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.

Je ne parle pas français - Salade Pastourelle

Eh bien, je ne parle pas français. Well, I tried it at school for some month, but honestly I don't really understand much French. Nevertheless I like French cooking. Now, some time ago, I had strange ideas when travelling. I thought I might get a cookbook, when I'm on holiday ... in that country ... in the local language. As a consequence, I ended up with an Italian and a French cookbook. Great, I'm not really able to read it properly. So I didn't really make any efforts to try some recipes.
Here is, where it starts to get interesting. Dom from Belleau Kitchen has another entertaining idea for this month's random recipes. The theme is time for a spring clean and the idea is to give those books you would get rid off another go. Anyway, I wouldn't even think of getting rid off any of my cookbooks, even those I can't read properly. Nevertheless, I wanted to give one of those two books a go. The rolling of dice decided for the French one, which is Je Sais Cuisiner by Ginette Mathiot, and the random choice came up to Salade Pastourelle, which freely translated has to mean Young Shepherdess Salad. Have a look ...

This was the second try to select a random recipe for I by no means wanted to make anything with rognon de bœuf. Sorry, but no. I wouldn't know where to get beef kidneys and I don't want to know what they taste like.
So I was lucky I came to the salad section with the second attempt. Still there would be the challenge to translate the ingredients and the recipe. Then I reduced the amounts to m needs and came up with the following.

Ingredients:
5 small round onions, cooked, roasted, whatever
1 pickled gherkin, finely sliced
3 anchovy fillets, sliced
2 hard boiled egg yolks
50 g tuna in oil
2 tsp. capers
8 pitted olives
Vinegar, oil, salt, pepper
Freshly chopped parsley

Method:
Another problem with the book was, there are nearly 2000 recipes in the book, but no pictures of the dishes at all and the instructions are very limited.
However, I was so focused on getting the small round onions, that I totally mixed things up and got the wrong ones, for in the recipe it said you should boil them in salted water for 30 minutes. My onions needed no cooking at all, because they came in a jar  and where already roasted.
Accordingly my sole job was to get the egg yolks ready and then carefully mix all the ingredients together. Well, the egg yolks and the parsley where supposed to feature as a garnish.
Now I can not say whether I got this salade pastourelle right, but I liked it and as a matter of fact had another one the day after, however without egg yolks. I wasn't ready for more eggs that day.

I reckon, that cookbook has a lot of good French recipes in it. Fine, a few might be towards a direction I don't want to go, but I guess I could work a bit more on my French and have another go at something else. Maybe then I'll be able to figure out, why I got the book in the first place ...

Alea iacta est - Avocado Salad with Egg and Salmon

No, don't expect any kind of history lesson, although this was one of my favourite subjects before I went to school and maybe the first few years while in it. That would be ancient history then with the pyramid building Egyptians and the Romans, yes, even Julius Caesar.
Indeed, 'alea iacta est' - 'the die has been cast'. Apart from that phrase and a few others, my Latin isn't that good anymore. Another one of my favourites is ... you probably think 'veni, vidi, vici', but no, it's 'mihi equus est', although that has never been true for me. I never had a horse.
'Alea iacta est', but not in the meaning of 'I have reached the point of no return', although that might be more true than the horse thingy. I guess, I better get on with my point then. 'Alea iacta est' can only mean one thing in my case: 'the die has been cast' and that in a literal kind of way. It's time for random recipe again. For that I always use my 100-sided die to determine a random cookbook. 
However, it wouldn't be random recipes, if there weren't another trick to come. Well, it would be random recipes, too, but it's more likely it comes with an additional twist.
This time it is that Dom has teamed up with Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline from Caroline Makes. The result of that is a random recipes and AlphaBakes combination. According to that we are heading for a random recipe starting with the letter 'A'.
Well, the first book that came up, didn't have any recipes with a letter 'A'. So I decided to roll the die again. Once more 'alea iacta est'. The second book was one that features dishes for 1 person. At least that would help not to eat too much this time, but would it be something lovely? Edible, sure, but would it be delicious and enjoyable?
There were indeed four recipes starting with the letter 'A', two sweet one including apples and two savoury ones. Fine, one of the savoury ones included apricots, but the die stopped on the final one ...

