Slow Cooker Lamb with Bulgur

The Turkish supermarket had slices of lamb legs. I bought 3 and decided to prepare them in my slow cooker.

That is the easy way to cook without much hassle. No fat splotches on the backsplash. Put everything in the slow cooker, close the lid and wait a couple of hours.

At the supermarket I looked for Bulgur. I had to choose from different sizes of bulgur. This time I took the biggest one. After cooking it, it went to the size of giant bulgur, or the size of large barley.

Recipe for 3:

3 slices of lamb leg

1 onion, 1 leek, 2 carrots, 5 garlic cloves, 100 g kohlrabi, 2 spring onions

2 tbsp hot paprika paste, 400 ml beef stock, 200 ml water, salt and pepper

2 cups bulgur, 2 long green peppers, 1 onion, 4 cups veg stock, 1 tbsp olive oil

The slow cooker setting goes on low for 6 hours.

Wash the bulgur after 5,5 hours. Chop peppers and onion and give them 5 min in oil. Add the bulgur, mix well. Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, place a lid on top and cook for 15 min or until bulgur is done.

Gentian Lemonade Brew

My BFF was in Bavaria on a one week holiday to Tegernsee.

She loves to shop at stores that sell unique things. 

At Tegernsee Arkaden she found a shop that sold food stuff, local craft beers, fresh roasted coffee beans and even organic cosmetics.

She found a shelf with crafted lemonades with special main ingredients. 

She bought me a Gentian lemonade from a brewer in Bad Tölz.

Gentian is usually made into a 40 to 45 % clear Schnaps. Served in the Alpine region.

I opened the bottle and smelled. Like a less intense kind of spirit. But wait, no alcohol. It's a lemonade.

I took the first sip. Horrible. I scrunched my face together.  The second sip didn't make it any better.

Sorry. The lemonade went down the drain.

Sulu Koefte

 This recipe was recommended to me from a co worker at the office. She is Turkish from the far east of Turkey. That dish is a family favourite for her Grandparents. She just gave me the basic ingredients and told me to check the Internet for my choice of preparation. Her family loves it with yogurt sauce.

I found a lot of recipes and a couple of YT videos. As always I made my own version. Since I have leftovers stored for Monday, I will give some of them to my coworker to hear her critique.

I bought some of the ingredients at my local Turkish supermarket.

Recipe for 3:

350 g beef mince, 2 yellow onions, 5 garlic cloves, 4 tbsp tomato paste, 3 tbsp hot paprika paste, 2 tsp dried mint, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp salt and pepper

3 tbsp washed medium grain pilaw rice, 2 tbsp bulgur, washed

1,2 l water, 1 tsp veg stock paste, 5 small potatoes

1 egg separsted, 3/4 cup yogurt 

Flour

Grate one onion. Mince 3 garlic and toss that with 2 tbsp tomato paste, 1 tbsp hot paprika paste, 1 tsp mint, cumin, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Add rice and bulgur. Separate the egg and add the egg white to the beef.

Mix it very well with your hands. Now use a large plate and put a good amount of flour on it. Roll 1,5 mm balls. Size of your thump nail. 

If you need to roll a lot more than 350 g of beef, better get a couple of friends or family around the table to help.

Chop the second onion and the other garlic and fry it in oil, add tomato and paprika paste. Peel the potatoes and cut them in bite size chunks. Add them to the pot. 

Pour in the water and add the veg stock. Now dump all beef balls in. Stir well and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and cook for 25 min. Mix yogurt and egg yolk and more dried mint. To prevent the mix from curdeling, make some temp ecchange by adding a soup ladle of hot broth to it. Then dump the mix in the soup.

Chop some parsley to finish and sprinkle some paprika powder on top of the plates

 

 

Kohlrabi Starters two ways

My friend invited me over to pick up some tomato plants her husband had started from seeds. She prepared a light starter lunch. 

Kohlrabi is very versatile and easy to prepare. Just peel it and cut off the woody part. Eat it raw or cooked. 

