Mushrooms and beef mince one pot dish

I found huge wonderful white mushrooms of great quality. I had a lot of ideas to prepare them, but no time to do any of them.

In the middle of remodeling I only wanted something warm and comforting and with less hassle.
All ingredients sitting in one pot sounded good.

The mushrooms should stay whole during cooking and I had an idea.
Beef mince and rice on the bottom of the pot and the mushrooms sitting on top.

Recipe for 3:
400 g beef mince
500 g huge white button mushrooms
1 cup long grain rice
3 spring onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 Yellow bell pepper
1 bay leaf
1 stalk of lovage
Parsley
1 tbsp oil
2 cups of beef stock
1/4 cup sangrita picante or spicy tomato juice
Salt and pepper
Piment d' Espelette

In the oil start the beef mince, add onions and garlic and season.
Put in herbs and bay leaf.
Set the mushrooms on top, open side down.
Pour over stock and sangrita.
Bring up to boil, reduce the heat and cover with a lid.

Cook for 12 min, turn the mushroom over and finish cooking until the rice is done.

Nasi Lemak Fusion cooking

The fat rice or coconut rice of Malysia and Singapore is a staple there. Often eaten for breakfast with some veggies, greens and egg or an other kind of protein and a chili sauce.

I cooked the rice and added grilled yellow long peppers to it my kind of protein was Norwegian smoked salmon.

My friend gave me a small jar of homemade Shattar - pickled chilis.

A bunch of Vietnamese coriander finished the dish.

That was a bit of food, that helped me during the renovation process of my apartment.

Peel the bell pepper, it makes it more digestable. Use a cast iron griddle pan and give the peppers some hot love.

Coconut cream and a bit of Nasi lemak seasoning added to the water creates a bit of a problem in the rice cooker. Open it twice during the cooking process and stir it well.

Polenta Fries

Polenta is a side dish I am not so fond of. Mostly it tastes bland and uninspiring.

I prepared a bit with lots of chicken stock, dried lovage and pinent d'Esplette.
It was good and the rest did not go into the bin as usual.
I spread it on a plate about 1,5 cm thick and cooled it in the fridge over night.

When it was solid, I cut it French Fry style.

Now a garlic and oregano olive oil was spread on the sticks.

Since this is a new airfryer recipe, I sprayed some oil into the basket and put the fries in.

It takes 20 min at 200 C to make them crispy on the outside and still soft in the middle. Shake it 2 times while cooking so that the fries do not stick to the bottom.

I ate them with a dip of 2 tbsp mayo, 1 tbsp ketchup, 1 tsp light rose colored balsamic vinegar and a dash of Jim Beam.

Finally a way to enjoy more polenta.


60 g polenta
3 times the volume of the polenta in good seasoned chicken stock

1/2 tsp dried lovage
1/2 tsp dried garlic
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp olive oil

200C in the airfryer for 20 min

Lentil Pot with Pasta

I needed a dish without asparagus.

Lentils are a good source of protein and two links of smoked sausages as well.

Lentils need a bit of umpf to get them out of the boring corner.
Here in Germany a pot of lentils with some bacon and/or sausages is comfort food. Served in extra large pots to be eaten at outdoor activities and even festivals.

The sausages are of the raw smoked kind.

Recipe for 2:
160 g light brown lentils - I used French lentil blonde
2 spring onion
2 Cloves of garlic
1 Bay leaf
1 Sprig of lovage
50 g smoked bacon bits
4 Small potatoes
1 Small courgette
4 cherry tomatoes
600 ml beef stock
1 tbsp oil
200 g Spaetzle pasta
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Chop onion, garlic and courgette, halve the tomatoes and peel and cube the potatoes.

Use s medium size pot and heat up the oil. Fry off onions, bacon and garlic and add courgette and potatoes. Now pour the hot stock over and add lentils and all the spices.
Bring to a boil and stick the sausages in with the tomatoes.
Reduce the heat and cook until the lentils are done.
Take the sausages out and cut them up.
During that time cook the Spaetzle.
Add them with the vinegar to the pot and enjoy.

Prawns with Garlic Spaghetti

During social distancing and a 2 week vacation with no chance to go on my booked holiday in Croatia I started a renovation project. Not much fun sitting in a lot of mess.

Cooking something to get away from it is a good course of action. But many things are packed away. It had to be something easy.

A pasta dish is a saviour. A bag of chili prawns is a great addition to it.

I first thought about Spaghetti olio e alio. But my prawns needed to be cooked too. Best solution: mix both together.

In les then 15 minutes I cooked the spaghetti, chopped the garlic and flavoured the oil with it.
The prawns are marinated in chili oil- that is a bit red but not spicy. They are sold at LIDL for a reasonable price and are tasty.

recipe for 1:
120 g spaghetti
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
black pepper and salt
150 g chili prawns
fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Piment d´Espelette

Bacon wrapped Asparagus

I have a new cookbook!

My last birthday was more then 6 month ago. Now I finally met friends again. Before they came I was asked about a birthday present. Since I have a new kitchen appliance - my Airfryer- I wanted a guidebook to use it more efficient.

The new recipes opened a lot more chances to use my new tool. The recipes are easy to follow.

Last night I chucked two ears of sweet corn in for 16 min. They tasted great and cooking them was s lot faster than boiling them in water.

Today I used up the last pound of asparagus upper halves.

Recipe:
450 g peeled white asparagus
150 g Austrian smoked ham slices
30 g Parmesan cheese
2 spritz olive oil

Wrap the asparagus stalks each in a slice of smoked ham with some fine grated cheese on top.
Stack them in the airfryer and spritz with a little oil.
Cook at 180 C for 10 min.

Serve with some sweet chili sauce.

Strawberry Dalgona

Fresh strawberries are great with the cream.

Since Dalgona is the trend here in this month, lots of different variations are popping up.

Just blend the strawberried and get rid of the seeds. That makes it a lot smoother. If you like it a bit rougher, keep them in.

Recipe for 1:
300 ml whole milk
Ice cubes
60 ml double cream
1 tsp sugar
3 Large strawberries

Beat cream and sugar to strong peaks.
Blend the strawberries and pour them through a sieve.
Mix it with the cream and put it on top of the milk.
Stick an extra strawberry on the rim