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. :-)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. :-)
A couple of additional things from yesterday:
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.
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.
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).
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).
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. :-)
Ah comfort food: saute garlic in olive oil until it starts to brown, add diced onion and cook until it softens. Add soisson beans, cloves, sweet paprika, bay leaf, a pinch each of cinnamon and ginger, and chicken bouillon. Simmer a while. Add a couple Jura bergwursts (from Coop) and simmer. A couple minutes before serving add a couple slices of smoked pork loin. Serve over brown rice with parsley and hot sauce.
We also did a green salad.
Happy that it's once again pear season, the pasta with ground beef and pears recipe seemed like a good way to celebrate. I've made this twice before now and each time left out the optional curry paste component. This time I tried adding a teaspoon of green curry paste to the mix for the last couple minutes of cooking before adding the liquid. It works quite nicely.
When flipping through La Cucina de Mama I found an interesting recipe for chicken braised in a mixture of white wine and white grape juice. Two hours later I found white grape juice available as a seasonal specialty at the Coop. The message couldn't have been clearer.
Cut a small chicken into serving pieces (third the breasts and halve the thighs). Saute in olive oil until nicely browned. Add a slivered onion and cook until the onion softens. Add 100ml white grape juice and 150ml white wine along with a couple Tbs chopped cilantro and a big pinch of salt. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Serve topped with more chopped 'tro.
We ate this with leftover rice and beans from Wednesday and some baguette.
As a vegetable side I made a salad using Schnibbelbohnen: rinse the beans and then boil them until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Combine with diced cooked potato and a dressing made from minced onion, white balsamico, rapeseed oil, prepared mustard, and cream (halbrahm). Salt to taste.
Excellent, excellent food.
Driven by the fact that I found some nice-looking bell peppers on sale at Coop.
I used the "Italian Garden Pickles" recipe from Quick Pickles, using a bit less sugar than it called for; thyme, rosemary, oregano, and tarragon as the fresh herbs; bell pepper, onion, and cucumber as the vegetables.
Now it's time to wait.
[Update: 28 Sept: verrrry nice]
Not exactly sure where the idea came from, but I somehow ended up in the mood for beans and rice. Luckily we had some dried cannellini beans in the house.
Cook soaked white beans in the minimum amount of water possible (just to cover) with smoked bacon (cut into lardons), onion, bay leaf, rosemary, parsley, and a clove until the beans are tender. Add salt to taste.
For the rice I used the baked rice recipe from La Cucina de Mama.
Together with a green salad this was some very good food. The clove in the beans is a really nice touch.
