Orecchiete Pasta with Ham and Mushrooms

For the last day of the year I jeeded to get rid of some items from my fridge. The mushrooms were still super fresh, even after 5 days in the veggie drawer of fridge. The ham was the cooked variety and presliced. It had to go soon. I routed through my pasta stash and found 1 /3 of a package "little ears", Italian for orecchiete.

That combination sounded like a good midday lunch.

Mushrooms with a little butter and a dash of soy sauce are an Umami festival in your mouth. The addition of cooked seasoned ham makes that even better. But don't forget onions and garlic as flavour enhancers.

The 15 min it took to cook the pasta was the time to prepare the sauce. When xou cook mushrooms, let them sit in the pan without any salt for a good while. The get less soggy. The salt draws out the moisture from the mushrooms and they cook in water. I added the ham at a late state. It was already cooked and needed just the time to warm through. A second knob of butter with the soy sauce and lots of ground pepper finished the dish. Just a few basil leaves were added in the end.

Ingredients:

140 g orecchiete pasta, salt

150 g brown button mushrooms, 2 spring onions, 3 garlic cloves, 1 tbsp butter+ 1 tsp oil,

80 g cooked sliced ham

2 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp soy sauce, pepper, basil

Seafood Soup -Jjamppong

X-mas brought me the new cookbook form Aaron Huh. The YouTuber Aaron&Claire. 

Easy Korean cooking is something I like a lot and I can tolerate some heat. I wanted frozen seafood mix today at the supermarket. But that was sold out. I took a bag of frozen mussels and used some of my frozen shrimps. 

When the ingredients are all prepared, the cooking itself is fast and easy. I only cooked dry Udon on the side. All other stuff was made in the wok.

I always have a bag of dried shiitake mushrooms at home. They are great to boost the umami in each dish. I put 4 of them in water to soak for 2 hours. That was the time the seafood needed to defrost too. The fresh mushroons were brown button mushrooms. 

Recipe for 2:

130 g dried Udon noodles, cooked and rinsed

3 slices bacon, 150 g mussels, 100 g shrimps 

1 bok choy, 4 shiitake mushrooms, 6 brown button mushrooms 

2 spring onions, 1 small yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 knob ginger, 1 red chili

600 ml chicken stock, 3 tbsp sake, 2 tsp oyster sauce, 3 tbsp soup soy sauce, 1 tsp gochugaru red pepper flakes

In a wok fry off the bacon, add onions, garlic, chili and ginger. After 3 min toss in the stem of the bok choy and all the mushrooms. Cook until they start to wilt. Season with red pepper flakes and sake.

Pour in the chicken stock and cook for 10 min, now in with oyster sauce and soy sauce, then add the greens from the bok choy and mussels and shrimps. They only need to heat through together with the udon noodles.

Check the the seasoning if you need more gochugaru.

 

New England Clam Chowder

I ate this soup a couple of times while I was on holiday trips in the USA. 

Checking the recipes from New England, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle I discovered that everybody had their favourite version, but in the end it came down to a veggies soup with a special kind of protein.

Some Chefs use flour, some cream and others a roux to make the soup smooth. I went my own way with a mix of roux and cream. Not too thick a soup like a paste. I had some bad versions on my trips.

Recipe for 4:

100 g Bay Scallops defrosted

60 g shrimps defrosted

5 small potatoes

2 small carrots

1 parsnip

50 g leek

120 g smoked bacon bits

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

40 ml Noilly Prat

150 ml milk

Nutmeg, white pepper, lemon salt

400 ml fish stock

150 ml veg stock

100 ml double cream

1 bay leaf

2 tbsp fresh chopped dill

Peel and cut all veggies in bite size chunks.

Prepare the roux first in a small pot and set aside.

In a large pot fry the bacon without oil. Add the washed veggies and give them a good stir. Now pour in fish stock and veg stock and add the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover with a lid. Cook for 12 min. Check the seasoning.

Add the defrosted shrimps and the roux. Keep on medium heat to dissolve the roux. Add the clams and the cream, give them 2 min and finish with dill.

Do not freeze the leftovers. The clams will become like rubber balls.

