The perfect potatoes

We almost never buy potatoes, because boiled potatoes just aren't that much fun. And fried sliced potatoes most of the time just get mushy. Some time ago we bought 3 kilos of potatoes for €3.79 and decided to do something fun with it. So I've made a soybean potato curry (it lacked something, so I didn't post it here, will continue working on it) and one of the steps was to sort of dry-boil or steam the potatoes in a pan. This really made the potato taste more and just cooking the potato like this for a side-dish is really yummy. 

The soybean potato curry can be found here: Soybean Potato Curry

Perfect potatoes, 2 portions as side-dish

2 big potatoes (vastkokend = potatoes that don't fall apart when boiled)
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

Wash and peel the potatoes. Slice it in half. Slice the halves in half and then cut across, 3-4 cm big pieces. Heat up a frying pan to high heat. Put some oil in. Put the potatoes in and fry them on high heat for about 10 min, let them get some color. Stir when needed so that they don't stick. After about 10 min, reduce the heat to low and put a lid on. Stir every few minutes and let the potatoes steam for about 15 minutes. They're ready when they are soft. 

The best way to eat potatoes according to my boyfriend!

The potatoes can be served as a side-dish to for instance oven-baked chicken breast, which I'll write about tomorrow. Tomorrow I start my Dutch course, finally I'll get some structure to all the Dutch flying around in my head. Frankly if I don't take this course my Dutch will stay at this level forever. Maybe someday I'll write a blogpost in Dutch. 

Tot morgen!

Chocolate muffins

These are a basic version of chocolate muffins with easy available ingredients. 

Chocolate muffins, 6 muffins

1 dl sugar
0.75 dl milk
75 grams butter
1 egg
1.75 dl flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar
0.75 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cacao

Put half the sugar and the milk in a pan and bring to the boil. Let it cool. Mix the rest of the sugar in a  bowl together with the butter. Mix in the egg. Mix in the flour, vanilla sugar, baking powder, cacao and the milk mixture. Put in a cup-cake tin. Warm the oven to 170 degrees Celsius and bake for 25-30 minutes. You can test with a tooth pick if the muffins are ready, by sticking one in the middle of a muffin, it should be dry. Enjoy!

Sesame and Honey Bread

I've been baking my own bread now for a couple of weeks. Not only is the taste better (Lekker!) but you can vary your bread as much as you like and it's cheaper too. With 1 kg of flour, I can make one big loaf and one small. Unfortunately here in the Netherlands, the only flour (unless you want soya flour) you can find in the supermarket is  normal white wheat flour. Don't get me wrong, you can go a long way with plain white flour. But I miss the Swedish supermarkets with a wide range of flour and seeds. 

I've been making a plain white bread many times. My boyfriend wanted to try a bread with sesame seeds in it (not just sprinkled on top of the bread). So I went looking on Youtube and the internet and finally ended up with this recipe:

Sesame and Honey Bread, 1 small loaf

2.5 dl water

1 teaspoon of instant yeast

1 teaspoon salt 

6-6.5 dl wheat flour

1 handful sesame seeds

1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 1/2 tablespoon honey

Heat the water to 37 degrees Celsius. I have a water cooker with temperature setting, I heat the water to 40 degrees Celsius and then I add a little glas of cold water and then feel if the water is warm enough (you don't want it to be too warm). 

In a bowl, mix flour (save 1/2-1 dl for kneeding), yeast, sesame seeds and salt. Add oil and honey. Mix. Add water and make a dough. The sides of the dough should release from the sides of the bowl. Put plastic foil over it, I usually smear some oil on it so it doesn't stick. Put it in the fridge over night. I tried this method recently and the bread tastes more. If you don't have the time, let the dough rise somewhere warm (like in a cupboard or in the oven - no heat!) for an hour. 

From the cold-rise method, it should look something like this: 

It'll rise more or less half of its original size. 

Take a tin out and put oil in it. Line it with flour. 

After rising put the dough out on a board and kneed it until it's not sticky, add saved flour when needed. Form to a loaf or braid it. Put into the tin and let it rise again somewhere warm for 30 minutes. 

Put the oven on 230 degrees Celsius. After the second rise, put the loaf (if you've made a loaf, cut the surface a few times before putting it in the oven) into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 180 degress Celsius and bake for 30-40 minutes depending on your oven. Enjoy! 

Shakshuka

Long time no see! 

I've been busy graduating, but that's finally more or less done! 

So, now I've got time again for cooking and trying out new recipes! 

Because I'm a recent graduate the recipes can't be that expensive either. I think that at least for the home cook, you're good if you can turn cheap ingredients to something amazing. 

I had just taken a refreshing bike ride on my Dutch-style bike (no sports bike here :P) and wanted something savory and hearty. I've wanted to try the Israeli egg and tomato dish Shakshuka for a while now and here it is. I got inspired from this: Yotam Ottolenghi's Shakshuka

The original recipe calls for 1 onion, I didn't have one, so I just skipped that step.

