Bami Goreng with Pork Neck Steak

I am combining two different dishes. Indonesian vegetarian Bami Goreng with Hong Kong Street Food.

Our large supermarket is finally getting its interior done. Step inside every two weeks, the whole market is upside down. A mayor overhaul is still underway. What was in tge right corner will be in the left corner now. No way to make it easy for customers to find ingredients.

But on my way to buy some milk I went through the "International Isle" and saw the spice blends for Bami and Nasi Goreng. The Indonesian noodles just stacked below it. My last cooking attempt of that dish was a spice blend I bought in the Netherlands. This is a little different tastewise.

Usually Nasi Goreng is made with either chicken or seafood. I wanted pork. The butcher had pork neck steaks on sale. I decided to add this to the Bami Goreng, but prepated in my new favourite way- Hong Kong style.

Recipe for 2:

280 g pork neck steak, oil

marinate:

1 tsp potato starch, 2 tbsp Sake, 4 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tsp curry powder, Salt and pepper

200 g Bami Goreng Noodles, 1 Bami Goreng spice sauce package

Vegetables:

1 carrot, 2 spring onions, 1 white of leek, 1 red bell pepper, 2 green long peppers, 3 garlic cloves, 1 Habanero orange chili  60 g mixed sprouts

Sweet Indonesian soy sauce or Ketsup Manis

Rapeseed oil

Use the backside of a Chinese cleaver and hit hard on the pork neck steak in short intervals. Do this on both sides. The meat gets flatter, larger and less sturdy. Season with salt and pepper and marinate for 30 min at least.

Cook the noodles for 3 min, set aside.

In a hot pan in a bit of oil, sear the steak. 5 min on each side and let it rest on low in the pan.

Chop the veggies and start the carrots first in the wok in some oil. Add garlic and chili. Then the other chopped veggies. Pour in the sauce package and cook it through.

Add sweet soy sauce and the noodles. Stir well. Now cut the pork steak in bite size pieces snd add it with the juice to the pan. Mix well again and serve..

 

 

 

Rice Pancakes with Prawns and Sprouts

Dairyfree Pancakes Vietnamese style.

That is a quick dish when you have leftover Jasmine rice. The batter looks very thin, but the pancakes are cooking very fast and stay in the oil without running in each other.

Heat up the oven to 100 C to keep the pancakes warm until all the batter is done.

I bought frozen organic raw tiger prawns. Great quality. Just a quick run through a hot psn and some lemon salt and pepper. A mix of tiny sprouts adds some freshness and spice to the dish. 

Recipe:

160 g raw black tiger prawns, oil  lemon salt, pepper

Mixed sprouts, 1 spring onion

50 g uncooked Jasmine rice or 130 g cold cooked rice

1 lime, zest and juice

250 ml coconut water, 2 eggs

80 g AP flour, 30 g rice flour

Pinch of salt, 1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp chili flakes

Sweet chili sauce

Cook the rice first and let it cool down.

Chop the white of the spring onion very fine. Place it in a bowl with eggs, coconut water, lime zest and juice. Mix well.

Mix the dry ingredients together and stir them in the wet mix. Add the rice.

Heat up a large pan with oil and bake 3 small pancakes in one go. Keep them warm in the oven.

In a second pan heat up some oil and cook the prawns. Clean the sprouts and bring everything together. Drizzle some sweet chili sauce on top.

Watermelon Rind pickled

Now is the best time to prepare something with watermelons. They have their peak season now in Europe.

The flesh goes in to Indian summerdrinks or it is eaten just as it is. I discarded the rind until now. But I found a couple of interesting dishes to eat that part of the watermelons.

The preparation and usage of spices reminded me of my pumpkin pickles. They are a huge favourite in my household and a very old family tradition.

Maybe the pickled watermelon rinds will be a new one.

Recipe:

400 g peeled watermelon rind, a little red is fine

275 ml water, 100 ml white vinegar or apple cider vinegar,

100 g sugar, 5 juiniper berries, Korean Gochugaru, red pepperberrìes, 1/4 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp salt

Bring the water with the spices to a boil. Cut the rind in 3 cm chunks and add them. Bring up to a boil again. Cook until the rind has softened a little. Cut off the heat.

Fill in steralized jars. It keeps in the fridge for 1 month.

After a week in the fridge - absolutely tasty!

