Pomme Aligot with scrambled eggs

Donal Skehan recently posted a YT video with these cheesy potatoes. They were very creamy and he served them with bacon. That is fat on fat.

I made my own way of this recipe. Basically cheese fondue with mash.

My method is different from Donals. I used the Thermomix and cooked the potatoes in the basket, after I shredded the 2 cheeses.

I bought 2 kinds of cheese. Gryere as the main cheese and a saffron cheese from a 100km north situated cheese barn. They offer cheese making seminars and I am thinking about taking a course. The next 6 month are sold out already.

If you like cheese fondue and like rich buttery potato mash, you are in for a treat.

Recipe for 3:
650 g potatoes
Salt, pepper and nutmeg
120 ml milk
40 g butter
150 g Gryere
80 g Saffron cheese

6 eggs
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp parsley
Salt and pepper

Grate the cheeses and set aside.
Peel and quarter  the potatoes and cook them until soft. Drain.
Put them through a potato ricer and warm up the milk.
Mix with butter,milk and cheeses until creamy and shiny.

Make scrambled eggs.  

I have a lot of the cheesy potatoes left over. You will see them in an other recipe again.

Burnt Honey Panna Cotta

It is Good Friday today and I am off work for the long weekend.

To have some dessert over the next days I made a new kind of panna cotta. It is a bit strange, because it only contains 200g of double cream. It is a lot lighter then others of its kind. It contains 200 g Greek yogurt.

I have a wonderful dark and intense jar of honey in use in the moment. It is from the region of Piedmont in Italy and is honeydue honey. It is called Miele de Melata di Bosco del Roero.
The honey gets caramelized to a even darker colour and the whole kitchen has this smell of nearly burnt honey. So good.

recipe for 8 small cups:
125 g honey
200 g double cream
200 g Greek yogurt
125 ml fresh squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp rum
3 gelatine leaves

Soak the gelatine in cold water for 5 min, squeeze out the water.
Measure 100 g of honey in a sauce pan and use a sugar thermometer, bring to a boil and reach about 180 C.
Get off the heat and add orange juice and rum, get back on the heat, bring to a boil and loosen the caramel.

Add the cream and boil again, take off the heat.
Add the gelatine and stir until dissolved,
If you have the same problem as I had and you still have some gelatine bits flowing around, use a fine sieve and pour the mix though.

Let it cool down until it starts to thicken. Stir some times.
Add the rest of the honey and the yogurt. Use a whisk.

Fill into cups and let it set.

Serve with some fruit.

Sweet Potato Buttermilk Soup

A creamy soup with crispy bacon and tasty prawns is a wonderful midweek meal.
The prep work is not intensiv. The cooking time is about 25 minutes.

I like to cook with sweet potatoes, but soups were not in my repertoire
until now.  Curry powder and sweet potatoes go nice together. Mostly soups like this are prepared with coconut milk. For a leaner version I used buttermilk.

Recipe:
600 g peeled sweet potatoes
100 g shallot
1 spring onions
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
500 g buttermilk
500 ml veg stock
1 tsp Java curry
1 tsp Anapurna curry
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt
Pepper
100 g streaky bacon
100 g prawns
Basil

Chop onions and garlic and cook them in olive oil for 3 min.
Put the sweet potato through a shredder and saute them with the onions for 2 more min.

Put in the spices and the liquids and bring to a boil, cook for 20 minutes. Use a stick blender and make a very fine creamy soup.
While the soup is cooking. Grill or pan fry the bacon. Dry on kitchen paper and toss the prawns into the baco grease.
Finish the soup with a little green leaves

Wiener Sausage Goulash

Wieners are so versatile. So many people love this sausages. Eating them with mustard is the best way.

I wanted to use up some veggies from last weekend and make the dish last for 2 days.

The sausages do not need much cooking time, so start the veggies and the sauce first. I served it with Basmati rice.

Recipe:
5 Wiener sausages
3 carrots
5 spring onions
1/4 bunch wild garlic
150 ml veg stock
60 ml Noilly Prat
4 tbsp ketchup
4 drops Tabasco
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp herbes de Provence


Clean and chop the veggies and let the wild garlic on the side for later. Cut the sausages.
Cook the rice.
In a wide pan heat up the oil and toss in onions and carrots and give them 5 min. Season.
Add stock and vermouth and close the lid and reduce the heat for 5 more min.
Add the sausages and the wild garlic and the ketchup. Cook a bit more until the carrots are no longer hard.
Serve with rice.

Monkey Milk

It may sound strange but Weizen beer mixed with sweet fruit juice is rather tasty.

There are many ready made mixes available at the stores. Most popular are grapefruit, lemon or cactus fruits.
Long before that you had to mix your drink yourself. In some bars and coffees the Monkey Milk came up. Banana juice was sold in bottles and that mixed with 2/3 rd Weizen.

