Green Beans Asian style

This can be served as a side dish or just eaten with plain rice.

A bag of green beans us not so common during this time of the year. But I have got one and it looked good. I cook them ususlly and prepare them as a salad or as a warm vegetable side dish. Preparing them in a wok was new to me.

I can not pinpoint the country this dish comes from. I used Korean, Japanese and Chinese ingredients for it. 

I took the time and cut the beans lengthwise after cutting off tops ans tails. It is a lot of work, but it reduces the cooking time later.

Ingredients:

500 g green beans

1 shallot, 1 spring onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 25 g fresh ginger

1 tbsp rapeseed oil, salt and pepper, 1 tbsp sesame oil

60 ml water, 30 ml Sake, 3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce,

3 tsp Gochugaru hot pepper flakes, 2 tsp Muscovado sugar, 1 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tsp roasted sesame seeds 

Start the beans in rapeseed oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook on medium high heat for 5 min. Take them out. Add sesame oil to the pan and out chopped onions, garlic and ginger in. Cook for 5 min. Add the beans to the pan, pour in water and Sake and cook for 6 min. Now in with the rest of the ingredients, except the sesame seeds. Cook until the beans are tender and check the seasoning. If it is too salty, add more Sake and sugar.

Finish with sesame seeds.

French Onion Chicken

Reading French Onion I was thinking about one of my favourite soups. But the photo surprised me, it was chicken.

I took out 2 yellow onions to cut them in strips. The second one was rotten on the inside. It was not visible on the outside. That's why I have now red and yellow onion on top of the chicken. Looks even better.

It is important to give the onions enough time in the pan. Start them with a bit of oil and on medium high heat and let them wilt. Then season and add herbes de Provence and stir well. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat and cook up to 20 min. Stirring every 5. In the last 5 min, add the garlic.

Take the onions out of the pan. Heat up the oven to 180C.

Season the chicken legs and put the other oil in the same pan. Get the heat on high and sear the chicken on both sides. When they have taken color, take them out too.

Pour chicken stock and cream in the pan. Give it 2 min. Get the chicken back in. Close the lid, reduce the heat and cook for 20 min. Make a starch slurry and bind the sauce.

Set the onion mix on top and cover with cheese. Stick in the oven for 15 min.

Serve with rice.

Recipe for 2:

2 chicken legs, 1 yellow 1 red onion, 4 cloves of garlic

Salt, pepper, paprika, herbes de Provence, 3 tbsp rapeseed oil

50 g grated Emmenthal cheese, 1 tsp potato starch, 1 tbsp stock, 300 ml chicken stock

100 ml double cream, 1 cup Jasmine rice

Pulled Pork Sandwich

Pulled pork leftovers were sitting in the fridge. I did not want to cook something, but I was looking for a quick and tasty snack for the evening.

A bit of crunch comes from tiny chili gherkins. They are a great addition to the pork.

Just some American cheddar cheese that melts easy into the pulled pork.

My trusty Sandwich maker seals the bread slices together.

Cut them diagonal and let them sit a couple of minutes. Do not burn your tongue!

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.