Strawberry Chocolate roasted Almonds

YOGURETTE chocolate covering caramelized almonds in dried strawberry sugar - what is not to like?

Yogurette is a famous chocolate with strawberry cream center. Many love it, I don't.

I had a couple of bars laying around and I needed an idea to use them. Pinterest helped.

Our Christmas markets sell sugar coated roasted almonds. But they got so expensive that last year I made some batches at home in my Air Fryer.

I used the same method this time as well. Only then the fun started. I had an open package of freeze dried strawberries (I needed some for an other recipe) and put the leftovers in a box. 

Now was their time to shine. In a blender with icing sugar and then put in a bigger container with a lid. Be careful, the strawberry dust gets everywhere.

I unwrapped the Yogurette and with some white chocolate I put it in the microwave to melt. 2x30 seconds.

The hot almonds went in a larger bowl, the chocolate went on top and was stirred through. Then all that went in the container with the strawberry sugar and got shaken very well.

Put the almonds then on baking paper to dry them and later store them airtight. The whole apartment smells like strawberry icing.

Separete the loose sugar from the coated almonds with the help of a sieve. Do not throw out the strawberry sugar, use it up for desserts or sweeten your yogurt.

Ingredients:

200 g whole almonds with skin

70 g sugar, 1 tbsp vanilla sugar

3 tbsp water

200 C 13 min in the Air Fryer, stir every 3 min.

Melt strawberry filled milk chocolate 80 g.

Mix 6 tbsp icing sugar with 20 g freeze dried strawberries

Nudja with Beans

Eat it with crusty Italian bread.

This is pour people food from Calabria. For a dish for 2 you will just need 35 g of Nduja. All other protein comes from the beans. I found the idea on Pinterest "anna's table"

I went to our huge Spanish/Italian supermarket across from the Main Station today. I only wanted to buy a bottle of the Spanish sloe and anis liqueur I had tasted yesterday.

But the kinds of supermarkets are dangerous to customers. Going in to get one item ended with getting 10 and spending a lot of money.

But it was worth it.

At the Italian fresh counter I saw a small piece of Nduja. I know very well that a little goes a long way. 68 g later, some Mortadella, Coppa and fresh bread later, I payed for the first items.

Usually white beans (Cannelini) are used for this dish, but I had a can of French light green ones.

Put them in a tomato based sauce and you wont see a difference.

Recipe for 2:

1 medium can of beans

2 shallots

4 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp tomato paste

200 ml veg stock

35 g Nduja

100 ml double cream

35 g Parmesan cheese

Some chopped parsley

Lemon juice

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, Italian herbs

In a pot heat up the oil and give onions and garlic 3 minutes. Now in with the chopped up nduja and the tomato paste. Both need 3 more minutes. In goes the veg stock and the seasoning. Let the nduja cook until it has melted.

Now in with the drained breans. They only need to heat through. That means the cream can go in as well. When it bubbles again, add the cheese and the parsley.

Serve it with crusty bread.

Apple "Marshmallows" Viral

The new Insta/TikTok Reel are these "marshmallows". I have no idea who came up with this recipe in the first place.

The wobbly chunky substance tastes great and very much only like apple. It does not have any resemblance or sticky sweetness of a marshmallow.

BUT IT IS VERY TASTY and not overly sweet. Just the natural sweetness of a tart apple.

When you try it, make sure to use a good standing electric kitchen machine. The hot applesauce needs 20 minutes of high speed turning with a balloon whisk. The handheld ones do not have the speed and endurance for a 20 min whisk.

I saw many failures on line, most were using a handheld electric whisk.

Peel and core the apples and weigh them. You need 600 g of apple chunks. Juice of 1/2 lemon and 50 ml water. 2 tsp of vanilla sugar added to the pot.

20 gelatine leaves need soaking in water for 10 min. Squeeze the water out.

Cook with a lid until the apples are mush. Take a stickblender to make applesauce. Put in the gelatine immediately to dissolve it completely.

Pour the hot applesauce now in your standmixer and on high speed whisk it for 3 min, then go to halfspeed and whisk 15 min. In the end 2 more min on high.

Use a 25x13 cm dish and put baking paper in. Pour the foamy mass in and cover with clingfilm directly on the surface.

Put in the fridge for 5 hours. Do not try it earlier. Get it out and cut off cubes and enjoy.

But do not be dissapointed, the block that came out of the dish after 5 hours cooling time reminded me of a block of polenta I had to cut.

