The Recipe; by Linda Gomes

Amazingly zingy spinach, soft goats cheese and raspberry salad

2014-10-22T09:48:00.001-07:00

My dad never let us put fruit in salads. I guess that is because he had this allergy for acids, making his tongue hurt. But eversince I have left home I am exploring the possibilities of using fruits in salads. I love it! I've made salads with fresh figs, dressings with fried blueberries, bloodorange and fennel, even strawberries went into savory-sweet salads. The following recipe is one of my favorite fruits-included-salads. It is zingy, soft and crunchy with a little red onion spice. Fullness and earthyness of walnuts and the lovely juicy sweet magenta raspberry lumps.

Photo by Maarten Mensink

Ingredients 4-6p:
- 5 big handfulls of fresh spinach leaves
- 1 red onion
- two handfulls of walnuts
- 200g of soft young goats cheese
- 250g of cherry tomatoes
- 250 g of juicy sweet raspberries
- Olive oil 5 tbsp
- Good balsamic vinegar 4 tbsp the old and sweet kind
- pepper and salt
- Torn basil leaves

Instructions:
Wash the spinach leaves well in icy cold water. Especially if you have gotten the really fresh spinach from the market. Use a salad spinner or toss the leaves in a dishcloth and swing off all the water (don't swing it out inside :P) Toss the leaves in a big bowl. Wash the tomatoes and halve them. Tumble them on top of the spinach. Peel the onion, cut it in half and slice wafer thin halve rings. Crumble the goats cheese in the bowl. Crunch the walnuts in your hands and tumble them on top as well. Tear the raspberries in pieces and toss on top with the onion. Salt and pepper to taste and drizzle it with good olive oil and good old sweet balsamic vinegar. The quality of the vinegar is important in this dish. I the end it is just tossing a few ingredients together. But you end up with a lovely tasty salad. Top it off with some torn basil leaves and ENJOY

BBQ veggie sticks with rosemary infused oil and lemon rind

2014-10-16T10:46:00.001-07:00

I will take any excuse to have a fall barbecue and since the weather is still amazing this is a lovely opportunity. The markets are still packet with all the end of summer-fall harvest. Full plump tomatoes, enormous onions, crunchy fresh zucchinis. Truly beautiful. Here I want to show a way to make those lovely veggies fun on the barbecue. Most barbecues I go to veggies are underrepresented and when present done terribly. This is a quick, fun and tasty way to prepare them end it looks amazingly colorful.

Picture by Maarten Mensink

Ingredients for about 16 skewers:
- 2 trays of red and yellow cherry pomodori's (or something similar)
- A young and crispy fresh zucchini
- 2 red peppers
- 1 red onion
- 1 tray of chestnut champignons
- one big lemon
- half a cup of olive oil
- A big sprig of rosemary (or thyme)
- salt and pepper to taste
- container filled with water
- skewers

Instructions:
Soak the skewers in water for at least an hour. Soaking the skewers will prevent them from burning on the barbecue. If you leave it on too long anything will burn but it should do for the time you need to roast the veggies. In the meantime, de-seed the peppers and cut them in bite sized chunks. Peel the onion, cut it in quarters and then eights and peel the layers off each other. Cut the zucchini in slices. Wash the tomatoes. Toss all of the ingredients together and coat lightly with olive oil, pepper and salt. Lightly is key here. Now start skewing! Prepare a bowl with a few table spoons of extra virgin olive oil and zest half a lemon in there. Add a little salt an pepper. Put the veggies on when the fire is past its hottest point, or your veggies will be reduced to charcoal in minutes. Roast them and turn them regularly. Once the skin of the tomatoes start to split the veggies are finished. Now this is the moment where you can vent your frustrations of the day by slapping the rosemary sprig a few times between your hands. It will make you feel great and will start to release all the essential oils within the leaves. Dip the sprig into the lemon oil and use this to give your veggies a last sprinkling of flavor. So simple yet it is packed with lovely flavors! If you want to give it more of a twist, sprinkle a little of your best balsamic vinegar on top.

Gnocci with green asparagus, mini pomodoros and white truffel oil

2014-10-05T11:50:00.003-07:00

Its mushroom time! I see pumpkin recipes everywhere, but I believe one of the delights of the harvest/fall season are mushrooms. I am a great fan of them and have been perfecting my mushroom skills tis year. But there is of course one king among mushrooms. The truffle. Buying a truffle is an expensive endeavor. But there are great alternatives to get the beautifully earthy truffle aroma into your dish. You can buy a jar preserved mushroom truffle mix or get truffle infused olive oil. I am a great fan of these oils and am the lucky owner of both black and white truffle oil. This is for me the ideal way of having instant acces to truffle flavor and it will not go off. Black and white truffles are very different in taste. Black truffels are earthy, nutty and have an aroma of dried wood, this might sound strange but is lovely. White truffles have a lighter flavor. Also nutty but more hazel flavor and again the typical smell of truffle. It is one of the most difficult aroma's to discribe. Some will hate it but most love it ardently. In this recipe I have used white truffle oil, but black truffle oil does the job perfectly as well. It just depends on which flavor you prefer and how much you are willing to spend on the "fungus gold". This recipe will introduce you to the fall flavors while reminding you of the goodness the sun has given your ingredients over the summer.

Ingredients (2P):
- 250g of potato gnocci
- One bunch green asparagus
- Sweet ripe cherry pomodori's
- One onion
- A bunch of fresh basil leaves
- Pepper and salt
- Olive oil
- Parmezan cheese (freshly grated)
- Truffle infused oil (black or white truffle)

Instructions:
Chop the onion up in cubes and simmer them slowly softly in some olive oil until tender. Boil some water. Chop off the woody ends from the asparagus and dunk them along with a good scoop of salt in the boiling water. Let this cook for at least 3-4 minutes. We want then tender but crisp. Take the asparagus out and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking process. In the same cooking luquid tumble in your gnocci. These need to cook for abou 6 minutes. But always check the packages for advised cooking time. In the mean time halve the pomodori's and chop the asparagus in bite sized chuncks. Whe the gnocci is nearly done add the tomatoes and asparagus to the onions that are nicely sweet and glassy by now. Fry for one minute and add some freshly ground black pepper and some salt to taste. Drain the gnocci once cooked and add them to the onion veggie mix in the pan. Toss it around to coat the gnocci in the lovely oil. Toss everything on a large plate and cover with a sprinkling of freshly grated parmazan en some torn basil leaves. To top this recipe off with a drizzle of your lovely infused oil at the table. The heat of the dish will send all the flavor molecules flying and you nose will notice the lovely earthy, nutty aroma instantly. Just put the black parmezan with a grater on the table and enjoy preferrably

