Hummus and Baba Ghanoush

Shopping makes hungry, and your feet need some rest as well, so, last December on a shopping trip with a friend in Germany we grabbed a table at a Lebanese restaurant. Our plates were filled with various bits and bites and of course hummus and baba ghanoush. I promised to try to make my own but for some reason hadn't got around to it. Until I saw Christine's post at Ramblings from a gypsy soul that was the push I needed. Although it took me this long to actually make it....and a couple of egg plants... :-( Thanks to Christine, the following recipe with my alterings in egg plant purple:

Basic Hummus
1 can chick peas (or 4 small roasted eggplants/peppers, peeled and chopped)
2-3 tbsp. sesame seed paste (tahini) (I used 3 tbs)
5-6 cloves of garlic (crushed or finely chopped) (4, pressed)
juice of 1 lemon
5 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
a little over 1/4 tsp sea salt

some water to make a smoother paste or you could add, as Christine points out, some more lemon juice and/or olive oil. (Used a little water to smooth the hummus, but oil and lemon in the baba ghanoush)
To garnish: fresh parsley, minced olives or paprika/chili powder. (chili powder to spice the hummus and sweet paprika powder for the baba ghanoush)

Mix everything (except parsley and paprika) in a blender. Pour in a bowl, drizzle with some olive oil then sprinkle with paprika and garnish with either olives or parsley. And then: scoop away, bake some fresh pita, tear a piece and scoop. Or you could use it as a spread on artisan bread or toast. I also like it as a dip for crunchy veggies.
For the Baba Ghanoush (different spellings but I like this one) the same basics but substitute the chickpeas for roasted eggplant. This I intended to do but I misjudged the time eggplant needs in the oven to become fully done and easy to peel. Yep, some more eggplants gone to waste....so sorry. But sometimes some good comes out of a bad thing: I used 3 beautiful red bell peppers (long pointy ones), roasted them in the oven (20 minutes on 200C, peeled and mashed and followed the directions above. I used extra virgin olive oil in the blender; for sprinkling however, I chose lemon oil and sweet paprika powder. Definitely a keeper!

This mix is more of a spread than the hummus. Because the peppers have more liquid in them than chickpeas I didn't use any water to dilute. I did add some basil-scented lemon juice in the blender and an extra tbs olive oil.

Baba Ghanoush en Hummus

1 blik kikkererwten (of 4 kleine aubergines/paprika's, geroosterd, gepeld en in stukjes)
3 el sesam pasta (tahini)
4 knoflooktenen (geperst)
sap van 1 citroen
5 el extra-virgin olijfolie
iets meer dan 1/4 tl zeezout
klein beetje water om het evt wat smeuiiger te maken, of gebruik nog wat extra citroensap/olie
Ik heb wat water gebruikt bij de hummus en extra olie/citroen in de baba ghanoush.

Garneren: peterselie, gehakte olijven en of paprikapoeder/chili poeder.

Alles in de blender en mixen tot een pasta. In een kommetje doen en garneren met de kruiden, vergeet niet nog wat extra olie bovenop te druppelen, dat maakt net dat beetje extra.

Dit is een gerechtje wat je vaak vindt in het Midden Oosten, ik heb het voor het eerst gegeten als onderdeel van een maaltijd in een Libanees restaurant in Dubai, en onlangs nog in Düsseldorf bij de lunch. Hummus kan erg melig zijn en vrij vlak van smaak, mijn voorkeur ging eigenlijk uit naar de variant met aubergine. Maar zoals met alles.....als het goed gemaakt is, dan is het erg lekker! Vergeet alsjeblieft die flauwe meuk in potjes van de supermarkt. Het is echt niet zo veel werk. De hummus zelf is het makkelijkst omdat je daar een blik kikkererwten voor kunt opentrekken, ingredienten in de blender/keukenmachine en klaar.