And it tastes like apples! No wonder! Not unpleasant and only a little sweet.

Ingredients:

700 g Braeburn apples to get 600 g

1/2 lemon

50 ml water

1 package vanilla sugar

20 gelatine leaves.

Breakfast Omelet

Two slices of good cornmeal bread on top of the eggs waiting to be turned around. We have a bakery that uses coarser cornmeal mixed with wheat flour to bake this excellent bread. It keeps fresh for a longer time.

The pan is big and I needed a plate to turn the omelet the first time. 

I used two slices of Tilsiter cheese. A very intense tasting one. Open the package and the smell wafts out

A bit of MAGGI hot and sweet to balance out the richness.

Ingredients:

3 eggs

50 ml milk

Salt, pepper

2 slices cornmeal bread

30 g butter

2 slices Tilsiter cheese

MAGGI hot and sweet sauce

Eating out at Spanish Restaurant Tennisclub

I am still celebrating my birthday, even it was 3 weeks ago.

I went with friends for lunch in a Spanish restaurant that I visited the last time decades ago.

It has not changed much and the food is still very tasty. Sunday is the only day they serve lunch. All other days only dinner. It was a very good idea to reserve a table a week in advance.

The restaurant filled up very quickly.  They have Paellas and lots of seafood dishes on the menu. 

The kitchen staff had lots of work, but the food did not take too long and it was hot and fresh.

I opted for grilled calamari with fries and salad.

My friend had a mixed seafood platter with salad and her husband paella for 1. The paella for one gave them leftovers for 2 to take home for tomorrow.

As a digestiv we had Pacharan, a Sloe and Anis Liqueur from the Navarra region in the North of Spain.

I don't know why I have waited that long time to go there to eat.

Pierogi Ruskie

A Polisch/Slesian supermarket near by has lots of intetesting ingredients.

Since my visit to Poland I know my way around. Our big German supermarket EDEKA has a huge international isle and things from Poland are good. But for the more special stuff you have to go to the Shop.

Lots of pickles, beets and gherkins can be found there. Many done with the milk acid fermentation. Easy to spot because the liquid is cloudy.

Beside some gherkins in that cloudy nrine I looked through the huge fridge section.

Dairy products, some a bit different to what I usually use and lots of dumplings or Pierogi.

The dough is a lot thicker than the dumpling skin you see in other countries. The fillings are from vegetarian to meat filled.

Since they are fresh, they need only 4 minutes in boiling water.

I choose the Ruskie way. Potato and Curd. For some meat I used smoked ham cubes and together with red onions sauteed on top the Pierogi were great.

A good dollop of Smetana or sour cream as a finish.

Arroz Caldo Filipino style

Chicken stew with glutenous rice and jasmine rice and lots and lots of garlic. Jujumao showed it in his soup season reels that can heal any illness.

If you don't like garlic, look for an other chicken and rice dish. There are only different kinds of onions and ginger in here. Other vegetables are not used.

Like it more soup like, add more chicken stock. But I prefare the stew version.

Recipe for 3:

700 g chicken thighs

1 1/2   head of garlic

4 cm ginger

1 onion, 1 shallot, 1 spring onion

4 tbsp fish sauce

1 rice cooker cup Jasmine rice

1 rice cooker cup white glutenous rice

1 liter of chicken stock

2 tsp tumeric

1 tsp safflour

Pepper

Lemon juice

3 hard boiled eggs

Mis en place is the motto of the day. After peeling and chopping an armada of garlic cloves, I started the first batch in the wok in some oil to fry for the finishing touch. 

Out of the wok and after adding a little more oi in with the onions (except the green 

part of the spring onion), the ginger and the huge amount of garlic.

That takes a couple of minutes until everything is soft. Now add tumeric, saffron and fish sauce. Cook that 2 more minutes.

Srape it to the side and place the chicken thighs in skinside down. Let them take color then flip and sear the other side.

Wash the two kinds of rice and add them. Let them soak up the color. Now in with 2/3 of the warm or hot chicken stock. Season with pepper.

Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and reduce the heat. Let it cook 25 min.

The chicken thighs I used were bone in. That makes them more tasty, but need longer cooking time. Just minutes before the rice was ready, I took them out and chopped them up to finish in the stew.

Last step, pour fried garlic, onion greens over the rice and set peeled and halved eggs on top. Squeeze the lemon on top.