Panko Cod with Bell Pepper Pasta

I bought some cod yesterday and served it with some linguine pasta.

I still have some freezer bags with homemade tomato sauce, I need to get them out of the freezer, because this years tomato season starts to look good outside. Last year I had 7 tomato plants, this year I have 14. And lots of small tomatoes have already developed on the vines. I am looking forward to many more freezer bags of homemade tomato sauce!

I bought a package with 3 great looking red bell peppers. I cut open the first one- green and mouldy on the inside without any sign of it on the outside. I threw it in the bin. I cut open the 2 one, everything ok- the 3 one was a loss too.

With some garlic and spring onions on a baking tray, some olive oil, salt and pepper on top and baking in the oven at 200 C for 20 min. Chucked it in the blender and then added it to the defrosted and heated up  tomato sauce. Delicious.

recipe for 2:
260 g cod
80 g panko
30 g flour
1 egg
30 ml cream
3 stalks fresh thyme
150 ml tomato sauce
1 red bell pepper
3 spring onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter+1 tbsp oil
salt and pepper
200 g linguine
basil

Heat up the oven to180 C fan.
Cook the linguine in salted boiling water.
Clean the pepper and onions and place them on a baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and season.
Bake for 20 min and then blitz up and add to the warmed up tomato sauce.
Cut the cod into 3x3 cm pieces, season.
Beat the egg with the cream and the thyme leaves and season.
Make 2 plates with flour and panko.

Pannier the cod and in butter and oil fry it until done and golden brown.
Finish with mixing the pasta with the sauce, add basil and put the fish on the side.

Friday Night Pizza - Dining out

Pizza with Tyrolean Speck and strong mountain cheese and fresh mushrooms.

Doesn´t that sound good?

In an other part of the city were I live, I went with my friend and her Mom to their favourite pizza parlor. Just a 6 minutes drive away. We thought that getting a parking space would be a problem as they had usually, but we parked the car right in front of the door with more free spaces near by.
Well we have summer holiday season, but not so many people are out of town that the Italian bistro, as it calls itself, should be only half full at 7 pm on a Friday night.

We ordered our Pizza, 2 MIX and my Tyrolean and something to drink. That was the last time we saw the boss lady for that evening. She left.

The pizza came and was not cut into wedges. I love to eat pizza with my fingers and I took the knife and tried to cut it myself. The bottom was hard and not easy to cut, especially with a blunt knife. My friends Mom had to hold on to my plate, otherwise it was not possible to cut the pizza.
I looked for the cheese and found none on first view, but then in the middle a 10x10 cm slice of melted something. On a 28 cm pizza, that was a tiny amount. Mountain cheese is usually a strong cheese that has a good intense taste. My cheesy part of the pizza was tasteless. All around that piece of cheese the pizza was dry as cardboard. The mushrooms were dried out, there was not a drop of olive oil on the pizza. The Tyrolean speck (bacon) was tasty.

When the boss lady left, the service went down. It took a while to get someone to notice that we wanted something to drink- even when the glasses were empty. Nobody looked. The plates were taken, nobody asked if we wanted something else.

Two people I know, told me a couple of days before our Friday night, that they were disappointed about the food and service in the last couple of month.
I am on TripAdvisor for a some years and I write ratings. When I came home I checked the Bistro on that site and found similar ratings. I wrote one myself last night.

It was a nice night out in the company of friends. But I fear, I will not be invited to go to other restaurants with them. 

A new cast iron pan

I bought a cast iron pan that should work for Takoyaki - Japanese Octopus balls.
The ones you can get on the Internet from Japan are only working on gas stoves or with special burners. I needed one to work on an induction hob.
That is not so easy to manage.

Takoyaki pans are not available. An alternative are the Poffertjes pans, a pancake specialty from the Netherlands. But the individual molds are not deep enough for balls. And most of the pans are not working on induction hobs too.
In the end I found a Förtiespfanne. This is for preparing escargots.
A cast iron pan needs to be heated up to max for the first time before you use it,  I did that and cooled it down and cleaned it again.

