Chocolate cake (008)

Hi Dudes,

I hope you enjoyed the pumpkin soup and had a great weekend with your significant other. I have spent the weekend in Stuttgart together with my girlfriend and friends enjoying the nice weather and of course a nice Turkish pide after clubbing.

Today I post a recipe for a chocolate cake based on a recipe from Peter.

Dark chocolate / 200 g

Butter / 200 g 

Sugar / 200 g 

Almonds / ground 200 g

Eggs / 4

Baking powder / 0.5 tsp

Vanilla sugar / 1 packet

Salt / 1 pinch

Flour / 3 tbsp
Powdered sugar / 2 tbsp

Preparation

- Melt chocolate and butter slowly in a water bath.

- Mix eggs and sugar then add almonds, baking powder, vanilla sugar and salt. Add the melted butter -chocolate mix and flour if needed.

- Fill a buttered baking dish with the cake dough. Bake it in the oven for about 50 minutes (160° C).

- Sprinkle the powdered sugar over the cake.

Delicious Pete!

Many thanks to my Mom, for using the kitchen!

Pumpkin soup (007)

Hi dudes,

autumn is coming and this is the perfect time for a nice pumpkin soup! Try to get a Hokkaido pumpkin, because you don't have to peel it. This recipe is easy and takes only half an hour of your precious time. Next week I will cook a recipe that some of you guys have sent me! New recipes are always welcome!

For 2 people you need

Hokkaido pumpkin / small or 0,5 medium sized 

Potatoes / 2

Orange juice / 50 - 100 ml

Water / 250 ml

Ginger / 1 slice

Crème fraîche / 2 tbsp

Flat parsley

Balsamic vinegar dark

White baguette / small
Sea salt
Black pepper

Preparation


- Peel the potatoes and cut them in small cubes. Halve the pumpkin, remove the seeds with a spoon and cut the pumpkin in slices or cubes and boil it together with water in a big pot. Add finely chopped ginger. 

- Let it boil for 20 min. Refill with water if the soup gets too thick. Take a hand-held blender and mix the soup. I use an ESGE-Zauberstab M100, which is indestructible and can mix directly in a boiling pot.

- At the end spice up with orange juice, sea salt and pepper.  If you don't like orange juice you can also vary with coconut milk.

- Fill the soup in soup plates, put a tablespoon of Crème fraîche in the middle, add a bit of Balsamic vinegar and flat parsley.

White baguette fits well with the soup.

Enjoy your soup!

Schinkennudeln / Tagliatelle with ham and mixed salad (006)

Hi Dudes,

I had a short break and now I am back at work cooking.
Today I want to post a recipe called "Schinkennudeln". As I have no idea how to translate this, I just stick to "Schinkennudeln". Basically it's pasta with ham and cream. It's tasty and easy to prepare.

For 2 people you need

Tagliatelle / 300 g

Cooked ham / 150 g

Schwarzwälder Schinken or smoked ham / 80 g

Cream /150 ml

Crème fraîche / 2 tbsp

Vegetable bouillon/ 50 ml

Spring onions / 2 

Egg / 1 egg yolk
Onion / 0,5

Butter / 1 tbsp

Salt

Black pepper

Salad

Lettuce

Cocktail tomatoes 

Dressing

Olive oil / 2 tbsp

Balsamic vinegar dark / 1 tbsp

Red wine vinegar / 0,5 tbsp

Dijon mustard / 0,5 tbsp

Salt

Pepper

Preparation

- Cut the ham in thin slices and the spring onions in small rings.

- Wash the lettuce, quarter the tomatoes and put it aside.

- Take a big pot and cook the pasta in salted water. Cooking time should be a little bit less (1min) than shown on the packing.

- Meanwhile start to brown the ham and onion with butter in a big pan at low heat. Be careful not to burn the butter. Add cream, bouillon and spring onions and let it boil down for 10 min. Thereafter add Crème fraîche and 1 egg yolk. Spice up with salt and pepper.

- Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl.

- Now add the noodles to the pan and mix them with the creamy sauce.

- Serve on a plate and the salad in a separate bowl.

If you want you can add parmesan cheese or parsley on top of the Schinkennudeln.

Guten Appetit!

Stay-at-home-dude.com review: Son of Hibachi

Hi dudes,

Today I want to make a short review about a great portable grill called "Son of Hibachi ". 
I have used my Son of Hibachi many times and it just works. It's a charcoal grill with an integrated chimney effect that allows it to be ready for cooking in less than 20 minutes. It comes with a "Snuff Out Pouch" made with fire-retardant lining that lets you pack up the grill while the coals are still hot. This makes it great for camping, picnics and balcony.

