Category Archives: Cooking

Recipes and other cooking related blabbering.

Keeping up the blogging – a recipe: Sweet potato curry

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Sweet potato curry

Sweet potato curry

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 fat cloves garlic (or to taste), minced
  • 1 1/2 – 2 tsp curry powder (more or less to taste)
  • 1 small tin mushrooms (115 gr drained)
  • 50-60 gr frozen peas
  • 1/2 courgette, cut in fourths lengthwise and then in thick slices
  • 2 sweet potatoes, peeled, cut in big pieces
  • 200 gr tempeh
  • 1 brick / tin tomato pieces (500 gr)
  • as needed: sugar, cornstarch
  • fresh or dried coriander, for garnish

Make it:

  1. Cut the tempeh in cubes approx. 2cm big. Bring a couple cm of water to the boil, and steam the tempeh for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Why do you steam the tempeh? Tempeh tends to have a bitter taste that some people find unpleasant. By steaming it, this bitter taste is reduced to nearly none.
  2. Heat the oil in a deep pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook until golden. Add the curry powder and cook for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms, peas, courgette, sweet potatoes and steamed tempeh. Add the tomato pieces and add some water as needed to barely cover the contents.
  3. Bring pot to a simmer, and let cook for 45 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are easily pierced.
  4. Taste, correct acidity if needed with a pinch of sugar. Thicken if needed with cornstarch.
  5. Serve warm with coriander leaves for garnish.

Servings: 2 servings as a main meal as is, you could also serve it with rice and make it 4 servings.

And for those interested, the way I made it it turned to be (per serving, counting 2 servings without rice):

Calories: 411
Carbs: 60 g
Fat: 8 g
Protein: 26 g

Values will vary depending on the size of your tablespoon of oil, onion, courgette, sweet potatoes… 

Random Organization Idea

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We have upgraded our freezer, and since it now is more than twice the size of the older, we thought it’d be a good idea to try and keep it organized. At first we thought we could buy adhesive blackboard and stick it on the front, but then we found out that there is such thing as electrostatic blackboard film! That won’t damage the surface like glue might do, so we went for that option. Then you just need a chalkboard marker or two, and this is the result:

Organized freezer

Organized freezer

What you need:

  • one shiny new (or old) freezer (or fridge) that you want to get organized,
  • one roll electrostatic film (ours is black Legamaster Blackboard, comes in a roll of 25 sheets 60cm wide by 80cm tall)
  • scissors to cut the film to fit your freezer
  • chalkboard markers (either dry erase or not)

What you do:

  1. Measure the surface you want to cover, and cut as much electrostatic film as needed.
  2. Place the film on the freezer door. Use a dry cloth to smooth it. Easy to move around and you can reattach it as needed.
  3. Write the contents of your freezer for the world to see. Ours are organized by drawers. It’s handy to write the date of the leftovers so you know when you put them in there.
  4. And you’re done!

Orange cranberry cake

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Yes, another recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 225 gr (salted) butter, softened
  • 180 gr sugar
  • 225 gr flour
  • 8 g baking powder (1/2 baggie)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp orange essence
  • 125 gr cranberries

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and flour a loaf cake tin.
  2. In a big bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in essence.
  3. Shift flour and baking powder together. Fold into butter-sugar-egg mixture. Fold in cranberries.
  4. Pour into prepared loaf tin and bake in preheated oven until done (a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean), 45-60 mins.
  5. Cool slightly before turning onto a rack to cool completely.

Servings: 12 hearty slices (315 calories, 37 g carbs, 17 g fat, 4 g protein)

Enjoy!

It must be autumn

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And all I can think of is pumpkin. Ok, not really, but there was some in my mind. So I bought one, and made a risotto and a soup with it. Recipes have been requested, and here they are.

Pumpkin Risotto

image

Ingredients:

  • 2 tsp (~10 gr) olive oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced (or use a garlic press)
  • 2 shallots (~100 gr) , peeled and chopped finely
  • 400 gr pumpkin, in 1 cm cubes
  • 1/2 tsp dry thyme
  • 130 gr arborio rice
  • 1/2 glass dry white wine
  • 1 l veggie broth (from a cube, can, home made, I won’t judge you), simmering
  • salt & pepper
  • 50 gr parmesan cheese, for serving

Make it:

  1. Bring broth to a simmer and keep it simmering.
  2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a wide heavy bottomed pan (I prefer non-stick, requires less stirring). Add shallots & garlic and cook on medium heat until a tiny bit golden. Add the pumpkin & thyme and stir for a few minutes.
  3. Add the rice to the pan, stir to cover all grains with the oil, about 1 minute. Add the wine, stir and let the rice absorb all of it. Then start adding the broth by the ladle, stirring after each addition, and let the rice simmer and absorb the broth before adding more. Keep doing this until rice still has a tiny bit of a bite left. It should take about 20 minutes,
  4. Taste and adjust seasoning (salt & pepper).
  5. Serve warm with cheese on top.

