Avocado, shrimp and gorgonzola salad

I have decided to cut back on my evening food intake not for any particular reason (NO IT IS NOT BECAUSE I AM OVER WEIGHT) and am cutting out warm meat filled evening meals, to this end I have started by having things like salads and the like. So here we go with the first one.


Avocado, shrimp and gorgonzola salad



1 small head of Romana salad

1 clove of garlic

150g of lambs’ salad (Feldsalat)

1 ripe avocado

Small handful of walnuts

4-5 cherry tomatoes halved

50g of cream gorgonzola

50g of brown shrimps (Nordseekrabben)

2 mushroom heads sliced



For the dressing

Juice of ½ a lemon

2 table spoons of sherry vinegar

1 tsp middle mustard

1 tsp of runny honey

40ml of olive oil

Pinch of celery salt

80ml made up marigold stock

1 tsp of chopped coriander

A few drops of pumpkin seed oil (that was all I had left)



Slice the head of salad and put it together with the lamb leaf salad in a colander and wash it under running water, drain and put into a serving bowl rubbed round with a garlic clove. Make the dressing; put all of the ingredients into a jar (mine was a spreewald gurkin jar but you may have a bit of difficulty finding such a rare piece of kitchen equipment so just use any old jar) and shake (WARNING make sure you put the lid on first). Put the halved tomatoes in the salad bowl along with the walnuts and sliced mushrooms. Pour over the dressing (leave a bit for later) and give it all a good mixing, posh people have proper salad spoon and fork, I used my fingers.

Peel and slice the avocado.

Put a heap full of salad in a deep plate, top with the avocado sort of fan it out, sprinkle the shrimps around the top and dot the gorgonzola in pieces on the top. Drizzle the a bit of the dressing over the avocado and give it a few turns of chilli (I have a one of those glass jars that you buy with it ready to grind)

Cut yourself a few slices of baguette and away you go

Pigeon breasts on a bed of roses (pardina) lentils

Pigeon breasts on lentils

I was lying in bed early Saturday morning, when the phone rang, 06:00 just getting light, who the hell is ringing at this time in the morning? It was one of my shooting mates, we are out pigeon shooting get your gear together and will meet you at kleineraschhoff in an hour. Zoom, out of bed, under the shower, green stuff on and out. It was a 4rather nice day, the weather was a little damp but no rain, and in fact it was a very nice morning. We positioned at the edge of the woods and waited for the pigeons to come out of their roosts to feed and come they did, we shot near on 50 within 2 hours. I only wanted a couple for the weekend, it turned out to be 10 (I hadn't planned to, but as they had been talking about lentils on the wild food board, I decided to do lentils with pigeon breasts).

On the way home I went to the market, it was still before most people where out and about and bought a kilo of chicken carcasses and some soup veg to make the stock for the lentils and also for the risotto that I was making for Sunday lunch, more of that later.

First pluck your pigeons

you will have a sack of feathers, how you get rid of them thats your problem

Give them a bath (shower actually, but don't tell Linda she gets a bit funny about sharing the shower)

pick out two with nice plump breasts, vacuum pack the rest for a rainy day

The stock ingredients

1 kilo of chicken carcasses

The 2 pigeon carcasses

Piece of leek, white only roughly chopped

1 large carrot roughly chopped

Piece of celeriac chopped

Stalk of parsley

1 onion halved skin left on and browned in a skillet

1 bay leaf pinned to the onion with 2 cloves

5 juniper berries

5 all spice berries

A piece of mace

10 pepper corns

3 green cardamom pods

2 cm piece of cinnamon bark

1 dried chilli ( one of the last from my balcony harvest)

I had removed the pigeon breasts and made a marinade of shallot, garlic, sherry vinegar, raspberry balsamico, ground game spices, ground pepper, lemon oil and olive oil, plunked them in this and allowed to soak in their bath while the stock was cooking.

 

I browned the onion halves in an oiled skillet

Put the lot into a pressure cooker, pour on 2 ltrs of cold water and 1 ltr of stock (I used low salt Marigold).

Bring to a rolling boil

and skim the grunge that rises to the surface lid on at full pressure for 40 minutes, switch off and allow to cool then there you have your stock , you can adjust the seasoning at this point if needed, but no salt!

Lentils

Sauté a finely diced shallot in a little oil and add some very small diced carrot, leek, celeriac and speck. Pour in about 600ml of boiling stock (you can add more later if required) now add 250g of lentils (I used Pardina) and cook until soft. When soft add a few splashes of raspberry balsamico and stir in

Marinating the breasts



adding the sherry vinegar



Adding the home made sherry vinegar



The breasts in the marinade, cover and leave while the stock is finished and the lentils are cooked

Fry the legs and some shallots to the right you can see the lentils cooking

Heat a little oil in a skillet , remove the breasts from marinade, pat dry and flash fry until they are just how you like them,

remove from the pan and wrap in aluminium foil strain the marinade into the skillet and reduce, adjust seasoning

Remove from the foil, slice pour any juices  into the jus, arrange the sliced breast on top of the lentils and pour the reduction over.

