Polish sour Soup with Vegetables and smoked Sausage

I used a bottle of Zurek from our new Polish and Slesian Supermarket nearby. The shop is in the same place my once favourite Turkish supermarket was, which disappeared without a trace and no notice in July this year.

I made this kind of soup before, once with a readymade Zurek mix and once I made my own.

I wanted to get rid of a couple of veggies and I bought Polish smoked sausage at the shop. With the help of some smoked bacon the taste of the soup was great. The rye bread based Zurek brought the soup up to an other level.

Recipe:

3 smoked Polish sausages like Kilbasa

80 g smoked bacon

2 medium potatoes, 1/2 onion, 100 g leek, 1 red long pepper, 1 bok choy, 2 carrots, 1 parsley root

750 ml veg stock

1 jar Zurek

Salt, pepper, 2 bay leaves

2 tbsp sunflower oil

Heat up the oil in a big pot, brown the bacon and toss in all chopped veggies at once. Season with salt and pepper and stir them for 5 minutes. 

Boil a kettle with 750 ml water and add that together with the veg stock paste to the pot. Now throw in the bay leaves and cook everything on medium heat covered for 15 min.

Cut the sausage and open the Zurek and add both to the soup. Cook for 5 more min.

Check the soup for the seasoning and add fresh ground pepper.

Pain d'Epices with Liver Spread

Do not say gross. I am a huge fan of all German 'Leberwurst' liver sausages. Foie gras is not my number one, but I eat that too.

This Pain d'Epices sweet spiced bread is marketed as the best choice to pair with foie gras.

That sounded interesting, I picked up a package

The liver paté in France is one of my favourite sausages. That is the pairing I was looking forward to. The taste of both surprised me. I loved it.

Crinkle Tart with French Cheeses and Pear

This dish is a TikTok hit in France. It means that the original ingredients are hard to source in France in the moment.

I saw this on the Internet and knew I can buy all things needed on my weekend trip to France. But I did not count the impact of viral Reels like that on the availability of ingredients in the local supermarkets.

Filo or Brick dough sold out in the big one. The very common bright orange cheese Mimolette (yes, it is the one banned in the US due to its strange unhealthy sounding ripening process) and a very creamy Soumaintrain were not in stock.

In the second large chain, I bought Brick dough and after checking the huge cheese ailes I went to the cheese counter and asked: the two kinds of cheese are not available in the moment. But the lady gave me two alternatives, that worked pretty well.

Recipe:

1 package Brick dough or Filo dough

Melted butter

100 g creamy Camembert 

50 g Cheddar

1/2  ripe pear

10 walnut halves

2 eggs + 100 ml double cream

Herbes de Provence

Salt and Pepper

Brush some butter in a 18 cm dish and brush some on the dough sheets. Crinkle them and fill the dish from the middle to the edge.

Cut thin slices Camembert and stuff them between the layers. Do the same with slices of pear. Add walnuts.

Mix eggs with double cream and add Herbes de Provence, salt and pepper and pour it over.

Finish with grated cheese.

Bake at 180 C for 20 to 25 min.

Lamb Neck Stew

I bought 3 pieces of lamb in France. They need a slow cooking method. Au migôté it said on the package.

The basic veggies for the sauce were carrot, leek onion and garlic.

But browning the meat first is important. Let it take color in some oil and then take it out to put in later. Let the veggies get color. I did not use tomato paste, because I wanted the sauce stay a light color. And I omitted adding flour. The veggies are enough to bind the sauce.

I had some lamb stock cube and dissolved it in 500 ml hot water. Together with 100 ml white wine was that emough liquid to cook the meat.

I seasoned the whole stew with 2 tsp Baharat seasoning. A Levant style seasoning that works well with these kinds of dishes. Nothing is overpowering the flavour of the lamb.

Cooking time covered on medium low was 1 hour. I served it with Basmati and a side salad.

Ingredients:

3 lamb neck slices

Salt, pepper, sunflower oil

1 carrot, 1 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 100 g leek

2 tsp Baharat seasoning

500 ml Lamb stock

100 ml white wine

 

Mushroom Quiche

I was in France for my Christmas grocery shopping. Early enough that I did not had to fight the masses.

I've got my usual NonFood items and looked for ingredients to freeze or keep for the holidays.

AUCHAN supermarket had some speciality fridges on display to force the holiday cheer on customers. I couldn't resist and bought some quiche and Bouchee de Reine.

I even got pork shoulder cured and smoked for New Years Day. 

These Quiche Forestière has a very tasty shortcrust pastry that is seasoned. The custard filling is creamy and topped with a good amount of button mushrooms. I just reheated it in the air fryer for 8 min at 160 C.

Rice with Prawns Leek and Corn

A little seafood on a Sunday is a tasty treat.

But I bought cooked ones in their shell complete with the heads. All the shells went in a pot, I just discarded the intestine. A good amount of stock is now ready to use at an other occation.

The rice cooker was filled with some Basmati and I looked for some veggie to add to the dish.

Sweet corn in a small can is always a good item to use. The fridge held some leek and a green oniom

Paired with some garlic a good base for the prawns.

Just a teaspoon of oil in a pan and then start with chopped onion and leek. Season it with smoked salt and pepper and give it 4 min. Now add garlic and sweet corn. If you have a gluck of Noilly Prat or white wine is fine.

