It's oh so quiet here ... Pumpkin Soup with Chorizo

I don't have to tell, you very easily recognise it yourself. It's almost two weeks ago I have posted something here. Yes, it's indeed oh so quiet here. There could be various reasons for this, but I try not to bore you with that. However, it could become even quieter around here ...

Are you shocked?

Well, it's a bit hard to think with an empty stomach. Have something to eat first. Why not have a pumpkin soup with chorizo. After all it's the season for it. For chorizo? Eh, why, chorizo is always in season and you never should put it away too far.
Now's the time for squashes and pumpkins. Well, there are 7 pumpkins on my table or at least parts of them.
So, why not have a soup - with pumpkin and chorizo ...

... I'm going to tell you also, what other ingredients you have to put in ...

Ingredients:
Olive oil
300 g chorizo, kind of cubed
1 carrot, roughly chopped
300 g potatoes, roughly chopped
1 kg butternut squash, roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
100 g cherry tomatoes, quartered or halved
200 g goat's cream cheese
1-1,5 l water
2 tsp. spicy paprika powder
Splash of sherry vinegar
50 g dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed
1 tsp. cumin
Salt and pepper

Method:
Let me try to tell you, how to put the soup together ... phew! Luckily I wrote things done a bit more detailed than usual.
First of all, fry the pieces of chorizo in a bit of olive oil. Put the fried chorizo aside into a separate bowl.
Having all those lovely juices from the frying of the chorizo in the pan, make things even lovelier by adding the garlic, crushed fennel seeds and the cumin to the pan.
Then toss in the carrot, potatoes and squash. Let things work a bit in the pan to soften the vegetables.
After that, it's time to add the paprika powder, the dried tomatoes and the water. Bring it to the boil and let everything simmer for quite a while until everything got even softer. Half an hour and even more will do. If you have the feeling, you need more water, add it.
Having reached this state, it's time to blitz the content of the pan together with the goat's cheese.
Afterwards, it can all go back to the pan. Then the chorizo returns to the pan, followed by the fresh cherry tomatoes. Heat everything up to eating temperature, adjust the seasoning with some salt and pepper and a splash of sherry vinegar. Ready for eating ...

At this point I got a visitor, who didn't came for a meal, just to talk about a few things. So I left the soup on low heat ...

... so what?

Yes, the soup lost a lot of liquid and it looked rather like pumpkin mash or the kind of food you would feed to your baby (not that I know very much about these matters).

Let me call it pumpkin soup concentrate. You can add litres upon litres of water to make the soup for a while. So, if you have unexpected visitors ... the kind that are out for food ... here you go.

Are you shocked?

What for? I don't know what this is all about. Did I say I wanted to shut up shop? I don't think so. Nevertheless, the future is uncertain ...

So, watch out for any news regarding Cooking Around the World ...

Sorry, but I have a random pizza for you with potatoes and thyme

Do you know what I don't understand? Arabic. Eh ... honestly? Yes, I do understand a few words and phrases, but I really don't understand Khmer, not even a single word. Stop joking! I don't understand the way English movie or book titles are translated into German. Movies often have a completely different title, although it would be quite funny and understandable to simply translate it. However, the biggest mystery comes to my mind, when I think about a particular cookbook in my collection. It's the number 40 when you count it alphabetically. The book is from Ravinder Bhogal. Maybe you know it. The title is: Cook in Boots. Now I don't know whether you are fluent in German, but the title should be Kochen in Stiefeln. No big deal. You could do that, although it wouldn't sound too lovely. But, hey, now let's have a look at what they made of it. By the way, the book was published by a publishing house called 'Christian'. Fine, that was the reason, why I bought this book in the first place (you know, that's my name). Another reason was, the book was highly reduced. Anyway, originally we wanted to get to the German name of the book. Just repeat, the German name of the book. Wait, here it comes: Love to Cook. A little note on that. I didn't translate the name back into English, but that's the actual name of the book in ... wait ... German, although this is obviously English, too. So, I really don't understand things like that. I don't know, so I really feel more comfortable with the English language and all, although it should be different. I don't know what's wrong with me. Right, obviously a lot of things, but that's not the reason, why you endure reading all this ... eh ... stuff ... no ... things ... no ... ah, forget it, we should be concentrating more on food.
But it wasn't for no reason I mentioned this book. I already hinted to it, it's number 40 of my collection and if you have any idea about the food blogging world, this will connect you to the random recipes challenge from Dom over at Belleau Kitchen.

For the current challenge we have to go to page 40 of the book number 40. That is what we do and what is it that we get? Pizza sauce. So, what is it you have to do, when you get a recipe for pizza sauce? Sorry, I have no idea. Maybe choose another recipe?

