3 kinds of dip

( we forgot to take pictures :( )

Ingredients:

• 1 tomato
• 3 tbsp. mayonnaise
• salt, pepper

Directions:

1. Boil water.
2. Put the tomato in the boiled water for a few minutes.
3. Peel the tomato.
4. Cut the tomato into small cubes, removing the seeds.
5. Mix everything together.

 Ingredients:

• 5 cornichons
• 3 tbsp. mayonnaise
• parsley
• salt, pepper

Directions:

1. Cut the cornichons into small cubes.
2. Mix everything together. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion
• 20g raisins
• 3 tbsp. mayonnaise
• 2 tsp. curry powder
• salt, pepper

Directions:

1. Cut the onion into small cubes.
2. Put the onion & raisins in a sieve and let warm water run over them for a few minutes.
3. Mix everything together.

Schweineohren / "Pig ears"

Base ingredients:

• 3 live pigs
• 6 sheets of pastry dough

 Filling I (hearty):

• 200g feta cheese
• 100 g cream cheese with 'erbs in it
• 3 green peperoni
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 egg
• pepper

Filling II (sweet):

• 75g ground hazelnuts
• 75g ground almonds
• 5 tbsp. honey
• 3 tbsp. cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2. For Filling I, cut the peperoni and garlic into small pieces. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.
3. For Filling II, mix all the ingredients.
4. Roll out the pasty dough into squares of twice the original size.
5. Spread out each filling on 3 sheets of the pastry dough.
6. For each sheet, roll up the edges from two opposing sides, meeting in the middle.
7. Cut the rolls into segments of about 1 cm.
8. Lay the sideways onto a baking sheet and squish them down a little bit.
9. Bake for about 15 min, until they have a nice brownish colour.

Lentil soup

 
Ingredients:

• oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 cm ginger
• 6 cardamom pods
• 1 tsp. yellow curry paste
• 300 g lentils
• 500 ml vegetable broth
• 400 ml coconut milk

Directions:

1. Heat oil in pan.
2. Cut garlic & ginger into small pieces.
3. Saute ginger, garlic, and cardamom pods in the pan for 2 minutes.
4. Add curry paste & lentils and fry briefly.
5. Pour in the vegetable broth and coconut milk.
6. Let it simmer until the lentils are done (see package).

As you can see in the picture, we also added some leek, carrots, and potato. Basically, every kind of vegetable can be added. For example, spring onions are very nice.

As for the type of lentils, we usually use half slow-cooking green lentils and half faster-cooking red lentils. Then, the red lentils dissolve slightly, giving a nice texture to the soup.

Lentil paté

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 1 laurel leaf
• 3 cloves
• 350 g lentils (black)
• 800 ml vegetable broth
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 tbsp olive oil
•  some cest of a lemon
•  salt, pepper
• 2 tbsp ground almonds
• 2 tbsp soy sauce

 With mustard carrots:

• 1 carrot
• 20 g celery
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp coarse mustard
• salt, pepper
• cress

 On bread:

• 2 rolls or a baguette
• cress

Directions: 

1. Peel the onion. Attach the laurel leaf to the onion using the cloves. This looks funny.
2. Boil the lentils and the onion in the vegetable broth until the lentils are done.
3. Remove the onion. (eat it or throw it away)
4. Add the lemon cest, ground almonds, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and soy sauce.
5. Puree the lentil mixture.
6. Let it cool.

  With mustard carrots:

1.  Dice the carrot and the celery.
2. Heat the olive oil in pan. Saute the carrot and celery for about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the mustard and season with salt and pepper.
4. Cut the paté into circular pieces using a glass or similar implement.
5. Top off the paté with the mustard carrots and decorate with cress.

On bread:

1. The paté can also be spread on bread and decorated with cress. 

Courgette soup

 

Ingredients:

•  400g courgette
• 1 small onion 
• 2 small potatoes
• olive oil
• 250 ml vegetable broth
• 3 tbsp lime juice (to taste)
• salt, pepper
• 250 ml butter milk

Directions:

1. Cut the courgette, onion and small potatoes into small pieces.
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Saute the onion in the olive oil briefly, then add courgette and potatoes.
3. Add the vegetable broth and let simmer until the potatoes are soft.
4. Puree the vegetables.
5. Add the lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve hot or cold with butter milk.

Tomato-Mozzarella Baguette

Ingredients:

• 1 Coeur de Boeuf Tomato (or about 2-3 normal tomatoes)
• 1 package mozzarella
• 1 Baguette
• Olive oil
• salt, pepper
• basil

Directions:

1.  Heat up the baguette in the oven.
2. Cut the tomato into slices.
3. Put the tomato on the baguette and the mozzarella on top.
4. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and basil.

