3 Minute Cappellini Spinach One Pot

I saw that dish as a 90 seconds Reel on TIK TOK. But with all these clips, you have to take them with a grain of salt.

Or some cooking knowledge.

But faster than that recipe was no pasta dish before in my household. Good to have an induction hob with boost setting.

Pasta with spinach was a well loved dish in my family. It was one of my Dad's favourite and he loved to cook it.

This is different, because it comes together very quickly in one pot.

Recipe for 1:

120 g 3 Minute Cappellini

250 ml water, 1 tsp veg stock paste (homemade), 200 ml double cream

250 g frozen spinach chunks, nutmeg, salt and pepper

45 g Grana Padano grated

Boil stock, cream and frozen spinach until it is nearly defrosted. Add the pasta and stir. Keep it from boiling over. Season. Start grating some of the cheese in and taste if the cappellini are al dente.

Finish with more cheese.

Asparagus Bacon wrapped Potatoes Bake

This idea is from a Discounter newsletter, an Easter special. I changed some things as usual.

Green asparagus is getting more and more common here in Germany. But the white gold still holds the top place.

I broke off the lower parts of the stalks and washed it. Since they were on the thicker side, I cut the part down from the tip lenghwise and in 2 inch pieces. They were then dipped in melted butter.

I bought Drilling potatoes. They are very small and have a thin skin. I cooked them for 15 min, then cooled them in cold water. 

The bacon strips were too long. So I used two halved slices to wrap the little potatoes in.

I am not a huge fan of sundried tomatoes in oil. I only used 4 and cut them up. I had some Date tomatoes from a can and used some of them too. And since we are in mid wild garlic season, some chopped leaves were added to the dish too. Season everything with salt, pepper, chili and herbes de Provence.

After everything came out of the oven, I grated Grana Padano on top.

Baking time is 20 min at 200 C.

Ingredients:

250 g green asparagus, 500 g small potatoes

30 g sundried tomatoes, 30 g canned tomatoes

100 g streaky bacon, 25 g butter

Salt, pepper, chili, herbes de Provence

Grana Padano or Parmesan

 

Eggplant Salad Uzbek style

This dish is from my newest purchased cookbook. One of my favourite YT channels: My name is Andong, published it.

The salad recipe caught my eye because it was a dish from Uzbekistan. My BFF was on a round trip there a couple of years ago. But the "tourist food" was not her favourite.

I often use eggplants/aubergines in many dishes. I took a while to like them. But now I try to find more ways to cook them. This recipe here is one to repeat in the future.

Eat it just as a vegetarian /vegan dish or serve it together with some grilled meat.

Ingredients for 1:

1 large eggplant, some wild garlic leaves ( or use a clove of garlic)

1/4 red bell pepper, 1/5 cucumber, 3 very small cooked potatoes, 3 tbsp sunflower seeds toasted

Olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, Italian herbs, 1 lemon, 1/2 tsp cumin

Additional mayo and mustard for the potato salad

Preheat the oven to 180 C fan. Wash the eggplant and stab it with a fork around. Place it on a baking sheet and put it in the oven for 55 to 60 min. Place it in a freezer bag, close it and let it sit for 30 min.

Now scrape out the inside in a bowl. Mash it with a fork. Chop the wild garlic, add that together with oil, cumin, salt and pepper. Squeeze first 1/2 of the lemon. Give it  taste, eventually add more lemon juice.

Prepare the other veggies separat. And dress them separat. Prep the potato salad. Toast tge sunflower seeds in a dry pan.

 

Vegetable Soup with Pork Belly

Prepackaged meat is often not in the amount you will need for a recipe. Dealing with leftover meat and bringing that to shine in an other dish is often a challenge.

Planning a meal is one thing. Getting the gears in your head to shift for an other one is time consuming. You need to work with the ingredients you already have on hand, in the freezer or in your cupboards. Doing a second grocery shopping trip is not working. 

I decided to make a stew.

Giving the slices of pork belly some searing intensifies the flavour. Then I opened my fridge and cupboards and added everything but the kitchen sink.

The Umami in this stew comes from the Miso paste. Miso today is the Maggi from the past.

Ingredients:

250 g pork belly

2 tbsp veg stock paste, 800 ml water, 2 tsp white miso paste

2 carrots, 2 parsley roots, 2 potatoes, 2 onions, 2 garlic cloves, 5 cherry tomatoes

1 bay leaf, lovage, cellery greens, chives

50 g short pasta, salt and pepper, chili flakes

Cook the pork and the veggies first in the stock. Add the pasta later depending on its cooking time. That is the moment to enhance the stew with the miso too. Check the salt level! Finish with chives.

