Beetroot, Bacon & Feta Tart

Small balls of beetroot are a challenge to get cooked, but firm. It is easy to overcook them in the oven or just in boiling water. I wanted them to be still a bit with a bite, because they should be the star of my tart.
There are a many different approaches to this baked goody, that it really depends on your own style.

I put the beets in the steamer and cooked them for 35 min.  Due to the small size  that was just enough. Bigger ones will need up to one hour.

I peeled them once I could handle them, with rubber gloves. Quartered and cut into slices.
In a pan I fried the bacon with the onions and cooled them down.

To prepare this tart, I used a store bought fresh dough for quiche or tart. But feel free to prepare a shortcrust pastry if you want.

Recipe:
650 g raw beetroot
2 spring onions
120 g smoked bacon bits
150 g feta
Parsley
3 eggs
200 ml double cream
Smoked paprika
Dried thyme
Pul Biber or chili flakes
Salt and pepper

Wash the dirt off the roots and place them into a steamer for 35 min, peel.
Preheat the oven 180 C fan.
Place the dough in a fluted tart form and stick some baking paper on top. Fill it with ceramic beans or other kinds and bake it for 12 min. This way you wont get a soggy bottom.
Get it out and set aside.

Cut the beetroot in small slices and fry bacon and onions.
Place the beetroot on the tart case and layer the cheese on top. Sprinkle with thyme and salt and pepper.
Finish with bacon and onions and parsley.
Mix the royal with eggs and cream and season with Pul Biber and smoked Paprika.
Place the baking dish in the oven, pour the egg mix on top and bake for 30-40 min.
Check if the eggs have set.
Cool the tart down a bit for 15 min to set further and serve.
Leftovers are great to serve cold the next day.

Fregola Sarda & Chives Risotto

Fregola Sarda ist a very special kind of pasta from the island of Sardegna. It is made only out if semolina duro. You can buy it in two different versions, one is tiny the other a bit bigger. Just as 2- 6 mm round balls.

It takes a lot of cooking time and is often served as a risotto or the base of a salad.

Recipe for 2:
120 g Fregola Sarda big balls
80 ml white wine
1 medium onion, I used a red one for the colour
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Small knob of butter
1 pinch Fleur de Sel
Pepper
1 bunch chives
50 g grated Parmesan
500 ml chicken stock or veg stock

In a wider pot or skillet heat up oil and butter and toss in the fregula. Let it coat for 2 min, then add the chopped onion and stir a while longer.

Now follow with the wine and then the garlic.
Let the wine cook down, add a 1/3 of the stock and on medium heat cook and stir until you need more stock.
Cut the chives in small rings and grate the cheese.
After around 35 to 40 min, the fregola should be al dente.
Add chives and cheese.

I served it with pork loin and wild herb salad.

Wild Greens with Strawberries and Asparagus

In the big box of wild salad greens I bought, was enough red veine spinach to make a single dish. That went into the Rice rolls. Now I had a lot of mixed greens left over. Some of them had a bit of a tang to them.

There are many ways to combine strawberries and asparagus. Check out my blog from May 4th 2016.

Fresh strawberries and asparagus was available too. I mixed these into a tasty spring salad and added toasted pine nuts to the mix.

In kept the dressing on the basic side with just some Olio al Limone and light rose balsamic vinegar, a bit of pepper and fleur de sel. Topped with a streak of black balsamic cream.

Rice Roll on Apple Curry Sauce and Spinach

This is a vegetarian dish Asian inspired.

It has a lot of components that should be ready at the same time. It takes some planning ahead to do it.

Like a grilled Onigiri.
Not made in a griddle pan, but it comes out of the fryer. But it sticks a lot to the bottom of the frying pot, so be careful.

Very tasty is the thick apple Curry Sauce. And that sauce is so easy to prepare and will go great with other dishes too, such as chicken Kebab.

recipe for 4 Rice rolls:
100 g Sushi Rice
200 g water
salt
Rice vinegar
1 tsp black sesame seeds
500 ml frying oil

Curry Sauce:
500 ml 100% apple Juice
2 tsp mild Curry powder
40 g Cold butter
1/2 lime juiced
salt and pepper
1 tsp corn starch + 1 tbsp water

vegetable:
2 shallots
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp dark sesame oil
100 g wilted spinach
1 tsp sesame seeds
salt, pepper
nutmeg

Batter:
50 g flour
50 g corn starch
75 ml beer
75 ml Rice Schnaps
a Little flour to dust the Rice rolls


Cook the Rice until done, pour it on a wide plate and sprinkle with Rice vinegar and black sesame seeds and stir until it gets cool enough to handle.
Make the batter and set aside.
In a casserole reduce the apple Juice with the added Curry powder to 200 ml.
Mix water and starch and bind the Sauce.
Take it off the heat and get the Cold butter in cubes in, stir until dissolved. Add lime Juice and seasoning.

