Crêpe Suzette!

HoHoHo

Happy dinners!

It is the time of the year when everybody fattens up! There is no denying it!

Dinner here, dinner there, seems like there are dinners everywhere.

 I went to four Christmas dinners... four I tell you! And believe me when I say that is a lot of food!

It started the 22nd with gourmet, you know the little pieces of meat you grill yourself and the slices of cheese you melt?! Delicious. The day after, I was the cook at my mothers house. Aperitif and cava, "Terrine" from marinated tuna and mozzarella *see instagram*, followed by lam rack (which had gone bad, and luckily we still had duck breasts in the freezer!) with seasonal vegetables and crêpe suzette for dessert! On Christmas eve it was at my girlfriends house: loads of aperitif, 3 versions of coquille, mussel soup, deer filet with all sorts of veggies and to end a smooth "moulleux au chocolat". And last but not least a feast with the family on Christmas day with food... loads of food.

After all this Christmasfood my stomach has had some time to settle down before another food-fest: New year's eve!

Oooh yeah... it is coming! Tomorrow evening we celebrate from 2013 to 2014!

If you still haven't decided what you are going to make for dinner, here are some ideas:

• For aperitif:
• The healthy dip: Humus
• As a starter:
• Salmon & Avocado tartare
• or some Yakitori (also great for aperitif!)
• As Main course:
• Lamb with Blue Cheese-Risotto
• Or maybe you like a Seafood Pasta...
• Or you wane go easy and prepare some "Gentse stoverij"
• And as dessert: 
• Crêpe Suzette

Well look at that... I haven't got any desserts on this blog! Time for my first dessert recipe!

Crêpe Suzette

This is a dessert everyone likes! Nice thin crêpes with a grand marnier and orange sauce. Delicious with some vanilla ice cream or just on its own! It is a classic in the French cuisine and supposedly invented by French actress Suzanne Reichenberg. 

I learnt this in cooking school... and I had to make it at the table in from of the customer. (well, except the crepes. We had to make those in advance) 

Some advice: There is flambéing involved. Make sure you feel good about doing this!

Ingredients:

For the Crêpes:

• 200 gr white flour
• 500 ml milk
• 30 gr white sugar
• 1 package of vanilla sugar 
• 4 eggs
• some butter

For the sauce:

• 3 tbs white sugar
• 3 tbs unsalted butter
• about 25cl fresh orange juice
• 10cl grand marnier (you may add more, but watch out with flambéing)
• orange wedges from 2 oranges
• orange zest

How to make is:

Start by cutting thin strips of orange zest. Zest is the upper part of the peel of an orange. Try not to get any white peel onto the zest because that will give off a bitter taste! The zests will still have a slightly bitter taste. If you want to get rid of this you have to parboil the zest a least 2 times a few minutes in fresh water.

Now continue by cutting the wedges from the oranges, and set them aside. Try to keep the spilled juice and press some more oranges until you have the required quantity of juice.

Crêpe baking time!

Take a large bowl and sieve the flour into it. Add the sugar and the vanilla sugar. Make a little hole in the middle and slowly mix in the eggs and the milk until you have a smooth, running dough. Melt some butter (do not make it hot! just melt it) and add it to the mixture. Bake the crêpes in a hot, greased pan. A thin crepe is a good one! Fold them in triangles (Fold in 2 and again in 2) and set aside.

Now the fireworks!

Take a large pan and melt the butter on high heat. When the butter has melted add the sugar and let it caramelize. When the sugar has a slightly brown color pour in the orange juice while stirring. Now add the crêpes and the orange zests.

Add the grand marnier and flambé the whole thing! 

How to flambé?

The correct way to do this is by pulling your pan slowly towards you with a slightly upward motion so the alcohol comes near the edge of your pan and the damps can catch fire from your stove. As soon as the pan is on fire, put it back and let the fire go out by itself.

If your stove is electric or induction use a lighter with a long neck or a long match to flambé, otherwise you could burn yourself! 

And do not, i repeat, DO NOT keep you head over you pan to get a bird's-eye view on the show, because you'll end up without eyebrows!

If you want to try flambéing other things in the future, e.g. banana or pineapple flambéed with rum, keep in mind it has to be with strong alcohol, which contains at least 40% alcohol.

Serve the crêpe suzette hot with the orange wedges and some vanilla ice cream!

Enjoy!

December 30, 2013

Grated chicory with ham and cheese

That face!

you make when you eat something bitter!

