Wednesday teriyaki

Making teriyaki has been on the list for a while, particularly after having lunch at Tokyo Subway when we were in CA.

I guess it's been quite a couple years since the last time I did this.

To go on top of the rice with the chicken I did: chopped, steamed spinach tossed with sesame oil, salt, and a bit of mirin; and carrot cut into ribbons, then briefly cooked (microwave) and tossed with salt and tossed with rice vinegar and mirin.

As a vegetable side I braised some diced kohlrabi and cabbage with soy and sake.

Tuesday basics

Last night I did two very simple dishes:

1. schnitzel: pork loin pounded thin, seasoned with salt and piment d'esplette, and breaded; served with lemon
2. saffron risotto: onion, rice, saffron, white wine, stock

Combined with a green salad, these made a really nice meal.

Monday: Joe's special

Given the big bag of spinach from the biokiste, making Joe's special was pretty much a must. No deviation from standard practice here.

Sunday: Roesti

To go with the leftover bbq pork I did a rösti. On the side we had steamed kohlrabi sticks with herbed quark and a big carrot salad with a citrus vinaigrette (lime, lemon, orange, rapeseed oil, tabasco, cilantro, salt).

Saturday barbecue

It's not quite summer yet, but the weather was acting summery, so we had friends over and did a southern barbecue:

1. margaritas
2. pork shoulder rubbed with "All South" rub (I substituted hot paprika for the chili powder and cayenne), smoked over hardwood logs, and basted with beer. Served sliced.
3. beacon butcher barbecue sauce
4. cole slaw ("Tidewater Coleslaw")
5. baked beans ("Grandma Wetzler's Baked Beans")
6. cornbread (my usual variation with extra corn meal and whole sweet corn)

With the exception of the margaritas and barbecue sauce, the recipes are all from Thrill of the Grill.

Altogether an excellent kickoff to grill season.

Another loaf of bread

Friday morning I started another loaf of the rye version of no-knead bread; this morning I finished it. This loaf ended up somewhat squat and ugly (I chose a bad shape when letting it rise) but it still tastes great.

Thursday's salads

Last night I did a collection of salads to celebrate being back and having a big new biokiste to work with:

1. potato salad with vegetable broth from a recipe in Wiener (this was the main driver of the idea... there were lots of potatoes to use)
2. diced steamed beets tossed with olive oil, balsamico, rosemary, salt, and white pepper
3. steamed kohlrabi sticks with lettuce and herb quark (chervil, tarragon, parsley)

We also did bread and cheese.

Tuesday: Asian chicken salad

A quick one to help recover from the flight back from CA:

Thinly slice some cabbage and toss with lemon juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Toss in thinly sliced onion, grated carrot, and some coarsely chopped cilantro leaves. Let stand 30 minutes, tossing occasionally. Before serving toss with some sesame oil. Serve on lettuce, topped with shredded chicken (I use a rotisserie chicken from the Coop), and peanuts. Garnish with some quick-pickled cucumbers (thinly slice, 20 minutes with salt, rinse, ring out, toss with rice vinegar).

We ate this with bread and a nice white wine and were quite pleased.

SF Restaurant notes part 3

1. Thursday: Hong Kong Chinese (Lunch, Mtn. View)
2. Friday: Tokyo Subway (Lunch, Menlo Park)
3. Saturday: Lunch at Jon and Cati's
4. Sunday: La Fiesta (Mtn View)

SF Restaurant notes part 2

1. Tuesday: Bouchon (Yountville) for lunch; Willi's Seafood and Raw Bar (Healdsburg)
2. Wednesday: Bistro Ralph (Healdsburg)

Food combination note for later: roasted asparagus with white miso and lemon

SF restaurant notes part 1

1. Wednesday : BoBo's Steakhouse
2. Thursday : Lake Chalet Restaurant (Oakland)
3. Friday : Blue Plate
4. Monday : La Briciola
5. Tuesday : Eddie Rickenbackers (lunch), Kate O'Briens
6. Wednesday : Thirsty Bear
7. Thursday : Chaat Cafe (lunch), House of Nanking
8. Friday : Out the Door (lunch), Baloompie pupuseria
9. Saturday : La Corneta Taqueria (lunch), Steve and Dianna's
10. Sunday : Cliff House (brunch), Henry's Hunan
11. Monday : Chaat Cafe (lunch), Colibri

Thursday: mashed potatoes with arugula and goat cheese

A somewhat random idea driven by the bunch of arugula we had from the biokiste: cook mashing potatoes in their skin, then peel them hot and transfer to a double boiler. Mash the potatoes with some salt and good olive oil. Add chopped goat cheese (not chevre... I used a bio goat cheese from Spitzebärg that I found at Coop) and mix until the cheese melts. Stir in a bunch of chopped arugula and let stand a few minutes so that the greens have a chance to wilt a bit. Serve sprinkled with fleur de sel.

This is a really nice side that almost qualifies as a main dish. I made simple french omelets with chives to complete the meal.

Wednesday: Sauerkraut and sausage

I actually made this Tuesday night, but we didn't eat it until tonight.

The usual quick weeknight sauerkraut thing: cook the cabbage with some white wine and add a saucisson vaudoise for the last 30 minutes of simmering.

Tuesday: Topinambur soup

I needed to use the last of the topinambur from the box, so I tried another recipe from Wiener. This time I monkeyed around with the recipe a bit based on the ingredients in the house, so I used milk instead of cream (though I did add a bit of butter to compensate) and normal brown mushrooms instead of porcini.

We ate this with bread and a green salad. I also made some sauerkraut with saucisson vaudoise, but we ate enough soup and bread that the sauerkraut got pushed a night.

I'm sure it would have been considerably better with porcini, but the soup was quite nice as is.

Sunday: Pasta with lentils and gorgonzola

Another pasta and lentils idea from Wiener, but this time I followed the recipe. :-)

And what a recipe it is... this cookbook is rapidly becoming a favorite.

Saturday: chicken with almond-cress sauce and semolina croquettes

An interesting sounding recipe from the current Le Menu.

The chicken breasts are braided (to make zopf shapes), fastened with a toothpick, seasoned, browned, and then cooked in a low oven (90C) until done.

The sauce is made by adding minced garlic to a light roux and cooking for a minute, adding chicken stock and simmering for 5 minutes, adding cress and pureeing, and then stirring in some lightly-whipped cream and adjusting seasonings.

