Köfte

To get good lamb mince here you have to go to a Turkish supermarket. I wanted to make Köfte and needed a mix of beef and lamb mince. I was looking for freshly minced meat, not the packaged stuff. The butcher at the supermarket cut up some meat and let it through the mincer. Great quality. I found a seasoning package near the butcher ciunter and read the ingredients list on the back. It covered what the people on the channel mostly used and was not full of fillers and other stuff I am allergic to.

Since this is my first time to prepare Köfte, I watched a couple of YT videos to get some basic skills. I decided to prepare them in the oven.

Secret ingredient for fluffy Köfte: 2 g baking soda 1/2 tsp lemon juice for the amount of meat.

Recipe for 4:

250 g lamb mince 450 g beef mince, köfte seasoning package

1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 50 g milk soaked white bread, 150 ml water, hand full of parsley, pepper, pul Biber

Mix meat with the seasoning and drain the white bread. Use a fine grater for the onion, drain a lot of the liquid and press the garlic.

Add water and finely chopped parsley and with your hands mix it well for 5 to 10 min. Put into a freezer bag and store in the fridge for 3 hours minimum.

Take an ice cream scoop and make equal size balls. Toss them between your hands to get the air out and flatten them a bit. Put on baking paper.

Add peppers or veggies you like and put them on the baking tray as well.

Preheat the ocen 180C fan and bake for 20 to 25 min. Turning once in between.

Semizotu salatasi Tarifi or Purslane Salad

A very interesting taste. 

My new Turkish supermarket had a huge crate of green veggie bundles between parsley and green beans. All stuff had German signs hanging from above with the name and price. This crate had non.

The guys were still filling the shelves with fresh produce. They open at 8 AM and I was the first customer of the day at 8:08. The Boss told me he spotted that crate in the early morning at Frankfurt whole sale market but forgot the name. It took me a couple of seconds to identify the greens. Summer variaty of purslane. I only buy the finer winter ones during winter months. He told an other guy to write the German name on the sign before they start to forget it again.

Here in German cuisine this veg is almost forgotten. But there are lots of recipes on Turkish websites. One of them was the inspiration for my salad.

If you may not know summer purslane, it tasts a bit earthy like red beets and sorrel. It is very healthy and the summer type even has Omega3 fatty acids and lots of vitamin C.

A while after you have eaten the raw purslane you will feel the Oxal acid on your teeth. That is the same feeling when you have eaten rhubarb or sorrel.

Recipe for 1:

1 bundle of purslane, 2 tbsp vinegar

2 tomatoes, 1/2 cucumber, 1 spring onion, 3 tbsp nuts ( use walnuts if you have some) I used cashews.

Feta cheese or Buffalo Mozzarella

Dressing:

2 tbsp pomegranate syrup, 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp agave syrup, 4 tbsp olive oil, salt

Take all the leaves off the stems. They are too hard to eat raw. Put them in a bowl with cold water and add the vinegar. Let them sit a couple of minutes, then wash and dry.

Cut into small strips but keep 3 or 4 pieces whole for decoration. Put the salad together and top with the dressing.

Pasta with Liverwurst Sauce

Liverwurst or Leberwurst in German is a spreadable sausage for breakfast or cold supper. Most people love these sausages here. Even if several of those sausages do no longer contain liver. Important for this sauce is chunky liverwurst, not the creamy ones. Do not use Paté.

When I saw this sauce in a newspaper clip I was surprised that nobody made a dish like that a lot earlier.  

The preparation is simple. I added two green zebra tomatoes to my sauce fresh off .the vine. But you can leave them out or use any other kibd of veggie you like.

Important are the spring onions. They are a good contrast to the liverwurst.

Recipe for 2:

240 g short pappardelle

100 g chunky liverwurst - I used suckling pig liverwurst

2 spring onions, 2 cloves of garlic

2 green zebra tomatoes, olive oil, pepper, parsley.

Cook the pasta in good salted water. You will need a lot of spoons of the pasta water for the sauce.

Chop spring onions and garlic and get it started in the oil. After 3 min add the sausage and break it down, When it gets very thick, start adding pasta water spoon wise.

Chop the tomatoes and get them in too.

Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce, ground fresh pepper over it and finish with parsley.

