Delicious couscous salad with puy lentils

I can feel myself slipping.. Slipping into the muddy waters of the overweight and out of control people… Slipping because… well, because food is just too damn tasty… and I have little to no self-control. A pretty cupcake makes me drool, when I see a gorgeous photo of a tiramisu I want to make it too and yes, I even start to have serious cravings when I see a pretty salad. And I am weak… So weak… If you’ve paid any attention to the little weight counter on the right you’d already noticed it went from -10 pounds to -7 pounds. A clearer sign you could not get!

I found out I gain weight when I’m really busy. No time to eat properly so I snack. I come home and don’t feel like cooking, so I make bad choices. As soon as things quiet down a bit I become a better me again. But then last night we signed the contract for our new kitchen, plus Tom and I were having our 20th anniversary (and no, we’re not married..) so a celebration was in order. And in our household, a celebration means wine.. Lots of wine. You get the picture!

I guess it’s the continuing story of our life; ups and downs.. But enough faffing around, time to get back on track again. And join the ranks of ..slightly less obese people.. I’ll get there. It might take some time, but in the meantime, I get to share these gorgeous salads with you. This one takes a bit of effort. It’s not done within half an hour, so there is some planning needed in order to get the best results, but if you take that time you will not be disappointed. It features very healthy ingredients such as puy lentils and couscous, tomatoes and arugula so what’s not to like? In the meantime; I do need some buttkicking done, please…

Mediterranean couscous and lentil salad

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Serves:	4
Prep time:	10 minutes
Cook time:	30 minutes
Total time:	40 minutes
Dietary:	Vegetarian
Meal type:	Lunch, Salad
Misc:	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Region:	Worldwide
Website:	Epicurious

Ingredients

• 1 cup puy lentils
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup Couscous
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove (large, minced and mashed into a paste with 1/4 tsp salt)
• 1/2 cup fresh mint (finely chopped)
• 1 bunch arugula (rocket) (stems discarded and leaves washed well, spun dry and chopped)
• 2 cups vine ripened cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1/4lb feta (crumbled)

Directions

In a small saucepan simmer lentils in water to cover by 2 inches until tender but not falling apart, 15 to 20 minutes, and drain well. Transfer hot lentils to a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Cool lentils completely, stirring occasionally. In a saucepan bring water to a boil and add couscous and salt. Remove pan from heat and let couscous stand, covered, 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon oil and cool completely, stirring occasionally. In a small bowl whisk together garlic paste, remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar, remaining 3 tablespoons oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir lentils and dressing into couscous. Chill salad, covered, at least 3 hours and up to 24. Just before serving, stir in remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

Related Posts:

• Orzo with feta, tomatoes and dill
• Couscous salad with roquefort and corn
• Quinoa, feta and walnut salad
• Goatcheese salad with walnuts and pear
• Greek salad

Pretty bundt cake

I made this pretty moist and delicious bundt cake this afternoon. It came out of the oven around 4.30 pm, then had to cool and by the time I wanted to take a photo there was no light left whatsoever. That meant having to wait either until the next day or find an alternative solution. I still had this one daylight lamp that I took out of the studio at some point, used once, didn’t like it and tossed it in a corner to get dusty. Enough with the lazy and comfortable daylight! Time to get cracking on some serious stuff..

I’ve received many a question from people desperate to find out how to work with lighting in the night or for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, in the wintertime when light fades after 3 pm. I’ve written something about it before which you find here but thought I could do a little more research myself so why not share? As I said; I never use this lamp as it’s just not the same but in case of emergency, you would have to do with what you got right? So for today I dusted of my daylight lamp, took it into our kitchen and started moving it around.

Position of the lamp

As you can see I positioned the light to come from the right and back and from above a little bit. The lamp has 5 separate bulbs I can turn off individually, so I turned three of and left two burning as it was far too bright, causing burnout and heavy shadows. With a little less light it started to look a little better. I had only one light, so you can see that there is quite a bit of shadow in front of the cake. In order to fill that up a bit I used a silver reflector (you can also use foamboard, aluminiumfoil or something similar) to bounce a bit of light back to the front of the cake. In the two photos below you can see the difference with or without the reflector.

