Pumpkin pie with feta and walnuts
by peejeej on December 14th, 2011
My first real attempt cooking pumpkin and the result was absolutely fabulous. I can’t wait to make this again.
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Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category
Baked Camembert
by peejeej on September 7th, 2011
A simple dish that I’ve seen on tv multiple times, but never thought to try it myself. Camembert baked in it’s box. Although I’m not much of a cheese lover, I do crave it once in a while.
Simple and fairly quick!
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Chicken Sausage Rolls
by peejeej on January 3rd, 2011
I made these chicken sausage rolls inspired by Masterchef AU. Ofcourse me being me, I skipped a lot of steps.
I seasoned the ground chicken meat with salt, pepper, garlic powder and a bit of paprika powder. Folded them in puff pastry and sprinkled sesame seeds on top. I’m not a big fan of egg washing puff pastry. Just don’t like the flavor, but they don’t need to be a deep golden brown for me to enjoy them.
Experiment: Shrimp Crab cakes
by peejeej on October 26th, 2010
- Ingredients:
- Tinned crab
- Frozen shrimp (peeled and deveined)
- 1 egg
- Green onion
- Few drops of Sesame oil
- Salt/Pepper
- Toasted breadcrumbs
- Oil for panfrying
I’ve been wanting to try to make crab cakes for some time now. I’ve never eaten them before. This was my attempt at making shrimp/crab cakes and they came out wonderful. I don’t have exact measurements and I didn’t go by a recipe.
I used a small tin of crabmeat, to have more filling I added some thawed frozen shrimps. Drain the crab meat, add chopped shrimp, egg, chopped green onion, couple of drops of sesame oil, season with salt/pepper and add breadcrumbs. Combine this into a fairly thick “dough” that will hold together. Shape into small patties and panfry for a couple of minutes on each side. The amount I had was only enough for 6 cakes.
Best eaten warm with some chili sauce. I’ll be making these more often 
.
DotD: Stirfried oyster mushrooms, broccoli with cashew nuts
by peejeej on October 20th, 2010
Wouldn’t classify this as a recipe. Minimal ingredients, fast, simple and yummy. Stir fry torn oyster mushrooms, add broccoli (until slightly softened and with a bit of a bite), add garlic, soy sauce and cashew nuts. Serve on steamed rice.
Epic Baked Cheesecake
by peejeej on October 12th, 2010
- Ingredients:
- 150gr cookies
- 50gr melted butter
- 100gr sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 2tbs cornstarch
- 500gr mascarpone
- 200gr creme fraiche
Butter a springform pan and line with parchment paper. I cut a circle slightly larger than the pan so there is a bit of an edge. This is to prevent any leaking. The butter will help the parchment to stick. Finely crush the cookies and mix it with the melted butter. I used a blender to pulse the cookies, which is much easier than stomping them with a rolling pin. Even out the cookie mix into the pan using the back of a spoon to compress and smooth the bottom. Put this in the refridgerator to set.
Now on to the topping. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and the cornstarch first. I do this first so I don’t get any starch lumps. Then add creme fraiche and bit by bit add the mascarpone. I mix this by hand, but if you use an electric mixer you can add more stuff at a time. Thoroughly mix until the clumps of mascarpone are gone and the topping is smooth.
Pour the topping onto the bottom and bake for about 40 minutes at 190C/374F in the center of the oven. When the cheesecake is done it will still have a wobble to it. If it’s too liquid leave it in for a bit longer. The topping might puff up a bit (as it has with mine this time), but this will fall back down. Turn off the oven and leave to cool with the oven door ajar. When the cheesecake has cooled down enough, leave it to set in the refridgerator for a couple of hours or overnight.
For the cookies I used “bastonje koeken” I’m not sure what a US substitute would be. Perhaps gingersnaps? This cake is also wonderful with cherry pie filling on top. This cheesecake is a big hit with friends and family. NomNOM!
Gado Gado
by peejeej on October 6th, 2010
I tried to recreate a nice Gado-gado I’ve had from a take away place. Gado-gado is an Indonesian dish of a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing. I’ve made it into a one bowl dish with steamed rice underneath. Not a lot of cooking is involved in my version.
At the bottom I have steamed rice, then a layer of green cabbage which has been lightly braised in chicken stock and soy sauce. I kept a little bit of a bite in the green cabbage. Then topped with slices of cucumber, tomato and bean sprouts. On top a ready made peanut sauce. Yes I’m lazy, I don’t make my own peanut sauce. This one had a nice flavor, but I should have watered it down a bit more.
To make it completely vegetarian, substitute the chicken stock with vegetable stock. To add a bit of crunch and texture, I ate this with some (bought) prawn crackers.
Puff Pastry topped with veggies
by peejeej on August 30th, 2010
- Ingredients:
- 4 squares of thawed puff pastry
- 1 courgette
- 1 small onion
- garlic powder
- couple of mushrooms
- grated parmesan
- For the aubergine version:
- 4 squares of puff pastry
- 1 aubergine
- 1 small onion
- some mushrooms
- feta cheese
- garlic powder
These puff pastry squares are a super easy and yummy. 1 piece (a quater) is perfect as a starter and 2 pieces are enough to fill you up.
I used my brownie tin for these, which is a perfect size. Line the tin with some baking paper and place the puff pastry squares inside. Overlap them slightly at the edges and press together, I kept a bit of an upstanding edge at the sides of the tin.
Cut the courgette in 3′s and cut these into long not too thin slices. Pan-fry the slices until slightly colored and still have a bit of a bite, season with salt and pepper. Leave to cool. Slice the mushrooms and pan-fry until they’re nicely brown, I hate chewy slippery mushrooms. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper during pan frying. Leave to cool. Cut an onion so you have thin slices that stay together.
Panfried tofu with spicy sauce and rolled omelette
by peejeej on May 6th, 2010
I came across a Maangchi tofu sidedish recipe and I just had to try it. I had most of the ingredients at home, I just didn’t have the hot pepper flakes. Since there is no Asian supermarket nearby, I replaced it with a chopped up chili. No idea wether the taste is similar, but it was great with chili as well.
Wanted to go to Wah Nam Hong in Rotterdam yesterday, but we were 15 minutes too late. So still no hot pepper flakes 
. In the photo above you see the panfried tofu and a Maangchi rolled omelette sidedish. I had these with some left over rice, roasted pork belly and some salad. The meat wasn’t really necessary, but I wanted to finish up our leftovers.
Tofu close up.
My rolled omelette was a bit sloppy and I was unable to get a rectangle shape to it. Practice makes perfect though . I’ll be having this more often though, especially the tofu.
Experiment: Indonesian pasties – Pastel Goreng
by peejeej on April 27th, 2010
I love Indonesian pasties or pastel goreng as they are sometimes called. If you want more info or pics search for “Pastel Goreng”. They are deep fried pastries with meat filling. For the recipe I followed a Dutch website. As these weren’t exactly perfect I wont post a complete recipe. I also had way too much filling for the amount of dough I made.
I stuffed these with ground beef, rice noodles, garlic, onion, cube of beef stock, carrot, chopped boiled eggs and salt and pepper to taste.
The dough was a bit too firm, the recipe didn’t give out the amount of water needed. I think next time I’ll use more water next time. All in all, it wasn’t a bad attempt and we still enjoyed eating them. It’s a bit of a shame that you have to make big batches of these, mostly it’s just the BF and I.
