Lemon Risotto with Burrata Prawns and Pesto

This is my 2200 blog.

I needed some space in my freezer and a way to get some lemon parsley pesto in a dish.

The prawns went on top of some risotto. That is something to eat I often go to. Cook it in pot and take your time to stir it often. Or use your trusty kitchen helper Thermomix.

This recipe needs some time with the steps to get it cooking in the TM. But no stirring! 

Recipe for 2:

160 g Aborio rice, 120 ml white wine, 360 ml hot veg stock, 8 saffron strings

1 shallot, 2 garlic cloves, 

60 g butter, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper

100 g Burrata, parsley

100 g prawns defrosted, 1 tsp garlic paste, salt and pepper, 1 tsp oil, 1 pinch herbes de Provence

Chop shallot and garlic and start them in 30 g butter and oil for 3 min. Add the washed rice and stir for 3 min. Add wine and stir 3 min. Now in with the hot stock mixed with saffron.

Stir and cook on gentle heat for 18 min. Add zest and juice from the lemon, the ripped Burrata and the butter and wait until all is combined. Cut off the heat and close the lid and let the risotto rest for 5 min.

Use a small pan and saute the prawns. Bring all together and drizzle some pesto on top.

Pork "Ragout fin" with Lemon Parsley Pesto

It is not a real Ragout fin since this is made with pork and not veal. The real name of the basic dish is Würzfleisch.

I only saw it in TV and heard about it as an classic dish from the former German Democratic Republic GDR. This soup is an advanced and modernized version of a pork dish in a roux with lots of gratinated cheese on top.

My BFF was on the peninsula Zingst in the Baltic Sea. The local Tourist Information sold small cookbooklets. Restaurants from Zingst participated and offered one recipe of their Menu.

This one caught my eye. Würzfleisch - heard of, but never done it. But I love Ragout fin since I was a child. My Mom made it at special holidays.

The tiny recipe takes a lot of time to prepare. There are many steps to follow. If you have a slow morning and like to spent time in the kitchen - go for it! It is worth the effort.

Recipe for 4:

450 g pork loin, 1 carrot, 50 g leek, 2 garlic cloves, 2 spring onions, 1 tsp veggie stock paste, 2 bay leaves, 5 allspice, 10 peppercorns

100 g butter, 3 tbsp flour, 3 tbsp white wine, 1 tbsp Worchester sauce, 1 tbsp lemon juice, salt and pepper

3 slices of toast, butter, oil

Pesto:

Small bunch flat leave parsley, zest of 2 lemons, juice of 1 lemon, 5 tbsp veggie stock warm, 6 tbsp olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, 40 g almonds, 40 g parmesan, lemon salt, pepper

Put 6 cups of water in a pot and bring to a boil. Add pork, rough chopped veggies and spices. Close the lid and reduce the heat and cook for 20 to 25 min. Stick a knife in the pork and check if it is done. Take it out to cool down.

Pour the remaining soup through a sieve and save for later. Discard the veggies. Cut the pork loin in 1,5 cm cubes.

Cut the toast in 1,5 cm cubes and toast it in a pan in some butter and oil. When the croutons have taken some color, sprinkle the cheese on top, stir and set aside to cool down. Rip it apart for later.

Use a minichopper to prepare the pesto.

Clean the cooking pot and melt the butter. Add flour and stir for 3 min. Gradually add the pork stock until you have a thicker sauce, but thinner than a Bechamel.

Season with white wine, lemon juice and Worchester sauce, salt and pepper. Chuck the pork cubes in and reheat the sauce without boiling it.

Fill in soup bowls, top with cheese bread and a dollop of pesto.

Burrata with Puy Lentils and Sweet Potato and caramelized Pears with Almonds

It sounds complicated - but it is not! Just organize  the preptime and you are good to go.

I bought a container of Burrata. I love this creamy cheese in a rubbery ball shape. Mostly served cold with tomatoes. I went on the hunt for different recipes to use up the cheese. I´ve done some already and the recipes are on the blog.

This time I found two pictures of cooked dishes with Burrata. They both looked nice, but did not force me to cook both of them. But the pictures lingered and I came up with a variation of both and combined them.

The endresult was very tasty!

The first step is cooking the lentils in unsalted water. During that time I peeled and cubed the piece of sweet potato. The last 7 min of the lentil cooking time, they went in with them in the pot. Drain and back in the pot. Add olive oil and date vinegar, salt and pepper. 

Now take a clean pan and toast the almonds, take care not to burn them. Set them aside. In the same pan, melt butter and add sugar to make a caramel. Peel the pear and cut it in small chunks. Drop the pear in the pan and get them soft.

