Christmas tree meringues

These cute meringues are a yummie bite and they make for cute decoration. Who can ask for any more than that ;)

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 150 g super fine caster sugar
• 1/2-1 tsp lemon flavoring (or whatever you like)
• Green icing color (I used Wilton's leaf green)
• Yellow icing color (I used Wilton's Holden yellow)
• Small star tip (I used Wilton's star tip 21)
• Large star tip (I used Wilton's 1M)
• Piping bags
• Parchment paper 
• sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 125 C. 
2. Place the egg whites in mixing bowl with cream of tartar and mix on medium speed until nice and fluffy. Add flavoring and slowly spoon in the sugar while mixing at high speed. You'll know when it's done when the sugar is dissolved and you get nice stiff peaks.
3. So because we're making the yellow tips first. We remove about 3-5 tablespoons of batter and gently mix in the yellow food coloring. Then place in piping bag and pipe small stars on parchment paper. Just gently squeeze and pull up to get them a bit elongated.
4. Bake in oven for about 5-10 minutes. The tips are very small and light in color so you really don't want them to burn. The objective is for them to be firm to the touch so you can pick them up and manhandle them later. 
5. Mix green coloring into the rest of the batter. Fill piping bag and pipe trees on parchment paper. Basically you're piping three kisses on top of each other. Hold piping bag straight with the tip just slightly above the parchment paper. Squeeze untill the kiss is youre desired size and gently pull up. Don't remove tip just hold still and repeat by piping a smaller kiss on top. Repeat again for the third and last kiss. If you like you can make the top kiss nice and peaky by pulling up while still very very gently squeezing your piping bag. But we're gonna at the yellow tips so not really necessary. 
6. Place the baked yellow tips on top and sprinkle your trees with colored sprinkles. Tadaaaaa. Just pop them in the oven and bake for 40-60 min, depending on how chewy you like them. 

*Once properly cooled make sure you store them in an airtight container otherwise they'll just go soft. 

I'm back!

So good to be back again!

My trip was lovely and anyone interested can read about it HERE.

I'm looking forward to spend the holidays with my family and friends and have already been thinking what kind of yummie and crea bea stuff I'd like to get my hands on. You see I've kind of missed cooking, baking and getting down and dirty. And as it happens I'll be having lots of time on my hands since I don't have any work. Bad news for my wallet but good news for the blog.

So stay tuned for some good December fun!

P.S. I have a great new blog for you to check out by my very own sis: CULINESSA!

Boulanger, Surinamese style

Who would've thought I'd be cooking out here in the Philippines. But that's exactly what I'm doing. Turns out, I'm not crazy about the food here. And it's either spending way to much for an ok diner or cooking myself. So today I'm making boulanger, Surinamese style. Boulanger, or eggplant, is easy made. Which is great cause I don't want to buy a lot of stuff I won't be using afterwards. Only thing to keep in mind is that I'm not using the European type of eggplant but more like the Indian ones.

5-6 small eggplants (2-3 medium ones)
1 medium onion
1 small tomato
1 tbsp dried shrimp*
1-2 cubes maggi
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Madame Jeanette pepper (optional)

Ok so place your shrimps in a bit of hot water and leave to soak for a minute or two. Drain and set aside.
Next peel your eggplants and chop them up in small cubes.
Chop up you tomato and set aside.
Chop up your onion and place in pan with a bit of oil. Make sure your pan has a lid as you'll be leaving the eggplant to simmer. I actually had to switch pans here cause the first one didn't come with a lid...

Sauté onions on medium to low heat. Add the eggplant and mix with onions. Place lid on top and leave to simmer on low heat. 

When the eggplant starts to welt add the tomato, shrimps and maggi. Stir and leave to simmer again. If you're using madame Jeanette pepper, this would be the time to add it. 

Add more maggi, salt and pepper to taste. You're dish is done when the eggplant is almost smooth. It should still be a bit lumpy but cooked through completely.
Enjoy!