For the dumplings cook 75g semolina with 375ml milk-water until it forms a thick paste, cook gently for 5 minutes, let cool, stir in two egg yolks, 75g flour, salt, 30g grated parmesan cheese, and let cool. Make croquettes (could be done by piping them, but I didn't), coat with bread crumbs (probably optional if piping), and then cook in clarified butter until nicely browned in both sides. Hold in the low oven with the chicken until ready to serve.

Serve the chicken and croquettes on top of a layer of sauce. Top the chicken with toasted almond flakes and some more cress as a garnish.

I did a endive and orange salad (dressing: orange juice, olive oil, toasted cumin, salt, and black pepper) to accompany this.

It was a nice meal.

Wednesday: fondue gratin

An approach for using up leftover fondue.

We did a normal gratin with potato and celery root thinly cut on the ceramic slicer layered with thin slices of dry smoked ham and a sauce made from milk, sour cream, potato starch, garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, bay leaf, cloves, and black pepper. After Andrea built it, we topped it with leftover fondue that I had crumbled and mixed with bread crumbs. I used the usual baking scheme: 40 minutes covered, 20 minutes open.

mmmmm, good stuff.

Tuesday : "tortilla pie"

There were tortillas left that needed to be used...

Brown some ground meat (mixed pork and beef) with salt, transfer to a bowl. Cook some diced onion in the same pan for a couple of minutes. Add back the ground meat along with some water and some prepared mole (I mixed these together to start with). It should be soupy. Simmer for a few minutes and adjust salt (not too much here though... feta is coming).

Layer the meat/sauce mixture on tortillas with thinly sliced onion, corn, and feta cheese, top with a layer of sauce and some grated cheese and then bake for 20-30 minutes.

Another simple (since the mole came from a jar) winner.

Monday: fusiony quesadillas

Kind of a random thing for a work night.

The sauce: soak some ripped up dried chipotles for a bit in hot water. Saute diced onion and garlic in a bit of neutral oil until the onion starts to soften. Add cumin seeds and some ground coriander and toast for a couple of minutes. Add a good amount of sweet paprika and toast a few seconds. Add canned tomatoes, the chipotles, and the soaking water and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Puree well with a stick blender.

The pork: saute finely chopped pork (geschnetzeltes) in neutral oil over high heat with some salt. When it's about done add some garlic paste and cook another 30 seconds. Transfer to a bowl.

The quesadillas: on each tortilla place some pork, grated cheese (I used Emmentaler, because that's what was in the fridge), thinly sliced onion, and some corn. Fold in half and bake for 10 minutes.

Before serving pour whatever liquid has collected in the pork dish to the tomato sauce and adjust seasonings of the sauce. Serve the quesadillas on top of the sauce, with sour cream and additional sauce on the side.

Very nice.

Nanorestaurant Review: Gasthof Baeren (Eggiwil)

One smiley face. What one hopes for in a good "dorfbeiz".

• Food: Swiss standards, well prepared
• Service: good
• Atmosphere: pleasant; two thumbs up for being non-smoking
  

Wednesday: pasta with beans

A recipe from Hazan that I somehow haven't done before: Embogne. It's a sauce made from beans (kidneys in my case), the bean liquid, minced bacon, onion, garlic, sage, and rosemary. Served over pappardelle with copious parmesan, this made for a really good meal.

Monday: Risotto and Pork tenderloin

For the risotto we used onions, garlic, diced carrots, and radicchio. Kristen did the stirring. :-)

For the pork I made a relish (salsa, pesto, whatever) from finely diced dried tomatoes, chopped pine nuts, parsley, smashed garlic, minced onion, balsamico, salt, and rapeseed oil. The tenderloin itself I browned on all sides and then did in a slow oven (80C) until it hit serving temperature.

Verrrrry nice.

Sunday fondue

Always a winner with visitors: cheese fondue and a big salad

Saturday choucroute

We have family visiting, so I kicked things off last night with a choucroute: Cook diced onion, carrot, and leek with some lardons in a bit of rapeseed oil for a few minutes. Add rinsed sauerkraut, bay leaves, lightly crushed juniper berries, and caraway and mix well. Transfer to a baking dish and top with a couple bratwurst. Bake at 175 for a bit, then add a schuffeli and some wienerli and bake a while longer. Serve with steamed potato wedges, pickles, and grainy mustard.

Friday: rigatoni with red cabbage and sausage

The usual biokiste-driven improv: lightly brown some sliced bratwurst. Add leek, diced carrot, and minced garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add chopped red cabbage and a good pinch of salt and let cook another couple minues. Add good chicken stock, some diced dried tomatoes, a bay leaf, and a bit of tomato paste and simmer until the cabbage is ready to eat. Serve over rigatoni.

Wednesday chickpea ragout

Bit of a Spanish-influenced improv: cook onion and garlic in some olive oil with a few piri piri chilis. Add diced salami, diced yellow carrot, ground cumin, and ground coriander and saute a bit longer, add drained chickpeas and a good amount of sherry. Let the sherry reduce. Add good chicken stock and let it reduce. Add some tomato puree and a couple bay leaves. Let the whole thing simmer 15-20 minutes.

Serve with brown rice and a big salad.

Tuesday leftovers

To use the leftover mashed potatoes I did some quick croquettes: mix the potatoes with grated cheese and some black pepper, form them, roll them in bread crumbs, and then cook with olive oil. It would not have hurt to add an egg or two to add structural integrity for the pan cooking part, but these still tasted quite nice, particularly with the mustard sauce.

We also had pork chop, sauerkraut, and some cornbread. All quite randome, but good.

Sunday: Chili and cornbread

For the chili: browned beef, soaked kidney beans, garlic, onion, red wine vinegar, water, some tomato puree, toasted cumin (whole) and coriander (coarsely ground), dried arbol and New Mexico chilis, soy sauce, oregano.

I did the chili in the slow cooker on Saturday and reheated it last night.

Something wasn't quite right with the cornbread. I ended up using a different measuring cup for the milk and I think there was too much liquid. The flavor was just fine, but the texture was too dense.

Saturday: pork with mustard sauce, sauerkraut

For the pork: Coat boneless pork loin chops with a marinade of both grainy and normal mustard and dry vermouth; let stand for a couple hours; cook in a 85C oven until the interior temp is 65C.

For the sauce (inspired by something in the Niedergaren cookbook): reduce a mixture of good chicken stock and white wine by 2/3. Whisk in some hot mustard (Loewensenf) and a corn starch slurry. Add a bit of sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in whatever liquid collects around the pork just before serving.

