Chicken Kebab

So today I was watching Jamie's Comfort Food (again) and he was making a delicious chicken kebab and I thought: "Hey I can do that!" So I tried to remember as much as I possibly could to recreate it myself and change it a bit because I don't want to copy his recipe.

Keep in mind: The chicken has to marinate for preferably a few hours, so do that in the morning and not around 5 pm.

Delicious Chicken Kebab with flat bread for 2

• about 300 grams of chicken thigh fillets
• kardemom seeds
• cinnamon
• cumin seeds
• koriander seeds
• fennel seeds
• paprika powder
• garlic (a lot)
• salt
• pepper
• bay leaves
• yoghurt
• peanut butter
• red onions
• red pepper
• 1/2 pepper
• greek yoghurt
• parsley
• 175 gr self raising flower
• 1 ts baking powder
• 100 ml cold water
• sesame seeds

First toast the kardemom seeds, cumin seeds, koriander seeds, fennel seeds, cinnamon, paprika powder, salt en pepper in a frying pan (don't use any oil or butter).  After about 2 to 3 minutes smash them all together with a pestle and mortar and then add as much garlic as you want and the bay leaves. Then add a small spoon of peanut butter and some yoghurt.

If you have a really large skewer, there is no need to chop your chicken into smaller pieces. If you don't have, just use wooden skewers and prepare as you would when preparing for a BBQ.

Massage the paste into your chicken, put the chicken on the skewers together with red onions and red peppers and let it marinate for a couple of hours.

For the flat bread: knead together the self raising flower, baking powder, a hand full of sesame seeds, parsley, garlic and the 100ml water. Knead this for at least 2 minutes and then let it rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes (cover the bowl with a tea towel). 

For the delicious greek spicy yoghurt sauce you have to chop 1/2 a pepper, some parsley and yes.. more garlic. You can do this within 5 minutes. Mix all of this together and keep in a cool place.

The best way to get a delicious chicken kebab is to use your BBQ, but because it's November, I doubt that people will have the full equipment to use it. If you have a gas oven (like me), you are very lucky because that will make it taste almost the same.Iif you have a normal oven.. sorry. But the flavors are still very nice just not exactly the same.

So preheat your oven to about 170 C/335F (gasmark 3 or 4). I don't know exactly how long the chicken has to go in the oven, just check it after 30 minutes and then every 10 minutes. Depends on how large your chicken pieces are.

When your chicken is almost finished, make the flatbread: roll it out and then put it in a dry frying pan. One side has to have golden-brown spots and the other side very light spots because if you leave it in the pan for to long, there will be no way you can fold/wrap it later.

Put everything on the flatbread, don't go easy on the sauce and enjoy.

Food & London

Last week, I went to my favorite place in the whole wide world: London. There isn't a thing you cannot love about London: the people, the shops, the fashion, the transport and of course the food.
When I was an au pair (now already 3 years ago), I learned to love the English food the hard way. I gained 15 kilo's within the first 3 months (that is 33lbs) and when I hit the 75 kilo mark I thought: na-ah. NA-effing-Ah. So I tried to find a way to still eat the delicious English food and lose weight.

But back to the point. I was hoping I would be able to write something about my bread baking workshop at Recipease, but sadly it was cancelled due to staff.. whatever that means.
Luckily I did go to my favorite pub The Shakespeare to, again, have their delicious fish and chips with peas, had lunch at Fifteen, ate a delicious wrap at Camden and had one of the best mango ice creams I've had in a while near Portobello Road.

So in case you ever go to London, visit al these places if you can and ignore your diet for just one week. You will not feel guilty, I promise.

First I will persuade you to go to Camden. Not just because of the great atmosphere that you will find there, not because of the cheap books or amazing vintage fashion, but because of the food stalls outside. Every time I go to camden I try to eat something from a different stall meaning it's a dish from a different culture every time (Turkish, African, South American or just plain English). This time I had a delicious lamb wrap with lettuce, grilled peppers and a blue cheese-mayonaise dressing and Hanne (my dearest travel companion) also had a wrap with spinach, f
eta and chicken. It was delicious, so definitely check that out when you go to London.

