Chicken with prunes

This one is for Jodie, it is based on a Belgian classic called "rabbit with prunes".

You 'll need:

- 500 grams of dried prunes with no pits if possible.

- 5 dl of white wine.

- 125 grams of sugar

- 1 cinnamon stick

- 5 thee spoons of honey

- 1 lemon (cut in parts)

- 2 onions

- 2,5 dl of chicken stock

- chicken legs, 1 or 2 a person

- mustard

You start of by bringing the wine to the boil with the prunes, sugar, cinnamon and lemon. Add 1 spoon of honey to it. Peel the onions and chop them up.

Do some frying butter in a deep pan and fry the chicken legs so they get a nice brown crust. Add the onions to it and add the chicken stock to it. Mix the rest of the honey and the mustard into it and add the wine with the prunes. Lets it simmer for approx 40 minutes. The chicken should be cooked through but check by making a little incision.

In Belgium we serve it with potatoes but they can come in many forms.

Mayonaise

When I was a kid my grandmother always use to make mayonaise. I really like the taste and it tastes a thousand times better than commercial one.

Ingredients:

- 2 egg yolkes

- 1 spoon of mustard

- 1 spoon of vinegar

- corn oil

- 1/2 lemon (juice)

- pepper

Put the egg yolk, mustard and vinegar together in a mixer. Mix them together on a slow speed. Add in the oil bit by bit and look how the mixture becomes mayonaise. To know when you've put enough oil to it is a personal taste.

Once I got the desired texture I add the lemon juice and mix it under the mayonaise and then as a final touch the pepper goes in.

Brocoli soup

Ingredients:

- 1 liter of water

- 1 stock cube

- 1 broccoli

- potatoes

Bring the water with the stock cube up to temperature so that it dissolves in the water. Add the broccoli and let is simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile bring the potatoes to the boil.

When the potatoes are ready add them to the broccoli and mix the whole thing down.

Bon appétit!

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.