Pasta with Spinach in Peanutbutter Sauce - vegan

Sooo goood!

First time I read the recipe I wanted to add some beef mince and some cream to it. The original recipe from a supermarket chain had some very vegan ingredients in. That was some kind of cooking cream. No way, I am not using this. I choose coconut milk instead. Good choice. 

Recipe for 1:

100 g Fettuccine

1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 8 cherry tomatoes, 250 g baby spinach, 

200 ml coconut milk, 100 g veg stock

2 tbsp sunflower oil, 3 tbsp peanut butter

1/2 lime, 1 tsp brown sugar, nutmeg, chili

 salt, pepper

2 tbsp roasted peanuts

Cook the pasta. In some oil start onions and garlic. After 3 min add the spinach. Let it wilt down.

Now add stock and coconut milk and all seasoning. Melt the peanut butter in the sauce.  Add the tomato chunks. Squeeze in some lime. Check the seasoning, if you need more peanut butter or chili.

Drain the pasta and transfer it in the pan. Stir well and finish with peanuts.

St. Patrick's Day Jell-O

In the afternoon of the 17th I realised that it was St. Patrick's Day. And this day is usually celebrated in my household.

A little treat was the thing to go to. I love a good green Jell-O tasting of woodruff with some vanilla sauce. But that would have required a trip to the supermarket.

I checked my cupboard and found a package of lime jello. Not the American kind, but from the Turkish supermarket. It is very limey, but it congeals in 30 min.  But the color is just a watery yellow green. Very light.

No problem at all. A bit of green gel color and the Irish green was done. I had some Physalis sitting on the counter. They are a bit on the sour side. I cut them in small bits and put them in the warm liquid to get solid with the jello.

Very tasty St. Patrick's Day treat. A bit of Irish Whiskey went with it.

Beef Beans and Rice

This is a dish I saw sometimes beeing prepared by a YT family from Alaska. I follow them for 2 years now. 

A family favourite must be this dish, because I saw them prepare it in the background in some videos. It is easy to make and filling and even the older kid made it.

They used canned green beans. Fresh produce in the heavy winter not always available. I used fresh green beans.

Recipe for 2:

250 g beef mince, 1 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp beef stock powder, 1 tbsp soy sauce, salt and pepper, 30 ml water

200 g green beans cooked in salted water

1 cup long grain rice

Cook the rice. Top and tail the beans and cook them.

In a wide pan start in hot oil the beef mince. Season it with beef stock, salt and pepper. When it has taken color, add chopped onion and garlic. In with the water and the soy sauce.

When that is done, add beans and rice. That's it.

Cheese Pasta or Kässpätzle

This is the second time I am preparing this dish. I had a Pyrex glass dish filled with homemade Swabian pasta in my fridge. My household help is from Swabia in the South West of Germany. What is better way than to get the right stuff.

The method we used at home was cooking the pasta in batches and putting it in the oven with grated cheese and brown onions in many layers until all the batter was gone. The heat of the oven melted the cheese.

This time I used an other method. I did not grate the cheese, I cut it up in small strips. It is important to use cheese which does not split in fat and solids when heated up.

I used Tyolian Mountain cheese and the last 3 slices of French Raclette cheese.

Ingredients:

300 g spaetzle, 

2 medium onions, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tsp honey, 2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper

2 tbsp clarified butter

100 g Raclette cheese, 75 g Mountain cheese

Prepare the onions with garlic first. Best cut in strips or rings. Saute in oil, season with salt and pepper and wait until they are soft. Add honey to caramelize, then the vinegar. Set aside on a plate. 

Cut the cheeses in thin strips. Ground some black pepper.

If you use cold spaetzle, heat up some water in a kettle and pour the boiling water over them and let them sit 3 min, drain.

Heat up clarified butter and toss 1/3 of the spaetzle in. Give them 2 min, add 1/3 of onions and cheese and start melting it. Stir constantly. Add the other third. Then finish and add black pepper.

Do serve it hot, do not let it sit around. It is eaten usually with a bowl of lettuce salad.

Chicken, celery and other leftovers with Spaetzle

The leftover halve of the lemon chicken from the day before needed a new purpose. It was stripped off the carcass and waited in the fridge for me to come up with an idea.

I had no idea, but taking a lot of stuff out of the fridge on the counter showed me a solution. Throw everything in a pan and give it a bit of time to mingle together.

My household help was do nice and took the chicken 8fg the bone, chopped onion and celery stalks and I was ready to cook. She brought me a Pyrex glass dish filled with homemade Spaetzle. These are German unregular pieces of thick doughy pasta. They are from the Southwest of Germany. And she comes from that area. 

Well known recipe is Kässpätzle with fried onions and lettuce.

I used a good hand full of them to bulk out my dish.

Ingredients for 2:

1/2 oven baked chicken

2 spring onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 stalks celery 

1/2 can chopped tomatoes, 100 ml double cream, 1 tsp veg stock

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, 1 tbsp olive oil

60 g spaetzle, parsley

Start with onion, garlic and celery cubes. Give it 5 min to get soft. Pour in the tomatoes and the cream and bring it to a boil. Season and toss in the other stuff to get heated through.

Use some chopped parsley to give it a bit more color.

Chicken with Lemon, Rosemary and Sage

This is a recipe from the TV series Kitchen Impossible. I made my own version of it. After the basic prepwork is done, it gets very easy. The oven does the job.

The inside of the chicken is filled with fresh herbs, garlic and lemon zest and salt and pepper. That is the only seasoning the chicken needs. The bacon on top of the chicken breast seasons the bird from the outside.

Recipe for 2:

1100 g free range chicken

8 sage leaves, 1 large stalk rosemary, 5 cloves of garlic, zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper

4 strips of bacon

150 ml white wine, juice 1 lemon

1 tbsp oil

Toothpicks to close the hole.

Preheat the oven 200C.

When you are ready with the filling, close the hole and bind the legs and wings with twine.

Place the bacon over the breast. Heat up the oil in an oven proof pan and set the chicken in, breast side up. Give it 5 min. Add wine and lemon juice. Place the pan in the oven.

Bake for 55 to 60 min.

I served mine with hash browns.

Cinnamon Roll Waffle Hack

On YT and TIK TOK are many hacks showing the use of a waffle iron. 

Last week I bought a tube of ready to bake Knack & Back Cinnamon rolls. I wanted them for a lazy Suday afternoon coffee break. Last night I saw a short video on Pinterest were Knack& Back breakfast rolls, filled with some shredded cheese, found their way in the waffle maker. That reminded me of my tube of cinnamon rolls.

That is a very fast way to cook them. They just need 3 min in my waffle iron. They smell great and crips up on the top and the bottom. The dough stays soft in the middle.