Caponata di melanzane

Today I cooked a big family dinner. Yesterday we did our shopping at the special chicken shop, butchers, organic shop and market at St-Gilles.

For starters we had raw vegetables, toasts with shrimp salad and blinis with smoked salmon and fish eggs.
After that another chicken broth.
Main course was meat loaf, served with baked potatoes, tomato sauce and caponata.
The potatoes were grenailles from the market. I didn't peel them but washed them, then cut them in 2-3 pieces if necessary, steamed them for 7 min, then baked them at 200° C with olive oil, rosemary, pepper and a lot of salt.
The tomato sauce was just tomato, dried basil, pepper and salt. It simmered for a long time and then we passed it through a sieve.

The caponata is from Lorenza de' Medici's 'ITALY The beautiful cookbook'.

Serves 6-8

6 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced in rings
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
3 peppers, yellow and red, sliced in rings
500 g aubergines, peeled and diced
3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp capers
100 g black olives
3 anchovy fillets, chopped

Heat olive oil, add onion and garlic and fry for a while. Add peppers and aubergines and fry for 15 min on medium heat. Add tomatoes and oregano and let this simmer until peppers and aubergines are cooked. Stir regularly.
Add capers, olives and anchovy and remove from the heat. Add pepper and salt and let the caponata stand for a few hours.

As usual, I'll add photos later if I find the time ;-)

Chocolate mousse

For another biologists' dinner, I brought dessert. As there were lots of kids, I made chocolate mousse, a suggestion of D. I don't eat chocolate myself so I also made an apple tart.
I found a recipe in the series 'La cuisine de A à Z' from 1970, belonging to my mother and before that to my grandparents I guess. When I started cooking as a kid, I often looked to these books.

Serves 4-5

200 g cooking chocolate
30 g butter
4 eggs
50 g sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar

Heat chocolate and butter at very low heat until the mixture is molten.
Add egg yolks to sugar and vanilla sugar and whisk until creamy.
Take chocolate off heat and add egg yolk mixture. Stir well.
Beat egg whites until very stiff, then add them gently to the chocolate.
Keep in the fridge for a few hours.

Note: if there are no children you might add a bit of cognac

A photograph might follow, if I remember to take one of the few spoons that are left.

Easter at the seaside

We went to collect Easter eggs

at the seaside

Present

I received a present which meant a lot to me.
It tasted delicious! Thanks D and Y!

Baie de Somme

Went to Baie de Somme in northern France for a weekend. Weather was misty at the beginning so we couldn't even see the spectacular landscape, but the last day made everything ok.

We saw seals when we went on a boat tour

we had delicious mussels on the beach behind St-Valéry-sur-Somme

and across the bay you could see le Crotoy where we had stayed.

Rice pudding

Someone in my household loves rice pudding, so I've started making this again.

It's a very easy recipe from the Farmer's Wives' Association cookbook (Boerinnebond), which taught generations of Flemish to cook.


Serves 2-4

1/2 l milk
50 gr rice (special rice for dessert or for risotto)
25 gr sugar
1 cinnamon stick

Add rice and cinnamon to milk and bring to the boil. Stir regularly.
When it boils, cover the pan and turn down the heat. Let it simmer on very low heat for 40 min, again stirring regularly. Add sugar 5 min before the end of cooking. Pour into a bowl or different small bowls.

Note: Last time the taste of cinnamon was very strong, so now I only used half a stick and took it out after 5 min of boiling.

Tiramisu

I cooked another lunch at my new appartment, for starters we had another beef broth and as a main course chicken couscous according to Claudia Roden, served with raisins and chick peas in separate dishes.

For dessert I made tiramisu, a special version without eggs. I got the recipe from Annabel at PicNik, a great place for tasty vegetarian lunches.