The sauerkraut was from the biokiste, I just heated it up.

As a side (and additional use for the sauce) we did mashed potatoes.

Nice food.

Sunday soup

This was to help Andrea recover from her cold and use up the chicken breasts from the tagine bird.

I started with a stock made by roasting a couple chicken carcasses then cooking them with leeks, carrot, onion, celery root, garlic, clove, bay leaf, and pepper. To make the soup I added diced carrot, leek, chicken breast (cut small), cooked macaroni, chopped basil (from the freezer), and light cream.

Saturday tagine

This was the Bittman chicken-chickpea-vanilla tagine. I toasted the spices first to add some extra oomph.

We ate it with flatbread and some eggplant puree (eggplant roasted in the peel, then pureed with olive oil, salt, lemon juice, and a bit of chipotle tabasco).

mmmm, ooomph!

Another bread

A repeat of the rye version of the bread to have for breakfast.

mmmm, good.

Friday: a random curry

Somewhat random curry: tofu, dried shrimp, green curry, onion, chili, lime leaf, lemon grass, lime juice, etc.

Not my best effort, but it certainly wasn't poison.

Lentil soup

A simple soup: lentils, carrots, celery root, leeks, and beef broth and diced beef from Sunday.

mmm, lentil soup and rye bread

The next bread experiment

Another round of no-knead bread. This time I added some coarsely ground rye flour: 150g rye, 300g bauernmehl, 350g water.

Wow does this method produce some good bread.

Monday: Choucroute simple

On Saturday we had grabbed some sauerkraut from the Alsatian farmer we like. That stuff is so good that there's no need to do much to it: cook some diced onion in a bit of rapeseed oil; add caraway seeds, crushed juniper berries, and a bay leaf; add white wine and rinsed sauerkraut and cook for 5-10 minutes; add a saucisson vaudoise (mmmm), cover and cook gently for 10-15 minutes; serve with grainy mustard and pickles.

Sunday miscellany

Kind of a random evening:

1. Beef brisket simmered with carrot, celery, onion, garlic, bay leaf, clove, allspice, fennel, sliced and served with a horseradish-cream sauce
2. Oven-roasted potatoes
3. Butternut squash diced and cooked with some butter in a pan until soft, then mashed with salt, nutmeg, white pepper, and lime juice.

Random, but good. :-)

Saturday bread

Another batch of no knead bread from the base recipe. This time cooked in the romertopf instead of the enameled pot. Another great success. This stuff is really good.

Friday: frikadellen, rice pilaf

A simple one for Friday night.
For the frikadellen: pork, minced red onion, salt, piment d'espelette.
For the pilaf: chopped onion, garlic, diced carrot, diced celery root, chicken bouillon, par boiled rice with wild rice.
As a vegetable side: chicory braised in a bit of olive oil

Wednesday: tomato-leek soup, bread, miscellaneous veggies

I read the Bittman article about Jim Lahey's no-knead bread back when it came out and the idea has been kicking around in the back of my head ever since, but I never got around to actually making it until this week. We have no problem finding good bread, but a bit of DIY is always fun and wow is that a simple way to get good bread. Will probably be making this recipe (and variations) a regular thing. I followed the ratios from the new edition of Bittman but made a smaller quantity (3/4 recipe: 450g flour to 340g water).

To go with the bread (heh), I did some tomato-leek soup with: tomato puree, leeks, chopped canned tomatoes, diced dried tomatoes, bay leaf, and oregano. Instead of pureeing the soup I left it nicely chunky. Good stuff.

As vegetable sides: a beet salad (steamed beets tossed with balsamico, olive oil, salt, and white pepper) and sweet and sour red cabbage (sliced red cabbage cooked until crisp tender then tossed in the pan with raisins, pine nuts, wine vinegar, and a bit of tomato paste. The whole thing inspired, somehow, by a spinach recipe from La Cucina de Mama.)

Monday: Chicory-ham gratin

We had a load of chicory in the fridge and a gratin seemed like a good idea...

Start by halving the chicory and cooking it cut-side down in some olive oil for a few minutes. Add chopped onion and garlic and let cook until the alliums are caramelized and the chicory is about soft. Meanwhile make a bechamel sauce flavored with fresh thyme and a bit of cayenne. Transfer the chicory and alliums to a baking dish, add some diced ham, pour over the bechamel, top with grated gruyere and a light sprinkling of breadcrumbs, and bake for about 20 minutes, until the top is brown and bubbly.

... it didn't just seem like a good idea; it was fantastic.

Friday Fusion

We've had various discussions about ways to do asian food using the contents of the biokiste, particularly the winter biokiste, and never really come up with anything. Earlier in the week I saw a recipe for a beet-coconut milk soup that led to the following experiment.

Dice (1cm) a good sized beet and steam it until almost ready to eat. Meanwhile cut a chicken into saute pieces, remove the skin from those pieces, and brown them. Set the chicken aside and add some sliced leeks, lime leaves, garlic, lemongrass, and chili. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add coconut milk, lime juice, a bit of sugar, and fish sauce and bring to a simmer. Put the chicken pieces (minus the breasts) in a casserole, add the beets, pour over the sauce, cover, and bake at 175 for 20 minutes. Add the breast pieces and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Serve with rice.

This wasn't a great revelation, but it was quite good. The combination of the beets and the curry flavors did work together.

Tuesday: Parsnip soup with tarragon-garlic oil

Another pureed vegetable soup, this time with onion, garlic, carrot, potato, celery root, and lots of parsnips. I served it topped with a tarragon-garlic oil. The parsnip flavor came through really nicely and matched well with the tarragon.

Why haven't I always been making lots of soups?

Sunday: horseradish risotto with beef strips

Horseradish risotto was something I had and really enjoyed at St. Georg (though I was skeptical when I saw it on the menu). This was the first try at making it myself. I looked around for a bit and found a recipe that sounded reasonable in the Le Menu archive and started from there. It's simple: make a standard risotto (vegetables: onion, garlic, brunoise carrots; white wine; a bit of veggie bouillon; water) and, just before serving, stir in cream, grated horseradish to taste, and salt to taste.

