Burrata on top of Linguine with Bell Pepper Sauce

Try to get a lot of veggies in your diet? Cook them and blend them. 

The finer the blend, nobody can recognize the ingredients, but the taste is great. The Burrata on top is a creamy addition, but even without it the veggie sauce is amazing.

I did not need the super fine blend and kept the sauce a bit chunky. Hiding the ingredients was not the theme of the day.

Start with olive oil and the onions and the thyme, when they have taken some color, add the roughly chopped peppers. Season well. They need to blister in the pan for more flavour. The garlic follows and the tomato passata.

A bit of agave syrup or sugar for balance and Piment d'Espelette and smoked Paprika  for the final touch.

The sauce might be too thick, just add some of the pasta water. Now blend as fine or coarse as you like and when the linguine are done, transfer them directly from the pot to the pan. That will loosen the sauce a bit more.

Some grated Pecorino, some basil leaves and the ball of Burrata.

Enjoy the pasta dish.

Recipe for 1:

100 g Linguine

1 Burrata

1 big green onion, 1 large shallot, 4 garlic cloves

3 tbsp olive oil

Dried or fresh thyme

1 large red bell pepper

200 g tomato passata

1 tsp agave syrup

2 tbsp Pecorino

Salt, pepper, Piment d' Espelette, smoked Paprika

Basil

Polenta Stew or Portugese Milho

I saw that a while ago on a YT video by Beryl Shereshewsky and it stuck to my mind.

Sometimes I eat Polenta, but not very often. The creamy Mamaliga is my favourite go to recipe when I want some Polenta.

This recipe is poor people food from the Atlantic island of Madeira, which belongs to Portugal.

It is a strange combination of ingredients, but they bring the plain Polenta to the next level.

But first there is work to do. Strip fresh thyme leaves from their stems, it is a bit time consuming. Then chop a lot of garlic. I used a garlic nicer dicer.

Some potatoes should be precooked. I used a 5 min microwave blast.The greens can be collard greens, kale or some other. I used bok choy. Cut in slices. 

Lots of olive oil in a pot and garlic and thyme to sweat off and flavour the oil. Next the bok choy. Seasoned with salt and pepper. The precooked potatoes were peeled and chopped and added and cooked for a couple of minutes.

Polenta is cooked in ratio to water. I used veg stock paste. Usually 1 to 3. But I used 1 to 4. More water to go with all other stuff in the pot. Instant Polenta cooks fast, but it thickens slower when other ingredients are in.

1 knob of butter to get a richer texture was added too.

I used up some Spanish sausage (no Chorizo) to eat with the Polenta Stew.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp fresh thyme

6 garlic cloves

1 bok choy

4 tbsp olive oil

60 g Instant Polenta

4 times the volume in veg stock

1 knob of butter

Sausage

Today I panfried the blocks of leftover Polenta and sausage.

Pork Neck Steak Greek style

Côtelettes de Porc à la Grecque is the original name of this dish from my Gourmand magazine issues. I made my own version of it.

Kritharaki Pasta was added in the end. Not a real one pot dish, because the Greek pasta was cooked for 12 min in a seperate pot. But just eating it with crusty bread would be good too.

I only had to pick up the pork neck steaks in the morning. All other ingredients were already at home.

With this cooking method the steak keeps very succulent and does not dry out.

Recipe for 2:

2 pork neck steaks

2 tbsp olive oil

3 shallots

3 garlic cloves

Salt, pepper, Italian tomato seasoning

6 smaller tomatoes

200 g tomato coulis

2 tbsp tomato paste

Zest of a lemon

12 Kalamata olives

100 g Feta (sheep/goat milk)

12 basil leaves

Some lemon slices for deco

100 g Kritharaki pasta cooked

Season the pork neck steak with salt and pepper. Heat up the olive oil in a big pan and fry the meat on both sides for 5 min each.  Add the chopped shallots and garlic and cook 3 more min. 

Now in with the tomato paste to fry, then the coulis and the fresh tomatoes. Stir well and don't forget to turn the meat.

If you cook pasta on the side, use some of the pasta water to loosen the sauce or just add water.

Cook for 5 more min. Olives and zest of the lemon now. Last but not least add crumbled feta and basil leaves.

Mix in the Kritharaki pasta.

One Pot Red Rice Soup

A rice soup with ground pork and beef is a classic in my family. But using white rice was too boring today.

My assortment of rices is plentiful. I just counted 10 varieties in my head. But there may be more. I was looking for a rice to use in the soup and a plastic container filled with red caught my eye. Yeah, red Basmati from Thailand. 

Years ago I bought French red rice from the Camargue on a trip there. But even the French supermarkets do not have it in stock. 

The soup is a 3:2:1 ratio dish. Lots of veggies, ground meat, rice. It fills you up and is very comforting. And leftovers are very welcome, because the reheated the soup gets thicker and better.

