Gatherers and Hunters. Bread dumplings with mushrooms in cream.

Westerly or southwesterly 6 to gale 8.

Moderate or rough.

Rain or showers.

Moderate or good.

The other day I was in Aldi and just about to reach into the freezer when a man next to me exclaimed in a delighted voice: “OMG, they are back”. His partner and him descended on a box and threw various plastic containers in their shopping trolley. After they half emptied a carton and trundled off with bliss in their face, I looked at their box of desire. The labelled said: Dried onions or bacon flavoured bits. They clearly left the dried onions and went for all the “bacon flavoured bits”. Nearly all, for much to my delight I found the last jar which evaded their scrutiny. I carried it proudly to the till (together with- for good measurements- a jar of dried onions) and felt like I have won a battle. 

At home the euphoria has disappeared and I wondered what possessed me to buy it in the first place. You see, I don’t even like bacon that much, so why would I feel proud to have attained the last jar of fake bacon? 

Of course I could claim it was curiosity to see how Vegan imitation food compared to the real deal, but this would be lying. I bought it because someone else wanted it.
It is like walking through a town and seeing a huge queue forming in front of a shop. People come out with bags full of something and when you inquire what is for sale you see rapture in the faces of the people in the queue and they whisper: “Frozen Crocodile tears are back”. Of course you join the queue. It is part of human nature. You are curious and you want it because others want it.

Maybe it`s a gatherer and hunter instinct in us. Maybe it is just greed. Maybe the fear of missing out. Or the fear of being excluded in a society ritual. Or maybe I am just particular stupid.

Anyway, once you have these blasted things, you put them to use. Ditto the dried onion (which I consider buying more often; they are very handy, especially for a single household). And since the weather is unseasonal wintry, comfort food is on the menu. Dumplings with mushrooms in cream. 

I was never good at dumplings, I reckon you need to grow up with an Austrian grandmother who teaches you how to do these things. They either disintegrated in the water or sat like stone in my stomach. But in absence of an Austrian “Oma” we have now “Auntie Google”, so there is no excuse to not get it right.

Since I exchanged the real bacon and the real onions, both need to be chopped up and fried in oil, and thus missing saturated fat which binds it together, I added grated, firm coconut fat. And while some websites suggested shaping the dumplings with wet hands, others advised to flour your hands. This made more sense to me. But the best advice was to do them in advance and let them firm up, by leaving them uncovered for an hour in the fridge.

Bread dumplings with mushrooms in cream

2 tbsp imitation bacon bits

1 tbsp dried onion bits

1tbsp grated coconut fat

1 stale/dry white bread roll or white bread

2 tbsp of milk

1 egg

1tsp chopped parsley

salt

flour for your hands

200gr mushrooms sliced

1tsp of butter

2 thyme twigs

2 tbsp of chives

200 ml of crème fraiche or double cream

salt and pepper.

Cut the roll into small cubes and put into a bowl. Pour the milk over and mix well. Let soak for about 10 minutes. Add the bacon bits and onions and let soak for another 10 minutes.

Whisk the egg with the parsley, the salt and add to the bread mixture. Stir well. Grate the coconut fat into it.

With floured hands shape 2 dumplings (they will be quite sticky). Put on a plate and put uncovered in the fridge for a minimum of one hour.

In the meantime slice the mushrooms and heat them with the butter in a pan. Add thyme, a bit salt and plenty of pepper and the cream. Cover and let the mushrooms soften and the sauce thicken without too much of evaporation. Take off the heat.

After the dumplings had their time in the fridge and you are ready to eat, take a big pot, fill with water and a good two tbsp of salt and bring to the boil. Once the water boils, add the dumplings, and turn the heat down immediatly. The dumplings should only simmer or they will fall apart! Cook them for about 20-25 minutes and remove at the end with a slotted spoon and leave to drain thoroughly.

Just before they are finished reheat your mushrooms again and once the boil, add the chopped chives.

Serve the dumplings in a deep plate and put the mushroom sauce around.

Verdict:

Not bad at all. They retained their shape and were firm, yet fluffy. Since the imitation bacon bits are basically flavoured bread, it gave them an interesting note. Not that I would buy it again, but at least I know now what to do with them.

If you have a use for frozen Crocodile tears, let me know.

The image is from Wikipedia since I failed to make a photo. If you ever need to take a photo from the internet, use the tab “more search tool” in the image section , then “usage rights” and chose one which is labelled as “labelled for reuse” in order to avoid copyright issues.

Dutch Sausage rolls. Saucijzenbroodje

Southwest 4 or 5, occasionally 6 at first.

Slight or moderate.

Showers.

Good.

