Chocoladecake

Een verjaardagscake voor een elfjarige...

Deeg

4 eieren

240g bloem

240g boter

240g rietsuiker

2 eetlepels cacaopoeder

1/2 koffielepel bakpoeder

snuifje zout

Smelt de boter.

Scheid eiwitten van eigelen. Meng de eigelen en de suiker met een houten lepel tot het mengsel wit en schuimig wordt.

Verwarm de oven voor op 180°C.

Meng de boter onder het eigeel.

Meng bloem, bakpoeder en cacaopoeder door elkaar. Voeg het toe aan de eigelen en meng goed.

Doe een snuifje zout bij de eiwitten en klop ze tot sneeuw. Roer ze voorzichtig onder de rest van het deeg.

Vet een bakvorm in met boter en bebloem de vorm. Doe het deeg erin.

Laat 30 à 40 min. bakken in de oven.

Versiering

100 g chocolade

40 g boter

80 g bloemsuiker

3 eetlepels water

verkruimelde Oreo's of andere versiering

Smelt de chocolade samen met de boter.

Doe er voorzichtig de bloemsuiker bij. Het wordt een dikke brij.

Neem de pan van het vuur en voeg er één per één de lepels water bij: het mengsel wordt terug vloeibaar.

Strijk het mengsel op de afgekoelde cake en voeg de Oreo kruimels of andere versiering toe.

Laat de glazuur opstijven in de koelkast.

Hazelnootcake

Een lekker recept uit de Joodse keuken van Claudia Roden.

4 eieren
200 g suiker
200 g gemalen hazelnoten

Klop de eigelen met de suiker tot een licht en schuimend mengsel.
Klop de eiwitten stijf en voeg ze toe aan de eigelen.
Voeg daarna de hazelnoten toe.
Giet het beslag in een bakvorm en bak 40 minuten in een voorverwarmde oven op 180°C.

Noot
Je kan rozijnen of gedroogde abrikozen toevoegen. Week ze dan eerst 30 min. in heet water.
Je kan ook een beetje vanille-essence of vanillesuiker toevoegen aan het mengsel van eigeel en suiker.

Granola

For a healthy breakfast...

1 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
100 g oatmeal
40 g seed mixture: sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, ...
1 banana
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven at 150°C.
Melt the coconut oil at low heat.
Crush the banana and mix it with coconut oil and maple syrup.
Mix oatmeal with seeds and salt. Add the banana mix and stir well.
Cover the oven tray with baking paper and spread the mixture evenly on it.
Bake for 15 min, then stir the mixture and bake for another 10 min.

Notes
You can leave out the banana for a drier mix.
You can add dried raisins when the granola has cooled.

Apple muffins

For 12 muffins

225 g flour
1 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
75 g dark brown sugar
100 g dried raisins
75 g dried apple, cut finely
150 ml milk
1 egg
100 ml sunflower oil
2 tbsp oatmeal
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven at 180°C.
Put the paper baking cups into the muffin tray.
Mix flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda and add sugar, raisins and apple. Mix well.
Whisk the egg, add milk and sunflower oil and whisk well.
Add this mixture to the flour and mix everything.
Spoon the mixture in the muffin tray, decorate with oatmeal and bake for around 15 min.

Note
You can eat the muffins warm.

Chocolate muffins with bits

For 12 muffins

200 g flour
1 tsp baking soda
75 g light brown sugar
50 g chocolate, chopped finely or grated
150 ml milk
1 egg
4 tbsp sunflower oil

Preheat the oven at 190°C.
Put the paper baking cups into the muffin tray.
Mix flour and baking soda and add sugar and chocolate. Mix well.
Whisk the egg, add milk and sunflower oil and whisk well.
Add this mixture to the flour and mix everything.
Spoon the mixture in the muffin tray and bake for around 15 min.

Breakfast muffins

These are muffins with seeds and sultanas that you can eat warm for breakfast.

