Tiramisu

A classic desert and very easy to make

Ingredients:
- 500 grams of mascarpone
- biscuits, it can be the traditional ones but you can go any direction depending on what you like
- pure dark cacao
- a cup of good dark strong coffee
- 6 spoons of amaretto
- 4 egg whites
- 5 egg yolks

Let the coffee cool down and add the amaretto. Soak your biscuits (but not too long) and make your first layer in the tray.

Add 3 spoons of sugar to your egg whites and whisk it until you got a smooth mixture. Add 3 spoons of sugar to the egg yolks and do the same. Now add the mascarpone to the sugary egg yolk and mix it so you have a yellow creamy mixture. Work the sugary egg white mixture under the mascarpone mixture without breaking the texture of your whisked egg whites.

Spread with a spatula a layer of your mascarpone mix on the first layer of cookies. Add another layer of cookies and mascarpone mix and continue until the tray is full. Let this rest overnight in the fridge and right before serving sprinkle the cacao over the top.

I made variants working with speculoos, working with cacao in the mascarpone mix, you can go as crazy as you want once you understand the basics of this recipe

Squid with rice, and red curry coco cream

Sometimes you have moments where you just want easy uncomplicated food. This recipe was one of these quick and dirty moments where you have a number of things in front of you and you start improvising.

Ingredients:
- Squid
- Rice
- Eggs
- Thai spinach
- Red curry paste
- Coconut cream
- Coriander
- Spring onion
- Chili peppers

Chop up the chilies, spring onions, coriander and spinach. Keep everything separated.

Rince your rice and put it in the rice cooker. Heat your oil up and spice it the way you like it. I personally use things like cloves, but watch out not to burn them. Put in the squid. Squid is not the easiest fish to prepare, you got to make sure it is cooked but be careful not to overcook it. Take the heat away and put the squid aside.

Put in the spinach and you will see it shrink in a matter of minutes. Once it is completely soft, take it away from the heat source.

Once the rice is ready put it in your wok with some oil. Add the coconut cream to it and your red curry paste. The amount of curry paste depends on how intense you want the taste. I personally don't use a lot. Mix in the spinach and then the squid. Let is simmer for a couple of minutes on a high heat. Take the heat away and break your eggs on top of it and mix them under the everything. Bring in the chilies, spring onion and coriander just before serving.

Enjoy.

Butternut mash

Thanks to my girlfriend, I had the experience to encounter the butternut squash. There is this delicious butternut soup she makes with it and since for Easter my family was coming over and they never ate it before I wanted to do something with it. I was not going to make the soup due to some food allergies some family members have. I started wondering what I would do with it and came up with the idea of making a mash.

Ingredients:
- 1 butternut
- potatoes for 6
- Cream
- Italian hard cheese
- Bread crumbs
- Flat leaf parsley

First you start with making dices of butternut. I used my microwave to steam them tender, which takes in mine something like 8 minutes. The idea is basically they must be tender enough to mash it down. While the potatoes are being cooked I already mashed the butternut. Once the potatoes are tender you add them bit by bit and mash it with the butternut.

To make sure I would not end up with just another yellow/orange mash I added finely chopped flat leaf parsley to it since the dark green contrasts nice with the mash. Depending on how the texture of the mash is you add some cream to have a smooth mash. Be careful not to add to much because you would end up with something you don't want.

Next, put it in an oven dish and put grated Italian hard cheese on it with some bread crumbs so it makes a light crust on top of it. Put it in the oven grill for a dozen of minutes so the cheese and bread crumbs can do their work.

I've served this with some nice chicken and we had a very nice Easter with the necessary Belgian chocolate easter eggs.

Mushrooms with butternut and basil pesto

I am just back from a trip along the Garden Route in South-Africa and one of the places where I stopped was in Wilderness. It was lunchtime so we entered a restaurant called the Blue Olive. The idea for this recipe is based on what I ate there a big mushroom with butternut and basil pesto.

Ingredients:
- A big mushroom
- Butternut
- 2 cups of basil leaves
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- Olive oil
- A pinch salt

Prepare the mushroom by getting out the stem and fry it in a pan with olive oil. It should be nice brown when ready.

The basic idea of the filling is to make a butternut puree mixed with basil pesto. Start by estimating how much butternut you will need. It depends on the size of you mushroom. Peel the butternut and boil it soft (I personally steam it in my microwave). Make the butternut into a puree and add the the basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and salt to it. Mash it further down and scoop the mixture into the mushroom.

You can eat it either warm or cold.

Arepas

Arepas are corncookies on which you put something like blue cheese or pico.

For the arepas you will need:

- 3,5 dl of water

- 2 spoons of brown sugar

- 200 grams of corn flour

- 2 eggs

- 120 grams of blue cheese

For the pico you will need:

- 3 ripe tomatoes

- 1 garlic clove

- 1 spoon of ahorn sirup

- 2 spoons of freshly chopped coriander leaves

- 1 sjalot

- sea salt and black pepper

Heat up the water and add the sugar until completely disolved. Add bit by bit the corn flour so you get a nice smooth thick batter. Mix the eggs and half of the cheese trough it. Let the dough cool down.

Put the oil in the frying pan and heat it. Roll little balls from the dough and roll them out so that it becomes cookie-shaped. You fry them 4 to 5 minutes on each side.

To make the pico you dice up the tomatoes, squeeze the garlic and add the juice of the lemon to it. Mix it up and then add the coriander to it together with the sjalot. Mix it up again and finally add the sirup to it and mix it up again. To finish it you add sea salt and pepper to bring it up to taste.

So finally you crumble your cheese onto the arepas or put some pico onto it.

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.