Get all ingredients on a plate and set the Burrata on top. Add more vinegar and olive oil.

1 Burrata

1/3 sweet potato, 50 g green lentils

1 pear, 25 g sliced almonds

Spiced olive oil and Date vinegar, salt and pepper

 

Ricotta Lemon Pappardelle

Ricotta sitting in the fridge short of its expiration day. What can I do with it?

I am looking at Facebook Reels often and there are often short recipes. Some scraps of paper and a pen are on my table all the time to take notes.

Recipe for 1:

130 g Pappardelle, salt

1 lemon zest and juice, fresh basil leaves

100 g Ricotta, 2 tbsp butter

Pasta water, lemon salt, pepper

Preptime for this dish is the cooking time of the Pappardelle, about 9 min. When you have an induction hob, the pasta water is boiling quickly.

Start the pasta first. Mince the garlic and melt the butter in a pan. Add the garlic and after 2 min the zest and juice of a lemon. Add ricotta.

Now some pasta water to loosen up the sauce. Season with lemon salt and pepper. Drop the cooked pasta directly in the pan. A bit of more pasta water is good. Now finish with basil leaves.

 

Tropical Pineapple Dessert with Batida de Coco

I still have a lot of Batida de Coco left from my Unicorn liqueur, I am not drinking this kind of booze and needed some inspiration to use it up. From an other recipe there was half a package of Paradies cream leftover. I bought a second one. On the backside of the package was a picture of a Tropical dessert and an QR Code.

A boozy dessert sounded great and getting rid of some Batida de Coco even more

Ingredients for 4:

1 1/2 Dr. Oetker Paradies Creme 

250 ml whole milk, 150 ml Batida de Coco

3 heaped tbsp toasted dessicated coconuts, 350 g canned pineapples

Combine milk and Batida and pour the Paradies cream powder in. Use an electric whisk and beat it for 3 min. Add 2 tbsp coconut and 320 g squeezed pineapple.

Use the leftovers to decorate the tops of the jars.

Don´t drive a car after eating this dessert :-)

Sushi Bake

New Years Eve calls for some food that can be eaten over a long period of time. Here in Germany meat or cheese Fondue or Raclette are the go to New Years Eve traditions.

Boring! Why not try something a little different? Sushi is great, but stop. It is a lot of work to prepare it the right way. This is a kind of shortcut. But a tasty one. And a great way to feed a bunch of people or just one person.

I found the idea a couple of days ago on Pinterest when I was looking for New Years Eve food trends. It is a combination of fresh cooked salmon and ready made imitation crab sticks or Surimi as it is called here. Mixed with greens and lots of Kewpie mayo and the hot Sriracha sauce. 

The first thing to do was to prep the sushi rice. I have Japanese short grain rice at home. I washed it until the water was clear and soaked it in water for 30 min. Then with a 1 to 1 ratio cooked it in my rice cooker. In a mug I combined the ingredients for the sushi dressing and heated them up in the microwave. They went over the freshly cooked rice when it came out of the cooker.

 

My defrosted salmon went in the steamer (Varoma) of my Thermomix to cook. But you can easily prepare it in the Air Fryer or in a pan. 

Use an ovenproof dish and coat it with oil. I used some toasted sesame oil. Press the cold rice down evenly. Sprinkle Furikake or shredded seaweed and shiso on top.

Pull the salmon apart with 2 forks. Cut the Surimi in small chunks and chop the green onion. Mix it with Kewpie mayo and Sriracha until it is smooth. Spread on top of the rice.

Spread more mayo and Sriracha on top and bake at 170 C fan for 15 min.

Cool down for 10 min and cut up Noori sheets as wrappers. Enjoy!

Serve it with cucumber sticks, avocado chunks, salmon caviar, soy sauce and wasabi.

Leftovers store in the fridge and warm up the next day and enjoy again.

Ingredients:

250 g salmon, 100 g Surimi/imitation crab

2 rice cooker cups short grain rice, sesame oil

50 ml rice vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt Furikake or rice seasoning, 1 green onion

Kewpie mayo and Sriracha, cucumber, avocado, soy sauce, wasabi, caviar

Oyster Scrambled Eggs

I love oysters! But I am not a huge fan of warm, baked or fried ones. 

That is the reason that only three oysters went in the pan. The others were eaten fresh. I even don't need any lemon juice. Just the sea water.

The oyster water went through a fine mesh sieve in the eggs. That little bit of brine intensified the eggs.

The cooking is easy. Just prepare the scrambled eggs as usual. Use butter for the pan fir a richer taste. Start scrambling the eggs. After 2 min add the oysters and let them cook with the eggs. That's it!