Category: all year

How to Make a Roulade (Part 1)

10 July 2025

Butterflying meat is a technique that allows you to turn a thicker piece of meat (for instance pork tenderloin or turkey breast) into a piece that you can use to make a roulade, without damaging the texture. The first step is to slice the meat lengthwise, but not through and through. The second and third step are a bit more challenging: take your knife and half the meat, again lengthwise, from the centre to the right and then from the centre to the left. Basically, you have now quartered the meat but it still in one piece. Difficult? This helpful video shows you how to do it.
Some instructions stop after the first step and use a meat hammer to flatten the meat. Nice, but the result is not even close to the real thing.

Once the pork tenderloin is butterflied, it’s time to add the filling, on the outside. Sounds odd, but our butcher was right, if you fry the roulade inside-out, you get a much better result.

We have made pork tenderloin roulades with various fillings. This recipe is for a Mediterranean approach. You could also go for a spicy mixture with red pepper paste, garlic, onion, ginger and soy sauce.

Wine Pairing

In general both red and white wine can go very well with a roulade of pork tenderloin. It all depends on the filling. In case of this Mediterranean filling, we would suggest a more robust wine, for instance Syrah. This is a full-bodied red wine with medium to high levels of tannin. It has fruity flavors and a slightly peppery finish.
In case of a filling with red pepper paste, garlic, ginger and soy sauce you could pair the roulade with a more spicy red wine, for instance Zinfandel, or with a white wine with a touch of sweetness (Riesling, perhaps Viognier).

What You Need
  • Pork Tenderloin
  • Black garlic
  • Sage
  • Black Olives
  • Rosemary
  • Fennel Seed
  • Pancetta
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Butterfly the meat
  2. Devein and chop the sage
  3. Halve the black olives
  4. Crush the fennel seeds
  5. Make a mixture of black garlic, sage, black olives, rosemary, fennel seed and black pepper. It should be a powerful mixture
  6. Spread the mixture over the meat. Keep the edges free.
  7. Cover with slices of pancetta. 
  8. Roll up the meat
  9. Tie with kitchen twine
  10. Tightly wrap in plastic foil and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 2 hours
  11. Remove the roulade from the refrigerator and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 – 60 minutes
  12. Preheat your oven to 160 °C or 320 °F
  13. Fry in the oven until the internal temperature is between 65 °C and 75 °C, or 145 °F and 165 °F (pink and well-done respectively)
  14. Transfer to your worktop, wrap in aluminium foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes
  15. Slice and serve on a warm plate, for instance with green peas, or pommes dauphinois, or a salad or ratatouille. Just think about the filling and be inspired!
Roulade with Green Peas ©cadwu
Roulade in Pan ©cadwu
butterflying meat allows you to create a roulade
Roulade with Bok Choy ©cadwu

Tartelette with Pear

3 July 2025

Always a pleasure to serve a tartelette, with lemon, with blackberries, with raspberries or in this case with pear. The challenge is to capture the delicate flavour of the pears.
Making the filling is simple and quick. Making the pastry requires much more time. Feel free to use ready-made pastry!

What You Need
  • Filling
    • Pears
    • Butter
    • Lemon Juice
  • Pâte Sucrée
    • 50 grams of Unsalted Butter
    • 40 grams of Caster Sugar
    • 125 grams of All Purpose Flour
    • 1 gram of Salt
    • 1 organic egg
    • Water (optional)
What You Do (Filling)
  1. Peel and core the pears
  2. Chop coarsely
  3. Melt the butter
  4. Add some water
  5. Slowly cook the pears until soft
  6. Taste and perhaps add a drop of lemon juice
  7. Pass gently through a sieve, without applying pressure. You want as much liquid as possible without damaging the texture of the pears
  8. Set the pears aside and allow to cool.
  9. Reduce the liquid until it becomes thick
What You Do (Pastry Case)
  1. Combine sugar, flour and salt
  2. Dice butter, add to the mixture and combine. Use a hand mixer with kneading hooks
  3. Beat the egg and add
  4. Use your hands to make the dough. It should not be sticky, so it must be easy to make a ball. If too dry, add just a bit of water. If too wet, add some flour
  5. When done, remove from the bowl and wrap in kitchen foil. Store in the refrigerator for at least two hours. It can be stored for a few days.
  6. Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry to a circle a larger than the top of the tartelette forms. The dough should be approximately 2 or 3 mm thick
  7. Coat the forms with butter
  8. Line the forms with the pastry. Press the pastry well into the sides and bottom. Use a knife to remove the excess dough
  9. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator
  10. Preheat the oven to 190 °C or 375 °F
  11. Use a fork to prick small holes in the pastry
  12. Line the forms with greaseproof paper or aluminium foil, add baking beans and bake blind for 10 minutes
  13. Remove the paper and the baking beans
  14. Reduce the oven temperature to 160 °C or 320 °F
  15. Transfer back to the oven for 5 minutes or until golden
  16. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool
Assembling the Tartelette
  1. When the pastry cases are completely cool, add the pears
  2. Use a spoon to drizzle the pear-syrop on top of the pears
  3. Serve immediately
Simple Pear Tartelette ©cadwu
Simple Pear Tartelette ©cadwu

