Risotto with carrots and goat cheese

Lately I am cooking so divers that I am starting to have difficulties to think of something new. Yesterday was one of those days, so I took my notebook where I keep a list of the recipes that in the last few years I have been testing and I came to this risotto, actually one of our favorites.

The ingredients you need: leek (only the white part, you can keep the green part to make broth, for instance), garlic, carrots in dices, zest of a lemon, white wine, vegetable broth (I use home made, see in earlier posts to read how to make), thyme leaves, risotto, peas, soft goat cheese and rocket salad.

In a pan hit some butter and olive oil and bake the leek about 3 minutes, then add the garlic, carrots, some of the lemon zest and some of the thyme leaves, mix well and add the wine, let it slowly cook for about 10 minutes. After that add the risotto, bake for a couple of minutes and slowly add the broth, spoon by spoon. When the rice is almost done, add the peas and mix well again, let it cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, until you feel that the peas and rice are ready. Give some extra taste with salt and pepper and then add some of the goat cheese, stir all well and warm up a bit. Serve with the rest of the goat cheese, lemon zest, thyme leaves and some rocket salad.

In this recipe I use goat cheese with honey, that gives a sweeter taste and children will love it. You could also use rosemary instead of thyme, check what you have at home. Of course the broth can also be from chicken, but since I wanted a full vegetarian meal I use vegetable broth.

Macaroni with cauliflower

I love to prepare meals in the oven, casseroles, cakes … The autumn and the winter are great for that reason. Yesterday I made a kind of macaroni-cheese but then with cauliflower, I had some left over that I just had for lunch.

The ingredients are: cauliflower, macaroni, grated cheese, pancetta, dark bread, garlic, rosemary, creme fraiche and some parmesan. In a roasting pan put the pancetta and bake in the 200 degrees preheated oven for about 10 minutes, until is crunchy. When is ready take it out, leave the oven on. Then in a food processor add the pancetta, the pieces of bread, the rosemary needles and some olive oil, mix all together until you have nice breadcrumbs.

In a pan cook some water with salt, add the cauliflower and after 10 minutes add the macaroni. Cook for another 8 minutes until the pasta is ready. Then keep some of the boiling water a side. Put the pasta with cauliflower into the roasting pan, add some of the boiling water, the grated cheese, some garlic, the creme fraiche, salt and pepper. If it is to dry add some more water after mixing. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and then into the oven for about 10/12 minutes. You can serve with a green salad and some good wine.

Beautiful autumn

Last weekend we went for a couple of days to our friends in the other side of the country. They live very close to the Veluwe, a very big National Park that we love so much. We were very lucky with the weather so we could do a lot of things outside and enjoy specially nature. We went a couple of times for a walk on the woods and of course in this time of the year is so beautiful. The colors, the air, the surprisingly mushrooms. The kids enjoy a lot as well. So a bit off topic from cooking, I took a few nice pictures and I thought I would like to share with you.

Now is monday and I have to start planning again my cooking week, let’s see what I am going to prepare in the coming days 

Pumpkin with creamy cheese in the oven

Yesterday I was kind of cleaning my refrigerator, checking what I had that I could use before I do some shopping and somewhere in there I found the half of my pumpkin from last week. Well he was still ok, so we had to use right away or in the end we end into the garbage. It was not enough for soup, in another hand with some potatoes and cheese will be perfect. And that is what I did.

Ingredients: in my case I had half pumpkin, some potatoes (it depends how hungry you are and how many people you are), one red pepper, sour cream, brie, salt and pepper.

Cook the potatoes in pieces for about 20 minutes, on the last 10 minutes add the pumpkin in daces. When ready keep a cup of the cooking water and mash the potatoes with the pumpkin very well, add the water, the sour cream, salt and pepper. Mix all well and put all into a baking dish, then on the top the brie in small layers. Finish in a preheated oven at 190 degrees for about 20/25 minutes. Perfect!

Chocolate-Raisins Cake

My friend, who is moving to New Zealand next week, came yesterday to say goodbye around coffee time. Of course I had to make a cake for that occasion, isn’t? and there is nothing better than a cake with chocolate. So I made this one for the first time and I have to say it did taste very good.

The ingredients you need are:175 gr. soft butter, 100 gr. brown muscovado sugar, 4 eggs, 225 gr. chopped pure chocolate, 100 gr. raisins, 50 gr. chopped walnuts, zest of 1 orange, 225 gr. self-rising flour and a 23 x 15 cm cake form.

