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 ;-)

'what s in the fridge?' salads

sunday...

i often read about sunday roasts, the whole shebang, and relaxed lunches stretching well into lazy afternoons.

but at our house, because the weeks are often so hectic, sundays are more about doing, well, not too much, and often, it s about using up leftovers from the previous week when dinnertime comes around.

often, it will be pasta, maybe a carbonara, or garlic, chilli and tomato, nothing too complicated.

last sunday, we had had a little too much of the carbs, and were craving veggies but we weren t quite sure of what we had left in the fridge:

hmm, two half pots of pickled herring filets, some gherkins, capers...
oh, and i had some new potatoes, bell peppers, radishes...

how about a potato and herring salad with radishes then? and a grilled bell pepper with mozarella salad?

Sam made our usual homemade mayonnaise, and the dishes made for a great closure to an 'early-summer-clean'. (i know; YIKES! or should that be; YAY!)

POTATO AND RADISH SALAD WITH PICKLED HERRINGS

INGREDIENTS:

4 filets of pickled herring filets, cut into 2 cm pieces
a bunch of radishes, finely sliced
4 or 5 medium sized potatoes, cooked, cooled and sliced
capers, to taste
gherkins, to taste, chopped
mayonnaise, to taste
pepper and salt
any kind of soft herbs like chervil, chives, mint, dill, pimpernel etc. to taste

METHOD:

combine all ingredients, adjust seasoning and serve with crusty bread and a chilled rosé wine. ;-)

the bell pepper salad is pretty easy to make: just grill the peppers until the skins are blackened, leave to cool a bit, and remove the skin but don t wash the peppers so as not to lose the smoky flavor. then cut into strips and combine with slices or chunks of bufala (yes... it s a she!) mozzarella, olive oil, sherry vinegar and some salt and pepper. add some chopped thyme and basil if you like.

well, dessert was just some strawberries in cranberry/pomegranate syrup with lemony ricotta.

yumm.

(and my leftovers are used up to boot! our contribution to being more conscious about what we buy... and eat...)

simple Wa-fu style oven-grilled salmon with chives

Wa-fu, Japanese Style. it fascinates me because i love Japanese food but i was never taught how to cook it correctly. sure, i lived in Japan and was brought up, as i ve mentioned in earlier posts, by my grandparents. however, our house was so tiny, and the kitchen barely big enough to hold one person (me having inherited my Belgian ancestors genes - me... big, meant that it was nigh on impossible to share cooking duties with my grandmother). well, you might think that an excuse, but cooking did always fascinate me, and i was always trying to make something up and thinking up new combinations for a simple cookie recipe.

i m guessing that i was also more into western style cookery due to the fact that i did go to an international school and home economics was often about making western style recipes with the odd exception of perhaps something Chinese.

it wasn t for lack of interest but i only came to realize how simple and yet complex Japanese cooking can be these past 15 years or so. it was so easy to just visit my aunt, who s an amazing cook, and eat her food instead of making it myself. and preparing the food, following the seasons, making use of those familiar and, at the same time, strange ingredients was, to be honest, a lot of bother.

i should ve known better. i should ve learnt.

so i try out recipes now. i know what things should taste and look like, which is an advantage, it s just about getting to grips with techniques.

however, there is one recipe that always, always works. because it s simple and only uses 3 ingredients: salmon, soy-sauce, and chives. lots and lots of chives.

SHAKE NO SHOYU YAKI ASATSUKI AE
(OVEN-GRILLED SOY-MARINATED SALMON WITH CHIVES)

INGREDIENTS:

1 salmon-steak per person
soy-sauce (i used the all-round Kikkoman brand)
1 small handful of chives per person, finely chopped

METHOD:

1. pre-heat the oven to maximum (+/- 250°C)
2. line a baking sheet with aluminium foil and put in the oven to heat up
2. marinate the salmon steak(s) in the soy-sauce for between 1-2 hours.
3. place the steaks on the baking sheet and place in the highest section of the oven to cook for about 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the steaks
4. naturally, if you have an overhead grill/salamander, this will work well too
5. serve with the chopped chives, with some plainly cooked rice and a simple sweet-pickled cucumber salad on the side.

for the cucumber salad: finely slice a cucumber, sprinkle on some salt and leave to remove excess liquid for about half an hour. drain the liquid from the cucumber and mix with 2 tablespoons of rice-vinegar, 1 tablespoon of mirin (Japanese sweet cooking sake), 1 tablespoon of lightly ground roasted sesame-seeds, 1 teaspoon of shoyu and 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil.

incredibly simple yet amazingly flavorful...

i cannot escape the fact that i will have to learn more now. about Japanese cooking i mean. yes, and someday real Thai cooking, and real Chinese cooking... oh, don t remind me, i know i m repeating myself. thank heavens for all those fellow international food bloggers!

ladies nite

every few months or so, three of my friends and i get together to share news, gossip, laughter, pain... and food. we ve known each other since our children were in kindergarten. but i hadn t seen them for a while until about two years ago, and we decided to meet up again more often.

usually we d go to a restaurant, but last night i cooked us a dinner, since one of us had had another baby, and it was just easier and more relaxed this way.

it would have been easy to opt for a pasta, but i just felt i needed a lot of veggies, prepared different ways. recently i d seen a few recipes that just clicked for me: James Martin s grilled scampi with a coriander marinade, Jamie Oliver s courgette salad with bocconcini (mini-mozarella to you & me), Gordon Ramsay s chocolate fondants (or moelleux, as they often say here).

