Number 100…..panna cotta di orange!

Posted on 31 March, 2013 by saskia

yes it’s my 100st blogpost, it goes so quick and I must say every day I get more proud on my blog.
I have new plans for this blog, I want to translate it into Dutch because my friends like it when it is in their own language. I hope when I translate it I reach more people, so more people eat more plant-based food. So we all can save the world at least it’s a good way to start….This summer I want to experiment more with making ice-creams, make more pies and want to read much more about the garden, really I hope to make it come true….
Anywayz…. a good dessert after a nice diner is always a celebration, it make the diner complete, I ate some panna cotta at joe’s garage, I never ate before. And now I made my own one, the origin of panna cotta is Italy. Hope you will enjoy, it’s tasty and jelly

The recipe for panna cotta di orange (4-8 persons it depends how big you make the pieces)
200 millilitres of oat cuisine
300 millilitres of almond milk
2 grams of agar agar
1/2 tablespoon of orange zest (organic, otherwise you really get ‘poisoned’)
1/2 tablespoon of lemon zest (organic)
1 vanilla bean (take the inside of the bean out, the sticky stuff with a knife)
70 grams of date syrup (if you use other syrup you won’t get a brown colour)

kitchentools
a saucepan
a whipper
a nice glaze bowl to put the mixture in to get hardened (so also the shape it will get, my was 18 centimetres and round)
a fridge

How to make..
Get the saucepan, and poor in the oat cuisine, almond milk and agar-agar, whisk well while you are heating the pan. Bring it to a boil.
When it’s boiling low down the fire and poor in the other ingredients, whisk again very well.
Get the glaze bowl and poor in the mixture, set aside to cool down (it’s still watery). When it’s lukewarm you can put the bowl in the fridge for 3 hours. This is the time for the panna cotta to get jelly and hard. So in the meanwhile make your diner, or have a walk…Or write a new post 😉
3 hours later you will have a delicious panna cotta di orange, I took a butterfly cutter and made a nice shape out of the jelly, you can make each shape you like, or just cut it like a pie.
Also I decorate the butterfly with some slices of orange and lemon. On top I sprinkled some dried grated coconut. and qui è…..a beautiful dessert

Bon appetit and up to the next 100 posts!

crochet food…and a couscous-lentil-diner (the food my boyfriend can make the best)

Posted on 28 March, 2013 by saskia

Found a long time ago a great book in the bookshop, now I have a new mission…I am addicted to crochet food, I made already a carrot, mini burger. carrotcake and a apple, wow what fun is this. My son really likes it, he wants a real kitchen anyway so it’s a great I like to make the “realfood”, he will make the dinners, if we made the kitchen.
I like also to go to the the shop and see all the colors of ‘wool’ (of course I take the fake one, made from acryl). And difficult to choose which you really want, I have to say I come always with too much at home. But this you can use always for everytime, and it fits nice in a CD rack hanging on the wall. So decorative also..
So this night I made a couscous dish (a real one, don’t know yet how to crochet, maybe my next mission?), very healthy and great to make, I must say my boyfriend is the best in making couscous. This is a “warm” diner.

Ingredients for the couscous-lentil-diner (4 persons)
250 gram of beluga lentils (black) (soaked overnight)
1 red chilli pepper cut in tiny tiny pieces
4 persons of couscous (prepare like the package is saying)
300 gram of broccoli cut in little pieces
250 gram zucchini cut in little squares
1 cup of fresh coriander cut in tiny pieces
1/2 cup of fresh dill also cut in little pieces
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
juice of 1/2 lemon
some sesam seed to sprinkle upon the diner
some salt/pepper (celtic seasalt is nice for this dish)
some canola oil

Kitchentools
a cooking pan
a bowl
a knife
a cup
some nice plates
a colander
a wooden spoon

Lets begin
I would say start to cut everything, in the meanwhile you can put on some water (in the cooking pan) for the couscous.
If the water is boiling you take it from the stove and poor in the bowl over the couscous. (look at the package how to prepare) Set aside. Get the cooking pan again and fill it with water and the lentils, they must cook for 20 minutes. So get the timer put it on 10 minutes, so the remaining ten minutes you put on top of the pan a colander with the zucchini and broccoli (so this vegetables can steam)
You hear the ring? check if the vegetables and the lentils are ready they both must be soft. If the vegetables aren’t soft enough, poor them together into the water of the lentils and cook some 5 minutes more.
You are happy now with the softness? Get rid of the water and put in the couscous-bowl, the lemon-juice, cumin,dill, coriander, salt/peper, red chilli pepper, lentils, in short everything from the ingredient-list what you didn’t use yet;).
Mix very well, this dish you can eat hot or cold, but we ate it luke-warm. Give the finishing touch with some oil in the diner. Salt and pepper is really on your own taste.
I would say make the plates beautiful (sprinkle some sesame seeds) and serve it on a nice decorated table

