12/15/11

Lemon-Yoghurt Cake

A couple of weeks ago I found out that at my mom's place we have the tv channel 24 kitchen. Thank god I do not receive that at my place; I would probably fail my studies. I left that weekend with a ton of inspiration and new recipes. And this is one of them. I baked this cake 2 weeks ago. It was good, but the cooking time is not near enough to bake the cake. Maybe it is my oven, but even after 1,5 hours it was still not done in the middle. It did not matter; everyone thought it was delicious!
I am not giving you the recipe here since I am busy studying and am trying out a recipe for christmas! So find the link below. The next few recipes will all be my christmas recipes!
Lemon Yoghurt Cake


12/14/11

Bell Pepper Soup

One thing that often frustrated me during cooking was my lack of kitchen appliances. My cheap immersion blender almost caused short circuit the last time I used it and my mixer is making noises that he should not make. Since I cannot live without making soup or chocolate mousse I needed to do something. I saved money for a few months and now my new favorite thing has arrived! A Kenwood food processor that can do practically anything. Yesterday I used it for 4 different things: making juice, slicing vegetables, blending my soup and mash my potatoes! My new best friend!
Enough about this thing; I could talk about it all day but I will not do that to you. Some people who know me will wonder why on earth I would eat bell pepper soup. I generally do not like bell peppers and usually I would never buy them. But my housemate had some left over and I hate to throw things away. I love soup and I remembered that my mom made a lovely sweet pepper soup some time ago. And ofcourse I had to try out my foodprocessor. It is a lovely soup with a velvety texture and from now on this is my new favorite soup!

Ingredients:

4 bell peppers, preferably red or yellow, cut in small cubes
1 carrot, finely sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 liter of chicken stock
50 ml cream
10-20 g of butter
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Heat some butter in a large pan. Add the onion and bake for a few minutes. Add the garlic and celery and bake again for a minute or two. Add the carrot and peppers and mix well.
Add the chicken stock and bay leaf and bring to the boil. Boil for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Remove the bay leaf and puree the soup.
Add the cream to taste; I think I added less than I put in the recipe. Add salt and pepper to taste.
If you want to freeze the soup leave out the cream.


12/13/11

Hutspot (Carrot Potato puree) with Sauteed onions

When I started this blog a few months ago I thought it would be an easy extension to my cooking. Cook, make a picture, write a post. Hardly costs more time than only cooking. But that is not true. My camera is not that good, so I try to make the best of it which may take some time. And then I have to write a post. Although I am fluent in English it is not my native language and especially with cooking terms, I have often no clue how to say it.
Currently I am already close to my exam week which also means that there is not much time for cooking. But I promise to do better and post at least weekly again!
This recipe is perfect for my exam week, because I can make a lot of it and freeze it. Microwave meal and homemade cooking in one! It is a typical dutch recipe. We love to mash potatoes together with a large variety of vegetables (kale, endive, sauerkraut). We call those dishes stamppot (literally mash pot or something) and they are perfect, easy-to-make winterdishes. And I made this typical dish with a little twist of my own!

Ingredients (4 persons)

500 g carrots, sliced
500 g potatoes, cut into cubes
20 g butter
4 onions, cut into rings
sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt, pepper

Put the carrots and potatoes in a large pan of water. Add salt generously and bring to the boil and let it boil until they are done; about 20 minutes.
In the meantime, heat olive oil in a baking pan, about 4 tbsp. Add onions, thyme and bay leaf. Let it bake on medium to low heat for about 20 minutes. They should be brown, but still soft. Turn off heat and add the balsamic vinegar.
Drain the potatoes and carrots and save some of the water. Add the butter and mash the potatoes and carrots together. Add water until you have a nice moist puree. Add the sauteed onions and pepper and salt to taste.

Serve the pork cutlet or nice slice of bacon. Smakelijk eten!