Karabitjessoep

The nick name of the people of Brussels is the kiekenfretters, which means chicken eaters, comes from the food we took with us to go and siege the castle of Gaasbeek.

The people of Brussels decided to siege the castle because the bastard son of the sheriff of Gaasbeek attacked the local war hero t' Serclaas who was on is way to between Brussels and Lennik. The main source of food they took with them was chicken and that way they became known as chicken eaters.

The following soup recipe is one I got from my grandmother who used to eat this soup at home during World War II. She told me that it was a very typical soup for that time. Personally I think it is remarkable that once again chicken is involved. In the old days everything you could find of the chicken went into the soup but do to legislation you can't buy stuff like chicken paws any more but according to my grandparents it was something like a delicacy.


Ingredients:
- 1 tray of pealed chicken stomachs
- 1 tray of chicken wings
- 1 cube of chicken stock
- a couple of carrots
- 2 branches of celery
- 2 small leeks

You start by cutting up the carrots, celery and leeks into small pieces that are approximately 1,5 cm long and are 0,5 to 1 cm (a pinky finger) thick.

You clean the stomachs and chicken wings under running tab water.
Next you put them on the boil for approximately 15 minutes. You will see a white foam forming on top of the water. Remove the foam.

Add the cube of chicken stock to the water and put in the vegetables.

To find out when the soup is ready you take a fork and try to put it into a stomach. When it goes in smoothly without putting any pressure on it it is ready. Don't forget to test the vegetables as well.

When I was a kid and my grandmother used to make this soup she would add in some soup balls. The soup balls are just small balls from minced meat and some bread crum that you boil in some water with minced pepper. They are ready when the float. You don't add the balls into the karabitjessoep until you will be serving the soup.

We usually make it and than reheat the soup because we have the impression that the flavors intensifies by letting it stand over night.

Stuffed breads

Ingredients:

- dough

- filling

I used for my first filling minced meat that I baked loose and spiced it with some paprika powder and added some chopped up dates to it. My second filling was Roquefort with chopped up dates. I wanted 2 fillings with nice contrasts in flavors and textures.

You make little dough balls and roll them out the size of the palm of your hand. In the center you put in some of the filling, approx a tea spoon and then you fold them so all stuffing is tucked into a blanket of dough.

Put them in a preheated oven at 200 centigrades until they have some color. Let them cool down a bit before serving so the interior still has some warmth in it but you won't burn your hands when you take one.

Carrot Chutney

For Verity and Linnea :)

Ingredients:
- Carrots
- Caster sugar
- Water
- Herbs and spices
- Balsamic vinegar

The idea is very simple. First of all you grate your carrots fine but not too fine like for a carrot salad.

Put a pot of water to the boil and add the sugar. The ratio water/sugar should be something like 60/40. Once this mixture is hot and all sugar is disolved you add in the carrots. The idea is that all carrots are just covered in the syrup. Let it simmer until your carrots are soft.

Drain the excessive water off and put the carrots in a bowl. Mix in all herbs you like. Personally I like to put in things like gingerpowder, kardemon, cloves, cumin, ... . Mix them carefully in, add bit by bit and taste until you have something you like.

To make the contrast with the sweet carrots I like to use Balsamic vinegar. Personally I like to mix in a good hand full of brown raisins.

Prok parfumed with jasmine tea

This I wanted to try for a very long time :)

Ingredients:

- a nice piece of pork

- jasmin tea

First of all you make jasmine tea. You prepare the meat by puncture small holes in the meat. Let your meat rest in the tea for 24 hours. The tea will not look like tea after this.

Remove the tea leaves and jasmine flowers and let the meat rest again on a plate in the fridge. Some tea will come out and the rest will evaporate while you bake it.

Bake it slowly, really gently, a small heat source so that the flavors meat can to their job. Smell the aroma's in your kitchen while preparing this. After the meat is ready, give it the time to relax.

A new experience but one I'll repeat.

Sweet Tangerine Lassi

It is currently very hot here where I live and so I decided to make a little refreshing drink inspired on the Indian Lassi.

Ingredients:

- 50 ml of liquid yogurt

- 500 ml of cold water

- 175 grams of tangerines (bought on syrup)

- 5 spoons of sugar

- 10 ice cubes

Pour the yogurt in the blender. Mix it so you become a smooth yogurt. Pour the 500 ml of cold water to it, and mix it up. Now you have a very liquid smooth yogurt.

Remove the tangerines from the syrup in the can and put them into the blender. Mix it up and you become an nice pink colored mixture. Add the 5 spoons of sugar and mix it a again.

Finally you put the ice cubes into the blender and mix it for the final time. Just to make it even a little more cold, you put the serving can in the fridge.

Bell pepper soup

Ingredients:

- 3 bell peppers

- Olive oil

- Water

- Bread

- Spices

Cut up the bell peppers into pieces and drizzle some olive oil over them. Heat the bell peppers and wait until they sizzle. Stir it up. Add water and stir it up again. If you want to give it more flavor you add spices.

To have the right consistency you add bread. Cut up pieces of bread and mix them into the soup so it sucks up the water. The more bread you add, the thicker the soup will be. After bringing it to the boil for 5 minutes, you put it in the blender and blend it smooth.

Since it is fun to play with color you can make an intense red, and make it hot. A yellow/orange one and make it sweet by adding some carrots or so and a minty green one. Only your imagination is the limit.

I like to serve mine simple and in the middle of the soup I add some Boursin.

