Korean Cabbage Pancakes with glazed Pork Belly

After my cabbage boil there is enough left over to create other dishes.

Luckily an already opened package of Korean pancake mix was in my Asian drawer. That was the binding agent for the chopped up part of my boiled cabbage.

The white of a spring onion, an egg and seasoning together with water made a not too runny batter. Just between sticky and runny.

Baked in a decent amount of oil and rested on some kitchen paper later.

Sliced pork belly was cut in 2 inch pieces and went in a pan. I cut a white onion in strips and added them too.

The sauce was made in a jar and after.the pork took the color, went in the pan.

Finished with the green from the spring onion and lots of sesame seeds. Plated with the pancakes was a delightful dish.

Ingredients:

Pancakes:

1/2 cup 250 ml of Korean pancake mix

350 to 400 ml water

1 egg

Salt and pepper

175 g chopped baked cabbage

Pork Belly:

225 g pork belly

1 spring onion 

1 white onion

Sauce:

1 heaped tsp Gochujang paste

1 tsp Gochugaru

1 tbsp thick sugar syrup

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp garlic powder

4 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp toasted seasame oil

Pepper

3 tbsp water

 

 

Cabbage Boil Insta Reel

First it was the onion boil, now the whole thing had to get bigger. Why not boil a cabbage?

Eating an onion in one go is not a problem. But even with the smallest head of cabbage, there is still enough of it to go around. Now I have to think about recipes with cooked cabbage.

Prep work is easy. Just remove the 2 outer layers. Use a knife to cut around the core and get it out. Take out a lot of the inner part to make room for butter and seasoning.

Use a sheet of baking paper and set the cabbage in the middle. Place a sheet of aluminium foil under the baking paper.

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Stab some slits on the outside around the cabbage. Brush it with olive oil and put lots of your favourite seasoning on top. Such as smoked paprika, lemon salt, garlic powder and whatever spice you like.

Put some of it in the center too. Use softened butter and stuff it in the core.

Pull up the sides of both foils and wrap the cabbage like a ball and place it in the oven.

Bake for 2 hours. Then open the foil and set the cabbage with all its sauce in a bowl. Start peeling off single layers and dip them in the butter.

Ingredients:

2 kg cabbage

80 g butter

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder and so on...

 

 

Boozy Figs with Cream

You will need 8 figs for this dessert. Surprise, yesterday I harvested 8 figs from my tree.

Just remove the tip and cut them down the middle.

In a wider pot, add Pro Secco and Crème de Cassis and a small cinnamon stick and two cloves. Bring them to a boil and cook for 3 min on low. 

Set the figs in, face up and on low heat with a lid cook for 5 min. Take the figs out.

Put the heat to high, add lemon juice and reduce the liquid to 25%. Cool down.

Stir creme fraiche with vanilla sugar and place the figs on plates. Top with syrup and add cream.

Ingredients:

8 figs

200 ml Pro Secco

100 ml Crème de Cassis

2 cloves

1 small cinnamon stick

2 tbsp lemon juice

150 g creme fraiche

2 tsp vanilla sugar

Bell Pepper and Avocado Sauce with Pasta.

This is not a smooth sauce. It is a chunky vegetable mix not very sauce like. The creaminess is only from the avocado chunks.

I cooked the pasta in chicken stock. A lot of it went in the pan to prevent the avocado from sticking to the pan and burning.

That was the only liquid added. No cream in sight.

The pasta was cooked nearly al dente and went in the pan with pasta water to finish cooking. A bunch of parsley, water cress and basil went in last and chunky pieces of Parmesan.

Recipe for 2:

180 g pasta ( papardelle)

2 chicken stock cubes

1 large avocado

2 long red peppers

2 green onions

2 garlic cloves

Salt, pepper, piment d'espelette

Basil, parsley, watercress

MOMENTUM Lunch at the Nuerburgring

Winter is coming in the Eifel.

