Goose Sauce and Spaghetti

This is a recipe for the celebration of Saint Martin's s Day.

Here in Germany on November 11th traditional geese are eaten. Roasted whole and shared at the table with family and friends. The sides dishes are potato dumplings and red cabbage.

I asked a couple of people why goose is eaten on that day. Nobody could answer that. I checked the helpful Google and there were 3 different explanations.

The priest Martin was ordered by the people to become a bishop. He did not want to take the offer and went into a geese stable to hide. The geese made such a noise that he was found and he became the bishop. He slaughtered the geese and they all ate them.
Or in the Orthodox church starts the second 40 days of fasting and the last day the geese who got fat in the stables were eaten as the last feast on the day of Saint Martin.
Some other story with fat geese and the need of feathers for pillows and duvets in the start of winter let the farmers slaughter them to honor Saint Martin. The strong feathers were used as writing material and the farmers had room in their stables for other livestock.

Now back to humble spaghetti to honor Saint Martin.
Make some pulled goose.

When you like your oven to stay clean and not get greasy with goose fat use a method that helps.
Putting the meat into an ovenproof roasting bag is a great way to help with a clean oven.

recipe for 4:
2 goose legs
salt and pepper
2 bell peppers yellow and red
1/2 cup of frozen peas
3 cloves of garlic
80 g shallots
2 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs sage
2 sprigs marjoram
250 ml goose or chicken stock
2 tbsp Sherry
200 ml double cream
500 g spaghetti

Preheat the oven 200 C.
pull the skin off the goose legs and save for later
season with salt and pepper

Stuff them in the roasting bag with 1 clove of garlic and 1 shallot and a bit of water. Close the bag and make two holes in the top of the bag. Bake for 75 min until you see that the meat is off the end of the legs.
Cool down and pour the fat into a container for later.
Pull the meat apart.
This can be done the day before your actual cooking or just hours before.

Peel the rest of the shallots and garlic and cut all into small cubes together with the bell peppers.
Get the herbs off the stems and chop them very fine.
In goose fat brown the meat, take it out. Soften the veggies and add the herbs. Now the broth and the cream and heat that up. Add the defrosted peas and the meat and season. Finish with a bit of Sherry.

Cut the skin in 5x5 cm pieces and put them into the oven to brown as crispy chips.

Cook the spaghetti and serve that together.

Korean Double Fried Chicken Wings

Dakgangjeong

This is the name of the dish.

In many YT videos people rave about the great Korean dish with crispy double fried chicken.
We do not have a Korean restaurant in town or in the neighbourhood. We have lots of Korean business and companies where I work, but Korean food is not available. Maybe these large companies have cafeterias that serve special Korean food. But they are not open to the public.

I like to eat fried chicken sometimes. But the typical KFC is not my favourite. Sometimes I have fried chicken at an Asian buffet restaurant. But crispy is not something I remember.

I follow Maangchi on YT. I love her way to show Korean food. Many things are unknown for me. Some combinations are interesting.

500 g chicken wings
200 g potato starch
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying

Sauce:
1 spring onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp Gouchoujang
1 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 Dried chili
2 tbsp soy sauce
5 tbsp mirin or cooking wine
1 tbsp black vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar

Coat the wings after seasoning with lots of starch.
Heat up oil in a large pot 165 C and fry the wings in batches for 5 min. Get them out and drain on kitchen paper.
When all a fried, heat the oil up to 180 C and fry until crispy.
Store in the oven at 80 C until all are cooked.

Make the sauce in a pot and pour over the chicken or put the pieces in the pot snd stir.

Kanelbullar - Swedish Cinnamon Knots

This was on my baking list for a long time. Since all the GBBO´s and German Das Grosse Backen the baking virus has effected me too. I was watching YT travel vlogs from Stockholm. FIKA or the Swedish art of enjoying coffee and baked goods at many times of the day is so nice.
During this cold November Sunday baking makes the whole apartment smell so lovely.

Cardamom and Cinnamon are the spices of these knots.  Here they are the spices for many winter or Christmas bakes. In Sweden you will find them all year round.

When I first checked many different recipes for the size of this bake, I found a couple of methods to form this baked goodies. Many just turn them into rolls, other into balls and this method was the tricky one: knots. One a Swedish recipe site was a good row of pictures to show how it was done.

I am not a huge fan of bakes that are overly sweet. When I checked the recipes, all used a good amount of sugar to mix with the cinnamon and spread on the dough. I think, cinnamon has a kind of sweet taste on its own. I did not use sugar on the inside and it tasted nice.

recipe for 10:
500 g flour
25 g fresh yeast
250 ml whole milk
75 g butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
75 g  sugar

75 g butter
60 g sugar - optional
1 1/2  tbsp cinnamon
1 egg yolk
coarse sugar

Warm 200 ml milk and melt the butter in it. Pour the rest of the cold milk in and check the temperature. It should not be warmer then 40 C.
Make the dough and let it rest for 45 min.

Heat up the oven to 180 C.
On a floured surface, roll it into an rectangular with 1 cm thickness.
Melt the butter and let it cool down a bit. If the butter is too warm, it will run all over the place.
Spread the butter with a brush on top of the dough.
Sprinkle the cinnamon on top.
Now you can add the layer of sugar if you want.

Fold one third of the dough over and shut it with the other third.
Cut in two halves.

