A hearty dish for a winters day: Potato and leek mash with pesto

On cold autumn and winter days I just yearn for a hearty meal with caracter like a good old mash up. This Leek mash is quick to make.

500 grams of leeks, rinsed and chopped into small rings
1 kg of floury potatoes
2 tbsp. green pesto
200 grams of cooked ham diced up
a handfull (or two) of grated cheese,
some fresh basil leaves

Boil the potatoes in a large pan with water. You can add a stock cube for some extra taste to it. Then for the last 5 minutes of the cooking time of the potatoes, throw in the leeks rings and let those cook in there till all is cooked. Drain the potatoes and leeks and put back into the pan. Then add the pesto. You can make the pesto yourself as well by blendering a good bunch of fresh basil with a handfull of freshly grated parmesan cheese, some pine nuts and a good lug of olive oil.
Mash the potatoes and leeks up with a masher and adapt the taste by adding pepper and salt to taste.
Meanwhile, fry the ham cubes lighty in a pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. When lightly browned add these to the mash. Put in the grated cheese too and mix it all up.

Serve the mash and garnish with a few leaves of fresh basil. You can serve it with a nice porc chop and some pickled onions or gerkins and the gravy of the meat.

A treat from the sea, Mussels, Provence style

Mussels are a treat of the sea I believe. Just boil them in some beer or white wine with some chopped vegetables and a full load of fresh parsley, is heaven to my taste buds. This recipe is a slightly different, but still delicious way to cook up a big pot of mussels.

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tablespoon thyme chopped
½ tablespoon basil, finely chopped
4 dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, diced
50 g pitted black olives, chopped
150 ml white wine
2 kg mussels, ready to cook
3 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

Heat some olive oil in a wok and fry the shallots. Add the garlic, thyme, basil, dried tomatoes and fresh tomatoes and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Stir the olives in and add salt and pepper to taste. Heat the white wine into a large pan. Add the mussels, put the lid on and bring to a boil. Cook the mussels for 6-8 minutes until the mussels open, shaking the pan frequently. Spoon the mussels into four warm bowls. Pour 200 ml of the mussel broth to the tomato sauce. Boil the sauce slightly and pour the sauce over the mussels. Sprinkle the dish withthe chopped parsley.

Serve this dish with some French baguette, french fries or a salad.

When you unpack the mussels, you should immediately separate good from the bad before you cook them. Nowadays, mussels that are packed in leak-proof containers are all slightly open and close themselves after a few minutes. This is because the mussel is relaxed in its protected environment (packaging). When it's removed from the packaging, it responds slowly. Hold the clam open with the convex side under cold running water and tap simultaneously against the shell. After a few minutes the shell closes. Mussels whose shells or so damaged, should discarded.

comfort food for an autumns day: pumkin soup

On days like these, cold, rainy and wet, I just long for some warmth and soothing. This pumpkin soup is one of my favorite autumn dishes. And it is so quick and easy to make !

1 pumpkin of any kind
3-4 stock cubes
2 liters of water
some fresh or dried sage
chili flakes
Greek yogurt or sour cream






Bring the water with the stock cubes to the boil. Meanwhile de-seed and cut the pumpkin, including the skin into small cubes. The smaller you cut them the quicker they cook. The skin can be left on, because it softens beautifully while it cooks and when you puree the soup in a later stage, it gives the soup a wonderful bright color too. 
Add the pumpkin cubes to the stock and let it simmer for at least 15 to 20 minutes until soft. Add the dried or freshly chopped sage and some chili flakes. Then puree the soup either in a blender. Be careful here, because due to the hot steam the substance can create a pressure in the blender, so don't need to fill the blender up to the max ! Better puree it in multiple portions then all at once. Now put the pureed soup back into the pan and let it simmer for just a few more minutes. Taste and correct the flavor to your taste if necessary. 
Mix the yogurt or sour cream with some dried or freshly chopped sage and chili flakes. Now serve the soup in a large bowl, and put a generous dollop of the yogurt in the middle of the soup. Have some homemade or rustic bread with it. 
Bon apetit ! 

Homemade Summer Sangria

Time to give a summer swing to that boring old white wine ! On a warm spring evening like tonight there is little that can beat this summer sangria. And guess what ? It only takes like 5 minutes to prepare.

Chop up some fresh fruit like strawberries, kiwi's, oranges or any other fruit you have lying around the fruit bowl. Pick some fresh pepermint leaves and put them in a jug together with the chopped up fruit. Now Add you chilled white (or rosé) wine to the fruit. To make it even more refreshing mic in some ice cubes or crushed ice.

Cheers !

Rustic tomato salad with boeuf de coeur tomatoes

One of the contents of the crate this week were coeur de boeuf tomatoes.

