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.

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.