Category: Savory

Strammer Max. Dinner for one.


As Flo is often working the late shift in the last weeks, I spend many evenings alone. Which is absolutely fine by me, if it weren’t for the fact that cooking and eating alone is not really fun. At least for me. So most times, I stick to something quick and simple to make. And in the best case it’s filling, too.

Strammer Max is one of those simple dishes – it’s more of an open-faced sandwich with ham and fried egg. Ready to eat in minutes and giving you that warm, fuzzy feeling, even if you have to defend it against the cats.

STRAMMER MAX
open-faced ham and egg sandwich

2 slices of bread, toasted
butter
Dijon mustard
2 slices ham
2 eggs
salt and pepper


First, fry yourself some eggs. I like to use butter on medium heat and salt only the whites. The salt helps denaturing the proteins. Which is good, as I like the yolks runny, but the whites firm.


While the eggs are frying, toast yourself some bread. I only had toast, but use any kind of bread you like. Rye also tastes great with ham and egg.

Butter the bread and then smear on some Dijon mustard. Just for kicks.


Lay the ham on the bread and put it all on a nice, big plate. Just because you’re eating alone, doesn’t mean you can’t do it with style.


Arrange the fried eggs over the ham and sprinkle one a generous amount of pepper. Eat at once.

Carrot dip. The mean brother of baby food.


This looks so innocent, doesn’t it? I really reminds you a bit of baby food, if it weren’t for the olives, right? Go ahead, take a bite. At first, you think: “What is she talking about? Just regular carrots. A bit on the sweet side.” And then it will hit you: the tartness of the lemon juice. The slight bitterness of the olive oil. The complexity of the spices. And last, but not least: the slight burn of chili in your throat.

This is a great dip and it goes very well with all those other oriental-inspired dips, hummus, baba ghanoush and tzatziki. Just serve them all with some pita bread and olives and you have a simple, but very satisfying dinner.

CARROT DIP

250 g / 1/2 pound carrots, peeled and diced
salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon ras-el-hanout (or ground cumin)
1 tablespoon harissa
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus some for garnishing
olives


Around here, you always get carrots in 1 kilo / 2 pound packages. Minimum. So most times, I take the rest of the package I did not use and eyeball the amount of the rest of the other ingredients.


Peel the carrots, cut them into finger-thick slices and cook them in very salty water for about 20 minutes. They should be soft, but not falling to bits.


In the meantime, mix together lemon juice, crushed garlic, ras-el-hanout and olive oil. Hold the salt, there will be already enough in the carrots.

I like to use my immersion blender for this, so I start in a rather high and narrow mixing bowl. But feel free to use a food processor if you happen to own one.


Drain the carrots and put them over the harissa-mixture. Then puree them as fine as you want them. Personally, I like some bits left, otherwise it reminds me too much of baby food…


Serve in a nice bowl when it is cooled down, garnish with some olives and olive oil. Then dig right in.

Coq au vin. The chicken version of Beuf Bourguignon.


Ever since the movie “Julie & Julia” came out, everyone seems to be crazy about Julia Child’s version of Beuf Bourguignon. I know, Beuf Bourguignon is a great dish, but sometimes you just can’t find the right beef in the supermarket or at your butcher’s. Or you just don’t want to spend the money. On the other hand, 4 chicken thighs only cost around 2 Euro. Seemed like a deal to me.

Oh, and there’s a simple rule about cooking with wine: don’t use anything that you wouldn’t drink. But you don’t have to use the most expensive one; a simple wine in a real bottle will do fine. Real French gourmet food for a couple of bucks. Perfect.


COQ AU VIN

2-3 small onions, peeled and diced (1 cup)
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced (1 cup)
2-3 celery sticks, peeled and diced (1 cup)
6 thick slices of bacon, cut into strips
6-8 chicken thighs
flour
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 bottle red wine, shiraz or pinot noir
3 bay leaves
6 juniper berries
8 button mushrooms
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon corn starch


This is the great triumvirate of French cooking: onion, carrot and celery. The base of all kinds of meat dish with. Just cut them into 1 cm / 1/4 inch cubes. While you’re at it, also cut the bacon into strips.