For 12 muffins

250 g flour
1 tbsp baking soda
50 g mixed seeds (sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, ....)
125 g dried raisins
50 g dark brown sugar
80 ml sunflower oil
1 egg
150 ml milk

Preheat the oven at 180°C. Put the paper baking cups into the muffin tray.
Mix flour and baking soda and add sugar, seeds and raisins.
Mix milk, egg and sunflower oil in a different bowl, then add them to the flour.
Spoon the mixture in the cups and bake the muffins for 15-20 min.

Chocolate muffins

A favourite with kids!

For 13 muffins

100 g butter
250 g flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking soda
100g dark brown sugar or Mascovado
pinch of salt
1 egg
200 ml milk
chocolate spread and chocolate sprinkles for decoration

Preheat the oven at 180°C. Put the paper baking cups into the muffin tray.
Melt the butter.
Mix flour, cocoa and baking soda. Add sugar and salt.
Mix milk, egg and butter in a different bowl, then add them to the flour.
Spoon the mixture in the cups and bake the muffins for 15-20 min.

When they have cooled, you can decorate the muffins with chocolate spread (Nutella) and chocolate sprinkles.

Onion tart

I had a lot of onions lying around, so I made a tart which tasted delicious.

5-6 onions, sliced thinly
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 pizza dough
lots of capers
a few slices of pancetta

Fry the onions in olive oil with a pinch of salt. Start at high heat, then lower it a bit. Keep the lid on the pan. Fry them until they are very soft, for around 30 min.
Spread them on a pizza dough, add capers and cover with pancetta. Add a little pepper.
Bake for 20-30 min at 180°C.

Sultana muffins

Last time I went to the library with my kids, my 6-year-old son chose 2 cookbooks, one about muffins, by Felicity Barnum-Bobb. (Does he take after his mother?)  I was inspired and went to buy some specific gear.

The first recipe I tried is muffins with dried raisins. Very quick and very easy!

For 12 muffins

200 g flour
1 tsp baking soda
75g golden brown sugar
50 g raisins
150 ml milk
1 egg
4 tbsp sunflower oil

Preheat the oven at 180°C. Put the paper baking cups into the muffin tray.
Mix flour and baking soda and add sugar and raisins.
Mix milk, egg and sunflower oil in a different bowl, then add them to the flour.
Spoon the mixture in the cups and bake the muffins for about 8 min.

Cabbage in white wine

This recipe called Verza in Umido stems from ITALY The Beautiful Cookbook. I have been preparing it a lot since I started to order a weekly assortment of organic vegetables, because there have been lots of cabbages supplied. The recipe is meant for savoy cabbage (green with curly leaves), but works for other types of white and green cabbages.

Serves 4-6

1 cabbage
100 g pancetta or bacon, cut in small pieces
1 tbsp butter
1/8 - 1/4 l dry white wine
salt and pepper
1 tbsp aceto balsamico

Cut the cabbage in thin pieces and wash it.
Put the butter in a big pan and bake the bacon until golden brown.
Add the cabbage and some pepper, close the lid and let the cabbage cook for about 30 min on medium heat until all the juice has gone.
Add wine, aceto and salt and let it cook for another 20 min.
Serve hot.

Roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes with caper vinaigrette

A recipe from a magazine, which came in handy because I had parsnips, sweet potato and red onion lying about, from the weekly bag of organic groceries I order at Citeco and coming from La Ferme Nos Pilifs.

Serves 4

4 parsnips
4 red onions
olive oil
2 rosemary sprigs
1 head garlic, halved horizontally
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp small capers (roughly chopped if large)
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tbsp mustard
salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Peel the parsnips and cut them in peaces of about 5 cm long and 1 cm wide.
Peel the onions and cut each into six wedges.
Place them in an oven dish and add olive oil, rosemary, garlic, 1 tsp of salt and some pepper.
Mix well and roast for 30-40 min.
Peel and cut the sweet potatoes in half and then in wedges. Add them to the tin and stir well.
Roast for a further 30-40 min.
Meanwhile, wisk together the mustard, lemon juice, maple syrup, 1/2 tsp salt and some more olive oil. Stir in the capers.
Pour the dressing over the roasted vegetables as soon as you take them out of the oven.

Note
The original recipe also adds thyme and cherry tomatoes (for the last 10 min.) and suggests to sprinkle toasted sesame seeds over the dish when cooked.
Even without the dressing, this colourful dish tastes delicious.

