Pineapple Chutney

This post is all about shelve items. As it is, chutney is only going to get better when you leave it alone for a while. The recipe was on the shelve for some time. The post was on the shelve. Even the pineapples were laying about for a couple of days, here's why.

On a Saturday market day I found two beautiful pineapples and knowing Floris and I love fresh pineapple took them home. We enjoyed a bowl of fresh slices and then I started to think, what if I made a pineapple upside down tart? Did the tarte tatin once, even made a pear upside down but never used pineapple....

I don't know what it is in this blogging world, but all of a sudden there were upside down cakes all over the place! Not wanting to be accused of copy-catting ;-) the fruit went back on the window sill. Rested my head in my hands and resumed fretting.

Cake? Nah. Bavaroise? Fresh pineapple and gelatin, no good! Candied pineapple? Hmm, not this time. Chutney! Yes! I love to make chutney. My family loves me for making chutney. They don't. They hate the vinegar wafting through the house, they don't even like to eat it. Why do I keep making it? I don't know. Luckily my parents and Dear Husband and myself love chutney, with cheese platters, paté, or grilled anything....

This is what I did:

Pineapple Chutney

350 gr pineapple (in small chunks)
220 gr apple (small cubes)
100 gr dates (in stripes)
½ ts piment (allspice)*
pinch cardamom (or 2 crushed pods)
pinch chili powder
½ ts salt
175 ml white wine vinegar but cider vinegar would be good too
150 gr light brown muscovado sugar
50 gr golden raisins

Makes 3 jars of chutney

In heavy saucepan, mix all ingredients except sugar and raisins. Cook over high heat until boiling, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are softened, add sugar and raisins and continue cooking until pineapple is tender and mixture has thickened, about 20-30 minutes. Try pulling your spoon over the bottom of your pan, the gap it makes shouldn't fill up again. (Or dip your spoon in the mixture, with your finger make a stripe on the back of the spoon, this should not fill either).

Edit 1: As Anapestic reminded me: I store the chutney in the pantry. I ladle the hot chutney into hot sterilized jars and seal. Jars upside down for a couple of minutes to make sure every inch is sterilized.

Here's another chutney project using mangoes, it appears we both like our chutney to have the same qualities, on the sweet side with a hint of sour and still having some crunch to it. Funny thing is that I was rather disappointed at the dark colour of my chutney where Christine would like to have her chutney a touch darker...maybe we should swap?

*Edit 2: And Tanna pinpointed my confusion... proper names! I used a ground spice we in the Netherlands call "piment" which my ever so thoughtful spelling checker corrected as pimento...

So this morning I went back and checked with foodsubs which provides us with pictures and descriptions. Ashleigh helped out here as well, thanks!

Connecting bones...the heart of the matter

Whenever someone asks me why I blog, I can hear myself explain the fun of comments, the interaction, inspiration, making new friends, the inside look in other cultures and kitchens, sometimes literally. Food connects people whether it is cooking with your mom, stirring the spoon with a friend, hauling half a cow and knitting sausages while the four of you buckle over with laughter, or sharing a bite of fresh cake at the kitchen table…. I guess you know what I mean and this here is a very very good example.

This story begins with accidentally starting the NYT no-knead bread together with Tanna at My Kitchen in half Cups and resulted in a –for me -midnight baking session and e-mails flying. So much fun! We decided to do it again and do something we never tried before, something scary maybe and do it together (minus or plus 7 hours time difference). Planned this time!

Kitchens divided by the ocean, connected by Internet, creating an atmosphere as if we were standing next to each other, taking turns to stir in the pot, and ask: do you think my bones are sufficiently browned? Which in fact, created big grins on either side of the ocean...I never imagined sending someone an e-mail and say: Wow, you got nice bones!
(oh and we had some discussion, in one of the 100 something emails, where to get the meat…no problem here in the Netherlands but I understand it’s slightly more difficult over in the US?)

