One of the questions I get asked the most is whether I spend a lot of time preparing each meal. The answer is no, as when I get home from work I am usually too hungry to wait a long … Continue reading Fusilli with Shrimp, Peas, and Tomato
This is food blogging how I like it best. A simple but tasty recipe using a limited amount of seasonal ingredients, prepared, eaten, and blogged about all during the same evening. The flavor still lingers as I am typing this. … Continue reading Roasted Pumpkin, Lentils, and Rabbit with Rosemary
Yes, you’ve read it correctly, a cake that contains beets (also known as beetroot). When I saw this recipe on Polianthus’ blog, I was intrigued and knew I had to try it. I am glad that I did, because the … Continue reading Hazelnut and Beet Cake
Brussels sprouts are an acquired taste that not everyone acquires (or has acquired yet). I’m not that fond of them myself. But with game & wine dinner parties coming up, I need to work on my autumnal side dishes for … Continue reading Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Honey
I always like it when I get requests for a dinner party, because it makes it easier to choose what to make. In this case, the request was something with shrimp and garlic. Because of the season I looked for … Continue reading Shrimp, Pumpkin, and Almonds
You may have noticed something else on the plate along with the venison and mushroom stew of my previous post. Because the stew was served with a wine from Piemonte, I wanted to serve a contorno (side dish) from that … Continue reading Sancrau alla Piemontese (Savoy Cabbage with Vinegar and Anchovies)
As a gift for her 18th birthday, I cooked dinner for Kees’ niece Liza. The center of the dinner was a nice bottle of Barolo from her year of birth, and so I had to come up with a dish … Continue reading Venison and Wild Mushroom Stew (Brasato di Cervo ai Funghi di Bosco)
Many recipes tell you to use the white part of leeks, so my attention was caught at once when Elie wrote about Leek Royale on his blog Oven-Dried Tomatoes. Royale de Poireaux is a French side dish that is essentially … Continue reading Leek Royale (Royale de Poireaux)
This a great appetizer for a dinner party, because it is delicious, looks great, and is quite easy to prepare. Only a few ingredients are needed to make a fantastic dish. Scallops and bacon are friends, so bacon-wrapped scallops are … Continue reading Bacon-Wrapped Scallop with Pumpkin
When we visited Estancia Piedra for a wine tasting, our charming host Mary suggested that a risotto with tart apple, mushrooms, and goat cheese would be outstanding with the Rueda Verdejo from Estancia Piedra. Although the wine did smell of … Continue reading Risotto with Apple, Mushrooms, and Goat Cheese
Fried fish is really good with remoulade sauce, but that mayonnaise-based sauce is not the most healthy of options. And so I decided to try making a version with yogurt at its base, and tried it with baby sole, pan-fried … Continue reading Sole with Yogurt Remoulade Sauce
This blog is sometimes about fancy food or wine, but mostly it is about food prepared from scratch using high quality fresh ingredients, in such a way that the ingredients shine. During our travels I didn’t do a lot of … Continue reading Grilled Sardines
We’re on a wine discovery vacation in Spain, and so there have been a lot of posts about Spanish wine lately. Although I do intend to write more about wine than I used to, this will remain primarily a cooking … Continue reading Five-Spice Duck with Napa Cabbage and Noodles
Pasta comes in many shapes. The most common include spaghetti, penne, tagliatelle, orecchiette, and lasagne. Apart from fresh pasta and dried pasta, one of the main distinctions is between ‘short’ pasta such as penne and orecchiette, and ‘long’ pasta such … Continue reading Choosing a Pasta Shape, Part 2: Spaghetti with Bell Peppers and Olives
Pasta comes in many shapes. The most common include spaghetti, penne, tagliatelle, orecchiette, and lasagne. Apart from fresh pasta and dried pasta, one of the main distinctions is between ‘short’ pasta such as penne and orecchiette, and ‘long’ pasta such … Continue reading Choosing a Pasta Shape, Part 1: Penne with Bell Peppers and Olives
