spring... finally

where to start...

it has been a long long long winter, but i believe that finally the sun is getting the upper hand and the winter gods have given up in this part of the world.

and just when the nights were warming up little by little, our waterheater decided to blow its last breath... so, there were a few nervous moments trying to find a good plumber (actually pretty hard even tho there s so many around) who also had the time to come as soon as possible to install a brand new heater (i can take a bit of cold, but not going without hot water for too long)!
however, as i write this, they re here... banging away, and hopefully by this evening, i ll be able to have a long hot bath!

meanwhile, food-wise, spring means new young fresh vegetables and lighter dishes.

whereas during the dark months i d happily go for musky woolly mushrooms in a risotto, this time i just had to go for the season s white asparagus combined with little sweet peas.

and when you need some time to clear your head and just contemplate the cooking process, making a risotto can be meditative and relaxing.

RISOTTO WITH ASPARAGUS AND SWEET PEAS

INGREDIENTS:

500 gr white asparagus, stalks peeled and cut into 3 cm pieces, then steamed lightly
280 gr arborio or carnaroli rice
250 gr green peas (thawed if from frozen)
2 banana shallots, finely chopped
1500 ml light chicken stock, kept warm
20 gr unsalted butter
100 ml double cream
70 ml Noilly Prat vermouth
rapeseed oil
salt and pepper
nutmeg
Pecorino Romano cheese for grating

METHOD:

1. using a heavy based casserole, start by gently sweating the chopped shallots in some rapeseed oil
2. add the rice and toast for about 5 minutes
3. add the Noilly Prat and stir until it has been absorbed
4. then keep adding the stock, ladle by ladle, waiting and stirring in between until the stock too has been absorbed
5. add the steamed asparagus pieces halfway through the cooking process
6. at the end of cooking (it will take about half an hour to 40 minutes, working gently) add the thawed peas and warm through
7. finally add the butter and cream and let it all melt in, then season to taste with salt and pepper and a grating of nutmeg (which is unusual but somehow works really well)
8. serve all'onda, meaning slightly loose, with a grating of the Pecorino Romano.

a soft and gentle risotto.

i m ready for those brighter days, bring it on!

sweet things to start with... 2013

Happy New Year of the Snake everybody!

this year should be a good one, at least, if my horoscope is to be believed, this year of the snake, my Chinese (or should i say Japanese) sign is supposed to bring me luck.

well, i hope so, i could use some. after all the little mishaps we ve had thrown at us at the end of last year... and it has not stopped raining, but there are openings in the clouds and there is some blue sky visible now! a-HA!

to kick off this 'lucky' year, i ve been asked to post two recipes of sweet things my mom-in-law made for Christmas 2012. one s a doddle to make, the other requires a little bit more work, but both were delish! i m telling you, at 77, my mom-in-law is still going strong and loves to bake up a storm! she s an inspiration.

so here they are, a quick lemon cheesecake and a chocolate bûche de Noël:

QUICK LEMON CHEESECAKE
(inspired by Mary Berry in the BBC GOOD FOOD MAGAZINE February 2004)

INGREDIENTS:

for the biscuit base:
75 gr digestive biscuits
40 gr butter
25 gr demerara sugar

for the cheesecake filling:
200 gr low-fat cream cheese (Philadelphia light is a good one)
397 gr condensed milk
150 ml double cream
the grated zest and juice of 3 lemons

METHOD:

1. crush the biscuits; using a freezer bag and a rolling pin is a good idea
2. melt the butter, add the sugar and biscuits crumbs and mix well
3. using the back of a spoon, push the biscuit mixture evenly into a 20cm loose-bottomed non-stick cake tin and put in the fridge to set
4. soften the cream cheese in a bowl and beat in the condensed milk until smooth
5. stir in the cream
6. mix in the zest and the juice of the lemons
7. pour on top of the biscuit base and smooth out
8. chill in the fridge, preferably overnight
9. to serve, slide a palette knife along the side to loosen the cake, lift up the bottom and slide the cake out of the tin onto a flat dish. decorate with sugared lemon slices or any fruit in season.

you d think the condensed milk might be too sweet, but the lemon juice counteracts this and there s a very good balance between sweet and tart... scrumptious!

now for the bûche...

BÛCHE DE NOËL

INGREDIENTS:

for the Swiss roll:
5 eggs
140 gr light muscovado sugar
100 gr self-raising flour
25 gr pure cocoa-powder

for the chocolate ganache:
80 gr evaporated milk
120 gr pure (bittersweet) chocolate pieces

METHOD:

1. pre-heat the oven to 190°C
2. butter the base and side of a 30x35 cm Swiss roll tin and line the base with baking parchment
3. separate the eggs
4. whisk the egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of water and the sugar for about five minutes until light and creamy 5. sift in the flour and the cocoa powder and gently fold in until just blended (so as to keep it light and airy) and no lumps remain
6. beat the egg-whites until stiff and add to the cake mixture in three batches, folding in gently every time, again so as not to lose any airiness)
7. pour the mixture into the prepared tin, bake for 10-12 minutes until just firm to the touch
8. leave to cool before turning out onto a tea-towel which has been dusted with icing sugar... then follow Mary Berry s technique for rolling it up: (the recipe she uses here is a bit different because it uses no flour, but the rolling up is the same)

Great British Bake Off - masterclass

9. for the ganache, simply melt the chocolate pieces into warmed evaporated milk until thickened... it may turn out quite thick when cool, but can always be re-heated until malleable for spreading out onto the cake and for decorating the roulade later.
10. to make the Yule log, cut off a piece of the roulade at an angle and place against the main roll, then spread over the ganache and use a fork to shape the 'bark'... decorate with icing sugar 'snow' and eventually some Christmassy ornaments.

