snack

Where is the Holiday Spirit? Here, near Deez Nutz!

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I don’t like this time of the year especially in the Netherlands. The thing is that around this time in the Low-lands it is cold, windy and very wet; the days are short, getting up and going to work when it is dark, leaving work and getting back home in the same darkness. It is as if everything is telling me to hibernate and skip this time of the year. It really sucks to go outside, the grey-and-sad-looking sky, crying it’s many tears down on to the planes of our small, small ‘Kikkerlandje’ (A Dutch saying).

However it is also the end of the year with it’s Festive holidays and Joyable gatherings. The many birthdays of my family in these months, the Oh-so-critisized Traditional Childrens-holiday of ‘SinterKlaas’, The Commercially known holiday of the birth of Christ ‘Christmas’ and the End of the Year celebration of ‘Oud en Nieuw’ on the day of switching to 2016.

It is the time to spend some time with family and friends and I am blessed with them being in my life. So to have some ‘Yummie in the Tummy’ I present a triple recipe in one with some seasonal ingredients of autumn and winter. Prepare yourself Winter is coming!


Muffin-sized cakes: for 6 cups
Apple-Cinnamon-Pecan
Matcha-White Chocolate-Macadamia
Chocolate-Cream Cheese-Oreo-Hazelnut

Ingredients:

Apple-Cinnamon-Pecan
150 grams of Flour
80 grams of Sugar
100 grams of Butter
20 grams of Cornstarch
8 grams of Baking Soda
10 grams of Cinnamon
80 mL of Milk
50 grams of Pecan nuts
2 Large-sized Eggs
1 Apple
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Matcha-White Chocolate-Macadamia
120 grams of Flour
80 grams of Sugar
100 grams of Butter
20 grams of Cornstarch
8 grams of Baking Soda
15 grams of Matcha (green tea powder)
80 mL of Milk
50 grams of Macadamia nuts
2 Large-sized Eggs
100 grams of White Chocolate

Chocolate-Cream Cheese-Oreo-Hazelnut
120 grams of Flour
80 grams of Sugar
100 grams of Cream-cheese butter
20 grams of Cornstarch
8 grams of Baking Soda
50 grams Cocoa-powder
80 mL of Milk
50 grams of Hazelnut
2 Large-sized Eggs
50 grams of Oreo-cookies

   

The Easy way of making these Cakes.

Have every ingredients out on the cooking table and have the butter and cream-cheese butter at room temperature. Measure the ingredients and set them aside. Peel the apple and chop it up into small cubical pieces, add lemon to it to prevent browning. Chop the chocolates, oreos and the various nuts and put them separately into small bowls for later. Pre-heat the oven at 180-190 degrees Celsius.

First up, take a mixing bowl and put in the butter. Use a hand-mixer to mix the butter to a soft and creamy substance. Add the sugar, milk and eggs and mix it again. The mix should be clear of lumps and mixed well. Next step is to add in the powders. Use a sieve and add all the powders: flour, cornstarch, baking soda and the recipe’s powder (cinnamon, matcha or cocoa-powder.) Sieve in the powders to prevent forming of lumps and mix it all with the handmixer. A thick batter-like substance should be seen. Final step is to add in the apple and pecan-nuts (or the white chocolate and macadamia-nuts, the oreo-cookies and hazel-nuts.) Use a spatula to mix in the Last ingredients.

When it is mixed in, lay out the cups and pour in the cake-mix. Put the cups with the mix in the oven for 25-30 min. Check up on the cakes at 25min with sate-skewer and depending on the mix type it can be done or need a little bit more time. (When you poke the skewer down to the bottom of the cup and pull it out; the skewer should be clear or a little bit oily. If it is otherwise, it isn’t done yet.)

The Long way of making these Cakes

I did not have the time to use this method, because it was already late at night and I did not wanted to disturb my house-mates with the hand-mixer noise. It would have made a more lighter and fluffier cake.

Measure the ingredients and prepare it like the first part above. (peeling and chopping.)

Next would be melt the butter in a pan to have melted butter. Separate the egg yolk and the egg white.

