Monday; pork steaks with bacon and pears

Wrapping up a savory pear trifecta: another recipe from Le Menu.

Season a couple of 3cm thick pork loin steaks well, sear on both sides, and then transfer to a 80C oven. Brown some diced bacon in a bit of clarified butter; add minced onion and cook until soft; add 2dl apple juice and 2dl beef bouillon and reduce by half; add 1.8dl of temperature-stable light cream (saucen halbrahm), a small amount of birnendicksaft, and 2 pears that have been cored and thickly sliced and bring to a simmer. Serve with the pork steaks.

We ate this with cauliflower and spaetzle and were very, very pleased; this is great stuff.

Oh yes, and a big green salad.

Sunday: beans bacon and pears

We've done this one before, but it turned out more satisfactorily last time. I guess the pears weren't quite right because this just didn't do it for us.

Saturday: spaghetti with ground beef and pears

Pear season is starting, so it's time to start the savory dishes with pears. This year's first entry is an old favorite from Le Menu. After last time's success with it, I added curry paste (this time red curry) again and we were both really happy with the results.

Of course we had a big green salad on the side.

Saturday: corn fritters

This week we got what was probably the last two corn of the year in the biokiste. Not quite sure where the idea came from but this seemed like a good way to use it:

Chop some smoked bacon into medium dice. Brown it a bit, then drain it (keep the fat) and set it aside. Cut the kernels off a couple cobs of corn, add minced onion, garlic, the bacon, salt, and sweet paprika and mix well. Stir in a couple of eggs, some milk, and enough flour to make a very thick batter. Add some peanut oil to the reserved bacon fat and get the oil good and hot. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the oil and cook until nicely browned.

We ate this with a quick salsa of tomatoes, minced onion, garlic, salt, piment d'espelette, chipotle tabasco, and crema de pepperoni.

As sides we did steamed potatoes with leftover mayo and a big green salad.

Good food, very good food.

Friday : a meal based around a sauce

The idea started with a couple of wedges of iceberg lettuce. These led me to the idea of making mayonnaise, which led to fish. The potatoes were obvious from there.

I started with the mayo: ratio from Ratio, with plenty of lemon and a good quantity of piment d'espelette. I stirred some chives into the finished product.

On the plates were: fish, potatoes, tomatoes, and the iceberg wedges that started the idea.

For the fish I did Goldbutt (plaice) fillets seasoned with salt and pepper and then sautéed on one side. The potatoes were simply steamed.

As a vegetable side I sautéed zucchini with onion and finished it with some chopped basil.

A really nice and simple meal.

Thursday: southeast asian ground pork patties

I've done this idea multiple times: ground pork mixed with minced lemongrass, thai chili, keffir lime leaf, and fish sauce and then formed into patties and pan fried. To accompany this time I made a lime-caramel sauce (gastrique).

Bread and a big green salad were the accompaniments

Wednesday: roesti and green beans

The joys of simplicity: a good rösti, green beans cooked with savory until quite soft and then mixed with sour cream, and a big green salad.

Monday at the grill

There hasn't been enough grilling this summer, so I took advantage of the fantastic weather yesterday to at least partially lower the deficit. The food ideas were from the Gourmet Today cookbook, which I conveniently have via the Kindle store (what great technology to have).

I did chicken paillards with nectarine chutney (nectarines, tomato, sugar, cider vinegar, salt) and a grilled fennel (steamed first, a great idea) and zucchini salad tossed with a lemon-garlic vinaigrette.

Together with some lettuce and a nice loaf of bread, this made for quite a good meal.

Sunday: tortilla

A quick one after getting back from a hike:

Slice some peeled potatoes and slice them 1/2cm thick; steam until about cooked. Meanwhile sauté some onions in olive oil until they start to take on some color. Layer the potatoes in a pan with hot olive oil, top with onions, pour over eggs scrambled with paprika, piment d'espelette, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Let cook until the eggs are cooked on top then cut into wedges and serve.

Yes, there was the usual salad accompanying this.

Thursday: veal with chilies

Driven by some half-priced veal stew meat I found at the Coop:

Sauté bite-sized veal chunks in rapeseed oil until they're nicely colored; add diced onion and yellow carrot and cook until the carrot softens a bit; add ground cumin, and both sweet and hot paprika and cook a couple more minutes until the spices are aromatic; add white wine and reduce a bit then add beef bouillon to almost cover the veal; cover and let simmer. In the meantime, seed some dried guajillo chiles and soak them in a small amount of water; after they soften puree them and then add the puree to the simmering veal. Shortly before serving add some sour cream, minced garlic, and chipotle sauce to taste; let simmer another couple minutes and then serve.

We ate this with parboiled rice, sautéed zucchini, and the usual green salad.

Wednesday: pork and green beans

Plenty of green beans in the biokiste and everyone knows how well beans of any kind go with smoked pork:

Cook diced onion and carrots in olive oil until the onion softens; add green beans cut into bite-sized pieces along with a few sprigs of savory and a splash of white wine; cover and let simmer until the beans are a few minutes from being done, then add some diced smoked pork loin and simmer until the beans are done and the pork is heated through.

We ate this with diced potatoes sauteed in olive oil on the side and a big green salad.

Monday: pesto

There was a lot of basil in the biokiste this week, so I did a batch of pesto rosso: basil, dried tomatoes, garlic, toasted pine nuts, parmesan, olive oil.

We ate this with spaghetti and a big green salad and were extremely happy.

Sunday at the grill

A standard night at the grill: sausages, a steak, and grilled vegetable salad (peppers, onion, zucchini, corn, basil, olive oil, balsamico).

standard, but oh so good

Thursday: pasta with tomatoes and chickpeas

From the Splendid Table mailing:

Combine chopped fresh tomato, minced garlic, chickpeas, basil, balsamico, and olive oil and let stand for 30 minutes. Serve over penne.

Very simple, very nice.

Wednesday: chopped salad with steak

Another one of those "using vegetables up" ideas:

Mash some garlic and combine with minced onion, finely chopped celery, salt, lemon juice, some white balsamico, and rapeseed oil. Dice a zucchini small (1cm) and microwave it a minute or so to kill the raw taste then stir into the rest. Repeat that process with a fennel bulb. Add diced (1cm) carrot. Add chopped basil, mix well, and let it all stand for a while to marinate. Serve on a bed of lettuce.

Season a piece of sirloin well, cook it to rare in the grill pan, slice thinly after letting it rest, and serve beside the salad.

mmmmmm