Author Archives: Douglas Breeden

I have done this a few times before – you can find those posts in my Blog category if you are interested – so I was thinking what more things to tell you did not know yet. Anyway, a while ago, my friend had made a post about her favorite foods and since then, I had been thinking about making a post like that myself (and did not do yet for whatever reason). This, friends, is the chance! So, curtain up for my top seven foods – just in alphabetical order because I cannot say which one I like best, and it also depends on appetite.

And since you already now that I love music, this little piece should go with it. Also, the music video has the most lovely and happy singing and dancing fruit.

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ALMONDS

My absolute favorite nut, and also the most versatile one because almonds are not only yummy on their own, great for baking, and awesome as almond butter, but also make the most delicious nut milk, while milk from other nuts or seeds (I have made and tried hazelnut, walnut, and sesame milk by now) tends to be rather bitter. They also contain a large proportion of healthy monounsaturated fatty acids.

~ freshly made, super creamy almond milk ~

My day usually starts with making fresh almond milk from almonds I have soaked in water overnight, and then I finish off a big pot (half a liter at least) of it with black tea throughout the day.

APPLES

Apples are my favorite fruit, and if I had to pick just one fruit to eat for the rest of my life, it would be apples. I like apples that are juicy and not too sweet, and my favorite variety is Elstar which is very aromatic and does not get mealy.

But I also like other kinds such as Gloster (which is rather non-commercial and quite hard to find), Jonagored, Boskoop, Granny Smith, and Pink Crisp. Just Braeburn is not so much my cup of tea.

CARROTS

Dear carrot, you probably are my favorite vegetable, despite the rivals below. Once, I ate so many of you every day that I turned orange, and people told me that I was finally not looking so pale anymore …

For some variety, I have different cutting techniques for carrots, and which one I use depends on mood and shape of the carrots I have. My favorite is carrot tagliatelle which are a perfect substitute for pasta. For making tagliatelle, long carrots of rather even thickness along their whole length are perfect.

Short and rather thick or knobbly carrots I like to cut into slices lengthwise, like this.

Big, thick carrots are also great for making diagonal slices.

And if you have a little time and nice, not too large steel cookie cutters, it is worth the fun to make flowers or animals from them … For this, you need preferably thick carrots as well to have sufficient cut surface.

Carrots that do not come with a suitable shape for those cutting practices usually end up in smoothies or soups. So you see, we have quite the carrot science on here.

CHICKEN

Surprise, surprise! Well, I just love chicken, and I eat it once at least almost every day. I eat those skinless, boneless chicken breast filets (I do not like the skin, and since I have some washing issues, grabbing a drumstick with my bare hands and having that oily feeling and smell on my fingertips afterwards frightens me a little) that I roast in coconut oil or ghee with spices, or I marinate them to make them more flavorful. Give me chicken, and I am perfectly happy!

My love for chicken has a very old history. When I was small, I sometimes ate at a place with my parents and grandparents where they had a half roasted chicken on the menu, and I always ordered that. I did not care for the fries, I just wanted the chicken with a lot of ketchup. So, apparently I did not have washing issues back then already. Maybe I should just have that again?

RED ONIONS

Red onions are my favorite onions because they have such a wonderful, slightly sweet flavor, and they do not make me cry while cutting them like the white or brown ones do. I love to cut them into slices and roast them in the pan together with some chicken, and then have that with a sliced apple or fresh tomatoes. The best dish is one that is buried under a pile of roasted onions.

And every time I find really big red onions at a store, I am very happy. I think the organic supermarket around the corner has by far the biggest ones.

~ does anybody still believe organic vegetables were small and wrinkly? ~

TOMATOES

When I have an appetite for something fresh and savory, tomatoes are always the first choice. Cooled tomato slices with a little salt or soy sauce are umami heaven! And they are also my favorite ingredient for a quick meal when I do not have time or am in the mood for cooking: Some freshly sliced tomatoes with leftover chicken make up a bowl of yumminess in less than three minutes.

And look what I recently found at the supermarket: smiley tomatoes!

Of course I had to buy those. The package says, “I am red and sweet”, and so they were!

WINTER SQUASH

This vegetable is the one I am looking for to being season throughout the whole year! My favorite one is hokkaido squash (red kuri squash in English) which is a medium-size and very orange squash that is sold at stores over here during autumn and winter. It is very starchy and perfect for baking or in soups and stir-fries.

Thank goodness my favorite Asian food store offers kabocha and butternut squash during the whole year, so I am not squash-less in spring and summer!

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So, there are my seven favorite foods. This was quite a hard task, and many foods I love as well – kale which is so hard to get here, adzuki beans which I have come to love recently, fish and seafood, and all those lovely herbs and spices I use for cooking a lot – remain unmentioned. Maybe I should do a post like this for just herbs and spices if I am tagged again.

So now, please tell me your seven favorite foods! Or make a post yourself and link back here so I can find it. I am excited to learn what you love!

Thanks to the richness of this year’s harvest, I am still in apple heaven. By now, I have eaten my way through almost three bowls of apples – I mean my large red spotted bowl – and there is still no end in sight.

Every now and then, I find some more apples on my door sill my neighbors have put there for me because they are happy that somebody is eating all these apples.