De Baba Ghanoush is wat meer werk omdat je daarvoor aubergines of, zoals ik heb gedaan, paprika's voor moet roosteren en pellen. Hiervoor zet je de oven op 200C, aubergines erin (evt. even inprikken met een vork anders dan barsten ze misschien) en zeker 20 minuten laten roosteren, af en toe keren. Als je blazen op het vel ziet of in het geval van de paprika's zwarte plekjes is het goed. Dan kun je ze eruit halen, in een plastic zak stoppen, dichtbinden en zo even laten afkoelen. Op een bord laten glijden en met voorzichtige vingers het velletje er van af trekken. Heet!! Als het goed is laat het vrij makkelijk los. Ik had de aubergines verkeerd ingeschat, die waren nog niet gaar en onmogelijk te pellen! Maar goed, zoals Cruijff zegt: "elluk nadeel heb ze voordeel".....de variant met de wel gelukte paprika's blijkt erg lekker!

The only thing is......I had quite a large batch of both so I have filled a jar with each and sealed the spreads with olive oil. How long do you think this will keep?

Chocolate chips + cookies

Chocolate manufacturers in Holland, this is a plea. Please please give us bakers our chocolate chips! We can do with just three or four flavours, the rest can wait till next year. You don't even have to do the mini's, yet. I know there are these huge bags in the whole sale stores but you can't have a 3kgs bag in your pantry. (Well of course you might but it won't do any good to the baker's "percentages"). So it's a deal then? And no, I don't mean the badly stored thus whitened, overpriced dots of chocolate you can find in the Boerenbond/Welkoop stores. We need the regular off the shelf bags, the ones you pop in your cart matter-of-factly, and bake real good chocolate chip cookies with. Deal? Deal!

Recipe then (for the ones without access to overseas sources, replace chips with chopped chocolate)

Crisp edge and chewy center chocolate chip cookies.
(adapted from King Arthur, my directions in brown)

12 tbs butter (I used 3/4 butter, 1/4 margarine)
1.1/4 cups (10 oz) light brown sugar (lichtbruine basterdsuiker)
1/4 cup (2.1/2 oz) light corn syrup (Lyles golden syrup)
2 ts vanilla extract
3/4 ts baking powder
3/4 ts salt (1/2 ts)
1/4 ts baking soda
1 large egg
2.1/4 cups (9.1/2 oz) unbleached ap flour (patentbloem)
2 cups (12 oz) chocolate chips (8 oz butterscotch and peanutbutter chips)

Preheat oven to 375F (heteluchtoven 170-175C).
Beat butter, sugar and syrup together until fluffy. Add and beat in vanilla, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and then mix in the egg. Beat well.
Beat in sifted flour and stir in chocolate. I used a small ice-scoop (not filled to the brim) to form little balls and dropped them onto a baking sheet. Make sure you leave some space for spreading.
Bake for 12-14 minutes. I baked them for exactly 12 minutes and the edges were browning nicely by that time. Took them out and let them cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets and then transferred to a wire rack.

I got close to 50 cookies using the small scoop. When/if you choose to make larger cookies, check your oventime, they might need some more. I used margarine to control the spreading somewhat and this resulted in nice rounded cookies, not too thick, crisp at the edges and a nice chewy center.

And I always frowned a bit at the "glass of cold milk and cookie thing"? Why would you have milk with your cookie, we Dutch like our coffee and cookies.
Well, they are sooooo right! Have a glass of cold milk or buttermilk ready and scrunch away!

Edit to explain: the white sheen I'm referring to and you sometimes see on chocolate is usually a result of storing problems (temperature changes heat-cold), the fat in the chocolate will tread outside and set again. This is called "bloom". It will only effect the look of the chocolate not the flavour. Gosh, you do learn from a couple of years in chocolate business. Jacobs Suchard/Milka/Cote d'Or and Droste, and my DH used to work for the Mars company so yes, this is familiar territory ;-). Did you know by the way that the really dark chocolate actually improves with age, like a fine wine, if stored in an airtight container at 60–65°F? That is....if it lasts that long!

