Avocado salad for one !

Cooking for yourself doesn't have to be boring, nor time consuming, nor a drag. It should be fun to enjoy taking care of yourself every now and then.
This salad is healthy, a quick fix for your lunch break and it will fill you up till dinner time is knocking on your door ...
It also doesn't require cooking skills, nor do you need a stove, therefor I can definitely recommend it !

I always make this when I know I'll go out for dinner and I want to have a light, healthy meal during the day to keep my energy level up and besides all the good things avocado does for us, it's also very tasty !!!

My Sicilian friend Pio taught me this recipe a long time ago and every time I make it I think of him and the magical moments we used to share in our kitchen.

I wish you a wonderful lunch break !

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
1 tblsp. virgin olive oil
zest and juice from half a lemon or lime
pinch of sea salt
black pepper
handful of walnuts
1 tblsp. parmesan flakes

Peel the avocado and chop it into chunks. Sprinkle the lemon juice on top ( this way the avocado won't turn brown) and add the zest.
Add all the other ingredients, except the parmesan flakes.
Mix the avocado with the ingredients and add the parmesan just before you're ready to eat.
Believe it or not, but that's it !!
Easy, quick, delicious ....

Serve at once and allow yourself to have a glass or full red wine with this.

Middle Eastern Style Lentils with marinated Cherry Tomatoes

Autumn has finally arrived and it's time to stay in, enjoy the warmth of our homes, fill up our lives with seductive smells coming from our kitchen , light some candles and accompany ourselves with our favorite music.

The point is of course to share all this with your loved ones , and to bring some sunshine in the house when the days get shorter and darker.

One of my proposals is to make this stew, the smell of the spices will make you travel to another world , so give it a try.

This dish is pure comfort food !

Ingredients :

250 gr. Lentils 

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 celery sticks, trimmed and chopped

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 large carrot, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon ground curcuma

1 teaspoon ground coriander 

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon mild chili

1 teaspoon ground ginger 

600 ml beef stock

250 gr Greek style, full fat yoghurt 

For the marinated tomatoes:

20 cherry tomatoes

7 bay leaves

small glass of wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

pinch of salt

ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large casserole.

Add the vegetables, stir and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the lentils, stir again, stir in the beef stock and let this simmer.

Get creative and sprinkle the spices into the stew while it's simmering away.

Let the stew simmer for about an hour, add more stock if needed, the texture should thick, not watery like a soup.

Meanwhile put the cherry tomatoes into a little bowl with all the ingredients needed.

When ready to serve, pour the soup into individual deep bowls , add a few tablespoons of yoghurt to each plate and finish with a few cherry tomatoes on top of the yoghurt.

Serve warm with freshly ground black pepper .

p.s this stew can easily be made in advance, the flavors come out better if left in the fridge for a day, so make this on a Saturday if you want to serve this for a Sunday lunch.

I usually serve this stew with a loaf of country bread, some goat cheese and a simple mixed salad on the side.

Serves 4.

Baked Pastry with Caramelized Onions and Blue Cheese

This is such an easy appetizer and very popular , even amongst the people who apparently hate blue cheese.
I love to use Roquefort, but a milder choice could be Gorgonzola or just a simple, cheaper, Danish blue cheese will do.
Prepare this ahead and bake it while you pour your guests a glass of beautiful red wine.
Easy, cozy and always a big success !

Ingredients:
1 Sheet of puff Pastry.
5 Red onions, peeled and chopped.
2 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar.
1 teaspoon fine brown sugar.
1 tablespoon butter.
2 tablespoons olive oil.
160 gr. Blue cheese (any kind you like)



Heat the olive oil, together with the butter in a large sauce pan .
Stir in the chopped onions and let them simmer on a low heat, for about 15 minutes, until they are soft and have a golden color.
Add the balsamic vinegar and the brown sugar, stir and cook for another 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius .
Meanwhile lay the pastry on a baking sheet , sprinkle the blues cheese all over and finish with your caramelized onions.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, use a pizza cutter and cut into squares.
Serve warm with your wine and a green salad .

Serves 6.

Salad for dinner !

This salad is the perfect meal for warmer nights when we don't want to eat a heavy, hot plate of food and it's a healthy choice as well !
It's not really a recipe with specific ingredients, anything green will do, so let your inspiration flow and create your own version of a light dinner.
I'll give you the ingredients of my salad and you can play around with them as you like.
Enjoy your creation !





Ingredients :
1 lettuce
hand full of baby spinach leaves
2 spring onions, finely chopped
2  raw asperges,  chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
8 to 10 cherry tomatoes
1 beetroot ( wrap the beetroot in aluminum foil, sprinkle it with olive oil and roast it for an hour in the oven, let it cool, peel and chop it up for your salad)
6 slices of bresaola, sliced
hand full of roasted pine nuts

Take out a large salad bowl and mix up all the ingredients.
Prepare a dressing of :
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of truffle oil
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon fleur du sel
a few drops of worchestire sauce
black pepper

Mix up the dressing in a little bowl and pour it over the salad just before you're ready to eat.
Have some of your favorite dark brown bread on the side with a good quality goat cheese and nothing can go wrong anymore !

serves 4 people.

Chicken soup !

