Tag: recipes

Oca

22 February 2024

There are so many interesting vegetables and fruits. We’re always keen to try something new, so last year when we found mashua we simply had to try it. And how about sand carrots?
This week we spotted oca at our bio-supermarket. Small red tubers from Peru. Hopefully not imported, but we bought them anyway.
Oca (Oxalis tuberosa, known as yams in New Zealand) originates from the Andes. It is grown in the highlands of several countries (Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina). Oca’s are also cultivated in various other countries, including the UK, Mexico, New Zealand and France.
Oca is a member of the family of wood sorrels and the plant has clover-like leaves. The leaves and the stems are also edible. Nutrient wise oca tubers and potatoes are very similar. The oca tubers contain a high amount of vitamin C, calcium and iron. Oca tubers can be acidic, thanks to the presence of oxalic acid. The tubers have a lovely soft, red colour. 

Oca tubers can be eaten raw, boiled and baked. We tasted a few slices of raw oca, only to find the texture not great and the taste a bit tangy, radish like. We decided to bake them in olive oil. The result was a pleasant surprise and some of the colour is still visible. The tubers tasted like a really, really good potatoes: soft and nutty.

What You Need
  • 250 grams of Oca
  • Olive Oil
  • Black Pepper
What You Do

Preheat your oven to 180 °C or 355 °F. Wash the oca’s. Don’t be tempted to peel them because the peel is very tasty. Remove small bits of dirt with a sharp knife. Wash again and dry. Add olive oil to a baking dish, add the tubers and make sure they are nicely coated. Transfer to the oven and fry for 15-25 minutes, depending on the size. Allow to cool for a few minutes before adding black pepper.

Oca (fried) ©cadwu
Oca (plant) ©Dick Culbert via commons.wikimedia
Oca (raw) ©cadwu

Flammkuchen

15 February 2024

We continue our series of very simple, tasty dishes by preparing Flammkuchen (Tarte Flambée in France, Feuerfleck in Austria). The dish originates from the Alsace. The first part of the name refers to fire and flames. The story is that bakers baked bread in wood fired ovens. The oven would initially become too hot, and the bakers had to wait for the oven to cool and reach the right temperature. The Flammkuchen would be the indicator. If it was ready within two minutes or so, then the temperature was right. If it would burn, the oven was too hot, but nothing was wasted. 

The dough of Flammkuchen is extremely simple, but also a bit puzzling. In all cases it’s flour, salt, olive oil and water. Some suggest adding egg yolks, others yeast. Adding yeast makes it into a bread dough. Doesn’t it seem obvious that the bakers would use the already prepared dough? Adding egg yolks seems odd too us. Why make a more expensive dough for a product that was to be used as an indicator only?

Back to yeast or no yeast. Which brings us to the question: isn’t Flammkuchen a kind of pizza? They do look very similar, and both are baked in a hot oven, but there are differences. Traditionally Flammkuchen are covered with crème fraîche, lardons and thinly sliced onions. The Flammkuchen should be very thin and very crispy. We think the bakers didn’t use their bread dough but made a quick, simple dough with the sole aim to test the temperature of the oven. Perhaps only water and flour?

Another difference is that Flammkuchen were not on the menu of restaurants until the 1960’s. Probably you would buy them at the local bakery or make them at home. Thanks to the global popularity of pizza, Flammkuchen have gained some visibility.

Drink Pairing

Flammkuchen are tasty, crispy, flavourful and not complex. Enjoy with a glass of white wine, with a beer, or your favourite drink.

What You Need
  • For the Dough
    • 250 grams of Flour
    • 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
    • 125 ml Water
    • Pinch of Salt
  • Crème Fraîche
  • Black Pepper
  • Mushrooms (we used Trompettes de la Mort)
  • Red Onion
What You Do
  1. Pass the flour through a sieve
  2. Add a pinch of salt and mix
  3. Add water and olive oil and quickly turn the mixture into a dough using your hands
  4. Don’t kneed too long
  5. Leave on room temperature for an hour
  6. Pre-heat your oven to 220 °C or 430 °F
  7. Roll out until very thin, 2 millimetre is perfect.
  8. Add black pepper to the crème fraîche and mix
  9. Place the dough on baking or parchment paper in a baking tray, cover with a layer of crème fraîche, add mushrooms and sliced onion
  10. Bake for 10-12 minutes or so and serve immediately.