Sorry again, I'm not 100 % sure what I did, but on page 41 there was a recipe for a pizza, too. Somehow I couldn't get all the ingredients for the sauce at that time, so I thought, if I do the pizza recipe on the following side, it will rectify everything and things will be good again for my karma. Ah, no such thing in my world. Fine, things will be good. I'm good!

So the next page had a recipe for pizza with potatoes and thyme. Before I get messed up in more details, I show you my uncut version.

Right, that is the pizza just before I cut it for eating. So, that is ... he he he ... indeed the uncut version. I don't know what you expected. 

Again sorry, but I am not sure anymore whether I was supposed to use the pizza sauce with this version of the pizza. I suppose not! However, I did it anyway. At least I used the slices of potatoes, which I blanched first and then mixed with olive oil, garlic anthem before I put it onto the pizza. The dough was just my standard home-made pizza dough.

Additionally to the potatoes with thyme there was some goat's cheese going to ... eh ... yes ... to go onto the pizza. Yes, yes, goat's cheese. Wonderful!

So, finally, standard pizza dough, tomato sauce, slices of potatoes mixed with olive oil, thyme and garlic and goat's cheese. Delicious! Oh, I had no choice, I had to add some mozzarella as well.

Now, here I give you the cut version ...

Apart from all this, I just want to let you know, I am having a Caipirinha right this moment while I write this down .... maybe I slightly confused the measurements of the cachaca and all this, but things will be fine. Oh, right, things will not be fine for Italy in the World Cup for they have missed their chance to be among the last 16. However, I don't want to miss my chance to add an Italian recipe to the Bloggers Around the World World Cup challenge. Accordingly, besides for adding this post to the random recipes challenge this as well goes to the Bloggers Around the World challenge. 

Well, you don't know exactly what I am doing here at this time of the day writing up a weird post for my blog, so neither do I. Therefore, before any major tragedy occurs, we finish it all here.

Going French with Rillettes and Fougasse

Some weeks ago I was very much in the mood for cooking some French food and improve my knowledge in that cuisine. Well, apart from the option to look things up on the net, I have a few books on French cooking. One of it is The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo. It's a lovely book and the recipes work excellently. I selected some of them and worked myself through them during a week.
I like to share some of the results with you today as France is also playing Switzerland in the World Cup today. However, I will not share all of them, I need to reserve a bit for later.
Therefore today I like to concentrate on two things: Rillettes au porc and Fougasse aux romarin, avande et from age du chèvre.

 First to the rilletes with pork. If you find the right shop you most probably can by it ready in a jar. However, it's so simple and worth a try. You need pork belly, some bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and some time. It goes into the oven for 3 hours at 130 °C. Afterwards you can easily shred the pork (rind cut off) and jar it up and eat it with some lovely homemade bread and a glass of red wine.
If you care to make a mess in your oven you can throw the cut off rind under the grill and let them get crispy. Great, you get a crispy, fatty snack, hear some crackling sounds from your oven and get the chance to clean your oven.
Guess what I did ...

I just wanted to test some pork cracklings, too.
Anyway, I enjoyed the rillettes most of it together with the fougasse and the red wine.

Sure, you need some time as well to make the fougasse, but hey, it's all so lovely. What I liked about this fougasse version was, that it included lavender and goat's cheese.
You make a yeasty dough with 10 g dried yeast, 400 g flour, salt, dried rosemary, dried lavender and olive oil.
Then, you know, there is some kneading involved, rising, proving and all that lot, yes shaping. Apart from that we need to fit in the goat's cheese. Push pieces of 80 g of firm goat's cheese into the bread before you let it rise for the last time after the shaping.
The bread needs about 20 minutes at 210 °C in the oven. 
The end result is lovely. So, if you want to try it, you either have to try it as it is or have a look at the book or ask for further details.

Now you get also a closer look at the bread. I enjoyed it very much. So, do you like to have a bite?

If you like to have this ready for the football match today, I have to inform you, that you better have to hurry. Otherwise ... you need to have something else.

I add this to our ever increasing collection of posts for the World Cup 2014 and Bloggers Around the World.

Tomato & Asparagus Puff Pastry Tart

The sun is out and shining brightly, warming up everything. What a delight ... if you like that kind of weather. We just had a bit over 30 ºC today. Isn't that lovely? Again, only if you like it that way. Well, I do. However, it doesn't make me feel I have to be out all the time and get as much of the sun as possible, or that I have to have loads and loads of ice cream and cold drinks, including beer. It's fine, Spring is at it's best and you can get a lot of different food items fresh, locally. On my way to work, they have already set up that strawberry hut next to the strawberry field. That means in the coming days after work, when I have made it up the hill and have regained a bit breath, I can go for it. I will see about that.
In the meantime, I finally managed to work a bit with fresh green asparagus. First of all I had those with the bacon wrapped around it to eat together with soft-boiled eggs. Very, very delicious!
Then I went to roast some in my griddle pan. Not bad!
As the last one I tried out this ...

