early morning meanderings

i have been feeling a little out of sorts lately.

i ve got a mean suspicion it s because of this time of year. yes, yes, it is july, summer is in full swing, vacation-wise i mean, the weather is not quite as good as it was in late april or may, but it s good enough to spend our evenings having our dinner in the garden instead of inside (and the winters last long enough here that this is much appreciated).

there s no classes to go to until september. i was so used to spending two nights a week hard at work on some kind of jewellery project and exchanging ideas with my fellow classmates.

now, it s just... well... quiet.

oh, it does mean i have a lot more time ofcourse. time to work at home. time to think. time to cook.

what am i complaining about?! i even have more time to check out more foodie blogs and testing recipes.

oh, it s probably because i haven t been sleeping well. before i m really quite aware of it, i can just feel my brain whirring into action, and when i open my eyes, the alarm on my bedside table says 04.00 am... yikes!

perhaps it s age... even more yikes!

or perhaps it s having too much iced coffee in the evening.

Ree Drummond posted an absolutely purrfect recipe for iced coffee on her blog and i ve been making it ever since discovering it.

so it s my own stupid fault really. probably better to have my iced coffee in the morning instead of early evening and stick to having my glass of wine then.

and what is a good thing to go with a cool glass of white?

a few days ago we had this:

PAN-SEARED TUNA WITH GREEN VEG AND SAUTÉED POTATOES:

INGREDIENTS:
for 2

2 nice tuna steaks
capers
new potatoes (about 10 small ones)
300 gr peas (i always use frozen, they re sweeter)
1 courgette, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
loads of different herbs, chopped finely (i used thyme, rosemary, dill and mint)
a heaped tablespoon of crème fraîche
olive oil
butter
salt and pepper
lemonjuice to taste

METHOD:

1. boil the potatoes until just tender and drain
2. sauté the onion and the garlic in some olive oil until glazy but not browned
3. add the courgette and fry until slightly softened, but still al dente
4. add the peas (no need to defrost if you re in a hurry)
5. add the chopped herbs and the crème fraîche
6. season to taste and set aside, but keep warm
7. in another skillet pan, sauté the drained potatoes (of which large ones have been cut in half)
8. meanwhile very quickly sear the tuna steaks on both sides in some olive oil and butter
9. take the steaks out of the pan and in the searing juices quickly warm through the capers with some lemonjuice, pour this jus on the tuna
10. serve

hopefully, soon, my early morning meanderings will make way for 'normal' hours of sleep again.

i ll be fine ;-)

elderflower cordial or elderflower syrup?

this weekend we went to Brussels.

i had a few books i wanted to check out and eventually order. why not order from Amazon? you might ask. well, i m still old-fashioned in that way that i need to touch and flick through the books i want to buy or keep for myself. i need to smell them. does that make sense?

i always find what i need at Waterstones. so i bought myself another cookbook. but what a cookbook! Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume by Silvena Rowe.

did i mention that i d finally found za'atar and sumac in a Lebanese bistro over here in Antwerp? i was over the moon! and my new book contains loads of recipes that call for these spices.

before i had the book tho, i did experiment and made some stuffed courgettes with lamb mince spiced with za'atar. the evening temperatures and the retsina that we drank with the dish gave us an instant 'holiday' feel.

but back to Waterstones.

besides books, one can also find some typical English foodstuffs there (i m sure to please the expat as much as us Belgians); lemoncurd, digestive biscuits, PG-tips (teabags), and now also elderflower cordial, perfect for summer drinks.

i ve often wondered about the difference between cordials and syrups. i m thinking it s got something to do with the ingredients and their proportions, but i ve found that cordials always seem to contain citric acid? but then syrups also have lemonzest included for flavor... and they say cordials are medicinal too.

even though i already had some elderflower syrup at home, i did buy the cordial as well. just to taste and play around.

the syrup and the cordial

see the syrup is much more caramelly in color? the cordial looks more refined tho.

anyway, one of my favorite 'pick-me-up' drinks is made with apple juice, ginger, mint and a good dash of elderflower syrup.

INGREDIENTS:
for a pint-size (i mean a genuine English pint) glass

250 ml organic cloudy apple juice
150 ml cold water
1 tablespoon of elderflower syrup, or cordial, as you wish
about 7-8 large leaves of mint (pepper-, spear-, or Moroccan mint)
a pinky sized piece of ginger, grated

METHOD:
blend all ingredients in a blender and serve ice-cold

this cocktail is great any time of day but especially in the morning, after a late night, or when nursing a hangover ;-)

and good too while perusing new recipes and imagining oneself somewhere along a Mediterranean shoreline, on a terrace, while the sun is setting and the smells and sounds of a close-by kitchen drift up... oh, well, forgive me for letting my imagination get away with me. it is summer, yes?

yuzu tea

yesterday we went for another little shopping spree in Chinatown. as ever, i always feel at home there. the scents, the shop windows, the people... all hodgepodge and one big soup of different cultures. i just love it.

and there s always something new to be discovered.

like this little pot.

now, what is it? it says: Citron Tea and underneath Yuja Tea. now 'yuja' sounds Korean to me, and the ingredients list mentions Korean citron, honey and fructose...
but on the side it also says 'yuzu cha' written in Japanese, besides té citrico in Spanish, and Лимонный Чай (limoni chai) in Russian (fun, isn t it?)

but then i opened it:

hmmm, looks like marmelade to me.

but the scent, that perfume! yuzu, yuzu, yuzu! my favorite citrus fruit. just a little of this fruit goes a long way. a little sliver of its peel in a chawan mushi (a Japanese egg custard like soup) just lifts the flavor like nothing else will.

i use yuzu juice in a martini, and i know someone who marinates chicken in it along with some garlic and olive oil (still have to try that, but it sounds scrumptious especially for a bbq).

anyways, i digress. so this pot of yuzu scented honey thing which looks more like something to spread on buttered toast, is tea?

ok, so i poured some boiling water on it, and well, it s a better version of just plain lemon and honey. but the instructions say mix 20 gr (about 2-3 teaspoons) in hot water. how much water? no idea! so it was too sweet the first time, but i found a balance and i think that s the key; add as little or as much as your sweet tooth allows.

so i found that just adding 2 heaped teaspoons in a teapot of about 400ml hot water, along with a few slivers of fresh ginger makes for a refreshing 'tea'.

sipping this now while my oven is working overtime. i m baking some 'krazy kake' cupcakes for my best friends son s birthday. the little devil didn t want anything else but... hehehe

will have to go back to Chinatown soon, all those little treasures still to be discovered!

oh, and i did try a little bit of the yuzu honey on toast, but that was really too sweet. just so you know ;-)