Chicken Tomato Basil Rice One Pot

So many veggies in a tomato infused pilaw rice. Nice to have the chicken thighs with it. But it will work without the chicken as well. Just use an other kind of stock.

My fight with my home grown tomstoes just started 10 days before. Now the season is in full swing. I loaded up my shirt in the morning with fresh plugged tomatoes. I was sure they were no ripe ones, because I harvested yesterday. I did not bring a bowl.

Since I just battled down my bout with tomato allergy, eating raw tomatoes was out. I put them in a blender and made liquid tomatoes. With the help of some chicken stock I had great tomato rice.

Recipe for 3:

3 chicken thighs, about 200 g each

1 stalk celery, 2 carrots,1 red bell pepper, 1 yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 5 green Padron peppers, 1 red chili, 250 g tomatoes, 4 stalks basil, 4 stalks thyme, 1 stalk majoram, 1 bay leaf

350 ml chicken stock, 50 ml white wine, salt and pepper, smoked paprika, oil, 2 tbsp tomato paste

190 g pilaw rice or medium grain rice

Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper snd brush with smoked paprika. In a cast iron pan heat up the oil and sear the chicken thighs on both sides for 5 min. Take them out.

Get onions, garlic and diced carrots in and give them 6 min.  Now in with the tomato paste. Add all peppers and chilis and season with salt and pepper. After 2 min add the wine and let it deglaze the pan. Get thr blended tomatoes in and the dried herbs. Add the washed rice and coat it well in the tomato sauce.

Pour in the stock and set the chicken thighs in the mix. Bring up to a boil, reduce the heat and put a lid on. Cook for 20 min.

Check if the chicken is done. Add the fresh basil and serve.

Corn and Tapioka Pudding Cambodian style

Bor Bor Pot.

Eat it warm. It is comfort food.

This is the recipe I was trying to buy small Tapioka pearls for. The 5th try was the large Asian supermarket downtown.

But through this search I became a fan of Bubble Tea. I ordered large Tapioka pearls online, Bubble Tea glas and thick metal straws. I finally get to enjoy the trend.

Fresh corn on the cobb is still available here. I bought an other batch. In this recipe there is no need to cook the corn before using it. I just cut off the kernels and they went in the coconut milk to cook.

The Tapioka pearls are the "fast" cook ones. The instructions on the back of the package showed a cooking time of 30 min. I put them in a bowl of cold water first for 15 min. That reduced the cooking time later to 20 min.

Since I had some sweetened condensed milk leftover from the last dish, I decided to use some of it instead of sugar. It worked well.

Recipe for 2:

1 corn on the cobb

250 ml coconut milk

1/2 cup small tapioka pearls

3 tsp sweetend condensed milk or sugar

Carrot Ketchup

This is no sugar bomb!

The recipe is from Chef Stephan Hentschel who cooks at Cookies Cream on Berlin. But as always I gave it my own twist.

Carrots are naturally sweet. Adding a bit of honey is enough to reach the sweetness you ate used to when having tomato ketchup. It works great with all kinds of BBQ meats, but cheese or veggie sticks are a good alternative. 

I served some of mine with a goat cheese roll I bought in France last week. The strong cheese flavour gets a mild counterpart.

Recipe for 500 ml:

150 g peeled carrots, 75 g peeled white onion, 1 clove of garlic

2 tbsp rapeseed oil, 1 tbsp runny honey

Pinch of allspice, ground coriander

5 g salt, pepper, chili flakes

1/4 tsp mild curry powder, 1/2 lemon

15 ml apple cider vinegar,

200 g chopped canned tomatoes

Grate carrots and onion, chop garlic. Saute it in oil a bit and add joney and spices. Zest of 1/2 lemon and vinegar. Put a lid on the pot and on medium low cook fir 10 mon. Add the canned tomatoes. Use a stick blender and make the mix into a ketchup. 