Chicory is generally a bitter vegetable. By removing the inner part and cooking it, the bitter taste softens.

Belgium was the biggest exporter of chicory, but today France is. The technique for growing these white endives was discovered in Belgium. This is why chicory also is known as Belgian endive, or as we call them in Belgium: "Brussels Lof".

Chicory can be eaten cooked or raw. It is perfect to use in a salad or as a salad! But also cooked, it is a nice vegetable, caramelized or braised for example. 

A recipe I like with chicory is grated with ham and cheese. This is how I learned to eat chicory as a child. Thank you ham and cheese!

Grated chicory with ham and cheese

Ingredients:

• 3 heads of white chicory 
• 6 slices of cooked ham (make sure they're big enough to wrap around ½ chicory)
• 250-300 gr of grated cheese
• 7 dl milk
• 30 gr butter
• 40 gr flour
• nutmeg
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

Cut the chicory heads in two and remove the hard end (make sure to remove the hard end by cutting in a V-shape, this will keep the leaves together). Take a large casserole and braise the chicory for about 10 minutes. In the meantime you can prepare the béchamel sauce.

Start by melting your butter, when it has melted add the flour and mix until you get a nice paste. This is called roux. Now gently pour on the milk, little by little, until you get a liquid sauce.

Mix in almost all of the cheese, you'll need some cheese to spread on top afterwards.

Roll the chicory in the cooked ham, place in an oven tray and pour over the béchamel cheese sauce. Finish with the rest of the grated cheese and put under a grill for about 10 minutes, until you have a nice golden-brown crust.

Serve with some bread or potatoes!

Enjoy!

November 30, 2013

Hamburger Trio!

Nananananananana...

BURGEEEEER!

(Sing it on the batman tune!)

Today I was walking clueless in the supermarket, thinking what I was going to have for diner. When suddenly I saw some ground chicken. A light bulb lit and I shouted:

IT IS BURGER TIME! Well, I shouted in my head.

It was only back home, when I saw all my spices and some veggies I still had left in the fridge, the idea came to make a hamburger trio. A Mediterranean one, a Oriental burger and a Mexican style burger.

These burgers are perfect for BBQ's, birthday parties, a big snack, or to look at. Yeah, you can just look at them if you like.

And if you are a meat-craving person just change the chicken to any type of meat you like. Also vegetarians can go totally vegan with this!

Burger Trio

Ingredients:

• 400-500gr ground chicken
• 3 good looking buns (mine where about 12cm wide)

for the Mediterranean burger:

• rucola salat
• ½ tomato, thin slices
• 1tbs yoghurt
• ½ paprika, thin slices
• oregano
• balsamico vinegar
• olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• balsamico cream
• salt & pepper

for the Oriental burger:

• ½ paprika, thin slices
• yoghurt
• cilantro, chopped 
• tandoori spices
• salt & pepper

for the Mexican style burger:

• ½ zucchini, thin slices.
• cheese
• guacamole (find recipe HERE)
• ½ tomato, thin slices
• paprika powder
• cumin powder
• salt & pepper

Preparation:

Heat your grill or grill pan and start grilling the zucchini and the paprika.

Pepare the guacamole and the Mediterranean burger dressing: Mix yoghurt with some olive oil, crushed garlic and some balsamico vinegar.

While the veggies are grilling, devide the ground meat into 3 portions.

Let's see how to season one burger at a time.

Mediterranean needs to be seasoned with oregano, salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Mix it all really well. The Oriental burger needs tandoori spices, salt and pepper for seasoning and the Mexican style burger needs paprika powder, cumin (haf the amount of paprika powder), salt and pepper.

By now the veggies will be done. So start grilling the meat.

Cut your buns, it's time to start making the burgers look like burgers!

This is how to build you burgers:

Mediterranean burger.

Start by layering the zucchini, put the burger on, add some tomato slices, some rucola salad and finish with some dressing and some balsamico cream. Done!

Oriental burger.

The grilled paprika goes on first, followed by the tandoori burger, add some cilantro on top and pour some yoghurt on it. Number two... Check!

Mexican style burger.

Paprika first, hamburger with cheese on top, a slice of tomato and spread generously with guacamole.

All three are ready to devour!

Enjoy!

Mediterranean burger, Oriental burger, Mexican style burger and all three in half.

November 21, 2013

Pasta Alla Matriciana

Basta, Basta...

No more pasta!

(Stop, Stop... no more pasta)

No more pasta?! Are you crazy? This is only my third pasta recipe. And believe me... I'm not done.