Preheat your oven to 165°C / 325°F.


Mix some salt and pepper into the flour, then dredge the chicken thighs in the flour. They should be covered on all sides.

Heat up a big pan on medium, pour in the vegetable oil and start frying the chicken thighs. Just don’t overcrowd the pan, 4 at a time are more than enough. They will need around 5 minutes on each side, you want them golden brown – but no need to cook them through, we’ll get to that later.

Stack them into a large pot, I like my cast iron Dutch oven for that.


When you’re done frying the chicken, put the vegetables into the pan and cook them until they are softened but not too brown. That should take about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Put all the vegetables into the pot with the chicken parts.


Then fry the bacon first and then the mushrooms – put the bacon into the pot and set the mushrooms aside.


Should look a bit like this – a pot full of chicken, vegetables and bacon. Already smells like heaven.


Don’t forget about the pan, because there is still all the good brown stuff at the bottom and you definitively don’t want to throw that away. Instead, pour in about a cup of the red wine and start scraping the bottom with a spatula. Loosen all the bits from the bottom and let it cook for a minute, then pour it into the Dutch oven.


Top it off with the rest of the wine and maybe a little bit of water. Add some salt, the bay leaves and the juniper berries.

Then put on the lid and place it in the oven for about 2 hours. Or you could prepare it until this point and cook it the next day, then it will be even more tender and flavorful.


When the 2 hours in the oven are over, check if the chicken is tender – you should be able to part the meat with a fork.

Carefully get out the meat and put the thighs on a platter. Fish out all the vegetables and spices using a strainer or a slotted spoon. Mix in the cream and if you want to, thicken the sauce with a slurry made of corn starch and water. Just mix those two together, pour it into the sauce and let it cook for a minute. As a last thing, add the mushrooms to the sauce and give it a taste – and season to your taste. I almost always need more salt.


Serve the chicken parts with the sauce, the mushrooms and your favorite side, mine being simple oven-roasted potatoes. Makes sense since the oven is hot anyway.

Picadillo. With cinnamon and raisins.


Picadillo is one of the most versatile ragús in South American cooking. You can simply eat it with rice, preferably accompanied by a fried banana. Or use it as a filling for empanadas or pastel de papas – which is best described as the Argentine version of Shepard’s Pie. But more on that in another post, first we are going to make the Picadillo.

PICADILLO

1 cup carrots, finely diced (2-3 carrots)
1 cup onions, finely diced (2-3 onions)
1 cup bell peppers, finely diced (1-2 small peppers)
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
750 g / 1.5 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine (or Martini rosso)
2-3 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon coriander
salt and pepper
1 cup green olives, chopped
1/2 cup raisins


Dice up all the vegetables, I like 5 mm / 1/4 inch cubes. No need to measure them exactly, just make sure you have roughly the same amount of onions, carrots and peppers.


Heat up a big pan (or heavy pot), then pour in some oil and start frying the ground beef.

Don’t dump in everything at once or the pan will cool down instantly and you’ll be cooking the meat instead of frying it. Which is not good, as many of the juices will come out, making the meat tough and the water will prevent browning. And in my opinion, the brown stuff is what makes the sauces taste so good. Seems I’m not alone, as there’s even a scientific name for it: Maillard reaction, meaning the caramelization of of sugars and proteins by high heat.

So just put in a quarter to a third, wait till it is all cooked through and then add the next batch. Then let that cook together and add the last third…


Once the meat is cooked through and has some nice browned spots, add the vegetables and let them fry together.


Let it cook for some minutes more, depending how much time you have and how patient you are. Just make sure there are some browned bits. That may sound a bit obsessive… I admit it, I’m obsessed with Maillard reaction.


Make a little room in the middle and add the tomato paste, let that also fry for a bit. Again, sugars will caramelize and add some subtle flavors. Then add the wine and scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. The will dissolve and make everything very tasty. Then add some water, just short of covering it.