Tiramisu, version 1 - serves 10

1 packet of boudoir biscuits (Delhaize)
1 packet of Lotus speculoos
1 small pot of coffee
500 gr mascarpone
400 ml whipping cream
10 tbsp sugar
1,5 tbsp spirit e.g. grappa, rum
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Whisk cream until stiff, mix it delicately with mascarpone, sugar and spirit.
Pour coffee in a deep plate, quickly turn over the boudoir biscuits in it and fill the bottom of a dish with the biscuits.
Add cream mixture.
Dip only 1 side of speculoos biscuits in the plate with coffee and put them on top of the cream.
Add another cream layer.
Sprinkle with cocoa powder just before serving.

Note: I used apricot pálinka as spirit, which I brought from Hungary. It went very well in this dish.
For my own reference: I used my largest oven dish.

Before I always used a Tuscan recipe which my mother got in Italy.

Tira Missou, version 2 - serves 10

3 packets of cuiller biscuits (3 x 100 gr = 300 gr)
1 small pot of coffee
500 gr mascarpone
5 eggs
10 tbsp sugar
1,5 tbsp spirit
cocoa powder

Add egg yolks and sugar to mascarpone. Whisk egg whites and add them to the mixture, then add spirit.
Turn cuiller biscuits over in coffee, put them in dish. Cover with mascarpone mixture. Alternate more layers of biscuits and mixture, ending with mixture.
Sprinkle cocoa powder over dish before serving.

I'll add a picture if I can find it. As a nomad between appartments, I guess it must be on another computer.

Baked apples version 2

I made baked apples before, but this time I used a recipe from Claudia Roden's book of Jewish food.

Serves 6

6 sweet or sour apples
3 tbsp butter
1,5 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp sugar
50 g walnuts, chopped finely
50 g dried raisins


Wash apples and remove the core. Make the opening inside big enough.
Place them in an oven dish.
Mix all other ingredients and fill the openings with the mixture.
Add a tiny bit of water to the dish (1-2 mm).
Bake them in the oven at 160 - 180°C for 45 min - 1,5 hr, until they are completely soft but have not fallen apart.



Note: 180°C was too hot in my oven, next time I will bake them at 160 °C.
I served them with vanilla ice cream.

Lamb stew with Jerusalem artichoke and peas

I celebrated the start of Spring with the first dinner party in my new appartment.

It was a beautiful day and I went to butcher Frank in St-Gillis by bike. The friend who had tipped us on this butcher was there and gave me good purchasing advice and recommended me to the butcher. I took delicious meat home.

The dish I chose comes from the book of Jewish food by Claudia Roden and was inspired by a gift I received from a friend's garden.

Serves 6

1-1.5 kg lamb

3 garlic cloves, chopped finely

4 tbsp oil e.g. sunflower

500 g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled

juice of 1/2 lemon

500 g peas (I used frozen)

Fry the meat in oil until it's brown and add the garlic in the end. Add pepper and salt and cover with hot water. Bring to the boil, then cook on low heat for 1.5 hr.

Add big slices of Jerusalem artichoke, pepper and salt, lemon juice and more water if necessary.

Cook for 15 min and add peas.

Cook for another 5 min.

I served this with steamed potatoes.

Before we had a beef broth with finely cut vegetables and Hungarian soup pasta.

The dessert was baked apples.

The whole menu met with success.

Enlarging my food horizon

In my new life I also get to experience new kinds of food. This work of art was carefully constructed and then devoured.

Roast chicken with fries

This WE we were house-and-dogsitting at my mother's. For city birds like us, it's great to get out to the countryside, and have some space. We took advantage of the facilities and invited family and friends over for a very traditional Sunday dinner: roast chicken with fries and apple sauce. As a kid we had this every Sunday, except for the fries. We used to be a very untypical Belgian family who didn't own a 'friteuse' for deep frying for a very long time.

For starters I prepared soup in an enormous pot, according to my basic soup recipe, using onion, leek, green celery, fennel, broccoli, parsnip and 'knolselder' (root celery, celeriac?).

The fries were freshly cut from potatoes, since someone in my household strongly objects to deep frozen ones.

Some were cut by hand, with a very sharp Japanese ceramic knife

and some using a special tool for cutting fries - I couldn't believe I still could find this in my mother's house after perhaps more than 20 years.

After this the fries were soaked for min. 1 hour. Then they were pre-baked at 170°C, and later properly baked at 180°C. Baking them twice is a secret of Belgian fries.

