Bicol Express Filipino style

This recipe is from YT Beryl Shereshewski episode about spicy food.

One ingredient is Baboong - a fermented shrimp paste from the Philipines. But not availabe here. But the Thai fermented shrimp paste is a funky and strong as the one used in the video.

I took a couple of my own mini birdeye chilis for the sauce, this years harvest was plentiful. The green ones are spicy Turkish ones. I work with what I can get around here.

The additional kick came from red chili paste. The funk from the shrimp paste. And yes, that funk was to smell the whole afternoon in my kitchen.

Recipe for 2:

350 g pork belly, skin off

400 ml coconut cream 

2 medium yellow onions

5 garlic cloves

3 green chilis

7 red birdseye chili

1 tsp chili paste

Salt, pepper

2 tsp Thai fermented shrimp paste

1 tsp potato starch + 2 tbsp water

Jasmine rice

Cut the pork belly in small bite size chunks. Peel and chop onions and garlic.

Clean the green chilis anf get the seeds out. Use the little red ones whole.

Start the Jasmine rice.

Without oil start the pork belly and give it 3 minutes to render some fat. Add onions and garlic. 3 more minutes to cook.

Now in with the chilis. Let them take heat. Now salt and pepper to the pan. Next the coconut cream

Cook a lot longer and taste the sauce. If it is not spicy enough, some red chili paste helps.

Too much liquid? Make a slurry with starch and bind the sauce. Serve on rice.

 

 

 

 

 

Combinazione al Forno

Pistenklause, Nürburg Part 3!

Today was the final day of Tourist Drives and it ended with a parade around the Nordschleife with good 400 cars. Hazard lights on, honking and greeting Marshalls and Photographs around the entire track. It blew me away! Even the next day I was still flashed.

But the last lap of the season 2025 was breathtaking and very emotional for me. In a short time I came a long way and this last drive showed it to me.

Beeing out in the cold from 8:45 AM until 5 PM took its toll. Temperatures from 3C to 6 C not the most pleasant.

A hot plate of pasta al forno with a thick layer of cheese on top was what I needed. And it was steaming hot.

I pulled the cheese to the edge to get steam out. The combinazione was mostly tortellini, spaghetti and short rigatoni in bolognese sauce.

I could not finish it, the amount of tortellini killed my appetite.

Coco Panna Cotta with Kaki

There is no dairy in this cooked cream, the name leads you in a wrong direction.

It is the first panna cotta without double cream and gelatine

I used a very rich and thick coconut cream and a little bit of it to dissolve the cornstarch in it. A small amount of sugar substitut and some dessicated coconut. I filled it in 3 dessert bowls, it needed 2 hours to get solid.

The kakis were cooked in lemon juice, Bailoni Apricot liqueur and a bit of lemon soda. They needed 15 minutes to get mushy. But a stickblender helped too.

It needed to cool down as well.  Some chopped pistacchios as a final topping are great.

Ingredients for 3:

500 ml coconut cream

3 tbsp cornstarch

3 g More vanilla sweetener

4 tbsp dessicated coconut

2 ripe kaki

1 lemon juiced

75 ml Bailoni

50 ml lemon soda

3 tsp chopped pistacchios

 

 

Puff Pastry filled with Chicken, Spinach and Mozzarella

My main Thanksgiving dish was a log of puff pastry.

From the Deli counter wafer thin cooked chicken breast, defrosted spinach leaves, pumpkin seeds and mozzarella.

Each layer was seasoned individually to round the taste. Pepper on the chicken, salt and nutmeg on the spinach and Italian seasoning on the mozzarella.

I used a fold over strip method to close the pastry. But if you want it simple, just fold the sides over.

Brush it with egg yolk and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake at 200 C for 20 to 25 min.

Ingredients:

1 rectangular butter puff pastry

200 g cooked Deli chicken breast 

300 g defrosted and squeezed out spinach

30 g pumpkin seeds

125 g mozzarella ball

Salt, pepper, nutmeg, Italian seasoning

1 egg yolk

2 tsp black sesame seeds

Kaki wrapped in Bacon

A simple starter for todays Thanksgiving Dinner. Sweet and savoury goes well together.

I used the riper ones for this starter. Just washed them and cut the top off. Set them bottom up on a cutting board and you will see the 4 lines. Cut along them.

Use freshly ground pepper to season the kaki. No salt needed, the bacon is already salty. Wrap a slice around the quarter and place it on a baking sheet. Put a little rosemary in top and drizzle honey on it.

Preheat the oven 160 C fan and bake for 12 min.

Ingredients for 2:

2 kaki

100 g smoked bacon

1 twig rosemary

2 tsp honey

Black pepper