sweet potato schupfnudeln with brown butter and thyme

by on September 27, 2012

Schupfnudeln are on my to cook list (or craving list) since weeks. They are what I would call German comfort food and usually eaten with the mostly well known sauerkraut and bacon. Another name but rather uncommon is Finger Nudeln (finger noodles). Though they are called Nudeln I would rather translate them as dumplings as they are more similar to gnocchi than pasta. But that’s just hairsplitting and rather of less importance. You can find more information about Schupfnudeln here.

Sweet potato are fairly uncommon in Germany, sometimes hard to find but gaining popularity and that is no surprise to me. One point may be the growing interest for Asian cuisine.  But for me it’s the taste, their sweetness work great with savory dishes, can handle many seasonings and can be stored unwashed for 9 months, I actually never tried that, this knowledge comes from a farmers market vendor. I have to admit I didn’t grew up eating sweet potatoes and I had some troubles at the beginning and having them covered with marshmallows and brown sugar (yuck) for the first time, had not been helpful at all. I find more and more use for them in my recipes and they are one of my grocery staples now. Here they come accompanied by nutmeg, brown butter and fresh thyme. Enjoy!

sweet potato schupfnudeln with brown butter and thyme

ingredients:

about 450 g / 1 lb. sweet potato

1 egg yolk

1/2 to 1 tsp salt

nutmeg to taste (about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp, yes freshly ground please)

5 Tbsp all-purpose flour + more

1-2 tsp clarified butter, ghee, would be the best, vegetable oil would also work

50 g / 3 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 to 3 springs of thyme

instructions:

Pierce sweet potato all over with a fork, put on a lined baking sheet and bake at 230 C / 450 F for 30 to 45 minutes (depending if you preheated your oven or not). Let cool, cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Mash with a fork and add remaining ingredients. Add just enough flour to get a dough that comes nicely together and may be a little sticky.

Dust your hands, knife blade and cutting board with flour. Form a log and cut into 10 pieces (more or less doesn’t matter). Roll, roll, roll every piece into finger long and thick noodles. Preheat you pan to medium high heat, let melt clarified butter. Cook schupfnudeln until golden brown, rotate from time to time to get a nice color all around. You may need to separate this into two batches depending on your pan size.

For the brown butter: add butter to saucepan over medium heat, let melt and continue cooking. Keep stirring, it will start to foam than subside. Little brown specks will form. Brown butter is ready than you can smell the nice nutty aroma.

Arrange schupfnudeln on a plate, drizzle with brown butter and sprinkle with fresh thyme leafs.

{ 4 comments }

oven salad with kale, sweet potato and brown rice

by on August 2, 2012

It is hot as blue blazes and my a/c is on duty nonstop and tries to keep the insight temperature at an human-appropriate level. I love my sweet treats, so I am still cranking up my oven despite the weather. I am not giving up my baking, that’s why ceiling fans are invented.

After popping cakes and cookies in my oven for weeks and eating rather cold meals like salads and sandwiches or cooking outside using the grill, I changed my strategy. I made some salads in the oven with roasted vegetables and switched to cold desserts, ice cream is in season right now.

I used tofu for this oven salad, not a stranger in my kitchen but neither a regular guest. If you like substitute tofu with chicken chunks, I’ll understand not everyone is in love with tofu in my house. The sweetness of the sweet potato and the crunchy kale work perfect together. Kale is known as a cold season vegetable but it is also very heat resistant and therefore available all year long. The other day I made a version with pearl barley instead of brown rice and loved it. As the cooking time is rather long for both, I like to double the amount and freeze half of it.

oven salad

serves 3

ingredients:

200 g / 1 cup brown rice

100 g / 3.6 oz kale, ribs removed and chopped

200 g / 7 oz.  sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite size chunks (about one medium size)

200 g /  7 oz.  tofu, extra firm (about half a block)

3 Tbsp ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil, divided

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

salt to taste

1 small lemon (juice and zest)

1 green onion, chopped

 instructions:

Cook brown rice: in a medium saucepan bring 500 ml / 2 cups of water to boil, add salt and brown rice and reduce heat to medium, let simmer for 45 minutes. Drain if necessary and fluff with a fork.

