Carrots, Bacon and Potatoes

I haven't made this dish in a very long time. It was one of my Mom's favourite dishes when she had to save money.

Childhood and lots of plain veggie dishes often are at odds. Many children are not so fond of certan kinds of veggies. I was not a huge fan of poatoes, I hated mushy cauliflower and spinach and until today I still do not eat Brussel sprouts. All other veggies and lots more are in my list of favourite ones.

When carrots were cheap to get or from Grandma's garden, this one pot dish was served. The same evening the juicer was in motion and Mom served freshly made carrot and apple juice.

It was funny, when I left home to live on my own, the juicer went in the basement for good. A couple of years later, I was asked what I wanted for my birthday. I wanted a juicer. I got the old one from the basement. It was as old as I was. My parents had bought it when Mom was pregnant with me. It worked almost 10 years in my household. Then I bought a new one from the same company.

Guess, what I've been drinking the last 2 nights. I improved the carrot juice by adding not only apples, but lemon and ginger.

But now back to the veggies in the pot.

Recipe for 3:
600 g carrots
400 g potatoes
3 spring onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp oil
125 g smoked bacon bits
160 ml veg stock
Salt, pepper
Fresh parsley
Fresh marjoram

Peel carrots, potatoes and onions and garlic. Chop in bite size pieces.
Use a pot with a lid and heat up the oil.

Fry off the bacon, add the onion and garlic.
Place the carrots on top. Season with salt and pepper and marjoram.
Put the potatoes on top.
Pour half of the veg stock in and close the lid. DO NOT STIR.

Reduce the heat a little and cook for 5 min.
Now stir the whole pot and add a bit more stock.
Reduce the heat to medium low and cook until the veggies are soft.
Add parsley and serve.

Blue Cheese and Pumpkin Soup

This time of year a warm soup is a greater starter to a meal. This is an easy and tasty way to make a pumpkin soup.

Use a fresh pumpkin and uncooked potatoes and you have the actual recipe for 4 people. I was lucky to get a can of cooked pumpkin and I had some leftover potatoes in my fridge.

Blue Cheese is not everybody favourite cheese. You can use a very mild and creamy one, it makes the soup rich, but you wont taste the cheese.
Best is Roquefort or Gorgonzola.
I bought some Auvergne bleu in France.  It can stand on its own against the rest of the soup.

Recipe for 4:
400 g peeled and cleaned pumpkin
1 large onion
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp butter
250 g potatoes
1 l veggie stock
Salt, pepper
Nutmeg
70 g Auvergne bleu
Juice of half lemon
Chives

Peel and chop the onion and garlic and start that in butter. Add pumpkin and potatoes and give them a good stir.
Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Pour in the stock and let it cook on medium heat fir 30 min.

Use a stick blender and make a fine mix. Add the cheese and the lemon juice.
Put some chives on the bottom of the bowls and pour the soup over them.

Okra Chicken Rice

Okras are not a vegetable easy to get here. I walked through a different part of the city. All bus driver are on strike since Tuesday and are still not back to work. This is the reason I had to walk from the parking lot and discovered a very small Lebanese shop. The fruit and veggie boxes outside caught my eye. Okra!

On the way back to my car I grabbed a plastic bag and some hands full of okra. Inside the shop was tiny and stuffed up to the ceiling with goods.

I had cooked chicken breast sitting in the fridge, a bell pepper and a whole leek. I wanted to make a one pot rice dish and Cajun cooking came to my mind.

In a cast iron pan I started with the onions, garlic and leek in 2 tbsp of oil. I closed the lid and let them steam and fry. Then I added the tomato paste and gave it a good stir.
Next came the bell pepper and the rice and that needed to get coated well.
Last came the chopped up okra and 2,5 times the amount of chicken stock.

Fresh bay leaves, oregano, marjoram and cayenne pepper, chili ancho and lots of smoked paprika and some salt and pepper.

I closed the lid and reduced the heat again and cooked it for 12 min, checking the rice and placing the chunks of chicken on top. Close the lid again and wait for 3 min to warm up the meat, stir and you are ready to serve.

Ingredients:
2 hands full of okra
1 red bell pepper
1 leek
3 spring onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 cooked chicken breast
1 cup parboiled long grain rice
2,2 cups of chicken stock
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp smoked paprika
chili ancho
cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
2 stalks marjoram
2 stalks oregano
salt and pepper

Tourteau fromager

I found something new in my favourite French supermarket Auchan.

A package of cheese got stuck in the rack and I tried to get it out. That way I pulled a cardboard box with brown bags out of the deep of the refrigerator racks. The cheese went into my shopping cart and I examined the brown bag a bit more.
Regional products are very interesting. I never heard of this Tourteau before.

It is a cake from the region of Poitou.
The only thing I know about Poitou are the large donkies with the big ears and shaggy fur. But that did not help.

