Panko Fried Brie with Lavender Mushrooms

While the weather is not as it’s best these days, we already had some quite pleasant days.

It’s best not to expect perfection all the time, because you are only going to be disappointed. For sure, you don’t want that. Rather concentrate on the small things of beauty always around you, appreciate that.

Then you can find enjoyment more often …

… like in a quick and simple meal with not much fuss about it. Among the simple things I enjoy is cheese. I wouldn’t want to imagine a life without cheese. If I would have to choose between cheese and meat – which one to go without, I would select the meat to go without rather than the cheese.

But, I don’t have to choose. However, for the following meal I have chosen to go without meat and with cheese … with Brie to be more precise. So we are having Panko Fried Brie with Lavender Mushrooms …

Somehow I like lavender, so I try to look for new ways to carefully introduce it into cooking. See, whether it works today.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
200 g mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
Salt, chilli
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp. lavender buds
Knob of butter
1 Brie (200 g)
1 egg
Panko (or other breadcrumbs)
Rosemary

Method:
Use two pans to get both elements ready at the same time. I used a griddle pan for the Brie.

Well then, how do we go about?

Heat up some olive oil for the mushrooms.

Prepare the brie by tossing it around in the whisked up egg. Next you have the panko ready together with some salt and finely chopped rosemary. Try as best as you can to coat the Brie with it.

The mushrooms start rolling in the pan. Season them with salt and a bit of chilli if you like.

The Brie is in the other pan. You turn it, when you think the time is right after a few minutes. If it starts oozing away in your pan, you’ve lost and evidently waited too long.

Add the lemon juice and the lavender to the mushrooms and let them continue in the heat. Finish it off with a knob of butter.

When you have done everything right, both the Brie and the mushrooms are finished at about the same time. So, serve it up …

Have some bread on the side and … whatever makes you happy. Fine, here we have another use of lavender in cooking. As I felt, the taste was good and I enjoyed it.

Do you enjoy going for a walk. I hope to walk … eh … well, a lot this year. 

Anyway, have a lovely day! Keep smiling!

Read-Cook-Eat: Drei Männer im Schnee: Pasta with Beef

Just recently I have been to a book flea market and got some old books. Among this was the book Drei Männer im Schnee (Three Men in the Snow) by German writer Erich Kästner. He was born in 1899. The most popular ones of his books are children books, like Emil and the Detectives, which has been translated at least 21 languages. Some of the books were also adapted into films. Maybe you also know the movie The Parent Trap.
Whatsoever, we are not talking about any of the children books, but Three Men in the Snow, which was written in 1934.

Basically it is about a millionaire, who participates in a contest under a false name, wins the second price - a stay in an exquisite hotel. However, he goes there in disguise as a poor person, because he wants to see how they would treat him.
His daughter secretly calls the hotel to 'warn' them, but a mix-up occurs and they take the first winner of the contest as the millionaire and treat him very good and the real millionaire rather bad. Anyway, it's a funny book.
Well, we are not going to concentrate too much more on the book, but rather get cooking. The favourite dish of the millionaire is Nudeln mit Rindfleisch (Pasta with beef). There are not given any details in the book as to what it's like, but it reminded me of a dish my mom used to cook in my youth. So I took that as a guide and added the things I felt needed to be in there. It's nothing to fancy, but it tasted delicious.

Ingredients:
500 g pasta (Fussilli)
500 g beef, cut into cubes
Some flour
Some oil
250 g mushrooms (whatever you can get), sliced
500 ml beef stock
2 tsp. sweet paprika
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
A knob or two of butter (or more)
A few sprigs of thyme
Salt and pepper

Method:
Really, you can cut the beef in the size you like. Lightly coat the meat with the flour and start browning it in a hot pan with some oil. While you are at it, season with salt, pepper and the sweet paprika. Once the beef is sufficiently browned remove it to a bowl.
Get some more oil into the pan and throw in the mushrooms together with the garlic and start softening them. When you are feeling you are getting there - you already have the lovely smell of garlic - add the leaves of the thyme and a good knob of butter. When the mushrooms are soft and shining lovely remove them from the pan and add them to he bowl with the beef.
Reduce the heat of the pan, add some more oil and another knob of butter into it. Time for the onion to go into the pan and to be softened. After that you can put the beef and the mushrooms back into the pan. 
Then add the beef stock and bring everything to the boil. It's time to let things simmer and reduce. You can give it 30 minutes or more. In the end it should be ready together with the pasta.