When I was a child, growing up in Amsterdam, my uncle Freddy had a restaurant with wonderful homemade food. We used to go there every sunday night and enjoy a warm chicken soup as a starter. He taught me that great food has three basic ingredients: Love, patience and the best quality products.
I always remembered his words and over the years I have learned through my own experiences that he was very right! The more I find out about food, the more I want to learn and that doesn't only include how to cook a recipe. I want to know where the products are from and that has made me try to grow vegetables in my garden. My future dream is to have some animals running around too, maybe some chicken and some pigs. But first I have to learn what they need to have a good life and then I have to learn to take my distance from them, cause one day they will end up in my kitchen ! Not so easy, but it's how people used to live and still do, so I made a little test with myself and went through the whole process of getting a fine quality chicken from my neighbor and getting it "ready" to be cooked.
I must say that this soup tasted different than ever before. And now I can say that I feel a bit less of a city girl who knows nothing about farming and only knows how to cook !


Ingredients:

1 chicken
1 onion (peeled)
1 large carrot (peeled)
1 leek (cleaned)
2 pieces of celery (cleaned)
2 bay leaves
half a cup of rice
1 1/2 liter of water (or more)
2 eggs
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper


Put the chicken together with the onion, the carrot, the celery, the bay leaves and the leek in a large pan.
Add enough water so that the chicken is covered and bring to boil.
Once the water boils you lower the heat and let it simmer for about an hour.
Take out the chicken and let it cool.
Take out the vegetables and add the rice to the pan, let it simmer until the rice is done.
Season the soup and debone the chicken.
Now I would like to propose to you to make a typical Greek augolemono sauce, because I'm sure you'll find it as delicious as I do.
It's a sauce which is added to soups and stews and it needs a bit of concentration from the cook, cause it shouldn't curdle.
Some chefs use only the yolks with added cornflour. Some cooks beat the yolks and whites separately.
Beat the eggs for a few minutes, then beat in the lemon juice. Slowly add 6 spoons of hot(never boiling or the eggs will curdle) stock, beating all the time.
Add the chicken to the pan and whisk the sauce into the soup.
Serve immediately .

Serves 4 people.

With love,
esther.

Frittata !

Now here's a recipe for something so easy and comfortable to make, you don't need any particular skills in the kitchen, nor do you need many pots or pans. Just one frying pan, so it's great for a weeknight when you want a quick and easy dinner. This frittata, combined with a mixed salad, a loaf of country bread and a glass of red wine will help you unwind from any stress in just a few minutes !
About the eggs... there's a lot of talk about the quality of eggs and I would suggest you try to get the best there is. Try to eat organic eggs, they also taste better !


Ingredients:

2 tbls. olive oil
1 large potato, peeled and thinly sliced
1 spring onion, diced
1 red onion, diced
salt, pepper
a few drops of worcestershire sauce
3 tbls. full fat milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or any other cheese you like)
4 eggs (organic)

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the potatoes and fry them for about ten minutes. The thinner you have sliced them, the quicker they will cook.
Add the red onion , stir, fry for a few more minutes and season with salt and pepper.
Preheat your grill to 200 degrees Celsius and whisk the eggs together with the worcestershire sauce and the milk.
Add the spring onion to the egg mixture and pour the eggs over the vegetables in the frying pan.
Leave the frittata for a few minutes on medium heat and then you sprinkle the cheese on top.
Transfer the pan to the oven and leave it under the grill for about 5 minutes until the cheese will be golden and bubbly !

Serve the pan directly to the table and help yourself.

Serves 2

With love,
esther.

Linzer Torte !

My grand mother passed away last year... She was 96 and lived in the Black Forest in the South of Germany. I will always remember her for the best Linzer Torte you can imagine. My grandma lived in the south of Germany and when I was a child she would bake it for me and send it to Amsterdam by post. I used to love those kinds of presents and I actually still do. A gift of food will put a smile on my face at any time of the day! The Linzer Torte was a special occasion present, so I had to calculate to eat it slowly. Of course that never worked, especially since the whole family would "help" to finish it off.... Over the years I have learned to make it myself, cause she stopped baking and now she's gone, but her recipe will stay alive. I am thrilled to share it with you!


Ingredients:
300 gr. flour
200 gr. caster sugar
200 gr. hazelnuts (ground)
200 gr. soft, unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 tbs. cacao
1 tsp. ground clove
2 tbs. cinnamon
1 jar red marmalade (strawberry or raspberry)
2 tbs. lemon juice

It's a very simple process, so no worries on how to get it right!
Start with a big bowl and add the flour, the sugar, the hazelnuts, the cacao, the clove, the cinnamon, and the lemon juice. Mix that all up with a fork and then add the one egg and the butter.
Now it's better to use your hands and to knead it into a soft dough. The smell will be amazing, try to stay focused, cause some of my friends like to nibble on the raw product!
My grandmother used to say that we should always leave the dough to rest, so I would advise you to do the same. I have noticed that it's easier to work with the dough, when you have given it some rest.
I put it in the fridge for about two hours and then it's ready to go!
Sprinkle some flour on your working surface and role out 2/3 of the dough. Try to give it the shape of your (medium sized) tart pan. Then butter your tart pan and transfer the dough to the bottom of your pan. Mold it with your fingers so that the dough also covers the sides of the pan.
Preheat your oven to 175 degrees and spread the marmalade on top of the dough.
Take the rest of the dough and role it out like you did before. Cut it into strips of 2cm each. Strips will have various lengths, but that is the point!
You will make a lattice top, so use the longer strips near the center of the pie and the shorter ones near the edge.
Cross the strips over each other and let me remind you that it doesn't really matter how you do it, as long as you are satisfied with the result!
When you're done whisk the remaining egg and brush the strips with it.
Now bake your Torte for about 50 minutes in the oven.

Leave it to cool and serve with icing sugar..
Serves 10 or me!

With love,
esther.