Serves: 2 as a main dish. (Approx.: 450 calories, 72 gr carbs, 12 gr fat, 15 gr protein each)

And the second recipe is

Pumpkin soup 

(no picture of this, sorry, just imagine a bowl full of pumpkin orange soup!)

Ingredients:

  • 2 tsp oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
  • 1 onion (~130 gr), roughly chopped
  • 550 gr pumpkin, in 2-3 cm cubes.
  • 1 l broth
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • salt & pepper

Make it:

  1. In your favourite soup pot, heat up the oil. Once hot, add the onion and garlic and cook until it starts to turn golden. Then add the pumpkin and cook a couple more minutes.
  2. Cover pumpkin with broth, bring to a simmer, and let cook for 30 minutes.
  3. Using an immersion blender, mix soup until smooth. You might need to add more liquid to get a soup consistency instead of a puree.
  4. Add soy sauce & mix. Taste, adjust seasoning, serve hot.

Servings: 4 bowls (Approx.: 72 calories, 12 gr carbs, 3 gr fat, 2 gr protein each)

KickAss Sangria

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We had a big BBQ to attend this weekend, and I wanted to take some sangria along so they’d try proper sangria (instead of the bottled stuff they sell here). So I asked my best friend for her recipe, and she obliged. I’m sure she won’t mind I spread the taste of great sangria with the rest of the world. So, recipe for all of you!

Sangria a la Sus

Ingredients:

  • 3l of (cheap) rose wine – I used a partybox from Aldi
  • 500 ml of lemon/orange soda (I used Agrums – all in one, what can I say?)
  • 60 ml of whisky
  • 210 ml of cane sugar syrup (purchased, because well, I wasn’t feeling like making it)
  • 1 orange, scrubbed, cut in wedges and then sliced
  • 1 lemon, same as above
  • 1 pear, scrubbed and cut into cubes
  • 1 nectarine, scrubbed and cut into cubes

Make it:

  1. Pour the wine in a big container (a 6-8 l pot is ideal). Add the soda and whisky, and mix well. Add nearly all the syrup and mix well, taste and add more syrup if necessary.  Warning: the sangria should still taste sharp-ish at this stage, it will mellow after macerating in the fridge.
  2. Add the orange and lemon to the sangria, you can squeeze / mush some pieces so they release some juice. Add the rest of the fruit and let rest for at least 12 hours, ideally 24, in the fridge.
  3. Serve cold, adding some fruit to each glass.
Sangria!

Enjoy!

Pasta salad for a warm day

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So what does one eat when it’s too warm to cook? Something that requires little to no cooking. Today that was a pasta salad.

Pasta salad variation #1

Pasta salad

Ingredients:

For the salad:

  • 125 gr whole wheat short pasta, such as penne rigatti
  •  1 endive (~150 gr)
  • 4 slices of canned pineapple in juice (important this part, please)
  • 160 gr cucumber (that’s a piece about 15 cm)
  • 1 small tin peas (~140 gr)
  • 110 gr peeled white asparaguses
  • 3 medium carrots (~140 gr)
  • 100 gr cherry tomatoes (~6)

For the dressing:

  • 4 tablespoons of pineapple juice (from the can above)
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 rounded teaspoon honey (~20 gr)
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1,5 tablespoons olive oil
  • pinch ginger powder
  • pinch salt

Make it:

  1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions, al dente. Drain and cool under running water. Put pasta in big salad bowl.
  2. Peel carrots and cut in rounds. Cut endive in fourths lengthwise, then chop in pieces about 1cm thick.  Drain the pineapple (keep the juice!) and cut slices in eight pieces. Cut cucumber in four lengthwise and then in pieces 0.5cm thick. Cut cherry tomatoes in half. Drain and cut asparaguses in pieces about 3cm long. Drain and rinse peas. Add everything to the pasta.>Make the dressing: mix all ingredients in a small bowl until honey has dissolved.
  3. Pour dressing over pasta salad, mix well, and let macerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

Servings: 2 servings as a main, 3-4 as a side dish.

Nutrition (based on 2 servings): 467 calories, 87 gr carbohydrates, 8 gr fat, 14 gr protein.

Note: you could serve this as a side, adding some protein like an omelette, a (veggie) burger, piece of grilled fish or meat for those not vegetarian.

Birthday Lemon Cheesecake with Speculoos Base

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So today’s Jan birthday (Happy Birthday!), and we (because he helped) made a no bake cheesecake to celebrate. No bake because it’s too warm to cook anything lately.

