Naan Cheese, Bacon, Tomato and Onion Sandwich

Of course, having some Indian food is also a very nice thing - with some lovely spices and all that. 

Maybe a nice potato curry together with some dal, raita and some freshly baked naan bread. Ah, that is lovely indeed. I don't know, though, whether my naan bread was the way it was supposed to be. Oh ... right ... I have only a standard oven with no extra tricks, so that was all I could do. Anyway, I had some leftovers of the naan bread. Yes, maybe some of the potato curry and dal was left, too, but somehow I must have managed to eat that up.
Whatever the case, I decided to use some of the leftover naan to make a naan sandwich with cheese, bacon, tomato and onions.

I decided to keep things simple, although I could have given it a further Indian touch somehow by frying the onions in some spices and adding some raita on top, but I didn't.
There is just a large slice of cheese, some slices of crispy bacon, a few tomato slices and some freshly fried onions ... put the lid on and go for it.

Well, there are still some more photos left on my USB stick. With some of those photos, there is the problem I don't know 100 % anymore what I did there, but here in this case it was quite obvious. 
There was simply too much time passing with doing so many other and new things I didn't get any chance to work off all those old ones.
Nevertheless, I will give you some more of those ...

Wheat Tortillas with Mango Salsa

Sometimes I think I need more of a certain kind of food in my life. Ha, you say, when you look at my blog, there is a lot of variation. Fine! At times, though I wish I could have certain things more often. Maybe something like that ...

That was the dish for Mexico I totally forgot to blog for the World Cup. No worries. Yes, at times I wish I could have a bit more Mexican food in my life.
Well then, what do you have to do for these little wheat tortillas with Mango salsa?
Obviously you need to make your own  wheat tortillas.
For that I usually take normal wheat flour, add a pinch of salt and then as much cream as is necessary to make the dough come together. However, it will never be more than 200 ml of cream. Then I never used more than 500 g of flour.
Let the dough rest a bit, then separate the dough into individual portions, roll out little tortillas and dry-fry them.
Make your Mango Salsa with half a cucumber, a hand full of cherry tomatoes, a bunch of fresh coriander, one ripe mango, the juice of one lime, one red chilli, a small red onion and a bit of salt.
It's best to cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise first. Then remove the softer more watery inside with a small spoon. Cut the remaining part into small cubes.
Remove the seeds of the tomatoes and cut into small bits. Finely chop the onion, chilli and coriander. Cut the mango into small pieces as well.
Mix all the ingredients together. Maybe a drop of olive oil will do no harm.
Put a spoonful of the salsa on each ready fried wheat tortilla and enjoy ...

Summer Salad with Strawberries

So, here we are. Where? I don't know. Here it is supposed to be summer. The biggest event on this blog is gone now for some days and I have to get other things moving again. Back to normal? If ever I was normal ...
Well, there are still a few things I did before that are still on my list to blog away. Today we are going to have a salad for a change. I hope it's fresh and colourful enough so you like it. I was satisfied with it.
We have a mixed salad with strawberries. I went picking them from the strawberry field nearby and originally I wanted to go back for more, but now all the time I have a few spare minutes to do so, it's raining. Tough!

Ingredients:
Iceberg lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Walnuts
Red bell pepper
Strawberries
Parmesan
Olive Oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt, pepper

Method:
Mix 1 part vinegar, 3 parts olive oil, salt and pepper to make a simple salad dressing.
Then cut all the vegetables, fruits and nuts into small pieces. Carefully mix it all together and serve with the dressing and some shavings of parmesan.

Well, that wasn't really much, but what else can I say about it ... hm ... tastes lovely. OK, you could still add a bit of parsley on top, if you happen to have any.

Kick it! THE Food World Cup Round-up ... do I need to say more?

This is the day you all have been waiting for! Right, only if you followed or joined or joined and followed the Bloggers Around the World - World Cup 2014 - Brazil challenge. It has been a few weeks of intense football cooking action kind of action in the kitchen and ... beyond. Now, there are only a few things left to do while I type things away until my fingers start to bleed and my brain starts to say 'no more, no more'.
However, first things first and last things last and a lot of cooking in between ...

First of all, I wish to thank everyone for their great support. So, thank you very very very much Galina, Cheryl, Vohn, Caroline, Ruth, Alison, Deon, Gayathri, Karen, Anchu and Catwoman. It has been a lot of fun with you and I hope we can do such a thing again in the future.
Besides that, one of you has won a lovely price of some lovely chocolate. For me, though, you all deserve it. However, as the rules go, there can only be one winner. Obviously, that one is not Catwoman. In order to find out, who the winner is, you have to bear with me for a while.
Another thing we have to find out is, which country made it to be the winner of the Food World Cup. Before we like to kick that off, we need to get you in the mood with a few recipes from the host of  the event, from BRAZIL ...

