Honkman

I don’t know if you bake bread but kamut flour works well in breads

Kamut with Carrots, Red Peppers and Pomegranate from a CI recipe - carrots and red bell peppers are sautéed before garlic, garam masala and freshly cooked kamut are added and warmed through. Finished with toasted pistachios, pomegranate seeds, cilantro and lemon juice. Served with wiener wuerstchen

Spiced Coconut Chicken Rice based on a Bon Appetit recipe - chicken thighs, shallots, garlic, turmeric and cayenne pepper are first braised in some water before adding washed basmati rice and coconut milk and cooked on low heat. Shredded black kale is added off heat.

Detroit-Style Pepperoni Deluxe from Peter Reinhart’s “Perfect Pan Pizza” - white flour dough (bread flour, instant yeast, salt, water, olive oil) refrigerated for 18 hours. Then put into the pans with his “panning and dimpling” method over an hour, added first half of cheese to dough and second raise for four hours. Pizza is topped with crushed tomato sauce (flavored with oregano, basil,garlic and red wine vinegar), pepperoni slices, more cheddar cheese, pickled pepperoncini and a last layer of pepperoni slices. After baking, finished with a little bit of his secret sauce (pureed red bell pepper, pickled pepperoncini (and some of the brine), garlic, red wine vinegar and olive oil)

Very simplified Cassoulet from Dinner by Recipetin - made in the oven with pork sausage, bacon, cannellini beans, cherry tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, tomato paste, white wine, chicken broth. Topped and finished with a mixture of panko crumbs, parsley and olive oil and quickly browned under the broiler

Beef Chow Fun from “That Noodle Life” - thinly sliced rib-eye steak is marinated for two hours in a mixture of light soy sauce, garlic, Shaoxing wine, toasted sesame oil and cornstarch. Afterwards, you stir-fry the meat mixture, add sliced red onions, add wide rice noodles and finish in the wok by adding a sauce made from light and dark sou sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar and water. Finished with green onions and plenty of mung beans sprouts and served with toasted sesame seeds and chili crunch and oil

Collard Greens Tacos with Pickled Apples and Walnuts from the “Dos Caminos Tacos” cookbook - for the pickled apples you heat up apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, halved jalapeno and pickling spices until the sugar dissolves and add thinly sliced Gala apples. Let it cool down for an hour and filter off the pickling liquid. Walnuts are getting roasted in olive oil and finely chopped. Sliced collard greens are sautéed in the walnut oil until slightly wilted and mixed with the apples and walnuts. Served on corn tortillas

Variation on Fideua with Chorizo and Tomatoes - chorizo is pan-seared until slightly crispy and removed. Fideo pasta gets seared in the chorizo oil until browned and afterwards gets cooked with onions, garlic, cherry tomatoes, thyme, parsley and white wine in chicken broth. Finished with a little bit of sugar and lemon juice

Asparagus Frittata with Ricotta and Chives from “Dinner” by Melissa Clark - started on the stove and finished in the oven. Made with cut up green asparagus and eggs until bottom lightly set and added some ricotta and chives before putting it in the oven. Afterwards, finished with olive oil, lemon juice and parmesan

Greek-inspired Lamb Stew with Kritharaki/Orzo - stew was cooked in the oven with cubed leg of lamb, carrots, celery, red onion, oregano, thyme, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, cumin seeds, red wine, diced tomatoes and beef broth. For the last 20 minutes you add orzo and cherry tomatoes and finish with feta.

New Orleans Red Beans and Rice from “The Bean Book” by Steve Sando - using his Lila beans, andouille sausage, onions, garlic, celery, green bell peppers, bay leaves, thyme, ancho chili, cayenne pepper, mustard, parsley and scallions. Served over rice - it’s always great to taste how much more flavorful these heirloom beans are compared to “regular” ones and really transform a dish

Shrimp Burger with Fries - shrimps are minced in the food processor (1/3 very fine, 2/3 in larger pieces) and mixed with mayonnaise, cayenne pepper and scallions. After forming patties, you coat them with fine ground panko crumbs. Served on a toasted brioche bun with lettuce and tartar sauce and with fries

