Pappardelle with Camembert Sauce

I had to get rid of a couple of cheeses. The biggest chunk was a Camembert from France. That was missing a chunk :-)

Cheese sauces of all kinds are a good combination with pasta. I made a lot of these kinds of sauces before with various kinds if cheese. Go, have a look!

The base to a cheese sauce for me is either onion and garlic or sometimes just garlic. As long I do not eat Cacio e Pepe. This is even more minimalistic.

Recipe for 1:

90 g pappardelle

120 g camembert, 25 g pecorino, 25 g Emmental grated

150 ml milk, 1 tbsp butter

2 green onions, 3 garlic cloves

Pinch of salt, lots of pepper, Piment d'Espelette, Italian herbs

Creme fraiche optional

Cook the pasta.

In butter start onions and garlic, after 3 min add the milk and the camembert. Grate the pecorino in the pan while melting the other cheese. Season carefully with salt. Add the other seasoning. Drain the pasta and put it in the pan and stir. Finish with the Emmenthal on top. Optional stir in a tbsp creme fraiche.

Salmon on Courgette with Cream Cheese

This is an easy way to prepare fish and veggies. A one pan recipe if you eat it with Baguette. 

The recipe is off the "essen und trinken" website. They are known for the easy to cook dishes. I only added salmon and zucchini to the search engine and found this combination. I made it my own way.

Recipe for 2:

300 g salmon

350 g courgette, 1 red onion, 2 garlic cloves

60 g cream cheese, 1 tsp veg stock paste, 150 ml milk, 2 tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper, fish seasoning 

Clean the salmon and take off the skin. Cut in 4 cm pieces. Season with fish seasoning.

Wash the courgette and cut it in 0,5 cm rings. Cut the onion in strips and chop the garlic. In 1 tbsp oil sauté both for 3 min. 

Push the veggies to the sides of the pan and add 1 tbsp oil to the middle. Sear the salmon on both sides 1 min, top with some cream cheese and stir the other with some milk and veg stock paste. Pour over the salmon and close the lid. Cook on medium low for 5 min.

Turkey Meatballs in Coconut Peanut Sauce

This is a French recipe. I found it on Pinterest. 

I bought 2 pieces of inner filet of turkey breast. Looking for an inspiration is always the first step when I buy a product without a recipe to cook.

These meatballs are on the very lean side. Keep in mind that turkey breast has not enough fat content to make a juicy meatball. Just a brush of olive oil on top does not help either. The sauce is richer and needed to complete the dish.

Recipe for 3:

400 g ground inner filet turkey breast

1/3 cup cooked and cooled quinoa, stock

2 spring onions, 1/2 cup parsley

1 egg, 1 tbsp breadcrumbs

10 ml Tamari or dark soy sauce

Pepper, salt, 1 tbsp olive oil

Sauce:

200 ml coconut milk, 1/3 cup peanut butter

30 ml tamari, 2 minced garlic cloves

1 tbsp honey, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 lemon, chili flakes

Carrot or other veggies, parsley

Cook the quinoa in veg stock for 15 min, drain and let it cool down.

Heat up the oven 200 C

Cut up the meat in chunks and put in a blender. Mix with all other ingredients except the olive oil. Make golfball size meatballs and place them on baking paper. Brush with olive oil.

Bake for 20 min, turn after 15.

Make the sauce by starting with the veggies. Add coconut milk and water and dissolve the peanut butter. Add all other stuff and taste if you need more lemon or chili.

Add the meatballs. Eat with rice or rice noodles or bread.

Banana Chocolate Walnut Bread

I wanted to use up some bananas. It was some time ago that I baked a banana loaf bread.

Why not the chocolate kind? I found some interesting recipes on Pinterest. This one is based on a recipe from "sweetandsavourymeats.com". But as always, I adapt a recipe to my liking.

This is baked in a regular 9x5 inch loaf tin. The German sized ones are not the same, but they work well. I have lined the large part with baking paper to get the banana loaf out later much easier. Baking time is at 180 C for 50 to 60 minutes. I have to check at 50 min, because my oven is going strong.  

There are not much dirty dishes to wash up later. No need to use an electric kitchen helper.

Recipe:

125 g flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 200 g light brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 43 g red Cameroon cocoa

57 g butter melted, 57 g sunflower oil, 1 large free range egg, 1 tsp vanilla extract

3 mashed bananas, 150 semisweet chocolate chips, 60 g chopped walnuts 

Combine the dry ingredients by sifting them in a bowl. Melt the butter in a larger bowl, add oil and vanilla extract. Toss in the bananas. Mix in the dry stuff with a spatula. 

