Kookjegek.nl

Have a break

Dennis — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:48:26 +0000

Working outside the office has been really busy lately. But it also has it pros. You meet new people, see new places and of course I come across different food. For instance, fresh cherries. I used them for cakes inspired by Muffin tin mania.

At the company I was working a colleague suddenly had an interesting question during lunch break. If I would be interested in a kilogram of cherries. His wife worked at a cherry farm and was able to bring them along the same afternoon.

Of course I wanted those! I wasn’t disappointed when I tasted one of those cherries. A lot sweeter than the ones I had before from the supermarket. Back home I decided to use this sweetness and make some cakes.

The idea was to make simple cakes and add some other flavors to the mix. I found a great recipe on Muffin tin mania. But I also used sultana raisins, zante currants and some cinnamon. Not a lot of work, but really tasty sweet cakes.

I was so happy with the result that I decided to share them as a gift at let’s have a break festival. A new place to meet people & food…

Ingredients

40 grams almonds
150 grams butter
150 grams icing sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
150 grams self-rising flour
250 grams cherries
75 grams sultana raisins
50 grams zante currants

Preparation

First of all cut the almonds into small pieces and roast them in a dry pan until golden brown. Put them together with the butter and icing sugar in a food processor.

Add the eggs one by one while the butter mix is still in the processor. After that add the flour.

Pre heat the oven, 180 degrees Celcius. Grease a muffin tin with some left-over butter.

In the meanwhile you can start by preparing the filling of the cakes. I used cherries, sultana raisins and zante currants. So in my case it was removing the stones from the cherries and swelling the sultana raisins & zante currants in hot water.

Put as much of these ingredients to your likings in the muffin tin. Cover it with the butter-flour mix. After that you can put the muffin tin in the oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the cakes are golden brown.

I served the cakes with some left-over icing sugar.

Recipe source: Muffin tin mania

For the win! 2010

Dennis — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:58:43 +0000

I must admit, I’m not the biggest football fan as I used to be in my childhood. But the World cup is special event. So in honor of our Dutch national football team I created an orange nectarine-carrot gelato, inspired by Robert Gelato, Amy Johnson & David Lebovitz.

A recipe born from one simple twitter question. I asked @ijsgek, a local gelato shop owner, which flavour he would pair with nectarines. I knew he was the person to ask, because he is always looking for new flavour combinations. By the way, if you happen to be in the Netherlands, definitely go visit his shop in Utrecht. I can recommend his flavour of the week gelato, every week a new flavour pairing surprise.

The answer of course is also important. He suggested prosecco, a nice sparkling Italian wine, not a bad idea. First try was caramelizing the nectarines like Amy Johnson and adding the prosecco at the last few minutes. Already a great dessert. But I needed a bigger challenge, I wanted to make a gelato.

I used David Lebovitz, author of the perfect scope, vanilla ice cream recipe also as a base for this recipe. Again I caramelized the nectarines but also added some carrots. Together with the prosecco and cardamom the gelato got a nice flavour pairing.

I’m really happy with the end result. Let’s hope I can say the same about the football match against Brazil today in the quarter final, for the win!

Ingredients

5 nectarines
5 carrots
100 grams brown sugar
bottle of prosecco
cardamom
butter
4 eggs
200 grams sugar
200 grams crème fraiche
250 ml milk

Preparation

First of all clean the nectarines & carrots. Remove the skin, the stone and cut the nectarines into quarters. Peel the carrot and cut them into small pieces. Put the nectarines and carrots in a bowl and add the brown sugar.

Heat a pan with butter and caramelize the nectarines & carrots in about 12 minutes. Add the prosecco in the last few minutes. Let the mixture cool down a bit and put it a food processor.

In the meanwhile you can go on with the preparations for the gelato. Create a custard base by warming milk in a pan. Get the yolks from the 4 eggs and whisk them together with the ‘plain’ sugar. After that add the warm milk and also whisk this together. Put the egg mixture back into the pain and slowly heat it until the custard thickens.

When it’s ready you can add the nectarine mixture from the food processor. Fold this together with some cream, I used crème fraiche. And I added some cardamom to give the taste a twist.

After that I froze it in a plastic container. For about every half an hour I took it from the freezer to break the frozen sections. This in order from preventing the mixture of turning into granita instead of ice cream. Of course if you have an ice machine this can more convenient!

As you can see in the picture I served a few scopes of gelato together with some left-over caramelized nectarines and nectarine syrup.

