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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

high tea

  

Yesterday I had a workshop high tea. I thought it would be nice to tea in vintage style. It looks so classy.

First the ladies entered and made the recipes. That was followed by the official high tea. The high tea dishes entered the table one by one. Off course there were different sorts of sandwiches, brownies, quiche and scones. And a few other sweets were made.

The ingredients that weren't made by the ladies were acquired from local suppliers. The bread and chocolates came from a local bakery. The tea came from a tea house a few kilometers from here. And the rest I got by my usual supplier the Landwinkel, which gets it's produce from farmers and small companies in the neighborhood.

The ladies were very enthusiastic and spread a lot of sunshine in the kitchen.

It was a great workshop.

Hereby a photo of the table styling (with help from my sister in law Danny):


Sunday, January 27, 2013

TWD: french apple Tart

O gee. It's not a tuesday anymore. Guilty. I've been away from home a couple of days and forgotten to put this post in my blog list. And then it's a Sunday.
But I made the recipe so I thought I'm going to post it anyway. The recipe was good. The dough wasn't sweet and was filled with apple puree. In Holland we've got a tart that also got this puree which is called a appelflap. On top there was a nice circle of granny smith apples in a layer. A bit of butter was smeared on top and the tart was placed in the oven until the apples were ready and on the sides nice brown.

Was it the nicest apple tart I've ever tasted? No, but it is very nice though.  There are better Dutch apple pies. My husband had the same opinion. But that was no problem: we ate it anyway until the last crumb.

Now I'm going further with the preparation of a high tea workshop. Tomorrow a couple of ladies will make there own sweets, scones and sandwiches and eat it all while drinking tea.

My tea I've got from Bloesem Teahouse from Herpen, a village about 10 km from here. People who've got disabilities or want to learn for a career are working and learning in the Teahouse. 
A social and local tea. And very nice also, I can tell from my own experience!

When I think about it: it would be a great tea to go along with this tart.

When you want to make the tart, you can find the recipe on the site of our host:
http://www.kitchenlaw.blogspot.nl/2013/01/bwj-french-apple-tart.html



Friday, January 25, 2013

FFWD: shrimp and cellophone noodles

French Fridays again and this time we had shrimps and noedels. It was a quick recipe and just on the right time.
I had a plan that I made this recipe in all rest, so I had the time to fully enjoy it. And make a decor, take a lot of pictures, so I could pick out the best. But reality checked in and my day was full and my husband said, shall we go out for dinner instead?
But no, this was the answer, a really quick recipe. Unfortunately also a really quick picture (not the decor I hoped for).

And furthermore? I guess I didn't use the cellophane noodles. But that's a guess because I don't know the Dutch translation of it. I think it's a sort of vermicelli, but I didn't want to use that because my husband doesn't like them at all.
And I didn't use the mushrooms for allergic reasons.

And for the taste? We liked the shrimp and the sauce was ok. The recipe was nice, but it wasn't my favorite shrimp recipe.

So long for the next french Fridays with brussels sprouts. I'm excited!



Sunday, January 20, 2013

Sauerkraut casserole

It's snowing here in Holland. It's cold and very windy. I can enjoy a really great casserole. Delicious. Put on the oven and a great smell is there. It's winter!

A real winter food is sauerkraut. But it's not a vegetable which everybody will enjoy (because of the sour taste).So I went on the internet and found a good recipe on Smulweb (a Dutch recipe database), with a recipe from RuthBrock. This recipe was the inspiration for my casserole:

Ingredients:
- 1200 gram potatoes;
- 500 mL chicken stock;
-100 mL milk;
- 2 tablespoons butter;
- 125 gram bacon, cut in 1 cm thick stripes;
- 50 mL cream;
- pinch nutmeg;
- 500 grams ground beef;
- pinch ground paprika;
- salt and pepper at taste;
- 3 tablespoons fried onions;
- juice from one orange;
-1 tablespoon of brown sugar;
-1 tablespoon chili sauce;
- 2 tablespoons ketjap manis;
- 4 tablespoons ketchup;
- 4 tablespoons  bread crumbs;
- 500 grams sauerkraut.