Chili con Carne Dutch style

2013-05-30T03:32:00.004-07:00

This post is in two languages on request. / Deze post is op aanvraag in 2 talen geschreven.
(scroll naar beneden voor de nederlandse versie)

The best party dish ever is chili con carne, anyone can scoop a bowl full take some bread, sour cream and guacamole and dig in. You can make it in advance. Actually, it tastes even better the next day. But this time I'm making it Dutch style! With typical smoked sausage. Not a very likely combination but I assure you its a very good one. (rookworst from the brand UNOX)

Ingredients;
- 500 g of minced pork-beef
- one tin of red kidney beans
- one tin of white beans
- one tin of sweet corn
- 3 colour peppers (capsicums)
- 2 big brown onions
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 little tins of concentrated tomato
- one pack (250mL0 of passata di pomodoro)
- 2 tbsp of chilli powder ( if you don't like spice just add 1 tsp and a quarter of jalapeno)
- 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
- Half a jalepeno
- 1 smoked sausage
- one beef stock cube
- a bunch of cilantro (koriander) leaves

Side:
- sour cream
- guacamole
- grated cheese
- bread

Instructions:
Chop the onions and the garlic fine and fry them in a big pot with a slosh of olive oil until soft on medium heat. Add the mince, the chili powder, cayenne pepper, the finely chopped jalapeno and crumble the stock cube into it. When the mince is about cooked add the peppers, cut in 2 by 2 cm pieces, and the tin tomato and passata di pomodoro. Stir well, add some water if necessary. Get the beans out of the tin and rinse them thoroughly before adding them to the pot. Let this simmer on low fire for half an hour. Cut the sausage up in in slices and halve them for nice bite size pieces. Add them and let them heat through. The sausage is cooked already so it doesn't need long. If you are worries about the vegetable content you can add sliced carrots at the adding the mince meat step! Taste, and add some salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Sprinkle with some cheese, add some sour cream, guacamole and cilantro leaves and scoop the lovelyness up with a piece of crispy bread.

ENJOY!!

DUTCH

Ingredienten:
- 500 g gemengd gehakt
- 1 blik rode kidney bonen
- 1 blik witte bonene
- 1 blik maiskorrels
- 3 kleuren paprika
- 2 grote bruine uien
- 4 tenen knoflook
- 2 kleine blikjes geconcentreerde tomaat
- 1 pak (250mL) tomaten puree
- 2 eetlepels chilipeper (meer 1 theelepel als je niet pittig wil)
- 1 theelepel cayenne peper
- een halve jalapeno peper (een kwart voor minder pittig)
- een boullion blokje
- 1 rookworst
- bosje koriander

Voor erbij:
- creme fraiche
- guacamole
- geraspte kaas
- brood

Instructies:
Snij de uien en de knoflook fijn en bak ze in een grote pan met een flinke scheut olijf olie glazig op middelhoog vuur. Voeg het gehakt toe alsmede de chilipoeder, cayennepeper de jalapeno en verkruimel het boullion blokje in de pan. Als het gehakt bijna gaar is voeg de in blokjes gesneden paprika toe samen met de tomaat uit blik en de tomaten puree. Roer goed en voeg wat water toe als het te droog lijkt. Haal de bonen uit het blik en was ze goed onder koud stromend water voordat je ze in de pan doet. Laat did minsten een half uur pruttelen op laag vuur. Snij de rookworst in plakken en dan door de helft. Voeg ze toe en laat ze opwarmen. Gezien rookworst al gaar is hoeft het niet lang te koken. Als je graag wat meer groenten erin zou hebben dan kan je worteltjes in dunne plakjes gesneden toevoegen als je het gehakt toevoegt. Proef en voeg nog wat zout en vers gemalen zwarte peper toe naar smaak. Strooi er wat kaas over op je bord, voeg wat creme fraiche, guacamole en koriander blaadjes aan toe en shep de heerlijkheid op met een goed knapperig stuk brood!

Eet smakelijk!!

Walnut banana bread

2013-02-28T01:47:00.002-08:00

I love to put a smile on people's faces. It's quite a weird sensation and is deeply rooted in my personality. Why? I have absolutely no idea. I just know that I love it. While teaching private physics lessons, I try to ease the mental pain of my students every once in a while. Today it's walnut and banana bread. And believe me, big smiles they were. The lovely sweet nutty scent coming from the oven was already enough to achieve that. Here it is. Very easy and very tasty.

Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 100 g of butter
- 140 g of caster sugar
- 259 g of flour
- 2 tsps of baking powder
- 4 very ripe bananas
- 2 handfuls of walnuts
- 50 mL of cream

Instructions:
In a bowl add the softened butter with the caster sugar and the egg. Mix this thoroughly until no butter clumps are visible. Mix the flour and baking powder slowly through until you get a dough that looks like shortcrust dough. Squash the bananas and chop the nuts and add them to the dough along with the cream to form a sticky lovely dough. Pour it into a buttered and floured bread pan an cook in an oven for an hour at 160 C or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Serve with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream or a splash of maple syrup.

Enjoy

Japanese broth, Dashi and miso soup

2012-10-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

As I might have mentioned I love japanese cuisine. Japan is the highest on my list of countries I want to visit. Unfortunately it is the most expensive as well, so untill I have saved up enough I try to bring a little bit of japan into my life by experimenting with some recipes. One that I have gotten proficient is is the making of japanese broths, which is unexpectedly easy and I have seldom made a broth that flavorfull in such a short time. A beautifull starter made with a dollop of miso paste, silken tofu and sea weed flakes or a beautifull filled main with grilled beef strips, beautifull shii-takes and a poached egg (the next recipe). Here I explain the simple one and give some explanation on the ingredients.

For the Dashi (stock); (can be bought granulated in sachets, but home made is better)
- 2 liter of water
- 3x4 cms of kombu seaweed (kelp)
- a handfull of bonito flakes (dried and grated tunafish)

Add for clear broth;
- 60 ml mirin (japanese rice wine)
- 50 ml soy sauce

Add for miso broth; (into Dashi stock)
- 2 tbsp of light miso paste (fermented soy bean paste)
or
- 1 tbsp light miso paste and 1 tbsp red miso paste

- It is not a regular addition but I do like to mkae my miso soup out of clear broth instead of the simple dashi. It add a lovely deepness to the miso soup.

