Yellow Lentil Balls vegan or Parippu Vada

This is Street Food from Sri Lanka.

This vegan dish reminds me a lot of the Falaffel of the Middle East. But the spices and lots of onions makes these Lentil Balls much tastier. 

Yellow Lentils or Dhal are not so easily found here. I needed to take a trip to a Turkish supermarket to buy these.

The lentils are soaked in cold water for about 40 minutes, then drained. All the gunk that floats on top of the water should go first. I fished it out with a strainer. Do not leave a lot of water in the bowl with the drained lentils, they should be dry before they go in the blender.

Add fennel seeds and curry leaves to the lentils and 1/2 tsp of salt. Make a paste, but not too fine.

Use gloves, otherwise you have the chili on your hands. 

Add all other finely chopped ingredients and mash that with your hands to a sticky paste.

 Form it to balls or patties. 

Put oil in a pot to deep fry or use a deep fat fryer. At 180 C until the balls are nicely brown.

Eat them as they are or with some soy yogurt dip.

Air Fryer Pork Belly with Maple Mustard Sauce

Depending on the size of your air fryer, you have to do multiple batches.

But for a single serving, on run was enough. The skin gets very crackly and I recommend using some air fryer paper to get out all of the grease as easy as possible.

The slices of pork belly are patted dry with some kitchen paper, seasoned with salt and pepper and sprayed with a little avocado oil.

At 200 C for 20 min baking time.

Sauce:

50 ml maple syrup

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

I served it with a unsweetened yeast dumpling and a red bell pepper salad. 

Spaghettini with Guanciale and Mortadella Panini

I was shopping at an Italian Mercato a couple of miles outside of the city.

Using a testdrive for an electric car, it brought me here without any difficulties and I enjoyed my drive.

The food haul started with awesome fresh bread and very thin cut Mortadella sausage. A huge piece of sausage was cut up. Then I bought a chunk of pork cheek, Guanciale. Some Pecorino came then.

All other stuff I bought was random.

For lunch I took some if the sesame covered bread, added some goat cream cheese and lots of slices of Mortadella. 

For dinner a pan with Guanciale gave smoke to my kitchen. With some grated Pecorino, an egg yolk and some of the grease from the pan and a little pasta water a creamy sauce for the spaghettini was created.

Apple and Walnut Danish

I am watching too many Insta or FB Reels.

But this was so easy to remember and all ingredients were at home. There was no chance not to try this recipe.

The process needs just a couple of steps and baking needs 20 minutes. In 35 minutes in total the Danish is ready. Good to prepare when friends are coming over on a short notice. As long as you have puff pastry and apples.

recipe for 6 pieces:

3 apples

1 rectangular fresh butter puff pastry

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp milk

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp runny honey

3 tbsp chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven 200 C fan.

Brush the pastry sheet with egg yolk. With a small sieve sprinkle icing sugar all over, then the cinnamon.

Use an apple corer, then cut the apples through the middle and carefully cut every top crosswise. Set apart on the pastry.

Drizzle honey on top of the apples and add the walnuts. Take a pizza cutter and cut 6 pieces. Fold the edges over. 

Mix milk with the remaining egg yolk and brush the pastry dough before putting it in the oven

Serve warm.

 

Cornish Caudle Pie

A chicken dish with a pastry lid. It is based on a medival recipe in a modern twist.

One of my small cookbooks I bought at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, has Dairy written on the front. At first I thought what has chicken to do with dairy?

It is easy to prepare, but you have to consider the cooling time after the first round in the oven. On a hot dish, working with puff pastry is more or less impossible.

Recipe for 3:

3 chicken thighs

Butter, oil

1 large onion

140 ml milk

140 ml double cream

2 eggs

A bunch of parsley

Nutmeg, chicken seasoning, pepper

1 roll puff pastry

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Cut the onion and sauté it in butter and oil, season. Put in the bottom of the baking dish.

Season the chicken and brown it on both sides in the pan. Put on top of the onions.

Pour milk in the pan, nutmeg, chopped parsley, salt and pepper and cook for 2 min. Pour over the chicken.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 25 min. Take the dish out and let it cool down.

 

That takes about 1 hour in a cold place (balcony in January).

Preheat the oven 200 C fan.

Unroll the puff pastry. Place strips around the baking dish wall. Wet it with some water and press the lid on top. Cut a hole in the middle.

Mix eggs with cream and brush a little on top of the pastry. Bake it for 15 minutes. Take the dish out and reduce the heat to 150 C fan.

Use a funnel and mix eggs with cream and try to get it under the pastry.

