Ofcourse they use English in the supermarket!

I'm glad they cleared THAT up for me :-)

so true :-)

how it all started

You may see that I don't post here as frequently as on my 'jaap and mickey in HongKong'blog.
That is not due to lack of things to write about, nor to the language (jaap-and-mickey is in my native language Dutch).
No, it has to do with the character I had in mind for this blog. More food, more cooking, recipes, more travels and more books. You know, like a cosy library-type café, with open doors, strawberries and a breeze in summer, and a burning fireplace and the smell of applepie in fall and winter.

And now I'm finding out that writing a bookreport, and even more so writing a good recipe, is not half as easy as it seems.
I have to admit, I haven't looked into it. I'm sure there are guidelines out there on how to write good recipes, or how to make them your own if you use others for inspiration.
But still.

There are some great examples out there. They intimidate me a little. I love reading other peoples foodblogs! I have some of my favorites mentioned in my reading list.
But for me it all began with this one. The blog that celebrates its 7th B-day this month. I have been quite active for a while on the forum and participated in foodswaps and get togethers, in New York, Paris, Tel Aviv, and all that brought me a great variety and wealth of new experiences, new foods and great new friends from all over the world, some of whom I've met once, some several times and will continue to see, and with some of whom a meeting is still in the making.

So, you see, that's quite an example. Not that I want or need to reach that as well - but I would be happy to get a little bit better at it.
So I will start to write some more again, dive into my archive of food pics from the past months, all taken with this blog in mind, and I'll keep practising. And enjoying it.

But if you can't find me here, hey, I'm probably travelling.
Or reading my favourite blogs...

a culinary Tour de France

While we are still excited about our progress in the World Cup another big sport event has started. The Tour the France.
Yes, you may laugh, oh dear friends and family, as you all know how much I'm interested in sports (NOT). Still - this one I will follow with interest.
No, not the cycling one, THIS one!
Barbara, whom I've met through the forums of chocolate and zucchini, is the writer of the weblog 'winos and foodies' and has launched a great initiative:

"For the next 3 weeks a group of food bloggers will bring you the food traditions and recipes from the stages of the 2010 Tour de France. Recipes to represent each region the 2010 Tour de France will pass through."

One of the regions she herself will write about is the start, which is in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. To get a little more insight in dutch food, food culture and food history she asked for my help (Barbara is Australian) and it was great fun thinking a bit closer about the things that are so natural to me - to each of us: our typical food-habits.

I think Barbara can be very proud of the result (as am I!) and I'm looking forward to reading the specialities of the different regions of this Tour the France!

a new cookbook

When surfing the internet and following links some favourite websites and blogs I often find a new gem I haven't seen before. Some end up on my favourites-list, some are bookmarked, some just visited now and then. A few keep lurking in the back of my mind, and are visited and revisited.
Stonesoup is one of them. Now and then I stop by and I keep being surprised and pleased by the beauty and simplicity of Jules' blog.
Today I found a nice surprise there: She took all her 5 ingredients/10 minute recipes and collected them into a beautifully designed e-cookbook.
Free for anyone to download. (!)
So I suggest to click here, download the e-cookbook and start drooling - eh - cooking....
Don't forget to read the rest of her blog as well!

Flourless Orange Cake

This week it was Queens'Day, a famous and much loved Dutch National Holiday. The whole country dresses in orange, eats orange treats, (drinks lots of beer and a dutch liqueur called 'oranjebitter'), has the day off and celebrates with large garage-sale-like-street markets, music everywhere and parties all over.
The 30st of april was the actual birthday of our former queen Juliana. And since her daughter Beatrix, who is our queen since 1980, has her birthday in january, she decided to keep the holiday on april 30, weather-wise...and why orange? The last name of our royal family is 'van Oranje', which means orange.
I had a coffee-date with 3 dutch girlfriends at our place when I realised that would be on Queens day. No better excuse to do some baking, ofcourse!

I opted for some cookies and the flourless orange cake. Orange both in color and in flavor! I made it before, to success, and it was about time I made it again. I consider it sort of healthy - no butter, no flour, but fruit and nuts inside :-)
The recipe is well tested and written upon, to name a few: Claudia Roden, Nigella Lawson and Clotilde Dusoulier.



