Golden Milk Panna Cotta

I ordered a couple of spices online at gewuerze-der-welt and received a promo package of Golden Milk with an attached recipe card.

Since I am leaving in a couple of days to go on holiday, checking my fridge was essencial. I found enough double cream to prepare the recipe. 

I am good in adjusting all kinds of recipes, that's what I did here too.

Recipe for 4:

500 ml double cream

1 1/2 tbsp Golden Milk

1 tsp cardamom and cinnamon sugar

25 g sugar

1/2 grated Tonka bean

4 gelatine leaves, soaked and squeezed

Pomegranate seeds as topping

Bring the cream with all the ingredients, except the gelatine to a boil. 

Take it off the heat and stir in the squishy gelatine until it is dissolved completely. Fill in jars and cool for 4 hours.

Garnish with pomegranate seeds.

Dinner at a Friends House

It was a long time since we had Dinner together.

Lots of things have changed, but the awesome way to cook food did not. We celebrated the start of the year 2024 late, but in style.

Icy roads and winter theme was the name of the game for the first course.

The starter was a Snowman with a baked tree. Two balls of cream cheese rolled in grated Parmesan and stacked together with a toothpick. Fun to see and tasty to eat.

Our next winter theme was an Austrian sausage goulash. Hearty and good to warm the belly. Wieners, bacon and potatoes were the main ingredients. Chopped Tabasco pepper added spice to the dish.

We finished our dinner with an Applestrudel on cream with beechnuts.

These beechnuts were cooked. I loved to pick these up as a child and eat them raw. But not too many, because they are poisenous and contain hydrocynaid acid. That goes away when you cook them.

Friendship and Food, two things that goes together so well.

 

Block cut deep fried Potatoes

I am not a huge fan of French Fries. But I found a different kind of fries.

This is from Poppy Cooks. I watched her on SortedFood and saw a couple of her Reels. She is a potato lover and comes up with tasty recipes.

The right size of potatoes was the first problem and the right kind. Super starchy or not, that was the question. I went for the intermediate ones. In Germany called: überwiegend festkochend.

I picked the biggest of the bunch. But next time I have to look out for larger ones at the supermarket.

Peel them, top and tail them and cut off the sides to shape the potato in to a block. I was not so stricked about that, so some of the blocks were a little bend out of shape.

I boiled them in salted water for 5 min and drained them to cool down completely.

The first deep fry was at 130 C for 8 min. I took one piece out and cut that in the middle. It was fluffy inside. I took them out of the fryer and cooled them 5 min.

The heat went uo to 180 C and it took 4 min for the potato blocks to get the dark golden color.

I soaked some Patatas Bravas seasoning in water for 3 min, added Chipotle oil and 100 g curd to it. That was my dip.

 

Cinnamon Apple Puff Pastry

A light sweet snack for coffee with a friend later.

I wanted to bake this around the holidays, but too much food prevented me from baking more food. Now the puff pastry was near the expiration date and in need of a recipe.

Apples are a staple in my house, small jars of applesauce too. One never knows when I have a stack of potato pancakes that needs applesauce. And making potato pnacakes from scratch and stewing apples is too much work. The applesauce is from a local producer and not too sweet. That is often my choice.

In this recipe I only needed 2 tablespoons of applesauce. It gets mixed in with the chopped apples that are first doused in cinnamon sugar.

Cut off 50% from the puff pastry as a lid for later. Spread the apple mix on top, but leave 1 cm of pastry edge clean. Fold the lid over and take a fork to seal the edges.

Brush the top with egg yolk. Now use your pizza cutter and make 6 squares.

The preheated oven at 180 C fan. Bake for 20 min. You can put icing sugar on top.

Ingredients:

1 fresh butter puff pastry

1 egg yolk

1 large or 2 small apples

2 tbsp applesauce

1 tsp sugar mixed 1 /2 tsp cinnamon

Cashew Chicken Korean style

This is a recipe from YT Aaron & Claire. I saw this last weekend and knew I had to make it.

Ingredients were in the fridge and all the sauces are a staple in my cupboard. I marinated the chicken for an hour, but I think that is not really needed. Just mix the chicken with its marinate and let it sit aside while you prepare the other stuff.

This is a take-out dish. The Thai version is available even here in Germany. But I stuck with the Korean style. In 30 minutes the food can be served. But only if you have a rice cooker that is fast enough.

Recipe:

400 g chicken thighs boneless

3 green onions, 1 yellow onion, 4 garlic cloves, 1 knob of ginger

1 yellow bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper

1/2 cup unsalted cashews

1 tbsp neutral oil

Marinate:

1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp oil, white pepper, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

Sauce:

1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 4 tbsp cornstarch, 7 tbsp water, 1 tbsp chicken powder, white pepper, 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

I used skinless chicken and cut that in bite size chunks. They went in the marinate for 1 hour in the fridge.

I cut onion in slices and peppers in chunks. I separated the white part of the green onion from the green part. The green was cut in 1 inch pieces and kept for garnish.

To the white part went the chopped garlic and the grated ginger.

Then I made the sauce in a small bowl.

Now start the rice and heat up the wok with 2 tbsp of oil.

Fry the cashews first and keep an eye on them. They will burn! Take them out of the wok. Now in with the chicken. Let it sit on high heat for 3 to 4 min, then start turning it and cooking it through. Place it in a small bowl and cover with a plate. The remaining heat will help cooking it through.

Add some oil to the wok and drop the aromates in /garlic, ginger, onion whites and toss them a couple of times. Now add the peppers and yellow onion. Give them 2 min. They should stay crunchy. 

Now in with the chicken and cashews and the sauce. That will thicken everything. Gradually add a bit more water if needed.

Finish with onion greens and serve on top of hot rice.

 

 

 

Carrot Banana Milk Drink

The 3 ingredients in the title are all you need.

A strong blender is the kitchen tool of choice. 

Peel the carrots and the banana and measure the milk. Put everything in the blender and give it a long whirl.

Ingredients:

100 g carrot, 1 banana, 200 ml milk

Filippino Pork Adobo

Vinegar, black pepper, soy sauce and bay leaves - that is the base flavour of all Adobo dishes. I love this combination.

This time pork belly is the star. It was on sale at my local butcher and inspired me to cook the recipe. Not much work to do. After I did my Mis en Place, I started the rice cooker. The dish and the rice were ready together.

I used Chinese black vinegar. But if you do not have any, use light rice vinegar and a dash of balsamico. The dark soy sauce will give the color then. But the coconut milk makes it a lot less dark and it takes away a bit of the vinegar taste. Just use enough of it in the first place.

Recipe for 2:

350 g pork belly

2 red onions, 1 shallot, 3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp oil

5 tbsp black Chinese vinegar, 2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1/2 chicken stock cube, 200 ml water, 1 heaped tbsp brown sugar, 3 bay leaves, 2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

200 ml coconut milk, 1 spring onion

Basmati rice

Discard the thick skin from the pork belly, then cut it in thinner slices. Season with your favourite rub.

Chop the onions and sauté them in oil. After 3 min add the pork and let it brown. Pour in all the sauce ingredients, but save the coconut milk for later. On high reduce the dark sauce, then add the coconut milk.

Serve on top cooked rice and add some spring onions.