Mushrooms and Ground Meat with Pasta

Jägerpfanne translated as Hunter's Pan.

Many dishes here in Germany are served with mushrooms and are called Hunter's .... ( nach Jägerart). The most famous one is the Jägerschnitzel. A breaded pork schnitzel topped with a creamy mushroom sauce.

This recipe is a bit different. The mushrooms still are an important part of the dish. But the addition of ground meat (65 % pork and 35 % beef) makes it more hearty.

This time I tried something I saw on various cooking videos. I decided to cook without oil. Preparing the mushrooms first in s dry and hot pan is a method I did once or twice before. They need to stay in the pan without stirring for several minutes. They get turned then and tossed around. When the mushrooms start to loose water, get them out of the pan and set aside.

Still without oil in the pan, toss on the ground meat and start breaking it down with a spatula. When the pink is gone, add ham bits and onion and garlic. Now season very well. After a couple of minutes, toss in the mushrooms with the liquid that came out if them. Fresh herbs to round up the flavour. 

The pasta is cooking right now and some starchy water can be transfered to the pan. The time for the creme fraiche has come. It will make everything creamy.

Last step is the addition of the pasta directly from the pot. A little water still helps with the sauce.

 Ingredients for 2:

250 g brown button mushrooms

300 g mixed ground meat, 40 g raw ham bits

1 yellow onion, 2 shallots, 3 garlic cloves

Fresh thyme, majoram, parsley

Salt  pepper, smoked paprika, herbes de Provence

125 g creme fraiche

160 g pasta

Flammkuchen or French Pizza

Calling this a French Pizza is very bad and the French will hate me.

Flammkuchen has a very thin and crusty dough. It is topped with seasoned creme fraiche and lardons and onions. 

I added a bit of grated Emmenthal to get rid of the open package of cheese.

This recipe is from the East of France, the Alsace. When bread was baked in old times, regulating the heat was a bit critical. Checking the tempetature with something less worthy than bread was a good idea. 

The bakers has a snack to eat while the bread was in the oven. 

I used a very good fresh sheet of dough. Ham bits and small cut onion rings were added ln top of the creme fraiche. 

You could stop now, but adding cheese is s very good idea.

 

Pudding Rice and Raspberry Cake

This is an other recipe out of the Austrian cooking magazine. I' ve done a couple of other recipes a while ago.

Since the recipes are still sitting on my coffee table, I took a glance at them yesterday and decided to go sweet for the weekend.

Leftovers can be frozen easily. That reduces food waste and I can enjoy them for s while.

Recipe for a 25x30 cm baking dish:

1,25 l whole milk, 200 g double cream

400 g pudding rice, 200 g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste, pinch of salt, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 tsp cardamom powder

100 g butter, 4 eggs

100 g dried cranberries, 250 g raspberries

Use a big pot. Pour in milk, cream and add rice, sugar and all the spices.

Carefully bring to s boil, reduce the heat and stir often! Cook for 40 min. Put in a big cold bowl and add the cranberries and the butter.

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Cool down more and add the beaten eggs. Take care not to scramble the eggs. Add the raspberries. Butter the baking dish and fill the rice in.

Bake for 40 to 45 min.

Veggie Fritters Oven baked

A mixed bag of veggies waited for a purpose. After my vacation they needed to go. 

I cleaned everything and tossed it in the Thermomix. I could have used a box grater, but I was too lazy. The chopped veggies were pressed to get some liquid out. 

I added a big of potato starch, 1 egg and seasoning. 

When you prepare fritters that do not contain any meat, they often are not sticking together like classic meatballs. They are softer and fall apart. Cooking them in a pan is difficult. The easier way is using the oven. Turning them after 20 min is without any problems. They hold their form and no longer break apart.

Ingredients for 6 fritters:

1 small courgette, 1 medium carrot, 2 small potatoes

1 shallot, 2 cloves of garlic

40 g grated Emmenthal cheese

2 tbsp potato starch, 1 egg

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, dried thyme, cayenne pepper

1/2 cup Panko 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Spray oil for the baking paper

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Mix all ingredients and press them in balls. Toss them through the breadcrumbs mix and place them on an oiled baking paper. Spray the tops with oil too.

Bake for 20 min, turn and bake for 15 min more.

Serve with sour cream.