The coeur de boeuf tomato is not just a tomato with a special appearance, but it's also has delightful taste. With this tomato the ripening process of tomato starts at the inside going out. The fruit is ripe and tasty even though it still can be a bit green. It's is strongly ribbed, has sloping sides and is light in colour. The coeur de boeuf is not only perculiar for its taste, also the heart-shaped, light coloured appearance is characteristic and distinguishes itself by the full flesh and excess juice and acid content. Unlike traditional tomatoes, this fruit has an optimal flavour when most of the peel is still green. The Coeur de Boeuf has a fruit weight of 180 to 200 grams. This tomato is suitable for many uses.

For this rustic salad chop up some different types of tomatoes among them the coeur de boeuf, some red, green & red striped, yellow and purple cherry tomatoes, tasty toms, or whatever else kind of tomatoes you might have lying around.

Whack up a dressing of 3 parts good  olive oil, 1 part balsamic vinegar, drizzle of honey (to bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes) some sea salt and coarsely grounded pepper. The salt is a must, because it will help extract the juices from the tomatoes and mix in with the dressing. Chop up 2 or 2 spring onions into finely slices rings. Then cut some of the cherry tomatoes in halves, the larger ones in quaters and chop up the coeur de boeuf tomatoes roughly. Don't worry about it being in perfect shape or not. The rustic appearance of this salad comes from the different cutting methods and the uneven pieces of the tomatoes.
Now mix the tomatoes with the dressing. Tear up some fresh basil leaves and mix in.

Serve with some sour dough bread or a burgundy floor bread. Use the bread to dip in the dressing and juices.

Bon Apetit ! 

The Crate, fair food brought home

A few weeks ago we went to this market on Easter morning. Beautiful setting in the Frankendael Park in Amsterdam. It was a true feast to any foodie maniac as us. We got to a stand where they sold subscriptions to "the crate". A crate filled with all these organic and local produces such as vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, breads and so on. Foodie as I am, I just had to get me one of those subscriptions of course !! Only problem was they didn't deliver to our hometown... But... Goodness gracious me... They were willing to take a detour in order to deliver to us as well ! How awsome is that !!

So... this morning our first crate arrived. Present of the week to me ! This weeks crate contained:  

A green zucchini

A bunch basil

Coeur de boeuf tomatoes

5 kinds of cherry tomatoes (red, green, yellow)

Cucumbers

3 colors eggplants

Green chard leaves

New potatoes

Lollo Biondo lettuce crop

A bunch of fresh peppermint 

A bunch chervil

Gasconner beef burgers

rustic break bread 

homemade tomato ketchup

The crate comes with recipes for every item in the crate. You can choose to go for a (non)vegetarian 2 or 4 persons crate. In our case every other week delivered on Saturday mornings. I got to tell you people, do try this !! Seasonal organic and local. What else does a foodie want ?? 

I'll try to post some of the recipes I come up with using products from the crate on this blog. 

For more info check out http://www.dekrat.nl/

hearty ovenroasted chicken breast with roast potatoes

This light and nutritious dinner is easy to make. Just let the oven do all the cooking for you!

some good quality floury potatoes or some roseval potatoes
olive oil
sea salt
garlic or lemon pepper


chicken breasts
couple of leeks
thyme, fresh or dried
mozarella cheese
fresh basil leaves
tomato pesto or sundried tomatoes
bacon, pancetta or a good quality spek


Start by preheating the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Trim and wash the leeks, remove the outer leaves, then slice it into 0.5cm/¼ inch pieces. Add these to a oven tray with the leaves of a few sprigs of fresh thyme or the dried thyme, a good glug of olive oil, small knob of butter, a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, lemon pepper or garlic pepper and toss together. Make a "bag" by scoring the chicken breasts halfway through. Make sure not to cut them all the way trough though. You need to create a sort of pocket where the stuffing can be folded into. Rub the pocket with the tomato pesto or place a piece or 2 of sundried tomatoes, a couple of leaves of fresh basil and a few slices of mozarella cheese in the pocket. Now fold the chicken breast into its natural shape. wrapp them into the bacon, pancetta or spek. You may need 6 or 7 slices per breast. This will not only flavour the chicken but also protect it while it cooks.  Drizzle with olive oil, place a couple of whole thyme sprigs on top and cook in the middle of the oven for 25 to 35 minutes.

For the roast potatoes, cut the larger potatoes into half or even quarters so they all have a similar size. Parboil them for about 12 minutes in some salted water. Drain them and let them steam of access water for a few minutes. Meanwhile put some olive oil in a baking tray. Add the seasoning (sea salt & pepper). Now place the potatoes into the baking tray and coarsely mash some of them with a fork. This will help the potatoes crisp up while they roast in the oven. Now mix them all up with the olive oil and seasoning, making sure each one of them is coated with the oil. Cook them in the middle of the oven for about 35 to 45 minutes.


Bon Apetit ! 

