Italian Fennel Salsiccia with Barley Stew

I love barley in soups or stews. Many people don't like them, because they say that the barley is slimy.

When you start this dish early, you can make it a One Pot stew.

I have large barley this time, not the crushed one I usually use. The big one needs 40 minutes in salted water or veg stock to cook. Plan ahead an cook it first, then clean the pot and start the stew.

The fennel salsiccia was peeled out of the casing and cut in small pieces. All the veggies were chopped. I used up the parts I had left over from my winter season veg stock paste.  

I found an opened jar of organic red pesto and added some of that too.

Recipe for 3:

100 g large barley

300 g fennel salsiccia

1 tsp oil

2 green onions

Chunk of leek

Thick slice of celeriac

3 carrots

1 parsley root

3 tsp red pesto

500 ml water

Veg stock from paste

Salt and pepper

2 bay leaves

I cooked the barley  first in some vegstock paste. In a big pan I started the salsiccia in very little oil and it took a 10 minutes until that had reached the point to add the veggies.

But first with some kitchen paper I soaked up some grease. The veggies needed an other 5 minutes, then water and vegstock paste followed. Seasoned with some pepper, a little salt and the red pesto.

The barley was done and still a bit al dente. It went in the pan to cook for 5 more minutes. Some chives for garnish.

Danube Wave Cake or Donauwelle

I haven't seen or eaten this cake in years. A former coworker was famous for hers and the pieces were gone in a very short time.

The amount of cherries is important. The one I've bought at a bakery on a trip today was lacking.

The ones I was used to had a double amount of cherries. That made the cake more juicy and less heavy from the buttercream.

When the coworker anounced that she was bringing Danube wave cake, I always requested double cherries.

The bottom is a marble cake with cherries. Then a topping of buttercream and a thick layer of dark chocolate ganache.

This one from the bakery was missing some cherries, the buttercream tasted too industrial for my taste (butter?). The chocolate top was like a thicker mousse than a ganache.

Porkneck Steaks on Onion Bed Oven baked

It is always a surprise what kind of recipes you will find on the Internet. One ingredient on the search list and then you have most of the time a plethora of choices. The difficult time is to choose one.

This one caught my eye. It was from " schmackhaft.tv". A short video clip. The listed ingredients sounded as if someone was stacking a burger.

Normally I would pan fry the pork neck steaks, but this is a lot easier. Only a bit of work to peel an amount of onions and garlic. Everything is cut in strips.

Spray some oil on the baking sheet and put the strips on top. Pat the porkneck steaks dry and season them with salt and pepper. Place them on the onions.

With a teaspoon spread whole grain mustard on the top of the meat. Cut some cornichons or small dill gherkins and lay some on each one.

Use grated Emmenthal to top that and as a final some mayo.

Bake at 180 C fan for 30 min.

Ingredients:

4 medium red onions

3 shallots

3 garlic cloves

Oil for the pan

4 porkneck steaks

3 gherkins

80 g Emmenthal cheese

Mayo for topping

Salt and pepper

4 tsp wholegrain mustard

 

Sweet Potatoes with Lemon Butter Japanese style

This is an adaptation of a Japanese recipe. The type of sweet potato used there is not available here.

The recipe is by "Kantan Food by Satoshi". He is a part of the YT channel TabiEats = travel & food.

Fall season is the reason for this dish. It is easy, but a little time consuming. 

His recipe used a 400 g purple outside and white inside sweet potato. I went for 2 smaller orange ones. They are the classic you can get here in every supermarket.

Scrub them, top and tail them and cut them in 2,5 cm or 1 inch pieces. Let them sit in a bowl of water for 10 minutes to get out some starch. Rinse them.

Use a pot or a pan wide enough that all pieces can sit there side by side, without overlapping. Pour 250 ml water with 2 tbsp Sake, 2 tbsp Mirin, 2 tsp sugar, 1/3 tsp salt in. Bring to a boil, cover and cook until forktender. About 10 mintes.

