Poké Bowl

Attention! The sushi grade salmon should be deep-frozen (if your dealer doesn't tell you it has been frozen already) two days in advance, and then moved one day in advance from the freezer into the fridge, so that it can thaw again very slowly and gentle.

Preparation: You'll need: 1 small pot 1 large pan 2 large bowls (caramic or glass) for serving
Ingredients (for the bowl - for 2 persons) 10 large gambas with shells (250 g) 1 salmon fillet (Sushi grade quality, 250 g) 2 spring onions (only the little bulbs are needed) 1 ripe mango 1 ripe avocado ½ iceberg lettuce 20 g pickled ginger ¼ pomegranate 50 g cashews 10 g sesame seeds (you can prepare them togehtkann man mit dem Sesam des Algensalates zubereiten) 125 ml rice vinegar 3 Tbsp. soy sauce 3 Tbsp. Tahini 2 to 3 limes (zest and juice is needed) Small part of the juice is for the wakame salad 2 tsp. honey 2 stems coriander 2 Tbsp. good olive oil
Ingredients (for the Wakame salad - for 2 persons) 15 g dried Wakame seaweed ca. 1 cm ginger 1 clove of garlic 1-2 tsp. lime juice (use the limes for the bowl) 1 tsp. sesame seed (prepare that together with the seeds for the bowl). 1 Tbsp. (a bit less) rice vinegar 1 Tbsp. (a bit less) sesame oil 1-2 tsp. sugar 2 stems coriander 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
Clean the shrimps, dry them with kitchen paper. Quick fry in hot oil, 2 minutes on each side. Set aside to cool them off. Wash the salad, roughly chop it, dry it off a bit with kitchen paper and place in 2 large ceramic bowls for serving. This will be the underlay. In a small pot bring to boil 125 ml rice vinegar, 3 Tbsp. soy sauce, 3 Tbsp Tahini, Lime zest (2-3 limes), 75 mL lime juice and 1 tsp. honey. Stir vigorously with whisk until you get a creamy emulsion. Place in fridge. Toast the sesame seeds (10 g for the bowl, 1 tsp. for the salad) in a dry pan until they are getting a nice, not too dark, browning. Set aside separately for bowl and seaweed salad. Peel the shrimps, add to the Tahini sauce. Soak the 15 g dried wakame seaweed in a large bowl with plenty of hot water for about 10 minutes. In the meantime continue with the next steps. Peel the mango, cut the fruit into not too small cubes. Clean spring onions, cut the bulbs into thin rings. Peel avocado and cut into not too small cubes. Add to the ceramic bowls for serving. Caramelise seeds of ¼ pomegranate, 50 g cashews, 2 Tbsp. good olive oil and 1 tsp. honey in pan, set aside in small bowl. For the seaweed salad clean 1 cm ginger, finely chop the ginger and one clove of garlic, put both into medium bowl. Add 1 to 2 tsp. lime juice. Rinse and pluck leaves of 2 stems of coriander roughly chop them. Add to medium bowl together with 1 to 2 tsp. sugar, 1 Tbsp. each of rice vinegar and sesame oil, and 1 tsp cayenne pepper. Mix well with a fork. When the seaweed got its 10 minutes of soaking in hot water, pour into colander and let them drip off a bit. Add them to the marinade in the medium bowl. Mix well and let the seaweed marinade for 10 minutes. Cut the salmon with a large very sharp kitchen knife into thin slices. Add 1 tsp. sesame seeds to the Wakame salad and spread one quarter of the whole salad each on the mango/avocado salad in the 2 ceramic bowls. The remaining half is to be placed on the table for self-serving. Rinse 2 stems coriander and pluck the leaves. Spoon some of the lime tahini sauce on the mango salad. Add shrimps, salmon, pickled ginger, coriander leaves, also the caramelised pomegranate seeds and cashews and serve. The remaining sauce you can put in a dish on the table for self-serving.

Phở

Attention! This will take around 6 hours to prepare!

Preparation You'll need: A large pot (for the rice ribbon noodles) A medium sized pot (for the soup) A small pan 2 or 3 rather large bowls to serve the soup
Ingredients (for 4 persons) 2 thick (cross-cut) beef shanks, ca. 600 grams 3 marrow bones Ca. 400 grams beef fillet 1.5 litres water 2 small star anise 1 cinnamon stick 1 small onion 1 piece of ginger 3 spring onions (stem and leaves) 3 twigs Thai basil 3 twigs coriander 3 twigs mint 150 grams Mung bean sprouts 4 Thai chilis 1 small lime 4 Tbsp Vietnamese Fish Sauce 200 grams Vietnamese rice ribbon noodles
First steps Bring 1.5 litres water to boil in a medium sized pot. In the meantime wash the shanks and the bones, add to the water. Roast in a pan without oil (best would be a wrought-iron pan) the onion and the piece of ginger (only peeled, not cut small) until they start to get black patches. That will take a few minutes. When roastet enough, also add them to the water. Let this boil covered for 5 hours on low heat.
Intermediate steps After 5 hours add cinnamon stick and 2 star anise. Let it cook for another hour. Attention! Check the noodles to see if they have to soak for some time. You can get at that in this last hour, use the large pot. In the meantime you can prepare the rest: Clean 150 grams Mung bean sprouts, the herbs (3 stems of Thai basil, coriander and mint each). Pluck the leaves and roughly chop them. Cut into rings the 3 spring onions and 4 chilis. Wash the lime under hot water and cut it into eight pieces. Cut the fillet into very thin slices, you also might want to cut the slices into small pieces. After that last hour of cooking: Pour the soup through a sieve into a large bowl and set the broth aside again in the pot. Remove star anise and cinnamon stick. Separate the beef from the bones and remove the bones.
Last Steps Preheat the large soup bowls in the oven. Add salt to the soaking noodles and bring the water to boil. They are done as soon as the water starts to boil. If you're doing the soup for the first time, you could prepare all bowls completely and serve them. Otherwise I would suggest to put the ingredients into separate small bowls and place them on the table, so that people can do their own mix. Some don't like noodles so much or want less broth, others don't want so much of the cooked beef... Bring the broth to boil again. Put noodles, sprouts and the cooked beef into the preheated bowls. Add herbs and spring onions. Place the raw fillet slices on top and pour the hot broth over everything. Add some lime pieces and chili. You should place the bottle of fish sauce on the table, too, I for one like do add some more into my own bowl ☺
Keeping it in the fridge You can keep left-overs in the fridge, but it is very important to first remove all the lime pieces. They will make the whole soup very bitter!