Spaghetti Guanciale Muffins

This is a leftover bake made with tasty ingredients.

I came home yesterday after an 6,5 hours drive from the Salzburgring in Austria. I only took short breaks on the Autobahn and ate a snack while sitting in backed up traffic. No lunch break on the way.

After I came hone, I dropped my stuff and decided that some pasta would make my day today. No fuss, just some tomato paste, passata and even some chopped fresh tomatoes I brought back from Austria. Onions and garlic as a base, sauteed in olive oil, tomato pasre and then a good gluck of Noilly Prat. This bottle is my go to when I need a bit of wine in a dish. 

I learned that on my first trips to France a very long time ago and since then an opened bottle sits on the back of my counter. When it runs empty, it will be replaced. I need about 3 bottles a year in total. I am doing this for over 30 years now, 100 bottles may have passed through my kitchen. The fun thing is, 2001 I have spend 2 weeks in Marsaillon Plage and visited the factory if Noilly Prat and did a tour though the plant.

A way back in my history, but that made my simple tomato sauce spaghetti or the day. A good portion was left over on purpose. I wanted to use it for Sunday lunch with things from the fridge that had to go.

I've baked Twarog Croissants this morning and that left me with 3 egg whites. A small chunk of Guanciale was sitting in my fridge, 3 green onions that still looked fine, even that they stayed 2 weeks in the veggie drawer of my fridge. An open bag of shredded mozzarella needed to be eaten. 

The first step was to cut up the guanciale and put it in a cold pan. Heated up slowly to render the fat out. I used the fat to brush the muffin tins to prevent sticking later. It nostly worked great.

Then the chopped green onions went in with the guanciale to get soft. I mixed that all with the tomato spaghetti and added the egg white. Pasta in the muffin tins first, the other ingredients with the runny egg white on top. Then crowned with mozzarella.

The muffin tin went in the oven at 180 C fan for 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 serving of cold tomato sauce spaghetti

3 egg whites

30 g Guanciale

3 green onions

Mozzarella cheese, grated

Twarog Croissants

Since I made Sryniki with Twarog, I am a huge fan of this very dry curd.

All our supermarkets and Discounters have it in stock, no problem to get it and no need to drive to the Polish Shop or Eastern European Mix Markt.

German curd has a lot more liquid and is very creamy. To use that in this recipe, you have to put the curd in a cheese cloth and hang it on a rack with a bowl under it in the fridge for 24 hours. Twarog is the easier choice.

Recipe for 16 pieces:

250 g Twarog

100 g soft unsalted butter

2 egg yolks

120 g sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

300 g flour

To brush: 1 egg yolk +2 tbsp milk

Use a big baking bowl and toss everything in except the flour. Use either your hands, a fork or some other kind - I used my potato masher- to get everything broken up. Then add the flour and press it in a ball. Let it rest 10 min.

Use baking paper and flour it. Cut the ball in 2 pieces and with a rolling pin make a more or less round plate of dough. Use a pizza cutter and divide it in 8 triangles. Cut 2 line in the small end. 

Roll them up from the wide side and pull the cuts wider on top. Put on baking paper and brush with eggwash.

Bake at 180 C on lower shelf for 15 min, then put on top shelf and use fan/grill function to get color on top 3 to 5 min.

Vienna style Schnitzel from Strohschwein

Vienna Schnitzel is usually made from veal, but here they use the pigs from a local farmer and flatten that very thin and prepare it the same way as the real one.

The breaded crust was in bubbles on top if the pork, the way it should be. That means that the breadcrumbs were not pressed down on the pork and it was cooked swimming in clarified butter.

The Schnitzel was served with boiled potatoes with some parsley and wild preiselbeere, a kind of cranberry. A lemon wedge on the side to go on the Schnitzel.

It was a huge piece of pork, even flattened a lot. I actually had a problem to finish it completely.

Dumpling variety cheese filled

Austria is dumpling country. Here are so many varieties to choose from. Many of the recipes are cooked in Germany too.

Bread dumplings are popular, others are made with potatoes or flour.

These two I choose are made with little cut up white bread. It should be dry. It gets mixed with eggs and liquid, or sauteed onions and cheeses are folded or stuffed in.

I had a soft green dumpling with chives and parsley that was stuffed with mozzarella.

The purple one was beetroot with tiny chunks of Austrian mountain cheese.

Both dumplings sat in Beurre noisette or browned butter.

A bowl of mixed salad came with the dish.

Hangar 7 Salzburg Breakfast at the Café

The Red Bull Museum Salzburg at Hangar 7.

After checking out all Red Bull branded airplanes and helis, the F 1 cars and all the art that was exibited there, I went to the café for some second breakfast.

I choose a Austrian Verlängerten as a coffee and an Omelet with cress and cheese.

A very fluffy folded omelett came with a basket of different breads.

Very tasty.

Austrian Pork Schnitzel with Mushroom Sauce

Served with homemade egg pasta. Mushrooms are called here Schwammerl, they looked and tasted like button mushrooms.

The schnitzel is from a certain pig breed that is local to this area. The restaurant has a kitchen that uses mostly regional and seasonal products. The food quality is high.

The Schnitzel was very lightly breaded and panfried. Fresh mushrooms sauteed in a creamy sauce were on top of the 2 schnitzel.

A huge portion of freshly made pasta was beside them, filling the plate completely.

I had an Austrian special soda with it: Almdudler.  A herb soda, I love since the time I was here as a kid in holiday.

Eating out at 12 Apostel in Arnstadt

I've visited an ex coworker at his new place to live. I haven't seen him for 10 years. He and his wife took me out to lunch in downtown Arnstadt. 

