Canned Sardines with Gado Gado inspired Stew

It tasted amazing! Not weird at all!

I have got a wonderful can of sardines as a gift. The front shows a picture of a French village and men playing Petanque. I play Petanque too sometimes and decided to eat the content of the can soon and drill a small hole in the cleaned can, a piece of string through it and place it on my Christmas tree. As a very unconventional ornament.

The idea for this recipe was from an old YT Video from ALEX, French guy cooking. He did a dish with Indian korma seasoning and eggplant. I changed the flavour profile from India to Indonesia. That worked very well.

Ingredients for 1:

1 can sardines in oil

1 package Gado Gado spice blend

2 small yellow onions, 5 small potatoes

200 ml coconut cream/ milk, 150 ml water

Chili salt, 1 tsp coconut curry powder

1 bunch fresh coriander, 1 hand full cashew nuts unsalted

Drain the oil from the can in a pot and sweat the onion strips in it. Add the spice blend and let it cook a bit. Cut the potatoes in small chunks and stir them in.

Now coconut cream and water and seasoning. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover with a lid. Cook until pitatoes are done.

Chop coriander and cashews and add them with the sardines to the pot. Do not cook any longer.

Gochujang Garlic Ginger Tofu Rice Bowl

Thanks to YT Aaron&Claire I now like firm tofu. Well, when it is served with Gochujang, garlic and ginger. The starch cover helps too.

When I saw the YT recipe last week, I thought that looks tasty - but firm Tofu, meh ??? But I love to challenge myself. I bought high quality organic tofu from Alnatura. Their headquarter is just 800 m from here.

Preparation is easy. Just start 1 hour before cooking and wrap the tofu in kitchenpaper and press it down a bit. That way it looses tasteless water and gets firmer.

Cut the 150 g tofu in 1,5 cm cubes and coat them in potato starch.

Oil to shallow fry the tofu and a little oil for the veggies and sauce.

Make the sauce:

1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp Mirin, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp syrup, 2 tsp Gochujang, 1 tsp gochugaru pepper flakes, 2 tsp potato starch, 1/2 cup water, 1 tsp chicken stock powder

Veggies:

2 spring onions divided in white and green part, 5 garlic cloves, 1 knob ginger, 2 small carrots

7 cm cucumber, sesame seeds

2 quail eggs cooked

Shallow fry the cubed tofu, about 5 to 7 min and set aside. Clean the wok.

Chop the veggies and keep the green of the onions for garnish. Heat up the oil and fry the veggies. After 8 min add the sauce. If it thickens too much, add more water.

Get the tofu in and warm through. Serve on a bowl of hot rice.

To fight the heat add cucumber, eggs and sesame seeds.

MAGGI Fairy Tale Soup

I' ve got my Halloween present from my BFF yesterday. She packs goodies every year for the kids in her neighborhood. Since she is living in a 110 inhabitant village, there are not so many kids around. This year some did not come and packages were leftover.

MAGGI had a soup this year containing pasta shaped like fairy tale houses and ornaments.

I cooked 750 ml water and added the soup powder. After 10 min it was ready to eat. I only dropped in two quail eggs, because I have several in the moment.

I took the first spoon of the soup and was surprised about the very high sodium content. This soup is for children! 

I had problems with the amount of salt for hours. Lots of water and tea helped. This kind of MAGGI soups is not something I eat usually.

Biscoff filled Puff Pastry Trees

I saw a Reel and wanted to do it. But not with Nutella filling.

Two sheets of puff pastry are easy to get. What kind of filling is Christmassy? I went to a nearby supermarket and checked the different offers. Mostly spreads like Nutella or other chocolate or nut spreads. 

Then I found Biscoff. I never used it before. I only eat the cookies sometimes, that are often served with cappuccino or espresso.

I had to warm the spread up in the microwave to use it on the puff pastry.

Ingredients:

2x 275 g puff pastry sheets

1/2 jar Biscoff spread

1 beaten egg

Wooden skewers

Sparkly pink powdered sugar

You will need a star shaped cookie cutter and a cranked palette knife and a pizza cutter

The puff pastry usually comes in baking paper. Use that or use your own.

Preheat the oven 200 C fan.

Spread Biscoff all over and place the second sheet on top.

Cut out the stars first when the pastry is still cold. Use the pizza cutter and make 2 cm strips. 

