pax_athena | Cooking in Leiden I

Isn't it fun how your cooking in every place is somewhat different? Or is it just me? Of course it' the question of the groceries you can actually get (easily) in a certain place but also of kitchen equipment (I do not have a microwave here, so anything that needs to be heated up in a microwave is work lunch - but I do have a loaf cake form now) and just the general feeling of a place. My apartment is rather cold, so I make a lot of soups, which also have the advantage of not needing a microwave to heat them, and oven-baked things. There is also a lot of space in my fridge so things get frozen - today for breakfast, I had two slices of a fruit&nut loaf that I made some four weeks ago, for example.

Anyway, here are the things I made in Leiden, at least the beginning of them. Except, for some reason, I did not make a single photos of potatoes with herb quark even though I ate them a ton. I have so missed quark!
I have more photos but the post is overloaded as it is already. More to come soon! (I also definitely preferred the light in the Somerville apartment; definitely made better photos. I know I could learn to make better photos but I am lazy and, when I make the photos, usually too hungry to wait. See the potatoes that never made it to being photographed at all.)

Something-like-Korean-bulgogi based on a recipe I got from

prokaryont ages ago and that I still love to bits. The snap peas are my addition and I can't imagine the dish without them.
(This version looks a bit strange because I used black sesame - we could't find other one!; it did nothing to the taste, but you just can't see the seeds on the meat.)

Charred bell peppers and feta. Lazy favorite snack / light dinner.

Home-made chicken soup. Favorite for when it's really cold in winter - spices and veggies combo from a Chinese acquaintance, I only added some pimento kernels and increased the veggie to water ratio.

Tomato, mozzarella and chives. Yes, it should be basil, but I had half a ball of mozzarella that needed to be used up and chives at hand.

Eggs are just best with fresh herbs.

Hot and sour soup. A recipe I got from D. and that quickly turned into a favorite. The only recipe in my repertoire that uses tofu.

Panzanella. It started with a recipe from smittenkitchen, but with time I swapped avocado for the cucumber. I seriously could it this one every day for a week and not get tired of it, especially if I manage to find good, sweet peppers.

Syrniki! I know they look like pancakes, but they are not. I've frozen a big part of them and kept taking them for breakfast too work.

Chicken with veggies & satay sauce on rice. I know, it does not look good. But it did taste good. (This was prepared and directly packaged for work lunches.)

Pasta with cream&salmon sauce with tomatoes and arugula. Another thing where I got the idea from D. but somewhat developed it on, in particular adding arugula, that really brings everything together.

My favorite plum galette. Made with almond meal this time - as per original recipe and mainly because I could not find walnut or even just hazelnut meal here. It's great with almond - but it's amazing with hazelnuts or walnuts; N. agreed and brought me eight 200g packages with hazelnut flour at her next visit :D

Homemade pork and shrimp dumplings. My first Chinese dumplings. Surprisingly easy to make and freezeable. I will repeat them more often - although with a different filling. This one tasted just like in Chinese restaurants, the only problem being that I don't especially like shrimp dumplings there ...

Indian spiced veggies with a bit of chicken and rice. I think this may be the first time I actually cooked with green beans? I used to dislike them but I think my taste has changed. Huh.

Charred brussels sprouts with honey. I've made this - 10 times? More that that? I just ~love~ sweet, crispy on the outside, soft inside charred sprouts.

Attempt at French toast with Dutch bread. FAIL. Because it's enough for the bread to just see the egg&milk mixture to soak it all up.

After the failed French toast attempt, the return to my usual way to use up left over bread (in this case a leftover from a breakfast at work where we take turn bringing in food).

Mini-omelets with spinach, bell peppers and goat cheese (they are better with feta but I did have goat cheese I needed to use up and no feta). I make them in my muffin pan and then freeze them for breakfast. Two mini-omelets, gotten out of the freezer the night before and popped into the microwave for 30 seconds at work are a perfect start to the day. I have made a second batch by now, this time with feta, some of which is still in my freezer.

Dhal with sweet potatoes. The recipe wasn't bad but it also wasn't special or better than the lentil recipe I already have. Anyway, not something I'll do again.

Omelet with goat cheese and bell peppers. It works with dried herbs like here but is definitely better with fresh ones.

Pasta bake (with a minced-meat sauce) with a side of salad.

Absolutely amazing fresh mackerels from the market. Soooo good. We always think about making something fancy with fish but then when we see something that looks as great as those mackerels did, we end up agreeing on just baking them with some potatoes and onions on the side because why be fancy if something is already so great?

Red beet salad. Another one that I could and at a point did eat every day of the week. It was actually really great as a side to the mackerels but it's also substantial enough to be a somewhat lighter lunch or dinner.

Pasta with (store-bought) tapenade and oven tomatoes.

And yes, sometimes I turn leftovers into meals - here I did not eat up my nan when at an Indian restaurant the night before with ♥. Add some feta and put it for five minutes in the oven and you have a dinner, especially if you can add a salad.
What you do not see is the salad dressing, especially the balsamico - home-made passion fruit balsamico. Sooo good. And so easy to make.

My trusted roasted eggplants and bell peppers salad.

Mood: accomplished
Location: leiden

Tags:

my kitchen,
nl

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kukalaka.livejournal.com

Ich denke, dass ich mal zu dir komme. ;p

French Toast kann man mit niederländischem Brot tatsächlich nicht machen. Ich empfehle dir ein Tosti ijzer. Gibt's schon für 10 Euro und dafür kann man auch etwas älteres Brot nehmen.
Wir frieren Brot übrigens immer ein.

Niederländischer Quark ist aber auch nicht das Wahre, vor allem zum Backen nicht.
Henk guckt mich immer schief an, wenn ich Kartoffeln mit Quark esse.

From:

the past is a script we are constantly rewriting

Cooking in Leiden I

Page Summary

Style Credit