as a starter, i went easy and just flamed a few different colored paprikas until blackened, then rubbed the skin away and was left with softly smoked strips of pepper. these i dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and some chopped chili and basil leaves.

another starter was a charentais and a honeydew melon, just cut into chunks and served with prosciutto, sprinkled with lime zest and some lime juice.

had to adjust the recipe for the scampi, one of us is not really into coriander, but hey, tastes differ and that s the fun part. so i opted for a marinade of lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, grated garlic, grated onion and parsley. just combined these and tasted for extra seasoning, then marinated the little creatures with their heads still on for about 4 hours. the scampi were then griddled and brushed with some chili jam that my mother-in-law had made (which reminds me, i still have to get that recipe from her).

to go with the scampi i thought the green of Jamie s courgette salad (from his book 30-minute meals) with the little soft balls of mozarella would work perfectly.

and for dessert, i just had to try and make this, a chocolate fondant or moelleux! never made it before, and i d seen it fail so many times on different cookery programs, so i was very apprehensive. but my girlfriends, bless them, they would have gone for anything as long as it was something with chocolate ;-)

phew, they came out perfectly... and i really have to thank Gordon Ramsay for his recipe.
i just halved the ingredients and that was just right for four ramekins. all i needed to do was to add some warmed raspberries and a little whipped cream.

once in a while, it s good to get together... and share...

mussels in season

mussels, never used to like them; couldn t look at them, couldn t smell them, couldn t eat them

until two years ago, when Sam told me to at least try just one... "look at it, it s like a tiny tiny little chicken!" (wha...???) but i popped one in my mouth, and maybe it was the flavor of the liquor, the taste of the mustard sauce that they always give with the mussels (at least they do here in Antwerp, it s a regional thing) the fact that it didn t smell off at all, so the cook must have done a good job, or just the fact that i d grown up... i loved it!

since then i can t wait for the mussel season to start! which used to be from september to april (all the months with an 'r' in them), but these days it kicks off from about the third week of july... still, i d rather wait till september when the waters are colder and that just makes for better and sweeter mussels

yesterday we had our little mussels in the simplest, tried and tested, authentic Belgian version, just with some onions, celery and a dash of white wine... most people would go classic and just have that with crusty bread, but a lot of us like it with some French fries (i don t know why i have to call them French... allow me to be patriotic and say they re actually Belgian, but anyways...)

here s the recipe:

per person:

about 1 to 1.3 kilos fresh mussels, well cleaned
half an onion, sliced
one stick of celery, roughly chopped
a little knob of butter
lots of ground black pepper
NO SALT (there s enough in the juice of the mussels)
a splash of white wine

steam all the ingredients, except the mussels, in a special mussel pot (i do think they only sell them here in Belgium, or perhaps in the Netherlands too, otherwise a deep pot with a lid will do) for about 5 minutes
add the mussels and cook on high for another 3-7 minutes until all the mussels have opened, shaking the pot once in a while
serve with bread or French fries and some mustard dipping sauce

(for the sauce i just mix some mayo with mustard and yoghurt or sour cream to make a slighly runny sauce... taste, it should be a little acidic, you ll know what i mean when you try it with the mussels)

ps. when cleaning the mussels, discard any that don t close... once cooked, discard any that haven t opened!

SMAKELIJK!!! (that s bon appetit in Dutch)

OH, i almost forgot, the remaining stock in the bottom of the pan, there usually is a lot, is PERFECT as a base for leek soup, or fish stew, or...

risotto to soothe the senses

i have an allergy... i only recently found out, but now i do and it s not nice...

so in order to feel a bit better, and because it s the only thing i now seem to be able to taste, i made us a risotto for dinner... creamy, tender but with a little bite, with hot-smoked salmon and watercress and some young spinach leaves...

the ultimate comfort food!

apparently everyone has their own special recipe, and this is mine:

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 liters light chicken stock, kept very hot
2 celery sticks, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped
400 grams of carnaroli or arborio rice
1 small wineglass of Noilly Prat vermouth
2 hot-smoked salmon filets, flaked
very large handful of watercress, roughly chopped
very large handful of young spinach leaves
ground black pepper and a pinch of seasalt
a drizzle of light olive oil
a little bit of cream
pecorino cheese

METHOD:

drizzle some light olive oil in a thick-bottomed deep pan and heat.
add the chopped onions and fry lightly until glassy, then add the celery and fry gently until nearly tender, then add garlic
now add the rice and stir until well-coated with the oil and onion celery mixture
add the Noilly Prat and stir until absorbed
then start adding the stock, one ladleful at a time, stirring in between, only adding more stock when the rice has absorbed most of the liquid... keep doing this until the rice is creamy but still has a little bit of bite to it (but no hard core!)
you may not need all the stock, it depends a bit on how the rice reacts...
then add the chopped watercress, the spinach, and the flaked smoked salmon and a tiny bit of cream
adjust your seasoning with some black pepper, since the salmon is salty you may not want to add too much salt
serve immediately with some pecorino cheese to grate for those who want it...

buon appetito

ps. ofcourse i like to play with ingredients and one of my other favorites is wild mushrooms... the method is quite the same as the above, although instead of adding salmon and watercress and spinach, i add sautéed wild mushrooms at the end and loads of chopped parsley...

pps. i like adding Noilly Prat instead of white wine, it s a little less harsh... although i know some recipes that call for red wine too