 

Insalada con Patatine Fritte

My second time eating out at restaurant LUCIA in Nuerburg.

The starter breadsticks came with a tomato chutney this time. Fruity and spicy.

This time I went vegetarian and ate a salad with grilled vegetables and lettuce. Mini Mozzarella balls and a raspberry dressing were added. It was a big bowl of salad.

The only greens I tossed to the side was the arugula. I ate some, but too much is too much for me. This is not my favourite kind.

A big plate of home fries aka Patatine fritte were served. They were shaped like thick petals. Crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. A very good seasoning made them even better. I ate them with Hellmann's mayo.

 

 

Eating at Nuvolari Restaurant in Nuerburg

I wanted to celebrate my first two laps around the Green Hell - Nuerburgring Nordschleife.

Fine dining is the best way to do this. I saw some famous YOU TUBERS there, ready for the Track Day on Wednesday. Nice bonus!

A cocktail to start the evening sounded great. I went for the "Nordschleife Rush" a Whisky and Triple sec based drink. 

The Amuse Bouche followed. Different kinds of fresh bread chunks, salted butter, olive oil and a little tomato salad.

It is chanterelle mushroom time in Germany. I choose creamy chanterelles with a mixed salad and a Roesti (potato pancake). Thst was very good. I will repeat it at home soon.

A combination of 3 different kinds of ice cream finished my evening.

 

Eating in a Restaurant at the Green Hell

Yes! I am at the Nuerburgring, better known as the Green Hell. The longest (20,8 km) and most dangerous racetrack of the world. Built in 1927.

Arriving on Sunday during Family Day, all Restaurants been booked to the max. Fast cars and Supercars galore. I have never seen so many Porsches, Mclarens and BMW in one place. 

At 8 PM I was able to secure a table in a nearby restaurant LUCIA, Pollo alla Nonna.

An Italian restaurant that only features chicken. The grandmother still raises chicken in Italy. Free range with organic feed. The granddaughter opened the restaurant here, serving organic chicken.

The spatchcock style chicken is served with a special dry rub and cook on the BBQ. I ordered mixed vegetables with it. They reminded me a lot of the great Antipasti vegetables I had in Calabria.

Breadsticks with a cheese cream were served as an appetizer.

I celebrated the evening with a Negroni

 

Kakigori or Shaved Ice German style

I had Kakigori once in Japan during my first trip there in Asakusa. I always wanted to make it at home. 

That took 8 years! I found a manual ice shaver on Amazon and bought a bag of larger ice blocks at the supermarket. 2 of them are enough for a whole bowl of shaved ice.

Now I am experimenting with flavourings. I used some syrup once, the other time just fruits.

I had a small can of sweetened condensed milk in the fridge and a jar of homemade strawberry jam with Aperol. 

These two combined are a great flavour for a whole bowl of cold ice snow with some crunch.

Burrata with grated frozen Tomato

To freeze fruits or veggies and grated them over some kind of dairy is a new Internet trend.

Last week I posted frozen peach grated over Greek yogurt. That was a lovely dessert. Today I bought one large tomato at the supermarket and after washing it, tossed it in the freezer in a bag. 

The Summer heat in the moment is the right time to get ice cold finger while grating fruits or veggies. But it is fun. 

Ingredients:

2 slices of toast with seeds

Butter

125 g Burrata

1 large tomato frozen

30 g pine nuts toasted

Pepper, salt, parsley, balsamic vinegar

Avocado Drink from Indonesia

An other way to enjoy avocado - this time a bit of a sweet version. A thick kind of Smoothie.

But not too sweet, just a little bit. The avocado still has the distinctive taste. YT Beryl Shereshewski presented some recipes with avocado from around the world. 

Many countries in Asia use it in sweet dishes. Why not? I baked a cake with it a while ago and it worked just fine. 

Guacamole and avocado with egg on toast are so common. I usually just eat them as a snack with some lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Here you only need a blender or even a stick blender will do.

Ingredients for 1:

1 avocado

200 ml milk

1 tsp agave syrup

2 tsp Milo instant cocoa powder

3 tsp sweetened condensed milk

Ice cubes

Mix condensed milk with the milo powder to get a thick paste. Schmear that on the insides of your favourite glass. Add ice cubes.

Blend the avocado with milk and syrup and add to the glass. Enjoy!