National Hot Chocolate Day

I have never heard if this day before today, January 31. That hot chocolate is been celebrated.

But I have a couple of single pieces of chocolates laying around that I wont eat, so what is better then to make a hot chocolate with them.

I akways start with some water in the pot. All kinds of chocolate pieces and a good amount of cocoa powder is going in. 

Since I used flavoured milk chocolate pieces, they were sweet enough that I did not add any sugar to the pot. Bring to a boil and wait until the chocolate pieces are melted. Stir with a whisk to prevent from burning.

Add milk and bring back to a boil. Fill in mugs, cover with cream and tiny marshmallows.

Ingredients:

175 ml water

100 g mixed chocolate pieces

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

350 ml whole milk

Double cream

Minimarshmallows

Mushroom Cream Pork Goulash

I haven't had creamy pork goulash in a long time. 

Not sure what to cook, I walked through the supermarket and picked up a punnet of brown button mushrooms. OK, a dish with mushrooms was the way to go.

At the fresh meat section I looked in and was not getting an idea. Then I found some pork goulash that had a red sticker on top. Only good for today and 50% off. Fight foodwaste.

The goulash with mushrooms was the dish of the day. Some longlasting double cream needed to go too. Perfect choice.

Recipe for 3:

500 g pork goulash

3 medium yellow onions

3 garlic cloves

1 bay leaf

2 tbsp oil

3 tsp flour

400 ml beef stock

125 ml veg stock

3 majoram stalks

salt, pepper, smoked paparika, sweet paprika, thyme

250 g brown button mushrooms

200 ml double cream

Salt the pork and brown it in oil. Add chopped onions and garlic and give it 3 more minutes.

Add seasoning and flour and stir well. Pour in the stock and add the chopped mushrooms and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, cover and cook for 85 min on medium heat.

Serve with short pasta.

AirFryer Broccoli Asian style with Shin Ramyun

I pimped my Shin Ramyun Spicy Chicken to be cheesy and creamy and topped them with the airfried broccoli florets.

The broccoli was my first part of the dish. I wanted to give this Asian style florets a go. But what to eat it with? I choose a very easy way to combine the broccoli with some other Asian food: Instant Noodles.

Shin Ramyun are now available in many supermarkets here. It is no longer neccessary to drive to an Asian market. I bought two different kinds last time I saw them. 

Recipe:

500 g broccoli

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp light soy sauce

Onion powder, garlic powder, chili flakes

Toasted sesame seeds

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1 package Shin Ramyun spicy Chicken 

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp kewpie mayo

30 g grated mozzarella

Sencho pepper

Cut off the florets and wash them. In a bowl combine the upper ingredients, except the sesame seeds. Coat the florets well and dump them in the airfryer.

At 200 C for 8 to 12 min, shake after 5 min. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Cook the Ramyun in 500 ml water with the dry stuff for 4 min. Add spicy soup powder. In an Asian serving bowl mix egg yolk, mayo, cheese and sesaning and pour the noodles in.

Put the broccoli on top.

Breakfast Wieners in the AirFryer

This is a tasty way to serve some Wieners for breakfast.

Cut them down the middle lengthwise. Get a couple of toothpicks ready.

Lay some cheese strips on the half sausage, some spring onion green and a cut up green olive. Put the other piece of sausage on top and secure everything with the toothpicks.

Put in the AirFryer 180C 7 min. Serve with bread.

The Wieners I used were a bit too thin. I need to repeat it with bigger ones.

Ingredients:

2 Wieners

2 cheese slices

4 olives pitted

Spring onion green

Potato Soup with Salmon Trout

A soup only with potatoes is boring. Some veggies and a little bacon always helps.

ALDI had some nice looking Salmon Trout pieces and I bought one. I could have easily panfried it, but I was looking forward to having a soup. Winter is soup season for me.

When I finished the soup I recognised some similarities to the Lohikeitto Soup from Finnland I made 2 years ago. But that one was with salmon and not with trout and without bacon.

Recipe for 3:

180 g salmon trout

60 g bacon

2 green onions

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp grapeseed oil

5 potatoes

1 carrot

100 g leek

50 g celeriac

1 red radish

400 ml fish fond

400 ml veg stock from paste

Dried dill

Salt and pepper

80 g sour cream

Topping:

1 tsp oil

30 g fine strips of the white part from the leek

1/2 tsp honey

1 tsp raspberry vinegar

The trout came with skin on. Normally I take it off with a sharp knife. But one side of the filet was a bit thin. I used a #Hack# I saw on Insta:

I poured 300 ml boiling water on top of the skin, waited 1 min and was able to peal it off without a knife in one piece. Then I cut it in small pieces and set aside.

In a small pan caramelize the leek strips for later.

