Categories for Food

Spinach quiche

The New Zealand spinach, parsley and thyme picked today
The greens picked last Friday: rocket, chervil, turnip greens
From the freezer five pieces of puff pastry. Once defrosted i put all five on each other and used a rolling pin to spread it out. Next time i will make a quiche i will make a quick pastry for the crust. Butter and flour basically. For now i wanted to use this puff pastry, which i bought over a year ago.
Three eggs. I didn't use the leek. And i used one more egg.
The puff pastry spread out and in the tin
The filling. Four eggs, a bit of whole milk, salt and pepper, four cloves of garlic sliced thinly, cayenne pepper and all the greens cooked in a bit of water and sliced roughly. No cheese, i didn't have any in the house. It would be a good addition though. No cream either. Would be nice too.
A close up of the cake once it is finished baking. For an hour in a 175ºC oven. I did put some aluminium foil around the tin. I noticed some leaking of the filling. I like the way the filling looks. Packed with greens.
One quarter for dinner. The rest in the fridge.
Published on November 8, 2017 at 6:00 by
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Groceries

I do need to be really careful with money. These are the items i bought today. In the supermarket food for my cat, milk for breakfast (oat porridge), a carrot for my spaghetti and minced beef and tomato sauce, sauerkraut for next week. At the organic butcher i bought the minced beef. Which was more expensive than everything i bought in the supermarket together.
The two receipts
The spaghetti, onions and tomato pasta sauce i got this weekend from a friend from his dumpster diving activities. The leeks are from the garden. The bread i found in a plant standing outside of the butcher, a bit old, but still completely packaged and not eaten by anyone at all.
My dinner this evening. I will have more sauce for at least two more days, maybe even three more.

I still need a couple of things from the supermarket which i will get tomorrow. Butter and sugar. I do try to minimize the sugar i eat for my diabetes, but i do like around one tablespoon in my oats porridge in the morning, together with a bit of butter. Butter i used to buy in the market, but the price has been going up lately. In the supermarket it is cheaper right now. Eggs i still buy at the market, together with some vegetables. Last week i only got onions there.

It is a challenge living within such a tight budget. Quite enjoyable, for a limited time.

Published on November 2, 2017 at 6:00 by
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Wednesday 4 October 2017

16:05
The same breakfast as every day. The last couple of months anyway. Oatmeal porridge. Yum.

Played a little wow. Started a new character. A rogue. Like my main in retail wow. Leveled her from 5 to 6. Did some brewfest quests. Played for around 45 minutes.

Music after that.

I ate two sandwiches with peanut butter and sambal. Good too. The library next. Both my Hunger Games books finished. I took two new books. No idea how i will think of these. And then i watched one and a half chess game. Good games. Good to watch.

A quick hop past the supermarket and then home.

I cleaned up the hazelnuts i picked up last Saturday. Washed them.

Sambal next. The peppers i got yesterday in the Hofbogen garden will be great sliced. I baked a sliced onion and garlic and some sugar. With oil and the thinly sliced peppers this should be good enough.

And now here. Typing. The music playing.