* I actually didn't have any dried shrimps, so I used dried squid instead. Clearly this has a much stronger flavor so I just used half of a small squidie bit.

I've sneaked off

Ok I'm sorry, but I'm really not. It's been quiet here for a while now and that has its reasons. Truth is I've been preparing my escape into Asia. I told you guys before that I was hoping to find employment there but I'm tired of waiting. So I've just head off into the unknown. There are a few options I'm still waiting to hear on and I'm really hoping it will work out cause that would allow me some carefree  traveling for a few months. In the meantime I've sneaked off to the Philippines for some well needed r&r.

Ttyl ;) 

Cake-saster

Yesterday was my baby's birthday and I was in charge of the cake. I was supposed to make grass cupcakes, a mini vegan cake for the birthday girl and a regular cake for the rest of the party. I choose to make the cuppies vegan as well 'cause I didn't want her to miss out on that. And I was using this great recipe by Vegan cupcakes take over the world so I'm pretty sure no one even noticed they were vegan. Cuppies, check. Mini cake, check. Regular cake, disaster. I really don't know what went wrong but I tried four different recipes and they all failed miserably. Straight to the bin they went.

By the time the last failure was determined it was too late to solve the problem in any other way than to just buy a cake. So that's what we did. 

In the end it all worked out (sort of) and we had a great party. The bday girl made us sing happy birthday a zillion times and giggled the day away. 

Korean Garden

So my friend Pascal and I got together to try Korean Garden. Actually I wanted to go to Yokiyo but apparently they don't take reservations for the DIY bbq if you're just a party of two :(

At Korean Garden they serve a very acceptably priced mix and match set meal for either €22,50 (set A) or  €25,50 (set B). So we gave it a go and ordered the B set. That got us a salad with fried chicken and fried salmon, surimi crabcakes, tempura vegetables and beef bulgogi. The food was ok, but was missing the strong spicy flavors that typify Korean cuisine. Staff was attentive but as the place wasn't very busy they seemed to not really know what to do with themselves. Overall we had an ok diner but this was a typical one-time-is-enough-visit.
* As it took me quite some time to actually write about this diner, Korean Garden now has a shared dining concept for €20 p/p. I thought I'd mention that for those of you that would like to check them out.

Absent but presently active!

I'm so sorry I haven't written anything in over a month! It's actually really stupid cause I had all kinds of stuff I wanted to share with you. But basically things have been... turbulent. Mostly to do with my inner restlessness. As it stands I'm booked to leave on THE-big-leap-of-faith-trip-into-China-or-wherever-faith-will-carry-me end of September. Really really BIG! So needless to say there are a lot of decisions to be made. I find most of them to be incredibly daunting and hard! You see, I don't want to limit myself but realistically I need to cut things to improve my chances of actually succeeding. SO HARD!

Ok, so in the past few months I've been trying very hard to land a job on my own. This has lead to countless of disappointing and frustrating moments. There are many agencies and people out there trying to make a buck of people like me. Personally I find that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Niws, right now I'm still in the running for a few positions but in all honesty I'm more hopeful than optimistic.

So that being said I will try to post as much of my culinary adventures before I leave. After that who knows when I'll be able and willing to actually cook/bake for myself again...

Courgette Quiche

Another lovely quiche recipe that's easy and delicious. Perfect for a summer-ish meal and keeps great in the fridge! I used the same crust recipe as for my Spinach Quiche, but without the cheese.
I once made this as a kosher version by making the crust out of pulverized matzes and using potato flour instead of regular flour. I didn't try the kosher version myself, but my cousin (for whom it was intended) told me I would be in charge of kosher quiche till the end of time. I guess he must have liked it ;)

Ingredients crust:

• 125 gr unsalted butter
• 250 gr flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 egg yolks (medium eggs)
• 2-3 tbsp ice water

Ingredients filling:

• olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 2 courgettes, grated
• dried Italian herbs (think thyme, oregano, basil etc.)
• nutmeg, salt and pepper for seasoning
• 100 gr cream cheese
• 4 eggs
• 100 gr matured cheese, grated
• 3 tbsp flour