With or without reflector

You can tell that there is a big difference here. You can still tell that these are shot with artificial light but the result is acceptable and you can actually use this. Now what is most important I find when working with lights is the direction of the light. That is also true for daylight but that can be a bit more forgiving. I’ve taken two shots where I changed the position of the lamp and see what happens.

Ok first of all; what I like, might be something else from what you like, so it’s in the end all personal preference but to me the photo on the right is boring and lacks something. I turned the light more towards the table coming more from straight above almost (not quite) which made the light a bit flatter and shadows less pronounced.

I will be doing more tests with other lights that anyone would have in their home. Just to see what the issues are and how to possible solve those (or not). These lights are the easy ones since they are daylight balanced and need limited tweaking when it comes to color. In general for shooting at night, it is extremely helpful to use raw instead of jpeg. It gives you more control over the white balance so you can correct it later where needed. For now I will leave you with this delicious bundt cake!

Apple pear and nut bundt cake

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Serves:	8-12
Prep time:	15 minutes
Cook time:	1 hour
Total time:	1 hour, 15 minutes
Allergy:	Egg, Peanuts, Tree Nuts
Meal type:	Dessert
Misc:	Pre-preparable
Region:	Worldwide
Website:	Epicurious

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup light brown sugar (packed)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, softened)
• 3 eggs (large ones)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pears (peeled, cored and cut into small pieces)
• 2 apple, Golden Delicious (peeled, cored and cut into small pieces)
• 1 cup Mixed nuts (coarsely chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a small bowl put the cranberries with a bit of warm water and let them soak for at least an hour. Drain, discarding the water and set aside. Position rack in the middle of an oven and preheat the oven to 180 C. Lightly butter the bundt tin, then dust with flour, knocking out the excess.

In a large mixing bow or bowl of electric mixer, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Add brown and granulated sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla. Using electric mixer, beat on high speed, scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed, until batter is pale and smooth, about 3 minutes for handheld mixer and 2 minutes for standmixer. Stir in apples, pears, nuts and cranberries. Spoon into prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake until a wooden pick or skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake. About 1 hour. Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert and unmold onto rack and cool completely. Cake can be made up to three days in advance and stored at room temperature wrapped tightly in plastic wrapp

Related Posts:

• Apple nuts bundt cake
• Arretje nof – the simplest chocolate cake
• Slow cooking pears in red wine sauce
• Apple and caramel dumplings, I think
• How not to style your pannacotta

My version...

Let’s just do another easy one, I thought to myself when going through one of Donna Hay’s cookbooks. It should be a simple recipe but enough of a challenge in getting it right. Well… if only I had thought about that a little better.. I failed, I failed miserably in recreating the original that you will see below. It seemed fairly straightforward but the trick in this particular image is not so much the recipe as that is real simple, but the angle of the photo.. You’ll see what I mean soon! In the meantime we are already on the 6th version of the Donna Hay Styling and Photography Challenge and I loved all the entries from last month! I would say spread the word..

Photo; Con Poulos

Above you can find the challenge recipe photograph by Con Poulos. it’s from the cookbook Seasons and let’s face it; it doesn’t scare you just by looking at it, does it?  But wait until you analyze this a little further. First of all there is the issue of the size of the props. If you compare the size of the bottle with the size of the bruschetta then it can’t be very big and they appear fairly close together. The tricky part for me however is that the bread in the foreground is big. There is a lot of focus on that plate of food so it is prominently featured in the frame. However I tried to place it and however I changed my lenses I could not – for the life of me – get it right. I’ve tried a wide angle and going in really close but that didn’t give me any blurred background. I tried placing the plate in front and the bottle in the back and using a telelens (which makes objects appear closer together) but then I only got a small piece of the bottle in the frame. I tried so many things I forgot to pay attention to the actual position of the bruschetta but ok…

Plate is too small in the frame here

My plate is probably bigger too or maybe the bread in the original is bigger. It’s shot on a round table and I didn’t have a round table obviously but still I just failed completely in getting it right. I know you are all eagerly awaiting the next challenge so postponing it until I got it right was not an option so you’ll have to do with my failed attempt. Can’t wait to see what you come up with! And please, please let me know how you did it.