The plate with food

Hey Hoh Thanks for getting me out of bed!!!!!



The plate without food





Truffle risotto, steamed salmon and egg frit

We had been having a discussion on the Wildfood food board about a poached egg frit, this was a poached egg and then deep fried. Some of us decided to try and replicate it (well the culprit was our dear Brussels pâté, Belgium Endive (Elisa). She had done a one on Friday or was it Thursday; in any case it had turned out very well.


It had set my old grey cells in motion to see what place it could have in a meal, I had received a real authentic packet of Truffle Risotto as part of my cookery club Christmas present from Linda (max €10,-), I had been into the market earlyish (after a pigeon shoot, but that is the next blog)and got a piece of Pacific fresh salmon, the fish monger didn’t find it funny when I pointed out that we didn’t have a sea board with the Pacific here in Europe, so it had, had a might long swim! (German lack of humour here).

So it was to be :

Truffle Risotto with steamed lemon salmon (Fresh Pacific LoL) topped with a deep fried poached egg.

So first off poach your self an egg, make sure that it is fresh, that way the albumen holds together in a mound around the yolk.

Poach until the white is just set and immediately transfer to ice cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside until required.

an egg in the mist

Marinated salmon

Place the salmon on a plate and grate a little lemon zest over the salmon, grate a couple of turns of pepper and drizzle some lemon olive oil and a few drops of Pumpkin seed oil on top and add some herbal sea salt. Cover and allow to marinate)

I had the day before made a few liters of chicken stock, this went onto boil, I diced a shallot and sautéed this in olive oil, I then added the packet of truffle risotto, it also contained cêpes. Coating the grains in oil and cooking until they started to turn translucent. Now added a wine glass? of white wine (an Italian of course Pinot Grigio), let the alcohol boil off and started to add the hot stock, a ladle at a time allowing it to be absorbed before adding more, stirring, stirring all the time (some say you don’t have to, but this is the way I was taught and that is the way I shall continue)

In the mean time I put the salmon on to steam (Chinese bamboo steamer over boiling water)

While the risotto was finishing and the salmon steaming I cut the egg yolk and some of the white out of the poached egg with a cutter,

I next coated it in season flour, then in egg,

then in panko crumbs,

repeating the last 2 stages to get a real thick crust.

I had heated some vegetable oil in a small pan (I could have used the friteuse but what a waste of oil for just one egg), I may have left it in a tick long as the egg yolk was not as runny as I like, though I think it would have been to Linda’s liking

So it was Risotto into a deep plate, steamed salmon on top and the egg on top of that, a few strategically placed marjoram leaves and a few Sel de Fleur flakes on top of the egg.

It was truly fantastic and of course washed down with a glass or two of Pinot Grigio.

I shall be doing it again, thanks, Aero and Belgium Endive for the fantastic idea.

Rosemary fried haddock on a bed of Moloh Portuguese

 Molho Portuguese – Portuguese tomato and red pepper sauce

 250g of ripe tomatoes

100g of sundried tomatoes in oil diced

½  large “Spanish” onion chopped not too fine 1 dsp of tomato purée

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 red pepper

3 anchovy filets chopped

1 bird’s eye chilli diced fine (or more according to taste)

2 table spoons of chopped parsley

2 tsp. of chopped capers

2 table spoons of oil. (for cooking)

Splash of red wine vinegar

1 glass of red wine

1 tsp. of chopped thyme

Pinch of smoked paprika

½ tsp. of ground cumin

½ tsp. of crushed black pepper

Olive oil for the sauce

Sea salt

Sugar to taste

Put the red peppers in a roasting dish or pan, sprinkle with olive oil and roast in a very hot oven. When well and truly blackened take out of the oven allow to cool peel off the skin, remove the flesh, dice and set aside.

Put a cross in the skin of the top of the tomatoes, pour over boiling water and skin. Quarter the tomatoes, remove the seeds also set aside.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, fry the onions and garlic until soft but not coloured.

Stir in the tomato purée; allow to cook for a while, adding the chilli, anchovy, capers and the red pepper flesh, mix and heat through.

Add the diced sundried tomatoes, wine and vinegar (depending on the acidity of the wine and your taste you may need more or less vinegar),

remove from the heat , add parsley and thyme, stir in the paprika, and pepper adjust the seasoning and sugar and add to the skinned tomatoes, allow to simmer until you require it, but don't allow to boil.

Add the olive oil until it reaches the required thickness. This is thick chunky sauce and doesn't require a lot of liquid.

 

Fried Rosemary Haddock filet

We had been to the Saturday market bought a fresh haddock, which the fish monger fileted and skinned as quick as lightening. We had 2 smashing filets, one for the meal and one for the freezer
A chunky skinned haddock filets cut into tranchés,this is also a very nice dish with cod or halibut filets.

Put some flour, salt, pepper and ground dried rosemary into a bag, put the filets in and shake so that all the filets are coated.

 Heat olive oil in a pan and fry each side until golden and crispy on the outside but still succulent on the inside.

Pour a good portion of sauce onto a warmed plate, place the fish filets on top of it.

Surround with sautéed potatoes, sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley. Serve immediately