Now add all the spices: oregano, chilies, paprika, salt and pepper. And yes, you heard right: cinnamon and ground coriander. At first, it seems very weird to add cinnamon to a savory dish, but believe me it will blend perfectly with the other spices…


Then add the olives and the raisins and let it all cook on low for 30 minutes minimum. Why yes, raisins. They’re traditional. No point in arguing about that.

Give it a taste, maybe add some lemon juice and more salt and serve. 

Jalapeño poppers. Some like it hot.


Funny how people react to different kinds of hot. Some people don’t mind hotness at all, even search the kick of new levels of hotness. Others flinch at even the slightest amount – I once knew someone who broke into tears and sweat because of a couple of drops of Tabasco someone sneaked into his burger. I guess I’m in the middle: liking the hotness of chilies, unless it totally overwhelms the taste of your food.

This recipe is a work of genius. So incredibly simple, you don’t even think about measuring the ingredients. Delicious beyond description. The chilies are reasonably hot, the cream cheese will even that out a bit. And bacon can never be a bad thing, can it?

JALAPEÑO POPPERS
(adapted from Pioneer Woman)

fresh jalapeños
cream cheese
salt and pepper
bacon
latex gloves, optional


Before you start anything, put on the latex gloves. Trying to get our your contact lenses with capsaicin-stained fingers is no fun. Let alone touching other – ahem – sensitive areas. So do yourself a favor and wear protection.

Cut the chilies in half lengthwise, then use a spoon, a melon baller or a measuring teaspoon to scoop out the the white stuff and the seeds. The white stuff is where the most of the capsaicin lies.


Then simply take the cream cheese and smear it into the jalapeños, filling them to the brim. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper, if you like.


Cut the bacon slices in half and wrap them around the filled chilies. Either put them on the BBQ or – if you happen to live somewhere downtown like I do – bake them in the oven at 180°C / 350°F for 20-25 minutes.

Sorry I don’t have a picture of the finished jalapeños, they were so good the were simply gone too fast!

Steak au poivre. Even purists will love it.


When it comes to steak, I’m a purist. Salt, pepper, maybe a tad of herb butter and I’m happy. No crazy marinades, no BBQ sauce, no oysters, thank you. Oh, and medium rare, please.

But sometimes you may need a tiny bit more, maybe a little sauce to make the fries go down easier. And this is where Alton Brown comes in. In his show “Good Eats” he did not only present how to manage to get steaks out of a whole fillet, he also made a very minimalistic sauce. Just cream, cognac and pepper. It’s a dream, it goes perfectly well with a steak without totally smothering its taste. Just what I like.


FILET AU POIVRE
adapted from Alton Brown

2 tenderloin steaks, 4 cm / 1.5 inches thick
coarse salt
1 tablespoon whole peppercorns
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
80 ml / 1/3 cup Armagnac or Cognac, plus 1 teaspoon
250 ml / 1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon veal fond, powdered
1 teaspoon maple syrup
a dash of lemon juice
small packet of (frozen) fries


First, the steaks. Marvelously marbled, aren’t they? Make sure you have steaks at least 1 inch / 2.5 cm thick, but if you like them medium rare (the only way to go, really) have them cut 1.5 inch / 4 cm thick.

Get them out 30 to 60 minutes before you start cooking as you want to get them to room temperature. I think it’s horrible if a steak is nearly burned on the outside and almost frozen in the middle…


Crush the pepper quite coarsely, either with pestle and mortar or the biggest setting on your pepper mill.


Sprinkle the steaks with salt and cover them with the coarse pepper. Press it on lightly with your fingers, but no need to worry if some pepper corns fall off.

Meanwhile, start making the fries with your preferred method.


Heat up your pan (I prefer cast iron) on medium-high, melt the butter and add the olive oil. Nobody knows why, but a bit of oil prevents butter from going brown so quickly.

Put in the steaks and set the timer for 4 minutes. 4 cm and 4 minutes results in medium rare. Genius! Turn them over and give them another 4 minutes.

Then get them out on a warmed plate and cover them lightly with aluminum foil. Takes quite a bit of patience, but if you were to cut into the steaks right away, all the good juices would run out and leave you with a dry bit of meat. Not good.