Just mix the butter with the sugar until is very light and soft. Then you have to add the eggs one at the time, wait to add the next until is very well mix. Add the chocolate, walnuts, raisins and orange zest, carefully mix. Sieve the flour and very carefully mix all with a wooden spoon. Scoop in the already greased baking form the dough and cook for about 1 hour in a 150 degrees preheated oven or until the cake is ready an has a nice color.

Leave the cake about 10 minutes to rest in the form and then take out and leave to cold completely in a wire rack. By the coffee of the tea is very good and the children love it!

Sandy cookies

These week my daughter has school holidays, so we try to do some fun things with all the free time. So yesterday afternoon we made sandy cookies or biscuits, how you want to call it. It was easy, fun and they taste also good, a perfect afternoon.

You only need very soft butter, icing sugar, flour, cornflour and some caster sugar just to sprinkle. First you beat the butter and sugar with a mixes until is very creamy. Then you sift the flour and cornflour with the creamy mix and wit your hands you work it out until a nice dough. Don’t do it to long otherwise the biscuits will be to dry. Then you have to options, you can divided in two and then roll until 5 mm thick or you could roll the hole thing until 5mm thick and use some cutters to give a nice form.

Bake for about 20 minutes in a 180 degree oven or until golden, then sprinkle with the caster sugar. Really a tea treatment …

Plum cake with custard

I always look for an excuse to bake something and of course these weekend we had our friends over, so that is no better excuse! I took all my books and magazines to look for something I haven’t done before and I found a plum cake with custard sauce. It didn’t work as in the book, actually in the end it was more like a plum cheese cake, but it was absolutely delicious!

For the cake you need: cream cheese, fine sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, brown caster sugar, butter, self rising flour and plum. For the custard you need milk, double cream, cornstarch, egg yolks, fine sugar and if you wish white chocolate.

In one bowl you mix the cream cheese, fine sugar, vanilla and 1 egg until a smooth mixture. In another bowl mix de butter, brown sugar, flour en another 3 eggs until a creamy mixture. Then you work layers in your bake form, first the creamy mixture, then the smooth mixture, mixing a bit with a fork, add the half of the plums and start again, ending with the last plums. Bake in a 170 degrees oven for about 50/60 minutes.

You can serve with some icing sugar and the custard. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea!

Pizza

There is nothing better to eat with children than pizza. And if the pizza is self made is even better. Last friday we made 7 different pizza’s at home, everybody chose their own ingredients. It was really a pizza party!

The pizza base you can make with flour, semolina, yeast, salt, cane sugar and some warm water. You mix the flour, semolina and salt together. Then the warm water with the yeast and the sugar. Add the moisture mix to the flour and work with your hands until a good dough. This take about 10 minutes. Drift the dough with some flour, cover with plastic foil and leave to rise at least 15 minutes. After that you can unroll in the form you want.

The choice of ingredients to put in your pizza depends in what you prefer. We had a lot of choice, so everybody made his own creation, the only thing it was basic to everybody was the passata, then we had: tuna, champignons, tomatoes, spinach, mozzarella, grated cheese, mascarpone, ham, oregano, chili, salt and pepper. After the pizza’s are ready they go in a very hot oven (250 degrees) for about 12 minutes. We served with a green salad.

Unfortunately we were so hungry and busy that we forgot to take pictures of all them, so I only have 3 …

Jamie’s Oliver Macaroni-Cheese

In The Netherlands the kids have a week holiday from school in October. Not everybody at the same time. Our daughter has holiday’s next week, but our friends that are living in other side of the country have this week holiday. So yesterday they arrive to our house to stay for a few days with us, next week we will go there for the weekend 

That means we have a house with 3 kids and 4 adults at this moment. And of course it’s a bit of holiday for us as well, your meals have to be a bit festive. I thought that was nothing that good as macaroni cheese, from Jamie’s Oliver America book! Absolutely delicious. If you have the book you can see the recipe in there, I did exactly as it is only I made less quantity and I forgot to add the Worcester sauce, but still the taste was fantastic.

The ingredients are very simple actually: butter, flour, garlic, bay leaves, milk, macaroni, tomatoes, grated Cheddar cheese, grated parmesan, thyme, worcester sauce or nutmeg (but I forgot to add any of them), salt and pepper.

