Back from Ireland

Hello everyone!


I've been away for a while for the Summer vacation. I'm still a student - not for long now because next year June I hope to complete my Master of Political Sciences - and the Summer is really the ONLY time of year I can get away for longer than a day. That is if you don't have to resit exams of course!


I went with two of my best friends, Johannes and Emily, to Ireland. We explored the West coast in the County Clare. Our aim was to hire a car, but unfortunately the car hire companies don't trust students with licences younger than two years ... We only found out about that a day before we had our flight to Dublin, so we improvised a bit and were able to catch a train to Ennis the same day our plane landed. After a few hours by train, we arrived and our trip could start for real.
Not having a car on hand, we decided to hire bicycles instead. At least we didn't need to prove our skills beforehand to the shopkeepers ;)


Taking your holiday in Ireland is a risk. With on average nearly 300 days of rain a year, it's a miracle to not get wet, especially on bikes. But the near impossible happened: we had the best week of the year yet with blue skies, a lot of sun and 20°C! (that couldn't be compared with the much higher temperatures of +30°C in my home Belgium at the same moment, but who cares?)

Ireland is a wondrous destination. I can recommend it to you all. I'm a nature lover and the nature is everywhere. There are also numerous ruins of monasteries, castles, churches, high crosses ... so that people interested in history and culture have everything they need.


We stayed at a cottage we rented for the holiday. A super nice woman called Brenda Reilly took the greatest care of us, with even a delicious welcome pack on the first day. 


Anyway, after such a holiday, I'm totally re-energated and ready for another year. 


Today it was the first day of me cooking at home since Ireland. I had this strange craving for pizza for a while, so I made my healthy home made version of it again. 
I made a mainly vegetable with a little ham one for me (round) and a partly meat-partly fish one for both of my parents (the elongated ones due to not enough space on the tray).

The dough and the tomato sauce is the same as for the other pizza I once made. 

Toppings round pizza:

- 1/2 roasted yellow bell pepper

- 50 grams ham

- diced mozzarella cheese (as much as you like)

- grated gruyère cheese (again, as much as you like)

- fresh basil leaves

- chilli flakes

Toppings for one of the elongated pizza's:

- 1/2 roasted yellow bell pepper

- 25 grams ham

- 25 grams salami 

- 1/2 tin crab meat

- 6 anchovies

- 2 or more olives, halved

- fresh basil

- mozzarella cheese

- grated gruyère cheese

- chilli flakes

On the pizza's for my parents, I divided each pizza in half approximately and topped each half with either meat or fish. the other ingredients were put on both parts.

They really liked theirs, and I liked my - slightly lighter - version also greatly!

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 con pesto, a little pimped

I didn't know how many persons would come for dinner. My sister and her boyfriend are leaving for the Summer holidays to the South of France, and they might or might not dine with us tonight. I thought of something which can be made easily for 3, 4 or 5 people without problem and it was pasta con pesto Genovese.


I'm a huge pasta fan. You might have noticed as three out of the last four posts involved pasta. I could eat it every day if my dad wouldn't mind.


Just the pesto along with the pasta is good, but it lacks some vegetables and colour for me. So I pimped the dish a bit to suit my taste :)
I also traded half of the basil for rocket. It's both goof on its' own, but why not taking both, then?


Ingredients for 4:
- 400 grams pasta (such as tagliatelle)
- handful of fresh basil
- handful of fresh rocket (rucola)
- 80 grams pine nuts, lightly roasted in a hot skillet
- 200 grams parmigiano reggiano
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- olive oil
- pepper and salt to taste
- 8 cherry tomatoes
- bruschetta herb mixture (I use the one from Oil & Vinegar)


How to:
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and put them on an oven tray with their rounded sides down. Sprinkle them with the bruschetta mixture. Put them in a 150°C oven for at least one hour. Take care the herbs don't burn, that taste isn't very good.
Grate the cheese. Put it in a pot but keep some aside to serve.
Pull the basil and rocket into smaller pieces and put them in the same pot. Keep a few leaves apart for serving.
Put the garlic, the salt, pepper and the pine nuts in the pot and start crushing all the ingredients together. Pour in enough olive oil to make a thick liquid.
Cook the pasta according to the package and drain.
Serve the pasta with a few spoonfuls of pesto, some dried cherry tomatoes, some leaves of basil and grated parmesan cheese.