The other thing that you will have to do is go to The Shakespeare. It is right next to Victoria station ,which you will most likely pass at one point, so check it out. Even if it is just for a drink or a sandwich. But I promise you that they have AMAZING fish and chips (second best I had in England, the best was in Brighton). But they also have other things and change the menu every now and then. Hanne had an enormous burger which I think was called The Big Ben Burger. It was sooo good.

And while you're there, make a reservation at Fifteen. Lunch isn't that expensive and you won't be hungry for the next couple of hours (Hanne and I just had soup for dinner that evening).
I had freshly baked bread with butter and a smoked salmon with creme fraiche and something I cant remember and Hanne had squash soup which was delicious (she was kind enough to let me taste it) and as a main she had broccoli with polenta and a green kind of mash (we couldn't figure out what it was, but Hanne assured me that it tasted very good). The menu at Fifteen does change everyday so don't focus too much on the menu you see online while making a reservation. Just go.. eat and enjoy!

The last thing I will blog about today is the ice cream I had at Gelato Mio near portobello road market. I had never noticed it before, but I was craving for something sweet when I saw this ice cream shop. It is really expensive (I think 2,90 for one scoop) but it was super super super super nice. The ice cream was so soft and full of flavor. As the dutch say: Alsof er een engeltje over mn tong piest. I don't know the English expression, but if I translate it it says: Like an angel is peeing on your tongue.. Now it sounds weird. Just trust me, it was delicious.

To conclude this blog, I just hope that all of you will one day visit London and try to visit at least one of the places. You will not regret it. But there are loads of other places in London where you can get really nice food, so go find your own favorite pubs or ice cream shops:)
But do go to Camden, always.

Pimp my Dish! Spicy Mexican Chicken Wraps with Jeroen

This will be the first "Pimp my Dish" blog, in Pimp my Dish I will invite a friend of mine to help me cook one of their favorite dishes but in a slightly different way than they're used to. My first "guest" was Jeroen and his favorite dish was fajitas. I went online to find out what exactly the difference was between fajitas, wraps, tacos, enchiladas and a whole lot more.
Just to make it easy for everyone, I'm just going to name this dish Spicy Mexican Chicken Wraps.

This recipe is for two very hungry students, or three not so hungry students.

• 400 gr chicken breast
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1 red onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 red chili
• lettuce
• greek yogurt
• fresh or dried mint leaves
• 1 spring onion
• small can of tomato puree
• 3 small tomatoes
• water
• cayenne pepper
• salt
• black pepper
• 25ml tequila (they sell minis at most of the check outs at liquor stores)

For the tortillas (if you want to make them yourselves).

• 300 gr flour
• 175ml tepid water
• 2 spoons olive oil
• 2 ts baking powder
• pinch of salt

slice 3 cloves of the garlic and the red chili. Mix this with the tequila, some salt, pepper and the cayenne pepper. This will be the marinade for the chicken. So if you have the time, do this de night/day before so the chicken can really absorb the flavor. But it's perfectly fine if you make it 30 minutes before dinner. Chop the chicken in small pieces, put it in the marinade and put this in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Now mix the flour, tepid water, olive oil, baking powder and salt and knead this for at least 5 minutes. Leave this in a warm spot for 30 minutes (cover it with a tea towel or something like that).

Preheat the oven to 170C/335F

Now is the perfect time to slice the lettuce, 3/4 of the red onion, red and yellow peper and the spring onion. You will eat this raw on your wrap, so put this is in cute bowls on the table. You can also make the greek yogurt with mint now: simply chop the mint very small or crumble it with your hands if you have dried leaves and mix it through the yogurt. This yogurt will give your wrap a hint of freshness (which you will need, because the wraps are very spicy).

After half an hour, slice the remaining 1/4 of the red onion and chop the last garlic clove, put some olive oil in a hot pan and fry these babies. Then add the chicken, while waiting for the chicken to be cooked, dice the tomatoes. When the chicken is no longer raw, add the tomatoes, tomato puree and some extra water so you have a nice sauce (if you want, you can add a stock cube but I think the chicken has enough flavor because of the marinade). Leave this on a low heat to simmer.

