Light Lunch with Friends

After nearly 6 years I met an old friend. Our ways parted, but sometimes it happens and we came together again.

Today I had my first glass of nonalcoholic Bubbly (I am not calling it Champagne). My friends loves a good bottle of bubbly, that has not changed over all the years. 

But her daughter does not drink alcohol anymore. When I am on tour with my car, I do not drink alcohol either. I was a bit unsure if non alcoholic Champagne was a good idea. 

But I was mighty positive surprised:

MUMM Non Alcoholic, white.

My friend served a light lunch. She has a Thermomix since this year and uses it often. She made a salmon dip, red pesto and baked some pizza flavoured yeasty roll.

A mixed salad on the side.

 

Lentils with Indian Trail Mix Topping

The guys at SortedFood served a "Breakfast dish" that had some kind of pulses as a base and was topped with a crunchy Indian mix.

I used red lentils but added some seasoned pork meat, here in Germany called Mett. Raw pork usually smeared on breadrolls and topped with raw onions. That is a breakfast dish here, but not everyone loves that.

But this pork is easy to use in a cooked dish. It is ground very find and seasoned and very tasty.

A lot of veggies went in first. The meat followed after 5 minutes. The red lentils were cooked separately in some unsalted water. They just need 10 minutes and went in the pan with the cooking water 

Sambal olec and Ayvar and some veg stock paste followed next.

Put that on a plate and top it with the Indian trail mix.

I only had some bread with it.

Cooking Class with Chef Cornelia Poletto

This was an online cooking class from the Villeroy & Boch Kitchen. 

They are promoting a new line of dishes. My friend is a Premium VIP customer at V&B. She had the offer to participate and received a box of prepackaged food, the recipe and two pasta plates from the new line.

Everything was measured for two people. Since I sometimes cook in her kitchen, she invited me to have fun together with her. 

After checking the delivered ingredients, we went out to get some of the veggies a lot fresher. I cut off the needed herbs from my balcony just an hour before I left.

The guide to the recipe showed, that Mis en Place was recommended before the online start at 6PM. We came back late from shopping, but it took me just a couple of minutes to get everything started.

I did the cooking, my friend helped. Many online participants told the Chef that she was way too fast. She slowed down. But it was a very easy recipe and we started eating while Chef Poletto still walked people through the recipe.

Recipe for 2:

250 g organic chicken breast

2 tbsp butter

1 bundled piece of fresh thyme, 2 young garlic cloves

150 g King Oyster mushroom or Chanterelles

125 g baby spinach

4 stalks lovage

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

80 ml vegetable stock

200 g fresh tagliatelle

2 egg yolks

Lemon zest

150 g grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Use a baking paper on the baking sheet and take 75 g of Parmesan and make some discs on the paper. Bake until melted and a little golden. Keep an eye on them not to burn them. Take them out to cool down and reduce the oven temp to 75 C.

Bring the pasta to a boil in salted water. Wont take long, because it is fresh pasta.

Cut the chicken breast in 2 cm cubes. In a wide pan melt 1 piece of butter. Add 1 crushed garlic clove and the thyme. Let the butter foam and get the salted and peppered chicken in. Let it sit for 2 min, then stir. After 4 more min, it should be good. Take it out in an ovenproof dish and place it in the oven.

Chop the mushrooms and some of the lovage and give them a couple of minutes in the second piece of butter in the pan. When the mushrooms have wilted a bit, toss in the spinach and season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Mix egg yolks with the cooked veg stock, add the secobd part of the parmesan and the leftover lovage. Take the pasta out of the water 2 min before it is finished cooking and add it directly to the pan. Pasta water is welcome. Get in the chicken and pour the egg mix over everything. Toss and stir, gradually add more pasta water to make a creamy sauce. Check seasoning and add more salt, pepper or nutmeg. Grate some lemon zest on top for freshness.

Serve with the Parmesan chips.

It was a nice recipe, but something I would throw together in a short time without much thinking about it. My friend was a bit over her head :-)

Seasoning Paste with Chicken and Pasta

Homemade sauces are the best! Knowing what's in it is even better.

This paprika and dried tomato paste was made by my BFF. Serve it on top of cooked veggies, with pasta or as a spread on warm bread.

I had some leftover chicken thighs and some veggies to prepare. Adding some pasta was a good idea. The sauce with some pasta water was this seasoning paste.

Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers

75 g yellow onion

50 ml olive oil

10 sundried tomatoes in oil

90 g tomato paste

1 garlic clove, fresh oregano, basil and thyme

40 to 50 g salt

Pepper, smoked paprika, chiliflakes

2 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp sugar

Optional  1 tsp curry powder

In a pan sauté fine chopped bell peppers and onions for 5 min. Cool down and put in a blender together with the other ingredients.

Check the seasoning and fill in a sterilized jar and top with olive oil. Keeps in the fridge for 3 weeks.

Shred chicken meat, chop veggies and stir fry that in oil. Cook the pasta and add that with some pasta water and 3 tbsp of seasoning paste.

Blackcurrant and Strawberry Jam

We have a blackcurrant bush behind the house in the yard. Nobody is taking care of it.

When I was watering my tomatoes and other veggies, I saw that the currants were getting ripe last week. I waited if some of the others in our house would harvest them.

Now the currants are starting to shrivel up or get overripe. I took a small container with me and harvested some of them.

After cleaning and weighing them, I had 175 g of blackcurrants. I bought fresh strawberries this morning and added some to them.

To prevent any kind of jam or jelly to go bad, I add some alcohol. Tanqueray Royale Blackcurrant Gin was my choice.

Ingredients:

175 g blackcurrants

100 g strawberries

25 ml Tanqueray Royale Gin

155 g 2:1 Pektin Sugar

Put everything in a pot and cook it until the sugar is dissolved. Let it cook on high for 5 min. Take a stickblender and mash the berries.

Put in a sterilized jar.

Churros Cheesecake

I hate Internet Reels :-) because they tricker me to try them.

All kinds of foodies are posting their versions of this cheesecake. Churros is a Spanish Choux pastry. This "Churros" cheesecake has no similarity due to a very different cake base.

Some use puff pastry, others use Croissant ready made dough.  I took the last one. The good puff pastry dough with butter was sold out everywhere. Only the palm oil ones were available. Brrr...

Cinnamon sugar is the only ingredient that authentic with Churros.

Recipe for a small loaf tin:

300g  cream cheese

1 egg

50 ml double cream

2 tsp vanilla sugar, 2 tsp vanilla paste

25 g potato starch

80 g sugar

1 Kraft Croissant Dough

Cinnamon/ sugar mix

Mix 3 tsp sugar with 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Open the dough roll and lay it flat. Cut in 2 rectangles and close the little holes. Sprinkle half of the sugar mix on the bottom of the loaf tin and put 1 piece of dough on top.

In a bowl combine the other ingredients and pour them on the dough. Set the second piece on top. Sprinkle with the leftover sugarmix.

Bake for 30 min and let cool down for 30 min before taking out. Let it then cool completely.

Egg grated on a Sandwich

A fancy way to present a toast with egg on top.

Make it more economical and more profitable. Some restaurant owner may have come up with this for whatever reasons. Made it a trend and the Internet loves it.

One egg is enough for two slices of toast.

I saw that a couple of times, mostly on avocado toasts. But sometimes this combination gets lame. Something different as a base was what I was looking for in my fridge. Smoked ham looked good to me. And one of my homegrown cucumbers. 

Yesterday I bought some cornbread at the bakery. I love it a lot and it keeps fresh a couple of days too. A thick slice of it went in a buttered pan to get toasted. Ham and cucumber on top.

A hard boiled egg and a microplane came next. Grated egg on a sandwich. 

Lets say, it is an Internet trend. It makes a lot of mess and it tastes just as a slice of egg on bread.

Pirogi with Strawberry and Cherry filling

Eating out in a woodland cafe was a great idea.

The family who ones this place and cooks is from Poland, but living here for 15 years. They worked in nursing homes, then decided it was time for something new.

The standart food is beer garden food, that can he found everywhere. But a part of the menu is Polish food. 

Lots of differently filled Pirogi. Mostly savoury with potatoes, cabbage or mushrooms doused in bacon sauce. But the sweet ones are there too.

The dessert pirogi were filled with either strawberry jam or cherry jam. The sauce was creamy and had some strawberry in it.

It was a large portion, so my BFF and I shared one.

Cheese topped Schnitzel

My BFF and I are looking for a Beer Garden where we can organize a meeting with former coworkers.

Since the pandemic, many restaurants have shut down or have less opening hours. It is a huge problem to find a place that is open for lunch and stays open until the evening to sit together with our former coworkers.

