Coconut Crusted Tilapia with Cauliflower and Curry Foam

An all-c-dish. Coconut, Curry, Cauliflower. Not intentional, to be honest. I had set my mind onto salmon with pepper crust. But guess what my fish salesman told me when I arrived at the fish booth at, say, 2 pm? "Sorry hon, sold out." I hate it when that happens. Don´t you?

But oh well, aren´t we versatile? After a moment of not-knowing-what-to-do, I decided to go for the tilapia. Because it was on sale. Yes, shame on me. But I hate having to make second-best-choices, so please don´t blame me. Cauliflower was still stuck in the freezer, and I had a package of coconut flakes sitting on the counter. Voilá, I thought, and went tot he kitchen to prep my 3-C-Menu.


Yes, the fish is a bit too dark. But, as Tim Mälzer would say: "The Röstaromen are intentional." Meaning "I burn my stuff on purpose." Love that attitude.

The fish was actually wonderful. Sweet and coconutty, but not overly. With the mild cauliflower puree and the honeyed curry sauce, everything blended in very well. Next time, I´ll add a potatoe or two to the cauliflower puree for texture - that would make it perfect, I guess.

Recipe for Coconut Crusted Tilapia with Cauliflower Puree and Curry Foam

Ingredients for 2

500g tilapia
salt and pepper
flour
1 egg
coconut flakes
1/2 cauliflower
200ml veggie broth
200ml cream
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon honey


Preparation

1. Wash and dry tilapia. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Prepare three plates: 1 with flour, 1 with beaten egg, 1 with coconut flakes.
3. Cut tilapia into pieces. Coat with flour, draw through egg, cover with coconut flakes. Set aside.
4. Heat butter oil in a pot. Sear cauliflower pieces, and quench with veggie broth. Cover with lid and cook until soft, about 15 minutes.
5. Heat pan with butter oil. Sear tilapia, about 4 minutes on each side.
6. Heat cream in a small pot. Add half to the cauliflower.
7. Mix remaining half with curry powder and honey, and let simmer.
8. Puree cauliflower with your hand blender.
   
9. Whip up curry cream with your hand blender, too.
10. To serve, dress cauliflower puree onto the plate in a diagonal stripe. Put fish on top, and drizzle with curry foam.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Gourmandises: Bitter Orange Jam

Even after years, I still love grocery shopping. Why? Because, if you keep your eyes open, and like browsing the aisles, every once in a while, you will find another special treat in the shelves.

Just like this time. Browsing the jam shelve, I was struck by an irregular shape: a metal can. Not your classical jam packaging, at least not in Germany. White background, orange fruit ornaments on top. Looked deceivingly good to me. Plus the memory of bitter orange jam on sweet white bread, like they eat in Great Britain. A must-have. And I shouldn´t be disappointed: this bitter orange marmelade is WONDERFUL. Bitter and sweet, but neither too much. It is made in South Africa, right where the oranges grow. Sun-ripened oranges, no concentrates, sealed straight after production, and then shipped on to their final destination.

To make this jam, they use not your ordinary oranges, but a similar kind, the Bitter Orange or Sour Orange. Those small, dark-orange fruits have a thicker skin than their ordinary brothers. The sourly-bitter flesh is almost inedible. But, cut into strips and cooked with sugar, they make a wonderful bitter orange jam. Depending on the amount of skin that stays candied in the jam, you can buy "fine cut" or "rough cut". Mine is a fine cut, and I love the orange skin pieces most, to be honest.

Juicy Vienna Goulash

Goulash is another one of those dishes that I´ve watched with a certain amount of scepticism. I am not the most patient person, as you may know by now. But, I´ve set out to conquer my biases, and cooked up some delicious goulash last weekend. A special one, Vienna Style, with pureed onions. Sounds weird, but tastes just wonderful.


Making goulash still needs a bit of patience, but is actually really good if you have a couple of other things on your mind - you set the thing up, and just have to check every once in a while whether everything´s still OK. Anyone can do that.

One more thing: never use cheap wine for cooking. Actually, you should only use wine you would want to drink to your meal, too. Which comes in pretty handy. Can´t turn down a good glass of wine, right? So do yourself a favor, and save on something else. You will be amazed how much difference it will make!

