Diner for one from bits of leftovers!

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Everybody should know that it is rather hard to cook for one. Most of the time you have more ingredients to cook with or you make too much for one. That’s why at times you make a lot and have to eat it two days in a row. At other times you still have some leftover products, these leftovers can be used with creativity to create tasty and waste-less food. It is a way of trying new things out. Experimenting on new dishes that can be improved at a second attempt.

As for this recipe an easy-peasy ‘Filled bell pepper and potatoes for one.’

Ingrediënts:
1 red bell pepper
1 small onion
150grams of minced meat
4 small/medium sized potatoes
pepper and salt for seasoning

Wash the potatoes first, peel it with a knife or peeler and cut them afterwards into small cubes. Peel the onion and cut it into rings or half rings. (whatever the way you like it.) Rinse the bell pepper and roast it on an open flame. (the gas pit can be used as a source) Roast the bell pepper until it is firm and soft. Often the skin of the pepper will turn char black and hot to pick up. Then cut the top off and remove the seeds and other unedible parts of the pepper.

Heat up two frying-pans, one for the meat and one for the potatoes. In both pans add a tiny bit of oil. The first pan add the onion first to glaze them well and afterwards add the minced meat. Season the meat with some pepper and salt to your tasting and let it heat up in the pan while occasionally stirring. When done fill the sliced open Bell pepper with meat. In the second pan just fry the potatoes until they are golden brown and well done. (If you want it to be less fried just cover the pan with a lid and it will steam-fry/boil the potatoes. When everything is done plate it and serve.

I hope you like it. Like, share and keep Experimenting!

Update #3 From too much time to busy, busy, busy.

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After my last post of having a lot of free time and looking for stuff to do, then *BAM* An 180 degrees turn of events happens and a fully planned week in a blink of an eye.

So what happened, I was searching for a job and looked into projects that I had on my bucketlist. I had all the time in the world, a day was planned in the weekend for a games festival in Utrecht. I went there with high expectations, however it turned out to be so-so. We left the event for down-town food and (window)-shopping. I even bought a book at a bookstore in (fore-sight of spare times.) Later on I went back to Zwolle for the weekend, in order to pick up some leftover stuffs back to my new place. Last weekend went by steadily, I traveled back to Amsterdam and proceeded with my plan of monday’s workout at the gym, however I got a call on sunday for a job that I applied to, to come by at wednesday.

Thus, this week started relaxed with monday workout and easy-cooking, tuesday exploring Amsterdam and easy-cooking, then things started to change on wednesday. I started to get busy and with ‘busy’ I mean work. Don’t get me wrong I like to work, I rather work than doing nothing. However the instant change of lots of free time to no time to spare is unimaginable quick, which made my time flew by before I could comprehend what just happened. And right now it is already monday 1 a.m. Today on sunday was a planned dimsum with my families and the time flew by.

While I am writing this post, it daunt me that it will just get busier and busier from now on. I still got stuff hanging around that I want/need to do. Like getting my SVH certificate, reading the book I got on saturday (last week), writing my business plan for my pastry/dessert-café, blogging and writing recipes, social-media, a few little projects, planning the holiday and many more. I’m getting tired and excited at the same time. Oh well,  I’ll keep posting about my journey, so give a like, share or do whatever  you want and Keep Experimenting!

Wing

Starting a new blog series!!! NAF:FA

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An upcoming series for some of the nicest place in Amsterdam to grab a bite.

While I am searching for a job, I got like loads of time to spare. So I came up with an idea that would let me Explore Amsterdam the city and meet up with some friends that I haven’t contacted with in a while.

The series will be “nocsta and friends: Food Adventure”

Stay tuned and keep experimenting

Update #2, Finaly moved to the big city of Amsterdam.

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It has been a long time since I last posted.
So what happened thus far. I had worked the last days at my previous job until my contract ended and didn’t do much. I was looking for a room in Amsterdam and it took some time to find one. Amsterdam is too damn packed and hell of expensive to live. But still I found my place and moved out. This is my first week in Amsterdam since I moved and it takes some time to settling in. A lot of stuffs are bought and I joined a gym.

I had my first workout, which was the big three from youtuber Bart (Justkiddingfilms), plus a 20 min cardio-run. I got real tired after the training.
(it was supposed to be a 30 min run, but I dislike running. weak-minded? perhaps.)