Beef Roulade with Sauerkraut and Sausage filling

An Austrian Chef prepared something similar. That was the idea to my version.

Beef roulade or roll up is one of the common dishes served at Christmas Day. People who are not into poultry prefare that. The usual filling is mustard, bacon, pickles and onion.

 

I wanted to try the Austrian way, but with a twist. The butcher sold me 3 thin long slices of beef. They made 3 very large roulades.

Ingredients for 3:

3 beef roulade, 50 g guanchale or panchetta

3 anchovis, 1 large raw bratwurst, 2 tsp mustard, 100 g sauerkraut

2 onions, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp tomato paste, 2 tbsp flour, salt and pepper

150 ml red wine, 500 ml beef stock

2 small carrots, 60 g leek, 1 red chili, 1 bay leaf

Pat the beef dry and season with salt and pepper, spread mustard thin on top.  Layer the sauerkraut on the mustard.

Cut the bratwurst in 3 pieces, get the anchovis out of the oil and take a small piece of onion. Roll everything up and close in the sides. Use kitchen twine and bind them. Season with salt on the outside.

In a pot fry off the guanchale to get the fat. Brown the roulades on each side. Add tomato paste and after 2 min the flour. Stir well.

Now the chopped veggies and the wine followed by the stock. Put in the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat and cook for 2,5 hours. 

I usually prepare this dish one day ahead and stop the cooking after 1,5 hours. The next day I finish it.

Serve it with dumplings, pasta, rice or potatoes and some kind of kraut.

Banana Apple Pancake

Pancakes are great for busy days. The addition of fruits make them a lot tastier. 

Lunch on Christmas Eve is a busy day. The pancake was the solution when preparing the dinner for the next day.

Ingredients for 1 large pancake:

2 eggs, 110 g flour, 25 g sugar, 1 tsp vanilla sugar, 100 ml milk, 50 ml sparkling water, pinch of salt, pinch baking powder

3 tbsp Butter for the pan, 1 apple, 1 banana

Mix the dough together. Peel the apple and grate it in to the batter. Peel the banana and cut in 1/2 inch slices.

Melt the butter on medium high heat in a wide pan. Put the banana slices in and give them 2 min, turn them and pour the batter over them. Keep the heat for 2 min, reduce to medium. Cook for 5 min.

Heat up the grill in your oven and place the pan under it. Wait until the batter is cooked.

Use a potholder to take the pan out and keep it around the handle for later!

Serve with compote or cinnamon sugar topping.

Salami Mozzarella Basil Skewers

Christmas Eve and a quick snack. A treat that is quick to prepare and is great for guests as fingerfood. 

I salveged the huge pot of Krim Basil from my balcony in late October and it still thrives on the windowsill of my kitchen. It is a lot tastier than the ones in a pot from the supermarket.

The mini mozzarella balls contained tiny bits of basil too. I used Italian sandwich salami. That is the one with the wider slices. Just lay out two overlapping a bit, fold them up in the middle and start rolling them from one side like a rose.

Use a cocktail stick and assemble them:

1 mozz ball, 2 basil leaves, 2 rolled up salami slices, 2 basil leaves, 1 mozz ball

Dressing was aceto balsamico and olive oil wth bay leaf and pepper and some micro greens

Potato Chips/Crisps with Topping

This is a plate I saw Donal Skehan preparing.

My kind of snack food. Very good for a light Christmas Eve treat.

Here in Germany the 24th is the main event on Christmas. The gifts get exchanged in the evening. Then the dinner with the family is next. But it is a small event. No one wants to cook a three course meal that evening and standing in the kitchen all the time. In many households potato salad with wieners is served.

I checked the supermarket for potato chips that were not too seasoned. BBQ or Chakalaka does not go well with caviar. I took some salted ones and that was the right choice.

Dropping some sour cream/ German Schmand on top together with fresh dill and trout caviar was very tasty.

Korean Cucumber Salad - Oi Muchim

Cucumber salad is a staple in many households. But the German version is soo different from the Korean one. 

The cucumber salad belongs to the Banchan dishes. They are served with the Korean BBQ. 

