasoned pork meat and can also used for cooking. It is like the meat you get out of fresh uncooked bratwursts. Sausage meat works fine here too. 

A big leek, some shallots and potatoes are the vegetable part of the soup. But first the pork needs to get a good color in some oil in the pot.

Cut up the leek and give it a good wash. Mine held a lot of earth in it. Peel the potatoes and cut them in very fine slices 1,5 mm. That gives a special texture to the half rings leek. The shallots are just cut in blocks. 

A variety of shapes is not only good for the eye, the changes in texture give a good mouthfeel.

Season it with salt, pepper, nutmeg, fresh oregano and a bay leaf.

Add beef stock to cover everything and let it cook 15 minutes. Add the velveta cheese to make it creamy and check the seasining again.

Ingredients:

200 g sausage meat or mett

2 tbsp oil

3 shallots

1 leek

700 ml beef stock

3 small potatoes

1 bay leaf, 3 oregano stalks

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

3 tbsp velveeta cheese

Piede at Schleiz Grill

On my way to an other trackday I made my way up to Schleiz. Well known for the Schleizer Dreieck or Triangle. A racetrack that includes two public roads leaving the city. They are barried off on the weekend so we can include them in the racetrack and drive on them.

The city of Schleiz is not that big but has a couple of eat in or take out places to go to. I had checked them out on google before I decided which one to choose for my lunch break.

The Schleiz Grill is a Kebap House which sells Pizza together with all the well known Turkish dishes.

I've ordered a Piede with döner meat and an egg on tomato sauce. The dough was cery good and a bit breadlike. The topping was well seasoned, but the meat was charred in some parts. Well, it was first cooked on the rotating grill and then baked on top of the piede.

Thon à la Basquaise

Or Tuna steak on tasty sauce.

A recipe from the French Nouvelle-Aquitaine or the French part of the Basque country. The shared history with its Spanish bretheren.

I was there a couple of years ago on a food trip and visited both parts.

Fresh tuna was no where in sight and I had to opt for frozen tuna steaks. But they are not so easy to come by either. Luckily we have a supercenter REWE and they had it in stock.

This kind of sauce reminds me of the one I served with meatballs not very long ago. Blog is live on the 28th of August.

In the future I will exchange this kind of sauce with the typical tomato ones. This is more fragrant, fruity and richer. 

Recipe for 2 :

2 tuna steaks defrosted

1/4 cup Polenta semolina

2 red onions

3 garlic cloves

1 jar of roasted red peppers

10 cherry tomatoes

200 ml tomato passata

50 ml Noilly Prat

Olive oil

1 tbsp piment d'Espelette

Smoked paprika

Thyme, salt and pepper

Peel onions and garlic and chop. Cut the cherry tomatoes once or twice depending on their size. Take the smoked paprika out of the jar and drain them, chop.

In a wide pan heat up some olive oil and start the onions. After 4 min, add garlic, tomatoes and peppers. Cook 3 min. Season with thyme, salt and pepper.

Next comes the tomato passata and the Noilly Prat. Add Piment d'Espelette and smoked paprika.

Coat the dried tuna steaks with salt and pepper and polenta flour. Bake them in olive oil on both sides 3 min each. 

Serve with rice or baguette

 

Pimp my ShinRamyun

A day with only a little time to cook. What is in stock that does not need a lot of time to prepare.

I've bought some Instant Noodles a while ago and they made my lunch today. But eating them as they come in the package is a no go for me.

There are many ways to pimp these basic noodles. The internet is full of them. I decided on adding an egg, Kewpie, green onion, sesame seeds, soy sauce.

All of that mixed in a bigger bowl and the broth with the instant noodles and seasoning packs poured over it. Cheese helps with everything, especially with the heat of the instant sauce. The finishing touch were 3 slices of American sandwich cheese that were sitting in my fridge for ages, best by ...  long gone - but still the same as 6 month ago. These are so full of everything but cheese, they last for ever. 

A nice quick lunch that can be enjoyed once in a couple of month.

Ingredients:

1 ShinRamyun spicy noodles

1 egg

2 tbsp Kewie

1 green onion

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame seeds

3 slices American cheese

Syrniki with Twarog

The Polish curd is special. It is very dry and easy to mix with either sweet or savoury ingredients.

I wanted some pancakes today. The recipe is from"Kochbar.de"

This recipe does not contain a lot of flour or sugar. The main taste is the twarog (curd). It is a very sticky dough and you need to flour your hands, the scale and the plate you rest them on.

The dough should rest about 30 min, them form 40 g  or 1,4 oz balls. Press them lightly in the flour on both sides to flatten them.

Use Ghee or clarified butter to bake them on medium heat about 3 min on each side. Serve warm with berry compote.

Ingredients:

230 g Twarog

1 medium egg

1 1/2 tbsp flour and 40 g for later

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

1 tbsp sugar

Pinch of salt

Ghee or clarified butter for the pan

Fruit compote

Cowboy Spaghetti

This is American comfort food. But I have no idea why a Cowboy is in the name.

The recipe is from "kitchen fun with my 3 sons"

It is a meatsauce with additional bacon, veggies and cheddar. Stir in the spaghetti and you can feed a whole family without much fuss. Just double or triple the ingredients and it works.

The double was the original recipe size.

Start with the bacon in the pan, when crispy take it out. If there is enough bacon grease in the pan, brown the ground meat next. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the spaghetti.

Use a paper towel to get too much fat out of the pan. Next in with onions and garlic. Give them a headstart before you add the chicken stock and the can of crushed tomatoes. Add some fresh ones too.

Season with Worchester Sauce and Tabasco and smoked paprika.

Grate the cheddar and toss it together with the spaghetti in the pan. Serve hot.

Ingredients:

50 g bacon

250 g ground pork/beef

300 g spaghetti

1 yellow onion

3 garlic cloves

8 cherry tomatoes

1 can crushed tomatoes

150 ml chicken stock

100 g Cheddar

3 tbsp Worchester sauce

Tabasco

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika

Sweet Potato Banana Brownies GF

The recipe was from "Chef Bodquet". He baked them as donuts in a special baking dish. 

I did not trust the stability and used my Whoopie Pie baking dish. A very good desicion. Many gluten free bakes are soft and crumbly, the structural integrety of glutenous flour is definitely missing.

That does not mean that the brownies are bad. They are moist and not too sweet and very chocolaty.

I used high quality Red Cameroon Cocoa and a bit more than in the recipe. That makes a very rich flavoured brownie.

Ingredients:

250 g of oven baked sweet potato, cooled

1 large ripe banana

2 large eggs

40 g red cameroon cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

Finish:

100 g milk chocolate + 1/4 tsp coconut oil

Start the day with preheating your oven to 190 C fan.

Oil the washed sweet potatoes and bake them for 40 min. Check if they are fork tender.

Peel the banana and add that to the peeled sweet potato. Crack two eggs and sieve the cocoa in and add baking powder

I used a potato masher to get it done. Spray the baking dish with oil and fill in the batter.

Bake for 25 to 30 min. Cool down and get them out of the molds. Melt chocolate with coconut oil in the microwave in 30 sec blasts

Set the base of the brownie in the chocolate.