22 March 2007

A day out in Antwerp

Last Saturday I went to Antwerp. To start with, we went to see an exhibition of Flemish paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts.
After that we were pretty hungry and went to a fantastic Japanese place nearby, Izumi.

Edamame, boiled fresh soy beans, is something that I learned to eat with my sister at her favourite Japanese restaurant in London.

I was curious about this spinach with sesame seed and it was delicious!

Of course we had miso soup.

We also tried fried chicken

and fried tofu.

Never had this before: gyoza, a kind of dumpling, first steamed I guess and then fried...just gorgeous!

And we also had some sushi.


After this terrific meal we took a little digestive stroll and came across a few beautiful buildings.




Nearby we discovered a cook's walhalla: a bookshop only with cookbooks!! We couldn't believe our eyes. The selection was incredible, we just didn't know where to look. Because we still wanted to do some shopping and we didn't want to carry heavy books, we took the wise decision to come back later.
Then we did some serious clothes shopping, after which we needed a rest, so we went to the bar of the Fashion Museum.

We continued our shopping until the stores closed and then we needed a drink.

We ordered negroni's. They didn't quite look like the ones we had in the north of Italy, but they tasted good!

15 March 2007

Minestrone

I am definitely a big soup fan. I like the simple soups that you prepare in no time but also the ones that simmer for hours and can be served as a main course. My mother used to make a traditional type of minestrone with white beans and tomatoes and bacon, which I might post one day. But some time ago I made a different type, based on a recipe from Emmanuela Stucchi's 'Italian vegetarian cooking'. I changed the ingredients a bit and of course I added Jerusalem artichoke. I hadn't gotten round to posting this yet so here it comes. I didn't note the quantities so just use your own judgment.


white cabbage, washed and sliced thinly
leeks, cleaned and chopped
Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and chopped
potatoes, peeled and chopped
celery, cleaned and chopped
peas (I used frozen organic ones)
red kidney beans, soaked overnight

The recipe is very simple: put the beans in a big pot with a lot of water, bring to the boil and let it boil vigorously for 10 min without covering the pot (to remove poisonous traces from the beans). Add the vegetables and salt, bring to the boil again, then lower the heat, cover the pot and let the soup simmer for 1,5 - 2 hours.
Serve with a toast rubbed with garlic, which you put in the plate before adding the soup, and with olive oil and a little parmezan if you like.

Note: the original recipe was with potatoes, peas, cabbage, runner beans, courgettes, cannellini beans and some pasta. It said to serve the soup with pesto.

Vegetable festival

Today I didn't cook anything special but I'm just blogging for the fun of it ;-)
I had yesterday's sweet potato and parsnip soup and a salad of grated (raw) carrot and (boiled) red beetroot, seasoned with pepper, salt, gomasio, lemon juice, olive oil and a little yoghurt.


I also made a pasta with leek, garlic and bacon which I fried in olive oil, and to which I added steamed broccoli. When I was a student my mother bought me a steaming pan with several levels, which I still have and find very handy. So I boiled the pasta in the water and meanwhile steamed the broccoli on top of it.
A simple meal like this can taste real good!

14 March 2007

Brussels canal

One sunny winter day I was cycling along the canal in Brussels.

Chicken stew with Jerusalem artichoke

In my previous risotto post I discovered a really nice combination of vegetables and decided to try that with chicken. I must have said before that I looooooove Jerusalem artichoke and it came out terribly well in this dish. I invented the dish, based on a recipe for minty carrot chicken from Claudia Roden's book of Jewish food.



