spring herbs salad

Coming home from the last market stand and unpacking everything, I was shocked: only a cow eats so much green leaves. I couldn't possibly have bought that all, so once again, the dealers seem to have put more into the bags than told. That happens quite often: I guess they didn't want to toss the remaining goods so gave an extra portion for free. Or they were grateful to find such an undemanding buyer in me - may the leaves be as giant as palms, I take all without complaints (yet).

Washing the leaves was the only time-consuming part and I realized that I might not be mature enough to grow an own garden (contrary to my boasting with friends during Easter ;)): to find a tiny snail, a tiny worm and some insects alive and kicking in the salad spinner was quite tough for a city girl.

Out of the wild garlic I will make these pancakes. The garden cress and sorrel will be turned into these pancakes.

The smallest leaves made up a fine salad together with spinach leaves (the saved heart part of big spinach bands), arugula, radish green, spaghetti of a very sweet apple, little crumbles of goat cheese, an orange dressing (fresh orange juice, zest, fleur de sel and olive oil, no pepper) and toasted hazelnuts.

sweet-pumpkin-curry or goodbye-winter-soup

Pumpkins are (next to aubergines, leeks, onions and carrots, closely followed by porcini, chard and celery :)) my most beloved veg. Like Nigel Slater describes in his book, just looking at the vivid color of a pumpkin puts you in a good mood. Throughout the cold seasons I keep at least one on hand and store it as long as possible. Cooking with the last pumpkin of winter even provokes little wistful sighs yet looking at the new spring greens, it is nonsense ;)

Since learning to make this delicious paste, I don't buy Thai curry paste from the groceries anymore.

A goodbye-winter-hello-spring-meal: not consistent but to my liking :)

1. Sweet Pumpkin Curry Soup

Sweat some onions in a huge pan. Add water and pumpkin cuts. When the pumpkin is cooked through, puree the soup. Add 2-3 tbsp curry paste, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 kaffir lime leaves (optional), potato and carrot cuts and let all cook gently. Add one chopped red onion (for additional color :)) and a handful pre-cooked chickpeas. Turn off the heat and add fresh spinach leaves. They will cook in the remaining steam and heat. Serve with fresh coriander (optional).

2. Rhurbarb Crumble Tarte according to this recipe: 
the vanilla cream filling is great but even better, add lemon juice and lemon zest (rhubarb demands lemon juice for a round taste - I don't remember from whom I learned this but this is for sure). You can leave out the breadcrumbs when you pre-bake the tarte crust for 10 minutes.

creamy polenta with mushroom ragout

The first recipe I tried from River Cottage Veg was a home run.

The book encourages you to cook with rapeseed oil instead of olive oil and to use olive oil just for the finish - totally buying into that. Besides, dairies are used sparingly, mostly for flavoring what I welcome.

As timeless and classic this dish is, it was featured in the River Cottage series for a wedding menu so there was an unconventional approach behind it :)

The ragout is insanely delicious and as any ragout it is as good / even better the next day. So processing double of the amount of mushrooms as suggested (at least 1 kg but you won't regret 2 kg - they shrink after cooking) in order to yield to leftovers (for a sandwich, a salad or a quick polenta*) is a must!

You can find the recipe here. 

Additional remarks: it only serves 4 if served within a five-courses-menu :) 
For a single-course meal it serves 2, at most.

If you prefer a creamy polenta use 50 g less polenta than suggested in the recipe.

*How to cook instant polenta: bring water with a generous amount of cream to boil (400 ml water, 100 ml cream for 90 gr polenta). Add salt and pepper. Add the polenta, turn down the heat, stir for a couple of minutes until all water is absorbed. Add grated parmigiano. That's it.

catching up on cookbooks

Judging by culinary literature the Brits know how to cherish their veggies. 
I ordered three new cookbooks and next to Simon Hopkinson's, Alice Hart's and Ottolenghi's book that I own, they all come from the isles.
Despite of a big interested audience (concerning the considerable vegetarian population in Germany) there is a market niche of likewise enigmatic cookbooks on this side of the channel. 


Two short notes and a long one:

• "New Complete Vegetarian" by Rose Elliot (as I understand she is in the UK what Elisabeth Fischer is in Germany - the queen of vegetarian cookbooks): a compendium of more than 1000 recipes from mostly European cuisines, rarely pictured. Contains a healthy amount of vegan recipes, too.

