Peanut Butter Sauce with Soba Noodles and Sweet Potatoes

Peanut butter sauce is so versatile. Have it spicy the Asian way. Soba noodles can be eaten cold in salads. But on a cold day like this, I wanted something warm and comforting. 

The whole recipe started with my head in the fridge to look for veggies that needed some purpose or a trip to the organic waste bin. But these trips are a lot rarer, since I have my new fridge. The veggie shelve life improved a lot. About 10  to 14 days longer then before. Flat leaf parsley in a bag with a bit of moist kitchen paper is in there even longer, but still in great shape.

I found the bottom part of my red cabbage, an already peeled chunk of sweet potato, some parsley and one spring onion. Enough to satisfy my craving for some veggies. I had a little bit of smoked pork belly from an other dish in a tupperware container. That was the little bit of protein. Some buckwheat soba noodles from the Japan store.

To bring it all together I made a sauce with peanut butter and a couple of other ingredients. It is a 30 minute meal. Start with the veggies and toss them all together in a wok in a little rapeseed oil. They will need up to 10 min. Stir a couple of times. Now in with the pork. Cook the soba noodles for 4 to 5 min, drain and wash under cold water to get rid of the starch.

Make the sauce in a blender and add it to the veggies. Pour in some water to prevent the sauce from burning. Toss in the soba noodles and stir and finish with parsley and more Gochugaru pepper flakes on top.

Ingredients for 2:

150 g Soba noodles, 

60 g red cabbage, 150 g sweet potato, 3 tbsp parsley, 1 spring onion, 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

50 g smoked pork belly

Sauce:

2 tbsp peanut butter, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp water, 1 tsp honey, 1/2 lime juiced, 1 tsp dark sesame oil

2 tsp Gochugaru hot pepper flakes, 3 tbsp unsalted roasted peanuts.

60 ml water

Vanilla Dessert - steamed

This is an easy steamed kind of pudding, using the Thermomix. Vanillery and sweat.

Prepartion time is relatively short, the steaming time is no hassle. Sit on your couch and wait until the bell rings.

Something sweet on a stormy and rainy day is so comforting. The amount of battet is enough fir 6 people. But I wanted to use the steamer on top of my Thermomix, I had only room for 4 cups. The leftover batter went into a wider form and was done in a second sitting. 

Recipe for 6:

3 eggs, pinch of salt, 40 g sugar, 1 tbsp vanilla sugar

190 ml milk, 45 g soft unsalted butter, 45 g flour

600 ml water, some lemon juice, butter and sugar for the timbales

Separate the eggs. Clean the pot, knifes and butterfly of your Thermomix with lemon juice. That prevents that a fatty residue keeps the egg white from getting stiff. Add a pinch of salt to the egg white, that helps too.

Set it on 3 min speed 3,5 and check often. Fill in a bigger bowl.

No need to clean the pot. Just add milk,  egg yolks, butter, flour and both sugars.

Butter and sugar the timbales and fill the batter on. To prevent water dripping in, get a piece of aluminium foil on top of each.

Set on 6 min, 75 C and speed 2. Combine with the stiff egg white cacarefully.

Place the timbales in the Varoma. Close the lid. Pour 600 ml water in the Thermomix pot 

Set for 32 min at Varoma and speed 2. Take them out while they are hot.

French Fish Soup with Rouille

From my summer grocery trip to France I had a jar of soupe de poisson avec un jar de rouille in the basement fridge. I had soups like this a couple of times when I was on vacation on the coasts of France.

It is a thicker kind of soup from salt water fishes. Usually without pieces of fish in. It is combined with a orange colored garlic based cream and some grated cheese. Spread some of the rouille on some baguette and sprinkle some cheese on top. Dip it in the soup and enjoy.

But I wanted my soup with a bit more oumph. I added chunks of cod and halibut. That made the soup a lot richer.

Pink wine and cheese sauce with filled pasta

I wanted to try  this recipe when I saw the slightly pink sauce. I was looking for ideas for Valentine's Day.

Most photos showed baked goods and desserts for Feb. 14th. Others went in the aphrodisiac direction. The original dish had heart shaped pasta. My cookie cutters were not large enough for filled pasta. A round cutter did the trick as well.

The sauce is the star of this dish. The filled pasta is tasty. Not only sausage meat is in the filling, chopped Mozzarella adds creaminess to it. Both parts of this dish contain dried oregano. 

Recipe for 2:

170 g sausage meat, 60 g mozzarella

1 shallot, 1 egg, salt, pepper, oregano

Fresh pasta sheets, semolina

Sauce:

250 ml pink wine, 1 clove of garlic

80 g cream cheese, 60 g grated Gouda 

Salt, pepper, oregano

1 tsp potato starch, 1tbsp water

Separate the egg. The white is for brushing the edges of the pasta cuttings.