Courgette with Saffron Butter and Mint Yogurt in Lavash Bread

4 down 1 to go!

I have a cookbook from Yotam Otolenghi. Some of his recipes are on Pinterest too. I saw one with grilled courgette and saffron butter on top of a plate of yogurt.

Since I bought a package of Lavash bread at my local supermarket, I wanted to wrap the courgette in the bread. I changed the recipe to my liking and I liked it very much!

The yogurt is made stable by warming it up in a stárch slurry. As long as you do not cook it, it wont split. The dried and fresh mint in the yogurt cream was a revelation together with the roasted whole coriander seeds and raw garlic. Wow!

Beurre noisette and saffron together are very tasty too. The only blank canvas was the courgette :-)

recipe for 1: 

1 medium courgette, 2 stalks fresh mint, 1/2  lemon, 2 cloves of garlic, 

2 heaped tsp potato starch, 100 ml water, 300 ml Greek yogurt, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp toasted crushed coriander seeds, 1 tsp dried mint, salt, pepper,4 slices lavash bread, 40 g butter, 1/4 tsp saffron

Toast the corinander seeds in a dry pan. Put it in a pestel and mortar and add the garlic cloves and crush both together. 

Heat up the water with the starch, add yogurt and drop the temperature down to about 80 C. Add crushed coriander garlic mix, lemon juice, 1 tsp olive oil, dried mint and salt and pepper. Warm through and add the strips of fresh mint leaves.

Use a griddle pan and quarter the courgette. Get the soft part out and brush with oil. Grill on all sides, to get it soft, add water and a lid and let it cook.

In the pan where the seeds were in melt the butter and brown it and add saffron.

Warm up the lavash bread and combine.

Cheese topped with roasted Veggies and Chicken

The Swiss Chef Meta Hiltebrand made a similar dish. That was the idea for my try. Courgette was a mayor part of my dish.

I used the air fryer for a double portion of veggies. No need to heat up the oven. It cleans quickly too. I used to different peppers. One red bell pepper and one long green pepper. That was from a new Turkish supermarket, just a 1/2 mile from here. It opened 2 weeks ago in a former large Asian buffet style restaurant. That closed down due to covid-19 and went out of business. The supermarket is a better choice for me. 

Recipe for 2:

6 slices mountain cheese, 2 small chicken breast, 1 courgette, 1 red bell pepper, 1 green long pepper, 1 parsnip, 1/2 red onion, parsley, olive oil, herbes de Provence, salt, pepper, Pul Biber

Cut the veggies in large chunks, season and toss in oil. Put in the air fryer at 180C for 25 min and shake the basket twice.

Lay out the cheese carpaccio style on each plate.

Season the chicken breast and in a little oil cook it in a pan.

Put the rosted veggies on top of the cheese and set a piece of chicken on top. Finish with parsley.

Rice and Egg Soup -Congee Style

Call it leftovers getting a new shine. This time in an Asian version.

I had congee the first time during a long stop over at Dubai airport due to lousy weather. I had no idea if it was typical, but being hungry saved me from thinking about it. Later I tried a version at home and it was good.

That was the inspiration I had when looking in my fridge during a 30 min lunch break.

Cold Basmati rice, egg whites from the Aioli from Saturday, veg soup stock base, ayvar. Behind me on the counter were some spring onions sticking out of the mug with water in it. Still looking good.

For a little crunch I took 5 salted Tortilla chips and crushed them between my hands.

For a bit more seasoning I added some Ayvar and a dash of soy sauce.

For a quick lunch break that was a nice meal

 

Courgettes and Shallots pickled

2 down, 3 to go! 

On an English website I found a recipe for bread and butter pickles - made with courgettes. I love all kinds of pickled veggies and this caught my eye because the ingredients for the pickling liquid were going in the Indian cuisine. 

I added and changed ingredients as always. 

The best way to get thin slices of courgette and onions is a mandoline. Be careful with your fingers.