The egg-white would be hand-mixed to soft peak, then sugar would be added and mixed further to stiff-peak (meringue.) In another bowl are the melted butter, milk and the egg-yolks mixed together. When both bowls are ready, I would use a spatula to scoop up some of the meringue and gently fold it into the butter-milk-and-yolk-mix. Continue until all of the meringue are folded into the mix. Next part would be to add the powders gradually with a sieve and fold it in as well. It have to be added gradually or else all the work to add air into the mix will be done for nothing. Finally, add the last ingredients such as apples and pecan nuts and fold it all again. The added air and folding technique will make the Cake-mix more airy and gives it more of a rise in the oven. Because of the rise of cake, it is best to fill the cups half-full otherwise it might droop out of the container/cup.

Put the cups with mix in the oven for 20-30 min at 180-190 degrees Celsius and check up on it at 20min timer to see if it is ready or it need more time to bake.

I will have to try the Long-method in order to see the results for myself. But for now have fun trying, Like, Share and Keep Experimenting!

Chickenwings: Double flavour, in triple ways!?!

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Chicken-wings a snack-food at various occasions. At the BBQ with grilled meat, or when sharing pizza’s with friends, even when getting fast food like fried chicken.

There was a video on Vice.com about paleo method of cooking and I saw chicken and herbs used. It looked interesting and I like to experiment with cooking.  I also enjoy crunchy fried chicken-wings, thus thats why I tried something new.  So here are my ways of chicken-wings done in three ways.

Spicy crusted Chicken-wings:

Ingredients:
400-500 grams or 8-10 pieces of Chicken-wings
10 ml of Sesame oil (optional)
5 grams of Salt
5 grams of Black pepper
10 grams of Chili powder
12 grams of Paprika powder
20-30 grams of Bread-crumbs

Preparation:
Rinse the chicken-wings with water and put it in a bowl. Add the sesame oil, salt, black pepper and 2-3 grams of chili powder as well as 2-3 grams of paprika powder. Use a spoon or your clean hands to marinate the spices onto the chicken-wings. When done leave it to rest for 30 min in the refrigerator for the flavour to soak in.

Next get a plate or a container and pour the bread-crumbs, 10 grams of paprika powder and 8 grams of chili powder. (Add chili powder with caution, cause the spiciness depends on the amount of chili you add.) Mix the powders and the bread-crumbs together for a red-orange-yellowy crust-mix.

After 30 min of flavouring, get the chicken-wings out of the fridge and dip the wings one for one or a few at a time in the crust-mix. Cover the wings fully and put it aside on a plate.

Green herbed Chicken-wings:

Ingredients:
400-500 grams of 8-10 pieces of Chicken-wings
20 grams of Celery (herb)
20 grams of Leaf parsley
20 grams of Spring onion**
5-10 ml of Olive oil
Handful of nuts (used pine nuts*)

*(Because I had some of it left over. Other kinds of nuts could be: Pistachio, Walnut, Peanuts, Cashew or whatever you like)
(**Only the green parts of the spring onion were used).

Preparation:
Wash the herbs: celery, leaf parsley and spring onion. Also rinse the chicken-wings with water. Get a food-blender and cut the herbs into pieces for blending. Put the herbs into the blender as well as the olive oil and a handful of nuts. Blend the herb-mixture into small pieces in a way that is not to chunky or to pasty looking.

Use a spoon to scrape of the herb-mix into a bowl and add the chicken-wings in it to marinate. Like above use a spoon or your clean hands to marinate the herb-mix onto the chicken-wings and let it soak in the fridge for 30min. Take it out when you are ready to cook it.

IMG_2922

As stated in the title chicken-wings in three ways, I made these chicken-wings in just one way. However after tasting the wings, I have thought up and considered two other ways of making it more tasty. So for each chicken-wing recipe are two ways to cook it.

