Kimchi Pancakes

A ready to cook package of pancake batter and added kimchi found its way in my shopping cart at the Asian supermarket. 

I did not read the package correctly and thought that I had to add kimchi myself. The very bown up package of kimchi was for it. I had a feast and ate some of the very well fermented kimchi with my pancakes. Double kimchi, what's not to like.

These pancakes are so easy to prepare. Great during a lunch break while working from home. Just add water to the batter and rip open the second package and pour the kimchi in. Bake on each side for 2,5 min and they are ready to eat.

Next time in the Asian supermarket I make sure to stock up on some packages.

Chicken and Dumplings

A small Thanksgiving feast this year was a chicken dish.

I saw the idea on in a magazine. The recipe is from the South of the US. I orepared the chicken pieces the day before. Cooking them with lots of veggies and some veg stock. That made an excellent chicken stock later.

That was the base for the dish the next day. A rich stock with lots of juicy meat and some veg. 

Recipe for 3:

2 chicken legs, 2 drumsticks

1 tbsp veg stock base, 1 large carrot, 120 g celeriac, 60 g leek, 2 dried chilis, 2 bay leaves

Salt, pepper, parsley 

1, 5 l water

Dumplings:

8 tbsp flour

3 tbsp water

2 large eggs

salt, pepper, nutmeg

Cook the chicken pieces on low heat for 45 min. Take out veg and chicken and pour the stock through a fine sieve.

Keep the junk in the sieve for later

Skin the chicken pieces and put it in the sieve. Take the meat off.

Throw bones, skin and junk on the sieve in a second pot and add 1 l water. Cook for 1 hour and clear. Now you have more stock.

Cut the meat in bite size pieces, cut up the veg. Place both back into a pot and cover with stock. 

Stir the dumpling batter well. Boil water and salt it. Take 2 teaspoons and drop batter in the water. Let them cook 2 min. Scoop out anf place on hot chicken stew. Finish wuth parsley.

 

Chocolate and Beet Cake

I have a good friend over for a celebration tomorrow. She is lactose intolerant and has nut allergies. The usual desserts with lots of cream are out. But she loves chocolate cakes.

My dinner inspiration was all about red beets. I knew one of my favourite cook book writers made a recipe for cakes with beets. Nigel Slater. But I added a little to it. Since my baking dishes are mostly in storage at the moment, I had to bake two cakes. A cream frosting is out of the picture too.

Recipe:

260 g red beets cooked

200 g dark chocolate minimum 70 %

150 g butter + some for the baking dish

1 cup + 2 tbsp flour, pinch of vanilla

1 1/4 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt

3 tbsp red Cameroon cocoa

4 tbsp hot strong espresso

1 cup fine sugar

1 cup sugar, 5 eggs separated

Heat the oven to 175 C.

Blend the beets to a coarse mix.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa.

Over a Bain Marie melt the chocolate, add the espresso and cut up butter to melt. Add egg yolks stir well and add beets and vanilla.

Beat the egg whites to a froth, spoon 1 tbsp of fine sugar after another in the standmixer. Make a glossy merengue mix.

Fold it in the chocolate mix. At last add the flour mix carefully.

Use a 20 cm round springform. Paper the bottom and butter the sides.

Bake for 40 min until a skewer comes out clean. Let it sit in the dish for 30 min. Take off the ring and let it cool down before you take the bottom off.

White Chocolate Risotto with Grapefruit

To say it out loud I do not like white chocolate!

I am clearing the food storage in my old kitchen. Hopefully in 20 days the new one will come. The piece of white chocolate from a mousse recipe was left over. Since sweet rice was on the agenda, I thought why not. The pudding rice with the milk chocolate was yummy a while ago.

Sorry, not as yummy as I hoped.

It was a good idea to counter act the sweetness with the fresh grapefruit.

The risotto rice has a lot more body than pudding rice. It is not so smooth, but tastier. But you can use pudding rice. 

I used the Thermomix to cook the rice. It stirs constantly and does not boil over. Just  bring the basic ingredients together and let it cook for 22 min. Chuck in the white chocolatde to melt for 3 min, add lemon juice and egg yolk and finish wit stiff egg white.

Peel the grapefruit and top the rice with it. 