Add choc chips and walnuts and stir and fill the loaf tin. Bake. Let it cool in the tin for 15 min, loose the sides. Take if out and cool on a wire rack. 

Tofu with Kimchi and Pork - Dubu Kimchi

This is based on a recipe from one of my new cookbooks from Aaron Huh from YT aaron & claire.

I used some Daikon Kimchi and Alnatura firm Tofu for this dish. Just bought some pork belly in the morning. Firm tofu is something I hate. That is the reason I doubled the amount of pork belly in my recipe and only used a smaller package of tofu.

The preparation method in this recipe did not help either. Here tofu slices are boiled in water with some toasted sesame oil to firm more up, but staying tasteless (window putty, anyone).

Recipe for 2:

200 g firm tofu, cut in 1 cm slices and 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

300 g pork belly in bite size chunks

1 tsp neutral oil

2 spring onions, 1 medium yellow onion

320 g well fermented kimchi, I used Daikon kimchi

Toasted sesame seeds

Sauce:

1 tbsp Gochugaru hot pepper flakes

1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp corn syrup

1 tsp Dashida

1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Prepare the sauce and set aside for later.

Cut the pork belly and in a little oil golden brown it on all sides. That takes up to 5 min. Take it out of the pan.

Boil some water in a medium large pot. Pour in sesame oil and add the sliced tofu. Lower the heat and cook for 3 min. Take it out and keep it warm.

In the pan chuck in the spring onions and saute them for 30 sec.  Get the chopped kimchi in and cook it as a stir fry for 5 min on medium heat. Now add the onion strips and the pork and pour the sauce over it. Cook for about 5 to 7 min until most of the liquid is gone. Take it off the heat and add the last bit of sesame oil. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

Serve with the tofu slices and some bowl of rice.

The dish with a good amount of meat in ratio to kimchi was great. Eat that with rice and it is a great dinner. Next time I just do not use tofu!

Matzen Brei

This is a Jewish recipe eaten often at Pessach.

But it is a good way to use up leftover Matzen bread. I watched YT Beryl Shereshewsky again and she presented breakfast dishes from around the world.

This was one of them. I googled other recipes and changed mine a bit. An open box of Matzen was sitting in my storage containers for a long time. 

I made Matze Ball Soup a while ago. The expiration date on the box was September 2022. But it was sitting in a closed storage container and looked good. 

The recipe is a bit like a French toast or a Chilaquiles. Leftover bread is used up not to waste it.

 

Recipe for 1:

2 slices Matzen bread crumbled with your hands

150 ml milk

1 egg

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp Maple syrup

1 tsp cherry jam

Pour the milk over the bread and stir it a couple of times. Let it sit 3 min, then drain most of the milk. Do not squeeze the bread out.

Add the egg and mix well. Heat up the butter in a pan and pour in the bread. Stir a couple of times and let it bake for 5 min.

Eat it with some Maple syrup and a dollop of jam.

There are still two portions of Matzenbread left in my box. Now I know what to do with them.

Potato Dumpling Bake or Aschkloß

This is not a recipe. It is more a history lesson of old GDR food from Thuringia or Saxony Anhalt.

The family I helped celebrate the 90th birthday has roots and family members in Saxony Anhalt. The sisters of the birthday girl (88 +86) came for the day. With them they had lots of food. Cream cakes, sausages and a huge cast iron pot filled with a savoury potato dish.

The cast iron pot caught my eye. My friend tried to portion it into small Tupperware containers to freeze for later. Because this dish was her mothers favourite. She struggled to get it done and I took over. 

I asked what that dish contained or what it was called. The answer was Ashkloß (dumpling in ash) and she did not know, because she never ate it.

While I spooned some parts out, I found some chunks of pears and a bit of pork belly and the top of the dish was covered with rusks. The other parts were just light yellow colored and not recognizable. I asked my friend if I could take a portion home with me.

I reheated it in the microwave and started digging through the layers.

The top was rusks. Beneath that a 2 inch thick layer of eggs and milk royal custard. A layer of potato dumpling dough, next quartered pears (not from a jar). Then strips of very fat pork belly and last an other layer of potato dumpling dough.

Some digging around the history and recipes on Google, I found many different versions. Some uses dried plums and bacon.

The ash part of the name was from old times, when bread was baked in a huge wood buring stone oven. After the bread was out of the oven, there was enough heat and ash left to put in some dishes to cook.

It was interesting to taste a very old dish, made by a 92 year old man. Not my favourite, but it fills you up.