Today is cold and rainy as it was yesterday. Driving on a Trackday in this conditions is no fun, I stayed in and looked for a spot for lunch.

Just around the corner of the Ring is the industrial hub of the area, where manufactures and tyre and suspension companies have their testcenters.

Since last year there is finally a spot where you can have a coffee and snacks or a hot lunch.

It is on top of the Bilstein 7 post suspension rig and a great space to be. 

Todays main lunch option was Pork Schnitzel with bell pepper sauce, croquettes and a side salad. 

I found an Ice Tea that I never heard off before from a company just 50 km away from where I live. No sugar, fresh brewed tea, mint and lemon and agave syrup. Good to get some new stuff to taste

Pollock and Potato Salad

A little cooking at the holiday apartment at the Nuerburgring.

To get groceries you have to drive winding roads down to Adenau or a large detour due to year long road construction to Kelberg. Locally there is only the famous ED gas station, where you get some breakfast items or cooked lunch.

I bought some pollock at the supermarket and potato salad. This time I have a very small apartment with a small kitchen - living area. Not much room for adventurous cooking.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Blue Cheese Sauce

I found a package o

f sweet potato gnocchi at the supermarket and it was a small one. Just enough for two servings.

A half eaten cheese was sitting in the fridge together with some slices of ham. Both needed to go. They made the sauce.

The base was a spring onion sauteed in a little butter. The chopped ham slices came next. 

I had homemade chicken stock in the fridge. 60 ml were added for some liquid to melt the cheese in. The sweet potato gnocchi were cooked for 5 min in water and went in now.

A hand full of grated mozzarella to bind the sauce and create some cheese pull.  A little creme fraiche. Smoked paprika, pepper and chives to finish.

Recipe for 2:

250 g sweet potato gnocchi

100 g ham

1 green onion

1 tbsp butter

60 ml chicken stock

1 tbsp oil

65 g blue cheese

2 tsp creme fraiche

30 g grated mozzarella

Pepper, smoked paprika, chives

Soup and Sandwich Lunch

My Sandwich is a very German one: Mettbrötchen, or seasoned RAW pork with fresh onions on a roll.

People love it or hate it here in Germany. I only buy fresh Mett at a good butcher and eat it very short after buying it. When I do not know where the Mett is coming from and if it was fresh, I never eat it.

My soup was just a basic broccoli soup from a MAGGI package. But I sweated the onion strips I did not need for my Mett in a little butter first, than added water and the soup package and cooked it.

A small leftover handfull of Natcho Cheese Tacos was sitting in an open bag. I crushed the biggest ones and tossed all of them in the soup.

Vanilla Cream Layer Dessert with Figs

I had so many fresh figs picked from my tree and needed a dessert to get rid of some.

Paradies Cream from Dr.Oetker this time is vanilla flavoured. A little ground vanilla seeds were added for a more intense taste. But mixed with whipped cream delutes the taste. The tiny seeds look good, but just skip it.

The biskuits were the same as last week, I bought a double pack. 7 figs went on top in slices. Let them be thick enough, otherwise they will fall apert when serving.

Whipp the double cream and then the Paradies cream. Bring both of them together and put 2/3  on top of the figs.

Just layer more biskuits on top and spread the remaing cream over them. Chocolate chips as a topping and then cover it with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 4 hours minimum.

Ingredients:

Package butter biskuits

200 ml double cream

300 ml whole milk

1 Dr.Oetker Paradies cream vanilla

1/4 tsp ground vanilla 

7 figs

Chocolate chips

Pointed Cabbage Filderstadt Sourkraut with Bloodpudding

This is a blood sausage week. 

I bought a smoked hard one in a casing this time at my local butcher. A lot better to fry in the pan. It wont dissolve to a mush.

But the star of this dish is the sourkraut. The area around Stuttgart is not only famous for Porsche or Mercedes, but for large fields of cabbage. 

A special kind is the pointed cabbage, it has softer leaves then the round cabbage.

