I took a day off work on Tuesday to have a whole day to myself baking Christmas goodies. I suspect I am a bit obsessed with baking because I forgot to eat and to sit down and relax, I had so much fun in the kitchen. I got a lot done though, and everything was really nice and tasty! Still have a few things in the fridge to finish off, but still pleased with how much I managed to do. I had to run the dishwasher (though small) 4 times, that’s how much washing up I created, haha. So happy to have a dishwasher!
I will definitely post a few Christmassy recipes here the next couple of days. The first one is Rocky Road. I know that there are loads of different versions, but pleeease try this one. It is amazing, I promise you will fall in love with it. This version isn’t completely my own, the creator is a Swedish tv-chef called Leila, and I found the recipe on a blog called Matplatsen, where Victoria had made a few changes to it. And me being me I of course had to make a few changes myself… 😉 Just can’t help myself.
Dumle toffees (it is a Finnish brand but you find them all over Scandinavia)Of course you need to try one to make sure they're ok. Phew - they were!Place them in a bowl
Add marshmallowsand nuts...melt chocolateMix it all together and leave spread out on parchment paper to set in the fridge. Cut into squares and serve!
People, try this! It is sooo nice that my best friend Emma and my mother have asked me already to make it when I get home for Christmas. And of course I will. 🙂
Rocky road
2 bags of Dumle toffee (I think Rolos would work too, or any other chewy toffee)
2 handfuls of marshmallows
250 g salted cashews
100 g salted pastachios
400 g milk chocolate
100 g dark chocolate
Put the toffees in a bowl, cut the marshmallows in half with scissors (or use mini ones) and add them and the nuts. Melt all the chocolate together over boiling water. Add it to the nutmixture and make sure everything is coated with chocolate. Spread it out onto parchment paper in a square/rectangular dish. Keep in the fridge to set. Cut it into squares and serve. Enjoy, I know you will! 🙂
Chocolate from Pierre Marcolini and PralinetteChristmassy ginger biscuit, speculaus and French bastogne. French salted butter (yuuum) and foir gras mousseAdvocaat egg liqeurWinter coffee liquerBelgian beer
On the way back to England (via Dunquerque) we stopped in Gent because we had heard it is a beautiful town. And it was, the town centre was just nice old buildings and churches. We wanted to check out a market we saw on the way through town but had used up all our Euros, and the two (!) banks we found didn’t accept Visa, only Maestro, so that plan didn’t work at all. Because it was absolutely freezing, we gave up and headed back to the warm car, but this is a town we’d love to visit again (in warmer weather)! Pretty, isn’t it?
We have all been to Bruges before, but we were really late booking it this year so we couldn’t find a hotel. So we decided to drive to Brussel and stay there for the night instead. It is good to be late sometimes, so you get to see new things, right?! 😉
If you’re planning on going to Brussels, please don’t do like we did and drive there. It took us forever to drive through the city because in every crossing you have traffic coming from two ways at the same time. There is only one word to describe this: chaos. Or perhaps two, the second being: roadrage. Once we had found the hotel, we parked the car there and walked instead.
Some nibbles to start with: hock terrine, mustard dressing and radishes.
We found lots of nice restaurants around the Grand’ Palace, but most of them was fully booked on a Saturday night. It took us a little while to find somewhere to eat because of this, but we learnt how many good restaurants Brussels have. We were really hungry after a whole day outside in the cold and were delighted when we found the restaurant Steak Frit that had a table availiable.
The menu
They had a very sparse menu, but one of the things on their is aged Irish steak with pommes frites, sauce and salad, and you could have seconds and even thirds, so most people (including us) would go for this. The two boys and I chose the steak while Anna had the salmon instead.
YUM!
The restaurant was on two floors and decorated in black and white. When we sat down, the menues was already on the table, folded into the napkin. Three of us chose the steak and it arrived nice and rare with a bowl of sauce each, and Anna received the salmon with bearnaise sauce. The choice of sides were either french fries or potato mash with leeks, and a waiter came around with big bowls of both mash and fries and asked us what we wanted. We could have either or both, and they came around with seconds as well. We also received some nice bread and nibbles before the meal and a big bowl of salad with two dressings.
I love bearnaise sauce and has to have it with steak. It didn’t come with it but was served with the salmon so I asked for some and got a big bowl free of charge. We had beers and coca-cola before dinner, as we were all very thirsty, then water and a bottle of red with the food and all in all it only cost €56 per couple. A bargain, we thought, especially the boys who had a second helping of both steak and fries. 🙂
We met up with Ian’s friend Paul after dinner, who lives in Brussels since a few months back. We went to the first bar we could find and had a beer before we realised how tired and full we were and went back to the hotel.
Pierre Marcolini
Paul had given us tips on what to do and where to go the following morning, so after breakfast in a café we went to Sablon where there is plenty of antique shops and a few chocolateries.
Cuuute santa bellies with boots! 🙂
We went to Pierre Marcolini and had a look. They had the cutest Santa bellies with boots on in chocolate, but they didn’t go on sale until the 6th December, so I had to settle for a Saint Nicolaus instead.
Palais de Justice covered in scaffolding
A few minutes from Sablon is the Palais de Justice (courts of justice) and great views over the city. You could see several chrches and the atomium, a monument shaped like an atom from one of the world exhibitions.
The view from the Palais de Justice with the atomium in the background
The Palais the Justice was covered in scaffolding so it didn’t look as beautiful as it normally does, but travelling with two solicitors it was a must-see. 🙂 Just a few minutes away from here is a big shopping street, Avenue Louise, so we went to have a look, but of course everything was closed on a Sunday morning (and probably the whole day).
It is the second year in a row now that the four of us (Ian, Anna, Christopher and myself) have travelled to Bruges for the Christmas markets. For the other three, it is actually the third year in a row, but I hadn’t met Christopher then.
Bruges is a lovely city, very picturesque and christmassy. As in most beautiful cities, there is a canal, bridges, nice old buildings and squares. The Christmas market itself is like most other Christmas markets; it has some nice food, some tacky bits, some arts and crafts and some commercial stuff.
Christmas coffee: a coffee liqeur served warm with wipped cream on top
We didn’t spend much time in the Christmas market, only to have a hot drink, Christmas coffee for the boys, Gluhwein for Anna and hot chocolate with Baileys for myself, a bratwurst later and a quick look around.
Chocolate boobs anyone?
Instead we went to the lovely chocolate shops! Some shops are all christmassy in their display, some tries to be a bit different displaying chocolate boobs and bottoms, and some stick to the traditional.
Chocolate in the making
Our favourite is Pralinette, one of the more traditional shops and their truffels are to die for. They are soo amazing and rich, so one is enough and the lovely taste of chocolate stays in your mouth for quite a while. Pure joy!
Beer galore!Satan and guillotine beer
Moving on to the other ‘must’ in Belgium – beer. There are plenty of well-stocked beer shops with quite a few (at least to us) unsual ones. A few of them you can find in Belgo in London, but I don’t think you can buy them by the bottle in a shop in England. This is a great Christmas gift tip as well; assorted unusual beers.
Braadwurst with fried onions from the Christmas market
We had a wander around town and popped into one of my favourites that we discovered last year, the cookshop Dille & Kamille. This year I bought four soup bowls, a flan tin, ramekins and some other bits.
This is the tackier part of the Christmas market...A shop full of Christmas decorations!
After a few hours in Bruges, we did a two hours drive to Brussels where we would spend the evening and the following morning.
I really like eating out at gourmet places where they have food I just can’t cook myself, and I dislike readymeals and want to cook everything from scratch as a principal. Sometimes though, I take shortcuts, and it is really nice to do so once in a while on a cold and dark November evening when you are just not in the mood to cook.
For this meal I used a readymade glaze (Newman’s own) and made some myself (reggae reggae sauce, worchestershire sauce, Heinz chilli sauce, English mustard, brown sugar, salt and black pepper) for the ribs. I used a Cajun spice blend for the potato wedges and I bought coleslaw and garlic bread readymade in M&S. And worst of all, I served a dipmix + creme fraiche with it. A Swedish dipmix called Holiday, that I really like with things like this, or crisps.
This is hardly called cooking, the oven does it for you, so this is what I did: Turn the oven on 200C. Put the rack of baby back ribs in a dish and brush the glaze on to it. Put it bone-side up and cook for 30 minutes. Wash potatoes but keep the skin on, cut into wedges and coat with olive oil and cajun spices, put underneath the meat in the oven. After 30 minutes, take out the ribs and turn the rack, brush on some more glaze. Put back in for 30 minutes. When 10 minutes is remaining, put the garlic bread in. Serve with coleslaw and dip/sauce. Done.
Can you believe that it is the first Sunday in Advent this Sunday?! Where has the year gone? I love this time of year though and all the preparations before Christmas. I can’t wait to bake and put the Christmas star up and to light all the candles.
This photo is from a Christmas market in Vienna last year. Amazing gingerbread!
We’re away this weekend though, for a quick trip to Bruges and Brussels and the Christmas markets. Last year I bought lots of lovely chocolate, an antique sceptor for the Christmas tree and on the way home we stopped at a French supermarket and filled the car up with goodies. Can’t wait to do the same this year!
I really recommend a trip to Bruges, the town is lovely and old, if you want to see what it looks like check out the film, In Bruges with Colin Farrell. Great film too.
I know that eating rabbit might not be politically correct, but it is very tasty. More and more restaurants are serving rabbit and you can buy it from Ocado (like I did). The meat is very tender and juicy and looks and taste similar to darker chicken meat. The rabbit meat is just tastes a bit sweeter.
This was the first time I cooked rabbit, and after looking around on different recipes I realised that cider was a common accompaniement and went for that.
Rabbit stew with cider, serves 3
olive oil
300 g rabbit meat in chunks
4 slices streaky bacon, smoked, in small pieces
flour
1 large schallots or a small regular onion
1/2 fennel, in slices
2 carrots, sliced
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
1 dash concentrated game stock
500 ml dry cider
1 tsp honey
1 small garlic clove, pressed
1 tsp tomato paste
coloring agent (not necessary)
Fry the bacon in some olive oil and remove from frying pan. Fry the meat in the bacon fat until nice and brown, season with salt and pepper. Remove and put with the bacon in a casserole dish. Sprinkle on some flour and shake the dish to coat all the meat. Put the dish without lid in 175C for 5-10 minutes. Shake it and put it back in for another 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, fry the fennel, onion and carrot in the same frying pan as before for a few minutes but don’t let them brown. Pour the vegetables into the casserole, add the cider, honey, stock and add the herbs too. Put the lid on and leave it in the oven for about an hour.
Strain the casserole after an hour and remove the herbs. Reduce the sauce to the thickness you want. I added tomato paste, garlic, salt and pepper and colouring agent. Serve with rice or roast potatoes.
It is time for a supperclub visit again tonight! As usual I’m going with Gaby and this time her parents are joining us because it is a Thanksgiving dinner we are going to, and her dad is American. I’m really excited as I’ve heard lots of good things about the Nomad Chef, but it will also be my first Thanksgiving and I can’t wait to try all the nice food.
As usual, I willlet you know later on what it was like.
PS. It said in the confirmation email that we should come ‘very hungry’! Sounds good to me… 😉
I really like soup, and ideally I’d like to eat soup at least twice a week. But because I have some issues with my stomach and too much fiber in the food, I haven’t had as much soup as one should during the autumn. At the moment it is trial and error to see where my level for eating fibre is. I always thought that beans were too fibery and would make you bloated, but I don’t think that is true. I read somewhere that all beans apart from green beans contains more soluble fibers than insoluble fiber, and therefore gave this soup a go. So far so good, and it was really tasty and filling.
Freshly made garlic croutons!
The recipe is from the olive oil company Zeta, and I did follow it for once. 🙂 It needs a lot of salt and pepper towards the end, but it was really nice. Not really four portions though…
Tuscan bean soup, serves 2
homemade croutons (fry bread cubes in olive oil and garic and some salt until crisp)
1 red onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 cans of cannellini beans (and the water they are in)
350 ml chicken stock (or water + stock cube)
15 fresh sage leaves
1 tsp tomato paste
Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil without browning. Add the sage and cook for another minute or so. Add the beans, stock and tomato paste. Bring to boil and cook for a few minutes. Mix the soup smooth with a stick blender. Add plenty of salt and white pepper. Serve with the croutons.
Scandelights 