Do as you wish, mix the pasta with the beef or simply serve the pasta on a plate and add a few ladle full of the beef and mushroom sauce. It's up to you. I thought a salad on the side would be lovely.
By the way, this time I took the photos in the front room instead of in the kitchen. I wanted to see, how things look there. Of course, this is only possible, when the light is right.

I hope you liked the dish. I did. Now let me tell you, why I came to this idea in the first place ...

The lovely Galina from Chez Maximka asked me whether I liked to do a joint reading-cooking challenge with her. What a wonderful idea! So we teamed up this month to go for it and you can join us in this reading and cooking feast.

The idea is to choose a novel, classic or modern, and find a quote about a meal or a dish and then let yourself be inspired by this and recreate this meal or dish in a blog recipe. It would also be very nice, when your post tells us a bit about the book you had in mind and maybe you could even do a quote from the book.
My first idea was something by Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, but I couldn't find anything about a meal that could be used. Fine, next idea was Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but here the ingredients for the dishes were a bit too exotic for me. However, some other novels from Jules Verne would do just fine. Then there were also more than one ideas from Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
However, there are endless opportunities, depending of course on what kind of books you read ... and obviously I am not referring to cook books.

I promise you, this will be a totally new experience of your favourite novel to taste and smell the food the characters are having. Well, somehow it's like 3D for books or even better 4D.

We hope, we can count you in. When you do join in, please use the above badge in your post and link back to Galina and me, and either use the link-up tool below or add the url of your post as a comment. Another option would be to email either of us with the link to your post (Galina's email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com and mine is cookingatworld at yahoo dot co dot uk). 

The challenge is on and will come to an end on 30 April 2014.
Galina will Pin all blogs posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+. Of course I will RT and Google+ all posts that don't escape my notice. 

Long Due Vegetarian Borscht with Mushrooms

Sometimes things come together. Sometimes it takes a while until they do. As you know we are visiting Russia for our Bloggers Around the World challenge this month.
Usually what you have to do - that is if you don't have any kind of particular knowledge in that kind of cuisine - is do some research on that cuisine, in this instance, Russian cuisine. Well, as I told you, what comes to my mind in connection with Russian cuisine, is borscht or you may want to call it borshch. Anyway, I even have to do research for that. Still there are variations. Some put meat in it, some add cabbage and ...
... today we are having none of that. Since this going to be vegetarian, of course there will be no meat, but there won't be any cabbage either, although some believe that it is an essential ingredient in borscht.
But have a look ...

What do you say?

Telly ... Brain ... Plate ... Chicken Pie

While I was doing some research for the Bloggers Around the World South Africa, I came across Masterchef South Africa. Did I tell you this before or am I having a déjà vu? Oh ... either way it would mean my brain is not functioning properly. That wasn't what I wanted to get to.
Anyway, in that episode the contestants where supposed to visit a restaurant, sample a dish and then cook it. Something like that I like as well. Fine, for one team it was chicken pie. From that moment I fancied to make chicken pie. 
Apparently that was about one month ago.
Now I like to share with you what got to my plate after it went from the telly through my (malfunctioning?) brain ...

Food for Free: Foraging Wild Mushrooms

Do you like to have food for free? There are many ways for that ... but then again, there is always something to give to get something. Even when you are invited for dinner by a friend, you have to give something. A 'thank you' would be something good, although it doesn't seem too common anymore. At least you have to get to the place to get the food ...
Wait! We don't want to go that far in classing 'food for free'. Let's talk about foraging. You have to invest some time to get the food. Also you need to get answers ... answers to the questions: What? When? Where?
This would be a good spot for free food ...

But when and what?

Bloggers Around the World August-September Round-up: Thailand

Even two months pass by and you think "where did the time go". Now there is a theory about the passing of time, but ... this is not the time to speak about such things. It's rather time for the round-up of Bloggers Around the World for the months of August and September.

Our theme was Thailand and therefore we like to see some Thai food right here, right now ...

Go for it ... Mushroom-Tomato Bucatini with Rocket and Mozzarella

Time is flowing away. What else should it do anyway? After all we don't want to be trapped in a kind of space time continuum sort of thing. The key, though, is to use your time wisely. You have every minute only once. You don't want to regret anything, do you? However, if you have to, no worries ... time goes on anyway. Well, then, I keep trying to use my time in a good and nice and wise way ...
So in the spirit of the lately announced Bloggers Around the World - Italy, I go for it and I might even do it again. Therefore I start things easily. Mushrooms always go ... eh tomato sauce, too.

