Kinder Chocolate Liqueur

This is a creamy spirit Kinder Chocolate Liqueur I stumbled over at a girls afternoon. Sweet and indulgent and you can rarely say NO to a second one. It reminds lot of people of Baileys. I had to give it a try.

The alcohol in this drink is Vodka.
The balance between sugar and alcohol is important, some like it sweeter, most wanted more Vodka.

recipe:
175 g Kinder Chocolate
220 ml milk
200 ml double cream
200 ml vodka
1 fresh egg
2 tbsp vanilla sugar

Warm the milk and melt the chocolate, add cream and the beaten egg.
Heat it up to 70 C for 2 minutes to make it save. Add the Vodka and cool it down and keep it in the fridge.

It even tastes amazing when it is still warm !

Watermelon Ice Cream

A great way to use up large amounts of watermelon. Mostly when you buy one, they are huge and that means you eat 2/3 of it and the rest will sit around. Don´t let it sit in the fridge, make a great tasting ice cream. Refreshing and a good use for the leftovers.

recipe:
600 ml watermelon puree
250 ml buttermilk
50 g sugar
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

just use a blender, blend first the watermelon pieces, add sugar and buttermilk and lemon juice.

USE a fine sieve! It does not make sense to make a wonderful ice cream when it gets gritty. Sieve the liquid and get the rest of the pips and chunks out and freeze it.

Watermelon Cucumber Salad

An other recipe from the Iceland food magazine issue. It is fresh and tasty and with the seasoning, it goes great with summer dishes likes tacos or grilled meat.
It is a pity that our 3 days summer is gone and now we have a meager 20 C  the rest of this week.

recipe:
1 cucumber peeled
1 decent piece of watermelon, the same weight as the cucumber
fresh mint leaves
1/2 lemon, juice and zest
2 tsp of honey (optional)
salt and pepper

when you have a small cucumber, use rounds about half inch
cut the watermelon into bite size pieces
chop the mint
zest the lemon and use the juice to mix with the honey and season well

Serano Ham and Pasta

This is a very fast dish, serve the Serano ham raw without cooking it in the pan.

While the pasta is boiling, just prepare the creamy cheese sauce and get it over the pasta.
Add the Serano ham and some fresh pepper and the dish it good to eat.

recipe:
100 g Serano ham
250 g Rigatoni
80 g creamy goat cheese mousse
30 ml white wine
1 spring onion
30 g rocket
salt and pepper
2 tbsp butter

Melt the butter and add the chopped onion, saute it for 2 minutes, add the goatcheese and let it get soft. the wine will make it easier to melt.

Add the chopped rocket and season with a little salt - remember the Serano ham is very salty - and lots of fresh ground pepper

Ferrero Rocher Cake

This is a recipe a friend of mine has to prepare every year for her sons birthday. I never had the chance to eat a piece of it because this is a cake that never lasted till the next day.

I have reached 15 000 Followers at the SortedFood community.  Baking this cake is my way to say Thank You to the community.

Just take note, Ferrero Rocher are not sold in summer in our shops. In two supermarkets in town I was not able to buy any, I got lucky on my trip to France instead.

recipe for the dough:
200 g ground hazelnuts
1 tsp baking powder
5 eggs separated
200 g sugar
1 package ready to make chocolate pudding powder (Dr.Oetker)
1 small vile of rum aroma

recipe for the topping:
1 large can of peaches, sliced
500 ml double cream
2 packages cream stiff
16 balls Rocher

Beat the egg whites very stiff.
Beat the egg yolk with the sugar very creamy until nearly white
Add hazelnuts, baking powder, pudding powder and rum and mix well. It will be a very stiff mixture.
Use a quarter of the egg white and start loosen the mix, do it in 4 steps and be careful with the last one.

Use a 26 diameter loose bottom baking dish and grease it and place paper on the bottom.
Fill in the mixture and bake at 180 C for 25 to 30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Get it out of the dish and peel off the paper and let it cool completely.

Drain the peaches and put the slices in a round way on top of the cake.
Beat the cream with the stiff powder.
Take a sharp knife and cut 8 Rocher in halfs, the other 8 Rocher crush and mix into the cream.
Take 2/3 of the cream on top of the peaches with an offset spatula and smear the last third all around the cake.
Use some slices of paper to stick under the cake before you start, so you get a clean cake in the end.

Watermelon Pizza

I should not always be surprised to find curious things on Pinterest, this is the platform for these ideas.

