Bolognese Kids friendly

I get some visitors this weekend and I know from first hand that the kids don't like eating vegetables.

So I got creative and made a Bolognese sauce that has 50 % veggies in it. You don't see them or taste them, but they round up the sauce perfectly.

I only seasoned the sauce with salt and pepper and used fresh bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, oregano and majoram twigs from my balcony.

No red wine, just beef stock and tomato passata and tomato paste. Important here is the cooking time. Do not skimp on it. Let it simmer on low heat for 2 hours with a lid on. Stir every 30 minutes.

Ingredients for multiple dishes:

800 g ground pork/beef

6 shallots

4 garlic cloves

5 carrots

3 celery stalks

50 g leek

3 tbsp vegetable oil

3 tbsp tomato paste

700 ml tomato passata

450 ml beef stock

Salt, pepper, paprika

2 bay leaves, fresh thyme, rosemary, oregano, majoram

Clean the veggies and put them in a strong blender to make a fine spread. Heat up oil in a very large pot and sauté the veggies for 15 min, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper. Take them out of the pot for later.

Put the ground meat in and break it apart. Season with salt and pepper and cook until it is no longer red. Add tomato paste and stir that in and cook it 2 min.

Get the veggies back in together with beef stock and all of the tomato passata. Add paprika powder. 

Drop all the fresh herbs in, stalks and all. You can easily fish them out when the cooking is done. Check the seasoning again.

I am freezing it until I need it.

Potato Wedges on Pecorino and Panko

Crispy and cheesy potatoes, what is not to like?

A quick snack together with some meatballs on two sticks and some lettuce. I splurched for some butcher invention of Doener Kebap seasoned meatballs and some BBQ seasoned ones. Both were good and something to consider to bring to a real BBQ.

 

I have a block of hardened Pecorino Sarda, still good to go but a pain in the butt to grate.

Mixing it with Panko breadcrumbs as a solid layer on baking paper is the first step.

Season it with pepper and some drued chives.

I cut the medium potatoes in quarters and cooked them in salted water fir 10 minutes. Then drained and let steam a little.

Set them on the cheese mix and push them to get the mix on both sides. Sprinkle with paprika powder.

Preheat the oven 180 C fan and bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy with some mayo.

Jollof Rice of Nigeria -vegan

This is a dish that I wanted to cook for a longer time. Now I had all ingredients at home and decided to give it a try.

Checking the list of ingredients I discovered it was a vegan dish. 

It cooks in one large pot and needs a bit more than 30 minutes in total. Store it in an airtight container and it will keep for 4 days in the fridge.

Recipe for 4:

2 rice cooker cups Basmati

2 bay leaves

3 stalks of thyme

1 green onion

1 medium yellow onion

3 garlic cloves

1/2 yellow chili

60 g leek

1 red bell pepper

3 tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste

50 g ketchup

5 rice cooker cups veg stock from paste

4 tbsp vegetable oil

50 g defrosted peas

1 tsp curry powder, salt, pepper, smoked paprika

Wash the Basmati. Chop all veggies and heat up the oil. Get onions, garlic, chili, leek and bay leaves and thyme in first. Give it 3 min, then add the bell pepper. 

Next comes the tomato paste and roast it a bit. Chuck in the tomatoes and season well. Now add the rice and stir until it has taken some color. Pour in the veg stock and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to medium low. Add the peas and cook for 15 min. Stir and check if the Basmati is done.

Ayvar Feta Bell Pepper Oven Bake

A creamy pasta sauce with Bulgarian feta and red veggies.

Put it in the oven first and then in a blender and you have a very tasty sauce that even no veggie lovers eat.

It is very creamy and the slight sourness of the Feta and the little heat from the chili makes the sauce stand out from other sauces.

Mostly it will be eaten with pasta. But it goes well with a lot of other dishes. And it freezes well.

Recipe:

250 g Feta

2 red bell peppers

100 g cherry tomatoes

1 yellow onion

4 garlic cloves

1 red chili

4 tbsp Ayvar

2 tbsp olive oil

Herbes de Provence, Provence Salt, pepper, smoked paprika

Preheat the oven 180 C fan. Put the dish in for 30 minutes, then chuck everything in a blender. Job done.

Fig and Apple Dutch Baby

I haven't had pancakes in a long time.

Some fruits had to go. I ripped one ripe fig off the tree today when I walked from the car to the house.

I cored one apple and sliced it and cut off the tip and the bottom from the fig and sliced it too.

The batter for the pancake had to rest 30 minutes. Heat up the oven to 180 C and use grill and fan option.

First melt butter in a good amount of oil in a wide pan. Set the fruit slices in and cook them on one side for 2 min. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Turn them and pour the batter on top. Reduce the heat to medium and let the bottom of the pancake set.

Then put the pan in the oven for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon again and enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 red apple

1 ripe figs

2 eggs

2 1/2 tablespoon (no measure spoon) flour

2 tsp vanilla sugar

A bit sweetener of your choice 

Pinch of salt

1/8 tsp baking powder

1 tsp melted butter

110 ml whole milk

15 ml sparkling water

4 tbsp cooking oil, 1 tbsp butter

Burrata and Figs Caprese style

Fresh Figs are plenty in the moment and the heavy rain does not make it easier on them, they split open when ripe. But harvesting figs in the wet is no pleasure. So I lost some fruits to the rain.

I love Burrata cheese. The milky balls with their creamy center. Taking a knife and a fork, tearing it apart and spreading it all over the plate.

Do not forget to season it. Salt and pepper! The figs are sliced and laid on top. Lots of fresh basil from my balcony, the Italian one and the Greek one with the tiny leaves.

Some more seasoning, a good splash of olive oil and a high quality balsamic vinegar.

Fig Negroni

I rarely do Cocktails here on my blog. But I needed more ideas what to do with figs.

The Negroni came up.

After I came back from the Nuerburgring, I had to harvest a lot of figs. Some of them went in a small jar with Noilly Prat rouge. The bottle was on the back of a bottle shelf with alcoholicas. 

Finally a way to open it and use it. The figs are soaking in Vermouth since then.

The 2 other parts of the drink are Gin and Campari. I used my South African Gin with lots of local botanicals.

Measurements are 2 cl each. Ice or water and some soaked fig and a fresh one on the rim.