Baking Flammkuchen on a higher temperature is preferred, but then you can’t use baking or parchment paper. Best is to use a pizza stone. The baking time will be 3 to 5 minutes on 300 °C or 570 °F.

Flammkuchen ©cadwu
Flammkuchen ©cadwu

Claudia Roden – The Book of Jewish Food, part 2

9 February 2024

As contributor to the cookbook review project by Bernadette we reviewed The book of Jewish Food, An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day. The book combines more than 800 recipes with the stories and histories that have shaped Jewish cooking over the centuries. The book showcases the diversity of Jewish food. It’s about (Jewish) culture, about how food is part of our shared culture, how we are all connected and how food can help us understand history.

We prepared Joodse Boterkoek and Aliyah, a dish that combines chicken, tomato, tamarind, basil and cilantro. We served it with polenta. Both are delicious!

We also very much liked Fish Balls in Tomato Sauce as prepared by John Rieber. The fish balls are a combination of white fish with ginger and nutmeg. The dish originates from Egypt and Morocco. It will perhaps make you think of Gefilte Fish, a traditional appetizer. The recipe is not complex and the result as prepared by John looks great. One we will be making soon!

Jo Tracey prepared a Goulash Soup with beef, sweet paprika and a touch of chilli. She writes: “I first bought the digital version of this book a few years ago but I never got around to reading it or cooking from it until now. And what a treat it’s been.” The soup is rich and one we would cook on a wintery day.

Robbie Cheadle baked a Honey Cake, made with honey, brandy, coffee, cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, almonds and sultanas. Sounds wonderful! According to Robbie: “This cake is delicious, and we all enjoyed it. The orange zest, coffee, and honey create a lovely symphony of flavors.”

Bernadette herself chose a recipe from the Ashkenazi section of the book – Holishes or Stuffed Cabbage Leaves; a dish that appeared frequently in her childhood home. The leaves are stuffed with a combination of beef, rice and onion. The sauce is made with tomatoes, lemon, ginger, apple, raisins and honey. Not the most obvious combination! The result looked absolutely yummy.

The book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden is available via your local bookstore or the usual channels for approximately 50 US$ or 40 euro. Highly recommended!

Claudia Roden - The Book of Jewish Food
Boterkoek in Pan ©cadwu
Slice of Boterkoek ©cadwu
Aliyah ©cadwu

Deviled Eggs with Chervil and Crayfish

1 February 2024

Deviled (or stuffed) eggs are a traditional appetizer or hors-d’œuvre, easy, tasty and always welcome. Simply cook the eggs, halve them, scoop out the yolk and mix with butter, cream or mayonnaise and add for instance mustard, or curry powder, or pickles or, well, actually, most combinations work.

The idea of deviled or stuffed egg goes back many years. See for instance this recipe from Carolus Battus (published in 1593). Or try this recipe for uova ripiene from Pellegrino Artusi (1891): boil, peel and halve the eggs. Use one anchovy per two eggs. Use a fork to combine anchovy, egg yolk, a little parsley, very little onion and butter to make a smooth paste. Stuff the eggs with the paste and cover with mayonnaise.

Artusi also described a second recipe: stuff the eggs with a mixture of egg yolk, bread (soaked in milk) and mushrooms (soaked in lukewarm water). Stuff the eggs. Arrange the eggs in an oven dish, cover with potato puree and serve warm. We could imagine topping with grated cheese and turn it into Deviled Eggs Au Gratin.

We combine the eggs with mayonnaise, mustard, chervil and crayfish. Chervil is a delicate herb. It brings a hint of liquorice or anise to food, for instance to omelettes, salads or in this case the egg mixture and the cray fish. Decorating with chervil is not only nice; it also makes the chervil more present.

Drink Pairing

Deviled eggs are flexible when it comes to drink pairing. Simply enjoy with your favourite drink!