I bought a medium sized watermelon on Saturday because I wanted to make a salad, but this much watermelon in saladform is not really something I was looking forward to. So I checked for more ideas to work with that fruit.

I have more ripe fruit to work with, so lets do it-

recipe:
1 slice about 1 inch thick cut out of the middle of a round watermelon.
1/2 sharon fruit
1 apple
1 passion fruit
3 mirabelles
1dark plum
lime zest
dessicated coconut
agave syrup

Lobster Soup or Humarsúpa

This soup is a famous one in posh restaurants in Reykjavik. I bought a cookbook with classic and old style recipes and adjusted the it a bit to my taste.

I bought a lobster and some king prawns to have lots of meat in the broth. The base I made last week from the shells of the large prawns I used for the dish cooked in paper. So nothing is going to waste. The shells of the lobster will make a quick stock for the soup as well. The ingredients aren`t on the cheap side, but that is a soup to impress and worth every cent you´ll spent. It serves 2 as a main dish.

recipe:
1 lobster fresh cooked or defrosted with shell
225 g king prawns defrosted
1 tbsp oil
5 tbsp butter
2 1/2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp mild curry
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 carrot
1 bit of leak
2 celery sticks
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 bay leaf
5 cups prawn stock - 1/2 fresh and 1/2 already made
salt and pepper
1 /2 cup dry white wine
1 cup creme fraiche
1 dash of brandy
some chives
lots of fresh bread

start with chopping the onion, one half into chunks one half into fine dices,  chop the garlic.
1 celery stalk and half a carrot into rough chunks, the other half into brunoise.
chop the leak rough.
Get the lobster out of its shell and keep the shells for the stock later.

In a big pot in oil start with the veggies until they are soft, add the tomato paste and cook it a little. Add the shells and the premade stock (  about 2 - 3 cups) and  add as much water to fill up to a liter.
Season with salt and pepper and add the bay leaf. Let it cook 15 minutes and pour it through a fine sieve and discard shells and veg. Clean the pot.

Melt the butter and saute the onion/garlic dices until soft, add the flour and the curry powder and make a paste. Add the wine and let that get a bit loose, add the stock and the other veggie half. Cook that for 12 minutes on low heat. Add the creme fraiche and the prawns and let them get pink, add the lobster and let it sit 2 more minutes not cooking it any longer.

Serve with a small shot of Brandy on the side and a good slice of bread. Just add some drops of Brandy to the soup, less is more!

Asparagus Almond Ice Cream

To celebrate this years ending asparagus season I made some ice cream.

I found this recipe in a newspaper and thought, why not. I made caramelized asparagus as a sweet treat before and that was amazing, so making ice cream was not putting me off.

recipe:
300 g white asparagus
50 g chopped peeled almonds
320 ml double cream
50 ml water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar + 3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp rose syrup
3 egg yolks

Peel the asparagus and chop it into 2 cm pieces.
Use a small pot and add  180 ml double cream and the water, sugar and salt and heat it up.
Add the asparagus and the almonds and let it cook on low heat for 10 minutes.
Pour it into a blender and give it a very good blitz and pour it through a fine sieve.
Beat the egg yolks with the 3 tbsp sugar and add the warm liquid, bring back into the pot and stir it constantly and let it thicken until you can draw a line on the back of a spoon.
Cool it down in a bowl with cold water and add the rest of the double cream and the rose water.

Freeze it or pour it into a ice cream maker.


Serve with a strawberry couli.

Tamago Kake Gohan

I was looking for a quick breakfast without any dairy products. And no Latte to drink too.
Eggs work all the time and a bit of Japanese feeling can make my day.

I saw this dish a while ago on YT and it was called Japanese breakfast, I was not sure about the raw eggs. But yesterday I bought fresh organic free range eggs and gave the dish a go.

recipe:
1 cup short grain rice
2 very fresh eggs
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 pinch of sea salt

Cook the rice in salted water and while it is very hot, place it into a bowl and make a well in the middle. Crack 2 eg.gs in add a pinch of salt and the soy sauce and give it a good stir, so the eggs are fully combined and get slightly cooked.


That tasted amazing. I served it with some Japanese tea.

Asparagus Mango Salmon Salad

Today is St. John´s Day and the day of the Brexit!
The world is changing!

St.John´s Day is here in Germany the day when the asparagus is sold for the last time. I bought some for the weekend to celebrate that.

