Eggplant with Char Siu Meat and Pasta

The sweet plum like sauce added to the ground meat and the cooked eggplant gives this dish a Chinese style flavour.

The meat is 50:50 ground pork and beef and was browned in the pan with onions and garlic and a freshly harvested chili. The chopped long thin eggplant went in with some seasoning and veg stock paste.

I gave it a try and thought BORING. The eggplant itself is not a flavour bomb, the chili was mild and the meat ok.

I pulled out my drawer with all kinds of vinegars, oils, sauces and spices and stared over the tops of them. A jar from the Chinese aisle caught my eye. Char Siu Sauce.

A couple of teaspoons of this sauce and a sprinkle of 5spice seasoning was all I needed to give the dish a charakter.

I cooked some short pasta and chopped fresh coriander.

Ingredients:

250 g ground pork and beef, 1 tbsp oil, 1 yellow onion, 2 green onions, 3 garlic cloves, red chili

5 long small eggplants, halved and cut in slices

Salt, pepper, 2 tsp veg stock paste, 200 ml water

1/2 tsp 5spice seasoning, 3 tsp Char Siu Sauce

100 g short pasta

Fresh coriander

Calamari fritti with Zeppeline

Fried food to eat often is bad for you, but when you splurge make it count. 

I seldom use a deep fat fryer, I fry in a wok or pot depending on the amount of food to fry. This time I used the wok and 400 ml of sunflower oil.

I will filter it later and reuse it for savoury food two more times.

When you order calamari fritti here in a restaurant, or everywhere else, it is served with French fries. This was the only combo I knew until I saw the YT video from Pizzaiolo Luigi.

He comes from the region of Naples, Italy and cooks often recipes traditional of this area.

No French fries are served here - but something a lot better. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Zeppeline:

200 g "00" flour or AP flour

20 g fresh yeast

200 ml lukewarm water

Pinch of salt. 

Make that in to a dough and let it rest covered for 30 min. 

Heat the oil to 180 C and use 2 wetted teaspoons and scoop pieces in the oil. Fry until golden. Take out on a wirerack and salt.

500 g calamari rings, washed and dried

150 g AP flour, salt and pepper

1/2 lemon in slices

Put the calamari in the flour to coat them. Then use a fine mash sieve to shake off excess flour. Dump them in batches in the hot oil and fry for 4 min. Drain and season.

Side, traditionally served there:

1 head lettuce, washed and ripped in smaller pieces

Juice of 1 lemon

Olive oil

Fresh herbes

Fleur de Sel, pepper

Cheddar and Zucchini Puff Pastry

This is a vegetarian dish with sauteed zucchini and a whole lot of fresh grated Cheddar cheese.

There can never be too much cheese? I bought a block of Cheddar and the grater filled up inside. First I thought, that is way too much cheese. But no.....

The zucchini was chopped and with garlic and green onion sauteed in a little oil. I put some fresh majoram, basil and cellerie leaves in and seasoned it with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. It was spread out on a cold plate to cool down a bit.

The puff pastry got some cream cheese base on one side, then a good seasoning of the Georgian Chemli Suneli spiceblend. I hate nothing more than bland food.

Zucchini on top and lots of Cheddar and fresh ground pepper. Fold over the second half of the puff pastry, then use a breadknife and cut it in squares for pulling it apart later.

Brush it with eggwash and sprinkle black sesame seeds on top.

Bake at 180 C fan for 20 min.

Ingredients:

1 small zucchini

1 green onion, 2 garlic cloves

Fresh herbs

1 tbsp sunflower oil

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika

1 rectangular puff pastry

50 g cream cheese

1 egg

100 g grated cheddar or more

Chemli suneli seasoning, pepper

Black sesame seeds

Panini al Latte or sweet Dinner Rolls

I wanted to give the Italian Manitoba flour an other try. Luckily in the same cooking magazine issue which had the filled Brioche recipe, was this one. It took me some time to prepare it. 

But today was the day. The combination of high protein flour and the "00" flour is awesome and the dough felt so smooth in my hands. 

I did not use much fresh yeast, so the resting times are important. Do not rush the dough, let it have the time it needs to develop. I checked the optimal weight of a piece of raw dough for the panini al latte. Around 80 g a piece are good.

