Bread Soup Bavarian style

This is a great way to get rid of stale rye or sourdough bread. Just toss it in a soup with basic vegetables.

The bread makes the body of the soup. It is filling and warming like a comfortable blanket. The best for fall or winter. 

To give it a little protein, some fine cut ham is good for additional flavour.

Recipe for 4:

150 g stale bread cubed

3 carrots, 120 g celeriac, 60 g leek, 4 stalks parsley, 2 spring onions

60 g raw ham cured, 2 tbsp butter

1 tsp paprika powder, salt, pepper, majoram

900 ml beef stock or veg stock, 100 ml double cream

Cut up all veggies and ham. Melt the butter and start with the ham and the onion. After 3 min, toss in veggies and bread and season well. Pour in cold stock and bring to a boil. Close the lid and reduce the heat and cook for 20 min.

Use a stick blender and make a rough mix. Some chunks of veg are still welcome. Add cream and parsley.

Korean Pork Belly

Crispy crust and tasty pork.

With a piece of pork belly you have many different options to prepare it. Marinate it with beer, with herbs or try an Asian method. I went Korean.

First step was to cross cut the skin on top and putting salt on for 30 min. That helped with firming up to make a crust later.

Then I prepared the sauce to marinate and cook the pork belly in.

The first hour in the oven, the dish was covered with aluminium foil. The following 45 min it was off. I basted the pork on all sides again with the sauce. The pork belly came out super juicy and very tasty. I just added some rice and had a salad as a side to eat.

 Marinate:

2 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp Mirin

2 tbsp Gochujang, 2 tsp Gochugaru

5 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil

Cherry Pie Hack

I was envited to have coffee and Rocher Cake at my friends house to celebrate her last week birthday. I was on my way to the supermarket and garden center and phone call reached me. She cancelled on me due to a stomach bug.

Since I was looking forward to cake and the offering of the bakery wasn't speaking to me, I bought ingredients to make myself some.

During the week I saw a Reel with the hack for an American cherry pie. Ingredients needed to be changed to the ones available here. But that was manageble. 

Already in the supermarket I picked everything up.

Cherries for pie are available with a gloopy syrup  in America. Ready to be dumped in a ready made piecrust. I had to use a different approch. Buy a jar of sour cherries in juice and drain the juice in a pot. Add some cherry liqueur and dissolve enough cornstarch in water to thicken the hot juice. Works fine and let the cherried sit in the gloop to cool down.

The hack of this pie is the piecrust. The blue round rolls of Kraft Crescent dough are well known. The only difference are the size snd width of this containers. I needed to cut the long strip of dough in half and place both parts side by side. The American version is wider.

Graham crackers are not available here. I went for the trusty LEIBNIZ and used the whole meal version. Crushed them into crumbs. A bit of powdered sugar adds more sweetness.

Recipe:

2 Kraft dough rolls Crescent dough

1 jar Morello cherries, 3 tsp cornstarch, 3 tbsp cherry liqueur

75 g Leibniz whole wheat crackers

2 tbsp powdered sugar 

Butter for the dish, cream

Grease the dish and preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Crack open one dough and unroll it. The wide American version goes in the dish. The German version needs to cut in half and pushed together and then dropped in the dish. Pour the cherries in with the gloop. Crumble the crackers on top and sieve some sugar on top. Now get the second dough open and put it on top. Brush the top with a little cream and bake it for 20 min.

 

 

Turkish Pilaw with Carrots and Almonds

My Turkish coworker raved about one of her fabourite rice dishes. 

I have made the crispy tiny pasta mixed in rice before. But that one is some levels above. The use of almonds in Pilaw is more a tradition south of Turkey. Nuts are a good bite in the rice. Only carrots and almonds are used. But who knows me, I make my own version of most recipes.

Since it is a vegetarian option as a full meal, the recipe is for 2 servings. When you have it with meat or fish, it is good for 4.

Recipe:

200 g pilaw rice

2 smaller carrots grated, 1 spring onion chopped

35 g almond bits or slices, 3 tbsp olive oil

1 hand tiny angelhair pasta, 700 ml veg stock

Pul Bieber or chili, salt and pepper

Greek yogurt, parsley

Heat up the oil and start with the onion, after 3 min toss in the carrots. Give them 5 min then add the dry pasta and let it get a bit crispy. Now in with the almonds to toast. Season.

Add washed rice and stir well. Fill up with veg stock, bring back to boil, cover and go on low heat for 15 min. Stir some times.