... Avocado Salad with Egg and Salmon. Oh, I might try that book again. The avocado salad was good and there was really not much effort involved to prepare it. In fact it took longer to randomly pick a recipe than actually making it.
You just have to have a hard-boiled egg and cut it into small pieces, peel and cut an avocado, cut some smoked salmon into stripes and whip up a dressing with a tbsp. of oil, the juice half a lemon, one tsp. of mustard, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a tsp. of rosemary and salt and ... there you go, a quick and light lunch, kind of.

I have another one for you ... 'errare humanum est' ... wait, one more ... 'in vino veritas', not that I am suggesting you are having some wine with the salad or that you I am going to reveal all my secrets, when you fill me with a bottle of wine.
Enough then with our Latin lesson, although you might need one or the other word of Latin in your life at some point.
Anyway, AlphaBakes random recipes ... I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did or ... well, it suffices already, if I enjoyed it, but there is no harm in making others enjoy things ...

Life, Darkness, Randomness, Chocolate ... Apple Shortcake with Chocolate Chip Cream

I made it to the weekend again. Pah ... what's the use of it, nothing is ever going to happen. Fine, yes, fine, you are right ... then you have to make it happen yourself ... and so I did. The evening had already advanced a bit and so I took my bike for a right around town ... village ... hamlet ... whatever. You can imagine that would be quite some fun ... darkness ... winter ... bicycle-tour ... idiot me! First I went down the way past the office and after that unknown territory when it comes to the bicycle. Luckily I had my cap and gloves along. On the minus side I didn't bother to take my glasses along. Not seeing where you are going with the bike can give you some kicks of adrenaline from time to time. Anyway, the route went up and down, the little dog wasn't hit by a bicycle and the fact that I am writing things here right now proves that things didn't go that bad after all.
I reckon, even stupid exercise at night would entitle me for a sweet treat today ...
Ah, I need something anyway ... 

Besides all that I already had planned to join two lovely blog challenges this month ... Random Recipes and We Should Cocoa. In fact they have morphed into one challenge kind of for this very month of February. You will see ...

A random look at the pantry

Outside the weather is storming away. A gale warning has been issued and it's really the best to stay inside. Said and done. The worst thing that can happen now is the street lantern or some roof tiles crashing on my car or some branches from the tree through my kitchen window. However, all this is not going to happen ... so I hope.
I'm safe and warm inside and will treat myself to the leftovers from yesterday and a nice warming drink and tomorrow everything will be calm and nice again. That is the plan. But you know, how it sometimes can be with plans ...
While I am waiting for the right time to have my dinner, I find the chance to think about this month's random recipes challenge from Belleau Kitchen. It's time for #35 - dare to bare.



This time, though, it's not about cookbooks and cooking ... at least not in itself. Rather it's abut what you use for cooking, the ingredients, it is about what I have in my pantry ...

The End, Random Recipes and a Roasted Chicken

I think I might have mentioned it already at some point. I am moving to a new flat. Well, that is only one side to the story, but ... anyway ... there are other things, too. Already I have spent some time for getting rid of things, putting things into boxes, and carrying things away. Since the beginning of November, the whole thing moved to phase two. That means I am able to drop things in the new flat. So things are really hot and I work a lot after work.
However, there was one more thing. The kitchen in my present flat had to get a new owner elsewhere. The plan was, to do it next week, quite close to the actual move. Things went different ...

The Cheese Conspiracy

Do you know this feeling? Randomly you catch a few words of a conversation of complete strangers and you have the feeling, they are talking about you. Do you know what I mean? Then maybe you are egocentric and take yourself too important.
On the other hand there might be some big conspiracy going on. I really have that feeling. For instance, some days ago I was travelling with the underground. Instead of seeing normal people having conversations or reading a book - you know that thing where you have to turn over the page once in a while - but, no they all were staring on these small objects in their hands and were doing who knows what. Then they had these small gadgets in their ears. I'm not sure yet what is going on, but it has to be some kind of conspiracy ...