One of the most popular dishes in Brazil is Feijoada. Lovely Galina from Chez Maximka saw that, too and so she gave us her version of it.  

Still, you could do it slightly different as well and go and visit the Madhouse Family Reviews! blog and see what amazing Cheryl has done in that direction ... and ... check out her Feijoada, too.

Now, before you think, it's just beans and all and it will give us all a lot of wicked air, try Cheryl's Fruity Brazilian Burgers with Coleslaw. If you love burgers, you will love that one, too.

Then again, you could have a Brazilian Potato Salad, too. Let Galina introduce you to such a delightful version ...

Next comes another famous Brazilian dish I already had my eyes on. However, there was one lady, that was a bit faster then me. No, I'm not complaining. I could only complain about me as being Captain Slow, but hey, why should I. Here I have a wonderful recipe for Vatapa, a creamy fish/prawn stew, I can still try any time I feel like it.

Another one to tune you in for Brazil comes all the way from Scotland and from Vohn and Vohn's Vittles. Well, originally it was supposed to bring you happiness in a cold winter, but it will bring you happiness now, as well. Try some Papaya and Melon Jam.

Vohn has something else going for us, Brazilian slow-roasted lamb. That made me very hungry the moment I read it. Additionally I was due to get some food at that time.

Care for a drink now? Then let Vohn serve you Strawberry, Melon and Mint Sucos.

We are not yet ready to start properly, there is still one more Brazilian post of a non match day kind. Cheryl gives us Beef Churrasco & Farofa.

So far to the the prologue for our event. Now we are going to kick it and I'll give you the countries in ascending order until we get to the winner ...

In the past I was younger, but now ... Vatapa

That's a ridiculous thought! In the past I was younger. Although I know that for sure, I am not quite so sure whether I'm already feeling it. Today at work already half way through, I thought it could be over now, because my energy was gone and yesterday evening I was totally shattered. Somehow, it seems, I can't do the things anymore I was able to do five years ago. Somehow! Ah, that is really ridiculous! There ought to be a different reason for all that.
On the other hand, today, I am able to do things I wasn't able to do five years ago. Something like this ...

That's a Brazilian dish called Vatapa, a stew with fish, prawns, cashews and coconut milk. Fine, I had read something about it a month ago and we already had an entry with this dish for Bloggers Around the World quite at the beginning, but I didn't read anything about it lately.
So today, I just went for it without looking at any recipe, with just the key-thoughts in mind: you have to use fish, prawns, cashews and coconut milk.
Well, I let you know some more details now ...

Ingredients:
Splash of vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 medium sized red peppers, roughly chopped
1 small red chilli
4 small tomatoes, quartered
100 g salmon
100 g prawns
100 g cashew nuts, roasted and salted
165 ml coconut milk
150 ml water
3 spring onions, chopped up
A hand full of chopped fresh coriander
Salt and pepper

Method:
First heat up a sufficiently large pan with the vegetable oil and start with the chopped up onion in it until those pieces go soft. Try not to cry while chopping the onion, though.
Good, if you want to serve the dish with rice, it might take as long from this point on as it takes to prepare steamed rice, at least in the way I use to do it.
Back to the pan, we add the red peppers, chilli and tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes, so the vegetables start to soften up a bit, but we still want to have some crunch on those peppers in the end.
Time for the fish, prawns, cashews, coconut milk and water to join. Bring everything to the boil and let it all simmer for 10-15 minutes. If you want to reduce it more, increase the time, but then the rice will already be ready before you are finished (that shouldn't be any problem) or the peppers might go to soft. Choose for yourself, what you like.
Just before you are finished, check the taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if you have to.
Now add the spring onions and chopped coriander. It's time to serve, it's time to eat, it's time to enjoy. I did!

I would say now, this dish is for the World Cup Bloggers Around the World as Brazil is playing Germany today. For Germany I only have some beer in the fridge. No, I don't think the colours of the labels have any meaning as to the German flag, although on this photo it might look like it. 

I might try the left one of them later today. It's called Marc's Chocolate Bock. That sounds intriguing. I would never have thought about buying those beers would it not have been for a 20 % discount at the shop due to the World Cup. This 20 % was on any kind of beer. So people were really pushing out beer from the shop in truck loads.
Anyway, I will see whether that beer was worth its cost. After all one of my workmates recommended it to me. He knows a lot more about beer than I do, but then on the other hand, everyone has to find out for himself, what he likes or not.