... a puff pastry tart with asparagus and cherry tomatoes. Have a closer look then ...

Ingredients:
5 asparagus spears
5 cherry tomatoes, sliced
Sheet of puff pastry (about 350 g)
100 ml crème fraîche
100 g firm goat cheese
Salt, pepper, Herbs de Provence
1 egg
Olive oil

Method:
To begin with, I blanched the asparagus for about 5 minutes.
Then I broke the goat cheese into pieces and mixed it together with the crème fraîche, egg, salt, pepper and Herbs de Provence.
On a slightly oiled baking tray I placed the puff pastry and folded in the sides a little bit.
After that I spread or rather poured over the crème fraîche mixture. Strangely it went a bit over.
As you see in the picture I placed the asparagus spears slightly pushed into the mixture and arranged the slices of tomato between them.
The tray went to the pre-heated oven at 180 ºC for 30 minutes. Somehow that seems to be my favourite oven temperature and time, strangely. Well, there are many things I don't understand. Also, I feel like drizzling some olive oil over the finished baked tart.
Whatsoever, just make sure that the puff pastry tart doesn't get burned in the oven. You wouldn't want that nor like it.
The way the tomato & asparagus puff pastry tart turned out, it tasted lovely. So, you have to grab the opportunity while it's there ...
Maybe the sun will also shine tomorrow or will even shine for me in a different kind of way ...

Have a Snack - Chilli Cheese Balls

Sometimes when the day is getting late, I feel I don't need a proper dinner, but a snack will be just fine, maybe together with a beer ...

Just like that! Some chilli cheese balls on a bed of rocket together with some serrano ham. Life is good! I'm happy and satisfied! The end of the day can come. I would say that snack has it all ... all those ingredients I love: chilli, cheese, serrano ham and rocket. What more could I want? Oh, I mentioned it already ... a nice refreshing beer.
It's not much work and quick you go and have your snack ...

Ingredients:
Rocket, as much as you want
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
4-6 slices Serrano ham
200 g soft goat cheese
Chilli, fresh, dried, flaked, powder or whatever you like, have and want
Small bunch fresh parsley, chopped up
Flour
One egg, whisked
Large hand full breadcrumbs
Oil for frying

Method:
Dress the rocket with the lemon juice, olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. Place it on the plate to serve and arrange the serrano ham on top.
Mix the goat cheese with the chilli and parsley. Give it a pinch of salt. Shape small balls from it. Then it's time to get them bread-crumbed. Off to be rolled in the flour, then egg wash and finally breadcrumbs.
Get some oil hot for frying and fry the chilli cheese balls until brown and crispy. Obviously you want to avoid that the cheese gets leaking out.
Lay the ready chilli cheese balls on some kitchen paper to get rid off some of the oil, but hurry, we want to have a snack ...

Ah, I really should make sure I have serrano ham and goat cheese in my fridge most of the time. So, have it as a late night snack or a starter, if you prefer that.
Now, tell us, what is your favourite quick evening snack?

Welcome Back - Spinach, Goat's Cheese and Ham Pasta Roulade

Welcome back! I reckon I have to do it and welcome myself back to the kitchen, since no one else is going to do it. Eh, well, how could possibly anyone else but me do this without knowing that I  am actually back in my new flat cooking? I haven't told anyone, have I?
Of course, I mentioned that I am going to move to a new flat and that I didn't have a kitchen to do some proper cooking anymore. Anyway, everything went well with the moving, just two dead and one injured. A friend, who helped, kept on knocking some pieces of furniture against his shinbone. So he had a little bit pain there afterwards, but nothing serious. As to the two dead one ... a clock went to the bin, because I was split in two halves. Then the plastic sign "Maltese on board" in my car broke to pieces. In fact the latter happened after the actual moving day - two days later - when I decided, for what reasons whatsoever, I needed a new bed. So I had no other choice as to transport it in my small sized car. Imagine for yourself ...
Otherwise, things went so well, that actually I didn't need to take a day off from work. However, I  already did. So, apart from getting a dentist appointment at the new dentist, acquainting myself with a new doctor and doing some shopping, I had ample of time to do some proper cooking again ...



For that we are going to make some fresh pasta dough, a spinach, goat's cheese and ham filling, a tomato salsa and a béchamel sauce ...

Goat Cheese and Plum Pearl Barley Risotto

The quest for making good use of the plums I received is still going on. As you know, there are quite a lot of things you can do with them. I already did the recipes which take a great amount of plums like jam and plum butter. I even made a plum chutney.
Now, cake and jam and things like that are the logical choices for going with plums. Things you would think of right away. Therefore I try to do something else ... kind of pairing the plums with cheese, goat's cheese to be precise, in a risotto. I've heard it before you can do it also with pearl barley. Let's try it then and have a Goat Cheese and Plum Pearl Barley Risotto.