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.Bake the butter crunchy on a low fire. Peel the potatoes and cut them in equal pieces. Boil the potatoes in the chicken stock until they are done.
On a low fire heat the milk, butter and nutmeg, until the butter is melted. Puree the potatoes. Mix with the milk butter mixture.
Meanwhile cook the sauerkraut. Put the sauerkraut in a colander and give a quick rinse with water. Put it in a large pan and add the cream, bacon and fill with water till 2 cm. Cook for 15 minutes..
Add salt and pepper at taste to the sauerkraut. Bake and loosen the ground beef until brown. Add paprika, onions, orange juice, brown sugar, chili sauce, ketjap and ketchup. Taste and add, when you like, a little bit more of the previous ingredients.
Butter a casserole pan. The first layer will be the sauerkraut.Put the meat as a second layer on the sauerkraut. Cover with the potato puree.
Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top en distribute small butter bits on top. Put 30 minutes in the oven until golden brown. Serve immediately.



Friday, January 11, 2013

FFwD: Long and slow apples


It's Friday again and so it's Friday with Dorie time. This time we made a dessert with apples. The apples were combined with Orange zest, sugar, butter and a few spices. And then it had to bake for a real long time in the oven.
It was served with single cream, but not a usual single cream: this cream had a few extra ingredients. Some spices which added a special taste to the cream.

And the result, did we like it. Yes and no. It looked great, but it was to big. The apples were so strong of taste that the amount of apple was to much for one dessert. The taste was nice, but not in that amount. But I could imagine this apple dessert in a small portion in a grand dessert, with some vanilla ice cream perhaps?

If you want to know what the rest of the participants thought of the recipe: you can look it up at:

For the result:

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Spaghetti with minced meat, broccoli and bacon

A really nice recipe, even if your not a great fan of broccoli (so has been said by others). And really fast, so ideal when you have a work day. I've got a lot of great reactions on this recipe. Maybe it's the combination of the salty bacon, the sweet onion and the pepper from the olive oil.
Is there something that would make this recipe even better? Yes, when you make your own spaghetti. But that's something for another blogpost. One tip: the pan is really clean after I make the amount in this recipe for 3 adults and 3 children below 10. For the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 1 kg broccoli;
- 250 grams bacon slices;
- 500 grams minced meat;
- 1 small onion;
- olive oil, extra vierge;
- 500 grams spaghetti;
- parmesan at taste.

Preparation:
Slice the onion very thin. Cut the broccoli in small pieces. Put two pans with water on the stove and let the water cook (make sure you've got one big pan). In the meanwhile put a frying pan with the bacon on medium gas for about 5 minutes. Add the onion and bake for another 5 minutes. Then add the minced meat and bake it until it's nice brown. Put aside.
Cook the broccoli in the smallest pan for about 7 minutes until done. Drain and set aside. In the largest pan cook spaghetti conform the manufacturers direction. Drain the spaghetti en put it back in the large pan. Pour a little olive oil on the spaghetti and add the broccoli and minced meat/bacon mixture. Mix well.
Put it on a plate and add the parmesan at taste.



Tuesday, January 8, 2013

twd: pizza with onion confit

Today it's Tuesdays with Dorie again! And a really good one. We made pizza, but different as I am used to, we made a sponge first. After that we made the final dough.
And we made our own onion confit.

And the result:
The crust of the pizza was great. Probably by using the sponge in the dough. The onion confit was terrific. Really sweet and a nice combination with the pizza bottom.
I used as a topping goat cheese, olives and Parmesan. That saltiness added by these toppings, as suggested by Dorie, are also a great combination with the sweet onion confit.

Was there something negative on this recipe. Only one thing: the amount of time it costs before you get the result. Almost 4 hours before the final result. But it was worth waiting.

This post participates in Tuesdays with Dorie. The recipe for Pizza with Onion Confit can be found at the site of this week's host, Paul of the Boy can bake.

As for the photo of the end result:


Friday, January 4, 2013

FFWD: herb-speckled spaetzle

It's French Friday with Dorie time again. This time a recipe with spaetzle and herbs. Never tasted it before, so this could be a surprise. The name reminded me that the recipe originated from somewhere in German/Austria and it seemed to be true.
It looks a bit like pasta, but with it's own way of preparation. Officially you need a special spaetzle tool to make it, but I used my potato masher and it worked very good. 

It tasted really great. Because of the herbs and the onion it had a great flavour. In the original recipe mushrooms were used as well, but because of allergies, we didn't use them. Dorie said this recipe is great with fish and it will be, I'm sure.
If you want to try it, be sure to buy the book Around my french table of Dorie Greenspan. If you want to know what the other thought of it, check out: www.frenchfridayswithdorie.com.