Enough about beer! I am not going to do any advertisement for beer here right now. No one asked me to and I have no time for it now.

Well, I also want to add this post to the No Waste Food Challenge. I wouldn't want to miss that one this month. This month Anne from Anne's Kitchen is hosting on behalf of Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. After all I saved those red peppers from annihilation as they were far too advanced toward that direction already. Good, it was time for the prawns, too as they were freezing away in the freezer already.

As a conclusion ... I might not be 20 anymore, but since then I have learned a lot and I don't want to trade in this experience ...

Chanterelle, Medallions of Pork and Fried Potatoes

What do you do, when you have cooked to many potatoes and as a consequence have leftovers? For my father this was never a question. The only possible answer was fried potatoes. Therefore this was one of the regulars.
Anyway, I don't know, whether I should still be doing this, but after all, this is the game, Bloggers Around the World. So I keep on going ... or keep on cooking adding more work for myself later on for doing the mammoth round-up. I got some chanterelle mushrooms and some medallions of pork, so I had to go for this one.

There is really no big deal to it, but quite some butter. The Medallions of pork go to the pan in some butter and are seasoned with salt and pepper.
The chanter ell mushrooms go to the pan in some butter and are seasoned with salt and pepper. Fine I added a chopped up onion as well.
You know, the potatoes are cooked and then ... yes, guess ... fried in some butter and seasoned with salt, if you still wish.
Now, this all is somehow not with much variation of colour, but for that you can add a salad on the side. If you do it all right, you can enjoy a lovely meal, that is, if you like those ingredients.

Well, those goes for Germany today, although I would have preferred some baguette, cheese and red wine.

Go for Belgium with Stoemp

Either this will be a total confusion or actually a nice little post. Therefor I want to set a thing straight fright away, concerning the title of this post. The last word is not referring to a percussion group, originating in Brighton, UK that uses the body and ordinary objects to create a physical theatre performance. So it's not Stomp, but Stoemp. Just in case you where suspecting a typo here. 

Stoemp (now I have to be careful not to produce a typo here) is a Belgium dish with mashed potatoes and other vegetables in it, depending on what you want to use. As I understood it, it's all mashed together, and that is what I did then.

In fact Stoemp originates from Brussels. Maybe that's why you could add brussels sprouts as well. Fine, I didn't. I also haven't been to Brussels myself. When I was in Liège, Belgium, my friend, who was driving was too afraid to drive in bigger cities and that's why we didn't go further in that direction. So, I've never been there. 

I have been in Bruges, though. Don't mistake that either, because I am not referring to the movie with Colin Farrel and Brendan Gleason here. No I have been to Bruges (maybe that is a better wording as well) about ... eh ... let's think (no, I don't need to think I just read it a few minutes ago) ... 18 years ago.

Still I managed to get a few pictures for you. The quality isn't that good, though, due to the fact I took pictures from the pictures. So here we go for Belgium ... first of all ... with Bruges.

No, I can't tell you what this is, but I must have liked the architecture ... yes, I definitely can't tell you what it is.

Oh, yes, it's a canal. You remember? It should be a famous thing, too, to do a tour on them ... I reckon.

This one you can recognise easily, that the Belfry of Bruges. Again a no for not climbing the tower. For sure you shouldn't attempt to climb the 366 steps, if you are far too fat. Then The 39 Steps would be better (you could try London for that).

After that time travel, Belgium travel sort of thing we are ready to go for Belgium with Stoemp (yes, still not Stomp, they won't be having any concerts in Belgium soon, but you could try London again).

So, finally, we go for Belgium with Stomp ... ah, no ... got me here ... no ... with Stoemp ... at least my version of it ...

Ingredients:

500 g potatoes, cubed

3 medium sized carrots, cubed

Hand full of peas (no, they will do as they are)

A big knob of butter

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

A drop of milk (or two)

Salt and pepper

Method:

First of all I got the peas, carrots and potatoes boiling so they are going soft.

In the meantime I melted the butter in a pan on low heat and added the onion and garlic.

Once the potatoes, carrots and peas were soft (that wouldn't be any problem for the peas), I started mashing them up a bit (you may have to rinse them first, though), added the onions and garlic together with the remains of the butter to the pot. Then comes the milk or ... yes, you could use cream, too. A little bit of seasoning with salt and pepper and ready we are to go for Belgium with Stoemp.

Obviously ... yes ... very obviously indeed ... you could have a vegetarian meal here, if you wouldn't add those sausages as I did. You could add whatever you like, if you like. Do you like that? Do you like the dish?

Whatever the case, as this is a Belgian dish and Belgium is playing in the World Cup today, you for sure all know, what that means!