Octopus Chunks with Veggie Rice

Cooking after some fun but exhausting days needs to be simple. But ordering something was out of the question.

 

Cooking rice in the rice cooker is easy, but what is there to eat with the rice. The veggie drawer was nearly empty. Only two lonesome carrots and a green onion were there. Enough of the veggie part of my rice dish.

Now I needed some protein. A large jar of white tuna filets - too much. Some canned Tulip breakfast meat (like Spam) not interested. On the same shelf a little blue cardboard box with foreign lable. Spanish! A gift from a friend's holiday. Small enough to take off my hunger and deliver some protein. The picture on the front looked like Octopus. The description said: in girasole = in sunflower oil

I opened the can and it was packed with chunks of ocotopus. I used the sunflower oil to sautee the carrot and onion chunks. A good while until the carrots had softened, then I added a little Noilly Prat to steam them a bit more. Just before the rice was done, I added the ocotopus pieces just to warm through.

A bit black pepper and a little salt and the tasty dish was ready to eat.  

Zuccini Schnitzel in Tomato Sauce

I found a recipe from Chef Mario Kotaska in a newspaper. That gave me the idea for this dish. I changed a couple of things to my liking.

Fake cheese or egg substitues are not in my kitchen repertoire. I use the real deal.

It looks like a lot of work, but the cooking time was about 30 min, not counting the 15 minutes the sliced zucchini had to rest covered in salt.

After the slices were resting in a colander to weep, I started the tomato sauce. That had enough time to cook until the dish was ready to serve. 

As a full dinner, serve it with rice or pasta. I had leftover rice that was reheated in the microwave.

Recipe for 2:

1 larger zucchini

1 red chili, 3 garlic cloves

1 can chunky tomatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

50 ml white wine

Salt, pepper, basil, thyme, majoram

1 tsp agave syrup

2 large eggs

70 g grated Grana Padano

30 g breadcrumbs, pepper

100 g flour, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 Italian herbs

10 green olives

Oil for the pan to fry.

Start with slicing the zucchini diagonal in 1,5 cm pieces. Salt them on both sides and put them in a sieve for 15 min. Then pad them dry.

Chop garlic, take the stalks off the herbs, cut the chili open and start with giving the garlic a nice color. Add chili and then the wine. Now add the tomatoes and clean out the can with a bit of water to add to the pot. In with the herbs, agave syrup, salt and pepper. 

Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat and cook until the zucchini are ready to serve.

On two deep plates arrange the panneing station. One flour and seasoning, the other grated cheese, eggs and breadcrumbs with some pepper.

Heat up enough oil in a wide pan that the bottom is covered 0,5 cm high. Put the zucchini through flour and cheese mix and carefully place in the hot oil. Check if the cheesemix has taken color, then turn. Put on kitchen paper to soak up some oil.

Reheat the rice, put some tomato sauce on and add the olives. Sit the zucchini on top and add a little more sauce and some fresh basil

Rigatoni with Ricotta and Pesto at Lucia

An exciting but tiring day at the Hyundai Experience Drive has ended. I dicided to stay an additional night at the hotel.

Going out for dinner to one of my favourite places was a must. I went to Lucia, an Italian restaurant that serves mostly chicken. Lucky to see the Restaurant open. They close for an extensive renovation end of this week until next March.

This time I was not looking for a chicken dinner. I wanted some pasta. The lady recommended Rigatoni with Ricotta and Pesto. That sounded good.

They are offering year round great cocktails. The Summerwind Cocktail was my choice, coming back from a sunny day in the Eifel.

Hyundai Driving Experience Evening Buffet

I am on the Nuerburgring to take part in a training on the Grand Prix Track with Hyundai. About 40 people are here to learn how to use the track.

After an hour extensive briefing we were invited to a dinner buffet.

A selection of different small jars with beef tartare, grilled chicken pieces, salads of various kinds, the main were Schnitzel, fish and some vegan offers.

On the other ends of the pitbox was the drink station and the dessert and snack station.

The problem was the red lighting of the room. That tinted the photos very red.

One Pot Vienna style Veal and Red Peppers Rice

This is a recipe from Austrian Chef Elisabeth Grabmer.

I cooked some of her recipes before. I love one pot meals. But as many of the Chefs, these recipes need a good time management when you cook them alone in your household kitchen. 

A Sous Chef is missing here.

It is a great way to use up cooked cold rice that has been left over.

Using the basic ingredients twice is a great tip. The red bell peppers and onions been used twice, one time for the sauce that cooks the meat and the other part as vegetables in the rice dish.

Recipe for 2:

380 g veal schnitzel

3 red bell peppers

1 yellow onion, 2 shallots, 3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp sunflower oil

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika

1 tsp caraway seeds, 2 stalks majoram, 1 bay leaf

600 ml veg stock from paste

3 tbsp raspberry vinegar

2 tbsp hot paprika paste, 1 tbsp tomato paste

450 g cooked cold long grain rice (about 175 g raw rice)

35 g Parmesan

Start with chopping the veggies and make two piles. Use a oven proof pan with a lid. Heat up one tbsp of oil and roast one pile for a couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the stock and cook for 10 min. Transfer to a blender and mix. Set aside for later and make a fine mash sieve ready.

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Cut the veal schnitzel in 1 inch cubes, season with salt and pepper. Heat up oil in the same pan and brown the meat all around. Add onions, garlic and red peppers. After 3 more minutes, add both paprika and tomato paste and roast that. 

The raspberry vinegar should deglaze the pan.

Take the sieve over the pan and pour the mixed sauce in. Add bay leave, majoram, caraway seeds. Bring back to a boil, cover with the lid and stick in the oven for 30 min.

Take it out, add the rice and mix it in. Put it back in the oven for 10 more min. If it is too dry now, add a little more stock.

Get the bay leaf and majoram out. Grate some Parmesan over and serve.

 

 

Fig and Almond Cake from Portugal

Fig season is still in full swing. No more jam today.

This is a cake that combines a 50:50 flour and almond dough with toasted almond slices in. The quarteted figs were just set on top and sink in the dough while baking.

Recipe:

8-10 figs

100 g flour

100 g almond flour

Pinch of salt

2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

125 g butter + butter for the baking dish

100 g sugar

50 g dry toasted almond slices

5 drops bitter almond ectract

2 tsp honey

Preheat the oven 200 C.

Use a 26 cm loose bottom baking dish. Butter it.

Beat sugar and butter creamy, add the eggs one after the other beating in between.

Mix the dry ingredients and add them. Do not overmix the dough. Add the toasted almonds and fill it in the dish.

Quarter the figs and take off the top. Set them skin down on the dough.

Bake for 35 to 40 min. After it comes out of the oven, brush it with honey and let it cool down.

Celebrating a Friends 70th Birthday Dinner

We went out to have some food. This restaurant is deep in the middle of the Odenwald in a very small village. 

I have been here a year ago and was surprised about the quality of the food.

Since we went out on a Friday, fish is served in this restaurant as the day's special.

I decided to have the trout set meal. It had 3 courses, but we made it 4 with a dessert.

First course was a celeriac cream soup with sausage dumplings. 

Then a huge mixed salad with lettuce, grated carrots and cole slaw.

The main dish was a baked trout covered in almond slices with potatoes anf caper sauce.

There is always room for ice cream. Walnut ice cream with a mountain of whipped cream on top.