There is a discription on the back of the package. It is a soft cake with curd. While the cake bakes in the oven, it gets the black top. That keeps the cake fresh and moist.
The ingredients list shows milk and butter from France!

It can be eaten warm or cold. For breakfast or as a dessert with a red fruit coulis. With a glass of milk, a cup of coffee or tea.

I had it warmed up a little in the microwave with a coffee latte. Srumpcious.

Parsley Pesto, roasted Pepper Pasta

A huge bunch of flatleaf parsley sat in my fridge. I did not want to chop it all to put in the freezer, but what was the next thing to use it up. Pesto.

The definition of Pesto Genovese is very different from what I used. Parsley instead of basil, almonds instead of pine nuts, Gryêre instead of Parmesan

I should not call it pesto. But everyone knows what to look at when they hear the name.

A green bell pepper is not my favourite kind of vegetable. The unripe one is giving me problems. Solution, use a speed peeler and get most of the skin off. Use a very hot pan and a little olive oil and get most of the rest off by scraping the black parts away.

Recipe for 2:
225 g Linguine pasta
large bunch of flatleaf parsley
1 Green bell pepper
35 g whole almonds
2 Cloves of garlic
30 g Gryêre cheese
15 g Pecorino for later
Salt and pepper
Enough olive oil to make a smooth blend

Roast the almonds in a pan without oil.
Roughly chop the parsley and the cheese.
Cook the pasta and drain and keep some pasta water.
Grill the pepper and skin it.
Put all ingredients in a blender and make a pesto.
Mix some pasta water  with the pesto and the pasta.
Grate some Parmesan on top.

Chicken Liver Venetian Style with Celeriac Mash

Eating offal is getting less and less common in the Western world. Most are looking just for the best pieces of the animal. What is done with the rest is nothing they care about.
I love looking at an animal and when it is slaughtered it should be eaten from head to toe or nose to tail.

Eating offal is still common in Asia. There are so many soups and stews that contain one or more organ parts.

When I was in Sicily, I saw street vendors selling bread filled with grilled spleen. A decent meal for the worker in Palermo I was told. There was not enough time to stand in line and get a piece, we had to move to the next attraction.

When I grew up, my Mom used to make beef or pork liver baked with onions and apple ring Berlin style, served with potato mash. I loved it and still eat it some times.

Last Christmas eve was the last time I had chicken liver.

recipe for 4:
400 g chicken liver
3 onions
3 cloves of garlic
2 stems of sage
2 tbsp carified butter
3 tbsp flour
salt and pepper
125 ml red wine
125 ml chicken stock
125 ml double cream
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

mash:
1 head celeriac
4 small potatoes
100 g creme fraiche
3 tbsp butter
nutmeg
salt an pepper
rough chopped parsley

Start with the mash and peel potatoes and celeriac. cut into medium chunks and cook in salted water until soft. Drain and add butter, creme fraiche, nutmeg and seasoning. Use a potato masher and finally add parsley.

While the veggies are cooking, peel the onions and garlic and cut into slices.
Get the leaves off the stems of the sage and chop them fine.
Pat the liver pieces dry and coat it in flour- don´t salt them.
In butterfat cook them for 1  minute on each side and take them out of the pan.
Now onions and garlic with the sage in the pan until a bit soft.
Add red wine and stock and cook down a bit. Add the cream and season with salt and pepper.
finally the liver goes in again, reduce the heat and cook for 3 more min. Last add the vinegar and stir it in.


Serve

Japanese Egg Salad

When you have been to Japan you will have discovered Conbinis or 7/11, FamilyMart or Lawson convienent stores. They are a must for every tourist. You come home and you wish you had something like this in your country.

They not only offer drinks and snacks, but you can buy lots of fresh packaged food there. Rice and pasta dishes that can be warmed in the store microwave. A veriaty of sandwiches and onigiri or rice balls to eat cold. In the colder zime of year, warm soups boil near the cashir, they are called oden and are mostly vegetarian items

I have two favourite sandwiches I buy in a conbini in Japan: egg sandwich -  Tamago Sando- and tuna mayo.

Tabieats recipe YT channel made the egg salad a couple of videos ago. I wanted to do them soon.
Now was the time because I had fresh eggs in abundance. I bought a dozen yesterday but dropped the carton when I loaded my car. It was not clear at short notice if all eggs were cracked, so I bought a fresh one. I put the carton with broken leaking eggs in a seperate bag and checked at home.  From 12 egg 5 were still good.

Recipe:
4 boiled eggs
4 tbsp Kewpie mayo
Sugar
Salt
White pepper

The Kewpie mayo is essential when you want to have the same taste as in Japan.
We have a huge Asian supermarket in the city, it is no problem to get it there. But it is easy to order it online too.

Mash everything together with a fork. Cut off the crust from the white toast.