Vol-au-vent with chips, all homemade!

This is a classic dish. Very few restaurants don't serve this and I don't know anyone who doesn't like the taste.

When we were a lot smaller and I didn't cook yet, we never had this homemade. we always bought it in the shop, in these vacuum-sealed packages out of the freezer. The substance was thick and jelly-like. We liked it just because we didn't know anything else. 
It was only about 8 years ago, when I first took the challenge to prepare it all by myself, that I wondered why we never did that before ... 
Since that day, I always prepared it and I haven't heard any complaint. Haha!

This is a little more elaborate, but when you're having vacation, you don't really mind about having a little more to do in the kitchen. Besides, my sister has to be spoiled as she has to get through resits this month. 

Ingredients for 4:
- 4-6 chicken drumsticks
- 400 grams minced chicken
- 1 egg
- breadcrumbs
- pepper and salt to taste
- 2 litres of water
- carrots, leek, celery for the stock 
- bouquet garni (bay leaves/thyme/rosemary)
- spoonful of pepper corns
- 250 grams mushrooms, sliced (optional)
- butter
- flour
- 100 ml milk
- parsley for serving

Along with chips (homemade) and puff pastry cups.

How to:
Cut the carrots, leeks and celery in large chunks. Add them to the water, the bouquet garni and the pepper corns. Put on the fire. Once the water has come to a boil, put the chicken in. Let it all simmer on medium heat for at least 45 minutes or until the meat comes easily off the bones.

Take the chicken out but don't pour away the stock, you'll be needing it later on. When they've cooled down enough, you can tear off the meat (throw away the bones, but I tend to make our dog really happy with the skins of the chicken when making this!).

Mix the egg, salt, pepper and enough breadcrumbs to get an easy to handle mixture, to the minced chicken. Make small balls with this. The smaller they are, the longer it takes to roll them, but the result will be tastier looking.

Boil the meatballs in the chicken stock. Once they come to float, they're ready. Take them out of the stock and keep aside.

Now make the sauce: Melt a spoonful of butter in another pot and add the same amount of flour to it. Stir continuously as this mixture easily sticks. Now pour in the milk. keep stirring quickly, béchamel sauce binds very quickly!

Pour in a ladle of the chicken stock (only the liquid, no chunks) in the pot. Stir again. When the sauce begins to thicken, add some more stock. You should have about half to 3/4 of a litre of sauce in the end (approximately, no scientifically proven measurement!).

Now you can spice up the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

You can add the sliced mushrooms, the meatballs and chicken meat also. Stir carefully and set aside. This is much better prepared a few hours in advance, the taste gets much better.

What with the left over stock? Don't throw it away yet! It's really good for soup. I made tomato soup with it for example:

To serve, you bake off the puff pastry cups and fill them with the sauce. Decorate with a little cut up parsley.

Make homemade chips and a salad, and you're ready to dig in!

Smakelijk!

How to prepare chicken as if it were ossobuco ...

I'm going to babysit this afternoon. The whole afternoon, so no time to cook tonight. As my parents both have to work and my sister has to study for her exams, I decided to make something I could do in advance. A kind of stew or something alike.

I've always looked at recipes for ossobuco, liking them but never tried or tasted them. When I went for the weekly shoppings, I thought of taking ossocuco home. But as luck isn't very reliable, the shop didn't sell ossobuco (neither the veal nor the turkey kind).
I took home chicken insead. I reconed that if there is turkey ossobuco, chicken pieces - parts of another kind of bird - should do the same trick.

For the rest, I just follow the same steps as if preparing the real thing.

Ingredients for 4:
- 4 large or 8 smaller chicken pieces (with bone)
- a few sticks of celery
- a few carrots
- large onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 200 ml white wine
- 1 can (400 grams) peeled tomatoes
- 1 small tin of tomato purée
- a little flour
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 bay leaves
- teaspoon of thyme
- olive oil
- 350 grams of tagliatelle
- zest of 1 lemon
- handful of parsley
- 1 clove of garlic

How to:
Cover the chicken in a thin layer of flour.
Heat the oil in a pot (large enough to place each piece of meat next to eachother) and fry the chicken so that it browns on each side. Spice things up with pepper and salt. Take the chicken out of the pot and add all of the diced carrots and celery and the chopped onion and garlic. 

Once they have sweated a little, put the chicken pieces on top of it all. Add the wine, the tomatoes, tomato purée and the herbs. 
Lower the heat and let all of it simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

Before serving, taste whether it needs more pepper or salt.

