Making this chicken recipe was the first time I made something resembling a roulade because usually I’m pretty picky about the stuffing. But this time of the year cries for something to be stuffed and since I’m not yet comfortable with the idea of stuffing a whole bird, I decided to take it a small step at a time, doing chicken roulades first. With a good stuffing. ;)

As most of you can probably tell, I’m more fascinated by Italian cuisine than the German one. Traditional German roulades are made with bacon, onions and pickles and though I don’t have anything against bacon and onion, you can hunt me with pickles. This Italian version with pine nuts, herbs and – best of all – cheese is so awesome for my tastebuds!

Stuffed Chicken Breast
idea adapted from Italian Food Forever

chicken:
6 large chicken breasts (originally thighs without bones)
6 slices of prosciutto
6 slices of provolone cheese
80g of breadcrumbs
100g of grated parmesan cheese
1 large egg
half a hand full of fresh basil
half a hand full of fresh parsley
30g of pine nuts
2-3 tablespoons of milk
salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter

sauce:
100ml of dry white wine
100ml of chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
half a hand full of fresh basil

First step: Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Chop the basil and parsley and mix in a bowl with the parmesan and breadcrumbs. Beat the egg and add it to the herb and cheese mixture. Add the pine nuts and some salt and pepper to season. Stir to combine everything. Add two tablespoons of milk and incorporate completely. Take a hand full of the mixture and make a fist. If it doesn’t stick together, add another tablespoon of milk and try again.

Second step: Beat the chicken breasts or thighs to form them into a thin rectangles (put plastic foil on top to keep the meat from damage). On every breast, put a slice of prosciutto and provolone cheese, then form a thin roll of the filling and add that on top. Roll the breast around the filling and secure in place.

Third step: Heat a large pan to medium-high heat and melt the butter. Add the olive oil. Brown the chicken roulades from each side for a short time. Put them into a large casserole dish and put the dish into the oven for 25 minutes.

Fourth step: Don’t throw away the remnants of browning the chicken but melt the remaining two tablespoons of butter instead. Add the chicken broth and white wine and let everything simmer until it is reduced by half. Add the basil and keep warm until the chicken is done. Cut the chicken into slices when retrieved from the oven and serve with the sauce immediately.

The sauce is pretty thin, it’s more like an additional taste for the meat than an actual sauce. But I’m not exaggerating when I say that it fits exceptionally well. To go with this dish, I’d serve potatoes and some kind of veggies (which I forgot to do when I made this ;) ).

It’s this time of the year. The time where we’re at home with our loved ones, sitting around the Christmas tree, enjoying hot cocoa or tea and of course the presents. Which kid doesn’t love the presents? Actually the loving the presents part doesn’t expire when you grow up. I got knifes this time! Ceramic knifes! Finally I’ll be able to cut everything cleanly and without too much trouble. A dream come true. :)

Today’s recipe is a soup where the preparation actually isn’t too intense. When I made this soup, I was pretty sick so I didn’t care for a fancy recipe but instead wanted something fast that didn’t require me being out of bed for too long. Actually, this is my first recipe with cauliflower that I can remember. Buying a head of cauliflower is just so daunting! It’s huge! And you should have a second recipe with cauliflower as backup as you’ll only need half of the head for the preparation of this one.

Cauliflower Soup
idea adapted from Annie’s Eats

2 tablespoons of butter
1 medium onion
1 medium potato
2 cloves of garlic
800ml vegetable broth
200ml water
salt
1/2 head of cauliflower
200g Edamer cheese
100ml heavy cream

First step: Cut the potato into 1cm dices. Cut the onion into rings, mince the garlic and cut off the florets from the half cauliflower head. Set everything aside separately. Heat a large pot to medium heat.

Second step: Melt the butter in the pot and sauté the onion for about four minutes. Add the potato, garlic, vegetable broth and water. Add some salt and bring the mixture to a boil. Let it simmer for eight minutes. In the mean time, cut the Edamer cheese into small pieces.

Third step: Add the cauliflower and let it simmer for another five minutes. Add the cheese and stir until it is melted completely. Add the heavy cream and use a hand mixer to combine everything into a smooth soup. Serve immediately.

The original recipe calls for croutons and some additional cheese on top which is to my mind a good idea except when you don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen. ;) I added toasted whole wheat bread which suited the soup perfectly as well.