The Le Menu suggestion for an accompaniment is strips of boiled siedfleisch that are browned quickly just before serving. That sounded good, but I wanted a bit more so I did something a bit random: I made a "tea" by simmering some gluehwein spices (orange peel, rose hips, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, vanilla) in a mixture of white wine and water. After about 15 minutes of simmering, I strained this and used it as part of the simmering liquid for the beef. To the tea I added some carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaf, clove, salt, and enough water to cover the piece of beef. This simmered gently for two hours, until the beef was clearly cooked through but not fork tender, and then I turned off the heat and let the beef cool in the stock overnight. For serving, I sliced the beef, cut the slices into strips, and then sauteed them very briefly in rapeseed oil with a pinch of salt. Just enough to give them a bit of color and heat them through.

I served the beef next to the risotto with a pile of watercress to the side.

Really, really nice food.

Thursday: Simple Choucroute

A really simple one to use the sauerkraut from the biokiste: saute some onion, lardons, and diced carrot in rapeseed oil; add the sauerkraut (ours comes with cararaway, juniper berry, bay leaf, and coriander already added) and some white wine and cook a few minutes; add a couple bratwursts, cover and simmer until the sausage is almost done; add a couple pieces of cooked ham and some steamed potatoes and cook until these are warmed through.

Serve with grainy mustard and pickles.

Monday: winter vegetable soup with meatballs

The idea and meatball recipe came from Wiener, the contents from what was in the veggie box.

For the soup I used: carrot, parsnip, celery root, potato, napa cabbage (all diced to about the size of chickpeas); chickpeas; sliced leek; chopped onion; bay leaf; cloves; beef bouillon. The meatballs were: mixed beef and pork, soaked bread, parsley, garlic, marjoram, salt, black pepper.

The soup was great, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the meatballs: the garlic was harsh tasting and became dominant.

Friday: Baked ham and potato-celery root gratin

Driven by the contents of the biokiste and the nice looking ham we got on sale.

I coated the ham with a glaze made from apricot jam, chipotle sauce, and bourbon before baking it.

For the gratin we layered the thinly sliced potatoes and celery root with a sauce made from light cream, garlic, pepper, salt, and mild paprika. This we topped with gruyere and then baked.

Of course there was a green salad as well.

Tuesday: spaghetti with beef-leek ragu

Another simple one: a ragu made from tomato sauce, ground beef, chopped leeks, garlic, red wine, basil, and parsley. We ate this over spaghetti topped with a grating of parmesan, some lemon zest, and basil chiffonade.

Monday: Potato-leek soup

A simple one: potato leek soup, good bread, and salad.

Sunday: lentil soup

The idea of a slightly sour lentil soup came from a dish we at had the Restaurant St Georg and was further reinforced by memories of soups from Romania.

Cook some finely diced smoked bacon in a bit of olive oil until it starts to take on some color. Add finely diced carrot and minced onion and garlic and cook until the vegetables soften. Add rinsed green lentils, finely diced starchy potatoes, a splash of white wine, chicken stock, a bay leaf, and a clove. Simmer until the lentils are tender; the potatoes will more or less dissolve. Add some cream and adjust seasoning. Add white balsamico in small portions until the sourness is at an appropriate level.

To go with this I did a salad of schnibbelbohnen (boiled until tender) and red cabbage (thinly sliced and then steamed until crisp-tender) dressed with minced onion, sugar, lemon juice, savory, cream, and rapeseed oil. After dressing it I let this sit for a couple hours to marinate.

Saturday spanish

After getting back from vacation Andrea was craving rice; this went well with my desire for something Spanish. I did two dishes from La Cucina de Mama: baked rice and chicken with fino sherry. Aside from adding a bit of extra onion to the rice, I followed both recipes pretty much exactly and they both turned out well.

With this we had a big green salad.

Nanorestaurant review: Restaurant St Georg (Ernen)

The fact that we went to this restaurant twice during our week in Ernen is probably all I need to say... definitely two smiley faces.

Food: Excellent. Heavy focus on staying local, very carefully prepared from excellent ingredients and with a bit of creativity/wit.

Service: A bit distracted the second time, but otherwise very good.

Atmosphere: Relaxed and comfortable.

Monday: radicchio-bread casserole

A somewhat random idea to use up some leftover bread and the last of the radicchio from the box.

Cut some stale bread into 2cm dice. Toss the cubes with stock (I had turkey stock), chopped radicchio, a can of tomatoes (chopped), a thinly sliced leek, fresh thyme, fresh parsley, salt, and pepper. Transfer to an olive-oiled baking dish, top with mozzarella cheese, cover with foil, and bake at 175 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes or until the top is nicely brown and bubbly.

To go with this quite nice dish I cooked diced acorn squash in butter (covered) until it was tender, then served that with white pepper and raclette spices. This was like a savory buttery dessert. :-)

Sunday: Kale and sausage

This week's box had the first kale (grünkohl) of the year. woo hoo!

To prepare it was quite simple: remove the tough stems and chop the leaves finely. Saute them in a really hot pan until they wilt considerably. Add sliced leeks and cook another few minutes over high heat. Add a bit of stock, some diced and steamed firm-cooking potatoes, and some sliced smoked sausage, cover, and simmer until the kale is ready to eat, 20-30 minutes.

mmmmm

Saturday: baked radicchio, white beans

We had a couple heads of radicchio in the fridge that needed to be used. The obvious thing to do was risotto, but that wouldn't have made a big enough dent, so I used up a whole head by baking it with olive oil (method from Hazan).

To counter (or at least compliment) the bitterness of the raddicchio, I gently cooked some white beans in their own liquid along with a clove and a bay leaf. These I served with a drizzle of olive oil.

We also had some ebly (cooked plain) and a big green salad.

This year's thanksgiving spread

We had a smaller group this year so the preparations somehow seemed easier (which doesn't make much sense at all).

This year's spread:

• roasted turkey
• stuffing (bread, leeks, mushrooms, carrots, celery, thyme, celery, sage, roasted-chicken stock)
• mashed potatoes
• sweet potatoes (cooked in their own liquid in the pan, a la Cooks Illustrated).
• green beans (roasted a la Cooks Illustrated then topped with shaved almonds to reheat)
• green salad (nüssli, cranberries, walnuts)
• chopped salad (raddicchio, spitzkohl, carrots, minced onion, cress)
• bread
• pumpkin soup with chestnuts
• a chocolate and pecan cake brought by guests
  

For the appetizers:

• the usual spiced almonds
• a few varieties of olives
• beets: baked in foil then peeled, diced, and tossed with chopped walnut, rosemary, rapeseed oil, balsamico, salt, and white pepper.
• salami and möstbrockli.

way too much was eaten. :-)

Saturday: baked chicken and sauerkraut

A simple one in the midst of the preparations for this year's belated thanksgiving celebration: put sauerkraut (pre-spiced from the biokiste) in an oiled baking dish. Top with chicken leg quarters, season the chicken with salt, pepper, and raclette spices. Bake at 180C until the chicken is done.