Recipe for 4:

500 g ground pork/beef

1 tbsp oil

Salt and pepper

2 beef stock cubes

2 celery stalks, 3 carrots, 1 leek, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves

1 red dried chili

1 bay leaf

220 g red Basmati rice

Parsley

In the oil brown the meat and break it down to small bits. After that add onion and garlic first, then gradually add the other veggies. Stir often. After 5 min pour in the water (hot) and add the stock cubes. 

Wash the rice and add it. Look that the water is high enough. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover.

Cook for 25 min until the rice is done. Add the chopped parsley.

Enough water to cover the ingredients 1 inch above.

Turkey Breast Asian style

This is a WOK Recipe. Eat it with rice, wok noodles or just as it is.

The mis en place is the key part of this recipe. Cooking time is just 10 minutes.

Peel a carrot and cut it in thin strips, the red onion in strips and the leek in discs. If you use a dried chili, take the seeds out or leave them in.

The turkey breast is cut in small strips and seasoned with Wok seasoning and pepper.

Heat up the sesame oil in the wok and toss in the meat. Pull it apart so each piece has contact with the heat and let it sit 2 min, turn and 2 min more. Place in a small bowl with a lid. The remaining heat will finish it that way.

A bit more sesame oil in the wok and toss the chopped veggies in. 2 min, the 40 ml veg stock, 2 tbsp Oyster sauce and the mung bean sprouts. Get the turkey back in and stir well.

Some leftover rice and parsley to finish.

Ingredients for 1:

190 g turkey breast

Wok seasoning, pepper

1 carrot

1 white of a leek

1 red onion

1 tsp garlic ginger paste

3 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp Oyster sauce

40 ml veg stock

Parsley

Kohlrabi marinated and Oven baked

The slices of kohlrabi were marinated for 1 hour. 

This is fully vegan, no cheese in sight. The topping is made with ground almonds. As long as you do not have a nut allergy, this would work for you.

The ways to prepare kohlrabi are plenty. But mostly they are eaten in a kind of sauce covered side dish. Rarely eaten on their own as a main.

Baking the slices in the oven only takes 20 min. I ate them with a bit of herby curd. But use a vegan type and the whole dish stays that way.

Ingredients:

2 kohlrabi

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp kalamansy soy sauce

1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp honey

Argentinian seasoning salt

Pepper

1 tsp grapeseed oil

 

Mushroom and Cheese Pie -vegetarian

A big punnet of brown button mushrooms were the base of this pie. A decent amount of grated Mozzarella the other. 

What's not to love?

It is important to start the prepwork for this pie an hour early. The mushrooms need to loose a lot of water, get together with onions and garlic and a lot of seasoning. Then the liquid drained when putting it through a sieve in a bowl to cool down.

Spread out the puff pastry and form a mushroom strip in the middle. Chopped parsley on top and then cheese. A bit more salt and pepper.

Fold over the sides of the pastry and close them with a fork. Brush with eggwash and cut some slashes in the top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake at 200 C fan for 12 and at 180 C fan for 8 min.

Ingredients:

1 rectangular puff pastry sheet

500 g brown button mushrooms

1 yellow onion, 3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Mushroom salt, pepper, herbes de Provence

5 tbsp chopped parsley

100 g grated Mozzarella

1 egg yolk

Black and white sesame seeds

 

Apple Kohlrabi Pecan Salad

A very fresh kind of salad. A bit sweet and a bit hearty.

I am often too lazy to chop everything by hand. The best way to use my Thermomix. But any kind of strong blender will do.

Putting seasoning and dressing together with the veg/fruit/herbs in the Thermomix makes a rounded salad. Everything is distributed evenly.

I gave it just 5 seconds on speed 6.

Do not let it sit too long. The apples will get darker and the salad draws too much moisture.

Ingredients:

1 apple, 1 kohlrabi roughly the same size

1/4 bunch dill

30 g pecans

2 tbsp fruity balsamic vinegar (white)

1 tsp honey

3 tbsp grapeseed oil

Salt and pepper

Mandarine Orange Pan Cake

I bought a 2,5 kg bag of mandarine oranges, they were on sale. But the dry out very fast, when you do not have a cool room to store them, but never in the fridge.

I saw a video on FB a while ago with a mandarine orange cake prepared only on the stove. Getting the ingredients together was not a problem, but the cooking temperature was less precise. Cooking for 10 minutes on low heat ?? How low? 

Cooking the batter on medium heat is much better. Turning it is much more difficult than shown in the video. 

Recipe:

6 mandarine oranges

20 g butter, 20 g sugar

Batter:

1 egg

50 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

100 ml milk

60 ml grapeseed oil

170 g flour

8 g baking powder

Use a pan with a lid and check if the mandarine oranges will fit. 

Cream the batter together and set aside.

Melt the butter and add the sugar and give it 1 min. Set the halved mandarines in the pan and cook them on high during you spread the batter

Put the lid on and reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 min. Use a plate and turn the cake and set it back in the pan.

That may work or not. It did not work so well for me. But the endresult was tasty, even if it did not look so perfect.

Close the lid and cook 10 more min. Check if the color is good, if not increase the heat for a bit.