Going digital - randomly - Tonno di Nonna Fangitta

Analogue or digital? When you have to write a letter do you use a typewriter or even a pen or your computer? Is your television reception analogue or have you gone digital? What about your phone? Analogue or digital? Or is it now even smarter than you? Hm ... could have mentioned the same about the television these days. That is all irrelevant now! Although it would be quite nice these days to spent more time in nature instead of the virtual world ...
However, today it's time for random recipes #27 - Get Random Baby!

For random recipes I used to take out my analogue randomizer (dice) and go on with choosing a recipe to cook. This time, though, Dom decided to let us go digital with his
random recipes number generator thingamidoodah he put up on his post. No worries! Here we go ... 27 ... what a coincidence. Counting backwards from my cookbook collection brings us to Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver.
Well, I would never think of cheating at random recipes. That would take away all the fun. So, what's cooking then? Just take a moment and think about it ... Last time we had an Indian fish curry. Last year in June we had grilled mackerel with pomelo salad. Oh, I checked it, the result was not so much what I expected. There was also some lasagna and some chicken. Nevertheless, random recipes makes me think of fish ... and that's what is going to be again: tonno di nonna fangitta. That is a tuna dish from a lady called Nonna Fangitta, who lives on the island of Favignana off the coast of Sicily. I would like to imagine myself sitting down somewhere around that area now.
It was as it should be I opened the book randomly and came to this very recipe. First thought: How am I going to make that? Where shall I get fresh tuna? That isn't going to be a cheap meal. I might not do it. Since I don't cheat, the other option was not to participate in random recipes this month. I left a marker in the book and went about with the usual business.
Now, here I am, having a whole day off. A good chance to get a hair-cut. No, I don't have so much hair, it takes a whole day, but strangely I rather go in the morning instead of after work.
Nearby ... in the vicinity of the hair-dresser ... there is the farmers market. Checking the fish stall wouldn't harm. If you have a half-decent farmers market around, that's the place to go. The fish monger had tuna on offer. I went for it ... after the hair-cut.
Back to the kitchen ...
Peeling 1 kg of tomatoes isn't that funny, but not so bad either, if you know how to.
The tuna is prepped with some garlic, chilli and rosemary.

Don't get me wrong now, I like Jamie Oliver, but the photo of that dish in Jamie's Italy is somehow a cheat photo. It doesn't show the cooked dish, but rather the raw materials arranged in a pot. That might look cool, but isn't food reality. On the other hand, that might be intentionally, because it helps you to prepare the tuna correctly.
Anyway, in the end, mine will by far not look so nice as in the book. Still it represents the cooked dish more correctly.
With some more garlic, chilli and rosemary and some other things like a cinnamon stick, dried oregano, capers and anchovy fillets, we start out with cooking a tomato sauce. Of course we add the peeled tomatoes as well and above that as a bonus some tinned tomatoes. Seasoning with salt and pepper is obligatory, too.
The tuna is poached in the tomato sauce in under 30 minutes. That will definitely look like that.

Jamie was right, it tastes lovely with some bread. Dig in!

You can't go wrong with tomato sauce ... Thank you Nonna Fangitta, thank you Jamie, thank you Dom.
The recipe said 'serves 4'. Lately, I'm really lacking help in that department. That means leftovers. According to Jamie, it can be used well for pasta. That reminds me, I still have another post in the pipeline in pictures waiting to be written and published. It is about lamb and the never failing tomato sauce business. Watch out for that!
Meanwhile, enjoy that tuna dish. Have you cooked with fresh tuna before? For me it was the first time and ... I luved it! Going digital with random recipe was really fun again! In other areas, I'll rather be careful with going digital. Those things that are still analogue, shall remain that way. I really don't want my phone or television to be smarter than me! Really!

I just got another idea after publishing this already. This dish goes also well for the April Herbs on Saturday April from Lavender & Lovage.