Hard to get much simpler than that. :-)

Thursday: curry chicken gipfeli, savoy cabbage gratin

Two recipes from this month's Le Menu that I followed without too much variation. Combined with a green salad this was a nice meal.

Monday: millet-vegetable gratin

Another recipe from Wiener. I stuck to the recipe. For vegetables I used 200g celery root, 200g beet, and 100g carrot. One change to try next time: mix the sauce with the millet and vegetables first, then transfer to the gratin dish and top with the cheese.

As an accompaniment I dressed some sauerkraut (from the market, not from the biokiste) with leftover lemogrette from Sunday.

Sunday: Monkfish and salad

A simple one after a day of walking in the mountains: I did a chopped salad with spitzkohl, grated carrot, long green pepper, and minced onion dressed with lemogrette (lemon-juice vinaigrette) with ground coriander and garlic paste. For the fish: cut monkfish fillets into medallions, season them with salt, pepper, and piment d'espelette, pan roast the medallions, serve on top of the salad drizzled with bit of the lemogrette.

We enjoyed this with some good bread.

Saturday: baked beans

Baked beans and pork inspired by an old Bittman recipe in the NYT.

Aside from dramatically reducing amount of pork (500g instead of 3lbs), I didn't mess around with the recipe too much.

With vegetable soup as a starter and a big green salad, this was a meal. A very good meal. :-)

Friday: vegetable soup and leftovers

Another soup idea from Wiener, mixed vegetable soup: celery root, carrot, potato, leek, and onion. Everything diced, sweated for a bit in butter, and then cooked in chicken bouillon for about 20 minutes. At the end I coarsely pureed the soup since we prefer that texture. Finished with salt, and white and black pepper. Nice and heavy on the vegetables.

To fill out the meal we had leftovers of the ham and knödel (freshly made from leftover batter) from Wednesday. And the required green salad.

Wednesday: baked ham with knoedel

Last night's main course was determined by the nice looking little ham (Nusschinken) that I picked up on sale. This I glazed with a mixture of apricot jam, bourbon, and hot paprika and baked at 160C, add water and basting occasionally, until the internal temp was 65C.

After my ignominious defeat last time, I needed to go back and try making knödel again. This time I strived for a "stickier" texture than last time. The results were good: the knödel were nicely firm and neither disintegrated nor became soggy when I boiled them.

As a vegetable side I cooked diced butternut squash in a bit of butter. Just before serving I added white pepper and salt.

The knödel would benefit from being made with a lighter bread, but they still tasted good. The ham was really, really nice.

Tuesday: Sauerkraut

We got the first sauerkraut of the season in last week's biokiste. Yay sauerkraut!

I stuck to the basics: brown some smoked bacon cut into lardons; add rinsed sauerkraut along with a bay leaf (the 'kraut already has caraway and juniper), some white wine, veggie bouillon, and a couple of smoked sausages; let simmer, covered, until the sausages are ready to go and the 'kraut is just tender.

We accompanied this with the last of the chopped salad from Monday.

Monday: Roesti, pork chop on chopped salad

The prime motivator here was to have rösti. The pork chop was an improv to fit this.

The rösti was the absolutely simple version: grated Agria potatoes (well wrung out, of course) cooked with some salt in clarified butter. Sooooo good.

The chopped salad: combine chopped spitzkohl (no idea what this cabbage variety is called in English) and radicchio with grated carrot and minced onion. Dress with a combination of ketchup, mayo, mustard, rapeseed oil, white balsamico, sugar, salt, and pepper. Let stand 10-15 minutes after dressing it.

The pork chops: season the chops with salt, black pepper, ground cumin, and piment d'esplette. Pan roast them in a cast iron skillet. Serve on top of the chopped salad.

Sunday simplicity

After another week of travel I again wanted simplicity and vegetables, this improv fit the bill.

Peel a butternut squash and cut it into 1-2cm chunks, toss with some salt and olive oil and then bake at 190C until they are lightly caramelized and ready to eat.

Meanwhile cook diced onion, long green pepper, and yellow carrot together with chopped garlic and some piri piri chilis in olive oil until the carrot softens a bit. Add a can of tomatoes, a pinch of saffron and freshly ground fennel seed and allspice, and some black pepper. Simmer until the tomatoes break down and the carrots are softened, then pick out the chilis and coarsely puree with the stick blender.

To serve: Make a pile of brown rice, add a layer of grated alp cheese, add a layer of sauce, top with the squash.

Friday: pea soup, napa and couscous gratin

For the soup: combine in the pressure cooker one cup picked-over and rinsed yellow split peas, 5 cups water, 2 chopped carrots (one yellow and one orange), 1 chopped onion, 2 crushed garlic cloves, half a chicken bouillon cube, and a good pinch of herbs de provence. Seal up, and cook for 12 minutes after it starts to hiss. Open the pressure cooker, puree the soup, add some sliced wienerli and another pinch of herbs de provence, and simmer for a few minutes before serving.

The napa and couscous gratin is a recipe from Wiener, and it's a really good one... no big surprise there.

Thursday: vegetables with pasta

After four days at a course, I was craving vegetables. That's an easy one to satisfy, particularly on Thursdays.

Heat some olive oil in a pan with a couple piri-piri peppers. Add a couple mostly crushed cloves of garlic, diced onion, and diced carrot and cook a couple minutes. Add some chopped cauliflower and salt and cook, stirring very occasionally so that cauliflower takes on some color, until the cauliflower is ready to eat. Stir in some whole wheat penne, adjust seasonings, and serve topped with grated cheese and chopped parsley.

Together with a big green salad, this was just what I was looking for.

Sunday: Escarole with black-eyed peas

When in doubt about what to do with the big head of escarole in the fridge... go for beans and greens.

After soaking some black-eyed peas for a while, simmer them in the minimal amount of water with onion, garlic, bay leaf, diced bacon, and some chicken bouillon. When the beans are tender, add some diced salami, olive oil, and chopped escarole. Cook until the escarole is tender, then serve with some extra olive oil. mmmm

As a side I did glazed turnips following a recipe from AFK: cut turnips into 1/2cm thick matchsticks, steam until they start to get tender. Transfer to a pan with a bit of butter, salt, some sugar, and a splash of water. Simmer uncovered until the liquid is mostly absorbed/evaporated and the turnips are tender.

