Es Timun Serup or Cucumber Drink

My cucumber plant behind the house is very busy. 2 days and 2 huge cucumbers to eat. 

Now I have to keep on my toes to harvest them smaller or earlier, otherwise I need to do lots of cucumber dishes. Wait, my tomatoes are getting red next.

YT Beryl Shereshewsky posted a video with cucumbers this week. This is the first that I remembered. It is from Indonesia.

That looks refreshing. As an evening drink a bit of white rum will make it in to a cocktail.

Ingredients:

1/2 large cucumber, 1/2 lime juiced

3/4 tsp sugar, 1 tsp basil seeds (I used chia seeds because I do not know where to get the basil seeds)

Soda water.

Bloom the seeds for 5 to 10 min and grate the cucumber. Add all ingredients, some ice if you like or put the jar in the fridge to cool down.

Beer Garden Visit

A German Biergarten visit in Summer is a must here. Many locations are available. The best are the ones that are situated under old trees and along lakes or rivers. Taking a bike ride or a strong walk sre many peoples favourites. But most beer gardens are also easy to reach by car.

I took the last model of transportation and went there by car. Outside a small village in the gardens of an old mill. Until 1969 they milled the flour for the locals.

Thd place opened at 3 PM and lots of people walked in with me. After 30 min most of the tables were occupied. Some tables had reservations for later this day.

When I am driving my car, I only drink non alcoholic beverages. The Weizen from Paulaner with 0,00 alc is great on a hot day.

The menu is not very versatile. Mostly cold dishes and some warmed up sausages are served.

I had a sausage plate with bread and gherkins. The sausages were the traditional farmhouse kind.

It was a nice afternoon with 30 C and some good food and beer.

Spaghetti alla Nerano

A pasta dish from Campania, Italy.

The creamy sauce is made with Provolone cheese. A softer kind of cheese that melts very well.

But main component are the fried zucchini slices. 1/3 of them is made in a paste in the food processor, then mixed with hot pasta water and a lot of the grated cheese. On low heat it becomes an emulsion and that clings to the spaghetti. 

Some ripped basil and the whole fried zucchini slices with a lot of freshly ground pepper is a great dish.

We had this sauce with some short pasta at our hotel in Calabria. I complemented the Chef and asked about the sauce. He told me the name and Google was my friend.

Recipe for 2:

175 g spaghetti, 350 g zucchini

1 tbsp olive oil, 80 g Provolone cheese

5 basil leaves, pepper, salt

100 ml oil for frying

Use a mandoline to prep 3 mm thick zucchini slices. Fry them in batches in oil until a little golden. Take them out on kitchen paper and lightly salt them. Put 1/3 in a blender to make a paste.

Cook the spaghetti al dente and serve a glass of pasta water.

In a high pan heat up the olive oil to medium low, toss in the paste and 50 ml pasta water. Add 2/3 of the cheese and let it melt. Add more water for the right consistency. 

Get the spaghetti in and the slices of zucchini. Rip the basil and mix everthing. Add pepper and serve immediately.

Banana Risotto

The long day needed something sweet as a sundowner. But I did not want any alcohol, just sonething creamy to spoon in my mouth on the balcony.

Sweet rice is a great dish and using risotto rice you still have some good consistency. That is better than pudding rice.

The banana was an afterthought. I started to cook the risotto in my Thermomix and looked over the kitchen counter. Yellow black banana was lurking there. Since I used less sugar in the risotto, a bit of natural sweetness sounded great.

Just mashed one banana and waited for the last 5 min of cooking time and dropped the mash in

How to cook sweet risotto in the Thermomix  check my other recipes on this blog.

Ingredients:

170 g Risotto rice, 40 g butter

700 ml whole milk, pinch of salt

1 egg yolk, 1/2 juice of a lemon

30 g sugar, 1 mashed banana, 1 tsp vanilla paste

Farmer's Breakfast

With a fried egg!

This type of one pan food is typical for mountain regions here in Germany. Going for long walks though forests and up and down hills is a pasttime many Germans love. Often walking to a cabin with food in the mountains to enjoy the clean air and wonderful views, and some beer and "breakfast".

Potatoes are a must in this dish. Golden brown slices with onions and some kind of bacon or sausage pieces. 

This time I used Fleischkäse, a cooked sausage meat that is very fine processed, pressed in a loaftin and cooked in the oven until it is a semi soft consistency like a sausage. Cut into thin slices cold on buttered bread, or reheated in a thicker slice stuffed in a bread roll.

A used a thick slice and cut that in 1/2 inch cubes. 

Ingredients:

180 g Fleischkäse, 2 tbsp clarified butter, 4 boiled potatoes, 2 spring onions, 1 egg, 3 tbsp parsley

Salt, pepper

Pickled gherkins

Melt the butter and place the potato slices in the pan without overlapping them. Let them cook on medium high for 5 min. DO NOT SHAKE OR STIR

Turn them and add the chopped onions on top. Season. Now stir and add the sausage meat. Let all take some color.

Make a free space in the pan and add a little more butter to that. Crack in an egg and season it. Chop parsley to garnish and serve.

Vegetable Salad

I used the method of different cutting techniques again. 

First of all, it is fun. Second,  I really think the textures help with enjoying the salad. 

I only wanted something easy and fresh on a hot day.

Looking through my fridge I found a kohlrabi, a red bell pepper and one lonesome carrot. I took my mandoline and made thin carrot discs with it. Kohlrabi battonettes were the next choice.

This year my herbs on the balcony are growing and growing and I can harvest full hands of them. Adding some of them chopped to the salad is wonderful.

The dressing was made from sweet and sour ingredients. The balance was important.

Dressing:

Mango vinegar, olio de lemon

Agave syrup, lemon salt, Asian pepper mix,

Lemon juice

This salad went well with the Filippino Pork.

Asparagus Salad with Capers

This salad recipe is from mycookingloveaffair on Pinterest.

You can eat it right out of the pan as a lunch snack. But at room temperature it is great too. Pair it with some meat or fish, but a piece of fresh bread is a good enough side for this salad.

The combination with caper apples in brine, fresh squeezed orange juice, dill and grated zest makes this salad a tart and sweet dish. Some Dijon mustard helps with the balance.

Recipe:

500 g white asparagus peeled

10 to 12 caper apples

2 stalks fresh dill, 1 green onion shoot

1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper

Zest of 1 oranic orange, juice of 1/2 orange

Heat up the oil in a wide pan and toss in asparagus and quarteted caper apples. On medium high heat give them 10 to 12 min. Stir often.

In a bowl mix the dressing. When the asparagus is done, pour the dressing over it and cut off the heat.