Bread pudding

Today again there was a lot of French baguette left and since -in general- French bread isn't very good to freeze, I was looking for another way to use it in stead of throwing it away.
And Google never let me down. I found a recipe that I modified a bit and the result is absolute great. It tastes a bit like a Dutch 'Oliebol' !
The guests tomorrow are in for a treat.

Shopping list:

300 grams of (old) bread (leave the crust on)
500 ml milk
175 grams sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
cinnamon (to taste)
4 eggs
optional: 1 apple and 50 grams raisins (they make it taste like 'oliebollen').

How to prepare:

Pre-heat oven on 180 degrees

Tear the bread and put it in a bowl.

Heat 500 ml of milk with 175 grams of sugar. Pour it over the bread and let it soak for a while. When it is well soaked, push it with a spoon or with your hands. Add a sachet of vanilla sugar and cinnamon and beat 4 eggs and pour this over. Stir everything well. Add 50 grams of raisins and an apple in pieces. 
Pour the mixture into an ovenproof dish.

Put the bread pudding in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 45-50 minutes. The pudding should be set in the center and light brown.

Let it cool down before you dive in.

I used a small ring to make nice portions once it cooled.

You can keep it fresh for 5 days in the fridge. No need to re-heat it before serving.

Festive Brunch idea's

No recipe today, but I'll show you the pictures of brunch idea's, which I prepared for our daughter's birthday last year.

Eggs Benedict with salmon made by my husband.

Savory dish

All you can eat dessert

Some useful information

Pasta with stir-fry vegetables (vegetarian, with meat option)

Too many veggies that needed to be finished up and what a splendid dish!
 
For 2 people:

Shopping list:

200 gr. Fusili (or other pasta, but not spaghetti)

Bag of spinach

1 Small zucchini (courgette)

250 gr  (Mixed) mushrooms

1 Clove of garlic

1 Shallot

200 ml Cream

Small bag of grated cheese

Olive oil (butter is also possible, but I've used oil)

Pepper

100 ml Vegetable stock (cube)

How to cook it:

Preheat the oven (180 gr). Cook the pasta in water according to package (better under- than overcooked)

Cut the mushrooms and zucchini (courgette) into slices.

Finely chop the shallot and garlic.

Saute the shallot and garlic in some olive oil and add the zucchini. After 3 minutes, add the mushrooms. Stir-fry until colored and finally add the spinach. Season with pepper.

Add the vegetable stock and the cream.

Drain the pasta and mix with the vegetable sauce. Place the mixture in a large baking dish and sprinkle over the cheese. Place in the oven until the cheese has melted nicely.

Note:
For a non-vegetarian meal, fry some cubes of chicken breast in a separate pan and after it is cooked, toss it through the vegetables/pasta in the oven dish.

Prawns Chinese style

We still had a prawn ring in the fridge and I thought we would use them in our dinner, instead of during our aperitif.

A surprisingly tasty meal which I will share with you.

Shopping list:

200 grams of prawns

¾ Red chili (remove seeds)

1 leek

150 grams Chinese wok vegetables (frozen or fresh)

200 grams Noodles

½ Lemon for the juice

Sweet Chili sauce

2 tsp 5 Spices 

Sunflower oil

How to prepare the dish:

First boil the noodles in water for about 5 minutes and then rinse immediately in a colander with cold water. These go later in the wok or frying pan.
Remove the tails of the prawns.

Chop the chili very small. Cut the leek in rings and wash them.

Put a splash of sunflower oil in the wok or frying pan.

Add 2 tsp 5 spices

Then add the chili, leek and wok vegetables

If they are crunchy, add the prawns

Pour the juice of half a lemon

Add a generous 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce

Finally, add the noodles and mix everything together making sure it's warmed all the way through.

Cinnamon rolls

Out of necessity, because the supermarket that gets delicious bread from the real baker is now closed on Sundays, I had to become a 'baker' myself. I only make this for guests because not all ingredients are always available.

After watching a lot of videos how to make the best, the 1st batches were too small and the the stuffing had run out.  You can also make them from puff pastry, but they are less tasty than from 'croissant dough'. Yes it can be that simple.

Shopping list:

1 can of croissant dough (usually in the refrigerator of the supermarket with the puff pastry). You get 7 buns out of them.

