Piri Piri Chicken

Serves 4

Ingredients:

* 4 Chicken breasts of 150 gram each

* 1 Spoon paprika powder

* 1 Spoon smoked paprika powder

* 1 Spoon onion powder

* 1 Spoon garlic powder

* 1 Spoon ginger powder

* 1 Spoon cardamom powder

* 1 Spoon oregano

* 1 Spoon salt

* 1/2 Spoon piri piri chili, or cayenne powder

* Olive oil 

* Optional: Lime or lemon juice

Preparation:

Mix all the herbs in a bowl and put in a jar for future use.
Take the chicken breast and cover with the piri piri herbs, olive oil, and optionally some lime or lemon juice. Put in the grill for 20-30 minutes, turning them halfway.

I served it with a summerish salad consisting of:

* Corn
* Cucumber

* Cherry tomatoes

* Kidney beans

* Spring onion

* Sweet pointy paprika 

* Mango

Eating it with fries is also an option, but rice goes well too.

Enjoy your meal!

Mike & Leda

Mongolian Beef

Serves 3 - 4

Ingredients:

* 500g tender beef ( I used rump steak )
* Salt
* Pepper
* Cornstarch
* 1/4 Cup light brown castor sugar
* 1/4 Cup soy sauce
* 3 Garlic cloves
* 2 Table spoons sweet chili sauce
* 1 Teaspoon ginger powder
* Spring onion

Preparation:

Cut the beef in thin slices, I did this when it was still half frozen for the better result.
Now mix the beef with cornstarch, salt and pepper, set aside.

Chop the garlic in small pieces.
Mix the rest ingredients of the sauce, including 1 teaspoon of cornstarch in a measuring cup, or bowl.

Now heat oil in a skillet and add the beef slices. Cook 1 minute on side. Work in batches.
Once the last batch is finished, add the rest of the beef and the sauce. Mix well and let it simmer until the sauce thickens. Decorate with the spring onion.

I served with boiled rice and steamed broccoli, but feel free to change to whatever you like.

Enjoy your meal.

Mike & Leda

Asian Burger

serves 4

Ingredients:

* 300 g minced meat (half pork half beef)

* Zucchini slices
* Beansprout
* Chinese cabbage
* Oyster Mushroom (or any kind of mushroom you like)
* Ginger Syrup
* Soy sauce
* Buns
* Garlic
* Ginger

Optional:

* Crispy onions
* Sambal
* Breadcrumbs

Preparation:

Finely cut the ginger and garlic and put the meat in a bowl. Mix with the ginger, garlic, a dash of soy sauce and optionally the breadcrumbs. Leave alone for a while so the flavours can blend.

Meanwhile cut the cabbage in as big of a size you want, I used large strips, since it shrinks while stir frying. Since I used it for the topping I wanted it to be as large as possible while still maintaining a medium structure. Cut the mushrooms in 1 cm strips. Now we can make 4 burgers of the meat mixture.

Heat up a saute pan or wok and stir fry the cabbage and mushrooms, and after 1 minute add a little bit of soy sauce and ginger syrup and mix, turn the heat to low, or better off if you want to keep the crispness of the cabbage.

Heat up a grill pan and cut the buns in half. If you like you can roast the buns for a bit until the pan gets hot enough to grill the burgers, and the zucchini slices. For the burgers; grill 3 minutes on each side. Meanwhile put the beansprout in a sieve and pour boiled water over them.

When everything is done we will finish the burger by putting it all together.
Bottom bun, ginger syrup if you want, cabbage, beansprout, burger, zucchini slices, crispy onions, and on the top bun a bit of sambal (chili paste) if you want some spice, and then the top bun.

This was a surprisingly tasty hamburger for a change and I hope you will like it as much as we did.

Enjoy!

Mike & Leda

Good Breakfast

serves 1

Ingredients:

* Cereal
* Milk

Preparation:

Put the as much cereal as you desire in a bowl, and pour in as much milk as you like.
Personally I like the milk to be a bit lower than the cereal. If you want it crunchy, eat immediately, if you want it softer wait a couple of minutes.

Enjoy your breakfast and  April's fools :)

Mike & Leda

Pizza

serves 3 - 4

Ingredients:

For the dough:

* 500g Flour

* 1 bag of instant yeast (7 g)

* 250 ml warm water

* 1 spoon salt

* 1 spoon sugar

* 1 spoon oliveoil

* Oregano (optional)

For the sauce:

* 150ml passata

* Italian herbs

* Oregano (optional)

* 4 gloves of fresh garlic, minced

* 1 spoon salt

* 1 spoon olive oil

Preparation:

Put the flour in a big bowl, along with the salt and the oregano.

Add the yeast to the water, and add a whiff of sugar, and put the rest of the sugar in the flour mix.

Stir the yeast mix until the yeast is dissolved, and leave alone for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes there should be foam on the yeast, then you know it is ready. If not, throw it away and try again.

