Soupe froide aux petit pois, broccoli et noix

Cold vegetable soup with broccoli and other greens with nuts, seeds and sprouts. In French it sounds a lot more appealing.

I added some cold Korean sweet potato vermicelli to bulk out the soup. 

It is not really a soup with only raw veggies put through a blender, but a lot more prepwork has to be done.

The broccoli florets and the peeled stem and the sugar snap peas were steamed for 8 minutes.

The green onions and garlic spend some time in a pan with olive oil.

I only added the washed raw micro sprouts to the blender together with the pecan nuts and the cream cheese. 

But it only came together with 400 ml veg stock from homemade paste.

The vermicelli were cooked in a pan for 8 minutes with a little dark soysauce added to the cooking water.

Radish slices and more sprouts and some sunflower seeds on top of the soup that was sitting on top of the cold noodles

Ingredients:

500 g broccoli

200 g sugar snap peas

80 g bacon bits

1 tsp oil

2 green onions

50 g pecans

25 g sunflower seeds

75g micro sprouts

125 g cream cheese

400 ml veg stock

Chilisalt, pepper, piment d'Espelette

Radishes for garnish

100 g sweet potato vermicelli

Eating at a Fishing Hut in the middle of the woods

A couple of kilometers out of the city where I live is the spring of the creek that runs through but mostly under the city and have the city its name.

It is a 45 minute walk from the outskirts of the city or a 10 minute drive from there. Due to the construction of a bike express way from the city to a neighboring town, the shortest drive was blocked. The detour took a longer time.

But I finally reached my destination. Many small lakes where the local fishermen are organized to breed and catch fish.

But the restaurant only offers fish on Fridays. I opted for a grill plate with pork sausage, chicken breast, pork meatball filled with feta and a porkneck steak. 

A huge amount of French fries and 2 different sauces and a mixed salad was offered.

Too much food, but very good. An alcoholfree Weizen as a drink. 

 

Japanese Mushroom Rice with Pork Steak

I used half of a punnet of small Japanese mushrooms. I have no idea what they are called.

But I started with herb oil marinated pork neck steaks in a wide pan. They needed to take color on both sides. That took about 5 min on each side. 

I only used a tiny amount of oil for the pan, but the marinate brought a bit more. That was enough to start the spring onion in.

Next came the tiny mushrooms. I broke them apart after cutting off the bottom stem. They got some veggie seasoning and started to cook.

Last came the day old rice.  It mixed well with the fresh ingredients. A dash of dark soysauce helped as well.

A very good combination.

Ingredients:

2 herb oil marinated pork steaks

1 tsp oil

50 g Japanese small mushroom

1 large spring onion

Veggie salt, pepper

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

 

Asparagus Tomato Chicken Bake Turkish style

I love the recipes from the Turkish food magazine. The ratio of veggies to meat is very much to my liking. More veggie power!

This is a very easy bake and fast to prepare. Use green asparagus like in the original recipe, but I choise the white gold. The season here only lasts until June 24th.

After peeling the asparagus and quartering it, I cut the large green onion in 1 inch chunks and sliced a bunch of garlic. The tomatoes were only halved. Everything was seasoned with a veggie salt on the chopping board.

The chicken thighs were seasoned with Baharat, a seasoning mix often used in the Middle East. Then the thighs were browned a bit in very little oil in the pan and then trasfeted to an ovenproof baking dish.

In the same pan the onion garlic and asparagus were given a short fry up. The tomatoes followed and got 2 minutes more. I poured everything on top of the chicken.

Next double cream and some chicken stock and grated cheese. Seasoned with Sumac on top.

It went in the oven at 180 C fan for 35 minutes. I scatteted some fresh basil on top and served it with Basmati.

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs

1 tsp oil

2 tsp Baharat seasoning

500 g white asparagus

6 medium tomatoes

1 large green onion

Salt and pepper

200 ml double cream

150 ml chicken stock

100 g grated Gouda

1 tsp Sumac

5 garlic cloves

Fresh basil

Basmati

Roulés croustillants

They should have been cut in slices and baked as singles, but that would have ment 30 minutes cooling time in the fridge.

I used the more foolproof method and skipped that step.

This is one recipe of my newest Gourmand magazine issue - a meatless kind.

That does not mean that it lacks in taste. I bought a pretty expensive Swiss mountain cheese for it and grated it. Smelled wonderful.

Chopped sundried tomatoes in oil mixed with cheese, green pesto, smoked paprika, Piment d'Espelette, salt and pepper were the filling.

Spread out round puff pastry smeared with the mix and rolled up. I brushed it with egg yolk and sprinkled sesame seeds on top and some green paprika powder.

Easy method to skip cooling: cut 2 inch parts without cutting through the bottom.

Bake it at 200 C for 18 to 20 min. Soak up some pesto oil with a paper towel when it comes out of the oven. 

Cut finally through the bottom an serve. But if you have enough time, cut discs and brush them with egg yolk and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

1 round puff pastry

100 g Swiss alpine cheese, grated

3 tbsp green pesto

8 sundried tomatoes in oil

Smoked paparika, Piment d'Espelette, salt and pepper

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Green paprika powder

 

Banana Chocolate Pound Cake

What to do with 4 travel tired brown bananas? Carring them in a car in a bag on a long trip does not do any good to them. A bit bruised, they needed to go today.

First thought was my regular banana bread. But there are 5 different recipes here on the blog already. Time for something new.

This is an easy Thermomix recipe. Chuck the ingredients step by step in, mix in between and in a very short time you have a nice gloopy batter.

Butter and flour a ringform or poundcake form and fill it in. The moment before it went in the oven, I remembered an opened little package of chocolate chips. Sprinkled on top and the cake went in the oven.

Preheat the oven 175 C.

Ingredients:

250 g soft unsalted butter

4 eggs

240 g sugar

Pinch of salt

4 bananas ripe

2 tsp vanilla sugar

3 tbsp rich cacao (I used Red Cameroon Cocoa)

200 g AP flour

100 g cornstarch 

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

20 g chocolate chips

Chuck butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and eggs in the Thermomix. On speed 4-5 for 3 minutes.

 

Add broken up bananas, speed 5 for 1 minute.

Add all the other dry ingredients and again with the help of the spatel give it 1 minute.

Check for flour pockets and stir by hand to be sure. Pour in the baking dish and scatter the chocolate chips on top.

Bake for 50 minutes. Dust with icing sugar when cold.

Sweet Corn Cream Sauce with Chorizo on Pasta

After a long drive you need some comfort food. Pasta is one of them.

A sauce is always the star of any pasta dish. Since I was not out getting groceries on my way home, i checked for staples. A medium can of sweet corn is a basic ingredient. Combining that with onion and garlic is a good start in the right direction. 

For seasoning I used "Balkans" favourite: VEGETA and lots of fresh ground pepper. The creamyness came from pasta water, a stick blender and a good helping of creme fraiche.

The short pasta was folded in and fresh chives for some green deco.

A while ago I bought a mild Chorizo sausage. That is a keeper for month in the fridge. I cut off a couple of slices and they went in a dry pan to crisp up and loose some bright red fat. They were the topping on the pasta.

Ingredients:

200 g short pasta

200 g can sweet corn, drained

1 tbsp butter

1 medium yellow onion

3 garlic cloves

2 tsp Vegeta

Pepper

4 tbsp creme fraiche

Chives

80 g mild chorizo