Recipe for a 700 ml jar:

450 g courgette, 3 shallots, 2 tbsp salt, 500 ml ice cold water

1 tsp ground mustard powder, 1 tsp tumeric, 1/2 tsp chili, 140 g sugar, 1clove, 3 juiniper berries, 3 allspice berries, 3 tsp white balsamic vinegar, pinch of salt, 500 ml water

Slice the courgette into 2 mm rounds. If you have a larger one, quarter it and take out some of the seeds. Sluce the shallots. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle the 2 tbsp salt on top. Mix well and add the cold water. Let it sit for 1 hour. Drain and wash the salt away.

While the courgette and onions are soaking in the brine, use a small sauce pan and make the pickling liquid. Let it simmer for 4 to 5 min, then cool it down a bit. 

The courgette does have a lot of water. Press out some of it and put it in a clean jar. Fill the jar with the pickling liquid and close the lid. When the jar is down to room temperature, put the jar in the fridge for 3 days before you start eating the courgettes.

It keeps in the fridge for month when you use clean utensils to pick something out.

Courgette stuffed with Bacon and Cheese

If you do not have a garden you are prone to receive surplus courgettes from your friends. It can get crowded in your veggie drawer.

I am looking for new ways to prepare them. But that gets harder year after year. The basic soups, zoodles and meat filled ones are so yesterday.

In an organic advertising flyer I found the idea for this recipe. But the ingredients had to be changed to my preferences. But that is a nice way to have a courgette.

Recipe for 1:

1 medium to small courgette, salt and pepper

Spring onion greens, parsley leaves, strong mountain cheese slice, Panchetta, 3 tsp creamy goat cheese, oil spray

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Use an oven proof dish. Cut 0,8 mm wide slices deep into the courgette without cutting through it. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut cheese, Panchetta and onion in stuffable pieces and stick them between the cuts. Top with goat cheese and spray with some oil. Bake fir 30 min.

I served it with Basmati rice and home made Ayvar.

Fig Jam with Gin

It is fig harvest time. My tree gets bigger and the amount of figs increased since the last time I made jam. Last time I had to add store bought figs to have enough for 4 jars. This time I have figs left to eat the next days and there are some more on the tree. 

You will need some liquid to loosen the blended figs. I used orange juice and the juice of one lime.

Recipe 4 jars:

775 g figs, 1 lime, 75 ml orange juice

1 tsp vanilla paste, 4 tbsp Gin, 

300 g 3:1 sugar with pectin

Top an tail the figs and quarter them, in a food processor blend them in a fine mash. Add juices, vanilla and sugar and blend again.

In a pot bring to a boil, stir constantly, let it boil for 4 min, add the Gin and fill into clean jars.

Pizza with Figs, Gorgonzola and Panchetta

This time I used 18 hours to prove the pizza dough. I have to beat the fig harvest from my tree outside. This years monsoon weather has improved the harvest and the tree is hanging full of fruits. This pizza is a good way to get rid of some.

Figs are doing well with strong cheeses. I am using gorgonzola and fresh mozzarella. A nice salty taste comes from the panchetta.

I am using some of my grown tomatoes for the base. This years harvest is the worst I gad in 8 years. They are in the open unprotected and this monsoon season took their toll. Many tomatoes just rotted on the vines. I hope, next year will be better.

Recipe for the dough:

225 g AP flour, 25 g semolina duro, 3 g salt, 15 g fresh yeast, 1 tbsp olive oil, 130 ml water

Topping:

5 tomatoes, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp dried oregano, 8 parsley leaves, pinch of salt

65 g mozzarella, 50 g gorgonzola, 50 g panchetta, 5 figs, pepper, parsley

Heat up your oven to the highest temperature possible. Mine only goes up to 250C.

Use a sheet of baking paper and sprinkle a bit of semolina op top. The dough should be out of the fridge at least 2 hours now. Beat it back and get it out of the bowl and spread it out by hand on the baking paper. It does not shrink back.  

Put tomatoes, oil, salt, oregano and parsley in a blender and give it a whirl. Spreaf on top of the dough and leave a bit off the side. Rip the mozzarella in small pieces and place all over the dough. Now rip some panchetta apart and spread it out. 

Top and tail the figs and quarter them. Cut the gorgonzola in small chunks. All on top and season with pepper. Brush some oil around the edge.

Bake for 11-13 min. Place fresh parsley on top before you serve.

I usually eat seldom pizza crust. But this was so good.