Pink Pomelo and Red Cabbage Asian Slaw

My weekend grocery shopping ended in a basket full of veggies and fruits.

I found a bright purple pointed cabbage. A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe abou
 the white veriaty that was roasted until black on the outside. But that recipe only makes sense when you have a white inside. Dark purple does not have the same contrast.

I needed an other way to prepare the cabbage. I decided to have a fruity Asian slaw.
I saw a Chef prepare a fruity salad with a pomelo and some sprouts.  That idea stuck to me. I found a pomelo and discovered that it was a pink one the moment I opened it.
The other thing I discovered was a rather dry pomelo. It worked well with the salad, but I had a good amount leftover to eat later. Not juicy at all.

Mixing the dressing with sweet chili sauce and dark sesame oil and vinegar was a great idea. Just a bit of salt and pepper and the dressing was ready.

Recipe for 2:
4 red pointed cabbage leaves
1/3 pink pomelo
1 spring onion
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp Sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp agave syrup

Cut the cabbage in very fine strips, discard the hard parts. Put it in a bowl and pour boiling water over it and let it sit 90 seconds. Drain and get a good amount of salt in the bowl. Let that sit 10 min and then wash the cabbage again.

Peel the pomelo - look surprised that it is pink- or use a yellow one. Get the filets out of the skin and put 1/3 in the salad.

Add onion and parsley and make the dressing.

Kohlrabi fries or chips with dip

Home Office cooking is still going strong. Eating your vegetables is still on the agenda.

When buying veggies for the whole week, you can´t say in the beginning what you will going to cook. Grocery shopping for veggies these days even has some surprises. Not all stuff is available or veggies in season are rare, because the transport from other countries is slow due to closed borders.
Grab what you can get and think later about a way to use them.

I did that last week and ended up with a huge ball of kohlrabi. I love to eat it raw, but my mind was craving something more then a salad. I wanted some French fries or chips (GB) and eat the kohlrabi with it. Then I looked at the huge piece of veg  and thought, why not, make this on in the way of French fries.

It works well with sweet potatoes, so why not with that kind. I peeled it and cut the ball into 1,5 cm slices, cut these in to sticks.

In a bowl add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 heaped tsp potato starch, mix in smoked paprika, dried parsley, gilled masala powder or curry powder and salt and pepper.
Use baking paper and spread the sticks out that they don´t touch.

Bake at 180 C fan for 20 min.

dip:
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
2 tbsp kewpie mayo

These are veggie sticks you will love!

Banana Nut Bread

Donal Skehan baked this aunts favourite banana bread and added chocolate chips.

That let me think when the last time was I baked my favourite banana nut bread. Not since December 2015. That is the moment this blog started.

My favourite recipe is from my vacation in Alaska in Mai 2006. My friend an I were on a car tour through Alaska and stayed in many B&B´s. We spent some days at Denali National Park and had a B&B in Healy. A lovely old couple in their late 70´s to early 80`s managed it.
At breakfast time warm and tasty banana nut bread was on the table every morning.
Pat told me that grocery shopping happened only every two to three weeks. Each way to and back from Fairbanks took 2 1/2 hours. They always shopped in bulk. Bananas lasted fresh the first week then started to get soft, then dark. That was the moment Pat baked up to 5 loafs of banana nut bread for her guests. This bread lasts in the fridge for a week. She only used vanilla extract and cinnamon.

I just added more spices and chocolate chips to her recipe and reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup.

recipe:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1/2 tsp mixed spice
pinch ground vanilla
115 g butter unsalted and soft
2/3 cup of sugar
3 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tbsp milk if needed

Preheat the oven 180 C
Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Dry toast the walnuts in a pan.

Cream butter and sugar together. Whisk eggs and vanilla extract together.
Mash the bananas. Put all this together.
In a bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices together and pour into the wet mix. Fold in with a spatula.
Pour in the  baking dish and bake for 55 min.

Let it cool on a wire rack. wrap in foil and store in the fridge.

Cinnamon Banana vegan Cake in a Mug

SortedFood issued a challenge last night. Since all of the guys are in self isolation at home, they are live on Instagram each afternoon at 4:30 pm British time.
I watch them at 5:30 pm here in Germany.

Two days ago the theme was mug cakes. One was looking good, the other was a 5 out of 10.

I am not a huge fan of these cakes. There are lots of instant packages out in the market that taste just horrible. Many years ago I made one my own, but did not realise that the recipe was for 2 mugs and I made a huge mess in the microwave.

I checked some recipes and made my own version later.

That warm cake out of the mug tasted awesome.

Recipe:
4 heaped tbsp flour
2/3 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp banana juice
Pinch of salt
Some flour for the work top
Oil for the mug

1 tbsp coconut flower sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp banana juice

Make the batter, it should not be too soft.
Get it on the work surface and spread it.
Mix coconut sugar and cinnamon and cover the batter with it.
Take a cake scraper and roll the batter up.