Exploring Asma Khan’s Ammu (Part 1)

26 June 2025

Recently we bought Asma Khan’s cookbook Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul. ‘An entrancing book’, according to Nigella Lawson.
Asma Khan is an Indian British chef, cookbook author and restaurant owner. In 2012 her pop-up restaurant started for 12 guests at her home, serving food cooked from traditional family recipes. Today her all-female Darjeeling Express restaurant in London offers Indian Rajput and Bengali home cooking specialties.

In 2024 she won the Johannes van Dam Prize, a lifetime achievement award for an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the world of gastronomy. Previous winners of the prestigious prize include Yotam Ottolenghi, Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, Claudia Roden, Jeroen Meus and Alain Passard.

We prepared five dishes from the book and asked our esteemed panel (André, Joke, Martine and Rutger) for their thoughts. In this post we will look into Asma Khans Pumpkin and Coconut Soup and a dessert from Bengali, Bhapa Doi. On July 17th we will post part 2 of this review.

Flavours and Aromas

Asma Khan’s cookbook is about the food she enjoyed when she lived in India, the food she missed so much when living in the UK. By publishing the recipes, she creates an opportunity for all of us to enjoy the food that is close to her heart. That’ s why we followed her instructions to the letter, with one exception; we used less chillies.

Spices

Buying the right spices was a bit of a challenge. One of the ingredients of the Pineapple Chutney is Tej Patta, or Indian bay leaf. It has a clear cinnamon-like flavour and is not to be confused with common bay leaf.
We also needed not too spicy large chillies. We found some excellent Kashmiri Red Chilies. Flavourful, a touch spicy and dark red.
One dish required Cassia Bark which we couldn’t find and replaced with cinnamon.
We wanted to serve original Indian beer, so we had to find a few bottles of Kingfisher or Cobra.
The shopping took a bit of time, but it was worth the effort!

Not Just Another Cookbook

The book is called ‘Ammu’ which translates to ‘Mother’. The stories, the recipes, the whole book is a tribute to the food her mother (and the family’s cook) prepared. But we feel it’s more: it’s also a tribute to original flavours, to people taking time to prepare food, to sharing and enjoying, to communities and heritage.

Pumpkin and Coconut Soup
Pumpkin and Coconut Soup ©cadwu

When talking about our menu, we looked at the menu of The Darjeeling Express and decided to prepare one starter and four dishes as main course. A vegetarian Pumpkin and Coconut soup would be ideal as a starter. The ingredients are pumpkin, onion, garlic, ginger, red chillies, coconut cream, salt, star anise and fennel seeds. Two tablespoons of fennel seeds (for 6 servings)? Star anise? Would that work? 

The panel was impressed: a delicious pumpkin soup, spicy, but not the kind of spiciness that lingers on. The fennel worked beautifully with the pumpkin and coconut. The star anise gave the soup a nice additional and unexpected aroma. André’s favourite.

Bhapa Doi
Bhapa Doi ©cadwu

When reading the book, we noticed that the recipes are not too complex, however, most are rather labour intensive. The book includes several recipes for desserts but given the time we needed to prepare the other dishes we decided to make a relativity easy Bengali dessert (not included in the book).

The Bhapa Doi is rich and moist, the taste long and (not overly) sweet. It made us think of cream cheese pie. The raisins combined very well with the creamy flavours and the cardamom. Perhaps we could have made smaller portions?

