Tuesday, April 30, 2013
My next stop on my culinary trip: Turkey
I discovered, that I seem to be on a culinary world trip lately. I started with Thailand (Beef Massaman Curry), went then Egypt (Okra-mince casserole) and today I landed in Turkey.
Our organic market has lately aubergines on offer. It's a vegetable I like, especially the color (I know, it's a bit strange statement), but it's also a veggie I'm kinda scared of. You need to salt them first in order to get the bitterness out, but you must be careful with your salt amount. I managed to screw up my Moussaka a few weeks ago in putting way too much salt on the aubergines, because I wanted to make sure, the bitterness is out. I obviously didn't try the aubergines and so my Moussaka was dreadfully salty.
But I'm not giving up easily, so I ordered the aubergines again and this time I salted the aubergines only little, after I watched Masterchef Australia (again) and watched how a proper Moussaka is done.
But that day I wasn't up for a Moussaka, I think I also didn't have mince in my freezer. I was late with my lunch, so I was looking for something quick, easy but substantial. So I found this recipe and that's my take on
Turkish pilaf with aubergines
Our organic market has lately aubergines on offer. It's a vegetable I like, especially the color (I know, it's a bit strange statement), but it's also a veggie I'm kinda scared of. You need to salt them first in order to get the bitterness out, but you must be careful with your salt amount. I managed to screw up my Moussaka a few weeks ago in putting way too much salt on the aubergines, because I wanted to make sure, the bitterness is out. I obviously didn't try the aubergines and so my Moussaka was dreadfully salty.
But I'm not giving up easily, so I ordered the aubergines again and this time I salted the aubergines only little, after I watched Masterchef Australia (again) and watched how a proper Moussaka is done.
But that day I wasn't up for a Moussaka, I think I also didn't have mince in my freezer. I was late with my lunch, so I was looking for something quick, easy but substantial. So I found this recipe and that's my take on
Turkish pilaf with aubergines
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Seared kingklip with creamed sauerkraut
We haven't had fish for quite a long time, beside the tuna wrap lately. It's funny however, that I didn't categorise it as a fish dish right away. Anyway, let say it like that, we haven't had a proper fish dish for a long time and last time we were shopping I got hold of kingklip again. I really like the fish, as it has a white flesh with firm texture and a slightly sweet taste. It's native to South Africa (and Australia and New Zealand, but is also found on the costs of Argentina and Chile). It's a member of cusk eel family and is also known under that name in Europe and southern America ( source: Seafoodsource.com ).
The idea for the dish came up, because I had cabbage left and I thought, there was once a dish with fish and cabbage I used to make back in Germany. And then I remembered, that it wasn't cabbage after all but creamed sauerkraut. The recipe for the creamed sauerkraut I used here is from the famous German chef Johann Lafer and I found it here (in German language).
I was actually planning to make that dish with bacon. Unfortunately I realised too late, that we don't have bacon in the fridge. But if you have some at home, I would highly recommend to fry your kingklip wrapped in bacon, as it's not only complements with the creamed sauerkraut but also with the fish. If you try it out with bacon, please feel free to leave a comment of what you thought about it.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Tuna wrap
One of our all-time-favourites are wraps. They are not only done quickly, but are mostly light and always delicious. We eat them filled with either chicken and salad, or with mince, corn and beans for the richer version. Or as this time, with tuna. I didn't have the ingredients for my usual tuna wrap (I will post about the next occasion), so I thought I will take a filling, that was initially a salad, inspired by that recipe (in German language).
At this point I must confess, that I didn't do the wraps myself but used store bought wraps. I tried to do them once and it went horribly wrong. But it doesn't mean, I won't try it again, one day. For now the store bought must do it - and they are delicious too.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Beetroot tart with red onion confit, goats cheese and walnuts
The first time I've made that dish, we were growing beetroot in our garden and all the beetroot was ready at the same time, so I was looking for different dishes I could work with. I love beetroot, but the only dishes I could come up with, were salad or soup. I wasn't in the mood for either of those. I knew, I will cook some beetroot and preserve for later, but there was still plenty left. So I stumbled upon that recipe, but decided to use a tart I knew from another recipe I've made several times already. I love that dough recipe, as it's really quickly done and doesn't contain half a cube of butter (as you maybe remember, I'm trying to lose some weight). Also I'm not a fan of puff pastry tarts - I guess it's also the butter content. Don't get me wrong, I love puff pastry, but not in that kind of dishes. Beside, there are so many fantastic tart doughs and using puff pastry is kind of boring, to me at least.
Why am I telling all this, because every time I've made that tart, I thought, it must taste great with goats cheese. So that time my inspiration came from the goats cheese lying in my fridge and of course the glass of ready-to-eat beetroot in my pantry. As I said, the very first time, I've made the tart with fresh beetroot and wasn't that stoked about the outcome. Since I'm using jarred beetroot, I like the taste much more. And that's really rare, as I normally prefer fresh products.