Nightshifts suck. I don’t mind working at night and I don’t have problems sleeping. But I have problems cooking. Basically everything is upside down, or should be. You have breakfast at 6.30pm, your lunch at 1 am and your supper at 8 am. But somehow I cant eat things like curries at 8 am. Or follow it with a glass of wine. Drinking in the morning feels wrong, and eating a hearty meal as well.

So I put some energy into my lunch. But this is normally something which can be micro waved. So I tend to cook several portions and freeze them. Meaning my freezer is overflowing with a variety of (and of course me being me: unlabelled) food portions. Another problem is that my Vegetarian children went off Vegetarianism, so I bought sausages and meat. And now they are back to being Vegetarian, meaning that I have to finish that all, despite not wanting to.

I am not complaining, it is a good thing that they try again and I don’t mind eating once in a while meat, but it is getting too much now. So the next two lunch recipes will feature meat products, and then I should be back on track. The rest can be frozen for sometimes in the next months.

This month challenge from “Bloggers around the world” is the Netherlands. 

A tricky one for the summer. While the Netherlands has wonderful winter dishes, they are not that good for light meals. And there are few traditional Vegetarian meals. By sheer coincidence my friend from the Netherlands visited me earlier this month and brought with her some cookery books. I already thought about the Dutch sausage rolls; while they are quite substantial, they can be justified as a picnic dish for the summer. In one of her books was a Vegetarian pastry and I tried the filling for the “sausage” rolls. They were nice, but not really traditional.

I also tried the other variety, the Brabantse Worstenbroodjes,  but first of all it is too much work making bread dough just for one portion, and second they kept less fresh than the more common known variety with puff pastry. Which is bizarre since I thought that the bread dough around it will keep it fresher. Nevertheless they are nice as well, just make a “milk” bread dough with egg and butter. Here is what you can expect and the following picture was my outcome.

But if you really want to go full Dutch, use any shop bought puff pastry for a quick “make ahead” lunch treat. The top photo is the full roll, the following picture with the filling is unfortunately of bad quality, but you get the idea.

Do try them, they are very good and the filling can be used for more party sized little crowd pleasers.

Saucijzenbroodje

75gr minced beef

75gr minced fat pork

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 tbsp oats, soaked in a bit of milk (about 1 tbsp), or use soaked breadcrumbs, but oats are better

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley (curly is fine)

1 generous pinch of nutmeg

Salt and pepper, generous

1 tbsp of strong mustard, either the traditional Dutch, or Dijon or a mixture between Dijon and coarse French (which I used)

Half a sheet of puff pastry (since the sheets here are around 300gr, you are aiming for 150gr)

1 small egg, beaten (preferable a quail egg to avoid waste)

Preheat oven to 200 C. Put the chopped onion into a small dish and “wet” it with water. Microwave for 2 minutes until they are soft, but check after 1 minute if there is still some water. Ideally you should aim for them being soft without any visible water left (a few drops are fine), but pay attention, they burn easily.

Let cool completely and then mix with the two meats, the parsley, the oats with the milk, the spices. Use your hands to mix everything thoroughly and try a tiny pinch (preferable from a bit of beef, but you wont die if you eat a morsel of pork). Add more salt and pepper if necessary. It needs to be generously spiced, it is perfect if you think: Oh, that was one small pinch too much.

If you don’t use a quail egg, keep 2 tbsp of the beaten egg for the glazing and pour the rest into the meat mixture.

Roll out the puff pastry and brush with the mustard. Try to form a sausage with the meat mixture (works better with wet hands) and lay in the middle. Put first the short sides over and then both length sides. The seams are on top.

Brush with the egg and bake for 20minutes in the oven. Leave to cool but don’t put it into the fridge, cover it with a tea towel and pack the next morning into a tupper dish.

Eat with a portion of salad and Piccalilli if you like. Roast potatoes will transform it into a full blown meal.

Smakelijk eten!

The Running Man. Soba noodles with Peanut Sauce.

Southwest 5 or 6.

Slight or moderate.

Rain later.

Good, becoming moderate or poor later.

Apologies for being a bit quite in the last few days. But first of all I work at the moment nightshifts and second my family is in and out of the house, so I don’t really cook for one.

However I prepare lunch boxes for myself; so I decided to go a bit with the flow and give some nice ideas for either quick lunches to prepare at home or taking them to work.

The first one is a request, and a dedication, to and from the runner in my family.

If you run during your lunch break you want something fast to eat afterwards. And full of carbohydrates and proteins to help with the healing process. And not too fatty. But satisfying. With a bit of manganese, magnesium and salt.

Buckwheat (Soba) noodles. Of course I could make a joke and give a recipe for Yakisoba (grilled noodles) (you don’t need to understand this banter, it`s a private joke), but since Yakisoba doesn’t contain soba noodles, this is out.
Or I could also talk about the hikkoshi-soba custom, since he now moves house, but this would only mean repeating this article. But you get the gist.

