pasta with salmon and cream

pasta with salmon and cream
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Easy meal; buy some salmon slices from a good fishmonger (I always buy mine at the market) and use some fancy shaped pasta, like farfalle. Buy a large bunch of fresh dill and some heavy cream; cook water for pasta and slice the pieces of salmon into smaller chunks if desired. Heat the cream in a saucepan with some white wine or wodka, when the water for pasta is boiling, cook the pasta. When ready, drain and add fresh chopped dill to the cream sauce. Transfer to a large serving dish, adding more dill as desired, add the chopped salmon slices on top. Grind some pepper on top for extra zing and add grated parmesan, if desired.

solianka

solianka
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

This soup, called solianka or soljanka, I made the first time years and years ago, from a book on one grand Russian dinner, called something like "Perestroika Style Dinnerparty". The book had descriptions on how to make piroski, kvas, blini with caviar, a charlottka, a vegetable pie, but also this soup, and with the student house I was in then, we cooked the whole book for one grand dinner in Russian style. I remembered it for being so tasty so I made it again. I couldn't find the book so I started cutting 4 potatoes, half a knob celery and some onions into chunks and put them in a pan of water. I added some salt and a tin of tomato paste and let it simmer for 2 hours or so. Also, I added a tin of ready made beef broth (I very much am a cook-from-scratch-person, but sometimes you run out of time), a smoked Dutch sausage in slices, and some fresh carrots and tomatoes. This soup you can add a lot of Eastern Europe kind of vegetables, but in the end, add some sugar, some lemon juice, cut up gherkins (like the flavour) and add them, and two spoonfuls of capers. The soup has a very hearty flavour. Put in bowls and add a big scoop of creme fraiche or double cream. You could also scatter on some fresh dill. Lovely with bread (or leftover no-knead bread...)

no-knead bread

no-knead bread
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Wonderful! My no-knead beauty, at last. After the complete failure in the weekend, I rushed to the store on Monday and bought a brand new packet of yeast. I bought several, because thinking ahead, I figured I might make the bread more often if it succeeded. So, I slapped together 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspon of yeast (Dr. Oetker instant yeast) and 1,5 cups water. On Tuesdays, indeed 20 hours later, it had risen beautifully. I folded it a bit, let rest another 2 hours, and let it fall into my heated Creuset-pan into the oven. I was afraid the lid on my Creuset would melt so I put a heavy cast-iron pan on top. This is probably why the bread hasn't risen as high or wide as it might have, but the end result (230 degrees preheated oven, 30 minutes covered, 15 minutes without cover) was wonderful! Lovely smell, great crust, a little cracked. Perhaps not enough salt, but I will make this again. Great bread!

no-knead bread

no-knead bread
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

OK, so it's been all over the internet. And, sure, I wanted to try it out and post the most wonderful, crispy-crusted awesome loaf on my site. Alas, it didn't happen! I did read all the raving reviews, for example by the Wednesday Chef on the net, and all the raving comments on her post. And I did see the original post of the New York Times, which can't be viewed not unless you want to chip in 4,25 dollars or so. So I thought I'd give it a try : I put together 3 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast (more of that later) and 1 5/8 cups of water (it took a lot of fiddling with my cup-measurements, which didn't have 1/8 but only 1/3 and 1/4). Well, I must admit, my instant yeast wasn't bought instantly at the store but came from a tin in my cupboard. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Mistake. Because 17 hours later my dough, which was VERY sloppy when I started out, hadn't risen as much as I thought it should have. And I wouldn't have minded a little kneading. For after these 17 hours it looked like a "will definitely-fail bread". Still, I tried to flip it into some kind of shape and sprinkled some flour on top and added a towel. The dough stuck terribly to the towel, but after another two hours I heated a pan anyway in a very hot oven (230 C), then I scraped the dough off the towel into my heated Creuset and put it in the oven for 30 (covered) and 15 (uncovered) minutes. Needless to say, the end result was... dreadful, a bread of not yet 5 centimeters high with a sticky, unrisen inside. Look at my Flickr photos... However... I am definitely trying this again with NEWLY bought instant yeast and will post as soon as I have my own beautiful no-knead no-failure! Did you try?