Of course we also did a green salad.

Saturday: pumpkin soup, braised veal, failed knoedel

The soup: pumpkin, carrots, onion, potato, ginger, butter, curry powder.

The veal: brown cubed veal well, set aside; cook minced onion, a couple halved garlic cloves, ginger cut into discs until aromatic; sprinkle over some flour and cook a couple minutes longer; add water and make sure to get the brown bits off the bottom of the pan; add back the veal along with half a vanilla bean and a couple sprigs of thyme; simmer until the veal is tender. Finish the sauce with a bit of tomato paste to add body.

The knödel I made from a recipe in Wiener, but I got the consistency of the dough badly wrong, so they fell apart while cooking. Very sad stuff; I'll have to try again soon.

Friday: lamb chops and roesti

After the less than 100% successful rösti on Tuesday, I needed to do one correctly. This was my standard potato version: grate the potatoes, wring them out well, cook in peanut oil until nicely crispy, season while cooking. Verrrrry nice.

As a protein course I cooked some nice little lambchops unadorned in the grill pan. We ate them with a vinaigrette made from balsamico, olive oil, rosemary, and garlic.

Of course we had a green salad as well.

Thursday: baked chicken, braised cabbage, caramelized carrots

For the chicken: rub chicken leg quarters with olive oil, season them well with salt, pepper, raclette spices, and piment d'esplette. Bake at 180C until the chicken is done and the skin is crispy.

The cabbage: Cook some sliced leek in olive oil, add thinly sliced savoy cabbage and salt. Wilt the cabbage for a few minutes, add white wine, caraway, and crushed juniper berries. Braise until the cabbage is tender.

The carrots: cut carrots into chunks, saute in butter until they shrivel a bit and take on some color, add cream and salt. Simmer until the cream is mostly absorbed. Season with white pepper and serve.

The cabbage would have been better with some stock instead of wine; savoy doesn't need the acidity.

Wednesday: Fondue

First fondue of the year!

We picked the cheese mixture up at the local cheese shop and combined the cheese (330g) with 100ml white wine, one clove of garlic, 1/2Tbs potato starch, nutmeg, and 1 shot kirsch. We ate it with baguette, a green salad, and a pot of peppermint tea.

mmm, good stuff

Tuesday: a pair of roesti

Last night was simple: I did the first beet rösti of the year along with a small potato rösti (with bacon on the side). Other than learning that there's a not-so-nonstick-spot in the middle of my usual rösti pan, this turned out well.

Monday: pasta with spinach

Another adapted Wiener recipe: Wilt some cleaned and stemmed spinach in the microwave; drain and chop it. Meanwhile saute minced garlic in olive oil until it takes on a bit of color, add equal proportions of cream and milk and bring to a gentle simmer. Add some grated cheese (I used a reasonably sharp raw-milk alp cheese) and stir to integrate it. Add the spinach and heat through. Just before serving stir in chopped basil and parsley, grate in some nutmeg, and adjust salt. Serve over tagliatelle.

The cheese and cream here really bring out the flavor of the spinach and make for a very nice dish.

Saturday's mix

Two more dishes from Wiener: a salad with beets, apples, and walnuts and celery-root schnitzel with herb-yogurt sauce.

The salad, a version of Autumn in a bowl: steam some small beets, peel them, halve them, cut them into slices. Peel an apple with good acidity, quarter it, core it, cut into slices. Coarsely chop some walnuts. Combine the beets, apple, and walnuts with a dressing made from minced garlic, parsley, sharp mustard, crushed caraway, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, balsamico, lemon juice, and olive oil. Let everything marinate for a while.

The celery root: Make a sauce from yogurt, sour cream, chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, basil), salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Let stand. Peel a celery root and cook in boiling water until about tender. Slice into 1/2cm thick slices. Bread with flour-egg-breadcrumbs, then cook the slices in olive oil. Serve with the yogurt sauce. The trick here is to make sure the celery cooks long enough to get almost creamy.

We also had a big green salad.

Friday: boiled beef hash

A dish to make productive use of the piece of beef I used to make broth.

Cook some diced onion with chopped garlic in rape-seed oil over medium high heat until the onion starts to soften. Add diced potato and cook until the potatoes are about done. Add diced leftover beef and let it heat through. Serve with ketchup and chipotle hot sauce.

mmmmmm, comfort food.

Thursday: beef broth with Flaedli

There are a few recipes in Wiener for beef broth with various egg-based additions, and they all sound good. One has to start somewhere, so I did the version with crepes (Flädli here).

For the broth: 500g beef (siedfleisch), one leek, one carrot, one onion (with peel), half a celery root, a bit of cabbage, one bay leaf, a few peppercorns, 1.5l water. Bring to a gentle simmer and let cook, uncovered, 2 hours. Strain, let cool overnight, remove the fat layer, strain through cheesecloth, reheat and adjust salt.

For the crepes: 2 eggs, 250ml milk, 100g flour, 1/2 package chives (cut into 1/2 cm lengths), a big pinch of salt. Cook the crepes with clarified butter and then let them cool.

To serve: put some very finely diced (brunoise) carrot and pfaelzer in the bowls, heat the bowls, roll the crepes and slice them crosswise into threads (chiffonade), finally add the broth.

We ate this quite good soup with some roasted cauliflower and escarole with creme fraiche.

Tuesday: lentils with pasta

Inspired by a recipe in Wiener and the leftover lentils in the fridge.

Nothing remotely fancy here: I heated up the leftover lentils, added some finely diced salami, and served the resulting mixture over pasta. Nice stuff.

As a side I did an escarole recipe from AFK: cook pieces of escarole in salted water until they're tender, drain well, combine with salt, butter, and creme fraiche and then serve.

A good argument for cookbooks: I'm not sure if I ever would have come to the idea of combining lentils with pasta.

Sunday: Zwiebelkuchen

Almost let Zwielbelkuchen season slip by without make one... but not quite.

This time I followed Andrea's old recipe. I did the crust per the recipe and varied the toppings ratio a bit: 750g onions, 3.6dl sour cream, 2 eggs, ~150g bacon (rendered a bit before being added).

The result was quite good, quite good indeed.

Saturday: lots of stuff

Yesterday was an active one in the kitchen.