Pour in the Cognac or Armagnac, then start scraping on the bottom of the pan to remove all the pepper corns and delicious crusts.
DO NOT SET TO FIRE! 80 ml is quite an amount of alcohol and I would nearly have set my kitchen to fire. Instead, let it cook down slowly until it’s nearly gone.


Pour in the cream, dissolve the fond powder and let it cook for 5 minutes until the consistency is slightly thicker than regular cream.


Give it a taste and add salt, maple syrup and lemon juice if you like, then serve.


Serve the steak, the fries and the sauce on a nice plate and pour in a nice glass of red wine. Or beer.

Tuna salad filled tomatoes. Hello from the Fifties.


A friend gave me a cookbook from the Fifties as a birthday present a couple of years ago. It is two inches thick and full of wonderful recipes, helpful hints on using leftovers – and even more delightful tips on shaping your food aerodynamically to make it more appetizing. There, I found great classics like meat loaf (in a dozen of variations), upside down pineapple and carrot cakes as well as tomatoes filled with different mayo-based salads, eg egg, chicken or tuna.

My mom used to make the tuna version as appetizer for guests: it’s quick and easy, filling but not too much and enjoyed by everyone, whether they like fish or not. Including me and my dad, who virtually despise everything that comes out of the ocean.

TOMATOES FILLED WITH TUNA SALAD

1 can tuna, drained
1 small onion, chopped very finely
1/4 cup peas
1/4 cup corn kernels, optional
1/4 – 1/2 cup mayonnaise, homemade
paprika powder
some drops of hot sauce
salt and pepper
4-6 tomatoes


Drain one can of tuna – doesn’t matter if you bought the one in oil or brine.


Take a small onion and dice it very finely – onions and tuna are a match made in heaven. And add the peas, I only had frozen (and blanched) ones. But you can take fresh or canned ones if you like.


OK, let’s spice it up a bit. Add some paprika powder for taste and color and maybe some drops of chili sauce, if you happen to like it hot.


Add some tablespoons of mayonnaise and start stirring. Just add enough to make it just come together. Not too much mayo or it will become slushy.

If you like you can cut open some tomatoes, scoop out the kernels with a spoon and fill in the tuna salad. Simple, ready in minutes and impresses you guests.

Obazda. Bavarian beergarden cheese spread.


My god, there she comes again with some funky Bavarian stuff… First that strange sausage salad, and now this… And it even comes with tons of butter…

Obazda means – roughly translated – hodge podge, and basically that’s what it is. Legend has it, a Bavarian innkeeper was standing in his empty (post-war) kitchen, with VIP guests sitting in the pub and waiting for something to eat. He thought he couldn’t serve a half-eaten cheese to those people, so he decided to mix it together with butter, onions and paprika powder. And like many of those dishes born in desperation, it was an instant success.

You can find it nowadays in every beer garden in Bavaria. There are of course a million recipes, but I think this is the most basic and original one: 1 part butter, 2 parts cheese, onion and some spices. Simple and delicious.

This is perfect for that rest of Camembert that has gotten too pungent to eat. But you can use any intense and soft cheese, in some regions of Germany they use Romadour, Limburger or even Harzer. And stretch it with cream cheese if you find the taste too strong.

OBAZDA

150 g / 5 oz overripe Camembert cheese
75 g / 2.5 oz butter, softened
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon paprika powder
1 small onion, very finely diced
2 tablespoons beer
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, optional
salt and pepper
chives, for garnishing
pretzels, either soft or hard ones


Start by weighing the cheese – as this is meant for leftover cheese, this should be your base measure. Then you measure half the amount of butter, by weight of course.

Check the cheese rind: if the edges are very hard and dry, maybe even getting some funky colors (red and yellow being the most common), you could cut some of it away. Leave most of the rind on, just remove anything that doesn’t look too good anymore.


Cut the cheese and the butter into cubes, this makes the mixing progress much easier.


Add the cream and start mixing together the Camembert and the butter into a rather sticky mass. Either take a fork or use your food processor – or even the mixer with a paddle attachment – depending on the quantities you are making.

See, some bits are still left, especially some rind bits: that is wonderful. But it still looks a bit bland, doesn’t it?