Sweet Corn and Cream Cheese Bake

My Thanksgiving food was divided for my lunchbreak and dinner. I wanted to try the oven baked creamy sweet corn since I found a recipe on Pinterest. But I had to break it down just for one and not prepare it for 6 people. 

I used the precooked vaccum sealed sweet corn. Frozen is not available here.

In a small pot I sweated butter and garlic for 3 min. I added milk and cream cheese, parsley, pepper, smoked paprika. When the cheese is melted put the sweet corn in to heat through.

Use a buttered baking dish and pour the mix in. Cover with grated cheese.

Bake at 175 C for 18 to 20 min.

Ingredients:

2 sweet corn stalks, 1 clove of garlic

3 tbsp butter, 100 ml milk, 80 g cream cheese, parsley

Pepper, salt and smoked paprika

Chicken Salad with Apple and Pecans

I fixed some chicken for Thanksgiving. The chicken legs needed to be cooked. I added two drumsticks to the pot and some veggies and cooked the chicken for 40 min.

Ingredients:

2 drumsticks cooked and the skin taken off after cooking

1 shallot, 3 tbsp cranberries, 1 apple with skin, 3 tbsp pecans, 1 tbsp parsley, 1/2 tsp chervil dried

1 tsp Dijon mustard, 3 tbsp mayo, salt and pepper

Cut everything in bite size pieces. Chop the pecans. Mix mustard and mayo together and season that with salt and pepper. 

Very tasty! The idea came from Pintetest.

 

Beef and Rice Stew Balkan Style

My family developed a soup like this but in a more traditional German style. That was my favourite since I was a child. Comfort food for me.

Today after work I went to the new Turkish supermarket. I needed to buy some stuff for my Thanksgiving dinner. So I picked up some freshly ground up beef. The nice butcher gave me the right mix of meat and a bit of fat. I loaded some veg and lots of parsley in my shopping bin.

I did not know what to cook with my beef mince and I sifted through ideas standing in the kitchen. Since I bought a new bag of rice at the supermarket, the family rice soup came up. But I was still a bit on Turkish food.

A fusion of many kitchens was the tasty result.

Recipe for 4:

375 g beef mince, 1 1/2 cups long grain rice, 2 spring onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp oil

2 beef stock cubes, 1 liter boiling water, 1 red long pepper, 1 carrot, 1 piece of celeriac, 60 g leek, 

1 bay leaf, salt, pepper, 4 tbsp Ayvar, parsley

Heat up the oil and start the beef. It will take some time to brown it.  Use the time and cut all the veggies. Add them to the browned beef and cook for 5 min more.  Season. Add the hot water and stock cubes. Add bay leaf.

Pour in the washed rice and bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover with a lid and cook on low for 15 min. Chop the parsley and spoon in the Ayvar. Check the seasoning.

Bean Soup with Mint Pesto -vegetarian

Two cans of beans - one large and white and the other green and small. The beans are the name giver of this soup. But a large amount of vegetables are the base. I used home made veg stock and some veg stock cube. 

The addition of a mint pesto boost the flavour of the soup. But be careful, a little mint pesto goes a long way. Otherwise it will taste as if you have dropped some breath mints in the soup, ups!

Recipe for 4:

200 g large white beans, 175 g small green beans canned

3 spring onions  3 garlic cloves, 1 large carrot, 180 g celeriac, 12 cm leek, 3 button mushrooms, 1/2 courgette, 4 small potatoes

900 ml veg stock or chicken stock, 1 bay leaf, 3 stalks of savoury, salt and pepper, 2 tbsp oil

Pesto:

6 mint stalks, 40 g Parmesan, 1 garlic clove, 3 tbsp ground almonds, 4 tbsp rapeseed oil, pepper

Chop all veggies and start them in oil. After 5 min season and add stock. Bring to a boil and close the lid and cook until veggies are nearly soft. Drain and wash the beans and add them. Cook 5 more min.

Prepare the Pesto! 

You can mash some of the soup with a potato masher to make it more creamy.  Serve with a bit of Pesto on top.

Puff Pastry filled with Steak and Mushrooms

One of my own marinated steaks will be the filling for the puff pastry. Some mushrooms and a third of a zucchini will be the veg part of the filling.

I was unsure if I wanted an open face tart like dish or a covered pie.