Restverwerking - madeleines

Ik vond in de kelder nog twee pakken oliebollenmix. Helaas, de drang om oliebollen te bakken heb ik echt alleen maar in December. Maar eigenlijk, diep in mijn hart, vind ik ze het hele jaar erg lekker.

Normaal gesproken bak ik van zo’n pak mix wafels. Het recept is hier te vinden (er staan trouwens nog veel meer recepten voor oliebollenmix). Erg smakelijk, met een heel klein oliebollen-achtig tintje eraan. Weet iemand trouwens hoe dat komt? Wat zit er eigenlijk in dat pak dan?

Stel dat je nog zo’n mix hebt liggen, of, de supermarkt bij jou in de buurt wil van zijn voorraad af kun je ook proberen oliebollen muffins te maken of, zoals ik heb gedaan, madeleines. Weinig olie, nog minder bol maar heel lekker:

250 gram mix (Koopmans)
250 gram lauwwarme melk
snufje gist (afhankelijk van de ouderdom van het pak)
2 tl citroenrasp
40 gr gesmolten boter
50 gr witte basterdsuiker

vulling: appeltje, rozijntjes, sukade, gedroogde cranberries, plukjes amandelspijs, klein scheutje rum. Tezamen ong. 100 gram.

Mengen met een garde, vulling toevoegen en even doorroeren. Dit deeg is iets dikker dan je normale oliebollenbeslag. Laten rijzen tot ong. dubbel volume, met een lepel even doorroeren en nogmaals laten rijzen, dit keer een half uurtje.
Ik heb de –mini-madeleine vormpjes gevuld met een klein maatje ijsbolletjestang. 1 schep is dan voldoende om ze bijna te vullen. Oven op 175grC, 15 min bakken.

Naschrift: ik heb erg mijn best gedaan de kinderen ervan te weerhouden alles vers en in 1x op te laten eten...spijt! Vers uit de oven zijn ze gewoon het allerlekkerst.

Nu, 2 dagen na dato.... droog en weinig smaak. Dus: wel maken, en dan gelijk aanvallen. Likje boter, beetje poedersuiker, of misschien een smeertje jam.. Toch wel het proberen waard hoor, gewoon niet zo zuinig zijn als ik!

Hear Hear!!

Today is Thursday, 22 March 2007 and I took a shower.
I got all wet! Used shower cream! Stood there far too long. Shaved my legs.(!)
Towelled in a nice warm environment.

In my bathroom.

It is done! They've -almost- finished. All that needs to be done is the ceiling and the observant viewer will notice that there are no handles on the cabinet doors yet. They are still chasing those. Seem to have taken a walk. I don't mind. I shower! (Think I will take a nice long bath tonight....some magazines..a drink..)

Update: make that a grog... my head aches, my muscles ache, my skin aches, sheez....can't have this now. Just got a call that they are coming to fix the ceiling tomorrow morning...

Nuked the haricots verts and my pan into oblivion tonight, well you can't have it all I suppose.... Where's that box of soda....

Tea time

When we last visited the town of Heusden, we came across this little shop called "De Verwennerij" (the Indulgence). We couldn't resist to try some of the cheeses and spreads that were laid out to sample and of course we bought some cheese and some tea.

The tea was very fragrant, smelling of mint and something I couldn't exactly place. Once home, we put the kettle on and made some tea. Instantly fell in love with it. Refreshing and soothing at the same time.

It's called "le Touareg". The bag from the shop in Heusden didn't reveal any information but luckily on our day trip to Utrecht we found what looked like the same tea (at least it was the same name) in Dille & Kamille.

It looks like this is a strong green tea (gunpowder) mixed with Moroccan (Nana) mint leaves. I wasn't far off in saying that this tea has a soothing and at the same time refreshing effect for the nana mint leaves are said to possess "soothing, calming and medicinal properties – especially effective with digestive problems or nausea and is also known for strengthening the heart and gall bladder." Wow, all this and more in a cup of tea!