Flourless Orange Cake

2 or 3 oranges, preferably organic (uncooked weight anything between 250-375 gr)
6 eggs
225 gr sugar
225 gr finely ground almonds/almond powder
1 teasp. baking powder

*if you can't find almond powder or almond meal use chopped or course ground almonds and use the foodprocessor to make them finer. Pulse in short blasts to avoid making almond butter, there's a lot of oil in almonds.
** if you use whole almonds and grind them yourself, make sure you use the ones without the little brown skin - my friend made the cake with home-ground-almonds-with-skin and it turned out a bit too bitter. Thanks for the tip, Ans!

- Put the washed oranges whole in a pan and cover with cold water. Boil for 1 1/2 hours until soft. (make sure the pan doesn't boil dry). I love the smell...! Drain and let them cool.
- preheat oven until 180 C
- grease (butter, oil or spray) a round (springform) caketin (any size between 8-10 inches, 20-25 cm is fine). Or use a rectangular cake/bread pan.
- When the oranges are cooled cut in quarters, remove the pips. Put whole oranges, skin and all, in a foodprocessor and whizz 'till pureed. (or use an immersion blender, or cut by hand very, very fine).
- mix the eggs with the sugar until light yellow and creamy.
- Add almond powder, baking powder and orange puree and mix well.
- pour into prepared cakepan and bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 50-60 minues, until a skewer comes out clean. Keep an eye on the color and cover with foil if necessary.
- cool inside the tin!!
- remove the tin and decorate with icing sugar or with a glaze, frosting or icing



optional:
lemon icing
150 gr icing sugar
a few teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
food coloring if desired ( I used a few drops of red and a few drops of yellow to create a bright orange)

- sift the icing sugar and stirr into a not too runny paste by adding first some food coloring if and when using, and then some lemon juice. Make it more runny if you like it to drip off the sides of the cake or to be less visible, or as thick/spreadable as possible to do just the top.
- spread onto the fully cooled cake

variations
This cake can be made with all sorts of citrusses. This time I used minneola's, it can be made with clementines, tangerines, mandarins, all lemons or a combination.

It tastes good at any time but is especially nice after one or two days, so ideal to bake in advance. The flavor improves, it really does. Today was day 4 and it's just getting better. Too bad we finished it...it's quite moist due to the almonds, so just keep it in a tin or covered at room temp.


the cookies were just simple butter-cut-cookie-dough, some funny cutters and lots of glazing and food coloring!

Impromptu dessert

Yesterday we had an unexpected dinnerguest. One of the salesmen from Jaaps company was here and they needed some time to talk - and we all needed to eat. As our guest has been on the road for over two weeks now I suggested the men to come over for a home cooked meal - I was making a huge lasagne anyway. They happily agreed.
Having guests in your house is not a regular 'thing' in HongKong. Or in our appartment. The dinnertable is permanently in use as a desk - so I had to clear that out. Having guests is definitely good for the appearance of ones little house!
Usually the two of us have dinner on the couch - so laying the table was a new concept in this appartment.




While laying the table a dessert came to my mind. So simple - and so good!

quick summerfruit icecream

300 grams of frozen red fruit, mixed (I have them premixed in my freezer, ususally to add to smoothies in the morning)
150-200 ml of cream ( I had one of those long life packages lying around)
3 tablespoons of yoghurt
2 tablespoons of sugar
to taste a dash of rosewater, rosesyrup or perhaps a nice liqueur, I used rosesyrup. (not required but it does add a certain ' je-ne-sais-quoi'!)

-Add all ingredients in a stand-alone blender or in a high jar when using an immersion blender
-Blend!

because the fruit is frozen you get instant ice cream, soft and creamy.
Either serve immediately or place in the freezer until it's dessert time. When frozen hard give it ten - fifteen minutes to soften.

Serve in nice glasses, just like it is or with some extra cream, a cookie or liqueur on top.

*variations*
Mango and orangeblossom water, one fruit only, banana with chocolate sprinkles or caramel on top...