Bake for 15 more minutes, then take it out and let it sit for 10 minutes to set before serving.

 

Udon Noodle Stir Fry

Not much in the fridge, but enough for a quick lunch.

The idea was from YT School of Wok. But I had no meat for protein, that's why I used 2 eggs.

The veggies were from my veggie drawer in the fridge, but not the ones used in the video. 

But I used the noodle hack they showed in the video. The udon noodle came in a soft package stuck together as a block. I usually cook them in a pot and loosen them that way. They get soft while cooking.

As a stir fry noodle, a bit firmer is better. Just put them in a bowl and pour hot water from a kettle over them. Let them sit 30 seconds, then use chopsticks and loosem them. Drain immediately to prevent them from getting soft.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 Udon noodle soft package

2 tbsp oil

1 red bell pepper

150 g blanched pointed cabbage

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp char siu sauce

4 tbsp vegetable stock

1 tsp potato starch

Pepper

Heat up the oil in a wok, crack in the eggs and scramble them very quickly. Take the soft eggs out.

Toss in the veggies and stir them for 2 min, add the noodles and give them 2 more minutes. Now in with the sauces and the stock mixed with starch. Let the heat through. Finish with the eggs.

Parmesan Dumplings

Dumplings in Kohlrabi butter sauce with a basil walnut and lemon gremolata. This is a recipe from Stephan Hentschel, Chef in the Restaurant "Cookies Cream " in Berlin.

Sounds complicated, but it is just a bit of planning ahead and lots of dishes. Good to have a dishwasher.

A very cheesy dish. 100 g Parmesan in the dumpling dough, 100 g Parmesan in the sauce. And lots of butter and creme fraiche. The original dish was made with wild garlic, but it is out of season.

Recipe:

Dumplings:

100 g white bread (toast) no rind

100 g grated Parmesan

250 g lean curd (Magerquark)

2 egg yolks

50 g melted butter

Nutmeg, salt, pepper

Sauce:

300 g kohlrabi in 1 cm cubes

100 g butter

50 g creme fraiche

100 g grated Parmesan

1/2 lemon juice

10 g potato starch + 2 tbsp water

Seasoning, pepper

Topping:

1 tsp olive oil

65 g walnuts, chopped, toasted in a pan without oil

10 basil leaves

Zest of a lemon

Pepper

Peel the kohlrabi and cube it. Add it to 500 ml boiling salted water, cook for 4 minutes and scoop out the kohlrabi and save the cooking water. 

In a blender grate 200 g Parmesan and split it equally in a large and a small bowl. Rip the bread apart and mix it too. Add to the large bowl. Melt the butter and pour it in. Stir. Add the egg yolks. Season well and now get the curd in. When there is a smooth paste, put it in the fridge for 15 min.

In a small pan toast the chopped walnuts, put them in a bowl aand zest the lemon on top. Add oil and chopped basil. Stir and set aside.

Start a large pot with water, add salt and stir in the starch. Bring to a boil. Form golfball size dumplings. Put them in the boiling water, reduce the heat and simmer the dumplings for 15 min. Take them out and put them on kitchen paper.

Bring the kohlrabi water up to a boil while the dumplings simmer. Add parmesan, creme fraiche and butter with seasoning. Make a starch surry and bind the liquid.  Add lemon juice and seasoning and dump the kohlrabi in. After 2 minutes, carefully place tge parmesan dumplings in. Shut off the heat and let it 3 minutes. 

Place on serving plates and garnish with the gremolata.

Trout Bake in Irish Whiskey

Am other recipe from the cookbook I bought at Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

The ingredients are all in a ovenproof dish and go in the oven for 22 minutes. I served a side of potato carrot mash. I ran out of potatoes so I stocked the mash up with 3 large carrots. A very good combination and it works very well with the trout.

I bought a frozen trout and defrosted it in the fridge over night. It was washed and seasoned inside with salt and pepper. The white parts of the green onions were stuffed inside. For flavour in the outside I pressed two garlic cloves, mixed them with smoked salt and pepper and a teaspoon of grapeseed oil. That was brushed on the skin of the trout.

The baking dish was buttered generously, the greens of the onions were cut in 1,5 cm chunks and dumped on the butter. On top went the stuffed trout and a very good gluck of Irish Whiskey.

The preheated oven at 180 C and baking time was 22 min *depending on the size of the trout.

When you can pull out a bone fin from the belly, the trout is ready to serve. Just add fresh parsley.

Mash:

250 g potatoes, 250 g carrots

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

Knob of butter, 3 tbsp creme fraiche, 80 ml milk