Mediterranean Gnocchi dish

Again for this dish, Rudolph van Veen has inspired me to make this, although I'm not the greatest fan of veggies, it was delicious.

 
Shopping list:
500 g gnocchi
     2 red onions
     3 cloves garlic
     1 green, 1 yellow, 1 red pepper
     1 courgette
     125g chorizo
     olive oil 
     2 tablespoons tomato paste
     1 bunch fresh oregano (or fresh parsley)
     100g manchego (Spanish cheese)
     400 g of artichoke hearts (from a jar or tin)

Cook the gnocchi according to the preparation method on the package. (We use fresh gnocchi that needs to be fried in butter for a few minutes)Peel and slice the onions into wedges.
Peel and slice the garlic coarsely.
Halve the peppers lengthwise, remove seeds and cut the peppers into pieces.
Cut the courgette into cubes.
Remove the skin from the chorizo ​​and cut the chorizo ​​into cubes. (Don't eat it with the skin!)
Heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the onions, garlic, peppers and courgette about 4 minutes. Add the chorizo ​​and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for about 2 minutes.
Cut the oregano.
Cut the manchego into cubes.
Drain the artichoke hearts off. Cut the artichoke hearts. 
Add the oregano, manchego and artichoke hearts to the frying pan and warm thoroughly.  
Stir in the gnocchi through and season to taste with a little salt and freshly ground pepper.

If you have some fresh tomatoes, just put them in as well.

A bold bottle of red wine goes perfectly with the dish.

Salmon filet with apricot mustard sauce with rice salad

Inspired by Dutch chef Rudolph van Veen I have prepared this dish yesterday. Easy and tasty!
For 4 persons:

Shopping list:

240 g canned apricots
     1 tbsp white wine vinegar
     1 tbsp mustard
     40 ml extra virgin olive oil
     450g salmon fillet
 
Rice Salad

     300g white rice
     2 little gems
     1 lemon
     200g peas (frozen or from the tin)
     extra virgin olive oil
     1 cup watercress (if not available, don't worry)
Rice

Cook the rice cooked according to the preparation method on the package.

Apricot-mustard salmon from the oven

Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.      
Drain the apricots off. Mash in a high bowl apricots, white wine vinegar, olive oil and mustard   in a blender smooth. Season with a little salt and freshly ground pepper.
Cut the salmon fillet into portions and place the salmon fillets in a greased baking dish. Pour the apricot marinade over the salmon and bake the salmon in the oven for about 12 minutes until tender.

Rice Salad
     
Remove the bottom of the and cut the into strips.
Peel the lemon and cut the lemon into pieces.
Mix in a large bowl of rice, little gem, cress, sliced ​​lemon, peas and a dash of extra virgin olive oil. Transfer the salad to taste with a little salt and freshly ground pepper.
 
Serve
Divide the rice salad on plates and divide the apricot-mustard salmon over the rice salad.

Clafoutis with plums

It's the time of year, our plum trees are bending over. Enjoy this clafoutis tarte, even I could do it so it's a tarte for dummies like me. About 14 persons can enjoy it.

Shopping list:

3 eggs
115g butter, softened
100g caster sugar  (or brown sugar)
1 teaspoon lemon zest  (or  little bit of lemon juice)
125g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
little bit of salt (like you do in pancakes)
230 gr plums, pitted and sliced

Preheat oven to 175 degrees . Grease a round baking pan of 23 cm and flour.
Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites in a small bowl until stiff and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar. Mix the egg yolks and lemon zest.
Mix the flour and baking powder and mix into the butter mixture over. Carefully fold the whipped egg whites. Spread the batter evenly in the pan. This is only about 2.5 cm. Arrange the plums with the skin side down in the batter.
Bake the cake cooked 40 minutes in the preheated oven. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Result with brown sugar

Stoned plums

Mixture

Egg whites beaten (up) with eyes ;-)

Sambal Goreng Telor

I love the Indonesian kitchen and today I have made a very simple but tasty lunch, inspired by my good friend René van Gellekom, thank you for the recipe which I modified a little bit.

