Peanutbutter Chili Soup

Who does not like Peanutbutter?

Something hot creamy and a bit spicy on a cold rainy November day. The recipe is fairly easy to prepare. I wanted something filling in the soup so I added some cooked Somen noodles. But you can prepare the soup as it is and serve it as a starter to a folling entree.

Use fresh chilis if you like, but the soup is made with some dried stuff.

recipe:
2 shallots
1 spring onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 lime
1/2 bunch of fresh coriander
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
500 ml chicken stock
500 ml milk
250 g peanutbutter creamy or chunky
salt and pepper
2 tsp Piment d´Espelette or other kind of dried chili
120 g Somen noodles

Macarons

I had to stand up to my Nemesis one day!  It was today- I wanted to bake Macarons.

A couple of years ago I tried to bake Macarons. The first and the second batch went into the garbage bin with the baking paper they were sticking on. The third batch made it to stage were they were filled and even eaten. But they looked horrendous, deep pink and green and violent yellow. They were spread uneven but the taste was OK.

I watched Cupcake Jemma on Friday, she and one of her bakers from the shop showed in a Masterclass video how they make their Macarons. I bought the rest of the ingredients on Saturday.
In the afternoon I started with sifting the almond flour, a good idea, because some small chunks were in. Then I put the icing sugar and the almonds in the food processor and gave a quick blast. And I sieved it again. That is quiet time consuming.

My new kitchen machine made it easy to make a Italian meringue - well easy is relative.
I had to bring a pot of sugar and water up to 118 C exactly. Checking that is not possible without an electric thermometer. When the eggs are beaten half, let the hot sugar syrup in and beat cold.

I try to get the right amount of eggs to have the egg white for the meringue and split it into two even batches. I needed 4 and a half egg :-)

One batch goes into the almond sugar mix and during working it in, add some yellow colour paste. Do not overmix the batter.

Piping them is a lot of work. Just keep the piping bag fully upright and press a good amount of cream on a circle. It is a good idea to make a template and stick it under the baking paper. I have a silicon mat for Macarons and I used this as a template for the second baking sheet. When you have little peaks on top of each macaron after piping, just make you fingertip wet and dab it flat. Wet your finger after a couple of peaks again.

Now tap the baking sheets onto the table surface a couple of times to get the air bubbles out and then let the macarons sit at roomtemperature for 30 minutes. Sprinkle some coloured sugar on top.

Preheat  your oven at 165 C fan and bake each baking sheet on its own for 12-14 min.
Let them cool down completely.

Make the filling. I used white chocolate garnache with orange oil as a flavouring.

Chop up the white chocolate and pour the cream on top. In the microwave at 1 min then stir. Give it an other 30 sec and stir and so on. Add the orange oil.
Cool down and put in the fridge for 10 min, then with a electric whisk on slow speed whip it up a bit to make it pale. Put into a piping bag and fill the macarons.

Set them in the fridge in an airtight container for the next day to eat.

If you have enough shells that are looking ok, just keep them in a box and fill them a day before you need them. I filled some with Nutella as a second choice.

Recipe:
205 g icing sugar
190 g ground almonds
144 g egg white
190 g caster sugar
60 ml water
250 g white chocolate
70 ml double cream
10 drops orange oil

Courgette Pizza with Raspberries

I wanted Pizza!

But not the usual one and none from a pizza delivery service. I was looking for a pizza dough that was a bit tastier then the normal cardboard.
In one of my many cutout recipe leaves I found a "summer" pizza that spoke to me.
I just needed to buy some fresh raspberries and a bit of mozzarella and I was ready to go.
The sauce was no tomato base, they used ricotta.
I have some homemade in a jar and that was a good chance to get rid of some.
The dough gets a nice crust when baked.

recipe for 4:
20 g fresh yeast
400 g spelt flour
100 g polenta
1 tsp salt
pepper, Pul bieber, herbes de Provence
3 tbsp olive oil
300 ml tepid water

topping:
1 tbsp rosemary
zest of 1 lemon
30 g pine nuts
50 g ricotta
1 medium courgette
200 g raspberries
150 g mozzarella
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Dissolve the yeast in warm water.
Mix all ingredients and make a smooth dough. Put in a bowl and cover and let it proof for 1 hour.
In a pan dry roast the pine nuts.
Roll out the dough and spread the ricotta on top and add the lemon zest over it.
Chop rosemary and spread it.