Beef stock á la Mr Thomas Keller himself; all the way! I do make beef stock like my grandmother and mom do, I put the meat in with the cold water and let it come to a simmer add vegetables and herbs, simmer for hours and tadaa bouillon! Not this time, this time I eeh.. missed the sent recipe somewhere and did it my way (beetje van mezelf beetje van Thomas zullen we maar zeggen):

3 schenkels (ca. 800 gr) (aka shank bones)
2 mergpijpjes (ca. 300 gr) (bone marrow)
1 small can of tomato puree

Baste the schenkels with the tomato puree and put the schenkel in an oven dish. Set in a hot oven (220C), let roast for 45 minutes. The lovely smell will attract all man folk in your house. What’s for dinner mom? In another 5 hours or so honey…. The hot oven and the puree will make your schenkels quite dark, but that is adding to the color of your stock, so don't worry.

I didn’t get a lot of fat out of this so there was no need to drain and/or pour the fat off, in the stockpot it went. Deglazed the oven dish with some boiling water and added some more water to cover (approx. 2 to 3 litres).
Simmer on low, low heat. Simmer some more. And don’t forget to skim. Again, and again…. Tanna had a fancy device, I used grandma’s trusted enamelled skimmer.
Sim sim simmertime…for 5 long hours.
Well into simmer time (after two hours) I added

1 large carrot (big chunks)
1 fat leek in (big chunks)
half an onion (skin on for extra color in the broth),
10 pepper kernels,
bay leaf, some parsley stalks

and left the house…..

Stockpot in charge of the husband…who went to bed some hours later and saw some glimmering under the stockpot and turned the heat off. Good boy! Stock had been simmering for about 6/7 hours.

I came home to a house smelling of delicious beef stock! Wow! And satisfied the culinary newbie went to sleep. Peacefully.
To wake the next morning, coffeepot, coffee in hand to stockpot….Yikes!!! The smell!!
Start computer, send an SOS e-mail for help. Taaaannaaaaa, this &*$%# smells like I had three very dead deer hanging in my kitchen, should I start over again? What’s keeping the scratch and sniff Internet?
Still in pyjamas I ladled the fat off this stock, carefully strained (did not do the cheesecloth thing) and strained again through a finer mesh sieve.

Back to heat again, just to make sure it was alright or should I start over again.
Thankfully, the source of the smell seemed to be the accumulated fat on top. Once discarded, all was well again and smelled like roses stock well made. Phew! Now I have a beautiful stock, to be used in many dishes as "the heart", for me the heart of the matter was in the exchanging of laughs and e-mails all across the big pond as well as this gorgeous stock. Now, what to do with it?
Coming soon on a blog near you…

Airy kisses for my Valentine

In a hurry? Nothing prepared for this day? You can still make a bunch of these....

All you need is love :

2 egg whites
130 gr fine sugar

a very clean bowl
a hand mixer with very clean whisks
(use some lemon juice on a paper towel to wipe bowl and whisks)

Basic: whip egg-whites up to volume, add sugar, whip to stiff peaks form and the mass is satiny.
Transfer to piping bag fitted with a smooth tip and pipe little dots on a prepared bakingsheet (grease a little or use paper/mats).
Bake in a preheated oven 150C or 240F for 20 minutes.

Fancy: add flavour and colour by using cacao, or instant cappucino powder. (Mix with sugar and add). Add 1 ts vanilla extract with the egg whites. Add some crushed chocolate and nuts to the stiff egg whites and carefully mix with a spatula.

This time I added some orange flavoured sugar and put a butterscotch morsel (Hersheys) on top. Simple and delicious!

Gadgets that might work (3)

As you might know I like to bake almost all our bread, and encouraged by the successes (and yes, the failures too), bake almost all our pies and cookies and cakes. One cannot help notice the amount of fat and sugar that disappears in those baking adventures... Wow I really didn't know that. Makes you conscious of what you bake and how.

In my breads I almost never use butter, sometimes a little vegetable/olive oil. In cakes and cookies....hmm difficult, but I'm learning how to reduce or substitute.

