Courgette Cheese Cream with Pasta

I am busy with Xmas tree decorations. Not much time to cook.

Today's veggie was courgette/zucchini. Do minimize the prepwork in the kitchen I opted for a cream sauce. Courgette, onion and garlic were atomized in the Thermomix and went strait in the pan where some butter sizzled.

The liquid needed a bit of time to reduce, but after seasoning it, I added some horseradish cream cheese and 80 ml of double cream.

A hand full of grated mozzarella came next.

The short maccaroni pasta cooked in a second pot and was added to the sauce with some pasta water to cook the last minute.

1 had taken a couple of very thin slices off the courgette and they went in with the pasta to retain their bite.

A very fast vegetarian dish for 2 or as a meal prep for the next day.

Ingredients for 2:

1 medium courgette/zucchini

1 yellow onion

3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp butter

80 ml double cream

40 g horseradish cream cheese

65 g grated mozzarella

Salt, pepper, paprika

Any kind of short pasta

Eating Thai Food on my Birthday

The restaurant we went to was recommended by a good friend who loves good food.

Pinto Thai is in the middle of the pedestrian center of the city. That means you have to park the car in a parking garage nearby. But I did not think that in the middle of the week in the evening the garages are full. It should have come to my mind: Christmas Market is open since last weekend.

We had to park farther away and walk along a part of the Christmas market and a bit longer to reach the Thai place. Booking ahead was a very good idea, because the place was sold out.

When the Menu tells you it is spicy, it is spicy! Not like the majority of these places, where 3 chilis on the menu mean nothing.

I started with a Pea Flower Lemonade that came with Lime syrup on the side. My friend had mint tea with honey.

We decided on a starter platter for two. That was the best idea ever. They have a huge selection of starters and the most saught after were on the platter together with four different dips. Two spicy, one was peanut sauce and the last one was mild.

We both loved it.

The main was fried rice with crispy duck. The plate was huge and both of us took home a doggy bag.

It was not the last time that I was eating there

 

Pinecones from Cake

I saw a Reel on Insta and the next day I stumbled over the main ingredients at the Discounter.

In a 90 sec Reel it looks so easy. Making the base of these pinecones is very quickly made by hand. But then I had to form the cake part.

Use some gloves, it makes life a lot easier. It is up to you, to use either Nutella or jam for the cake part. I optiened for jam, it is fruity and less sweet than Nutella.

Break the cake with your hands in small pieces  add cream cheese and jam and mash with your hands as if you do meatballs. The dough should be pressed together.

Form pinecone bodies.

Now comes the fun part. Sticking in the chocolate cereals. Keep the cake on your gloved palm, insert cereal and put the finished pinecone in the fridge to firm up.

When you decide to give them away the next day or so, refrigerate the cake cones and stick the cereal in short before handing them out.

Sprinkle with powered sugar for some snow.

Recipe for 9 pinecones:

400 g ready made cake like chocolate or marbel cake. Even use leftover dry cake you have at home

50 g cream cheese

4 tbsp Nutella or jam

100 g Choco cereal

Powdered sugar

 

Chinese Tomato Egg Drop Soup

This is a Chinese breakfast soup. YT Aaron&Claire made it.

It is a bit Korean with some extras.

The preparation is easy and fast. Just put all ingredients out on the counter, chop green onions and save the green part for later.

Cut up the tomatoes in small pieces, chop garlic and grate ginger. Now the prep work is done.

Recipe for 3:

200 g tomatoes

2 green onions

1 garlic clove

1 knob of ginger

3 eggs

2 tbsp sunflower oil

2 tbsp Light soy sauce

750 ml water

1 tbsp chicken or beef bouillion powder

2 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp sesame oil

Pepper, pinch of salt

1 tbsp cornstarch  + 2 tbsp water

Start heating up the oil, add white onion part, garlic and ginger. Give it 1 min and pour in the soy sauce. Add the tomatoes and cook them down a bit. 

Now get the water in with the stock powder and the ketchup. Bring to a boil and cook 7 min. Make a slurry and bind the soup. Takes 2 min

Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and take the pot off the heat. Carefully pour the eggs in and let them set. Finish with sesame oil, pepper and greens from the onions

Savoy Cabbage in Cream

Savoy Cabbage in a creamy sauce was something my Grandma made to serve with some potatoes and Schnitzel. The Schnitzel usually came without a sauce, but the cream coming from the cabbage was enough to wet the potatoes (to press them a bit in the sauce).

From my Asian Savoy Cabbage with Pork Belly there was enough left for two veggie portions and a bit of cooked pork belly to give flavour to the cabbage.

I even had some sauteed onions left from yesterdays sausage roll filling. Do not waste food!

Recipe for 2:

1/2 head of Savoy Cabbage

1 yellow onion

2 tbsp butter

60 ml homemade stock

150 ml double cream

1 tsp caraway seeds

Salt and pepper

150 g cooked pork belly

Chop the onion and saute it 6 min in butter, added the shredded cabbage, caraway seeds, salt and pepper and give it a good stir.

Fill up with stock and cream, bring to a boil and cover and reduce the heat. Cook for 10 min or until the cabbage is to your liking.

Add the pork belly pieces and warm them through.

Asian Savoy Cabbage with Pork Belly

I even made my own Teriyaki sauce.

The idea to prepare the Savoy cabbage Asian style came with the piece of pork belly I bought.

Teriyaki sauce is usually at home, but I haven't been to the Asian supermarket in a while and it was gone. But luckily the simple ingredients were still there. It took me 5 min to prepare my own Teriyaki sauce.

I only used the outer large leafs of the cabbage and cut out the thick middle stems. A large onion cut in strips and a couple of garlic cloves and ginger went in neutral oil. After 5 min add the cabbage and let it sink down.

