Tag Archives: easy

Asian food, main dish, meat & fish

Against the Loss of Appetite

Leave a comment

Udon with Pork Belly

It happens to the best of us. A—hopefully temporary—period of tiredness. A time of “ehhh!”, listlessness or mopishness. A state that tells us there is something bothering us and we should listen to what is going on inside: Is it caused by outside influences? Is it ourselves? Is it simply a sign of being stressed out? Is it a health-issue? It is important to talk about this in an environment where social media, society, and advertisement suggest that life has to be perfect all the time and we with it. Always glorious. Always happy times. A constant state of elation. Because, spoiler alert? Life isn’t like that. It is okay, normal, important, to have days like these. Or weeks. Or even months.

During these times we need soulfood. It has to be made quickly. Easily. Almost without effort. Because—let’s be honest—especially in times like these we want it that way. Uncomplicated. We need these “almost no recipe” recipes. These “please don’t let me stand in the kitchen for too long” dishes. These “I’ll cook you every day, because everything else would be too bothersome” favourites. These “I just want to munch happily and feel good” meals, that go best with a glass of wine or a beer or a comforting pot of tea.

So what about udon noodles, quickly cooked and mixed with stir-fried pork belly? The noodles make happy just by being noodles and are always joyful to eat. The limes give a certain freshness and flavour, the pork is comforting, and the hot and sweet sauce will make us smile again. Of course you could make the udon on your own. But hey! There’s no need to always do everything from scratch when you can have it easy just as well. It’s alright. Live a little!

Udon

Udon Noodles with Pork Belly in Lime and Honey Sauce

Ingredients for 2 portions

  • 2 portions of udon noodles*
  • 200 g pork belly without bones, cut into 1-3 cm big dice
  • 2 spring onions, washed and chopped
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • juice of 2 limes
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • some chili flakes
  • 1 tsp sesame

*The recipe for homemade udon noodles is below

Bring a pot of unsalted water to a boil, add the noodles and cook according to instructions. Drain them into a sieve and wash with cold tap water to rinse off additional starch and to stop the cooking process. Drain well and gently mix with a tbsp of oil.

Pour the sesame oil into a pan and heat it up on medium to high heat. Mix the lime juice, honey, soy sauce and mirin. Put the pork into the pan and fry it until it looks nice and crispy all around. Shake the pan or stir every now and then. Add the white parts of the spring onions, the chili flakes, and the sauce and let it cook until it is reduced to a creamy consistency. Put the noodles into the pan, give it a good shake and divide the dish onto bowls. Sprinkle with the green part of the spring onions and some sesame. Serve hot and enjoy.

Udon with Pork Belly

Homemade Udon Noodles

Ingredients for 2 portions

For the udon noodles*:

  • 250 g wheat flour
  • 125 ml water
  • 12 g salt
  • some rice flour for rolling out
  • 1 tsp sesame oil

*If you don’t want to make the udon on your own you can buy them just as well, of course. Personally, I prefer the precooked ones to the dried version.

For the udon noodles knead the wheat flour with the water and the salt into a firm, smooth dough that’s neither wet nor too dry. Cover it and let it rest for an hour. Put the dough into a big plastic bag and put it into the floor to knead it with your feet for at least 5 minutes. Put it onto your work surface and roll it out until it is about 3 mm thick. Dust with a little bit of rice flour and cut it into 3 mm thick strings. Bring a pot of unsalted water to a boil, add the noodles and cook for 3-5 minutes. Drain them into a sieve and wash with cold tap water to rinse off additional starch and to stop the cooking process. Drain well and gently mix with a tbsp of sesame oil.

Stored in a closed container and in the fridge the udon noodles will be good to eat for about two days.

main dish, vegetarian

Summertime Happiness

Leave a comment

Being outside. Throwing your arms up in the air. Simply because you can.

Sunbathing. A book to that?

Dancing in the warm rain. And finally being barefooted again.

Counting the stars, whilst thriving in the coolness of the night.

Celebrating simplicity. Complicated can come back later.

Even more sun! And noshing tarte flambee.

Tarte Flambee Goat Cheese

Tarte Flambee with Goat Cheese, Pear, and Mushrooms

Ingredients for 2 portions

For the dough:

  • 185 g wheat flour
  • 90 ml soda water
  • 2 tbsp peanut oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt

For the topping:

  • 150 g soft goat cheese
  • 2-3 tbsp sour cream
  • 1/2 pear
  • 2-3 champignons or other mushrooms
  • some fresh thyme

Knead the ingredients for the dough until it is smooth and soft. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 1-2 hours if you’ve got the time (the resting isn’t really necessary but it will be better with it in the end).

Preheat the oven to 250°C.

Cut the pear into small dices. Cut the mushrooms and the cheese into slices. Divide the dough into two halves and roll out each of them very thinly, until you almost can see through. Put each of them onto a baking tray with baking paper. Spread half of the sour cream thinly onto each tarte and scatter half the remaining ingredients onto each tarte as well. Bake for 5-10 minutes until the dough is crispy. Serve hot.