And then there is the inevitable spraying/buttering of the pans you use. I like to use Baukje spray (kind of Pam for english readers) but that is expensive, and the spray cans are small. So I tried other devices (my grandmother and mom use the emptied foil package of butter to grease the pan, dutch thriftiness?).

I bought plastic spray canisters, unofficial (read cheap) devices for spraying oil, nothing worked. I even tried (read that somewhere) to add lecithine to get a spray instead of a drizzle. I have yet to buy the official real expensive pump and spray bottle in the official cookshop. (As far as I've heard they don't work as well either and cost a shocking 20 €!)

Enters: this cute little gadget. At this moment filled by Ainsley Harriot himself (oh well, let's pretend) with balsamic vinegar but I plan to get rid of the vinegar a.s.a.p. and refill (yes it can be refilled) with vegetable oil to pump and spray and grease my bowls for the bread to rise in. Less mess, quick and easy. Or so I hope.

So far the vinegar sprays beautifully, but then again vinegar is like water and will spray out of almost anything.

I foresee lots of tomato and salads in our near future.. spray vinegar, spray!

Salt

If I told you this bowl is filled with crystals would you believe me?

In fact this is a small amount of salt I bought at a stall at Naschmarkt, Vienna. I was shopping with Angelika, and of course we stopped at a stall selling all kinds of aromatic herbs and spices. I bought some special bread herbs, a pouch of Tandoori seasoning and while I was paying for this my eyes fell on some soft coloured crystals. Grabbed the bag, set it on the counter and paid.

Never knew what I had bought.

For days I had this in the little porcelain bowl, just enjoying the soft colours, dreading the day that I couldn't resist to ground some in my salt mill. In the meantime I googled and asked around to discover this is Himalaya Crystal Salt.

Now I have a tough decision to make: enjoy it sprinkled on my food, bathe in a solution or may be I should make a paste and do a face mask. What would you do?

Round up !! Pantry Visits / Duik in je kast (3)

Come and have a look-see.... Amazing treasures, great storage ideas, comforting thoughts and shelf look-a-likes. Doesn't if feel good to see that not all our cupboards are alphabetized? Of course the ones open for the general public are ;), but now you get to see the good stuff. A peek behind the scenes, the inventory we trust upon in good days but especially in bad days!

Oh kom er eens kijken...wat ik in mijn kastje heb. In dit geval gaat het niet om het "hebben" maar om herkenning, om goede ideeën, voorkeuren, ingrediënten die je kent of misschien wel niet maar wel nieuwsgierig naar bent.... Wie weet!

I think it was Marl1 who asked to make an inventory of foodstuffs that are omnipresent in almost every kitchen.....very good idea....I'll wait for your answers ;-)
For the Dutch it must be the #^*&$ orange spice boxes (and that is not because they are user friendly), and I think almost everyone has their supply of pasta and flour. Any other items?

Thinking about creating atmosphere? Angelika will show you how to in The Flying Apple !



Aranka sent me an email with (a.o.) this neat transport idea.




Arden from Uit de keuken van Arden made instant recipes out of her cupboard and decided to post her cabinets as well.



Ashleigh over at Stitched in Holland shows us a room with a view.




Edith shows her cupboards at Ediths digitale keuken





Gea pulls out some of her supplies by email.






Hammies Home has the cleanest kitchen cabinets ... I'm jealous!





Jenny at Kookpuntweblog gives us an update on her stash




Larein send an email and manages to let her baking supplies star as kitchen adornment! Look and learn!




Lien over at Notitie van Lien has a real Pantry overload but she's labelling!



Lindy lets us visit her pantry at Toast and she offers us a slice of cake too!




Marl1 at Huisje boompjes beestjes is battling Silvo's spice boxes






Molly at Somewhat refined has a dark feathered friend watching over her Alaska based kitchen cabinets.

Robert shows his world and the back-up supplies




Sandi invites all of you to take a peek in her pantry at Whistle Stop Cafe Cooking




Oops! I almost forgot to mention Sue at Sue Cooks Wild, luckily for me she has a light fixture there to guide me...