The city is called the Bach Stadt after the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The city is  South of the capitol of Thuringa, Erfurt.

12 Apostel is a well known Italian restaurant and on a Sunday pretty busy. But we were able to catch the last table st 11:30 AM.

It was Pasta for all three if us.

I went for tagliatelle with radicchio in cream sauce topped with Parma ham. My friend had lasagne and his wife spaghetti bolognese.

These three dishes were good choices and the restaurant is place to go to again.

Leek and Potato Soup with Mett "raw pork"

Mett, the famous seasoned raw pork eaten on a bread roll with raw onions on top is the horror szenario for most foreigners visiting Germany. But for us it is so common, that nobody thinks about it. When it is daily freshly made and sold at butcher shops, nibidy gets sick from it, when eaten the same day.

But it is seasoned pork meat and can also used for cooking. It is like the meat you get out of fresh uncooked bratwursts. Sausage meat works fine here too. 

A big leek, some shallots and potatoes are the vegetable part of the soup. But first the pork needs to get a good color in some oil in the pot.

Cut up the leek and give it a good wash. Mine held a lot of earth in it. Peel the potatoes and cut them in very fine slices 1,5 mm. That gives a special texture to the half rings leek. The shallots are just cut in blocks. 

A variety of shapes is not only good for the eye, the changes in texture give a good mouthfeel.

Season it with salt, pepper, nutmeg, fresh oregano and a bay leaf.

Add beef stock to cover everything and let it cook 15 minutes. Add the velveta cheese to make it creamy and check the seasining again.

Ingredients:

200 g sausage meat or mett

2 tbsp oil

3 shallots

1 leek

700 ml beef stock

3 small potatoes

1 bay leaf, 3 oregano stalks

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

3 tbsp velveeta cheese

Piede at Schleiz Grill

On my way to an other trackday I made my way up to Schleiz. Well known for the Schleizer Dreieck or Triangle. A racetrack that includes two public roads leaving the city. They are barried off on the weekend so we can include them in the racetrack and drive on them.

The city of Schleiz is not that big but has a couple of eat in or take out places to go to. I had checked them out on google before I decided which one to choose for my lunch break.

The Schleiz Grill is a Kebap House which sells Pizza together with all the well known Turkish dishes.

I've ordered a Piede with döner meat and an egg on tomato sauce. The dough was cery good and a bit breadlike. The topping was well seasoned, but the meat was charred in some parts. Well, it was first cooked on the rotating grill and then baked on top of the piede.

Thon à la Basquaise

Or Tuna steak on tasty sauce.

A recipe from the French Nouvelle-Aquitaine or the French part of the Basque country. The shared history with its Spanish bretheren.

I was there a couple of years ago on a food trip and visited both parts.

Fresh tuna was no where in sight and I had to opt for frozen tuna steaks. But they are not so easy to come by either. Luckily we have a supercenter REWE and they had it in stock.

This kind of sauce reminds me of the one I served with meatballs not very long ago. Blog is live on the 28th of August.

In the future I will exchange this kind of sauce with the typical tomato ones. This is more fragrant, fruity and richer. 

Recipe for 2 :

2 tuna steaks defrosted

1/4 cup Polenta semolina

2 red onions

3 garlic cloves

1 jar of roasted red peppers

10 cherry tomatoes

200 ml tomato passata

50 ml Noilly Prat

Olive oil

1 tbsp piment d'Espelette

Smoked paprika

Thyme, salt and pepper

Peel onions and garlic and chop. Cut the cherry tomatoes once or twice depending on their size. Take the smoked paprika out of the jar and drain them, chop.

In a wide pan heat up some olive oil and start the onions. After 4 min, add garlic, tomatoes and peppers. Cook 3 min. Season with thyme, salt and pepper.

Next comes the tomato passata and the Noilly Prat. Add Piment d'Espelette and smoked paprika.

Coat the dried tuna steaks with salt and pepper and polenta flour. Bake them in olive oil on both sides 3 min each. 

Serve with rice or baguette

 

Pimp my ShinRamyun

A day with only a little time to cook. What is in stock that does not need a lot of time to prepare.

I've bought some Instant Noodles a while ago and they made my lunch today. But eating them as they come in the package is a no go for me.

There are many ways to pimp these basic noodles. The internet is full of them. I decided on adding an egg, Kewpie, green onion, sesame seeds, soy sauce.

All of that mixed in a bigger bowl and the broth with the instant noodles and seasoning packs poured over it. Cheese helps with everything, especially with the heat of the instant sauce. The finishing touch were 3 slices of American sandwich cheese that were sitting in my fridge for ages, best by ...  long gone - but still the same as 6 month ago. These are so full of everything but cheese, they last for ever. 

A nice quick lunch that can be enjoyed once in a couple of month.

Ingredients:

1 ShinRamyun spicy noodles

1 egg

2 tbsp Kewie

1 green onion

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame seeds

3 slices American cheese

Syrniki with Twarog

The Polish curd is special. It is very dry and easy to mix with either sweet or savoury ingredients.

I wanted some pancakes today. The recipe is from"Kochbar.de"

This recipe does not contain a lot of flour or sugar. The main taste is the twarog (curd). It is a very sticky dough and you need to flour your hands, the scale and the plate you rest them on.

The dough should rest about 30 min, them form 40 g  or 1,4 oz balls. Press them lightly in the flour on both sides to flatten them.

Use Ghee or clarified butter to bake them on medium heat about 3 min on each side. Serve warm with berry compote.

Ingredients:

230 g Twarog

1 medium egg

1 1/2 tbsp flour and 40 g for later

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

1 tbsp sugar

Pinch of salt

Ghee or clarified butter for the pan

Fruit compote