Short before the rice is finished, scrape the veggies on the side and put the prawns in the middle to heat through. Mix with the veggies and serve over Basmati

Ingredients:

150 g shelled cooked prawns

1 green onion

75 g leek

1 small can sweet corn

2 tbsp Noilly Prat

Smoked salt, pepper

Basmati

 

 

One Pot Mustard Sausage Leek and Potatoes

One pot recipes are so good and not so much hassle to clean afterwards.

The main taste experience are the different kinds of mustard that work very well with sausages. I used some of my Monschau caraway seed mustard, some hot Dijon mustard and some Balsamico mustard. A good pinch of sugar is a must to balance that.

First step was to brown the sausage pieces. While they were in the pan, I cut up the leek and peeled the potatoes to cut in smaller cubes.

I had a bit of onion left from my onion boil, it went in with the veggies as well.

Now in with the mustard and don't be shy to use it.

Homemade veg stock paste with 600 ml hot water and 100 ml of double cream were the liquid needed to cook the potatoes.

After 20 min I checked if the potatoes were done. Added more mustard and some sugar and lots of black pepper.

A very hearty dish and great for meal prep.

Ingredients:

300 g pork sausages pre cooked

1tbsp oil

1/2 boiled onion

200 g leek

4 medium potatoes

600 ml hot water and veg stock

100 ml double cream

4 tbsp caraway mustard

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp Balsamico mustard

Pepper

 

Adana Kebap

After two hours walking and standing on the Chridtmas Market Downtown, we had a reservation at a Turkish restaurant. 

The place only has about 40 places and is booked completely during these times. We've got a slot of 90 minutes for our table.

The space is very narrow and we admired the serving personell that they were able to get the food to the tables without crashing into people.

Two of us ordered the Adana Kebap, my friend ordered the Doener Plate. It is a huge amount of food, thst 's why we skipped the starters.

The Adana Kebap is minced lamb and beef that is cooked on a metal skewer. Very good seasoned. It is on top of rice and served with yogurt mint sauce and mixed salad.

Spaghetti Muffins

Using leftovers and veggies to create a tasty lunch.

My Adventkalender this year contains single packages of spiceblends. Just enough for one dish. Yesterday I used the first of this month  - alio olio pepperoncini - to season a pot of spaghetti. Now I have leftover pasta.

Today it had some Basil Pesto Mix with Pine Nuts in the second door.

I decided to use it and make some spaghetti muffins. Using a couple of things from my fridge to make it tasty.

Green onion, red pepper, bok choy were my choice of veggies. The pesto seasoning went in with the double cream and eggs to bind the whole mix.

I had some cured raw ham deli slices. They went in to. And a hand full of grated mozzarella. Mixed well with the liquid and ready to go in the muffin tins.

These were buttered and coated with breadcrumbs. A bit more cheese on top and ready to bake in the oven at 180 C fan for 20 minutes.

Ingredients for 6 muffins:

180 g cooked olio e alio spaghetti

1 red long pepper, 1/2 bok choy, 1 spring onion

1 tbsp dry Pesto seasoning mixed with 150 ml double cream and 2 eggs

Pepper, salt

80 g cured raw deli ham

60 g grated mozzarella

Eating out in the Old Mill House

Restaurants that serve Lunch are getting rarer and rarer.

We wanted to meet with friends for lunch and it took us a while to find a location. Many nowadays are serving only Dinner and no longer 6 or even 7 days a week, but often only 4 or 5 days. Not enough staff available.

The friends we've met are from Heppenheim on the Bergstrasse. A well known wine region. They know the restaurants in the area well and told us, that only the Old Mill House is serving Lunch.

We had a reservation and that was fine. Traditional German cuisine in a good way.

The 5 of us all ordered different things from the menu. I had a good feeling about the food that came to the table. Everyone was satisfied with their choice.

I had a pork schnitzel topped with Hessian cooked cheese (Kochkäse) and fries with a mixed salad.

A bit of ice cream is a good ending of a nice lunch.

 

Christmas Market candied Almonds homemade

I visited our downtown Christmas Market last Saturday. Gebrannte Mandeln or candied almonds usually were bought there to take home and enjoy.

The prices for tiny bags have skyrocketed. Skrinkflation happened to the bags, but my eyes went big when I saw the pricetags.

I have an air fryer and a lot of people posted Reels how to make candied almonds at home.

The ingredients for 200 g were €1,80. For the same amount I would have paid between €18 to €20 at the Christmas market.

Ingredients:

200 g brown almonds

75 g sugar

1/2 tsp salted caramel

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp water

Mix that well and use a baking paper for your air fryer basket. At 200 C for 10 to 15 min, stir every 2 minutes. Take them out and seperate the ones which are sticking together.

Onion Boil went Viral

I am a huge onion fan. It is more than its small chunks in different dishes. The onion deserves a place on a pedestal as a very versatile vegetable.

The Onion Boil went viral a couple of weeks ago. But I don't understand why it is called a boil. The onion is baked like a potato or sweet potato and covered in some buttery spiced sauce.

I just served mine with Greek yogurt and some dried herbs.

The butter is used two different ways: 1 = melted and mixed with different spices in a paste to schmear over and around the onion.

2 = I cut a hollow in the middle of the onion, placed some seasoning in and stuffed a piece of butter in it.

Just 2 cuts made in the onion to help peel it later. Since I used a very big onion, the baking time was nearly 1 hour. I did not put it in aluminium foil directly, but wrapped it in baking paper first.

Discard the first layer, then peel each off to enjoy. Together with the yogurt, it was delicious.