Oil the mug and put the batter in.
At 800 w it takes 90 seconds in the microwave

Mix icing sugar and banana juice and put on the cake,
Enjoy while it is warm.

Cauliflower - colorful

I have to get used to this different times, sitting at home, working in home office and just buying groceries once a week. And not getting what you have planned because people stock piled various goods. Not only toilet paper and pasta are a hot commodity, but flour, baking powder and yeast are gone.

When you see people stock pileling regular flour without anything else and you asked them what they want to make with it, they all say they want to bake bread.
They do not look as if they ever baked bread and with the all purpose flour the result will we not so good. For the last days flour is down to one pack a person in most grocery stores.

But fresh veggies were in lots of veriaties sold. I found a small pack with two little heads of cauliflower. I had to look twice, because one was dark purple.

I grabbed a lot of different veggies and the colorful cauliflower.

I cleaned them and put them in the steamer for 20 min.

Serving them with freshly butter roasted breadcrumbs and nutmeg.

Home Office Food

Working from home can be a challenge. Sitting not far from the kitchen and not a lot time to cook or eat.
Taking 30 min lunch time in consideration, things that go fast are the answer. Little helpers are needed. But looking for good quality is still my goal.

My veggie drawer in the fridge was nearly empty. Just a package of large green beans was sitting there. They lasted there a while but were still in great shape.
Just taking both ends off and cutting them into
bite size chunks was all the work needed.
They cooked 15 min in boiling salted water.
One halve of it went into a tupperware container for some salad in the evening.

The other was combined with fresh (store bought) tortellini. They were filled with quattro fromagi. Since a good veggie stock is the base to cook the tortellini, I dumped the cooked beans and 4 tbsp of creamy cheddar cheese spread into the broth too. A spring onion came next and fresh ground pepper. Very tasty.

The other day I had to go to the office early in the morning and took the opportunity to grab some fruit and lots of veg on the way home at Lidl.
A package of frozen cream spinach too.

My lunch was a package of thawed spinach, cooked in onion, garlic and bacon bits. This nice combo was crowned with tagliatelle pasta and Parmigiano Regiano.

Hummus with fresh herbs and white beans

And a secret seasoning.

The herbs on my balcony have all lived through the winter and are thriving 3 weeks ahead of time. Since last I week I started harvesting fresh chives, celeriac leaves, Pimpinelle, parsley, thyme, rosemary and tarragon. The colored leaves of the bloodlamp are especially nice to see in dishes.

In my cupboard are some cans and jars of beans. Small white ones out of the jar are very soft. Cooking with them is a challenge because they are soft and nearly mushy already. Best use them in salads or creams. Hummus is a good way to use them too.

What is the secret seasoning you asked?

On AMAZON they sell stuff from the US grocery chain "Trader Joe´s". I found the "Mushroom Umani" seasoning there. A little goes a long way. Nobody will know what that round flavour comes from. I also bought the "Everything but Bagel" seasoning. But it is not in this hummus.

The preparation is easy. Just chuck everything in a blender and give it a good mix. Taste for seasoning and adjust to your own taste.

recipe for 4:
480 g small white canned beans without the liquid
4 tbsp tahini paste
1 large lemon
60- 80 ml rapeseed oil
mixed herbes
dried parsley
granulated garlic
black and white pepper
fleur de sel
Mushroom umami

Red Beets Carpaccio and Herring

This is a combination I love for all my life. My Grandma made salad with the basic ingredients all the time and I grew up with it.

But this is Grandma´s Salad 2.0

I was looking for a starter for my dinner date with friends this weekend. I found this recipe in my scraps of different recipes.

Use freshly cooked beets if you get them. Then you are able to check how soft you like them. I had to buy precooked ones, the fresh beets were not available. Use young herring, it is called Matjes here in Germany. They are very soft and light in taste. They match very well with the other ingredients.

recipe for 3 as a starter:
250 g Matjes herring
300 g red beets
1 large shallot
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
100 g sour cream
30 g mixed fresh herbs or dill
1/2 lemon juiced
1 tsp agave syrup
salt and pepper
30 g pumpkin seeds

Cook the beets and peel them and cool them down. Slice them in thin discs.
In a small pan roast the pumpkin seeds without oil. Season them with salt.
In the same pan heat up some oil and toss the halve onion rings in and saute them until soft and light brown. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the sugar over and let it caramelize. Then pour the vinegar in and let it cook down. Cool down.

Mix the sour cream with lemon juice, fresh chopped herbs, agave syrup and salt and pepper.

Use a large plate and fan the red beet slices out. A bit of salt on top of them helps.
Pat the Matjes herring dry and cut them in 1 inch pieces. Get them on top of the beets.
Put the onions in between the herring pieces and pour sour cream dip in the middle.
Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.

White Chocolate and Egg Liqueur Mousse

This something to pick up the spirit in these Corona times.

