Cut the pumpkin in half, scrape out the seeds and stringy bits with a spoon. Cut in to thick slices and cut away the skin. Cut into cubes, toss in a little bit of oil, season with salt and pepper and bake in the oven at 200C/392F for about 35 minutes until soft. They don’t need to color.

Mash the pumpkin to a puree and season with a little bit of grated nutmeg and salt and pepper. Leave to cool.

Remove the puff pastry from the fridge 15 min before using. Line a brownie tin with a sheet of parchment paper with 2 sides overlapping, so you can remove the pie easier. Place the puff pastry in the tin, make sure you have an upright edge of about an inch.

Spread the pumpkin puree on top and sprinkle with a little bit of chopped rosemary. Crumb the feta on top and season with a bit of pepper.

Bake in the oven at 200C/392F for about 35min. Put the walnuts on 10 min before the end.

The pumpkin I used was nice and sweet and a bit earthy. It tasted a bit like orange sweet potatoes. The little bit of rosemary enhances the pumpkin flavor. If you like soft goats cheese, you could use this instead of feta.
I’ve tried this recipe with caramelized onions on top of the pumpkin and with pecans instead of walnuts, also very nomnomnom!

Simple and fairly quick!

Unwrap the Camembert and put back in its box. Remove any stickers and put the box inside the lid.

Cut slits spread over the Camembert. Put the garlic and rosemary inside the slits. The rosemary will go in easier if you push it in with a knife.

Drizzle with a bit of honey and freshly ground pepper.

Put the box on a sheet of tin foil and fold in the points and scrunch them up, making a closed parcel. Bake the Camembert in the center of the oven at 200C/390F for about 20 to 30 minutes. Check the Camembert after 20 minutes.

This Camembert came out of the fridge and was fairly firm. It took about 30 minutes in our gasoven, before our Camembert was nice and gooey. I put a couple of slices of ciabatta in the oven, near the end of the cooking time.

Dipping, hmmm..

It’s a simple cheese fondue for two. The garlic gives off a lovely flavor to the soft and creamy cheese. Nice for lunch or as a somewhat heavy starter.

Instead of bread you could dip baked potato wedges or vegetables into the cheese.

Dutch version of the recipe here: http://food.zombelina.com/gebakken-camembert/.

Preparing the base

Butter the spring form and line with parchment paper. I wedged one piece between the bottom and the edge and used a strip to line the sides. Blend or break the cookies until they’re all mashed up finely and mix the melted butter through. Put the mix into the spring form and smooth with the back of a spoon, press well and make sure you have an even base. Put in the fridge to harden.

The filling

Break the chocolate into pieces and bring the whipped cream just to the boil (use low to medium heat). Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until it’s all blended together. Pour the filling onto the base and try to smooth the top. You don’t have to be that precise if you want to decorate the top. Leave it to cool and let it harden for a couple of hours in the fridge (still in the spring form).

And the truffle tart is done! Super easy and oh so yummy! The first tart I made, I used 74% chocolate, which was a bit too strong. The tart is fairly small and low, but a small slice is enough per person.

After the tart hardened I decorated it with grated white and dark chocolate. Some chopped nuts on top would also be great.

If you use a bigger spring form, I’d double the filling. The base should still be fine. Make more if you like a thicker base.

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.

They tasted nice, but slightly bland. Might try adding caramelized onion and a bit of chili paste next time.

It turned out really nice and slightly chewy in the middle with a hard crust. The bread was slightly bland though, so I need to add a bit more salt next time or perhaps use a different flour.

I had a bit of trouble getting the dough in my Creuset so it’s not as high as I think it should be. I covered the pan with aluminium foil instead of the lid, because I haven’t replaced the knob with a stainless steel one yet. This wasn’t a problem whatsoever. Will definitely be making this again!

I had this with some steamed rice. Top the pancakes with strips of duck, spring onion, cucumber and a bit of hoisin sauce. I added a bit more duck on top of my rice with some plum sauce.

This is totally not a recipe, but a very nice and easy week day dinner. Real peking duck is normally just the crispy skin on pancakes, but this is a good home version. I’m just salivating over the photo’s I made and it doesn’t even look pretty. :p

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 .

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!

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.