Last week I was in Paris. I want to go back! Why is it that holidays are always over way too soon? I walked along the Champs-Élysées all decked out in Christmas decoration, climbed up the Eiffel tower, paraded around the parks of Versailles, admired the Mona Lisa together with about 50 chinese tourists and enjoyed awesome and heavy food. Croissants in the morning, boeuf bourgignon and cheese plates in the evening. Heaven! :)

All that food spoiled me so much and actually gave me a sugar high for a couple of days so that I’m craving sugar right now. It’s like withdrawal. So I had to eat crêpes all weekend long and since I can’t eat them every day, I switched to french toast yesterday night. It’s actually very easy to make and very fast as well. A really good alternative to my usual breakfast palette of crêpes and pancakes.

French Toast
idea adapted from Technicolor Kitchen

 4-5 slices of American sandwich bread
1 egg
120ml milk
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of sugar + more for sprinkling
1 tablespoon of butter
maple syrup

First step: Heat a big pan to medium heat. Mix the egg, milk, cinnamon and tablespoon of sugar in a deep plate. Drench the slices of bread in the mixture from both sides. Set aside.

Second step: Melt half of the butter in the pan, if you can only fit half of the slices, else add all of the butter. Sprinkle one side of the slices with sugar and put them sugar down into the pan. Let them fry for about three minutes.

Third step: Sprinkle sugar on top of the slices in the pan before turning them around when they are a golden brown on the bottom. Let fry for another 2-3 minutes then serve immediately with maple syrup. Repeat for all of the slices.

]]> http://sweetcompositions.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/french-toast/feed/ 1 chiifood SONY DSC SONY DSC http://sweetcompositions.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/potato-leek-soup/ http://sweetcompositions.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/potato-leek-soup/#comments Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:04:34 +0000 Anja http://sweetcompositions.wordpress.com/?p=663 ]]>

I am sick. Given that I am rarely sick, being sick sucks. Especially as it has been a week that I have been symptom-free. Do you hate the sensitive feeling of the area around your nose (because you’ve used so many tissues) as much as I do? It’s just so maddening that we can be all excited about something but if our body decides to turn against us, we’re just screwed. Nothing that we can do against that.

Okay, enough complaining. Though me being sick is one of the reasons for this post. Since I can’t seem to focus on work right now, I’m left with (stressed, because I feel guilty for not working) free time on my hands which I used to catch up on some cooking. And what better thing to prepare when you’re sick than soup? I think, I’ve already blogged about potato soup a few months back, but there are so many different potato soup variations that I don’t think that it will hurt to share another and completely different recipe with you. The recipe I used as basis for this soup actually calls the soup ‘baked potato soup’ which I think is a little bit weird since the potatoes are not baked. It’s supposed to refer to what you would put onto a baked tomato (leek and sour cream?!). Americans definitely can be weird.

Potato and Leek Soup
idea adapted from SmittenKitchen

 1kg of potatoes
1 garlic head
2 medium leeks
50g of butter
800ml vegetable stock
400ml of water
100g sour cream
salt

First step: Preheat a large pot to medium-high heat. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. Cut the leeks into about 3mm wide rings. Set both ingredients aside separately. Top off about one third of the garlic head and squeeze out the garlic from the upper part. Remove all papery skin from the lower part.

Second step: Melt the butter in the pot. Add the garlic tops and leek and let them soften. Stir from time to time to keep from burning. Add the vegetable stock and 200ml water. Carefully put in the garlic head (cut side down). Let simmer for about 40 minutes.

Third step: Remove the garlic head. Add the remaining 200ml of water and the potatoes and let the mixture simmer for another 25 minutes. Add half of the sour cream and then use a hand mixer to incorporate all ingredients into one smooth soup. Add the remaining sour cream and pinch of salt and stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Pumpkin… hmm… I didn’t really know what to expect when I decided to try to integrate a little bit more pumpkin into my cooking. With most of the cooking blogs that I read being based in the US, pumpkin is an ingredient that comes up over and over again. But it’s not really common here in Europe. And I think partially I am/was afraid to go too pumpkin, because it scared me to see parallels to my peanut butter disaster last year. You know how every American says that peanut butter is so good and they have those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Guess what – they’re lying! Peanut butter is just SO gross! And yes, coming to that conclusion, is it any wonder that I’m skeptical about pumpkins?

