Chickpeas Potatoes Beef and Yogurt - Yuğurtlu Patate

Very delicious Turkish recipe. 

But for me a bit strange to sort in a food cathegory. It looks like a stew, but when cold like a potato salad.

Potato salad here is often made with bacon, vinegar and sausages. The halal version is cooked beef, stock and yogurt. It took a bit to get my head around this recipe.

Usually when I read a recipe I get an image in my head and a taste profil. This time my image was blank.

I went to my Turkish neighborhood supermarket to get the ingredients. One of it was Haspir or Safflower. That is the cheaper cousin of saffron. I had to asked the staff there to find it.

While the beef shin was cooking, I started my least favourite work: peeling off the waxy skin from the chickpeas. 240 g will take a while and make a mess. But otherwise I can't eat chickpeas.

Recipe for 3:

500 g beef shin, 1 tbsp veg stock base and just enough water to cover it.

500 g potatoes, 240 g cooked chickpeas

1 cup Greek yogurt, 1 egg, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp Pul Biber, salt and pepper

2 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp safflower

Cook the beef with the veg stock for 90 min, add potato chunks and cook 20 min more. Add chickpeas.

Mix yogurt, egg, oil and seasoning. Take the beef out and chop in bite size chunks. Take out some of the stock for an other purpose.

Mix some hot stock with the yogurt to warm it up a bit. Pour all of it in the pot and get the beef back in. Keep it warm.

In a small pan melt the butter and add the Haspir. Pour over the mix in the pot.

Green Asparagus with Polenta

It was time for some comfort food.

Green asparagus on the thinner side was great to be sauted in some olive oil. It kept the crunch and went good with the soft cozy mamaliga.

Mamaliga is a Rumanian recipe. The polenta is enriched with butter and creme fraiche and is cooked in a strong stock.

Some goat cream cheese to mix with both the polenta and the asparagus.

Recipe for 2:

100 g polenta, 400 ml strong veg stock, 1 tsp butter, 2 tsp creme fraiche

400 g green asparagus, salt, pepper, olive oil

2 poached eggs, 30 g cream goat cheese

Asparagus with wild garlic pesto and egg

It can be a hot side dish. It can be a mildly warm starter. It can be eaten just cold with some bread

 Very versatile.

Best to prepare a large amount and try all 3 stages. I had it cold with some bread in the evening and resisted to sneak some bites during the afternoon.

I've mixed some creme fraiche with the pesto. That way is gets a little mellower and the garlic taste is less in your face.

Yoğurtlu Makarna or Pasta with Yogurt sauce

This is a Turkish recipe and very fast to prepare while working from home. It takes just the pasta cooking time.

I never thought a cold yogurt sauce mixed with hot pasta and some tomato paste could taste so good.

Originally the recipe called for 1 grated clove of garlic. I used Hungarian garlic paste from a tube. The taste of garlic is great, but I wont stink tomorrow at the office. I am taking the second portion with me for my lunch there.

Recipe for 2:

250 g small penne pasta

200 g Greek yogurt, 2 tbsp garlic paste or one clove of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp salt

30 g butter, 1 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp tomato paste, pepper and salt.

Cook the pasta in salted water, drain. 

Mix yogurt with salt and garlic and pour over the drained pasta and mix.

In a small pan heat butter and oil with the tomato paste for a couple of minutes. Mix with the pasta.

Duck à l' Orange - 2000 th blog

I started this blog on December 5th, 2015. I never thought I would write more than 300 blogs a year. 

To celebrate I prepared a duck. OK, that was not my intension. But I found not frozen 2,5 kg duck at a supermarket I never been in before. I was out of town to visit a large garden center to buy all kinds of hot pepper plants.  Just around the corner was a supermarket. I wanted to get some strawberries and strolled along the fridge section. I saw large packages with whole plucked ducks. 

They were labled 30% off, because they only lasted until the next day. It looked as if they were not in hot demand. I took one for roasting and using the leftovers during the following week.

I never made duck with oranges before and started to search the internet for recipes. This one is from D' Artagnan.

It is important to start the process the evening before. The duck needs time to take a bath.

