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 …

Still Italian - Saltimbocca alla Romana with Roasted Vegs

I am still in the mood for Italy or was it Italian food? I would right away do a food trip to Italy, if I could. However, as there is no room for thinking about that at the moment I have some more Italian food: Saltimbocca. It may be strangely, but that was something popping into my mind when thinking further about Italian food. I wanted to make it for some time now. The only problem so far was, to come across some nice veal escalopes.
A few days then, it was the case, so I started searching for some ideas and found something from the Jamie Oliver magazine: Saltimbocca alla Romana.

That sounded perfectly good for me ... eh ... almost good for me. I just made a tiny bit of adjustment.
First of all, I concentrated on what to have with my saltimbocca. The original idea was to have some rosemary potatoes. Instead I went for a bit more colour. So, feel free to use any kind of vegetables you love to have or want to use up.
I used potato, courgette, carrot and celery. I simple chopped up the vegetables in different shapes, seasoned them with some dried rosemary and salt and dripped enough olive oil on top of them.

Because that wasn't good enough for me, I tossed in some whole garlic cloves, which to squeeze over the vegs after roasting them for about 30 minutes at 200 °C in the oven.

Just before the roasted vegetables are ready, you can prepare the saltimbocca.

Ingredients (for 1 person):
1 veal escalope (about 100 g)
Black pepper
Some sage leaves
2 slices of Parma ham
A splash of olive oil
2 knobs of butter
A splash of sweet white wine

Method:
I started my saltimbocca with flattening it out. Sometimes I need to make some noise, so the neighbours know I am still alive.

Then I went on seasoning the meat with some black pepper. After that I placed a few of the tiny sage leaves I still had left from the bunch of sage I had bought a few weeks ago.
Just a few stems had survived them. I had put them in a glass with some water. One of the stems had developed some roots now. So I planted that one into a pot and used the leaves from the other stem.
Over the sage leaves then, the two slices of Parma ham were placed.

Time to heat up the pan with some olive oil and a knob of butter. From here on, things go quite fast. The saltimbocca needs two minutes on each side. Then you remove it from the pan, cover it with aluminium foil and leave it to rest until you are finished with the sauce.
In order to do that, you add another knob of butter and a splash of sweet white wine to the pan you have still on the heat. Add some more sage leaves to the pan and quickly reduce the sauce, because I am hungry.

Plate up the Saltimbocca alla Romana with some of the roasted vegetables and enjoy a very delicious meal. Now I remember, why I always wanted to make saltimbocca, because it tastes so great - that is, if you have used good quality ingredients.

Before I come to end here I like to add this post to some challenges.
First of all to Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays. I didn't see anything wrong in the ingredients I used. It's all from scratch here.

The herbs in that dish are obvious. You can even see them on the photos, the rosemary and the sage. So I even used herbs according to this month's Cooking with Herbs, which is managed by Karen from Lavender & Lovage.

Now it's just time to continue thinking of Italy. I don't know whether reading Romeo & Juliet will help ... or some Italian wine is necessary ... who knows!?

Confused? Green White Cabbage Risotto

There is something lurking in the freezer part of the fridge, a few bags of frozen white cabbage. I couldn't possibly use the whole head of cabbage in one go for coleslaw or kimchi or for whatever. I needed a cabbage break. Into the freezer it went and stayed and stayed there. What to do with it?
Then I read something about cooking the cabbage with garlic and I thought by myself, why not have a risotto, a Green White Cabbage Risotto.

Isn't that a bit confusing? I don't know really, because I am kind of confused most of the time and simply try to go on. In this case here, however, I am just referring to this "Green" and "White" thingy. Well, not really. You already see, how we get the white cabbage green. Lets go for it then ...

Ingredients:
A quarter of a head of white cabbage
4 cloves of garlic (the more the merrier)
Vegetable stock
A bunch of basil leaves
A splash of olive oil
One small onion, finely chopped
200 g  of risotto rice
A splash of dry white wine (might be a bigger splash)
A knob of butter
50 g of freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper

Method:
The recipe unfolds with the leaves of cabbage cooked together with the peeled and halved cloves of garlic. Just cook them a few minutes together. Then remove the cabbage and the garlic together with a bit of the liquid and transfer it to a blender. Add the basil to the blender, too and ... blend it.
As for the remaining cooking water, you can mix it with the vegetable stock and keep it warm.
Now have the pot for the risotto ready and start softening the onions in some olive oil. Once you have achieved that, give the rice into the pot and go through it with a spoon to bring things together. Pour in some white wine and cook until most of it has been absorbed.
Then we can go on with the risotto fun part by adding one ladle of stock to the rice at a time and cooking until most of the liquid is assimilated. 
Keep going for about 18 minutes. Then toss in the knob of butter and the grated Parmesan. Cover the pot for two to three minutes. Remove the lid again, spoon the risotto through and season it with salt and pepper. Then it's time to plate up.
Enjoy your Green White Cabbage Risotto.

Maybe you do. At the beginning of the month I thought, maybe I get the chance to take part in Herbs on Saturday (Cooking with Herbs) from Lavender & Lovage this month. I just made it ...

Tarte d'oignon avec fromage

Encore un peu de cuisine français, mais je ne parle pas français.C'est la vie! Il n'y a pas de souci! I don't necessarily need to speak French to enjoy some French food and neither need you.
However, it wouldn't do any harm. Since I have been to Paris, memories of it keep coming up ...

... and would I be more fluent in French, well ... who knows ...

Whatsoever, there are things I can do, like cooking some French and France inspired food. For example I got this new book in my collection The little Paris kitchen by Rachel Khoo. I simply couldn't resist ...

Why, I already have tried a few things from the book, like Poireaux vinagrette avec œuf poché et jambon de Bayonne ...

... and then also Nids de brielette ...

... while I've done this, I also came up with a version of a Tarte d'oignon avec fromage ... with Rouqefort to be precise.
Here we go then ...

Ingredients:
1 tbs of butter
3 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp dried rosemary
100 ml white wine
2 tsp Dijon mustard
150 g Roquefort
250 g double cream
275 g puff pastry

Preparation:
Melt the butter on low heat in a pan. Then add the onions and sauté for 15 minutes. Then add the garlic and let go for another 10 minutes.
Now put in the rosemary and pour over the white wine. Let things simmer until most of the white one is gone again.
Once that is achieved mix in the mustard, double cream and the Roquefort cheese.
Get a suitable dish ready for your tarte and fit in the puff pastry. Done! Spread over the onion and cheese mixture.
Transfer your tarte for 35 minutes to the oven at 200°C.
Enjoy your tarte d'oignon avec fromage.

Well, that's one of the few words of French that clearly stick to my mind 'avec fromage'. I don't think it gets you far, when you finish every sentence with 'avec fromage'. I'm not quite sure I want to try it.
Whatsoever, I definitely know, that I'm in the wrong place ...

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 ...