Alex's "Meaty leek soup for cold days" (it's July in Edinburgh haha)

As the summer is so cold this year, Alex has decided to cook a winter dish from Germany for us - Leek soup with mince meat.

Okay, so this will look shamefully short in comparison to all the othere recipes on here.
I will give you a version of the recipe, that produces less volume, than what I made for
Lab Lunch, to reproduce that volume basicly just double everything except for Leek and stock, here
you should use 3kg/3L respectively, should you ever want to cook for ~13 people.
Here goes:

You will need:
500g Steak Mince
2kgs of Leek
Garlic
Stock cubes, beef is best, if you use minced beef for the meat
100g Creme Fraiche
100g cheese, I used ground cheddar,
Salt
Pepper

Optional:
Starch


Protocol:

Clean the leek and cut it into rings
Take a big pot and put some oil in, heat it up
Fry the steak mince, till its kind of granular, the smaller the granules, the better your
meat/volume ratio will be
Add the leek rings, sweat them for some time
Add a few garlic cloves (2+ depending on taste)
Deglaze with 2 litres of stock
Lightly cook for ~10mins
Season with salt and pepper

Optional (I didn't do this):
Mix 1 tablespoon of starch with cold water and add it, to thicken the soup

Add Creme Fraiche, mix in
Add Cheese, mix in, it melts

Let it cook, for as long as you like, the longer the better, or at least I think so, the
leek will become softer

Eat with Baguette or any other bread you like.

Anton's "Patatas a la riojana":

(If someone has a pic from that day, please post it :-) --> Done)
Ingredients:
(for 6 to 8 people)
1 to 1.5 Kg of potatoes
100 mL of extra virgin olive oil
150 g of bacon
200 g of Spanish chorizo
4 red peppers
2 big onions
100 mL of white wine + one glass for the cook
A little bit of paprika
5 drops of Tabasco (optional)
Salt


How to make it:
Peel the potatoes, wash them and break them in small pieces (just start with a small cut with the knife and then break the piece).

Put the olive oil in the saucepan and sauté the chopped onions and peppers with the potatoes.
Then, add the chorizo, the bacon and the tabasco drops. Next, add the paprika and quickly add the wine to not burn the paprika. Cover with water and when it is boiling put the heat down and cook it very slowly. Gently move the sauce pan from time to time to get a thicker sauce without smashing the potatoes.

Hope you liked it :-)
Antón.

Black current cake for Thomas' birthday

Ingredients:

300g flour
150g butter
150g sugar
2 egg yolk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Pk vanilla sugar/ Few drops vanilla aroma
possibly a little milk

For the filling:
500g black/red currents
4 egg white
100g sugar
1 table spoon corn flour
some chopped nuts (almonds, hazelnuts...)

Whipped cream

How to make it: Make a dough out of the ingredients, add some milk if it is too dry, then put into fridge for 1 hour to rest.
Whip up the 4 egg whites, add the sugar and corn flour.
When the dough has rested enough, grease a baking tray, press the dough into it and make sure it is high enough at the edges. Carefully add the currents to the egg white foam and mix. Now pour this mixture onto the cake, top with some chopped nuts if you like, or you can also mix the nuts in with the wgg whites and currents.
Bake at 160°C aproximately 50 min.
Serve with whipped cream.

That's it! It's easy, right? Enjoy :-)

Michell's (now) famous Cream Schitzel

Again, today's lab lunch was a fantastic feast.
Recipe please :-)

Fajitas by Thomas

Last friday's Fajitas were absolutely delicious!
Thomas, we need the recipe!

Mediterranean Chicken with Salads by Jolanda

Let's have another try at posting recipes :-)

So I made some mediterranean chicken stuffed with feta, herbs and olives in a tomato sauce with couscous salad, oven potatoes and green leave salad.

And here are the recipes:

FETA AND OLIVE STUFFED CHICKEN:

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Feta
• Fresh basil
• Pitted olives
• Optional: sundried tomatoes
• Tomato sauce
• Dried herbs
• Fresh tomatoes
• Dried tarragon
• Wooden skewers
• Olive oil

In a bowl, mix crumbled feta with small pieces of olives, fresh basil, pepper and some olive oil (and some sundried tomatoes if you fancy). Cut open the uncooked chicken breasts, stuff them with this filling mix and pin them closed with the wodden skewers. In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil, sprinkle the chicken breasts with dried tarragon and fry carefully until cooked all the way through. Place the cooked stuffed chicken breasts in a baking tray, sprinkle with fresh diced tomatoes, herbs and a tomatoe sauce (any sauce in a jar, that has some taste ie tomatoe and chilli or tomatoe and basil etc.) and cook in the oven for about 30-45 min at 160°C. You can also add some parmesan cheese on top if you like.

COUSCOUS SALAD:
Ingredients:

• Couscous
• Sweet potatoe
• Chicken stock
• Fresh coriander
• Pumpkin seeds
• Green Pepper
• Lemon
• Salt
• Pepper

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into little pieces, the boil in water until tender. In a bowl, place uncooked couscous and add boiling hot chicken stock until the couscous is just covered. Cover the bowl with a plate ot tea towel and wait until the couscous has soaked up all the liquid and is ready. Cut green peppers into small pieces. When the couscous is ready, stir it with a fork so it becomes nice and fluffy, add the cooked sweet potatoe, green pepper pieces, some fresh coriander leaves and salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

OVEN POTATOES:
Parboil some potatoes. Cut into pieces, place on an oven tray, sprinkle with olive oil, fresh rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and roast in the oven or under the grill until brown and crispy.

GREEN SALAD:
I don't think I need to tell you how to make green salad :-) But for those who are unsure, it is very easy: Buy some salad leaves, wash them and make a dressing of oil and vinegar, herbs, mustard, or whatever you would like in your dressing. And voilà, that's it!