Sawdust Cake

No, this cake is not as dry as sawdust!

I have never heard of it before when I found the recipe on Pinterest. Then I looked in to the history of the cake and found out, that it was a cake recipe from the former German Democratic Republic.

I asked my former coworker who has lots of relatives in the Eastern part,  and they send me their version of their well known recipe.

It is good for bigger groups of people, because it is made in a 25x35 cm sheet pan.

Recipe:

Base:

250 g soft unsalted butter, 250 g sugar

6 large free range eggs, pinch of salt

150 g AP flour, 2,5 tsp baking powder

5 tbsp cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Topping:

400 g double cream, 400 g Schmand 24% fat or mix 300 g creme fraiche and 100 g sour cream

1 1/2 package Dr. Oetker Paradise cream vanilla, 20 g sugar

2. Topping:

100 g butter, 100 g sugar, 100 g dessicated coconut

Use baking spray for the tin and heat up the oven to 160 C fan.

In a large bowl beat sugar and butter together. Then add one egg at a time and beat in between.

Sieve the dry ingredients in and add vanilla extract. Pour in the pan and level out with a cranked palette knife. Bake for 20 min.

Cool down completely and prepare the cream topping. Spread on top of the cold cake. To firm it up, stick it in the fridge for 2 hours or over night.

In a wide pan melt butter and sugar together and add the coconut. Now the fun starts.

If you ever roasted pine nuts, you will know that they take a long time and stay white, then turn to brown or black in an instant. That is the same here. Stir and watch constantly. It takes about 10 min to get them to the right color. Take them out of the pan and cool down.

Put on top of the cake as sawdust. Keep the cake cool until serving.

Turkey Breast Steaks with Kaki and Mozzarella

Turkey for Thanksgiving. But only enough for 1 dinner guest. A whole bird is no option this way.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday as it is in the US. People do not celebrate at the 4th Thursday in November. But since a couple of years the Black Friday found its week in our shops and online stores. It even became a whole week.

Since the 10 times I was in Miami during Thanksgiving over the years, my family and I celebrated that holiday. The tradition stayed on.

I bought small turkey breast steaks. And when I say small, I mean small.

Recipe for 2:

400 g turkey breast steak

1 Kaki, 125 g Mozzarella ball

Oil, salt and pepper

Heat up the oven to 180 C.

Season the meat and sear it in an oiled pan on high heat for 3 min on each side. Put it on an oven proof dish. Peel the kaki and cut it in rounds. Set them on top of the meat.

Cover in mozzarella chunks and bake for 5 to 7 min. I served it with sweetcorn rice.

White Halibut with Ginger Butter

A light meal with only short preptime.

At the fishmonger I bought a small white halibut filet. The piece was long and not very thick. Chances that it would fall apart after cooking were high.

I thought about the most gentle method to cook my fish. That is steam.

A special sauce was too much to serve with the fish. I went with a spiced butter instead. That went well with the halibut and the Jasmine rice.

Recipe:

320 g white halibut, lemon salt, shimishi togarashi, lemon slices

60 g butter, fresh grated lemon zest, fresh grated ginger, 1 tsp ginger syrup, dried Italian herbs

1/2 cup Jasmine rice

I used the steamer on top of my Thermomix. Just lay a bed of sliced lemons in the basket. Season the fish on place it on top. Use boiling water for the pot to speed up the streaming. 10 min, Varoma, speed 2

Use soft butter and mix it with the ingredients thoroghly. Put the butter in clingfilm and roll it up. Stick it in the freezer for 15 min.

Cook the rice.

 

Pea Soup with Scallops and Portugese Cheese

One of our big supermarket chaines has foreign cheeses week on sale since Thursday

Today is Saturday and I went to buy some of my favourite cheeses. Surprise! Not only I am a cheese freak and cheese lover, it seems lots of other people are too. From the many kinds of cheese, several were already sold out.

I wanted a chunk of Morbiere, the one with the ash in the middle. Sorry out. But for the soup I needed a creamy semi hard cheese. Luckly, I had Portugese cow milk creamy cheese from an other shopping trip at home. That worked like a charm.

Seafood and cheese together is for many people a no go. But I am a huge fan of the combination. The scallops were only available frozen. Since the peas came frozen too, it was no big deal the defrost the main ingredients of this dish.

Recipe for 2:

450 g defrosted peas, 8 scallops defrosted, oil

1 spring onion, 2 small potatoes, 1 parsley root, 1 tbsp oil

600 ml chicken stock, 150 ml double cream, 40 g creamy cheese like Morbiere or Taleggio

Salt. Pepper. Dried Mint

Chop the veggies and saute them in oil for 5 min.  Season. Add the chicken stock and cook for 10 min until the veggies are soft. 

Pour in the cream and add the peas. Cook 5 min more and get some of the dried mint in. I used a tea bag and poured just a bit in and tasted it, then a little more. Do not let the mint overpower everything. Use a stick blender and mix the soup.

In a small very hot pan in a little oil sear the patted dry scallops for 45 sec on each side.

Cut off some pieces of cheese. Bring soup, cheese and scallops together.

 

 

Red Bell Pepper Rice- vegan

Lots of veggies for a bit of rice. 

A vegan rice dish that keeps everybody happy is not easy. I cleaned out my veggie drawer. The main ingredient was the bell pepper.

But that were not the only veggies I found. Often I have to buy veggies in bulk. That makes them less expensive. I used what was necessary for one chosen recipe, then I needed an inspiration to use up the leftovers.