Dough:

50 g softened unsalted butter

150 g Manitoba flour

350 g "00" flour

1/2 tsp salt

10 g fresh yeast

60 g sugar

300 ml warmed milk

Topping:

1 egg yolk + 2 tbsp milk

Poppy seeds and sesame seeds

Put the ingredients for the dough in your kitchen maschine and let it make a dough. Oil a bowl and put the dough in. Cover and let it sit in a warm place 2 hours.

Sprinkle some flour on your work surface and knead the dough for 3 min. Form in to a log and use a kitchen scale to cut 80 g pieces.

Fold them to a ball and set them on baking paper. When they are all done, cover with a kitchen towel and let them rest 30 min.

Preheat your oven 200 C.

Mix egg yolk with milk and brush the rolls, put seeds on top and bake 15 to 17 min.

Black Chickpea Soup

I have never seen black chickpeas before. My BFF gave me a package of them and I was a bit unsure what to do with them.

It is always a good idea to turn the package to the backside and check if there are any serving tips. Well, there were two: add them to a salad or to a soup. Having the first bout of fall these days, a hot soup sounded promising. I started hunting through my fridge and veggie drawer for possible ingredients and leftover proteins.

Such a wild mix of miscelleanous stuff made a very tasty soup in the end. It will be a problem to recreate this soup, because lots of single items and small leftover pieces were added.

I will just give a kind of overview of the ingredients, you just have to get creative with what you've got laying around.

A package precooked black chickpeas

One potato, 2 green onions, 1 red bell pepper, 6 cherry tomatoes, cabbage, parsley

Turkish Sucuk sausage, cooked porkbelly, leftover doner kebap meat

2 chicken stock cubes, Pul Biber seasoning (chili), salt, pepper, oil

Start with the sausage in a little oil to render fat and flavour. Toss in the veggies with the longest cooking time first, then gradually add the others. Season and fill in the water as much as you like and add the stock cubes. The package of chickpeas is next.

Now the leftover cooked meats are next.  Cover and at reduced heat cook until the potato is soft. Add parsley and check the seasoning.

Cole Slaw Asian inspired

A pan full of kraut  - a treat for any German?!

We are called the Krauts, but it is not the number one veggie in most households. Certainly not in mine. 

A whole head of kraut/ cabbage is a lot to prepare and eat in a single household. When I buy some I always look for the smallest ones. But they last at least 3 dishes long and often more.

A small pointed cabbage went in my shopping basket this time and I started cutting from the tip down. It did not take long and I had a lot of shredded cabbage in a colander to wash. Now was the time to decide what to do with it. I made a warm salad.

Ingredients:

250 g shredded cabbage

1 green onion, 2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

Smoked salt, pepper, Baharat seasoning, Gochugaru hot pepper flakes

Toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, Mirin, light soy sauce

White baksamic vinegar 

Fresh coriander

Heat up the olive oil and toss in onions and garlic together with the cabbage. Season eith smoked salt and pepper and cook for 5 min on medium heat. Add the other seasonings in the amount you like best, together with the vinegar.

Lebanese Nights Dessert or Layali Lubnan

I love a good semolina dessert. This time it is highly flavoured with roses. It is often served during Ramadan.

Watching some FB Reel by iamnotachef and discovered a semolina pudding with rosewater. I am a huge fan and have rosewater, rosesyrup and rose petals at home. 

Lets make a rose festival. I made it my own way - not so sickly sweet. I exchanges the amount of sugar in the semolina pudding with Chunky flavour and a tablespoon of rosesyrup. I added an eggyolk at the end to make the dessert more creamy. An extra dash of rosewater blended in. The rose flavour is present now.

I put the semolina pudding in two separat dishes. I will give on to my neighbor later. They have to cool down first. Otherwise the whipped cream will melt on top.

Next step was preparin a syrup. As the name says, it is mostly sugar and water. Usually lots of white caster sugar. But I choose coconut flower sugar. My syrup is dark, but its a nice contrast. Rosewater and lemon were added.

Chopped pistacchios and some rosebuds for garnish later.

Ingredients for 4:

600 ml whole milk

Pinch of salt

3 g Chunky flavour vanilla

1 tbsp rose syrup

80 g fine wheat semolina

1 egg yolk

Syrup:

150 mk water, 3 tbsp coconut flower sugar

1/2 lemon, 3 slices lemon peel

2 tbsp rosewater

Chopped pistacchios, dried rosebuds