Zucchini/Courgette pickled

The idea is from the "brown eyed baker", but I made it my own version. I bought a bag of zucchini for 1 Euro. Now I have to use them. I had lots of smashed radishes during the summer and this cold pickling interested me. 

Eating them with cheese or serving them with sausages sounded good. 

Ingredients:

350 g zucchini

1 small white onion

120 ml water

450 ml apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

2tbsp+ 1 tsp salt

1 tsp tumeric

1 tsp brown mustard seeds

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

3/4 tsp tumeric

1 1/2 tsp Piment d'Espelette

Use a mandoline to make thin slices the same thickness (2 mm). Use a large bowl and toss them in. Slice the onion too. Add enough water to cover and a 1 tbsp of coarse salt. Let them sit for 1 hour. That will keep the slices crunchy later. Add the sliced onion 5 min before you drain.

Drain and use a salad spinner to make them dry.

In a casserole add all ingredients and give them 3 min to boil. Set aside.

Stuff them in Mason jars tightly and pour the brine over them. Keep them submerged. Close the lids and when they are cool, put them in the fridge at least 24 hours.

It is very delicious and still crunchy.

Fig Cake

This is a relatively simple cake batter that is topped with thicker slices of homegrown figs. There are still a lot of them on my tree.

The figs are topped with a little brown sugar. The recipe is from "backenmitleidenschaft". But I added some dried orange peel to the very basic batter.

Recipe for a 20 cm round baking dish:

220 g flour

125 g melted cooled down butter

80 g brown sugar

10 g baking powder

1 tsp dried orange peel

Pinch of salt. 

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla sugar

130 g milk

9 figs

3 tsp brown sugar

Start in a small bowl with flour, baking powder, salt to sift later.

In a mixing bowl add sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla sugar, orange peel and stir it well. Sift the dry ingredients in and add the milk.

Butter the dish and put the batter in. Cut the figs in thicker slices and set them on top. Sprinkle brown sugar on the figs.

Bake at 160 C fan for 40 to 45 min.

 

Curd Pancakes with Plum Jam

Curd is an often used dairy here in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. It is thicker than Greek yogurt and has a more sour taste.

Our cheesecakes are made with it here, no cream cheese.

I wanted some sweet pancakes after the savoury potato pancakes yesterday. This recipe is easy to prepare and the lunch is ready in no time. There is no need to let the batter rest for 30 min.

Bake them in butter with oil and be a little carful with the heat of the pan. 

I served them with plum jam (Pflaumenmus)

Recipe for 6 medium pancakes:

250 g 20% curd

2 eggs

4 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

Pinch of salt

Butter and oil for baking

Zucchini Puff Pastry with Feta

The roll up part is a bit tricky, but the taste is worth the hassle.

I bought 1 kilo of zucchini for 1 Euro. Now I have to come up with recipes to get rid of 4 medium sized zucchini.

The puff pastry roll was good until the 10th of this month, but I am away on racetrack then. I checked Google and wrote the 2 ingredients I had my eyes on for today: zucchini + puff pastry

Many quiches and tarts came up and these muffin tin baked "roses".

Use a rectangular piece of butter puff pastry. Cut it in 6 strips and keep them cold.

Use a Mandoline and on setting 2 cut long strips. Chop 4 garlic cloves and sauté them in olive oil. Place the zucchini strips on top and season them with salt and pepper. After 4 min get them out to cool down completely. Do not forget to get the garlic out too.

Sprinkle the zucchini strips with thyme and majoram. Crumble some feta cheese.

I wanted to use Ayvar, but after I checked it had gone bad. I used red pesto instead. Smear it on the upper part of the puff pastry. 

Set 2 strips of zucchini with garlic on top. Add pepper again and crumbled feta. Fold the lower part of the pastry up and roll it then in to a rose.

Spray oil the muffin tin and set the roses in. Bake at 200 C fan for 17 to 20 min. If they get too dark, cover them.

 

Going out for Potato Pancakes

About 30 miles East from where I live is the region of Odenwald. Call it the hill country. Not many traditional restaurants have survived the last couple of difficult years.

My BFF and I met at Habermannskreuz, outside of the city of Erbach. It is in the middle of a lush forest area and many people come here to do long walks.

The menu changes with the seasons and since mid of September the potato season is on.

During midweek they have specialties on the menu. This week is potato pancake week.

I love homemade potato pancakes, but do not prepare them at home often. Too much fuss for a single serving and the smell everywhere is longlasting.

I loved eating them when my Dad made them and the smell did not bother me, because 3 miles away.

In this restaurant they had 4 different sides to serve with the pancakes. But bring a good hunger or a Tupperware container.

I ate mine with turkey mushroom sauce. My BFF had smoked salmon and dill sauce. We both couldn't finish our plates and took a doggy bag home.

 

Chorizo One Pot Rice

Something fast and with lots of veggies was on my mind today. And something to freeze for an other day. Some call it meal prep. And only one pot to clean.

I had some fresh chorizo from the shop and just cut them in 1 cm slices. They needed just a teaspoon of oil and took 8 minutes to loose all the beautiful red fat.

Then all the veggies went in at once to take on the reddish color and roast a little. Pepper, a little salt, thyme and smoked paprika went in next.

I washed the rice and dumped it in. Very well stirred and then hot water with homemade veg stock paste went in next.

Up to a boil, covered with a lid, heat down to low and simmered for 12 minutes. Check the liquid after 7 min, to add more if needed.

A bunch of fresh parsley and basil went in last. I topped it with a tsp of creme fraiche.

Ingredients for 3:

200 g fresh chorizo

1 tsp olive oil

1 yellow onion, 1 spring onion, 4 garlic cloves

2 red bell peppers, 2 small yellow bell peppers

1 yellow peperoni

2 rice cooker cups Basmati

5 rice cooker cups water

3 tsp veg stock paste

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, thyme

Parsley, basil, creme fraiche

Cabbage Soup with Pancetta

Still cabbage from the whole cabbage boil to repurpose. A soup is always welcome.

I was out on a testdrive with an electric car, a VOLVO EX90, this morning. The dealership is just around the corner from Italian grocery Al Mercatino. Some Aranchini rice balls and a thick slab of Pancetta went in my shopping basket.

Thin cuts of the pancetta went in the pot first. Some carrot, onion, garlic and potato went in as the base. The last remaining homemade chicken stock with more water became the soup. A tsp caraway seeds are good for any cabbage dish.

The veggies had to cook 8 min. Then I chopped the cabbage chunks and added them to the soup. They needed an other 5 minutes to get ready. Just some chives on top and a nice bowl of tasty soup was served.

Ingredients:

40 g pancetta

1 tsp olive oil

1 carrot

1 onion, 2 garlic cloves

2 potatoes

500 ml chicken stock + water

300 g cooked cabbage

Chives

Salt, pepper, caraway seeds