Enjoy, شهية طيبة

strange day….. and look-a-like parmesan

Posted on 25 March, 2013 by saskia

Yesterday really strange day, I went with my 2 children from Amsterdam to Soest with the train. We had a b-day of my mother and father. We drunk some tea, gave the presents, talked to my uncles and aunts (once a year), we went back to our home, did a different route then when we came, We took the train to Utecht. When we wanted to get in the train we got help from a young lady, we were clumsy and delayed the train I think, but she said sorry I don’t have much power in my muscles (I choose this time the wrong one, but she was friendly) Always when you get out of the train with a stroller you need help from someone else, at least it makes it easier. Underneath the stroller I had a yellow box, full with stuff, my bag and so on. So I got help from a different nice lady to get off the train, but the box felt between the train and platform. I thought..oh no and what to do now..
Then there was a hero, a man quickly jump under the train get al the stuff out and run away. So I didn’t see him very well, but was shocked and said thanks.

Then we went to the next train we had to take, again there was the lady and I said as a joke no I don’t want help any more from you. But wow the conductors brought a ramp to get out a wheelchair, so we walked easy into the train (the feeling of a red carpet for a premiere).Too busy in the train, no place we had to sit on the stairs and then almost my little baby almost choked (I had to rescue him, I never had this before and was again shocked)
When the train stopped in Amsterdam we had help from a superman, he put out the stroller on his own (and again we saw the lady I said you have to treat me it is the third time we laughed again)
Ok this was my trip, I must say thank you all for helping a mum struggling with two children and is a little clumsy.

So I really had to tell this story….. and now the recipe of parmesan, it will be very short, but it can make a pasta diner more special. I think this one you need to know.

Ingredients
one cup of noble yeast flakes
one cup of walnuts

Kitchentools
a food processor
a bowl
a jar to keep the parmesan in

How to make….
Get the foodprocessor and put in the walnuts, make them little. Now get the bowl, mix the flakes together with the walnuts. Put them in a jar and voila a look-a-like parmesan cheese, healthy and finishes the diner

Bon appetit

Delicious….penne with dill/almond sauce

Posted on 21 March, 2013 by saskia

Went to the market bought too much herbs and vegetables. Really the next couple of days are my days of experiment with food. I bought horseradish, and really I only know it from the spicy wasabi sauce. Curious what to do with it. So I didn’t use it tonight, but really I was surprised of the diner I made instead, easy, delicious and looks colourful.
Penne pasta ( yes some Italian food?) and vegetables like sugar snaps. I think it works well with the fresh dill I bought on the market, some nice organic roasted almonds in it…and…and….are you already drooling?
I would say get the pans, put on your apron……just get started….here for you the recipe to impress.

Ingredients for the penne with dill/almond sauce (2-4 persons)
4 persons pasta penne (I had penne with chilli-powder in it)
200 gram of sugar snaps cut in 2 pieces
200 gram of cherry tomatoes cut in 4 pieces
200 gram of sliced mushrooms (even better mixed mushrooms, shitake or something else)

for the sauce
1/2 cup almonds
1 cup of fresh dill
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2 cup canola oil
3 cloves of garlic
some dashes of salt and pepper
rice cuisine (instead of the real cooking cream)

Kitchentools
a cooking pan
a colander
a saucepan
a food processor
a frying pan
a wooden spoon for mixing

What to do..
Get the cooking pan and fill it with water, bring to a boil. When it’s boiling put in the pasta and on top the colander filled with sugar snaps. The sugar snaps will steam, so the vitamins won’t be lost. Boil for approximately 8 minutes. (till the pasta is soft and the sugar snaps a little softer)

In the meanwhile you can prepare the sauce, put every ingredient for the sauce into a food processor except for the salt/pepper and rice cuisine. (so the dill, almonds, lemon juice, garlic and canola oil)
You will get after cutting in the food processor a look-a-like pesto ;). Set aside…

Get a frying pan and put in a little oil, bake the mushrooms golden brown also on another cooker put on the saucepan, poor in the rice cuisine and heat it up very slowly, poor in the pestomix, mix well and heat up for 5 minutes, not boiling please…….