Recipe source: Roberto Gelato, She wears many hats & David Lebovitz

Between sweet memories

Dennis — Sun, 30 May 2010 09:12:01 +0000

Long time no posting. It was a busy time the last couple of months with moving, work and other things. But in busy times you also need to eat. Quite often that means I’m preparing a quick meal or a snack. A pita with mango & turkey was inspired by recipes from Allerhande & Wikibooks.

I really like the flavour combination of this snack. On one hand you have the sweetness of the mango, on the other the spicey sambal. I also decided to add some other flavours to the mix. Some freshness with the greek yoghurt and an extra bite with some rocket. Served on a pita it was simply delicious. And only prepared in maybe 15 minutes top!

I’m curious, what is your favourite easy-to-prepare snack?

By the way, this is hopefully the beginning of a new series of blogposts, so stay tuned for more.

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 mango
250 grams turkey fillet
sambal brandal
greek yoghurt
rocket
pita
olive oil

Preparation

First of all cut the turkey fillet into pieces. Marinate the turkey in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and some teaspoons of sambal. I used sambal brandal.

In the meanwhile you can clean the mango. This can be a little difficult because of the flat seed in the middle. On wikihow they have some tips on how to cut a mango. After that put the mango flesh together with some sambal in a food processor until it has the texture of a chutney.

Heat a pan and cook the turkey on both sides until a bit brown and after that add the mango from the food processor.

That’s about it, serve the turkey on a pita with some rocket and greek yoghurt.

Recipe source: Allerhande & Wikibooks

Hyperactive presentation

Dennis — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:10:56 +0000

In the beginning of the year I borrowed a cookbook from a friend. It is a cookbook from a famous dutch chef named Pierre Wind. In honor of his work I created a salmon salad. The salad was inspired by recipes from Sprouted Kitchen & De wondere wereld van de Keukenkoning.

Pierre Wind is known for hyperactive way of presenting himself. But besides that I am a really big fan of his cooking ideas. He always tries new flavours and ways of presenting food.

The target audience of the borrowed book are children. It has some really nice recipes in it and really tries to activate the reader to try and learn from new flavours. One of the recipes was about making fish fries. The instant fries are really common in the Netherlands but of course Pierre wanted to show how you could make them yourselves and of course to give them a twist. This gave me an idea to make fish sticks, another common instant food product overhere.

So I had my goal for today, making fresh fish sticks. While checking my Google reader feeds I came across a blogpost from Sara from Sprouted Kitchen. She had posted a really tasty recipe for a walnut crusted Salmon filet. This gave my an idea to make walnut crusted salmon fish sticks. I decided to serve them as a part of a refreshing salad and also incorporated peas.

The making of the sticks was a bit of an experiment. First I had some fun with pastry bags, I wanted to turn the mousse into small sticks. I hadn’t used pastry bags in quite a while and I had the feeling they were a bit fragile. My feeling got confirmed, I actually broke a couple of those inexpensive plastic bags. Salmon mousse all over the kitchen table. The freezing part went well but after that I had to fry them in sunflower oil. After a failed first batch I got the hang of the frying time.

Despite the effort I was really positive about the flavor. The crunchy fish paired well together with the peas and also the avocado. But from the avocado I expected that because I found that pairing on Foodpairing site.

Ingredients (serves 2)

150 grams salmon filet
2 eggs
1 scallion
walnut
bread crumbs
flour
1 avocado
75 grams rocket
100 grams green peas
1 lemon

Preparation

Remove the skin of the salmon filet. Put it together with 1 egg white and scallion in a food processor. Add some other flavours or seasoning to your taste. This will turn into a nice paste. I put this in a pastry bag and made thin sticks on a plate. I put this plate in a freezer. Make sure you can put the plate u use in a freezer. After at least a couple of hours the salmon mousse has turned into sticks.

Fill a bowl with some flour. Mix one egg white together with a tablespoon of water in a second bowl. Fill a third bowl with a mix of bread crumbs and crushed walnuts. Dip every fish stick first in the flour, then into egg whites, then into mixture of the bread crumbs and walnuts. I fried the sticks in a pan with some sunflower oil.

In the end I served them with some fresh rocket, avocado, warm green peas and finished it with lemon juice.

Recipe sources: Sprouted Kitchen & De wondere wereld van de Keukenkoning

New style lunchentach

Dennis — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:44:42 +0000

With the beginning of the new year I had some resolutions. One of them was to bring more variation in my lunch. I wanted to eat less bread and more other stuff. So that’s why on one of my first work days I created a roasted bell pepper salad. Inspired by a recipe from Allerhande.

When I was young I wasn’t the biggest bell pepper lover. But in one dish I always like them, when my mother roasted them. She would fill them with rice and prepare them in a oven. This was really delicious.