Drain the tofu: cover tofu with paper towels and set it on a plate, top with another plate and put something heavy on it (like a pan). Let stand for 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 200 C / 400 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Toss sweet potato chunks with 1 Tbsp ghee, season with salt and spread in one layer on one baking sheet. Put into the oven for about 20 minutes at first (after that you will add tofu and kale and continue cooking all together).

Cut the tofu into cubes. Mix soy sauce and sesame oil in a medium bowl and add tofu and marinate for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare kale and toss in 2 Tbsp ghee, spread evenly over the other baking sheet.

Remove sweet potato from the oven, flip them with a spatula and add the tofu cubes to this baking sheet. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 F and put both baking sheets into the oven, continue cooking for 15-18 minutes.

In a big bowl bring together brown rice, sweet potato and kale, sprinkle with lemon zest and juice. Season to taste and top with green onion.

{ 2 comments }

yellow split pea and sweet potato soup

by on May 15, 2012

The summer in southwest USA can be brutal, hot and humid, I had been told. It’s going to be my first summer down here and I have to admit, saying I am not a fan of this kind of weather is high understated. That’s not me complaining, not at all, since my move in December it had been wonderful. But actually I am a fan of  cozy, rainy days with warming soup. I suspect the days I can feast upon hot soup without sitting in the refrigerator, are counted and I enjoyed this soup even more as last one of these season.

Consider this soup as a plain canvas, actually not so plain. It already comes with nice flavors but the fun part is, you cook a big pot of healthy soup and vary with the toppings and you have a nice soup for several days or feed a crowd once.

yellow split pea and sweet potato soup

You don’t have to soak yellow split peas but my belly considers this is better to digestive and it shortens the cooking time.

ingredients:

200 g / 1 cup yellow split peas, soaked overnight

700 g / 25 oz.  sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly sliced (about 4 3/4 cups)

1.5 liter / 6 cups (or more) water or broth

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

instructions:

Rinse yellow split peas, add to a large pot with sweet potatoes and water. Bring to boil over medium high heat, reduce to medium heat and let simmer for 30 minutes or until soft. Puree with a hand blender, you might need more water. Add salt and pepper to taste.

toppings:

There are no limits, this is just one of many ideas. Any kind of vegetable with brown butter or olive oil and  your favorite spice mixture would be divine.

enough for 2-3 servings

1  bell pepper, color doesn’t matter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp pul biber (Turkish dried red pepper flakes)

Cut pepper in half, remove seeds, membrane and stem end and slice pepper in bite-size pieces.

Heat your pan over medium high heat, add the oil and butter and bell pepper pieces (make sure they are dry or oil will splatter). Fry until you got some brown spots, stirring occasionally. Add pul biber and continue cooking for 1 minutes.

Fill soup into bowls and top with bell pepper pieces and drizzle with the spiced oil from the pan.

{ 5 comments }

roasted veggies with browned butter

by on March 13, 2012

After spending a few days out of town some of you might come home with a coffee-table book from Burned Water, Arizona or Mosquito Ville, Vermont. Of cause this is the right thing to do…After a few days in Dallas I am coming back with a cauliflower and a bag full of sweet potatoes. Am I weird or strange? No judging please, I would say: just hungry and for once prepared for arriving home with a hole in my belly. I got everything figured out: preparing the veggies and roasting them while unloading the car, would have been under an hour and I would be ready for some cozy time on the sofa. Nice try… this all didn’t happen. After some hours in a never ending traffic jam, chasing detours, squeezed in between two big trucks and arriving late at home, I was starving and my dream of veggies transformed into a pizza. But pizza is a vegetable too, some say!

So I saved my cauliflower and sweet potato for another day last week and enjoyed it not less than expected. Roasting vegetables is one of my post farmers market visit ritual. After stocking up with vegetables I roast them and use them up during the coming week: as a side dish with some chicken or I throw them into pasta sauce or as they are with a nice topping or puréed as a soup (you got the idea…).

