Fish Roll at Gosch Restaurant

I spent a long weekend at the North Sea at Sankt Peter Ording. Eating fish or shrimp filled rolls was one goal.

Everybody recommended the Gosch Restaurant on the sea promenade or street food stall on the main tourist route.

Gosch restaurant is originally based on the island of Sylt. But branched out to lots of other tourist spots in Germany.

I love smoked salmon. The different fish options go from herring, baked fish filets and north sea shrimps. These are the tiny ones.
I was looking forward to my smoked fish stuffed roll.

Yellow Thai Curry with Prawns

The Thai Curry Paste was from the Dutch supermarket. Just the curry paste, a small package of fish sauce and a bag of coconut powder to put into hot water to get some coconut milk.

Just add prawns the the veggies you like. I used a small kohlrabi, some of my home grown tomatoes and some spring onions.  Last week I bought a kilo of sticky rice from Thailand. The whole package did overflow my storage container. That's why I ate the rest of the sticky rice with the Thai curry.

Ingredients:
1 package yellow thai curry including coconut milk powder and fish sauce
2 tsp coconut oil
125 g prawns
8 cherry tomatoes
1 spring onion
1 small kohlrabi
1 tsp agave syrup or sugar
1/2 cup rice
Pepper

Fry of the veggies in 1 tsp of coconut oil and set aside.
In the same pan in 1 tsp coconut oil fry off the curry paste for a couple of minutes.
Add hot water to the coconut powder, stir well and toss it in the pan.
Add the veggie mix and cook the prawns in the sauce!
Now in with sugar and as much fish sauce you like.
Eat over rice.

Broccoli Chicken Soup

It is always a bad time when the dentist pulls out a tooth. Several days to eat soft food is not something to look forward to.

When you have veggies and meat in the fridge, a good idea to prepare them and have them blended into oblivion is a challenge.

I had some chicken breast, a whole head of broccoli and some parsley roots to prepare.

Recipe:
150 g chicken breast
1 tbsp oil
2 spring onions
2 cloves of garlic
400 g broccoli
2 parsley roots
1 heaped tsp veg stock past1 stalk lobage
1 bay leaf
150 ml milk
Salt and pepper

Fry off the chicken pieces in some oil
 Add onions and garlic and give them 2 min.
Now in with the chopped veggies and the milk. Add about 450 ml of water.
Cook for 20 min.
Blend and enjoy.

Brussel Sprout Soup with Majoram

I checked the internet to see which herbs are going with brussel sprouts. I discovered that in the Flemish area of Belgium the sprouts were served in a white sauce with majoram.
That inspired me to add a bunch of fresh majoram from my balcony to my soup. Since brussel sprouts are not my usual veggie to eat, I would have gone with a bit of nutmeg or caraway. That works with all kinds of kraut, well cabbage.

The ingredients of this soup are pretty basic. Bacon goes good with almost everything. Onions, garlic and a chunk of potato are a good company. 

On my latest brussel sprout test run I had  about 400 g left over. They start to look less fresh when you leave them sitting around a day or too. The time for the soup was right.

Recipe:
300 g cleaned brussel sprouts
160 g peeled potato
2 red onions
3 cloves of garlic
35 g bacon lardons
3 stalks of majoram
1 tbsp organic veg stock paste
400 ml water
Salt and pepper
Oil
Sour cream for garnish

Let onions and garlic get some sweating time in the oil. Add the bacon and give that 3 min.
Now in with the rest and let it cook for 18 min.
Use a blender to make a creamy soup.
Put a dollop of sour cream on each.

Brussel Sprouts and Plaice

Brussel Sprouts are the only veggie that I hate since my childhood. But cooking and eating veggies from all over the world I sometimes try to give these sprouts a chance.
I am looking for methods to mask the strong farty cabbage flavour. Over the last couple of years I found some.

But one thing is the same with all these recipes, do not leave leftovers and reheat them. The brussel sprouts are stronger and the taste is back!

Yesterdays trip to a supermarket about 25 km from home - I was visiting friends there-  made me buy brussel sprouts. They were displayed like a pyramid and looked great. Since the season just started, I could not resist.
Checking many recipes and adding something more, I made a tasty veggie plate.

