Mentaiko Spaghetti with Salmon Roe

One more packaged sauce from the Japan shop in Düsseldorf. This time with Mentaiko or Cod Roe.

A light tomato based sauce that had a slight fishy smell.  I decided to pimp my spaghetti a bit and bought a small jar of salmon kaviar and used a stick of celery and a spring onion for some texture. The fresh green bit was dill.

This is a fast dish. The spaghetti took the longest time to cook. During this time I chopped the greens and sauteed them in a little oil. The content of the sauce package went in a mircrowavable container and went for 2,5 min at 500 Watts in the mircrowave, the in the pot with the veggies.

I dumped the spaghetti in with some pasta water and stirred everything. The dill and the kaviar went on top.

Very quick and tasty dish. It just took 15 minutes from start to finish.

Bacon Savoy Cabbage with Pasta

I have the idea from a Jamie Oliver recipe and made my own version.

Today the last part of my 2,5 kg Savoy cabbage had to go. I've checked my recipes and found out that the cabbage lasted for 4 recipes with 10 portions in total.

The nearer future will be free of Savoy cabbage.

This recipe is easy to prepare. I used some small Italian pasta with a cooking time of 12 min. That was the time I needed for the other part. So start with the pasta.

Put the bacon strips in a wide pan and crisp them up. Take them out. Add a bit of olive oil and the chopped garlic.

After 2 min the chopped cabbage. Season and stir it well. Add some pasta water and a tsp of veggie stock paste. Back in with the now ripped bacon and some pine nuts.

Grate a handfull of Parmesan on top. Drain the pasta and cut the Mozzarella in cubes. Add both at the same time and stir in well. Finish with some chives and serve.

Ingredients for 2:

140 g short pasta

240 g Savoy cabbage

100 g bacon slices

5 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp veg stock paste

Handfull Parmesan

1 Mozzarella

Salt, pepper, thyme smoked paprika, Italian herbs.

Chives

Chickpea and Savoy Cabbage One Pot

Use a big pot when you have a lot of Savoy cabbage.

Tomatoes, onions and garlic, potatoes and two small cans of chickpeas to go with the cabbage. I was not looking for a vegan dish, that's why I went to the butcher for an idea.

My butcher recommended sausages that are mostly eaten with kale (Grünkohl). They are smoked and on the more fatty side. Good to go in the pot with all the other ingredients.

This is the third time I eat from my Savoy cabbage. It is still a bit more of it to prepare.

Recipe for 4:

600 g Savoy cabbage

4 smoked sausages

2 tbsp oil

2 yellow onions

4 cloves of garlic

1 bay leaf

3 small potatoes

2 small cans chickpeas

1 medium can of crushed tomatoes

60 g cherry tomatoes

50 ml dry Sherry

600 ml chicken stock

Salt, pepper, herbes de Provence

Chop the veggies and cut up 2 of the sausages. Use a big pot and heat up the oil. Start with the sliced sausages, then add onions, garlic and potatoes, season.

Let that get some heat. Now in with the cabbage, tomatoes (fresh and canned) and the chickpeas.

Add the sherry and the chickenstock and bay leaf and herbes de Provence. Get the other 2 sausages on top.

Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat and cook for 45 min. Use some fresh herbs if you have some at home.

Serve with some baguette.

 

Vegetable Frittata

I have a huge head of Savoy cabbage sitting around. This is the second dish I am preparing with it, but I fear that it grows back over night.

Only 4 leaves of the cabbage, 2 carrots, a tiny piece of leek and 2 spring onions are the veggie part here.

Except the onions, the veggies were cooked in salted water for 5 minutes to soften them a bit. Then drained.

I had Swiss semi hard cheese from the other recipe. I grated most of it to put in the eggs. Fresh dill and dried chives and lots of seasoning gone in the eggs together with a dash of milk.

Use a pan that can go in the oven.

Recipe for 2:

5 tbsp olive oil

6 eggs

50 ml milk

60 g semi hard mountain cheese

2 tbsp fresh dill

2 tbsp fresh parsley

1 tbsp fresh basil

Salt, pepper, Piri Piri seasoning

2 carrots

5 cm leek

4 Savoy cabbage leaves

2 spring onions

Shred the cabbage, but take out the hard middle first. Finely slice discs from the carrot and cut up the leek. A pot with boiling salted water is next. Put in the veggies and cook them for 5 min, take off the heat and let them sit another 5 min, drain.

Preheat the oven to 160 C

Chop the green onions and the herbs and grate the cheese.

In a wide pan heat up the oil and put the veggies and onions in. Season with salt and pepper and on medium high heat cook for 8 to 10 min.

Crack the eggs in a bowl, add milk, seasoning and cheese and herbs. Mix well and pour over the veggies. Take a spatula and scrape the sides and in the middle just for 2 min.

Put in the oven for 10 min.

Sweet Milkbuns or Einback

Here in Hesse they are called Reiheweck (buns in a row) because the a stuck together after baking and you break off one.

I was at the bakery and looked at them and then the pricetag. Crazy! I did not buy one, but a block of fresh yeast  for € 0,23 at the supermarket. All other ingredients were at home.

Recipe for 14 buns:

500 g AP flour

42 g fresh yeast

85 g sugar

Pinch of salt

80 g soft unsalted butter

150 ml warm milk

2 eggs

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1 egg yolk and milk for the coating later

Butter and some breadcrumbs for the baking dish.

Put the yeast in the warm milk for a couple of minutes. Then bring everything together and form a dough ball. Put in a oiled bowl and cover and let it rise for 1 hour.

Form a log on a lightly floured surface and cut in 14 pieces.

Roll out each piece lengthwise about 18 cm. Fold in the corners and roll from the side up. Place in a buttered baking dish apart from each other.

Make two rows a 7.  Put a damp dishtowel over them and let them rest 30 min.

Preheat your oven 180 C. Mix egg yolk with a little milk. Brush the tops. Bake for 20 min.

 

Taiwanese Tea Eggs

I had too many eggs at home and I've watched a travel documentary about Taiwan.

Now I prepared these eggs. Until this report I only ate Japanese Ramen eggs and Korean Mechurian Jangjorim eggs. And I vaguely remember the "1000 years eggs" I ate in China.

First step was filling my egg cooker with 7 eggs and getting in enough water to hard boil them. Use roomtemperature eggs.

Then they went in a ice cold water bath. Then cracked all around with a small spoon.

Next I cooked the marinate and cooled it down a bit. The eggs went in.

Now comes the labour of love. Simmering at very low temp the eggs in the marinate for 2 hours.

Eat them with a cup of tea as a snack or on rice or chopped on some salad. Store them in the fridge.

Marinate:

3 cups water

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2-3 tsp black tea (I had Gunpowder and black Turkish tea)

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

1/2 tsp Szechuan peppercorns

2 tsp honey

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp 5 spice

Berliner filled with ground Pork Eastern European style

On Saturday I had a Berliner/Donut filled with raw seasoned pork and red onions. Today I was out and went to a Mix Markt- an Eastern European Supermarket.

At the bakery section I saw Berliner and read the sign: filled with strawberry jam. They were covered in the regular sugar. Beside them were some without the sugar on top. I thought great, they are unfilled.

But I am lucky that I had checked the sign: filled with pork and onions.

At home I heated them in the microwave. Very tasty, but the filling was a little sparse. As a side I had the Korean carrot salad. This can be found at the pickled veggie isle in every Eastern European supermarket.