Ode to Hector

This blog post isn't actually a recipe, but rather a tribute to, and excuse to show off about, our new juicer who we have named Hector (short for Hector the Liquidator). If you are considering getting a juicer, but aren't sure if it's worth it: it is! Especially now that so many delicious fruit are starting to come into season. Last weekend my friend Derk came over to hang out a bit. Inspired by the wonderful spring weather and our tradition of drinking juice (although we have only just recently evolved from the kind that comes in tetra-briks) we went out to buy some fruit. We got a huge 1 kilo crate of strawberries, a pineapple and a small container of raspberries. We then proceeded to make the most amazing juice ever, although we did eat some of the fruit in its original form. We made some pineapple-strawberry-raspberry juice, then some plain pineapple, then plain strawberry. The plain strawberry was actually slightly disappointing. But overall it was delicious. It's also really cool to see it being made when the different colours of the fruit mix together.



You can basically juice anything: berries, pineapple, apples, oranges, lemon, carrots, melon, spinach, cucumber... the list goes on, i think basically anything but mangoes and bananas as they are too fibrous. The amazing thing is, no matter how odd a combination may sound, it always tastes good. Something we learned from making plain strawberry juice is that sometimes the flavour of one fruit can actually be intensified by complementing it with another. For example, if i'm in the mood for a simple juice when i get home from school, or we just don't have any special fruit around the house, i will always make orange and carrot. It's an old standby: you can hardly taste the carrot (well, this depends on how much you add) but it tastes like it's a more special and sophisticated version of OJ, not to mention you inevitably get a larger variety of vitamins when you mix up different fruits and vegetables. You could also make some pretty amazing cocktails with this juice, assuming of course that you are old and wise enough to be consuming cocktails.

You also get a bit of fruity foam at the top of your juice, which not only makes it look fancy but also tastes good and has a cool texture.



This is also an amazing source of vitamins im sure, considering that Derk and i pretty much finished all the fruit we bought. It's a bit of a pain to clean the juicer but it's definitely worth it, especially if you are making juice for more than one person.

You can also use the pulp to cook with to make, say, carrot cake and other such things. The pulp is also pretty to look at, but this may just be my artsy side speaking...



Basically, get a juicer. You wont regret it.

Cheers!

Roasted Batatinhas

The other afternoon, after finishing my homework (of course), i was wandering around the apartment at around dinner-time, as one does, feeling kind of hungry when i realized that my mom was still at work and that i should make something to go with the meat we were going to have for dinner. A few days before i had bought some small Portuguese potatoes, called batatinhas in Portuguese, at our fruit and veg store. I decided to try to make a recipe that we got from our friend Catherine and that is definitely one of my favourite ways of making potatoes. It's also super easy and you don't need to watch them that much while they cook. So, the ingredients are:

However many small potatoes (the really cute small ones) you want
However many garlic cloves you want (depending really on how much you like eating roasted garlic)
Some herbs (i used "Herbes de Provence" but im sure you can experiment with others)
Salt and pepper (i used rock salt but normal salt works just fine)
A bit of olive oil

If this sounds kind of vague, it's because it is pretty vague, but trust me, it works out just fine.

First off you're going to want to clean the potatoes, but them in a colander and put the colander in the sink. Then just run water over them and scrub off any dirt or other such things. (This picture also allows you to see the size the potatoes should be, i think in English they're sometimes referred to as new potatoes..)



Once you are done with this, get some garlic cloves ready, don't peal them though! Just leave them in their skin so that they will roast along with the potatoes. Next get out some sort of pot, depending really on how many potatoes you are making, make sure you chose a pot that has a top (palindrome anyone?). Put a bit, and really, just a bit, of oil in the bottom of the pot, just enough to make a really thin layer at the bottom of the pot. Throw in all the potatoes and garlic cloves, along with the herbs (amount of herbs really just depends on how herb-y you like your food) and some (rock)salt and pepper (again, just use your judgment on how much to use). Don't dry the potatoes before you put them in the pot, they should still be wet when you start to cook them.



Put the top on and cook them on a low fire. Depending on the size of the potatoes, cook them for 40 minutes to an hour, stirring every once in a while (about 5-10 minutes). I recommend starting to test them by putting a fork through a potato starting at around 40 minutes. Once they're done just put them in a bowl and eat them on up. We usually have them with roast beef or magret de canard when we have guests over but they taste good with basically anything. You can also munch up the roasted garlic.



Bowie either doesn't like roasted potatoes or was too busy sleeping or chasing his imaginary friends around the house (if you know Bowie, you know exactly what im referring to...)

Cheers!

Sunday Scones

The only thing better than waking up on a Sunday morning and making scones is waking up on a Sunday morning and discovering that scones have been made for you... but i guess im just not that lucky. Having gone to sleep at nine-thirty on a Saturday night i felt pretty uncool to discover that i had woken up at seven on a Sunday (more alliteration, yippee!), the same time i have to pull myself out of bed at on weekdays. I lay around in bed for a while trying to fall back asleep, only to realize that the only option i had left was to admit defeat and go make some coffee.