If the yeast is good, put it in the flour mix and stir to blend until all water is absorbed. Now add the olive oil and start kneading until it is sticky like a post-it note. It should still be sticky, but also let go easily. Knead it in a ball and leave alone in the bowl for an hour covered with a moist cloth.

(Tip: if it is still too sticky, slowly add a bit of flour)

Meanwhile we prepare the sauce by mixing all ingredients listed above. 

Another options is to use tomato puree instead of passata, and a bit of water to make it thinner. You can even leave out the garlic, some people also add a teaspoon of mustard, or go crazy and use barbecue sauce instead. It is up to you!

After the hour is done, push the air out of the dough, make a ball again, and leave alone for one hour more.

Now it is time to make your pizza, make 3 balls out of the dough and put some flour on your counter and use a rolling pin to make the pizza in whatever form you like, personally I use a rectangle form, since that is the size of my oven dish, and it is easier to separate for two people.

I also like to fold the edges up a bit so it is easier to hold once it is done.

Preheat the oven on the highest heat. I used 250 degrees Celsius.

Now cover the pizza with the sauce, and your favourite toppings. A tip here, if you use cheese, put 1/3 of the amount on the sauce, cover with your toppings and put the rest (2/3) of the cheese over the toppings for the best result.

For me it took only 15 to 20 minutes until the pizza was done, but I advice to keep an eye on your culinary creation!

In case you are curious about the toppings I used on my picture it is;
Minced meat, mixed with a self made herb mixture, onion, tomato, paprika and mushroom. As for the cheese, I used a small amount of Gouda and a bit more of Mozzarella.

Enjoy your pizza!

Mike & Leda

Gumbo

serves 6 - 8

Ingredients:

For the cajun herbs:

* 1 spoon garlic powder

* 1 spoon onion powder

* 2 teaspoons white pepper

* 2 teaspoons black pepper

* 1,5 teaspoon cayenne pepper

* 2 teaspoons thyme

* 0,5 teaspoon oregano

* Salt to taste

For the roux:

* flour

* butter/oil

For the dish:

* Cajun herbs

* 3 spoons of roux

* 2 middle sized onions

* 1 paprika

* celery

* 1 can okra (300 g)

* 1 can of tomato cubes

* 1 spoon tomato puree

* 60 g butter

* 2 garlic cloves

* 2 bay leaves

* 0,5 teaspoon piment

* Tabasco to taste

* 1 spoon worcestersauce

* 2 liters fish stock

* 500 gram middle sized shrimp

* andalouie sausage ( or "Gelderse gekookte worst" if you can't find it in the Netherlands)

* Rice 

Preparation:

Start by making the roux, you do this by having an evenly distributed amount of flour and oil or butter. I used oil. Heat up a pan and warm up the oil until it starts to get hot. Add a quarter of the flour and keep stirring on medium heat. Slowly add more and more flour until you reached an even amount of oil and flour. Keep stirring until it reaches a dark brown colour. It should not burn! Keep stirring, this is very important, but you can also take the pan from the heat and stir for 30 seconds before putting it back. When the roux is finished, put it aside. 

Rinse the okra and set aside for later.

Finely cut all the vegetables and the garlic. Stir fry the onion, paprika and celery on low heat for 2 - 3 minutes then add the garlic and the sausage. Put the heat on the lowest setting and let it cook for 10 - 20 minutes, while stirring occasionally. Meanwhile start boiling the rice.

Now add the Okra, the tomato cubes and the tomato puree to the vegetables, along with all the herbs, worcestersauce and tabasco. Stir thorougly and let it cook for 2 minutes. Now add the fish stock and the roux and mix until blended. Bring to the boil, turn the heat low and keep stirring occasionally for 15 minutes while it simmers. Now add the shrimp and cook for 5 minutes more and your dish is ready. Bring to taste with salt and pepper if you like.

Serve immediately with the rice.

Enjoy your meal,

Mike & Leda

Surinamese Broccoli

serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:

* 1 kg Broccoli

* 500 g Chicken breast

* 1 Middle sized onion

* 2 Tomatoes

* 2 Garlic cloves

* 2 Maggi cubes

* 1 spoon Ketjap Manis

* 1 spoon Ketjap asin

* 100 ml water

* 2 Spoons sunflower oil

* Salt to taste

* Pepper to taste

* Peanut sauce (ready to use, self made or my recipe )

* Optional: 1 Madam jeanette if you want it spicy.

Preparation:

Finely cut the onion and garlic cloves, and cut the tomato and chicken in cubes. Cut the broccoli in florets.

Heat up a saute pan and stir fry the onion on medium heat until it looks glassy. Add the tomato and garlic (and madam jeanette if you use it) and stir fry for one minute more. 

Now add the chicken and stir fry until all the sides are gold brown. Now crumble the maggi and add to the mix, along with both the ketjap. Stir well.

Finally add the broccoli and the water and mix well. Bring to the boil and lower the heat to let it simmer for 10 minutes more.

After 10 minutes, check if the broccoli is as soft as you want it, if not boil a bit more.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with rice or noodles and the peanut sauce on top.

Enjoy your meal!

Mike & Leda