Spinach with Mushrooms

Eaten as a vegetarian main meal. But you can serve it as a side dish with some chicken breast or poached white fish.

It is a recipe from 3 star Chef Witzigmann.  Good locally grown veggies from a local store went into the dish. Now is the best time to buy that. No long ways of transportation and just fresh from the farm to the table.

At first the recipe sounds like a lot of work- due to the 3 star Chef. But when you are doing it in the way he recommends it, the work is done quickly.

Do use fresh spinach! The frozen one is good for many recipes, but here the leaves of the spinach should hold a little bite to it.

recipe for 2 as a side dish or for 1 as a vegetarian meal:
300 g spinach leaves
salt
40 g butter
1 large clove of garlic
80 g spring onions
pepper
nutmeg
200 g brown and white button mushrooms
1/4 lemon juiced
1 shallot
70 ml white wine
50 ml Madeira wine
Cayenne pepper
100 g double cream
1 egg yolk

Wash the spinach leaves and put them into a large colander. Heat 1,5 l  water in an electric kettle and slowly pour it over the spinach leaves. They will wilt.  Rince with cold water. Press a good amount of water out. Cut the spinach blob into some chunks.

Chop spring onions and garlic. Melt 20 g butter in a medium pan and put them in. Cook for 3 min, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and put the spinach in. Cook for 5min on low heat.

Clean the mushrooms and cut them into wide slices. Peel and chop the shallot. In the rest of the butter fry off the shallot and add the mushrooms. Cook them for 5 min and then season them.
Next in with wine and Madeira and let it reduce a bit. Get the mushrooms out of the pan and reduce the wine a bit more.Now in with the cream and cook it a bit. Turn the heat down and add the egg yolk to bind the sauce.
Now in with the mushrooms and the spinach mix and finish the dish with seasoning.



 

Potato and Liver Pate filled Pasta

Pasta served in sage butter and chili.

This is a dish of all things sitting around. They needed a purpose and I needed quick food on my lunch break working from home. The package of fresh pasta dough is still good to go. I have the impression that it grows more and more in the fridge. Even after using it for 2 meals now, there is still enough for more dishes. I have to google for more recipes to use it up soon.

Filled pasta is tasty, the often used ingredients are ricotta and spinach or cheese  and mushrooms or minced meat. I did not have any of the above at home.
Using mashed potato is something I encountered in Poland where I had Pirogi. Stuff filled with some kind of Paté is often found in France. Now combine these ingredients and you have my version.

I had to make sure that the filling was not too wet. That was the reason to use the microwave to cook the potato in its peel. It gets soft inside bit it is dry.

By adding just enough creme fraiche and a little cream to it, I made sure the mash still was very dry.
I chucked some spring onion greens and the liver paté in and seasoned it. The mix was not pliable enough. Now with the help of an egg yolk, it reached the right consitancy.

I cut 13 cm strips from the pasta sheet and used the egg white to go around the outside to help for sticking it together later. Two teaspoons of filling and the carefully folding it.

I made some in the form of tortellini and the rest just folded over. Both methods worked well. I stored them on some semolina to prevent them from sticking together.

Hot boiling water with a lot of salt. The pasta needed just a bit to reach the top and then 3 min to get done.

A pan with a good blob of butter,cooked until brown and two stalks of sage and some red chili took all of a couple of minutes. In with the pasta and the dish was done. 

Cauliflower Rice with Cheddar and Parmesan Sauce

What is summed up in the title is basically the recipe. Just a few minor things added.

From my cauliflower steak are both sides of the veggie still as florets in my veggie drawer. A quick food for this evening was on the agenda.
Cauliflower rice was a method I wanted to check out since I saw it on YT. But I had my lazy day and was not looking forward to a bunch of dirty dishes.

I used my Thermomix TM3.

500 g cauliflower
70 g grated Cheddar
25 g Parmesan
500 g water
Salt
Parsley
4 tbsp creme fraiche
Smoked salt and pepper

Put 2 chunks of Parmesan in the TM and on speed 8 for 6 seconds grate it.
Fill it into a small bowl.

Without cleaning the pot dump in the cauliflower and on speed 4 for 5 sec make a rice like grain, a big grain!


Fill it into the steamer basket and pour 500 g hot water and some salt in.
On Varoma speed 3 for 8 min.