The first starter was a plate with thin kohlrabi slices. They were topped with Black Forest Ham and Bavarian cheese. Just somoce pepper and a little olive oil goes well here. I added some drops of old balsamic vinegar.

The next was kohlrabi topped with spicy cream cheese and tomato.

8mm slices of kohlrabi just sauteed ina little veg stock for 7 min. The cheese was mixed with chilipaprika, parsley and some dried herbs. 1 tbsp on each slice and 1 or 2 tomatoes slices on top. Back on the pan and with a lid cook for an additonal 5 min. A spicy treat.

 

Asparagus and Feta filled Sigara Boregi

The cigarrette pastry is often gilled with feta and spinach. I have some green asparagus left over from the weekend. Why not use this?

The yufka dough package was opened yesterday. I only used two sheets. This dough dries out very quickly and sticking it open in the fridge for longer than one day is not an option. It gets brittle and working with it is impossible then.

I have not made this sigara pastry for a very long time. 

I cooked 6 stalks of green asparagus in the steamer and let it cool down.

Recipe for 9 pieces:

150 g sheep feta, 1 clove of garlic

6 green asparagus cooked, 1 egg

Salt, pepper, oregano, chili salt

Butter melted, 2 round yufka dough leaves, oil for shallow frying

Chop the cooked asparagus in little pieces, mince the garlic and mix everything with the seasoning together.

Melt the butter and cut the yufka in12 cm wide strips. Place 2 tbsp of filling on one end, brush some melted butter around the edges and roll up. Close with more butter. Brush them on top with butter too.

Heat up the oil in a pan and in two or three batches brown them from all sides. Keep watch, they will turn brown quickly.

Serve with somr Ayran drink.

Spaghetti Hawaii

The BBC brought up this recipe as family friendly and very affordable.

The shitstorm on the internet was very fast.

I love the old German classic of Toast Hawaii. When I am in the mood, I eat Pizza Hawaii.

The new hype was right on my door step. Balance out the sweetness. It is to your own taste, if you like the pasta sauce a bit sweeter, take more of the pineapple water. Or use my method and add only a bit of it and more starchy pasta water. The chunks of pineapple just give a burst of flavour, not real sweetness. And they go very well together with the ham.

The BBC recipe uses canned ham, cubed. That is not available here. I used sliced cooked ham from the supermarket.

Recipe for 1:

130 g spaghetti, 100 g cooked ham

1/3 can pineapple chunks, 4 tbsp pineapple water

60 g cream cheese, 1 shallot, 1 garlic clove

1 tbsp butter, 60 ml starchy pasta water

Salt, pepper, Piment d'Espelette

Cook the spaghetti in only a bit salted water. The starch content of the water will be higher.

Melt butter in a large pan and saute the chopped shallot and garlic. After 3 min add the ham. When that gets a bit of color in with pineapple water and some of the pasta water. Melt the cream cheese in it. Season and chuck the pineapple chunks in. Get the spaghetti with tongs in the sauce. Stir well and serve.

Asparagus Ham and Cheese Packages

Yufka dough is used to wrap the ham and cheese around the asparagus. The dough is very thin and only a bit of melted herb butter makes more dolable.

It came in large round sheets. I had to fold them in the middle and cut off a bit on the top.

The ham inside has a very tasty cream on top. Then a slice of cheese and a bunch of fresh herbs. The precooked white asparagus stalks are sitting on top of that. It is a bit wobbly to get that wrapped in yufka sheets.

Recipe for 2:

6 white asparagus stalks, precooked

2 slices cooked ham, 4 slices cheese

2 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 tsp fruity chutney, 1 tsp cream

2 yufka sheets, 3 tbsp butter 1 tbsp chopped parsley

Use an oven proof dish and spray it or butter it.

Lay the ham on a cutting board and spread mustard cream on top. Place 1 slice of cheese and then fresh herbs on top. Use 3 asparagus stalks and fold the ham around.

Butter and herbs in a pan. Spread herb buttet on the yufka dough  fold it over and place the ham package inside. Cut off excess dough. Spread more butter on top.