Mini Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 9 sheets of puff pastry
• 100 g chocolate (I used dark chocolate)
• 1 egg
• 70 g sugar
• 200 g cream cheese
• 1 tbsp. sour cream
• 1 tsp. lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Butter 9 cupcake forms.
3. Melt the chocolate and set aside.
4. Cut each sheet of puff pastry into three pieces, roll them a little thinner and place them in the cupcake form.
5. Beat the egg and the sugar until white.
6. Add the cream cheese, sour cream, lemon juice and molten chocolate and mix until smooth.
7. Pour the chocolate-cheese-mixture into the puff pastry.
8. Bake on the medium rack for about 20 minutes.

Honey-Balsamico Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 shallots
• 1 apple
• 1 tsp. oil
  
• 20 g butter
• 20 g flour
• 200 ml vegetable broth
  
• 3 tbsp. balsamico
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 1 twig rosemary
  

Directions:

1. Chop the shallots into thin rings. Cut the apple into small pieces. Chop the rosemary finely.
   
2. Heat the oil in a pan.
3. Sweat the shallots and apple until the shallots are lucent.
4. Set the shallots and apple to the side.
5. Heat the butter in the pan and add the flour. Slowly stir in the vegetable broth, making sure no clumps remain. Briefly bring the sauce to a boil, then remove from the heat.
   
6. Add the balsamico, honey and chopped rosemary to taste. Then stir in the shallots and apple.

We served this sauce on potatoes and medallions of pork fillet. We added the meat juices from the fillet to the sauce.

Congo Bars

Ingredients:

• 150 g butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 200 g brown sugar (1 cup)
• 1 packet vanilla sugar (about 3 tsp.)
  
• 350 g flour (3 cups)
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 100 g chocolate
  

Directions:

1. Chop the chocolate finely.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
   
3. Combine butter, vanilla sugar and brown sugar using a mixer until blended.
4. Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
5. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined.
6. Butter a baking form and fill it with the batter.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes.
   

Enchiladas

Ingredients:

• 500 g broccoli
• 250 g ricotta
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• 100 g grated cheese (Gouda)
• 1 egg
• 6 tortillas
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper

Directions:

1. Cut the broccoli into small pieces. We cooked the broccoli for 3-4 minutes, but this is probably not necessary.
   
2. In a large bowl mix the broccoli, ricotta, cumin, garlic and 50 g of the cheese.
3. Stir in the egg and the salt and pepper.
4. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
   
5. Fill the tortillas with the broccoli mixture and wrap up tightly. Place them into a casserole dish.
6. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.
7. Place into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.

This tastes good together with a tomato salad.

Vegetable Patties

Ingredients:

• 300 g zucchini
• 300 g carrots
• 2 onions
  
• 4 eggs
• 120 g flour
• 200 g cheese (Edamer)
• 60 g oats
• 2 tsp. parsley
• 2 tsp. curry powder
• 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 4 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. salt
• oil

Directions:

1. Chop the onions, zucchini and carrots finely. We use a food processor for this.
2. Stir in the eggs, flour, oats and cheese.
3. Add the seasoning generously.
4. Heat a little oil in a pan. Spoon the vegetable batter into the pan and fry from both sides for about 2 minutes.
   

Zucchini Gnocchi

Ingredients:

• 400 g gnocchi
• 2 tsp. oil
  
• 1 zucchini
  
• 3 large tomatoes (about 300 g)
• 1 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 100 g feta
• 2 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. parsley
• 1tsp. thyme
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper

Directions:

1. Chop the onions and the garlic finely. Cut the tomatoes and zucchini into about 2 cm cubes.
2. Heat oil in a large pan.
3. Fry the gnocchi in the pan briefly. Add the onions and garlic and fry until the onions are slightly translucent.
4. Stir in the zucchini and fry for about 3 minutes until they are soft.
5. Add the tomatoes and crumble in the feta.
   
6. Stir well. Add the herbs to taste.
   

Scarborough Muffins

Ingredients:

• 125 g flour
• 50 g oats
• 40 g chopped walnuts
• 40 g chopped almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 10 g fresh yeast
• 60 g yogurt
  
• 75 ml milk

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix flour, oats and chopped walnuts, chopped almonds and baking powder.
2. In a small bowl mix yogurt, milk and yeast.
3. Stir the two mixtures together and leave to rise for about 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
5. Line muffin forms with paper cups or butter the muffin forms. Add the batter to the muffin forms until 3/4 full.
6. Bake for about half an hour.