In the miso broth;
- wakame flakes steeped in cold water
- silken tofu cut in tiny cubes
- spring onion finnely chopped
- be creative, you can add anything you like!!!

Steep the kombu or kelp in cold water in the pot you will make the stock in for 20 minutes. Turn on the heat and add a hand full of the bonito (tunafish) flakes. These ingredients are dried and can be stored for long periods when kept dry and dark. Bring it to a sorf boil and let it simmer for about 6 minutes. Strain the stock through a fine sieve. If you don't have this, use a clean washed towel or kitchen paper, a coffee filter (paper one) will do as well. Add the mirin and soy sauce to make a clear broth. Please do taste and play with the quantities, soy sauce of different brands can be less or more salty than the one I use. If you want to make miso out of this clear broth add the miso paste when the clear broth is not yet boiling again and strir well, a whisk makes it easier. Add the steeped wakame and silken tofu serve sprinkled with chopped spring onions. Heat up and serve. To the clear broth you can add any type off noodles you want, I loooooooove udon, but ramen or somen will all do, with some freshly chopped spring onions. Try this out before trying my next recipe. Which acquires a bit more timing and multi tasking! But most of all......

~ENJOY~

Cookie Cake (Bolo de bolacha)

2012-10-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

This is a good recipe if you want small kids to help in the kitchen. Its tasty easy and very cheap! A typical portuguese recipe that I have made in my youth over and over again. It never bored me and whenever its there I have to have a slice.

Ingredients for 1 cake:
- 2 packs of Maria biscuits
- 2 egg yolks
- 250g butter
- 250g sugar
- 2 big cups of very strong coffee
- 2 handfulls of crushed cookie

Instructions:
Let the butter come too room temperature while brewing some intense coffee. When the butter is soft mix it with the sugar and egg yolks into a beautiful, light yellow, cream. dip the cookies in the coffe for about 3 seconds. Don't let them soak too long or they will fall apart in your hands. spread them in a cake tin of whatever shapeyou like. Cover the bottom with one layer of soaked cookies. After one layer, spread some of the butter-sugar-yolk mixture on top as a tasty "cement" layer. Continue untill you are out of cookies. Use the rest of the cream to cover the top and sprikle with the crushed cookies. Refrigerate for an hour. Serve with some whipped cream or vanilla icecream.

Its so simple it seems to good to be true. It is too good, but also true ;P

ENJOY

Giant puff ball recipes

2012-10-08T14:04:00.001-07:00

What a find!! I was on a lovely sunday walk with my other half Paulus in the sunshine. Its the beginning of my favorite season. Unpredictable weather, explosive downpours followed by warm soothing sunshine. It is still warm but quite moist. The high season for mushrooms. I think the most mystical thing you can find in a forest nowadays. I found a whole bunch of them, a lot of different kinds, took pictures to determine the types later. I was actually whining a little bit... Yes... I admit. I had never seen a giant puff ball. (Reuzen Bovist in Dutch). I wanted to find one quite bbadly. One because they are quite impressive; often mistaken for a deflated white football. Two, because they are edible and have quite a peculiar taste. On the way out of the forest after making dosens of pictures I had already given up hope, when, next to a traintrack a saw one! It was glorious!! My prayers had been heared. =] So stoked I couldn't wipe the grin off my face the rest of the day. But now there was a big challenge.

Wat to do with it! I had over a kg of mushroom to use. At least enough to experiment with and a beautiful free gift of mother nature. So I started an online search for recipes. I found out that only the German eat giant puff balls and have recipes for it. I tried it out. Cut off a big slice trimmed the edges and prepared it like you would a schnitzel. Very, very tasty indeed!

Puff ball slice schintzel 2 servings;
- 2 nicely trimmed 1cm slices of giant puff ball
- a cup of flour
- 2 eggs
- a cup of breadcrumb
- grated parmesan (my own addition to the recipe)
- pepper and salt

Mix some pepper and salt in with the egg mixture. Dip the slices first in the flour then in the egg, let it sit for a minute. Mix the breadcrumbs with some greated parmesan. As much as you like. I put in quite a bit! Heat up a pan with a knob of butter. Dip the slices in the breadcrumb-parmesan mix and fry them on medium fire golden brown. Lovely!! The German use it as a breakfast recipe and fry it in bacon fat instead of butter. Tasty lunch dish. I tried another by mixing the left over breadcrumb-parmesan with the left-over flour, eggs, and added a bit of milk to make a savory pancake batter, dipped some slices in and fried them. Ate them with a slice of cheese and some spring onions! Lovely.

I tried to make a stew, but unfortunately I had waited too long with that.It did work, was edible but not worth mentioning the recipe. It was an experiment and not all experiments succeed. When you use a puffball it should be crisp white when you cut it open. It doesn't matter if slugs and snails have snacked on it a little and no one has ever died of a little bit of dirt on their mushrooms, but when a yellow, pink, green, blue or any other color starts creeping in. Don't use it! When you find on in the field, cut off a little slice and you know immediately. The flesh should be light but firm.

People are often hesitant when it comes to eating wild mushrooms. So am I. But there are a few species that are unmistakable like the giant puff ball. And really, if you find one... Try it! I do stress that if you do find edible mushrooms in the wild, don't pick all. Leave some to sporulate, so we are provided with them again later on.

I found another lovely recipe, for the next one I find. It uses the whole ball, the meat scooped out fried with sausages, chalottes, oregano and some other herbs. The mixture put back in the puffball and the whole thing put in the oven with cheese melting all over it!!! doesnt that sound scrumptious? Well next time I find one, I promise to give it a try and share it with you.

ENJOY

Bobotie, south african goodness =]

2012-09-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

This is at the moment my favorite dish to eat. Its fragrant, salty sweet, crunchy and lovely. A south African dish that my friend Gratia made for me, and has to make it for me all time now. So I put on my puppy eyes face and asked her for the recipe. I'm not as good as she is yet, but in time I will make my own signature spice combination. This is her recipe. I won't take any credit, but I do need to share it with you~!

