Salmon in puff pastry

Puff pastry is immensely useful, not to mention tasty! While I usually use it to wrap filet of beef or pork, I recently decided to try the same method using some salmon. Fabulous! The great thing about pastry-wrapped meat or fish is that the pastry essentially replaces sides like potatoes or rice, and it also serves to keep whatever is inside nice and succulent.

Ingredients (serves 2):

400gr filet of salmon

1 pack of puff pastry

1 egg, separated

3 tablespoons of soft goat cheese

2 tablespoons of sour cream

200gr frozen spinach

2 shallots

Lemon Juice

Salt & Pepper

Preparation:

1. Wash the salmon and dry off with some kitchen paper. Season with salt and pepper. Defrost the spinach, and gently fry in a pan with the chipped shallots and a bit of olive oil. Season the spinach with salt, pepper and, if you want, a bit of nutmeg. Allow the spinach to cool down. In a bowl mix the sour cream, goats cheese, some salt and a bit of lemon juice. 

2. Lay out your puff pastry to form a rectangle and spread the sour cream in the center. Top with the spinach and place the salmon on top. Brush the edge of the pastry with some egg white and fold. Place on a baking tray (ideally covered with some baking paper), putting the folded side down. Brush the whole thing with the egg yolk and place in the often at 180°C for 30 Minutes. 

You can serve this with a nice green salad or some vegetables (I used sugar snaps). 

Pineapple Mascarpone with Ginger-Cream

I came up with this recipe recently when I had to buy a pineapple for my roast duck with pineapple-chili-caramel and ended up having way too much pineapple. Plus, I recently read somewhere that desserts served in a glass are the new black!

The really great thing about this dessert is that it can prepared in advance. All you have to do when your guests are there, is to take it out of the fridge (which is especially handy given that dessert is usually served at a stage in the evening when the last thing you want to do is to disappear into the kitchen for lengthy intervals).

Ingredients (serves 4): 

250 gr Mascarpone
150 gr yoghurt (I use a creamy variety)
300 ml cream, whipped with a bit of sugar
Half a pineapple, cut into 5mm thick pieces
2 tablespoons Amaretto
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon grated ginger
3 handful Amarettini
Butter

Preparation: 

1. Place the mascarpone in a bowl. Add the yogurt and mix well until you achieve a smooth consistency. Add the Amaretto and the (white) sugar before carefully folding in roughly half of the whipped cream. Set aside. 

2. Mix the rest of the whipped cream with the ginger. 

3. Heat some butter in a pan and add the pineapple. Allow to fry gently until the fruit begins to brown. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and allow to caramelize. If you want to, you can add a bit of rum or calvados at this point. Once that has bubbled away, set the pineapple aside to cool off. 

4.  Place the Amarettini on a kitchen towel and fold. Repeatedly bash the towel using a rolling pin or a pan until the Amarettini are crumbly.

5. Once the pineapple has cooled off, you can start assembling your dessert. Using a piping bag, fill a layer of mascarpone cream into each glass and top with some Amarettini-crumble and pineapple. Repeat this process one more time before adding a final layer of mascarpone. Finally add a generous dollop of the ginger-cream to top it all off. Place in the fridge until you are ready to serve. 

Braised Chicory

Raw chicory is usually served in salads, often in combination with fruit (pears are a favorite). Supposedly the sweetness of the fruit serves to counterbalance the bitter taste of the chicory. Personally, I find raw chicory is just bitter, no matter how much fruit is added to it. Cooked, however, chicory has a fantastic flavor, especially when combined (as shown here) with some cream, bacon and a generous splash of Vermouth. 

(Allow me a brief comment on the use of butter and cream when cooking. Of course we all know that butter and cream taste great and no-one is ever going to convince me that a potato mash made with that horrible low-fat milk tastes anywhere near as good as proper mash made with proper milk (or cream) and butter. So I strongly advocate to use cream and butter when appropriate. If you want to diet, eat smaller portions or cook something that doesn't require the use of either from the start (the Asian cuisine is perfect for this).) 

