Amore del Piemonti cestini

I was grocery shopping in the Alsace region again. It is always fun to look for goodies that I have never seen before.

In the bakery area of the supermarket stood a table with stacks of plastic packed little pralines with different fillings.

I have never seen these before and at home I looked up the history. A French company is producing them to show the rich flavours of the Italian province of Piemont. There haselnuts and chocolate products are playing a major role.

Cestini in Italian means little basket. A shortcrust round tartelette is baked and filled with a cream with or without nuts. 

I bought Pistacchio cestini, because since the Dubai chocolate hype everything pistacchio sells. When I find them again, I will try the other ones too.

Meatballs with Sage and Bulgour with Vermicelli

This is an other Turkish recipe from my Istambul food magazine issue.

The original recipe used Şehriye Pilavı (they look like larger Kritharaki). But I had some Bulgour with added browned vermicelli at home.

What intrigued me was adding fresh sage leaves as herbs to the meat. I rarely use it for beef dishes, more with duck or goose. The distinct flavour of the sage is coming through. Adding some leaves to the chickenstock for the pilaw was a good idea too.

Ingredients for 3:

500 g ground beef

15 sage leaves

1 yellow onion

3 garlic cloves

Zest of 1 lemon

1 breadroll soaked and squeezed

2 tbsp yogurt

2 tsp adanana köfte seasoning

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

Side:

120 g bulgour with vermicelli

450 ml chickenstock

5 sage leaves

1 tbsp oil

 

Bring the meat mixture together and form patties with your hands. In a hot pan with some oil cook them first on high heat on both sides for 3 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium low and cook the meatballs for 15 minutes more.

Turn them every 5 minutes.

The bulgour needs a little oil in a small pot and then must be stirred often to get covered. Hot chickenstock with sage goes in. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Pizza with Blue Cheese Medlar and Pear

This are not the only ingredients, but the dominant ones.

Walnuts, leek, more cheese and a base of creme fraiche mixed with pesto are part of the pizza topping too.

Yesterday afternoon I still had no idea what to cook on the Sunday. I had not bought stuff especially for it.

I took the Biscoff ice cream out of my freezer and behind it I found a frozen ball - pizza dough.

It went down in the fridge to defrosted until the next morning. Then I took the bag out to let it come back to roomtemperature and get soft.

I sprayed a sheetpan with olive oil and rolled out the dough later. A bit uneven, but who cares.

The leek needed a good wash because it was pretty sandy. Wet as the discs were, they went in a microwave tupperware for 3 min at 800 watts to get a bit soft. I let them sit in the closed tupperware afterwards for a couple of minutes more outside. 

Preheat the oven 240 C.

Mix creme fraiche and pesto and spread on top. Add fresh ground pepper. Layer the other ingredients and finish with the grated Emmenthal.

Bake for 10 to 12 min.

Recipe for 1 pie:

Homemade dough, about 320 g

3 tbsp creme fraiche + 1 tbsp pesto

100 g leek

1 pear

1 medlar

60 g blue cheese soft

8 walnuts

50 g Emmenthal cheese grated

Arnavut Cigeri or Turkish Chicken Liver

It is a recipe from the Bosporus area of Turkey. The recipe is from "Merceile".

A very fast dish to serve. The short pickled onions with the parsley are often found in dishes where kebap meat is on the menu. The meat is the star, not all kinds of sauces and lots of different veggies you will find in a German Döner Kebap.

Recipe for 2:

300 g chicken liver

2 heaped tbsp flour

1/4 tsp each of paparika, smoked paprika and green paprika

Salt and pepper

4 tbsp oil

1 red onion, 3 shallots

Salt, pepper, lemon juice

Lots of fresh parsley

I served mine with mashed potatoes, but piede or pilaw will do too.

Peel the onions and cut them in rings. Put in a bowl with salt and lemon juice and let them pickle for 20 min. Chop the parsley and add it.

Put flour in a freezer bag and all the paprikas and salt and pepper and drop the liver pieces in. Shake until they are coated.

Heat up the oil in a wide pan and place the livet in. Shake off excess flour before that. Cook 2,5 min on each side.

DO NOT OVERCOOK the liver. It should be pink in the middle.

Serve with the onion salad on top.

 

 

Somen Noodles with Bacon Topping

The somen get a little color from oyster sauce and a bit of tamari.

A quick dinner after a long day does not need to be fancyful. Just tasty.

Somen noodles are from Japan. They are very thin wheat noodles and they cook very fast. After draining them, they need to be washed under running cold water. That makes them bouncy.

I had a bacon package sitting in the fridge. It was over the expiration date for 2 weeks. But use your senses and look and smell, the bacon still was fine.

With a teaspoon of oil I rendered the fat from the bacon to get it crispy and added 3 chopped garlic cloves.

The fat stayed in the pan. Only bacon and garlic went on top of the somen noodles.

A mix of oyster and tamari soy sauce was added and some fresh chives.

 

Potato Salad with Ranch Dressing and Pork Steak

Homemade Ranch dressing does not last long in the fridge. There are no additives in to prolong shelf life.

I wanted to use up the last potatoes in my bag and looked for an easy way. Potato salad is ond of them.

No need to wait for cold potatoes, just cook them and add them to any other ingredients and sauce you like.

Warm potatoes soak up the dressing a lot better than cold ones, so do a little more dressing to keep the salad smooth.

From yesterdays Turkish white bean salad I had some grilled bell peppers left in the jar. Together with a spring onion and fresh parsley they were the best company for the potatoes.

I loosened the Ranch dressing with a little light vinegar and salt and pepper. No more enhancement needed.

Ingredients:

5 medium small potatoes

1 spring onion

2 grilled red bell peppers from a jar

3 stems fresh parsley

2 tbsp light white vinegar

1/4 cup Ranch dressing

Salt and pepper

I served the potato salad with Hong Kong Streetfood style Pork Neck Steak (recipe on the blog)

 

White Bean Salad or Bombay Fasulye Piyszı

A very tasty bean salad from Turkey and it is vegan.

My problem was where to get Bombay beans. The large Turkish supermarket did not had any and I asked one of the staff, but they could not help me.

The photo in the food magazine issue showed medium sized white beans. There was a variety to choose from.

All other ingredients were already at home. It is a good salad to take to a foodie gathering, not only vegans will like it.

Recipe for 3 :

1 can white medium size beans

1 green onion

3 soft dried tomatoes

3 roasted red bell peppers from a jar 

3 tbsp chopped parsley

1/2 lemon juiced

2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

3 tsp tahin

3 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Chop the green onion very fine and drain the beans. Cut up the dried tomatoes in tiny cubes and chop the bell peppers. Get everything together and check if there is enough lemon juice and salt added.

Serve as a side or with meat or just with piede.