I served it with one piece of plaice. An easy fush that does not need much work. Just seasoning and a little flour and a knob of butter.

Recipe for the sprouts:
500 g brussel sprouts
50 g bacon bits
Salt and pepper
Ground coriander
Pinch of brown sugar
3 tsp maple syrup
2 tsp olive oil
Zest of half a lemon
1 tsp sunflower oil
1 tsp butter
1 tsp lemon juice

Heat up the oven 180 C fan.
Peel the outer 4 leaves off. The sprout should look light green now. If still darker, take off more leaves. Cut in halves.
Set them down on a baking dish, season, sprinkle bacon on top and drizzle maple syrup and olive oil over.
Bake for 20 min, then turn them and bake 10 min more.

Do not reheat them!

Plaice ready to cook:
Season, and flour the dark side. Use medium high heat. 4 min on the dark side, 2 on the other. Add more butter and lemon juice.

Nasi Goreng

The supermarket in the Netherlands offered lots of Indonesian spice blends.
Nasi Goreng is one of my favourite dishes since I was young. My Mom bought canned Nasi or Bami Goreng and reheated it in a pan until it became a little crispy. The whole family loved it. Spicy and salty aromas are still in my mind when I hear Nasi Goreng.

I bought a spice blend from Samasaya. The shrimp paste together with the other spices was all I needed to cook.
Rice, veggies and chicken, eggs and ketchup manis was all I had to get ready for the paste.

Recipe for 2:
1 1/2 cup Jasmine rice
250 g chicken breast
400 g mixed veggies
100 g frozen peas
2 eggs
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp ketchup manis
2 tbsp oil

Cook the rice or use rice from the day v
before.
Beat the eggs, put some oil in a large pan and fry the eggs. Get them out and set aside.
I used leek, broccoli, celeriac and spring oniond as my veggies. Chop them and fry thrm in the pan with some salt and pepper until done. Set aside.

Cut the chicken into small pieces, season and fry them in a little oil.

Add the paste and let it get some heat. Add a little water or stock. Now get the rice in and toss it well. Get the peas and the other veggies in and heat everything through with soy and ketchup manis.

Rip the egg into pieces and stir it in.

Spaghetti with Mushroom sauce

I went grocery shopping in the Netherlands. A 15 km drive from my holiday apartment and I crossed the border. ALBERT HEIN is one of the mayor supermarket chaines in the Netherlands. In Gennep was the nearest one for me.

Since my tiny fridge hampert me to buy a lot of stuff that needed cooling, I went for other stuff like sweet and savoury snacks, cassis drinks, wafers and Asian food.

What amazes me everytime I go to a supermarket there are the huge fridge walls containing all kinds of prepped veggies and foods.
When you go into a German supermarket, a huge display of fresh veggies and fruits greets you. Sometimes it is just so much, you will beed time to check it all out.  In the Netherland you will find 2 small display cases with veggies and fruits and you ask yourself, where is all the produce grown in this country?
Then you discover the walls of fridges.

I looked for a quick fix for lunch later and took a box of white button mushrooms. On the other side was a jar of Funghi Porcini sauce.

That was a good and easy dish. Just added some spring onions and garlic, roasted the mushrooms while the pasta cooked and finished the dish with the sauce from the jar.
It was a good idea to add the fresh mushrooms to the sauce. I did not find any pieces of porcinis in the sauce.

Spaghetti with mixed veggies and cheese

Cooking in strange kitchens with a small amount of ingredients and kitchen gadgets is always a challenge.  My first problem was the stove. No induction or gas, just standart. It took a long time to just boil a pot of water. The second challenge was the tiny fridge. Just one small shelve and a veggie drawer. Not much room to store food.
Since I have my kitchen travelling case with me, I have spices and seasoning available.

I only cooked a bit. This is unusual for me when I have an apartment. But bakeries in small towns had a lot of options to try.

In Kevelaer was a small Dutch cheese shop. They had an electric grater in the window. I went inside and bought a piece of Gouda picante and had it grated there.

