Cheese Pasta with Mushrooms

On a rainy and cold Saturday between household chores, hairdesser, grocery shopping and bringing some room into the wardrobe, it was time for some comfort food. Pasta is a comfort food for me. Paired with some ingredients from the fridge and fresh bought mix mushrooms. It is great to prepare a larger quantity to freeze off some portions for lunch at the office the next time.

Cheese Pasta with mixed Mushrooms

recipe:
500 g Linguine
350 g mixed mushrooms
4 spring onions
2 clove of garlic
1 tbsp butter
100 g Pecorino
50 g Emmenthaler
50 g Camembert
50 g cook cured bacon
100 ml milk
50 ml double cream
1 tsp veg stock powder
salt and pepper
dried herbs
piment d´espelette
1 tbsp parsley

Grate the cheese and chop the veg.  In a small pot start with the butter and add half of the onions and the garlic. After a couple of minutes add the milk and the whole Emmenthaler and 75 % from the Pecorino. Melt it and add the veg stock cube.
Cream and seasoning and the bacon comes next.

In a wide pan start with some olive oil and the other half of onions and garlic and the mushrooms. Let them cook for a while before you season them.

Cook the pasta in a huge pot in salted water.
Get everything together and garnish with some parsley.

Brioche with candied fruits

Brioche patissière aux fruit confits is the title of the recipe from my last issue of Gourmand.

Brioche patissière aux fruit confits

I am cooking with friends today again and since this is a not so sweet dessert, it is possible to serve it with some sort of strong cheese and mustard. My friend does not like sweet desserts, so it is always cheese I serve for her. This combination goes with my sweet tooth and her longing for cheese.

We went through a lot of work for a piece of Brioche to serve with different cheeses

recipe for the brioche :
6 eggs
250 g butter
30 g milk powder+ 2 tbsp
500 g flour
50 g sugar
20 g fresh yeast
10 g salt

Mix the flour, milk powder, salt and sugar. Add the yeast and the beaten eggs and bring it together so you have a smooth dough. Cut up the butter is small pieces and get it into the dough one after the other. Knead the dough and let it rest for 1 hour at room temperature.

recipe for the cream patissière:
120 g curd
3 egg yolk
120 g candied fruits
50 g milk powder
50 g sugar
25 g flour
15 g vanilla sugar
3 tbsp rum

In a bowl mix both sugars, 30 g of the milk powder and flour. Add 250 ml cold water.
Get the egg yolks in and get it onto the stove and bring it to a short boil. Add the curd and the other 20 g of milk powder, the candied fruits soaked in the rum.
It is a very sticky and buttery dough, let it rest  for 1 hour.

Best to prepare this when you have some help, sometimes you are in need of 4 hands.

Heat up the oven to 180 C.
On a very good floured surface roll out the dough and cut it up into 8 same size pieces. Pat each into 5 cm wide strips and pour some cream pat on top. Roll them up.

Use a loose bottom 24 cm baking dish or a "Genoise"dish , buttered. Place the pieces into the form and let it rest for  an other 20 minutes. Use a mix with 1 tbsp water and 2 tbsp milk powder  and with a brush get it on top of the rolls.

Bake for 20 minutes Let it cool down a bit before serving it. It goes wonderful with strong cheese and a dash of pear mustard.

Zatar Salmon with Fennel

The bulb of fennel was so huge and the piece of salmon as well , so I decided to have a no carb dinner.
I love the Zatar spice since I was in Jordan and try to combine it with many different ingredients.
On Salmon for the first time, but not for the last!

I didn´t want to slice the fennel with a knife so I pulled out the mandoline and grated the fennel bulb very fine. A huge amout of thin slices came out. I cut the onion the same way into long strips and only chopped the garlic and the spring onion.

recipe:
300 g good quality salmon
350 g bulb of fennel
1 tbsp parsley
1/2 lemon juice
1 onion
1 spring onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp of creme fraiche
50 ml Noilly Prat
80 ml water
salt and pepper
olive oil
zatar, orange pepper and salt for the fish

Start with the fish and in an other pan start with onions and garlic. Add the fennel and start to saute it a bit. Season and add the Noilly Prat and a lid, cook for a couple of minutes and add the water and a bit of lemon juice. It will take a while until the fennel is soft enough. Add some lemon juice to the fish and keep an eye on it, so it stays flaky in the middle.

Vegan Lentil and Quinoa Waffles

This is a recipe to get rid of some leftovers that have accumulated over the last few days.
It became a vegan recipe, but I had the waffle iron out for a sweet treat, so I baked the mixture in the iron too.
It should be easier to bake them as patties in a pan.

everything vegan

recipe:
120 g cooked lentils
120 g cooked quinoa
250 g grated raw sweet potato
3 tbsp rocket chopped
3 spring onions chopped
1 tbsp hot mustard
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp potato starch
4 tbsp bread crumbs
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
salt and pepper
1 tbsp chia seed mixed with 3 tbsp water - let that sit for 15 min  (vegan egg)

50 ml olive oil or coconut oil

When you bake them in the waffle iron, it takes a lot of time , when the light turns green, wait another 2 minutes minimum to bake them through. You need a lot of oil in the iron.