What You Need
  • 6 Organic Eggs
  • Dijon Mustard
  • Mayonnaise
  • Chervil
  • Cray Fish
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Boil or steam the eggs, peel and halve
  2. Scoop out the egg yolk
  3. Finely chop the chervil
  4. Combine the egg yolks with a teaspoon or two of mustard (after all, they are called deviled egg), two or three teaspoons of mayonnaise, some black pepper and a generous amount of chervil
  5. Mix with a fork
  6. Taste and adjust
  7. Stuff the eggs and decorate with grayfish and chervil
  8. Keeps well in the refrigerator for a few hours if covered with cling foil
  9. Just before serving, decorate the eggs with chervil leaves
Deviled Eggs with Chervil and Crayfish ©cadwu
Deviled Eggs with Chervil and Crayfish ©cadwu

Curly Kale with Confit de Canard

25 January 2024

Recently we wrote about kale-sprouts, the purple combination of Kale and Brussels sprouts. When working on the post we noticed that we actually never wrote about Curly Kale. This typical winter vegetable (also known as Boerenkool, Grünkohl or Chou Frisé) is not known for its culinary capability, although Cavolo Nero (which is a variety of Kale) has become fairly popular over the last years. Dishes like Ribollita, Minestrone or Cavolo Nero prepared with orecchiette and anchovies sound tempting.
Curly Kale is sometimes described as a super food because it contains lots of vitamines and it’s supposed to be good for your eye-sight. Reality is that it’s not simple to turn Curly Kale into something tasty. In 2015 Felicity Cloake (who writes for the Guardian) explains how to make kale crisps. She compares recipes from various authors and decides to make the perfect crisps from…. Cavolo Nero!
Curly Kale itself is typical comfort food. Served with potatoes, bacon and sausages; to be enjoyed with a glass of beer or a glass of Pinot Blanc.
Best is to eat Curly Kale after a wintery period. As soon as the temperature drops below zero, the plant will start breaking down the starch in the leaves into simple sugars. These sugars prevent the plant from freezing and the taste becomes sweeter and less bitter. A process that happens in carrots, turnips, beetroot, kale and Brussels sprouts but not in potatoes.

The traditional Dutch way of cooking Curly Kale is to add the sliced leaves with the potatoes to a pan of salted water, cook until done, drain, then mash with butter, warm milk, nutmeg, and black pepper. It is served with slices of smoked sausage. Hearty, filling and serieously heavy on your stomach.
We prefer a more modern version, highlighting the flavour and the texture of the Curly Kale.

What You Need
  • 400 grams of Fresh Curly Kale leaves
  • 1 small Potato
  • 1 Shallot
  • 1 Garlic Clove
  • Butter
  • Nutmeg
  • Black pepper
  • Confit de Canard
What You Do

Set your oven to 180 °C or 355 °F. Reheat and fry the confit de canard. Chop the shallot, finely chop the garlic, peel the potato and dice, strip the curly kale from its stems and slice the leaves. Add a generous amount of butter to the pan, gently fry the shallot for a few minutes, then add the garlic. After one minute or so add the sliced kale and allow to simmer. Add the diced potato, combine and leave to simmer for a few minutes. Add some water to the pan. Cook for 15-20 minutes until the potato is ready. Best is if the water has evaporated by this time. In the meantime, the duck should be ready. Poor the duck fat in the pan, mash very briefly (you want to keep the structure of the potatoes), add nutmeg and black pepper. The mash should be about the kale, with the onions, garlic and potato supporting it. Serve immediately on a warm plate.

Curly Kale ©rasbak
Curly Kale with Confit de Canard ©cadwu

Chicken with Fennel and Sage

18 January 2024

We start 2024 with a series of simple and tasty recipes. It’s such fun to prepare delicious food with only a handful of ingredients. James Tanner is author of Takes 5: Delicious Dishes Using Just 5 Ingredients with over 90 recipes, ranging from Roasted Red Bell Peppers with Anchovies to Scones. Short shopping lists, easy recipes and tasty results: what more can you ask for!

This dish combines fennel with chicken, pancetta and sage. The mild anise flavour of the fennel works very well with the pancetta. The aromatic, slightly bitter flavour of sage is great with the chicken. And believe it or not, after having simmered in butter for some 15 minutes the dish comes together. Rich, fresh and uplifting.