You can serve with a green salad and some bread. The pan was empty. Tonight we will make pizza’s!

Risotto with pumpkin

It is now really autumn, the leafs are changing color, the sun, when is there, has a special light. It’s time for “gezellig thuis” like the Dutch say (cozy at home). And of course pumpkin, you can make it in many different ways. Yesterday I tried for the first time in a risotto, it was so good, melting in your mouth. A lot of vitamins in one go!

The ingredients that you need are: pumpkin (I used only half, depends on how many people you are), shallots, garlic, vegetable broth (bouillon), parsley, basil, risotto rice, grated parmesan, grated zest of a lemon or an orange  and a bit of salt. The vegetable bouillon I had made a few days ago, you can read earlier in September how to make and I had freeze some without salt, that’s why you need to add some salt. If you use broth from cubes you don’t need to add salt, it is already there.

In a pan heat some olive oil and bake the shallots and garlic until golden. Then add the risotto, mix well and slowly add bouillon, one spoon or two at the time, wait until all bouillon is taken to add the next spoon. When the rice is a bit soft, but not too soft, add the pumpkin, some more bouillon and let it cook for about 10 minutes or until the pumpkin is ready.  To give the final taste, mix with the parsley, basil, grated zest of lemon or orange and grated parmesan.

You can make a lot of combinations all depending in what taste you prefer. The original recipe had chicken bouillon, but I wanted to make a full vegetarian meal. I used the zest of a lemon, but you can have a orange or lime, that will give just a bit of different taste. Before you start adding the first bouillon you could add one glass of white wine. That’s the great of a risotto, endless combination.

Tagliatelle with Marta’s sauce

Finally monday  we had a very busy weekend. Saturday there was a party at my daughter’s school and sunday we went to a children’s book fair. So busy busy busy. Our cooking then had to be simple and yesterday I prepare my famous tomato sauce for the pasta. When I made this one I prepare a lot, then we can eat at least another time, sometimes I made more and I freeze in portions.

The ingredients: chopped meat, chopped onions, garlic, champignons, big bottle of passata, tomato puree, cumin, fresh and dry thyme, fresh and dry rosemary and salt. Simple!

First you cook the chopped meat with cumin in a big pan, then add the onion and garlic, bake for a couple minutes and add the champignons. When everything is well cooked add the passata, the tomato puree, a glass of water and some salt. Mix well then add the dry thyme and dry rosemary, mix well again. Put a few twigs of thyme and rosemary, put the cover on the pan and cook very slow until all ingredients are one, it will smells delicious!

In another pan you just make the pasta with water and salt, this time I had fresh tagliatelle but you can use any other pasta. Serve with bread and parmesan. Easy and delicious!

Frittata with left overs

What a nice an sunny day was yesterday, I could really enjoy the weather, I did some bike riding and shopping and I even could sit in my garden with a cup of coffee and relax.

After checking my refrigerator I saw few things that needed to be cooked or throw away. Since I don’t like to throw away food, I decided to mix all the ingredients in a Frittata, you can combine ingredients as much as you like, every time you have a different frittata, a different taste, it’s perfect!

Mine yesterday had: leek, red onion, pancetta, diced ham, green peas and cherry tomatoes, of course you can have spinach, red or green pepper, onions, garlic, rocket, potatoes, salami, chorizo, … whatever you have in house, that’s the great of it. Then for the egg mixture, I had 5 eggs (you can use more or less depending on how much vegetables/meat you have), basil, siege, thyme, grated dutch cheese and grated parmesan. You can also use other different spices like parsley, oregano, rosemary, check what you have.

The first thing is to cook with olive oil the vegetables and meat until they are ready. In a bowl prepare the egg mixture, well beaten. Check if  in the vegetables/meat there is much moisture, if that is the case take out a little bit, then add the egg mixture, mix well and add the tomatoes, cook for about 5 minutes. Then put the pan in a preheated oven at 150 degrees for another 15/20 minutes. Of course serve with some green salad and bread.

Now is your refrigerator empty and clean, plus you didn’t throw away food! 

Cupcakes for school

I have a very good friend that in a couple of weeks is going to move to New Zealand with her family for almost a year. Now she is arranging everything, like the farewell. Her daughters of course have to say goodbye at school and they wanted to do in a special way, they wanted to treat all theirs classmates with cupcakes. My friend asked me if I would like to help  for her 10 years old daughter farewell cupcales, she is as well my daughter’s friend.