I made the whole thing in advance. By doing it the night before, I didn't have to hurry to the kitchen in the morning before leaving for the babysitting, and the tastes would be able to combine more beautifully!

To serve, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package.
On the plate, put some of the pasta, a piece of chicken, the sauce and sprinkle it all with a mixture of the crushed garlic, the lemon zest and the chopped parsley. These last things form the so called 'gremolata'.

Appetitoso!

Teriyaki chicken legs and vegetable stir fry

What to eat? What to eat?
When Summer comes and temperatures rise to nearly 30°C, the great hunger people have during the cold Winter times seems to disappear. A great no go for the hearty Belgian dishes with lots of pork, beef and potatoes floating in heavy sauces.

For me Summer means you have to look at more exotic kitchens to get your inspiration. People there always have these kind of temperatures, so their food fits the season, I recon.

As I still had an unopened bottle of teriyaki sauce and chicken legs, the choice was evident: teriyaki chicken. To be served with lots of fresh vegetables and ...

Something new for me: rice noodles (mihoen). I saw it in the supermarket, on my search for a side dish to my teriyaki chicken legs and stir fry vegetables. 

Ingredients for 4:
- 4 large chicken legs
- teriyaki sauce

- neutral oil 

- ground ginger

- pepper/chilli

- 400 grams mixed vegetables like carrots,  leeks, soy sprouts, ...

- 250 grams rice noodles

- soy sauce

- chicken stock 

How to:

Rub the chicken legs with the teriyaki sauce, some ground ginger and some oil. Put them on an oven tray and let them stand for about 3 hours in a 150°C oven. They will brown evenly if you turn them around 3-4 times during cooking. If they're becoming too dry, rub them in with the juices in the tray or with a little extra oil.

Put some oil in a frying pan and fry the vegetables you have cut in matchstick-size pieces shortly. Add some soy sauce and ginger to taste. Be careful with soy sauce as it may be too salty in the end (I used reduced salt soy sauce).
Prepare the noodles as mentioned on the package. Use the chicken stock for extra taste.

Drain the noodles and add them to the vegetables. Stir quickly so that the tastes combine (I didn't do that - forgot! - and the noodles were kind of bland. But if you forget too, just turn all things round on your own plate: more messy but alike). 

Chicken enchiladas with guacamole

After a long period of 'boerenkost' (my dad's favourite food: daily meat, vegetables and potatoes, can be translated as 'farmers' food') I felt it was time for something else. 
I'm a fan of all sorts of kitchens, especially spicy kitchens. Mexican is one of them. I love the use of cilantro, and the Mexican kitchen is full of it.

Today it's chicken enchiladas I'll make. It's my own adaptation of the dish so please don't blame me for messing with the recipe!

Ingredients for enchiladas (4):
- 4 large or 8 small tortillas
- 4 chicken fillets
- olive oil
- chicken herbs
- pepper and salt to taste
- chilli flakes or harissa to taste
- 2 cans of peeled tomatoes
- 2 large sweet red bell peppers
- 1/2 teaspoon of oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 250 grams grated cheddar
- hot chilli powder
- fresh cilantro for serving

How to:
Bring the peeled tomatoes, the chopped garlic, the chopped peppers and the herbs to a boil in a large pot. Let it all simmer for at least half an hour or until the flavours have combined and the peppers have become soft. Blend the sauce a little so that the largest chunks are gone.
Cut the chicken into small cubes and rub them in with some of the chicken herbs.
Heat a skillet and fry the chicken in some olive oil.
Now take a tortilla, dip one side of it in the sauce, fill it up with some of the chicken, another little bit of sauce,  a bit of the grated cheddar and - if you like it hot - some hot chilli powder.
Roll the tortilla up so that you get a large roll. Place it in a greased oven tray and cover the wrap with sauce and some cheddar.
You do this for each of the tortillas, until all ingredients are finished.
Put in a 200°C oven for about 45 minutes.
Before serving, sprinkle with some fresh cilantro for colour and extra taste.

Ingredients for guacamole (4):
- 2 avocados
- juice of 1 lime
- pepper and salt to taste
- 2 large tomatoes, peeled and deseeded
- 1 small onion
- handful of fresh cilantro
- tabasco (if you like it hot)

How to:
Cut the avocados in half. Take the stone out by putting a knife in the middle of it and pulling the knife with the stone on it out. Don't throw away the stones!
Use a spoon to take all the flesh out of the avocados. 
Mash the avocado with a fork.
Cut the garlic, tomatoes and the onion in very small pieces. Add them to the avocado.
Spice things up with lime juice, salt, pepper, tabasco and cilantro.
Put the stones of the avocados back in so that the nice green colour stays.