Preparing the grill

When you open the grill it has two sides to cook on. Getting the coals started is easy. Remove the grills on each side and fill both sides with a layer of charcoal. 3 to 4 pieces of charcoal are added to the ash drawer in the center at the bottom of the grill. Saturate the charcoal in the ash drawer with charcoal lighter fluid. Reinsert the grills into the lowest position of the grill holder bracket. Simply close it and light the lighter fluid in the ash drawer. 

Ready to grill

After 15 to 20 min, when the coals are red hot, open up the grill. You can move the grills with the "top slide tool" closer or higher from the coals. Although due to the very small size of the grill it's big enough for up to 6 people. 

Cleaning and storing the grill 

After you are finished cooking, close the grill. The top slide has to be closed almost completely. This will cause the grills to self clean! Self cleaning needs about 10 min. Close the grill completely and store it, after 20 min cool down, in the Snuff Out Pouch. On top of that, Son of Hibachi saves the unused charcoal for later use. Next time you just have to fill up with little new charcoal and you are ready to go. 

Care 

Clean the charcoal trays and the grills from time to time. 
Also the ash drawer has to be emptied after use. The grills are made of cast iron and should be treated with a little bit of sunflower oil. This prevents them from getting rusty. 

My opinion

I have used this grill many times and I am still impressed. The Son of Hibachi has a compact design, grills really well and offers enough grilling space. The Snuff Out pouch allows to pack up the hot grill and store it. After grilling you are directly ready to go. All in all, the perfect 4-season grill! 

You can order the grill here: Son of Hibachi

Spaghetti bolognese (005)

Hi dudes,

last friday my new stay-at-home-dude.com kitchen apron has arrived. The logo is flex-printed and should withstand the next cooking sessions without any problems. If you are interested in this apron you can order it in my online shop on the right side of my blog. So far it's only available in black and white. Please contact me if you are interested in other colors. 

And now it's time for another recipe - spaghetti bolognese. The perfect recipe to try out my new apron! 

For 2 people you need

Spaghetti / 250 - 300 g

Mixed minced meat / 250 g

Peeled tomatoes / 1 can (Italian brand, 400g)

Cocktail tomatoes / 100 g
Carrot / 1

Shallot / 1

Garlic / 1 clove

Tomato paste / 1 tbsp

Olive oil / 3 tbsp

Oregano / 1 tsp

Rosemary / 1 tsp

Dry red wine / 200 ml

Sugar / 1 tsp

Salt 

Black pepper

Preparation

The preparation is very easy, but the sauce has to be boiled for a long time to develop an intense flavor.

- Chop the shallot, garlic and carrot and fry them briefly together with the minced meat in a big pan. Deglaze with canned tomatoes and wine. Add herbs, tomato paste and sugar. Let it boil for at least 1 hour! If the sauce becomes too dry just add wine or water. At the end spice up with salt and pepper and add cocktail tomatoes.

- Cook the spaghetti in salted water "al dente" and arrange everything on a plate.

Salice Salentino (red wine) fits well with the spaghetti bolognese. If you are vegetarian, then just leave out the meat.

Enjoy your meal!

Mixed salad with fried feta cheese (004)

Hi dudes,

thank you all for sending me your recipes and feedback. I will try to prepare your recipes in my next posts. Yesterday I joined a community called shareyourmeal.net. On this site you can share your cooking with people in your neighborhood. The website was launched last year in Amsterdam and is now spreading out to other cities. It's a growing community and in our neighborhood there are already several cooks and foodies. Cooks offer their food to other people, whereas foodies only order meals. I am quite excited to offer the first dish soon.

Today I post the ingredients for a mixed salad with fried feta cheese. Healthy and delicious!

For 2 people you need:

Romaine lettuce

Cucumber

Paprika

Tomatoes

Olives

Feta cheese / 150 - 200 g

Eggs / 3

Breadcrumbs

Oil

Dressing:

Olive oil / 3 tbsp

Walnut oil / 1 tbsp

Balsamic vinegar / 1 tbsp

Red wine vinegar / 1,5 tbsp

Orange juice / 3 - 4 tbsp

Dijon mustard / 0,5 tbsp

Salt

Pepper

You can of course use other vegetables. Please use feta cheese made of sheep milk. Tastes much better than the cheaper one made of cow milk.

Preparation

- Wash the lettuce and vegetables. Cut the vegetables and put them aside.

- For the salad dressing mix the ingredients mentioned above and stir them with a whisk.

- Cut the feta cheese in small cubes (1,5 cm), whisk the eggs with pepper in a bowl and spread the breadcrumbs on a plate. Now put the cheese-cubes into the bowl. After that coat the cubes with breadcrumbs. Repeat this another time, so all cheese-cubes have two layers of egg end breadcrumbs. 

- Fry the feta in oil until it is crispy on two sides and drain it on kitchen paper. 

- Arrange everything on a plate starting with the salad, dressing and finally the feta-cheese. 

Bon appétit!