As you can see, there is no difference between the two, the one in the yellow bowl is the Heusden variety, the one in the lighter grey bowl from Dille & Kamille. If you happen to find this variety, try it!

Newsflash!! Update on the bathroom

This was before.....(and what you don't see here are the stains on the ceiling, the ill-fitting and leaking shower door, the sagging shower cabin, rusty radiator etc. etc.). I already removed the fake Roman plaster decorations from the ceiling and the walls about a year or two ago which revealed so much more mold and stupid amateur ways of building a bathroom (thank you previous owners) that we never had the courage to tackle this ourselves. For dusty pictures of the breaking click here.

So on to this:
And after the building there was "some" tiling to do:

And this is what it looks like now! It's Friday, 13.00 hours....the floor is done and has to dry over the weekend.

Isn't this beautiful? On Monday they will start installing faucets, a mirrored cabinet....and we might be taking our first shower by Wednesday....Do you think I can already start to clean? I've been thinking, I should start with the attic (Floris room) and then work my way down, maybe remove all the protective paper already? Could be ready by Monday...

Something else? I feel real stupid, should I have given these guys that worked here for almost a week on the building and tiling and came up with all these beautiful solutions, cleaned up after they were done, were polite and correct... Well I feel I should have given them more than just coffee and sweets and a firm handshake.... I think they would have liked some thank-you in the way of money. But I always feel too young to tip, to "girly" (yes I am 42 thank you), not mature enough, awkward.... So, I didn't. Which means they were standing there, shuffling their feet, and I was standing there didn't know what to do...(didn't have any money ready....) Bah!

Discussed this with DH, (yes I do think ahead sometimes) Husband said hey, we pay a handsome amount of money so don't worry, but he is not the one standing there.....

Carrot cake like Martha

Just like a Vermeer ? I mean the can, the light? All that is missing is the sturdy kitchen maid. (Sssh, don't tell anyone, she was there but not prepared to be in the picture).

Recipe courtesy of the one and only to be found here. No wait! Do not click yet! Please let me remind you to not compare! I mean, it's just the outside right? Do looks really matter that much? What really matters is what is on the inside. Like with people remember? Thank you for hearing me out. Okay, now you may click.

Filled with nuts, added some poppy seeds. Did a different frosting and I should not have done that. I should have listened to the Mistress. This cake needs a soft smear of creamy frosting, not a crackly crust of lemony something. Well the lemon was okay.....
With the 20 cm round cake tins I used, the cakes could have been in the oven a little longer, the inside was a little too moist to my liking.

Baking bread...

Since the kitchen is the only relatively spotless item in this house, after all, the kitchen doubles as bathroom at the moment, and with all the water flowing it's cleaned twice a day... at the very least! And no matter what, people need to be fed at all times. So, we baked some bread. A simple Whole Wheat bread. A combination of bread flour, graham flour and some cornmeal.


I used:

1.1/2 ts yeast
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup water
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 tbs maple syrup
210 gr bread flour (1.1/2 cups)
130 graham flour (1 cup) or 140 gr. coarsely ground whole wheat
70 gr cornmeal (1/2 cup)
1.1/4 ts salt

Combine yeast, all liquids and half of the flours and stir till combined. Cover with rest of the flour and salt and let rest to ferment for at least 20 minutes. Knead on slow to medium speed for up to 10-15 minutes until the dough forms a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl. You'll have a soft elastic and springy dough ball, just slightly tacky. Cover to rise for about 1.1/2 hours. Deflate and form into an oblong oval and cover to let rise again, approx. 1 hour.

Bake in a preheated oven (400F or 220) for 45 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

And another one: biting the dust..

Bathroom renovation tales. When all around you is smothered in dust you need some beauty to feast your eyes. What is the saying again? In Dutch we say: Wie mooi wil zijn moet pijn lijden. Or as Auguste Renoir said: the pain passes, but the beauty remains. The guy might be right. This was Friday last week. Let's look at some flowers. And vacuum, and mop...