I also was able to get hold of some rocket, so it's only natural for it to make it's appearance in the following Mushroom-Tomato Bucatini with Rocket and Mozzarella.

What we need:
All we need is love ... eh ... sorry, I was supposed to give the ingredients, but cooking with love won't hurt either.
Splash of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
Few leaves of basil
400 ml tinned tomatoes
Splash of red wine vinegar
300 g mushrooms, chopped up into small pieces according to your desire
500 g Bucatini (or other pasta)
150 g mini Mozzarella balls (or pieces of mozzarella)
50 g rocket
Salt and pepper

What we do:
Heat up some olive oil in a large pan. Toss in the garlic and slightly fry the slices. Add the leaves of basil just briefly before you are ready to pour in the tomatoes and some extra liquid. Bring it to the boil and let it all simmer for 30 minutes before you start crushing the tomatoes - poor fellas.
Give the sauce a splash of red wine vinegar and unload your chopped mushrooms in the pan. Take a lovely (suppose so) wooden spoon and give it a gentle (cooking with love) mix up.
Have a look onto your watch. For sure you agree to boil the pasta, don't you?
What are you waiting for then? Go for it and cook the pasta ... drain it and add it to the Mushroom-Tomato sauce and ... yes ... mix it well.
All done - so you can plate up. Place some rocket leaves over your pasta and some mini Mozzarella balls as well. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over it and ... there you go. La vita e bella! 

Somehow I have the feeling I have something more in mind for Bloggers Around the World. Anyway, what do you have in mind?
Just go for it then!

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Once in a while, when I see mushrooms I go and buy them. Well, if I would have the expertise, I would go and get them from the woods. However, I'm still planning on someone with knowledge taking me along. Maybe it works out this year.
In the meantime (it's not the season anyway) I use what is available.
While doing this, why not have some creamy mushroom pasta!? I always enjoy it for a quick meal.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
400 g mushrooms, dirt brushed off, quartered
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
200 ml double cream
250 g of your favourite pasta
Salt and pepper
Grated parmesan to serve

Method:
Heat up some olive oil in a large pan. Then toss in the mushrooms. Larger ones, you have to cut into smaller pieces, maybe. In the meantime you could also start to get your pasta ready. We don't expect any extensive cooking for this recipe.
Have the mushrooms taking on some colour. When that happens, it's time for the garlic to join. The smell and the flavour and the garlic will start to blend in.
Add the double cream and season with salt and pepper.
Finally, when the pasta is ready as well, add some of the cooking water to the creamy mushroom sauce and ... the pasta as well. Toss everything together and plate up.
Serve with grated parmesan and some parsley ... if you want to.

What now? Well, there is always something to do. Suddenly, when you have a lot of free time available, nothing planned, then you can do what you always wanted ... Really? Oh, I guess not. I'm sure I'll end up with not doing many of these things ...

Challenge warm up à la française ... escalope de porc aux champignons

You might remember that I set up my own blog challenge Bloggers Around The World just last month. After our start in Germany with a bit of German food the next leg of the journey is bringing us to France.
Well, now it's not just that I like others to join, but of course I want to contribute as well with some food. Due to this I tried a few things French in my kitchen over the last few weeks. Still it hasn't all been the kind of things I want to contribute to my own challenge. Right, I set up the rules. Hm, I can't remember setting up a rule that limits the number of entries, but I guess one will suffice.

While I don't want to contribute this bit of food, I still like to share it with you. I might even add it to another challenge. 
Whatsoever, I consider it as a little warm up for some more French cooking. I can't quite claim that I mastered the art of French cooking. However, there is help available, as I have the two volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.
What you see on the picture is kind of based on the recipe Tournedos Sautés Aux Champignons. Fine, I didn't use fillet steak, but pork cutlets and ... eh marinated the meat therefore a bit differently. I used the simple marinade for pork from the aforementioned book.
Here we go then and warm up a bit à la française.

1. The pork cutlets are marinated for at least 2 hours, and if you like to put them in the fridge, for 4 hours. The marinade contains salt, pepper, lemon juice, parsley sprigs, thyme, a bay leaf and a clove of bashed garlic.
2. The mushrooms are sauteed in butter for a couple of minutes until then slightly brown.
   
