Palak paneer

A classic saag from the Punjab region of India.

Ingredients:
350 gram fresh spinach, each person
1 onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (minced and chopped)
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
paneer
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon cumin seed
4 cardamons
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
dried fenugreek leaves

Boil the spinach is some water for a couple of minutes in a open pot. Drain spinach a little and put in blender.

Heat oil or ghee and fry cinnamon stick, cardamon, cloves and cumin seeds until they pop. Count the cardamon and cloves.

Add minced garlic and a chopped onion. Add salt (cooks the onions faster). Fry until the onions are slightly brown and soft. Remove cinnamon stick, cardamon and cloves.

Add 1 tablespoon ginger paste (freshly grated ginger). Add 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder and chopped tomato (one or two, skinned and chopped). Cook on medium flame until the tomato's and onions are dissolved. You want a smooth sauce. Add 1 teaspoon cumin powder and 1 teaspoon coriander powder. Add crumbled dried fenugreek leaves, chili powder and/or fresh green chili (chopped). Add spinach and simmer for a short time until you see oil drops forming on top.

Add paneer and simmer for a few minutes until the paneer has soaked up the flavour. I have seen people fry the paneer before adding it to the kadai, so I might try that one time.

Serve with chapati or rice.

Italian courgette soup

So simple I wonder why I haven't made this before. I was inspired when I tasted Ingrid's Courgette soep met pit last week. I added some Italian flavours. One courgette for each half litre of stock.

Cut one courgette, basil leaves and garlic, according to taste, coarsely.

Fry the courgette, basil and garlic in olive oil for 10 minutes until slightly brown.

Add half a litre of chicken stock or vegetable stock and simmer for 10 minutes.

Keep 1/4 apart (for some bite) and blend to the other 3/4 to a smooth mixture.

Return the 1/4 to the soup; add cream (crème fraîche) and grated parmesan or pecorino according to taste.

Serve with more grated cheese, croutons (fried in olive oil with garlic) and garnish with fresh basil leaves.

Chicken & Chicory in Marsala Sauce

Heat a frying pan with olive oil.

Season chicken breast with skin on with salt and black pepper. It's pretty hard to find chicken breast with skin. I went for plain chicken breast and gasped when two breasts cost 11 euro's at the farmers market. Luckily, they were very tasty indeed.

Fry chicken (skin down) and chicory in hot oil until brown. This should be done on high fire.

Turn chicken and chicory, add crushed garlic and sprig of thyme, a generous splash of marsala and 150 ml chicken stock.

Add butter and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve with bread.

Choucroute alsacienne

Ingredients

750 grams sauerkraut
Cured pork; Dutch: zuurkoolvlees. (the traditional recipe 'choucroute garnie' has five or more different kinds of meat).
Onion
Apple
Garlic
Glass of white wine (I used a Rieflé Pinot Blanc form the Alsace. Not too dry, a little fruity, which goes nice with the pork and balances out the sour taste of the sauerkraut and apple. If possible use a Riesling)

Spices:
Juniper berries
Bay leaf
Cloves
Caraway seeds (optional: they're not used in the Alsace, but I like them)
Black pepper.

Fry the onions and garlic in goose fat (the proper way), butter or olive oil. Whatever you have. I used olive oil. Throw everything in the pot, cover and cook for 3 hours on a very slow fire. The longer the better... time is the secret to a successful choucroute d'alsace. You can cook this dish late in the evening and eat the next day. Add a little water if it gets too dry. It should be rather juicy

Serve with bread and mustard. And/or a few potatoes. I prefer bread. It's a perfect lunch as well.

Asparagus 2012

This year's asparagus from Spargelhof Tenbrock (An der Kapelle 3. 46419 Isselburg-Herzebocholt, Germany) were coupled with a bottle of German Weißburgunder - basically a Pinot Noir - from the wine region Nahe.

Karniyarik - stuffed eggplant

Karnıyarık (lit. 'riven belly' in Turkish) is best made with Turkish eggplant. A Turkish eggplant is much thinner as a 'normal' eggplant.



To prepare the filling:

Fry 250 gram ground veal (kalfsgehakt).



Add one onion, garlic a red pepper and a green pepper (see photo, I'm not sure which variety of Capsicum this is).







Add a can of tomato puree, one tomato and fresh parsley. Fry. Add 1 teaspoon paprika powder, 1 teaspoon black pepper and salt.



To prepare the eggplant slice lengthwise and heat in an oven until soft.



Put the eggplant in an oven dish and fill them with the meat filling.



Add half a green pepper on top of each eggplant and pour a thin layer of tomato sauce in the oven dish. You can easily make the tomato sauce by mixing some tomato puree with a glass of water.



Bake in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

Canederli agli spinaci

This recipe is typical of the Italian Alpine region.

Canederli agli spinaci are small spinach balls served in a creamy vegetable broth. Canederli is Italian for Knödel (German) of knoedel (Dutch).

