Potato and fish again! yay!!!

Me again! who am I speaking to? Well, guess to myself! Well here's a funny fact: when you live on your own for a long time, you start talking to yourself... not in your head, but out loud! Your mental notes, and thought bubbles find their way through your lips and become voice! Uhum!
Why I am mentioning this? Who knows... guess I'm just tired!

'Earlier' this evening (less than 2 hours ago) I said to friend: It's crazy what you can do during an evening especially when you get back home (from work) at past 8! and yes it is crazy!
Well, checked my mails, my facebook account, watched CNN for 10 minutes (and hurray for the cold snap on Germany!) and then it was time for dinner:

Pesto Salmon served with Roasted Potatoes
Sorry, it's again potatoes and salmon (quite boring huh... but this one tastes REALLY good!)
Anyway.. here it goes

Salmon filet (2 pieces)
1 tsp pesto sauce
2 potatoes, cut in quarters (unpeeled)
1/2 tsp dill
1 tsp estragon mustard
1 tbsp olive oil
1tsb lemon juice
Salt & pepper

Place the fish in an over dish, spread over with pesto then pour lemon juice on top. cover with a foil and place in a heated oven (200°C) for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, boil the potatoes in water until cooked. In a pan, combine the reste of the ingrediens and heat until you hear that sweet sizzling of tho oil. Pour in the potatoes and stir-fry until surface is golden and crusty.

Tip: goes perfectly well with a safran rice

1/2 cup basmati
1 cup boiled water
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch safran
Salt

In a pot, heat oil and add rice. Stir until it starts roasting. Add water, safran and salt if desired). Cook over very low heat for about 15 minutes (water should be all soaked up and rice soft but not mashy or gluey)./


I guess that if I tell you what I was listening to tonight you'd be scared! Machine Head's 2007 album 'The Blackening' that is. Don't worry, I'm fine ;) it's just the dark and twisted part of me coming back to the surface!

(P.S.: sorry, no pictures tonight! I was so hungry that I only thought about pictures when I was half way through my dinner)

Back...

I'm back... After over a week absence... but not a week without eating, thank god! Brazilian, Moroccan and Italian and most often with friends. Cooking together is really a blessing.

Cold and short days, or I'd rather say short evenings, so short that all you feel like doing is to go to bed as soon you come back from work.

Tonight's recipe is a dish I prepared on Friday evening:


Potato and Salmon gratin
4 potatoes
100 grams smoked salmon
1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1 tbsp olive oil

for the sauce:
100g Greek yogurt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dill

Salt & pepper
and as much cheese as you want ;)

Pre-heat over at 180°C.
Wash the potatoes and cut in quarters. Boil in water until cooked. Pour oil in a pan and stir in the mushrooms and onions until onions are transparent and browning. Stir in potatoes (unpeeled), herbs, salt and pepper until potato peel is roasted.

In a food processor, combine yogurt, olive oil, dill and salt & pepper and mix until homogeneous.

Place vegetables in an over plate, overlay with salmon and pour over the yogurt sauce.
Cover with grated cheese.

Cook for 20 minutes and then grill until cheese is gratinated.

Tip: Keeping potatoes unpeeled adds a crunch to the gratin.

Enjoy, alone or wityh friends!

Song recommendation : "Until my Dying Day" by Brandi Carlile (Give up the Ghost)

Cooking with friends is so much fun!

Weather is still VERY cold, days short and the craving for sunlight is ever growing!
It's a common fact that sunlight and depression are negatively correlated but the good things of life are there to cheer us up, and I'm referring to high-carb diets ;) but also to being surrounded by people you appreciate and care for.

Yesterday a friend came over and we cooked dinner together! We've discussed the menu the evening before and it consisted or 'Moroccan Meat Balls', warm pepper/tomato salad (chekchouka) and... a banana bread or most properly Bananenbrot plus mini-Daim's! ;)


Moroccan Meat Balls
400 g ground beef
50 cl tomato juice
1 ground clove of gralic
1 tbsp parlsey
1 tsp cumin (+ 1 tsp for the beef)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp grated onion
a pinch of safran
Sal & pepper

Combine beef with cumin + onion + safran and let rest.
In a sauce pan, combine tomato sauce, oil and spices. Let simmer for 15 minutes under a moderate. In the meantime, make 2cm-diameter meat ball and add them to the sauce. Let cook for 10 more minutes and serve.