Heavy but sooo good ...


Buon appetito!

Konijn met pruimen (rabbit with plums)

Today real Belgian classic cooking: rabbit in a sauce of red wine, onion and dried plums - or konijn met pruimen as we call it. 

It's more of a Winter's dish, but the weather permits cooking like this these days. It's actually pouring rain all day. We have these glass doors across the back of our house, facing the garden, and we can't see anything but rain splashing down. Belgian weather it is!


Ingredients for 4:
- 1 whole rabbit in pieces
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion
- bouquet garni (bay leave, thyme, rosemary, ... bound together)
- 75 grams bacon
- 12 (or more if you like) dried plums
- butter
- 75 cl red wine
- salt and pepper to taste
- Maizena express (or something the like)


How to:
Fry the rabbit pieces with the bacon in a pan. Season it with pepper and salt. Take them out of the pan and fry the onion and the garlic in the same pan. Put the fried ingredients together in a large enough pan or pot and pour in the wine and add the bouquet garni. Put on the lid and let it all simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes.
Then add the dried plums. Let them simmer along for another half hour.
Take the pot off the fire and let it stand for a few hours (the longer the better). The taste will be better.
Thicken the sauce of the rabbit with some Maizena.


It's wonderful with pears cooked in red wine scented with vanilla sugar and a cinnamon stick. 


Ingredients for 4:
- 4 pears, cut in half lengthwise
- 4 tablespoons vanilla sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 50 cl red wine
- about the same amount of water


How to:
Bring the pears and the rest of the ingredients to a boil and let them simmer until the pears are tender. They'll have taken up all the flavour and colour from the wine, cinnamon and sugar.

I served it all with fresh chips. It's so much better to make your own chips. The chips you buy in the supermarket - frozen and prefried - doesn't ever get the right taste. In Belgium we are known for our chips, and this is the right way to prepare the chips:


Ingredients for 4:
- 1 kg potatoes, peeled
- oil for frying
- salt for serving
- sauce (mayonaise, ketchup, ...)


How to:
Cut the potatoes in sticks of about half a centimeter on each side. Rinse them under some cold water.
Heat the frying pan at 140°C. Put the potato sticks in the hot oil and let them simmer for some minutes. You have to stand close to check whether they're ready (when they are tender inside (check with a fork or knife!) but still whitish in colour). Take them out and let them cool.
Heat the oil now at 175°C. Put the chips you've fried already once in the oil for the second time. This time they're supposed to get their right colour. Once they're golden brown, take them out and serve them with salt and a sauce you like.


If you do your chips this way, you'll never want the frozen kind again!


Smakelijk!

Tagliatelle with tomato-rocket sauce

I've just finished two weeks of doing the animation at children's camps. they were an fantastic two weeks, with lovely children and amazing themes.


The last week was in the theme 'Cups, cakes and whoopies'. We baked - chronologically - apple cupcakes, chocolate whoopie pies, black and white biscuits, ham and cheese quiche, cakepops and chocolate chip cupcakes. I basically spent half the time in the kitchen with 17 6-8 year olds, and half the time we played around or made things out of clay, crayons, papers, etc. ...
Today I was honoured to hand them all a diploma of topchef! They were delighted to hear they received one. My signature on it made it all look very 'real' ;)

I came home around 6 pm, and knowing I had a weekend off duty, I was bursting with energy. Preparing dinner didn't take long. I longed for pasta, and just took all that was left over from the past week: rocket, cherry tomatoes, basil and some parmesan cheese.

It was only me, so the recipe is this time for 1 person!

Ingredients for 1:

- 65 grams tagliatelle

- 8 cherry tomatoes

- handful of fresh rocket (rucola), pulled in smaller pieces

- handful of fresh basil, pulled in smaller pieces

- teaspoon of dried oregano

- dash of salt

- half a teaspoon of sugar

- chillie flakes or black pepper

- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- 20 grams parmesan cheese, grated

How to:

Put all ingredients for the sauce (everything except the tagliatelle and cheese) in one small pot and put it on high heat. Crush the tomatoes so that the juices can be released. The sauce has to simmer on low heat for around 20 minutes.
Cook the pasta according to the package. 

Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Turn it all around so that the pasta takes up some of the sauce.

Serve with the cheese.

A very easy recipe for those days you don't have the time to spend hours in the kitchen, but very tasty and healthy anyhow!

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!