Gadgets that work (4b)! The answer

Tadaaaa!! Not picture perfect yet but I can assure you the poached eggs I have made thus far were a disintegrating, falling apart, scrambling, yolk bursting trouble. My family was derived from eggs benedicte, never had those spinach, hollandaise bathed eggy wonders.

And don't say I haven't tried. I did the salted water, vinegar water, used very fresh eggs, but still my eggs drooled around the pan (which is called feathering I've heard..). Read lengthy papers on the wonders of poached eggs...to no avail! But not anymore, now I have my double egg poacher, aka the wonder bra!

So this is, yes indeed, an egg poacher! Stand in a shallow pan filled with simmering salted water, or hook (see the nifty hooks?) over the pan and get poaching!

You can even let the cooked eggs sit above water level to keep warm. Or use it to lift hard boiled eggs from the pan, allowing the water to drain away....dûh... ! Anyway that's what the pamflet says.


I (or rather Larein) discovered the handy dandy gadget in Betsies Kookwinkel in Utrecht and I was thrilled. They do have some more "strange" items on the shelve. Click on "Rariteiten" Sorry not in English but do click on the second from the left next to "home".

However, some Googling revealed a wealth of egg poaching gadgets... Unbelievable, look here ---->
(Ash, would that be the female version?).



Or when you have a large poached-egg-craving family try this one which makes 6 poached eggs in one sitting.





Sue and Karin, both of you spot on! (And Tanna...one can poach eggs in these, even I can!)
Thanks all for joining in the fun! I had a real good time!

Gadgets that work (4) Quiz!!

Can you tell me what this is?

Update: Okay, Tanna, let me help you just a little... this is "en profile"... And Ash, when I saw it for the first time my thoughts went in the same direction, be it that I was thinking of the male version, no boob holders but eh.. well you know...

PS: I'm sorry Utrecht fellow bakers, you are not allowed to enter this contest......

Stofhappen...

Wij zijn soms niet zo voortvarend. Zeker niet als het gaat om aanpassingen in huis. Laat staan verhuizingen, verbouwingen en alles wat daar ook maar zijdelings verband mee houdt.

Geloof me, het heeft maanden geduurd voordat ik hier een nieuwe spijker in de muur durfde te slaan. Kan misschien ook iets te maken hebben met de 50-jaar oude staat van het stuc-werk.

En als we dan praten over grote beslissingen... De mensen die ons kennen rollen nu over de vloer van het lachen.


Enfin, uiteindelijk kwam dat andere huis er dan toch en daar wonen we nu inmiddels 7 jaar. Uiteraard zonder aanpassingen want oei...
Wel plannen hoor, och plannen zat, maar ja, die uitvoering hè? Over dat proces heb ik hier al uitvoerig bericht.

Inmiddels hebben we de trap en de bovenverdieping mooi gemaakt. Heb ik het "trappenhuis" helemaal geschilderd, en kort geleden de eetkamer van een verse lik verf voorzien. De foto's hiernaast geven een vóór-beeld van hoe het was. Afgelopen zaterdag terwijl ik in Utrecht het erg gezellig liep te hebben....waren "ze" hier bezig om dat wat er stond te verwijderen...


De volgorde van handelen laat ook wel iets te wensen over...eerst de trap en vloer nieuw en daarna pas met de brokstukken van de badkamer over dezelfde vloer en trap? Moet kunnen.

Nee, onze leercurve laat een steile lijn naar boven zien.

Dit is de ludieke oplossing van de vorige bewoners: "vloerverwarming".
Gevat in gegoten beton.....



Daar was 3 man voor nodig, en een extra sterke jekkerdinggeval.



En dat geeft stof, véél stof, erg veel erg fijn stof. Overal. Nee, ik bedoel dus echt overal!

Ben je gek joh, deuren afdekken met vochtige lakens en goed dichttrekken? Let wel: dit is de ex-deur naar onze slaapkamer. Ons bed staat daar ongeveer een meter van verwijderd aan de andere kant.