Recipe for Juicy Vienna Goulash

Ingredients for 2

500g beef goulash
3-4 onions
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon marjory
2 tablespoons paprika
beef broth
red wine
butter oil


Preparation

1. Peel and dice onion.
2. Heat butter oil in a wide pan. Sear onions until dark golden.
   
3. Remove pan from stove, and puree with your hand blender.
4. Add marjory, paprika and vinegar, stir well and fill up with water (until you get a soupy consistency).
5. Let simmer for 30 minutes. This brings out the best in the paprika!
6. Add the meat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Fill up with red wine. Add some beef broth, too - just as much so that the beef is covered.
8. Reduce heat to low, and let simmer for 2-3 hours.
9. Serve with pasta or potatoes.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Christmas Gift

In case you are already looking for Christmas Gifts for your loved ones (which I suppose you should be), I´ve got a really special treat for you: design your chocolate with ChoCri.


You can assemble your very own chocolate, from the finest of ingredients, whether white or whole milk or dark as base, from cardamom to candied apples to adorable christmas ornaments - everything is possible in the ChoCri universe.

And: if you order until Decembre 14th, they guarantee the delivery until Christmas.
What are you waiting for? Go hunt down your favourite personal chocolate bar!

Gourmandises: Domori D.Fusion Biancomenta

Beauty, eh? That´s what I thought. And although this is a pretty decadent piece of chocolate (at 6.95€ the box), I just couldn´t resist. And bought it: Domori D.Fusion. Square, silver, embossed typo. Almost too beautiful to open. And very high class brand with emphasis on using only the very best ingredients. I chose the biancomenta kind: bianco is italian for white chocolate, menta for mint.

An exiting flavour and texture combination: the smoothness of the white chocolate combined with real leaves of the wild mint from Morocco. Those are actually grown on the high grounds of the Atlas Mountains, and are used in the North African countries for the traditional green tea with mint, smooth and refreshing.


Quite an exceptional piece of chocolate. Nothing for everyday (just like chocolate with fleur de sel), but truely a treat. Definitely a range to keep watching!

Bienvenuto al'Italia - Fillet of Pork with Cream of Tomato

Ahhhh. Italia. Sun shining, beautiful people sipping on wine or Campari. Passionate, extremely friendly, welcoming everybody just like family. My very first experience with Italy was at the age of 13. My aunt had a holiday home in Cipressa, and offered to take me with her. Sure as hell I didn´t need a second thought on that one. Bummer was: I didn´t speak any italian. Because of my latin skills, I could UNDERSTAND people, but I couldn´t answer. Really annoying, let me tell you. But anyways.

My aunt always has been - and always will be - an extremely social person. Her italian was fluent, and she seemed to know pretty much everybody. A great holiday. And whenever I want to bring back this wonderful memory in terms of cooking, this is the way to go:



The green tagliatelle are my absolute favourite. They are died with spinach, just like black pasta is died with sepia (squid ink). I love them both. And I´ve found a booth on the market on Carlsplatz that sells the real deal. Yes, you may call me lucky.
If you can´t get your hands on green pasta, you can also use the "ordinary" kinds. But if you can get your hands on the greens - promise me to give them a try!

Recipe for Fillet of Pork with Cream of Tomato

Ingredients

400g fillet of pork
2 tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons tomato puree
200ml heavy cream
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
pinch of paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper


Preparation

1. Wash and dry fillet of pork. Cut into medallions.
2. Wash, peel and dice tomatoes, onion and garlic.
3. Sear fillet of pork in a wide pan for a minute or two on each side. Season with pepper.
4. Add onion, garlic and tomatoes. Stir.
5. Add tomato puree.
6. Quench with heavy cream, and stir in herbs.
7. Season to taste with salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper.
8. Cover with lid and let cook on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes.
9. Serve with green tagliatelle, or with fresh baguette.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Peanut Curry Deluxe

The weather around here has been pretty crappy. It´s raining cats and dogs, and there´s no improvement in sight. This time of year with that sort of weather always makes me want to wrap myself in a blanket and be a lazy stud on the couch all the day long. Unfortunately, my job doesn´t allow that kind of day. What I like to do instead is to cook up something warm and comforting. Like this Peanut Curry Deluxe:



The combination of smooth peanut butter, coconut milk, fish sauce and chili instantly lights you up from the inside. And the chopped peanuts for that extra crunch do the rest. Absolutely a keeper for those ugly evenings to come!