The ready made puff pastry took my decision away. It had to be a covered pastry. The pastry sheet was too thin and I struggled to make it work. Next time I will look for an other brand.

Ingredients for 3 pastries:

1 rectangular sheet puff pastry, 1 egg

175 g pork neck steak marinated

1 tbsp oil, 200 g mushrooms, 120 g zucchini

2 spring onions, 3 cloves of garlic

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, dried thyme

Preheat oven 200 C.

Cut the steak in bite size pieces and fry it in the pan in oil until just done. Take it out. Start with onion and garlic, then add finely chopped veggies. Season and after a couple of minutes add the pork again. Check the seasoning.

Pour it on a cold plate and let it cool down a bit.

Make an egg wash. Unroll the puff pastry and divide in 3 strips. Brush around the edges with egg wash.

Fill half of the pastry and fold it over. Brush the top. Put on baking paper and bake for 15 - 20 min until golden brown.

 

 

 

Pork Neck Steak in homemade Marinate

I often watch a Chef and food product developer on the YT. He shows the hacks and tricks of the food industrie. How to make the most money with very cheap ingredients. It is eye opening. He prepares the food, either sweet or savoury in his "laboratory". It is often funny, but disturbing to learn what you might eat or drink sometimes. Preprocessed convienience to make our live easier and the large companies richer.

BBQ here means often pork. To make it easier and faster, the pork steaks are in a bag with a marinate. Different tastes are available. You get them in every supermarket in medium to larger sets.

In many cases the food industry reduces the amount of meat and you will pay for a lot of marinate with fillers and aromas. Sometimes up to 30 % of the whole weight are made up with marinate. But the sugestion is, you pay for lots of meat. 

I bought 2 pork neck steaks and made a little marinate and covered it to rest for 3 hours. Great result.

Marinate for 2 steaks:

1 1/2 tbsp rapeseed oil, 1 tsp chili oil

1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp smoked paparika, pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp herbes de Provence

Banana Balls or Brasilian fried Dough with Banana

Bolinho chuvo com banana, super facil é gostoso!

The YT video I found was from Bete Com Carinho. My Portugese language knowledge is no longer as good as it was a long time ago. But enough to understand the important parts. It is an easy recipe. When you do it more often the banana balls will look a lot prettier. But they tasted awesome. So I don't care about the look.

A warm treat on a grey Friday afternoon after an exhausting week at work. And a brown banana saved.

The recipe is easy to make by hand. Just stir all ingredients together with a wooden spoon

Recipe:

1 large ripe banana

2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup milk, dash vanilla, pinch of salt, 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder

Oil for deep frying.

Mix the wet ingredients together. Add the dry stuff. Should be a thick batter.

Chop the banana and stir it in. Heat up the oil to 170 C and spoon the batter with 2 teaspoons in the oil. After 2 min, turn them. When they are golden brown put them on a rack to drip off. Eat warm.

Leek and Carrot Soup with Pretzel and Cheese

A veggie soup with Bavarian cheese cream and a large Pretzel with melted cheese on top.

The prominent ingredient in this soup is Bavarian Weizen. Beer as a soup ingredient. That was new to me. A small amount of double cream and veg stock just adds to  the taste. 

I found that recipe in "Bäcker Blume" a leaflet available in some bakeries. Sometimes there are very nice ideas to be found. All encourage to buy baked goods at traditional craft bakeries.

When I saw the recipe, I was astonished about the amount of ingredients. Then I looked at the top and found that this soup was for 10 people. I had to convert it into a smaller amount.

Recipe for 4:

500 g leek, 300 g carrot, 40 g butter, 40 g flour

500 ml Weizen beer, 175 ml veg stock, 100 ml double cream

Salt, pepper, 1 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp chili, nutmeg

125 g Obatzta  Bavarian cheese cream with Camembert

150 g Pretzel

Preheat the oven grill.

Cut leek and carrots in rings. Saute them in butter for 6 min. Season with salt, chili and pepper.

Sprinkle flour on top. Stir well. Add Weizen, veg stock and cream and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for 15 min. Season with paprika and nutmeg. 

Add 100 g Obatzta cheese cream. Cut the pretzel open and spread the leftover cheese on top. Stick under the grill for 5 min.

Serve the soup with pieces of cheesy pretzel on top.