Randomly Indian: Dhal and Saraswat Machchi Kadhi

A few days ago I decided to give Cooking Around the World a new design. Basically I changed the background colour and the welcoming banner for the blog. I hope you like it! When you look at the picture there are foods and places. One of these places I can see every day, if I want to. Have a guess which one that is! However, there are other places there, I'd rather like to see more often.
Additionally I adjusted my Facebook page as well. It has to reflect the blog. 
While I was at all this I decided to change my profile picture. You can only see it partly, but I'm wearing an Indian kurta. It looks like this ...

I just wanted to mention those things. Keep it in mind as you read on. Strangely, things fit all together once more.
Have you ever thought about doing a themed dinner party? You dress up for it, maybe do some decoration, put on music and it all fits to the food you are going to have. How would you like that?
What about doing it alone ... a one person themed dinner party?
Let me tell about it ...
There is a certain person that is running this blog called Belleau Kitchen. As he is doing this random recipes challenge every month I cannot resist, but take part in it. Quite often you end up with cooking food you wouldn't have otherwise. 

 

This time we have the theme 'cuttings, memories and clippings'. That means I have to go and search my shelves for those hidden cuttings and clippings to find some recipes. I don't have as many cuttings and clippings as others and they are also not so well organized.
Anyway I got myself a small pile and rolled the dice of random. I ended up with number 3 - therefore I went for the third sheet of paper.
It was a clipping from a health journal of a health insurance company and ... strange enough ... it featured some Indian dishes. Did I say some? Yes, five to be exactly. Taking the number three further I decided for the third dish and it was ... dhal.
Well, that would be something to have as a side dish. Due to this fact I randomly decided to do the fish curry mentioned on that clipping as well. That is called 'Saraswat Machchi Kadhi'. I tried my Hindi dictionary on that, but gave up quickly. Then I asked the Internet and it called it Goa style fish curry. I even found the same picture of it as was used in this health magazine article.
I made sure I had all the needed ingredients and then, went for it ...

First of all I put on my Indian cooking kurta. Well, I simply declare it that one from now on. By the way, it is not the one shown in the picture above. I have a few more other ones. Why do I have so many Indian clothing to wear? Go ahead and ask me, if you like to know!
Then I put on some music from the soundtrack of a famous Indian movie ... as far as I know.
Now our Indian themed cooking party can start.
Good thing I still had some urid lentils on stock. They went into a pot covered with one centimetre of water.
Meanwhile I prepared the marinate for the fish. I squeezed one lime and mixed the juice with some freshly grated ginger, mustard powder, sesame seeds and coriander seeds. The white fish fillet was cut into small bite sized pieces and went marinating.
Before I continued with the dhal, I brought some basmati rice on the way.
Back to the dhal. I freshly picked a green chili from one of my bushes on the windowsill, cut it in half and tossed it in with the lentils. If I were to change the recipe, I would cut it into small rings and add it to the lentils. Anyway, one bay leaf, a chopped onion and two chopped cloves of garlic went in, too. Here also some grating of ginger is necessary. Some curry powder rounds it up. Now heat it up on medium heat and let it go for 20 minutes, checking every now and then and working through with a spoon.
The fish has nearly enough marinating. However, there is still some chopping of an onion to do. That one made me cry slightly. Then half four tomatoes, spoon out the seeds and then cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Now take the fish, pat it dry and fry it for 5 minutes in sesame oil at a medium heat.
Don't forget to give some attention to the rice when it's ready and to the dhal. After the 20 minutes you have to turn off the heat of the dhal.
Take out the fish from the pan and put aside. Now fry the onions in the pan.
If I hadn't already enough work with cooking I suddenly decided it would be a brilliant idea to have a cucumber raita with it all, as well. So I took some of the chopped onions and put the together with some halved slices of cucumber, cumin, salt, yogurt and water and mixed it all up.
Add some curry powder to the onions in the pan. Then add the remaining fish marinade and some 250 ml of coconut milk to the pan and bring to the boil.
What about some naan breads. Yes, that would have been lovely, but I'm not that crazy today and make some on my own. No, I even didn't buy any ready made ones to just warm up. Sadly!
Remove the green chili and the bay leaf from the dhal and heat the dhal up again, if necessary. We are almost there.
Let the tomatoes meet their destiny by adding them to the boiling coconut milk mixture. I guess the fish can go for some swimming, too. Go for it! Warm it up again.
If I'm right now, all the food is ready. You just need to plate and bowl it up and decorate everything with some fresh coriander. I already know that the remaining coriander will not survive too long in my kitchen. I should use it up in the coming days.
Here we are with the food ...