Ingredients (serves 4): 

2 packs of chicory (usually each pack contains 3)

200 ml single cream
200 gr bacon, cut in to smallish cubes
100 ml Noilly Prat
1 tablespoon of butter
2 teaspoons sugar


Preparation:

1. First you cut each chicory in half (lengthwise) and remove the bitter inner core (careful, if you cut too much you end up with a bunch of loose leaves).

2. Fry the bacon in a pan until crisp. Remove and set aside. Add the butter to the pan and gently fry the chicory, adding the sugar and some salt and pepper (the sugar will caramelize and take the edge off the bitterness of the chicory). Once the chicory starts to take color, remove and set aside. 

3. Put the bacon back into the pan and reheat. Once the bacon starts to sizzle again, add the Noilly Prat and wait until it's reduced to about half. Once that's done, all that's left to do is to add the cream and the chicory.


4. Allow to cook (lid closed) over medium heat for about 30-40 mins until the chicory has softened.

Roast Duck with Pineapple-Chili Carmel

My parents regularly go to South Africa on holidays and recently brought back a new cook book ("Reuben cooks: food is time travel" by Reuben Riffel), which has a great collection of recipes. Some are admittedly slightly outside my comfort zone, but this duck that my father made for us a few days before Christmas is just heavenly. It admittedly takes a bit of time to prepare, so it's probably a dish you might want to cook on weekends or for guests, but trust me it's worth the effort. Here I am serving it with some fried rice and pak-choi with shitake mushrooms.

Ingredients (serves 4): 

4 -6 duck legs ( depending on the size)

1,5 l of chicken stock

1 cup of soy sauce

1 cup brown sugar

4 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

1 clove of garlic, peeled

Zest of one orange

1 star anise

For the caramel: 

1/2 cup of palm sugar (I used brown sugar instead)

1/2 cup of water

1 red chili, sliced

1 green chili, sliced

4 tablespoons of pineapple

4 tablespoons of fish sauce

Juice of 2 limes

Preparation:

1. Heat the chicken stock in a large pot and add the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, cinnamon stick, star anise and the orange zest. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and add the duck. After 40mins remove the duck and place in the fridge (uncovered!) until completely cool (you can also just place it in a cool basement or pantry and leave overnight). The idea is that the skin of the duck will start to dry out, giving it a lovely crunchy texture once cooked (this is similar to the way Peking duck is prepared).

2. Heat the oven the 220°C. Place the duck in an oven tray and allow to roast at this temperature for 10 mins on each side. Then turn down the heat to 160°C and leave in for another 1 1/4 hours. There is simple test to check whether the meat is done: just take a wooden skewer and stick it in the thick part of the leg, the duck is done when it goes in easily. Remove the meat from the oven and allow to rest for 10 mins. 

3. In the meantime, place the palm sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Allow to boil until the mixture starts to thicken slightly. Add the chilies, pineapple, fish sauce, and the lime juice and slowly cook for another 5 mins. 

Quiche Lorraine

I used to make Quiche Lorraine the lazy way, using frozen filo pastry instead of freshly made short pastry. But of course a quiche is supposed to be made with short pastry, so I decided to overcome my baking phobia and give it a try. And (surprise, surprise!) it was actually pretty easy. Above all, it was DELICIOUS! I admit that it's not exactly a quick dinner to make (he pastry does take some time) but it's definitely worth it. 

Ingredients (serves 4): 

375gr flour

2 eggs

150gr butter, cut into pieces

salt

200gr bacon, cut into cubes

2 medium-sized onions, halved and finely sliced

200gr sour cream

200ml cream

5 eggs

100gr grated cheese (I used Parmesan and Gruyere)

500gr dried pulses

Baking paper

Preparation:

1. First you have to make the dough. Simply pile the flour on a large working surface, make a hole in the middle and fill that with the eggs and the butter (which shouldn't be straight out of the fridge but not soft either - somewhere in the middle is perfect). Add a bit of salt and, using your hands, combine the ingredients to form a dough. At first it might seem as though there isn't enough butter, but trust me it will come together. Now this is very important: once you have a proper dough immediately stop kneading. Simply wrap the dough in a piece of clingfilm and place in the fridge for an hour.