Makes about 8 muffins.
These muffins taste good with cheese.

Cucumber Sandwiches

• Step 1: Toast
  Ingredients:
  • 100 ml water
  • 12 g fresh yeast
  • 18 g salt
  • 250 ml milk
  • 500 g flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 20 g sugar
  • 20 g starch
  • 30 g butter
  
  Directions:
  
  1. In a small bowl mix water, yeast and salt. Stir well and leave for at least 30 minutes. I usually leave it overnight.
  2. Add the milk to the yeast mixture.
  3. In a large bowl mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, starch and butter. Add the yeast mixture and knead well. The dough is somewhat sticky and very soft.
  4. Place the dough in a bread pan and leave to rise for 2-3 hours.
  5. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
  6. Place toast onto the middle rack and bake for 35-40 minutes. The toast should sound hollow when tapped with a wooden implement.


• Step 2: Cucumbers
Ingredients:
• 1 cucumber
• 2 tsp. dried dill or 30 g fresh, chopped dill
• 125 ml mayonnaise
• salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Cut the cucumber into very thin slices.
2. Mix the dill and the mayonnaise.
3. Cut the toast into slices and remove the crust.
4. Spread mayonnaise on the toast silces and lay cucumber slices on top. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.


• Step 3: ...
• Step 4: Profit!

Spiced Soy Granulate for Tacos

Spices:

• 1 tsp oil
  
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 small onion
  
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin
  
• 1/2 tsp oregano

Other Ingredients:

• 1/2 l vegetable broth
• 300 g soy granulate
  

or (carnivorous version):

• 500 g ground meat
  

Directions:

1. Soak the soy granulate in the broth for half an hour. Meanwhile:
2. Chop the onion and garlic.
3. Heat oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic briefly.
4. Add the spices and mix well.
5. Drain the granulate and add it to the pan. (Or: add the meat here)
6. Fry for 2-3 minutes. (Or: until the meat is done)

The picture shows the soy granulate version.

Rosemary Rolls

Ingredients:

• 250 ml milk
• 1 tsp sugar
• 10 g fresh yeast
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp margarine
• rosemary
  
• sea salt
  

Directions:

1. Mix the milk, yeast and sugar in small bowl and leave for about 30 minutes.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the yeast-mixture and stir well. Add the oil and knead the dough until it is smooth and does not stick to your hands anymore.
3. Butter a spring form (26 cm diameter). Alternatively one can use a large cast iron pan.
   
4. Divide the dough into 7 pieces and place into the spring form. Leave to rise for about 1 hour. I left mine to rise about 3 hours and it rose so much that one could no longer distinguish the individual rolls, as you can see in the pictures.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
6. Melt the margarine in a small bowl.
7. Carefully spoon the margarine over the rolls. Sprinkle with rosemary and sea salt.
8. Place into the oven for about 12 minutes until they are nice and brown.
9. Om nom nom.

Chocolate Lava Cake

I accidentally stumbled across this recipe the other day and had to try it:
Chocolate Lava Cake
It tastes wonderful. I want to make it again, but I probably shouldn't.

Kumquat Muffins

I usually make muffins using butter milk. I did not have any and wanted to make muffins so I tried using cream cheese instead. It worked very well.

I think one could easily replace the kumquats with any other type of fruit or leave them out altogether.



Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100 g cream cheese
• 150 g kumquat

Directions:

1. Chop the kumquats including peel, I used a food processor to do this.
2. Whisk together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one by one, whisking each time until you can't see any trace of egg.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C
4. Whisk in the cream cheese and kumquat.
   
5. Mix the flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar. Add the flour mixture to the cream cheese mixture slowly.
6. Either line the muffin cups with paper liners or butter you muffin cups well. The batter should make about 12 muffins. I fill the muffin cups until they are 3/4 full.
7. Place the muffins in the oven for 18-20 minutes.
   

Marzipan Lemmings

On my birthday I decided to make a lemming cake, so I made these cute figures out of marzipan.
I'm not quite happy with the way the hair turned out, it looks sort of like a helmet.
The next few pictures show the lemmings on the cake. Yum.

Avocado Wasabi Salad

We found this delicious recipe for a salad:
Avocado Wasabi Salad
We didn't have any broccoli the first time we made it, but it was still great. The amount of dressing is a bit much and we still have some in the fridge, so next time we're probably only going to make half the dressing.