Red wine risotto topped with Raclette cheese

Red wine in Risotto with melted cheese on top is a speciality from Lombardy.

I saw a report about that region and risotto is a main staple there. Since I love all kinds of risotto, I jumped on the idea the monent I watched it.

A bottle of Bardolino was my wine of choice. A little in the risotto, a lot into the Chef.
I added some diced courgette after half of the cooking time.

Melted raclette cheese is always a good idea. Having it on fresh cooked risotto made the dish very oncious.

Ingredients:
2 shallots
125 ml red wine
2 cloves of garlic
180 g Carneroli rice
600 ml veg stock
100 g courgette
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp butter
Salz and pepper
100 g raclette cheese

Cook the risotto like any other one. Just add red wine instead of white wine and let it reduce completely.

When it is ready, add the butter and melt the cheese and top every portion with it
 Serve immediately.

Tomato Gin - spicy

I' ve got the idea from Better Home and Gardens and adjusted it to my liking and my ingredients. The amount of gin in the original recipe was a bit small for my taste!

The tomato harvest is rising every day now and I have to find ways to prepare them. Why not in a cocktail.

At first I thought about a cocktail I made once before, but with Pimm's.  That was great, btw. But I found the idea of gin a lot better.

I rubbed the glass with lime juice and used Dallas BBQ chili rub to coat the rim. My lips are burning nicely now.

Mashing the tomato chunks with some tarragon makes the cocktail a little cloudy. If you want it clear, just add the small tomatoes in pieces.

I am not a huge fan of ice cubes. I have the tonic water cold from the fridge.

Recipe for 1 large and 1 small glass:
Dallas BBQ chili rub or any kind of steak pepper
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes
1 sprig tarragon
4 cl gin
1/2 lime
3 drops Lea & Perrins
2 drops smoked Tabasco
Tiny pinch of sea salt
Little pepper
250 ml tonic water
Slice of cucumber for deco (optional)

Crush tomatoes with tarragon.
Rub the rims with lime juice and coat in rub.
Add tomatoes.
Mix the other ibgredients and fill the glass up with tonic water.

Cheers!

Honey Melon and Mozzarella Salad

Austrian green pumpkin oil brings the salad together.

I found a recipe from a book written by Éva Bezzegh, Only Salad.

It called for lambs lettuce. But that is a winter and spring salad here in Germany. Since we are in the middle of an August heat wave  I used a small head of romaine lettuce instead.

Recipe:
1/4 honey melon
1/4 cucumber
1 small romaine lettuce
1 mozzarella ball
1 red onion
4 stalks of basil
3 stalks of mint
3 stalks of parsley
1/2 lemon juice and zest
30 g roasted cashews
50 ml Austrian pumpkin oil
1 tsp Agave syrup
Salt and pepper.

Chanterelles with scrambled eggs on courgette carpaccio

I am a huge fan of YT videos from Chef Stefan Marquard. This is one of his creations I saw and tried to recreate without writing down a recipe. I was not sure if I could get chanterelle mushrooms. It is very dry this year in our forests. That is not the best situation to harvest them.

The courgette was homegrown by a friend. And I still have 1 1/2 to cook soon.

The Chef had a very special way to prep the eggs before they went into the pan. He add double creamto the bowl and beat in two eggs until he had a smooth liquid. Then te seasoned them with salt and pepper. Just before the eggs went into a medium hit pan with some butter, he dropped the third egg in. He used a forkjust to vreak up the yolk and stirred the white a bit around. That way you get a more interesting kind of fluffy egg.

Recipe:
1 green courgette
Balsamic vinegar
White balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
SALT and a pinch of sugar
Pepper
Parmigiano Regiano
Butter
Panko breadcrumbs
1 shallot
4 stalks of parsley
250 g Chanerelle mushrooms
3 eggs
30 ml double cream

Wash the courgette and slice 2mm discs on a mandoline. Put them in a overlapping circle on your serving plate. Season with salt and pepper. Dress with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and grate some Parmesan on top. Set adside to marinate.