The chickens were washed and dried. Inside they were seasoned very liberally with salt and pepper, and a little sage and rosemary. You can add a lemon cut in 4 on the inside.

On the outside the skin is loosened a little on top and then you put some sage and rosemary in between the flesh and the skin. These herbs should be fresh or soaked, to prevent the skin from breaking when in the oven. Then rub the skin with olive oil and season liberally again with pepper and salt.

Our helper in the kitchen said it was a pity that the chickens were dead, since they couldn't enjoy the massage any more.

Put them in a 200°C oven for about 15 min. Take them out of the oven, turn them upside down, season the other side and put them back in the oven and lower the heat to 180°C. Reverse them every 15 min and pour some of the juices over the chicken. Total cooking time is about 50 min- 1 hour.

The chicken was served with fries, apple sauce (from my mother's deep freezer ;-) salad and home made mayonaise. It all tasted terrific.

My guests brought cakes for dessert, but I forgot to photograph them. Labelga did though. Cakes on Sunday is also a real big tradition here.

I had also prepared a few healthy appetizers and brought real good pistachioes and fried corn from Istanbul.

To my surprise, the vegetables were very popular with the kids.

After the meal, albeit not without difficulty, we managed to stir ourselves for a walk.

A strange phenomenon was observed.

Thank you all guys for a very cosy afternoon - exactly like a Sunday should be.

Note

For my own records I noted the quantities. We were 9 adults, 2 big children and 3 smaller ones. We had 5 chickens which was a good estimate. We had 6-7 kg potatoes for the fries, which was far too much. 5 kg would have done. One big box of apple sauce would have done, I had opened another one. 2 bags of salad were OK and mayonaise made with 2 egg yolks as well.

Pancakes

I have a legendary pancake recipe, which I got from a cooking course at school when I was 10 years old. I still have the original piece of paper on which I wrote it down. It's a bit worn, so now I want to preserve the recipe here. No pics - but you know what pancakes look like ;-)

500 g flour
5 eggs
1,1 l milk
2 tbsp sugar
2 packets vanilla sugar
butter
pinch of salt

Heat 1 dl milk, 1 big tbsp butter, 2 tbsp sugar, and vanilla sugar, until the butter is molten.
Add 1 l cold milk to this.
Whisk the eggs and add them to the milk mixture.
Mix flour and salt and add eggs and milk. Add some water if the mixture is too thick.
You can let the dough stand for a bit and then it's ready for baking.

Notes
For the quantities: 3 eggs serve 4 people.
You can sieve the flour beforehand if you like.

Apple tart

I made an apple tart for a belated Christmas dinner. Actually it was lunch. I dug into my cardboard boxes in het cellar to find the little book with my grandfather's recipes. He gave instructions for dough and pastry cream, but not for the apples, so I improvised.

For the dough

250 g flour
pinch of salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 packet of vanilla sugar
180 g butter
1 egg yolk
1/2 dl water

For the pastry cream

1 egg
50 g sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 packet vanilla sugar or 1/2 vanilla pod
1/2 l milk
pinch of salt

For the apples

4 apples (not a mushy type)
juice of 1/2 lemon
some sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Add salt, sugar and vanilla sugar to flour and mix. Add butter and egg yolk and knead into a dough. Add the water bit by bit.
Let the dough rest for 2 hours in the fridge.
Grease a tart dish, roll out the dough and put it in the dish. Cover with baking paper and with baking beans. Bake for 25 min. at 200° C. Remove baking paper and beans and let it cool for a bit.
Peel and core the apples and slice them very thinly. Cover them with lemon juice to prevent them from browning. Take the apples out of the juice and cook them at very low heat with some sugar and cinnamon. They should just be slightly cooked and not fall apart.
Whisk egg with sugar in a cooking pan, add flour and whisk again.
Boil milk with vanilla (sugar). After boiling, add it to the egg and let it boil for a few minutes until it thickens. Pour into the baked dough.
Decorate with the apples. Put the slices close together.