Cut each side in 5 equal slices.
Cut each slice 3/4 lengthwise without cutting it completely.
Stretch and twirl each slice and form a knot, tucking the end under.
Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle the coarse sugar on top.
Bake for 20-25 min.

Dumplings with Mushrooms and Bacon

This is a classic German dish you find mostly in Autumn times in many restaurants. Mushrooms are having their peak season. But it is easy to cook this all year round. Mushrooms are available without running through the forest and picking them from the earth.

Cooked potatoes and some potato flour, an egg yolk and seasoning are the dough that forms the dumplings. Best prepare the dough ahead, it should be cold to work with.

recipe for dumpling dough:
1 kg floury potatoes
salt
50 g butter
80 g potato starch/flour
3 egg yolks

recipe for the bacon and mushroom sauce:
250 g button mushrooms
200 g oyster mushrooms
60 g bacon
1 tbsp oil
2 slices of toast
2 tbsp butter
2 small onions
1 spring onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp Pul Biber
salt and pepper
1/2 smoked paprika
200 ml double cream
1 tbsp parsley

Cook the unpeeled potatoes in salted water, peel them and put them in the oven at 160 C for 7 min to dry out a bit more.
Put through a potato ricer and add the other ingredients and let it cool down completely. Be careful with the egg yolks, do not incorporate them too early.

Cut the rind off the toast and make little cubes. In a pan in some butter brown the toast.
Make the dumplings and fill them with a couple of toast pieces.
Cook in salted water for 20-25 min on low heat.

Chop the bacon and the onions and garlic. Start them in a little oil in a large pan.
When the onions are soft, add the chopped mushrooms. They will take a good while to get soft. After 5 min add some salt and season well.
When the mushrooms are done, add the double cream.

Parsnip Hummus

We have a huge drugstore chain here in Germany -DM - and they are selling their own line of organic products. The montly magazine issue boast some "organic" recipes featering their products.

I rarely buy these products there, we have other shops for that. I buy my household cleaning stuff and toiletteries at a drugstore.
But the recipes get checked.

I am a fan of all kinds of mushy dishes called Hummus. Chickpeas are a bit of love and hate items for me. I have problems to digest the waxy skin around the chickpeas. When I prepare them, I peel the skin off. No fun what so ever!

Recipe for a small batch:
250 g  parsnips
2 tbsp maple syrup
80 g cooked chickpeas (skinned)
1 clove of garlic
5 tsp Tahini paste
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 lemon juiced
Salt and pepper
5 tbsp olive oil
Parsley

Heat the oven to 200C.
Peel and cut the parsnip into 1 inch pieces. Drizzle with maple syrup and stick in the oven for 25 min. Cool down a bit.

Put all ingredients in a blender and make Hummus!

Vegetable Mash - Stamppot

Everything tastes better with butter!

This is an other recipe from 2 Michelin star Chef Thoru Nakamura. A large bag of vegetables is the main ingredient, the other is butter.

Normally all these vegetables are boiled in salted water. That was my first aim at that dish, before I reread the recipe. I had just stored the peeled potatoes in water and wanted to add all the other veggies. Then I took a second glance at the recipe and started again.

In a pot that is large enough to hold all veggies and makes it easy to stir, melt the butter and bring it up to temperature and let it get lightly brown. Then dump in the onions and garlic first.

ingredients:
650 g potatoes
400 g carrots
1 piece of white leek
3 shallots
3 young garlic cloves
80 g butter
salt and pepper
nutmeg
50 ml water
80 ml milk
3 tbsp creme fraiche
parsley

Next dump in all the other bite size pieces of veggies and season with a good amount of salt, that draws out the moisture and helps with cooking.
Get the heat down to low and stir and cover with a lid.
After 3 min add the water and stir again and cover.
Cook the veggies for 25 min, check that it does not stick to the bottom.
Use the milk to scrape the bits off. Grate in fresh nutmeg. Season with pepper and salt again.
Take a potato masher and add creme fraiche and mash roughly.
Stir in some of the parsley and serve with some parsley on top.

You can eat it purely vegetarian. But with some smoked fish and a bit of side salad it is a whole meal.

Mushroom Cream Sauce with Pasta

I was dusting my huge collection of cookbooks and got sidetracked. I started to leaf through a Gary Rhodes book and got curious. I haven't seen his cooking shows for a long while and checked the Internet. He has 2 restaurants in Dubai.

A recipe caught my eyes. Dried porcini mushrooms in creamy sauce.
I made Linguine with porcini mushrooms and herbs a long while ago. The blog is from 2016.

The cooking process is different in the new recipe. It is very important to reduce the liquids to increase the flavours.

Recipe for 1:
125 g pasta
50 ml white wine
80 ml porcini water
25 g dried porcini
Butter
1 spring onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 lemon
50 ml double cream
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp chopped parsley

Soak the porcinis for 45 min, squeeze them out and keep the liquid.
Chop spring onion and garlic very fine.
Melt the butter and start with onion and garlic. After 3 min add the white wine. Crank up the heat and reduce the liquid, add the chopped mushrooms.
Cook the pasta.

Next add the soaking liquid through a fine sieve. Reduce the liquid down and add the double cream. Season.
Take the pasta out with tongs and add it directly into the creamy sauce.
Add parsley and a few drops of lemon.

A bowl of lettuce goes great with this dish.