Asparagus Salad with Ham and Wild Garlic

This time of the year a huge bowl of asparagus salad is a great lunch option. 

I was out this morning on a shopping trip to a garden center to gather more herbs for my balcony. This was the 3rd garden center in 3 weeks. We have 3 large different ones around. In front of the foor was a huge asparagus shack, from one of the bigger asparagus farmers around the area. 

I found white chunks of asparagus packed by the kilo, ready for soups or salad. Just pieces about 2 inch length. The best of that, they were already peeled. I only gave them a rinse and cooked them for 12 min.

A bunch of the green variety went in my shopping bag for an other recipe tomorrow.

Ingredients: 

1 kg peeled white asparagus

1 green onion, 30 g wild garlic leaves, 100 g cooked ham slices

Dressing:

1 tsp veg stock paste mixed with 50 ml hot asparagus cooking water

50 ml double cream, 3 tsp sour cream, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp olive oil

3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, dried Italian seasoning 

Sucuk Sausage in Tomato Sauce

Sucuk is a Turkish sausage, halal. Available in most of German supermarkets and in all Turkish ones. 

Made with beef and lots of seasoning. There are sold either mild or hot. The biggest problem is to find small packages of sausages. The regular packages sold contain 6 or more pieces. The bigger, the better.

Cooking them with lots of onions, garlic, peppers and tomatoes and a good pinch of cumin is the best way to enjoy them. But putting them on a grill is a good choice too.

I had a bag of ready made filled little dumplings in the fridge. They were an offer at tge supermarket and I wanted to taste them. They were filled with a tomato cheese paste. Just sauteed in butter for 5 min to get some color on the outside. 

Sorry to say, they were dry and the filling was tasteless. I have thrown most of them out.

Recipe:

150 g sucuk sausage peeled

2 onions, 1 spring onion, 3 garlic cloves

200 g cherry tomatoes, 1/2 can of date tomatoes crushed

1 tsp veg stock paste (homemade), Pul Biber, Cumin, smoked Paprika, Saflor

1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, 1 tbsp hot paprika paste

Start heating the oil and brown the sliced sausages. Take them out. In the fat sauté the onions and garlic, add paprika paste, tomatoes and canned ones.

Now in with the seasoning and the veg stock paste and a little water. Cook for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are mushy.

Prepare the dumplings or eat the sausages with rice or bread.

Pork Belly with Sprouts Asian style

A pair of tongs and sissors from the Korean store are the best helpers in this dish.

Cooking slices of pork belly is easy. Making a sauce for it is easy too. Give it a try and you will love it.

I only added some green onions, garlic and mung bean sprouts to it. A lot of lettuce cups made it easy to enjoy this dish. Short grain rice soaked up the sauce.

Meat:

Slices of pork belly in very little oil without seasoning cooked in a pan until light golden brown on both sides. Get them out of the pan and cut them in 1 inch pieces ( with sissors and tongs like a Korean) or with a knife.

Boiling water from a kettle over mung bean sprouts for 60 seconds.

Chopped green onions and garlic. In the same pan as the pork belly was. Sauté for a couple of min, add the sprouts.

Sauce:

Mix 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 2 tbsp mirin, 5 tbsp Sherry fino or cookibg wine, 2 tbsp agave syrup, 2 tsp red hot pepper flakes.

Pour the sauce in the pan and add the meat. Cook for 3 more min.

Clean some iceberg lettuce and use them as cups. Cook a bit of rice.

Asparagus Salami Muffins

These recipe is for 9 muffins.

Fresh green asparagus directly from an asparagus shed 1 mile away. Still on the expensive side, because we have temperatures cold enough to wear a winter parka. This weekend should finally get a little warmer.

The recipe was adapted from a vegetarian page. My BFF made it last night and told me to use either bacon or something similar to boost the flavour. And add more seasoning. She thought that the muffins came out a bit bland.

That is t

he reason I added salami, fresh herbs and smoked paprika.

Recipe:

100 g green asparagus, 50 g cherry tomatoes

50 g grated Parmesan, 50 g chopped salami

1 egg, 75 g soft butter, 1 tbsp sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

175 g flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 75 ml milk

Fresh thyme, fresh majoram

Chop the asparagus, the tomatoes and the salami fine. Grate the Parmesan roughly.