Sublime!

Egg plants have returned

We haven't used egg plants for ages, here at home. The reason is simple: it's not a much liked vegetable by the majority of my house mates (my dad and my sister because of the taste, my mum by lack of ideas what to do with them). 
But ... I saw them lying in the supermarket, next to the zuchini's and the tomatoes, and I got the feeling I should do something with them.


My first idea was to make a tajine, named after the Moroccan dish prepared in the beautiful terracotta pots. So I took out the tajine from the cupboard and dusted it off. It became evident why it wasn't used before when I started cooking in it: the house smelled of burned oil because of a large tear in the tajine's bottom!


My beloved egg plant and the other vegetables already frying in it were immediately rescued into the safety of another pot. There they cooked further. My idea of making tajine  wasn't a success, but the result is quite alright :)


Ingredients for 4:
- 8 pieces of chicken
- 400 grams canned and peeled tomatoes
- 1 egg plant
- 1 red pepper (sweet)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- chilli flakes
- black pepper and salt to taste
- olive oil
- shoarma spices to taste
- teaspoon of cumin powder
- half a can (small) of tomato paste
- 1 star anise
- 200 grams cousous (semolina)
- fresh parsley for serving


How to:
Cube the egg plant and cover with some salt. Let stand for about half an hour until the saps come out. Rinse the cubes and dry them.
Heat the pot and pour in some oil for frying.
Add the diced pepper and the egg plant to the pot. Also add the whole cloves of garlic.

Once they're covered with a little oil and have fried a while, pour in the canned tomatoes. Cover with the lid and let simmer on medium heat for about half an hour.
Now put the chicken on top of the vegetables. Season the dish with star anise, cumin, shoarma spices and chilli flakes. Also put in the tomato paste.

Put the lid back on and let simmer another hour, turning around the chicken from time to time. 
Taste and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve with the couscous (semolina) and some fresh parsley.


Enjoy!

Pasta with chicken livers and pepper sauce

It's been a very busy week. I've been monitoring a children's camp the past five days. The theme of the week was 'animals', and I was in charge of twelve 6 to 8 year olds, which were adorable. We had a falconer visiting us, who showed us falcons, owls, buzzards, an eagle and a vulture. The children and I were delighted, but who wouldn't be?


The coming week will be camp again, this time in the theme 'cupcakes'. This title is not covering all we will be doing. We'll be doing all sorts of baking activities such as preparing cupcakes (of course, hence the title), making quiche, cake pops, biscuits and whoopie pies.  Lots to look forward to!


Today is the first day I can cook again after all this busyness. It'll be pasta with a sauce of peppers and cilantro and chicken livers. Liver isn't everyone's favourite, but I can assure you it's very good. You have to try it!

Ingredients for 4:
- 450 grams chicken livers
- 300 grams pasta
- olive oil
- 2 peppers (red and yellow)
- 400 grams peeled tomatoes (canned)
- 1 small can of tomato paste
- crushed chillies (flakes)
- powdered ginger
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
- fresh cilantro
- pepper and salt to taste
- 100 grams grated cheese


How to:
Make the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a pot and add the garlic which you've cut into small pieces and the peppers, diced. Once they've fried for a while (make sure to stir a lot), you can add the tomatoes and the tomato paste. Let it cook for a few minutes on high heat.
Season with salt, pepper, a little cilantro and the chilli flakes. Lower the heat and let it all simmer for about an hour.
In the mean time, you can cut the chicken livers into smaller, bite-size pieces.

Heat some olive oil in a non-stick skillet on the fire and fry the pieces of liver in it. Once they're done (you can check by cutting a piece in half), powder some ginger on top of the chicken livers.

Add the chicken livers to the sauce and let them simmer along for a while, so that the sauce can take up the flavours.

Cook the pasta until tender. Mix the cooked pasta with the sauce and the chicken livers, season to taste and serve with some grated cheese.

Have a nice meal!

Pollo con le olive thanks to a loving grandmother

We were going to have friends over for a barbecue today. Were because I just received the message from my mum that the people we invited postponed their visit. 
A pity, because it's just marvelous weather: finally the sun broke through the clouds and we actually get temperatures higher than 20°C all day!


But in life you don't have time to regret for long: it'll be pollo con le olive instead. A dish originally from Siena, Italy.