So yesterday we had a cupcake production at her house, we made 36 vanilla cupcakes with marzipan decoration in the form of a kiwi, very appropriate for New Zealand. It took us about 3 hours to make all the work and finally we could sit with a cup of tea and a delicious cupcake and enjoy. It was a very nice afternoon, tiring though. Next week she has to do this again for her younger daughter, but we already came out with some ideas to make production easier and less long 

For 12 vanilla cupcakes you just need:200 gr. flour / 220 gr. caster sugar / 7 gr. baking powder / a bit of salt / 1 egg / 180 ml milk / 60 ml sunflower oil / 1 table spoon vanilla extract.

In one bowl you mix all dry ingredients in another bowl you mix all the other ingredients. Then you mix them together until a nice dough, it is wet dough so no need to mix long otherwise it will not rise well. Fill the cupcases until 2/3 and bake for about 25 minutes at 180 degrees.

The decoration was with marzipan you can just roll out and give the form and colors you want. This is something fun to do with children.

Minestrone with pasta

What a busy day I had yesterday with a lot of different things during the day and I still wanted to go to the gym in the evening, so I needed something that would give me enough energy to do so. Minestrone with pasta was the answer.

Actually it was for me the first time to make a minestrone and definitely not the last! In a minestrone you can just add all those left over vegetables that you have at home and combine for a delicious meal. Minee from yesterday had: onions, garlic, celery, carrots, potatoes, white beens, pancetta, tortellini (you can have another pasta like vermicelli), passata, chicken broth and for garnish pesto and grated parmesan.

It is very simple to make, in one pan you can prepare the chicken broth meanwhile in a soup pan you bake in olive oil de pancetta, garlic, onions, celery and carrots for a few minutes until vegetables are a bit soft. Then you can add the bouillon, potatoes and the passata, let it cook until the vegetables are ready, about 30 minutes in slow fire. In case you use tortellini you have to cook them in another pan following instructions from the package. If you decided to use vermicelli then you can add at the last 5/10 minutes of cooking with the minestrone.

Once the tortellini are ready add together with white beans into the minestrone and let a couple minutes warm up. Add some pesto into the pan. Serve with a bit more pesto, grated parmesan and bread. Enjoy your meal!

Almond’s cookies

A new week has started, full with new possibilities, at least I try to think positive … I have a few appointments this week that will keep me good busy and in contact with other people, that’s good!

To start the week with a lot of energy I thought that was nothing better than to bake some cookies, so yesterday afternoon I made cookies together with my daughter, it was nice and of course the result it was so delicious! We made them with same base as a couple of weeks ago: butter, caster sugar, muscovado sugar, 1 egg, vanilla extract, plain flour, baking powder, but then instead of adding chopped chocolate, we added almonds, that way they were one piece, no melting chocolate, the cookies are really crunchy, perfect! Now I just have to practice to make them nice and round, but that will be the next time …

Albondigas

Yesterday it was a bit of a strange day, I had a lot of cooking plans but suddenly I didn’t feel well and I had to put aside all my ideas for another day. Some how I managed to prepare dinner with the help of my husband, the famous Spanish albondigas. I don’t know why  we don’t make more often, they are absolutely delicious and easy to make, and you can make a big pan, like we did, then you can freeze or keep in the refrigerator to eat another time, it is perfect!

The ingredients you need are simple as well: chopped meat (I use organic beef), garlic, onions, parsley, bread-crumbs, eggs, flour, tomatoes in pot, green peas, a bit of white wine, water, salt and sugar, I also add a few spoons of tomato puree, that gives the extra taste to the meal, absolutely fantastic.

The first thing is to mix the meat with the garlic, parsley, bread-cumbs and eggs, a bit of salt and leave to rest for about 45 minutes, if it is longer is also good, how longer how more tastier the meat will be. After that make small/medium meatballs, roll the meatballs in flour and fry round in a pan with olive oil.

In another pan you can add olive oil and fry the chopped onions until a nice golden color. Then you can add the tomatoes and tomato puree, a bit of salt, sugar and some water. Cook for about 10 minutes, then add the wine, another 2 glasses of water. About 10 minutes after that add the meatball into the pan and the green peas. Cook all for 15 minutes, until the green peas are ready. It could be that the tomato sauce is a bit liquid, then can use maizena to bind the sauce.

