urban odds & ends

Watching the growing flowers with their vibrant springy colors makes me craving for some similar colored fresh food. On the train ride home a broccoli recipe came to my mind whilst thinking about tonights dinner. So it happend that I bought a nice green broccoli head. To make a lighter version of this broccoli slaw recipe and having still some greek yoghurt waiting in the fridge I made a simple yoghurt dressing. This salad tasted pretty good and was thrown together very fast.

Broccoli Salad serves 2

1 large head of broccoli
4 tbsp thinly sliced almonds, toasted
1 small red onion, finely chopped

Dressing

125 g greek yoghurt
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
salt
pepper

Trim broccoli, seperate the broccoli flowerets and cut into thin slices. Toss the broccoli, the almonds and the onions in a bowl. In a seperate bowl whisk the ingridients for the dressing. Pour the dressing over the broccoli and mix until everything is coated and add salt and pepper to taste.


More broccoli recipes:

Spice and roasted broccoli
Chicken and broccoli
Roquefort roasted broccoli
Broccoli soup
Broccoli calzones
Pasta e broccoli
Mac & Cheese with chicken and broccoli

Wow, the recent weeks were pretty stressful. First I had within my second course specialisation in technical chemistry a course called "Plant Design". Beginning with an "omfg two weeks without sleep" I rather enjoyed this course at the end. I've learned much about teamwork and it's amazing what we've developed. By the way: our plant wouldn't be economical ;) The next big thing was my last written exam I had last week, which I passed successfully :) Total relief!

Last week was also the first week with temperatures above 15 °C. I loved it, I even didn't need to wear a jacket! But now, the temperatures are dropping fast and it is rainy again. Hopefully the Easter weekend is going to be nice.

Last week I made Pasta alla Norma, a traditional sicilian dish, which was a long term item on my "to cook" list. It is absolutely easy to make and, like most easy dishes, it is pretty delicious. As I hadn't ricotta salata at hand, I substituted it for the good ol' parmesan.

Pasta alla Norma serves 4
adapted from Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Great Italien Escape p. 104

500g Spaghetti, cooked and some cooking water reserved
800g Whole Tomatoes, canned
2 Eggplants
4 Gloves Garlic, thinly sliced 
1 Tbsp Oregan, dried
1 Red chilli, finely minced
1 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar
1 Hand Fresh Basil, stalks chopped and leaves coarsly chopped
1 Hand Freshly Grated Parmesan


Quarter the eggplants lenghtwise and cut it into fingerthick stripes. Heat a large pan with olive oil on medium high heat, add the eggplants and toss until fully coated with oil, sprinkle with oregano and roast until golden brown in two batches. Put all eggplants together and add garlic, chilli and basil stalks. Add the vinegar, tomatoes and a dash of water and simmer for about 30 minutes. Cook the spaghetti in boiling water with a good amount of salt until done. Drain and reserve some of the cooking water.



Season the sauce with salt and pepper until taste and add the parmesan and basil. Now add the cooked spaghetti and 2-3 tbsp of the cooking water to the sauce. Buon appetito!

After craving for something chocolaty without having a chocolat bar at hand respectively the will to go out and buying something, I found a very easy to prepare and delicious recipe for chocolat pudding. Hmmmm.

Easy Peasy Chocolat Pudding serves 2 

40g Cornstarch
3 Tbsp Unsweetened cocoa
4 Tbsp Sugar
0.5L Whole milk
Optional: chocolat sprinkles, whippes cream... what you prefer!


Mix the cornstarch and the cocoa with about 200mL of the milk and stir until dissolved. Heat the remaining milk with sugar until it boils. Now add the cornstarch mixture wisking continuously for about a minute. You will notice that the mass thickens after a few seconds. Pour the pudding in, with cold water rinsed, bowls and let cool at least for 2 hours.