Sitting alone at the table and tasting the fish curry, memories spring to my mind. The food wasn't dangerously spicy. I still remember the fish curries of my Tamil friends and Tamil food in general. They always used to say they have to adjust the spices to the European palate. However, the first time I tasted a dish, I had the feeling it wasn't adjusted sufficiently.
Having this fish curry in front of me, I wished it would be going at least a bit in that direction. Don't get me wrong, it still tasted delicious. It was only thinking. While doing this I thought ... well, I'm sitting here all by myself eating this lovely food ... and then ... I put away the fork and went on eating as we used to do it with the best tools ever, my fingers.
Once more, I managed to end up with something lovely, doing random recipes ... and that's not cheating. After all, why should I keep any clippings with rubbish recipes.
Moreover, I ended up with fish again. This wasn't the first time either.
So far about random recipes this time. Time and again, I thought about cooking through one cookbook. After all, I nearly baked myself already through a book about French bread.
Now I have a few books in mind I seriously want to choose one from and go completely through it and report about it here on my blog. One of the books on that list is 'Tasting India' from Christine Manfield (Christian and Christine?). That post now made me hungry for that book. However, things haven't been decided in the final and I won't start before April.
In the meantime I still have a voting going on my Facebook page. If you don't mind, please head over there one time and give your vote. That would be very much appreciated. You can also suggest other books to make it more interesting.
You see, once more, it came all together ... strangely ... as last time. India was on my mind and suddenly it's all India!
Any thoughts? Just leave a lovely comment!

Neither here nor there ... Chicken on Chickpeas ... Randomly

And the Oscar goes to ...
How am I supposed to know. After all I have probably seen only two of the films that have anything to do with this years Academy Awards taking place in Hollywood, Los Angeles, U.S.A. I guess in a few more hours we will be richer of a bit more knowledge that won't be of any use for us.
No worries, in the end it will make all sense. It's like a puzzle. There are thousand pieces that relate someway to each other, but in the beginning you have no clue. However, as time goes on you put piece next to piece. First you get a frame and in the end you have a full picture.
Let's do it slightly different this time ... or not. Here you get a full picture at least.

Sometimes I do things and I don't do that on purpose, but somehow it all fits together.
Back to this years Oscars. Will an Australian playing a French person in a British movie win? Who knows?
For Best picture we find the nomination of Les Misérables. I already made a connection somehow in my last post.
At least this is one of the two movies I saw. It was only in between my last post and this post. Now I'm not all good as to these things as some might know from school like ... What was it that Shakespeare wanted to tell us with Macbeth apart from that he wanted to make some money and apart from "Fair is foul and foul is fair"?
I managed school anyway. Fine, don't mention what has become of me ...
Les Miserablés. Consequently I'm not filling you in to what was Victor Hugo's intend in that direction. Some people - either in the theater or in the cinema - go on crying most of the time. I find it easier to do so while watching an episode of MASH.
Well, some might claim, men have no feelings. I do not know nothing about such phrases or generalisations in general.
Anyway, most stories are fabricated in such a way, that the reader, listener, watcher etc. can identify with certain characters or at least relate to them in a certain way.
Now, as it comes to Les Miserablés it can get quite deep and complicated. I can relate to almost any of the characters portrayed.
Jean Valjean slaving most of his life and being on the run and not really finding peace in his life.
Fantine, her live going down the drain and seeing only misery.
The students crying out for justice.
Cosette being afraid to go alone in the dark into the wood to fetch some water.
The unrequited love of Eponine.
Finally also Javert, who sees his life not making any sense anymore, when all he was fighting for didn't work out in the end.
Marius sitting alone in the ABC cafe grieving all his friends that are gone now ...

Fine, what to say? For a change it was possible to go and see a movie in the right language. At times I really feel like being in the wrong place. Then again I don't want to be neither here nor there. In the end it will make all sense. But then again, who knows?

 

Let us go towards a subject we know a little bit more about: food!
This month, in Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipe challenge, the theme is 'the choice is yours'. 

At least a little bit of choice. Was it really a choice? Well, I simply took the book without thinking too much. This as well implies that I didn't make it all up, but in the end it makes all sense.
I'm not sure, though, whether that would be the place to be, but as the book I choose Jamie's America. Now the random part of this challenge brought me to the recipe Chicken on Chickpeas as you have seen on the picture above already.
Funny enough, the recipe is under the section Los Angeles. Some years ago I checked out this place myself and had a look at the Hollywood sign as well.
A friend of mine was driving the car and I had the duty to read the map. He was only a bit afraid we could end up dead if we take a wrong turn. So I better be reading the map properly. Obviously I did just that or ... it isn't that bad to end up in the wrong neighbourhood.
Chicken on chickpeas then is what we are having this time. Can we go wrong with that?
Pieces of chicken marinated in garlic, parsley, lemon and olive oil.
Chickpeas stewed up with onions, yet more garlic, peppers, tomatoes and green chillies. Just look at them going ...

I was supposed to put in red any yellow tomatoes, but I didn't bother to visit more than one shop. 
At least I had plenty of green chillies.
As to the chicken pieces, I didn't bother putting them into the oven, but just fried and cooked them in my special pot and it turned out fine and juicy and not dry and everything.
With the chicken arranged on the chickpea stew and finished off with some fresh basil leaves, it was just beautiful and delicious.
Taken everything together it didn't even take one hour and I still have some food for tomorrow. How good is that!?
Once more it has been a pleasure to take part in random recipes, although I know that the day will come when luck evades me in this department as well and I will end up with a totally painful cooking and eating experience.
However, not today, not yet. But why worry about the things not here, when there is plenty to do with worrying about the things already being present.

Little did I know that the 85th Academy Awards will be taking place in February 2013 while I was having the Bloggers Around the World challenge making a stop in the U.S.A. 
Why not then kill two birds with one stone and make this stop in Los Angeles and have this Chicken on Chickpeas for Bloggers Around the World as well.

Finally, remember one thing: "Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." ... but where? Neither here nor there?

Or simply dig in ... and don't relate the food now to Les Misérables and the 'Master of the House' part!

Secrets of a French Baker and Random Recipe

Can you keep a secret? I can and that's why I'm not telling it to you. Therefore this very secret has to remain as it is ... hidden in some dark corners of the mind. Well, I don't know whether it is that dark back there.
After that being said and done ... done? We haven't done a thing!
Anyway, we can go into business now. Not that kind of business. Let's talk Random Recipes. Here a brief preview before we go into details ...

This month it was Dom's idea from Belleau Kitchen to connect the random recipe to the participants individual birthdays.
As in the case with Dom I was born on the 24th. The month has to remain a secret (again).
That fact would lead in my case to the book Confessions of a French Baker by Peter Mayle and Gerard Auzet.
I already did quite a deal from this book. Originally I planned to try every single recipe from it and post about it. Somehow, I didn't continue at one point.
However, time to open the book at a random page.
Done!
No, I think it's not right, if you have a bookmark in it. The book would open automatically at this page. Therefore I have to use the randomizer again for that.
So, try again!
Done!
No, I did that one already. Another go is necessary.
Done!
Arrrrgggggghhh!
Had that one as well. But I know there are still some recipes in that book, which I didn't try.
The randomizer has to roll again and ... 
... and ...
... and ...
.... and what?
Oh, something I didn't try so far, although the methods of preparation are quite similar.
Here we go for it then: Onion-White-Wine-Bread.
We need about 450 g of different flours, half strong wheat flour and the other one spelt. Of course we need onions.
They are first browned in butter and then deglazed with the white wine ... set to the side.
Now we are ready for the 'lovely' part. Sifting the flour into a bowl ... pinch of salt ... dried yeast over it. Have some nice clean hands ready. Pour in a mixture of fat from the pan (without the onions), white wine and water (altogether 300 ml).
It's time to use those nice clean hands and knead everything to a lump of dough, which might well look like this ...

