In the past weeks I've been eating much more meat than
I usually did. Although one bad experience with a butcher
weeks ago reminded me that it's time to reduce it again,
somehow I couldn't stop carving for meat dishes. Yet, I
am no longer willing to buy anything from that butcher
anymore. I need an alternative.

I remember, my grandma used to have vegetarian days and
eat fake meat dishes. As I was more a vegetarian than I am
now, I used to taste them too and I had to say, I liked fake
meat.


top: before and after cooking the dough
below: fake chicken in murgh badami style


After watching some videos and reading some posts about
homemade seitan, I finally tried to make my own to cook
murgh badami (or rather a murgh badami inspired dish). I
start with wheat gluten, instead of flour - it saved me time
(and water).

My homemade seitan was too chewy, especially the bigger
pieces. The smaller pieces was better (although my son was
still not convinced - he's rather a real meat lover). I need to
do some experiments to improve the texture. Isn't cooking
fun? :-)

I just couldn't help it - each of those fabrics on the left photo
were calling my name :-P Only at home I got some vague
ideas, how to assemble one with another. Now I need to
overcome myself and draft some patterns...



Last week I went to our local "city potter" to see her current
work. She had a lovely cup - matte black on the outside and
white glaze on the inside -, but I was actually looking for a
big cup. She did have some big cups, but not in the right
colors. I wanted white/bright inner glaze (I love to see the
color of the tea I drink). She then offered me to make a big
cup in a similar design as the small cup. She told me it's a
500 ml cup (but I can actually even pour 750 ml liquid in).

It's really HUGE, but it's perfect for me. So practical!
No longer making (too much) tea in a teapot (and forget
about it for a while, that it's already cold when I want to
fill my cup in) from now on *huge grin*

Making (Chinese style) noodles or pasta has become a ritual
in my off-days lately, like today or on Sundays.



After trying some different recipes, today I slightly modified
her recipe and think, I finally find a mix I prefer for my pasta
- not too stiff and not too soft.

300 g wheat flour (type 450)
50 g wholemeal semolina
3 eggs (size L)
ca. 1 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt

This is the first time I made tagliatelle. I normally don't like
this kind of pasta. But after making ravioli for the my son
and his friends, I still had sauce left and somehow it was
calling out loud for tagliatelle.



Ingredients I used in the sauce (no sugar needed, if using
a lot more tomato puree, which I ran out of...):

1 garlic clove
1 onion
1 pepperoni
1 red bell pepper
1 leek
2 carrots
300 g ground meat
2 Tbsp tomato puree
690 g passata
olive oil
sugar
salt
pepper
nutmeg
paprika powder
oregano
basil

Can't tell you the amount of the spices though (it's already
a magic, that I still remember what I put in - ha!), since it's
a tasting-and-adding thing. I'd advice you to do the same.
I think, that's one of the fun part of cooking: the taste of the
food reflects the mood of the cook. And my mood today
was a good one :-)

My food today yesterday* spun around spinach and noodle.

Remember my first attempt in making fish balls? I used frozen
fish and thought that was (one of) the reason of my failing.
I took another chance today yesterday.



I used this recipe for inspiration, but I played a bit with the
amount of the cornstarch. The consistency of the balls are
not yet perfect. See those tiny loose parts in the water? I
ran out of cornstarch after I cooked the test ball and realized
it was too soft. I added a little bit of flour, but obviously still
not enough...



Nevertheless I was finally able to enjoy a meal I was longing
for since last month. Homemade egg noodles with fish balls,
shrimps, shiitake and spinach (lacking Asian greens ;-)).

The spinach I used was frozen spinach, so I still had some
left over. Luckily I remember a recipe I wanted to try for a
while: homemade ravioli (the pasta machine was still on the
table anyway).

I didn't have Ricotta, but I have milk and lemon, so I made
paneer to substitute it (made it once here). I didn't use egg
for the filling - I simply forgot to add the leftover egg white.
I mixed the flour with some wholemeal semolina, so the final
result was a bit umm... "leathery". Yet the taste: heavenly!!
- even without the sage and butter sauce.




For my son I made some ravioli only with paneer (and salt),
as he doesn't like spinach nor parmesan. He loved the ravioli
too. This dish will certainly be on our plates regularly ^_^

___
*) Typing too long and suddenly it's Monday already. Enjoy
your week! :-)

It was cloudy the last days and I so hate the dark corner
in my kitchen - the mirror doesn't really help. I started to
put some glass vases and bottles on the cupboard, filled
up with water. The reflections looks like small light sources.



After I started with eight pieces in a line on Saturday, I
just couldn't stop to make it even brighter on Sunday.



More light sources, but also a little bit more chaotic...

**

I wish, you could smell the lovely fragrant of the Calamondin
blossom virtually...