Cloud Cake or Wölkchenkuchen

I wanted to bake something.

A Reel from "nadinas-fit-food" came my way. A no flour cake with only 67 cal per slice (8 slices in total).

But she used Chunky Flavour sweetener instead of sugar. This sweetener has gone through the roof here in Germany. Available in several flavours like: Blueberry, Vanilla, Caramel, Cinnamon and more. These were just the ones I found at the Protein isle of my supermarket.

I am not a huge fan of all these "healthy" sugar imitations. Aspartam, Stevia or Xilit leave a metallic aftertaste in my mouth. I don't do Zero Cokes or Sodas either.

But this recipe made me curious and I bought a vanilla chunky flavour. Do not ask me why it is called cunky. It is a very fine powder, like sieved icing sugar. 3 g of it are 50 g of sugar.

I adjusted the recipe to my liking a bit.

Recipe:

3 eggs

1 Dr.Oetker vanilla pudding powder

3 g Chunky flavour vanilla

2 tsp Bourbon vanilla sugar

250 g Vanilla Skyr

Pinch of salt

3 tsp Italian orange marmelade rosa

Butter and breadcrumbs for the 18 cm loose bottom round cake tin.

Preheat the oven 150C.

Put egg yolks in a bowl and add skyr, pudding powder, chunky flavour, vanilla sugar and give it a whisk.

Add the pinch of salt to the egg white and beat that until stiff, very stiff! Fold in with the mixture very carefully. Pour in the baking tin and bake for 45 min.

Let it cool in the baking tin for 10 min, then take it out. It shrinks!!!!

Spread some orange marmelade on top and enjoy.

Rice Cooker Tomato Rice with Salsiccia

Add a couple of ingredients to the rice in your cooker and finish a complete dish. Just add the protein of your choice and the Sunday lunch is done.

Not much time for cooking today. I am watching Fanatec GT Europe CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. 

My rice cooker needs about 15 minutes to get the rice done. With the added veggies it took 5 more minutes. Just adjust the timer on your own cooker.

A bit of freshly ground pepper and a few chopped herbs and lunch is done.

I cut the sausages in small chunks and browned them in a small pan in some olive oil. That took only ten minutes and was done while the rice cooker was working.

Ingredients:

1 rice cooker cup short grain rice

2 tsp veg stock paste, 2 tsp Ayvar

Salt, pepper, dried chives

2 medium tomatoes

1 small carrot

20 g leek

Parsley

2,5 cups of water

Italian salsiccia, olive oil

Light Lunch with Friends

After nearly 6 years I met an old friend. Our ways parted, but sometimes it happens and we came together again.

Today I had my first glass of nonalcoholic Bubbly (I am not calling it Champagne). My friends loves a good bottle of bubbly, that has not changed over all the years. 

But her daughter does not drink alcohol anymore. When I am on tour with my car, I do not drink alcohol either. I was a bit unsure if non alcoholic Champagne was a good idea. 

But I was mighty positive surprised:

MUMM Non Alcoholic, white.

My friend served a light lunch. She has a Thermomix since this year and uses it often. She made a salmon dip, red pesto and baked some pizza flavoured yeasty roll.

A mixed salad on the side.

 

Lentils with Indian Trail Mix Topping

The guys at SortedFood served a "Breakfast dish" that had some kind of pulses as a base and was topped with a crunchy Indian mix.

I used red lentils but added some seasoned pork meat, here in Germany called Mett. Raw pork usually smeared on breadrolls and topped with raw onions. That is a breakfast dish here, but not everyone loves that.

But this pork is easy to use in a cooked dish. It is ground very find and seasoned and very tasty.

A lot of veggies went in first. The meat followed after 5 minutes. The red lentils were cooked separately in some unsalted water. They just need 10 minutes and went in the pan with the cooking water 

Sambal olec and Ayvar and some veg stock paste followed next.

Put that on a plate and top it with the Indian trail mix.

I only had some bread with it.

Cooking Class with Chef Cornelia Poletto

This was an online cooking class from the Villeroy & Boch Kitchen. 

They are promoting a new line of dishes. My friend is a Premium VIP customer at V&B. She had the offer to participate and received a box of prepackaged food, the recipe and two pasta plates from the new line.