I ate them with some vegan cream mixed with dried onions, tzatziki seasoning and some dried herbs. Next time I will use Greek yogurt!

Chicken Kiew

Last week I had that dish during lunch hour at the office from a small restaurant near by. We saw a leaflet with Russian and Ukranian dishes.
Well "Advertisement is the right to choose" three of us wanted to give it a try. I had Chicken Kiew, the national dish of the Ukraine.

Boom!

I received something that looked like a round granate, was heavily covered in coarse breadchunks and not easy to open- I waited for the boom when I stuck the knife in. Inside was a chicken roulade piece with a little herbed butter.The best of this dish were the roasted potatoes.
My dish was the best of all three and we decided to get rid of the leaflet and never order there again.

very juicy chicken breast

                                                                      
I diceded to make Chicken Kiew myself. I used the SortedFood recipe and I can tell you- it is a wonderful way to eat that chicken. I can highly recommend it.

recipe:
2 chicken breasts without skin
60 g butter mixed with roasted garlic and herbs -
made the day or a couple of days before and fridge cold
salt and pepper
2 eggs
60 g flour
120 g bread crumbs the fine version
1 lemon zested into the breadcrumbs
150 ml oil

Breast OP

I served it with red cabbage (leftover from the filo pastry) and quinoa.

Stick a knife deep into the chicken breast at it thickest side, make a deep hole but do not cut through the skin. Stick in pieces of cold butter as much as the hole can take.
Season with salt and pepper and coat in flour, go though eggs and breadcrumbs and then again through eggs and breadcrumbs again. This should help that the butter wont leak out so easy.

Heat up the oven to 180 C and heat the oil in the pan. Fry off the breast until it gets colour on both sides and then transfer to the baking dish and stick into the oven for 15 to 20 min, depends on how thick the breasts are.

And reheated the next day, they still are juicy and delish!



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Lost Eggs Sweet and Sour with Bacon

When you buy too many eggs, you have many choices to get some of them done. Thinking about pancakes, omelet or cakes is one thing, but making a  great dinner out of them is a bit different.
A while ago I made the German classic of eggs in mustard sauce, so I checked some old recipes and found that.

Lost eggs with sweet and sour bacon sauce

It is a great dish, you can adjust the recipe for many eaters and it is a fast meal.

recipe for 2:
6 eggs
150 g smoked bacon
1 large or many small onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 heaped tbsp flour
1 heaped tbsp butter
1 tbsp mustard
3 tbsp vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
300 ml warm water with some veg or chicken stock cube
salt and pepper
a pinch of dried thyme

500 g potatoes
2 tbsp creme fraiche
150  ml milk
nutmeg

Start with boiling the potatoes.
Chop the onions and the garlic and start in a pan with  the butter, add the bacon bits and let them cook 3  minutes. Chuck in the onions and garlic and get them a bit brown. Stir in the flour and get it brown a bit too.
Add the stock and the vinegar, add sugar and mustard and season. Cook for 5 minutes.
It has to balance between sour and sweet, that is the moment you drop in the eggs, get a lid on an cook them for 4 minutes and check that the yolk stays soft.

Make the mash and pour the bacon sauce on top, serve with the eggs and cut into an egg to self sauce the mash.

Welsh Cawl for St. David´s Day

Happy St. David`s Day,  people of Wales!
I did not want to go to the office with a piece of leek stuck to my sweater, but I love the celebrate all kinds of holidays.

Welsh Cawl

I know this soup with the name of Cawl since I travelled through Wales a couple of years ago. It is a quick and hearty soup for the 1. of March.

I used a pressure cooker, because coming home from work, grocery shopping on the way back, I had not much desire to slave away at the stove for a long time. So my special pot is great for soups like that.
First I just chucked the piece of beef with a marrow bone with the carrot, the bay leaves and one onion and some parsley stalks into the pot, filled it up with water and closed the lid. It takes only a couple of minutes until the sign comes up, reduce the heat and let it cook away for 20min. In the meantime, I can peel, cut and wash the veggies.
To open the lid of the pressure cooker faster, I put the pot into the sink and run some cold water onto the lid. The I can get the steam off and open the lid.

not many ingredients

Start the broth

Just scoop everything out. Throw in the veggies and close the lid again, back onto the heat and the same procedure this time only for 8 min. Steam off and the soup is nearly done. Season.
Cut up the meat, chop the parsley and you can brown some bread in a pan in some garlic butter to make croutons.

recipe:
500 g beef with marrow bone
1,5 l water
3 carrots
1/2 leek
1 onion
1 parsnip
3 potatoes
a bunch of parsley stalks
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp parsley
salt and pepper
bread for croutons and some garlic butter