A Tribe Called Quest — Buggin’ Out – Scrobbling now
Snoop Dogg — Drop It Like It’s Hot – 4 minutes ago
Talking Heads — I’m Not in Love – 9 minutes ago
Beastie Boys — Pass the Mic – 13 minutes ago
Beastie Boys — Song For Junior – 17 minutes ago
Janet Jackson — When I Think of You – 21 minutes ago
Lana Del Rey — Summertime Sadness – 26 minutes ago
B.J. Thomas — Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head – 29 minutes ago
David Bowie — Little Wonder – 35 minutes ago
Sam Cooke — (What A) Wonderful World – Remastered – 37 minutes ago
Killing Joke — Requiem – 2005 Digital Remaster – 41 minutes ago
Steely Dan — Do It Again – 46 minutes ago
Rihanna — Umbrella – 51 minutes ago
Eyeless in Gaza — No Noise – 55 minutes ago
S’Express — Theme from S-Express – 59 minutes ago
Roy Ayers Ubiquity — Everybody Loves The Sunshine – an hour ago
Young Marble Giants — Searching For Mr Right – 2007 Digital Remaster – an hour ago
Neneh Cherry — Manchild – an hour ago
Wire — The 15th – 2006 Digital Remaster – an hour ago
Justin Timberlake — What Goes Around…/…Comes Around (Interlude) – 3 hours ago
Christina Aguilera — Genie in a Bottle – 3 hours ago
Prince — Hot Thing – 3 hours ago
Talking Heads — Found A Job – 2005 Remastered – 3 hours ago
Drake — Hotline Bling – 3 hours ago
Kraftwerk — The Model – 2009 Digital Remaster – 3 hours ago
Scritti Politti — Absolute – 3 hours ago
Pharrell Williams — Frontin’ – Radio Mix/Club Mix – 3 hours ago
David Bowie — Golden Years – 1999 Digital Remaster – 4 hours ago
Steely Dan — Throw Back The Little Ones – 4 hours ago
Salt-N-Pepa — Push It – 4 hours ago
D’Angelo — Untitled (How Does It Feel) – 4 hours ago
The Beatles — Eight Days A Week – Remastered 2009 – 4 hours ago
Earth, Wind & Fire — September – 4 hours ago
De La Soul — Eye Know – 4 hours ago
The Beatles — Yesterday – Remastered 2009 – 4 hours ago
Massive Attack — Unfinished Sympathy – 4 hours ago
Steely Dan — Doctor Wu – 4 hours ago
Coldcut — Find A Way – Featuring Queen Latifah – 4 hours ago
Kygo — It Ain’t Me (with Selena Gomez) – 4 hours ago
Palais Schaumburg — Gute Luft – 4 hours ago
Sufjan Stevens — Casimir Pulaski Day – 4 hours ago
David Bowie — The Jean Genie – 1990 Digital Remaster – 4 hours ago
Jessie J — Bang Bang – 5 hours ago
Madonna — Vogue – 5 hours ago
Gary Numan / Tubeway Army — Are ‘Friends’ Electric? – 5 hours ago
Calvin Harris — This Is What You Came For – 5 hours ago

My favourite? Madonna with Vogue!!

I’m gonna go through the recipes i found yesterday for cakes with quinces. And bake one.

18:24
Spiced quince cake

water 1.5 litres
caster sugar 150g
quinces 3, medium
lemon 1

For the cake:
self-raising flour 250g
ground cinnamon 1 tsp
mixed spice ½ tsp
bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp
salt a pinch
golden syrup 200g
butter 125g
dark muscovado sugar 125g
eggs 2
poaching syrup from the fruit 240ml

You will also need a round cake tin, measuring 24-25cm in diameter

Pour the water into a large saucepan, add the sugar and bring to the boil. Peel the quinces then cut them in half, rubbing the cut sides of each with the halved lemon to prevent them browning. (They are worse than pears for this.) Lower the quinces into the sugar syrup, turn down the heat to a simmer then let the fruit cook for a good 40 minutes or until it is thoroughly tender. Remove the pan from the heat and let the quinces cool a little in their syrup. Line the cake tin with a piece of baking parchment. Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4.

When the quinces are cool enough to handle, take them out one at a time and use a teaspoon to remove the cores. Reserve the syrup. Drain the fruit briefly on a piece of kitchen paper then arrange them, hollow side up, in the base of the cake tin.

Sieve together the flour, cinnamon, mixed spice, salt and bicarb. Put the golden syrup, butter and muscovado in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. When the mixture starts to bubble, remove from the heat.

Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in 240ml of the quince cooking syrup and beat gently to mix. Remove the butter and sugar mixture from the heat and pour it into the flour and spice, stirring smoothly and firmly with a large metal spoon. Mix in the syrup and egg. The mixture should be glossy and a little runny, not thick and creamy like the usual cake mixture and with no traces of flour.