The courgette has to be cut into fine strips.
Get it all on top, add the raspberries and rip the mozzarella on top.

Bake at 230 C for 18 min.

Roll out the dough and spread the ricotta on top. Zest the lemon over it.

Vegan Green Thai Curry

I am still sitting on a big amount of fresh veggies from the spoon cooking event. One of the things that had to be cooked were the tiny Thai eggplants. I decided to go vegetarian and a vegan dish came out in the end.

The tiny eggplants were a bit of a challenge on Saturday. They look so easy to prepare, but they need a bit of work. I used half of the snake like courgette my friend brought me from her garden, they are the last ones this season.

Use a wide pan.

recipe:
1 courgette
1 red bell pepper
1 carrot
40 tiny Thai eggplant
4 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
1 red chili
2 stalks of lemon grass
3 tbsp mixed fresh herbs
1 knob ginger
1 tbsp sunflower oil
400 ml coconut cream
2 tsp dark muscovado sugar
1 lime
2 tbsp Nuoc Mam
2 cups Jasmin Rice

Peel and chop all the veggies.
Use s spice grinder and put in 2 shallots, garlic, lemongrass, chili and fresh herbs. Make a coarse paste.

In oil heat up the paste for 2 min and add 1/3 of the coconut cream. Cook 3 min more and add the veggies.

The rest of the coconut cream goes in,  the fish sauce (Nuoc Mam) the sugar and the lime.
Cook until everything is tender.
Serve with rice.

Roasted chicken thighs and sweet potatoes

Today we have an exceptional holiday here in Germany.
We celebrate the Monk Martin Luther, who hammered his 95 thesis on a church door in Wittenberg 500 years ago on Oct. 31, 1517.
The government decided to commemorate this day with a holiday nationwide.

Since I am off work in the middle of the week, I used the time to get rid of more ingredients still sitting around from our spoon cooking event on Saturday. I bought several things that weren´t used, so today's lunch will be a sweet potato and some chicken thighs.
I am busy with lots of other things, such as writing blogs about the spoon challenge. I had no time to cook something on the stove. Putting both ingredients in the oven was the best choice.

I marinated the chicken thighs for a couple of hours, and the cubed sweet potatoes too.

They went for 40 minutes at 180 C fan into the ove. Thighs with the inside up first for 15 min, then turned to get them wonderful brown and crispy








 I made a little dip to go with the potatoes.

As a starter I served green Zebra tomatoes as a Caprese salad, very tasty.

They are fully ripened! And tasted absolutely delicious.

Basil Gin & Tonic

It´s an Aperitiv, Baby!

I am usually not into G & T. Gin sometimes is needed in recipes , that´s why a bottle is in my spirit cupboard.

On TV I saw someone crashing fresh basil leaves and making it into an aperitiv. I haven´t seen what kind of spirit went in, but tonic and gin made the most sense.
My local supermarket sold some British tonic water. An excellent choice.

For 3 drinks:
8 basil leaves
1 tsp dark brown sugar
1/4 juice of a lemon
2 small bottles of tonic water
6 cl Gin

In a bowl crush basil leaves with sugar and lemon juice. Divide it into 3 glasses and fill up with tonic water and gin.

Serving Dessert on a Spoon

After so many different tasty morsels of savoury food, we needed to finish our spoon adventure with a sweet treat on a spoon.  And to make it even more complicated, we prepared two different ones.

The tenth spoon was made with the leftover Strudel dough.
It was filled with tiny pear cubes and almond flakes, a bit of cinnamon and the rolled into a strudel and brushed with butter and baked at 200 C for 20 min.
It was served with a tiny bit of creme fraiche and one kernel of pomegranate on each slice.

Now came the piece de resistance - the Crèpe Suzette

3 tiny 4 cm discs of crepe, folded and warmed in a sauce of clementine juice, brown sugar, Grand Marnier Triple Sec and butter, with 1 segment of peeled clementine on each spoon. I sprig of mint was the finishing touch.
Make a crèpe batter by using 1 tsp of flour, 1/2 tsp melted butter, 2 tsp milk and beat an egg and use 1/3 of it in the batter. Bake on crépe and use a cookie cutter with 4 cm diameter.






I can recommend this kind of cooking to everyone who is comfortable with their skills and looks for some fun and challenge in the kitchen.