Clean the mushrooms. Wash them if they are really sandy.
Chop a shallot and the parsley and put butter and oil in a medium pan. Add onion and herb and fry it off,
Toss in the mushrooms and crank uo the heat. Cook them until they are ready. Pour into a colander over a bowl to catch the liquid for the dressing later. Season.
Mix it with oil and white balsamic.

Prep the egg and scramble it in the same pan you cooked the mushrooms in. Just wipe it out before.

In a small pan in heated butter fry the panko crispy.

Take the plate with the courgette and set 1/3 of the egg in the middle. Next some chanterelles, Parmesan, dressing, eggs  mushrooms, Parmesan, dressing and encore.
Finish with more Parmesan and crispy Panko.

Fried Eggplant chunks with dip

Many years ago in California I had this snack for the first time. I stayed with friends in Roseville and a couple of eggplants were their snack to go with the family. That time eggplants were not my favourite veggies.

The method to prepare interested me and I stayed in the kitchen to learn.

During that vacation I went to the supermarket and bought a cardboard box of the corn flour. I still have it and refill it. Just a great memory.

The key to tasty eggplant is the preparation. Chop them, slin on into bite size chunks and put them into a bowl. Season them with salt and a tiny bit of sugar, shake them well and let them sit for 30 min.
Now toss them on a kitchen towel and then into the cleaned bowl with corn flour and a bit of smoked paprika.

Heat up some oil to 180 C and toss the aubergine chunks in. Fry until golden brown. Let them drain on kitchen paper.

Dip:
2 tbsp mayo
2 tbsp Greek yogurt
1 tsp Sriracha
2 tbsp curry ketchup
Fresh herbs.

Courgette and Lentil Soup- vegan

Do not say Yuck because the titel contains the word vegan. It is a great tasting soup when you have courgettes piling up in your kitchen. One large down now!

The soup gets creamy with almonds. No need to thicken it with anything else.

Call it a fast meal. The time you will need to cook the lentils is enough to prepare and cook the ingredients for the soup. Very efficent.

Recipe for 4:
1 large courgette but not a maxi size one
100 g lentils rose or brown or green
2 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
50 g almond slices
1 bird eye chili dried
Rapeseed oil
500 g organic vegan veg stock
4 sprigs of mint
1/2 lemon and zest
Chili salt and pepper

In a pot add 4 times the amount of water to lentils. Season with a bay leaf and some ground pepper -NO SALT
Cook for 25 to 35 min depending on the kind of lentils used. Do not use red or yellow lentils, they get way too mushy. Drain.

Peel and chop onions and garlic into bigger pieces. Wash the courgette and cut it into larger chunks.

Heat up a pot with 4 tbsp oil and add onions, garlic and almonds. Give them 3 min.
Add courgette and stir an other 3 min, season with chili salt and pepper.

Now in with the veg stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover. Now is the time to spice up your life or the soup. Add a dry bird eye chili. Remove before blending the soup later !!!
Cook for 15 min. Let the soup rest open for 5 min.
Pour into a blender and add 3/4 of the mint leaves.
Make a fine soup and pour it back into the pot.

Add the lentils, zest and juice of 1/2 lemon and check for seasoning. Heat up again if needed.
Add the rest of the mint leaves individually to each bowl.

Wibele - a baked speciality and ginger mint tea

I was on a weekend trip to Wuerttemberg and met with friends on Saturday. They gave me a nice gift of local wine and something baked.

Tiny pieces of crunchy bakes that have a history in the area.
My friends told me the story.

A pastry Chef called Wibel may have been a bit clumsy baking fat free sponge cakes. He dribbled cake batter all over the place on baking sheets. After a short time in the oven they were scraped off. Even the local royals loved them. They were called Wibele since 1800 and are originated in Langenburg.

The restaueant we visited served a unique kind of tea. A couple of long slices of fresh ginger and a sprig of fresh mint came in a glass with hot water. An elderflower syrup bottle stood on the tray too. You sweeten your own glass with it.

I just made my own ginger mint tea, but with French mirabelle syrup.
Very tasty.