Serves 4

2 onions, peeled and chopped
12 chicken wings
700g - 1 kg Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and chopped
2 cups of peas (I used organic frozen ones)
lots of fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp turmeric
pepper & salt
sunflower oil

Fry onions in oil on low heat until they are soft and golden. Add turmeric and stir it. Raise the heat a little and add the pieces of chicken. Season them well with pepper and salt. Fry for 5 min, turn around, season again and fry the other side for 5 min.
Transfer the chicken to a big cooking pot, add boiling water, add the vegetables and if necessary some more salt. Chicken and vegs should be just about covered with water.
Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and let the dish simmer for 15 min, half covered with the lid. Remove the lid and let it simmer for 20-30 min, until the Jerusalem artichokes are soft. Add the coriander in the last 5 min of cooking.


I served this with basmati rice and a little side salad with lettuce, red beetroot, parsley and gomasio. My guests loved the meal. They were my neighbours who are going to move soon and whom I will miss a lot! They took the pictures which I really like.

Parsnip and sweet potato soup and other soups

I love soup and I was inspired by this combination of vegetables in labelga's post on March 6.
My basic method for soup is: fry chopped vegetables for a few min in oil or butter, add boiling water, bring to the boil. Then lower the heat and let the soup simmer for about 10 min. Not longer, unless the vegetables are not cooked yet. Then mix it with a hand mixer.
This is the method of my mother's housekeeper. She used butter. I usually use olive oil - or sunflower oil when I use Asian spices - but butter tastes nice once in a while. I remember her endives (witloof) soup, delicious! The trick in this recipe is not to boil the soup for very long, so the vegetables keep their flavour.
When my vegetables are about to go off, I often throw them into a soup.

Sweet potato and parsnip soup



1 small onion
2 medium parsnips, peeled and diced
1 big sweet potato, peeled and diced
some leftover lettuce
1 dried small chilli pepper, chopped finely
1/2 tsp ground cumin
vegetable stock
1 tsp butter

Heat the butter and fry the onion and chilli pepper in it on low to medium heat. After 1-2 min add parsnips and sweet potato and cumin. After a few more min add the lettuce and let this shrink a bit. Then add boiling water, stock and salt. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and let the soup simmer for about 10 min. Mix it with a hand mixer.

I served the soup with sour cream and chopped parsley.

Pumpkin, endives and red pepper soup

This was a combination I once made at a friend's with her leftover vegetables. It turned out really well.
I used these ingredients:

1 small pumpkin, peeled and chopped
2 endives, washed and chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tsp sugar
2 bay leaves
"herbes de Provence"
olive oil
vegetable stock
pepper & salt

Broccoli and fennel soup

This was another successful combination.

1 onion
1 sprig of broccoli
1 fennel
olive oil
fennel seeds

11 March 2007

Blinis

Today two friends came over for lunch. I decided to make blinis. I love them but had never prepared them myself up til now.
We had them with smoked salmon and sour cream of course, and I also served tarama (fish eggs), a sweet potato and carrot ajlouk (see previous post) and a salad with mixed lettuce, rucola, grated carrot, chopped fennel, boiled red beetroot and grilled walnuts. This was accompanied by a little lemon and parsley.
The blini recipe comes from Sarah Brown's Vegetarian Cookbook, which was my cooking bible when I was a student and went through a vegetarian phase.


Serves 4

15 g fresh yeast
1,5 tsp sugar
240 ml warm water
3 eggs
150 g wheat flour
150 g buckwheat flour
pinch salt
butter for baking

Crumble yeast and sugar together, add the warm water and let this stand for 5 min until it gets creamy and frothy. Beat the egg yolks through this mixture.
Mix both flours with the salt. Add the yeast mixture and beat the dough until it looks like a thick cream.
Cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, until the volume has doubled. Beat it down with a whisk or wooden spoon.
Beat the egg whites and add them carefully to the mixture. Let it rise for another 20 min.
Heat a little butter in a pan. Add a tbsp of dough and fry both sides for 2-3 min on medium heat. You can bake 2-3 pancakes at the same time in one pan.
Serve them hot.

Note: I kept the blinis hot in a lightly greased oven dish, covered with aluminum foil. I put this in the oven at very low heat.