Bell peppers still are delicious prepared like this, but nowadays I do in fact like them in other dishes like a salad. But I wanted to combine those two thing for my lunch. The roasted bell pepper and a salad. I used a sweet bell pepper filled with couscous and added some fresh flavours like yoghurt & mint.

The result was very good. Nice colourful salad, with refreshing taste. A good way to start an afternoon of work and of course a new year.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 sweet bell peppers
100 grams couscous
100 grams feta
100 grams black olives
1 tbsp tomato purÃ©e
vegetable stock
oak leaf lettuce
mint
yoghurt
lemon
olive oil

Preparation

First prepare the bell peppers. Cut them in half and clean them by removing the seeds.

Next step is preparing the filling of the bell peppers. I used instant couscous, so I only had to add some vegetable stock as liquid. I then mixed in some other ingredients like feta, olives and tomato purÃ©e. Add these ingredients to your likings or taste. Fill the bell peppers with couscous mixture and put them under a grill.

I kept an eye out when the bell peppers were done. In my case this was after the couscous was a bit crunchy. After that I sliced them in little pieces. I served it on a plate together with some oak leaf lettuce and a mint-yoghurt dressing.

For the dressing I combined a few chopped up mint leaves with 2 tablespoons of yoghurt, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Again this is all about your own taste.

Recipe source: Allerhande

I loaf Christmas

Dennis — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:27:44 +0000

Just like making Snert, I have another tradition at the end of every year. I tend to make a bread loaf with fruit, it’s called a Kerststol. Recipe was inspired by Het Nieuwe Kookboek.

Last year I already made one with Easter, the dutch recipe can be found overhere. But this time I tried something different. I took a little bit more time for the first rise and used some other fruits. Also the shape was different because this time I used a bread loaf pan.

The result was better compared to last time, I think it had better texture and also better taste.

Ingredients (1 bread)

350 grams flour
7 grams of active dried yeast
25 grams brown sugar
60 grams butter
2 eggs
1,5 dl milk
5 grams salt
100 grams raisins
100 grams white raisins
150 grams zante currant
125 grams almonds
125 grams sugar

Preparation

First thing you need to do is put the almonds, 1 egg and sugar in a food processor. You will get a firm almond past which will be a filling for your bread. Roll the paste in some cling foil. Put this in a refrigerator for at least a couple of hours. You will need the paste for the second rise of your loaf.

Next step is making the bread loaf. First prepare the dough. Mix the flour together with the salt & brown sugar in a bowl. At the yeast, milk, melted butte and the other egg to the mix. Knead the bread till you get a dough with some nice texture. I always check it by putting a small hole in the dough with my thumb. If it is elastic enough the hole will dissapear. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it away at a warm place. Let it rise for a couple of hours.

After the first rise you can knead it a bit and put it in a bread loaf pan. Also add the fruit and almond paste. Cover it with plastic wrap again for a second rise. Again this was in my case quite a while, certainly a copule of hours. After that I baked the bread in an oven of 220 degrees celcius for about 20 minutes.

Recipe source: Het Nieuwe Kookboek

Alpe d’HuZes snert

Dennis — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:52:01 +0000

Every year I make split pea soup or what we call in the Netherlands ‘snert’. It’s always nice to share food with people so I decided to make 10 liter for my colleagues. But it also was for a reason. A good cause, Alpe d’HuZes. Recipe was inspired by Wikipedia.

To make snert is always a fun process. A lot of cutting ingredients but the creation of the soup itself is very easy. Especially if you have great ingredients. I had some nice meat from the butcher, like a great rookworst.

Also the transportation to my work was interesting. Normally you will let the soup cool down. And after a day it tastes even better. But I wanted to serve it hot and had no possibility for that at my work. So I transported the warm soup in a car. It actually also was the first snowy day this year, so you can imagine it was a bit slippery. Luckily no accidents.

But the end result was great. It was pretty thick considering the fact that it hadn’t cooled down yet.

All of this wasn’t just for my fun, it was also for a good cause. This year we are gonna join the Alpe d’HuZes again with a team, 21x vlammen.

Alpe d’HuZes is an Dutch event where people try to climb the Alpe d’Huez six times on a single day, for the Dutch Cancer Society. All the money they raise goes directly to research for a cure or prevention of the disease cancer. This year alone almost 2000 people will join and they will try to raise 10 million euros.

The snert was my way to contribute a little bit to that big cause. In return for my soup I asked attention for this event and donations.

And you can still support me by donating or read about my actions.