Notes
I wonder if the pastry cream would taste even better when made just with the egg yolk instead of the whole egg.
You can put the apple slices closer together than I did in the picture.
The dough shrinks a little when baking, so you can leave an extra cm at the bordere when filling the tart dish.

According to my grandfather you could also make this tart with bananas or other fruit, which you don't need to cook.

New Year's walk

Last year we inaugurated the new year with a walk by the seaside. I thoroughly enjoyed it and decided to start a tradition. This year we didn't manage to get to the seaside, but discovered the beautiful surroundings of Vollezele. You can find a full report at Leafy Cooking.

Of course we didn't forget to take a snack, tasty waffles by Brussels specialist Dandoy.

And after the walk labelga treated us to delicious appetizers.

I'm all for lots more walks like this in 2009!

Semifreddo di mele

Another dessert I prepared for New Year's Eve was this semifreddo, a type of custard with cooked apples underneath, and with a lemony twinge. I finished it off with grilled 'peperkoek' crumbs, inspired by a cook in Normandy.



The recipe is from the birthday present from my godchild A.V., born on 13 November 2008: The Vegeterranean, recipes by Brasilian Malu Simões and her Italian husband Alberto Musacchio.

Serves 6

For the apples

5 big apples, or 6 smaller ones
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
rind of 1/2 lemon

For the cream

500 ml milk
rind of 1/2 lemon
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
4 tbsp sugar
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp flour
1 slice peperkoek, grilled and crumbled

Peel and core the apples. Slice thinly. Squeeze the lemon juice over the apples to prevent browning. Cook with sugar, cinnamon and lemon rind over a low heat, covered. Stir occasionally. Remove from the heat when the apples begin to caramelise, about 5 min.

Bring milk, lemon rind and vanilla to a boil, then turn off the heat. Whisk sugar and egg yolks in another saucepan until pale yellow. Sift in the flour and mix well. Remove lemon rind and vanilla from the milk and pour it into the egg mixture, whisking all the time.
Cook this cream in a double boiler (bain marie) over a medium heat for a few minutes, until it thickens.

Pour apple mixture into a dish and pour warm cream on top. Alternatively you can divide the dessert over small martini glasses or bowls. Let it cool, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Decorate with grilled peperkoek crumbs.

Notes:
The cream was quite thick, I recommend to use small tbsps of flour.
After tasting both apples and cream, I added more sugar.
I need to work on the technique for grilling the peperkoek crumbs, perhaps our cook from Normandy can advise...

Walnut cake

We spent New Year's Eve in the company of friends. Everybody was asked to bring a dish. I prepared two desserts, with expert help. One of them was a walnut cake. A friend gave me the recipe when we were students. It's a very easy recipe and it always meets with succes.
It's the first thing I baked in my new oven and it came out wonderfully.

For the cake:

4 eggs
200 g sugar
250 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
80 g walnuts, chopped
1 glass sunflower oil

For the topping:

2 eggs
150 g sugar
125 g soft butter
150 g walnuts, chopped + a few whole walnuts for decoration
1 tbsp rum

Beat egg yolks and sugar into a creamy mixture.
Mix baking powder into the flour and add this to the egg yolks.
Add chopped walnuts and oil and mix well.
Beat egg whites and add them to the mixture.
Grease a cake tin and add the mixture.
Bake for 30-40 min at 180° C.

Prepare the topping: mix eggs, sugar and butter into a smooth cream. Then add chopped walnuts and rum.
Let the cake cool, then add the topping on top and/or in the middle.
Decorate with a few whole walnuts.

Notes
The cake was a little dry, maybe 200 g flour is enough.
The topping is a big quantity and very rich, so you might also halve the quantities and only add it on top or only in the middle.

Last and first soup

Finally another post with one of the last things I cooked in 2008. With many changes in my life, such as a new family to get to know, and moving into a new place, it's pretty hard to find time to fiddle with photos and to blog.

Here comes the first soup I cooked in my new kitchen, it's Jerusalem artichoke according to my basic soup recipe and we had it with backerbsen, something from long ago, when we went skiing in Germany, and which we really loved as kids.

It was eaten in good company ;-)