Pepper and Tomato Warm Salad
2 bell peppers (green and red)
2 medium tomatoes cut in cubes
1 grated clove of garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Place the peppers in a heated over (200°C) for 15 minutes. Take out of the over and place in a zip-lock plastic back for 5 to 10 minutes. This will allow the peel to be removed easily. Cut the peeled peppers in small squares (1cm). Place in a sauce pan together with the tomatoes, garlic spices and oil. Let cook under moderate heat for about 15 minutes and serve.


Bananenbrot
http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/436051135187994/Schnelles-Bananenbrot-kuchen.html
70 g butter or margarine
150 g sugar
1 lemon zest
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
2 mashed ripe bananas
250 g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar

Mix together butter, sugar, salt and lemon zest briefly with the mixer. Add the eggs and mashed bananas and mix. Add flour mixed with baking powder, stir only briefly.
Pour batter into a rectangular mold (25 cm) bake for about 45-50 minutes. The bread (cake) tastes best warm, served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream :) and to indulge while watching 'Fiding Nemo'.

My personal touch: place 8 Milka squares evenly on top of the dough as you place the mold in the over. This is what i actually did today! It tastes like heaven! mmm

Music suggestion: KT Tunstall: Eye To The Telescope ((c) 2004, Virgin Recods Ltd.)

Monday, Monday :)

First day of the week... usually a the most difficult one to get through but it was ok. Wheater is still torturing everyone and everything, temperatures settled around -4°C and it snowed non-stop all day long. Under these conditions, what else would you ask for apart from something really warm! And no I'm not thinking of Vodka! Soup it is! WARM, HOT soup! But before I started cooking a yummy soup (it has to be yummy!), I had the smart idea to take a bath, and the not so smart one to listen to Massive Attack while being in the water! I don't know if it's the combination of steam MA's beats but it got me stoned and light-headed (and again, no, it's not about Vodka!).

Anyway, I decided to get the Massive Attack melodies out of my head and listened to Liquid Tension Experimet's* 'Acid Rain' and 'Paradigm Shift' (two true masterpieces) and here's what my Monday dinner tasted like:


Tomato-Feta Salad

A handful of cherry tomatoes
Feta (as much as you want)
Vinaigrette:
1 tsp Estragon mustard
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp Argan oil (or olive oil)
Salt & pepper

Keep tomatoes whole or halve them, cut Feta in small cubes and season with vinaigrette. Argan oil brings a nice nutty flavor to the vinaigrette but it work well with olive oil as well.


Salmon rice noodle soup

100g Salmon filet
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp dill
1 tsp chopped parsley
4 chopped chestnut mushroom
1/2 tsp garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp finely chopped jalepenos
1 portion rice noodles


Cut salmon into 1cm side cubes. Pour oil in sauce pan and heat under medium heat. Add in spices, mushrooms, jalepenos and soy sauce until salmon turns white-ish.

In the mean time, boil 3/4 water, cook the noodles for 3 minutes and pour in the fish preparation. Let simmer for 1 more minutes and it's ready to be enjoyed.


I did take pictures which are still on my camera and which I'll upload tomorrow.

Don't forget to feedback! :)

Tschüss

*: Liquid Tension Experient is Dream Theater's instrumental side project http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqcJ8ECPPK4

Saturday evening meal

Yesterday was a normal Saturday, if you consider -5°C normal ;) Anyway, I went shopping for food but also got myself warm socks to fight the next double-digit-negative temperature days. I was back at my flat at 6 p.m. and wondered what I could do apart from watching another movie. But while I was putting my errands in the fridge and/or cupboard it suddenly hit me! Why not cook something that I haven't had before. In front of me i layed:
Camembert, ground beef (I'm not a big meat lover but I've been craving for read meat since 3 days!), bell peppers, and loads of fruits. 1h later, i was seated having a great time appreciating every mouthful of what I had cooked (doesn't sound modest, does it?). Believe it or not, it's easy to make and you don't need to spend 2 hours in the kitchen.