fish cakes

fish cakes
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

As I was preparing a Thai-style meal, with something like leeks, garlic, fresh ginger, red chili pepper, carrot, red bell pepper and diced chicken cubes, in a sauce with coconut milk, lime juice, kaffir lime leaves (love that taste!), nam pla and some extra chili for taste, I made a side dish to go with it. I used some leftover potato mash from two days ago, added a small tin of salmon (I should have used crab, but I bought the wrong tin), and added some finely chopped spring onions, chili flakes, pepper and salt and the zest of a lime, plus an egg to bind it all together. Mash with fork and bake in a hot pan with a little oil until browned and crispy on both sides. Serve with a squeeze of extra lime juice, chunks of limes, spring onions and a Thai chili dip on the side.

Yinyin sauce

yinyin sauce by kattebelletje.

I can't help myself, ever so often I just NEED to eat jiaozi, Chinese dumplings. Or the fried kind, called guotie or potstickers. I put in the usual chopped pork, chinese cabbage, ginger, soaked dried shiitake mushroom, shredded spring onion and soy sauce and sesame oil for the filling, but added an extra leaf or two of the cime di rape I had a couple of days before. That made it really tasty!! I fried them in a pan but they stuck a little to well to the bottom.

Anyway, I made a salad like I had in Beijing: with a sauce of vinegar and sugar, plus an extra tablespoon dark Chinese vinegar. I soaked the cucumber in this vinaigrette for half an hour and added shredded lettuce and fried peanuts. Now for the jiaozi-sauce, I was taught this by a Chinese friend who cooks extremely well, and my family has called this sauce 'Yinyin sauce' ever since.

First make a hot sauce by putting dried chili pepper flakes, white sesame seeds, a little salt and a handful of huajiao (Sichuan pepper) in a fireproof bowl. Heat oil until really hot and pour carefully on the mixture; it will look like it will explode and a lot of hot steam escapes. Careful! When cooled off, you will have a dark red spicy oil. For the Yinyin sauce, mash 2 cloves of garlic, add 4 tablespoons or so of sugar, add as much dark Chinese aromatic vinegar until all the sugar is absorbed - stir, then add soy sauce and 3 or more tablespoons of the hot chili oil. Taste for spicyness and adapt to your liking. It tasted extremely well with the just fried potstickers and the salad will cool you off. Powerful.

cava & carpaccio

cava
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Perfect for a midnight snack or supper: a glass of cava (Spanish champagne) and a plate of carpaccio, slices of beef fillet with a dressing of mayonaise, olive oil, capers, truffle oil and some scattered rocket leaves, on top parmesan shavings and roasted pine nuts. Ground pepper and flakes of Maldon salt. Lovely.

making xiaolongbao

making baozi by kattebelletje.

A scene from Shanghai: making xiaolongbao - small steamed buns with a meat filling. From the window, one could look into a room full of girls in white aprons and white hats in Shanghai's old town, busy making xiaolongbao in a production line.

A mountain of dough on the left hand side on a large table in front of the window, from which the girls pinched small balls. Also on the table a bowl with oil for oiling the dough chunks, and to the far right a large bowl with minced meat filling. The girl in the center scoops up a basketful of balls for her part of the production line: stuffing some meat filling inside a round of dough and pinching the sides until you get a beatiful shaped round xiaolongbao.