What You Need (for 7 ramekins (150 ml))
  • One tin of Condensed Milk (approximately 400 grams)
  • 250 ml Greek Yoghurt
  • 100 ml Whole Milk
  • 1½ teaspoon of finely crushed Cardamom Seeds
  • Handful of Sultana Raisins
  • Pistachio Nuts (to decorate)
What You Do
  1. Soak the sultana raisins for 15 minutes in lukewarm water
  2. Preheat your oven to 170 °C or 340 °F traditional (no fan)
  3. Combine the condensed milk with the yoghurt until smooth
  4. Add the milk and combine
  5. Add the crushed cardamom seeds
  6. Use kitchen paper to dry the raisins
  7. Add the raisins to the mixture
  8. Fill the ramekins with the mixture
  9. Place the ramekins in a baking tray
  10. Add boiling water up to 2/3 of the height of the ramekins
  11. Close the oven door and reduce the temperature to 120 °C or 250 °F
  12. Leave in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes, until set
  13. Test with a needle (it should come out dry)
  14. Remove the ramekins from the baking tray and allow to cool.
  15. Best to refrigerate the ramekins for 4+ hours in the refrigerator before serving
  16. Decorate with pistachio nuts
The Book

Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul by Asma Khan is for sale via the usual channels or your local bookstore for 35,00 US$ or 26,00 EUR.
Some of her recipes were published by the BBC, other recipes were published by Great British Chefs and these by the Foodnetwork.

Ammu by Asma Khan
Pumpkin and Coconut Soup ©cadwu
Bhapa Doi ©cadwu

Pasta with Duck

5 June 2025

A few weeks ago we enjoyed Pappardelle al Ragù d’Anatra at restaurant Rigatoni in Haarlem. We loved the combination of pasta and duck so we decided to look into this Italian classic. We found a recipe in La Scienza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiar Bene by Pellegrino Artusi, published in 1891. His recipe (number 272) combines a whole duck with celery stalk, parsley, carrot and onion. When everything is nicely cooked, he removes the duck from the pan, passes the sauce through a sieve, removes the duck fat and adds some butter. The duck is served with Pappardelle and Parmesan cheese. The vegetables are served separately.

We decided to use orecchiette and fresh duck leg. Orecchiette is a pasta typical for the very south of Italy whereas Pappardelle al Ragù d’Anatra is typical for Venice. Using orecchiette is probably not-done from an Italian point of view, but we simply love the way it combines with this duck-based sauce.

Wine Pairing

The restaurant served the dish with a glass of Corvina, which we think was an excellent choice. The wine is made in the Veneto region, not far from Venice, with 100% corvina grapes. In general, we suggest a light to medium bodied, unoaked, red wine with aromas of red fruit. Its taste should be pleasant and warm with good acidity. A red wine that should be served slightly chilled.

What You Need
  • Duck leg
  • Olive Oil
  • Carrot
  • Celery stalk
  • Onion
  • Bay Leaf
  • White wine
  • Tomatoes
  • Stock
  • Orecchiette
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Start by preparing the duck.
  2. Preheat the oven to 150 °C or 300 °F
  3. Heat a skillet and fry both sides of the leg until golden.
  4. Transfer the duck to the oven for one hour, skin on top
  5. After an hour, check if the duck is well done and moist
  6. Let cool
  7. Remove the skin from the meat and the meat from the bones
  8. Very coarsely chop (or pull) the meat.
  9. Set the skin aside
  10. Chop onion, finely chop carrot, thinly slice the celery stalk
  11. Heat a large pan, add olive oil and gently fry onion, carrot and celery.
  12. After 5 minutes add the duck meat and the bay leaf
  13. Add a splash of white wine and allow to evaporate
  14. Add the tomatoes (if using fresh tomatoes, then peeled and deseeded)
  15. Add stock
  16. Cook for 60 minutes
  17. Add more stock if required
  18. In parallel
    • Cook the orecchiette al dente
    • Heat a small skillet
    • Add some olive oil
    • Slice small squares of the skin of the duck
    • Fry these until crispy
    • Add some black pepper and Parmesan cheese to the ragù
  19. Serve the pasta with the sauce and decorate with the crispy duck skin and grated Parmesan cheese
PS
  • You can skip steps 1 to 6 by using Confit of Duck. We tried it, even though we assumed it would be too salty or its flavour not suitable. But we were wrong, it worked very well.
  • Some recipes use breast of duck, which we think is too lean for a ragù.
Orecchiette al Ragù d’Anatra ©cadwu
Pasta with Duck ©cadwu

Asma Khan Wins Johannes van Dam Prize

25 May 2025

The Johannes van Dam Prize 2024 was won by Indian British chef, cookbook author and restaurant owner Asma Khan. In 2012 her restaurant started for 12 guests at her home, serving food cooked from traditional family recipes. Today her all-female Darjeeling Express restaurant in London offers Indian Rajput and Bengalihome cooking specialties. On her current menu are dishes such as Chicken Momis (dumplings served with smoked chillies sesame chutney) and Badami Baingan (aubergine with coconut, peanut and tamarind). Sounds delicious!