Wandering to the kitchen my mom must have heard me as she called for me to come talk to her. I walked into her room and sat down on the bed with her and my slightly wrathful and violent cat. I felt quite accomplished when she ignored my early awakening and instead jumped to the question that had been haunting her since she had woken up: should she make pancakes or scones for breakfast? Thrilled that we were going to have a proper Sunday breakfast as i tend to have a mug of coffee and some OJ (or sinasappelsap as the crazy Dutch people call it). I rushed to the kitchen and made some coffee, then proceeded to dig out our scone recipe from my mom's dear friend Celina. My mom went out to buy fruit and i cooked up some breakfast, feeling energized not only by the thought of yummy jammy scones but also by the wonderful amount of sunshine living outside the window.

The recipe is quite simple:
1 3/4 C flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
6 T butter (i actually used 3 T by accident and it was fine so... you call the shots)
2 T sugar
2 eggs
1/3 C milk
raisins (optional)

Start off by turning the oven on to 200 degrees Celcius. Then put the flour, baking powder, salt and butter into a food processor, if you do not have one then use a pastry blender (if these sound unfamiliar to you: google is your friend).



Instead of blending it continuously, use the "pulse" feature and do that about ten times... apparently it should look like cornmeal (whatever that means). Once this is done put it in a bowl and add the sugar. Next you will beat the milk and eggs together in a small bowl. Add about three fourths (maybe a wee bit more) of this mixture into the flour but keep the rest for later.



Proceed to mix with your hands until its completely mixed, at this point add the raisins or whatever it is you feel like adding to your scones. I made a third of them plain as i am quite convinced that raisins are the devil in disguise. Once it's all mixed up divide it into about 12 scones (depending on the size you want them to be and but these on an un-greased baking sheet.



Now you get to use the left over egg and milk mixture: with a brush, put some on top of each of the scones, this will make them turn a nice gold colour when you cook them.



Cook them for eleven (yes, eleven) minutes. Then you can eat them with butter and jam... or, if you're extra fancy, which i have no doubt you are, you can eat them with clotted cream. And that's pretty much it, you're set for a nice Sunday breakfast.

Although Bowie was too entertained by the birds out the window during the cooking process, he joined us for breakfast to smell the scones, decide he did not like them and proceed to try to paw them off the table. Oh Bowie, you are nothing if not entertaining.



Cheers!

B is for Banana Bread

If you're anything like me, you would never even think of eating an over-ripe banana; actually, if you are anything like me you would probably try to keep a five-meter distance from any type of banana... But that's besides the point. The fact of the matter is, there is a very wonderful future that awaits your icky mushy too-ripe bananas: turn them into banana bread! We never tend to have enough bananas in this state to make it right then and there but an easy solution is to freeze them. This may sound absurd but really: just freeze them. Once your collection has reached more or less 4 bananas just pull 'em on out of the freezer, defrost them and make some baked goodness.

As you (may or may not be able to) see, our banana bread recipe has been useda ridiculous amount of times, and i guess you could say it has seen better days... Anyways, here it goes:
-1/2 C butter (about 115 grams)
-3/4 C brown sugar
-2 eggs
-1 t vanilla (but more is good too)
-2 C flour
-1/2 t salt
-1/2 t baking soda
-1 1/2 C mashed banana (usually about 4 bananas)

You probably want to start off by mashing the bananas together with a fork into a small bowl, leave them in the bowl though, you wont need them until later. It's also a good idea to measure out the butter ahead of time so that it softens and is easier to work with. When the bananas are mashed they don't need to be perfect as they will be blended later, just get them looking kind of like this:

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees Celsius. Next, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix up the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking soda). Alternate between mixing in some of the flour mixture and the mashed banana until both are added. The batter should look like this:

Put the batter into a greased baking pan (the deep rectangle kind) and bake for 45-60 minutes. In my oven it took around an hour but i started checking at 45 minutes. Oh, and if you don't know how to check if it's completely baked: stick a knife into the middle of the bread and go all the way down; when you pull it out the knife should be dry, this means the bread is completely baked. When you take it out of the oven, put it on a cooling rack of sorts if you have one handy, if not, just let it cool in the pan or on a plate. It's quite tasty when it's still warm with a glass of milk or beer (whatever floats your boat).

This is pretty much my grandma's original recipe but there are gobs of things you can do to modify it. This time for instance i added a bit of cinnamon but you can add all sorts of nuts, spices, chocolate chips, raisins or other dried fruits... pretty much anything as long as the thought of it alone doesnt make you gag. Some people also enjoy eating the banana bread with some cream cheese, maybe even butter if you're extra-crazy/French. I prefer it by itself but hey, it's up to you.

Cheers!

P.S.

Bowie also quite likes banana bread batter...