29.10.09

Wordt er nog gegeten?

Zeker wel. Er wordt alleen niet over geschreven.



Highlights van de afgelopen week:
een restje suddervles, opgebakken met heel veel knoflook en heel veel verse rozemarijn, werd een fantastische pastasaus.

de lekkerste puree sinds tijden: kook een knoflookteentje mee met 4 flinke aardappels, en pureer ze als ze gaar zijn met een grote schep grove mosterd, een scheutje melk, en een paar eetlepels creme fraiche (de light versie, in mijn geval, maar dat hoeft natuurlijk niet), en roer er tenslotte een in blokjes gesneden tomaat door. We aten de puree bij gebakken scholletjes maar hij was zo lekker, dat ik er met liefde gewoon een hele bak van had opgegeten als avondmaal.


favoriete stamppot: spruitjesstamppot met gehaktballetjes en rode uien mosterdjus...

niets zo leuk als je eigen blog als recepten database gebruiken: ik maakte een nieuwe versie van de aubergine soep, dit keer met rode linzen in plaats van gele spliterwten.

Er was ook middelmatig eten: eetcafé pasta met zaagsel-achtige Parmezaan, een teleurstellende pizza - maar in beide gevallen maakte het tafelgezelschap alles goed, wat maar weer bewijst dat eten niet het allerbelangrijkste is.

Dat is dan misschien gelijk het antwoord op de vraag, waarom Alles over Eten verwaarloosd wordt. Ik kook, eet en geniet, maar het eten en het nadenken over eten nemen even niet de allesbepalende en allesoverheersende plaats in mijn leven in...

geduld.

21.10.09

The Lucky Ones



This is a first: reporting about a Vegetarian Duck dinner while VDucks main chef and blogger is far far away.. We were fortunate enough to get an invitation from the lovely Miss Duck, who cooked and sliced and chopped and folded and hosted an entirely Vietnamese dinner party.



Here's what we had:
goi cuon - fresh basil spring rolls with nuoc cham and hoisin
banh xep chay - yellow lentil and caramelized onion dumplings with scallion oil and spicy soy sauce
canh chua tom - sour shrimp soup
banh khoai mi - cassava and coconut cake
kem choui - banana coconut peanut ice





The Goi Cuon and the soup were my favorites last night (both so fresh and vibrant and spicy), but as I'm looking at the pictures this morning, it's the dumplings that make my mouth water. I also thought that the scallion oil was genius - I have a low tolerance for raw scallions (or any raw member from the allium family, really) and with this method, you still get some freshness and crunch, but not the acrid harshness that I hate about raw onions. Note to self: must steam me some dumplings... soon.

18.10.09

Laat er zoetheid zijn


Vorige week had ik zo'n dag waarop er gebakken moest worden. 's Ochtends werd het scherm van mijn computer zwart (de laptop is nog steeds herstellende, de laatste berichten zijn hoopgevend, maar ik typ dit nog vanaf het minilaptopje). Vervolgens ging iets, waar ik me erg op verheugd had, niet door. En er was nog iets, iets wat niet leuk was, maar dat ben ik vergeten.. vermoedelijk door de succesvolle baktherapie die ik die middag maar op mezelf toepaste.

Voor bak-noodgevallen ben ik een groot fan van Nigella Lawson's cupcakes - ze zijn simpel, meestal heb ik alles wat erin moet (zelfrijzend bakmeel, eieren, boter en suiker) wel in huis, en ze zijn een mooi canvas voor je eigen creativiteit. Ik vond een restje witte chocolade en een sinaasappel, dus werden het witte chocolade sinaasappel cupcakes.

Het fijne aan cupcakes is dat je meteen afgepaste porties hebt, geen gedoe met snijden en verdelen. En anders dan met koekjes, die me eigenlijk altijd teveel werk zijn omdat je meerdere ladingen moet bakken maar in die tussentijd niks anders kan doen, maak je in één keer de hele hoeveelheid in een grote muffinpan. 12 cakjes, ik at er 1, Dennis at er 1, en de andere 10 nam ik mee naar mijn werk waar ze verslonden werden (nog een groot voordeel van cupcakes: anders dan muffins en veel koekjes, zijn ze de volgende dag nog even lekker).