Sesame Stir-Fried Kimchi Pork based on a Milk Street recipe - stir-fry with pork tenderloin, kimchi, shiitake, scallions, garlic, toasted sesame seeds, soy sauce, mirin and toasted sesame oil. Served over rice

Potato Salad with Green Beans and Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing - mix of potatoes and green beans (both steamed separately) with a dressing made from diced cucumber, dill, oregano, yogurt, mayonnaise and white wine vinegar. Served with some sausages

Veal-Cabbage Gulasch with Sage and “Spatzenknoedel” (Flour Dumplings) from an essen & trinken recipe - the veal gulasch is a mix of cubed veal breast, green cabbage, bacon, shallots, garlic, sage, flour, marsala wine, caraway seeds and bay leaves cooked in veal stock. Finished with some lemon zest and juice and a little bit of honey. The spatzenknoedel are dumplings made in franconia by mixing flour, eggs and milk and cooking some balls of the dough in water until they float. The gulasch is topped with some crispy fried sage leaves and a drizzle of the sage butter.

Chicken Breast with Sesame Vinaigrette and Pan- Roasted Winter Vegetables with Miso, Ginger and Honey - chicken breast was cooked sous-vide (147F, 3 hours), very quickly pan-seared and served with a vinaigrette made by pureeing soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic, kewpie mayonnaise, canola oil, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, toasted sesame seeds and scallions. For the vegetables, carrots, parsnips, brussels sprouts and shallots are quickly pan-seared in a cast iron skillet, mixed with butter, white miso, ginger and honey and finished in the oven. Served with some fries

Thai inspired Red Curry Chicken - using red curry paste, lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, thai basil, galangal, fresno chili, shallots, fish sauce, lime juice and coconut milk to build the foundation. And cooked eggplants, snow peas, cherry tomatoes, rotisserie chicken, pineapple and lychee in it. Served over jasmine rice

“Green” Salad with Tomato Dressing and Burrata based on a recipe from essen & trinken magazine - the salad has blanched green beans, green asparagus and snow peas, pan-seared zucchini and broccolini, radishes and chervil. The dressing is made by pureeing dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, mustard, smoked paprika, orange juice, olive oil and champagne vinegar. Served with burrata drizzled with olive oil

Uni tastes like the ocean

Dan Dan Mian - chili paste made by slowly roasting ground sichuan peppercorns, sichuan chili powder and cinnamon in oil and then mixing with soy sauce, tahini, hoisin sauce and zhengjiang vinegar. Baby bok choy quickly blanched and ground pork stir fried either ginger, garlic and ya cai. Served with Chinese wheat noodles and topped with scallions

Shrimp Étouffée from Chef Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen - using (much) less butter and (a bit) more vegetables. First making the roux with oil and flour until dark brown, when it’s still hot but not any longer on the stove you add the vegetables (green bell peppers, celery, onion) and spice mix (black, white and cayenne pepper, basil and thyme) and let it cool down. Afterwards, you slowly add the mixture to the broth in another pot and cook it briefly. In another pan you briefly cook shrimps and scallions before adding the roux mix, more spice mix and some more broth. Served over rice

Pork Cutlet with Garbanzo Salad - salad had garbanzo beans, arugula, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, feta and parsley with an olive oil- lime juice vinaigrette. The thin-cut pork cutlets were pan-seared with red onions, garlic and fresno chili and for the last few seconds sprinkled with parsley, basil and mint

I haven’t read the whole book yet and so didn’t see his remark about farfalle but we actually like farfalle as it has slightly different textures and tends to keep sauce quite well

Pasta Fagiole (Variation 3) from Six Seasons of Pasta by McFadden - nice variation which gives a more rustic touch to this dish. Hot Italian sausages are formed in patties and seared hard to get a good crust with some smashed garlic, red pepper flakes and tomato paste. Once you add hand-crushed tomatoes, pinto beans and rosemary, you break up the patties and garlic and mix it with farfalle and a parmesan-pecorino mixture. Served with some panko crumbs and olive oil

Agreed - living on n California there are many great things to buy in supermarkets/shops but I miss sour cream (and creme fraiche) and similar dairy ingredients from Europe. Most sour cream in the US is barely OK and the better stuff is very expensive