• "Tender, A cook and his vegetable patch" by Nigel Slater: a comprehensive, philosophical book on all things grown in the own garden. In almost each of the numerous personal notes of the author you will find words of wisdom. Besides, I have never seen such atmospheric food pictures before and photographer Jonathan Lovekin proves that dark pictures can be fine, too :) The only flaw in my view is that the recipes depend on massive amounts of dairies and eggs. It's not a light cuisine.

• River Cottage Veg by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Normally books with an author's pic on the cover are daunting, especially when it is supposed to accompany you day by day. But now I am so delighted at HFW's mission and his recipes (which can be found here as well) that the blemish can be overlooked. This is the first book that I want to cook through entirely and I think, will do :) The correspondent television series are the best that I have seen on this subject (next to them all other cooking shows appear out-dated). It really embraces all aspects of a delightful and responsible way to live and feed on the natural resources around. Hard to say which scenes I liked most but the marrying couple tramping plums, the butcher scene, the boat fishing scene, the gardening according to Buddhist philosphy - all those scenes were unique, moving and always moderated by HWS's British humor.

Now that I have to check tons of new recipes, don't wonder when I hang around less here in the next weeks :)

Avocado, Lime & Coconut Cheesecake with Matcha Tea for Easter

Easter would be a more suitable day to post this impeccable luscious cake but I rushed so that you get aware of it in time :) 

It's been almost a year since my last cheesecake, so it's high time to continue the quest for the perfect cheesecake. Which thanks to Sybille, I think I have found.

Usually I prefer recipes that ask for only a few ingredients but this cake is the famous exception that proves the rule. Did you ever think that a New York style cheesecake without a topping is a tad dull in taste and "tastes too heavy"? If so, this cake could be the solution. 

Avocado, lime and coconut - we know that these combination works out anyway, right? But also they bring flavor, freshness and a wonderful easter-spring-pastel-green color in here.

During my search for cheesecake recipes, I had already found out that the unbaked ones are creamier so I bought into this recipe. Besides using ladyfingers instead of other dense cookies promised a lighter crust. I always have excess sourdough bread crumbs and used them as well which contributed to additional aroma in the crust.

For a pretty finish I used matcha (like everybody does) and crushed pistachio (like Sybille). I would have equally liked lime zests but had no more. 

Serve together with matcha tea and celebrate spring or easter!

Directions (you won't need any measuring for this cheesecake, I didn't need either):

1. For the crust: line the bottom of a cake mold with parchment paper.
Crush a package of ladyfingers together with dry old bread crumbs in the food processor. Add melted butter and a little salt. Knead all together and press into a cake mold. Let it rest in the fridge.

2. For the filling: mix the dairies of choice (I used one small package mascarpone cheese, equal amount of curd, half the amount cream cheese and yoghurt). 

Grind 3 tbsp of coconut flakes with 3 tbsp sugar in a food processor until it becomes as fine as flour (this step is crucial in order that no flakes disturb the creamy texture of the filling).

Mix flesh of 2 avocados with the juice of 2 limes and add the grated zest of the limes.

Mix all together.

3. Heat a little amount of cream with agar-agar and mix well into the cream mixture.

4. Pour the filling into the cake mold and let the cake rest in the fridge for 6 hours. 

Roquefort and Pear Cake with Radicchio Salad and Walnut Dressing

Much less risky than the vegetable spreads experiment was this dish inspired by my dear friend and frequent Paris-traveler Lea. The cake hype there seems to originate from Sophie Dudemaine's book.

Pears, radicchio, walnuts - everything that goes well with blue cheese thrown together on a plate.

Ingredients for the cake batter:

200 gr flour

3 eggs

100 ml milk 

100 ml olive oil

1 tbsp baking powder

100 gr hard cheese

100 gr blue cheese

2 pears, cut

1 red onion, chopped and pre-roasted,

chopped herbs,

salt, pepper.

Baking time: 45 min at 180 °C.

kale salad with garlic-chili-oil

The minute I saw Miss Boulette's flavored oil, I knew I had found what I was looking for: a suitable dressing for raw kale. The oil is sensationally simple, strong in flavor and makes up the perfect match for the rustic texture of kale (if you prefer it tender, let it sit marinated for a day).

I kept my oil basic so that it can be complemented with different condiments from case to case.