Ingredients for 4;

- 600g minced beef

- 2 slices of white bread

- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil

- one egg

- 3 tbsp of curry powder

- 2 hand fulls of raisins

- 5 tbsp of apricot confiture (jam)

- 1 big brown onion

- a cup of milk

- a pack of fruit and nut rice

- some sliced and roasted almonds

- 4 bay leafs

- pepper and salt to taste

Instructions;

Peel and dice the brown onion. Put the raisins in a bowl and cover with freshly boiled water. Put the bread in a deep dish and cover with the milk. Set aside to soak. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Centigrade. In a big frying pan add the vegetable oil and the onion and fry until the onion starts to turn a little more see through on medium fire. add the mince and the curry powder, a good pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. fry until almost cooked. In the mean time squeeze out the bread and cut into tiny bits, add this to the pan, keep the milk. Drain the raisins, add them as well. next turn the heat low and add the apricot confiture. Make sure you taste now if its sweet and salty enough. I like this dish quite sweet and salty, so experiment with the amounts of curry powder salt and confiture. Put some water on for the rice. Mix the egg in a little bowl and add about 3 tbsp of the milk you soaked the bread in.. Transfer the mince mixture to a oven dish spread it out evenly and cover with the egg mixture. Place the bay leafs on top. These are critical for the correct taste! Bake until nice and golden. Drain the rice. Serve with some roasted almonds on top and a nice dollop of apricot confiture. Serve this with a fresh salad or a vegetable curry side dish. Spinach is nice as well. Its beautiful and kids will love it as well. Fill of fibers due to the nuts and fruits, proteins and energy!

I hope you ENJOY it as much as I do!

Mushroom, chicken and oystersauce stirfry

2012-09-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

Some recipes find their way to you in the most funny ways. I was in a Asian supermarket with my friend Gratia last week scouting for fun new ingredients. The Asian supermarket is the best playground for that. The Asian supermarket sells products from all over Asia, from India to Japan and everything in between but also Surinam cuisine products! Which has Indian and Indonesian influences. While browsing through the dried mushroom section we started talking with one of the employees of the store of Chinese heritage. He exlpained a few things about the different types of dried mushrooms, because frankly, not all of them look quite the same when they are dried or even remotely edible. He grabbed 2 types of dried mushroom. the Cloud ear mushroom, which looks remotely alien and the chinese bolete type mushroom in slices. And the most interesting ingredient were dried lion lillies. I had never seen them before but they blew my mind.He told us about the simplest of recipies with these ingredients and we tried it the same night! Here it comes...

Cloud ear mushroom

dried bolete type in slices

Golden lion lilies

Ingredients for 4;
- a hand full of dried cloud ear mushrooms
- a handfull of dried, sliced, bolete mushrooms
- a handfull of dried golden lion lily flowers
- 3 chicken breasts
- chinese egg noodles
- 4-6 tbsp of oyster sauce
- 3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Instructions;
Take the dried mushrooms, place them in a big bowl and top them with freshly boiled water to steep and to let the mushrooms suck up the water to become their original size. do the same in a different bowl with the lilies. Let them steep at least an hour. In the mean time get out the biggest thinnest wok you have and cut the chicken in bite sized strips. When the mushrooms and lilies are done steeping take em out of the water and givem a little squeeze to get rid of excess water. Don't throw away the water, they make a beautifull broth when salt is added and might be usefull if your dish is a bit too dry at the end. Put a pot with water on for the noodles with a pinch of salt and add the noodles when the water is boiling. The noodles should take up to 6 minutes, but keep tasting. It depends on what type of egg noodles you chose. Strain, wash for a second with cool water and set aside. Chop the mushrooms in strips about the same size as the chicken. Leave the lilies untouched. Heat up the oil in the wok on high fire and make sure the sidez of the wok are coated with oil so the chicken won't stick too much. Add the chicken and stirfy for half a minute before adding the mushrooms and lilies. stirfry for another minute. The cloud ear mushroom should keep a little crunchy bite and the bolete should be squishy and easy to bite through. the lilies are good anyways. Add the oyster sauce and if necessary some of the mushroom water.

And its ready! This is such a simple recipe but so full of flavor! The hassle is obtaining the ingredients, but if you have an Asian store in the neighborhood it should pose no problem.

ENJOY!

Ginger-pear Strudel

2012-09-21T03:00:00.000-07:00

This is an amazingly delicious recipe I found in one of my japanese recipe books. It uses a japanese type pear called nashi, that actually looks more like an apple then a pear but tastes like a pear you use for cooking. Not too sweet but juicy and grainy. It was another experiment with my friend Gratia but one that was such a succes! Wow what flavor explosion! its a beautiful and original variation on German apple strudel that I think, I daresay, like even better. Lets have a look!

Ingredients for one big strudel;
- 4 nashi pears or pears suitable for cooking (not too sweet or juicy)
- 8 leafs of 15x15 layer dough
- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 tsp of ginger powder
- 2 tsp of cinnamon powder
- 2 hadfulls of wallnuts
- 125g of butter
- 2 cm of fresh ginger root
- 1 cup of bread crumbs (japanese; panko)
- juice of 1 lemon
- icing sugar to dust
- vanilla ice cream (or if you are feeling really inspired, chai icecream)

Instructions;
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Centigrade. Chop the walnuts somewhere between rough and fine and put them in a container along with the ginger and cinnamon powder and 1 cup of sugar. Mix and set aside for later. take the layer dough leafs out of the freezer to warm up a little. Peel the pears and core them. Cut them into thin slices and in a big bowl add them along with the other cup of sugar the lemon and breadcrumbs. Peel and grate the ginger onto the pear mix, stir and set aside. Cut the butter into tiny cubes and mix them through the pear mixture. dust a tabletop with flower and lay the layer dough on it with the edges of the squared overlapping 2 by 4. Use a rolling pin to seal the gaps and thin out the dough a bit.Heap the pear mixture on one of the long sides of the dough as wide as you want your strudel to be. I normally go for about 15 cm. and spread the dry sugar-nut mixture on the rest of the dough leaving the top edge about 2 cm clean to be able to seal the strudel properly. Start rolling from the pear side, gently to not puncture the pastry. Its probably best to do this with 2 people. This prevents tearing the pastry. and seal with the clean end. Seal the sides as well and transfer onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake it in the middle of the oven until golden brown and crispy. Serve warm with some ice cream and dust with some icing sugar, but believe me it is as good cold the next day with a cup of tea. (ginger-lemon-honey tea to echo the flavor)

Astound and ENJOY!

lemon, cream and mushroom chicken

2012-09-20T06:24:00.001-07:00

This is a lovely recipe that I cook when there are people coming over for dinner last minute. It happens often that I do not know their food preferences, but with this dish you can hardly go wrong. Easy, very tasty and you will have your table partner ask you for the recipe even months after =]. That is my experience at least.