Shakshuka, 2 persons or 1 very hungry

1 green, or whatever you have, bell pepper, diced

4-5 small tomatoes, chopped

dried coriander,  dried parsley, safron (optional), (spicy) paprika, salt, black pepper 

some water

3 small eggs

Put a pan (that you have a lid to) on a high heat, add some olive oil. Fry the bell pepper for a while, add some coriander and parsley (about a teaspoon each). Fry for a little bit more until the bell pepper "turns golden", i.e. gets some spots on the skin. 

Add the tomatoes. Add safron (this is totally optional, I had some safron lying around from before, so I tried to add it, but I'm not sure if it actually adds something and aslo, I'm not sure if I actually like safron in savoury dishes). Add paprika, some salt and black pepper. If the mixture looks a bit dry, add a little water. 

Cook on high heat until the tomatoes have dissolved and the mixture is getting a bit dryer. 

Taste, maybe add more salt or sugar, depending on taste. Make some pockets for the eggs and break the eggs into the pan. Turn the heat off and put the lid on the pan and cook until the eggs are done. 

This step is a bit challenging on an electric stove. I overcooked my eggs, they weren't as fluid as Yotam's, but still delicious. I think the key for an electric stove is probably to start reducing the heat earlier and when it's on a low heat add the eggs and turn the stove on. 

Sprinkle with some coriander and serve with bread. I had some garlic sauce (home made) from yesterday. We watched the game between Holland-Spain and had a really nice dinner with a neighbour. We ate Shoarma and garlic sauce. I'll put up a recipe for that sauce soon. 

Enjoy!

What I miss from Sweden food wise

Having been in Holland for sometime now, there are a few Swedish things that I really miss here in Holland.

• Blodpudding! This sweet dark sausage is made from pig's blood and is served with lingonberry jam. This was served in the canteen at least once a month when I was at school and also at home. I have seen some kind of blood sausage here at Jumbo but I haven't tried it yet, because I don't know how to prepare the Dutch version. Homework for March! A recipe can be seen here
• Sausage! Here they have dried sausage (also delicious, try for example the Frisian dried sausage) and occassionally fresh sausage (also nice). I miss those sausages from all around the world - chorizo, kielbasa, bratworst etc just ready to cook with. 
• Cheesecake from Småland! This cake warmed in the oven and served with raspberry jam is just delicious, if I want this cake here, I have to make it from scratch - maybe also homework for March! A recipe (Swedish) is here
• Pickles! The pickles here just don't taste as good. My quickly pickled cucumber are always very popular at dinners here ^^ I miss the pickled cucumbers and beetroot. 

And a few things I'm happy to live without.

• Falukorv - this disgrace of a sausage. Pale pink, bland and creamy in texture, this was a staple in the canteen, don't try it if in Sweden.
• Expensive bacon - bacon is incredibly expensive in Sweden compared to Holland. And let's face it, bacon makes everything delicious. 

Give me sausages and beer and I'm happy :)

Of course, I could bike down to IKEA and get some nice stuff, but it's the IKEA house brand, which to be honest for some of the products isn't that good. Too bad they stopped stocking Swedish brands a few years ago. 

Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts

Tonight the boyfriend is off to a concert and I'm home alone with an ear inflammation, so not enjoying Trentemoller :(
A good excuse to make something spicy!
And this dish was! I had the wok really hot and the food was smoking, like it should :)
Inspired by: Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts

Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts, 1 big portion

250 grams brussels sprouts
1 centimeter ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 spring onion
20 szechuan flower pepper corns
10 dried red chilies
1 tablespoon chili bean sauce
a little potato starch + a little water
handful peanuts

Sauce:
1 teaspoon soy
1.5 tablespoons rice vinegar
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 chicken stock cube
2 tablespoons water

Clean the brussels sprouts. Cut them in half. Wash them in water. Bring water to the boil in a pot. When boiling, add the sprouts. Let them cook for 5 minutes. Drain and put aside. 

Slice the garlic and ginger. Cut the spring onion into pieces. 

For the sauce, mix all the ingredients together. 

Heat up a wok or frying pan. Add oil. Add the dried chilies (watch out so you don't burn them!), add the szechuan flower pepper corns. Stir fry shortly. Add the chili bean sauce, stir. Add the brussels sprouts, stir fry quickly. Add garlic, ginger and spring onion. Stir fry shortly. Add the sauce, bring to boil, if not thick enough add some potato starch mixed with water. Add the peanuts and cook a little more.

Serve with rice.

Chocolate covered cupcakes

I couldn't just give my sweetie Goulash, I made these medium-sized cupcakes with chocolate frosting as well ;)

Cupcakes - Basic recipe, about 10 medium ones

50 grams butter (I use unsalted)
100 ml milk
2 eggs
200 ml sugar
300 ml flour
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Melt the butter and add the milk, put aside. Whip eggs and sugar until the mixture goes cream white. Add the butter and milk mix and the vanilla sugar. Mix the flour and baking powder and add to the egg mix. Pour into cupcake paper tins. Bake in the oven at 225 degrees for about 20 minutes. 

Chocolate frosting for 4-6 cupcakes

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 tablespoon milk
80 ml icing sugar
1 tablespoon cacao

Melt the butter with the milk. Add icing sugar and cacao, mix. Let the cupcakes cool before you spread a generous coating of chocolate on them. Let the frosting set before serving.