Since we have tropical 35 C today and a storm is brewing I made a salad.

recipe for 2:
1 ripe Mango
300 g white asparagus
125 g graved salmon
a bunch of dill

dressing:
sweet mustard, dried salad herbs and 1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp marmelade, 2 tbsp walnut oil, 1 tbsp cider vinegar, salt and pepper

Peel and cut the mango into bite size pieces, chop the dill.
Peel the asparagus and cook it in salted, sugared and buttered water for 5 minutes, drain and let it cool
When you buy graved salmon it comes with a small package of dressing, otherwise use the upper one. Dress the salmon.
Make the dressing for the salad, and get everything together.

Pineapple Cucumber Salad

This is one of the party salads, that are so good to eat on days with very hot weather. Today we had a start of a 3 day summer period with 30 C, so I decided to make it.

It is not for vegetarians, even if the name hints it. It is mixed with chopped cooked prawns and ripped buffalo mozzarella. But if you have the vegetarians on the party, just leave that out.

recipe:
one long cucumber
1/2 fresh pineapple
1 bunch of dill
2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp rapeseed oil
salt and pepper
125 g cooked prawns
1/2 ball of mozzarella

Chop all the ingredients and make the dressing.  Serve it cold.

Char baked in paper with fennel and dill

The 2. dish from the Icelandic food magazine issue. Bake the fish on the BBQ or bake it in the oven. Both works fine.

recipe for one package:
1 filet of Char
1 small bulb of fennel
3 stalks of dill
the white  and light green part of a spring onion
1/2 lemon
1 tbsp Pastis or use Noilly Prat
1 tbsp  olive oil
salt and pepper
50 g samfire

take the fish bones out of the filet
take off the skin

season it and cut in half
Chop the fennel and the sprin onion into small rings
rip off the dill fonts

Preheat the oven 180 C
Use baking paper, without silicone if possible, and fold it double.
Place the fennel in  the middle and both pieces of seasoned fish on top.
Add the onion rings and the dill and use juice, alcohol and oil to make it moist.
Close the paper and turn the ends.
Bake for 10 minutes.

Serve with a samfire salad - just pepper, lemon juice and olive oil as a dressing.

Duck and Barley Salad

I bought a duck leg last week in France and planned it for a meal this Sunday. But that was the only thing I had planned out. What to do with it, how to cook or serve it, was unknown. Since Friday I shuffled a couple of ideas around in my head - cook it with some lentils, have it with a dark gravy and some roasted potatoes, but inspiration  struck this morning: make a salad.

I checked for my different kinds of lentils and found a package of French orge perlé in my cupboard, the large size ones. Duck legs with barley it was. How to prepare it was the next question. A tasty salad came to my mind, because I have some rocket, tomatoes and different herbs sitting around.
That was a great idea, and I put the duck leg in a pan of Montfort Graisse de Canard sitting in Jars in the fridge and confied it.

For fresh herbs- I have an abundance sitting on my balcony - about 35 pot until now - and 7 tomato plants (it is like a jungle out there). I have thrown pineapple mint, dill, chives and daikon cress in. And I watched Sunday Sortedfood fridgecam video this morning and for an UMAMI flavour, Noori seaweed is a must, I shredded a quarter of a sushi sheet as well.

recipe:
1 duck leg
1 jar of Montfort Graisse de Canard
150 g large pearl barley
750 ml chicken stock
5 red cherry tomatoes
5 yellow cherry tomatoes
2 spring onions
50 g fresh rocket
3 stalks of dill
1 stalk pineapple mint
1 tbsp chopped chives
1 tbsp daikon cress
1/4 sheet of Noori

dressing
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
5 drops Chipotle Tabasco
1 tsp Agave syrup
2 tbsp cider vinegar
3 tbsp rapeseed oil
a good pinch of bacon salt
a couple of rounds of mixed peppers
2 tbsp water
1/4 sheet of Noori

In a pan melt the duck fat and insert the leg and cook it on low heat for 1 hour, turning it every 10 minutes.
In a pot heat up the chicken stock and cook the barley on low heat for 25 minutes, drain and set aside to cool.
Quarter the tomatoes and cut up the spring onions. Wash and cut off the long stems from then rocket,  no one ones to have them  between their teeth!
Chop the herbs .
Pull the meat off the duck leg and cut it into small pieces.
Bring everything together in  a bowl and make the dressing.
Let it sit for 30 minutes before you serve it.

It goes great with a glass of dry white wine, the same kind you would drink with some  Fondue or
Raclette.