The baking method: (spicy crusted wings and green herbed wings)
Preheat the oven at 160 degree Celsius. Put the chicken-wings after preparation on a grilled like tray for the oven. When the oven is heated and ready, put the tray with the chicken-wings in the oven and let it bake for 30 min. When it is done, serve it hot. (Make or add some dipping sauce for the wings. For the green herbed wings, I made some honey-lime dip for some bit of sweetness. As for the spicy crusted wings, I would have liked garlic sauce.)

The BBQ or grilling method: (green herbed wings)
Make these green herbed wings for a barbecue and if you want to make it at home use a grill pan. Heat up a grill pan on the stove and put the prepared chicken-wings on the pan when the pan is heated. Grill the green herbed wings on the pan and turn the wings a few times over. I takes about roughly 10-15 minutes or until the wings are golden brown/ yellowy brown. Serve, when done with or without sauce.
(For the BBQ, I would mix a little honey-water and brush it onto the wings when it is nearly done.)

The frying method: (spicy crusted wings)
Caution: While frying food it can be dangerous, the oils are very hot.

Use a fryer or pan with oil. Boil the oil to 170-180 degree Celsius. When the oil is heated, gently add a few chicken-wings into the hot oil. Let the wings fry until the crust becomes firm and golden brown. It takes about 4-6 minutes to cook the wings throughly. After the first batch of wings is done, take them out and let it drip out the oil on a sieve and in a bucket. Gently put the second batch of wings in the hot oil.
When the wings are done dripping out, put it on a kitchen-paper-layered plate and let the chicken-wings rest for further oil absorption. (Only do this if you are health conscious.) Serve when still hot.

I hope you like it, try it out and have fun experimenting!

Home made Pork / Beef Jerky (Asian style)

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One of my favorite snacks and most of the time it’s only obtainable in Asia. The freshly made meat jerky in Asia are just juicy, smoky and certainly delicious. They have it in variants of Chicken, Beef and Pork and in different flavours.

However it is hard to come by when you are living on the other side of the world. If you don’t know it yet. When flying to Asia back and forth, meat products are prohibited as souvenir to take back with. On some occasions it is possible for me to enjoy the meat jerkies from Asia, when relatives or friends with gifts pass through the customs.

In recent weeks I saw a FB videopost about a DIY homemade meat jerk and today I thought why not do it myself. So I watch the video of a youtuber and noted down the recipe, gathered the ingredients and made it myself.

I followed her recipe and changed bits of the ingredients.

ingredients: (Pork)
450-500 gram grounded meat (Pork)
100 gram sugar
2tbls or 30ml Fish sauce
1.25tbls or 20ml Soy sauce
1.25tbls or 20ml Dark Soy sauce
1.5tbls or 25ml Cooking wine
5 gram Five spice powder
2 gram Ginger powder

Honey

Preheat the oven at 150 degree Celsius.
Add the sugar, the sauces, the wine and the powders all in a bowl and mix it all together. When done, add the grounded pork in pieces to the sauce mix. Yet, again mix the meat and sauce mix until it becomes a paste-like-substance.

Lay out a baking sheet on a tray, put some meat-paste on the sheet, cover the paste and the tray with some transparent foil. Take a rolling pin and roll out the meat paste on the tray. Roll the paste evenly in 3mm thickness. remove the foil and put the plate in the preheated oven of 150 degree Celsius. Bake it 15min

After the first 15min get it out and pour out the excessive liquids and flip it over for an other 15min oven time. In the mean time whip up some honey water. Put a tablespoon of honey in a bowl and add some water. Mix it up until the honey is dissolved.

After the second 15min get the jerky out. Polish the jerky with some honey water and put it back into the oven for 4-5min at 180 degree Celsius. Do this again but by flipping it over and honey-water the jerky on the other side. After the second 4-5min, Get it out and enjoy your Homemade Pork/Beef Jerky.

ps. For Beef see below.

ingredients: (Beef)
450-500 gram grounded meat (Beef)
100 gram sugar
2tbls or 30ml Fish sauce
1tbls or 15ml Soy sauce
1tbls or 15ml Oyster sauce
2tbls or 30ml Cooking wine
0.5tbls or 7ml Sesame oil
7 gram black pepper powder
Honey