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.

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.