Ingredients for 4:
- a big brown onion or 2 smaller ones
- 1 spanish chili (they aren't very hot, just adds flavor and color)
- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
- 200 ml of full cream
- 250 g of mushrooms ( be creative, I like oyster mushrooms, but anything you like will do)
- 1 big washed lemon
- 1 tbsp of massala, or if you don't like this curry flavor a pinch of saffron
- 3 breasts of chicken, but 500g of chicken thy is fine as well
- 3 cups of basmati rice
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 2 tbsp of solid coconut cream (you can buy it in blocks)
- handfull of parsely or selery leaves
- pepper and salt to taste

Instructions:
Chop the chicken and mushrooms in bitesized pieces as preparation. Add the rice to a pot with 1.5 cup of water for each cup of rice, with the kaffir lime leaves, the coconut cream and a pinch of salt on high fire with the lid on. Stir regularly. When the water boils turn down the fire and let it bubble away for 10 minutes. After that take the pot off the fire and wrap it in a few towels to steam. Chop the onion, deseed and chop the red chillies and add them to a high rimmed big frying pan with the vegetable oil on medium fire. Let the onion and chillies sizzle a bit and add a pinch of salt so the onions wont brown to much.Add the chicken along with the massala. Make sure the massala is fried in the oil properly. If you wan to be sure add the massala half a minute before the chicken. Make sure the chicken is seared properly before adding the mushrooms, fry for another minute and then add the cream and juice of a whole lemon. (note; some lemons are more acidic then others so taste in between adding each half, to acidic is not the best, though you can repair it by letting it simmer a bit longer. This will degrade the cictric acid a bit, but the mushrooms will become a bit too soft) If you like the bitterness of lemon add some zested lemon skin. Let is simmer for a bit while checking the chicken pieces. normally it only takes about 4 more mintues but check anyway. No one likes undecooked chicken. add some freshly ground black pepper in the mean time and salt to taste. We're ready to plate up! Place a good scoop of the kaffir-coconut-rice in a deep dish, add a good ladle of the cream-lemon-chicken and finish it off with a sprikle of chopped parsely.

Its fesh, mild, and lovely. Serve this with a simple tomato salad.
Enjoy!

picture; natashaskitchen.com

Summer Lamb stew for Raoul

2012-06-04T09:40:00.001-07:00

This is the one dish I remember eating as a little girl, seated on a big white plastic chair in the middle of our garden underneath the cherry blossom tree. It is a funny thing to connect a stew to a hot summers day. But there is nothing better then this dish that actually is a full summer story. The voluptuous ripe and sweet tomatoes, the crisp fresh broadbeans, the deliciously sweet and tasty carrots, aromatic beautiful thyme and the lean and succulent lamb. A summary of summer.

Ingredients for 6:
- 1 kg of lamb, preferrably leg but any type of chopped up lamb pieces do well.
- 500 g of ripe and fragrant tomatoes
- 8 big potatoes
- 2 big handfulls of broadbeans
- 8 big carrots or one big winter carrot
- 5 sprigs of fresh thyme or 3 tbsp dried
- a glass of red wine
- 2 big onions
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 stock cube or half a pint of fresh stock

Instructions:
I have to say this recipe is all about feeling. The amounts that I described above are not absolute. You can add other vegetables if you have some left over in your fridge leave some out if you don't like them, you can make it more meaty if you like, use beef instead of lamb even chicken is a good combination. If you read this recipe I will give you an outline of how to make a stew. What to put in it, is your own choice. Let yourself be inspired!

Chop up the onion and garlic. Put a the biggost pot you have on with a big splash of olive oil in the bottom on medium fire. Put in the onion and garlic along with the sprigs of thyme and put a pinch of salt on the onion. This will make sure it doesn't brown, we want it soft and sweet. Add the lamb leg or the lamb pieces (bite size, this will cook a lot faster!) and sear it all round. Pour in the glass of wine. Watch out, this can splutter quite a bit. Keep the lid close, you can use it as a shield ;p. Add the tomatoes chopped up in little pieces, this will create a delicious sauce along with the onion, wine and stock. Let it simmer a bit until the tomato is falling apart. Add the potatoes peeld and chopped up in bite size little blocks. Add the stock, let it simmer for 5 minutes, add the chopped up carrots. (read: everything in this stew is bite sized) when the potatoes are nearly cooked, add the chopped up broad beans. and cook until tender yet still has a bite.

Stew is ready! Fun thing is the second day the stew is at its best.

Basic rules for a stew: A stew is mostly made in 3 layers. Flavor, bite, and something soft and mushy to cover all the delicious bits.

you start with a flovor base ofter fried onion with garlic and a herb. Celeriac is a very good flavor base for a stew especially in combination with carrot. In this case you let it all simmer to pulp. Then you add all the veges and mets you like. Key is; add the things that take the longest first and make sure you add the stuff in the right order. Taste at all stages and add herbs and stuff when you think you need it. If you don't know if its a good combination take out a spoon full of what you have in your pot and add whatever you think might fit to the spoon. taste... If you like it add a small amout to the pot and keep tasting and adding untill you think its just right. Easy as that!!

Enjoy!

portuguese egg stew

2012-03-29T09:17:00.003-07:00

This is a lovely but very cheap recipe. I recommend it to students with month left at the end of their money. Its tasty, the ingredients are cheap and its quite healthy as well. Power food!!

Ingredients for 4
-6 big eggs
- one tin of concentrated tomato
- one packed of passata di pomodoro (home brand is about 50c)
- one big onion
- 2 bay leaves
- one chopped up chorico, or just diced bacon for the moneyless
- one stock cube
- tbsp olive oil
- 300g frozen peas
- 6 big potatoes to make chips
- salt and pepper

Instructions:
Chop the onion in little bits and fry it in a pan with the olive oil for half a minute. Add the bacon cubes or chopped up chorico to the mix along with the bay leaves. fry until the bacon is cooked and start to get crispy on medium fire. Add the passata and the concentrated tomato. stir. Add the stock cube and the peas. Stir and let it bubble on for 4 minutes. Crack the eggs on top of the mix and turn the fire low. Let it simmer on a very low fire with a lid on top until the eggs are cooked. In the meantime fry the chips in sunflower oil until crispy. Serve with a dollop of mayonaise, thats how the Dutch eat their chips.

Enjoy!

Rocket, bacon and old dutch cheese mash (for Floris)

2012-03-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

I once saw this recipe in a supermarket magazine and made my own version of it. It is incredibly tasty and quite fool proof! So if you want to impress and be sure that it will turn out nicely this is a great one to try!