Scoop the mixture over the quinces and smooth the surface. Bake for 40-45 minutes until lightly firm and springy to the touch then remove from the oven and leave to cool before turning out and removing the paper. Serve in thick slices with crème fraîche or cream if you wish.

I didn’t have any golden syrup, so i simply used less sugar overall. Seemed a bit much to me anyway. The cake is in the oven now. I am curious to how it will turn out!

20:53
The cake is lovely. Compared to previous recipes it is light and fluffy. And i love the quince.

I’m gonna go to bed now. After i picked the right photos for this post. I’m tired. Tomorrow i will finish my post Now. After my three dailies i did this week. Felt good.

Have a lovely day. Bye bye!

Published on October 5, 2017 at 6:00 by
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Pumpkin cake

Last Friday we harvested pumpkins. I promised to make a pumpkin cake for Sunday. I searched for a good vegan recipe. I picked this one for a vegan pumpkin cake (in Dutch). With some small changes. First of all i divided the ingredients by two. Which was still enough for me and the gardening group of people.

Ingredients

  • 500g pumpkin, weighed with the skin and the pips removed
  • 1 tablespoon apple vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoon line seed (milled)
  • 250 g flour
  • 1 little bag vanilla sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 60 g dates
  • 50 g raisins
  • 60 g dried figs
  • 125 ml soy milk
  • 25ml sunflower oil
  • 100 g lightbrown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons mixed spices

First i cleaned the pumpkin, cut it in four, removed the seeds and the skin. Boiled it for around 15 minutes. Then i used the hand blender to puree it.

Cutting the dates and figs. Milling the line seeds. Then put all the dried stuff, the flour and sugar and spices and salt together with the dried fruit. Added the pumpkin puree, then the oil and soy milk. This gave a good batter which i put in the cake tin. Forty five minutes in the oven at 180 ªCelsius and done!

This gave a lovely spicy sweet pumpkin cake. A bit wet, but i admit, i like this. I did treat myself to a slice Saturday evening, another slice Sunday morning. Hmmm.

If you are gonna make this cake, enjoy!

Published on September 18, 2017 at 6:00 by
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Garden work and homemade soup

Today i felt a bit better. This morning i went to the garden at the Hofbogen. Weeded a bit. Harvested courgettes and green beans. Rutger harvested oak leaf lettuce, parsley, chard and basil. We also got an apple each! It was good, even a bit of sunshine. Towards the end it started to rain. Heavy downpour. Still alright.

In the afternoon i spend most of the time reading. Last Saturday i got the Veronica Roth books Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant. Reading the third book now. Last Sunday i watched Divergent once again. Didn’t quite watch it till the end. I like the books. The films too. But i do prefer the Hunger Games. More original story, good characters. But still, while i wait for the Hunger Games books to be available in the library, any books are good right now.

This after noon i finally made the soup i planned to make Sunday. Vegetables from the garden: the green beans, chard, herbs, potatoes, kohlrabi. Some from the market: leek, tomatoes, bell peppers, celery. And a pot of tomatoes i got from Conny this Sunday. Dumpster dived as a thank you for the soup i made a week ago for the garden. The soup is nice. The kohlrabi a bit stringy, not too bad though. Like all the soups i made over the past two months. Yum 🙂

Published on September 6, 2017 at 6:00 by
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Summer borshch

This cooking book from Jane Grigson i bought ten, fifteen years ago. Maybe even longer. I enjoy all the vegetables which are named in there. Also wild vegetables: dandelion leaves, nettle, cardoon. With each vegetables there are several recipes. This Sunday my eye fell on the summer borsch. It just so happened i had most of the ingredients in house. From the garden beetroot, courgettes and carrots. From the market spring onions and tomatoes. I only bought sour cream and dill in the supermarket yesterday.

