Maccaroni and peas

I made this recipe a while ago already, but never wrote a post about it for some reason. 

It's one of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "Veg Everyday"- dishes. 

That's the title of his vegetarian cook book from the River Cottage series.. 

I do not own the book, but watched a video where he prepared it on the River Cottage-website and instantly wanted to try it, myself.

 It's really easy to make and I love the color of the bright green pea sauce. 

Here is what you need: 

500g green peas (4 cups), frozen or even better, fresh
500g dry maccaroni (2 cups)
50g of butter 
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced (I'd use 2 cloves!)

25g of Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated (1/2 cup) plus more for serving

fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

chopped fresh flat leaf parsley for garnish (something I didn't have...)

Directions:

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions while you make the sauce. 

Heat the butter in a small pan. Add the garlic and cook gently for a few minutes without colouring. 


Put the peas in a separate pan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer until just tender. 
This should only take a couple of minutes. 
Drain, reserving the cooking liquid. 


Put half of the peas into a blender along with 6 tbsp of the cooking water, and the melted butter and garlic. Add the cheese. Blitz until you have a smooth and loose puree, adding a bit more of the pea cooking water if needed. Combine with the whole peas and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta as soon as it is ready and toss immediately with the hot pea sauce. 


Serve topped with a hearty grinding of black pepper, some more grated Parmesan and a garnish of chopped flat leaf parsley.

I didn't have parsley, but it still looks really pretty and all lush and green...

Notes:

Only thing that I would do different than Hugh: add more spice!

I thought it was a little bland. He is British after all...

Therefore next time I would just add more garlic, pepper, salt and parmesan, and maybe even some chopped onions to sautée with the garlic. Roasted pine nuts or almond slivers to sprinkle over the dish could be pretty tasty, as well...

Or even better: MINT! Mint and peas is a phenomenal combination! Chopped mint added to the puree with a teaspoon of sugar to add some kick to the peas...yum!
Why did I not think of this earlier?

And those of you who need their meat, could also add some fried bacon or ham cubes...

That way it gets a more savory, as well. 

Pasta with mushroom-whisky sauce ON FIRE!

The mushroom season is in full bloom, 

and I still haven't posted our favorite mushroom recipe of all time, yet. 

But this is about to change... 

NOW!

Forest in Schorfheide/Barnim near Berlin - photo by Beau Lark

Wil and I came up with the idea to this recipe cause we wanted to do something different than just mushroom risotto. So we decided to make pasta with a delicious self-created mushroom sauce you cannot go wrong with. The top-components for cooking mushrooms are definitely rosemary, onions, pepper and (smoked wooly pig-)bacon, and guess what: you can find all of these in this wonderful dish! Plus cream, whisky (WHISKY!) and balsamico-date essence. 

Me and the Steinpilz (Porcini) - photo by Beau Lark

Our harvest: Chanterelles, Porcini, Slippery Jack and Bay Boletes

We picked the mushrooms ourselves (I even found a pretty neat looking porcini!), and took tomatoes and rosemary from our little vegetable garden. The wooly pig bacon was from a small local market and the balsamico-date essence was a gift my best friend Kirsten gave to me a while ago.

Cooking at Anna and Beau's - photo by Beau Lark

What you need for a maximum of 4 people:

500g pasta (fussili, penne...)

400-500g mushrooms (about 2 cups, or a small basket, e.g. chanterelles and/or porcinis)

200g-250g bacon cubes/bits (for example from happy wooly pigs...the smokier the better!)

200g cream

3-4 twigs of rosemary, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

(a handful cherry tomatos, halved)

3-4cl whisky (same as with the bacon: the smokier the better e.g. a nice Bourbon)

1 Tbsp balsamico-date essence

4 Tbsp parmesan, freshly grated 

Ceaning and cutting the mushrooms - photo by Beau Lark

Clean the mushrooms by brushing them gently to remove the dirt. Do not wash them! Otherwise they'll lose their aroma. If too big cut the mushrooms into slices or smaller pieces. 

Wil cutting wooly pig bacon - photo by Beau Lark

Fry the bacon in a pan until crisp, remove from pan and set aside. 

Sautee the onions and garlic in the remaining bacon fat until translucent and golden. 

 Add the bacon, mushrooms sautee all-together for a minute or two on medium heat. 

Right before the fire action - photo by Beau Lark

Turn up to maxium heat, add the whisky and carefully 

with a lighter or long match set the whisky on fire. 

Flambé until the fire goes off (after about a minute or so). 

Rosemary and tomatoes - photo by Beau Lark

Add cherry tomatoes and rosemary, let the sauce simmer for another two minutes. 

Add the cream and the balsamico-date essence. 

Let it reduce for a few minutes. 

In the meantime cook the  pasta in boiling water with salt until al dente 

(9-12 minutes, depending on what the packaging says). 

Season the sauce with pepper and salt, if required 

(careful, the bacon and parmesan are already salty).

Dish up the pasta and pour the mushroom whisky cream sauce over it. 

Sprinkle with parmesan. 

Serve!

Ready!

PS:

• If you don not have balsamico-date essence, you can use a  plain balsamico essence or balsamico vinegar mixed with maple syrup, honey or brown sugar, instead. 
• This sauce is also good with a nice piece of meat (deer or beef). 
• I tried to write down the measurements as exact as possible, which isn't that easy, cause you can pretty much vary everything. Add more or less rosemary, garlic or balsamico-date essence, use more pasta, less mushrooms...whatever you want. It is really hard to ruin this one! 