Repeat. Bake for 11 min at 180 C fan. Now place the last two slices of cheese on the packages and give them 4 more min.

Enjoy!

Rhubarb Pecan Cinnamon Bread

I love my banana nut bread. This one is a little different. Using rhubarb makes it a bit more moist. 

The combination with cinnamon and pecans add the spice and the crunch to the bread. 

Recipe for a 4x9 inch loaf tin.

2 cups sliced rhubarb, 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 egg, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup sunflower oil, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 cup brown sugar

Get the rhubarb ready and set aside. Chop the pecans.

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Mix the dry stuff in a bowl. In a larger one mix together the liquids. Pour the dry into thr liquid and give it a quick mix. 

Add rhubarb and pecans.

Grease the loaf tin and set a baking paper in.

Fill in the batter and bake for 50 - 55 min

Kohlrabi Tower with Potato Mash and Teriyaki Apple Sauce

This recipe is from Michelin Star Chef Stephan Hentschel. He has got his star for vegetarian cuisine and cooks in Berlin at Restaurant Cookies Cream.

For him are all kinds of veggies the star. Pasta, rice of Tofu can't be found on the plates.

When you are a former carnivore, in some kitchen drawer steak knifes are sleeping. Get them out and let them shine. You can use them to eat this dish.

You can make this vegetarian dish in a vegan dish. Just prepare the potato mash vegan.

Recipe for 2:

1 large Kohlrabi

3 shallots, 1 tbsp potato starch, oil for frying

1/4 red apple

500 g potatoes, 2 tbsp butter, 80 ml milk, 50 ml double cream, salt, nutmeg

100 ml white balsamic vinegar, 100 ml Mirin, 100 ml low sodium soy sauce, 1 tsp potato starch, 1 tbsp water

Chives

Start with peeling the potatoes first. Cook them and make the mash. Keep it warm.

During the cooking time, mix the sauce and bring it to a boil in a small pot, just a bit bigger than the kohlrabi. Peel the kohlrabi and take off the woody end. Cut in 4 equal thick slices, about 13 mm.

Place them in the sauce and let them simmer for 20 min. They will stay firm and not get mushy. That's why the steak knifes will come in handy.

Peel the shallots and cut them in thin rings. Take them apart with your fingers and toss them in potato starch. Fry in some oil until crispy and golden

Chop chives and quarter an apple and cube it in brunoise.

Take the kohlrabi out of the sauce and keep warm. Pour some of it in a container to use up in the next couple of days. Reduce the remaining and cook the apple cubes. Make a slurry and thicken the sauce.

Build a tower and finish with shallots, chives and apples in Teriyaki sauce.

Rhubarb Curd

Normally you will find Lemon Curd. That is the traditional kind. Available in jars at the supermarket. Or you prepare it yourself.

Citrus flavoured curds are getting more common. But I never heard of rhubarb as the base ingredient of curd.

Since we are in high rhubarb season in the moment, I am looking for cooking methods and ideas to use some of the stalks.

I was creativ already this week.

Recipe:

365 g chopped rhubarb, 1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar, juice of 1 lemon, 4 large eggs

2 tbsp butter, 2 or 3 drops red food coloring

Use a strong blender. Chop the rhubarb in 1 inch chunks. Toss it washed with the 1/4 cup of water in the blender. On high mix it to a fine puree. Take a fine mash sieve and press the puree through. Leave the fibers behind. 

Measure 1 cup of rhubarb juice and put it in a pot. Add lemon juice, sugar and crack the eggs in.

Depending on your stove top, a Bain Marie could be the best way. You need heat, but you do not want scrambled eggs. 

On an induction hob that is no problem. Just place the pot on medium heat and start whisking. When it starts to thicken reduce the heat step by step. Whisk constantly.

After 10 to 15 min it thickens enough to coat the backside of a spoon and when you run a finger through it, the line keeps.

Take the pot off the heat. Now you can pass it through a sieve in case you have some cooked egg in. When you are good, just forget that and stir in the room temperature butter.

Fill in jars, cool down and place in the fridge.

Keeps 2 weeks.