Asian food, main dish, meat & fish, soul food

The Feeding of Predators

Leave a comment

20150909-20150909-DSC_7778

Steakhouse owners and -waiters always rejoice in my appearance whenever I step over their threshold: My brightest smile of my face, sparkling eyes that beam with anticipation, and already deeply inhaling the flavours of Heaven… yes. It is time to feed The Predator again. Side dishes, mostly unnecessary anyway, are counter-ordered or simply left aside; my concentration is fixed on the essential. The meat.

Good is what it has to be. A little bit of luxury for a special moment. It should have lived a happy life, a species-appropriate existence on wide meadows under the sun and stars, with a generous selection of yummy grass, various herbs, fresh air, and freedom with an end that was as respectful as possible. Ideals – I know. But they are worth pursuing. In exchange I’d rather savour a little less often, but then properly.

Then the next question: Filet? Or ribeye? Maybe a striploin or t-bone? Marinated? Mediterranean? From the barbecue or out of the pan? The portion for a lady (hardly so…) or for a hungry fellow (much more likely!)?

One thing is always for sure though: For me it has to be rare and bloody! Still wonderfully bright red inside and – here at the latest you detect good quality – tender and delicious. A little bit of marinade or dip to that and the evening is perfect. All that’s missing now is a glass of red wine or a cocktail…

Entrecôte with Miso Dip

Entrecôte with Miso Dip

Inspired by Nigel Slater’s “eat”

Ingredients for 2 portions

  • 400 g entrecôte, one single piece
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 branch of rosemary
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • some oil for frying

For the dip:

  • 1-2 branch of thyme
  • 3 tbsp white or yellow miso paste
  • 1 tbsp apple vinegar
  • 1 gulp of sake or dry sherry (30-50 ml)

Rinse the meat under cold tap water and pat dry. Peel the garlic and chop into slices. Remove the rosemary from the branches, mix with the garlic and the olive oil and rub it into the steak. Cover it and let it marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours, better over night.

Heat up a pan and add some oil. Put in the meat and fry it on middle to high heat on both sides until it is to your liking (I prefer it very rare, so I only let it in the pan for 1-2 minutes on each side, medium should take about 8 minutes on each side).

Remove the thyme leaves from the branches and mix with the miso paste and the apple vinegar. When the meat is done remove it from the pan and add the sake. Stir and take the pan off the flame. Add the miso mix.

Cut the meat into thin stripes and serve with the dip.

Eat with rice, roasted potatoes or as a sandwich between to halves of a ciabatta.

– – –

The beautiful lady on the photo above is one of the happy cows of Denmark. I named her Kate and she was my lovely meadow friend for two whole weeks. Then we had to drive back home again…

Asian food, main dish, meat & fish

Listen to Your Heart

Leave a comment

Listen to your heart. It usually tells you what you truly need (and even on what you should give up).

Don’t let things which you can’t change anymore get you down. You can not change them anymore. But you can learn from them.

Be brave and reach for the stars. You are worth it!

And just say “no” from time to time. You are allowed to.

Treat yourself every now and then. No matter if it is reasonable or not – your soul will thank you for it.

Listen to your music. And do more of the stuff that you love.

Just breathe… first because you actually need air and second because calm serenity often brings you further than short temper.

Miso Salmon

And if the day still just does not turn out to be a good one… indulge in something delicious to eat! Because sometimes it is prepared easier than you might think. The salmon in miso paste almost cooks itself on its own in the oven, the rice cooker takes care of the rice, and you should always have gari at home anyway. To that some creamy eggs and a cup of heart-warming tea and everything looks a little brighter already. Wanna bet?

Miso Salmon

Ingredients for 2 portions

  • 2-3 tbsp white or yellow miso paste
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • 2 tbsp make
  • 200 g salmon filets with skin, scaled

Mix the miso, mirin, and sake in a dish. Turn the salmon in the marinade, cover the dish and let it rest in the fridge for 60-120 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper and brush a little oil on it. Put the salmon onto the tray, skin side down, and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Serve with freshly steamed rice and if you’d like some creamy eggs, some gari, and a cup of tea tea.

drinks, vegan

The Power of Yellow

Leave a comment

Orange Mango Kurkuma Smoothie

My Grandmother always used to call me her little witch. I must have been an amiable child. Always full of crazy ideas. Always full of silliness. And mostly laughing. Since then nothing much has changed. Once a joker, always a joker. And after all the awkward puberty was gone… some day I actually could embrace my kind of crazy side.

But every once in a while you need a small push into the right direction to let the slightly crazy trait of yours come out to play again. The wintery world outside is grey and bare-branched after all. Cold. And a little bit uncomfortable. It weighs on the spirit and sometimes even on the circulation.

So we need colours! Bright and lively ones that shine and bring some sort of beautiful light back into our lives. And if they also manage to refresh, reanimate and make our senses work again it is even better.

Maybe this smoothie helps. It is yellow like the sun – or like the stars… you see much more of them these days anyway. And it delightens by merely looking at it. Additionally you get a nice and strong vitamin boost from delicious mango, oranges, apple, turmeric and ginger that help you to shield against a cold. And it also provides you with a wonderful refreshment.