Use sterilized jars and fill the hot ketchup in. Store in the fridge.

Kale pan seared with Garlic and Lemon

My BFF  brought me a kale plant from her garden. Her husband had planted some, but more have come on their own from last years seeds. She wanted to get rid of some before they grow in to large palms.

Since she ripped the kale out with the roots I needed to wash the kale thoroghly.

I did not want to eat salad. The next was to check Google for an idea. At 39 C today a long cooking time was not something to look forward too. This recipe just needed 10 min in total.

Recipe for 1:

1 young kale plant, 1/2 lemon

1 spring onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1 tbsp olive oil

Chili flakes, salt and pepper

The kale needs to be very dry before the go in a hot cast iron pan. After washing it, put the leaves through a salad spinner first

Next place them on kitchen paper and pat dry. Heat up the oil and saute onion and garlic until they have some color. Crank up the heat and wilt the kale. Don't be surprised if it reduces like spinach. Season with chili, salt and pepper. Dress with lemon juice.

The picture looks like a large portion. But I served it on a small dessert plate.

Courgette Slices from the Air Fryer

They are a great evening snack with the Ayvar Dip.

Using the air fryer keeps the fat content low. The panko breadcrumbs work fine in the sir fryer and a bit of crunch on the slices is good.

The seasoned courgette goes through a heavy seasoned flour, salted egg and milk wash and panko with added smoked paprika. That is the reason for a very tasty slice of veg.

I had to fry them in two batches. The slices should not overlap in the air fryer. But 7 to 8 min on 200C are not too long to do the batches one after the other. Just spray the frxer basket and the slices with oil. 

It gives you time to mix the sauce with Greek yogurt and Ayvar paprika paste.

Flour seasoning mix:

1 tbsp nutricional yeast, 4 tbsp flour, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp dry oregano, lemon salt

Corn Pudding sweet Indonesian style- Jasuke

All kinds of recipes with fresh corn on the cobb. An other dish from YT channel Beryl Shereshewsky. 

First I thought: what the heck? The ingredients are simply but do they go together? Then I remembered one of my visits to the Netherlands. Then some of it made sense. Butter toast with sprinkles.

Fun fact: the milk chocolate sprinkles that I bought were from the Netherlands. They even had the advertisement under the name: Masters of Bread Toppings

Ingredients for 2:

1 fresh corn on the cobb

2/3 can of sweetened condensed milk

40 g dry Mozzarella cheese

2 tsp milk chocolate sprinkles

Cook the corn for 8 min in boiling water. Cool and take the kernels off.

Use the same pot and add them to cond milk and in medium low heat cook them. On high the cond milk will burn.

Add the cheese to melt. Fill in 2 bowls and top with chocolate sprinkles. Eat while warm.

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Cajun Butter Chicken Thighs

I was looking for something easy for Sunday lunch. I had 4 chicken thighs from my grocery haul in France. They needed to be cooked. Searing them in a pan with a little veg sounded smart. 

Cajun chicken popped up in my mind. But my last Cajun seasoning was empty. But all basic spices are as single spices here. I make my own spice blend.

Some fresh harvested red chili, garlic and onions and a celery stalk went in the pan as veggies. I cut off a piece of my red chili to taste the heat. I was a bit dissapointed. Hot and spicy are not the words I would describe it.

Recipe for 2:

4 chicken thighs

4 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp oil,

1 celery stalk, 1 red chili, 3 garlic cloves, 2 shallots

4 tsp Cajun spice blend or

Homemade:

1 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp brown sugar, 

Salt and pepper, 100 ml wine

Rub the chicken thighs with the spice blend, salt and pepper. Heat up 1 tbsp butter with the oil and on medium heat cook them on both sides 6 to 7 mi  each. Make sure that they are cooked through. 

In the last 5 min, add butter and the chopped veggies and then the wine and put a lid on.

Eat with the side you like. I had some leftover potato mash and that was a good combination.