Everything was measured for two people. Since I sometimes cook in her kitchen, she invited me to have fun together with her. 

After checking the delivered ingredients, we went out to get some of the veggies a lot fresher. I cut off the needed herbs from my balcony just an hour before I left.

The guide to the recipe showed, that Mis en Place was recommended before the online start at 6PM. We came back late from shopping, but it took me just a couple of minutes to get everything started.

I did the cooking, my friend helped. Many online participants told the Chef that she was way too fast. She slowed down. But it was a very easy recipe and we started eating while Chef Poletto still walked people through the recipe.

Recipe for 2:

250 g organic chicken breast

2 tbsp butter

1 bundled piece of fresh thyme, 2 young garlic cloves

150 g King Oyster mushroom or Chanterelles

125 g baby spinach

4 stalks lovage

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

80 ml vegetable stock

200 g fresh tagliatelle

2 egg yolks

Lemon zest

150 g grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Use a baking paper on the baking sheet and take 75 g of Parmesan and make some discs on the paper. Bake until melted and a little golden. Keep an eye on them not to burn them. Take them out to cool down and reduce the oven temp to 75 C.

Bring the pasta to a boil in salted water. Wont take long, because it is fresh pasta.

Cut the chicken breast in 2 cm cubes. In a wide pan melt 1 piece of butter. Add 1 crushed garlic clove and the thyme. Let the butter foam and get the salted and peppered chicken in. Let it sit for 2 min, then stir. After 4 more min, it should be good. Take it out in an ovenproof dish and place it in the oven.

Chop the mushrooms and some of the lovage and give them a couple of minutes in the second piece of butter in the pan. When the mushrooms have wilted a bit, toss in the spinach and season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Mix egg yolks with the cooked veg stock, add the second part of the parmesan and the leftover lovage. Take the pasta out of the water 2 min before it is finished cooking and add it directly to the pan. Pasta water is welcome. Get in the chicken and pour the egg mix over everything. Toss and stir, gradually add more pasta water to make a creamy sauce. Check seasoning and add more salt, pepper or nutmeg. Grate some lemon zest on top for freshness.

Serve with the Parmesan chips.

It was a nice recipe, but something I would throw together in a short time without much thinking about it. My friend was a bit over her head :-)

Seasoning Paste with Chicken and Pasta

Homemade sauces are the best! Knowing what's in it is even better.

This paprika and dried tomato paste was made by my BFF. Serve it on top of cooked veggies, with pasta or as a spread on warm bread.

I had some leftover chicken thighs and some veggies to prepare. Adding some pasta was a good idea. The sauce with some pasta water was this seasoning paste.

Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers

75 g yellow onion

50 ml olive oil

10 sundried tomatoes in oil

90 g tomato paste

1 garlic clove, fresh oregano, basil and thyme

40 to 50 g salt

Pepper, smoked paprika, chiliflakes

2 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp sugar

Optional  1 tsp curry powder

In a pan sauté fine chopped bell peppers and onions for 5 min. Cool down and put in a blender together with the other ingredients.

Check the seasoning and fill in a sterilized jar and top with olive oil. Keeps in the fridge for 3 weeks.

Shred chicken meat, chop veggies and stir fry that in oil. Cook the pasta and add that with some pasta water and 3 tbsp of seasoning paste.

Blackcurrant and Strawberry Jam

We have a blackcurrant bush behind the house in the yard. Nobody is taking care of it.

When I was watering my tomatoes and other veggies, I saw that the currants were getting ripe last week. I waited if some of the others in our house would harvest them.

Now the currants are starting to shrivel up or get overripe. I took a small container with me and harvested some of them.

After cleaning and weighing them, I had 175 g of blackcurrants. I bought fresh strawberries this morning and added some to them.

To prevent any kind of jam or jelly to go bad, I add some alcohol. Tanqueray Royale Blackcurrant Gin was my choice.

Ingredients:

175 g blackcurrants

100 g strawberries

25 ml Tanqueray Royale Gin

155 g 2:1 Pektin Sugar

Put everything in a pot and cook it until the sugar is dissolved. Let it cook on high for 5 min. Take a stickblender and mash the berries.

Put in a sterilized jar.