Wine Pairing

A light to medium bodied red wine will be great with the dish. Unoaked, fruity, not too complex: a wine made with Pinot Noir, Tempranillo or perhaps a red wine from the Beaujolais.

What You Need
  • Organic Chicken Thighs (boneless)
  • Small Fennel
  • 6 Leaves of Sage
  • Pancetta
  • Butter
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Halve the thighs and fry in butter
  2. In the meantime dice the fennel
  3. When the chicken is nicely coloured, add the fennel
  4. Combine, wait for a few minutes
  5. Dice the pancetta
  6. Devein and chop the sage
  7. Add pancetta and sage to the pan and allow to simmer on low heat for some 15 minutes
  8. Add black pepper just before serving
  9. You could decorate with some fennel leaves.

PS

Takes 5: Delicious Dishes Using Just 5 Ingredients was published in 2010 and is available (probably second hand) via the well-known channels for something like 20 US dollar or Euro.

Your Favourites in 2023

4 January 2024

Happy New Year! Let’s begin the new year with the 2023 highlights. Your favorite post was No-Knead Bread, We have been baking our own bread for several years, based on the method of no-knead bread (see Jim Lahey’s book My Bread for more detail) and using the ingredients (Blue Poppy Seeds, Linseed) of the French Talmière. The result is delicious!

Another very popular post is the one showing you how to make Kimizu. This is a classic, golden sauce from Japan, made with Egg Yolks, Rice Vinegar, Water and Mirin. We also have a version with Tarragon, let’s say the Béarnaise version of Kimizu. The recipes for Kimizu and Kimizu with Tarragon continue to be very popular. Although this is a classic sauce, we use a microwave to prepare it. An easy and very effective way of managing temperature and consistency.

We love mushrooms. Cultivated ones, like Shiitake, Oyster Mushrooms, Enoki and Champignons de Paris and seasonal ones, such as Morels, St. George’s mushroom, and Caesar’s Mushroom. One of the most popular posts is about Cèpes à la Bordelaise. You can also use more available mushrooms for this great combination. Always a pleasure to serve, with eggs, with meat, with more present fish.
Last year we had lots of Bay Boletes, which was such a pleasure. It’s a fairly common mushroom, as tasty as Cèpes, but much more affordable.

And finally The Queen’s Soup. We didn’t expect too much of this post, but the soup turns out to be very popular.

We were of course very pleased and honored to receive an award for our Pear and Almond pie in the Great Bloggers’ Bake Off.

Let’s start cooking!

Your Favourites in 2023 ©cadwu
Your Favourites in 2023 ©cadwu

The Art of Sauces: Ravigote

28 December 2023

A classic, French sauce, traditionally served with Tête de Veau, but in general great with cold meat and cold, poached fish. A very simple, easy to make sauce with just the right acidity to brighten up your cold starter. The warm version is made with a broth, the cold one with oil, vinegar and mustard, as you would prepare a vinaigrette.
No eggs?
Indeed, no eggs. If you look at the list of ingredients, you could think of Remoulade or Tartare Sauce (both mayonnaise based) or Gribiche (made with hard boiled eggs). Ravigote is different, it’s light and uplifting. Just give it a try next time you serve cold meat or fish as a starter. Forget about the mayonnaise and enjoy this delicious, flavourful sauce.
We served our Ravigote with Pâté de Tête Persillé and crusted bread.

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed a glass of white Pontificis, made with Viognier and Chardonnay grapes by Badet- Clément. This is an oaked dry wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon region in France. It is elegant, with some oak, clear acidity and some bitterness. Creamy, with some vanilla, butter and perhaps tropical fruit. In general you’re looking for a white wine with clear acidity, oak and balance.

What You Need

  • Coarse Mustard (Moutarde à l’Ancienne) 
  • White Wine Vinegar
  • Oil (Sunflower, Avocado)
  • 3 Cornichons
  • 8 Capers
  • 1 Shallot
  • Parsley
  • Tarragon
  • Chervil
  • Black Pepper

What You Do

  1. Finely chop the shallot, slice the cornichons, halve the capers
  2. Chop the herbs
  3. Combine a spoonful of mustard with the same amount of vinegar
  4. Slowly add the oil until you have the right consistency and flavour
  5. Add more vinegar to get the right acidity
  6. Happy? Add shallot, cornichons and capers
  7. Mix
  8. Add a generous amount of parsley, tarragon and chervil
  9. Finish the sauce with black pepper.