So, my running, moving, Asian cuisine loving, young man in need of strength after your marathon training, this one is for you

Soba noodles with Peanut Sauce (serves one hungry young male adult)

crunchy peanut butter 2 tbsps (tablespoons)

light soy sauce 1 tbsp

dark soy sauce 1 tsp

Rice vinegar 1 tsp (teaspoon)

chilli oil 2 or 3 tbsps

sesame oil 1 tsp

garlic finely chopped  2 cloves

vegetable stock or water 1-3 tbsp

dried buckwheat (Soba) noodles 200g

To finish

white sesame seeds 1 tsp

finely sliced spring onion greens 2 stalks including greens

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry wok or frying pan, over a gentle heat, until golden. Set aside.

In a bowl, use a spoon to mash the peanut butter with the soy sauces and vinegar until evenly mixed. Stir in the chilli and sesame oils and the garlic.

Go for you run.

After your shower, add to the paste enough hot stock or water to give the sauce the consistency of single cream.

Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Drain well and put into your big Chinese bowl. Top with your sauce. Sprinkle noodles with the spring onion greens and toasted sesame seeds. Mix everything together well just before eating.

Currently not alone. Useful soft garlic. Fake Boursin style cheese

Variable 3 or 4, becoming west or southwest 5 at times.

Slight or moderate.

Thundery showers, fog patches.

Moderate or good, occasionally very poor.

Summer. Heat. And the children are back. Like all good students during the summer. Well, one so far, but the others are due tomorrow. Hence I wont blog a lot, since I only cook for one, once they are gone or visiting friends. Or if one of them wants an extra lunch. Or I want something different.

It is actually a bit difficult. While I enjoy the time with my son, and I am sure he enjoys the time with me, he is also bored. Don’t forget I moved from the place he grew up with. Were all his friends are. Also back for the summer. So its only me for entertainment. And no matter how good our relationship, he misses his friends. And London. Hence I chucked him more or less out for 36 hours and “chased” him towards London. It will be better in the next days because the rest will be also back. But ultimately this is now my place, no longer a memory from childhood and growing up.

I guess it just takes time until this will be “home” for them.

On a different note, my post Fried Radishes with Herbs and not Quark was quite popular. Especially with people who are familiar with the idea of boiled potatoes and quark. I was also told that my claim, that quark can be purchased in every supermarket in the UK, is wrong. They are right, it seems to be a London thing. I cant buy quark here (unless I order it from Ocado). And while I really liked the Labneh with Kefir, sometimes even I don’t have always Labneh.

The following recipe is very simple to make and something you could have come up yourself but I just use it to share another cool trick. Soft garlic. Yes, you heard it all before and I bet you have roasted your garlic in the oven. But first of all it is not very energy efficient and second: Who wants to heat the oven when it is hot?

But this garlic is something you can rustle up in no time and it keeps in the fridge for a few days. It has several advantages: Hardly any garlic breath, quickly done and incredible versatile. Versatile as in: use it just mashed up with grilled lamb; add it to cream and chives and pour over grilled prawns; add to mash; into a salad dressing; spread it on bread, top with tomatoes and grill it like a Bruschetta or spoon it into your fake quark.

All you need to do is cook it with its skin.

Separate a whole bulb of garlic (or more) into the individual cloves. Remove the outer papery skin but leave the skin on the individual cloves. Into a pot, fill with water and cook for 30 minutes until they are soft and can be squeezed out of their skin. They will look like a paste, like something you can buy in a jar but without the preservatives. If you want to keep them, don’t peel until you need them, but put them into a container, top with the cold water they cooked in and put into the fridge until needed.

As to the Fake “Boursin”

½ pack cream cheese

4 tbsp plain yoghurt

3 soft garlic cloves

salt and pepper

as many tbsp of finely chopped fresh herbs you like. Frozen is fine!

Mix the cream cheese (Philadelphia is okay), the squeezed out garlic and the yoghurt. Take a whisk and beat the hell out of it. You want to achieve a whipped cream like consistency. Just carry on whisking. Feel free to add another spoon full of yoghurt until it gets nearly foamy. Add salt and pepper and whisk again. Once you are happy with the texture, fold the herbs in, put everything into a container and put it in the fridge for as long as possible.

And if you steam your new potatoes at the same time as the garlic cooks, you have a meal. Either the next day (just pop the spuds into the microwave to heat them through) or now.

Just serve the hot potatoes with the fake herb cheese which is like a quark but not really, and you have a meal fit for a hot summer`s evening. Just make sure you cook it either early morning or the evening before. When it is cooler and you drink your G&T. Just remember to set the kitchen alarm and next day`s dinner is cooked while you relax.