In a big pot heat up the oil and toss in all veggies and give them 5 min to get some color. Don't forget to season them with salt.

Now add fish and veg stock, pepper and garlic powder, bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat. Cook for 25 min.

Use a stick blender and make a nice, but not too smooth soup. Turn off the heat and toss in the salmon trout. It will cook in the residual heat in 5 min.

Finish with sour cream and dill and top with the caramelized leek strips.

KitKat Cake

This is a recipe from "Kuchengeschichten".

My friend gave me a large KitKat Chocolate bar from her last trip to Poland. But they were too sweet for me. I just had one piece and the chocolate bar was sitting on my table.

I finally thought about using it for a dessert or a cake, but most cakes were using whole pieces  surrounding a baking dish to be filled with a batter.

After a longer research I found this recipe:

Use a 25 cm loaftin.  

Preheat the oven to 180 C

180 g KitKat

175 g mandarines from a can - save the juice

200 g butter soft unsalted

160 g sugar

4 eggs

200 g flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 package Dr.Oetker vanilla pudding powder

Pinch of salt

Pinch of vanilla

Topping:

2 tbsp mandarine juice

100 g icing sugar

Some broken KitKat pieces

Drain the can of mandarines and save the juice.

Chop the KitKat.

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add the eggs beat in between. 

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and pudding together and add to the mix. 

Now in the the mandarines, that will loosen the batter. Stir in the KitKat.

Either butter the loaftin very good or use baking paper.

Bake for 1 hour 15 min. Check with a wooden skewer if the cake is done.

When cooled down make the glaze. The cake us best kept in the fridge.

Vegetable Soup with Couscous

After my LUCID testdrive and the visit to the GALERIA skyline lounge I went to my friend in Frankfurt for an afternoon visit.

She promised to cook us some soup in her Thermomix with the help of Cookidoo.

A bunch of soup vegetables and potatoes, some veg stock and couscous made a great soup. This was the first time I saw Cookidoo in action. I use an older model TM31 at home and mostly come up with the steps on my own. 

But interesting to see that way of cooking.

We added some bonemarrow dumplings from REWE to the soup for additional flavour.

Ingredients:

3 carrots

1/4 celeriac

100 g leek

2 shallots

Piece of parsley root

2 tbsp oil

800 ml veg stock

80 g couscous

Salt and pepper

10 bonemarrow dumplings

Cheesecake at GALERIA skyline lounge

I am in Frankfurt today to go on a testdrive with the LUCID AIR touring. 

Since the store is in the middle of downtown, I used the chance to walk over to the GALERIA and went up to the 7th floor. Sunshine and a great view from here

But I did not come for the view only. I had some warm cheesecake in a jar and a good Latte Macchiato.

The cheesecake was awesome.

Enjoying the view over downtown Frankfurt was a bonus.

Puff Pastry filled with Meatsauce

My plan was to have meatsauce with pasta. 

But checking my fridge drawer a roll of puff pastry caught my eye. Just one week over its expiration date. No problem in my mind, but it needed to go.

Two slices of Raclette cheese were left, a bag of endive looked good, so why not bring it all together.

The ground pork/beef mix with vegetables was prepared first to give it enough time to cool down. Putting hot fillings on puff pastry makes the bottom of the pie soggy. No one likes a soggy bottom.

For an intense flavour I smeared a couple of teaspoons of Dijon mustard on the base. The meat on top.

I thought about chopping up the leaves of the endive (chicory), but went for single leaves on top. The remaining cheese was cut in halves and laid along the row of endive. A bit of fresh ground pepper and chili salt for more taste.

The pastry was folded over, brushed with egg and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Baked at 200 C fan for 25 min.

Ingredients:

1 butter puff pastry rectangular

350 g pork/beef mince

2 green onions

3 garlic cloves

1 celery stick

1 carrot

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, herbes de Provence

4 tsp Dijon mustard

1 head of endive (chicory)

2 slices Raclette cheese

1 egg

Black sesame seeds

 

 

Radish Salad with Walnuts and Oranges

Red long Radishes are a rare sight here. You either get the little red balls or the long white ones. I even found a round huge black one.

Now I was looking for different ways to prepare the 3 large red radishes.

This salad is a combination of crunchy walnuts and sweet orange sliced that went in a pan with butter and honey.

The radish was only washed and then knifecut in battons and discs. They were salted to drain a bit of their sharpness. I put them then in the microwave for 2,5 minutes and then washed the salt off.

1 red radish

50 g walnuts

1 tbsp butter

1 orange fileted

Dressing:

White balsamico vinegar

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Agave syrup

Mixed black pepper, chives

The radish had time to sit in the dressing for 15 min and made it a lovely orange pink color.