Garlic chili oil adapted from Miss Boulette

Chop

• 1 red chili,
• 1 small spring onion,
• 2 cloves of garlic, roughly the same amount of
• ginger
  

ultra fine.

In a pan heat

• 2 tbsp butter (for a clear optic use clarified butter) with
• 1/2 cup olive oil.

As soon as the butter has melt completely, turn off the heat and add the garlic, ginger and chili.
Add 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp salt and the spring onion. It will yield to one small cup of chili oil.

Before using the oil you can add (1 tsp - 1 tbsp to taste)

• soy sauce (for sweetness and umami) and / or
  
• gochujang (korean red chili paste for fruity sweetness) or
• sesame oil (for a nutty flavor).
  

Kale Salad with Chickpeas

For a big bowl of salad

wash, spin dry and cut 200 gr of kale.

Slice the stems thinly.
Toss the kale with 3 cups of precooked chickpeas with at least 1/2 cup of the garlic-chili-oil (I mixed it with 1 tbsp soy sauce).

If wanted, add a dash of lemon juice (I didn't).

Don't be frugal with the dressing! Everything should be coated heavily with the oil so that it becomes a glossy, indulgent salad.

The salad will stay crisp for a couple of days in the fridge and is good to take away (then best eaten with chopsticks :)).

pan fried dumplings with corn salad and braised pears

I love it when you crave for a dish badly and you have everything on hand (with minor deviations) to go for it right away (ok, I waited till daylight). And when the recipe works out like a charm and the result tastes as good as it looked on the picture. Who wouldn't.

These pan fried dumplings (Kaspressknödel, consisting of old bread and cheese) with plain corn salad, fried onions and braised pears made up a beautifully balanced, beautiful winter dish.

I tried it with and without sour cream and found the cream unnecessary.

Rough directions:

Soak old bread (I took toasted whole meal toast which was fine and reduced the soaking time) in some milk and 1-2 eggs. It should yield to a kneadable consistency. Add 1 grated clove of garlic and grated hard cheese to taste.
Add chopped parsley and 1 small chopped onion.
Add salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Mold flat dumplings out of the dough and fry them in a pan with butter.

In the meantime braise some slices of pear in lemon juice (i took some cubes of frozen lemon juice) and little agave syrup.

Fry some onion slices.

Serve all with corn salad, sour cream if wanted and additional grated cheese.

Chinese Cabbage and Carrot Salad

I can't stop eating this salad. I don't know if anybody could. I don't know either why one should.

A handful of humble ingredients (I added parsnip), foolproof to make and just divine.

Besides: you can spoon it. And salads that can be spooned falls in the comfort food, soul food category - just in case anybody wonders about the label :)

Chinese Cabbage and Carrot Salad adapted from Heike's Blog (= blog for esthetic German cooking :))

For 2 servings, prep time 10 minutes

Finely slice 5 Chinese cabbage leaves and 1 onion.
Grate 1 large carrot.
Mix all in a bowl together with canola oil (1 tbsp), white wine vinegar (2 tbsp), double cream (3 tbsp), sugar and salt to taste.

Let sit for a couple of minutes and (optionally) serve with crushed nuts as topping.

Update for the diary free folks - you can yield to an equally tasty result with coconut milk.

The one and only Applesauce

In the last weeks during which i abstained from cooking it seemed that every person was doing something with either pomegranate, cranberries, beetroots (less surprising with regard to the season) or this totally surprising oven roasted apple sauce (basically consisting of apples only and originating from a french recipe).

As i am always smitten with recipes that include a minimum of ingredients and because everything tastes better, when slowly roasted in the oven, the apple sauce turned out to be the first kitchen task of this year.

Directions:

Mix a huge amount of peeled sour apples (like 2 kg) with a pinch of salt and 2-3 spices (for example vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, nutmeg, cumin...).

Bake it in a roasting tin with the lid closed for a couple of hours at 160 ° C (it took me 3 hours) until the apples are dark brown and caramelized.

It will yield to the most fragrant luscious apple sauce with a little texture left.

slowly roasted kimchi risotto with trout and spinach frittata

I. kimchi and holidays

does kimchi come in handy during christmas season? absolutely!

whenever you suffer a butter and sugar overkill nosh some tangy, crisp and juicy kimchi and you will be fully revived for the christmas cookies, stollen and ginger bread front again :) i was amused to read that in these precarious situations of craving for sweets yet being overfull with them, germans tend to eat a cheese sandwich.
well kimchi would be an equally effective, less filling alternative :)

it is also great to have between opulent holidays because the secret behind is: the more kimchi you eat, the lighter you will feel afterward...