Prize

The Johannes van Dam Prize is a lifetime achievement award for an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the world of gastronomy. Previous winners of the prestigious prize include Yotam Ottolenghi, Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, Claudia Roden, Jeroen Meus and Alain Passard. The prize giving ceremony used to be part of the Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food, but for reasons unknown to us it was decided to separate the two events. As a result, the prize giving event in 2024 with Asma Khan was relatively small and went by hardly noticed. A pity.

Cookbook

We bought her cookbook Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul. ‘An entrancing book’, according to Nigella Lawson. We were impressed by the great stories and of course the recipes. Over the coming weeks we will prepare some of the dishes and ask our review panel to taste the flavours of Asma Khan’s kitchen.

Join us!

Please join us in preparing one (or more) of her dishes. You could buy the book, look at her recipes as published by the BBC or these recipes published by Great British Chefs or these from the Foodnetwork.
Post about it on your blog and ping back, track back, share or re-post.

Let’s enjoying Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul!

Ammu by Asma Khan
Ammu by Asma Khan

Tartelette au Citron

8 May 2025

Earlier we wrote about Tarte au Citron, or Lemon Pie. This is a recipe for a Tartelette au Citron, a small but very different pie. The filling is lemon curd, which you add to the pastry case just before serving. You can easily make both components a day ahead. The crunchy, slightly sweet pastry case and the soft, rich, tart filling go together very well. You could decorate the tartelette with meringue or chocolate sprinkles, but we prefer them as they are. Great with a strong cup of coffee.

What You Need
  • Pâte Sucrée
    • 50 grams of Unsalted Butter
    • 40 grams of Caster Sugar
    • 125 grams of All Purpose Flour
    • 1 gram of Salt
    • 1 Organic Egg
    • Water (optional)
  • Curd
    • 65 ml of Lemon Juice
    • 65 grams of Unsalted Butter
    • 80 grams of Fine Sugar
    • One Organic Egg
What You Do (Curd)
  1. Beat the egg
  2. Melt the butter
  3. Combine all ingredients.
  4. Cook Au Bain Marie until you have the right consistency.
  5. Or transfer to your microwave, put it on 50% or 70% power (depending on your microwave) and heat with intervals of 20-30 seconds. Mix between the intervals. This is a very precise way of heating the mixture and it gives you full control over the process. Towards the end of the process, you may want to reduce the power or shorten the intervals. The percentage and the duration of the intervals depend on your microwave and the bowl you use.
  6. Set aside and allow to cool.
  7. Transfer the curd to the refrigerator. It will keep for a few days.
What You Do (Pastry Case)
  1. Combine sugar, flour and salt.
  2. Dice butter, add to the mixture and combine. Use a hand mixer with kneading hooks.
  3. Beat the egg and add.
  4. Use your hands to make the dough. It should not be sticky, so it must be easy to make a ball. If too dry, add just a bit of water. If too wet, add some flour.
  5. When done, remove from the bowl and wrap in kitchen foil. Store in the refrigerator for at least two hours. It can be stored for a few days.
  6. Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry to a circle a larger than the top of the tartelette forms. We used 8 cm or 3 inch (quiche-) forms. The dough should be approximately 2 or 3 mm (0.1 inch) thick.
  7. Coat the forms with butter.
  8. Line the forms with the pastry. Press the pastry well into the sides and bottom. Use a knife to remove the excess dough.
  9. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
  10. Preheat the oven to 190 °C or 375 °F.
  11. Use a fork to prick small holes in the pastry.
  12. Line the forms with greaseproof paper or aluminum foil, add baking beans and bake blind for 10 minutes.
  13. Remove the paper and the baking beans.
  14. Reduce the oven temperature to 160 °C or 320 °F.
  15. Transfer back to the oven for 5 minutes or until golden
  16. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
  17. When the pastry cases are completely cool, add the curd and serve
PS
  • Two other very tasty Tartelettes: one with Blueberries and the other with Raspberries
  • To be published: Tartelette with Pear
Tartelette au Citron ©cadwu
Tartelette au Citron ©cadwu

Orange Parfait

26 April 2025

Today April 26th, we celebrate the birthday of the King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Well actually, his birthday is tomorrow, but you can’t have a party on a Sunday, can you?
The Dutch royal family is also known as ‘de Oranjes’, which is reflected in the use of the colour orange when referring to Dutch royalty. There is no real link between the royal family and the colour. The ‘orange’ in their name refers to the French city of Orange, a Principality one of his ancestors inherited in 1544.
Over the years we prepared Orange Sabayon, Queen’s Soup, Orange and Almond Cake, Bouchée à la Reine, Orange Flan, Canard à l’Orange and Baba au Mandarine Napoléon on this day.

