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.

Corn Chowder

What can you do with 2 ears of sweet corn and lots of veggies in the fridge? Make a soup. 

It is relatively cold this morning with 58 F 14 C  and I had to wear a jacket going out to the supermarket.

A good hearty soup with bacon was my plan. To bind the soup a bit later I cooked some potatoes and made a mash. Half of it went in the soup at the end, the other half was used for something else. But use 2 potatoes instead and chop them fine or grate in the soup.

Recipe for 3:

2 ears of sweet corn

125 g smoked bacon bits

1 tbsp oil

2 green parts of a leek

2 stalks celery

1 carrot

1 yellow long pepper

2 potatoes or cooked mash

300 ml chicken broth

200 ml milk

100 ml double cream

Salt, pepper, paprika, celery leaves

Start the bacon. When it has taken some color, add the veggies and stir them for a couple of minutes. Add chicken broth. Season.

Cook for 10 min, add milk and cream and cook 10 more min, but keep an eye on it, because the milk and cream tend to boil over.

Add the potato mash and the chopped celery leaves. Check the seasoning.

I do not use a stickblender. I like my soup with the veggie chunks. But feel free to make it smoother.

 

Raisin Bread Luxembourg style

Fresh yeast does not last long in the fridge. For my Focaccia I've needed only 5 g.

Now 37 g are waiting for a purpose. I wanted some not so sweet Brioche type bread and looked around many platforms.

Then the Luxembourg Raisin Bread popped up. I did not know that was a thing there. Then I checked foods from Luxembourg and it was on a list. It is from " marcelpaa.com"

The recipe is a 3 day process. Why do I have a feeling it will not need much yeast?

And I was right. Only 10 g for 500 g flour. Well, now I am down to 27 g of fresh yeast in the fridge.

This is a recipe best started before the weekend. It is not for people who want a quick result. Overall preptime is no so much, but you will need a good standmixer that can knead dough for 20 minutes without overheating.

Recipe for a bread loaf tin:

500 g bread flour (I used tipico speciale 0.0)

10 g fresh yeast

300 ml water

10 g salt

30 g sugar

1 egg

65 g soft unsalted butter

Zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla paste

170 g raisins

50 ml dark brown rum

1 beaten egg to brush the loaf

butter for the tin and oilspray for the box

Evening before the day you start the dough:

Measure 170 g raisins in a small bowl and add 50 ml dark rum. Quality control is optional :-) set aside covered.

The next afternoon:

Get your standmixer ready with the dough hook. Measure all ingredients from flour down to vanilla paste in the mixing bowl. On slow speed bring it together in 3 min.

Now set a timer and on medium speed let it knead for 17 min. Take the dough hook out and fold the raisins in.

Use a greased dough bowl with a lid and let the dough fall in. Cover and at roomtemp let it sit for 60 min. Then strech and fold the dough 3 times. Cover and put in the fridge for 12 to 16 hours.

Saturday morning:

Get out of bed early to take the dough out of the fridge to come back to roomtemp for 2 hours.

Flour a surface and plopp the dough out. Pat it rectangular, then fold both sides over each other. The open side goes on the bottom of the buttered loaftin. Brush with eggwash and cover to rest at roomtemp for 60 to 90 min.

Preheat the oven 200 C fan.

Bake for 35 min on middle hight. Then unmold the raisin bread, put it on a baking tray and bake for 5 to 10 more min.

Let it cool completely

It can easily be frozen in slices.

 

Ice Cream Bar in a Croissant Trend

I try to give new trends a chance.

Today I bought fresh croissants and a box of ice cream bars.

I went for the todays "normal" size, which is between 80g to 90 g. Shrinkflation happened here too.

But I should have gone for the Mini. Our Croissants are too small to get a regular size ice cream bar inside.

It worked somehow. 

This trend is done and I wont repeat it. I do not know what all the fuss is about.

 

Oven roasted Peppers with Burrata

A big bag of peppers came back with me from latest grocery haul, very colorful.

Putting them on a baking tray with good seasoning and olive oil makes for an easy dish. After 30 min in total you are done.

To make a platter of veggies more fancy, put a ball of Burrata on top. For an additional nice touch, cut up some toast and in a pan with olive oil and butter and the greens of the spring onions let them take color. 

Put everything on a nice plate and it is ready to enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 Burrata

1 red bell pepper

2 orange long peppers

1 yellow long pepper

2 soring onions without the green tops

3 garlic cloves    

Olive oil

Butter

2 slices of Toast

Onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper