Über-moist apple cake

It's funny how things work out and how much is a matter of chance. Once, I was on a plane sitting next to this 30ish year old woman and heard one of the most amazing love stories ever.

The woman was coming back from a business trip and couldn't wait to see her little girl and her wonderful husband. She showed me some pictures of the happy family, and completely lit up when talking about her loved ones. I remarked it really shows she loves being a mum and a wife. She smiled, and said she didn't see it coming at all -- only a few years ago she was absolutely determined never to get married nor have kids. Not out of spite or a broken heart -- she thought it just wasn't for her, and was a perfectly happy independent single. 

One day, she decided to email an old friend that she hadn't spoken for a long while, to see how he was doing. By mistake, she misspelled his surname in the email address and sent the email to a stranger. This stranger was surprised by the email, but thought maybe he'd just forgotten a long-lost acquaintance -- and replied. The woman deduced from the reply that this was not her old friend, but liked the tone of the email and wrote back. 

They kept on emailing for a while -- first laughing about the mistake, later simply getting to know each other better. Before long, they decided to meet IRL and fell in love. They moved to the same city and got married -- and now had a lovely daughter. The woman said she could not have been happier, against her initial plans and totally different idea of happiness.

Turns out, one small element -- catching an earlier train, going to a party, sometimes even making a mistake -- can have a huge impact on our lives.  Some say it's pure coincidence, and life is just a result of random events -- others say it's destiny.

I first bought this cake by coincidence -- it was the only one left at my local pâtisserie and I had no choice but to buy it, as I needed something to give to very unexpected -- yet very hungry -- guests.  However, with the first incredibly delicious bite I discovered this was no coincidence, but destiny.

Before & after

Ever since, the cake has become one of my favorite "ordinary cakes".  It's not very fancy, and can be eaten without a particular occasion -- simply with your afternoon tea.  It's a popular cake in Belgium, and I buy it either at the pâtisserie or simply in the supermarket (the latter of worse quality and taste, but still very good).

Lately, as I decided to consume less of the "E-vitamins" (E367 etc. additives), I started looking for a recipe to make the cake myself.  This turned out to be not such an easy task, and it took me quite a while to find something satisfactory.  I wanted to catch the distinct apple flavor and great moistness of the cake.  Help cake from legendary blogger Deb, and her recipe for "mom's apple cake" (which I slightly adapted).

The cake turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for.  Extremely moist, with big soft chunks of apple and crunchy walnuts, not too sweet.  With an excellent crisp crust and divinely silky center.  Sprinkled with powdered sugar for that extra hint of sweetness -- excellent cake to have with a cup of tea.  Having made it -- I don't think I will ever have to buy this cake again.

Try it out -- and let this be your destiny too ;-)

Ingredients:

• 6 apples (I used Granny Smith)
• 2 tbsp of cinnamon
• 6 tbsp of brown sugar
• handful of walnuts (around 60-70 g), roughly chopped
• 330 g (2.75 cups) of flour
• 330 g (1.5 cup) of brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 230 ml (1 cup) of vegetable oil
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• juice of 1 orange
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp of powdered sugar

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).  Line a round baking tray (24 cm / 9.5 in in diameter) with parchment paper.
• Peel, core and chop the apples in chunks.  Sprinkle with sugar (the 6 tbsp) and cinnamon, add chopped walnuts and combine.  
• Sift the flower, baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl mix together the oil, remaining brown sugar, vanilla and orange juice.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix.  Add eggs, one by one.
• Pour half of the batter in the baking tray and cover with half of the apples (you might need to drain them a little bit from the juices).  Pour the remaining batter and add the remaining apples.
• Bake for around 1.5h.  Let cool a bit and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Bon appetit!

Glazed salmon with avocado-strawberry salsa

Allegedly, Eskimos have a lot of words for snow.  (I don't know if it's true, but it seems like a nice anecdote, so why not believe it and use at parties as a conversation starter.)  I imagine they distinguish between still falling and already fallen snow -- between virgin white & crisp and dirty slush -- between big majestic snowflakes dancing gracefully in the air and the small waterred-down ones dropping in a big rush. 

Similarly, North-Western Europeans should come up with a pretty impressive vocabulary on the types of rain.  After all, they have plenty of empirical evidence to go on.  Whole year long.

Instead of trying to list the fifty shades of grey the sky has had this week, I opted for a different way of coping with the gloomy weather.  Color on my plate!  And nothing adds color better than fresh fruit.

Before & after (FYI: these are avocados, not dragon eggs)

I decided to go for some strawberries, which always remind me of early summer.  I think of warm afternoons I spent at my grandparents' summer house as a kid.  Hiking in the forest or sunbathing near the lake, the gentle breeze of warm air in your hair, idyllic bird singing in the background, and delicious strawberries freshly picked in the orchard. The strawberries didn't look like much -- irregular in shape and not too big -- but the taste was a million times better than that of the store-bought perfectly shaped specimens.

With such memories at hand, it's easy to block out the rainy reality and create summer on your plate.

Fresh strawberries go very well with avocado.  The salsa is a combination of zingy, sweet & tart with creamy and rich.  Walnuts add the crunch and compliment the nuttiness of the avocado, chili flakes add heat, and the lime juice & walnut oil vinaigrette binds the flavors together.

This fresh salsa goes very well with glazed grilled salmon.  Any sweet glaze will work here (e.g. Teriyaki sauce).  The idea is to get some caramelization on the outer side of the salmon, so it does have to to be sweet.  The marinade I used is salty-sweet and smokey and brings out the best natural flavor of the salmon itself.

So go ahead and bring some color to your plate!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4 skinless salmon filets (around 700-800 g)
• 2 ripe avocados
• 5 large strawberries
• handful of walnuts (around 60-70 g), roughly chopped
• juice of 1/2 lime
• handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 tsp of chili flakes
• 2 tbsp of walnut oil (can be replaced with olive oil)
• 5 tbsp of soy sauce
• 4 tbsp od muscovado syrup or molasses
• 2 tbsp of fig vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
• 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions:

• Whisk together the soy sauce, syrup and vinegars.  Pour over salmon filets and rub into the fish.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, ideally for 1.5h.
• Once soaked in the marinade, grill the salmon on a grill pan with a little bit of olive oil (a few minutes on each side).
• Peel the avocados and chop in big chunks.  Immediately drizzle with lime juice (half of what you have) -- this will prevent the avocado from turning brown.  Chop the strawberries finely (leaving a few slices for decoration like I did - if you want).  Add to avocado, together with the chopped walnuts and cilantro.
• Whisk walnut oil with remaining lime juice, chili flakes, salt and pepper.  Drizzle over the salsa.  Combine all salsa ingredients very gently, e.g., by using 2 forks -- be careful not to mash the avocado.  Serve with grilled salmon.

Bon appetit!

Veggie goat's cheese quiche

I think progress and innovation stems from very clever lazy people, who are just pretending to be hardworking.  Who else would spend their life trying to figure out how to make things easier, less strenuous and more simple?  The huge revolution in the way of living of the -- so-called -- "Western society" is proof of how much easier life is now for the average person.  All thanks to clever inventions -- simple solutions saving time and hard work.

My mind often takes the same approach to cooking, trying to figure out the simplest way to prepare something -- at the same time not giving up on taste, quality and the home-made-factor.

What I cook very often is a result of what I happen to have in the fridge.  There is no elaborate planning, no trips to specialty stores to get exotic ingredients, no thorough research in the Internet or cookbooks to find the perfect recipe or at least some inspiration.  Leading a busy life with limited free time and strength to engage in hours and hours of shopping, preparing and cooking forces you to be creative.  

And all the better -- after all few of us have the luxury of both time and resources.  And it's not that I don't like being in the kitchen.  It's just that in the little time I have left after work, I like doing other things too.  That's why I often try to figure out ways to spend as little time cooking as possible.

The key to success is having the right basic ingredients at home.  Vegetables, grains, eggs, flower, spices, oil or butter will often get you a long way.  Sometimes you are allowed to cheat by buying ready made pastry -- who would have the time to every single time make the pastry from scratch after returning from work?

That's how this quiche happened.  My family came to visit and I wanted them to have a proper meal, but at the same time not spend hours preparing it.  This semi-fancy, semi-home made dinner was the work of a few moments.  I simply chopped some veggies, whisked together the batter, and voila - dinner was served.  

Go ahead and experiment yourself!  It's amazing how much time you can save with some lazy-mindset-thinking -- and at the same time come up with great dinner ideas.  

Ingredients:

• 1 package of shortcrust pastry (not sweetened)
• 2 red peppers, sliced
• 250 g of champignon mushrooms, sliced
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 package of creamy goat's cheese (150 g)
• 3 eggs
• 50 ml of milk
• 2 tbsp of flower
• a handfull of grated gruyère cheese (optional)
• handfull of sunflower seeds
• handfull of pumpkin seeds
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C.  Put the shortcrust pastry in a tart tin, make sure the edges stick nicely to the tin.  Puncture wholes with a fork on the bottom of the pastry.  Bake for 6-8 minutes until slightly golden (it might rise a bit, but don't worry about that).  Take out of the oven and set aside.
• Saute the onion with a tablespoon of olive oil for a few minutes.  Add mushrooms, saute until golden brown.  Put on the pre-baked pastry.
• Whisk together the milk and flower until smooth.  Add goat cheese, eggs, salt and pepper and gruyere cheese if you're using it.  Pour over the mushrooms.
• Decorate quiche with peppers and sprinkle with seeds.  Bake around 30 more minutes.
• Serve with fig preserve, sprinkled with additional seeds.

Bon appetit!

NYC bites + Cucumber Martini

New York, New York!  You either love it or hate it -- but it never leaves you indifferent.  Being a city person to the bone, I had my hopes up high when I visited NYC for the first time.  But as it turned out -- I hated it at first.  The slow crowds of of tourists blocking your way and view, the stench of the food carts, rats, dirty streets and derelict buildings.  Just like McKayla -- I was not impressed.

Still, I kept coming back, drawn like a moth to... the Big Juicy Apple.  

There is a thin line between love and hate.  And soon my disliking started melting and transforming into a liking.  I used to live close to New York, and dropped by on a regular basis.  For a concert, Broadway show, party, dinner etc. or just some simple sight-seeing.  And I had a great time on every visit -- and great food.

It's no revelation that New York has some of the best restaurants, cocktail bars, bakeries, food markets and stores in the world.  Everybody can find something they like, or still want to discover.  

On the last visit we dropped by Magnolia Bakery for a taste of their divine baked goods.  We went for two kinds of cheesecake and a double-chocolate cupcake.  It was a beautiful, sunny day so we went to Central Park and sat down in the sun on one of the bridges.  A perfect lazy New York afternoon!

Speaking about desserts -- on one of my previous visits when I was doing some sight-seeing with friends, we stumbled upon a nice bakery somewhere near Washington Square Park.  I ordered a latte and a caramel pecan cake.  Both were delicious, and just what I needed after walking off half of Manhattan.

Before you think I only eat desserts when in New York: here come some main courses.  On our last visit, we went to a great steakhouse on Park Avenue South (Hillstone).  My boyfriend ordered a rib eye steak with a soy-ginger marinade, that since has become more or less legendary.  Every single person that saw our holiday pictures -- no, wait -- every single person that blissfully unaware asked us about our holidays -- was shown pictures of THE STEAK.  

And what a steak it was!  Perfectly moist, flavorful, and baked just right.  I'm not a big meat-eater myself, but had a few bites from my boyfriend's plate secretly wishing I'd have ordered the steak instead of my crab cakes (shhh, don't tell him though).  Don't get me wrong -- my jumbo lump crab cakes were very good too. But what is "very good" compared to "amazing"?

Finally -- the drinks.  New York cocktail bars have some of the best drinks in the world, and the bartenders are not stingy with the alcohol.  The cocktails are so good, that you have to be really careful if you want to keep track of how many you've had.

 

On one dinner/party in the Meatpacking District, I decided to try something else instead of the usual NYC drinks, such as Long Island Iced Tea or Cosmopolitan.  I asked the bartender to prepare his specialty drink for me, which turned out to be the Cucumber Martini.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me -- but the drink looked very simple and I didn't expect much of it.  Cucumber in a martini seemed a bit weird, if anything.  I had a small sip, and immediately discovered this was the best cocktail I had ever had!