A couple of changes, i didn’t use the beetroot stock. My end result is a bit more warm red. Still lovely. I did use three cloves of garlic and two vegetable stock cubes. Not a bouquet garni, but yes, some dill. And no celery, sorry to say. I did use the leaves from the beetroot. I picked two more beetroots today and the leaves looked fine.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 kg beetroot, uncooked
  • 1 large carrot, or several smaller ones
  • 1 1/2 litres of water
  • 2 tomatoes, chopped
  • spring onions, one bush, chopped
  • potatoes, diced
  • a small sliced courgette
  • 3 cloves of garlic, sliced
  • 2 cubes of vegetable stock
  • salt, pepper, 4 cloves
  • sour cream
  • dill

Preparation

  1. a two minute cooking time of the leaves and the stalks of the beetroot, drain after and keep until a bit later on
  2. use a mandoline to grate the beetroot in matchsticks like size
  3. put the water in a large pan with a teaspoon of salt and warm up, add the beetroot
  4. grate the carrots and add these to the water too, let this simmer for around 20 minutes
  5. when the water cooks, prepare the other vegetables: chop the tomatoes, the spring onions and the courgettes
  6. dice the potatoes and slice the dill
  7. add all the vegetables, the two stock cubes, the sliced garlic, the dill, salt, pepper and the 4 cloves
  8. let this simmer for around half an hour
  9. add a bit of the sour cream and extra dill on top to the bowl just before serving

The soup tastes good. To me, i do think it needs the savoriness of the stock cubes and the garlic. I do enjoy it with the sour cream and the dill. Creme fraiche will work too.

A great soup for the summer!

beetroot leaves
beetroot and carrots from the garden
beetroot sliced on the mandoline
the water with the beetroot for a first simmer
chopped tomato, sliced courgette and sliced spring onion
potatoes, garlic, cloves, vegetable cubes and dill
the soup all done
Published on July 19, 2017 at 6:00 by
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Saturday Kitchen

Saturday mornings are special. The first part of the weekend, nothing urgent that needs doing – most of the time anyway. I usually sleep in a little longer, boil or bake an egg. And watch television. Some repeats, and, at eleven (here in the Netherlands – one hour later than in the UK) Saturday Kitchen Live!

The main presenter, for ten years, was James Martin. In February 2016 Martin announced he would leave the show a couple of months later. Since he left several chefs have presented the show. I enjoy Angela Hartnett the most.

The show follows a specific formula. Two chefs cook one of their dishes. A celebrity chef is a special guest. The presenter cooks a dish for him/her while (s)he talks with hime/her. In between the dishes several older items are shown. The kitchen is cleaned up in the meantime. The Omelette Challenge is a race between the two chefs. Who will cook the fastest omelette. The record holder is Theo Randall, with a time of 14.76 seconds, set on 2 May 2015.

The special guest has an food heaven dish and a food hell dish. People calling in with a question and the two chefs can pick either. The show ends with one of the dishes being cooked by the presenter and the two chefs and eaten by the guest.

First Ever Omelette Challenge – Saturday Kitchen (BBC – 24 Jun 2006)

I am not watching this show each week anymore. But a few years ago i did. And these days when i do watch it, i do enjoy it. So this is for an old favorite.

GENNARO CONTALDO AND PAUL RANKIN Omelette Challenge SATURDAY KITCHEN LIVE

THE OMELETTE CHALLENGE Alain Roux NATHAN OUTLAW Marcus Wareing SATURDAY KITCHEN

Thomas Keller Omelette Challenge on BBC Saturday Kitchen

ANTONIO BANDERAS LAUGHING AMUSED AT OMELETTE CHALLENGE Saturday Kitchen Live JAMES MARTIN

Ruthie Henshall Saturday Kitchen food heaven or food hell

Alfie Boe’s Food Heaven and Food Hell

400th FOOD HEAVEN OR FOOD HELL AT SATURDAY KITCHEN LIVE WITH JAMES MARTIN 2015

Samantha Janus Food Hell Part 1 – Saturday Kitchen – BBC

Samantha Janus Food Hell Part 2 – Saturday Kitchen – BBC

Saturday Kitchen – Part 7 (18.09.10)

PS. This post came about because of the food heaven and food hell choice. I like the option in the show, yes. But the words used, heaven and hell, are lessened in their meaning in this use. They are simple advertisement talk. I do feel uncertain about this. My mind is getting a bit sharper, and i do find myself listening with a clearer ear. The proper meaning of these words heaven and hell has got nothing to do with food. But i do think this needs its own post, or rather series of posts. And this is not the single use of a word out of its proper meaning. Hell no, advertisement is completely full of this. So i leave this comment as a postscript. To be getting back to later.

