Goose Breast with Cassis Madeira Sauce

On a day trip from my holiday home I went for a breakfast in a corner cafe in central Kleve.
A huge croissant and homemade strawberry jam and a pot of capucchino was served there. Then I went up hill to the Schwanenburg.

My next stop was Castle Moyland. Famous for its collection of art from Joseph Beuys.
A huge moat with water surrounds the castle

Next stop the city of Kalkar.
Now I was hungry and looked for a restaurant. On the market below the old city hall was the Ratskeller.

I started to write there, but then the food came. The WiFi was a lot better, then at the holiday home.

As a greeting from the kitchen came fresh hot buns with to bits of butter. The little loafs were so hot, I had to wait a couple of minutes before I was able to open them. With the ice cold butter, they were delicious.

My main course was goose breast in cassis sauce - or black currant and Madeira sauce. Served with braised red cabbage and cranberries and cooked apple slices. On a separate plate was a good amount of hand scraped Spätzle- little sparrows. Baked in butter after cooking.

That was a very fine dish and I needed a Williams pear schnapps afterwards.

When I left the restaurant I strolled around the huge market place and an Italian ice cafe called to me.
Since it was the first sunny day on my holiday, I sat outside in the sun and ordered one of my favourite dishes:  'Spaghetti Ice Cream´

That was a nice ending to a lovely day outside.

Chanterelles and Grapes on a Pancake

Finally out on a 6 days holiday. I am staying in the Lower Rhine region near the border of the Netherlands.

On the way to my holiday apartment I stopped in Xanten. This city is famous for the huge archeological Roman park. Due to the Covid19 pandemic only the huge park was open to see how the Romans lived. After a long walk through the park I was hungry and walked from there to historic downtown Xanten.

The centre of the city is the huge market place.

Outdoor seating is the must now and the weather was warm enough to do it.

I went into the Börse Restaurant. They had chanterelle mushroom week.
12 different dishes with these mushrooms.

Many were traditional dishes just button mushrooms exchanged with chanterelles.

One dish caught my eye: Pancake with chanterelles, white and red whole grapes.
The pancake came gratinated with cheese.

But the pancake was drenched in a Hollandaise sauce. That sauce was an convienience product and too much of it was not the best.

Korean Beef in the Slow Cooker

I wanted to use my slow cooker again. I
haven´t had a chunk of beef in a long time. Braising beef is time consuming and makes only sense when you have a bigger amount of meat.

The Korean beef is something I wanted to try for a long time. But during the summer heat it was not an option. Today we have only 18C and a cloudy Sunday.

The beef needed in the slow cooker 8 hrs on low. I wanted to eat some of it for lunch. I woke up 3:44 AM and went into the kitchen and put everything in the slow cooker. Last evening I prepared the ingredients, covered them and placed the sauces and jars around. I hopped back into bed at 3:55 AM. The smell that greeted me at 8 AM was subtle. It increased by the hour.

recipe:
1,3 kg braising beef -I used the Tafelspitz cut
3 cups beef stock
1 cup low sodium soy sauce
4 cloves of garlic
1 chunk fresh ginger
2 spring onions
3 limes juiced
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Sriracha

steamed Jasmine rice
Spring onions
sesame seeds toasted

Slow cooker 8 hrs on low.  Take it out and pull it apart and mix in some of the sauce.

There is a good amount of meat for the next couple of days.

Spinach with Mushrooms

Eaten as a vegetarian main meal. But you can serve it as a side dish with some chicken breast or poached white fish.

It is a recipe from 3 star Chef Witzigmann.  Good locally grown veggies from a local store went into the dish. Now is the best time to buy that. No long ways of transportation and just fresh from the farm to the table.

At first the recipe sounds like a lot of work- due to the 3 star Chef. But when you are doing it in the way he recommends it, the work is done quickly.

Do use fresh spinach! The frozen one is good for many recipes, but here the leaves of the spinach should hold a little bite to it.

recipe for 2 as a side dish or for 1 as a vegetarian meal:
300 g spinach leaves
salt
40 g butter
1 large clove of garlic
80 g spring onions
pepper
nutmeg
200 g brown and white button mushrooms
1/4 lemon juiced
1 shallot
70 ml white wine
50 ml Madeira wine
Cayenne pepper
100 g double cream
1 egg yolk

Wash the spinach leaves and put them into a large colander. Heat 1,5 l  water in an electric kettle and slowly pour it over the spinach leaves. They will wilt.  Rince with cold water. Press a good amount of water out. Cut the spinach blob into some chunks.

Chop spring onions and garlic. Melt 20 g butter in a medium pan and put them in. Cook for 3 min, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and put the spinach in. Cook for 5min on low heat.