When I was over there, I actually bought two cans of pumpkin because I really, really wanted to give it a shot. Guess what was still standing in my cupboard when I left? Well, last week I got the chance to make up for that missed experience because my roommate brought home a hokkaido pumpkin from it’s natural habitat somewhere in the middle of Bavaria. So I looked up my pumpkin recipes. Pumpkin scones, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cake – well, none of that is realizable right now since our oven’s still not really functioning. So if anyone wants me baking again – provide me with an oven (I also do cooking at friend’s places, you don’t need to buy me one)!

Finally I went with soup, so I looked up a couple of recipes and stumbled across one for roasted pumpkin soup. Yes, our oven doesn’t really work so I can’t really tell you how much time the pumpkin has to stay in the oven but I’ll blindly rely on the original recipe for that. It took me about an hour (with an oven that can’t really reach the higher degree ranges though). Here it comes!

Roasted Pumpkin Soup
idea adapted from Rachel Eats

 ca. 1kg of hokkaido pumpkin
dried rosemary
ca. 4 tablespoons of olive oil
400ml of calf/beef broth
400ml water
200ml heavy cream
salt

First step: Preheat the oven to 200°C. Quarter the hokkaido pumpkin and place it on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Drizzle the olive oil on top, distribute with a small spoon or a brush. Sprinkle the rosemary on top – you don’t want to add too much, but just a pinch per quarter evenly distributed. Put the baking tray into the oven and let it work its magic for ca. 45mins. It should smell really fragrant but be watchful to not burn the pumpkin (decrease the heat in that case).

Second step: Before you take out the pieces, combine the water and broth in a large pot and heat it up to a simmer. Cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces (you can eat the skin of a hokkaido pumpkin (or so I was told)!) and throw into the simmering broth. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes and try to cover as much of the pumpkin as possible (especially the larger pieces) with liquid.

Third step: Use a hand mixer to shred the pumpkin and incorporate everything into one smooth soup. Add the heavy cream and use the hand mixer again for a few seconds to make the soup a little bit creamier. Add a pinch of salt to liking and serve immediately with a little bit of bread on the side.

In case you have leftovers – as I do – just heat them up the next day with a little bit of additional water and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes before serving.

I have to admit that after my last recipe that was _really_ healthy, things kind of went down for me in the healthy section. I’m just not in the mood, sorry! Also, to eat healthy, I’d have to go out and buy groceries… I’m just so lazy right now! But I’ll go this afternoon, promise! Until I gather more healthy ingredients, you have to cope with me updating this blog with (kind of) baked goods – pancakes and scones. The scones are in the oven right now, so I still have to determine whether they are worth presenting here, but the pancake recipe I discovered is definitely worth mentioning.

I ran out on milk two days ago and I was, surprise!, too lazy to get new milk. Still, I was in the mood for pancakes but couldn’t make my normal pancake recipe. So I searched the internet for a yogurt pancake recipe, because I still had some vanilla yogurt. I stumbled across a very simple recipe which nevertheless sounded promising so I just went for it. Through a rather large amount of baking powder and some changes to the original recipe, I managed to make them really fluffy even with yogurt. I’d recommend using vanilla yogurt or natural yogurt (increasing the sugar amount slightly or adding some vanilla extract). The original recipe speculates about using flavored yogurt but I think it would be… weird. Especially if you combine it with some other ingredients like the cranberries I used.

Cranberry Yogurt Pancakes
idea adapted from Taste of Home

 120g flour
1.5 teaspoons of baking powder
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 egg
250g yogurt (plain or vanilla)
30ml water
50g dried cranberries
opt.: 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (in case of plain yogurt)

First step: Heat a small pan to medium-high heat. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, yogurt, water and cranberries in a big bowl. Separate the egg and add the egg yolk and whisk into the mixture until you have a homogeneous mass. Whip the egg white until stiff and spoon carefully into the batter.