Saag paneer, a delicious Indian spinach curry

Saag paneer, or in Bengali Palak Saag (spinach) paneer is an easy to make vegetarian dish. Every household has it's own recipe for it. Here's mine.

homemade paneer (see former recipe)
frozen spinach
a chopped onion
2 chopped tomatoes
teaspoon of ginger- and garlic paste
tablespoon of ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil
Jeera (cumin powder)
Dhone (coriander powder)
Holud (turmeric)
Salt to taste

Start by frying of the paneer which have been cut into cubes of about 1 cm. When golden brown leave to drain on some kitchen paper. Put aside till used.
Heat the ghee or olive oil in a pan and add the garlic- and ginger paste and the onion. Fry till the onion is softened and is glossy. Then add the spices (dhone, jeera and holud) all to taste. Put the chopped tomatoes and their juice in the pan and fry of on a medium heat. If the mixture might stick to the bottom, add a bit of water to it, to prevent it from burning and giving a bitter taste to the dish. Now add the frozen spinach. Stir occasionally until the spinach is all melted in the curry and heated trough. Taste and if needed adjust the spices and add salt. Just before serving add the fryed paneer to the dish and stir gently so all the cubes of paneer are covered in the palak saag.

For a more spicy version of this paneer dish you can add some finely chopped fresh red peppers or some dried chili flakes.

Serve with steamed basmati rice. roti  or parata.

How to make paneer, Indian cheese, from scratch.

When I was a kid my mum used to make chana or paneer all the time. She would make the paneer herself and the whole house would smell like vinegar. I used to be disgusted by that and then would refuse to eat that paneer, cause it reminded me of that grubby smell.

But... I have found a way to make this very young type of cottage cheese without the nasty smells hanging in the kitchen !

Paneer, chana or cottage cheese is an integral part of Indian cooking. It's a versatile dairy product, which is used in desserts, snacks or for main course cooking. In India it is known by various names like in Hindi - panir
or  Bengali - Chana.

2 liters of full fat milk
2 tb of vinegar or lemon juice
muslin cloth or a fine thin cloth


1. Put 2 liters of full fat milk in a heavy bottomed vessel.

2. Let it come to a boil, now reduce the flame and add the 2 tb of vinegar (or lemon juice) to the to the boiling milk.







3. As soon as u add vinegar the milk will immediately split.

4. Cook this till the milk is all curdled and a pale yellow transparent fluid is left behind .(you can add more vinegar or lemon if required).
5. Keep on stiring occassionaly to avoid sticking of the milk at the bottom of the vessel. This will not take any longer than just 1-2 minutes all together.




6. Now strain the curdled milk (or actually this is the paneer) in a fine muslin cloth which you have put over and fine siff or colander to separate the water from the curdled milk.

7. Rinse the cheese with cold water to wash of excess vinegar or lemon juice.








8. Now wring the cloth up real tight so as much water as possible is drained. Get yourself a heavy pot filled with water and place this on top of the cloth with the paneer in it. By adding the pressure to the cheese it becomes all dry. The dryer the substance is, the better it can be processed. Leave this for at least 2 to 4 hours. even better would be overnight.

9. After a few hours take of the pot and open the cloth gently. The lump of white cheese is the actual paneer. This can be cut up to pieces to process into a curry (like saag paneer) or knead into a variety of Indian sweets (misti).

This paneer can now be processed into all different varities of curry's. You can choose to fry the pieces before processing, but you can also just cut it into cubes and add it to a korma.

A quick refreshing cucumber salad

If you want something as a side dish to accompany your main meal, but you don;t have much in that fridge left, try this cucumber salad with walnuts (optional of course) It's easy and quick to make, but can really pimp up a meal. And nobody needs to know it didn't take you much effort to make, right ?

a cucumber, skin on
some white balsamic vinegar or some walnut vinegar
honey to taste
dill, fresh would be best, otherwise dried
some chopped walnuts
some freshly ground pepper





Simply use your cheese slicer to slice the washed cucumber into thin slices. You can also use the foodprocessor to do this for you. Make a dressing by adding the honey,dill and freshly grounded pepper to the vinegar of your choice. Do experiment with the different types of vinegar available nowadays. Since I added walnuts, I used walnut vinegar in this case. But white balsamic vinegar is good to use too. Just try to find a perfect balance of sweet and sour by adding the honey to taste. Dress the cucumber with the dressing. Leave it for at least 15 minutes aside so the cucumber becomes "pickled" by the dressing. Meanwhile coarsly chop the walnut. Sprinkle the walnuts over the top of the cucumber salad.

Some y'know's:
- Did you know that dill is classic combination with cucumber, but also eggs and fish.
- Dill was used by Hippocrates as an application on burns suffered by soldiers in ancient Rome.
- The green dill leaves have a sweet aroma and taste. When dried, the dill seeds are similar in taste to
  caraway seeds, and have a sweet and citric type flavor but slightly buttery as well. Derived from the Norse
  word dilla; it means to lull. Thus, this herb is used to induce sleep and is a great insomnia reliever.

Some variation tips:

- add some freshly chopped or dried flaked chili instead of pepper to the dressing.
- add some celery (chopped into 0.2 cm slices) to the cucumber.
- instead of walnuts use pine nuts.