Ingredients for 2 persons

Starter: Oven Camembert with caramelized fruits

1 Camembert
6 died apricots
6 dried figs
2 crushed walnuts
1 tsp of Argan oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 dash cinnamon
1 dash ginger
1 tbsp Wild Honey for serving

Pre-cook the dried fruits in 100ml water for 5 minutes, add sugar, cinnamon and ginger and let it simmer over moderate heat untill the water has a honey-like texture.
Cut open the Camembert in 2 as you would cut a bun to make a sandwich, stuff it with walnuts and close it back again. Lay is on a 20x20 cm Ali foil. Place the caramelised fruits on top it. Pour Argan oil around the cheese and close the foil in a papillote style.
Place in a pre-heated oven (200°C) 15 minutes before serving. Serve on individual plates with a thin 'filet' of honey.


Main dish: Stuffed bell peppers with tzatziki
(Inspired from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lamb-and-Orzo-Stuffed-Pepper-with-Chunky-Tomato-Sauce-230752)

2 Bell peppers (1 green and 1 red or as you wish ;) )
250g of ground beef
1/2 cup basmati rice
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped courgette
2 tomatoes
1 crushed garlic clove
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp dill
salt, pepper

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 220°C. Oil a 22-cm glass or ceramic pie plate with 1 teaspoon oil.

Cook onion with salt in remaining tablespoon oil in a pan over moderate heat, stirring mushrooms and courgette, until softened and beginning to brown, 7 to 9 minutes.

While onion is cooking, cook orzo in a 2-quart pot boiling salted water until aldente. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking water, then drain the rice a sieve.

Spread half of onion/mushroom/courgette in pie plate. Add ground beef to remaining skillet in pan and cook, breaking up large clumps with a fork, until meat turns brown. Remove from heat and stir in rice, reserved cooking water, parsley, dill, and then salt and pepper to taste.

Stir tomatoes into onion in pie plate and season with salt and pepper. Nestle bell pepper halves, cut sides up, in tomato and onion mixture and season with salt and pepper. Divide meat between bell pepper halves, then cover pie plate with a sheet of oiled foil (oiled side down) and bake until pepper is tender when pierced with a fork, 25 to 30 minutes.

For tzatziki you'll need:
1 cucumber
250g greek-style yogurt
1 clove of crushed garlic clove
1 tbsp olive oil
4 leaves of mint
Salt & pepper


Place everything in a food processor and mix

Dessert: Fruit salad
1 apple
1 orange
1 kiwi
1 banana
1 tsp cinnamon
2 chopped mint leaves
1 tsp orange blossom water

Peel and cut the fruits in small cubes. Stir in the rest of ingredients and let rest in fridge.

Eating on your own?

This is my first post but before my mental note-bubbles take shape into words and paragraphs in this space I would just like to mention that this 'project' started out of the blue. So here it goes: wintery days, negative temperatures, and outside everything is white. Something Brandi Carlile described well in her song "Before it breaks" (Give up the Ghost, 2009 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT).

I've often heard friends, single friends, say that they don't cook because it's not fun nor motivating to cook for yourself, that meals are meant to be shared a that frozen pizzas and read to eat meals are much more convenient. I do agree about the part that says that meals should be shared but what happens if you just can't share them? Will you just skip them, eat whatever is out there to avoid hearing your guts scream? Ah, come on!!! What about the indulgent part of your meal? What about rewarding yourself after a difficult day at work? Or what about simply feeding yourself!

Now here's my theory: cooking is a me-time, it's this bubble where you interact with ingredients, combine textures and tastes and ultimately confront your taste buds with the result and hear them scream for more.

Think about Hollywood blockbusters Ratatouille or Julie & Julia, think about that nice holiday your spent in the foreign country, or keep it more personal and remember those days when your mom or grandma were cooking for you.

Follow your instincts, get inspired and open the doors for your sensory gateaway!