Pan Roasted Vegetables with Chicken

For sure you know this. You have a whole day free from work, no appointments, no nothing. One hour goes, then the next and then the next and before you know it the day is gone.
Right, maybe you don’t know this, because you always have a busy schedule and have to do a lot of things, going here and there and being everywhere and doing things for everyone or just excessively for your boss or the opposite entertainment.
Either way, it might be the case you wasted some of your time. Sometimes it has to do with priorities and sometimes with motivating oneself.
Whatever the case, thing like this happen from time to time and usually we are not worried that much about it, even if you have wasted a whole day doing nothing. Maybe you have at least relaxed from the hardships of life.
Call me guilty! For that I am!
BUT … and that is a big BUT (yes, you noticed the upper case letters, fine), I don’t want to be guilty of wasting food.
Once again I have averted the throwing away of food, this time by cooking this …

Let me call this …

Pan Roasted Vegetables with Chicken

As I got two quarters of pumpkins, obviously, I had to use them up. So, watch the line-up of saved food items and watch the show …

Ingredients:
A splash of olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 potatoes, finely chopped
1/8 part of a Hakkori F1 pumpkin (or similar, maybe 400 g), chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 hand full of cherry tomatoes, halved
Some leftover chicken meat, cut into large cubes
Leaves from one sprig of rosemary, finely chopped
A large splash of white wine
Salt and pepper

Method:
When I think about the ingredients list, I just gave you, it is almost clear what to do. You could just add the ingredients in order of appearance to the pan and … but, we can do it differently …
Lightly heat up the olive oil and add the onions and garlic and cook until translucent.
I decided to put in the other vegetables according to the time they need for cooking or the way I wanted to have them in the end. So you could use the order set out in the list, but if you have a different pumpkin you might want to add it a bit later. Anyway, I do it the cook as you chop way. So, no worries, no hectic, in a relaxed way, chop the ingredients and add to the pan. Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper.
When the vegetables are to your liking, add the rosemary and the leftover chicken (if you want or have chicken) as the chicken is already cooked (leftover, right?) and you just have to heat up the chicken.
Finally pour in the white wine and reduce it a bit.
Time for eating. Somehow, I also had a bit of the goat’s cheese dip, which I mentioned in my previous post, so I served it together with it.

I enjoyed it very much, the dip really did an excellent job with it. Again, some food items saved, mostly it was the piece of pumpkin, the carrot, the chicken and the dip.

Gebratenes Gemüse mit Hähnchen

Ja, das hört sich jetzt ja nicht unbedingt so aufregend an, aber wir sollten uns die Sache erst einmal näher anschauen. Das besondere hier ist schon mal, dass hier wieder Kürbis vorkommt. Gut, ich hätte das ganze ja auch Gebratenes Gemüse mit Kürbis und Hähnchen nennen können.

Doch nun zu den Einzelheiten …

Zutaten:Ein Spritzer Olivenöl
1 Zwiebel, feingehackt (nicht weinen)
2 Knoblauchzehen, feingehackt
1 Möhre, kleingeschnitten
2 Kartoffeln, kleingeschnitten
1/8 Hakkori F1 Kürbis (oder was anderes, vielleicht 400 g), kleingeschnitten
1 grüne Paprika, kleingeschnitten
2 Hände voll Kirschtomaten, halbiert
Etwas fertig gekochtes Hähnchenfleisch (gutes vom Vortag)
Blätter von einem Zweig Rosmarin, feingehackt
Einen großen Spritzer Weißwein
Salz und Pfeffer

Zubereitung:

Das Olivenöl auf kleiner Hitze erhitzen und die Zwiebeln und den Knoblauch andünsten.
Dann hab ich so gedacht, das restliche Gemüse entsprechend der Kochzeit zum erreichen der gewünschten Konsistenz nachwerfen. Meine gewünschte Reihenfolge geht aus der Zutatenliste hervor. Einfach genug Zeit lassen beim Kleinschneiden und immer, wenn was fertig ist in die Pfanne geben. Mit Salz und Pfeffer abschmecken.
Wenn das Gemüse gemäß den Wünschen weich genug gekocht ist, kann der Rosmarin und das Hähnchenfleisch mit in die Pfanne, um das Fleisch zu erwärmen.
Mit dem Weißwein das ganze dann noch abrunden und ihn ganz minimal einkochen.
So … Zeit zum Essen. Ich hart noch was von dem Ziegenfrischkäsedip vom letzten Beitrag übrig. Der passte super dazu. Na denn, lasst es euch schmecken …

Pumpkin and Potato Fritters with Goat’s Cheese Dip

Officially I am crazy ... well, maybe not officially, but in some sort of way, but ... well, that might not be something new about me. You might have heard so before. Anyway, you might have seen this post before as well, but ... I don't know ... I am trying to do something here ...

