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.

One Pot Sausage and fresh Eggnoodles

Eggnoodles may not be the right term for Swabian Spätzle, but they are fresh pasta made with eggs and a thick batter.

Some call them little sparrows or small dumplings.

But the star of the dish were 5 Thuringa pork sausages. Cut up and browned first in a wide pan. Next are the veggies, just dump them in and let them get a little head start.

Only the red bell pepper needs to stay out. It should keep its crunch and goes in last.

Add homemade chicken stock and a jelly sauce cube pork roasted. Cook for 5 minutes.

Now the peppers and the Spätzle (noodles) go in to heat through. Finish with some parsley and the one pot is ready to serve.

Ingredients:

5 Thuringa brats

2 green onions

3 garlic cloves

1 carrot

1 red bell pepper

Salt and pepper

250 ml chicken stock homemade

1 pork sauce jelly cube

400 g spätzle or thick fresh egg noodles

Parsley

Feuilletés au Tomme de Chevre

Getting a real raw goatmilk cheese like Selles-sur-Cher here is impossible, but I was able to buy the not raw kind here at EDEKA.

The cheese sits between 2 layers of a "pesto" that has not much resemblance to a classic Pesto Genovese.

It the greens are baby spinch and it is made witj whole hazelnuts. Just a bit of garlic, salt and olive oil are added. It should be a little coarse.

The baby spinach not used in the pesto was served as a side salad.

Recipe for 2 with 2 small leftover pastries:

1 rectangular butter puff pastry

175 g goatmilk creamy cheese in ash

150 g baby spinach

1 garlic clove

50 g whole hazelnuts

3 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 egg

Prepare the pesto first by chugging the hazelnuts and 60 g baby spinach, pressed garlic, olive oil with salt and pepper in a blender. Make a coarse paste.

Use a 15 cm bowl as a template and cut out 2 circles. Spread some of the pesto on and layer some spinach leaves on top. Cut the cheese in 1,5 cm slices and set it on the spinach. 

Now more pesto. Close the pastry with the second circle and use a fork to press the rim together. Use some offcuts for decor on top. 

Brush with eggwash and bake at 190 C fan for 25 to 30 min

Cut through the middle, serves two.

If you have cheese, pastry dough and pesto still there, make some small pastries. Good for a handheld snack the next day.