Kiel Week (end)

Friday was the normal run up from NRW to Schleswig-Holstein, it was Kielerwocher and a lot of the Länder had started their school summer holidays, so I was pleasantly surprised when everything went exceedingly smoothly (they have been carrying out refurbishment to the Elbe tunnels under Hamburg for 2 years).

Linda had been out with her ex-colleagues on the Thursday a so had  taken the Friday off ostensibly to do some shopping, but wink, wink, nudge, nudge, we know otherwise don’t we??

So it had been decided that we would get the Teppan Yaki grill out and have a nice leisurely evening, I first done this type of eating in Kobe on the Motomatchi (the main shopping street) many years ago ,I remember then being mesmerised and it is a healthy, individual but social eating experience. I later carried this on when in Berlin in the then only Japanese restaurant in the city in the Europa Centre, a group of us  would visit here on New Years eve prior to going out on the town, it wasn’t cheap but was one of those eating experiences that left an lasting imprint on your mind. This grilling at the table lends itself to a lot of different foods not just Japanese  and as this summer isn’t all that good it doesn’t need sunny warm weather, in fact it is better cooked indoors.

griled chops, veg and the potato salad

So back to our evening:

Linda had made some nice bits and bobs to grill and also a very nice potato salad, these had come out of the Essen und Trinken,  a German food magazine, here is her take on it:

800g small new potatoes
Sea salt
2 bay leaves
1 red chilli (mildish) seeds removed
1 clove of garlic
5 stalks of parsley
5 stalks of mint
2 limes
Pinch of sugar
8 dessert spoons of EVOO

Scrub the potatoes, cut in half and cook in water with the sea salt and bay leaves. Cook them until just cooked then steam them over a low heat in the dry pan.

Slice the chilli in fine rings, chop the garlic and grind together with a pinch of sea salt to a find paste in a pestle and mortar. Remove the leaves from the herbs and roughly chop together with the stalks. Squeeze the juice from the lime.
Add the chilli and herbs to the garlic with a pinch of sugar and salt, add the olive oil and stir in the lime juice and pour over the still warm potatoes and allow to infuse for 10 minutes.

This is a take on the famous small salt encrusted potatoes from the Canaries with the green sauce.  Papas arrugadas e molto verde.

Linda had marinated some wonderful  little lamb chops, simply  marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, salt and pepper.

She had also made a couple of nice other recipes from “Essen und Trinken”

Chicken Saltimbocca.

2 chicken breasts
25g sundried tomatoes
1 dsp . freshly grated Parmesan cheese 
1 tsp.  grated lemon zest
6 dsp. EVOO
4 slices of Parma ham
8 large sage leaves
2 lemons
4 dsp. Sugar
pepper

12 wooden skewers soaked in water for at least ½ hr.

Place the sundried tomatoes in boiling water and allow to soften for 5 minutes, pour off the water and allow to drain on kitchen paper. Roughly chop them add them to a kitchen chopper (or use a blender stick)with the Parmesan, lemon zest, pepper, 3 dsp. Olive oil and blend to a fine paste.

Remove the contre filets from the chicken breasts . Slice the breast into 1cm slices and flatten  with a heavy object (bottom of a small frying pan) either between 2 sheets of cling film or place in a freezer bag.  Also flatten the contre filets (it is better to do these separately from the main breasts as they are more delicate).

Lay the filets out on a board and spread ½ with some of the tomato paste and cover with ½ a slice of the Parma ham and fold over to make a sandwich, lay a sage leaf on each parcel and pin all together with wood skewers.

Sprinkle each with olive oil, marinating until ready to grill.

Grill on each side for 5-7 minutes, when you turn the saltimbocca for the first time place the lemon quarters dipped in sugar and caramelise.

Prawn herb parcels

12 medium sized prawns, shelled (you can use frozen but make sure they are completely thawed, drained and the digestive tracts removed
 1 unwaxed lemon cut in half length ways and then very thinly sliced.
 1 red chilli sliced into fine rings
 Course sea salt
 4 pieces of aluminium foil about 30x40cm

Herb crème fraiche made from
1 clove of garlic (or more)
Rough sea salt
100g of softened butter
100g of full cream crème fraiche
Small bunch of flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)
Bunch of chives (chopped into 5mm rolls)
1 box of cress (cut the top off with a pair of scissors)
Pepper to taste.

Chop the garlic roughly and pound together with the salt in a pestle and mortar, add to a mixing bowl with the butter and mix with a hand mixer until creamy, mix in the crème fraiche a little at a tome untol all is  well mixed. Add the parsley, chives and cress and mix well and taste with salt and pepper.

Place 3 prawns, 1 dsp. of the herb crème fraiche/butter mixture, 2 or 3 slices of lemon and a few chilli rings in the middle of the foil rectangle and grind some salt over, fold into a parcel making sure it is sealed.

Place on top of the grill for about 10 minutes (depending  on the size of the prawns larger could take up to 12 minutes).

(On Saturday when we got home from the windjammer parade we also added some tiny baby calamari, these are caught at this time of the year as a part of the brown North Sea shrimps catch on which they feed).