Banana Bread

I am getting more interested in the American Cuisine since a good friend of mine is American and she brought me back a book about American Diners.

One of the classics I heard about but actually never ate it when I've been to the USA was banana bread. Here you find the recipe I used but look around and you'll find many of them.

Ingredients:

dry ingredients:

- 10 spoons of flour

- 5 spoons of sugar

- 1/2 tea spoon of salt

- 3/4 tea spoon of baking soda

wet ingredients:

- 4 bananas that are so ripe that the outside is brown instead of yellow

- 2 eggs

- 10 ml of melted butter of sunflower oil

- 1 tea spoon of vanilla extract

Mix the dry and the wet ingredients in separate bowls. When you got two smooth mixtures, you add the wet to the dry mixture. Pour the final mix in a cake shape.

Preheat the oven on 200 degrees Celsius and when the oven is hot put the final mix in for 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes. To see if it ready poke a little hole in the middle with something metal of a small diameter. It should come out almost clean.

The banana bread is according to what I read from moist to dry so depending on what you like you might need to add more flour.

Scampi with oil and herbs

Ingredients:

- Scampi

- Herbs de Provence

- Olive oil

- Lemon juice

- Garlic (fresh, no pouder)

Defrost the amount of scampi you need and fry them in some oil in a pan (with no pepper or salt). Remove the shell from the scampi and pour generously olive oil over it. Take your fresh garlic and crush it in a garlic press. Mix the crushed garlic underneath the in olive oil coated scampi.

Now comes the delicate part. Pour your herbs de Provence over it but don't add to much. You should have them herbs sticking to the scampi but you don't want a coating of herbs. Mix the herbs de Provence under the scampi/olive oil/garlic and finally to finish it off you add a squeeze of lemon to add freshness to it.

Camembert stuffed crumble breads

I was kind of feeling lazy and had still some crumble dough and Camembert in my fridge ... inspired by börek suddenly I had very tasty Camembert filled bread in front of me :).

Ingredients:

- Camembert

- Crumble dough

Preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Cut a piece of Camembert, roll your dough around it. Bake until the breads are golden brown.

I enjoyed it with a nice glass of red wine. Next time I'll add different herbs to each one so you have a surprise each one you eat.

Hot sauce dip

Some times when you make Asian you would like some hot sauce like they give you at your local take away. Well it is very easy to make.

Ingredients:

- 1 spoon of ketchup

- some water

- 1 teaspoon of sriracha hot chili sauce

- 1 spoon of sugar cane syrup

- 1 thai chili pepper

Put the spoon of ketchup into a bowl, add some water to it and mix it so you become red water.

Mix the hot chili sauce and the sugar cane syrup into the mixture. Cut up the chili pepper into small rings and add a couple of rings to the sauce.

Flavoring wodka

Ingredients:

- wodka

- citrus fruit

- sugar

Wash your fruit and cut it up into pieces. Put the pieces into a jar cover it with sugar. Close the lit of the jar and toss it so that all your fruit gets a sugar coat. Pour in the wodka and mix it with the sugar.

Let this mixture stand for a week in the dark and remove the fruit from it. If you think it is too bitter add some sugar syrup (I prefer sugar cane syrup) to it.

Serve ice cold.

Sweet mango pickled carrots

Ingredients:

- 3 to 4 carrots a person

- sweet mango pickle

- cardemom seeds (not the pods, the dark seeds in it)

- raisins

Grate the carrots in large chuncks and mix spoon by spoon the mango pickle under it. The amount of pickle you will need depends on the intensity of the taste. Taste regularly to see if you like it. If the pickle is too sticky add a teaspoon of water to the mixture. To finish it off mix raisins and cardemom seeds. Let is rest for a couple of hours before you serve.

Tzaziki

Ingredients:

- cloves of garlic (the stronger you like it, the more you'll need)

- yogurt (250 grams)

- 1/3 cucumber

- pepper and salt

Peal your garlic and crush it with a garlic crusher. Add the yogurt to it and mix it under the garlic. Grate the cumber fine and make sure that you squize out the excess of water. Mix the cucumber under the yogurt/garlic mixture. Finish off with salt and pepper.

Chicory cream soup

Ingredients:
For approx. 4 persons:
- Chicory (4), chopped
- Chicken stock (500 ml)
- Milk (300 ml)
- Onion (2 hand of chopped onion)
- Egg yolk (1)
- Flower (3 spoons)

The Works:
1. Prepare the chicken stock
2. Melt some butter and add the chopped onion to it until it becomes translucent.
3. Add the chopped chicory, mix it under the onion and add some water.
4. Let it simmer for a couple so that the water evaporates
5. Mix the flower into the onion/chicory mixture, this will give you a sticky brown mixture.
6. Add the chicken stock an make it cook for something like 5 minutes.
7. Mix the soup in a mixer
8. Add the egg yolk, whisk it into the soup
9. Add the milk, mix it into the soup

I used milk because I didn't have any cream but the result is still a very smooth soup which with cream would have become more creamy.

About this blog

This blog is about cooking ... yes another one. We humans seem to engage a lot of time in this activity. I have a terrible memory for remembering how I did certain things in the kitchen. What I make is usually ok but I needed a place to write down my stuff, so this is it.

Cooking is a personal expression of the self, I might like it like this, you may dislike it so don't bother commenting. It is just a notebook for my bio-nutritional matter hacks (yes, I am an IT guy).