1 fresh cucumber, cut in 6 mm slices, salt

1 spring onion

Gochujang, Gochugaru, soy sauce, rice vinegar, agave syrup, sesame oil, garlic powder, sesame seeds

Salt the sliced cucumbers and let them sit 45 to 60 min. Drain and rinse off the salt. Add the sauce and finish with sesame seeds.

Duck roasted with Cherry Compote and Dumpling

I was invited to a post birthday celebration. We went to the same restaurant as im September 2021. Last time we sat outside in the courtyard, this time inside.

It took me about 55 min to reach the parking place near the restaurant. Lots of cars parked all around.

The restaurant was packed with people. The reservation was done 4 weeks ago. We had to wait one hour until the food arrived. Now I know where all the cars came from.

I ordered a 1/2 farmer's duck with dumplings, red cabbage, gravy and cherry compote.

Very tasty, a bit dry. The red cabbage was not my favourite. I like my cabbage less mushy.

The others had different kinds of roasts. Every single plate looked good and everybody was satisfied. We ended our meal with Espresso and a spirit of Sicilian orange.

Unicorn Liqueur

X-mas needed some homemade liqueur.

Eggnogg, meh. Whisky liqueur, meh. I checked Thermomix recipes for ideas. And I found a funny one!

900 ml: (my own version)

200 g fresh raspberries, 50 ml water

185 g sugar, 2 tsp vanilla sugar

400 ml coconut milk, 200 ml double cream

150 ml Batida de Coco 16 % alc, 125 ml Korn 30 % alc

Gold dust and some decorative unicorns and rainbows

Put everything, except the unicorns and raunbows in the blender. It takes 15 sec speed 7. Pour through a mesh sieve and back in the Thermomix.

Heat up to 70 C for 5 min on speed 2 to make it save.

Store in the fridge.

Pesto Meatballs

Looking for things that can go off in the fridge before going out to do most of my Christmas food shopping makes sense. I found a jar of good quality pesto with real pine nuts and lots of basil. It was still 1/3 full.

Pasta with Pesto today? No! But what else? I wanted to make sonething with ground meat today. The leftovers can easily used up cold or in other dishes. That makes the pre- Christmas week a lot better.

Adding pesto to the ground meat gives it a distict smell when you shape the meatballs. I am curious to see how the flavour develop after cooking.

Before I put the meatballs in the frying pan, I put them in the fridge for 20 min to firm up.

Recipe for 4:

650 g ground pork and beef 40/60

3 spring onions, 3 garlic cloves, 1 egg

1 bread roll soaked in milk, 50 g breadcrumbs

2 tbsp Pesto, 1/2 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste, 1 tsp herbes de Provence

Squeeze the milk out of the breadroll and put the fineley chopped onions and garlic together with everything else in a large bowl. Use your clean hands to mash it all together and form the meatballs. When you toss each a couple of times between your hands, they get firmer and air pockets get out.

Store them on some breadcrumbs to prevent from sticking to the plate. Use some oil to bake them at medium  high temperture for 3 to 4 min on each side. Reduce the heat to medium low until done. (Takes about 20 min on low with a lid on)

Now after eating some of them, the Pesto is like a strong Umami in the background. The distictive basil smell is gone. 

Buffalo Mozzarella baked on Tomato Sauce

We have a Spanish/Italian grocery store in the city. I bought fresh buffalo mozzarella there.

The dish I wanted to prepare with did not come to life. Now I was looking for other things to do with it. Caprese in December with mediocre tomatoes was not my aim. On Google I stumbled over oat covered, pan fried buffalo mozzarella. Hmmm...

Buffalo mozzarella has a very soft center. And the ball had to be divided in two pieces. I feared I would have a mess on my hands. But no, the inside was gooey, but stable and I could run it through flour, egg and oats.

The flour and the egg have been seasoned with salt, pepper and Italian herbs. In a bit of olive oil, the cheese needed a couple of minutes on each side on medium low heat.

I took a package of frozen tomatoe sauce from this summer out and it went in the microwave to be ready with the cheese. I cooked some penne pasta and had a great meal. 

Ingredients:

250 g Buffalo mozzarella

1/2 cup fine oats, 1 egg, 1 /4 cup flour, salt, pepper, Italian dried herbs, olive oil

Tomato sauce, pasta.