Pigs for Luck in the New Year

Glücksschweinchen or lucky pigs are often found on New Years Eve or the frist day of the New Year.

This is a Thermomix recipe and I used mine to prepare the dough. The dough recipe is for 16 pigs. But you will have the scraps left over. I froze them to use as a bottom of a future cake.

The dough needs to rest in a warm place for 1 hour. Then roll it out 1/2 cm thick and use 2 cutters or glasses with 8 cm and 3 cm. The eggwash is not only for the shine, but it acts as glue as well.

Recipe for 16 pigs:

500 g AP flour

21 g fresh yeast

100 g butter

70 g sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

Pinch of salt

250 ml whole milk

2 eggs

Raisins

Put milk, sugar, butter, yeast and salt in the Thermomix. On speed 2, 2,5 min, 37 C

Add lemon mixed in flour. Use dough function for 3 min. Put the dough in a large bowl, cover it with a damp towel and put it in a warm plave to double in size.

Beat the eggs and count 32 raisins.

Flour a surface and roll out the dough. Use the cutters to make 1 head and 3 small discs. Brush the big circle with egg, place the 3 small discs for ears and snout. Use a toothpick to make 2 holes in the snout. Brush everything with egg again and set the raisins in.

Bake at 175 C for 20 min.

Chicory with Apple in Spanish Liqueur

A head of chicory on its own is bland, it needs something to take it to the next level.

Usually I use oranges or clementines, the citrussy note goes well with the salad. But I had some fresh pomegranate seeds and lots of apples. I peeled one and discovered it was very crunchy.

Crunchy salad, pomegranates and apples were too much crunch for my taste. I took the apple chunks over to the microwave. I wanted to get a little water in the bowl, but then I saw the bottle of Spanish sloe and anisseed liqueur standing there. Why not? The apple pieces got soft and very tasty in 2 minutes on 800 watts.

Later the dressing had a fine anisseed note.

Ingredients:

1 head chicory

3 tbsp pomegranate seeds

1 small crunchy apple

1/2 tsp dried chives

2 tbsp Spanish Pacharan Navarra

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

1 tsp agave syrup

Fleur de sel, pepper

 

Duck Legs in the Airfryer

Not much work to do to prepare the duck legs in the airfryer. A clean and smellfree way to cook.

I bought frozen French Barberie duck legs. They were huge. I took them out last afternoon and pulled the plastic cover off. In a huge container I added 2,5 liters of water and 75 g salt and a cut up orange to it. The frozen legs went in to thaw up in the cold.

I have a seasoning bag for grilled meat from my last years Advent calender and I used it to season the dried duck. I used a special baking paper in my airfryer and put both legs in.

I never preheat my airfryer, so my cooking time is a little longer.

Set at 200 C for 40 min. But use a tempersture probe. When it shows 74 C in the thickest part, the duck legs are done.

Let them rest 5 min, then serve. I had it with mashed potatoes.

 

Merry Me Chicken

I made 2 other versions already. One with Haloumi and the other Korean style. This dish is the mother of the others.

Most recipes I've found used chicken breast, but others used thighs too. These were the ones I used, bone in.

The basic work is done in a very short time. Just peel and chop the garlic and cut up the sundried tomatoes. I padded off the oil from the tomatoes with kitchen paper.

Seasoned chicken went in the pan with a little olive oil and got browned on both sides. Then out of the pan on a plate. I used some kitchen paper to soak up some of the fat in the pan. Garlic and tomatoes went in and the chicken stock. It cooked for 2 minutes and the chicken went back in together with the juice on the plate.

Add the cream and on medium heat finish cooking the chicken. If you use breast, the time will be 20 to 25 min in total. Thighs with bone in will need 35 to 40 min.

Add the cheese and the parsley. Serve either with rice, pasta or bread.

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs

1 tbsp olive oil

Chicken seasoning

5 cloves of garlic

10 sundried tomatoes in oil

150 ml double cream

150 ml chicken stock

50 g grated mozzarella

Salt and pepper

Parsley

Filipino Spaghetti Jolibee style

The last couple of days I watch a German travel YT and his old videos about the Philippines. He went to Jolibee in Manila and had their signature spaghetti dish. 

It reminded me of the Japanese Spaghetti Napolitan I had in Kyoto.  