2. In the meantime, place the bacon in a pan and allow to sizzle away until it starts to brown. Add the onion and continue frying gently until the onions are soft. Set aside.


3. In a bowl, combine the sour cream, the cream, eggs, grated cheese and some salt and pepper. Mix well. 


4. Take the dough out of the fridge. Cover your working surface with a generous amount of flour and roll out the dough (should be pretty thin). Transfer the rolled out dough to a well greased quiche form (the easiest way to do this, is to wrap the dough around your rolling pin). Line the form evenly and cut off any excess around the edges. 

5. Take a piece of baking paper, cover the dough and add the pulses. Place the
form in your pre-heated oven (160°C fan-assisted, otherwise 180°C) and cook for 15 mins. Remove the pulses and baking paper and bake for another 5 mins, this time placing the form directly on the bottom of the oven. Remove and allow to cool off slightly. 


6. Spread the onion-bacon mixture evenly and pour the cream. Place in the oven and cook for 25 mins. Towards the end of the cooking time you might want to turn on the grill to ensure that the Quiche takes on a nice golden color. Once the Quiche is done, let it sit for about 10mins before serving.

Tuna tartar with avocado and ginger dressing

Tuna tartar is a great dish. It's easy to make, light and fresh, and a fantastic starter to serve when you are planning on a bigger meat main course. Alternatively you could serve this as a main course on a warm summer night, accompanied by a glass of chilled white wine.

This particular recipe adds a nice twist on the classic tuna tartar by adding the ginger dressing.

Ingredients (serves 4):

400gr best quality tuna
1 small red onion, peeled and chopped finely
2 avocados, stoned and diced
Juice of one lime
bunch of fresh coriander

For the dressing: 
2 tbs of lime juice
2 tbs sugar
4cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 tbs olive oil
3 tbs of white wine vinegar
2 tbs of light soy sauce
1 red chili, finely chopped

Preparation: 

1. For the dressing, put the lime juice and the sugar in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Once the mixture starts to thicken, remove from the heat and allow to cool. Then add the ginger, a tablespoon of olive oil, the vinegar, chili and soy sauce. Season to taste. 

2. Cut the tuna into small cubes and season with salt. Add the onion, the juice of half a lime, a couple of tablespoons of fresh coriander, and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. 

3. In a separate bowl, mice the avocado with the remaining lime juice, some salt and pepper. 

4. To serve, first place some avocado on each plate, then adding the tuna (using serving rings is best). Add the dressing and sprinkle with some coriander. 


Recipe adapted from: Reuben Riffel, "Reuben cooks: food is time travel"

Lentil stew with minced meat and beans

My daughter has declared lentil stew to be her new favorite dish ("of all times"...we'll see how long that lasts), so being the caring mother that I am (secretly thrilled that she would eat a dish that probably sends most kids running), I went to look for recipes. In Germany lentil stew is traditionally made with vegetables, potatoes and bacon or sausages, but this recipe here beats the traditional version hands down. Particularly the addition of cumin and cinnamon is a stroke of genius.  

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 small onions, finely chopped

2 stick of celeriac, cut into small cubes

2 small carrots, cut into small cubes

2 cloves of garlic

400 gr minced beef

1 teaspoons of ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon of sugar

2 tablespoons of tomato concentrate

800 ml beef stock

300 gr chopped canned tomatoes (drained)

150 gr puy lentils

300 gr white beans (drained)

½ bunch of fresh parsley

Preparation: 

1. First gently fry the carrots, celeriac, and onions in some olive oil for about 10 mins until the carrots start softening. Add the garlic (I simply crush it with the side of a knife and add it whole) and the minced meat and continue frying until the meat becomes crumbly and slightly colored. Add the spices, the tomato concentrate, the sugar and some salt and pepper and mix well. Now add the stock and allow to simmer (lid closed) for 40 minutes.

2. Next add the drained tomatoes and the lentils and leave to simmer for about 20-25 mins (no lid this time) until the lentils are soft. Add the beans and cook for another 10 mins. 

3. Season with salt and pepper and throw in the chopped parsley just before serving.

Recipe adapted from: www.new-kitch-on-the-blog.blogspot.de/