If you're thinking: No thanks, no drink that tastes like cucumber gazpacho for me -- you could not be more wrong.  The only connection with the cucumber was the incredible freshness of the drink.  The martini was very well-balanced, sophisticated and simply amazing.  I ended up having quite a few more of those that evening.

Last weekend, I tried to recreate the legendary drink.  I made "great sacrifices" tasting all these alcohol mixes just so that you guys could try it too.  After quite extensive sampling, I found a very good combination of flavors.  Not exactly the same tas the one in NYC though -- that would simply be impossible.  But close enough to make a great drink.  Definitely worth a try!

Cin-cin!
 

Cucumber juice (not radioactive, despite appearances)

The amount of servings will depend on the size of your "unit".  The recipe only sets out the proportions.

 

Ingredients:

• 3 units of fresh cucumber juice (see below)
• 5 units of cold vodka (you can also use gin if you prefer the taste)
• 1 unit of cane sugar syrup
• lime juice to taste (precize amount depends on the size of your unit + your own taste)
• ice

Directions:

• For the cucumber juice: peel and finely grate the cucumber(s).  The finer you grate the better.  Squeeze out the juice (I used a very fine sieve and a sterilized cloth).  Cool down in the fridge.
• Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker (the ice will cool the mixture down).  Pour in a martini glass (without the ice), decorate with a slice of cucumber.

Enjoy!

Pasta sauce: reinvented

Rain and strikes -- today was a typical Brussels day.  It started raining about a week ago, and I hasn't stopped since for more than a couple of hours. Of course the rain is accompanied by strong wind, which makes carrying an umbrella more or less as useful as swinging a stick.  
Strikes are also a significant and imperative part of everyday life here.  All sorts of people come to the capital of the EU to voice their opinion... or just take a "day off" and combine the protesting with some sight-seeing.  

Funnily enough, weather and strikes immediately become the key conversation item.  Suddenly this is all people can talk about.  But who would blame them -- after being soaked to the skin, and arriving late at work/home because of the traffic jams caused by street blockades.  

Before & after (#1)

But once you get to know Brussels and its hidden charms a little bit better, you will no longer notice its flaws.  What is more -- you'll learn to like them.  

When I was on my way to get lunch, I got caught up in an avalanche of hundreds of trade union protestors -- all of them dressed in bright green and moving towards the destination of their protest.  Since it was pouring, I gently unfolded my bright red umbrella (which was not easy in this crowd, especially since my umbrella is half-broken by wind).  And I thought to myself: how cool is this?!  Here I am with my vividly red umbrella, in this big crowd of bright green people (talking about their protest and drinking beers -- after all, it's a day off).  What a funny sight this must have been from a birds-eye-view :-)  Thank God for the rain and strikes!

Before & after (#2)

Just like today was a typical day -- today's dish could not be more everyday & simple.  What else could you say about spaghetti sauce?  Still, I decided to give the dish a little bit of a twist.  Instead of using the store-bought-jarred-slush-loaded-with-preservatives, I went for a home-made version.

The sauce is made of grilled vegetables -- and has their rich, smoked flavor.  The taste is so much more complex than that of a basic tomato sauce -- yet the various barbecued vegetable flavors complement each other perfectly.  It goes well with every king of pasta, but I prefer good quality fettucine al uovo to spaghetti.  Great idea for a simple everyday meal!

You have to be very quick if you want to take pictures  -- the food disappears in a blink of an eye!

Serves four

Ingredients:

• 1 small eggplant (or 1/2 of a big one)
• 1 small zucchini (or 1/2 of a big one)
• 2 peppers (e.g. red and yellow)
• 2 small red onions
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 small can (100g) of (bio) tomato paste 
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• your favorite pasta (amount for 4 people)
• a large handful of fresh herbs (preferably basil or parsley) (chopped) 
• parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Roughly dice all the veggies, season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake until completely tender (around 45-60 minutes).
• Take vegetables out of the baking tray and blend.  You can make a completely smooth sauce -- I prefer when it still has some texture to it.  Add the tomato paste and stir.  Season to taste.
• Cook pasta, reheat sauce.  Serve sprinkled with fresh herbs and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Buon appetito!