Today we finally have nice weather in the Netherlands, so let’s prepare something very special: a parfait of orange. The recipe we followed was published by Jeroen Meus, a well-known Belgian chef. He was inspired by Bernard Pacaud, a French chef who owns restaurant l’Ambroisie in Paris, awarded with three Michelin Stars.

Perfect

A (French) parfait is an ice cream made without churning, so no need for an ice cream maker. In this case the mixture is poured into an empty orange and frozen.
One of the components of a parfait is the combination of egg yolks and sugar, beaten until ruban. This means that the mixture has become pale yellow and soft. It should resemble Greek yoghurt.
The beaten egg whites will add lightness, as they do in mousse au chocolate.
Then it’s a matter of richness (cream), flavour (coffee, orange, mango, passion fruit et cetera) and sugar.
Making a parfait requires a number of parallel actions, but with the right mise-en-place it’s not difficult (although, to be fair, our kitchen was a bit of a mess).

Orange Parfait

The orange parfait as prepared by Jeroen Meus is a combination of:

  • Whipped Cream
  • Cooked Cream flavoured with Orange Peel
  • Whipped Egg White 
  • Orange Juice
  • Mandarine Napoléon
  • Egg yolks and Sugar (beaten until ruban)
  • Gelatine
  • A salad of Oranges and Blood Grapefruit

Details can be found on the website of Jeroen Meus, including a helpful video (in Dutch).

Orange Parfait ©cadwu
Orange Parfait ©cadwu

Herb Roasted Chicken

24 April 2025

The first time we had chicken prepared this way was in a lovely restaurant in Vence, France. The restaurant was called Auberge des Seigneurs and offered a wide range of beautiful dishes from the days of King François I, such as blue trout, tian, chicken and lamb cooked on a spit before an open fire in the dining room. Ah, Madame Rodi, those culinary evenings, the wines from the Domaine de Rimauresq, and your infinite hospitality, dear memories.
The chicken was a special treat. It was juicy, tasty and rich. The chicken was rubbed on the inside with a very intense paste. A wonderful idea because the powerful rub flavoured the whole chicken, not just the outside. The result was aromatic, flavourful and light.
Since we don’t have a spit with an open fire at home, we had to find another way of roasting our chicken to perfection. An oven dish? A chicken sitter?
We think the best way to roast your chicken is using a baking rack over a roasting pan filled with water. The rack will guarantee an evenly cooked and golden chicken, the water helps keeping the meat juicy and the skin crispy.
We served our chicken with slow cooked fennel. 

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed a glass of red wine made with cabernet sauvignon grapes from the Pays D’Oc In France, produced by Abbotts & Delaunay. The wine is ruby red, it has aromas of dark fruit and the taste is long and velvety. Its fruitiness combines beautifully with the aromatic chicken.
In general we suggest an intense, fruity, easy to drink red wine.

What You Need
  • For the Rub
    • 2 twigs of Rosemary
    • 5 twigs of Thyme
    • 3 leaves of Sage
    • Salt
    • Oil
  • Organic Chicken
  • Black Pepper
  • For the Fennel
    • 1 Fennel
    • Olive Oil
    • Pastis (optional)
What You Do
  1. Finely chop rosemary, thyme and sage
  2. Transfer to a mortar, add a teaspoon of salt and make into a paste. It must be very aromatic and salty
  3. Add some oil, just to make it a bit smoother
  4. Rub the inside of the chicken
  5. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine
  6. Transfer the chicken to the refrigerator and allow to rest for a few hours (at least two)
  7. Preheat your oven to 350 °F or 180 °C (with fan)
  8. Pat the chicken dry with kitchen paper
  9. Add a layer of water to the roasting pan
  10. Cook until golden and done. The internal temperature should be 165 °F or 75 °C. In general, a chicken needs 30 minutes per 500 grams
  11. Allow to rest for 5 – 10 minutes
  12. Serve on a warm plate with black pepper (and slow cooked fennel)
PS
  • Slice the fennel, add olive oil to a pan, add the fennel, put the lid on the pan and leave on low heat for an hour or so. Stir and check every 15 minutes. Add a splash of pastis to enhance the taste.
  • Normally we use the leftovers to make chicken stock. Due to the intensity of the rub this stock will be okay if you want to make Mediterranean flavoured soups, for instance one with zucchini. 
Herb Roasted Chicken ©cadwu
Herb Roasted Chicken with Fennel ©cadwu

Cod with Miso

3 April 2025

Marinating is such an interesting way of preparing food. It can be used to make food (meat) softer, to add flavour or colour, it can be acidic, it can be enzymatic, sometimes it requires only a few minutes, sometimes it takes days.