Second step: Add a little bit of butter to the pan and pour one ladle of batter into the butter so that the pancake won’t stick to the pan. Wait until it’s stocked, then flip it around. Don’t let it burn! Repeat for the whole batter and enjoy warm and with maple syrup! :)

During the last couple of years, I barely watched TV. Right now I find myself sitting on the couch of my parents, working while at the same time watching these cooking shows that are common in German early-afternoon during the week television. And they actually have some decent dishes in there! Of course they have to hurry about just to create everything in time, while talking excessively to the host about their lives (who is interested in that?) and food (yey!). I’m mostly fascinated by the different dishes they have to cook. There is one show where they get a couple of ingredients and they have to mix them together into a three course menu somehow. How to combine plums with schnitzel? I think that would be fun sometime. :)

The pasta I’m showcasting today is, as my parents put it, an attempt to eat healthy. I’ve been travelling a lot these last weeks which means that I’ve eaten a lot in restaurants which is not really something I should continuously do. The thing is that I like eating healthy, but if there’s spaghetti carbonara, steak with gorgonzola sauce or migras (traditional portuguese meat dish) in the menu, the appeal of healthy food just diminishes… :)

Broccoli, Avocado & Pea Pasta
idea adapted from 101 cookbooks

 250g whole wheat pasta
salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
2 eggs
100g peas
100g broccoli florets
1 small avocado

First step: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut the broccoli into small mouth-sized pieces. Peel the skin off the avocado and cut into pieces, set aside. Add salt to the water and cook the pasta al dente.

Second step: While the pasta is cooking, heat up one tablespoon of olive oil and butter in a large skillet. When heated, add the broccoli and stir from time to time to not burn it. Before the pasta is nearly done, add the peas to cook them for 1-2 minutes. Drain the pasta and peas, set aside.

Third step: Separately, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt. Throw together the pasta, peas and broccoli in the (still heated) skillet, add another tablespoon of olive oil. Stir to combine. Add the eggs and stir constantly to distribute evenly. Serve with avocado on top when the egg is completely cooked.

A few days ago, a friend of mine had his last day at work. As is tradition in our company, we celebrate this joyful event by bringing cake for everyone. And with everyone I mean everyone. Being a pretty tightly knit community, these things usually produce 30 hungry people standing around your table, wanting to be fed. When I switched from working full-time to part-time, I baked three cakes, muffins and a savory mozzarella-feta roll for all those of my colleagues who aren’t into sweet dishes. Fun times! :)

My point is: If there is hungry co-workers, there has to be a lot of (and good) cake. So this time I got to work to help out my friend since he had to do some last minute errands. Well, it’s not like he didn’t do anything to support me baking, he also cut the nectarines for the cake I’m showing you here. For this event, I made three different baked goods: A vanilla honey pound cake, a brown butter & nectarine cake and apple hand pies. I only managed to get pictures of this cake since the first one was carried off to another location for safe-keeping before I could manage to take a shot and I simply forgot about a picture of the miniature pies. x_x

The brown butter & nectarine cake is pretty dense and definitely not dry because of all the juice and flavor that the nectarines add to the cake. It’s similar to what we call “Streuselkuchen” in Germany, which is basically a simple pound cake layer plus fruits and relatively dry streusel on top. It’s something I wouldn’t recommend eating all day long because it is very heavy, but it’s a great cake for a picnic with friends or as dessert for a 3pm BBQ. I’d definitely recommend giving it a try!

Brown Butter & Nectarine Cake
idea adapted from Smittenkitchen

180g + 60g flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
pinch of salt
220g sugar
110g light brown sugar
170g butter, maybe a little bit more
2 eggs
170ml of milk
4 nectarines
1 lemon
pinch of cinnamon

First step: Preheat your oven to 160°C. Cut the nectarines in slices (about 8 slices per nectarine). In a large bowl (or in case you don’t have one which I’ve experienced many times recently use a pot :P), combine 180g flour, salt, baking powder and 220g sugar.

Second step: Over medium heat, melt the butter and let it sit there until it begins to bubble. Soon, little brown particles will start swimming in the butter. Use a wooden spoon to stir from time to time, and take the butter off if you have a solid number of these brown particles in there. It’s hard to explain, but the basic rule is: Don’t let it burn!

Third step: Add 2/3 of the butter to your cake mixture and stir to combine. Add the egg and milk and use a whisk to incorporate everything smoothly. Squeeze about one tablespoon of juice out of the lemon and add it to your cake, whisk everything together. Set aside.

Fourth step: Combine the remaining butter with another tablespoon of lemon juice, 60g of flour, 110g of sugar and the cinnamon in a separate bowl. The streusel should feel a little bit sticky, so that you can press some of them together and they stay in that form. If they’re not sticky enough, add another 10g of butter and use your hands to incorporate.