I wanted to try it with some Pizza balls first.
I made the batter and chopped salami and onion, grated some cheese and took some mushroom slices out of a jar.
I oiled the moulds and the top of the pan.

Filling up the moulds was easy and I let it set 2  minutes. It started to smell good.

With a wooden skewer I started to loosen the batter around the edges and tried to get some batter off the mould.
Now the disaster started and the batter stuck to the pan.

I will try it again!

Eating cakes

I visited a friend today for a little birthday get together.
The local bakery provided the cakes because working women do  not have to bake a lot of cakes.
For just two people that is the best choice.
A combination of spongy ; dry and creamy  cakes slices are great.

Two cakes had a bit of alcohol in for flavour. That was a bit surprising but good.

A good bakery!

Matjes or young herring roll

This is the homemade version of the kind of salad you can buy at every supermarket in small plastic containers. But they are full of preservativs and not enough fish pieces.

I bought some young herring fillets at my local fishmonger and prepared the salad myself.
It is quick as a light lunch and goes great with warm bread or fresh rolls.

recipe for 2:
2 double matjes fillets
1 big white spring onion
2 curry spiced gherkins hot
2 stalks of fresh dill
100 g creme fraiche
salt and pepper

Pat the fillets dry and get some of the fish bones out. Cut into fine cubes.
Quarter the gherkins and chop them into cubes.
Fine slices from the onion, make some boiling water and let it run over the onion slices for 30 seconds.
Chop the dill and open the the creme fraiche and mix everything and season.

Matcha Ice Cream - Dairy free

Since my trip to Japan I love Matcha ice cream. I ate different kinds during my stay there and was always surprised, that they were not overly sweet like ice cream you get in the western world.

Today it is still sweltering hot outside and I wanted some ice cream. But dressing up and getting in a hot car to drive to our Sicilian Ice Parlor was not so motivating. But I had the very few ingredients for this ice cream on hand. It is a no churn ice cream, but that would have set me back 3 hours, so I used my compressor ice maker and from start to finish it did take me 35 minutes.

I saw this recipe on TabiEats and decided to give it a try.

recipe for one serving:
1 good tsp Matcha tea powder
2 tbsp hot water
30 g marshmallows
120 ml coconut milk

Dissolve the Matcha in hot water and set aside.
In a small pot heat up the coconut milk with the marshmallows until they are melted completely.
Add the Matcha and stir well.

Put into a Tupperware container and freeze for 1 hour, stir and freeze for 2 hours more, then eat. Otherwise it will be to cristallize to enjoy.
Or:
Use a ice cream maker and fill the liquid in as it is and churn for 30 minutes.

Lamb with Cumin and Coriander

This is a recipe from Tohru Nakamura. He is a chef at Munich Restaurant "Geisels Werneckhof". I´ve changed it a bit to my liking.

My BFF is collecting newspaper clippings with recipes for me and this was in one of the newer collections. I found it last night and the combination of Asian and more Middle Eastern flavour intrigued me.
So after my Saurday summer class of Qi Gong in a near by park I went grocery shopping - deeply relaxed! I bought some lamb flank meat and marinated it for 2 hours.

If you are not a huge fan or cumin or coriander, both the seeds and the green stuff, stay away from this recipe. Otherwise try it, it is delicous and does not need a lot of work.

recipe for 2:
400 g lamb flank or leg meat
50 ml dark soy sauce
30 ml dark sesame oil
30 g fresh ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
50 ml rapeseed oil
2 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
50 ml white wine
1 bunch fresh corinander
a couple of fresh mint leaves
salt and pepper
1 cup of short grain rice

Cut the lamb meat into fine slices, chop the ginger into slices and add both to a bowl with a lid and pour in soy sauce and sesame oil. Let it marinate for 2 hours.
Use a small frying pan with no oil and toast the cumin and coriander seeds. Put them in a pestel and mortar and make a medium ground.

Before you put the meat in the very hot pan, coat it in the ground spices.
Toss it in the hot pan, it will not need too much time, take the meat out.
Saute the onions and the garlic in the pan, add the wine and cook for 2 minutes. Add the meat and half of the chopped coriander greens.

Season with salt and pepper and serve with rice and a bit of lettuce.