Get the basket with the rice out and pour it in a bowl, keep warm.
Toss the water out, just keep about 60 ml in the pot.
Add both cheeses, seasoning, creme fraiche and parsley
On speed 3, heat 90 make the sauce in 90 sec.

Pour over the cauliflower and enjoy.

Chicken baked Louisiana Style

Chicken Casserole must be the dish to go to for a home cooked meal in rural Louisiana.
I am reading a couple of mystery books all playing in the Bayous south of New Orleans. Every couple of pages the chicken dish is mentioned.  Brought to mourners and sick people and eaten as comfort food.

I checked a couple of different recipes online. This one is based on a Pillsbury Kitchen recipe from 2010 with my own variations.

One thing is interesting. Usually in the deep South a combination of 3 veggies is used as a base to most dishes. The Holy Trinity of cooking there: onions, green bell pepper and celerey. Here is celery missing.

Recipe for a 40x25 cm baking dish:
5 chicken thights wuth skin and bone
1 green bell pepper
2 red onions
2 spring onions
1 banana shallot
5 cloves of garlic
Dash if oil
1 red chili
5 slices of bacon
1 1/4 cup longgrain rice
750 ml chicken stock
3 tbsp Worchester sauce
Several drops of Tabasco
1/2 cup flour
1 cup black eyed peas (beans)
Cayenne pepper
Smoked paprika
Salt and pepper
Herbes d 'Provence
Oregano
Masala

First step:
Peel and chop onions and garlic
Clean bell pepper and cut into bite size pieces
Chop chili
Cut bacon into 1 inch strips. In a little oil fry it all off for a couple of minutes.
Reduce the heat, season and add 50 ml chicken stock and 1 tbsp Worchester sauce and put a lid on and cook for 15 min.

Second step:
Use a large freezer bag and add flour and a good amount of spices to it.
Drop the chicken pieces in and coat them well.

Mix veggies, beans and rice in the baking dish and pour stock on top.
Set the chicken pieces in the pan

Cover with aluminium foil and stick it in the oven at 180C for 45 min.

Take off the foil and let it cook 20 more min intil the juices of the chicken run clear.

Cauliflower Steak with Capers and Lemon

Why not eat a slice of cauliflower like a steak or cutlett? This veg is often only used as a filling side dish without any special care to it.

Use a head of cauliflower that is wide enough to cut out the middle into a decent size of "steak".
This will help with the integrity of the piece. If small florets fall off, it is not a huge problem.

Store the slice in cold salted water for some time. Then take it out and season it very well.

Ingredients:
4 cm slice of cauliflower
1 lemon
1 tbsp capers
1 stalk of tarragon
1 chili
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oil
Salt and pepper
Piment d' Espelette

Heat up butter and oil and grate the zest of the lemon in. Chop chili, tarragon and capers and add them. Fry the cauliflower on both sides for 3 min. Then reduce the heat and put a lid on and cook it until the florets are tender.
Serve with the lemon butter and capers on top.

Lasagne with green beans and bacon

This combo might sound a little weird. But a good tomato sauce and some vegetables are often used in a dish like this.

So why not use green beans? I pimped them with some leek and a tomato. Adding a whole package of smoked bacon bits to it, pushed it into the Premier League.

Ingredients:
Sheets of fresh pasta dough
Homemade tomato sauce
150 ml Double cream
125 g Mozzarella
60 g ripe mountain cheese with herbs
30 g Parmesan
350 g green beans
2 stalks of savoury
1 carrot
100 g leek
2 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
150 g smoked bacon bits
Salt, pepper,chili, thyme

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Top and tail the beans, peel the carrot and cut it into slices, cut the leek and give it all a good rinse. Cook in salted water for 6 min, drain and put in ice water, drain again.
Peel shallot and garlic and put this with the bacon in a pan and fry for 10 min. Season and add the veggies.

Cut out the pasta sheets for your prefared baking dish.
Spoon a tiny bit of your freshly made tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish and start then with the first layer of pasta, veggies, sliced mozzarella and sauce.
Repeat 3 times and cover with pasta.
Now pour the cream over and a bit more tomato sauce.
Now cheese and more cheese.

Bake for 25 min.