Recipe for 3:

2 red bell peppers, 1 red chili, 2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 leek, 1 parsnip, 3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil, 4 cups of veg stock

Wash the rice. Chop all veggies. Start them in olive oil. Season and add the tomato paste. Let that cook for 4 min.stir in the rice.

Add the hot veg stock and cook on low until the rice is done.

1 1/2 cup Thai rice, salt, pepper

 

Puff Pastry Sesame Snack

I had some leftover puff pastry sitting in the fridge. It was from an XXL package, that was on sale at the supermarket.

Today is Thanksgiving. A little extra goes a long way - but only if your guests can pace themselfs in front of the bowl.

A long time ago ond of my friends loved these so much,  I had to hide the bowl until all other guests arrived. She was like a vaccum cleaner when the bowl arrived.

The process is easy. While the oven preheats to 200 C, cut the puff pastry in 1 inch wide strips.

Crack 1 egg, use the egg yolk and brush the strips with it. I sprinkled only black or white sesame seeds on top.  It was just leftover pastry dough.

To make it more fancy, use Parmesan, poppy seeds, caraway seeds or fleur de Sel.

Bake for 10 min and eat the same day.

Pork Loin with Chorizo and Serano Ham

It may sound complicated, but it is easy and quick to prepare.

The filling with Chorizo, pesto and cheese and the Serano ham wrap on the outside makes this a very savoury dish.

When you buy the pork loin make sure you get the middle parts. They need to be the same width. They get a butterfly cut and opened up flat. Use a pan or something else and flatten the pork loin evenly under some plastic wrap. 

Serve with with any kind if side and you have a great meal. The head and the tail end of the pork loin are great for pork loin medallions. Just cut them in slices, season them and put them through flour. Bake in a pan for a couple of min on each side. They make a grest dish on their own.

Ingredients for 2:

250 g pork loin, salt wnd pepper

4 tsp pesto, 5 chorizo slices wide, 2 tbsp grated cheese

8 Serano ham slices

Preheat the oven 180 C fan

Season the butterflied piece of pork and spread the pesto on top. Overlap with the Chorizo and grated cheese

Roll up and wrap in Serano ham. Place in an oiled pan on high heat and sear all around. Place on baking paper on a sheet pan and stick in the oven for 15 min. Let it rest 5 min.

 

Clementine Ginger Coconut Lassi vegan

Fast and super tasty. Just use a powerful blender!

I saw the idea to this recipe at ALDI. But as always made my own version of it. Instead of only clementine juice, I used the peeled fruits. Just the white center part went out. 

It is a great pull me up between meals.

Recipe:

5 clementine, 1/2 lemon

1 tsp grated fresh ginger, 3 tbsp agave syrup

200 ml coconut milk, 1/3 tsp ground tumeric

Ground Asian pepper

Make a smooth blend and drink cold

Chickpeas and Clementine Salad with Pomegranate

WOW!

This is a must make kind of salad. Fresh oven roasted seasoned chickpeas for the win.

The downside is getting the seeds out of the pomegranate without leaving a red splatter battlefield in the kitchen and on yourself.

I have never roasted chickpeas before. But I took the extra step and slipped every single one out of its waxy skin. The chickpeas are better to digest, when peeled.

Ingredients:

230 g chickpeas without the skin, 1/2 tsp Baharat seasoning, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp onion powder, salt, pepper, 1 tbsp olive oil

Put the chickpeas on baking paper and drizzle with oil. Bake at 180 C for 25 min. Mix the spices and sprinkle them over the chickpeas, bake for 10 min more.

3 clementines as salad, 2 clementines to juice

60 g lamb lettuce, 1/3 pomegranate seeded, 40 g hazelnuts chopped, 3 stalks parsley

Dressing:

2 tsp pomegranate syrup, clementine juice, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp rose balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper

Chicken Legs on mixed Peppers

A stress free way to get a great dish.

Not much work to do and a clean stove top. The oven is doing most of the work.

Just season the chicken pieces with what ever kind of rub you like. LIDL had some spice jars with Jerk rub or Cajun rub. I bought both and used the Cajun one.

Get the seeds out of the bell peppers and cut them only in 4 or 5 pieces. I had a bag of Padron peppers from Spain and a red chili only cut the stem off. Some rosemary, thyme and 100 ml of veg stock with 2 tsp of Ayvar as a sauce.

Some spring onion and a couple of garlic cloves for taste. Grind black pepper and a bit of herb salt over everything and chuck it in the oven.

Bake at 200C for 45 min, turn the chicken legs after 25 min.

Ingredients:

2 chicken legs, seasoning rub

2 red bell peppers, 200 g Padron peppers

2 spring onions. 4 garlic cloves, rosemary, thyme

100 ml veg stock, 2 tsp Ayvar, salt and pepper

Spaghetti with Pesto oven baked

What easy recipe helps with cold cooked spaghetti?

Bake your pasta and make a meal out of it, that is better then warmed up leftovers. 

First I thought to use a loaf pan to bake it in. But I found a shallow pan for single cookies and used that instead. Curl the spaghetti with some long tongs and place them in the pan.

Cold pasta is difficult to handle. Putting it in the microwave for 90 sec helped. Mixing in the ingredients gets a lot easier.

180 g cooked spaghetti cold

60 g cream cheese, 1 egg, 4 tsp pesto, 50 g Emmenthal cheese grated

Salt and pepper, cooking spray for the dish

Bake at 180 C fan for 15 min.

Serve with some Ayvar.