Marinate:

1 litre Orange juice, fresh pressed if possible

1/2 cup runny honey, 1/2 orange marmelade

Sauce:

1 large orange, salt and pepper, 2 yellow onions, 2 tbsp duck fat, 3 tsp flour, chili , rice

Mix the marinate, clean the duck and set it in the marinate. Turn it twice or more during the time in the fridge.

Preheat the oven 200 C. Dry the duck and season it with salt and pepper inside and outside.

Put in a baking dish, breast side down on top of a trivet. Per kilo it needs 70 min.  After 15 min, turn the heat down to 160 C. Turn after 75 min.

The last 50 min, take a large spoon and take some duck fat out of the dish and place in a large pot. Chop the onions and saute them in duck fat and add flour. Season. Pour all of the marinate in and reduce on medium high to 70%. Check the seasoning.

 

The last 30 min of duck time, slice the washed orange in thin slices and place them around the duck. When the internal temperature between leg and breast has reached 72 C, the duck is done.

Cut it up and serve with rice and sauce and some side salad. 

Cream Noodles with Garlic and Spring Onions

Fast, faster Chinese Noodle dish. No Instant package!

Sometimes I buy a package of Cream Noodles at the Asia Go Supermarket. Wheat noodles with an extra flavouring. You can get them with shrimp flavour and some other. My favourite is the one with cream.

They just need 4 min to cook and go with lots of dishes. This one is just a bit of garlic and spring onion. 

Sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds are optional. Just season with the soy sauce you have at home. Or mix light and dark soy sauce.

120 g cream noodles, 1 tsp sesame oil

3 clove of garlic, 1 spring onion

1 tsp unflavoured oil, 3 tbsp soy sauce

Sesame seeds

 

Asparagus Pizza

In the moment fresh regional asparagus is very expensive. I went for 1,6 kg for € 25. One third green and two thirds white asparagus. But absolutely fresh, just harvested early in the morning.

With prosciuto and 2 different kinds of cheese it was a good way to use some of it.

I prepared the pizza dough the evening before and it went in the fridge to rest for 16 hours. 2 dough balls,  about 200g each, went in the freezer for an other time.

The asparagus stalks were on the thicker side. I steamed them for 15 min to get them a bit soft.

One part of the grated cheeses was from a shop that sells all kinds of cheeses from the Netherlands. It is own by a Dutch lady. The cheese was made from goats milk. The other was a grated Cheddar from my local supermarket.

Pizza Dough:

450 g flour, 8 g fresh yeast, 1 tsp salt

250 ml water, 1 tbsp olive oil

Topping:

Green and white asparagus, steamed

3 tbsp creme fraiche, 1 tbsp garlic paste

Italian herbs, salt and pepper

Grated goat cheese and Cheddar

3 slices prosciuto, 1 tsp olive oil

Bake at 230C for 20 min.

Pancakes with Orange Marmelade

I bought a jar of Orange Marmelade from the island in the Mediterranian that belongs to France, Corsica. The taste is very intense and different from other Marmelades.

Spreading it on toast sounded boring. Spreading it on pancakes sounded a lot tastier.

The pancake recipe is pretty basic. No raising agent needed. It is the typical German style of thinner pancakes.

I used my crepe pan. It is easy to flip the pancakes in this one and they are not so big.

Recipe for 3 pancakes:

3 eggs, 100 g flour, 150 ml milk

Pinch of salt, 1 tbsp sugar, dash vanilla extract, 3 tbsp oil 

Orange Marmelade from the  French island of Corsica

Courgette and Cheddar Fritters

A quick lunch. Vegetarian. Served with Sweet Chili Sauce, that made them even yummier.

I was looking for a way to get rid of the medium sized courgette. I found the idea on Pinterest, but customized it my way.

First grate the courgette. I have thrown mine in the Thermomix, less hassle. Then put salt in it and let it sit for 20 min. Use a fine mash sieve and press out the water.

Mix with the other ingredients. Use an ice cream scoop to get equal sized patties.

Toss them in more breadcrumbs and bake them in a good amount of oil until brown on both sides. That takes about 4 min on each side. Drain on kitchen paper.