Fold the strips standing up in tree shape. Pearce them with a skewer and place the star on top. Set on baking paper.

Brush with egg wash and bake for 12 to 15 min.

When cooled down, dust with sparkle.

 

Brewery Goulash

This goulash is cooked with beer. Some breweries serve food in a restaurant on premises, cooking dishes with beer is expected of them.

Brewery Goulash is versatile. When Stout or Porter is brewed and used in the goulash, the dish gets more deep and strong. I used an IPA with a high alcohol content. 

Recipe for 3:

500 g pork , 1 red 1 yellow onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1 carrot, 1 bay leaf, 2 tbsp rapeseed oil, pork seaoning, salt and pepper

1 tbsp tomato paste, 2 tbsp flour, 3 allspice berries

250 ml IPA beer, 200 ml veg stock home made

Season the cubed pork and brown it in hot oil in a wide pan or pot. All pieces should touch the bottom. Add onions, carrot and garlic and tomato paste. Now add the flour.

Season with salt and pepper. Pour in beer qnd stock and get the bay leaf and the allspice in.

Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 90 min. That way the pork will be tender.

Serve with pasta.

 

Salade de Museau de Boeuf light version

The more modern version of a French classic uses a variety of lettuce and radishes to combine with the meat.

The dressing is less acidic and not dominated by Dijon mustard. Just a light touch of it. No capers and no gherkins in sight.

This salad is great as a starter for a couple of people. Just dress it on a large palate and everybody can take some off it, buffet style.

Use a combination of green lettuces and some radicchio for color. The red radishes pop up nicely in the salad.

Dressing:

2 tbsp Olive oil, 1 tbsp Agave syrup, 1 tsp black currant vinegar, 1 tsp date vinegar, 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard, salt and pepper.

Paella

I have never made such a Paella before.

I saw ALEX on YT fly to Valencia and discover the myth about this dish. He cooked it in the studio in a second video.

That inspired me to take my car and drive to the Spanish supermarket Gran Consumo in town. Most people think it is an Italian market. But I know better. They are selling goods here in the city for about 60 years.

I loaded my shopping cart with an induction paella pan in a small size, Bomba paella rice, a package of large black tiger prawns. All other stuff was already at home. And as a little goodie for next weekend Guanchale, Parmesan, Pecorino and Spaghetti No.14.  Maybe you can guess, what I want to cook.

(Carbonara, the recipe is on the blog)

The most work has to be done before the cooking can start. I pushed a lot of veggies with some spices in a pot and cooked a stock in 90 min.

The tomato sauce was from an other dish and waited on a new recipe. The prawns were in a large block of ice. I had to thaw out the amount I needed, a bit more, but that was ok. Some bay scallops came out of the freezer and some peas.

But first things first: Mis en Place

Thaw outpeas, prawns and scallops, make stock.

Measure Bomba rice and be sure to have 3 times the stock. Get your tomato sauce out of the fridge or cook some. Peel the garlic cloves.

Put saffron in a pestle and mortar and grind it. Use some hot stock to dissolve it.

This recipe is for 1 or 2:

2/3 rice cooker cup Bomba rice, washed

200 ml fish stock, 200 ml veg stock

8 large 16/18 black tiger prawns, 6 bay scallops, 5 tbsp peas

2,5 tsp hot smoked paprika, salt, pepper, olive oil

Now the funpart starts, stay at the stove! It is over in 20 min.

Heat up the Paella pan with 1 tbsp oil. Salt dried scallops, and dried prawns and get them seared, but not cooked through. The scallops get out of the pan in 60 sec, the large prawns after 3 min. Set aside for later.

Add 1 tbsp of oil and grate the garlic in. Fry and add tomato sauce, smoked paprika. Cook 2 min and sprinkle the rice on top. Cook 2 min, add saffron water and the measured hot stock (use a microwave to heat it up).

Stir good and then stop stirring. On medium hot (induction 7 or 8) cook 8 min. Add peas and reduce the heat to low (3) and cook for 3 min, add the prawns on top and cook 5 min more. Taste the rice, if it needs more time or stock. The rice should build a crust, but not burn.

Crank up the heat to high, place the scallops back in and let the liquid cook out. Takes 30 to 60 sec. Shut off the heat and let the Paella sit 2 to 3 min, while you take photos!

Enjoy!