... rest for 10 minutes to get ready for the real action. In fact, it is just the dough that needs the rest, hopefully not the baker, or otherwise he won't make it till the end.
We have to activate the gluten in the dough now. That means some vigorous kneading for about 20 minutes. If that isn't exercise again. 
Somehow I so often end up with those kneading jobs for random recipes ...
After we made it through the kneading, we add the previously mentioned onions.

Then we leave the dough to rise for 45 minutes. In connection with yeast I found it always useful to put a damp kitchen cloth over the bowl, where the dough is rising. If need be, now would be good to rest ... but there are always things to do ...
... don't get too lazy. Carefully take the dough from the bowl and make two smaller lumps out of it. Set them on a kitchen cloth covered lightly with flour ...

... and cover with the damp cloth again for 25 minutes.
Once that time has passed again, take those lumps and flatten them. At the same time you get out the gas from the dough. Try to get the dough into a rectangular shape.

Then fold at the long side towards the middle as you hopefully can see in the following picture ...

... and finally you fold the other side towards the middle. With the folding edge facing down place the bread shaped dough back on the floured kitchen towel. Cover it once more.
Leave things for another 45 minutes.
What would you do with 45 minutes?
Having spent the time hopefully in a productive way again it's time to heat up the oven to 230°C. Get your bread onto a baking tray with the folding edge downwards as well.
Brush the bread with water. The water is a vital key to get a nice and crispy crust.

Slash the bread quickly with a knife in a candy kind of shape. Before you put your bread into the oven, spray some water into your oven to get some extra steam for the crust.
Then put your tray into the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Let the bread cool down a bit before you devour it. Maybe you have a soup or stew ready for that.
That's it! I hope I didn't reveal any secrets here. Anyway, it has been nice again to have a part in random recipes this month ...

La Vita e Bella - Random Ingredient Recipe

Everyone knows, that it is not easy to keep the crowds happy. So I can imagine that it is a challenge as well for Dom from Belleau Kitchen, who is doing the Random Recipes blog challenge. Every month he is to come up with something, kind of new preferably.
As I see things, though, he doesn't seem to have any difficulties with that. Therefore, month by month by month we are all having a good time joining him in Random Recipes.
This time it is rather a random ingredient challenge - grabbing something from the depth of your cupboard and ... go for it.
Well, my cupboard is not so deep. I'm well organized (really?) and can see all the things I have. The only thing is, there is not one cupboard I can put my hand in and randomly pick something from.
Due to this I went through my various storing places to look for all this ingredients that went off in 2007 ... no ... I used them last month already .... no, just kidding, I don't have or had any of those. Still it could easily happen that you have things that are already off for quite some time or are very very close to it.
This search revealed the following items, which I should start to think about on what to do with them:

- nori leaves
- lasagne sheets
- sesame seeds
- urid lentils
- rose water
- jar of plums
- jar of beetroots
- vermicelli noodles
- cassava flour
- rosecco beans
- pearl barley
- apple compote

You probably know, how things are. In the shop you see something and think, oh that might come in handy. It would be lovely to cook something with it.
Then months pass and you don't.
From the above list we now need a participant. It's time to roll the randomizer and count it out. I could be in for some sushi, Italian pasta, Indian daal, a nice cake or pudding.

And the winner is ...

... no sushi ...

... no cake ...

... nothing Indian ...

... no pudding ...

... therefore it must be Italian with some lasagne sheets.

I have to deal with the other twelve some other time.
It's time to get all those Italian books ready and see what I can do.
The final choice goes to these guys ... 

... once more, as I have used them a few times lately.
Of course then it has to be a lasagne recipe. Again, something very lovely ... la vita e bella (life is good).