For today I have selected … something with pumpkin.

For the purpose of this recipe I selected Hokkori F1 squash as it is supposed to be good for frying. I reckon, you could even make pumpkin chips with it.

Anyway, from a friend I got a quarter of the squash and therefore I had to use it quickly, but to be honest, I even didn’t manage to use up that quarter of it for this recipe, so there is still a tiny bit left of it in the fridge. That is so, although I made a pumpkin omelette with parts of it the other day.

From the flesh of the Hokkori F1 … well … eh, it looks just like pumpkin to me. Now we have to see, whether the sweet flavour and the dry texture is doing any good to my recipe …

Ingredients3 medium sized potatoes
The same amount of pumpkin flesh
1 egg
2 tbsp. bread crumbs
Salt, pepper
Oil for frying
200 g goat’s cream cheese
1 tsp. chilli powder
1 tbsp. tomato puree
2 cloves of garlic

MethodFirst of all we need to do some grating – be gentle to your fingers, no hectic movements. Accordingly grate the potatoes and the flesh of the squash into a bowl.

Mix that together with the egg, bread crumbs and a bit of salt and pepper for seasoning. Here we would be ready for the fritters already.

Now we devote some time to the dip – piece of cake. Simply put the goat’s cheese, the chilli powder, the tomato puree into another bowl and grate in the garlic. Thoroughly combine everything be stirring through. Lovely, the dip is also done.

If you want to – I wanted to – prepare a salad to have on the side. Just use the usual suspects for it or whatever you like or have at hand.

Heat up some oil in a large pan and start frying the fritters by placing a tablespoon of the mixture for each fritter into the pan. Of course, you will not forget to flatten and turn them.

Either have an eat as you go, or just fry off all of the mixture and then have it together with the dip and a salad properly at the dining table … or just dig in!

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 ...

One way or the other Red Hokkaido Squash Soup

From what I gather by looking around, it's time for squashes and pumpkins. Really? Yes, I would say so. What do we get out of it? For example, I bought a Red Hokkaido squash. Well, I didn't have to go that far and travel to Japan to get it. From it we can get vitamin A and vitamin C, calcium, potassium and iron to mention just a few. Furthermore it is low in calories and sodium. That is, if you are caring about nutrition facts and ... eh ... calories. However, I guess we have to mess around with the calories anyway. But at least you can say, the calories didn't come from the squash.
We are going to have some soup. One day I was invited by some friends ... eh ... just a moment, I invited myself and ... we had some pumpkin soup. Some time later I tried to recreate that soup without having the recipe. 

I may have gotten it slightly wrong, but I will give you some alternative ideas, too. So you can have it one way or the other ...

Red Hot Pumpkin Curry for #BestOfBritish

This time the Best of British challenge takes us to London as Fiona from London Unattached takes over. It's lovely to visit London and there is much to see and, of course, many different things to eat. I like going there and have done so accordingly quite a few times. On one of my last visits I went to this lovely Indian Supper Club. A few days later I was on the streets, somewhere to where a lot of shops with goods from India were. There I bought this.

Now I have an Indian spice tin, a masala dabba. That's what I want to use this time for my Red Hot Pumpkin Curry. Yes, I'm still working on using all my fresh chillies from the windowsill.

Ingredients:
Oil for the pan
2 small onions (or one big one - ha ha), finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, squeezed
2 carrots, in cubes
1 courgette, in cubes
1 green bell pepper, in stripes (kind of)
1/2 Hokkaido pumpkin, in cubes
1-4 fresh red chillies (you know what to do, to make it red HOT)
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp nigella seeds (don't get this wrong)
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
400 ml tinned tomatoes

Preparation:
The battle is on now. Well, I bet you have a lot of fun with all this chopping and crushing and squeezing and cutting into pieces and stripes.

To get the base for our curry, we heat up the oil and then gently cook the onions and the garlic for a while, but don't let them go brownish.
Then add all the other vegetables, apart from the tinned tomatoes. Fry it all for about ten minutes, together with the nice spices.
Then we can add the tomatoes and if you like liquid, add a bit of water, too. Cover it and let it all simmer for some minutes.
To be more precise, if you want to have steamed rice together with it, which takes about 20 minutes, you can leave the curry to simmer for the same time it takes to prepare the rice.
When all is done, you only have to serve it and eat it.
I still had some mini papadums, I wanted to use together with it. On the package it says, they would be suitable for the microwave as well and so I did. I thought one minute would do. That was a grave mistake. Well, I had to live with a horrible smell in the kitchen for a few days and some black papadums.
However, after adding some more and watching while they unfolded, I was still able to enjoy some with a little bit of mango chutney.

Time is really running by. Here goes another Best of British challenge together with The Face of New World Appliances.
Well, as I said, it is always a pleasure to go and visit London. I wonder, when I will go next time ...