Pumpkin soup: sweat some onion, carrot, and garlic for a bit in butter. Add diced pumpkin, salt, and water to cover. Simmer until the pumpkin is done then puree. Add nutmeg and white pepper and taste for salt. Serve topped with chives and a bit of raclette spice.

Lentils: Cook a sliced leek in olive oil with some diced carrot until the leek lightly caramelizes. Add green lentils, a bay leaf, some herbs de provence, a bouquet garni with parsley, thyme, and rosemary, a splash of white wine, and water to cover. Cover and simmer until the lentils are tender. Serve topped with olive oil.

Slow-baked pork roast with a sage-apple sauce: Brown a nice pork loin roast well on all sides in clarified butter in the cast iron skillet. Wipe out the excess fat, season the roast well, add some good apple juice and a couple of sage leaves to the skillet, and let reduce for a couple of minutes. Insert a thermometer, transfer the skillet to an 80C oven, and cook until the internal temp is 65C. Leave the pork roast on a plate in the oven. Add more juice to the pan drippings (after fishing out the sage leaves) and reduce by about half, mount the sauce with butter, and adjust salt. Slice the pork and serve topped with the sauce.

Friday: beans and greens; chicken with sherry

A clear choice for using the big head of escarole from last week's biokiste.

I started by making some soisson beans in the pressure cooker: the washed beans went in with chopped onion and garlic, a couple bay leaves, and sufficient water. These cooked for 30 minutes, then I opened the pressure cooker and added some chicken bouillon.

For the greens: cook chopped onion, garlic, and diced carrot in olive oil until the carrots start to soften. Tear escarole into pieces and add to the pan. Cook until the escarole is ready to eat. Top with beans, some of the bean liquid, piment d'esplette, and some roasted almonds.

To go with this I did a quick spanish-influenced chicken dish: Brown a couple of chicken thighs and legs well, season, and set aside. Add slivered garlic and some chopped onion to the pan, cook until the onion browns a bit. Deglaze the pan with sherry; let the sherry boil for a minute, then add back the chicken, cover, and let simmer until the chicken is ready to eat.

Of course we also had a big green salad.

Thursday: Tortellini

We still have some pumpkin tortellini in the freezer so when I didn't feel like doing much in the way of cooking and the cupboard was bare, we were still set. :-)

To serve with the tortellini I did a quick tomato sauce by sweating some onions and garlic in olive oil for a bit, adding canned tomatoes and simmering for 10 minutes. After pureeing with the stick blender this was ready to serve.

To go with it we had a big green salad.

Wednesday: crepes with spinach

Simple weeknight dish: sweat some chopped onion and garlic together in some neutral oil; add diced long green pepper and cook for a couple minutes; add spinach (torn into pieces), a good pinch of salt, and some fresh thyme. Cook until the spinach is ready to eat. Stir in some good cottage cheese.

Serve with crepes and sliced ham. oh, and a big green salad.

Monday: red cabbage and sausage

ah, the winter vegetables are coming...

Slice a couple of raw bratwurst 1cm thick; brown the pieces on both sides. Add sliced leek and diced carrot to the pan and cook a couple of minutes. Add thinly (but not very thinly) sliced red cabbage, a diced apple, caraway seeds, some salt, fresh thyme, and a grind of pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is ready to eat. Quite simple, quite good.

We ate this with the usual green salad.

Saturday: pork and black beans

For this I started from a Bittman recipe for black beans with orange.

First I simmered some cubed (4-5cm) pork shoulder and bacon with cloves, bay leaves, and peppercorns until the pork was just about tender. I fished out the meat and set it aside. The liquid, along with orange zest, some fresh cloves, and bay leaf, became the cooking liquid for the pre-soaked black beans. To finish I browned the pork a bit, cooked onion, garlic, carrot, and long-green pepper in neutral oil, added beans, OJ, and some of the bean liquid.

We ate this with parboiled rice and a big green salad.

mmm, pork and beans. :-)

Nanorestaurant Review: Zur Saege (Flueh) revisited

This was our second visit and once again it gets two very big smiley faces.

The only minor disappointment was that game didn't play a bigger role on the menu (only there in the amuse bouche), but what was on the menu was so good that we weren't too sad. :-)

Tuesday: Coconut schnitzel

A random idea spurred by the limes in the fridge and a bag of coconut in the pantry.

Season some sliced (1cm) pork; squeeze over lime juice and let stand 15 minutes. Mix grated coconut with some hot paprika; "bread" the pork using the flour->egg->coconut technique; ;et stand on a rack for 10 minutes or so then saute at medium heat (don't burn the coconut).

I also served steamed potato wedges with herb-quark (parsley, chervil, salt, pepper, quark) and green beans sauteed in butter. Good stuff, very good stuff.

Oh, and the green salad.

Monday: Pasta and vegetables

To complement the soup I did another take on pasta with vegetables: cook finely diced onion and carrot with some chopped garlic in a bit of butter for a few minutes; add some chopped broccoli (including stems); cover and cook for about 10 minutes; add light cream, strips of air-dried ham, rosemary, and oregano; cook another 5 minutes or so, until the broccoli is ready to eat. Serve over buttered spaghetti.

Together with a nussli salad, this was a very nice meal.

Sunday: pureed vegetable soup

A simple one to help get through the veggies: Combine cauliflower, carrot, kohlrabi, and onion (all cut into pieces) in a pot. Add enough water to cover, some chicken bouillon, and herbs de provence. Cover and simmer until the vegetables are just soft enough to mash with a potato masher. Mash them, then puree with a stick blender. Add milk, heat gently, serve with curry powder on the side.

Saturday: Bi Bim Bap

Well, something like bi bim bap at least...

Marinate some sliced beef (1/2 cm slices) with ginger, soy sauce, and garlic. Kill some thinly sliced red onion with salt, mirin, and white wine vinegar. Do a quick pickle from julienned carrot and kohrabi with salt, mirin, and white wine vinegar. Cook some spinach in a pan, drain it, chop it very coarsely, then put back in the pan, toss with soy sauce and some sesame oil and keep warm. Make a pot of short-grain rice. In a separate pot put a thin layer of oil (peanut+sesame), put over medium-high heat, pack in the cooked rice, and let cook covered for 10 minutes to form a crust. For the last five minutes add an egg (in a ring-mold so that it doesn't contaminate Andrea's portion!) to the top. Meanwhile cook the beef in a grill pan. Serve the rice topped with sliced kimchi, the onions and pickles, beef, and spinach. Drizzle with sesame oil and some soy sauce.