Ingredients for at least 4p

- 200g of fresh rocket
- 250g of old dutch cheese
- 200g of diced bacon
- 400 - 500 g of potatoes suited for mash
- knob of butter
- 1 cup of milk
- pepper and salt to taste

Instructions:
Skin the potatoes and boil them tender in well salted water. In the mean time fry the bacon in a pan. Add no fat, the bacon has enough of its own. I like my bacon slightly crispy but still juicy. Chop the cheese in little bits. size like half a dice and the rocket in 3cm bits. For this recipe you need a special utensil. a masher. Poor the water from the pot and start mashing the potatoes while adding the milk slowly. We add the milk to make the mash smooth and silky. If you like your mash wetter, add some more. Add the knob of butter and stir well. Next add the 3 key ingredients, the fried bacon with the fat, this contains a lot of taste, the rocket and the cheese. Stir well and add salt and pepper to taste. You probably won't need any with the salty bacon and cheese and the spicy fragrant rocket. Its nice to serve it with a steak or lamb sausages.

Enjoy!

Healing ginger tea... and its just very tasty ;)

2012-03-20T10:20:00.001-07:00

Whenever I feel the slightest bit nauseous or ill, or whenever someone close to me feels bad I make a lovely honey, ginger and lemon tea that just tastes like health in cup. Delicious, soothes the stomach, and gives you a bit of spunk. This is an old recipe, well known by many grandmothers throughout the world, but many have failed to share this particular recipe. So here it is. a true home made remedy.

Ingredients: for 2 cups
- 300 mL water
- 2 cm of ginger
- tbsp good quality honey (acacia if you can find it)
- a slice of a washed lemon

Instruction: Wash the lemon and the ginger thoroughly, we don't want any insecticides on our tea. Even though insecticides and herbicides do not affect humans in low quantities, it is always good to decrease the intake of such chemicals as much as possible. Chop the ginger in small slices and put them in a pot along with the 300 mL of water. Bring the water to a boil and turn off the heat when it is just boiling. Pour the tea into a cup through a strain to catch all the ginger bits. We don't like chewy tea. Add the honey, now I like this particular tea very sweet, if you normally do not like that, please experiment with the amount of honey you want to add. Its smart to start with less, so you can taste and top it up to taste. Add the lemon wedge. This doens't only look good but also tastes good and gives the tea a fresh zing.

This tea makes you feel a little better when you have a fever due to the medicinal qualities of ginger and honey. But especially when you have a sensitive stomach or are a little nauseous.

Enjoy!

Paul's Best juiciest chicken Kiev

2012-01-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

Its been a little quiet on my blog lately. Not that I haven't been cooking, on the contrary! In the past months, I have cooked, baked, invented, but the most fun part was being surprised by people around me. This is a lovely chicken dish produced by Paulus. This dish is the best! I truely haven't ever had a juicier and tastier chicken breast. This is haute quisine kentucky! Read, try and most of all, Enjoy!

Ingredients: for 4

4 chicken breasts
4 tbsp garlic butter (home made = better)
two big eggs
two cups of flour
two cups of breadcrumbs
1L of vegetable oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste
Some veggies and potatoes to serve on the side

Instructions:

Make sure that you get fresh fat chicken breasts. Stab the breast from the top in length, so that you have a long pocket inside that breast without making any other whole then where the knife enters the breast. Warm up the butter a little so that it is nice and malleable and can be put in a pastry bag. Squirt the butter in the pocket in the chicken breast. Put the flour on a plate and roll the breasts into the flour until it is entirely covered. break the eggs into a deep plate and whisk them until frothy. Prepare a plate with the breadcrumbs and add some pepper and salt to taste. Heat a big pan with the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, dip the breasts in the egg and then roll them immediately through the breadcrubs. Slide the breasts gently into the hot oil, the crust will firm immediately, deep fry until the crust is nice and golden. Keep a fitting lid next to the pan at all time in case the oil starts burning. This shouldn't happen but in case it does, just put the lid on top and it will stop burning. Scoop the breasts out when they are lovely golden and let them rest on a kitchen paper covered plate a little to get rid of the excess oil. If you want to make the crust really crunchy, double fry. This chicken is so succulent, you can serve it with plain boiled potatoes, I would boil them in the skin and then serve them with a little splash of olive oil, some boiled green beans or sugar snaps will add nicely. But this is also lovely with a salad nicoise. Really, combine, experiment! I hope to eat this more often, but node made by me ofcourse.

Duck rice with chorico! Arroz de pato!

2011-09-15T07:48:00.000-07:00

You know that when you walk into your parents house, and you smell a certain smell, a smell that takes you back years and all of a sudden you feel like your 8 year old self? Well, whenever my mother makes Arroz de Pato (Duck Rice) I get that feeling. The full lovely smell of one of my favorite recipes. The richness of the Duck, they lovely spicy oil of the chorico and the aromatic fragrant rosemary and garlic. Well I would say, lets just start. Cause its so easy to make!!

Ingredients for 4:

2 Duck legs
4 sprigs of rosemary
one red chili
2 cloves of garlic
1 big oily spicy chorico
a stock cube
pepper and salt to taste
two and a half cups of rice
about 1,5 litres of water

Instructions:

Put the duck legs with skin and all in a pot add the water, the cleaned cloves of garlic, the sprigs of rosemary, the whole red chili and the stock cube. Poke with a fork a few holes in the chorico and add it to the pot, so the oils can flow out. Put the pot on the fire and bring it to the boil, then turn the heat down and let it simmer until the duck legs are well cooked and the water is all fragrant and greasy. Scoop out the legs, chorico, sprigs and other solid pieces. keep the water in the fire and add the rice. Cook the rice in the fluids until beautifully tender and savory. Its okay if its nice and sticky, soggy. We do not like it all dry. Clean the meat of the legs and put it aside. When the rice is done take a baking dish and spread a small layer of rice on the bottom. Spread the duck meat evenly over the surface and cover with the rest of the rice. Cut the cooked chorico in small slices and stick them in even rowns halfway into the rice. Put the dish in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until the top is nice and crispy but not brown. Just keep an eye on it. Serve directly out of the oven. The good thing about this dish is that you can prepare it a day in advance and it will be even tastier. Just pop it in the oven 20 minutes before serving, this is a bit longer since you need to heat it through all the way, if you put it in the oven right away its still hot.

