Halloween Steak Butter Spider

I purchased a silicon mold in a Salzburg supermarket. They had a "scary" Halloween table set.

 

Nice spiders to serve some cold butter in.

I decided to prepare a flavoured butter and added black sesame seeds for look and taste. Spices, yuzu peel and dark brown glitter.

I only softened 60 g of the butter and tossed the other 40 g in cold. That made it easier to mix and the consistency stayed like creamy butter.

The filled molds are sitting in the fridge over night to get the butter firm again. Now ready for some steaks. 

Ingredients:

100 g unsalted butter

2 tsp black sesame seeds

Salt, pepper, green paprika powder, yuzu peel, Café de Paris seasoning

Glitter

Tarte Tatin aux Oignons de Roscoff

Our supermarket had a treat: French pink onions from Roscoff in Brittany, Departement Finistére.

They were big and braided, but not cheap. But I was in Brittany and stood in fields were they grew.

The upside down onion tart is one of the most well known recipes. I did a smaller version.

Recipe for 2:

3 big onions and if there is 1 not so good one, peel back the bad layers and use up the inner parts to close the gaps

Some twigs fresh tyme

20 g butter

2 tsp muscovado sugar

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp water

Salt and pepper

1 round butter puff pastry

Goat cream cheese topping

Cut through the middle of the onions and make sure they stay whole. Melt the butter in an oven proof pan and set the onions cut side down. 

 

Cook for 5 min on medium heat, then add thyme. Dissolve the sugar in vinegar and pour that over the onions. After 2 min add the water. 

Preheat the oven 200 C fan.

Close the lid, reduce the heat to medium and cook 25 min. Cover with puff pastry and tuck the edges in. Bake for 25 min

Turn over immediately on a plate. Eat hot or warm with a topping of Goat cheese.

 

Chicken Udon Soup Japanese style

This is s recipe from

YT Aaron&Claire. Very fast and very tasty.

On a stormy and rainy Sunday a pot of soup is comfort food. While I was busy baking my Halloween cookies, I wanted something quick.

4 chicken thighs were in my fridge. I cut out the bone and some of the fat and tossed it together with some veggies in a pot and cooked chicken broth. Waste not!

Recipe for 2:

4 boneless chicken thighs

2 packs of soft Udon

4 large green onions

1 tsp grapeseed oil

2 tbsp Sake

2 tbsp Mirin

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 sachet Hondashi powder

500 ml chicken broth - fresh or stock powder

Salt, pepper, shimishi togarashi

The large green onions are seperated in 1 inch white parts for cooking and chopped green parts for later garnish. The chicken thighs are cut in bigger size chunks. In a wok heat up a little oil and place the chicken skinside down. Let it sit for 4 min to get some color, then flip.

Add the chunky white parts of the onions. Cook for 3 min. Now in with the chicken stock and all the condiments and the Dashi powder. 

Check for salt and add some pepper. Cook for 5 min. In this time cook the Udon. They are ready in 2 to 3 minutes. Place them in a bowl and pour chicken soup over them. Finish with a generous helping of chopped green onions.

Halloween Butter Tonka Cookies

It's the season to be haunted.

I bought some cookie cutters on Amazon and was surprised how good they were. No flimsy plastic, but sturdy metal.

I used my usual butter cookie recipe, but exchanged the vanilla for grated tonka bean. Now the cookie taste in between vanilla and almond flavour.

It works best with fridge cold butter and the dough should sit in the cold for a while. Off cuts until further use should go back in the fridge. That prevents that the cookies spread out while baking.

Recipe:

250 g AP flour

125 g cold butter

90 g sugar

Pinch of salt

1/4  grated tonka bean

1 medium egg

Cut the butter in slices. I've used my Thermomix for the dough. Toss everything in and set the timer to 20 seconds, speed 6

Bring it together on some baking paper, wrap it in it and put it in the fridge for 30 min. Cut in 2 dough balls and get one back in the fridge.

Preheat the oven 175 C.

Roll it out on baking paper 0,5 cm and use the Halloween cutters. Transfer to a baking sheet with more baking paper. Use the second dough.

Bake for 11 min and cool them out completely.

Use Icing sugar and lemon juice to make a thin paste. Liquid food coloring next, then have fun with it

 

Foodtruck at the Hyundai Road Show

Spending a Saturday morning with 2 different electric performance cars is a good way to start the weekend.

We had a storm last night mixed with some rain. Lots of leaves and twigs on the road. But all of us wanted to test the performance of the HYUNDAI IONIC 5 N and 6N.

During a break and a drivers change we had some sweets, but got hungry when we came back.

The foodtruck offered 2 kinds of burritos, one with chicken and the other with beef. French fries on the side and as an appertizer some chicken tacos.

Italian Fennel Salsiccia with Barley Stew

I love barley in soups or stews. Many people don't like them, because they say that the barley is slimy.

When you start this dish early, you can make it a One Pot stew.

I have large barley this time, not the crushed one I usually use. The big one needs 40 minutes in salted water or veg stock to cook. Plan ahead an cook it first, then clean the pot and start the stew.

The fennel salsiccia was peeled out of the casing and cut in small pieces. All the veggies were chopped. I used up the parts I had left over from my winter season veg stock paste.  

I found an opened jar of organic red pesto and added some of that too.

Recipe for 3:

100 g large barley

300 g fennel salsiccia

1 tsp oil

2 green onions

Chunk of leek

Thick slice of celeriac

3 carrots

1 parsley root

3 tsp red pesto

500 ml water

Veg stock from paste

Salt and pepper

2 bay leaves

I cooked the barley  first in some vegstock paste. In a big pan I started the salsiccia in very little oil and it took a 10 minutes until that had reached the point to add the veggies.

But first with some kitchen paper I soaked up some grease. The veggies needed an other 5 minutes, then water and vegstock paste followed. Seasoned with some pepper, a little salt and the red pesto.

The barley was done and still a bit al dente. It went in the pan to cook for 5 more minutes. Some chives for garnish.

Danube Wave Cake or Donauwelle

I haven't seen or eaten this cake in years. A former coworker was famous for hers and the pieces were gone in a very short time.

The amount of cherries is important. The one I've bought at a bakery on a trip today was lacking.

The ones I was used to had a double amount of cherries. That made the cake more juicy and less heavy from the buttercream.

When the coworker anounced that she was bringing Danube wave cake, I always requested double cherries.

The bottom is a marble cake with cherries. Then a topping of buttercream and a thick layer of dark chocolate ganache.

This one from the bakery was missing some cherries, the buttercream tasted too industrial for my taste (butter?). The chocolate top was like a thicker mousse than a ganache.