Directions crust:

1. Sieve flour, butter and salt in a mixing bowl. Crumble the butter with your hands or a fork.
2. Now add the ice water to the egg yolks and whisk together. Add to your flour mixture. 
3. Mix in the egg with a fork then continue kneading it into a dough with your hands. Once you have a well blended dough, wrap it up in plastic foil and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 min.
4. Roll out the dough so it's approximately 0,5 cm thick.  Place in your quiche pan and trim of any excesses. With a fork prick holes over the bottom. 
5. Place some wax paper on top and pour in some dried beans*. Bake blind in oven for 10-15 min. Then brush with some egg wash and bake again for another 5-10 minutes.

Directions filling

1. Sprinkle some salt over the grated courgette and place in a clean dry kitchen towel. Leave to stand for a few minutes and then squeeze out the excess juices. 
2. Sauté onion and garlic in some olive oil until cooked. Add in the courgette and season with Italian herbs, freshly ground pepper and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl place cream cheese, grated cheese and eggs and mix together with a fork.
4. Add cooked courgette and mix through. Next add the flour and mix together.
5. Pour the courgette cheese mixture in your baked crust.
6. Place quiche in oven and bake in 30-45 minutes.

Thank you & goodbye

All things must come to an end even the good stuff. I've had such a great time rekindling with friends and family. Re-discovering my Suriname and discovering some new bits. Quite often it seemed as if forgotten memories were just waiting around the corner to be found. In that sense it has been quite a nostalgic journey. I thank all of you who have made my stay such a pleasurable one!

Now the time has come to say goodbye to my beautiful country. I'm not sure when I'll return, but whenever that may be Suriname will forever remain in my heart.

The garden of Eden

Off we went to the Garden of Eden Surinames very own Thai restaurant. The restaurant was beautifully styled, our waiters were attentive without being in our space and the food was very authentic. Oh yes, I forgot they actually have three Thai chefs rocking their skills for our delight!
And last but not least, their cocktails were really good and original. All in all a great night out, but pricey...

I love my biscuits

Technically this isn't Surinamese food. But it's one of the things I have to eat when I'm here. You see back home the KFC doesn't serve any biscuits any more. This is a terrible terrible crime they will once be punished for. But fortunately Popeyes still has some sense and some biscuits. Yumm yumm, me likey!

Nature resort Kabalebo

Nature resort Kabalebo is a hidden gem in the midst of the jungle. It offers a variety of accommodation types from die hard camping to luxury rooms with aircon and hot water! You can either choose to adopt your activity package to your personal preferences or simply let someone else do the thinking and enjoy whatever comes your way. I guess it won't surprise you to find out we did exactly that :)

But before we got down and dirty we we're swooped up in the sky to actually get there. The flight took about an hour and upon arrival we were greeted by our hostess Vivian and a cool glass of lemonade. Hmmmm just what we needed. After a little welcome we were escorted to our rooms which were incredibly clean and comfortable. There was an extra blanket and two hammocks for us to use as we pleased. Also present were some beauty supplies like shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, you know the stuff you'd expect any hotel to have but then you remember you're in the middle of the jungle and you feel so very pampered!

Anyways after a quick change of clothes we were ready to go on our introductional stroll through the jungle with our guide Terryl. We didn't need to go very far as the resort is like a tiny tiny village that is literally surrounded by the purest of nature. What an awesome back garden to have! Next was a relaxing boat trip accross the Kabalebo river with our boatman Feddé. Oh the sights we saw! After a a yummie diner I climbed in to my comfy bed and before my head hit the pillow: K.O.

I'm not going to give you a detailed day to day account, cause this is one of these things you need to experience for yourself. The only thing I can and will say is that the team at Kabalebo tried there very best to make the most out of our time there. There was always a cool drink available to drench our thirst, a friendly smile in reply to any of our requests and good food to full our tummy after a hard day of exploring the beauty around us. I am grateful to all of them for giving me this experience of a lifetime!