The inspiration comes out of an old cook book I got from my grandmother just yesterday.
My sister and I felt like making a bicycle tour, and we could visit our grandparents in the meanwhile. It's been a long time since we've been there because of school, exams, ...
They were very happy to see us. 
My grandfather began talking about the TV he has in his room - the TV that was formerly ours, by the way ^^ - and how it could be put on and off, how to change the channels, et cetera. We felt that he liked us being with him, even though he didn't have much to say himself. 
My grandmother made us tea and put a whole table full of biscuits and chocolates, in case we were starving. I just love her!


When we were just about to leave, they both insisted we took a look at some things they  liked us to have. I was shown a whole stack of cook books (my grandmother knows I love cooking. I learned to love it because of her, so it's a common interest). My sister had to look at a rather nineties-looking raincoat, which she had trouble with declining.
My eyes immediately fell on this Italian cook book which mentioned classic dishes. taking it with me wouldn't harm and the fact that I chose it made my grandmother happy too. 

Ingredients for 4:
- 1 whole chicken of about 1,5 kg
- 5 fresh sage leaves
- 150 grams black olives
- extra black olives for serving
- olive oil
- 5 cloves of garlic
- pepper and salt to taste
- 800 grams peeled tomatoes
- French loaf or rice for serving


How to:
Cut the chicken in several pieces (the legs, the wings, the breast pieces). Sprinkle them with pepper and salt. Wash the sage leaves and dry them with a towel. Cut the sage leaves and the garlic in very small pieces.
Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the sage and garlic.

Then add the chicken pieces. When they have browned on all sides, pour in some of the wine.
Now put the tomatoes in too. When the tomatoes have cooked along for a while, you can pour in the rest of the wine. Cover the skillet with a lid and let it all simmer for at least 15 minutes on low heat. That's what the recipe says, but I doubted the chicken would be ready in only half an hour. I put it on the fire for about 1 and a half hour. In that way the sauce will be much more tasty, I reconed. 
I guess my skillet was slightly too small for the chicken in it, quite messy looking! 

Cut the olives in half and remove the stones. Stir them under the sauce of the chicken. Simmer with the lid on for again 15 minutes at least. My cutting in half of the olives wasn't very successful: the stones were unremovable unless I cut round them ;)

Serve with the French loaf or rice and some left over olives.


It was delicious. It was the very first time I used sage in something I prepared, and it made it really good! 


Buon appetito!

Trying my new oven ramequins: chicken and vegetable pot pies

I was in Antwerp last week with my mum and one of her best friends. We visited the fashion museum there, the MoMu: www.momu.be. There was an exhibition of women's clothing in the period 1750-1950 (Een leven in mode from the collection of Jacoba de Jonge). It was amazingly beautiful to see all these dresses. I was dreaming of myself wearing one of those, even though they must have felt like a prison in disguise with the corsage and hoop skirt.  

The museum, and this exhibition especially is worth visiting!

After enjoying the good weather on the Vrijdagsmarkt, with a delicious sandwich at Cafe Camino ( http://www.facebook.com/antwerpencafecamino), we went for a stroll through the city center.

We came across the Dille en Kamille shop, and as we all love the shop, we went in. Of course we didn't come out empty handed! I found 4 ramequins that I wanted for ages to make individual pies for everyone at home.

Their first use was for making chicken pot pies. I'd seen so many recipes, but I made my own version of it. I added rosemary and vegetables for more taste.

Ingredients for 4 ramequins:

- 1 full chicken breast (400 grams), in very small pieces

- 1 small zuchini, in very small pieces

- 1 large carrot, in very small pieces

- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- butter or oil for frying

- pepper and salt to taste

- 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary

- spoonful of chicken spices

- 1 tabelspoon of flour

- 2 dl cream

- 1 roll of pastry 

- 1 egg yolk

How to:

Heat the butter or oil in a skillet and fry the carrot, zuchini, and chicken pieces. Season them with the herbs (rosemary and chicken spices) and the salt and pepper. 

Make sure the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are softened.

Then spread the flour on top of them. Quickly turn it around so that all of the ingredients have been covered. Then pour the cream. Stir thoroughly.
Then spoon the filling you've prepared into the buttered ramequins. 

Cover the filling with the pastry and use the yolk for a nice golden shine on top while baking. As you can see, I decorated each pie with our own initial (M, N, J & I). Unfortunately, there was no one who noticed it when I served them, so it was all work for nothing ... ;)

The only thing that remains is baking the chicken pot pies at 230°C for about 45 minutes.

I served them with fries and salad. 

Delicious!