I brought a small bag of my own tomatoes with me and bought mini bell peppers and spring onions at the supermarket here. Some cream cheese Tuscanny style and creme fraiche went into the shopping cart too.

That was enough for a decent dish.

Recipe for 1:
100 g spaghetti
50 g mixed cherry tomatoes
60 g mini bell peppers
2 spring onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp creme fraiche
3 tsp cream cheese flavoured
Salt and pepper
Chili
Thyme
Rosemary
Dutch grated Gouda picante

Cook the spaghetti in salted water, just 400 ml. That way you will get good starchy water for the sauce.
Chop the veggies and dtart with oil, onions and garlic. After a couple of minutes, add the veggies and season well. Cook for 6 min, add cream cheese and creme fraiche and loosen the sauce with the starchy pasta water. Check the seasoning and get the spaghetti in. Mix well. Sprinkle with Gouda.

Goose Breast with Cassis Madeira Sauce

On a day trip from my holiday home I went for a breakfast in a corner cafe in central Kleve.
A huge croissant and homemade strawberry jam and a pot of capucchino was served there. Then I went up hill to the Schwanenburg.

My next stop was Castle Moyland. Famous for its collection of art from Joseph Beuys.
A huge moat with water surrounds the castle

Next stop the city of Kalkar.
Now I was hungry and looked for a restaurant. On the market below the old city hall was the Ratskeller.

I started to write there, but then the food came. The WiFi was a lot better, then at the holiday home.

As a greeting from the kitchen came fresh hot buns with to bits of butter. The little loafs were so hot, I had to wait a couple of minutes before I was able to open them. With the ice cold butter, they were delicious.

My main course was goose breast in cassis sauce - or black currant and Madeira sauce. Served with braised red cabbage and cranberries and cooked apple slices. On a separate plate was a good amount of hand scraped Spätzle- little sparrows. Baked in butter after cooking.

That was a very fine dish and I needed a Williams pear schnapps afterwards.

When I left the restaurant I strolled around the huge market place and an Italian ice cafe called to me.
Since it was the first sunny day on my holiday, I sat outside in the sun and ordered one of my favourite dishes:  'Spaghetti Ice Cream´

That was a nice ending to a lovely day outside.

Chanterelles and Grapes on a Pancake

Finally out on a 6 days holiday. I am staying in the Lower Rhine region near the border of the Netherlands.

On the way to my holiday apartment I stopped in Xanten. This city is famous for the huge archeological Roman park. Due to the Covid19 pandemic only the huge park was open to see how the Romans lived. After a long walk through the park I was hungry and walked from there to historic downtown Xanten.

The centre of the city is the huge market place.

Outdoor seating is the must now and the weather was warm enough to do it.

I went into the Börse Restaurant. They had chanterelle mushroom week.
12 different dishes with these mushrooms.

Many were traditional dishes just button mushrooms exchanged with chanterelles.

One dish caught my eye: Pancake with chanterelles, white and red whole grapes.
The pancake came gratinated with cheese.

But the pancake was drenched in a Hollandaise sauce. That sauce was an convienience product and too much of it was not the best.

Korean Beef in the Slow Cooker

I wanted to use my slow cooker again. I
haven´t had a chunk of beef in a long time. Braising beef is time consuming and makes only sense when you have a bigger amount of meat.

The Korean beef is something I wanted to try for a long time. But during the summer heat it was not an option. Today we have only 18C and a cloudy Sunday.

The beef needed in the slow cooker 8 hrs on low. I wanted to eat some of it for lunch. I woke up 3:44 AM and went into the kitchen and put everything in the slow cooker. Last evening I prepared the ingredients, covered them and placed the sauces and jars around. I hopped back into bed at 3:55 AM. The smell that greeted me at 8 AM was subtle. It increased by the hour.

recipe:
1,3 kg braising beef -I used the Tafelspitz cut
3 cups beef stock
1 cup low sodium soy sauce
4 cloves of garlic
1 chunk fresh ginger
2 spring onions
3 limes juiced
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Sriracha

steamed Jasmine rice
Spring onions
sesame seeds toasted

Slow cooker 8 hrs on low.  Take it out and pull it apart and mix in some of the sauce.

There is a good amount of meat for the next couple of days.