Beef Meatballs with Cherry Tomatoes and small Eggs

Tajine de Boulettes de Beouf à la Tomate Cerise et aux Oeufs de Caille.

That was the name of the original recipe from my Gourmand magazine issue. I did not get any quail eggs today, but I bought size S(mall) ones instead. And I made the recipe my way.

I love meatballs, but I seldom prepare them. They are versatile and can be eaten with any kind of side dish. I choose Basmati to go with the sauce.

Recipe for 2:

400 g ground beef lean

4+1 egg

1 bread roll + 150 ml milk

2 green onions

3 garlic cloves

Half bunch parsley

75 g Ricotta

200 ml beef stock

50 ml tomato passata

200 g cherry tomatoes0

3 tbsp sunflower oil

Salt, pepper, Italian tomato seasoning, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, chili

Breadcrumbs

Soak the bread roll in milk. Put green onion and garlic in a minichopper and get them chopped fine. Chop parsley or put it in the minichopper too.

Press the milk out of the bread roll and get 1 egg and the Ricotta together with the onion, garlic and parsley mix in a bowl with the ground meat. Season a lot to make the meatballs tasty later.

With wet hands form balls a bit bigger than golf balls. When all are ready, sprinkle some breadcrumbs over them. Heat up the oil in a large pan with a lid. 

Brown the meatballs on both sides, add tomato passata and hot beef stock and the halved cherry tomatoes. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to medium and cook for 15 min. Now make some wells in the pan and crack the eggs in. Cook 3 to 4 min.  Prepare the rice.

Sprinkle with more parsley.

Pâté de Pâques or Egg filled Puff Pastry

A wonderful recipe for the Easter Weekend.

But it was a good idea to give it a try before Easter, because I ran into difficulties. Buying ground veal in Germany is not easy. Not many people use it here. The recipe is a French one, and buying ground veal there is not a problem.

It took me 4 days in total to order and pick it up.

On Sunday I came back from my racetrack driving on the Nürburgring and decided to prepare the dish. At first it looked a bit complicated, but it turned out very straight forward and was easy to manage.

Cooking time in the oven is 40 minutes.

Recipe for 3:

5+1 eggs

Rectangular sheet of puff pastry

250 g ground veal

100 g bacon slices

2 shallots, 1 garlic clove

1 tsp oil

4 tbsp chopped chives

50 ml creme fraiche liquide

60 g soaked and squeezed rolls

Salt, pepper

Cook 5 eggs hard, drain and cool them and peel them and set aside. Soak the bread roll in water. Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Chop shallots and garlic and cut the bacon in strips. In a small pan in a little oil saute them, set aside to cool.

Use a bowl and add the veal, the egg, the chives and soaked bread and season well. Add the stuff from the pan and 50 ml creme fraiche. Stir it to get a smooth paste.

Spread out the puff pastry and place the meat mix along the center. Set the eggs on top and fold the pastry over. Close it. Brush creme fraiche on top.

Bake for 40 min.

Pizza Scampi at Pistenklause

A very decent pizza.

Scampi on a bed of tomatoes and cheese and a good amount of garlic.

The only downside was the knife. It was absolutely dull. Since the pizza was not cut it took some effort to get bite size pieces off the pie.

But I managed.

Very good dough and enough charre to let everyone know that it was baked in a real Italian pizza oven

Scaloppina Milanese at Pistenklause

This time I stay in the Hotel am Tiergarten where the Restaurant Pistenklause is in the basement.

At the Restaurant I was eating Pizza the last time I was here. This evening half of the customers were from the Netherlands and France. They will dominate the track tomorrow.

I had a very dissapointing lunch at McDonalds on the Autobahn today. Bland burger and Meh fries. The food here looked a lot more promissing.

And the look did not dissapoint me.

2 thin very good breaded pork schnitzel with tasty French fries and a seasonal salad.

Penne Rigate alla Vodka

This is a modern classic.

Pizzaiolo Luigi on YT brought it back to my kitchen. I saw the video yesterday and knew I had to prepare it.

The ingredients were already at home. I had it once in a restaurant, it was good, but not great

I used Penne Rigate, they were pressed through the bronze metal discs. They have a rough surface and all kinds of sauces stick to them very good. And this is a saucy dish.

It is not a vegetarian dish because the sauce gets its richness from Guanciale on one side and heavy cream on the other.

Recipe for 1:

100 g Penne Rigate

Salt

30 g Guanciale

1 small yellow onion

60 ml Vodka

125 ml crushed tomatoes - no passata

50 ml heavy cream

30 g Pecorino

Black pepper

The pasta needs 12 min cooking time. I have an Induction hob, I started the pasta after pork and onions had their time in the pan.

The Vodka goes in and should cook off. If you have a free standing hob and nothing above it, feel free to take a fire to it.

Then the crushed and blended tomatoes are going in. Now the sauce needs 6 min, then the heavy cream is next and more cooking time to reduce the liquid. Add pepper and a little salt to the sauce.

During this time I grated the Pecorino. Then the pasta went in directly from the pot. Starchy water is good for any sauce. Let the pasta finish in the sauce for 1 min. Add a bit of cheese, serve and top with more cheese.

 

 

Cauliflower Soup with Peanutbutter

Buying a large cauliflower because it is a cheap offer is not always smart. Especially when you  go on a long weekend trip and planned all your meals until this day ahead.

But I love a challenge. This morning I took the first step and put the cleaned whole head in the steamer basket of my Thermomix. 30 min later the cauliflower was done and cooled.

At this point I still had no idea what to do with it

To portion it, I took some florets off and stuffed the remaining head in a freezer bag.

Since I had the Ash Wednesday cold herring salad for lunch, some warm soup sounded nice. Cauliflower as the main player in the soup. What works well with it? Veg stock and cream. What else? Peanutbutter and Peanuts. 

That was a great combination.

Recipe:

1 large spring onion

300 g precooked cauliflower

2 knobs of butter

350 ml veg stock from paste

60 ml double cream

WOK seasoning, pepper

3 tbsp peanutbutter

2 tbsp chives

30 g unsalted roasted peanuts

Melt the butter in a pot and toss in the onion. Give it 3 min, now add the cooked cauliflower. Stir well and pour in the veg stock and season well. Cook for 3 minutes.

Now pour in the cream and add the peanutbutter and melt it. Now add the chives and check the seasoning again.

Take a stickblender and mix the soup. Finish with roasted peanuts.

Egg and Cheese fried Bread

A snack for lunch or even dinner.

Looking for a fast dish without looking at  Fast Food.  Only a couple of ingredients are needed. Pimp it with some herbs and top it with Sriracha anf it gets even better.

I used crusty bread, but toast or baguette will do too.

Use a pan that is wide enough that the bread has some space. A mix of butter and oil is good to fry off the bread first.

Mix eggs with strong grated cheese, salt, pepper and chives. Divide the mixture between the breads, heap it on top.

Flip them over and let them cook on medium high for a couple of minutes. When the outside of the egg-cheese mix wobbles no longer, it is cooked and you can flip them back over.

I uses some Sriracha for a kick of spice.

Ingredients:

2 bread slices

Butter + oil

2 eggs + 50 g of Emmenthal cheese

Salt, peppet

Chives

Sriracha

 .