Working in Home Office now since Thursday and staying away from people is a huge cut that everyone has to make to reduce the infection rate. The light rain of a late winter day will hopefully tell the people to stay indoors.
#staythefuckhome

I had planned to have friends over this weekend. We planned that in the beginning of February. There was no sign that the Corona situation could worsen this much.

The dessert plan was this Mousse. The ingredients were at home already.
Since the spring temperatures have dropped last night considerably, I can put my dessert on the balcony to cool down.

Preparation is easy and you only need 3 ingredients:
400 g double cream
100 g egg liqueur
200 g white chocolate


Beat the cream only to soft peaks.
Over a bain marie or in a Thermomix melt the Chocolate in the liqueur at medium temperature - only at 60 C.

Pour the melted mix in the cream and stir. Fill in dessert jars and chill a couple of hours.

Brussel Sprouts & Pasta

Brussel Sprouts - my all times hated veggie.

I hate that since I was a little kid. But after so many trips to foreign countries, I am open to all kinds of veggies.

I read about a cooking method for brussel sprouts in one of my recipes scraps.
An Austrian chef was cooking the sprouts in salted water with a good heap of sugar and some tbsp of milk. That sounded interesting. Several kinds of cabbages can be cooked in the same way. That takes away the farty smell.

I bought 500 g of brussel sprouts. I wanted to try the cooking method with just a few sprouts. I had some leftover Ramen noodles, a stack of Salami slices and some cheese. A weird combination with brussel sprouts.

Cook the brussel sprouts for 10 min. Drain and wash the sprouts.

Use a bit of butter  and start with the chopped salami. Next chuck the cold cooked ramen in.

Now in with the brussel sprouts. A bit of salt, pepper and nutmeg.


Some melty cheese wedges to top it. Let the cheese melt in.

Sweet Potato, Carrot and Turkey- Indian Curry

My coworker microwaved a bowl of food during lunch break. I came into the kitchen and it smelled wonderful and delicious. I asked him what it was and he told me sweet potato, carrot and lots of ginger and tumeric. Something healthy to fight the corona virus. But the dish was not vegetarian. A couple of sausage chunks were sticking out of the plate.

That inspired me to cook my own dish. Sweet potatoes, carrots and ginger were sitting in my veggie drawer of my fridge, ready to go. On the way home I bought some turkey breast and developed my own recipe. I found some galangant in my fridge beside the ginger and used that too.

What goes with the base ingredients? Indian curry sounded good. Now I added mustard seed oil to the pan with some brown mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and chili flakes to the oil.

Bite size pieces form the meat, seasoned with salt and pepper went in after the seeds popped. The meat went white all around. But was not cooked fully. Out in a bowl until later.

Then I took them out and put the base in.
The base was a fine mix of onion, garlic, ginger and galangant. I fried it off in a little more oil.

Chunks from carrots and sweet potatoes followed, seasoned with salt and pepper.
250 ml of chicken stock next.

I cooked it for 10 minutes, then added the turkey chunks and cooked it 10 min more.
Now the sweet potatoes were soft, the carrots had still a good bite.
180 g Greek yogurt finished the dish with a lot of parsley.

ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes
4 carrots
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
30 g ginger
15 g galangant
400 g turkey breast
180 g Greek yogurt
3 tbsp mustard oil
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp chili flakes
salt and pepper
parsley
250  ml chicken stock

Pide - a Turkish staple food

Kiymali Pide Tarifi

I eat Pide sometimes when I go during lunch to the Turkish food truck. But since I mostly cook myself, my trips to our food truck row are rare.

The Pide there is mostly bread and just a tiny amount of filling. I thought, I could do better.

First I checked a couple of YT videos. Some in German, other in Turkish. I took ideas from all of them. The filling is completely up to your own preferences. There are ones with meat, spinach and cheese or with sausage.
Since I bought organic beef mince the other day. Meat it was.

The dough:
450 g flour
1 package dried yeast
270 ml warm water
2 tbsp Greek yogurt
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil

Make a soft dough and let it rise in an oiled bowl covered with a towel for 45 min.
Make 4 balls out of it and let them rest covered for 10 more min.

Topping:
400 g organic beef mince
2 Tomatoes
1 large onion
2 spring onions
3 cloves of garlic
5 green Spanish small peppers
1 red bell pepper
2 tbsp paprika paste hot
1/2 Bunch parsley
50 g Butter
cumin, paprika powder, thyme, pul biber, muscat, salt und pepper

1 egg yolk
Butter

In a kitchen blender shred onions and garlic. 
Then shred tomatoes and green and red pepper.
Shred parsley.
In a bowl mix it with the beef mince and put in the seasoning. Add the butter
and stir well.
Heat up the oven to 230 C.

On a floured surface roll long strips of dough. Place the topping on and leave a
2,5 cm space free all around.
Twist the ends together and lift and pull out a little.  The sides will come up.
But you can fold the sides up yourself and push the ends together.
Brush with egg yolk.
Bake for 30 min. After 10 min drop the temp to 170 C.

Brush with butter around when it comes out of the oven.