By the way, we don't grow beetroot in our garden anymore, because we are way too impatient and somehow the bugs in our garden seemed to love the beetroot at least as much as we do. So no beetroot anymore, we tried carrots instead. But that's another story.
Let's start with my Beetroot tart with red onion confit, goats cheese and walnuts
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Okra - mince casserole with homemade flatbread
As I already mentioned, we finally found a Namibian supplier of dairy products, that is on top of it organic. We order every week online, not only our milk. Since they work together with other farmers, we also get the chance to order organic vegetables, meat, preserves and all kind of yummy stuff.
Sometimes I stumble upon very familiar products, I know from Europe, but never see them here in supermarkets, but then also upon products I don't know, like wild spinach or at my last order, okra. I saw okra before at a veggie market and my husband and I were wondering, what it could be.
So that time I thought, I'll give it a chance and try it out. It's always exciting to try something new. I found a nice article about cooking with okra and here a nice recipe (German) I used and just modified to my liking and needs.
Out came a very delicious casserole, I definitely will cook again. And okra, well, I'm really glad I gave it a try and I'm looking forward to cook with it again.
But for now, let's get it started with Okra - mince casserole and homemade flatbread
So that time I thought, I'll give it a chance and try it out. It's always exciting to try something new. I found a nice article about cooking with okra and here a nice recipe (German) I used and just modified to my liking and needs.
Out came a very delicious casserole, I definitely will cook again. And okra, well, I'm really glad I gave it a try and I'm looking forward to cook with it again.
But for now, let's get it started with Okra - mince casserole and homemade flatbread
Sunday, April 7, 2013
My take on Beef Massaman Curry ( from scratch)
Here I was talking about old habits and fish on Fridays and just on Good Friday I decided to make Massaman curry. But let me start at the beginning.
We love to watch MasterChef, especially MasterChef Australia and while we were in South Africa on holiday, we missed quite a few episodes and were now feverish catching up. One episode was a challenge to improve a bad Massaman Curry. To be honest, I've never heard of that kind of curry before, but then I never was a big fan of curries anyway, mostly because they were way too spicy for me. They described the curry as rather mild compared to other curries, so I had immediately to look up the recipe, as it sounded delicious.
I found one here, but I wanted to do make the curry paste from scratch, so I also orientated me on that recipe and I was really happy, that I had almost all ingredients at home, although I had to substitute galangal (never heard about it before) with ginger, the cinnamon sticks with grounded cinnamon, the shrimp paste with fish sauce and I had to leave out Mace (outside tissue of a nutmeg - never heard about it until MasterChef, so I had no clue where to get it) and unfortunately lemon grass, because mine was mouldy. Also I had to substitute tamarind pods with lime juice.
I have to admit, I missed quite a few ingredients, but even without them we had a very delicious curry I was really proud of.
But it was a long road - somehow I misread the cooking time. My husband remembered, that it has to cook for at least two hours, I on the other hand read somewhere it takes about 50 minutes. Well, as it turned out, that was for a Chicken Massaman Curry.
Anyway, I started late morning with the paste; and here the tip of the day: don't do a curry from scratch, if you have a baby and a toddler to look after at the same time. I burned my first set of spices and my first grilled garlic and onions and it took me till late afternoon to make that paste only . That evening we had instead of curry chicken piccata, as my curry was only ready the next day. My husband wasn't a happy camper, smelling curry all day and having chicken piccata to eat, but I can recommend now to prepare the curry the previous day.
So here is my take on Massaman Curry:
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
It's chicken time
As I already mentioned, I'm trying to get rid of my pregnancy fat, but without dieting, because I'm not allowed to do so. And even if I'm one of these women, whom most other women hate, because I can eat as much as I want, as long as I work out just a bit, I'm not really getting fat. I'm also rather a stress non-eater than stress eater so that also helps a lot. But my second pregnancy is not that long ago and I gained with my first pregnancy a few kilos, kept them throughout the time in between and gained again with my second pregnancy, so I'm sitting now with few kilos I need to get rid of in order to have my comfort weight.
Best option is to change my eating habits, which never have been really bad, but lately I felt for stuff like chocolate, the already mentioned fantastic ice cream, croissants and cakes or combinations of all above. So yeah, it's time!
We're trying now to eat more lean meat and more fish, leave the pork out and cut short on fat and sugar. We will see, how it'll work out.
On that note I want to introduce you to another of my favourite chicken recipes:
Chicken Piccata
Best option is to change my eating habits, which never have been really bad, but lately I felt for stuff like chocolate, the already mentioned fantastic ice cream, croissants and cakes or combinations of all above. So yeah, it's time!
We're trying now to eat more lean meat and more fish, leave the pork out and cut short on fat and sugar. We will see, how it'll work out.
On that note I want to introduce you to another of my favourite chicken recipes:
Chicken Piccata
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