Since Germans love Sauerkraut, a lot of these poineted cabbages are fermented. I bought this can in a Supermarket in Böblingen, near the Motorworld, when I visited the 2 car museums last year.

I haven't seen this kind of sourkraut made from pointed cabbage here in my region

To give the cabbage a less sour note, I used an apple together with a large onion and a glass of white wine.

Juiniper berries and caraway seeds together with salt and pepper were the seasoning.

Recipe:

400 g can Filderstadt sourkraut

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large yellow onion

1 red Elstar apple

1 tsp caraway seeds

10 juiniper berries

150 ml white wine

200 g smoked blood sausage

Give the chopped onions 3 min in oil to get a little soft. Add the kraut and the chopped apple (skin on). Stir well.

Now add white wine and all the seasoning. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce the heat and cook 15 to 20 min.

During that time fry the blood sausage in a little oil, skin on.

Million Dollar Chicken Casserole

It does not get more American.

The last piece of chickenbreast from my cornfed ovenbaked chicken had to go today. Yesterday I looked for ideas on Pinterest and found a lot of these Million Dollar Chicken recipes.

Cheese Pull!

Some more like a dip, others served with rice or pasta. Some with added vegetables. I made my own version from all of them. It needs some serious seasoning, otherwise it is just too creamy and bland.

I added a red bell pepper and a large spring onion, chopped finely. Best method is to combine all cream and cheese together, season it and then add veggies and chicken chunks.

This goes in an overproof dish, is covered with more shredded mozzarella and put in tgr oven for 20 minutes at 180 C fan.

I served it with pasta.

Ingredients for 2:

1/2 cooked chickenbreast, no skin

50 ml mayo

50 g cream cheese

100 g sour cream

75 g grated mozzarella, (35 g in the cream, 40 g on top)

4 tbsp chicken stock

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Salt, pepper

Tabasco

1 red bell pepper

1 large spring onion

Pasta

Oyakodon 2.0

I have done it before, but this time it is more basic.

Using leftover cooked chicken leg from my whole cornfed chicken I baked the day before.

I stripped the meat and skin off the bone and cut it in bite size chunks. A medium sized white onion cut in rings together with 2 garlic cloves.

The onions went in the pan first to soften and get color. Then the garlic and the cooked chicken went in.  The eggs were beaten with Mirin and Soysauce together and 3 tbsp of chicken stock.

They followed next. Now the temperature on very low. No scrambled eggs! Just a smooth binding of the chicken and onion.

Cook some Japanese shortgrain rice and put that in a bowl. Now slide the chicken egg mixture carefully on top of the rice. Serve some soy sauce on the side, if someone needs a little more salty.

A bowl of fresh lettuce is a good side dish.

Yellow Lentil Chicken Soup

From my whole cornfed chicken bake is a quart and a half of chicken stock left in the fridge. 2 pieces of chickenbreast as well.

Today is a cold September day and a soup sounded good to me. But just stock and chicken was not enough. 

A lot of fresh veggies as a base were used. And I wanted something filling other than rice or pasta. I decided on using yellow lentils.

Less protein from meat (I left one chickenbreast for tomorrow) and more plant based protein.

Yellow lentils do not need time to soak. I washed them and cooked them first in unsalted water for 10 minutes. Then cleaned the pot and started the soup.

The chicken stock had a yellow topping of fat. I scooped some of it out and kept it to the side. Later I added some of it to the soup again.

The chopped veggies cooked in the stock for 10 min. I used a stickblender to roughly mashed them. Then the chickenbreast and the lentils went in. Back to a boil for 2 minutes. The soup was seasoned again to taste and some goat cream cheese went in last.

Ingredients:

850 ml chicken stock

4 carrots

White from a leek

120 g celeriac

1 large spring onion

1 red chili

1 cooked 1/2 chickenbreast

1 rice cooker cup yellow lentils

75 g goat cream cheese

Salt pepper