Merry-me Haloumi

If you know Merry-me Chicken, you know what I am writing about.

A tasty vegetarian version, even for me who usually steps far out of the way, when I should eat Haloumi. Especially the one from a BBQ. Tough like rubber.

But here the Haloumi was seasond and baked in olive oil first, taken out of the pan and later drenched with the sauce.

The Merry-me sauce is very simple, but so tasty. Just a couple of very basic ingredients and seasoning and some fresh herbs. The whole dish just takes 20 minutes from start to finish.

I had some Italian bread at home. That was very good to mop up the sauce.

Recipe for 2:

200 g Haloumi

Seasoning salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic

200 g tomato passata

60 g double cream

Italian seasoning, salt and pepper

Fresh basil and parsley

When the slices of Haloumi are done, get them out and toss in chopped onion and garlic. Let it get translucent and season with salt and pepper. Pour in tomato passata and cream and stir well. Add Italian seasoning. Put the Haloumi back in. Finish with basil and parsley

 

Crispy Rice Salad Korean style

When you look up vegan spicy salads there is a good chance you will stumble over a crispy rice salad. There are a couple of Reels too.

I wanted my rice spicy, but only 3 veggies were in my fridge and the last few stalks of fresh coriander.

For the rice I went Korean with Gochujang chili paste, ginger and garlic paste, Kalamancy Soy Sauce and a little bit toasted seasme oil added to the vegetable oil. It took a good while to mix everything in a smooth sauce.

The longgrain rice was cooked in salted water in a pot. This method was so uncommon to me now, because I use a ricecooker all the time. Just a training for my next stay in an AirB&B without the use of the helper. Bug it cooked just fine.

The hot rice went in with the sauce and was stirred very well. Tranfered to baking paper and in the oven for 25 min. One good stir after 15 min. Be careful with the heat, it may get to dark. That depends on the oven.

The salad base was red bell peppers, celery stalks and a green onion. More flavour was the finish with chopped coriander.

Sauce:

1 tbsp Gochujang red chili paste

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 heaped tsp ginger garlic paste

2 tbsp Kalamancy Soy Sauce

150 g uncooked longgrain rice

Dressing:

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp fruity balsamic vinegar

Lemon pepper, lemon salt

Lemon juice

Onions filled with red Lentils and Dates - vegan

Oignons farcis aux Lentilles corail aux Dattes et au Persil is the original name of this dish. It is from the winter edition of my Gourmand magazine issues.

I love onions and red lentils and discovered during the cooking process that it was a vegan dish. 

It is good to prepare in advance and when you want to eat it, just pop it in the oven for 25 min.

Using some flat sweet onions was a good idea. They have an even bottom and are wide in the middle. Good for stuffing them with the filling. 

I cooked the peeled onions first for 10 min and let them cool down for 20 min. Then I cut off the top and pulled the middle layers out. That was easy. Just 3 remained for structural purposes.

The middle bit were chopped and went in the empty pot I used to cook the onions. Some oil heated up and I sauteed the onions for 3 min. Now in with tomato paste and let that cook a bit

Vegetable broth next and washed red lentils. Stir well and bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover. Cook for 7 min.

Destone the dates and chop them, chop some parsley. Mix with the cooked lentils and season very well.

Stuff the onions and pile the lentils high. Cover with Panko and a little spray of oil. 

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Bake for 25 min. A very tasty dish to enjoy, even if you are not a vegan.

Ingredients:

2 flat sweet Spanish onions

60 g red lentils

180 ml veg stock

3 dates

3 stalks parsley

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp grapeseed oil

3 tbsp Panko breadcrumbs

Salt, pepper, paprika

Oven Pancake with Apple and Banana

Lots of people are promoting the oven pancake. Are they to lazy to flip single ones in the pan?

I had to give it a try to check out if I do not need to flip single pancakes in a pan too.

I am a fan of fruits baked in the pancakes. Apples are most commonly used, but banana is great too. Or use blueberries.

Tossing the chopped fruits on the baking paper and pouring the batter on top is so easy.

Recipe for a baking sheet:

160 g flour

Pinch of salt, drop of vanilla paste

2 large free range eggs

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp sunflower oil

400 ml whole milk

1apple, 1 banana

Specoloos crram, peanut sauce, pistacchio cream

Put baking paper on a baking sheet with a little butter under it.

Preheat the oven 200 C

Place sliced fruits all over. Mix all dry ingredients first, then eggs and oil. Last half of the milk to prevent lumps. Then loosen with the other milk.

Bake for 15 min, then use broiler function and brown the top a little for 5 min.

Yellow Thai Chicken Curry with fried Plantain

I had leftover cooked chicken breast and some yellow black plantain. Now was the lesson to make both ingredients in a tasty dish.

A OnePot dish was my aim, basically. The pot with deep fry oil is still on the stove. After each use it is poured through a fine mash sieve to clean out any bits and pieces. It is still good to go - don't waste frying oil by only using it once. Plantain deep fried was my aim for today.

Going through my drystore seasonings, I found a yellow Thai curry package. It contained the paste, a bag of dry coconut milk and dried chilies. 

The chicken breast only needed to heat through. The veggies went in the wok first, then the paste and then hot water dissolved coconut milk and some homemade chicken stock. Washed basmati rice dtirred in and then 15 min cooking on low heat.

During that time I fried the plantain slices.

Chicken, chopped coriander and some sour cream went in last. Served with the plantain around the curry.

Ingredients for 2:

1 package Yellow Thai Curry (paste, chili, coconut milk)

200 ml homemade chicken stock

1 shallot, 1 green onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp neutral oil

1 large cooked chicken breast

1 1/3 rice cooker cup Basmati

Chopped coriander

2 tbsp sour cream

Pepper

1 plantain and oil for frying

Apples shaked

Logansfewd had the insta community in a bind with his shaked cucumber salads.

Cucumber season must be over, because now is shaking apples.

I was surprised about the combination of ingredients. Some go great together, others are kind of weird in this recipe.

But the influencer delivered, yeah!

Recipe:

2 apples peeled and cored

1/2 lemon

25 g soaked raisins (I used Port, but water will do)

2 tsp peanut butter (from 100 % peanuts)

2 tbsp Greek yogurt

2 tbsp Kaymak (mascarpone or cream cheese)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp runny honey

Pinch of salt

Use a box grater and thinly slice the apples. Pour the lemon juice over the slices. Drain the raisins and put all ingredients together.

He used the same container with a lid, I used a salad bowl.

Dried Fruits Jam

I had a tupperware of dried fruit compote in the fridge. Leftovers from my last yeast dumpling dish.

Looking for recipes to use that and prevent food waste, I found the idea of cooking a jam and decided to give that a try.

But first I had to get the plum- and cherry pits out. I put all of the dried fruits with the liquid in a wide colander and loosened the pits. 

The fruits needed more liquid. Looking around I saw an orange and lemon, pressed the juice on the fruits, poured in 100 ml apple juice and a bit of Albanian Raki.

I used 3:1 pectin sugar for the jam. But first the fruits needed to be blended, the sugar added and cooked in the Thermomix for 13 min.