Now you're going to make your own tortillas. Try to divide the dough so you can make 6 to 8 tortilla's. Try to make them as flat as possible with a rolling pin.

Then take a large frying pan and make sure the pan is really hot (don't use any oil or butter and try not to burn yourself like I did).
Simply fry the tortilla on both sides for maybe a minute and then put it in the oven so that they will stay nice and warm. When you're done, bring everything to the table and enjoy your home cooked wraps!

enjoy!

No Sugar, one week down and three days to go

First of all, sorry for my absence. I had a lot to do last week and since I'm going to London in a week I still have to take care of a lot of things. Yesterday I did a tea tasting session with my roommate and friend Hanne because we got some samples from http://www.teasenz.nl/
I will be blogging on that as soon as possible!

But for now I thought I would give you a small update on my Fed Up Challenge. For those who have no Idea what I am talking about: The Fed Up Challenge basically means that you have to stop yourself from eating sugar for at least 10 days.

On the sixth day I ate a tiny tiny tiny cookie and I feel horrible about it, but I was hungry and there was nothing else I could eat. But apart from that, I have done very well. No sweets and sugars. After a conversation with a fellow student on sugar, healthy eating and other things I decided that I was allowed organic raw honey (which I happened to have somewhere in the back of my cupboard). So I made a few cookies with that to fulfill my need for cookies.

So I have only been drinking tea, coffee and water for the past week and that is getting kind of boring so I'm going to buy something without sugar when I go to the supermarket tomorrow.

But after a week I feel great, I am not as tired as I normally am in the morning, I lost 3 kilos in a week, I feel better and healthier. So I really want to get everyone enthusiastic about this Fed Up Challenge. Just write down for one day how many sugar you eat, because sugar is in almost everything: In your drinks, in your bread, in a lot of rice and pasta, pasta sauces and cookies and sweets of course! Just write it down for one day and see how much it is when you realize the advise is to limit it to 8 teaspoons a day (thats about 32 gram).

So here is a head's up for the blogs that are coming:

• A recipe for a nice chicken curry (made this in my pre-no sugar fase so there is some sugar in it), see the picture here on the right!
• A recipe for a sugar free cookies
• Tasting Time with Hanne (will hopefully be once a month) - topic " Teasenz"
• Pimp my Dish, with a really good friend of mine: Jeroen
• A blog on the bread workshop at Recipease

and maybe you can let me know how much sugar you eat a day:)

White Chocolate Cheesecake with a Raspberry sauce

This was my masterchef audition dish and I personally think it's the best cheesecake EVER made. But that's just me, so I dare you to make it as well.

This recipe is for a small cheesecake and you can still feed about 8 people with it because cheesecake can be heavy on the stomach, but it's good. so good. love it.

It does take a while to make this, so I suggest that you make this de day before you want to eat it with your friends or by yourself.

• 125 gr ginger cookies (speculaas for the Dutch people, and then add some ginger as well)
• 60 gr butter + bit extra to grease the tin.
• 250 gr frozen raspberries
• 2 sp tabwater
• 300 gr cream cheese
• 4 gr vanilla sugar
• 150 gr white chocolate
• 65 ml creme fraiche
• 2 eggs
• fresh basil
• black pepper
• 1 ts gelatine powder
• 5 sp white caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 160C/310F and grease the cake tin.

crumble the cookies in a food processor and melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Mix these two together and cover the bottom of the tin. Leave this to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Now use another small sauce pan to make the raspberry-basil sauce. Add as many basil as you want, the frozen raspberries, the water, the gelatine powder and 2 spoons of the caster sugar. Leave this boil for at least 5 minutes. Then push it through a sieve with the round side of a spoon and put this also in the fridge with another basil leave for at least 15 minutes.

Now melt the white chocolate with the creme fraiche and the black pepper on a low heat.

While this is melting mix the cream cheese, 3 spoons of the caster sugar, vanilla suger and the eggs together until it looks nice and creamy. Then add the melted chocolate.