I wanted to give it a try and searched through Pinterest. Foodgrump.com was the one I found and the ingredients looked easy to get. I even have a bottle of Banana ketchup and a tube of sweetened condensed milk at home.

I only needed ground beef and sausages to buy fresh.

Recipe for 3:

250 g ground beef

2 long smoked pork sausages or 5 hot dogs

2 medium yellow onions

5 clove of garlic

2 tbsp oil

1/2 cup beef stock

1/3 cup Banana ketchup

200 g  Tomato passata 

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Lots of black pepper

1/3 cup shredded cheese (gouda or Cheddar or Edamer)

280 g spaghetti

In a large pan heat up the oil and sautee the onions and garlic. Add the beef and break it up and cook until no longer red. Add the pieces of sausages, the beef stock and banana ketchup and the tomato passata. Season well with black pepper. Without a lid cook 25 min to reduce the liquid. 

Now add sweetened condensed milk and cheese.

Cook the spaghetti nearly al dente and transfer it with pasta water to the pan. Finish it in the sauce.

Focaccia dolce storica Veneta

Christmas time is Panetone or Pandoro time, well mostly in Italy. But for a long time in November our Supermarkets atarting selling them too.

This one is from an Italian/Spanish big supermarket. They had mountains of different types and brands stocked through a lot of space.

I wandered between the isles to look for something special and found this one. The lovely package caught my eyes first. No bright colorful boxes, but an understated paper wrapped box with a bow and a coin on it.

The coin is called Osella, the seal of an authentic gift. That was an ancient coin the Doge of Venice gave to the Council as a symbol of good fortune. It is used today as a reminder what the City of Venice stands for.

Three different kinds were sold. The traditional, the one with mandarines and one with amarena cherries. Since I like it more citrussy and amarena cherries are too sweet, that one was the one I choose.

The spices that are used go back to Marco Polo. He left from Venice to Asia 1271 in search of exotic spices. 

The sweet Foccacia has lots of spices, soft candied mandarines and almonds. It is a fluffy and very rich dough.

Mulled Wine Mousse

Christmas Eve is the day for me to get most of my prepwork in the kitchen done.

First step of the day was preparing the mulled wine. Since it is very cold outside, getting is cold in a very short time was no effort.

Pour the wine in a small pot, add the spices, the honey, ginger and thick slice of orange to it. Heat it up, but don't let it boil. Cut the heat and let it sit 20 minutes. Take out all the stuff and let the mulled wine cool down completely.

Over a Bain marie or pot of boiling water use a heatproof bowl. Add egg yolks and sugar and start whisking with an electric hand whisk. The cream should get white and start to thicken.

Pour 100 ml of the cold wine in and whisk until you have a foamy silky mass.

Beat the double cream to soft peaks and stir it in. Fill in dessert bowls and let it set in the fridge minimum 3 hours.

Cheese XMas Trees

Some more preparations for XMas Eve.

I saw these tiny trees on a Reel, but did not write anything down. Google provided larger cheesy trees and I took some of the ingredients from different ones to make my simple one.

First order of the day was getting the red kernels out of the pomegranate. I think I finally found a method that works and does not turn everything in a bloodbath.

Use a bowl of water, cut off the top of the pomegranate, then cut down along the 5 sidelines. Break it open. Take every part over the water and scrape the kernels out. The skin will float on top, the kernels stay down. Skim them off, then drain the kernels through a sieve.

Many of the recipes called for sharp Cheddar cheese. Here is only the regular Cheddar available, but I am not a huge fan of. Instead I used Old Amsterdam sharp dry Gouda.

Ingredients for 5 trees:

Ritz crackers round

225 g cream cheese

50 g old Gouda

25 g Parmesan

1/4 tsp dried onion powder

1/4 tsp dried shallots

Pepper

Fresh chopped dill

Pomegranate seeds

Mix the cheeses with the seasoning. I used the cheeses cold. There were ready to mold. Otherwise put the cheesemix in the fridge for 15 min.

Roll the cheese form in dill, set it on the Ritz and put some pomegranate seeds in. Keep in the fridge until serving.

Ras el Hanout Carrots with Coucscous

My neighbors daughter made a short trip to Marrakesh. She brought home for me a bag with awesome smelling Ras el Hanout spiceblend.

She knows I love to cook and often her mother gets a plate of food as well.