Der Muntermacher

Smoothie with Orange, Mango, Apple, Ginger & Turmeric

Ingredients for about 4 glasses

  • 1/2 mango
  • 2 oranges, filleted
  • 1 sweet apple
  • 1/4 banana
  • 1 peanut-sized piece of ginger
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • a hand full of ice cubes

Peel the ginger and chop it into small pieces.

Put all the ingredients into the container of an an electric blender and mix until the drink is smooth.

Asian food, main dish, meat & fish

Let’s celebrate!

Leave a comment

It is time for a party. And we truly need it. The year is almost over, the cosy winter solstice is right ahead and with the brighter days afterwards it just seems likely to dedicate a feast to life itself. To sitting together, to laughing, and – because what would a good party be without it, eh? – a lovely and highly enjoyable meal.

Today a little less traditional and far from goose and Christmas duck; these delicious roasts I want to attend to without traditions implying it to me, even if they may ask for it all so quietly. Let’s just have a look at the rest of the culinary season and discover venison. Beautiful and gorgeous in its dark, and almost purplish-coloured, red tone and spicy in its very own and special way it is quite a good fit for such a feast. And it even goes well with the Southeast Asian flavours, that I adore so much.

Reh Teriyaki

Simply marinated, sizzled in a generous amount of good butter (because especially on Christmas we please do not want to start skimping on that one!) and finally served on perfumy, steaming rice along some gari, spring onions, sesame and a fine sauce it truly is a delight. And it is my contribution to Zorra’s eleventh culinary Advent calendar.

Venison Teriyaki on Rice

Kulinarischer Adventskalender 2015 - Tuerchen 20Ingredients for 2 portions

  • 250 g venison
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp sake
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • some wasabi paste
  • 1 additional tbsp butter
  • 1-2 spring onions
  • 2 portions freshly steamed Japanese short grain rice
  • some gari
  • some sesame

Let the venison adapt to room temperature first, then wash it and pat it dry. Heat up the tbsp butter in an pan on medium to high heat. As soon as it foams and starts to turn brown, add the meat and fry it shortly on each side, all the way around. Let it fry for 1-3 more minutes so it still will be at least medium rare in the middle.

Mix soy sauce, sake, mirin and wasabi and pour in into the pan. Switch heat down to medium and let it cook down a bit. Add the rest of the butter and let it melt in the sauce. Turn over the meat in the pan so it will be covered with the sauce, that should have thickened by now, and put the pan off the stove. Get out the meat and let it rest for a minute.

Meanwhile chop the spring onions into rings and divide the freshly steamed rice onto two bowls.

Cut the venison into thin slices and arrange them on the rice, adding the gari, the onions and some sesame for garnish. Pour the sauce over it and enjoy.

Reh Teriyaki

sweet tooth, vegetarian

Comfort for the heart

Leave a comment

Baking. Butter. Sugar. A dream team in December, when the cold, wet and grey as its grip on us. The world outside has become complete stark during the last past weeks and becomes more and more cheerless with the all surrounding darkness that creeps closer and closer.

With all that it’s time to attend to your heart again and to what it needs most during this time of the year: Warmth. Some rest whenever you can take it. And some endorphins, caused by crumbly shortpastry out of everything that’s good. Carbs, fat, vitamins (almonds!) and sweet things. Add a few lovely spices to that and the soul can smile again – a happy smile, not a creepy one – and make us endure this year’s final spurt much more easily again.

All of that is even better, when the recipe is easily done. And like that it isn’t really that sad, when all the delicious little half moons are eaten up almost too quickly again.

Chaikipferl

Chaikipferl

after a recipe by the lovely Lena

Ingredients for about 40 pieces

For the Kipferl:

  • 150 g unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 100 g cane sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 200 g wheat flour
  • 100 g ground almonds
  • 1 pinch of salt

For the sugar mix:

  • 80 g cane sugar
  • 1 TL freshly ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 TL freshly ground cardamom
  • 1/4 TL freshly ground cloves
  • 1/4 TL ground ginger
  • some freshly ground pepper

Mix up the butter and the sugar. Add the egg yolks and keep on mixing. Add the flour, the almonds and the salt and knead to a firm dough.

Roll it out into one or two logs that are about as thick as a 2 € coin (or 2 £ coin) and wrap it in cling foil to let it cool down in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 160°C (hot air) and lay out baking sheets on two baking trays.

Cut the dough logs into 1-2 cm thick slices and roll them between your hands. They sould be about 5 cm long in the end and a little thicker in the middle. Slightly curve them to get a half moon shape („Kipferl“ in Germany) and distribute them on the baking trays.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes (with the hot air you can bake both trays at once), until the tips of the half moons start to turn slightly brown.

Meanwhile mix the ingredients for the sugar mix.

Let the baked Kipferl cool down on the trays for about 5 minutes, so they won’t crumble apart at once. Place them into the sugar mix and sprinkle them with more oder very carefully turn them around in it.

Let them cool completely on a roast and store them in tin containers.

Chaikipferl