Pizza Hawaii

Sorry Italians!

Sometimes I need to satisfy a craving. A sweet and salty pizza. But I do not overdo it. Just enough pineapple chunks to have some sweetness.

I defrosted a ball of homemade pizza dough over night on the fridge and later rested it on the counter for 90 minutes to get it back to room temperature and the yeast back on.

Just enough for one serving. Cooked ham, some veggies, Mozzarella and a few pineappke chunks were at home. Time to roll out the dough on some baking paper.

As a pizza sauce I mixed a tsp of red Pesto with 2 tbsp of creme fraiche.

Black pepper and Italian seasoning on top and the pizza was ready to go in the oven at 250 C for 11 min.

Air Fryer Ham wrapped filled Pasta

The filled pasta are Swabian Maultaschen, this time with beef instead of pork. I saw them at the supermarket and had to give them a try.

Wrapping them in raw smoked ham is not the way to prepare them if you want to go pork free. Wrapping a pork filled pasta would have made more sense.

But you know me, always doing things my way. 

I cut the Maultaschen in the middle and wrapped them in one slice of very salty ham. The Air fryer had just enough room for 8 pieces, the two whole ones went in a beef broth to cook

From an other recipe, there was still Hollandaise sauce left in a package. I warmed it in the microwave and served it with the packages.

They were good, but I think the Air fryer is not the right way of preparing the filled pasta. It dries them out too much for my taste.

Pork Schnitzel with Onion Sauce

A long day of driving on the Nordschleife - Green Hell- at the Nuerburgring came to an end.

We started Daylight Saving Time today, that meant 1 hour forward and my alarm clock went off at 5:15 (4:14 winter time). I started my 2 hour trip to the Ring at 6 AM and it was pitch black.

A croissant from a Gas station stop and a hard boiled egg was my breakfast. 

At the Devil's Diner I had some French fries for lunch. 

Now I am sitting at the Restaurant Lindenhof in Nuerburg and enjoy my dinner. Schnitzel with French fries and topped with caramelized onions and a salad.

 

Red Pepper Rice Salad with Pork Belly Asia style

Asia style salads to use up leftover rice are wonderful. Pick and choose the ingredients and the dressing pushes it in right direction.

I had 3 slices of pork belly, about 1 cm in thickness each. I marinated them in some Lee Kum Kee Chinese Red Braising Sauce ( I don't know why it is called red, because it is pitch black). 20 minutes are enough.

I grated half a carrot, chopped a green onion and a very big red bell pepper. The rice needed 2 min in the microwave to get fluffy again. Mix it together and put it in the fridge for 15 min.

The pork belly slices went in the pan with a tablespoon of oil and were cooked on medium heat and often flipped.

The salad dressing:

2 tbsp grapeseed oil

1 tdp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp Tamari

1 tsp agave syrup

Japanese pepper, lemon salt

Asparagus and Bacon Tart

Tarte Asperge et Bacon á l'Huile.

I used a recipe from one of my many Goumand magazine issues as the reference. But made it my own version.

The dough is special. I've never used that much olive oil in one. It came out of the Thermomix as a very crumbly mass. But a little floured surface and a bit of kneading made it in a easy to roll out dough. 

It was rolled out directly on the buttered baking dish. No baking paper added. It worked fine. The dish went in the fridge for 30 min then.

The green asparagus ends were cut off and it went in the steamer for 13 min and rested for 5 min in it.

I did not use bacon but Italian raw ham. A much tastier choice.

The cream on top was easy to prepare, just eggs, skyr, creme fraiche, Emmenthal cheese and seasoning, lots of seasoning.

Preheat the oven 180 C. Bake the tart for 30 min.

Dough:

250 g flour

1 tsp salt diluted in 120 ml cold water

4 tbsp good quality olive oil

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

Additional flour for work surface

Butter for the baking dish

Topping:

400 g green asparagus, ends cut off

100 g raw Italian ham

3 eggs

100 g Skyr

200 g creme fraiche

Piment d'Espelette

Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, dried chives

 

 

Trip to a nice Bakery

Sometimes using a mode of transportation is not the most satisfying one, but the place you reach with it makes it so much better.

I heard about a small bakery, the baker worked in Normandy once, that sells goods you can not find in a German bakery. These baked goods are like the ones I usually buy on my grocery hauls in France.

That made me curious. The citys name is Bretten. It is in Baden-Württemberg, South'East of Bruchsal. The bakery is called Leonhardt.

It was a miserable weather day for a day trip. Rain and fog and generally unpleasant. I took out an electric car for a testdrive. My next one should be an electric car. No so easy for a Petrolhead to find the right one.

But the trip to the bakery was worth all the effort.

I bought a black olive Fougasse, an rectangular shaped almond baguette with whole almonds through out the bread and pastries.

A small Cheesecake with cherry filling and an awesome pistacchio wreath with dark chocolate covering.

The MASERATI GRECALE FOLGORE was not so great, but the baked goods were awesome.

Red Pepper and Gherkin Meat Sauce with Pasta

I bought ground beef this morning not knowing what to cook with it.

A short Google search brought up an interesting combination of veggies and beef and that was the recipe to try. But I made it my way.

Serve it with pasta or rice

Recipe for 3:

350 g ground lean beef

1 red onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 green onion

2 tbsp olive oil

2 red bell peppers

3 tbsp tomato paste

150 ml tomato passata

6 medium gherkins

75 ml gherkin brine

75 ml chicken stock

1 tsp sugar

Salt, pepper, tomato seasoning, Italian seasoning

Start with onions and garlic in a medium hot pan with oil. Gradually toss in the red peppers. Season and give it 5 min. Take it out of the pan.

A bit more oil and now brown the beef and season it. Srape a free space in the middle and add tomato paste and cook it a bit. Now in with gherkin brine, chicken stock and tomato passata.

Start the pasta or rice now.

Pour the veggies back in and add diced gherkins

Sugar and more seasoning now. Let it cook open to reduce the liquid a bit. 

Top with some grated Grana Padano