Category: General

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Walnut Banana Bread

I hope you are doing well in this bizarre and impactful period, in which everybody still has to find his or her way of life in this pandemic outbreak. I have been isolating myself for weeks. I work from home, do my necessary errands every 4-5 days, cook daily three meals, sometimes taking some fresh air and spend lots of time with my savior mister Netflix.

To kill my isolation time with more fun, I baked a delicious walnut banana bread for my tea breaks. Shopping was not required as I had all the ingredients at home. So let’s have some Fika-Time if you are up for baking. 

Baking time approx. 1hrs and serves 6-8 slices.

Tools & Ingredients

  • 1 sheet baking paper
  • 3 bowls (large, medium and small)
  • 1 cake dish ~28cm
  • Whisk (electrical or manual will do fine as well)
  • Wooden chopstick or long bamboo pick
  • 200 gram all purpose flower
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 115 gram unsalted soft butter (or melt the butter)
  • 110 gram brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla powder or pure vanilla extract
  • 4 (half) ripe bananas
  • ¾ coffee cup crushed unsalted walnuts

What to do?

  1. Cover the bottom of your baking dish with the baking paper and along sides.
  2. Pre-heat oven on fan grill function at 175°C.
  3. Whisk 200gr flower + ½ tsp baking soda + ½ tsp baking powder all together in a bowl.
  4. Whisk in a separate big bowl 115gr 110gr melted butter + sugar until well blended.
  5. Add 2 eggs + 1Tbsp vegetable oil + tsp vanilla powder into the butter/sugar bowl and whisk until well blended.
  6. Mash all 4 bananas fine with a fork and mix into the egg mixture.
  7. Add the flower mix to the egg mixture by intervals and stir it until well blended.
  8. Mix ½ cup walnuts to the mixture.
  9. Pour the batter and flatten the mixture into the cake dish. 
  10. Spread remaining walnuts on top of cake dish.
  11. Put the dish in the middle oven section on fan grill function at 175°C for 45 min.
  12. Prick the wooden pick into the center of the bread and see if it comes out dry. If wood comes out sticky and moisty, then bake the cake a bit extra longer and check again after 10-15min.

Finally: let the bread cool down for 15-20min outside the oven before serving for tea.

Enjoy your Fika-Time ☕️

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Asian Pumpkin Soup

Quick and easy in cooking pumpkin soup with an Asian spicy flavour. Serve it for lunch and have some toasts on the side or serve it as starter with a nice home cooking dinner meal. Hope you like this dish.

Serves 4P and cooking time 40min

Ingredients

  • 1x small golden nugget pumpkin
  • 5x tomatoes
  • ½ shallot
  • 200gr shitake mushroom
  • Drizzle of olive oil
  • 1x tea spoon Thai red curry paste
  • Garnish with beetroot or red cabbage sprouting seeds or coriander
  • Sea salt to add to taste
  • Potato peeler
  • Soup pan or a big pan
  • Measuring cup
  • Colander
  • Food blender

What to do?

  1. —— Prepare Pumpkin ——
  2. Put the pumpkin in microwave for 2min/900W. This is too soften the skin so you can easily peel the skin.
  3. Remove top and end of pumpkin.
  4. Cut pumpkin in half and remove fibers and seeds with a spoon.
  5. Cut pumpkin in blocks.
  6. —— Continue With Cutting ——
  7. Wash and cut tomatoes in quarters and remove stem/core.
  8. Fine dice shallot 
  9. Cut shitake mushrooms in thin slices.
  10. Wash and drain the garnish on a kitchen paper towel.
  11. —— Start Cooking ——
  12. Fry shallots in olive oil.
  13. Add pumpkin and tomatoes in pan.
  14. Add curry paste and stir well.
  15. Add 400ml water.
  16. Cook for 20min on medium/high heat.
  17. Blend ingredients in pan into puree.
  18. Add shitake and cook 10min on low/medium heat.
  19. Stir from time to time.
  20. Pre-taste and add pinch of salt to taste

Finally: fill up soup bowl and garnish with sprouting seeds or coriander.

Asian Pumpkin Soup

Eet smakelijk!

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Beetroot salad & Carrot-Ginger dressing

This dressing is delicious! Years ago, I tasted this in a Japanese restaurant in Vancouver. Since then, I haven’t been able experiencing this unforgettable salad dressing in any Japanese restaurant I go. A mystery and at some point I gave up. Probably it has no relation to the Japanese cuisine. Recently, I found this salad dressing recipe at one of my favourite food blogs where I explore cooking inspiration. I was so happy, I wasn’t imagining in my head! And yes, it is related to Japan but created in the States.

The combination of carrot and ginger is so refreshing with a light flavour of spiciness. You can dress it up to most simple salad creations. The original carrot-ginger dressing I tasted was much more fine in texture. I think the chef used a rasp grater. Anyhow, the food blender is much easier and still tasty 🙂

Cooking time 30-40min with raw beet. You can also buy pre-cooked beet in saving time. Personally, I like cooking beet fresh. This taste so much better then the preserved beetroot you get from the supermarket. Salad dressing takes 10min.

Ingredients Salad

  • Raw yellow beetroot
  • Iceberg lettuce
  • Alfalfa sprouting seeds
  • Drizzle of olive oil
  • Few sprigs thyme
  • Plastic sandwich bag
  • Aluminium foil

Note: you can preserve the beet for a few days in the fridge. Serve it cold or warm it up next day (1min/600W)

Ingredients Carrot-Ginger Dressing

  • 3x giant carrot ~20cm each
  • ¼ red shallot
  • Fresh ginger ~1,5cm block, not too much as it will make it too sharp
  • 1x table spoon sugar
  • 5x table spoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 2x table spoon white miso paste
  • 1x tea spoon sesame oil
  • ½ coffee cup of rice vinegar ~100ml
  • Pinch of fresh ground pepper
  • Food processor
  • Potato peeler

Note: you can preserve the dressing for about 1 week in the fridge by using a containment food box. Recipe is up to ~10 portion.

What to do?

  1. —— Prepare Beetroot ——
  2. Pre-heat oven on fanned function at 180°C/356F
  3. Mix beet, thyme, olive oil in a sandwich bag.
  4. Pack beet and thyme in aluminium foil. You can pack them in pair or per portion.
  5. Heat in oven for 30-40min. Beet is cooked when you can fork in.
  6. Unpack foil and cool down for 10min. The extra package, just open the foil a bit to cool down and re-pack for next day.
  7. Peel beet, the top and the end.
  8. Cut beet in slices or blocks.
  9. —— Prepare Carrot-Ginger Dressing ——
  10. Peel and cut carrot in pieces.
  11. Cut shallot in pieces.
  12. Peel ginger skin with a knife.
  13. Put all ingredients in food processor.
  14. Blend for 5min until all ingredients are smoothly mixed.
  15. Pre-taste dressing, add extra vinegar or pepper if required.

Finally: mix the beetroot, salad and the carrot-ginger dressing in a bowl. Dress up all ingredients on a plate and bon appetite!

Beetroot salad with carrot-ginger dressing

Eet Smakelijk!

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