My mum used to brown some, actually a lot of butter and roast some bread crumbs to top the cauliflower, I skipped the bread crumbs for this time and added a spice mix. This is my favorite way to prepare roasted veggies right now, drizzled with curried browned butter.

roasted veggies with browned butter

for the roasted vegetables:

3 medium or 2 big sweet potatoes, peeled, cubed

1 small cauliflower, separated into small florets

1 midsize onion, peeled, cut into big chunks

60 ml / 1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

salt

Preheat your oven to 230 C / 450 F and grab your large baking sheet and set aside. Parchment paper is not necessary but makes the cleaning a lot easier (your choice).

Put everything into a bowl with a lid, shake well. Check if the vegetable are evenly coated, add more oil if necessary and shake again.

Spread evenly in single layer over the baking sheet. Use a second baking sheet if too crowded.

Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, turn the vegetable after 15 minutes.

for the brown butter:

here is more about brown butter

110 g / 1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 tablespoon of your favorite spice mixture (like curry powder)

Put the butter into a sauce pan and let melt over medium heat. Keep monitoring the butter. If milk solids sink to the bottom of the pan they tend to burn and the butter tastes bitter. Continue stirring!

When the color of the butter turns into a golden brown, add the spice mixture and continue cooking for a few seconds, so the spice can develop it’s flavor.

Drizzle over the roasted vegetables and enjoy!

{ 1 comment }

lentil salad with smoked almonds, sweet potato and goat cheese

by on January 2, 2012

I can’t believe 2011 is already gone! It was a great year and never boring: I conquered the wicked witch, moved twice into different states and made new friends (miss my old friends).
I baked countless breads, cakes and cookies, but it was also a year full of coffee, red wine, chocolate and many good dinners. If I would take a look on the healthy factor (which I don’t) I might not be proud on everything I ate, but at the end it was a year of pretty darn good food.
I don’t believe in new year’s resolutions it’s more like the new year came with a white canvas, ready for me to throw all the paint on it I can. But still shiny and spotless, I am trying to make as many things right as I can.
Not that I am really into black cats and don’t walk under a ladder curses but eating lentils is rumored to bring luck and fortune as they look like coins. I think it won’t hurt to follow some common superstition for the new year. There is nothing wrong about being careful and hey they are healthy!

A couple of months ago we had been on one of our long road trips and while making a pit stop I went into the nearby market and bought accidentally smoked almonds. They were actually quite good, although I am able to eat just a few of them, their flavor is too intense. I buy a tin from time to time and place them next to the coffee maker after a while it empties itself magically.
So this is how I came up with this salad, lentils for my purse and smoked almonds for crunchiness and a little smokey taste. I added goat cheese for creaminess and feta might also work as well. The sweet potato was just laying around since two weeks and starting to demand for a name, it simply had to go. I added nice color, more smoky flavor and some spice with Pimenton picante ahumado (Spanish smoked paprika powder), half a teaspoon is at least what you should add, more if you dare. I think cayenne pepper would be a good substitute. This all comes together very well and delicious, give it a try!

lentil salad with smoked almonds, sweet potato
and goat cheese

The sweet potato becomes a little soft after a while but leftovers are still great for the next day’s lunch box.
4 – 6 servings as a side dish

450 g / 1 big sweet potato (about 3 cups cubed)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Pimenton picante ahumado
1 teaspoon salt

90 g / 1/2 cup puy lentils

80 g / 1/2 cup smoked almonds

20 g / 1/3 cup parsley
3-4 green onion, chopped

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons apple vinegar

100 g / 3.57 oz. fresh goat cheese, crumbled

Preheat your oven to 200 C / 400 F. Peel and cut the sweet potato in dices. In a medium bowl mix 3 tablespoons olive oil, Pimenton and salt, add the sweet potato and toss until well covered. Pour in one layer on your baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes until golden brown.
Meanwhile rinse the lentils and check for little stones etc. Cook over medium heat, slightly simmering for 25 minutes until done (not mushy). Don’t add salt to the cooking water.

Roughly chop the almonds. Wash the green onions and the parsley, shake of any water and chop finely. This all can be also done in a food processor.

Make the vinaigrette: add the olive oil and the vinegar into a ball jar and shake well.

Bring everything together in a bowl, serve still warm or cold.

{ 0 comments }

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