Probably the penne will be ready, get rid of the water and mix the cherry tomatoes, sugar snaps and mushrooms through the penne. Now you have a simple colourful basic of the dish.
Put this nice on a plate, the way you prefer…the sauce will be ready now also, so poor on top(of the penne laying on the plate) some sauce and make a finishing touch with some dashes of salt/pepper and a fresh twig of dill (or a slide of lemon) Or make a shrubbery with chive
Really my family like this diner so much, and I love it too

Eet smakelijk/bon appetit

Laurence anyways…while eating duo-coloured-cupcakes

Posted on 18 March, 2013 by saskia

Films often make me happy, especially when it has a great story, good music and some nice filming.
The day before yesterday I saw a real great film, Laurence anyways directed by Xavier Dolan (The 10-year relationship of a male-to-female transsexual with her lover. ).
So you must see it if you haven’t already! Also funny I gave this tip to someone and she said:’O I saw him already three times” I just had to smile…..
Watching film and a duo coloured cupcake makes it more perfect and chilling, they are easy to make.
I think I know what you are going this weekend….because here is the recipe!

The recipe for about 16 double-coloured-cupcakes
1 1/2 cup of spelt flour
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
a dash of salt
1 tablespoon of cornstarch1 teaspoon of apple vinegar
1 cup of coconut-milk (the rest-over when you take out the hard part of the milk for the whipped cream ;))
1/2 cup of date syrup
1/2 cup of coconutoil melted au bain marie
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of rum extract
2 tablespoons of cacoa powder
and like 3 tablespoons of water

Kitchentools
2 bowls
a whisk
16 metal cupcakes pans
an oven
a very thin stick for decorating your cupcake like a skewer
a cup

Lets start….
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl except for the cacoa powder (the spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda,salt, cornstarch)
Mix in the other bowl the coconut-milk together with the apple vinegar, set aside. Ready for melting the coconut-oil, poor this in the wet ingredients bowl, mix very well. Also stir in the date syrup, rum and vanilla extract.
Yes the both bowls become one, mix them very well, without lumps, preheat the oven on 175 degrees.

Now the other bowl is free you put in the cacoa and mix it together with some hot water so you get a smooth brown ‘drink’, take half of the cupcake dough and poor this into the cacoa-bowl, so now you have a chocolate brown bowl and a lightly brown bowl. Time for filling the pans. I just put some oil in the cupcake pans for getting the cupcakes out easy when they are baked
take just 2 tablespoons of the lightly brown bowl mixture, and 2 tablespoons of the chocolate brown mixture into the one side pan.(so the half of the pan is chocolat) With the skewer I made some nice shapes, just use your creativity to make them beautiful.Finished? put them in the oven and bake them for 25 minutes on 175 degrees Celsius. In the meanwhile you can make the whipped coconut cream and get your dark chocolate sprinkles for decorating the cupcakes.
The whipped cream in the fridge and get out the cupcakes, they are ready when they aren’t sticky anymore when you put into the cupcake the skewer and take out. Cool them down and after you can put on some cream and some sprinkles, or anything else you like
Enjoy the film and the cupcakes

convince Allard..and some pink-purple spread

Posted on 15 March, 2013 by saskia

I like the readings in the nearby farm ‘Ons genoegen’, last Wednesday a guy gave a reading about perma-culture, and of course I knew a little about. But he gave me more ideas, and especially the motivation to start the school-year of perma-culture! Now time to convince my boyfriend I have to do this school!
So what is the best method…FOOD. So Allard my dear here is a good lunch with a nice spread on bread. And for you the recipe 😉

The recipe for the pink-purple spread
180 grams of white beans (dried white beans? 12 hours soaking in water and cook for 1,5 hour till they are ready for use)
1 beet
some lavender flowers (dried)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon of dried cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of tahin (sesame paste)
2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 tablespoon of flaxseed-oil (other oil will do also)
1/4 teaspoon of chili-powder
2 gram of fresh ginger root
3 tablespoons of water
some salt/pepper kitchentools
a foodprocessor
some love
(for cooking the white dried beans a cooking pan)
a nice plate to impress

how to make…
Easy again, just mix all the ingredients together except for the lavender and pepper/salt, just put this at last in the mixture so you can still see the lavender pieces. And the pepper and salt is just what you like for taste…..

I would say enjoy, great to put on home made bread or a toast, and also perfect to use as a method to satisfy your friend

cheesecake and the love for it….

Posted on 10 March, 2013 by saskia

I think it doesn’t need any introduction. This cake I served on my birthday and really everybody loved it, and the cake was soon finished only the cashews take a long time to soak. This cake is with chocolate and bananas, sweet and sticky. Enjoy while making it and put on some nice music during your baking.
Thank you Martine for posting this on vegetus.nl!