Paella with chicken and sea fruit

paella nearly ready to serve

I made paella last year, and that was a complete disaster.
I didn't find fresh sea fruit so had to do with frozen sea food and found out that it didn't taste any better than pieces of rubber. I just used regular rice, which wasn't cooked through after absorbing the water. I didn't fry the chicken beforehand so the chicken was still raw at places. I didn't season enough which made the flavour bland ...
In short, making paella wasn't something I would try again soon. The disappointment of my fellow eaters was just too great and so obvious in their way of looking at me.


But I found something in the supermarket last week which would soon change my mind: a mix of sea fruit, already cooked but fresh.
My mind began racing and I took the decision of trying paella all over again.


We don't have a special paelle pan and buying one for the occasion is a bit out of proportion for me. Our own skillets would have to do.
I set off for another try at paella.


I have to say that the taste was just right. Of course, it can't compete with the authentic - made in a real paella pan - dish, but it's really worth trying andsuper easy!


Ingredients for 4:
- olive oil
- 1 red pepper, blackened, skinned and cut in small strips
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves of garlic, cut in very small pieces
- 100 grams fresh peas
- 8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half and dried in a 150°C oven for about 45 minutes
- 1 gram of saffron powder
- a pinch of paprika powder
- crushed chillies
- 200 grams sea fruit (prawns, mussels, squid, ...), already cooked
- 6 chicken legs (or any other part of chicken), already fried or grilled
- 300 grams paella rice (you can find it in any supermarket)
- salt and pepper to taste
- a little kurkuma for extra colour
- 1 fresh lime
- 600-700 ml of fish stock


How to:
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Fry the onion, the garlic, the pepper and the tomatoes until they've browned slightly.

Add the rice and spices and turn them in the pan so that each grain of rice is covered in a little oil and the spices are all over the ingredients.
Now pour the stock in, together with the chicken and the peas. Let it all simmer on medium heat with the lid on the pan. Check from time to time whether the rice is ready to be eaten and the stock has been taken up. If more stock is needed, add a little at the time. 
When the rice is just about ready but hasn't taken up all of the stock, add the sea fruit. They have to be added as late as possible so that they don't get rubbery (I learned from my mistakes!).

Before serving, let the paella stand for a few minutes so that the excess damp can evaporate.
Cut the lime in slices and put them on top of the paella on table. Everyone can now spoon his or her own serving. 


Apetitoso!

Farmhouse chicken casserole

My dad loves to go to flea markets. Whenever the weather is alright and he has some time off, he visits one or another. On Sundays there are often at least two or three he goes to. He has a great eye for making money out of things others regard as trash. He buys something very cheap and sells it - after consulting websites such as Ebay - for a lot more.


After all these years he still brings home little things for decorating. My mum isn't too happy with the eclectic style of our living room. She likes it more sober, but yeah ... he can't be convinced about that.


Another thing he does when going to these flea markets, is bringing home fruit and vegetables. There are always a few farmers who sell their goods. The best strawberries come from their fields. 


This Sunday he brought spring onions and potatoes. As I was going to prepare chicken drumsticks - once bought for the barbecue but never used due to rainy weather, and put in the freezer for later - I thought I could just as well combine them with the onions and potatoes.


The result: farmhouse chicken casserole, or my adaptation of a British dish.

Ingredients for 4:

- 1 or 2 drumsticks per person (I had provençale marinated legs, which worked well)

- 8 small potatoes that won't fall apart during cooking

- 4 spring onions

- 3 large carrots

- 1/3 cube vegetable stock

- 1/2 l water

- black pepper

- Maizena express

- fresh parsley

- 100 grams flour

- olive oil or butter

How to:

Wash the potatoes and cut them in half. Don't peel them, so that they will keep their taste better. Clean the sping onions and cut off the excess greens. Peel the carrots and cut them in half. 

Roll the drumsticks in the flour. They have to be covered with it all over. 

Heat a pan and melt the butter or olive oil. Fry the drumsticks in it. They don't have to be cooked through, they just have to get a little crust outside. 

In the same pan, fry the potatoes and the vegetables lightly. They don't have to be cooked through either.

Now take a casserole that's quite large. Put all the vegetables, potatoes and the chicken in it. Grind black pepper over it to taste. Don't add salt because the stock is salty too.

Dissolve the stock in the water and pour it over the casserole. 

Cover it with foil or a lid.

Put it in the oven and let it simmer for at least 1 and a half hour at 230°C. 

The vegetables should be just tender but shouldn't fall apart. The chicken should fall off the bone when touched. 

Take out all the thning out off the casserole so that only the fluid remains. Add the Maizena express, stir well and put all things back in the casserole.

Don't cover it now, so that it can grill for a few minutes.

Ready to serve with parsley sprinkled on top of it!