Cinnamon (needs about 1.5 tsp; matter of taste)

Caster sugar (light or dark brown) about 2 tb

Butter (10 grams needed)

Milk (to give the buns a nicer colour)

Muffin cases (paper)

muffin tray

Optional: raisins, syrup, apple, sprinkle with icing sugar (if you really have a sweet tooth).

How to prepare them:

Pre-heat oven on 190 degr. C

Roll out the dough and cut in half exactly, because these will put on each other later.

Pinch the holes in the dough.

Melt the butter and spread it on 1 slice of dough.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and then sprinkle over the buttered dough.

If you want to add raisins/apple (size of the raisin), you have to do it now.

Now take the long side of the dough and roll it up as tightly as possible.

Place this on the other sheet of dough (these holes must also be closed) and roll it up.

Cut 7 equal pieces with a knife.

Put the pieces in their muffin paper case and then in the muffin tray.

If you want to add a drop of syrup, now is the time.

Then brush the dough with milk.

Your cinnamon rolls will be ready in about 13 minutes.

I let them cool on a tray and then replace the muffing cases because they are sticky, but you have to know that yourself.

Good-luck and I look forward to see your result.

Meatballs from Morocco

While I was looking to buy a Masala Dabba (that is a tray where you can put your Indian spices, traditionally every Indian family kept there its own mixes) I came across an on-line shop with all kind of spices, called 'Mes Epices'. I bought Ras-el-Hanout spices with is a Moroccan spice. I will give you the recipe of the meatballs and the gravy.

 (Masala Dabba)

 (If you look properly you can see my name)

Shopping list:

For the meat balls you need: 

350 gr mince meat (gives you 6 balls)
2 ts (generous) of Ras-el-Hanout
1 ts garlic powder
1 ts chilly(sambal)
1 egg
breadcrumbs

For the gravy you need:

1 (red) onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 ts chilly (sambal)
1 (generous) ts of Ras-el-Hanout
1 vegetable cube
ca. 250 ml water

How to prepare the dish?

Mix the mince meat with all above ingredients, make balls and let them rest for 30 minutes.

Then fry them a few minutes in butter with olive oil until light brown and take them out of the pan.

Fry the onions and garlic in the same pan until soft, then add the rest of the ingredients to make the gravy. Can you smell it already?
Put the balls back in the pan, and let them cook for 30 minutes on a low heat, turn them from time to time.
If the gravy is too thin (take the balls out), add some flour, just the way you like it and stirr it, and put the balls in again.

We ate this with a pearl couscous salad. Pearl couscous has to be cooked like a pasta and is so much nicer than ordinary couscous.

                                            Bismillah

Dutch rolls

If you have lived in the French countryside for 14 years, you will quickly tire of the breads they have here. Now that I have not long ago given the food processor a place of honour on the counter, I also use it! So this time it became sandwiches and it's so easy. The recipe is from 'Marielle in the kitchen' with a small adjustment here and there.

Success, it will certainly work.

Shopping list:

500 gr flour for bread (I also made a batch with 'normal' flour, but the dough rises less and the inside is firmer, less fluffy. So I go for the bread mix) 

10 gr of salt

10 gr white normal sugar

10 gr dry baker's yeast 

25 gr butter

25 gr margarine

1 egg

230 gr (cold) water

How to bake it:

Put all ingredients in the bowl of the food processor and knead a nice dough. I used my food processor for this and let it knead for 7 minutes. Or knead by hand in about 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces of about 70 gr each and round the pieces of dough. (See instruction video here how to 'round' them and take the air out of the dough) 

Let the balls come loose under a plastic (sandwich) bag in 10 minutes.

Flatten the balls a little. Place them evenly spaced on a a baking paper tray.

Fill a roasting tin with boiling water and place it under the baking tray.

Let the dough rise for an hour until the baking tray has risen nicely full.

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees.

Place a roasting tin with (new) boiling water in the bottom of the oven and slide the buns into the oven. Bake the buns for 9 minutes until the buns are nicely brown and done.

After baking, brush the buns lightly with some melted butter and let the buns cool on a wire rack.

And that's all there is to it. 

Keep them fresh, wrapped in a plastic bag in the freezer.