Holiday Home Foods

When I only stay 3 days in a holiday home, cooking is not the primary thing on my list. 

The kitchen was very good equipped and had a dish washer, but carring all the ingredients and spices with you is troublesome.

I just brought salt, pepper, Italian herbs and some Toscana blend seasoning. Enough to get through 3 days. A tiny bottle of olive oil and some balsamic white vinegar.

The first evening I went out to a restautant, waiting out the snow that came down in mid April. No need to use the kitchen.

The second evening I went for a very easy pasta dinner. I cooked the pasta in some chicken stock from a cube and used some of the pasta water to warm up some tuna fish from a can. 2 tablespoons of cream cheese and all my spices went in too. Combined with the pasta in a bowl it was good to go.

But a couple of cherry tomatoes were still sitting on the kitchen counter. Best way to eat them, just throw them in the pasta bowl.

The 3rd day dinner was easy. The local supermarket had heirloom long peppers, very crunchy and sweet. In store made pumpkin and chickpea hummus. Dipping the peppers in the hummus was all I needed to do.

 

Eating out at Cloister Maria Laach

Snow and rain greeted me this late April morning in the Eifel mountains. The best way to spend the day is visiting a museum and a cloister in the area.

The pouring rain washed me inside a restaurant to wait for a dry spell and I ordered some food. On the day's menu was Herring in cream and onion sauce with potatoes and salad.

A huge plate with a mountain of salad arrived. My least favourite kind - arugula or rocket - was a big part of it. I ate some of it but picked out the bigger ones.

Herring with sauce topping and potatoes were great.

Btw: the museum I visited was the Lava Dome in Mendig. A museum about the vulcanic area here in the Eifel.

Panino Lucia

I am back at the Green Hell, the longest and most dangerous racetrack of the world:

Nürburgring Nordschleife

I arrived in the sunshine today, but the weather deteriorated to storm, rain and later snow. That after 2 weekends with 23 C.

After one lap with my car around the Green Hell, the track got closed due to snow fall. 

That made me rethink my evening plans and I went out to the Lucia restaurant in Nürburg. They only serve organic chicken dishes.

I had a Lucia Gin Cocktail to celebrate the drive and then decided on Toast Lucia.

Chicken breast, grilled aubergine, sundried tomatoes and a fried egg. Their homefries are awesome, so I ordered some too.

The meal started with fresh bread and a herby cheese dip.

Turkey Breast in Gyudon style

A Gyudon Rice Bowl means a Beef dish, but I changed the meat from beef to turkey.

Japanese Beef is very thinly sliced, that is not available in our supermarkets. Very lean meat is turkey breast, ready available here.

But I wanted the flavours of Japan for my dish. The only compromise was the kibd of meat. I used the typical flavours for the sauce and onions to combine with the meat.

Onions are the only veggie part here. Thinly sliced and sauteed for a longer time in the pan to get soft. The turkey breast was chopped in small pieces and easy to brown in the same pan as the onions. I just pushed the onions to one side and added the turkey breast. Stirring it after a couple of minutes with the onions and then adding the sauce. 

It takes only a short time to finish and cook down the sauce. Fresh greens from a spring onions, a soft boiled egg and some sesame seeds finished the dish.

Recipe for 2:

400 g turkey breast

2 onions, 1 green onion

2 tbsp neutral oil

Sauce:

1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp instant Dashi powder, 2 tsp sesame oil, 2 tbsp water, white pepper

Sesame seeds

2 soft boiled eggs

 

Cucumber Pancakes - Kakadiche Dkirde GF

These are Indian spicy pancakes. This is a Gluten Free recipe.

YouTuber Beryl Shereshewsky showed her favourite dishes. This pancake recipe made me curious. 

Grated fresh cucumber I usually use in Tsaziki, but I never thought about putting it in a pancake.

A whole green chili is giving the kick here. Lots of tumeric and ground cumin, salt and pepper for seasoning.

The original recipe called for cilantro, I could not buy some yesterday. But the herbs on my balcony are thriving and I used a lot of them. 

The use of rice flour is rare for me. But I have this flour in stock.

Some curd as a dip is fine.

Recipe for 1:

2/3 fresh cucumber

1 green chili

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp ginger paste

1 handfull mixed fresh herbs (vietnamese coriander, parsley, spicy mustard greens, spicy oregano)

3 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp cumin, salt, pepper

5 tbsp rice flour

5 tbsp water

Oil for the pan

Curd

 

Button Mushroom Soup

This is a less heavy soup. The traditional mushroom cream soup has a lots of calories more. The base is different, no roux in sight.

But the soup is still creamy, but leaving the  mushroom halves intact and not blending them gives you something to chew. Not only a texture thing.

I bought big white button mushrooms and started them the way I discovered a while ago. Just sitting them in a dry pan cut side down on high heat. That way they steam and the taste intensifies. When they take color I turn them and then added a bit of butter, the onions and garlic. Seasoning them with salt, pepper and herbes de Provence.

A mushroom soup deserves creaminess. A little double cream, Noilly Prat and 3 tsp veg stock paste went in and enough boiling water from a kettle to make it a soup.

That just cooked 3 min. To get some of the consistency of a roux, I used soft wheat semolina. I just sprinkled it over the soup and stirred it in. It helps to thicken the so

Ingredients for 1 hungry person:

400 g button mushrooms

2 spring onions, 3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp butter

50 ml double cream

1 tbsp Noilly Prat

2 tbsp homemade beg stock paste, 350 ml boiling water

3 tbsp soft wheat semolina

Herbes de Provence, salt, pepper

Lemon and Cottage Cheese with Linguine

The original recipe called for Ricotta. 

Before I go on holiday next week, I have to clean out my fridge. There was just one tablespoon of Mascarpone in the package and I added 65 g of cottage cheese.

I wanted to start the pan with my homemade wild garlic butter, but rememered the recipe. Just use some starchy pasta water, no fat!

The lemon skin and the juice went in to the cream. I grated very hard Grana Padana and added some to the bowl. Seasoning with salt and pepper was the only thing needed.

The linguine went in the pan to cook until finished. Some fresh parsley and chives to make it look nice.

Ingredients:

90 g Lingine pasta

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 organic lemon, zest and juice

65g Cottage cheese half fat

1 tbsp Mascarpone

Parsley and chives