Mascarpone Basil and Chocolate Muffins

I had a package of Galbani Mascarpone at home. I needed some for my fennel and lemon pasta dish.  Now I had more then halve left over. 

Tiramisu? No. I checked the Galbani website to look for recipes.

There was a funny picture for an Easter cupcake showing a cute sheep. Lots of Mascarpone to use up. But I was not interested in building a flock of sheep.  I only baked the sheeps body without the "wool".

Preheat your oven 180 C.

Recipe for 12 muffins:

150 g butter, 180 g sugar, 100 g Mascarpone

3 eggs, 2 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt, 2 tbsp fresh chopped basil

2 tbsp cocoa, 1 package chocolate pudding mix 

150 g flour, 1 tbsp milk

Beet butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add mascarpone and eggs one after an other, beating each time in between. Then the other ingredients. Fill in muffin cases.

Bake for 25 min.

Fennel Lemon Tagliatelle

This very tasty vegetarian recipe is from Tegernseekitchen.

It is not much work to do. The pasta is creamy and fennel and dill go very well together. The breadcrumbs topping is something I will use on other dishes in the future. 

Recipe for 2:

150 g tagliatelle

75 g Mascarpone, zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1/2 lemon, lemon salt and pepper

1 medium bulb of fennel, 1 medium yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp butter 

Fresh dill, grated Grana Padano

Preheat the oven 200 C.

Cut the fennel in halve, then in strips. Put it in a bowl and season with salt and pepper and add 1tbsp olive oil. Put on a baking sheet and stick in the oven for 20 to 25 min.

Cut the onion in strips too, slice the garlic. Add oil and butter to a pan and saute the onion garlic mix until soft. Season with lemon salt. Add the breadcrumbs and brown them.

Cook the tagliatelle. 

Take 2 tbsp pasta water and mix it with the Mascarpone to get smooth. Add zest and juice from the lemon, lemon salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta and mix it with the cream and a lot of dill. Just keep a little for decoration later. Place on a plate, top on one side with fennel and on the other side with onion breadcrumbs. Finish with dill and grated cheese.

Chicken Steak in Turkish coating

At our new Turkish supermarket I found a box of hot chicken coating mix. There are two packages inside and a preparation advice on the back. One in pictures and one as a recipe. 

There is a small spice package inside which contains chili and paprika. Mixing it with 6 tbsp of water makes a thin red marinate. The chicken steaks rested in the marinate for 1 hour. Then you pour them in a colander and let the marinate run off.

From the coating packages 2 tbsp are put in the cleaned container. Mixef with 6 tbsp of water. That makes a viscous kind of liquid.

Dip the chicken steaks in and coat them with the liquid and drop them on a plate with the dry coating. Let them get a thick outer layer.

Shallow fry them in 2 cm oil on medium high heat. Do not turn the heat too high. The outside will burn and you will have raw chicken inside.

Cooking will take 10 - 12 min.

Serving it with a large tomato was my lunch.

Crispy, hot, tender and juicy.

 

Rice Cooker Rice with Tuna and Tomato

Not much work to do to bring this meal to the table. When you have a trusty rice cooker.

This is a combination of canned tuna and fresh tomato and herbs. The prep time is very short. It took me the longest to get the tuna out of the can because the lid stuck.

Instead of water I used veg stock for the rice. A bit more liquid then usual to one cup of rice. You will need the extra liquid with all the other ingredients in the cooker. A tablespoon good olive oil gives the extra kick. Season it well with fresh and dried herbs and depending on the stock you use, salt and pepper.

I had a tomato with a thicker skin. Cut off the top a bit, set it top down in the rice cooker, that makes it easier to get the tomato soft. 

Close the lid and return to your sofa.

Food for 1:

1 rice measuring cup short grain rice, 2 m. cups veg stock

1 large tomato, 2 tbsp fresh parsley

1 small can tuna fish, 1 tbsp olive oil

Dried thyme, salt and pepper

After the rice cooker is finished, take out the tomato and peel the skin off. Then mash it in the rice and stir all ingredients together.

Cabbage Rolls - deconstructed

I love cabbage rolls. You can find them all over middle and eastern Europe and the Balkans.

But they need a lot of work and are only manageble in large quantities.

Sorry, but I am lazy today and do not have the time for them.

The solution is a cabbage stew with all the in gredients, but just 15% of the work load.

Recipe for 4:

400 g lean beef mince

600 g cabbage, 3 carrots, 1 large yellow onion, 5 cloves of garlic, 3 bay leaves

4 tbsp tomato paste, 2 tbsp hot paprika paste

2 tbsp rapeseed oil, 1 l beef stock

180 g long grain rice

Salt. Pepper. Caraway seeds

Chop onion and carrots in small chunks. Cut the cabbage in wider strips.

In a large pot heat up the oil and brown the beef. When it took color, add onions and give them 3 min.  Season.

Now add both kinds of pastes. Stir well for a bit. Add carrots and stock and bay leaves.

Cook for 10 min to soften the carrots. Add the cabbage and caraway seeds and let it wilt down for 5 min, add the rice and lower the heat and let it simmer for 12 min.

Check the seasoning.

 

 

Sweet Potato Pancakes

I am a huge fan of regular potato pancakes, or latkes or hash browns or roesti.

Having some sweet potatoes at home, I thought about to try them as sweet potato pancakes.

But here comes the difference. Sweet potatoes do not have the amount of starch the others have. Getting them to stick together is only possible with adding some starch or flour to them.

They are really sweet and need a good amount of seasoning to balance that.

Recipe for 8 pancakes:

500 g grated sweet potato

1 grated small red onion

3 tbsp potato starch, 1 egg, dried onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper

Oil for the pan, a good amount. I ate them with apple sauce.