So what are the coming posts or things from me? Well I am still looking for a job at the moment. I would be great if it is in the direction that I want to do, but I can not be too picky about a job right now, need the money for living out here.

In time when I get inspiration to cook some good meals, I’ll post the recipes.
Till then, Like or share and enjoy experimenting.

Escapeism, procrastination, self-sabotaging and dealing with it.

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Ever had the feeling of not wanting to do stuff that are semi-important. The things that are not immediately your top priority, but are still important in the long run. Or having the discipline to do stuff regularly but neglecting it instead, because it is not fun and tiresome to do. Well it happened to me.

So, what happened? Well I am on my way to move out and leaving the job where I am currently working. The things that need to be happening is that I have to find a place to stay in Amsterdam and getting new job to make a living. It is not hard but not fun to do and with that, I started to wander off to do things that are “fun” to do but not very productive or helpful for my upcoming adventure.

I escaped into the world of gaming and alternative reality of youtube and manga. These are things that I like to do in my spare time but I can over do it by neglecting the things that are important. Which result into procrastination or simply laziness.

When I first started writing this blog it was great, it was exciting and fun, but after a while, it became more like work and for work you need to have the discipline to follow it through and here is where I started to neglect and the self sabotaging began. It is to delay a blog post at start and beginning to procrastinate and doing other stuff instead of getting post done in a regular, disciplined and timely way.

Yeah so, what the F is wrong, nothing… but laziness and that’s not a good way to go through with this. Need to work, to play hard.

In a way I have to redeem myself in updating this blog regularly. In a way I have to continue work hard and be disciplined to write every week.

ps. I do not know how  daily bloggers can do it, they must like to blog very much.

Eggsactly a breakfast item of bacon and eggs!

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The deliciousness of Eggs Benedict.

A breakfast item for after a long night’s out or for a hangover. It taste great, coz of the runny egg yolk, the salty but fatty bacon, the soft & toasty English muffin, and topping it all of with some hollandaise sauce.

It is even nice just as a breakfast item.

So here is what you need for my variant.

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
2-4 slices of bacon
1-2 slices of cheddar cheese
1/4 of a lemon
1-2 slices of bread
vinegar

Toast the bread with a toaster or on a pan. Cook the bacon on a pan until it is a bit crispy brown. When both things are done put it aside.

Hollandaise sauce; Boil a pan with water on the stove. Separate two egg yolks and put it into a bowl. Squeeze out the lemon onto the yolks and put the whole bowl on top of the pan with water. (au bain-marie style) Now stir the egg yolk and the acidic lemon juice until you get a nice sauce like consistency. It might take some tries to get it perfect. If the bowl gets too hot, you get scrambled eggs and if it is not hot enough you get raw egg yolk. Also stirring too hard/long the sauce will split and if not enough it will be runny. When it is done put the pan and the bowl aside on low heat for keeping it warm.

Poached eggs; Boil a pan with water add some vinegar to it. Take a mug and crack an egg into it. Spin the boiled water in the pan with something you can stir it with. While the water is spinning lower the mug with the egg into the pan. This will create a roundish/oval poached egg. Use a small sieve to spoon up the excessive egg whites. I takes about 2-3 minutes to have poached egg, firm on the outside and runny yolk on the inside. When ready let it dry off the excessive water on some kitchen paper.

Assemble time: (from bottom to top)
Toasted bread
Slice of cheddar cheese
Crispy bacon slices
Poached egg
A layer of Hollandaise sauce.

Don’t take too long to make it, coz it the best when it is still warm.

Like, share and keep experimenting!

Driver’s license and moving on with my journey..! Update…

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It has been a week now, since I past my drivers exam. One of the few bucket-list challenges completed. Although I have succeeded in being another Asian driver on the road, it is not expected of me to be immediately cruising in a fancy car. Here is why: I needed one week for making an appointment to apply for a driver’s license and another week for getting my driver’s license. Ughh.. the administration process…  well I have the time for it, so no rush. What is another two weeks in comparison to nearly a decade.

Well, I hear you might think “Wow, ten years of learning to drive. So horribly slow/dumb/stupid, etc.” That was not the case. I was in my early twenties when I started taking lessons for driving; In one year time I did the theory exams two times, failed the first nailed the second; took two times the final driving exams and failed both. I wasn’t getting it done, my driving school was mwah, the driving instructor was a douche and most of them all I was short on time/money.
At that time I was not getting the driver’s license entirely for my self, it was partly just like my school records. I quit getting my license after the second try, I was too discouraged to continue. Insecurity, low self-esteem and fear of failure played  big parts in my twenties.