Fifth step: Grease a 26cm (10-11”) baking form with butter. Fill in the cake batter. Now layer the nectarines on top, they will slightly sink into the cake, but not all the way down to the bottom. Sprinkle the streusel on top and put into the oven for 35-40 minutes. I usually check a little bit early because ovens vary as do therefore the temperatures they produce.

Sixth step: Retrieve from the oven when the cake is a golden brown on top. Let it cool down completely before serving.

Monday I had a craving for cake. I didn’t bake any these last couple of months, so I guess it has been building up for some time and had to be released at some point. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have many things to work with since the kitchen I can use right now does not provide too many things that I’d deem usually necessary. So basically I dipped into my left-over stocks from Italy and actually managed to assemble a simple (small) cake that did its job completely.

This cake is nothing fancy, but it’s designed for the purpose of providing you with a nice, sweet treat without putting too much effort into creating the cake. The honey gives it a nice taste and it keeps the cake from being boring, adding the walnuts was an idea on my side since the original recipe proposed almonds, but I think walnuts also fit perfectly and provide some contrast in the structure. Also, I didn’t have any almonds. ;)

Honey Walnut Cake
idea adapted from The Caked Crusader

 180g all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
50g of sugar
80g of butter
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of milk
handful of chopped walnuts

First step: Preheat your oven to 160°C. Mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar. Add the butter and use your hands to incorporate it completely. Separately, combine the eggs, honey and milk and then stir them into the mixture. It’s going to be a rather sticky, non-liquid batter. Add the walnuts and stir to combine.

Second step: Grease a small baking form, like a 20cm bread or spring form. Put the batter into the form and spread it equally. Put into the oven for 30-40 minutes. The exact time depends on the baking form, you’re using: If you use a bread form it takes longer than in a spring form. Let the cake cool down for 20 minutes after retrieving it and before you cut it.

Guess what? I’m cooking again! I’ve been to Italy for three months which in general when it comes to food should be a good thing, right? So why is it, that I didn’t post many new recipes during that time? Simple answer: If you share a kitchen with 17 other people, you first of all don’t have the privacy to bounce in circles around your dish with a camera without feeling stupid and second of all just kind of want to get in and out because everyone’s cramming into the kitchen and there’s no air to breathe. And I’m not exaggerating!

Other than that, my stay in Italy food-wise was absolutely amazing. I got to appreciate cheese in so many variations – I actually like ricotta now and am able to eat strong cheese as dessert, I had so many different kinds of pizza (love white pizza!) and pasta (love all kinds of pasta!), and everything’s just so cheap in restaurants! In Naples, I had a really good pizza for 4€, imagine that!

Okay, enough elaborating on past food adventures, it’s back to business. I know that this soup doesn’t look too special, but it’s okay, right? Actually, while I was making it I was talking to my brother and we came to the conclusion that it would be much better if you would just see the output and not the progress. I mean it doesn’t look too bad in the roasting phase, but the simmering phase when you scrape the eggplant from its skin and dump it into the broth to simmer, that’s just kind of weird. Nevertheless, it’s a really nice soup. My mum commented that it could have used some more tomatoes, but I don’t think so since then the eggplant would drown. I think of it as a tomatoes-containing-alternative with not too many tomatoes to a tomato soup. Does that make sense? :D

Roasted Eggplant & Tomato Soup
idea adapted from Smitten Kitchen

3 medium tomatoes
3 medium eggplants, equals about 700g
6 cloves of garlic
1 small onion
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/4 liters of chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
80ml heavy cream or 80g sour cream
80g goat cheese

First step: Preheat the oven to 200°C. Half the tomatoes, eggplant and (peeled) onion. Peel the garlic cloves. Put everything onto one, or two, baking tray(s) and brush with olive oil. Put the tray(s) into the oven for twenty minutes. Retrieve the garlic cloves from the oven but leave the rest in there for another 25 minutes. Lower the heat a little bit if the veggies become too dark.

Second step: Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a large pot and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add all vegetables that you roasted, but scrape the skin off the eggplant first. All other vegetables can go in as they are. Add the thyme and stir to mix everything. Let the mixture simmer for forty minutes.

Third step: Fun! Use a hand mixer to puree everything into a smooth mass. Add the heavy or sour cream and stir to incorporate fully. Fill the soup into bowls and add crumbled goat cheese on top. Serve immediately.