This could have had a better crust on the rice, but it was still very very good.

Friday: Spaetzlipfanne

Very much a cuisine de kuhlschrank dish: slice some bratwurst and brown the slices nicely, set aside; add a bit of neutral oil to the pan and cook diced onion, thickly sliced leek, and diced long green pepper until the pepper is soft and then set the veggies aside; add a bit more oil to the pan and then brown some spaetzle; add the sausage, vegetables, some steamed broccoli, and some sliced oven-dried tomatoes; heat through and then serve.

I should have done something with the broccoli other than just steaming it, but this was otherwise pretty good.

We also had a big green salad.

Tuesday: pasta with oven-dried tomatoes and truffle salami

At the market this week I picked up a truffle salami from Piemont that is amazingly good. This dish was an improv to use some of that.

Start by cooking some small diced carrot and long green peppers in olive oil. When the peppers are starting to soften add diced salami, thick slices of oven-dried tomatoes, and some of the leeks cooked with the tomatoes. Stir gently together and leave on the heat long enough for the tomatoes and salami to warm through. Serve on top of whole wheat penne.

As sides we had spinach cooked with diced smoked pork loin and spaghetti squash steamed, "spaghettied", and tossed with butter.

Oh, and a green salad.

What a meal.

Sunday Indian

It's been too long since I did anything South Indian...

Last night I did two dishes from Dakshin: Pepper Sambar and Green Bean Poriyal. Aside from the green beans, this didn't do so much to work through the masses of vegetables in the fridge, but it was awfully good. :-)

Saturday miscellany

A couple of additional things from yesterday:

1. I oven-dried the plum tomatoes from this week's biokiste by cutting them in half, putting them in a baking dish with olive oil, sprinkling with salt and thick leek slices, and baking at 125C until the tomatoes had shriveled.
2. I started a batch of kimchi based on a recipe in Quick Pickles using the giant head of napa cabbage from the biokiste. The first step (salting the cabbage) is taking longer than the 2-3 hours suggested in the recipe (at 15 hours now and there's still a ways to go), but that's no tragedy.
   

Saturday dessert: apple pudding with caramelized apples

A recipe from this month's Le Menu that just sounded fantastic.

The pudding:
Combine 5dl apple juice with 1Tbs corn starch, 80g sugar, one egg, and one egg yolk. Bring to just under the boil then remove from the heat. Stir in 6 sheets softened gelatine and the juice of half a lemon. Strain into another bowl. Let cool for a bit, stirring occasionally, and then put in the fridge until it starts to set up. Whip 2dl of cream and gently stir that in along with a egg white that's been whipped to peaks. Strain into a serving bowl and put in the fridge to set up.

The apples:
Caramelize 100g of sugar; dissolve this in 1dl apple juice; cook thickly-sliced apples in this until they are serving-soft; reduce the liquid to a syrup.

Serve the pudding topped with apples and drizzled with the caramel syrup.

Note:
I didn't leave the pudding base in the fridge long enough, so the egg whites and cream separated out and we ended up with a layered pudding; still very tasty but not as attractive. Or maybe it was supposed to be this way since it's supposed to be allowed to set up in individual serving bowls? The non-lightened base was quite good, it's worth thinking about trying a more standard pudding without the "lighteners" though.

Saturday: vegetable soup

Friday afternoon I made a pot of chicken stock, this put it to good use.

Bring the stock to a simmer with some brown rice, a couple stripped corn cobs (idea from Ruhlman), and herbs de Provence. After an hour or so take out the cobs and add sliced leeks, some greens (batavia with the leaves cut into pieces), and the corn (this wasn't the most tender corn, so it needed a while in the pot). After 30 minutes or so add grated kohlrabi and carrot. Let cook another 10 or so minutes, add a splash of white wine, then serve.

Together with some good bread and a green salad, this made for a nice dinner.

Saturday lunch: burgers

This was planned for dinner, but Andrea pointed out that it would mean quite an early dinner since it's getting dark so soon. So burgers on the grill for lunch!

I did my usual minimalist burgers: beef and salt, but this time I melted a bit of cheddar over the burgers at the end. To go with them I grilled a long green pepper and some red onion and toasted the buns on the grill. We ate these with salad and pickles (including garden pickles).

Friday: chicken, corn, morel ragout

Inspired by the corn in the biokiste along with memories of an appetizer we had at Zur Säge.

Soak some dried morels in chicken stock. Halve or quarter the softened mushrooms. Combine the (strained) soaking liquid with some more chicken stock and reduce it strongly.
Cut the kernels from a cob of corn and cook them for a few minutes in butter, until they are about ready to eat. Reserve. Add a bit more butter to the pan and cook some thinly sliced leek and very finely diced carrot until the leek softens. Sprinkle over a bit of flour and cook another minute or so. Stir in some white wine and let it reduce substantially. Stir in the corn, morels, and reduced stock along with a bit of light cream (halbrahm). Let this simmer very gently over low heat.
In a separate pan brown some chicken breast (cut into bite-size chunks) in clarified butter. Season well during the browning. As the chicken finishes transfer it to the corn-morel mixture. Deglaze the browning pan with some more white wine, reduce that to a very small amount, and add to the main pan. Taste for salt and add a bit more cream if needed. Serve with good bread.

This turned out really nicely.

As a vegetable side: cook spinach with a bit of olive oil, remove from the pan and chop. Add diced long green pepper to the pan and cook until it softens a bit. Add back the spinach and taste for salt.

We also had a green salad (the first nussli of the year).

Wednesday: Pumpkin, greens, and pasta

Inspired by this week's "Weeknight Kitchen", but adapted to help use up the ton of vegetables we have in the fridge.

Dice (2-3cm) and roast some pumpkin (not clear the type, we got a piece in the biokiste) with some olive oil at 200C until it softens. Meanwhile brown some diced smoked pork loin quickly in some olive oil and set aside. In the same pan cook diced onion, carrot, green pepper, and chopped garlic with some piri piris and salt until the vegetables start to soften. Add some batavia (lettuce) that's been ripped into pieces along with a couple sprigs of thyme, a sprig of oregano, and a splash of white wine and cook until the lettuce is ready to eat. Add the pork and pumpkin along with some orecchiete (not too much, the point is the vegetables!). Serve topped with fresh parsley and grated parmesan.

Good stuff and very helpful with the using up the veggies thing. :-)