for the filling you could use whipped cream instead, or add crushed nuts and dried red fruit, but surprisingly, the chocolate ganache is not too heavy and does work.

and you don t need to make it into a log (because that s pretty typical for Christmas). whipped cream and strawberries, for example, make it a pretty good dessert for early summer too...

so, here you go, two sweet recipes to start off this 2013. hope the year brings all you may wish for.

the 'hay'-box and sizing down (not that they are connected as such)

hello there, it s been a while...

summer, or whatever we should call that rainy july and superhot august, has once again made way for autumn, which, with a few exceptional showers, has been wonderfully crisp and fresh.

meanwhile, Sam and i have gone on cycling trips, like we have been doing the past few years, but with new foldable bikes... so we were able to explore further and see more than we had before... our other bicycles only allowed us to start from home, cycle 30-35 kms at the most and then we had to make the return trip in order to get home and feed the cat!

but now, we were able to load up our new bikes in the car, drive to the seaside, or to Zeeland, to Gent, Leuven...

Belgium is such a small country and it s so easy to travel around by car, but i can definitely say that there is some beautiful countryside out there that most of us city-people just miss... mainly because it s nothing to go from point A to point B on the myriads of highways we have here.

one thing tho, cycling is tough when you re too heavy.

the past ten years my weight has gone steadily up and up and up... and getting more and more interested in food and cooking and eating and blogging hasn t helped at all. yikes!

sure, i was feeling all good, even had a check-up in the beginning of the year, and my liver is working as it should, my sugar-levels are normal, my cholesterol is perfect (the doc even seemed a bit surprised... i think he expected me to have loads of problems)...

but the cycling; i knew i shouldn t be getting so tired, not out of breath exactly, but just tired, so we stopped often, usually my excuse would be that i had to take loads of pics.

then we watched 'The Hairy Bikers Dieters' (we ve been huge fans of these guys since they first started out) and both Sam and i knew we had to change our eating habits as well.
anybody who follows some great tv-chefs and programmes on the BBC must also have noticed that our fave wine expert Olly Smith and diva-cook Nigella Lawson have shed quite a few kilos too?

so, we started, not by following a fad diet, not cutting out on anything (well, some things like too much sugar and fats and alcohol had to go), but eating everything, just in smaller portions (god, the portions we used to have!).

that s what we ve been doing the past few weeks.

i have banned Coca-Cola, i quit putting sugar in my coffee and tea, i use maybe about two-thirds less fat when cooking, we make spritzers of our wine, have one cookie instead of five, upped our veggie intake even more (we do love our veg), more than halved our consumption of meats...
and instead of having a baguette with an omelet in the morning, i make myself a smoothie with a half a cup of frozen raspberries, a cup each of frozen mango and frozen pineapple, a cup of water and half a cup of apple juice (i hate bananas...). i don t drink this in all in one go... but have a little all thru the morning, and then not even every day, but usually on a friday, which i call my special treats day. and on top of that, i ve quit grazing... my true downfall.
Sam s secret apparently is having porridge during the day... but he eats everything i make for dinner.

Sam also made us a hay-box inspired by something we saw on Wartime Farm...
believe me, this box is a wonder! whenever i m making a one-pot meal now, i just prepare all the ingredients, start it on our cooker, and once it has been boiling for about 5-10 minutes, i put my pot into the box, and leave it for a mininum of two to three hours to cook. and yes, i mean cook, the pot comes out of the box piping hot, and the food is cooked to a tee! since Sam and i both have busy evenings, knowing that we ll have a hot dinner without too much hassle when we can finally sit down to eat, is great, and i hope that a lower gas bill will soon also be a bonus.

yesterday, i didn t use my hay-box since what i had planned was simplicity itself, again inspired by another of my favorite chefs: Mr. Nigel Slater.

he has a new show on and i just couldn t resist making one of his recipes my own (and perhaps a tiny bit healthier? sorry Mr. Slater)

MAGRET DE CANARD (or duck breast) with BEANS and VEGGIES:

INGREDIENTS:

1 duck breast of about 300 gr
1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 spring onions, sliced
about 20 cherry tomatoes, halved (did you know 1 cherry tomato is about 1 calorie?... woah!)
1 tablespoon dried sariette (or winter savory)
sea-salt and black pepper

METHOD:

1. score the fatty skin of the duck breast diagonally
2. lay the breast skin-side down in a frying pan and fry on a gentle heat, you ll see the fat come out (like crazy, there s so much, but it s one of the healthiest fats around, very good for your heart and cholesterol... seriously) and while the skin becomes crispy, just tilt the excess fat into a small bowl (keep it for roast potatoes or something!)
3. when the skin is golden and crispy, turn the breast and brown the other side
4. give it about 5 minutes, again, a gentle heat, and when the breast is about rare to medium done, take it out and leave it to rest
5. meanwhile, leave about a small tablespoon of fat in the pan, and fry the chopped garlic, taking care not to brown them, add the tomatoes and the chopped spring onion and gently fry until softened, then add the beans and winter savory (this is an almost forgotten herb, but a wonder with beans - helps keep that horrible windiness, yes you know what i mean, away) with a bit of water (Mr. Slater uses marsala wine, which i thought might jeopardize the diet) and warm thru.
6. slice the duck breast, warm thru with the beans and serve...

seriously, seriously delish... as i m sure the version with marsala wine would be too, but hey, a few sacrifices...

wish us luck, we hope to reach our target weight by next year! i did say... hope...