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar and salt creamy, add the egg and beat more.

Sift in flour and baking powder and paprika.

Mix and add the milk and the other ingredients.

Preheat oven 180 C. Fill 9 muffin cases and bake for 30 min.

Pinsa with Mozarella and Parma Ham

The last time I had Pinsa was in Rome a very long time ago.

Dr.Oetker, the producer of all kinds of frozen Pizzas, Baguettes and lots of other stuff has Pinza now in his offers. But I do not buy that stuff.

I want to know what I put on the dough. This Pinsa is a way to get rid of fridge and counter leftovers. 

I used up some Parma ham, some crushed tomatoes, fresh ones and a Buffalo Mozzarella that went over its best by date 4 days ago. Some basil from the kitchen window and a bit of olive oil.

Dough for 2:

200 g Pizza flour, 40 g Rice flour, 15 g Chickpea flour

5 g salt, 2 g fresh yeast, 1 tsp olive oil

180 ml water

Mix water and flours well and let them sit for 30 min. Add the other ingredients.

Knead the dough and let it rise covered for 1 hour at room temperature. Put in a bowl and plunck in the fridge for 24 hours or longer. Get them out of the fridge and shape in two balls. Let them rise, brushed with a little oil up to 4 hours.

Strech out in two rectangular shapes. 

Bake at 250 C for 5 to 7 min, brushed with a little oil and the toppings.

Bake until the mozzarella bubbles and the pinsa has some color around the edges. That depends on how high your oven temp works.

Short and high heat is the best for a great Pinsa.

Asparagus and Ham wrapped in Yufka

Served with a Feta Dip.

In most of our Turkish supermarkets the filo or yufka pastry is available. For the Sigara Boerek the triangle pieces of pastry are pre cut and packaged. 

The preparation is easy. Steam the asparagus until nearly done. Cool down. Just mix egg yolk with milk. And then start the packages.

Buy some good quality thin cuts of ham and place that on the wide part of the yufka pastry. Brush all around with the egg mix. Cut one asparagus stalk in halves. Placw onw piece on top of the ham. Roll in once, flip the ends in and roll up.

Brush with egg mix and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake at 220 C for 12 to 15 min.

Dip:

150 g Greek yogurt, 75 g Feta cheese, 15 g Parmesan

Sakt, pepper, chopped wild garlic

Wild Garlic Paste with Asparagus and Polenta

Wild Garlic Leaves are in season right now. You can find them in forests and you will smell them there.

But I prefare to buy them in the supermarket. Less hassle and no fox or dog doo on top.

The leaves are very intense in garlic flavour. But no stinky breath the other day. I did not a typical paste Pesto style, more an oil based dressing.

The combination with almond oil and sunflower seeds is spot on together with wild garlic.

My polenta recipe is Mamaliga here on the blog. Creamy and tasty. Dotted with some goat cream cheese. The green asparagus was steamed for 12 min.

Paste:

40 g wild garlic leaves

25 g sunflower seeds, lemon salt, pepper

30 ml almond oil 

 

Asparagus Ham and Pea Tart

The season of the White Gold has finally come into motion. It was too cold and rainy the last couple of weeks, now its getting a bit better.

But where is the Spring? Middle of April and I am still wearing my Winter parka.

The only thing that shows that it is Spring time are the amount of road work popping up all over the city. It took me good 40 min for 13 km through the city from one end to the other by car.

I went to a farm shop to get my asparagus - and other goodies! It was worth driving for 1 1/2 hours in total.

Recipe for a 20 cm baking dish:

Shortcrust pastry Readymade

400 g white asparagus, 60 g green asparagus

75 g defrosted peas

1 green onion, 5 stalks wild garlic

100 g cooked ham

6 slices Raclette cheese

2 eggs, 100 ml double cream, 50 g creme fraiche, 50 ml milk

Smoked paprika, chili salt, pepper, thyme, Herbes de Provence 

Use baking release spray for the dish. Press the pastry in the dish and stab some holes in it with a fork.

Steam or boil the asparagus to 3/4 done. Chop ham and onion and put half of it with half of the asparagus and peas in the dish. Cover with the first few slices of Raclette cheese. Repeat.

Mix the eggs with the other stuff and season well. Pour over the last cheese layer.

Bake at 190 C for 35 to 45 min. If it gets too dark on top, cover with foil when the tart us still too wobbly in the middle.