We do some scouting and found a couple of decent restaurants. Sitting outside is a premium in many places.

In an absolut out of town location we've got lucky. The only downside are the opening days. Just Wednesday and Sunday. We will have to go for a Wednesday. 

The food is good and the menu is pretty short. Beer Garden seating is available and the forest surounding the place is pretty big. Nearly half a mile from the main road away.

I choose a pork Schnitzel topped with cooked cheese - Kochkäse.

My BFF choose a meatloaf. 

Vegan mixed Veggie, Beluga Lentils and Oat Rice Soup

That tastes a lot better than it sounds!

I had to prepare my jars of veg stock paste for the next couple of month. The amount of leftover veggies is the reason for this soup. I could have cooked a pure veggie soup, but I wanted some protein and some carbs.

This time the protein is plant based. I have so many different colored lentils at home. While dusting my storage place, I found the Beluga lentils. Little black pearls. 

Beside the lentils was the Tupperware container filled with French oat rice. I bought that in France, but only cooked some of it once. These were the carbs for the soup.

The soup itself has a light green tint. Mist of the veggies were from the green vareity.

Ingredients:

60 g oat rice

60 g Beluga lentils

4 tsp homemade veg stock paste

2 tbsp olive oil

650 ml hot water

2 celery stalks, 2 Swiss chard colored, 2 green onions, 1 Bok choy, 

350 g broccoli florets

Pepper, 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp smoked paprika, salt

Cook the oat rice first in a small pot for 12 min. Drain and cool down. Cook the Beluga lentils for 25 min and drain and cool down.  Chop all veggies.

In a large pot heat up the oil and toss all veggies in. Let them get a bit soft. After 6 min add the veg stock paste and the hot water. Season, but be careful with the salt. There is a lot in the veg stock paste. Reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and cook for 15 min.

Take a stickblender and make a coarse soup. Add oat rice and lentil and cook for 5 min. Check the seasoning.

White Chocolate Spinach and Almond Cake

Everybody eats carrot cakes, but many people hate spinach.

Why not give this cake a try? It is a recipe from a local newspaper and a special in the month of April. Spinach is in season, especially when you can use the frozen one. That makes live in the kitchen a lot easier.

The white chocolate gives a good balance to the earthy taste of the spinach. The cake is not too sweet and it keeps a couple of days, because it wont dry out. The spinach brings the moisture to the cake.

Recipe for a bundtcake tin (2,5 l ):

300 g frozen spinach leaves

125 ml whole milk, 250 g butter

250 g sugar, 4 medium eggs

100 g white chocolate

300 g AP flour, 1 tbsp baking powder

200 g almond flour

Pinch of salt

Icing sugar 

In a pot defrost the spinach, squeeze out the liquid. Put in a blender together with the milk and make a fine blend.

In the standmixer put in butter and sugar and beat it until creamy. Add the eggs, one after the other, add some of the flours and beat in between.

Add the other parts of the flour/almonds and salt and baking powder.

Butter and flour the bundtcake tin and pour the batter in.

Preheat the oven 175 C and bake for 90 min. Let the cake rest 5 min in the cake tin, then turn the cake out

When it is cold, sprinkle with icing sugar.

 

Air Fryer Kaiserschmarrn or ripped Pancake

I sometimes love to have the Austrian dessert Kaiserschmarn. But it takes a lot of time to get it right in the pan and you need a lot more butter.

Baking it in an air fryer was new to me. I saw different recipes on Pinterest. They may all work for a special size of air fryer, but the sizes are not published.

Mine is a round one with a 20 cm diameter. The recipe that will follow is for one a little bigger. It worked, but a quarter less batter would have been better.

I love some raisins in my Kaiserschmarrn. They go in some apple juice and get microwaved for 1 minute to plump up again. Then just drain the juice and let them sit for a while.

Recipe:

3 eggs

50 g butter

35 g brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

115 g AP flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

150 ml whole milk

30 g raisins, soaked in apple juice

Icing sugar

Baking paper for the air fryer

Separat the eggs. Beat the egg white until stiff.

Mix yolks, sugar, vanilla, salt, flour and baking powder together and loosen it with the milk until you have no lumps.

Fold in the egg white. Pour in the baking paper dish in the air fryer. Scatter the raisins on top. Mine does not need to be preheated.

Bake at cake setting at 170 C for 15 min. Check after 12 min. When it is set, take it out, rip it apart with 2 forks and dust it with icing sugar.