El Jardin Secreto

After a couple of days of eating tapas, we were craving for a lot of vege. Or anyway, I was. El Jardin Secreto is a lovely and cozy place especially known for all their different hot chocolates and chocolaty deserts, but we're very happy with their salads and burgers. Also lovely is the wide range of non-alcoholic drinks, among which violet drink. They dress their meals and drinks with flowers as if it is a real garden. Specially a good place for a romantic being together.

Cathedral of Madrid

A good place to flee the city and have a moment of peace and quiet for a little while. If you don't mind the horde of tourists.

Stop Madrid

Madrid, of course, is full of tapas bars, but we really wanted to have some old fashioned tapas. On our way to our hotel we already spotted Stop Madrid, unfortunately it was closed as we wanted to visit at our cocktail hour (7 o'clock) and opens again at Spanish hours around eight.

Delicious old fashioned tapas at Stop Madrid, with your beer you already get some bread with tomatoes and you can't visit Madrid without having some proper manchego and iberico: Stop Madrid is the place to be!

Mercado de San Miguel

Mercado de San Miguel is a good place to try a little of a lot that Spain has to offer. A large covered market, with all kinds of stalls where you can get tapas, paellas, oysters, tortillas, jamon, manchego, chocolat, wines, beers...everybody gets what they like and then you eat it at one of the bars or many tables. 

A real tourist attraction, which is not surprising because you have a bit of everything, but also a whole lot of Spanish people that lunch here or have a drink in the afternoon accompanied with some nice snacks.

La Mallorquina

Taking a break to visit Madrid for a couple of days because the husband has to go there for work. Packed my sunglasses, shorts, sunburn...not necessary at all! Madrid this time of year is just like Amsterdam in the fall: raining and 10 degrees. No worries, enough to see and do and every sunbeam is a reason to take a walk.

Our apartment is in the middle of the center, right near Puerta del Sol. Perfect to be if you didn't book a place that includes breakfast, because on Puerta del Sol you've got La Mallorquina. A small pastry place, downstairs is the shop where, but upstairs is the breakfast room. Packed with people, but with a high turnaround, so you don't have to wait to long for a table. The waiters are just running around carrying trays with breakfast. They don't have a menu, so first have a look downstairs or just order napolitanas, which they have in a cream version or a chocolate one. Croissants, Orange Juice and some Café con Leche and your good to go.

Plaice Fillet with Spinach

My weekly organic box "De Krat" has been delivered today, a whole bunch of fresh ingredients to cook with!

Thinly slice 1/2 a Granny Smith apple. Saute 1 clove of chopped garlic and 1 chopped shallot in some olive oil until they're soft (about 5 min.) Than put 500 gr of spinach in hand by hand, it will shrink very much. Heat a knob of butter in another frying pan until the foam is gone. Put salt and pepper on 2 plaice fillets and, at the last moment, put a tbsp. of flour on them. Fry them on both sides for 2-3 minutes.

In the mean time the spinach should be done, sprinkle the juice of half a lime on and season with some salt and pepper. 

Spinach on the plate, apple on the side and fish on top. Finish with a bit of pepper and a slice of lime on top

 

Stew with Parsnip and Jerusalem Artichoke

Again a night of Cooking from De Krat. Tonight I'm using some ingredients for the very first time, one of the reasons why I have De Krat in the first place. Tonight I'm using: Venison, Parsnip, Jerusalem Artichoke, Chicory, Mushrooms and Apples.

The Stew:

Fry 40 gramsbacon in 1 tsp. olive oil, add 1 chopped shallot, 1 chopped clove of garlic and a tbsp. of thyme leaves, bake for about 5 min until it's soft. Fry 400 grams of stewing steak in pieces of 5 cm until its brown in a Casserole in 25 grams butter, than add the onion mixture. Turn the heat high and add 50 ml red wine vinegar, let it boil for a couple of minutes. Add 350 ml red wine and let this boil for a while. Add 3/4 of 350 ml boiling stock to the pan, together with the 1 Bay Leaf and 2 Cloves of garlic. Let it softly boil for 1 hour, stir every now and then and add some stock if necessary. Than add 1 tbsp. Dessert Wine and 100 grams Mushrooms and cook for another 15 minutes. Season with some salt and pepper if necessary.

Side Dishes: 

Jerusalem Artichoke Puree - Peel 500 gr of Jerusalem artichokes, boil them for about 25 minutes (keep some of the water apart). Mash together with a tsp. of mustard and a tbsp. of creme fraiche, salt&pepper and some fresh thyme. If Necessary add some of the boiling water to make it smoother.

Parsnip - Peel 500 grams of parsnip, cut them in pieces of about 5 cm long and put them in water with lemon. Cook for about 15 minutes, drain, add a knob of butter, salt and pepper.

Chicory Salad - Peel and chop 1 apple. Mix it with 1 tbsp. mayonnaise, 1 tsp. of mustard, 1 tbsp. olive oil and some lime juice, salt&pepper. Put in a couple of sliced pickled onions and 2 stumps of chopped chicory.