Ik vond ze achteraf ietsje te zoet, vermoedelijk door de witte chocola. Als ik ze nog eens zou maken zou ik de hoeveelheid suiker denk ik terugbrengen tot 100 gram.



Witte chocolade sinaasappel cupcakes
(met dank aan Nigella voor het basisrecept)
12 stuks

125 gram zachte boter
125 gram suiker
2 eieren
125 gram zelfrijzend bakmeel
2 eetlepels gemalen amandelen
een snuf zout
sap en rasp van 1 sinaasappel
ca. 75 gram witte chocolade, in stukjes gehakt
een muffinvorm voor 12 muffins, met papieren cakevormpjes bekleed

Verhit de oven voor op 10 C.
Roer de zachte boter met de suiker tot je een romige massa hebt. (Kan ook met de mixer, maar ik ben meestal te lui om die te voorschijn te halen en zie het roeren dan maar als een kleine work-out). Meng de eieren erdoor, de bloem, het zout en het amandelmeel. Tenslotte de sinaasappelrasp, -sap en chocolade erdoor mengen.
Verdeel het mengsel over de 12 cakevormpjes (zoals Nigella ook zegt, het lijkt alsof je te weinig hebt voor 12 cakejes. Gewoon de vormpjes niet helemaal vullen - het beslag zal rijzen in de oven).
Bak 15-20 minuten of tot een sate prikker er droog uitkomt (maar pas op dat je niet in een stukje chocola prikt, een paar keer testen dus).

14.10.09

Silence

First, there was silence because I was just plain lazy (I could make up excuses, but what's the use?). And now there will be silence for a little while longer, because yesterday, right after I had organized all my holiday pictures and was getting ready to post some more food details of our amazing trip... the screen of my laptop turned blacker than black, and would not respond to any of my pokings and proddings and would not listen even when I started to beg.

And I did not even pour some wine over it this time.

So, I have my little cute baby laptop, but that feels wrong to work on for longer periods, and Picasa doesn't function on it the way it should, and besides I don't have my photo archive on it, and anyway, I just want my own laptop. The one with the dirty keyboard and the overloaded desktop and my Patty Griffin wallpaper.

I know, I'm a baby. Let's hope the black screen will turn colorfull again real soon.

7.10.09

Fritter me




I was so, so determined to write this post in Dutch, until I realized it would mean having to give up on using two of my favorite English food words:

Fritter
Patty (plural, possibly even better: patties)

Dutch readers who know what fritters and patties are, and English readers with knowledge of Dutch food words: is there a Dutch equivalent? What would we use? "Koekje" and "burger" (and strictly speaking, that's not even a Dutch word) come to mind. But other than that - no. Fritter is so wonderfully descriptive - you can almost see the little heap of batter sizzling away in the pan, hot oil creating crusty bits. And patty is just cute - again, the word evokes hands lovingly patting some kind of meat or vegetable mixture into a burger-like shape.

I have faith in all languages, and it should be possible to attach a Dutch word to the little lentil fritters I made yesterday. But I can't find it.

*********************

I'm planning a dinner for this weekend. It's one of those New Friends Are Coming Over For The First Time kind of dinners. Exciting, and scary. I don't know what they like or don't like (although I do know one very important thing about them: they're vegetarians). I want to impress them, but I also want to be relaxed, and to be able to spend most of my time at the table and not in the kitchen. Fortunately, I like this kind of creative challenge and I've been mulling over possibillities for days.

One of the things that kept popping up in my head were some kind of lentil or bean fritter, to serve as an appetizer (falafel-like, with sauces and condiments, but without the bread). I remembered seeing something like it
somewhere so last night I experimented with them a bit. I don't usually 'try out' stuff for dinner parties, but to be honest, I just felt like having lentil fritters for dinner!

I coarsely pureed 1 1/2 cups of cooked green lentils Du Puy, mixed that with 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs, an egg, salt and pepper, chili flakes and cumin. The patties held their shape really well, but after frying, the verdict was they were way too dry. Flavorwise, they were good - and the dollop of tahini sauce and the drop of sriracha were perfect with it.