Recipe for Peanut Curry Deluxe

Ingredients

200g chicken breast
3 potatoes
1 onion
neutral oil
1 tablespoon red curry paste
1,5 tablespoons peanut butter, smooth
400ml unsweetened coconut milk
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon lime zest
juice of 1/2 lime
50g peanuts, roasted, NOT salted


Preparation

1. Heat neutral oil in a wok or wide pan.
   
2. Cut chicken into stripes, salt and sear in the hot pan
3. Remove from pan.
4. Add oil to the pan. Sear diced onion.
5. Quench with coconut milk, adding curry paste, peanut butter, sugar, lime zest and fish sauce.
6. Peel and dice potatoes. Add.
7. Dice bell pepper. Add.
8. Let cook on low heat, lid on, until potatoes are done (appr. 15-20 minutes). Stir every once in a while, or else your curry will stick to the bottom.
9. Shortly before your curry is done, add chicken again.
10. Season to taste with salt/sugar and lime juice.
11. Chop peanuts and sprinkle on top.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Breakfast @ Beethoven

Lazy sundays, continued. You know by now that my perfect sunday looks like this: sleep in, go out for breakfast, do some sports, and chill. Yesterday was as close to perfect as it gets.
After sleeping in till 9.30 a.m. (that´s sleeping in for us, no kidding!), we went to a café that I´ve been wanting to try for a while - the Beethoven in oh-so-trendy Flingern. Not so spectacular from the outside, I admit:


Not too spectacular from the inside, either. Nicely decorated walls, and separate areas for smoking and non-smoking. The staff is very friendly, rough but nice. Rheinländer eben.
The breakfast selection isn´t too broad: big breakfast with cheese, big breakfast with cheese and sausage, or big breakfast with sausage. They do offer scrambled eggs in various kinds, and muesli, but I seriously missed some sort of healthy selection, like the Fitness Breakfast that most places offer thesedays, with some sort of fruit and yoghurt. But oh well.

We decided to go for a big mixed breakfast and some plain scrambled eggs. The place grew crowded fast, and it was obvious that you are better of if you were smart enough to book a table in advance. But the cordial staffed manage to rearrange people and tables to fit everybody.

The breakfast took quite a while to arrive at our table. It was decent, but nothing overly special. Conclusion: decent place for breakfast. But we´ve been to other places that were more convincing, to be honest.

What I did spot is the place next door - Café Hueftgold. Guess we´ll try that one next time.


Check:
1 Latte Macchiato 2,90€
3 coffees 5,10€
1 big breakfast 8,00€
1 scrambled eggs 5,00€

Total: 21,00€


Beethoven
Ackerstrasse 106
40233 Dusseldorf (Flingern)
phone: +49 211 6790973

Rote Laterne in Dusseldorf

This time around, we were in the city of Dusseldorf for some shopping, and decided to eat out. The Rote Laterne has been on my wish list for - a decade (or so). It is a tiny little place on a corner near the central train station in Dusseldorf. Lit in red, it´s a pretty sight, and certainly nothing to walk by.


The tables are standing very close, and it is not unusal to share your table with others. Which is something I love - most of the times, I happen to meet very nice people. Decoration is very reduced, no traditional chinese stuff. Actually, not much decoration at all, except for an avantgarde ceiling lighting. But back to the food issues.

First stunning point: no menu. You order from a chalk board on a column in the middle of the place. We could choose between about 10 mains, 6 appetizers and a single (!) dessert.
I chose the Chicken Wuai jing ju with tofu and veggies, and my significant other, A., chose the Hot Plate Chicken with veggies. Mine was indicated with spicy, his not. We´ll get to that in a second.

We ordered drinks first: I tried the suan cha, a ginger lime tea with honey. Yummy.
Food took a while to arrive at our table, but when it came, it was beautifully arranged: my chicken in a wide egg shaped bowl, his chicken on a cast iron skillet, noodles served aside.
Both dishes were good, but here´s the bummer: mines was spicy. As described on the chalk board. His was spicy as hell. Not indicated on the chalkboard. We swapped dishes (A. can´t stand food that spicy), but nonetheless - even for me (and I do like my food spicy) this dish was HOT AS HELL.

