Croatian Food in a neighboring City

I went out on a trip today to visit the city where I lived for many years. The first thing that greeted me was intensive roadwork downtown.

To escape some of it, I went in an old Croation restaurant. That is in business for a long time. The food of the day was a lunch plate with soup, salad and main course. Dessert or a hot Slibovič.

The soup was a creamy potato and leek mix. Tasty and nice on a cold day. The salad was fresh and a mix of a variety of ingredients.

I had the Pleskaviça with frensh fries as the main dish. A large mince beef and pork pattie. The sauce on top was not to my liking. I am no fan of a German classic: canned peas with tiny carrots. I hated that mix even as a child. It was served in a tomato sauce. That was good.

As a end to the meal a hot small jar of Schnaps was served. I have forgotten how good that tasted.

 

Broccoli Orso and Parmesan Soup

This is from an Italian site. But I added some more ingredients to the very basic 4.

I was looking for a vegetarian dish. With the added Parmesan nobody is missing the meat.

The recipe looked like a soup that was made with easy to get and cheap ingredients. It filled many bellies without breaking the budget. 

Ingredients for 2:

300 g broccoli, 1 spring onion, 2 garlic cloves,

1 medium potato, 850 ml chicken stock

120 g Orso pasta, olive oil, 

Salt, pepper, nutmeg, 40 g Parmesan

Clean all the veggies and cut them in small pieces. In some olive oil start with onion, garlic and potatoes. 

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Now in with broccoli and orso pasta. Season and cook for 15 min. Check the pasta.

Add the grated Parmesan and serve.

Vietnamese caramelized Pork

I bought a pound of ground pork. But I had no idea what to cook with it.

Looking for inspiation I checked Pinterest and some cooking sites. I thought about some kind of meatloaf, then I discovered this Vietnamese dish. It intrigued me.

Cooking time was long and I needed some coconut water. I never bought that before. Just heard people raving about it. The only time I had some fresh coconut water was in Cuba a decade ago. The water was bland and the bartender put a good amount of Cuban rum in. Then it was good.

It took me a while to find it in the supermarket. I only needed a small amount of it and took a slurp. Bland! Where is the rum? Now I have about 350 ml sitting in the fridge, waiting for a purpose (without the rum).

Recipe for 4:

500 g ground pork

100 ml coconut water, 50 g medium dark sugar, 1 tbsp water, 2 tbsp fish sauce

1 spring onion, 1 shallot, 1 small yellow onion, 6 cloves of garlic, 10 cm ginger, 2 red hot chilis

Pepper, 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

Romaine lettuce leaves, mung bean sprouts

Jasmine rice

Chop the starter veggies and keep lettuce and sprouts for later. In a Wok heat up the sugar with the little bit of water until the sugar is melted and starts to brown. Now add the chopped veggies.

After 4 min toss in the pork and break it down in small pieces and let it get color. Season with fish sauce.

When it is no longer pink, pour the coconut water in. On medium high heat without a cover let it cook 70 min. Stir occationally.

Now add the dark soy sauce and some more chili flakes if it is not spicy enough for your taste.

While the meat cooks, blanche the sprouts, loosen the lettuce leaves and wash them and cook the rice.

 

Tuna Steak with cold Asian Noodle Salad

Not really Sashimi quality.

The tuna steak was this weeks offer at the fish monger. It looked great and I asked about Sashimi quality. The answer was: it is fresh tuna, but not up to eating it raw.

I went for seared tuna steak on the Teppanyaki. A brush with soy sauce and a coating with white and black sesame was my choice of preparation.

The salad was an idea on my way home from grocery shopping. What's in the fridge and in the cupboards.

Recipe for 2;

380 g Tuna steak, 1 tbsp sunflower oil

40 g mung bean noodles, 2 spring onions, 1 tomato, 1 yellow bell pepper, 3 tsp light soy sauce, pepper, 1 tsp sesame oil, China seasoning, Japanese pepper

Dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds, 2 tbsp black sesame seeds, pepper

Put the dry noodles in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Wait for 5 min and drain. Chop the veggies and put them together with the sauce and oil, mix with the noodles and season with pepper.

Pat the tuna dry. Splash a little oil on the hot Teppanyaki. Sear the tuna on all sides, but keep the center pink. Brush with soy sauce.

Dip both sides in the mixed sesame seeds. Cut in strips and serve with the salad.

Apple Cake sunken- German style

I watched YT APRON and her baking video German Apple Cake.

That inspired me to make the Sunken Apple Cake. The preparation does not take much time. Peel and cut the apples last and put them on the cake without taking much time. That prevents them from getting brown.

Recipe:

2 -3 red apples

225 g flour, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4tsp salt

120 g soft unsalted butter, 60 g sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 3 large free range eggs

90 ml milk, butter for a 23 cm square dish

Preheat the oven 180 C and bake for 45 to 50 min.

Beat soft butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one after the other and beat in between. Next sift flour and baking powder and salt in the mix. Now vanilla extract and milk.

Butter the dish and pour the mix in. Now add the sliced apples. Use a mix of peeled and red peel apples. Bake and cool down.

Some powdered sugar on top and the cake is ready to be served.

Chinese Green Beans with Garlic and Ginger, vegan

Pan fried green beans with lots of garlic, ginger and chili are a great vegan meal served with rice.

Use a mix of neutral cooking oil with a little bit of toasted sesame oil and fry off the ginger and garlic first. Take out of the pan.

Toss in the green beans. When they are not cooked, they will need a couple of minutes. Season them with salt. Add a dash of water and cover them to steam 2 min. 

Toss in the fried garlic and ginger and some chili flakes. Add 1 tbsp of light soy sauce and serve with white cooked rice.

Potato Salad with Ham

This is a hot salad.

No need to use day old cold potatoes. Just cook them fresh. And while they are cooking brown the ham in a pan and add the spring onions.

For some extra crunch I added 3 large green Padron Peppers to the pan. I only took the main part of the seeds out.

The sauce is easy. Mustard and mayo with some vinegar and herbes. Use salt and pepper to taste and bring it all together with the sliced hot potatoes.

Eat it as it is or serve it with some steaks.