Published on April 4, 2017 at 6:00 by
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My birthday’s vegan carrot cake

My birthday. I didn’t really celebrate it that much. But i did bake a cake! Since it is a Sunday, i was going to the garden anyway. I had invited a friend a couple of weeks ago. When she said she could come last Friday or this Sunday, i said that coming on my birthday sounded like a really good idea. I gave her a grand tour of the garden and we talked about all sorts of things while we walked about.

I do think everybody enjoyed the cake. The frosting was a bit sweet, the way i like it. A bit too sweet for some, but it did seem to go down pretty good.

For tonight i still have some Riesling and a bit of chocolate for with the tea. I treated myself. Yay! Tomorrow back to the low carb food.

All the ingredients
The spring form is greased up with some coconut oil
The dry ingredients in a big bowl. In the small bowl grated carrot...
...and then two mashed bananas
The sunflower oil and a bit of haselnut milk make the batter for the cake.
The finished cake. A sweet frosting with a almondy taste. The cake itself is a bit dense, but the taste is lovely. The raisins, bananas, carrots and walnuts are great.

Recipe
Ingredients

  • 250 gr all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 mashed bananas
  • 125 gr granulated sugar
  • 125 ml sunflower oil
  • 1 tbsp flaxseeds mixed with 3 tbsp of water and set to gel
  • 250 gr grated raw carrot
  • some chopped walnuts

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C
  2. Sift the dry ingredients
  3. Add the wet ingredients to a large bowl and mix. Add the dry ingredients and then fold in the carrots and optional nuts
  4. Turn into a medium sized well greased loaf pan
  5. Bake for 45 minutes or until done (can be up to an hour). Cool on a rack

I forgot the frosting! That took me some searches to find a good vegan frosting recipe. I have to admit, i did miss the butter and the cream cheese. Really. I don’t think i will make this type of frosting again. Still, the nutty flavour is really nice.

Ingredients

  • white almond paste
  • 1 avocado
  • powder sugar
  • a bit of agave syrop
  • a bit of haselnut milk
  • some creamed up coconut oil

Instructions

  1. mix everything together!
Published on February 27, 2017 at 6:00 by
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Leek and potato soup

Last Saturday i bought the leeks for today’s soup. I did go out today as well and had some oatmeal and cottage cheese shopping. I also got some cream to put in the soup. Yeah. Good! 🙂

Very easy soup this one. At the end you could put a stick blender in it and make it a smooth soup. I simply left it chunky and lovely though.

I started with a diced onion, a celery stick cut into small pieces and around 4 cloves of garlic also cut into little pieces. I used some sunflower oil to bake them in. You can also use olive oil or any other oil which you might have in the house. I still have a few potatoes from the garden. I peeled them and cut them into small cubes, around one centimeter. The leeks i simply washed and cut into small rounds.

I added black pepper and salt. Boiled one and a half liters of water and added two broth cubes. I let the soup simmer for half an hour. Then i added a good bit of cream. Done!

Published on February 21, 2017 at 6:00 by
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A gardening meeting and a celeriac apple salad

Today, Wednesday, i had a gardening meeting. I felt more in my place than the first gardening meeting i had, around six months ago.

There was a basic dinner before, with the request for anyone participating to bring something extra. I made a celeriac and apple salad, with half an onion and chopped walnuts added. I had also made my own mayo, with some yoghurt and mustard and a lemon added. It tasted really nice. Very fresh and zesty. The raw celeriac finely sliced on my mandolin. The apples sliced the same way. The mayo homemade. Hmmm.

So i got home just yet, a bit later than i had planned. Of course.

That is it for today. Bye bye!

Published on December 15, 2016 at 6:00 by
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