Speculaas

Een lekker recept, leuk om met kinderen te maken!

200 g bloem
halve koffielepel bakpoeder
1 koffielepel speculaaskruiden
100 g bruine suiker
100 g boter, in stukjes gesneden
2 eetlepels melk
snuif zout

Meng bloem, zout en bakpoeder en meng de boter erdoor.
Voeg dan speculaaskruiden, melk en bruine suiker toe.
Kneed alles door elkaar tot een glad deeg. Voeg melk of bloem toe als het deeg te droog of te nat is.
Verwarm de oven op 150  °C (stand 5-6).
Rol het deeg uit op een bebloemd oppervlak tot ong. 5 mm dik.
Leg bakpapier op de bakplaat.
Steek koekjes uit het deeg met vormpjes en leg ze op het bakpapier.
Bak de speculaasjes 15 - 20 min in de oven, tot ze bruin worden en lekker ruiken.

PS: Met dank aan H. voor de foto!

Pepernoten

A Dutch cookie for this time of the year...

100 g sugar
250 g flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp syrup (Hollandse stroop)
100 g butter
2 tbsp milk
2-3 tsp speculaaskruiden
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven at 150 °C (nr. 6-7).
Melt butter with milk and syrup (or use soft butter).
Mix all other ingredients, then add butter, syrup and milk.
Mix this into a dough. Add some more milk if necessary.
Cover an oven tray with baking paper.
Make small balls out of the dough and put them on the tray. Flatten them a bit.
You can put them close to each other, the dough doesn't spread while baking.
Bake them for around 20 min.

Red beetroot salad

A recipe from Casa Benali. Thank you H. for the picture!

Serves 4-6

500 g red beetroots, boiled
1 piece of endives (witloof)
1 tomato, deseeded and cut in dice
1/2 shallot or 1 spring onion, cut finely
1 tbsp fresh coriander, cut finely
salt
2 tsp vinegar
2 tsp olive oil
 a handful of young spinach leaves

Cut the beetroot in 0.5 cm slices.
Cut the endive in half, remove the hard core and cut it in rings.
Add the remainder of the ingredients except for the spinach, and mix well.
Add the spinach carefully.
Leave the salad in the fridge for at least half an hour.

PS: I left out the spinach

Meat balls in tomato sauce

A favourite recipe in our household... stemming from Claudia Roden's book of Jewish food.

Serves 4

500 g minced beef
1 small onion or shallot, minced
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 garlic cloves, cut finely
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp sugar
500 g tomato passata

Fry garlic in sunflower oil, then add tomatoes and sugar. Season with pepper and salt. Bring the sauce to the boil, then let it simmer.
Meanwhile prepare the meat balls: mix beef, onion, cinnamon and salt. Form small balls, the size of a big walnut.
Add the meat balls to the sauce, bring to the boil, then lower the heat and let the meat balls simmer for 15-20 min until cooked.

Notes

You can leave out the onion.
I used to add a small pepper (peperoncino) to the sauce to spice things up, but I'm leaving this out now for the sake of the little ones in our household.

Cake with pears in syrup

While staying at my mum's I was leafing through The Silver Spoon cookbook (Il cucchiaio d'argento). Since we had guests coming to dinner I decided to make the Corona alle Pere for dessert. Another opportunity to sample the great St-Rémy pears from my mother's garden, a special variety that needs to be stewed.

Serves 6-8

4-6 pears, depending on the size (I used 4 huge pears)

juice of 1 lemon

250 g sugar

500 ml red wine

50 g butter

3 eggs

3 tbsp milk

120 g flour

pinch of baking powder

Peel the pears, remove the core and cut them in 4-8. Put them in a bowl with the lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

Move them to a saucepan, add 100 g sugar and the wine. The pears should just be covered in wine.

Bring to the boil over a low heat and simmer gently until the pears are cooked. Cooking time depends on the variety of pear used.

Leave the pears to cool in their syrup.

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

Grease a cake tin with butter and dust it with flour.

Beat the egg yolks with 150 g sugar until pale and creamy.

Mix baking powder with flour and stir it in.