   
   
   
   
3. I guess they deserve a little bit of seasoning with salt and pepper.
4. Then remove the mushrooms and put them to a separate bowl.
5. Now it's time for the pork cutlets to make there appearance again. Fry some butter in a different pan and then fry the cutlets from both sides until the colour is right and they are cooked through.
6. That's the point where I want to totally deviate from the book ... In reality, the following steps you have to perform while step 5 is still going.
7. In the pan, where the mushrooms have been, add quite a good share of white wine.
8. Then mix about 125 ml of double cream with a tbs of corn starch and then add to the pan with the white wine.
9. Now I wonder why I removed the mushrooms from the pan and just add them to the sauce again.
10. It's time to plate it up. Just do it the way as you have seen in the first picture and have a salad on the side.

Good, that was already a start. Was it French enough. I'm not too sure. I only know that it tasted very delicious. It even makes me to want some right now ... but I well know that this is out of bounds.
So far the warm up. I will do something else for the Bloggers Around The World challenge at some other day and ... I have also something in mind already. Keep on the watch!
Do you know what, some might use a package of who knows what is in it ready made sauce, but this was all from scratch without any E-somethings.

Cooking with Friends a la España

For me, cooking is very nice and enjoyable, but it is even greater to cook together with friends. We used to do this more often, when I was still younger. I even went several kilometres by bike to cook together with friends. Nowadays, everyone seems to be more busy and such events have become seldom. Well, another thing might be, that I live in another area than back then and it now would take a several 100 km to travel to do the same with them.
Whatsoever, it is good to have friends and even more important is to have time for each other and do things together. Finally then, we managed again. OK, the idea was to cook and eat together. Last time we did it, we just mixed a few recipes together to have a small menu.
This time we (well, I had the idea) wanted to have it themed, like maybe French, Italian, Turkish, Thai, Spanish or something else. We settled for Spanish. After going shopping for a few things then, in the evening we were ready.

Here is the menu a la España:

Jamon serrano
Lomo
Olivas verde
Almedras al pimiento
Queso con miel y tomillo
Chorizo al ajo y miel
Champiñón al ajo
Aioli y pan
Dátil frito
Brochetas de pollo y tomate

Chuletas de cerdo al estilo de Aragón

Churros con chocolate con naranja

Well, it might be all Spanish to you, but the first section were tapas, then the main course and of course finally the dessert.
As to the tapas, a few things were very simple ... only putting things on plates like with the jamon Serrano and the Lomo or transferring the olives from the glass to a bowl.
The cheese with the honey and thyme was only a tiny bit more effort, but with great effect.

Originally we would have used manchego cheese here, but unfortunately the shop we selected was poorly stocked. Instead we decided for Gouda, in fact in this case a so-called May Gouda. We didn't pay any thought as to what that would mean. Anyway, we ended up with a very very strong smelling cheese. After touching it with your fingers, it would take several thorough washings of your hand to get rid of that smell again.
Whatsoever, the taste and especially in that combination was totally delicious and for a cheese lover such as me, it was addictive.
So far to the simple things. The paprika almonds called for blanched almonds, which we didn't get. Consequently we went for blanching them ourselves. Just put them for a minute or so in hot water and then you can remove the skin easily. Really!

This was the beginning. It didn't go so well as expected ...

... about one hour later. Hm, not exactly, but it took quite some time. After putting them again in hot water and ... here comes my brave friend, which we will call Mr S, into play. He took the almonds directly from the hot water and removed the skin ... ouch, but a lot quicker.
Before we went into the other tapas it was time to get the main course, the pork chops a la Aragón, ready for the oven.

Slices of potato in an oven proof dish. Maybe a few slices too many, but ... whatever!

The seasoned pork chops go on top after some white wine was poured over the potatoes.

After that a mixture with parsley, garlic and almonds on top and it's ready for the oven. 
That gives us the opportunity to go back to the tapas.

Here we have the garlic mushrooms. From this point on everything went in quick succession.
After the mushrooms had left the pan, the chorizo came in. Obviously I didn't bother to take a photo. The chorizo slices were fried with garlic and finished with honey and sherry vinegar.

Out of the pan into a bowl they went to make room for the dates filled with chorizo and wrapped in bacon to be fried. Strange, for that I have a picture again.
Once they were finished and the chicken tomato skewers as well, the main course went to the oven at 200°C to be left there for 45 minutes - at least.
After about two hours of preparation and cooking, it was time to eat. If you have a look again at the menu at the tapas section, you maybe can imagine what followed.
Well, somehow, we were already quite filled, once the pork chops came back from the oven.

That's what they looked like. Somehow the potatoes didn't soak up the white wine as promised in the recipe, but ... anyway. No one was willing anymore to have a proper main course.