The egg yolk goes in with meat, mozzarella, salt, pepper and oregano.

Start the sauce first. It can be reheated later. Chop the garlic and heat it up with the wine. Bring the wine to a boil for 3 min, then reduce the heat and melt the cream cheese first. Drop in the grated cheese and season with salt, pepper and oregano. Make a starch slurry and bind the sauce.

Fresh pasta dries out very quickly. Just cut out what you need for one filled pasta. Brush egg white on the edges.

Chop the shallot very fine, mix cheese and meat and egg and seasoning together. Put 1 tbsp in the middle of the cut out piece of pasta.

Make 8 13 cm diameter filled pasta pieces.

Cook them in medium high boiling water for 9 min.

Plate the pasta on top of the sauce. Sprinkle some oregano on top.

Cole Slaw Austrian style

This is a warm served kind of cabbage salad. In many parts of Austria variations of this cabbage salad can be found.

I still have enough cabbage in my fridge to create a couple of dishes. But cabbage can get boring after a while. So I was looking for smaller dishes with just one or two portions. Making a salad helps. Just adjust the amount of cabbage and dressing and you are good to go.

Ingredients for 2:

300 g shredded white cabbage

600 ml water, 50 ml white vinegar

2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp caraway seeds, 4 tbsp rapeseed oil

Pepper, 60 g bacon bits, 1 large spring onion

3 tbsp parsley

Shred the cabbage very fine. Boil water, vinegar, sugar, salt and caraway seeds for 1 min and drop in the cabbage. Cook until it gets to the texture you like. Be careful when you drain the cabbage. Keep about 1/2 inch of the liquid. 

During the time is cabbage boils, put the bacon in a pan and make it a bit crispy, add the spring onions in during the cooking time.

Put cabbage and bacob together. Add oil, pepper and parsley. Eat it warm.

If it gets cold, reheat it .

Salmon Spinach Potato Bake Swedish style

I had two pieces of salmon in my freezer and a package of frozen spinach. It was time to take it out. But I had no idea what go cook with these ingredients. I found an answer to my question on Pinterest.

Swedish style is not so often cooked here. Most people just think of Köttbullar or Hot Dogs from the flat pack furniture store. 

The combination of potatoes, spinach and salmon is nothing to rave about. Just basic kind of cooking. But the recipe is brought to the next level with a thick and creamy cheese sauce covering fish and veggies.

That this dish contains fresh dill in a good quantity is nothing special for Northern cuisine. Dill is the go to fresh herb in all those countries.

Recipe for 2:

300 g salmon, 500 g potatoes, 450 g frozen chopped spinach

1 yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp oil

2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp flour, 250 ml whole milk, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp Noilly Prat

Lots of fresh grated nutmeg, 100 g grated cheese ( Gouda, Cheddar or Emmenthal)

Lemon salt, pepper, 1/2 bunch fresh dill

Peel the potatoes and cook them in boiling salted water until done. Chop in bit size chunks.

Defrost the spinach and squeeze out lots of moisture. Chop onion and garlic and saute them in oil for 5 min. Add spinach and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg. Cook for 10 min.

Use an oven proof dish and mix potatoes and spinach. Chop most of the dill and mix it in.

Season the fish and set it on top.

Melt the butter and put in the flour to make a roux. Cook the flour for 2 min and gradually add a bit milk after the other. Now in with lemon juoce and Noilly Prat. Season with lemon salt, pepper and nutmeg. Dump the cheese in and melt it. Pour over the fish and veggies. Place dill fonds on top. Bake at 180 C fan for 20 min.

Dumpling Waffles with Pulled Pork

Potato dumplings from the day before were cut up and usually baked in a pan in some butter. That is the way I did it for as long as I can remember. But not today.

I found a recipe from a supermarket chain that made day old potato dumplings into waffles. Well, there are a lot of videos out on YT were people press the funniest kinds of food in a waffle maker. Mostly it looks then like some kind of waffle and is edible.

But I did not just press the dumpling in the waffle iron, the recipe called for some kind of dough.

Recipe:

3 potato dumplings

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

Salt, pepper, dried thyme

Oil for the waffle iron. Cut the dumplings in small cubes. Add the other ingredients and take a potato masher to crush all of it together. Drop 3 tbsp each side in the waffle iron.

Depending on your iron, it will take between 4 to 6 min. 

I had some pork roast left, pulled it apart and served evetything with braised red cabbage.