ENJOY =]

My dads Salmon Mash

2011-05-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

Mashing potatoes is as old as time! Well almost, as old as we started using them for food. I always like to spruce this boring but delicious dish up with other ingredients. Actually, the Dutch are masters at it. They mix anything through mashed potatoes, from turnip-rooted celery to old salty farmers cheese. The Italians tried it out mixed with truffle oil. I have to say that is one of my favorites~! But the most recent new lovely mash mix I ate was one made by my father. Inspired by pasta with salmon, he made mash with salmon and a few other ingredients. I was flabbergasted I have to say. Flavor explosion and quite cheap and simple.

Ingredients: for 4

250g of smoked salmon scraps (cheaper then fillet)
one cup of sour cream
one lemon
5 spring onions chopped in little rings
400g of young potatoes, the starchy, not the gluey type
knob of butter
pepper and salt
sprig of dill for garnish
(if needed a little milk to soften the mash)

Instructions:

Peel the potatoes, cut them in even size pieces and boil them until cooked in well salted water. Mash the potatoes with a hand masher and add the sour cream and butter. Change the masher for a wooden spoon and gently mix the salmon and the spring onion pieces through the mash. Squeeze out half the lemon, add some freshly ground pepper, a little bit of salt (the salmon is already a little salty) and have a taste. Don't be shy with the pepper. Use the other half of the lemon if its not so potent but add only as much as you like!! Tasting is important in this case, lemons can have quite different levels of acidity between them. Serve immediately! This recipe is really nice with boiled white asparagus and a hollandaise sauce and a soft boiled egg! Believe me I have made many happy faces with this recipe and combination!

ENJOY!

Quesedillas with feta and red onion

2011-04-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

When the weather gets hotter my Latin temperament starts flaring up and I get a craving for Latin type dishes. As a poor students there are some things in the Mexican kitchen that are delicious, and cheap! Quesedillas is one of them. The first time I had them was in Australia made by a lovely Mexican girl I met there. From the first moment I loved them! They are nice for lunch, as a snack or, if you fill them with more stuff like chicken, sausage or fried and seasoned mince it will be a lovely dinner accompanied by the usual sour cream, guacamole and a tomato salsa!

Ingredients for 4 pieces:

2 tortillas
handfull of crumbled feta
handfull of grated cheese (cheddar type)
a red onion sliced in half rings
1 tomato sliced
half a avocado sliced
pepper and salt
tabasco

Instructions:

Put one of the tortillas in a frier and start op the heat. Immediately, spread the feta and cheddar over the tortilla and spread the onion rings on the top along with the tomato and avocado. Put some pepper and salt to taste and put the second tortilla on top. Make sure that the fire is not too high! your tortilla will blacken if you do. Deftly flip the tortilla so the other side can heat. Serve immediately with some guacemole and sour cream! For the spice lovers, they can put some tabasco on the quesedillas before eating! Really nice party snack because all can be prepared in advance, all you have to do is fry them up!

ENJOY!

Super fresh Glass noodle salad with tempura shrimp!

2011-04-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

The Asians are true artists of making light meals with exploding flavors. There is nothing we like more in spring. Well at least I do. This is an easy to make quick and healthy lunch recipe or as a starter in a bit smaller proportion. I always thought that glass noodles were something magical as a little gir when my mum would put them in our tom kha like soups. You don’t see them but they are or so delicious and, now as a poor students this interests me most, really cheap! You can buy them in any midsized supermarket in the Asian section. (at least in Holland you can). So I made up my own little salad with the glass noodles and added some tempura shrimp for flavor and crunch. I do realize I’m reinventing the wheel here, but it’s awesome nonetheless!

Correct picture coming soon!

Ingredients for 4:

12 big prepeeled shrimp with the little tail still on
2 packs of glass noodles (500g)
4 limes
4 handfulls of beansprouts
Bunch of fresh Coriander
4 spring onions
8 table spoons of sweet chili sauce
One big Spanish chilli (or if you like it hot some nice thai ones)
Some fresh mint leaves
Tempura batter mix
Pan with sunflower oil to fry tempura shrimp in

Instructions:

Now this dish can’t be made in one big pot, each plate needs to be prepared separately otherwise you will never get all the ingredients divided evenly. So first the preparations! Wash all the herbs and veges. In particular the bean sprouts. Cut the spring onions in little rings, remove the stems from the coriander and the mint. Prepare the tempura batter as indicated on the package. (it should just be adding water to the mix). Put a pot with salted water on the fire and add the glass noodles when the water is boiling. Now the noodles should be cooked in only two or 3 minutes. (Also indicated on the package). Make sure you have a strainer ready. Poor the noodles in the strainer and rinse the noodles with cold water. This salad is meant to be cold. Make sure that the oil is heated while you put the water up for boiling, you should do these things at the same time. When the oil is hot enough, you’ll see lines in the oil when it is! Dip the shrimps in the tempura batter and drop them slowly and gently into the hot oil. You can use Sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, coconut oil etc. for this as long as its vegetable oil. As a precaution for fire in the pot have a fitting lid ready to douse the fire or a damp cloth to be able to throw over the fire. So fry the shrimp until they are a little golden and cooked. Make a little pile of noodles on each plate. Drape some bean sprouts over it along with the coriander and mint leaves. Then drizzle two table spoons of sweet chili sauce over each plate and squeeze out half a lime over each plate. Then cut the Spanish chili in tiny flakes and sprinkle it over (adding some color). Arrange 3 shrimps per plate nicely on top and ad two little part of lime to the side of the dish. Ready to serve! Make sure you are able to serve right after frying the shrimp!

Enjoy =]

Spring pasta (for Regien)

2011-04-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

Just a few warm and sunny days and I have got spring in my head! Staring to eat more salads and ditching all the wintery recipes for fresh and new ones. This one is one of my favorites and a really handy one if you would like to take something amazingly taste to a picnic, since it tastes better when it has cooled down. Regien my climbing mentor asked me to post this one so she had a new recipe for a nice on the road dinner!