II. kimchi at any time

this could be the reason why koreans have the urge to eat kimchi all the time - like the swabian sauce it makes it easier to devour any other component of a dish when eaten together with kimchi. the younger generations might be different but for the older korean people this is still valid.
i once accompanied some korean businessmen in the rhine-main-region and whenever we visited a non-korean eatery they asked the waiter if it would be ok to unpack their kimchi they had brought with. it was not because they were too narrow-minded to
try the different cuisine on its own. but without kimchi and any other "fresh" component they hardly could swallow more than a bite of the plate that oozed with butter and heavy cream.
once we went to a restaurant that was too chic to ask for the allowance and guess what, the evening ended up with leaving the plates mostly full. the only person who could eat the whole serving was me :)

III. what i like about kimchi

kimchi is the evidence that you can yield the utmost umami flavor out of the humblest ingredients by letting time do most of the work. in many situations in cooking where bacon or cheese is added to make a dish tastier, koreans would add kimchi. and because kimchi changes its taste with the ongoing fermentation, it is slow food in the best sense of the word.

so let it be said:

if you have never had kimchi before, don't wait too long until to try it. it will bring a complete new, complex umami taste into your life!

if you have tried kimchi and didn't like it: don't give in, you probably didn't got the right one.
to make good kimchi isn't magic but it demands some sensitivity in finding the right balance of the components. this seems to be hard enough to achieve and unfortunately a lot of kimchi end in bland or oversalt results (i screwed my first exemplars, too).

IV. a kimchi meal for beginners

since the authentic way of preparing banchans along with kimchi is so laborious that i think only really crazy fans of korean cuisine can do that, here is my suggestion that involves fresh as well as cooked kimchi. the great thing is that once you have good kimchi, no additional garlic, onions or spices will be needed.

1) spinach frittata with fresh kimchi

eggs in any form goes well with fresh kimchi.

pan-fry a vegetable of preference (i took spinach for some chlorophyllic green).
pour lightly beaten eggs with salt and pepper over it and let sit.
after it gets firm, turn it over with the help of a plate.
serve with fresh kimchi (wrung out so that there is no excess kimchi juice and drizzled with olive oil).

2) risotto with slowly roasted kimchi and white fish

the classic rice dish with cooked kimchi is kimchi fried rice but if that is too simple, here is another option. who would have thought but kimchi goes well with butter and white wine, too :)

chop 2 handful fermented (!) kimchi and roast it in the oven (180° C) for 1 hour with 1 tbsp of butter. the oven-roasting will turn out all flavors and result in a shiny mellow kimchi. this method will meet those people, who aren't yet used to the harsh and tangy taste of fresh kimchi.

for 2 servings
sweat 200 g carnaroli rice in 1 tbsp butter.
deglaze with 200 ml white wine and stir.
add the roasted kimchi.
successively add 800 ml kimchi broth (kimchi juice with boiled water and additional salt).
add 1 tsp of butter and optionally 2 tbsp grated parmigiano at the end.

serve with pan-fried white fish (i took trout), black pepper and chopped basil.

V. a special invite

it's a great pleasure to release my musings on kimchi for my dear fellow blogger miss boulette: not only do i share her love of everything "classic" and of sweet yeast breads, her blog keeps me marvel at how sensational authenticity is paired with modernity in presenting korean cuisine.
thank you for the dinner invite - i am so looking forward to it!! :)

oven braised beetroots, onions and celeriac puree

dear mr. johannes king,

thank you for this brilliant combo from the last cooking show. and thank you for introducing an equally brilliant cooking technique for these vegetables.

if your restaurant wouldn't have two stars and be on a far-out island, i would drop by much sooner.

as i am henceforth a fan of yours i would very much appreciate if you followed my blog. if ever, feel free to leave comments :)

sincerelly yours

wraps with quinoa, lentils and beetroot

after having devoured

1) half a pound of good old dr. oetker's marble cake during the weekend (do you think of excuses when making a huge buttery chocolatey plain white flour cake? i sometimes do. in this case that was "after this new-fashioned-pastries-wave it's high time to make a classic marble cake. it's been years since you had the last one. otherwise you will even forget that taste.... ahh, horrible imagination! :) )