Tomato Tart with Goat Cheese Topping

The last couple of days my tomato harvest increased from two hands full to a large bowl full a day. Since I am not allowed to eat  more then a few raw everyday due to my allergy, I need to cook a couple of tasty recipes.

Just preparing tomato sauce for the next winter is too boring, but will save me when I end the season.

I bought a package of puff pastry this morning.
First I baked some banana cinnamon tarteletts with the off cuts. They are the treat for later.

Ingredients:
Puff pastry
Some oil for the baking dish
As many different tomatoes as you can put in
3 tsp mustard
Greens from a spring onion
2 cloves of garlic
3 stalks flat leaf parsley
6 round pieces of cream goat cheese
3 tsp honey
3 tsp pine nuts
2 tsp olive oil
Piment d' Espelette
Pepper
Salt

Bake at 200 C for 20 min.

Bell Pepper Sauce

This is a sauce or dressing to go with all kinds of meat or fish. Or even with the vegetarian alternatives. The sauce can stay in the fridge for a couple of days to use for different dishes.

Chef Stefan Marquard made one with red long Hungarian peppers. I had a bag of yellow ones in the fridge. To get a little more color into the sauce, I used two fresh plucked off the plant "Mexican halapeñios".
Bright red! I cut off the tip to check how hot they were. Boring. They tasted like little snack peppers.

Ingredients:
500 g yellow peppers
1 shallot
1 clove of garlic
1 sprig of rosemary
Salt and pepper
Pinch of sugar
Pinch macis
1 tbsp tomato paste
100 ml Noilly Prat
200 ml red wine
75 ml olive oil

Chop all the veggies and put them into the pot.
No oil! But the seasoning.

Just cook them in Noilly Prat until the vermouth is gone. Add the red wine and cook for 30 min.

Put all of it, except the rosemary in a strong blender. Make a fine blend. Now add the oil and make an emoulsion.

Courgette into Pineapple

I watched YT again. EMMYMADEINJAPAN.

She used a green large zucchini and made some kind of dried fruit out of it by cooking it in pineapple juice.

Two weeks ago a friend gave me 3 large courgettes, one of them yellow.
The other two are already eaten. The yellow one stayed in the veg drawer of my fridge. Everytime I saw it, I thought: Not Yet, please.

Checking my dry store cupboard I found a can of pineapples. Since it is a hot and very humid Sunday, what else id better as to spent some quality time in a hot kitchen, grrr.

The recipe is easy, but you need a drier for veggies, fruit or meat. It will take uo to 18 hrs. to reach the final result.

1 large courgette
Pineapple juice
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 icing sugar

Peel and deseed the courgette. Cut it in bite size chunks.
Cook it in pineapple juice 8-10 min to get it translucent.
Add the caster sugar and cook 30 min more.
Drain and keep the juice in the fridge. Use it to make more.

Put the chunks on drying racks and let it run.
9 to 12 hrs.
Before you pack them away, toss them through icing sugar.

Berry Tarte

A great treat for a Sunday afternoon.

I was invited and had this cake. I asked for the recipe to share on my blog.

Recipe:
200 g flour
60 g sugar
150 g butter
Pinch of salt

Prepare the shortcrust. Put it in the fridge for 20 min.
Roll out the pastry and push it in the buttered 10 inch loose bottom dish and raise it around the edge.
Use a fork and make some holes.

200 C 20 min with baking beans.

300 g mixed blueberries and raspberries

3 eggs
60 g sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
150 g creme fraiche
Pinch of salt

Beat it to a cream and pour over the berries.
Sprinkle some brown sugar on top.

Bake at 175 C 40 - 45 min

Serve with some whipped cream

Tom Yam Gung

A THAI soup that is a well known classic. You can eat it in many restaurants.

The base of this dish was from a package I found in my local supermarket. AROY-D
It contained the coconut milk, red curry paste and seasoning package with dried chili, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves.

I bought frozen tiger prawns, a wild catch. Cleaning them showed the quality, large black innards to pull out and a strong shell.

Wide flat rice noodles were served in the soup.  The whole cooking time was 15 min.
But peeling and cleaning the prawns rakes an other 10 min.

To the dish I added 200 ml water, 1 tbsp palm sugar, more chili, 2 tbsp fish sauce abd juice of half a lime.

For extra veggies: 2 light yellow peppers and 1 small leek, sauted in coconut oil,  and a bunch of parsley.