Serve with a sauce or dip.

Ingredients:

1 medium small courgette

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 egg

65 g grated sharp Cheddar

4 heaped tbsp breadcrumbs and some to toss in later

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

Beef and Leek in Mustard Sauce

Sometimes you have to use canned beef.

I was going through my fridge and found a piece of leek and 2 mustard jars with just a little left in them. But I wanted something with a bit of meat and some leftovers for the next day lunch break working from home.

I had a can of cooked beef, some of my "stock in case of Covid quarantine". Now was the time to get rid of it.

I only used the juice and a little of the fat from the beef to cook the veggies. No additional oil needed.

1 can 400 g beef

1 leek, 1 shallot, 3 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp dried thyme

3 tsp medium hot mustard, 2 tsp Dijon mustard, 3 tbsp creme fraiche, 30 ml Noilly Prat.

1 cup Jasmine rice

Chop the beef and pour the sauce in a pan. Chop leek and omion and garlic and cook for 5 min. Add the beef and the mustards. Season and add Vermouth and cream. Serve with rice.

Egg Curry Bengal style

The week after Easter many households have dyed hard boild eggs sitting around. The standart dishes to get rid these eggs are salads and asparagus dishes. Here in Hessian we all love green herb sauce. Eggs are eaten with this too.

But I wanted something else. The Bengal egg curry was not on this blog. But I posted the recipe on Sortedfood. I was able to find it there. I only remembered the large amount of spices I needed.

The curry sauce is thickened with dessicated coconuts.

Recipe for 3:

6 eggs, 150 g tomatoes, 1 eggplant, bunch coriander

2 shallots, 3 spring onions, 5 garlic cloves, 1 knob ginger, 1 green chili, 3 tbsp mustard oil, 250 ml coconut milk, 100 ml water, 45 g dessicated coconut

8 curry leaves, 1 tsp chili flakes, 2 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp fenugreek, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tso brown mustard seeds, 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds, 2 tsp Madras curry, 1 tsp Garam Masala

1 cup Basmati rice, salt, 1 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cardamom pods

Peel the eggs. Put onions, garlic, ginger, green chili in a blender and make a paste.

Chop tomatoes and eggplant. Use a plate to put all the spices on.

Heat up the oil, add seeds and let them pop. Now in with the onion mix, tumeric and the eggs. Add some water and stir the eggs for 5 min. Get them out and add tomatoes and eggplant, coconut milk, the other spices and some more water. Cook until the eggplant is soft. Last add the coconut to thicken the sauce and some of the fresh coriander.

Cook the rice with star anise, salt, cinnamon stick and cardamon pods. Chop the coriander. It goes great with the flavoured rice.

Potato Curry with deep fried hard boild egg - Aloo Anday Ka Salan

This is a Pakistani dish, vegan -without the added eggs.

While cooking the eggs for my Easter Egg dying, I ended with 2 cracked ones. Since I am not a fan of hard boild eggs, I looked for an idea. I watched YT Beryl Sheryshewski again, this time egg dishes.

This came up and the idea of deep frying hard boild eggs was absolutely new to me. I had to give it a try. The Pakistani recipe looked good too. 

The recipe uses fenugreek seeds. I toss them in oil or ghee often when I cook Indian dishes. They are part of my Indian spice treasure box. Only  my curry leaves jar was empty. The recipe works well without them.

Recipe for the curry:

2 tbsp mustard oil, 1 tsp fenugreek seeds, 1 tsp brown mustard seeds, 1 tsp tumeric

125 g tomatoes, 1 yellow onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 100 g tomatoes

250 g boiled potatoes, 3 tbsp parsley

100 ml veg stock, salt, pepper, chili

Eggs:

2 hard boild eggs

1,5 inch high oil for frying

Heat up mustard oil in a pan an toss in fenugreek and mustard seeds to pop. Add chopped onions and garlic and the tumeric. Cook 3 min. Now in with tomatoes and potatoes. They need some veg stock and seasoning.

Cook for 10 min and finish with parsley.

Fry the peeled eggs for 5 min, rolling them around in the oil.