Mince Pie

Mince pie with some lamb's lettuce: Yum!

Pizza!

Self made pizza! With salame and pepperoncini. Delicious!

Bigos

Bigos (Hunter's Stew) is a polish dish that I cooked by loosely following a recipe on Serious Eats, served with home made bread. Yum! Very meaty, very rustic, very delicious. Dangerous, too. I ate too much. Again. Oh well.

Crepes filled with jam, topped with berry sauce

If you feel like you need a hug: This dish is something for your sweet tooth. The crepes are filled with apricot, raspberry and strawberry jam, and covered with icing sugar and a berry sauce.

Kässpatzn!

This is one of my top favorite dishes. It originates from the South of Germany. Golden caramelized onions topping Spätzle with cheese, accompanied by a fresh salad and a white wine. Life is beautiful!

To make the Spätzle, you need 500g flour, 5 or 6 eggs, 1/4 ltr or less water, and a teaspoon of salt. Mix and knead to get a smooth dough, rather thick and heavy. In a big pot, bring water to a boil, put salt into the water. Then put the dough through a Spätzle maker or (if you don't have one) put some dough on a wet wooden board and scrape strings off into the boiling water. Let every batch boil for a few minutes until they have grown visibly, then haul them out of the water and put them in a sieve. Repeat until dough is finished.

To make caramelized onions: Skin 3 or 4 onions and cut them in thin slices. Melt butter in a pan on medium-high heat, put in the onions and let them fry for a few minutes, then turn all of them to fry from the other side. Repeat this process for some time (like 40 to 60 minutes), reducing the heat slowly, until the onions are golden. There is no way to make this faster, as far as I know.

To make Kässpatzn: Put a good amount of Spätzle in a pan with melted butter to reheat them. Stir frequently. Put some ground Gouda or Butter Cheese in, don't forget to season with salt and pepper. Serve with onions on top.

Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie brings back fond memories of Bob and Heidi... It is pretty easy to make. 

Put a handful of dried porcini into a bowl with cold water. Fry 500g of minced meat (I used minced beef) in some oil until slightly brown and almost or completely done. Remove from the pan. Put in more oil and finely diced mirepoix (1 part celery, 1 part carrot, 2 parts onion, plus the porcini, water pressed out). Fry, add some tomato mark, fry more and start adding some red wine and the water of the porcini. Let boil down a bit, add back the meat, season everything with salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, and worcester sauce. Add some frozen peas. Make a sauce from 20g butter and some flower, add 250ml chicken stock, season to taste. Put the meat in a form, pour the sauce over it, and cover it with potato puree. Preheat oven to 225°C, put form in for about 25 to 35 minutes.

Enjoy!

:)

Gambas and Couscous

Simple and good! Gambas fried in oil and butter. Salted and peppered, removed from the pan, added cherry tomatoes and paprika, added scallions, added back the gambas, Finish with a spritzer of Balsamico and salt/ pepper in case some is missing, and done. Serve with couscous.

Deer Gulash and Spaetzle

A dinner fit for kings and queens, it tastes even better than it looks.

I am not going to share the recipe. :)

French Apple Pie

For my birthday, after a recipe from Nick Malgieri (http://www.nickmalgieri.com/).

Piccata Alla Milanese

Pork cutlet, coated in egg and parmesan. Penne Rigate in a simple tomato sauce. Fresh salad. Dry red wine. Yum!

Chicken Mediterranean Style

I love this dish because it is so easy to prepare. Cut up some veggies and put them in a pan: Potatoes (a lot), bell peppers, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, leek, onion, garlic. Add chopped rosemary, thyme and oregano, salt and pepper! Sprinkle generously with olive oil. Stir to get everything well mixed.

The chicken pieces need to be coated. We use Maggi No. 3 which we put in a bit of olive oil, stir, and use a brush to paint the chicken parts with it. Simply use the chicken seasoning mix of your choice. Put the chicken parts on top of the veggies, skin side up.

Put the pan in the preheated oven at 180°C with circulating air (fan) for about 45 minutes. Depending on the accuracy of your oven you might need a higher temperature setting to get the chicken thoroughly cooked, I use 200°C.

Serve with Ciabatta bread or baguette, and a light red wine, for example a Bardolino.

Depending on the size of the pan and the amount of veggies and chicken, this can serve 2 to 4 or even six.

Enjoy!

Welcome !

Very happy to see you around!

Enjoy!