Recipe: No Bake Lemon Cheesecake with Speculoos Base

Ingredients:

For the base:

  • 90 gr speculoos cookies
  • 55 gr butter, melted

For the filling:

  • Grated zest of two lemons, and juice of three lemons (so you need three lemons, just to be clear)
  • 8 gr agar agar1 (to be found at health / bio stores)
  • 200 gr ligh spread cheese (or not light, as you wish)
  • 500 gr quark (or platte kaas or verse magere kaas or similar)
  • 180 gr powder sugar

What you need:

  • zester or grater
  • small microwave safe bowl or small sauce pan
  • big bowl
  • electric mixer, food processor / blender
  • 20 cm diameter spring form (or two smaller 15 cm spring forms)
  • assorted stuff: knife, spatula,

Procedure:

  1. Make the base: in a food processor blend the cookies to a coarse powder, add the melted butter and mix again with the food processor until it all comes together. Spoon mix onto spring form(s) and press onto the base to make an uniform cohesive layer. Let it chill while you make the filling.
  2. Make the filling: in a big bowl, mix lemon zest, spread cheese, quark and sugar together with electric beaters until smooth. Place lemon juice in small microwave safe bowl / sauce pan. Sprinkle agar agar on top and let soak for a few minutes. Then heat up in the microwave on low-medium for 6-8 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so. (If in sauce pan, bring to a simmer and let simmer for about 4 minutes). Add lemon gelatin to cheese batter and mix well. Pour filling over base.
  3. Let set in the fridge for several hours, ideally overnight. To release cheesecake from spring form: run a warm moist knife around the edge.

Serves: 8-12 depending on appetite

  1. agar agar sets bad when acid foods, such as lemon juice, are added. I initially used 4gr of agar agar and the cheesecake didn’t set properly, next time I’ll use double ↩

Forty days without meat (36 & 37), plus some crochet

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Let’s start with the crochet. I taught myself to crochet last summer. Before that the holding of yarn & hook and the movements never clicked. It might have helped that I also taught myself to knit holding the yarn on the left hand instead of on the right (although the latter is still my preferred method). Since today I didn’t have class (yay!) after studying some in the morning I decided to pay a visit to my dear Knit Flanders. I’ve missed them terribly! I finished the sleeve on my cardigan, but I couldn’t cast off because I forgot to bring a bigger needle (silly me). So I moved onto practicing some crochet. And the results are these:


My first flower motif. It doesn’t look too bad.

My first granny hexi. It was actually supposed to be a square (right on the picture) but I failed miserably at counting to four and ended doing six repeats… Oh well!

On to the menu:

Breakfast:

  • Orange juice
  • Musli with milk

Lunch:

  • Baguette with brie, tomato & rocket from Exki (36)
  • Sammiches with Delhaize veggie salads, cheese & nutella (37)

Dinner:

  • Salad :(ettuce, carrot, tomato, cucumber, mozzarella cheese, hardboiled egg, olives, yogurt dressing (36)
  • Whatever falls in the pot dinner: pasta, peas, mushrooms, tomato pieces, minced quorn, white wine, smoked paprika (37)

Snacks:

  • Banana
  • Drink yogurt
  • Cookie
  • Coffee
  • Iced tea
  • Piece of chocolate

Forty days without meat: 32

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Breakfast:

  • Orange juice
  • Musli with milk

Lunch:

  • Fresh baked bread with assorted cheeses & “mediterranean spread” (Delhaize)

Dinner:

  • Veggie bbq!

Snacks:

  • Coffee, tea
  • Drink yogurt
  • Cookie
  • Scone, jam & clotted cream (what can I say, we were at Huize Colette!)

Today we made our first every bbq. We have gone to a couple, but never lighted one ourselves. We had bought a portable one a couple years ago (pretty much like this one) and today was so nice outside that we finally decided to use it! We bought the stuff we still needed (lighting fluid, food, aluminium trays, we already had the bag of coconut bricks for a while) and did it.

Lighting the barbie was a new experience. We starting using way too little lighting gel. Which means it didn’t really get hot enough to get the coconut bricks red. And once we had added enough and let it burn, we didn’t wait long enough to put our stuff to cook. Next time we know that it needs half an hour instead of the ten mins the instruction leaflet says.

Onto the actual food. Big pieces of courgette and red bell pepper, whole white mushrooms & pieces of seitan. All marinated in 2tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp dry thyme, 1/2 tsp dry rosemary, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder for as long as the barbie takes to get hot at least. More is always better. Once the barbie is hot (coals are covered in white ash – wait for this, not like us that started cooking too early), put a disposable foil bbq tray on top and put your marinated food in one layer. Chances are you have to cook in several times. Anyway, cook for about 10 minutes, getting everything hot and golden, turning a couple of times at least. Serve with a nice boiled potato (forgot to put these on the barbie!) with a pat of butter.

And that’s how you make your first barbie, veggie, in a balcony, with a mini grill!