PS

The amount of tarragon depends on the type of tarragon and your personal preference. There are actually three types: French tarragon (intense and aromatic, the one to use in the kitchen), Russian tarragon (limited flavour, no complexity) and Mexican (a touch of anise, but not even close to French tarragon). 

Sauce Ravigote ©cadwu

Pork with Enoki

21 December 2023

It’s nearly the end of the mushroom season in Europe. It’s hard to find chanterelle (girolle), and nearly impossible to buy fresh cèpes. The black winter truffle (Tuber melanosporum) is an exception. It’s available until March, but the price may be prohibitive. Better to focus on cultivated mushrooms, such as enoki, available at your local Asian supermarket. A delicious mushroom with a pleasant texture and aroma. Its flavour is mild, a bit sweet and fruity. You can use it raw in a salad, in a soup or combine it with soba noodles. A few weeks ago, we wrote about an omelette with enoki and a light soy sauce. The result is a lovely sweet, rich and intriguing dish.
Combining enoki with pork is also a great idea. Feel free to adjust the recipe and make the sauce spicier or sweeter or thicker. The result will be tasty given all three elements in the dish bring some kind of sweetness.

Wine Pairing

You could emphasize the Asian influence by serving a glass of Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chenin Blanc or perhaps Soave. In general you’re looking for a light or medium bodied, unoaked, dry white wine with nice acidity. Benefits are minerality and florality. A glass of Côtes de Provence rosé will also be a good choice.
If you want to focus on the flavours of the pork, we suggest a glass of Beaujolais or a glass of wine made with Grenache (France) or Garnacha (Spain) grapes.

What You Need

  • Organic Pork Tenderloin
  • 100 grams of (Golden) Enoki
  • Soy Sauce
  • Light Soy Sauce (we used Tentsuyu)
  • Stock
  • Oyster Sauce
  • Black Bean Sauce (optional)
  • Red Chili Paste (optional)
  • Olive Oil

What You Do

Fry the pork in olive oil until pink. Turn on a regular basis. Remove the stem (bottom) of the enoki. Fry in olive oil for maximum one minute. Add some (vegetable stock), soy sauce, oyster sauce, black bean sauce and red chili paste and create a not overly sweet, intense sauce. We like some spiciness, hence the chili paste. Serve the meat on top of the enoki mixture.

Kalette – Kale Sprouts

14 December 2023

Saturday morning, when chatting to our greengrocer, we noticed purple, small vegetables. Some looked like mini Brussels Sprouts, others more like mini Kale. Let’s give it a try, so we bought 150 grams of Kale Sprouts, also known as Kalettes, Lollipops or Flower Sprouts.
When eaten raw they taste like Brussels Sprouts and we could imagine using the smaller ones in a salad. Many recipes suggest cooking the Kale Sprouts but why would you? They are very small so stir frying them is a much better option because then you’ll have all the flavours. When fried their taste is very similar to the taste of kale or in general cabbage. We could imagine using them in Cabbage Stew. We decided to be a bit more adventurous and combine the Kale Sprouts with Gurnard.

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed our Kale Sprouts with a glass of Austrian Grüner Veltiner, produced by Markowitsch. It’s a full bodied, elegant white wine with aromas of apples and a touch of spiciness. One that was great with the more intense flavours of the Kale Sprouts and the gurnard.

What You Need

  • 150 grams of Kale Sprouts
  • 25 grams of Pancetta
  • Olive Oil
  • Black Pepper

What You Do

Wash the sprouts carefully. Dry. Trim the ends, if necessary. Halve the ones that look like mini kale. Heat a pan (a wok will be great), add olive oil, add the diced pancetta, leave for one minute and then add the sprouts. Fry for 5 minutes, taste and decide to serve or fry a bit longer. Add some fresh black pepper.

Kalette - Kale Sprouts fried ©cadwu
Kalette - Kale Sprouts raw ©cadwu
Grüner Veltliner