Melt butter and add milk and stir this in.

Wisk egg whites and fold them in.

Pour the mixture in the cake tin and bake for about 30 min.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Meanwhile remove the pears from the syrup.

Put the cake in a serving dish.

Reheat the syrup, then sprinkle some of it on to the cake, a little at a time, to allow absorption.

Pour the reminder of the syrup over the pears again.

Serve the cake with the pears.

Note: The original recipe tells you to bake the cake as a crown and place the pears in the middle of it. The pears are cored and left whole. A lot more wine is used. Baking powder is only added completely at the end when making the cake.

Note: Another great recipe using stewed pears was blogged by Leafy Cooking.

Chick pea casserole

Our favourite vegetarian dish at the moment also stems from Sarah Brown's Vegetarian Cookbook. It's quick and easy to prepare and you can use any vegetables that are lying around.

Serves 2

1 can of boiled chick peas
some olive or sunflower oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
a few celery sprigs, chopped
some fennel, chopped
some green beans, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp fennel or cumin seeds

Fry onion and seeds in oil for a few minutes, then add garlic and vegetables. Fry for a few more minutes. Drain chick peas and rinse them. Add them to the vegetables and fry for a few more minutes. Add some boiling water so everything is just covered. Add bay leaf and pepper and salt. Bring to the boil, then let it simmer on low heat for 15-20 min., until the vegetables are cooked.

We serve this with couscous and chilli paste (sambal or harissa). Sometimes I add chilli pepper while cooking the dish. You can vary endlessly with vegetables and spices.

Chicken or pork marinade

Someone in my household refuses to eat chicken breast or pork chops, unless they have been marinated, especially when they are going to be cooked on the barbecue. I use a marinade meant for tofu from Sarah Brown's Vegetarian Cookbook, a vegetarian classic that was a favourite in my student days.

For 2 chicken breasts or pork chops

1 small onion, chopped very finely
4 tbsp peanut or sunflower oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp dry sherry
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 garlic cloves, crushed

Mix all ingredients, then add the meat and let it marinate for 2-3 hours. Take the meat out for cooking. Pour the marinade trough a sieve and let the juice boil for a few min. if you would like a tasty sauce.
No pic in these extremely busy times.

London again

Spent a few days in London again. My main activity was: letting two little cousins meet. As one of the cousins was travelling with us, we couldn't go out for dinner at night. So we spread out a towel on the floor of our hotel room and had delicious Korean take away from Han Kang in Hanway Street. We had grilled seaweed of course, a very spicy soup, gyoza (grilled dumplings), 3 types of kimchi...

Boeuf bourguignon

For New Year's Eve we are making boeuf bourguignon, based on a recipe by Alice B. Toklas. It's been prepared one day in advance.

Serves 4

1 kg beef, special meat for stews, in cubes
butter
150 g bacon, in cubes
2 dl red wine
12 small onions, cut in quarters
2 cloves garlic, cut finely
2 carrots, cut in thin vertical slices
a few mushrooms, cut in slices
1 bay leaf
a few thyme sprigs
a piece of nutmeg
salt & pepper
1 slice of bread, without crusts

Put a big cooking pan on very low heat and add a little wine.
Fry beef in butter, seal it well on all sides, add pepper and salt generously, transfer to cooking pan. Fry one half of the meat first and then the remainder.
Fry bacon in the same pan used for frying the meat, then transfer to the big pan.
Fry onion for a few minutes in the same pan, then add carrots and garlic. Fry for a few more minutes, then remove from the pan and set aside.
Fry mushrooms in the same pan, then remove and set aside.
Cover beef and bacon with red wine and some hot water if necessary. The meat should just be covered. Add bay leaf, thyme and nutmeg. Put the slice of bread on top.
Let this simmer on very low heat for 3 hours.
Then add onions and carrots and let it simmer for another 30 min.
Add mushrooms and let it simmer for 5 min.
Remove bay leaf, thyme and nutmeg.
Serve with parsley.

Note: I'm not sure about when to add the garlic. It's probably better not to add it together with the carrots. Then you can fry onions and garlic at medium heat without fearing to burn the garlic. I need to consult with master cook P on this.