2) together with a bulk of my favorite biscotti (the only store-bought sweets that are currently admitted to my household)

i had to make up some fresh compensatory meals asap.

lovely beetroots are in season now and pretty as always. the easiest way is to eat them raw. if you have a good vegetable peeler, a mandolin slicer (yes, in this case kitchen gadgets are a real blessing), a pair of thin rubber gloves and if you deal with the beetroots carefully you can quickly produce vegetable sticks without causing a "stain accident".

i made a simplified version of these wraps (a page that has never failed me when in need of healthy inspirations): lettuce, beetroot sticks, red onions, fennel and cinnamon scented quinoa with raisins, lemon scented beluga lentils, flat parsley and goat cheese crumbles wrapped up in a big tortilla.

if you've stocked up on cooked lentils in the freezer, this wraps come together in no time. btw, it's essential that lentils and quinoa are cooked in gentle heat, i.e. simmering water.

combine the stuffing as a salad and it will make up a wonderfully filling glutenfree meal (hi basti, you hear me? :)

definitely worth trying, even without a cake feast prior to that!

korean pumpkin porridge

i made korean pumpkin porridge - hobakjuk for the first time. all i can remember about my mum's pumpkin porridge is that in the beginning there was a giant pumpkin.

(interestingly even in the huge city where we used to live in korea such a preciousness came as a gift raised by private hands. i don't remind any one that we bought in a store.)

and it always was quite a laborious way to go from there: peeling the big pumpkin, cooking it, making rice cake balls and a red bean paste until finally everything was combined to the most velvety creamy thick (fat and dairy free) soup.

try it and you will instantly know that pumpkin is destined to be cooked in exactly this way.

now i find myself under different circumstances where tasty pumpkins that don't have to be peeled are available everywhere. i made an ultra-fast clumsy version with only pumpkin, glutinous rice flour, water, sugar and salt. lacking experience my rice balls turned out ugly but once dumped in the most forgiving puree, it didn't matter at all. the result was so utterly delicious, so similar to the hobakjuk i had in memory that it felt like cheating :)

if you adore pumpkins as much as i do than there is no better way to enjoy its pure taste!


fast and easy hobakjuk

1) steam the pumpkin in a pot with a little water on the bottom (no special devices needed)

2) make rice cake balls out of 1-2 cups of glutinous rice flour, little hot water and a pinch of salt. i like them rather big, about 1 cm diameter size.

3) mash the steamed pumpkin in the pot with a potato masher. i prefer this to pureeing so that a little bit texture remains.

4) add as much water as you like (i like it not soupy) and bring it again to boil.

5) add the rice cake balls and 1-2 tbsp of glutinous rice flour until the porridge has the consistency wanted

6) add sugar and salt. the amount depends on if it should be served as a dessert or as a main dish. and if refreshing kimchi is on hand.

luckily i had fermented kimchi and i like sweet porridge so mine could be like a salted caramel - salty enough but definitely more sweet :)

100 % whole spelt bagels

past monday was national holiday and very likely the last indian summer day of this year.

i made bagels (and a cream cheese spread) for this beautiful day that started with a big brunch with friends, continued with some forest walk and ended with an after-theater-pint.

that was my second batch of bagels in total and the first batch made completely out of wholemeal.

the last time i was stunned that making bagels turned out to be so easy. thus this time i forthrightly aimed to the olympus of home baking - bridget's recipes collection.

bridget is my role model in terms of passionate baking and down-to-earth attitude towards healthy nutrition. her blog with the coolest name ever is my favorite since ever: perfectionist, professional, assiduous, yet silent, honest and never competing for attention.

admittedly most of her undertakings sound intimidatingly laborious so usually i just enjoy reading about them. but i was intrigued by the whole wheat conversion method that she introduced in detail.

so i made the bagels with whole spelt flour (whole wheat flour tastes a tad dull i think) and i faced lots of troubles because i was too impatient to follow the exact measurements. the final dough was way to wet and i had to add endless amounts of additional flour.

the bagels were still tasty but their consistency not as smooth as made with plain flour. yet i will not give up to reach perfection one day for that for sure will be very rewarding.