Strawberry and Rhubarb Tart

I bought 4 stalks of rhubarb this morning. But they were a little flimsy. A compote would end in a kind of mush. That had me thinking of a different way to prepare them.

Shortcrust pastry- the ready made kind- was sitting in the fridge. A punnet of Spanish strawberries made it home in the morning too. Now I needed an idea to bind it all together. Some leftover creamy curd was in the fridge, egg, vanilla sugar and some agave syrup did the trick.

Ingredients:

2 thick or 4 small stalks of rhubarb, 3 tsp brown sugar

200 g strawberries, brown sugar

100 g creamy curd, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla sugar, 1 tsp agave syrup

1 ready made shortcrust pastry

Preheat the oven 180 C.

The rhubarb needs to macerate in brown sugar chopped in small chunks up to 3 hours.

I used 3 individual tart baking dish. Cut the dough that it sits in the dish. Prick with a fork. Ladle rhubarb without the juice in. Top with chunks of stawberries the same size.

Mix creamy curd with egg and vanilla sugar and agave syrup. Pour over the strawberries.

Bake for 30 min.

 

Egg and Cheese Wrap

I still have corn tortillas left in the package. Looking for easy breakfast ideas, I checked several Pinterest videos. 

The finished wrap was the best for a Sunday brekkie.

The ingredients are only a few.

Beat the eggs and season them. Melt the butter and pour the eggs in. After 90 seconds drop the tortilla on top.

Flip it over and add the cheese on the eggs.

Let it cook until the cheese melted.

Ham and Cheese Pancake with Wild Garlic and Cream Cheese Filling

This is a Thermomix recipe.

I was going through my fridge and looked for opened packages of cheese and found an unopened cooked ham package too, that was nearing its expiration date. Now I was looking for an idea to use up my treasure. 

Filled pancakes are a great way go get rid of ingredients, but they are like a wrapper and just plain. This method is completly different. The pancake is the star. It is just dolled up with the very tasty but basic filling.

Since we are in the middle of the wild garlic time, I needed to fill the pancake with the leaves. In other times of the year, just chop some chives. 

Be careful and use a higher baking sheet. The baking paper is needed. Nothing sticks and later it us easy to roll up the filled pancake with it. Keep the paper if there are leftovers. Wrap them in the paper and stick them in the fridge. Reheating the leftovers in the microwave is easy with the paper and the pancake wont dry out.

Recipe for 3:

150 g grated cheese (Cheddar, Emmenthal or else), 150 g cooked ham

100 g flour, 4 eggs, 250 ml milk

2/3 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, pepper

100 g goat cream cheese, 25 g wild garlic leaves

Preheat the oven 225 C.

Put grated cheese, flour, eggs, milk and seasoning in the Thermomix. 10 sec speed 4.

Cut up the ham in small cubes and add it. 7 sec speed 2,5

Use a baking sheet with a higher edge and cover with grease proof paper. Pour the mix in and bake for 17 min.

If the pancake has some bubbles after baking, just stick a knife in and deflate them.

Take the pancake out with the paper and spread the goat cheese on top while it is still hot. Cover with wild garlic. Use the paper to roll from the wide side up.

Cut in 2,5 inch pieces and stick a toothpick in. Makes it easy as finger food.

Tomato Sauce with Tuna and Capers on Pasta

I visited a good friend to pick up ordered Italian tuna fish in jars. She invited my to have lunch with her. 

Being in her kitchen from time to time, I took over making the sauce and stirring the pasta. I did not have a timer on hand for the pasta and decided to use the one build into the induction hob. Worked fine. She was surprised it had a function like this. Well, this kitchen is only a few years old.

Recipe for 4:

4 shallots , 2 cloves of garlic, 4 tbsp olive oil

1 can tomatoes, 500 ml tomato passata

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tsp sugar, salt, pepper, ground chili, mixed dried garden herbs  Italian herbs

60 g capers, drained, 2 cans of tuna fish in oil

500 g spirelli pasta, Parmesan

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. Add canned tomatoes and the passata. Drop in all the seasoning, sugar and balsamic vinegar. Just cook it for 15 min. Now in with the capers and the flaked tuna. Give it 3 more min and the sauce is ready.

In a short amount of time we had lunch on the table.

Zucchini Korean Pancakes - Aeohobakjeon

This is one of the Banchan dishes. The Korean side dishes. Eat them with a bowl of rice and some Kimchi and you have a good breakfast. This is a recipe from my favourite Korean YT channel Aaron&Claire. There is a second recipe I love to try may be a third one. But the other two are not possible here due to the lack of the Korean ingredients. I already checked online.

The red chilis on top make the pancakes fancy. But when you start to cough when there are frying in the pan, they are on the hot side. It is ok when you loose them.

Put them in an airtight container and place them in the fridge. They keep a couple of days.

Ingredients:

1 medium zucchini

2 eggs, 1/2 cup flour

Salt, pepper, oil

1 red chili optional

Cut the zucchini in 1 cm discs. Put them on a plate and sprinkle salt on bith sides. After 10 min take a paper towel and pat them dry.

Put flour in one bowl and the eggs in an other. Sesaon both with salt and pepper.

Flour the zucchini first, then pull them through the eggs. Heat up a pan witj a little oil and fry them. Put chili rings on top, turn and finish them. Rest on kitchen paper.

When you have egg left, make an egg omelett and roll it up to serve with the zucchini.

Cinnamon Bubble Waffles

With a large glass of cold milk a waffle like this is a charm. If you want it more fancy, roll up the bubble waffle and add cream and apple sauce or other fruits.

It does not take long to make the batter. When you get guests and you had no time to shop for some cake, make some waffles.

Recipe for 3 waffles:

60 g melted light salted butter

2 large free range eggs

35 g sugar + 2 tsp

1/ 2 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp

1 tsp vanilla extract

110 ml whole milk

125 g flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix the additional sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Mix all wet ingredients. Slowly add the sieved flour and stir until well combined. Let the batter sit for 20 min.

Grease your bubble waffle iron and fill in 1/3 of the batter. Bake until golden brown. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar when they come out.

Bacon Broccoli with Rice Noodles Korean style

Frozen broccoli is the less expensive way to buy that veg at the moment. The fresh one was more then double the price per kilo. Fresh veggie are getting a luxury item due to the high inflation and transport costs.

I was looking for a Korean style dish and I had bacon strips and bacon bits in the fridge. I needed a bit of spicy food today to get my inner furnace running. On April 1th, it started to snow and I had to get 2 inches off my car in the morning at 31F. Last Saturday I was sitting on my balcony at 71F in the sun. We had the most sun hours in the month of March in a century. 240 hours here, crazy.

But back to the recipe. Lots of Korean dishes are cooked or finished with a sauce. Get all sauce ingredients in a bowl, mix well and set aside. Here you can play with the level of spicyness. Building up a flavour profile is fun. 

Recipe for 2:

300 g defrosted broccoli, 120 g smoked bacon

80 g -100 g Thai wide rice noodles

1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper

Toasted sesame seeds

Sauce:

1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp Gochuang, 2 tsp Gochugaru hot pepper flakes, 1 tsp Oyster sauce, 2 tsp Mirin, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 3 tbsp water, 1 tsp sesame oil

In a wok pan start the bacon until it turns brown. Remove some of the grease. Slice onion and garlic in strips and add it to the wok. After 2 min add the broccoli. Cook the rice noodles in boiling water, drain.

When the broccoli us getting tender, pour the sauce over and let it coat everything and reduce a bit. Cut the long rice noodles up and add to the wok.

Cook for 2 min and check the seasoning. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.