Add fresh parsley and serve with yogurt.

Dining at the Golf Course

I do not play Golf.

I was never at a Golf Course before. My friends wanted to go out to lunch with me. The designated Restaurant was closed and did not poste that on their website. 

We had to look for an alternative and drove 18 km to the Golf Course. 

The dish of the day was on a chalk board was Beef Roularde with Spaetzle. That was my choice.

My BFF wanted just a small portion and thought a Curry Wurst with French fries was the dish to go. It was a huge portion with 2 sausages and a mountain of fries. And she ordered a Panna Cotta.

Her husband decided on a Grill Plate.

We had great food on the Golf Course.

Chicken with Okra

Okra is not available here very often. My local Turkish supermarket had just a few today. I talked to the shop owner and he told me that okra goes bad very fast and this veg is not in high demand here.

Where ever I found okra, I buy some.

Many people do not like okra because of the slime. A hack against the slime is vinegar. Before using it, put the okra in water with 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar. Let them sit in the water for 30 min, drain and cook them.

 This dish is easy to prepare. Just brown the seasoned chicken on both sides for 5 min on each side. Then you just have to peel and sesaon all the veggies and put all in an oven proof dish. Add chicken stock and cover with aluminum foil.

Bake at 180 C fan for 35 min, uncover and bake 30 more min.

Recipe for 2:

2 chicken legs

350 g okra, 1 red onion, 2 spring onions, 6 garlic cloves, 400 g tomatoes, 400 g potatoes

Parsley, olive oil, salt, pepper, herbes de Provence

 

Manti Turkish style

This is a pretty easy dish because the fiddely main work of producing the tiny Manti was made in a factory. I bought a package of them frozen.

I wanted to make them myself but my Turkish coworker told me to buy them frozen as all Turkish households would do.

That was the best idea ever. I went to my neighborhood Turkish supermarket and picked some up in the frozen isle.

The rest of the work was done in minutes.

Recipe:

200 g Manti frozen, bay leaf

150 g Greek yogurt, 2 tsp garlic paste, salt and pepper, chopped parsley

3 tbsp butter, 3 tsp paprika powder

Cool the Manti in salted water until done. When they are already defrosted it takes less time. Drain. 

In a small pan melt the butter and add the paprika.

In a bowl mix the yogurt with the other ingredients together.

Put the Manti on a plate, top with the yogurt and then the butter paprika.

Enjoy.

 

Kohlrabi Corn and Habanero Soup -vegetarian

I had the idea to grow Habanero Chili Peppers on my balcony. But only 2 fruits came off it.

Since my Indian Ghost Pepper were super hot, I cut off one small piece from the Habanero. No need to cough and it smelled fruity. Then I chewed the small bit. Hot but edible. I took the seeds out and cut the top off and threw the whole piece in the Thermomix together with onions and garlic.

The other ingredients were a huge piece of kohlrabi, 5 potatoes and one cobb of corn, just the kernels.

I dumped in my large jar of homemade chicken stock and cooked it for 30 min. A bit of cream and spices with nutmeg followed.

The soup was creamy and spicy, but great to eat.

Recipe for 4:

650 g kohlrabi, 450 g potatoes, 1 fresh corn on the cobb, 2 onions, 4 garlic cloves, 1 habanero

700 ml veg stock, 30 g butter, 100 ml double cream

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

Since I cooked in my Thermomix 31, I put onions, garlic and habanero in first and at speed 6 for 5 seconds shredded it. Scrape the sides with a spatula down and add butter. Cook at Varoma for 2,5 min at speed 2.

Get all chunky veggies in and at speed 7 shred them for 8 sec. Scrape the sides and the lid and add stock. Season.

Cook for 30 min at 100C speed 2

Add cream and taste for seasoning and cook 3 min more. Add some parsley on top of some cream cheese.

Sausage Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

This is an Italian classic dish.

Sausage meat is already seasoned and finer minced then regular pork mince meat. I bought a pack of sausages and took the filling out of the casing. 

The meatballs are cooked in the oven. That makes a splatter free stove top. The tomato sauce came out of my Thermomix with lots of ripe tomatoes from my garden.

The rice was left over from the fridge. Cooking light!

Recipe for 3:

400 g sausage meat

2 garlic cloves, 1 small shallot

30 g Parmesan, 60 g breadcrumbs, 1 large egg

5 tbsp lukewarm water

1 tsp salt, pepper, smoked paprika, Italian dried herbs

Preheat the oven 200 C. Use baking paper.