All in all, this was a decent experience - a bit unlucky because of the spiciness-issue.
In case you wanna go there and try - ask in advance about the spiciness, if you want to be on the safe side.


Check:
1 suan cha 2,60€
1 apple spritz 3,90€
1 chicken wuai jing ju 11,90€
1 hot plate chicken 12,90€

Total 31,30€



Rote Laterne
Kurfuerstenstrasse 29
40213 Dusseldorf
phone: +49 211 8302283

Chicken with Chocolate-Espresso-Sauce and Orange Mashed Potatoes

Chicken. Chocolate. Doesn´t necessarily go together too well - on the first thought, at least. My first encounter to this, let´s say, special flavour combo was during a visit to my "second parents" in Utah. The mexican culture is very present there, and my mum is a total fan of "chicken mole", a chicken with a dark chocolate sauce, pretty spicy.

I wanted to try this out, too, but with a slighty more sophisticated touch. Instead of a stew (like the mexicans do it), I kept the chicken breast whole, and served it with mashed potatoes. To balance to chocolate and its sweetness, I combined the sauce with espresso for the hearty flavours, and kicked up the mashed potatoes with some orange. Nothing better than dark chocolate and orange, right? And what works in chocolate bars also works in "real food". Here´s the proof:


This is something for special occassions, and when you want to impress people. Trust me. This will get you all the Aaaahs and Ooooohs.

Recipe for Chicken with Chocolate-Espresso-Sauce
and Orange Mashed Potatoes


Ingredients for 2

500g potatoes, starchy
1 orange, peel and juice
knob of butter
sip of milk (warm)
salt and pepper
2 chicken breasts
butter oil
2 pieces of chocolate
50ml espresso
200mlchicken stock
200ml red wine


Preparation

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, peel potatoes.
3. Add salt to the boiling water, cook potatoes for about 20 minutes.
4. Clean chicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Sear in butter oil.
6. Quench with chicken stock and red wine. Cover with lid, and let cook on medium heat for about 12 minutes.
7. Drain potatoes. Mash with masher, adding orange peel, orange juice and warm milk, as much as you need to get a smooth consistency.
   
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
9. Remove chicken from pan, add chocolate and espresso. Let melt.
   
10. To serve, pile mashed potatoes on one side of the plate, and sprinkle with freshly ground pink pepper.
11. Lay chicken aside, and drizzle with chocolate espresso sauce.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Baked Apple Pie Ice Cream

Winter is coming fast, and I am starting to long for creamy soups and hearty dishes. And for baked apples. They belong to my first and most treasured childhood memories. Baked apples were made in heavy, dark brown stone ceramic molds, shaped like apples. You set in an apple (de-cored, of course), filled it with raisins, cinnamon and marzipan (or whatever else you liked), topped with sugar, Calvados and butter, and sat in front of the oven, eagerly waiting for them to be done. These days, I was in the mood for something that enchanting - but the other way round: as Baked Apple Ice Cream.


And yes, it was as delicious as it looks. I was tempted to eat the whole batch, to be honest.

How I came to the idea of making Baked Apple Ice Cream? Well, pretty easy. My dear colleague, Miss D., came around to my desk on friday, stating "You love to cook right? Check this out", handing me a package of Fruchteiszauber and a little recipe booklet.


I raised an eyebrow, because I usually am not very fond of anything pre-made or industrially designed. But I figured to at least give the label a chance. And found out that it is pretty much gelling sugar, but for ice cream. And since I am at war with my ice cream maker (don´t ask, long story), I figured I´d give it a try. The recipe booklet contained one for Baked Apple Ice Cream, so I was caught. I changed it a bit to fit my needs, and was rewarded: the making is easy as 1-2-3, and the consistency of the ice cream was just wonderful. Guess I´ll do that again ;)

Recipe for Baked Apple Ice Cream

Ingredients

500g apple puree
250g Fruchteiszauber
70g chopped almonds
70g raisins, soaked in rum (or apple juice)
2 teaspoons cinnamon


Preparation

1. In a large bowl, combine apple puree, ground cinnamon and Fruchteiszauber.
2. Mix with your hand blender for three minutes, whisking in as much air as possible, until you get a nice foamy mixture.
3. Drain soked raisins.
4. Add raisins and chopped almonds to the mixture, and fill into freezer-safe dish(es).
5. Freeze for about 5 hours.
6. If you freeze longer, remove from the freezer abuot 15 minutes before serving.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Eye-Candy

Here we go:

Pikeperch with Truffle Risotto and Sugar Peas

Perfectly seared Fillet of Pikeperch, creamy truffle risotto, cracking snap peas.
Made from scratch, no directions, just gut-feeling. I like.