I had some oranges at hand, so I flavoured the boiling milk with orange zest and topped the finished pudding with slices of orange. But there are no bounds and you can play around whatever you like: chocolat sprinkles, whipped cream, fruits (hmmm... when starts strawberry season? ;) )...

The photo above is from Katie Solokers lovely blog ColorMeKate, a freelance photographer and street artist living in Brooklyn. Love the colors. :)

There's nothing nicer to take a sunday afternoon walk under a bright blue sky and a landscape topped with freshly fallen snow.



White Bean Chilli
adapted from from The Pioneer Woman Cooks



2 Chicken thights
1 Medium onion, diced
2 Gloves garlic, finely minced
1 Can green chilies, chopped
2 Red chilis, finely minced
250g Dried white beans, rinsed
1 Litre Chicken broth
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Cup whole milk
1 tbsp cornflour
Cheddar chease, grated
Cilantro, chopped
Salt & pepper to tase
Optional: Sour Cream
Optional: Corn Torillas


In a medium pot cover the chicken with cold water and cook for 20-30 minutes, put it on a plate and let cool a little. Then remove the meat from the bones with your fingers and set aside. In another pot add a little olive oil and cook the onions, red chilis and garlic for about 2 minutes. Add the chopped green chilies and the white beans, add the chicken broth. Season with salt, pepper and cumin and cook with the lid on for about 2 hours or until the beans are done. After 1 hour it's time to add the chicken.
When the beans are done, mix milk with the cornflour and pour into the chili for thickening the sauce. After 10 minutes season to taste and add the cayenne pepper,paprika, cilantro and cheddar cheese while stirring until melted. I served it with warm tortillas. Enjoy!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

After some stressful weeks we went to Australia in mid-december and finally came back friday evening. It was really an amazing time, most of it spent with our dear friends Jens & Aga, we made some new friendships, too. I'm missing Australia already:  relaxed people and atmosphere, beaches and open
supermarkets on sundays ;). But after weeks spent in midsummer it is nice returning to our snowy home as well. I'm looking forward to show you my "australian adventures" as soon as possible - unitl then a koala bear has to be enough ;)

This is a perfect sunday dinner dish and really easy. But it's not recommendable preparing the dish with hunger, the divine smell coming out of the oven will drive you insane ;)

Lemony Roasted Chicken with Rosemary Potatoes
adapted from Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinners p. 32

1 chicken, preferable free-range
1kg potatoes, peeled and cut in mouthsized pieces
1 large lemon
5 gloves of garlic, unpeeled
a handful of fresh thyme
a handful of fresh rosemary
4 rashers of smoked bacon
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 190°C. Bring a large pot of water with a good amount of salt to boil and throw in potatoes, lemon and the garlic gloves. After about 12 minutes drain it and allow to steam dry for about 2 minutes.
While the potatoes are cooking take the chicken out of the fridge and rub it (yeah!) with salt, pepper and oil. Then take the lemon out of the colander and stab it a few times all over with a sharp knife. Push it with the garlic and thyme in the cavity. Honestly, this step grossed me a little bit out and it costed me quite an effort but it wasn't that bad. I think the chicken won't charge that I  invaded its private sphere ;)
Now... put the chicken on a roasting tray and cook it in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove it and put the chicken on a plate and toss the potatoes in the chicken fat. Make a whole in the middle and put the chicken in. Lay the rashers over the chicken breast and cook it for another 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

For serving it is nice to crumble the bacon over the potatoes and smear the garlic, which you can squeeze out of his skin and mash up, over the chicken.

We returned from Hannover where we visited good friends yesterday. It's a pity that we forgot our camera, the lovely fall colors paired with the industrial looking multicultural quarter of Hannover Linden were stunning with its own charm. Located in western Hannover near by the river Leine, between little foreign greengrocers and plenty of kiosks you can find lovely cafés and shops. Sadly I found this helpful page Linden entdecken only now - but I'm looking forward to future visits.

To give a little selection of my impressions I picked some images at flickr: