Elbow Maccaroni with Ham

I was out grocery shopping this morning and the supermarket promoted lots of different things in front of every isle.

One big box was filled with lots of elbow maccaroni. They are not so often sold here, because the bright orange Mac&Cheese are not a thing.

I put a package in my cart. Then at the butcher bought cooked deli ham. Now the dish for today was almost done. The other ingredients were at home.

Ingredients for 2:

240 g elbow maccaroni

1 medium onion

2 tbsp butter

150 ml double cream

50 ml pasta water

2 tsp Dijon mustard

175 g cooked ham

75 g Gouda shredded

2 tbsp chives

2 tbsp parsley

Salt, pepper, chili

Cook the pasta and chop the onion and the ham. In some oil start the onion, after 3 minutes add the ham. Cook an other 3 minutes. Now Pasta water and cream.

Season and add mustard and the drained pasta. Stir in the cheese and the fresh herbs and serve.

 

Lentil Salad with Sucuk Turkish style

An other recipe from my newest food magazine issue from Istambul.

My BFF not only gave me the magazine, she gave me a sucuk sausage too. We shared a double pack. One sausage for me, one for her.

That sausage needed to go. I peeled off the casing and cut some wider slices. They went in a pan with a little oil and later on some paper towel to get off some fat.

The fat in the pan was great to sautee the onion and garlic. Later the date syrup, lemon juice and salt and pepper went in. The lentils heated up a little in the pan and some lettuce leaves were the shredded base on the serving plate.

Lentils on top, leftover green asparagus as the vegetable part and the sucuk chunks.

A little olive oil on top.

Ingredients:

300 g lentils

150 g green cooked asparagus

Romain lettuce

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

Olive oil

1 Sucuk

3 tbsp date syrup

1 lemon

Salt. Pepper. Chili

Lentil Patties

Cooking too much lentils for one dish results in a second one.

Using lentils for a meat substitute is nothing new. They are high in protein. I went on Pintetest to look for some recipes, but most of them were boring and vegan.

Then I remembered my wild herb excursions and the cooking afterwards. We made lentil patties and they were good.

Recipe for 6:

250 g cooked brown lentils

1 green onion

1 orange long pepper

1 egg

60 g Labneh

30 g shedded cheese

4 tbsp parsley

1 tsp onion powder

50 g breadcrumbs

Salt, pepper, chili, smoked paprika, thyme

Spray oil

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Chop onion, pepper and parsley very fine. Bring everything together and check if more breadcrumbs are needed. 

If you don't find Labneh, use some cream cheese.

Use baking paper and put some oil on it. Place 6 patties on the baking sheet and sprizz some oil on top.

Bake for 12 min, then carefully flip over and bake an other 8 min.

Serve with salad and Greek yogurt. 

Tuna Asparagus Pesto Pasta

I am in my holiday apartment South of the Nuerburgring and enjoy the beautiful weather. Today is mostly restday after the driving yesterday.

For todays lunch I cooked pasta and green asparagus together in a pot. After draining it, butter and a green onion went in the same pot.

Saving on washing up. The small tin of Sicily tuna came next. Then the pasta together with the asparagus joint them in the pot.

The finish was the Genovese pesto.

Ingredients:

75 g pasta

200 g green asparagus

Salt

1 tiny can of tuna

1 green onion

3 tsp Genovese pasta

2 tbsp butter

Burger at Burgering Muellenbach

Driving Trackdays makes me hungry. Early in the morning I went to the local bakery on the way to the Nuerburgring, but that did not last very long.

Due to one accident to many the track was closed for longer, I decided to call it a day and return to my AirB&B. The road went through Muellenbach and the Burgering was on the road.

First stop Burger.

I ordered the Burgering burger without fries and that was a very good idea. The 2 patties burger was too much for me.

The patties were seasoned very well and were substancial. Enough lettuce and tomatoes and 2 large slices of cheese.

I had a Alster to drink. The beer and lemon soda mix. Good after a long day.

 

 

 

Barley Pilaw with Drumsticks Turkish style

I did not know eating barley as a pilaw was a thing in Istambul.

Barley for me is a typical middle and north European thing to eat. It grows in the north and is even used for making whisky in Scotland and Ireland.

When I saw the recipe in SOFRA, the Turkish food magazine, I thought it was large boulgour. Translating the the titel and the ingredients and found out it was barley, I was surprised.

I used drumsticks instead of the whole chicken legs and it was fine. The barley was so good, I could have eaten it on its own.

I used barley in a sachets to cook. These are sold in packs for 3 or 4 in Eastern European supermarkets. One sachet is enough for 2 people. It needs to cook in 1 liter of salted water for 40 to 45 minutes.

The drumsticks were seasoned and floured and went with a spritz of oil in the airfryer for 25 min at 200 C.

The sauce was easy, just sautee some onion snd garlic in a pan and add paprika paste. Loosen it with lemon juice and a bit of water and a dash of date syrup. Season with lots of black pepper andva bit of salt. Some olives go in the sauce as well.

Finish with fresh chopped parsley and dump the cooked barley in and stir well.

Serve with the chicken and some sesame seeds.

Ingredients:

1 sachet of barley

1 medium onion, 2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp paprika paste

1 lemon

60 ml water

Salt, pepper

Parsley

6 drumsticks

Seasoning

Flour

Oil to sprizz on top

Easter Bunny Cake

Easter time is baking time and not all bunnies are made with chocolate.

My BFF baked the bunny for me

This is a very old tradition to either bake a bunny or a lamb. The old tins were tricky and often the batter was sticking to them. The newer ones are better, but still need a lot of butter and dusting before the batter goes in.

If you do not like rum, use a little milk instead.

This recipe is for a 500 ml bunny cake tin.

130 g unsalted butter

120 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 1/2 tbsp rum

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

100 g flour

Breadcrumbs and butter for the tin

Preheat the oven 160 C fan and prepare the bunny tin.

Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy and add the other ingredients. Carefully fill in the batter. Knocking it on the table a couple of times to prevent bubbles.

Put it on a baking sheet and bake it 45 - 50 min. Take a wooden skewer to check. Take the tin out and let it cool 20 minutes, then carefully open it to release the bunny.

When it is cold, dust it with powdered sugar.