For the next batch, I added a splash of milk to the mixture to loosen it up a little, and I also added a couple of tablespoonfuls of caramelized onions I had in the fridge. These patties were much moister and I really liked the sweet onions in them. Presentation wise, they looked unfortunate (yes, like some sort of diseased nipple, I know) so I put the rest of them on a bed of watercress and drizzled tahini sauce and sriracha on top.




verdict: good, possibly really good, but maybe not good enough. They need more, and more interesting, sauces, too.

5.10.09

Magic Mushroom




We´ve been eating a lot of mushrooms lately. Not the fancy kinds, the ones you expect people to swoon over when summer ends and fall begins, no just your regular button and chestnut ones. Both for health and budget reasons, we´re eating less meat these days. After coming home from our trip to the US, it felt like there was pork fat and ground beef coursing through my veins, and please don´t get me started on the rest of the porkfat that has landed straight on my hips. So, we´re eating a bit more frugally, trying to cleanse the system and balance the checkbooks.

I know mushrooms are the vegetarian cliche (it really is too bad that almost every restaurant with a vegetarian main course on their menu does something with ´stuffed portobello mushrooms´), but, as is the case with most cliches, it did not become a cliche for nothing. Mushrooms are such a perfect addition to vegetarian dishes, with their, dare I say it, meaty texture and nutty, concentrated flavor. Here are 2 things I did with them recently.


Mushroom halloumi omelet
very simple: little cubes of fried halloumi, mushrooms, prepared the way I always do (pan fried over high heat with no added fat, until they are shrivelled up and lost all their liquid) and some chopped parley on an omelet


Tomato mushroom soup

For Sunday dinner, I don´t usually have specific plans. The fridge and pantry present me with some stuff and the challenge for a lazy Sunday afternoon is to come up with something easy but good. Yesterday, I had:
a can of chopped tomatoes
a bag of spinach
half a pound of mushrooms
a couple of potatoes
onions, pecorino cheese, eggs, fresh thyme and parsley

This could have gone many ways (a tomato sauce for pasta, and then this great salad on the side?
Spinach quiche, tomato bulgur? Tomato risotto perhaps? Forget about the tomatoes and use the spinach and mushrooms as a pasta sauce?
It was a chilly day, so soup felt right, and I wanted to move away from my beloved spinach-mushroom combo for once. So I made this tomato mushroom soup, added some dried porcini for extra mushroom flavor, and used the spinach for a little frittata to serve on grilled bread with the soup.

Tomato mushroom soup
serves 2 for dinner, 4 as a first course

a 400 gr. can of chopped or whole tomatoes, pureed (tomatoes with juice)
250 grams button or chestnut mushrooms, very finely chopped
a small handfull dried porcini (about 7 grams)
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 small potatoes, peeld and cut into small dice
a tsp of fresh thyme, chopped
olive oil, a splash of balsamic, a splash of soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper
fresh parsley to serve

Soak the dried porcini in boiling hot water to cover.
Heat a heavy frying pan over high heat. Add half a tablespoon of olive oil, then the mushrooms. Cook them over high heat untill they start releasing their liquid and become brown and nutty. When the liquid has evaporated, turn down the heat, and when the pan has cooled off a little, season the mushrooms with salt and pepper, then deglaze the pan with a cup of water. Turn off the heat.

In a another pot, heat half a tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the onion over very low heat until it becomes soft (do not let it brown). Add the mushrooms to the pot, the potatoes, the thyme, the soy sauce and the tomatoes. Lift the porcini from the hot water (don´t throw away the soaking liquid!), chop them up and add them and the soaking liquid to the pot. Add another 1-2 cups of water until the soup is the desired consistency. Add plenty of salt and pepper, a bit of sugar, bring to a simmer and let cook gently until the potatoes are done and the flavours have melded together. Taste for seasoning, add a splash of balsamic vinegar and about a table spoon of olive oil. Serve, sprinkled with chopped parsley.