Cucumber and Mortadella Salad

It sounds like an easy way to prepare a salad. But the amount of ingredients boggles the mind here.

This recipe is from a supermarket chain magazine issue EDEKA.

The cucumber is made in ribbons and they are salted and drained. The figs and radishes are sliced. The Burrata and Mortadella is set on top.

The dressing is made then and poured over.

Ingredients:

1 ball of burrata

8 slices Italian Mortadella

1 cucumber

3 radishes

4 figs

Pistacchios, chopped

Red peppercorns

2 tbsp Raspberry vinegar

4 tbsp Orange juice

3 tbsp Olive oil

Salt and pepper

4 mint leaves

Chives and Parsley

Pumpkin Stew with Guanciale

And topped with pumpkin bread croutons and pumpkin seeds.

I was opening my small freezer compartment above my fridge and was hit by a half a bag of frozen pumpkin chunks. 

Since they wanted to go, I looked for more stuff in my fridge that could work with it. These kinds of dishes are my most loved, because in the beginning I do not know where the trip is taking me.

Some lonesome small green onion, a yellow onion and a bit of garlic were the next pieces of the puzzle on my board.

In my veggie drawer in the fridge some wilting celery stalks, and on an upper shelf an opened and forgotten cream cheese with less then 3 tbsp in.

There was still pumpkinseed bread left over from the prawn breadbasket and a jar of pumpkin seeds.

I brought everything together and looked for some kind of meat. A newly aquired block of Guanciale caught my eye. Now 30 % of it are missing (less pasta dishes).

Cut the guanciale in bite size slices and put it in a cold pan, heat it up to medium high and let it render fat and get crispy. Take it out of the pan with 50% of the fat.

Chop the veggies and sautee them in the pan. Add the defrosted pumpkin and season with salt and pepper. Add garlic.

Prepare 350 ml chicken stock and pour it in. Get in the guanciale without the fat and bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat and cook for 10 min

Stir in the cream cheese and a little sour cream.

In an other pan heat up the grease and a little more olive oil and put the pumpkin bread croutons in to brown. Get seeds and some creamy goat cheese for topping later.

Ingredients for 2:

300 g pumpkin defrosted

100 g Guanciale

2 celery stalks, 1 green onion, 1 yellow onion, 3 garlic cloves

350 ml chicken stock

3 tbsp cream cheese

Salt, pepper

Topping:

Olive oil, Guanciale fat

2 slices pumpkin bread

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 tsp creamy goat cheese

Romana Salad with Mozzarella and Cherries

It is still cherry season here!

One of the huts you can find around in the city had still open and sold cherries from Ockstadt, one of the cherry capitals in the region of Wetterau.

We are getting up to 40 C / 104 F today under our heatdome in Germany. A salad is good to eat in this weather.

Recipe:

150 g cherries, pitted

1 large Romana salad heart

125 g mozzarella ball

4 stalks fresh basil

Dressing:

Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp dark balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp mustard

Wash the romana salad and cut it in ribbons. Stir it with 2/3 of the dressing.

On a huge plate lay the salad on first, then halved cherries and mozzarella chunks. Put the remaining dressing on top and serve with Baguette

1/2 tsp honey

Salt anf pepper

Bami Goreng with Korean style Pork Belly

I bought easy Mie noodles this morning. They only have to soak in a bowl with boiling water for 5 minutes, then are ready to drain and put in the dish you cook.

Today I made a fusion dish. Bami Goreng is a noodle dish from Indonesia, Mie noodles come from China originally, and the pork belly was made Korean style by Aaron&Claire. It went very well together.

Step one was marinating the pork belly. Only for 1 hour, but that was enough. Then using the kettle to heat up some water and pour it over the Mie noodles. Just poke at them to loosen them a couple of times and look that every strand is under water. Then drain them. I used my Korean sissors to cut them up a bit.

I chopped green onions and seperated white and green. Then the pork belly went in a pan with a little oil. It got beautifully caramelized bits on it. The white parts of the onion went in too. 

I a second pan the defrosted Asia veggies went in with a little oil. After 5 min the Indonesian paste was next. After a good stir the noodles were going in. Use 2 big spoons to toss and add a little cooking wine to loosen the paste.

Stir in the pork and the green from the spring onions. Check for seasoning

Ingredients:

1 Indonesian spiceblend for Bami Goreng

250 g pork belly

250 g Mie noodles

200 g defrosted Asia veggies

salt and pepper

Marinate:

1 tbsp light soy, 1 tbsp dark soy

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp neutral oil

1/3 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 heaped tsp cornstarch

 

 

Prawns in a Breadbasket

A loaf of pumpkin seed bread is sitting on my counter. I wanted to use some of it up. A breadbasket came to mind.

I had some frozen prawns and took them out to defrost them. I saw a variety of breadbasket ideas on Pinterest and made my own version of them.

I wanted some veggies to bulk the prawns out. I only had halve of a bag in the freezer. But that worked out fine.

In one pot the veggies, in one pan the roux with the prawns. All combined and filled in hollowed out bread.

Ingredients:

1/2 pumpkin seed loaf of bread

120 g prawns defrosted

2 celery stalks + leaves

2 green onions

1 large green part of a leek

1 tsp butter + 1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp flour

Milk and Noilly Prat

Lemon juice

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika

Combine butter and oil and sautee the veggies until soft, add a little Noilly Prat and seasoning.

In the pan make a roux and add milk until creamy and thick, add some Noilly Prat, lemon, salt, pepper and paprika.

Get the prawns in and let them get pink. Dump in the veggies from the pot and stir well.

Cut the bread and hollow it out. Do not throw the inner bits out, make croutons with it.

Fill in the creamy prawns and enjoy.

Spaghetti with green Beans

I watched a short video by "Giovanni Siracus"

He cooked spaghetti together with green beans in salted water. In a large pan he added a lot of olive oil to it and 6 whole cloves of garlic and some pepperonchini.

I still have a jar of pepperonchini paste and used a teaspoon of it.

Some of my fresh picked tomatoes from my balcony and some shop bought were cut in halves. They went in the pan and fresh snipped two different kinds of basil were added.

Salt and pepper to season it. It took some time to cook the tomatoes to mush. 

I used bronze cut double long spaghetti together with the beans. They needed only 11 minutes, but the pasta took 14. I transfered the beans to the pan with the tomatoes. They finished in the sauce.

Then the spaghetti went in with more pasta water and lots of cheese. A creamy sauce was the result. Top with parmesan shavings.

Ingredient:

200 g green beans

180 g spaghetti

Salt

4 tbsp Olive oil

1 tsp pepperoncini paste

6 garlic cloves

200 g cherry tomatoes

2 hand full of fresh basil

Pepper

Some parmesan shavings

Viral Sprite Hong Kong Iced Tea

Why do I have to try all these viral trends?

The answer is: because I am curious about the hype!

Well, this "iced tea" is the easiest of trends. Just buy a small bottle of it and put two black tea bags in. Put in the fridge for 2 hours and serve over ice or like I do, fridge cold without ice cubes.

Tastes like a sweet and lightly carbonated lemonade with a bit of a tea aftertaste. Would I drink it again? When someone serves it to me: yes, prepare it myself: no.