Bon apetit.

Special thanks to Beau Lark for taking all these wonderful pictures I didn't take...

Fetuccine with green asparagus and garlic pepper butter

Before asparagus season is over I had to prepare one more favorite asparagus meal.
Tim Mälzer, Germany's Jamie Oliver once cooked this in his show.
It is very simple, but so delicious!
It's best if you use fresh pasta and not the dried one.
I'm lucky to have several markets near my apartment that have fresh pasta stands.
You do not have to use Fetuccine.
Tagliatelle is fine and might even be better since the pasta is a little thinner.

Here is what you need for two people:

300-400g (fresh) Fettuccine/Tagliatelle

750g green asparagus

250g butter

65g green pepper (in a glass/pickled?)

3-4 garlic cloves (preferably fresh)

chervil (one bunch)

salt

parmesan (grana padano/parmigiano reggiano)

Chop the garlic cloves.
Blend the green pepper corns with garlic and season the mixture with salt.
Mix in the butter until everything is evenly mixed.
Remove the dried out ends of the asparagus and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
Heat up a pan and add about two tablespoons of the garlic-pepper butter.
When melted add the asparagus.
Make sure all asparagus pieces are coated with the melted butter.
Fry it for 3-5 minutes.
Then add a little bit of water (about 100ml) and let everything cook for at least another 5 minutes.
The asparagus should neither be too hard nor too soft and mushy.
Meanwhile fill a big saucepan with water and bring the water to boil.
Then add about 1-1.5 Teaspoons of salt and the pasta to it.
If the pasta comes in a bundle make sure to disconnect and losen the pasta strings a bit from each other.
Boil for about 5 minutes or according to the cooking instructions on the package.
Better try in between to make sure the pasta stays al dente.
When al dente strain the pasta.
Then add it to the asparagus and garlic-pepper butter and mix well.
Pour into two bowls and garnish with chopped chervil and freshly grated parmesan.

Pair with a Pinot Gris or pinot Blanc.

PS: I couldn't find chervil this time. So I used parsley as garnish instead.
Chervil tastes better though.
It is finer and tastes almost sweet, a bit similar to anise...

Salmon and Spinach Lasagna

I always wanted to cook a lasagne with fish and spinach.
I remember eating one years ago that was so good...
At least back then I thought it was.
Looking through the internet for recipes i found this for "Dill-Licious Salmon and Spinach Lasagne".

I liked it because they are using dill and white wine and two different kinds of cheese...
All of that works pretty well with spinach and fish.
Unfortunately I didn't have a proper sized casserole.
Mine was too big.
Therefore the lasagna turned out quite thin and a bit dry.
Even though I'm not sure if that was the only reason for the dryness.
After all I can say the lasagna was ok.
But a few things were still missing.



I want lasagna to be creamy and rich.
This one wasn't.
Also the flavors were quite bland.
it mainly tasted sour because of the lemon and the wine.
Therefore next time I might put cream and eggs in the creme fraiche sauce to give it more substance.
Or just make a bechamel adding dill, onions and nutmeg and white wine.
And I will replace the mozzarella or take at least a third and stronger cheese.

Oh, and I won't cook the salmon before.
Otherwise it gets too dry.
I'll just marinate it a bit, cut it into small pieces before adding it to the other ingrediences.

It'll cook in the oven anyway...

And: Truffle...

I bought my first truffle. It smelled fanastic and wasn´t even as expensive as I thought.
Maybe because I didn´t get a summer truffle.
Ten grams of that would have been 43 € whereas mine was only 5,98 € for ten grams.
I guess that's a bit of a difference.
I grated it into thin slices and served it on top of filet and pasta.
But I have to say I wasn't really impressed.
I don't know what I did wrong but I could hardly taste any truffle.
My white truffle butter was far better! And less expensive...
I know using truffle oil is one of the major sins, because they always use
artificial flavors to create/imitate the typical truffle aroma.
Nevertheless: I LOVE TRUFFLE OIL.
It tastes like truffle and that's what's most important to me...


















That's my "Guilty-face"while buying the truffle.

 


















  That´s my "Happy-Face" after buying the truffle.

Al Contadino Sotto Le Stelle

Not only is 'Al Contadino Sotto Le Stelle' one of my favorite restaurants here in Berlin. 

Marjita(?), our waitress of the night, offered us incredibly good tasting red wine: 

Tormaresca Torcicoda Primitivo Salento (2008).

But let's start at the beginning.

The Italian restaurant 'Al Contadino sotto le stelle' is located on Auguststrasse 36 in 10119  Berlin Mitte.

You'll find homemade pasta, veil, rabbit, fish, tartufo, prosciutto etc on the menu; 

solid Italian cuisine that is both, rustic and fine, at the same time.

'Al Contadino' is not a cheap restaurant. It's rather a restaurant where to go on a date.

Me and my partner went there for our anniversary and had:

• Prosciutto with fruit mustard
• Entrecote with truffle
• Homemade Chestnut-flour Tagliatelle with veil liver, apple and truffle oil
• Warm chocolate-hazelnut cake with vanilla ice cream.

Sadly they had to move out of their original venue which was even more cosy and romantic.

Their new location is a little less intimate and on our last visit we discovered that the tables in the front are cramped.
But sitting in the back of the restaurant can be quite loud and busy with waiters rushing past. 

Still it is one of my favorite restaurants. 

The food is excellent and the service is very friendly and knowledgeable.

PS: The name of the restaurant means 'The Farmer Underneath The Starry Sky'.