I’ve been baking oat bran quark muffins for breakfast regularly, either with blueberries, or poppy seeds and almonds, as a high fiber, high protein, low fat, low sugar start of my day. (They happen to be gluten free too, but … Continue reading Date, Oat Bran, and Quark Muffins
This elegant pasta dish can be prepared in the time it takes to cook the pasta. Succulent pieces of sole fillet (I actually used plaice, schol in Dutch) are tossed with linguine pasta in a simple sauce of white wine, … Continue reading Linguine with Sole and Lemon Zest
There is already a recipe for smoked salmon ravioli on this blog, but that one is for hot smoked salmon. Today’s post is about cold smoked salmon. The filling is as easy as it comes: simply blend smoked salmon with … Continue reading Smoked Salmon Ravioli with Whiskey Sauce (Ravioli al Salmone Affumicato con Whiskey)
For my friend Jelmer’s birthday I cooked dinner for him with a bottle of vintage port from his year of birth (1989). This meant I had to come up with a dish that would work well with vintage port. Unlike tawny … Continue reading Duck with Cherries and Port Sauce
Hummus, also spelled as houmous, is a middle eastern dip made from cooked chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and salt. Chickpeas are high in protein and hummus is great when used as a … Continue reading Hummus
Summer has finally started (not just on the calendar but also the weather) and that means that cakes for which you don’t have to turn on the oven are the preferred solution for dessert. Although this recipe is tagged “baking”, … Continue reading Quark Cake with Cherries (Kwarktaart met Kersen)
This is not an authentic Thai dish, but my own creation that was heavily inspired by Thai cuisine. Plaice (Dutch: schol) is a flatfish that is very common in the Netherlands. I had some rawit (Thai red chillis), galangal, and … Continue reading Thai Style Fish Mousse and Napa Cabbage
Lamb shank is one of my favorite cuts of meat, especially when cooked sous-vide. It is so flavorful, tender, and moist. And so I keep coming up with new ways to prepare it. In this case I thought it would … Continue reading Lamb Stew with Smoked Paprika and Zucchini
My friend Melvin is great at cooking Asian dishes, and recently he made tom yum goong for us. This is a sour (from lime) and spicy (from chillis) Thai soup with shrimp. We liked it a lot, so I wanted … Continue reading Thai Sour and Spicy Shrimp Soup (Tom Yum Goong)
Although in Italy eel is mostly eaten in winter time, fresh eel is available here in summer. And so I’ve made a summer version of eel ragù by making it with fresh tomatoes and basil. This makes the ragù very … Continue reading Tagliatelle with Eel (Tagliatelle al Ragù di Anguilla)
Spinach and ricotta are a classic combination in Italian cuisine, probably known best as one of the most common fillings for ravioli. I’ve made spinach risotto before, but I had never thought about risotto with ricotta and spinach. Until I … Continue reading Risotto con Spinaci e Ricotta (Spinach and Ricotta Risotto)
The best pork chops are those that are marbled with fat, as the fat provides flavor and prevents the chops from drying out. For this recipe I used some pork chops from iberico pig, the same Spanish pork that is … Continue reading Pork Chops in Piquant Sauce
Spaghetti alla Carbonara is one of our favorite dishes that I make often because it is such great comfort food: filling and full of flavor. If you are a long time follower of this blog with a good memory, you … Continue reading Spaghetti alla Carbonara
The best dishes are those that use only a few ingredients. In this case: beets, mackerel, and balsamic vinegar (plus salt, pepper, and olive oil). It is a versatile dish: you could serve it lukewarm or at room temperature as … Continue reading Roasted Beets, Mackerel, Balsamic
Bacalà alla Vicentina is a famous dish from the North Italian city of Vicenza, prepared with dried cod. The cod is cooked low and slow and flavored with onions, anchovies, parsley, milk, extra virgin olive oil, and grated cheese (grana … Continue reading Fresh Cod alla Vicentina with Polenta