Baked Apple Pie with Custard

Our baking club at work is running really well. We´ve come so far that not baking yourself, but buying cake (which has happened a couple of times) is pretty much a "shame on you" thing to do. Nonetheless, my boss simply didn´t find any time at all in the week he was on duty to bake himself. So he asked permission to buy cake. Permission was granted, and he bought some really delicious Baked Apple Pie. In fact, the pie was so delicious, I had to try to re-bake it at home this weekend. See for yourself:


It wasn´t quite like the baked one, but pretty close. And my significant other, A., managed to finish the whole thing within 2 days - guess that speaks for itself.
Since the bottom is a simple pound cake, topped with sliced apples and a pudding mixture, this one really is easy on you, and makes for a wonderful coffee surprise. Especially it is eaten straight from the oven - wonderful when it is still a bit warm. Perfect for the upcoming cold afternoons.

Recipe for Baked Apple Pie with Custard


Ingredients

100g butter
100g sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
150g flour
75g starch
1 tablespoon baking powder
2-3 apples (preferrably Gala or other sweet kind)
200g sour cream
200g heavy cream
1 package of vanilla custard powder
1 tablespoon sugar


Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 175°C.
2. Grease a 26cm baking pan and coat with breadcrumbs.
   
3. Mix soft butter, eggs, 100g sugar and vanilla sugar until well blended.
4. Combine flour, starch and baking powder, sift and add to the butter-sugar-egg mixture.
5. Add milk as needed to create a smooth dough.
6. Pour dough into baking pan.
7. Peel and slice apples. Arrange on top of dough.
8. In a separate bowl, combine sour cream, heavy cream and custard powder.
9. Whisk until well blended.
10. Pour on top of the apples, filling the spaces in between.
11. Bake for appr. 45 minutes. Should the pie become too dark on top, cover with aluminium foil after half the baking time is over.
12. Eat straight out of the oven. Or let cool and serve with a nice cup of coffee.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Beef Roast with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Sunday. Typical occasion for the family to come together, and chitchat about everything. A ritual, topped with a Sunday Roast, prepared with love and lots of sauce.


I went for a classical beef roast, and kicked it up with some treacle and garlic mashed potatoes. Yum! Sometimes, the easy things combined with some childhood memories make for the best dinners.

Recipe for Beef Roast with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients for 4

800g beef roast (preferrably beef shoulder)
1 Liter beef stock
300ml red wine (dry, full body)
1 carrot
1 stick of leek
1 piece of cellery
thyme and rosemary
1 tablespoon of treacle
1 tablespoon of tomato puree

1 kg of potatoes, starchy
about 200ml cream
about 200ml milk
4 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper


Preparation

1. Cut off excessive fat from beef shoulder. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. In a wide pan, sear beef in butter oil from all sides.
3. Peel and dice veggies, and add to the pan.
4. Quench with beef stock and red wine.
5. Add tomato puree and treacle, thyme and rosemary.
6. Cover and let simmer on low heat for about 90 minutes.
7. For the mash, peel potatoes.
8. Bring water to a boil, add salt and potatoes. Cook for about 20 minutes.
9. Mix milk and cream. Peel garlic cloves and crush with the back of your knife. Add to the mixture. Heat up.
10. Rinse potatoes, pour back into pot. Mash with masher. Remove garlic cloves from milk-cream-mixture, and add to the potatoes until smooth.
    
11. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
12. Remove beef from pan.
13. Strain sauce from solid components.
14. Dissolve rice starch in water. Bring sauce to a boil, add rice starch, let cook for a minute.
15. To serve, pile up mashed potatoes in the center of the plate.
    
16. Slice beef, put three slices on top of the mash, like a fan.
17. Drizzle sauce all around in a circle, and on top of the beef.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!