If you like that sweet mix, give it a try.

Eating in a small restaurant in an historic building

About 20 km out of the city are many towns that have conserved some of their historic flare.
We went to Kalb'sches Haus in Reinheim.

The building was erected 1450 and is the oldest building in town. It was part of a complex with started in 1276. The house is beside the church and was used by the priests, later as a museum and since several years for events and as a small restaurant.

We were lucky to get a table since we did not have a reservation. The restaurant we wanted to go originally cancelled our reservation due to sick owners.

We had a nice salad as a starter. That was a good idea, the main course took long to arrive.

I ate Frankfurt Schnitzel with lots of good herby sauce. The recipe for this Hessian classic is on the blog.

My friend had beef rouladen, in Italian called involtini. Her husband had a grilled pork knuckle with sauerkraut and dumplings.

Food quality was very good and we all enjoyed it.

Puy Lentils on wild garlic leaves and roasted carrots

The dish is served with a goatcheese cream with fresh thyme. You can prepare it vegetarian, but I had about 40 g of cooked smoked bacon bits in the fridge from the pasta dish the day before.
Lentils and bacon go great together. They went in to give some flavour just 5 minutes before the lentils were done.

The lentils went absolutely well with the fresh leafy wild garlic. The time has started here in Germany and they sell it at the supermarkets since last week. The fresh garlic taste without the aftermath of stinky breath is great.  The red onion rings went into boiling water for 30 seconds.

Recipe for 2:
100 g Puy lentils
40 g cooked smoked bacon
1 small red onion
1 tsp veg stock
750 g mixed coloured carrots
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp baharat seasoning
2 tsp zaatar
Salt and pepper
150 g creamy goatcheese
150 g liquid creme fraiche
Fresh thyme
Fleur de sel and pepper
2 tbsp Mango vinegar
40 g wild garlic leaves

Wash the lentils and in 3 times the amount water cook them without salt. After 30 min add the bacon and the veg stock and finish the lentils. Do not let them get mushy.

Peel the carrots and half them. Mix in oil and seasoning and put in the oven at 180  C for 25 min. Turn after 15 min.
Mix creme fraiche and cheese and add thyme and seasoning.

Peel the onion and make fine half rings
Wash thewild garlic and cuf the leaves into 3 pieces, discard the white stems. Place them on a wide plate, scoop the lentils out of the liquid and layer on top. Et the carrots over them and sprinkle with mango vinegar. Add the onion.
Fill the cheese dressing in a bowl and serve seperately.

Courgette Risotto with Edamame Beans

A quick way to get a tasty risotto without any stirring in a pot.
The risotto gets wonderfully creamy and does not stick to the bottom of the pot.

The solution to a quick midweek meal without much hassle and some free time is my Thermomix.
It makes great risottos and you do not taste and see a difference to the ones you stir in a pot.

The first step was to grate the cheese. Just drop the amount of cheese you want in medium cubes in the machine, close the lid and in 12 seconds on speed 8 you have your cheese. When you want it a bit finer, just increase the speed and the time. Fill it in a bowl and set aside.
Normally you have to wash the cheesy remains out of the pot, but I just put in cubes of courgette to get grated too. That way it cleans the pot as it goes. You only need 5 seconds on speed 6 and then fill it in a bowl of later.

Now the TM31 was more or less clean and I added the garlic cloves and the rough chopped spring onions to give it 4 seconds on speed 5. I pushed it down in the pot with my spatula and added the first half of the butter. On Varoma and speed 1 I sauted that for 3 minutes.
I added the washed risotto rice and gave it on 100 C 2 more minutes on left drive. That way the rice does not get mushed. The  I added the wine and waited for 2 more minutes.

Heat up the edamame beans and shell them and season them with a little salt.

In the meantime I heated up my water and made a beef stock. I poured it in the TM31, just leaving about 10 % back for later.
Cooking on 100 C for 22 minutes on left drive and cooking spoon.
After 12 minutes the shredded courgette went in and cooked until the end.

Cut off the heat and through the hole in the lid get the butter, some pepper and some of the cheese in. Stiring constantly for 2 minutes. Add the beans.
Open the lid and pour it on some plates, you can add the cheese on top or just stir  it in before serving.  

Stuff your Face Cake

For a bunch of hungy coworkers it is a good idea to bake a large sheet cake.

The German name of the cake is:
"Fress mich dumm Kuchen".



Recipe:
150 g unsalted butter
250 g sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
3 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
250 g flour
150 ml strong coffee
250 ml double cream
1 package  cream stiff

Crumble:
100 g butter
100 g sugar
200 g almonds
100 g chocolate glaze

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs. Vanilla sugar and cocoa.
Follow with flour and baking powder. Last the coffee goes in.

