Chicken Salad with Apple and Pecans

I fixed some chicken for Thanksgiving. The chicken legs needed to be cooked. I added two drumsticks to the pot and some veggies and cooked the chicken for 40 min.

Ingredients:

2 drumsticks cooked and the skin taken off after cooking

1 shallot, 3 tbsp cranberries, 1 apple with skin, 3 tbsp pecans, 1 tbsp parsley, 1/2 tsp chervil dried

1 tsp Dijon mustard, 3 tbsp mayo, salt and pepper

Cut everything in bite size pieces. Chop the pecans. Mix mustard and mayo together and season that with salt and pepper. 

Very tasty! The idea came from Pintetest.

 

Beef and Rice Stew Balkan Style

My family developed a soup like this but in a more traditional German style. That was my favourite since I was a child. Comfort food for me.

Today after work I went to the new Turkish supermarket. I needed to buy some stuff for my Thanksgiving dinner. So I picked up some freshly ground up beef. The nice butcher gave me the right mix of meat and a bit of fat. I loaded some veg and lots of parsley in my shopping bin.

I did not know what to cook with my beef mince and I sifted through ideas standing in the kitchen. Since I bought a new bag of rice at the supermarket, the family rice soup came up. But I was still a bit on Turkish food.

A fusion of many kitchens was the tasty result.

Recipe for 4:

375 g beef mince, 1 1/2 cups long grain rice, 2 spring onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp oil

2 beef stock cubes, 1 liter boiling water, 1 red long pepper, 1 carrot, 1 piece of celeriac, 60 g leek, 

1 bay leaf, salt, pepper, 4 tbsp Ayvar, parsley

Heat up the oil and start the beef. It will take some time to brown it.  Use the time and cut all the veggies. Add them to the browned beef and cook for 5 min more.  Season. Add the hot water and stock cubes. Add bay leaf.

Pour in the washed rice and bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover with a lid and cook on low for 15 min. Chop the parsley and spoon in the Ayvar. Check the seasoning.

Bean Soup with Mint Pesto -vegetarian

Two cans of beans - one large and white and the other green and small. The beans are the name giver of this soup. But a large amount of vegetables are the base. I used home made veg stock and some veg stock cube. 

The addition of a mint pesto boost the flavour of the soup. But be careful, a little mint pesto goes a long way. Otherwise it will taste as if you have dropped some breath mints in the soup, ups!

Recipe for 4:

200 g large white beans, 175 g small green beans canned

3 spring onions  3 garlic cloves, 1 large carrot, 180 g celeriac, 12 cm leek, 3 button mushrooms, 1/2 courgette, 4 small potatoes

900 ml veg stock or chicken stock, 1 bay leaf, 3 stalks of savoury, salt and pepper, 2 tbsp oil

Pesto:

6 mint stalks, 40 g Parmesan, 1 garlic clove, 3 tbsp ground almonds, 4 tbsp rapeseed oil, pepper

Chop all veggies and start them in oil. After 5 min season and add stock. Bring to a boil and close the lid and cook until veggies are nearly soft. Drain and wash the beans and add them. Cook 5 more min.

Prepare the Pesto! 

You can mash some of the soup with a potato masher to make it more creamy.  Serve with a bit of Pesto on top.

Puff Pastry filled with Steak and Mushrooms

One of my own marinated steaks will be the filling for the puff pastry. Some mushrooms and a third of a zucchini will be the veg part of the filling.

I was unsure if I wanted an open face tart like dish or a covered pie.

The ready made puff pastry took my decision away. It had to be a covered pastry. The pastry sheet was too thin and I struggled to make it work. Next time I will look for an other brand.

Ingredients for 3 pastries:

1 rectangular sheet puff pastry, 1 egg

175 g pork neck steak marinated

1 tbsp oil, 200 g mushrooms, 120 g zucchini

2 spring onions, 3 cloves of garlic

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, dried thyme

Preheat oven 200 C.