Ingredients (a 24 cm spring form pan)
the bottom
200 grams of speculaas (Dutch spice cookies, taste like pepernoten earlier on this blog the recipe) or graham crackers
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
1 tablespoon of oat milk

for the filling
1/2 cup raw cashews (soaked overnight till they are soft, the water you can throw afterwards away)
1/2 cup of smashed banana
400 grams of silken tofu
!1/2 cup of sugar (or rice syrup)
!16 grams of vanilla Sugar (a fresh vanillia stick)
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
4 tablespoons of cornstarch
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of almond extract
a dash of salt
100 gram of pure chocolate

Kitchentools
a saucepan for melting the chocolate and coconut oil
a bowl or 2
a spring form pan 24 centimetres
a food processor

How to make…….
Making first the bottom, get a food processor and crunch the cookies, poor in the oil and the milk. Now you will see the cookies are a little wet and you see a crumbled dough.
Now take the spring and rub it full with some oil, and place the bottom on the bottom 😉

Time for the filling!
Put all the ingredients together except for the chocolate, mix this very well without lumps. Leave this in the bowl of the food processor. Get the chocolate and another bowl, melt the chocolate au bain marie poor in also one cup of the mixture you have left in the food processor. Now you have the dark colour of the cheesecake.

Get the bottom and poor in the white mixture you have left in the food processor spread it equal on the bottom so the bottom is totally covered, in the middle of the cake above the white mixture you poor the chocolate mixture, and now spread it over all the area, get a chopstick and make circles or other shapes in the filling, just practise and you see nice lines.

Time for the finishing touch, put the spring form in the oven (on 175 degrees Celsius) till the top of the pie bulges and the sides of the pie are a little tanned. (like 50 minutes).
Get the pie and cool down for 20 minutes. After, you make place in your fridge for the pie and set aside for 3 hours at least, but for one night is much better 🙂

Yes it’s ready for serving, nice with some whipped cream from coconut milk!
Enjoy………don’t eat the pie at once you will get sick

….do ‘au bain marie’

Posted on 6 March, 2013 by saskia

Of course this is a term in French, you often hear it in recipes. But where does it come from and how can you do this?
A Jewish alchemist Marie van Alexandrie from Egypt discovered this technique to heat up some foods very slowly. But you can cool down food also with this technique. (thank you wikipedia for the information;))
I use it a lot for melting some chocolate and coconut oil.

How does it works?
Get a saucepan and fill this with some water (mostly like 3/4 of the saucepan), on top (instead of the lid) you place a bowl (not a plastic one, just glass or metal). Beware the bowl is not touching the water!
In this bowl put in some blocks of chocolate (or coconut oil what must get softer) Put the pan on the gas and heat up the water till it boils, on top there is still the bowl and you see slowly soften the chocolate.
When it’s all liquid-like you can use it for decoration a pie or use the oil to mix in some dough.The bowl will be hot so do not hold this with your nude hands
Hope you know now, how to melt chocolate…..

a new invention the white beans……making a orange-sambal spread

Posted on 4 March, 2013 by saskia

For me beans are not my favourite food to eat (I must admit), but I discovered to make spreads based on white beans, it’s really great.
White beans doesn’t have a strong taste, the texture is great and it’s also not too expensive. And yes in time of crisis it’s really important to watch your money. For me food is the most important thing to spend you money on, but eat fully organic with a family and a normal average paid job is almost crazy job…and I must say we eat for now 60 percent organic. So we are on the right way!
Anyway here the recipe for the spread, it’s with orange zest so if you don’t like orange put out the zest 😉

The ingredients for the orange-sambal spread.
200 grams of white beans (dried? leave them soak for 12 hours and cook them for 1,5 hours. Canned? just open the can and get rid of the juice)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon-1 teaspoon of orange zest
3 teaspoons of sambal
1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger root
2 teaspoons of dried basil/ fresh must be better but I didn’t have
2 tablespoons of oil
some salt and pepper (what you like for taste)

the kitchentools
a food processor
a container to keep the spread in
(a cooking pan for cooking the dried white beans)

Make the spread.
If you have the dried white beans, just put them in water overnight and cook them for at least 1,5 hours before you can use them in the spread. (yes it looks difficult but it isn’t and it is much cheaper then canned one, so you can buy organic!)
Just mix all the ingredients together in the foodprocessor. It’s easy to do!

Get some bread and put on the spread, on top some extra thyme and pepper, it will look gorgeous.Get a little container to put the rest of the spread in and it’s for some days preservable in the fridge.

Enjoy hope to make some more spreads soon, to make your lunch even more delicious!

Funky Bytes

Written with love and appetite

Monthly Archives: March 2013