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

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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