So we did some 'fine dining' portions.
Strangely, though, there still was the call to have the dessert, which would take a while to prepare anyway. After that most probably there would be the slight possibility that more food will fit in. 
As to making churros. Making the dough is fairly easy. You have 500 ml of lightly salted boiling water and sift some 300 g of flour into it and then combine it with an electrical hand mixer. Leave it to rest for let's say ten minutes.
After that you have the churros dough or a self-made paste for wall papers as well. If you don't want to use it to hang wallpaper you put it into a piping bag and pipe it into screaming hot oil and fry it. What shall I say ... that stuff killed my piping bag. I need to get a better one.

Despite that they go well with melted chocolate and if you add some orange zest to the chocolate it tastes divine ... if you still can take it. The recipe book gave some extra information about churros. It's popular to have them with chocolate after you have danced through the whole night, which we didn't do, or you can have them for breakfast with coffee, which I did the next day.

At the end we had a wonderful evening and on top of that we have created a bit of leftovers ... I still have to deal with some potatoes and pork chops.
Why not come together with friends and have a great evening together with cookin. Do you like to do something like this as well? What have you done? Leave a comment and let us know ...

Potage Velouté Aux Champignons - #CookForJulia

Already a few days ago I saw the following through a fellow blogger:



Some of you may know Julia Child from television, because she had a regular television show (or even more). Well, I'm not the 'Sea of Knowledge'! I know and own her two volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which also involved Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. Then I saw also the 2009 movie Julie & Julia. OK, it was the other way round, first movie then book.
Since I have those books now I fully can understand the challenge in cooking through the whole book. In fact, I have only tried a few recipes so far. Now I tried again to share something for #CookForJulia.
At first those recipes for Cassoulet and Ratatouille jumped to my attention. However, sentences like: "You can prepare it in one day, but two or even three days of leisurely on-and-off cooking are much easier." put me off.
Therefore I had to look for something else. I ended up with a soup (again - as I have done a soup from the book before) and a dessert.
Now we can come to the soup: Potage Velouté Aux Champignons. For all those, who are not so good at French (or haven't guessed it by the slightly similar words), it's a Cream of Mushroom Soup.
I was prepared already before by having nearly 1 kg of butter at home. Of course, mushrooms are involved and therefore needed as well.

Somehow I couldn't find a picture of the first part in the pan on my camera anymore afterwards. So you simply use your imagination to see the onions in the pan with just the butter and without flour.

The stems of the mushrooms being prepared, shortly before they go into the pan together with chicken stock and a few other things.

While all this is simmering it gives me the opportunity to practice some slicing on the heads of the mushrooms.

Additionally (you see in the picture, I left some caps unsliced) and that is now for decoration purposes, in Julia's book you find instructions also for fluted mushroom caps. I had a try.

... and another try. It wasn't so easy. But was it worth it. We will see later.

After that we can go on with more important things. The soup base has to be strained to get a clear broth.

Then the sliced mushroom caps can go in. Hm, not really, they have to be cooked for 5 minutes, but then they go.

There is still more work to do. The broth and the mushrooms have to simmer for a while. Meanwhile you prepare some egg yolks together with some French cream and then ...

... scoop the soup bit by bit into it. Then back to the pan. Briefly heating up again, adding a bit of butter and then ...

... you should be able to eat it, garnished with a bit of parsley and those fluted caps. I had to have some slices of baguette with it as well!
"Bon Appétit!" 
Can you see the fluted caps?

Maybe a zoom will do. Hm ... it's not so impressive as I imagined it would be. Anyway, nowadays people buy mixtures for ready made mushroom soup and have less work. On the other hand, they are also having less fun and less flavour.
It was really enjoyable preparing this soup and the book has a quite good step-by-step description to do everything. Although not having any food photos in it, I still enjoy looking and cooking with Julia and Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Well now, I said something a bout a dessert in the beginning. By now, this post has already gotten quite long and I decide to do a sequel to this post later ... to be continued ...
Next time you see quite some orange liqueur and fire ...
Usually I hate it, when they do that on television. The tension is rising and suddenly it is over and you have to wait for the next one, probably a whole week.
I reckon you will survive it. Hm ... wait ... hm ... not!
Come again to this blog next time, if you want to hear Julia Child say: "Bon Appétit!"
That reminds me of the Muppet Show now. Was Julia Child ever on the Muppet Show. I did some research and couldn't find anything. Whatsoever ...