Salad with Bloater and Red Cabbage

De Krat Brought me some nice Bloater this week and also contain some Red Cabbage, Nice apples and something I don't remember the very difficult name of, but it was Japanese and can be used in stead of lettuce.

 

Thinly slice 1/2 a red cabbage in. Peel 1 big apple and cut 1/2 into chunks and thinly slice the other half. Make a dressing by mixing up 1 tbsp. mayonnaise, 1 tsp. mustard, 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar, a drip of honey, salt & pepper, then wisk 3 tbsp. of olive oil in slowly

Mix the cabbage with 8 halved pickled onions, the apple chunks and dressing, then put aside. Clean 2 Bloaters. Put the 400 gr of the Japanese veg (or something like it, like raw spinach) on two plates, squeeze 1/4 of a lime and sprinkle 1 tbsp. of olive oil above. Put the Cabbage salad  on top. Than the Bloaters, sliced apple, 1 sliced avocado and 2 thinly sliced spring onions. 

Olmenhorst

For my sisters birthday I gave her a so called adoptive tree at the Olmenhorst. It's an apple tree you can adopt to stimulate the organic apple production. The idea is that they hang a sign on a tree with your name and when the apples are ripe you can go and harvest your own tree.

It was a surprisingly sunny and warm day for the time of the year when we went to harvest. Also the last day of the self-picking season, so a lot of festivities like pony riding and archery.

We went to pick our 25 kg of apples, ate some lovely apple pie, bought some fresh goat cheese at the farm shop and mainly had a very fun day and some fresh air. They almost every weekend have some special activities and you can of course just go for their lovely high tea which is what I'll be doing somewhere in the spring

Cafe de Paris

If you are in Hamburg and you have the time, you have to have breakfast at Cafe de Paris. Be early because they're waiting in line. We went to Hamburg on a business trip and made the stop on our way to the train station. Because we knew we had to travel for a long time and the curry wurst in the refreshment room is NOT something you want to eat for a second time, we went for the full breakfast including a glass of champagne.

It is a lovely place, with breakfasts from all over the world in a room that looks like your in Paris. 

Twiske

Wanting to get out of the city and go for a stroll among the goats and cow's? Twiske is the place to go. You can reach it by bus or by bike and ferry. It really is a nice ride if the weather is good. Only half an hour or so by bike from the ferry behind central station. It's a nice place to walk around, have a cup of coffee and, if the weather is really nice, you can take a swim in one of the lakes and have a picnic in the grass.

We unfortunately choose a rainy day for our walk, got really soaked bacause we didn't see that shower coming. Nevertheless, it wasn't cold so getting wet wasn't that bad.

Fifteen

It's important to once in a while take some time together and bring the little one to grandma and grandpa. We started our evening with some beers at Brouwerij 't IJ, one of my all time favorites. A small brewery in an old mill. On a warm day like today the terrace is packed, they only sell beer and some small snacks like peanuts or some cheese and close at 8 o clock. That's a good thing because we are already late for our reservation at Fifteen (and a little bit lightheaded after to of their heavy beers)

At fifteen we're warm welcomed by the hostess and shown to our table. Which I find very odd because it's a very slow night and I really don't understand why she's not letting us pick our own table for only about 20% of the restaurant is filled. Now we're in the middle of a huge space, surrounded by empty tables. The girl that serves us tonight is very sweet, still learning but that's ok. I start with a salad of a fresh and soft buffalo mozzarella with beets and a very nice balsamic vinegar. Very good, this starter alone would be a reason to come back. The Vitello Tonato is also very nice, with some grilled fresh Tuna added besides the Tuna mayonnaise. 

As a main I'm having the linguine with mussels and tomatoes, the dish is nice, but the soup bowl shaped plate is undoable. The Tagliatelle with Rabbit is delicious, will definitely be trying to make some nice pasta with stew myself. 

Deserts are not good. Very salty and not very tasty. I will certainly visit fifteen again for the nice starters and mains, but will just have a cup of coffee for desert.

Mussel Days Zierikzee

Every August we are celebrating the start of the new season for Mussels and Oysters in the Southern region that’s called Zeeland. This is the part of the Netherlands I was born, so it of course is a special place for me. This year we visited Mussel Day in Zierikzee, a small harbor town on the top island of Zeeland. They celebrate the start of the new season and at the same time ask Poseidon to look over their fishermen by saving him from an island. Eight ships sail out and everybody is welcome on board. The Mussel princes is on the first boat and that the one to save Poseidon.

Afterwards you can eat loads of Mussels for a very low price, yummmm. Next year we'll be visiting the Oyster days :)

Tagliatelle with Purslane

Cook 200 gr of Tagliatelle. Heat 100 ml of Cooking Cream slowly in a big pan. Add 50 gr of butter, zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon, keep stirring till the butter is completely melted and than turn of the fire. Add the Tagliatelle and 2 hands full of Purslane to the warm cream, stir.

Cover with 2 tbsp. of chopped Parsley and 2 hands full of grated Parmesan and ready! Serve with a small green salad on the side.

Note: The ancient Greeks used purslane for its medicinal effect. It is said to help against inflammations and heartburn.