Asparagus Salad with Capers

This salad recipe is from mycookingloveaffair on Pinterest.

You can eat it right out of the pan as a lunch snack. But at room temperature it is great too. Pair it with some meat or fish, but a piece of fresh bread is a good enough side for this salad.

The combination with caper apples in brine, fresh squeezed orange juice, dill and grated zest makes this salad a tart and sweet dish. Some Dijon mustard helps with the balance.

Recipe:

500 g white asparagus peeled

10 to 12 caper apples

2 stalks fresh dill, 1 green onion shoot

1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper

Zest of 1 oranic orange, juice of 1/2 orange

Heat up the oil in a wide pan and toss in asparagus and quarteted caper apples. On medium high heat give them 10 to 12 min. Stir often.

In a bowl mix the dressing. When the asparagus is done, pour the dressing over it and cut off the heat.

Asparagus and Potato Stew

A creamy way to enjoy vegetables either as a side dish with some meat or fish, or as a main meal.

After one week in Italy without any asparagus I need to eat some more before the season comes to an end at the 24th of this month.

I bought 1,5 kg white gold and peel 50% of it yesterday. I washed the peel and the offcuts and boiled them with sugar, salt and butter. After 10 minutes I added two peeled and quartered potatoes. I let them cook for 15 min and took them out. I poured the stock through a sieve to get the milky stock.

Flour and butter made the base of a roux. A bit of cold milk to loosen it and a good amount of asparagus stock. The sauce needed to thicken a little, but not too much. I dropped the small chunks of asparagus in to cook. After 15 min I added the cooked and chopped potatoes for an other 5 min.

I seasoned the sauce with 1 tsp veg stock paste, juice 1/2 lemon, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

For more creaminess 2 tbsp velveeta cheese were added and last a lot of chopped fresh herbs. Use what you have at home.

 

 

Filipino Lechon Kawali or Air Fryer Pork Belly

This is cooking that needs some planning ahead. But the endresult is very tasty and not much work.

I bought a piece of pork belly and did not know what to do with it. I stood in front of the meatsection of my local butcher and looked for something that would inspire me to cook. The only thing that cought my eye was the pork belly. 

Filipino food, especially Adobo is one of my favourite kinds of cooking methods. Vinegar, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves are easy to find at home and the base of many of this dishes. Use chicken, beef or anything else you like.  

Start the evening before your meal. Peel 5 cloves of garlic, take 3 bay leaves, 1 tbsp black peppercorns and 2 tbsp rice vinegar and enough water to cover the pork belly. Bring it to a boil and cook for 1 hour. Take it out and cool it down.

Pat the skin dry and rub salt in it. Put uncovered in the fridge over night.

The next day, brush the salt off and score the skin criss cross with a sharp knife. Season the whole piece and brush some oil on the top. Wrap around in aluminium foil and keep the top open. 

Put in the air fryer at 200 C for 20 min, reduce the heat to 190 C for an other 10 min. Take it out and let it rest 5 min.

This was the crispiest skin I have ever achieved.

Ingredients  

450 g pork belly

5 garlic cloves, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp black peppercorns, 3 bay leaves, water

Salt, 

Seasoning, salt, oil

I ate it with a vegetable salad.

   

Tartufo Ice Cream in Pizzo

 On our last trip of the weekly tourbus route we finished our afternoon in Pizzo, Calabria.

As most small towns there, it is settled on a steep hill. Busses can only drive to the top and park there. A 25% steep way down is the only chance to get to the central market place. Or you can walk along small streets for an hour to get down. We were lucky that it did not start to rain until we were in the Gelateria. 

Pizzo is the birthplace of Tartufo ice cream. A creamy center of chocolate, very rich is the key of this treat. Original then covered in vanilla ice cream. This ball is frozen and then rolled in cocoa powder. 

It is served slightly defrosted. The center will be creamy.

When it started to rain, some of us decided to take a joyride up the hill in one of the many Tuk Tuks. That was the best idea we had.

Gnocchi et Tagliatelle con Porcini

We made a trip to Serra San Bruno up in the mountains of Calabria. This area is well known for porcini mushrooms.

Near the holy well and a lovely church was an old restaurant. They are famous for their dishes with porcini mushrooms. We had a presentation about homemade gnocchi. Very simple and a lot less ingredients that I would use at home.

They make their tagliatelle there too. A huge pan of mushrooms was shown to us and the combination of gnocchi and pasta with mushroom sauce was great.

Ingredients for gnocchi:

2 kg floury potatoes, cooked and cooled

700 g flour

300 g water

mix it together and let the dough rest for 30 min

Take some dough and roll sauages, cut them up and roll them for some structure.

No salt in the dough, just salt the cooking water enough.

Scilla fresh cooked Swordfish

We are beside the Strait of Messina across from Sicilly. Our second stop of the day after Reggio Calabria is Scilla. 

A very old Greek settlement 500BC. Our tourguide recommended swordfish in a local restaurant beside the ocean. Unlimited white wine was one of the mayor selling points of this lunch.

The town is pittoresk and on a Sunday full of local people. All enjoying the beach and the restaurants along the ocean.

The white wine kept coming together with lots of bottled water. On the beginning the wine tasted a bit flat, but after the 3rd glass it good.

We had some very good bread with a huge plate of mixed Italian salad with pieces of Mozzarella.

Our swordfish was served with a lemon olive oil coating and was cooked to perfection. Plates of French fries came to the table.

Most of us finished with an Espresso.

Antipasti on our Buffet

Three evenings and 3 different offerings of Antipasti. 

The Hotel offers a long strech table with different plates of hot and cold veggies. It looks to me like they feature on veg group each night.

Last night it was peppers and zucchini or squash night. Marinated peppers, stuffed peppers, fried zucchini, pickled ones and so much more. Lots of different version to prepare a normally bland veggie like a zucchini. 

I am looking forward to copy some of the methods at home. This makes these veggies the star of the dinner table.

The Antipasti here help so many tourists to enjoy a different approch to our classic sides of veggies on a plate in Germany. I talked to some guests and many of them are looking forward to the offerings at the Antipasti table. One man told me that he usually does not each much veggies at home, but he was loading up his plate here and enjoying it.