Ingredients (10 liter)

1 kg pork shoulder chop
400 grams bacon
1 celeriac
2 leeks
2 potatoes
4 onions
2 carrots
1 kg dried green split peas
beef fond
500 grams rookworst

Preparation

First thing you need to do is to clean and cut all the vegetables into pieces. After that cut the pork chop & bacon into pieces. I’m not using the bones of the pork chop for this soup because I already use fond.

Put the pork & bacon together with 2 liters of water in a large pan and boil it for about 5 minutes. After that you can add all the ingredients except the rookworst and slowly boil it for about 3 hours.

You can cut the rookworst and put it in the soup for the last 10 minutes.

Recipe source: Wikipedia

Smokey pear jam

Dennis — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:15:22 +0000

Time for a new segment, a DIY friday. There are always products who can easily be purchased. But it is a lot more fun to make them yourselves. This week I made some jam, inspired by a basic jam recipe fom Suikerinfo.

I had some left-over Conference pears and that’s why I decided to make some jam. Has always been on my to do list.

It was pretty easy to make jam. Basicly all you need is some fresh fruit which you turn into puree and some sugar. I added some extra flavour and the taste turned out to be great. Like the smokeyness of the jam. Can recommend this combination!

Soon I will try some new combinations for a jam.

Ingredients

1 kg Conference pears
500 grams gelling sugar
1 cup of Lapsang Souchong black tea

Preparation

Clean the pears and puree them with an immersion blender. Put the pear puree together with the sugar and tea in a pan. Boil it for about 5 minutes.

Transfer the puree into a jar, fill it up until the edge. Close the jar and put it upside down for 5 minutes. This will clear out the air. Turn it back up and let it cool.

Now you have your own jam, keep it in a cool place until you open it. When you open it you can preserve it in the fridge.

Recipe source: Suikerinfo

Blue inspiration

Dennis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:43:53 +0000

Lately I’ve been getting some inspiration from my colleagues at work. Discussing food and sharing thoughts. One of them gave me copy of a menu from a famous Dutch restaurant Ron Blaauw. It inspired me to make a baba au whiskey.

My colleague was very enthousiastic about the menu. One of the dishes was a baba. I had never heard of that cake, so it inspired me to make some. After some googling I found out that a classic baba is made with a rhum syrup. I decided to make it with orange juice & whiskey.

Not a bad choice because the taste was awesome. I liked the sponginess of this cake, it easily absorbed the syrup.

Ingredients (12 babas)

400 grams flour
300 grams sugar
2 eggs
5 cl milk
50 grams butter
5 grams baking powder
6 oranges
Jameson whiskey

Preparation

Grease a muffin tin with some butter. Create the batter for the babas by whisking 200 grams of sugar together with the eggs. If it’s creamy add the milk, melted butter & sifted flour. If you have a nice mixture you can add the baking powder. Fill the muffin tin with the batter and bake the baba’s for about 30 minutes in a 180 degrees celcius oven.

In the meanwhile you can create the orange-whiskey syrup. This is pretty easy, just put the juice of 2 oranges in a frying pan together with the rest of the sugar and whiskey and cook it until the sugar is dissolved. You will get a nice viscous liquid.

Pour this syrup over your babas. The best thing is to let them rest for a while. Give them time to absorb the syrup. I tried to speed this process up a bit by cutting the baba into smaller pieces.

I served the baba au whiskey with some fresh orange and some whipped cream & chocolate whipped cream.

Recipe source: Wikipedia

Wales meets France

Dennis — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:41:10 +0000

Had to make some food for a couple of days at the beginning of this week. A quiche is always a good dish for these kind of days. Made a leek quiche, inspired by my last Kookjegek quiche recipe.

What I like about this recipe is it’s simplicity, especially the preparation. When I saw the leeks at the grocery store I instantly knew what to make and which ingredients I needed to get. The taste is also simple but good enough for your average day. A day where Wales meets France.

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 leeks
500 grams ham
6 sheets of puff pastry
3 eggs
250 ml whipping cream
200 grams old gouda cheese
100 grams gouda cheese
butter
olive oil

Preparation

Grease a ovenproof dish with some butter. Cover the dish with the sheets of puff pastry. Chop up the leeks and dice the ham. Put the ham and leeks in a frying pan with some olive oil. Heat it until the leeks have shrunk a bit. In the meanwhile you can grate the cheese. Create a mixture of the egg, whipping cream and the grated cheese.

Spread the leeks & ham around the pastry shell. Pour the egg mixture over the ingredients in the pastry shell. Bake the quiche for about 30 minutes in a oven of 200 degrees or until golden brown.

Recipe source: Kookjegek