Not to worry, just add onions and lots of paprika powder. It will seem too much at the beginning, but once you mixed it in, the spread will have a wonderful color.

Still doesn’t taste right? Add a bit of salt and pepper – and the secret ingredient: beer! You have to try it to believe it, but the beer gives some taste nuances that are very hard to describe.


Cover it and leave it in your fridge for a couple of hours, so that the flavors have time to mingle (but serve on the same day, or the onions will become unbearable). Serve sprinkled with some caraway seeds and lots of chives. Depends on what you like and what is available in your region – both hard and soft pretzels are traditional around here. And of course, don’t forget to serve with an adequate amount of beer!

Note for lactose intolerance sufferers: overripe Camembert contains a very low amount of lactose, as the fungi on the cheese break it down. But test for yourself if you can handle it or not.

Chickpea salad. Great for summer.


Do you know those people who can eat anything at any time? Like pork roast and sauerkraut in summer or gazpacho when it’s snowing. I can’t. I am one of those who can’t eat warm and heavy stuff when it’s hot outside. I like to have a light lunch in the summer heat. But a normal green salad is never enough for me – I always end up hungry half an hour later. So this number here is a great compromise: It tastes fresh like a salad, but the chickpeas bring along some carbs and proteins, just the right amount to make you feel satisfied but not stuffed… And it’s ready in minutes – literally – so you’ll have more time to go outside and catch some rays.

CHICKPEA SALAD

1 can chickpeas
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, finely diced
1 garlic glove, crushed
1 lemon, juice only
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
oregano
parsley


Open a can of chickpeas and drain them well. I even like to give them a quick rinse with cold water, but that’s just because the brine has a distinctive smell I don’t like.


Dice the onions and crush the garlic, then mix with the chickpeas in a bowl.


Cut the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces, then add lemon juice, salt, pepper and spices. I only had dried ones, but please use fresh if you have.

Somehow no plant survives my care more than a few weeks. Except orchids. Those are growing one flower after the other. Since December.


Give it all a stir and a taste. You should have about the same amount of tomatoes as chickpeas and some crunchy onions. When it tastes good, go out on the balcony, sit in the sun and eat straight out of the bowl.

Spinach Salad. Like breakfast in the evening.


This is not even a recipe – just a combination of ingredients. Basically, it’s almost everything you would eat for an English Breakfast: bacon and eggs, fried tomatoes and some spinach. OK, the mushrooms and the breakfast sausage are missing, but mushrooms are out for me because of their sorbitol content – and there is no way I will ever eat a breakfast sausage again.

Just arrange everything a bit differently and you’ll have an excellent lunch or dinner salad.


SPINACH SALAD

per person:
2 bacon strips
1-2 eggs, hard boiled or poached
2-3 handfuls baby spinach
1-2 tomatoes
1 tablespoon cider or red wine vinegar
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
salt and pepper
a handful of grated Parmesan


First, cook your eggs. This is always said so easily, but I find it kinda difficult to get them just how I like them – with an itty bitty bit of the yolk still runny. Anyway, always punch a little hole on the round end and cook them for 7-10 minutes, depending how “done” you like your eggs. 8 minutes seem to do the trick for me.


Cut the bacon into inch-wide strips and fry it slowly until it is as crispy as you like it. I like it very crunchy. Then get them out and place them on a paper towel so that they get even crispier.


Meanwhile, wash the greens. I always give the salad a quick rinse – no matter if the package says you should or not.


Cut the tomatoes lengthwise in half and blot the cut side dry (with a paper towel or something like that). Fry them just like you would for breakfast – on high and just for a minute or two. You want the cut side to get brown and caramelized, but not a soggy tomato.

Get the tomatoes out of the pan, remove from the heat and deglaze the pan with vinegar, salt, pepper and vegetable oil. No need to cook the dressing, you just want the bacon flavor on your plate, not in the dishwasher.


Arrange spinach leaves, tomatoes, eggs and bacon on a plate, drizzle with the dressing and sprinkle on a generous handful of freshly grated Parmesan (or your favorite cheese). And serve with toast or a nice and fresh bread.