Grate sweet potato and onion, add starch and seasoning and crack an egg in. Stir well and let it sit for 15 min to get some moisture

Use a medium hot pan with 4 tbsp of oil. Set 4 spoons of batter in and press down. They will take about 5 min on each side or until they take a good color.

Cod on celery and tomatoes

This dish is served with barley. The vegetables are the main part of the dish. 

The piece of fish goes in the last moment on top of the veggies. Since cod does not need a lot of time to get done. In about 3 to 5 min it is cooked. Just use a lid and it is fast.

Keep the veggies on the crunchy side and do not overcook the tomato. With a good olive oil and some fresh parsley it becomes a healthy dish.

Some fresh cooked barley - use some that is not so much processed- gives a nutty flavour. I cooked it in veg stock.

1/2 bunch of celery, 1 large tomato, 

1 spring onion, parsley

2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper

180 g cod filet, lemon salt, pepper, lemon slice

65 g pearl barley and 350 ml veg stock

Start with the spring onion. After it gets a little soft, toss in the chopped celery. Season and cook for 4 min. Then follow with the tomato slices. Give them 3 min and push all to the side and place the seasoned cod in. Close the lid and it is ready ro turn in 3 min

Finish with cooked barley and fresh parsley.

Red Cabbage Slaw

This salad can stay in the fridge in a covered container up to 4 weeks. Take some out and mix it with some feta cheese, tomato and some green olives. Or add some of it to a pot of fresh browned beef mince and rice. Very versatile.

My BFF gave me her recipe last night. She uses it for many years.

My huge head of red cabbage needed some use. Since I had cut it open on the weekend, there was still 1200 g left over. 

I chopped off nearly 360 g. I sliced it in smaller chunks. I like my salads a bit chunky.

Ingredients:

360 g red cabbage

55 ml rapessed oil

2 juiniper berries crushed

30 ml red wine vinegar

35 g brown sugar

11 g salt

Wash the cabbage and set aside. In a small pot heat up the other ingredients until sugar and salt are dissolved. Pour ovet the cabbage and mix well.

Chicken Thighs with Ranch Dressing and Mushroom Pasta

From my Amazon order of Hidden Ranch Dressing there are still two packages left.

Today I used one to brush chicken thighs with it and baked and finally grill it in the oven. Preparation is easy. The Ranch dressing powder is added to a few ingredients nd mixed. It is brushed on the baking chicken thighs in the last 10 minutes of the cooking time. Compkete cooking time at 200 C is 35 min.

As a side dish I used up the white mushrooms sitting in my fridge for over a week. But still on their best condition, thanks to my new fridge. I cook some tagliatelle pasta to mix in with the mushrooms. 

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs with bone, salt and pepper

1 bag Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, 1 tbsp water, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp oilve oil, 1 clove of garlic, minced

100 g Tagliatelle, 

300 g button mushrooms, 2 spring onions, salt, pepper, thyme

Red Cabbage Orange and Cashew Tart

This is a vegetarian tart. It takes some time to get done, but that is worth the effort.

I was at the supermarket today were this recipe comes from: KAUFLAND. I found it in one of their monthly magazines. All ingredients with product names, available at the supermarket chain. But I bought what was needed and used what I had in stock.

Main ingredient is red cabbage. You will need about 700 to 800 g. There was a big crate of cabbages in one of the veggie isles. I looked for the smallest one to take home: 2084 g

There is a lot of red cabbage left for other uses. Bad thing is, I needed some white cabbage for on other recipe during the week, so a head of white cabbage with 1250 g went in the shopping basket too.

Look out for lots of cabbage recipes to come. Winter time is cabbage time.

Recipe for 4 or 6:

Dough:

120 g soft butter, 250 g bread flour, 1 free range egg, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tbsp water,

 1/ 2 tsp salt and  some flour for your work surface.

Topping:

700 g of red cabbage, 2 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, 1 red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp herbes de Provence

1/2 organic orange, 30 g cashews

150 ml double cream, 3 eggs, 150 g cream cheese with herbs, salt, pepper, 50 g Parmesan

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Use a baking sheet covered in baking paper. Cut 1 cm slices off the red cabbage and place them on the paper. Season with salt and pepper and brush with oil. Bake for 20 min, take out and cool down.

While the cabbage is in the oven, prepare the shortcrust pastry.  Wrap it in clingfilm and freeze for 15 min. Flour your work surface and roll out the dough the size of the tart dish.

Use baking spray for the dish. Roll the dough over your rolling pin and press it in the tart form. Make holes with a fork.

Chop onion and garlic and mix it with the dried herbs and the cooled down cabbage.

Make the sauce and pour 1/3 of it on the dough. Set the cabbage mix on top and pour the 2/3 of the sauce over it.

Stick it in the oven for 15 min. Cut 1/2 of the orange in slices and chop the cashews. After the 15 min, set the orange on top and sprinkle the nuts over

 Bake for 20 more min. Cool down for 5 min and take the tart out of its mould.

When you serve it with some salad, the tart is enough for 6 people.

Risotto Patties

I have half of my vegan pea and coconut risotto still in my fridge. Reheating it was not on my agenda. I made enough for 2 different meals.

This one is very easy, but no longer vegan.

From last Saturday I had one bread roll drying in its paper bag. I used my Thermomix and made it into breadcrumbs in a matter of seconds. Mixing them with risotto showed that the mix was a bit too dry. Adding an egg solved the problem.

Since I had a lot of leek and peas and coconut in the risotto, it did not need any additional seasoning.

Forming the patties was easy. Just do not let too much leek stick out. It will burn in the pan. Shallow frying was the best method for the patties.

It took about 6 min on each side to get golden brown. Putting them on kitchen paper helped soaking up excess oil.

I served them with a quick cucumber salad.