I looked at Pinterest and found a recipe from deesküche, which I used as an idea for my own dish.

First of all I had to cut the carrots in matchsticks, but I am good with a sharp knife. Then I chopped shallot and green onions.

The cranberries and raisins were soaking in hot water for 1 hour, then drained. The almonds were slithered already.

But before you start the pan, get the couscous going. Double the amount of water to couscous and add veg stock paste and a knob of butter. Bring the stock to a boil, stir in the couscous and depending on your kind of stove cut the heat or let it sit on very low for 10 minutes. Then fluff it with a fork.

Heat up olive oil in a large pan and get onions, garlic and carrots in. They need good couple of minutes. Now in with cranberries, raisins and almonds and the Ras el Hanout loosened in a bit of water. Salt and Pepper follow and some chili if you like it more spicy.

Add 60 ml of veg stock and let it cook until the carrots are done, put a lid on the pan.

Finish with parsley, Feta and Greek Yogurt on top of the couscous.

Ingredients:

100 g couscous

1 knob of butter

200 ml veg stock

3 large carrots (400 g)

1 onion

1  green onion, 4 garlic cloves

1 tbsp Ras el Hanout in 2 tbsp water

60 ml veg stock

30 g almond slithers

60 g cranberries/raisins

2 tbsp parsley

Feta 

Greek Yogurt 

Raffaello roasted Almonds

The Christmas Market season is still in full swing, but I have no intention to go there.

But roasted almonds are a treat I miss. Why not make them at home? No problem, when the modern technology has arrived in your household = the Air Fryer

Making them in a pan is the oldfashioned way, but the cleaning is a mess. Putting them in the airfryer in a special baking paper is no mess. When they are done, get the paper with the almonds out and everything is clean.

Raffaello are a Summer treat, but white chocolate mixed with coconut as a coating for roasted almonds sounded nice. I had to try it.

Recipe: 

200 g almonds

70 g sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp water

100 g white chocolate

40 g dessicated coconuts

Place almonds with both sugars and cinnamon in the airfryer paper and add the water. Stir it through. Bake at 200 C for 15 min- it depends a bit on your airfryer. Stir every 3 minutes or shake.

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave, stir in the coconut. When the almonds are done, combine both and spread out on baking paper to dry. 

Leek and Bacon Spaghetti

A very fast pasta dish.

The mix of leek and bacon is a good compination. The time the colorful spaghetti needed cooking.

Start the bacon and after 2 minutes add the leek rings. Let it get soft and season heavily. The garlic powder gives a good deepness.

Add enough pasta water to loosen it up. Then the cream cheese and cream. Let the spaghetti finish cooking in the sauce.

Add parsley and lemon juice and top with deep fried onions.

Ingredients:

200 g spaghetti

100 g leek

80 g bacon smoked

2 tbsp olive oil

50 g creme cheese

100 ml double cream

1/2 lemon juiced

Parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

Salt, pepper, piment d'Espelette, dried chives, Italien herbs

Fried crunchy onions

Chayote Stew

The Chayote is nothing very common here in Germany. Sometimes in an Asian market or in France more easy available.

But I've got lucky any bought it at REWE supercenter. They had a table with "exotic" fruits and veggies for the holidays.

I have some recipes on this blog with chayote already and was looking for a new method to eat it.

Ingredients for 2:

1 large chayote

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

6 cherry tomatoes

175 ml veg stock

120 g ground pork or sausage meat

120 g cooked prawns

2 tbsp fishsauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

Pepper, drops of lemon

Put on some kitchen gloves first before you start peeling the chayote. The sap will otherwise irritate the skin of your hands. Peel it with a speed peeler and then cut through the middle lengthwise.

The chayote may have a white kernel or pith. When it is soft and young, you can eat it too. But I took the white bit out. Now cut the chayote in bite size chunks.

I always have to stop myself to eat to many chunks raw. I love them, but I need them for the dish.

Prepare the other ingredients and start to heat up the oil. Toss in shallots and garlic and the ground pork or sausage meat. Mince it and brown it. Chuck in the tomato slices. Season with fishsauce and pepper.

Next the chunks of chayote goes in together with some veg stock. Cook it for 3 min and add the oyster sauce. Give it all 10 minutes. Since the prawns are cooked, they just need to heat through. Check the seasoning and add some lemon.

 Cook some rice and serve it on top.