Category Archives: pic

peanut sauce

i made this peanut sauce already twice this week, it is just so good.

ingredients:

  • 4 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
  • 100 ml coconut milk
  • 100 – 150 ml hot water
  • 3 cm ginger, minced
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp mustard (dijon)
  • chili flakes or fresh chili to taste

in a blender, mix all ingredients. transfer to a small pan and let it simmer at medium heat for a few minutes, until the sauce thickens.

eton mess

my favourite ways to eat strawberries: (1) as is (2) mashed with a bit sugar and sour cream. and now i have a third favourite (a bit similar to number two but with way more history):

ingredients:

  • 140 ml whipping cream
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 350 g strawberries
  • 20g meringues

wash and prepare strawberries, then cut in small pieces. sprinkle with sugar and set aside for a few minutes. crush meringues in little pieces, whip cream. fold strawberries and meringues carefully into the whipped cream. can be served  immediately or chilled in the fridge until ready to use.

i have to admit that i first go.ogled “eaton mess”. but guess what? i am not nearly the only one. haha.

chapati

i always get a bit confused by the many variants of indian bread. chapati, puri, nan, roti,… i’m making this version  for a while now, and i think it is close to chapati (but the dough was originally for the paratha in jaffreys book)

ingredients:

  • 100g flour (type 405)
  • 100 g flour (type 1050)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp ghee, melted
  • 75 – 100 ml water

mix flour and salt, add ghee, then water (by the tablespoon) until the dough comes together, knead for 5-10 minutes, chill in the fridge for an hour.

cut the dough in six pieces, and roll them out – VERY thin. cook in a dry pan from both sides.

a lot of food, but no time to write

finally i’m back in the kitchen, and now i have already a backlog of dishes to blog:


coconut tofu with peanut sauce and broccoli. this is an item from my list of ideas, and while the tofu was not as good as i had expected the sauce (which i slightly altered) was really great, and i will definitely make it again.


the result of another sunday evening fridge cleanup: vegetable risotto with zucchini, mushrooms and peas.


yesterday evening we had aloo gobi and red lentil dal with bread, rice and yoghurt.


and today i made strawberry cheesecake muffins, impromptu recipe. happy mother’s day by the way (to whom it may concern).

a second take on empanadas

empanadas are great for brunch – in fact i made them for the first time to appear on a brunch buffet. so i am submitting this recipe to zorra’s brunch blog event:

Jubiläums-Blog-Event LVI - Brunch & Giveaway (Einsendeschluss 15. Mai 2010)

the empanadas require a bit of work, but can be prepared well in advance, baked and stored in the freezer. on the day of use they should be thawed for one to two hours, then sprinkled with a bit water and baked at 175° for about 10 minutes. for dipping, i made chimmichurri sauce and tomato sauce (adapted from here).

for this version i used the dough from the original empanadas mendocinas recipe, but the filling was the same as last time i made them.  the dough was very nice, way easier to handle than my first try and with a better texture after baking.

ingredients:

dough

  • 360g flour
  • 110g butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 180 – 200 ml warm milk
  • 1/2 tsp salt

filling

  • 500g ground beef
  • 2 large onions, diced
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp chili flakes
  • 1/2 tsp salt, pepper to taste
  • 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 10 green olives, quartered
  • 20g raisins, soaked in hot water
  • 3 hard boiled eggs, sliced

other

  • 1 egg, white and yolk separated

in a large bowl, mix flour and salt. using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dough. add egg yolk, then milk in small amounts, knead until the dough comes together. make a flat ball and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

in a large bowl, mix paprika, oregano, cumin, chili flakes, salt and pepper. add ground beef and knead until well combined. chill in the refrigerator until use.

melt the butter in a large pan and cook onions until tender, about 10 minutes. add meat mixture and cook until the beef is done, stirring frequently. let the mixture cool down a bit, add parsley, raisins, olives and chopped green onions and mix well.