Clean the mushrooms and cut them into wide slices. Peel and chop the shallot. In the rest of the butter fry off the shallot and add the mushrooms. Cook them for 5 min and then season them.
Next in with wine and Madeira and let it reduce a bit. Get the mushrooms out of the pan and reduce the wine a bit more.Now in with the cream and cook it a bit. Turn the heat down and add the egg yolk to bind the sauce.
Now in with the mushrooms and the spinach mix and finish the dish with seasoning.



 

Potato and Liver Pate filled Pasta

Pasta served in sage butter and chili.

This is a dish of all things sitting around. They needed a purpose and I needed quick food on my lunch break working from home. The package of fresh pasta dough is still good to go. I have the impression that it grows more and more in the fridge. Even after using it for 2 meals now, there is still enough for more dishes. I have to google for more recipes to use it up soon.

Filled pasta is tasty, the often used ingredients are ricotta and spinach or cheese  and mushrooms or minced meat. I did not have any of the above at home.
Using mashed potato is something I encountered in Poland where I had Pirogi. Stuff filled with some kind of Paté is often found in France. Now combine these ingredients and you have my version.

I had to make sure that the filling was not too wet. That was the reason to use the microwave to cook the potato in its peel. It gets soft inside bit it is dry.

By adding just enough creme fraiche and a little cream to it, I made sure the mash still was very dry.
I chucked some spring onion greens and the liver paté in and seasoned it. The mix was not pliable enough. Now with the help of an egg yolk, it reached the right consitancy.

I cut 13 cm strips from the pasta sheet and used the egg white to go around the outside to help for sticking it together later. Two teaspoons of filling and the carefully folding it.

I made some in the form of tortellini and the rest just folded over. Both methods worked well. I stored them on some semolina to prevent them from sticking together.

Hot boiling water with a lot of salt. The pasta needed just a bit to reach the top and then 3 min to get done.

A pan with a good blob of butter,cooked until brown and two stalks of sage and some red chili took all of a couple of minutes. In with the pasta and the dish was done. 

Cauliflower Rice with Cheddar and Parmesan Sauce

What is summed up in the title is basically the recipe. Just a few minor things added.

From my cauliflower steak are both sides of the veggie still as florets in my veggie drawer. A quick food for this evening was on the agenda.
Cauliflower rice was a method I wanted to check out since I saw it on YT. But I had my lazy day and was not looking forward to a bunch of dirty dishes.

I used my Thermomix TM3.

500 g cauliflower
70 g grated Cheddar
25 g Parmesan
500 g water
Salt
Parsley
4 tbsp creme fraiche
Smoked salt and pepper

Put 2 chunks of Parmesan in the TM and on speed 8 for 6 seconds grate it.
Fill it into a small bowl.

Without cleaning the pot dump in the cauliflower and on speed 4 for 5 sec make a rice like grain, a big grain!


Fill it into the steamer basket and pour 500 g hot water and some salt in.
On Varoma speed 3 for 8 min.

Get the basket with the rice out and pour it in a bowl, keep warm.
Toss the water out, just keep about 60 ml in the pot.
Add both cheeses, seasoning, creme fraiche and parsley
On speed 3, heat 90 make the sauce in 90 sec.

Pour over the cauliflower and enjoy.

Chicken baked Louisiana Style

Chicken Casserole must be the dish to go to for a home cooked meal in rural Louisiana.
I am reading a couple of mystery books all playing in the Bayous south of New Orleans. Every couple of pages the chicken dish is mentioned.  Brought to mourners and sick people and eaten as comfort food.

I checked a couple of different recipes online. This one is based on a Pillsbury Kitchen recipe from 2010 with my own variations.

One thing is interesting. Usually in the deep South a combination of 3 veggies is used as a base to most dishes. The Holy Trinity of cooking there: onions, green bell pepper and celerey. Here is celery missing.

Recipe for a 40x25 cm baking dish:
5 chicken thights wuth skin and bone
1 green bell pepper
2 red onions
2 spring onions
1 banana shallot
5 cloves of garlic
Dash if oil
1 red chili
5 slices of bacon
1 1/4 cup longgrain rice
750 ml chicken stock
3 tbsp Worchester sauce
Several drops of Tabasco
1/2 cup flour
1 cup black eyed peas (beans)
Cayenne pepper
Smoked paprika
Salt and pepper
Herbes d 'Provence
Oregano
Masala

First step:
Peel and chop onions and garlic
Clean bell pepper and cut into bite size pieces
Chop chili
Cut bacon into 1 inch strips. In a little oil fry it all off for a couple of minutes.
Reduce the heat, season and add 50 ml chicken stock and 1 tbsp Worchester sauce and put a lid on and cook for 15 min.

Second step:
Use a large freezer bag and add flour and a good amount of spices to it.
Drop the chicken pieces in and coat them well.

Mix veggies, beans and rice in the baking dish and pour stock on top.
Set the chicken pieces in the pan

Cover with aluminium foil and stick it in the oven at 180C for 45 min.

Take off the foil and let it cook 20 more min intil the juices of the chicken run clear.