Ingredients: (6p)

500g Cherry tomatoes (multiple sorts, yellow, roma etc.)
Rocket a bunch
500g pasta (I like Fusili)
A cup of the best extra virgin olive oil you can find
4 cloves of garlic
3 chalottes
20 basil leaves
Fair bit of freshly ground pepper
Salt to taste
3 mozzarella di bufala
Some grana flakes to finish

Instructions:

Clean the garlic and chop it finely in put it in a large bowl. In the end all has to fit. Pour the olive oil on the garlic, give it a quick stir, add the salt and let it sit so the flavors can blend. Clean the chalottes and chop them into really fine rings. Throw them on top of the garlic-oil mixture. Wash the tomatoes and cut them in half, add them all to the bowl. Drain the water from the mozzarella and chop the cheese in pieces as big as the halved tomatoes (all bite sized) and add them to the bowl as well. Boil the paste in plenty of water with a pinch of salt and make sure they are “al dente” cooked. Strain the water from the pasta and put the hot pasta on top off all the ingredients in the bowl. Mix thoroughly! You should be able to smell the garlic and oil now. Add the cracked pepper and cut up the basil and rocket leaves to add them a bit later when the pasta has cooled a little. Taste to make sure there is enough salt and pepper. Let it cool a little and serve it with some grana flakes on top! The spice lover can add some fresh chopped Spanish chili pepper!

Buon appetito! :P

Dutch Bacon Pancakes (for Shannon)

2011-04-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, sorry it has been so quiet on my blog. Busy with new businesses and study! So time for some action. In the past few months I have had a few of my international friends to come and visit me and the one Dutch thing I like to make for all of them, mainly because I love it so much myself is Dutch bacon pancakes with (golden)syrup. Get ready for a flavor sensation!

Ingredients:

3 cups of milk
1 egg
Pinch of salt
2,5 cups of flour
Very thinly cut slices of bacon
Knob of butter for frying
Dutch syrup (or golden syrup)

Instructions:

Put the milk and the egg in a bowl along with the salt and whisk it until the egg is properly mixed in the batter. Add the flower gradually through a sieve while mixing the batter gently but thoroughly to prevent lumps. The consistency should be so that if you take up a ladle of batter and poor it back in the bowl there should be a depression in the batter there where you poor it back in. Sometimes you need to tweak my measurements a little to reach the ideal thickness. This all depends on what kind of milk, flour and eggs you use, but in general, this works.

So put a fryer on the fire and put in a little cube of butter and let it melt. Put three (or four depending on how much bacon you’d like) slices of bacon in the pan, you see then shrivel a little after a few seconds flip them and directly after that pour a ladle of batter over and around the bacon. Volume depending on how thin you like your pancake, a normal soup ladle works well for me. Swirl the pan around so that the batter covers the whole bottom of the pan. Let it sit quietly until the top of the pancake is dry. Then flip quickly, best is to use the flip from the wrist technique using the pan, but if you don’t trust yourself with that kind of kitchen acrobatics use a spatula. Let the other side fry a little until colored. Serve instantly with some syrup on top. The best one is Dutch syrup from, de Ruijter, but golden syrup comes close. Maple syrup is not bad either.

Enjoy peeps!

And big kiss to Shannon! Miss you girl!!

Mango sticky rice

2010-10-22T04:24:00.000-07:00

This is a real Thai treat, and whenever I am in Thailand I have a quest to find the best mango sticky rice in the neighborhood I am staying in. Its such a delicious dessert but I have to admit I often eat it for breakfast, since rice is one of the best carbohydrate sources and if there is one time a day you can indulge yourself with them it is at breakfast time, you need a good high energy breakfast to get you through the day without any dips. And mango is just a very healthy and amazing fruit! Again nothing better then to start your day with some fiber and vitamins! SO, here we go!

Ingredients:

1 cup of hot cooked sticky rice (you can use dessert rice)
2 tbsp of caster sugar or palm sugar
1 pinch of salt (very important)
0.5 cup of coconut milk
1 ripe mango peeled and sliced (or lychee's or ripe papaya)

Instructions:

Heat the coconut milk over medium heat, stir constantly and let the coconut milk simmer, add the sugar and salt while stirring constantly. Like heating up normal milk it can burn to the bottom of the pot so stirring is of the utmost importance. Remove the pot from heat and pour the mix over the hot sticky rice and mix together to the rice absorbed the fluid. Let the rice sit in pot with lid wrapped in towels to keep the heat for 15-20 minutes. After this the rice will have absorbed all the fluid and should be a little mushy. Serve warm on a platter with chilled sliced mango.

Now the recipe is actually best if you have real Thai sticky rice and if you have steamed it instead of cooked it. I am aware that the last few recipe's contained a lot of ingredients that are hard to come by in a lot of countries. That is why I changed this one for the benefit of thee readers. Sorry guys! Just remember that the herbs and spices are the main ingredients, all the veggies and fillers as meat, chicken, fish or tofu you can mix and match as you wish. As for preparing the dessert rice. It entirely depends from which brand you buy it. So take a good look at the instructions on the package. Hope you'll enjoy this one~!

Cheers,

Linda

Real Thai curry pastes

2010-10-21T01:03:00.000-07:00

The Thai are particularly famous for their unbeatable curry's. I had many, many of them in my time in Thailand. They are so full of flavor, creamy and spicy, a genius combination. Back home we tend to get takeaway thai or if we want to get messy we buy a pre-made curry paste. That is actually such a shame, because in Thailand, everybody makes their own signature curry paste by varying the basic ingredients or adding a secret one. It is actually says in Thai culture that if a woman is skilled with her mortar and pestle and beats the curry pastes in a good rhythm she will make a good wife. (if you know what I mean) I will give you a basic recipe here for a green curry. The good thing is that green and red curries are the same, the difference is mostly in the color and type of chilies you add. Later I will give you the recipe's of masaman curry paste and yellow curry paste.

Ingredients: if you do not bear the spiciness well add half the amount of chilies

15 green spur chilies
4 green birds eye chilies
4 red birds eye chilies
2 tbsp lemon grass, thick base
1,5 tsp of galangal ginger
0,5 tsp of kaffir lime rind
2 tbsp shallot
3 tbsp of garlic
2 tbsp of coriander root
2 tsp of turmeric ginger
0.5 tsp roasted coriander seeds
0,25 tsp roasted cumin seeds
0,25 roasted black peppercorns
0,5 tsp salt
1 tsp of shrimp paste

Instructions:

All the measures are for finely chopped ingredients, you really have to chop it up finely otherwise you are pounding the ingredients for ever! So, put everything in the mortar and continue pounding until it forms a nice fine paste. If you are the lazy type (which I am sometimes) you use a food processor. I have to admit that you get a better result with mortar and pestle because you really pound all the oils and juices out of the ingredients where as the food processor just chops it up in tinier bits.

I know its a big list of ingredients but it is so worth it to get them all. Most of them you can use in many other dishes, many of them you can freeze to keep (the gingers, chilies and lemon grass). Once the paste is finished keep it in a tightly closed jar. If you use a clean spoon at all times to scoop out some paste it may keep for months in your fridge!

Enjoy!