A surprisingly large amount of apples is finished off with smoothies or as a little afternoon meal.

~ spinach and apple smoothie ~

~ chopped apples with cinnamon and hemp seeds ~

And the rest is used for cooking. I had thought about making some kind of chicken or goulash dish with apples, but was not sure about which meat to use and how to season it. But then the Chef had the great idea to make something with pork and apples, and I immediately knew that this was going to be it and had ideas for the seasoning.

I do not eat a lot of pork, so I had not thought about that option, but it went incredibly well with the apples – the dish turned out as a wonderful combination of sweet and savory flavors, and the meat got wonderfully tender due to the rather long stewing time.

STEWED PORK AND APPLES WITH CHINESE FIVE SPICES AND CARDAMOM

4 servings

Ingredients

butter or oil
4 onions, peeled and chopped
500 g (1 lb) pork cutlets, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 apples, seeds removed and cut into pieces
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/2 tbsp ground Chinese five spices
1 pinch of ground cardamom
1 handful of fresh basil

Directions

In a large pot, heat some fat an sauté the onions. Add the pork and roast the meat from all sides while stirring carefully, then add the apples. Fill the pot with water so everything is just covered, and bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low. Season with salt, pepper, five spices, and cardamom, and stew covered for about an hour. Serve with fresh basil and enjoy.

Do you like sweet-and-savory dishes? If yes, which one is your favorite?

Okay, so here is the first beyond-habitual dish I made with some of the apples I recently got. Since my tummy is nice these days, I thought legumes would be in order once again (and I was right – no tummy ache! ), and I opted for beluga lentils because they look so funny and I never cooked them before. These little black lentils almost look like caviar, and this is why they are called that way. (I am happy they do not taste like caviar. ) However, other lentils will work as well.

~ looks a little muddy, but this was a 100 % success ~

To make it more autumn-like, I added leek and winter squash. I used hokkaido squash which is the kind that is sold at the food stores in autumn and winter over here. It is very yummy and quite starchy, almost like sweet potato, and one of my favorite vegetables. The apples then contribute a nice crunch and freshness.

When I thought about the spices – to keep it autumn-style, it was clear that warm spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg had to go into it – I suddenly spotted the box with cocoa powder on my kitchen shelf, and I knew I had to give it a try. I now officially declare cocoa powder a new member of the favorite-spices family.

AUTUMN-STYLE BELUGA LENTILS

3-4 servings

Ingredients

butter or oil
1 big stalk of leek, cut into thin slices
400 g (14) winter squash, seeds removed and cut into pieces
1 red bell pepper, stem and seeds removed and cut into small cubes
2 cups readily cooked or canned beluga lentils (from 125 g raw lentils)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch of ground nutmeg
1 pinch of ground cloves
2 apples, seeds removed and cut into pieces

Directions

Prepare the lentils by soaking them for a couple of hours, then draining and rinsing them thoroughly, setting them up with fresh water, and cooking them for about 40 minutes. Or use canned lentils you drain and rinse well.

In a large pot, heat some fat and sauté leek, pumpkin, and bell pepper. Cook covered on low to medium heat for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft (eventually add a little bit of water). Add the lentils and season with salt, pepper, cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix everything well. Directly before serving, add the fresh apples, then serve and enjoy.

You know that I do not eat a lot of red meat, but every now and then, I really enjoy it. Red meat used to be one the foods I did not cook for myself and only enjoyed on special occasions such as eating out (I am still not able to make a good steak, so there) or when I am cooked for by my mom. This has to do with the fact that red meat is more expensive than chicken or turkey and, in my opinion, affords superior cooking skills to turn out well.

Well, I am able to cook it, but too often it has had the texture of a shoe sole then.

~ yeah, this really looks like a challenge! ~

Anyway, my mom makes a very good goulash – so good that the meat almost melts on the tongue. Even better, she told me that it is not even difficult to make a goulash like that! The key to success is simply slow cooking for quite a long time, and the goulash gets even better every time you heat it up again.

The basic recipe is very simple: Just heat some fat, roast the meat from all sides, fill in some water until everything is covered, and let it cook down on small heat, up to three times. The longer you cook it, the better it gets. I tried this, but could not resist to add some onions, spices, and herbs – my-style, you know. And since I cannot advocate to devote such a long cooking time to just a single serving, I made several servings at once. It turned out so well! And the leftovers can be kept in the fridge or frozen for further enjoyment.

SPICY BEEF GOULASH

4 servings

Ingredients

butter or oil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
4 onions, peeled and chopped
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp black cumin seeds
500 g (1 lb) beef goulash, cut into bite-sized pieces
salt to taste
1 tsp dried chili flakes
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

Directions

In a large pot, heat some fat and roast garlic, onions, coriander, and black cumin seeds until fragrant.

Add the goulash meat and roast it from all sides while stirring constantly. Then fill the pot with water until everything is just covered. Season with salt, chili, turmeric, and thyme.

Cover the pot and cook the goulash at low to medium heat for about one and a half hours. If the water is used up during the cooking process, refill some. In the end, the liquid should be reduced so that there is just a little sauce, but the dish is not soupy anymore. Add the parsley, serve with a nice vegetable side dish or a salad, and enjoy.

Is there a dish you have learned from your mom?