on a lightly floured board roll out the dough into a thin sheet and cut out round shapes. i used a cup of 10cm diameter and got 28 empanadas.

add a spoonful of meat mixture on each disc and a slice of boiled egg. brush the edges of the empanada with egg white (i used my fingers for that), fold the empanada disc and seal. twist and fold the edges for a repulgue, or use a fork to finish sealing.

brush with whisked egg yolk and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes.

note: the filling is a bit to much for the dough – i think 3/4 of it could do as well. but since it is so delicious i keep making the full amount, and then use leftovers e.g. on frozen puff pastry.

red lentil soup

red lentils are great if there is not much time to cook – they need only about 15 minutes until tender.

ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp ghee (or butter oil)
  • 1 bunch of green onions
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 4 pieces of celery stalks
  • 2 carrots
  • 200 g red lentils
  • 1/4 tsp chili flakes
  • 1 l vegetable stock
  • 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • salt, black pepper

cut up celery stalks and carrots into small pieces. seperate green and white of green onions and chop.

in a large pan, heat ghee. add garlic and the white of green onions, cook for two minutes. add carrots and celery, cook for another two minutes. add red lentils, cook fon one minute, stirring frequently. add  chili flakes and vegetable stock and let it simmer until the lentils are done (15-20 minutes). right before the end of cooking time, add chopped green parts of the green onions (keep a bit for decoration). season the soup with lemon juice, soy sauce, black pepper and salt.

banana muffins (without eggs)

on our son’s birthday i wanted to make something to take to the kindergarden, and the constraint was to use no eggs – i don’t know if one of the kids is allergic, or if they fear salmonella infections… but banana muffins are a safe bet:

ingredients:

  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 200g flour
  • 50g sliced almonds
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 80 g sugar (brown)
  • 200ml yoghurt
  • 100ml sun flower oil

in one bowl, mix dry ingredients (except for the sugar). in another bowl, mash bananas, then mix in sugar, oil and yoghurt. stir flour mixture in banana mixture, then stir until the dry ingredients are moistened. spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups and bake at 175° for about 20 minutes.

i also sent along  these cookies. i did not particularly like them, since i found them quite dry – which was the reason i decided to bake the muffins in the first place. but i was told that the kids really loved them. on the other hand,  i guess they would  eat just about anything as long as it is topped with m+m’s.

while making the cookies i noticed that i may have a light control-freak tendency: i ordered the m+m’s  by color to make sure that the colors are evenly distributed on the cookies. and did you know that there are far more in green and brown than in  any other color?

grilled green asparagus with pine nuts and parmesan


i think this is the easiest way to enjoy asparagus:

ingredients:

  • 500g green asparagus
  • 1 tbsp butter oil
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 tbsp toasted pine nuts
  • 3 tbsp grated parmesan

trim asparagus, heat butter oil in a large pan. cook asparagus until tender. when it is almost done, sprinkle with lemon juice and season with salt and black pepper. transfer to a plate, sprinkle with pine nuts and parmesan.

a few dashes of pumpkin seed oil will make it even better.

and since it is so quick, easy and tasty, i’m submitting it to cucina rapida.

chimmichurri sauce

i like parsley, but i am not a big fan of parsley dominating an entire dish. therefore i was a bit reluctant about the chimmichurri sauce as a dip for the empanadas and made it primarily because i thought it would look nice, together with the tomato dip i was planning to make. (shifting of priorities, eh?)
and what happened? it looked very nice indeed, and nobody took a picture. but fortunately it was delicous, too.

ingredients:

  • 1 bunch of parsley
  • 1 clove or garlic
  • 6 leaves of basil
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 4 tbsp olive oil (add more if needed)
  • 1/2 red chili, chopped (but it was not very hot)
  • salt and pepper to taste

combine all ingredients in the blender, mix until the sauce is smooth.  chill in the fridge until ready to use (should be used the same day).