She placed them in a bamboo basket and when full, they were steamed until risen and done in about 10 minutes. They didn't look happy doing this, and looked even more annoyed when I took pictures. Perhaps I would too, if people stared at me all day cooking. (I found a video on YouTube with exactly the same girls! Check it out!) But I was impressed with their swift technique and obviously so were the customers, who were queueing outside to buy them.

cime di rape

cime di rape
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Yes! I walked into the Turkish shop the other day and found this cime di rape on sale there. Whenever I spot a not so common vegetable, I am tempted to try it out; this happens quite often in this store (one of my favourites). Cime di rape sounds familiar from books like the River Cafe Cook Book, so I just bought this dark green leaf vegetable and went home to try to find a recipe. I found two, one in Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian and one in the River Cafe Cook Book, as I thought. I stripped the rather tough leaves from the stalk and cut up the leaves in chunks of about 14 cm. Then I blanched them in boiling water with some salt for a couple of minutes and drained them. Then I sauteed the cime di rape chunks in olive oil with a little garlic, and simmered the vegetable for 10 minutes. The stalks of the leaves were still a bit too tough when we had them; the green tops were alright, the overall taste was like a crossover between spinach and broccoli. I should have cooked it longer, or perhaps have it with a cream sauce? Still, very nice to try out.

comments

Well, I've been nerding around for almost an hour trying to enable comments on this site. In the blogger template, it looks like comments are turned on but somehow they don't show up on the website... Perhaps in a couple of days I might do a complete restyle of this kattebelletje site, which is quite a hassle to do since I have added sidebars with stuff on the left and right, but come back to see if it has worked!

burrata

burrata.jpg
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

A wonderful Italian cheese, tasting like extremely fresh mozzarella but even creamier: burrata. Burrata is made from buffalo milk and has extra mascarpone wrapped inside its cheese 'crust'. (read more... ) It came wrapped in the dark green leaf of a leek, and resembled a pouch. As we had only one available in the kitchen, I cut the burrata in 4 pieces and served it with olive oil, some freshly ground pepper and Maldon salt. A little salad accompanied this starter, which was freshly flown in from Apulia, Italy to Barcelona, Spain and then from Barcelona again taken here, just before the strict rules of all European airports come into effect. A great starter!

most favorited dish

gongbao jiding by kattebelletje.

This is the dish I ordered most in China: Gongbao jiding or Gongbao Chicken. I have always liked it;Diced chicken, Gongbao style has chicken, lots of peanuts, spring onions and dried chili peppers, and a truly hot and spicy Sichuan (Szechuan) flavour. It is one of the classic Sichuan dishes, hot, spicy and completely irresistible.

Sadly, in the Netherlands there is not one Chinese restaurant I can think of where they make a proper Gongbao jiding. It is always to sweet and sour to my liking, or just plain mild with cashew nuts replacing the peanuts. So, over time, meaning, not having a right tasting dish like they make in China, the true taste of Gongbao jiding can disappear from memory. Therefore, my recent trip to China proved to be vital!

In general, the Chinese Gong bao Chicken was much more sweet, almost caramel-sticky than I remember. Also, there were more peanuts in the dish than I thought would be, and a great amount of tender and juicy spring onion chunks. It invariably had quite a lot of oil, and the chicken and peanuts were very glossy and slippery. The almost blackened peppers gave a sweet and dark spicy flavour. True heaven. One dish costs about 18 yuan, being €1,80... I photographed every gongbao jiding I had on my one week trip (4 dishes), click the link to my Flickr photos to view gongbao jiding in different styles.

Korean salad

Korean salad
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Of course we had extremely nice food in China; how could it be otherwise. But on this rainy afternoon, my thoughts (or taste buds more accurately) seem to go back to this salad (21 yuan) we had at a Korean BBQ place in Beijing, near Hufangqiao. Made with lettuce, red cabbage, spinach leaves, radish and cucumber and sprinkled with peanuts, this salad had the most mouth-watering dressing made of sugar and vinegar you can imagine. It tasted very fresh and had this zingy bite that made you couldn't put your chopsticks down. Perhaps they threw in a little ginger juice? It was just SOO incredibly delicious I will try to make this at home soon. With it we had Korean BBQ beef, put on a charcoal grill. In the days to come I will blog more about the nice food we had in China!