Just the other day when I looked into the fridge at work, I saw a package of ready made microwave lasagne ...
It's so much better to do your own. Now you may ask yourself, how I managed to have unused lasagne sheets, that I didn't use for such a long time? Simply put ... I don't know.
Back to work then. 
Or rather, on an evening when I came back from work at about 6 p.m. I decided to do my lasagne.

Starting with the chopping of a carrot and an onion and then letting them sweat in oil in a pan for a while.
Here come the 'good' thing now. After the meat went in and the chopped tomatoes the sauce was due to simmer for ... two hours.
That leaves me with enough time to do all the other things I wanted to do at home, like caring for washed clothes and do some other housework ... lovely ... really?!
Careful calculations then lead to the conclusion it will take roughly about three hours until I get my dinner. A bit of a downside, but I should survive. After all ... you can always start with the pudding.
In between I had to care for the white sauce as well so I would be able to assemble things after the two hours.

Now just some 40 minutes more and I will be ready for eating. Well, the dish I put it in was a slightly bit too big, but ... no worries ...
It tasted lovely ... I bet a lot lot lot better then those you buy from the supermarket ... 
That was needless to mention.
The book said: serves 4. Well, I don't know about that ... la vita e bella!

Food Fitness for Tea Time Random Recipes

It's time again to roll the dice. In fact it's just one. Anyway, it's time again for September's Random Recipes. Let's go for it and have no fear. So far I don't know, why someone should. Up to now, all the things that randomly came up for me had been nice. Why not again.

At this go, things are a bit different. The sinister scheming of one man isn't enough anymore. That's why Dom at Belleau Kitchen conspired together with Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked. So we are not dealing anymore with Random Recipes, but ...
... with Tea Time Random Recipes. Well, you might have guessed something like that already by looking at the badge. 
How are we going to cope?
I tell you. This should be no big deal. I even can select the book myself and just have to randomize the page. After reading the challenge, it was absolutely clear, which book I would take - even without thinking (if that makes any sense).

That book should do: The Perfect Afternoon Tea. Well, that should be perfect. I even remembered where I bought the book three years ago.

The shop is on the right side. But we leave this travelling business behind us and get back to the book and therefore on to baking.
We need to get on with the random part. The randomizer said 42 ... that brings us to page 42 ... that brings us to ... Tea Cakes.
A brief glance over the ingredients reveals ... Well, I have all the ingredients in the house. How hard can it be?
A day went and another came. Time to start. Of course at a time that would let us finish about the time we would want our afternoon tea.
However, soon it would be revealed ... reality would bring us back to the ground.
What are the ingredients?
Flour, salt, sugar, milk, yeast, butter, currants, sultanas. Not too much. That should not be too complicated.
Well, cupcakes are for 'easy going', but those tea cakes are for 'fitness'.
In fact 'yeast' says everything. After gently sifting the flour and salt into a bowl and mixing the milk with the yeast and a bit sugar in a large cup, we are ready for action.
The yeast-milk has to be combined with the flour, salt, some more sugar and the butter to make a ... dough! That was to obvious. How could that be a surprise?!
Right, here now the recipe calls for at least 15 minutes of vigorous kneading. That's were we start our fitness. Honestly, already after just a bit over half the time, I wished I were through, but ... I had to go on and so I did.
Here you can see the result, at the beginning and at the end.

Does that not look beautiful? And on top of it, we have done some exercise. So forget about the gym and o more of baking. But as you see, there are no sultanas and no currants.
Before we go on with that, the dough needs one hour for rising.

What to do in the meantime? Ah, no worries.
Once the rising is over, we can add the dried fruits ...

... and work them in again. 
Then we make 10 small cakes and place them on two(?) baking trays. That brings us to further 40 minutes waiting.
Do something nice.
...
...
Finally we are ready to bake everything at 200°C for about 20 minutes.
When we calculate all through, we must come to the conclusion I started too late to be finished on time for tea time.
I was one hour late. But they were very nice to eat with some butter, or even with jam and ... I still have some left.

Indeed, it is always fun, to join in Random Recipes. This time I even did some fitness while doing so.