Add stock paste, Teriyaki sauce and seasoning. After 5 more min, add sesame oil and seeds.

Ingredients:

1/2 head outer leaves Savoy cabbage

1 large onion

5 garlic cloves

1 knob chopped ginger

2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tsp veg stock paste

1 tsp sesame oil

4 tbsp Teriyaki sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

350 g Pork Belly

shimishi togarashi, salt, pepper

Teriyaki sauce:

8 tbsp Japanese soy sauce or Tamari

4 tbsp sugar

4 tbsp Mirin

4 tbsp Sake

Bring to a short boil to melt the sugar, that's all.

Cook the seasoned pork belly in a pan without the skin and the bones. Cut it in 2 cm chunks.

Carrot Spread warm or cold

This was one of the spreads we had at our Girl's Brunch on Saturday.

It took me a while to get the recipe, but it was a Thermomix one. But it is no problem to cook it in a pot and use a stick blender later.

This is the version without the fancy maschine and I added a bit more spice.

Recipe:

250 g carrots

1 medium yellow onion

100 g butter

140 g tomato paste

1 tsp lemon juice

Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, oregano, thyme, cumin.

Chop the onion and sauté it in a small pot for 3 min. Add the chopped carrots, the butter, tomato paste and seasoning to it. Cook for 6 min until soft. Check the seasoning and add some lemon juice for freshness.

Blend it, but not too fine. Serve it warm or cold. It even works fine with some pasta.

Brunch with the Girls

Sometimes it takes 30 years to meet some of them again. But the wait is worth it.

We met a a friends house about 90km away in the middle of the rural countryside. This area is well known of the growing of Christmas Trees and lots of tracktors with freshly harvested trees in the back slowed down all traffic. It had snowed the other day, it wad a bit freezing temperature wise and that helped with a bit of seasonal charme.

Each of us 4 prepared some food to add to the table. As always, too much. But we devided some of it to take home later to enjoy on Sunday.

One of us is a decoaration queen and she made a huge platter of cheeses, cheese balls with bacon and cranberries, little cheesy Christmas trees, tasty onion jam and Caprese sticks. It looked great and tasted awesome.

I baked sausage rolls with caramelized onions, plum chutney, chestnut mustard and pumpkin seeds on sausage meat wrapped in puff pastry. The recipe is on the blog allready, because I needed a time frame for the preparation.

2 Thermomix spreads came from an other friend. My favourite I will post an other day, when I've got the ingredients right.

It was heartwarming to spend time with these women gain. We promised not to wait so many years again to meet again.

Almond Spelt Cookies

Cookies made with spelt flour sound like the healthier version. But that is not true.

The spelt flour together with the dark muscovado sugar let these cookies taste like a dark caramel. The almond flour gives the crumbly, melt in your mouth texture.

I used my standmixer to prepare the dough. It needs 30 min in the fridge to firm up. And between each bake, the leftover dough has to be cooled again. The moment it gets to soft, it is not longer manageable. I baked 3 sheets of cookies and the other dough rested the 18 min baking time in the fridge.

A bit of dark sugar tops the cookies and a piece of almond gets pressed in each piece.

Recipe:

225 g spelt flour

1 flat tsp baking powder

50 g almond flour

100 g muscovado sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 egg

175 g soft unsalted butter

Topping:

Brown sugar

2 tbsp almond slivers

200 g white compound chocolate

Use a cutter  3,5 cm and the dough 1 cm thick.

Bake at 180 C for 18 min.

Cool down, melt the chocolate and dip the bottom in. 

Pomme Aligot topped with Burrata

Creamy and cheesey potatoes, what is not to love. Especially when your Zodiac is cheese. Crowning these potatoes with a ball of Burrata is even better.

The potatoes in my larder were getting a bit old and they needed to be eaten. But beeing in the middle of Xmas cookie baking, I did not want to spend a lot of time preparing a dish. The potatoes were quickly peeled and went in the steamer basket inside my Thermomix for cooking. 

The fridge offered some cheeses, cream and milk to make a decadent mash. Usually only milk, cream and butter go in the mash, but grated Emmenthal and cream cheese with horseradish sounded better.

A pot of Burrata caught my eye. Why not, it is creamy cheese with an even creamier center. That went on top if it.

The French call these cheesy pototoes Pomme Aligot.

650 g peeled potatoes

40 g butter

100 g double cream

50 g milk

75 g grated Emmenthal

25 g cream cheese with horseradish

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

1 Burrata

Greek Christmas Cookies - Melomakarona

I wanted something not so common as this years XMas cookies. It took a while to find something that fit the bill.

I found this recipe in "Landbäckerei spezial".

No butter and no eggs, but olive oil, brandy and orange juice. It smelled very different while preparing the dough and later the cookies.

To get them all the same size- baking time is important- use a scale to weigh the single dough balls. 33 g each is a good weight.

Recipe for 25 cookies:

Syrup:

200 ml water

250 g sugar

70 g honey

Zest of 1 organic orange

1 cinnamon stick

Dough:

50 ml orange juice

50 ml brandy

200 ml olive oil

Pinch of salt

Knife tip ground clove

1/2 tsp cinnamon

50 g sugar

2 tsp baking powder

500 g all purpose flour

Topping:

100 g coarse ground walnuts

Cook the syrup first and let it cool down.

Mix orange juice, brandy, oil, spices, sugar and salt in a big bowl. Stift flour with baking powder in. Bring together as a dough, but don't overmix.

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Use a scale and weigh 33 g of dough. Form a sushi like log. Place them on baking paper. Use a fork and prick them on top 3 times.

Bake for 25 min. When they are still hot, dunk them in the syrup ( without the cinnamon stick)

Put the top in the ground walnuts and rest on a cooking rack.