Serve with bread, green salad and a good red wine! Que aproveche!

Casserole with leek and potatoes

Yesterday my daughter went to sleep over to the house of one of her girlfriends, I actually wonder if they did sleep much  . Anyway we were just the two of us at home and I decided to make a simple casserole for 2, some of the ingredients I already had at home, others I had to go to the supermarket.

You only need, leek, very small potatoes or normal ones in small pieces, ham cubs, a bit of mustard, creme fraiche, grated cheese and salt and pepper. First you bake the leek, potatoes and ham after that you put all in a baking dish, add the mixed creme fraiche, mustard and cheese. Bake for about 35 minutes in the oven. Serve with a wine and bread, simple and delicious! For this meal you can make a lot of combinations I already have other ideas in mind that I will use soon.  After that quiet dinner for 2 we went to the movies, long time ago since the last time.

Tortilla de patatas

This week has been a bit difficult for me, I got a few rejected applications, I did other new applications so I have been busy trying to find a job, unfortunately until now no result. A pity because I know I can do those jobs, well I have to have faith and soon I might have something.

Meanwhile I try to keep busy with my cooking, discovering new shops, yesterday I went for the first time to a cake shop, fantastic, I bought some marzipan, soon I want to make a Halloween cake  To bad that all that marzipan is full of E numbers, 7 in the orange one! I hope to find somewhere a more natural one, but for now that will have to do.

So in the evening I wanted to make an easy dinner, Tortilla de patatas (Potatoes Tortilla) is de perfect easy Spanish meal. You only need 4 ingredients, potatoes, onions, eggs and olive oil (a lot), and of course salt. The potatoes need to be peeled and cut in slices, you bake them in olive oil, it takes about 30 minutes to get them just right. Then you add the chopped onion, bake for another 10 minutes, until everything has a nice golden color. The most probably you will have to add some oil during your cooking, the potatoes tend to absorb the oil and you don’t want a dry Tortilla.

In a bol you can beat the eggs and when they are ready add the potatoes to the eggs, not the other way around! Mix well and then pass it into a smaller pan that has a plain cover, that will help you to turn the tortilla when one side is ready to do so. The all cooking time it takes about 10/15 minutes. Serve with a nice glass of wine, bread and a fresh salad. Buen provecho!

Spaghetti with chicken and champignons

Yesterday I felt like eating pasta. Pasta is something that is always good, if is warm outside that you can make a fresh one and if is a bit cold then you make a more filling one that will keep you warm. My spaghetti from yesterday were more like the last one. The morning we had a nice sun, I took the advantage to do my groceries by bike and enjoy the fresh air. But in the afternoon, lucky for me I was just at home, started to rain a lot and today is still like that.

The spaghetti, the ingredients you need are: champignons, dried porcini, chicken, garlic, white wine, double cream, fresh basil and a lot of parmesan. You prepare first all the ingredients together in a big pan that also in the oven can go. In another pan you do the spaghetti, when they are ready you add them to the chicken/champignons pan and with some more rasped parmesan and the fresh basil, then goes into the oven for about 15/20 minutes, you will get a crispy top layer. You can serve with some ciabatta bread, absolutely delicious and very filling …

Paella

Like almost every sunday we decided to do a walk, only this time it was to the city center. We live in an outside neighborhood about 4 km. from the city center of Haarlem. So we went walking to the center, we did some shopping, since a few months almost all shops are open every sunday, very handy actually. After that we had a cup of coffee and then back home. Around 10 km total …

Well I can tell you after that exercise we were quite hungry  . And there is no better than a good Paella to get your energy back. When I made paella I made a lot, that way I can keep in the refrigerator to eat another day, specially for busy days when you don’t have much time to cook.

The ingredients, the most famous paella is of course with fish, but since at home we are not really very fun of fish, I made with meat, you could also make a vegetarian version. Our paella has chicken and pork sausage, then you need tomatoes, garlic, green pepper, red pepper, green peas and as spices saffron, ground sweet paprika, salt and water. There are some recipes that are prepare with bouillon, I prefer to use water because my spices and the meat will give already all the taste that is needed. And of course you also need rice, here in The Netherlands I use risotto because it is easier to find, also we like a bit more than the paella rice, is softer and creamier.