Place baking paper on a 30x40 cm baking sheet. Pour the batter on top.
Preheat the oven 170 C.
Bake for 30 min.
Cool down completely.

Beat the double cream with the cream stiff powder.
Make the crumble. Do Not Bake It!

Spread the double cream on top.
Sprinkle the crumble over.
Spread the chocolate  over.

Some use buttercream instead of whipped double cream. But since I am not a huge fan of buttercream, the other choice is more to my liking.

Indian Food Truck Food

Our Food Truck Avenue has grown over the last week. An Indian Food Truck joined the lane.

This is the first time since my last trip to England that I eat Indian food from a food stall. I usually cook some at home

They are cooking different kinds of vegetarian and meat dishes from their large menu daily. The combination platters can be arranged different every day.

Today they had 4 different vegetarian offers and 2 chicken dishes and some lamb. The foodis served milder and hot versions of the dishes.
To cool down they serve some yogurt. If you like to your curries with bread instead of rice, they serve Naan bread.

It did not take long to fill up the booth with customers. A new lunch choice that I will use sometimes im the future again.

Tarte rustique forestière à la Raclette

I found the idea in my newest Gourmand magazine issue from France. "All recipes without meat".

The recipe caught my eye the first time I opened it and I had ready made shortcrust pastry and raclette cheese brought with me from France. I just needed to buy the fresh stuff on the next weekend.

They used mushrooms out of a glass. That is a no go kind of mushroom for me. If I can´t get fresh ones, I sometimes use dried mushrooms. But most of the time the big supermarkets have the basic ones that are cultured in cellars in stock. I bought white and brown button mushrooms and oyster mushrooms.

This recipe is very easy and economic, the pricey ingredient was the package of Raclette au 3 poivre, (with 3 kinds of peppers).  It just took about 20 minutes to prepare the stuff ahead. That is the time my oven needs to get to 200 C.

recipe:
1 shortcrust pastry
1 egg yolk
1 red onion
1 spring onion
3 cloves of garlic
30 g butter
200 g oyster mushrooms
250 g white and brown button mushrooms
1 tbsp whole grain mustard
6 slices of Raclette cheese
1 tbsp Parmesan
salt and pepper and thyme
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper

Chop the onions and garlic and start them in a large pan in butter while you clean and chop the mushrooms. They will need 5 min. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the mushrooms and on high heat cook them until they fall in and loose all the water. Add the chopped parsley and mix well.
Get of the heat and let it cool down 5 min.
Roll out the shortcrust pastry in the baking paper and spread the mustard all over.
Place the raclette cheese slices on top.
Leave a 1 inch ring free.
Pour the mushroom mix on top and fold the sides over. Spread some Parmesan on top.
Brush the outside rim with egg yolk.
Bake at 200 C for 30 min. Eat it hot.

Eating at a Turkish Restaurant

This is Turkish Restaurant Karagöz that is in business since 1987, now in second generation. It is a Theater Restaurant. In the same building is a small stage theater called Half 9 Theater. But that is not the only theater near by. Just across the street is the big city theater and opera house. The restaurant is packed 2 hours before the shows are starting.
We did not visit one of the theaters later, we just came here to eat. It is necssary to make a reservation.
Checking a menu in the internet is easy now and so we all new what we wanted to try.

We were a party of three women and shared a warm starter platter and a platter of mixed olives.
The warm starter had mixed sigarek börek with salad. 2 pieces were filled with spinach, 2 with feta and the others with a mild lamb mince and onions. The plate was huge and it took all our strength to finish it. We were not able to finish the olives.
Offering that warm dish as a starter is the best way to get people filled up before the main course even arrives. 

We had 3 different main courses, everybody could try the others. I love lamb meat and decided on Köfte, lamb meatballs served on thin flatbread.
Köfte meatballs usually are golfball to tennisball size. I was very surprised to get very small chunks of meat. No balls in sight. They were about an inch or less and looked ripped off a chunk of minced meat. The seasoning was good but they were cooked to their death. Dry and hard to chew. Beneath it was the thin flatbread cut into 1 inch quarters. That filled the middle of an oval plate. Left and right of it was much plain Turkish yogurt that had a little mild red sauce on top. The dish was served with a small side salad. I did not finish the dish, chewing all the hard meat was not to my liking.

My friend had a huge piece of yuffka pastry covered sheep feta with a big side of salad and the always present plain yogurt. The huge amount of cheese made it very heavy and we 2 others tried to help and ate sone of it and some of the salad.

The 3rd plate was called minced lamb meat grilled on a skewer and wrapped in thin flatbread. They took it off the skewer in the kitchen and cut it into wedges and arranged them around a plate with the yogurt and pieces of salad.
The seasoning of the meat was not so good and it was very dry in the middle.