One of our favourite recipes by Antonio Carlucci is a salad made with maitake, fresh scallops, crab and shrimps. It’s an amazing result, with lots of pleasant flavours, also thanks to the cilantro, dill and parsley. Part of the fun is that the scallops are not seared but prepared with a marinade of lemon, a process that takes a few minutes only.

In this case we want to add flavour (and a bit of colour) to already very tasty cod. The duration depends on the shape of the fillet, in our case it was 30 minutes. You will taste delicious cod with a touch of umami and sweetness and you will smell the aromas of the marinade. The pickles will give the dish a crunchy and briny touch.

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed a glass of our favourite sake: Junmai Taru Sake as produced by Kiku-Masamune. The sake is matured in barrels made of the finest Yoshino cedar, which is reflected in its aroma and flavor. The sake will clear your palate and allow for the more intense taste of the marinated cod.

If you decide to pair the dish with a white wine, then we suggest an aromatic, fresh and fruity wine, with aromas of citrus and apple. The wine should be uplifting and juicy with a light character.

What You Need
  • Fillet of Cod
  • 1 tablespoon of Miso
  • 1 tablespoon of Mirin
  • ¼ tablespoon Soy Sauce (preferably with less salt)
  • ½ tablespoon of Rice Vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon of Mustard
  • 1 teaspoon of Sesame Oil
  • Pickled Cucumber
What You Do
  1. Combine miso, mirin, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and mustard. Be careful with the soy sauce, you’re looking for a balanced mixture.
  2. Dry the cod and leave to marinate in the mixture for 30 minutes.
  3. Transfer the cod without excess marinade and fry in a warm pan until done.
    • The fish should be opaque and flaky. Its internal temperature 60 – 63 °C or 140 – 145 °F
    • The sugars in the marinade burn easily, so the pan shouldn’t be too warm.
  4. Serve on a warm plate with the pickles.
Variations

You can also prepare this dish with haddock (although it’s perhaps too delicate), ling or pollack.
If you want a spicier marinade, then add grated fresh ginger. Crushed cilantro seeds will add more depth to the taste.

Cod with Miso ©cadwu
Cod with Miso ©cadwu

Simple Apple Pie

27 March 2025

There is so much fun and creativity in baking! Just think about the aromas in your kitchen when you bake an apple pie, the positive vibes when you transfer it to a plate, the joy when sharing and eating it.
Baking can also be challenging, just think about techniques as tempering chocolate, but this apple pie is really simple. No spectacular ingredients and no complex skills required. Serve it with a cup of tea or coffee or as a dessert, perhaps with vanilla ice cream.

What You Need

The quantities depend on the size of your baking tin.

  • (tart) Apples
  • Cinnamon
  • Butter
  • Sugar
  • Puff Pastry
What You Do
  1. Place butter in a pan and melt
  2. Peel, core and chop apples.
  3. Add apples, cinnamon and sugar to the pan
  4. Cook for 20 – 30 minutes, stirring from time to time
  5. The compote should not be runny, perhaps you need to reduce
  6. Allow for the compote to cool (room temperature is fine)
  7. Preheat oven to 200 °C or 390 °F
  8. Line a baking tin with puff pastry.
  9. Use a fork to poke holes in the pastry
  10. Peel, core and slice apples
  11. Add compote to the baking tin, covering the bottom
  12. Add the sliced apples 
  13. Bake until golden
PS

Best is to use apples such as gala, granny smith, jonagold or braeburn. It may take a bit longer to make a compote with these apples, but they remain nice and firm when baking the pie.
Don’t use vanilla as ingredient of the compote. We feel it deteriorates the flavour of the apple. Cinnamon and sugar will be perfect.
If buying readymade (frozen) puff pastry, make sure it’s made with flour, butter, water and salt only.

Apple Pie ©cadwu
Apple Pie ©cadwu