Take the cake bottom and the sauce out of the fridge when it has been in the there for the correct amount of time and now you will add everything in layers.

so first add some of the cream cheese mixture. Then you take a spoon and do a Jason Pollock with the sauce. Then add another layer of the cream cheese mixture and then the sauce again until your out of cream cheese. I like to keep some of the sauce separate to put in the cheese cake when it's done, but that's up to you.

Then when everything is in the cake tin, find a skewer and just poke in the mixture a couple of times, this will make sure your cake has a very artistic look when you slice it (haha).

now the next part is very specific for my cheesecake:

Boil some water and put this in a baking dish in a lower part of the oven. Make sure your cheesecake is in the middle of the oven. Leave it in the oven for 1 hour, then let it cool down in the oven for 20 minutes and then turn the oven on again for another 20 minutes. Then turn on the gril on for a few minutes because I like my cheesecake a bit darker, stay near the oven when you're doing this. You don't want to burn this delicious cake. And then let it cool down in the oven again for 30 minutes. Then 30 minutes outside the fridge and then for as long as possible inside the fridge.

And then you have an AMAZING cheesecake. 

Savory Quiche

It's the end of the month and that means that my rent is due and I have no money. Literally.. I've got 15 cents until 6 October. That ment that I had to be creative today with all the things I had in the cupboard and the freezer to make myself a proper diner, but I did it!

I had some ups and downs while creating this savory quiche (mince had gone bad et cetera) but in the end it turned out quite alright. So here's the recipe for a small quiche for about 4 people.

• 4 sheets of puff pastry (you do need to cut them in all sort of shapes but eventually it will fit)
• 250 ml cream
• 120 ml creme fraiche
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1/2 leek
• 1 red onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• lardons (as much as you want)
• 2 eggs
• salt, pepper, fresh rosemary
• Optional: broccoli 
• knob of butter for the cake tin
• a small cake tin

I had some broccoli in my fridge which had to be used today. They're healthy so it's okay to add them if you want to.

Preheat your oven to 180C/355F

Heat up a pan with a bit of coconut oil or olive oil in it.

Chop the onions and the garlic, put them in the pan and then add the lardons. While this is getting a nice golden and crispy layer, you chop the green and red pepper and the leek as well. After a few minutes you add these to the pan and if you want to put broccoli in it as well, now's the time. Then season this with salt, pepper and rosemary.

Now just leave that on a low heat on the stove.

Take a small cake tin and make sure you divide the butter evenly across. If you miss a spot, the puff pastry will stick to it. Then cover the insides of your cake tin with the puff pastry. It's okay to cut them in different shapes.

Now try to leak as much of the water/fluids out of your pan and then add the cream, creme fraiche and the eggs. Now pour this mixture in the cake thin and slide it in the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until golden brown on the outside and "not-soggy" on the inside.

Enjoy!

Food Photography - tips & tricks

As some of you know I am a cleaner at Photo Studio Duivelseiland in Amsterdam. They are one of the kindest people I've ever met in my life. They sometimes give me left over food or ingredients and I can come and see how they photograph or film food. So I suggest that you should all find a job like that.

But what I am going to blog about today is the accessories you need when you want to photograph food. Because at the studio they've got sooooo much. It is unbelievable.

First of all, you need several different surfaces. I like to use wood as a surface or a really nice table cloth. You also need a lot of different plates, glasses, forks, knives, cups, glasses and so on. This means that you will have to spend money on that and going to the nearest Ikea is not really an option then (you will have to spend a month's worth of salary). So here's what I do to keep the costs down:

I go thrift shopping. Yeah, go to YouTube and put that Macklemore song on, I know you want to.
No but I'm serious. I have been to almost every thrift shop in Amsterdam to find old plates which look like they came straight out of your grandma's cupboard.

But there is more, you can go to a flea market. The best one in Europe is right here in Amsterdam North: De IJhallen and it's open once a month (they're open THIS weekend, 4 & 5 October!). They have all kinds of things, not just tableware. So if you're looking for some vintage clothing, this is the place to be.

So come to Amsterdam, make it a fun weekend or day out. Spend a little money on tableware, whether it is for food photography like me, or to just have some really cool vintage tableware. Makes you feel all posh and fancy when eating a regular sandwich.