Cut the steak in bite size pieces and fry it in the pan in oil until just done. Take it out. Start with onion and garlic, then add finely chopped veggies. Season and after a couple of minutes add the pork again. Check the seasoning.

Pour it on a cold plate and let it cool down a bit.

Make an egg wash. Unroll the puff pastry and divide in 3 strips. Brush around the edges with egg wash.

Fill half of the pastry and fold it over. Brush the top. Put on baking paper and bake for 15 - 20 min until golden brown.

 

 

 

Pork Neck Steak in homemade Marinate

I often watch a Chef and food product developer on the YT. He shows the hacks and tricks of the food industrie. How to make the most money with very cheap ingredients. It is eye opening. He prepares the food, either sweet or savoury in his "laboratory". It is often funny, but disturbing to learn what you might eat or drink sometimes. Preprocessed convienience to make our live easier and the large companies richer.

BBQ here means often pork. To make it easier and faster, the pork steaks are in a bag with a marinate. Different tastes are available. You get them in every supermarket in medium to larger sets.

In many cases the food industry reduces the amount of meat and you will pay for a lot of marinate with fillers and aromas. Sometimes up to 30 % of the whole weight are made up with marinate. But the sugestion is, you pay for lots of meat. 

I bought 2 pork neck steaks and made a little marinate and covered it to rest for 3 hours. Great result.

Marinate for 2 steaks:

1 1/2 tbsp rapeseed oil, 1 tsp chili oil

1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp smoked paparika, pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp herbes de Provence

Banana Balls or Brasilian fried Dough with Banana

Bolinho chuvo com banana, super facil é gostoso!

The YT video I found was from Bete Com Carinho. My Portugese language knowledge is no longer as good as it was a long time ago. But enough to understand the important parts. It is an easy recipe. When you do it more often the banana balls will look a lot prettier. But they tasted awesome. So I don't care about the look.

A warm treat on a grey Friday afternoon after an exhausting week at work. And a brown banana saved.

The recipe is easy to make by hand. Just stir all ingredients together with a wooden spoon

Recipe:

1 large ripe banana

2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup milk, dash vanilla, pinch of salt, 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder

Oil for deep frying.

Mix the wet ingredients together. Add the dry stuff. Should be a thick batter.

Chop the banana and stir it in. Heat up the oil to 170 C and spoon the batter with 2 teaspoons in the oil. After 2 min, turn them. When they are golden brown put them on a rack to drip off. Eat warm.

Leek and Carrot Soup with Pretzel and Cheese

A veggie soup with Bavarian cheese cream and a large Pretzel with melted cheese on top.

The prominent ingredient in this soup is Bavarian Weizen. Beer as a soup ingredient. That was new to me. A small amount of double cream and veg stock just adds to  the taste. 

I found that recipe in "Bäcker Blume" a leaflet available in some bakeries. Sometimes there are very nice ideas to be found. All encourage to buy baked goods at traditional craft bakeries.

When I saw the recipe, I was astonished about the amount of ingredients. Then I looked at the top and found that this soup was for 10 people. I had to convert it into a smaller amount.

Recipe for 4:

500 g leek, 300 g carrot, 40 g butter, 40 g flour

500 ml Weizen beer, 175 ml veg stock, 100 ml double cream

Salt, pepper, 1 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp chili, nutmeg

125 g Obatzta  Bavarian cheese cream with Camembert

150 g Pretzel

Preheat the oven grill.

Cut leek and carrots in rings. Saute them in butter for 6 min. Season with salt, chili and pepper.

Sprinkle flour on top. Stir well. Add Weizen, veg stock and cream and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for 15 min. Season with paprika and nutmeg. 

Add 100 g Obatzta cheese cream. Cut the pretzel open and spread the leftover cheese on top. Stick under the grill for 5 min.

Serve the soup with pieces of cheesy pretzel on top.