Het blauwe laken hing daar pas, na hysterische tussenkomst mijnerzijds, 10 minuten na thuiskomst.... 7 uur 's avonds. Te laat, dat dus wel!

Het helpt natuurlijk ook niet echt dat er geen deur zit in het opkamertje.

Misschien was het ook niet erg handig om daags ervoor je hele huis glimmend te boenen.







Iemand nog een, weliswaar onbespoten, sinasappeltje?





Dus, na thuiskomst uit Utrecht was het in ieder geval duidelijk wat er gedaan moest worden. Niks op je billen zitten en vertellen hoe gezellig het was. En toen ging het licht uit. Tijd om mijn gebutste humeur af te stoffen.

Climb ev'ry mountain! aka Onion Soup

Well that’s the sound of music I imagined picturing Tanna as Mother Abbess. I could virtually hear her saying: Climb that mount’n girl! Especially when it’s made out of onions. Sigh. The things you do for blogging. How should I have known that when the one and only mr. Keller seduces you to peel: “8 pounds (about 8 large) yellow onions”

right way to cut-----only 1 quart, we'll need 7!-----and that is a lot!

he obviously refers to 8 giant sized onions. What I was thinking was something along the lines of: ok, peel 8 onions, let it be 10 or 12, I can do that. Easily. Sure enough, 8 American pounds translates as approx. 3.5 kgs. I can assure you, that is a lot of onions. Go figure, a medium Dutch onion weighs a hefty 3.5 oz whereas Tanna had some 16 oz colossus. Life isn’t fair!

And then this massive pot went on the lowest possible flame and I was supposed to set a timer for 15 minutes and stir. Every. Fifteen. Minutes. For. Five. Hours. (I love Mr Keller). I stirred and stirred and saw the level of onions go down and down and they didn’t color at all. (Another ten mails/pictures: how is yr color? Mine look like this. Like two girls on the beach checking the color of their skins by lifting a bikini strap ) and yes, ofcourse at some time I gave up, went upstairs to do something innocent and on my way back down the stairs I smelled the smell… Yikes. Skipped the last four steps, jumped down, skirted the corner and shoved the pot from the burner. In the same move I slid another pot from the shelve, dumped the lot from the burned pot in the clean one, set the timer and s t i r r e d. Smooth moves!

This is after 4 hours of stirring. I refer you to Tanna’s for the detailed recipe. She did a beautiful write-up. So... after 5 hours I was left with a golden brown mass of very soft onions. I’ve seen onions more caramelized than this. Maybe I was being too careful and left too much liquid in? Against my habit I decided to add the advised 1.5 tbs flour. Transformation took place when the stock was added! (the finished stock was far more dark chestnut coloured and more jelly-like than thesethese pictures show).
Wow! Almost instantly this concoction of still warm onions and prepared stock transferred into “soupe à l’oignon”. The colour, the smell! And all this prior to reducing the soup and adding herbs. I did add a few drops of very good quality almost sirupy balsamic vinegar.

I had already baked some french bread (Ortiz’ recipe) to accompany the meal and used toasted slices of this as croutons to float on top of the soup. Mr. Keller advises to use Comte or Emmentaler, grated as well as slices. I used a Dutch farmer’s cheese, very much like Emmentaler with just a hint of creaminess to it.

We also had our bit of fun discussing soup bowls/tureens and this time I felt lucky to be in Europe. As far as we Dutch bakers have been gawking at the availability of lots of goodies in the US, at least we can buy our tureens at a fraction of the cost in the States (Xenos; 1,-- €) but then again….she has got those cute lids to cover the tureens!!

There were 7 of us that night to enjoy the soup and unanimously this one got great points. You wouldn’t have guessed from appearance but this is truly a meal in itself. (Apologies for the lighting in the pictures). Would I do this again? Yes, I will continue to use this recipe for the stock, but I like to do something different with the onions and see where that will lead me. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of cooking together and yes I will do that again anytime!