Tanna at My Kitchen in half cups does a great balancing act involving beautiful earthenware.

And another participant who likes to join: Meneer Wat eet ons shows his kitchen (and makes his own vinegar....)

I would like to thank you all for joining me on this crazy trip through all of your cupboards / cabinets / pantries / basements / shelves. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride which originated here and became official here!. For your information: the clutter in the corner of my basement is gone, cleared and cleaned!

And... I have this jar of Blackstrap Molasses (Meridian Foods brand) which I bought to use in breads... only to discover that it is not the right kind of molasses? Anyone has any suggestions what to do with it? Love to hear from you!

Dankjewel aan iedereen die heeft meegedaan aan dit gekke idee, ik vond het in ieder geval erg leuk om bij jullie allemaal op bezoek te komen!

A walk in the park...

Or a walk down memory lane?
I remember the Sundays where I was engrossed in some book, comfortably cuddled in a corner of the sofa...when all of a sudden my parents would say: Come on, let's go, it's such beautiful weather, let's go for a walk.....

No I was not allowed to wear sneakers on Sundays and no jeans please....and we would walk like forever... no goal, just for the sheer pleasure of walking... (I still hate that, I like walking but I need to go somewhere, or do something while walking, you just don't walk to walk!?)

Or a drive around the countryside...
And we had to watch the passing landscape...("get your nose out of your book and look how beautiful this is") Ahum...fast forward 30 years.... where chirpy parents in another city, another time say to their children: come on, get your coats we'll go out, it's such beautiful weather, get your nose out of your Nintendo DS .. and three grumpy kids growl and drag and say: do we have to? Can't we just stay home? Where are we going?
WHY??

We went.
To Heusden.
One pair of sneakers, 4 pairs of sturdy walking shoes, 4 pairs of jeans (and one ribcord).
The weather was beautiful.
And look at the view!!
(Mam, stop laughing!)

Cat's tongues / Kattentongen

Cat's what?

I wondered if I could cat (hah) away with simply translating our Dutch cookie, Ashleigh provided me with the French name; langues de chat, I googled, and look at the beautiful cat-cat's tongque picture Clotilde at Chocolate and Zucchini made.

At the back of my mind there was also a faint memory of cat's tongues made of chocolate, on a small crystal plate, the delicate stripes in the chocolate, my grandmother's house, birthdays.... They looked like these. (And should you wish to know the length of a cat's tongue, please click here).

This recipe again comes from the Dutch book "Koekje!" and I have reason to believe it's in Thomas Kellers book "Bouchon" too. (should you have that available..)

Why adding another recipe here while there is a wealth of recipes on the internet already? Because it is a charming little cookie, easy, quick, versatile, you don't need fancy ingredients, cookie monsters will love it.

Even I like them. Substitute vanilla for lemon or orange, coat one end in melted chocolate, sprinkle with grated coconut, stripes, dots, endless possibilities.

Let me post this recipe in Dutch and I'll refer you for the english measurements and directions to the links above. The only difference in recipes being that I used two whole eggs instead of just the egg whites.

Recipe:

200 gram zachte boter / softened butter

200 gram gezeefde poedersuiker / powdered sugar, sifted

2 eieren, losgeklopt / 2 eggs

3 gram zout / salt

15 gram vanille suiker / vanilla sugar

225 gram patentbloem, gezeefd / all purpose flour, sifted

Boter met de poedersuiker romig roeren, meng de eieren, het zout en de vanille suiker erdoor. Roer met een houten spatel de bloem erdoor. Doe het beslag over in een spuitzak met gladde spuitmond (1 cm doorsnede).

Spuit smalle staafjes van ong. 6 cm lang op een ingevette bakplaat. Houd wat tussenruimte over, de koekjes vloeien uit tijdens het bakken. Ik adviseer de bakplaten halverwege de baktijd te draaien, de bruining verloopt dan gelijkmatiger.

Bak ong. 8-10 minuten op 170 graden. Randjes zijn dan goudbruin en het midden van de koekjes goudgeel.