This next recipe is an easy, simple, fast pasta. Well, like almost any pasta really.

Up to now I gave you two seafood pastas, Spaghetti alle vongole and a nice Seafood spaghetti, and one pasta with meat; Pasta carbonara. Time for another one with meat!

 All'amatriciana or alla matriciana (said in Romanesco; the dialect from Rome, where I was born) is a sauce originally from Amatrice, a town in the Lazio region. This pasta is one of the most popular sauces in Italy. This sauce has even been declared 'Traditional Regional Food', but this label is only recognized in Italy.

You will need a few traditional Italian products for this, so go to your local Italiano-man and ask for them. Don't worry! If you can't find them, they are perfectly replaceable by other products.

Traditionally the pasta used in this recipe are 'Bucatini', but like I always say: "use whatever pasta you like!"

Like I said: Easy. Simple. Fast.

Lets go!

Ingredients:

• 400gr pasta
• 200gr guanciale, diced(this is bacon-like meat. But unlike bacon, which comes from the belly, guanciale is from the neck from the pig) If you can't find this, use bacon.
• 500gr nice, fresh, ripe tomatoes, diced (In winter you can easily use canned tomatoes)
• 150gr pecorino (preferably from Amatrice, because this is less salty than the Romano type. If you can't find this use pecorino Romano mixed with Parmigiano or only use Parmigiano)
• 1 small peperoncino (red pepper, but not to hot! you only want a slightly spicy taste in the sauce!)
• 2 tbs Olive oil
• 10cl white wine (there is NO wine in a traditional amatriciana sauce, but I like to add it because white wine will enrich the flavors from your sauce!)

Preparation:

Start boiling your water for your pasta.

Take a large saucepan, heat the olive oil, add the whole peperoncino and guanciale or bacon and fry on medium heat. When the meat starts to have a nice golden/brownish color, add the diced tomatoes and the white wine and let it simmer on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes.

Start boiling your pasta. Check the time it needs to cook and make sure it will be ready approximately at the same time the sauce will be ready.

Just before the pasta will be ready, take out the peperoncino from the sauce.

When the pasta is ready, let it drain and add it to the sauce in the sauce pan. Slowly add most of the pecorino while stirring it all together. 

Serve on a plate and scatter the remaining pecorino just before serving.

ENJOY!

Guanciale, pecorine, olive oil and pasta

Amatriciana sauce with penne

november 20, 2013

Vegetarian TexMex Style Dish

Omnomnom...

Is the only thing you'll be able to say!

I love Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine! You probably know this by reading my chili con carne recipe or the refried beans recipe, so I'm not going to bore you again by telling how much I love it!
The reason I like this vegetarian recipe is because in the first place it is a really easy dish and secondly it is delicious and cheap!
This dish is something you can serve to anyone! Kids love it, grownups love it, vegetarians love it, meat lovers love it and the fun is... you can eat it with your hands! ... or with fork and knife.
It can perfectly be served as a starter or main dish and you need some guacamole (recipe) and sour cream with it!
For you who really can't live a day without meat: add some ground beef to the tomato salsa. But before you do so, why not try it vegetarian style first?!

Vegetarian Tex-Mex dish

Ingredients:

• 2 cans (2x400gr) of diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of sweet corn
• 2 red capsicums/paprikas, diced
• 1 green capsicum/paprika, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• vegetable oil
• grated cheddar/other cheese (to taste)
• 2 tbs paprika powder
• 1,5 tbs cumin
• 1 to 2 tbs chili powder (to taste)
• salt and pepper
• 1 big bag of tortilla chips
• guacamole
• sour Cream
• cilantro
• lovely people to share it with

Preparation:

Heat some oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion and garlic. After 5 minutes add the capsicum and stew for a few minutes. Add both cans of diced tomatoes, the paprika powder, cumin and chili powder and let it simmer on low heat until most of the moisture has vaporized. Add the corn and let it simmer for a few more minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Preheat the oven on "grill" setting.

Take a large oven-resitant dish. Spread out some tortilla chips so they cover the plate and top with 2/3 of the tomato salsa. Scatter some cheese on top to taste (want a heavy dish? put on loads of cheese! Want a light dish? wel, take it easy with the cheesy!). In the middle put a layer of tortilla chips smaller than the circle underneath and top with the remaining tomato salsa and some cheese.

put in the oven until the cheese has grilled nicely.

Sprinkle some cilantro on top and serve with some fresh guacamole, sour cream and the remaining tortilla chips.

Enjoy!