Drain and rest them on a wire rack to dry. 

In a wide pan melt 15 g butter and place the sweet potato chunks in. Let them take color on medium high heat from both sides.

While they are cooking make the sauce. Warm 1 1/2 tbsp of water with 1 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp honey. That way the honey easy dissolves. Pour it over the now baked sweet potatoes and reduce the heat and let that coat them. Season with some pepper.

Get them on a plate and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Ground Beef Sauce with Tortellini

The amount of ground beef I had used for the filling of the Puff Pastry was just half of what I cooked.

A second dish was the answer to use up the other half. The easiest would have been a tomato sauce to dump the beef in. But my tortellini were filled with a tomato and ricotta filling. 

There own flavour would have dissappeared in a bolognese sauce.

I prepared a beef sauce with the help of a beef stock jelly cube and cooked the tortellini in beef broth. The broth with the starch from the cooked pasta was the base. In it I dissolved the stock jelly and added the cooked beef to it to reheat that.

The tortellini went in last. A bowl of lettuce on the side made it a nice meal.

 

Sweet Corn Buttermilk Bread

My BFF send me two pages of recipes she found in a magazine issue. The first one was this recipe.

It is Sunday today and I wanted to spend time in the kitchen. I need new vegetable stock paste for the Winter months.

Mostly all ingredients were at home, but buttermilk was missing. No problem for me, just 250 ml whole milk and 1 tbsp lemon juice and 15 minutes time= buttermilk.

The only thing I had a problem with was the written size of the loaftin (20×10×8 cm). I looked at the ingredients and thought: no way that will fit. The 25×12×10cm) was full to the rim.

Recipe:

185 g flour

Pinch of salt

170 g Polenta

1/2 tsp baking powder

120 g sour cream

250 g buttermilk

2 tbsp honey

2 eggs

110 g melted butter

450 g canned sweet corn

2 shallots chopped

2 tbsp fresh chopped herbs ( they use coriander)

20 g pecorino grated

1 tsp crushed coriander seeds

You need 2 bigger bowls and a small one for melting the butter and a large spoon and whisk.

Use baking paper to line the loaftin. Let an inch stand over.

Preheat the oven to 160 C.

In one bowl stir together flour, salt, polenta and baking powder. In the other all the wet ingredients and fold in the melted butter last. Bring both together.

Seperate 300 g of sweet corn. Add this with shallots and herbs to the batter. Stir well. Transfer it to the loaftin.

The 150 g sweet corn gets combined with cheese and crushed coriander seeds and is put on top and pressed in a little.

Bake for 75 min. Let it cool in the loaftin for 30 min before placing it on a wire rack. That prevents that it rips.

Serve the bread with avocado and chili sauce.

Red Lentil Bolognese

A fine recipe from a healthy cooking class, but don't look down on it - it is very tasty.

A couple of recipes I brought back from this class. I am looking forward to cook even more recipes like that in the future.

Cooking classes are always a bit chaotic. The skill level is never on the same step and that makes it funny. You have to look for someone who takes the lead and tell the others what they have to do, otherwise you will never finish the dish.

The other problem is cooking in a regular kitchen with one stove and a sink in the corner, but 2 groups cooking at the same time. 4 pots boiling at the same time. Getting all the ingredients in the right dish is a challenge too.

But we managed in the end and all the food was good.

Recipe for 2:

100 g red lentils, washed

2 red onions

1 garlic clove

100 g celery

250 g carrots

400 ml can chopped tomatoes

1/4 chili

3 tsp tomato paste

1 tbsp olive oil

200 ml vegetable stock

Salt, pepper, fresh oregano, basil, parsley

Serve it with 120 g pasta like whole grain

Chop the veggies first. Heat up the oil in a bigger pot and start the onions and garlic. Then add the other veggies. They need a couple of minutes to soften.

Add the tomato paste and roast it for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. The veg stock goes in next together with the lentils and canned tomatoes and the herbs.

Let it cook for 20 minutes. 

Cook pasta and add some parsley to the stew.