All in all we had a nice evening. The food was a 2.7 out of 5. After we paid either hot apple tea or Raki was served.

The last time I was eating at a Turkish restaurant was a few years ago in Hannover in the red light district. The food and service at the Urfa Restaurant was a 5 out of 5.

St.Patrick´s Day Food

Happy St.Patrick´s Day to all you Irish folks and all other who love to celebrate this date.

I am a huge fan and celebrate it when I have the chance. A green sweater in the closet comes out on this day too. It is freezing here again after we had a week with a bit of spring feeling. But the Russian whip came back with lots of snow and icy wind gusts.

The breakfast started not with a full Irish breakfast, but with a ripe avocado on toasts and 2 poached eggs. A good way to start the day. Some green tea went with it.

Can you eat a vegan St.Patrick´s meal???  Yes, you can.

I am going out tonight to a Turkish restaurant and I checked the menu online already. I know what I will eat tonight and that is lamb. So I wanted something light and meatless for lunch.
It turned out vegan and was very tasty.

recipe for 1:
1/2 cup short grain rice
2 bay leaves
4 small spring onions
1/2 medium courgette
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Zaatar
1/2 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp Baharat
salt and pepper

dressing
1 bunch basil
1 bunch Japanese spinach
2 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tsp mango vinegar

Cook the rice with the bay leaves and the white ends of the spring onions.
Make the coarse dressing in a little blender.
Marinate the courgette slices.
In a wide pan cook the courgette discs and the spring onions together until done.
Place the rice on a plate and put most of the dressing on top.
Add the veggies and drizzle the rest over.  Enjoy!

As a dessert I prepared the German famous woodruff jelly. The taste is not known in other areas. Fresh woodruff is found in the forests here sometimes and it is very strong in smell and taste and it is slightly poisonous. It contains a little amount of cumarin. Nothing of this is in the dessert, it is made with aromas that have not seen any fresh plant.
The green stuff is not made with water but with a combination of apple juice and water, that makes a different taste.
I serve it always with vanilla custard.
The bowl is a Villeroy& Boch glass dish in black. I put a chunk of jelly in and it was literally gone in the black dish. I thought about taking an other dish. Then I tried adding a little custard and it worked.

Spaghetti with Spinach and Bacon

I am looking forward to ST. PATRICK'S DAY tomorrow.
To get into the mood I prepared that dish.
For so many years I celebrated this Irish holiday with my parents, my friends and very often with my coworkers. It started small and then went into a big event with lots of partissipants.
Now I just do it for myself.

It is fun to think about recipes and to check the amount of green foodcolouring in the house.
Since I found Pandanextract, getting something green is no longer a huge problem.
I needed some cream spinach for my dish tomorrow but there were only large packages of my favourite kind. So half of it went into the pasta dish today.

recipe:
150 g spaghetti plat
225 g frozen spinach with cream
3 slices of smoked bacon
50 g grated Parmesan
1 tbsp creme fraiche
nutmeg
salt and pepper
Fresh basil

Cook the pasta al dente.
The spinach is in frozen chunks and can be measured very easily. I took half of the 450 g package and added the creme fraiche and put it into the microwave until heaten up.
Cut the bacon into 1 inch pieces and brown it in a pan. Drain on kitchen paper. Pour the spinach in the same pan and add fresh grated nutmeg. Add the bacon and the fresh cooked pasta. Topped with cheese and basil.

Tonkatsu for Dinner

A German pork schnitzel is a nice piece of protein to serve. There are a so many ways to prepare it. Most cuisines have a some kind of schnitzel in there repertoire.
When I ordered it at my butcher, she asked me if I wanted it flattened and very thin.

I was looking at 2 choices: Italian Milanese Style or Japanese style.

I went for the Asian method. Easier and a little bit healthier than meat wrapped in cheese and egg crust in a heavy tomato sauce.

Recipe:
1 pork schnitzel
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
5 tbsp panko
Salt and pepper
Tonkatsu sauce
1/2 cup short grain rice
Ao Nori
Spinach
Garlic and spring onion
Nutmeg

Season the pork and season the flour. Bread it and in 1 cm oil hot oil fry it on both sides. Drain it on kitchen paper. Drizzle with Sauce.

Chicken and Potatoes

A very easy midweek meal. Just a short time to marinate the chicken while you cut the potatoes and peel the white navette or French root.
The time in the oven is best chance you have to do all the things you need after a long day.
Relax or take a walk or vacuum the apartment.
After a while the wonderful aromas from the kitchen will make your mouth water.

I had chicken thighs and just brushed them with smokey BBQ  sauce. The time that the oven needed to heat up was the time the meat rested in the sauce.
Red potatoes quartered, sprinkled with Baharat seasoning and some salt and pepper.

Butter, salt and pepper on top of the root.
40 minutes at 200 C.