Grate garlic and onion and Parmesan. Add egg and breadcrumbs and seasoning. Now the water and with your hands make it into a smooth dough. Use an ice cream scoop to make balls, toss them between your hands to get the air out and set them on the baking sheet.

Bake for 16 to 19 min. Toss them in tomato sauce.

Mushrooms Taiwanese style San Bei Gu

The title of this dish is Three Cup Mushroom

This was on a YT video by Beryl Shereshewsky. Easy and fast to prepare meals. This one was from a couple living in Luxemburg. The husband was from Taiwan. This is a vegetarian version. Use chicken or an other protein if you like.

The recipe is interesting. The use of garlic and ginger as part of a stock or sauce is nomal way. In this dish, garlic and ginger are used as a vegetable and stand on their own. I added a couple of green onions for more veggies 

Recipe for 2:

150 g king oyster mushroons, 100 g shiitake mushrooms

2 spring onions, 8 garlic cloves, 7 slices of ginger

Red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, 1 tbsp rapeseed oil, pepper

Cooked rice

Sauce:

2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine, 3 tbsp Mirin, 2 tsp roasted sesame oil, 1 tbsp sugar

Peel garlic and keep the cloves whole. Peel the ginger and slice it, chop the spring onions. Clean the mushrooms with a paper towel and cut in large chunks. Prepare the sauce.

Heat oil in a wok and start with onion, garlic and ginger. After 3 min add the mushrooms and let them sit in the heat for a while before you stir. They will need time to wilt down.

Pour the sauce over and give it 3 min. Finish with pepper flakes, pepper and sesame seeds. Pour over rice. 

Pretzels with Cheese and Herbs

A light evening snack. Goes well with beer.

ALDI had that snack idea on their recipe side. My fried made it and recommended it to me. Use some cheese that is not too salty, because the pretzels are salty already. 

I used a mild kind of cheese, ghouda style.

It gets the kick from the fresh herbs. I went out on my balcony and picked a bunch of very different ones.

Preheat the oven to 180 C and put the pretzels on it.

Grate the cheese over the pretzels and scatter the herbs on top.

Bake for 4 to 5 min until the cheese has melted.

Apricot Dessert

This years apricots are on the dry or tasteless side. Maybe the drought is the problem. I bought an other pack, but it was the same less tasteing fruits. After I ate a quarter of the punnet of apricots, I knew only two different options. Throw them in the organic wate bin or cook them in a tasty liquid and use them in a dessert. I decided on the second option.

It took 30 min, water, peach syrup and lemon juice and a lot of patience to get a good result and some edible apricots.

Next I was on a mission to find the other components of my dessert. Some double cream and an open bag of merengue made one. Vanilla pudding freshly cooked was an other. I needed a bit of crunch. A box of breakfast granola came in my sight. It is oats with dried mango, white chocolate and tumeric.

The box with chocolate sprinkles was the final touch. Now I only had to bring everything gogether and put in the fridge to cool down.

Recipe for 4:

500 ml whole milk, 40 g sugar, 1 package Dr. Oetker vanilla pudding

200 ml double cream, 2 tsp vanilla sugar, 3 medium merengue

200 g apricots destoned, 100 ml water, 1/2 lemon juiced, 1 tbsp peach syrup

Chocolate sprinkles, granola

Start with the granola, then top with apricots. Next pudding, then stiff besten cream mixed with crushed merengue. Chocolate sprinkles and a 1/2 apricot on top.

Beef Goulash

This is a traditional kind of goulash served in many households here in Germany as a Sunday dinner. I remember it from the time I was a little child. My Grandma made it once a month, enough to feed 6 people on Sunday and leftovers for 3 on Monday. The ratio from beef to sauce was a bit off to feed that many people. Lots of tasty sauce to mash with the boild potatoes.

I love a good sauce myself and I take pride in making it.

Ingedients for 3:

650 g braising beef in 1 1/2 inch cubes

1 large onion, 2 spring onions, 4 garlic cloves, 1 red chili, 2 carrots, 60 g leek

1 tsp beef stock, 2 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp goulash paste, 2 tbsp Brandy, 100 ml red wine, 300 ml water, salt and pepper

Season the beef, cut all veggies. Heat the oil high and bring the beef in. Just enough to cover the bottom. Braise in 2 batches. 

Add veggies and give them 3 min, stir well. Now the paste and the flour. Stir it all in.

Deglaze with Brandy, then red wine. Now the beef stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cover with a lid

Cook for 3 hours. Serve with ever you like.