I did not try again until the start of this year, I’m bit older, wiser and have changed a bit. I started to do things as I want to do, instead of doing it for social acceptance. (or what you think that others want you to do.)

My next destination in my journey is to move out of Zwollywood and move to Amsterdam. It is one of the things on my list and from there my story will probably unfold. I have already made starts with preparations of moving out. A notice has been given of me moving out, to my family, friends and work. Until then I’ll keep you posted.

Like and have fun 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!

My journey, my dream…

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This my Story, This is my Journey.

This blog is something I started to change my life, to tell my story up till now and to tell my Journey for the events to come.

Up till now I had led a great life without much hardships, I am blessed with loving family and friends. I am living a carefree life in a peaceful country, a healthy environment and I am fortunate to receive social benefits of health-care, education and many more.

However (I’m already sounding like a bitch), I did not have a purpose in life. I did not know what I wanted. I just followed the road of what was expected of me instead of listening to my heart. Just until recent years I started to search for a meaning in life, a soul search to something what I wanted, to make me happy and to contribute for a better world.

In my soul-searching-time I figured out what I liked. I like helping people in some sort of way, I like being creative and I love food.

  • Food is something consistent in my up-bringing, my father is a cook and had always made us various delicious dishes. Food is something I enjoy and in food I like quality over quantity.
  • I had always a thing for building and making stuff, I liked building with Lego and making drawings when I was little. As I have grown-up, I turned to cooking because it is one of the places where I could release my creativity.
  • Helping people… it can be called like that, the thing is I like to solve problems and in that way if it helps them it makes everyone happy. So a win-win situation is something what I like to strife for.

These three things are what underlines what I want to do with my life. So combining these three resulted in one of my goals to achieve or create/build. That is, creating something like Jamie Oliver’s ‘Fifteen’ or something like this article about coffee.  Which is not building something for just my own, but also something for the community. A win-win, creativity and food.

In the long run, I want to create an Empire or a Giant in the Food world, something similar as in the manga ‘食戟のソーマ Shokugeki no Sōma’ , an organization like Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. As well as various food related businesses.

My journey and my dream has already started, so if it sounds interesting give me a like, share or follow my blog. ^ ^

DIY Chocolate Ice-cream… with out Ice-cream-maker!

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Although it is often easier to buy your Ice-cream in store, I have to try to make my own ice-cream. This is all due to an upcoming dessert I want to make from scratch. (It takes some time to freeze it, so do not expect to have it on the same day)

The only problem I noticed is, that my ice-cream is not that smooth as the ones you buy from store. There are two factors which makes your ice-cream as smooth as silk. The first one is the amount of fat used in making your ice-cream, the higher percentage the smoother it will be. The second factor is crystallization of the liquid, if you put the ice-mix in a container and freezing it, it won’t create the same smooth texture as store-bought-ones but rather more popsicle-ish like.
Smoothness is created through breaking and forming of small ice-crystals, which happens normally in an ice-cream-maker by churning the ice-mixture.

So enough with the technical stuff, on to the recipe.

DIY chocolate ice-cream.

200ml of Chocolate ‘whole’ milk (around 10% fat content)
250ml of Cream (whipping cream 30% fat content)
100gr of Sugar
100gr of Dark Chocolate
1 shot of Espresso (or Ristretto)
2 Egg yolks
Oreo cookies

Break up the dark chocolate bar (or use chocolate chips) and put it into a pan. Add the sugar as well as the Chocolate milk to the pan. Start heating up the pan and dissolve the chocolate and the sugar by stirring. Do not let the mixture boil. Continue to gradually add the cream in the mix and stir it well.
After the cream is added also add the shot of Espresso and stir the pan while heating the mixture. Remove the pan off the heat when the mix is nearly boiling. (when small bubbles starts to appear)

After taken the pan of the heat, whisk the egg yolks lose (so it is not a round blob anymore) and add the egg yolks while stirring it into the mixture. Stir it well to dissolve it like the sugar and chocolate. When done get a small sieve and strain the mixture, to separate the undissolved residue and the liquid ice-cream.

Let the liquid ice-cream cool down a bit before putting it into the freezer. When it cooled down put the ice-cream mix into the freezer for 12 hours.
Top the ice-cream with crumbled Oreo cookies when it is frozen and finally enjoy.