De enige opmerking die ik hierbij heb is dat de oventijd wat mij betreft wat langer moest zijn. Ik weet niet of dat aan mijn oven ligt, maar hou het een beetje in de gaten. Ik bak in een hetelucht oven waarvan de fan de kracht heeft van een kleine orkaan, misschien is dat de oorzaak.

Cèpes, Porcini, Eekhoorntjesbrood = bouillon

Porcini, Cèpes, Steinpilz, Eekhoorntjesbrood, all names for the one funghi. A fairly large mushroom with an earthy, nutty flavour. It's meat-like texture holds its ground against all kinds of dishes.

This time I used the dried porcini you can find in bags or plastic pots in supermarkets. It is not exactly a budget mushroom but a small portion can go a long way, especially when you use them in this bouillon.

However if you would like to use dried porcini in for instance a sauce or accompanying some meat, you'll have to steep the porcini in boiling water for 20 minutes or until they've expanded. Drain them, but keep the steeping liquid, this adds even more concentrated flavour to your recipe, just make sure you strain it first because it might contain some sand. Proceed by slicing and sauteeing them in some butter mixed with olive oil and use them in any kind of recipe as you would fresh mushrooms. (For the English recipe scroll down)


Paddestoelbouillon

25 gr gedroogde cèpes
2 uien
5 stengels bleekselderij
1 el boter
1.1/2 liter bouillon

1 el marmite (ik heb deze keer japanse soja gebruikt)
2 bietjes
1/2 tl piment
100 gr champignons

De gedroogde paddestoelen in een zeef onder koud stromend water kort afspoelen. Ui en bleekselderij in grove stukken snijden. In een grote soeppan de boter verhitten en daarin ui en bleekselderij op hoog vuur al roerend een paar minuten aanbakken, vuur wat lager draaien en nog eens 5 minuten zachtjes laten bakken.
Vervolgens de cèpes, bietjes, marmite, piment en de bouillon toevoegen, aan de kook brengen, dan het vuur laag en ong. 30 minuten laten trekken.

Intussen snijden we de champignons in plakjes en deze worden snel in een hete koekenpan met wat boter en olijfolie aangebakken. Bestrooi met wat versgemalen peper en zout. Zet van het vuur af even apart.

Zeef de soep boven een schone pan. Je hebt nu een donkere, zeer geurige bouillon gekregen, proef af op peper en zout.

Verdeel de champignons over de borden/kopjes en schenk de bouillon erover.

Deze bouillon is erg geschikt als voorgerecht tijdens een dinertje. Licht en geurig en zeer krachtig van smaak. Het is erg leuk om de bouillon in een mooi koffiekopje te serveren (of wat dacht je van een mooi -hittebestendig- glas?) als onderdeel van een gemengd voorgerecht. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan een mooi opgemaakt bord met een stukje paté, een heel kleine salade, wat ambachtelijk brood en een elegant kopje van deze bouillon.

In English:

25 gr dried porcini
2 medium sized onions (quartered)
5 stalks celery (cut in large chunks)
1 tbs butter
1.1/2 liter stock (beef)
1 el marmite (I used kikkoman soy sauce this time)
2 small cooked beetroots (quartered)
1/2 ts piment/all spice

100 gr button mushrooms

Rinse porcini under cold water, heat butter in a large souppot and sweat onions and celery on high heat, lower heat, cover and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add porcini, beetroots, marmite, all spice and stock and let simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. In the meantime, slice button mushrooms and cook over high heat in a frying pan using a little butter and some olive oil. Set aside.

Strain soup in a clean pot, and taste for salt and pepper. I'd like to use glasses or elegant tea-cups to serve this consommé in, place some mushrooms slices on the bottom of your cups and pour the consommé over the mushrooms.

You might like to use this consommé as a light and aromatic starter for a -Christmas-dinner, or combine it with a small slice of paté, a tiny salad and a slice of artisan bread, plated to resemble a "grand starter" as you would plate a grand dessert. Enjoy!