I know lots of people who don’t like cooked carrots. And I understand why. There’s nothing more blah and boring than squishy, sweet carrot mush. For years I only ate them raw or lightly steamed, or chopped finely as a base for soups and sauces. But ever since I’ve discovered that you can roast carrots, I can’t get enough of the cheerful little buggers. Today I experimented a bit, and came with this recipe. The carrots are roasted for quite long, which makes them pleasantly soft but also gives them a nice hearty flavor. The spices, lemon juice and honey add some interest. If you’re one of those people who claims to not like carrots, I encourage you to try these. (more…)
Archive for October, 2009
Lentil salad with goat’s cheese and parsley
Today’s dinner is one I am particularly proud of. We had my favorite lentil salad, roasted carrots, some fantastic pita bread I bought a while ago from the jewish district, a spiced garlicky lemon-dill-yoghurt sauce I made, and some harissa for spice. It was a lovely, flavorful vegetarian meal, somewhat middle-eastern inspired, and very nutritious. I’ll post the lentil salad recipe first and tackle the carrots in the next post, because I think they both deserve to shine on their own.
Pommes Duchesse with cheese and parsley
I guess it’s tie to admit that I have very little experience with preparing Dutch food. Not that there’s anything wrong with it…per se. Or, you know, maybe there is! Its main flavor components are “salt” and “fat,” textures range from “gooey” to “gluey” and its main themes are “meat” and “potatoes.”
But even Dutch cuisine has its highlights, and a good “gehaktbal” (meatball) is one of them. Every grandma has her own top-secret recipe, and some of those recipes are fucking brilliant! Sadly, I don’t own one. Marbles’ mom, however, is widely renowned for her meatballs. And today I found out why! Marbles brought home some of her mom’s balls this weekend, and they were really damn delicious. But I can’t give you a recipe, it being Top Secret and all.
Instead, I’ll live you the recipe for my cheese-and-parsley pommes duchesse. They are the pretty little potato rosettes sitting next to that delicious looking meatball. And they’re surprisingly easy to make. (more…)
Chomp! under the weather
October 21st, 2009The Mexican flu has finally struck the headquarters of Chomp! I’d been feeling ill for a few days already, and Marbles started feeling ill last night. But only after she made me some really great tomato soup from an online Jamie Oliver recipe. I highly recommend it to all of the chompers out there who have been struck down by some virus or other.
Tonight I’m feeling a bit better already (although by no means “cured”), so after making some hot grogs, I’m going to start making some grilled chicken, fresh apple sauce, and a big pot of braised cabbage with caraway.
Spinach and ricotta risotto
I just realized that it must seem like I only cook Italian-style food, which isn’t the case. I guess I’ve just been on a bit of an Italian food kick lately. Also, I’ve gotta say that Italian-style cooking is really adaptable, which is great for using up leftover vegetables and such.
This risotto was the result of a huge bag of spinach left in the fridge, some leftover ricotta, something I read somewhere in some magazine, and the fact that I’m not totally crazy about pasta. It’s a simple risotto, much lighter than the usual kinds, and full of zing from the chili peppers and lemon zest. (more…)
Gambas with aïoli
One of the (many) reasons I will never regret moving to Amsterdam is the markets. My favorite Saturday activity is to wander around the Noorder-, Nieuw- or Albert Cuijp market, and decide my culinary weekend around what I find there. Last Saturday the prawns were looking exceptionally tempting, and the price was right.
I don’t eat prawns that often, because I can never be satisfied with 4 or 5 measly prawns. If I’m going to eat prawns, I want to be able to eat the HELL out of them. That’s why the portions on this recipe are rather generous. I’m also a prawn purist, so I don’t add too many ingredients. I do love some nice aïoli with prawns, so I added a recipe for that as well.
And of course I suck the head. It’s the best part!
Canneloni with spinach and mushrooms
Convenience foods are not for me, obviously. Why make things easy if you can make them unnecessarily complicated? If I had my way, I would actually roll my own pasta, make my own ricotta, and grow my own vegetables. Sadly, the circumstances of my life (such as, you know, people at work insisting that I actually produce something that isn’t edible) are kind of prohibitive.
In order to fulfill my need for D.I.Y cooking endeavors, I made these canneloni. And while I kept dreaming about owning a pasta machine, a goat farm, and a flourishing allotment full of home-grown spinach leaves, I had lots of fun AND produced a meal that elicited clearly audible CHOMPS! (more…)
Grilled eggplant with basil and mozzarella
This is one of my favorite quick meals. It takes no more than half an hour (depending on how you tackle the tomato sauce issue), but is still fresh and, not unimportantly, beautiful! It also works well as an hors d’oeuvre, if you cut the eggplant slices in half and offer toothpicks on the side, or as a pretty starter for a small crowd. But I usually want to just scoop it all into my maul as soon as it comes out of the oven…
Traditional tomato sauce
October 10th, 2009There are all kinds of commercial sauces available for pasta, and they all have one thing in common: THEY SUCK! Generally, they are too sweet, too watery, and too ketchup-like. And if you’re really unlucky, it will have all kinds of things that should never be in sauce-from-a-jar, like eggplant or parmesan. I mean, really? Parmesan cheese IN a tomato sauce? Barfalicious!
So needless to say, I make my own. And here’s the recipe. (more…)
Potato gnocchi with sage butter
Gnocchi. Food of the gods! I even liked the gummy, prepackaged kind sold at Dutch supermarkets before I moved to Slovenia, where, by virtue of being located right next to Italy, people know how to make really NICE gnocchi. Then I had the pleasure of tasting some FANTASTIC potato Gnocchi in Gardona in Italy, at a little restaurant up in the hills frequented by local workmen and such. Those were something else altogether! They were light and fluffy and perfectly seasoned, accompanied by a simple brown butter with fresh, wild sage. That’s when I decided I had to master the art of making gnocchi. (more…)