To make the balls mix the following ingredients:

- 500 gram diced yesterday's bread.
- half an onion, diced.
- 4 eggs
- 100 gram flour
- 50 gram grated Parmesan
- 1 cup of milk
- 400 gram spinach

Make small balls (golf ball sized) and cook in water for 10 minutes.

To make the sauce:

Make a vegetable broth (half a liter), and mix the broth together with the vegetables, some saffron and 3 tablespoons cream. Use a mixer.

Pour the sauce on a plate and set the canederli on it.

'Mexican' vegetable soup

Apparently this vegetable soup is based on a Jamie Oliver-recipe, but it's pretty generic. It's easy to make and healthy. I've never been to Mexico and I can imagine this is an Americanized version of Mexican soup. And do the Mexicans know smoked paprika powder?

Take a big soup pot. Heat some olive oil. Fry for 15 minutes: one onion, 3-4 garlic cloves, 2 bell peppers, 2 big carrots, green chili pepper (all diced).

Add: 2 teaspoons cumin powder, 3 teaspoons smoked paprika powder*. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add 2 chopped tomatoes, a can of tomatoes and 2 cans of water. Add bay leaf and crumble a vegetable stock cube (or use real vegetable stock instead of the two cans of water). Boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add a can of kidney beans. To make the soup a bit thicker puree for a few seconds just to break up some beans.

Garnish
- Cut an avocado in cubes and mix with the juice and grated skin of one lime.
- Sour cream
- Jalapeño pepper (pickled)
- Tortilla chips
- Tabasco

*) Smoked paprika powder (Pimentón de la Vera ) will be hard to get. I bought mine in Spanish food store Pacomer Traiteur, Gerard Doustraat 66,1072 VV Amsterdam.

"Pimentón de la Vera has a distinctly smoky flavor that comes from the process of smoke-drying the peppers with huge amounts of oak wood in the drying houses. Peppers are placed on racks above the fire and farmers turn the peppers by hand once a day. This drying process takes about two weeks."

Pa Jun (Korean pancake)

For two pancakes:

Mix 1 cup of flower (120 gram), 0.75 cup of water (180 ml), one egg (beaten) and some kimchi juice (according to taste) together. Add more water if the batter is too thick.

Add scallions, halved and cut into 2 inch lengths and some kimchi (finely cut). Optional: carrot, sliced red chili peppers, onion, zucchini or mushrooms.



Let the batter sit for about 10 minutes.

Fry the pancake in a skillet for 4 minutes.



Flip over and fry the other side for 2 minutes.



Serve with dipping sauce made from: rice vinegar and soy sauce (1:1) and some drops of sesame oil.



Or for a more elaborate sauce: 1/3 cup rice vinegar and 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon chili pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon scallions (thinly sliced) and 1 teaspoon chopped garlic.

Road side vegetables (Netherlands)

Daslook - leaf. http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daslook

Hondsdraf http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hondsdraf

Wilde venkel : http://dier-en-natuur.infoyo.nl/bloemen-en-planten/13387-wilde-venkel-maratho.html

Paardebloem

Doofnetel - flowers

Assorted flowers - for decoration.

Celeriac (winter vegetable)

Instead of potato puree.

Peel and cube a celeriac and poach in milk with some salt (20 minutes).

Drain the cubes and puree with a little of the milk. Add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Make a "beurre noisette" and mix in puree.

Beet root salad (winter vegetable)

Boil/steam beet root in skin and peel (40 minutes).

Cut the beet root in quarters, drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, shallot finely sliced and black pepper.

Garnish with hot smoked salmon (or other smoked fish), flaked, and fresh dill.

Sauce: crème fraîche, chopped dill and freshly grated horse radish.

Parsley soup

Another recipe from Rick Stein's Food Heroes.

Use curly parsley, chop parsley roughly.

Melt butter in a pan and add the parsley and chopped leeks. Gently fry the vegetables, add potatoes and add light chicken stock. I guess this could be a vegetable stock or even water. Simmer.

While the soup is simmering mix chives and cream*.

Add fresh parsley in the last minute of cooking and liquidize the soup in a food processor.

Back into the pan, add double cream, salt and black pepper. Serve with a spoon of chives-cream in the soup.

*) Stein doesn't say what kind of cream. It's quite difficult to buy good fatty cream in The Netherlands.

**) See above. Double cream is not available in The Netherlands. Slagroom is not fatty enough.

Freshly shelled peas

If I had my own garden I would certainly grow my own peas. It's August and they are in season, and so are button (pearl) onions.

Shell 500 gram peas.



Cut dry cured ham in small pieces. Best would be Parmaham. I opted for a less expensive Dutch smoked bacon. Quite different in taste, very smokey, but it's a good combination as well.



Peal button onions.



Fry the button onions in two tablespoons of olive oil until slightly brown. Then add two tablespoons of water and simmer the onions with the lid closed for 5 minutes until just tender.



Add another two tablespoons of olive oil, garlic (sliced) and the ham or bacon. Fry for a couple of minutes.



Add the fresh peas, salt and plenty of black pepper and simmer for 15 minutes.



Chop a bunch of fresh parsley.



Stir in the parsley two minutes before the end of cooking.



Serve with bread.