Chop onions and garlic and in a small pan fry if off in sesame oil, add the wilted chopped spinach leaves. Finish with seasoning and nutmeg and sesame seeds.

Form Rice balls in to 10cm Long and 2 cm wide rolls and coat them in flour.
Heat up the frying oil.
Be careful, they will stick.
Take them out of the fat onto a kitchen paper,
Spoon Sauce on each plate, set some spinach on top and finish with a Rice roll.

Red Cabbage braised in Cider

I bought a pointed red cabbage at Lidl yesterday on the way home from work. I only new pointed white cabbage until now. They had a huge crate of the red ones sitting in the store and it looked like not so many people were eager to buy it. I had the full choice of the crop.

Next thing to do was looking for a recipe other then the usual red cabbage slaw or our family`s favourite cooked pot of shredded red cabbage. That is done preferably the day before and then reheated. Maybe reheated a day after that again. It is getting better and better this way.

I found a recipe from Martha Stewart, America's best housewife.

For her this is a German inspired dish.  This method is unknown here in Germany. I think, she got her spices wrong.  Nobody uses cinnamon in red cabbage, we all use cloves.

recipe for 4:
2 1/2 pound red cabbage or pointed one
1 medium onion
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp light Brown sugar
2 Cups cider
1 Cup low sodium chicken stock homemade
1/2 Cup cider vinegar
1 cinnamon stick
1 dried bay leaf
1  tsp salt
1 tsp corn starch optional

Preheat the oven to 175 C.
Cut the cabbage into 8 wedges. Leave the stem on.
Use an ovenproof pan with a lid that is wide enough to hold all the cabbage.
Cut the onion into fine strips and heat up the oil in the pan. Fry off the onions, best use a lid to half steam them. After 10 minutes, add the brown sugar and let it caramelise.
Now comes the cider vinegar. I used a little less then 1/2 Cup and that was good. The whole dish was a bit to vinegary for my taste.

Do not keep your head above the pan, the vinegar will go up your nose.
Add salt and some pepper, the cinnamon stick and the bay leaf.
Now the chicken stock and the cider. Cram all the wedges into the pan.
Bring it to a boil and close the lid.

Put it into the oven for 45 min.  A bit longer wont be bad!
Get the wedges out and store them on a plate.

Put the pan back on high heat on the stove and fish out cinnamon stick and bay leaf. Reduce the liquid by half. You can add some starch diluted in water to thicken the sauce. Spoon over the cabbage and serve.
This time I followed the recipe against my usual ways. I served it with a chunk of pan fried salmon.

The dish was too sour for my taste and the cinnamon was weird.

Savoury Tamagoyaki and Quail Eggs

The rolled up egg omlette is a very special dish in Japan. And it is very sweet.

Since 2014 I have a tamagoyaki pan for my induction hob and I am experimenting with different tastes. After my last Japan trip in October, I had a prime piece of the real deal at Tsukji Outer Market in Tokyo. A long line was gathering around the corner shop that only sold tamagoyaki. I stood in line for one too and had enough time to look at the guys who prepard it. Very interesting.

The one I ate there was the sweetest one I ever had.

My friend is not so keen on sweet stuff, especially not sweet stuff in savoury food. I promised to bring the pan and make a savoury version of the rolled omlette.
She has 7 quail hens and they just started laying eggs again after their winter rest. She boiled some of the eggs and they went into a bowl with Shoyu and a little white balsamic vinegar.

I got the very few ingredients together for the omlette:
4 eggs
4 tsp hot instant dashi stock
1 tsp shoyu
salt
pepper
1 pinch herbes de Provence
oil

Pineapple & Bell Pepper Chutney with Tonka Bean Panna cotta

Vegetables in a Dessert!

This chutney served with rich panna cotta is a wonderful counterpart and worth a try.
The colours are amazing and the light kick from the fresh ginger hits it right out of the park.

Be a bit careful when you grate the Tonka bean. More does not always help. Just taste the cream and then you can add a bit more.

Since the panna cotta needs time to set in the fridge. Start with it. Put the gelatine leaves in cold water to soak for 5 min, squeeze out the water.
Bring milk, double cream and sugar to a boil, add tonka powder and a Little lemon zest.
Now dissolve the gelatine in the warm liquid and fill the panna cotta into individual cups to get out later. Place in the fridge for a couple of hours.


Chutney recipe:
50 g red bell pepper
80 g pineapple
4 tbsp pineapple juice
1 small knob fresh ginger
2 tbsp sugar
1 pinch of salt

Recipe for panna cotta:
200 ml whole milk
300 ml double cream
50 g sugar
3 gelatine leaves
Tonka bean
Lemon zest

Cut the Fresh Pineapple and the bell pepper in less then a cm cubes. Grate some ginger.
In a pot let the sugar get Brown, add the Pineapple and bell pepper and the Juice.
Now a pinch of salt. Toss in the grated Fresh ginger.

The green stuff is mug cake moss. Just prepare a light sponge in a mug, before you bake it add green edible colour.