Served with prawn crackers

Shopping list:

6 eggs 
1 lombok (chili/pepertje)
1 teaspoon Javanese or brown sugar (basterd suiker)
1 onion
2 tablespoons of vegetable/sunflower oil
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
3 garlic cloves
30 grams santen (kokos) dissolve in water 2.5 dl
1 teaspoon laos (powder)
1 teaspoon lemon grass (powder)
3 to 4 teaspoons sambal oelek or sambal oelek trassie (chili saus/piment)

Preparation:
Boil the eggs in about 10 minutes, so they are hard
Peel the eggs.
Chop the onions finely in food processorHeat the oil and fry the onions until they're golden brown.
Stir in the chopped garlic, the finely cut lombok (remove the seeds), the sambal, the santen mix, laos, lemon grass, the sugar and tomato puree.
Stir and bring it to the boil.
Then lower the gas and put the eggs into the sauce and let it simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

We have served the eggs and sauce with prawn crackers, however, you can add this dish to your rijsttafel.

Tip: Buy your tomato puree in a tube in stead of a tin

Green Asparagus Soup

In this time of year lot's of people eat asparagus white or green. Especially the green ones are great for making a soup. I had some left-over ones from last night and decided to make a soup.

Ingredients:

Bunch of asparagus
Butter
Onion
Vegetable or herb stock (from cube)
Crème fraiche
Parsley


Preparation:
Wash the asparagus and cut the butts off.
Peel the bottoms of the asparagus, cut the points off and throw them away.
Cut the rest of the asparagus into fine pieces.
Peel the onion and cut it into small pieces.
Melt the butter in a pan and fry all the vegetables without cover.
Extinguish with water, add the vegetables or herbs broth.
Bring it to boil and then simmer for 30 minutes, no cover.
Mix the soup until it is smooth. Add some crème fraiche and mix a bit frothy.
Garnish the soup with parsley and if you have with a slice of smoked salmon.
Serve with a hard roll.
I have not added extra salt / pepper because the stock is salty enough.

Fish Stew

A large pot

Through my friends on Face Book, what you're not on it yet, what a shame you don't know what you miss, I got a standard recipe for making a fish stew. When I read to put grated cheese on top, I had my doubts and looked further on the internet, however, most of the fish stews were with grated cheese and it was delicious! The nices thing of this recipe is that you can actually choose your fish and make it as expensive if you wish. Of course I gave my own twist to it and here it is.

For 4/5 persons:
Shopping list:
 

Individual pots

2 Filets of salmon and /or 2 slices of white fish and some seafood. (approximately 150 to 200 g. pp. fish (big eaters of course 200 gr)
2 Onions
2 Carrots
2 Leeks
Handful of mushrooms (optional)
200 gr. Grated cheese
500g Creme fraiche
Fish fond/powder  or vegetable stock from 2 cubes
Pepper and Salt to taste

Note: if your sauce is too liquid, then add some flour.
Note: you can add some dry white wine to give it a boost.
 Preheat oven to 180 ° C
Cut the vegetables into large pieces
Fry the onions in a little oil, once they turn brown the rest of the vegetables there, just to warm up, not too overcooked, because it needs to go in the oven! 
Add the vegetables
Add the creme fraiche and the stock.
Just heat through until the cubes are solved by a pepper and salt if necessary. (usually not necessary)

Cut the fish into cubes of about 2x2 cm divide among 4/5 small ramekins (a large scale can also, en famille)
Pour the creme fraiche mixture on top and garnish with grated cheese.

30 Minutes in the oven at 180 ° C degrees.

Serve with rice, mashed potatoes or a (French) bread.

Mustard soup

Not a common soup for everybody, but it's very tasty and easy to prepare, but you have to like mustard.

This basic recipe is for 4 persons.

Shopping list:
30 Gr real butter
40 Gr flour
1 liter chicken stock (cubes)
1 Dl crème fraîche
2 Egg yolks (dooier)
4 Table spoons of mustard, with grains (not the smooth one)

Melt the butter in a pan and stirr the flour (I always sift the flour) for about 5 minutes.
Then, keep stirring, add little by little the stock until smooth.
Bring to the boil for 2 minutes (or if you want to finish the soup later, then re-heat the stock again)
Mix the crème fraîche with the egg yolks. (Don't put it yet in the soup).
Now put the mustard in and finally the egg/crème mixture.

Ready to serve.