Wrong again

I tried it with a smaller plate above (only had a little christmas plate at hand..lol) but again not good! The light in the original is coming from above right and is mildly strong. I had a beautiful clear day and so much light that it was a bit too much but I gave up and just did my own version, which you see as the first picture. Rather different but still with the same elements mostly.

I will try again but also curious what you come up with! Good luck on the challenge! You’re gonna need it (or maybe it is really simple and it is just me..lol)

Feel free to change the recipe to suit your needs and/or allergies/preferences. If you’re vegetarian you can use maybe some slices of eggplant or courgette and if you’re glutenfree, change the bread etc. All options are allowed! The rules are below the recipe.

Bruschetta with mozarella, prosciutto and rocketpesto

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Serves:	4
Prep time:	None
Cook time:	None
Total time:	None
Meal type:	Appetizer, Bread
Region:	Worldwide
From book:	Seasons

Ingredients

• 8 slices bread
• 1 clove garlic (halved)
• extra virgin olive oil (for sprinkling)
• 3-4 pieces bocconcini (in small slices or you can use regular mozarella)
• 8 slices prosciutto
• black pepper (coarsely ground)

Arugulapesto

• 1 handful basil
• 2 handfuls arugula (rocket)
• 1 handful basil
• 40g pine nuts (roasted)
• 20g grated parmesan
• 1/4 garlic clove
• 60ml extra virgin olive oil

Directions

For making the arugula (rocket) pesto put arugula, basil, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic into a foodprocessor and puree roughly. While the motor is running add the olive oil and mix until it is a thick, rough substance. Don't make it too fine. Chunks are ok to have.

Heat a gridlepan and bake both sides of the bread golden brown and crispy. Rub this with half a clove of garlic and sprinkle with some olive oil.

Put some of the slices of mozarella on the toast and liberally cover with the pesto. Top this with a slice of prosciutto and finish with some salt and pepper.

• Once a month (on the 3rd of the month) I will give you a recipe plus the accompanying photo out of the Donna Hay magazine. I will try to make it seasonal but can’t promise anything.
• You have that same month to produce your post. You can post it any day you like just as long as you finish it before the end of that month at the latest.
• You have to  produce that recipe, alterations to the recipe are allowed to make sure any dietary restrictions are met. But only minor changes!
• You have to cook and STYLE the recipe trying to replicate the photo as best as you can. If you think you can do a better job then the original photo, by all means feel free to make your own changes to the styling.
• Shoot the dish and then write a blog post about it. It would be great to add notes on how you took the photo and how you styled the dish,  so that other people can learn too.
• Link back to this months blog post about the challenge and link back to the Donna Hay Challenge page here
• Leave a message on the post that is up here for that month, saying that you completed the challenge and link to the post on your site so others can find it too.
• If you want to use the original photo in your blog post as well as the recipe be sure to link back to the Donna Hay website plus the photographers website. They will both always be mentioned in the monthly challenge posts.

Each month a winner will be picked who will be featured in the Hall of Fame page. If you like you can add a badge to your site saying that you are taking part in this competition. The badge is featured below and should link back to this page.

Above all this challenge is about having fun styling and photographing a dish by taking Donna Hay as our great example. You can join all months or whenever you feel like joining in. Using an example of the great photographers that Donna works with, I always find that it is a good learning experience to see how did they light the scene, where does the light come from and how did they manage to make it look so beautiful. Try and analyze all of that and then come up with your own version.

While taking food photos is all about finding your own style and certainly not copying anyone else, it does help to analyze how your hero’s do their job. It’s about learning to light and style a scene properly. In no way am I trying to suggest you copy another person style. Find your own unique style! This challenge is just a tool to help you along the way..

Related Posts:

• Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4
• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1
• Apple and caramel dumplings, I think
• Gnocchi with garden peas
• Trapani rigatoni and limoncello trifle

Meeta's interpretation of this lovely soup

I’ve been really blown away by the results of this months challenge. We had a lot more participants this time then in december, which was no surprise, but still it makes me happy to see that you’re all having fun with the challenges! I’ve just prepared the next one today so stay tuned for more fun! Now on to this month; I’ve decided to change the ‘picking of the winner’ a little bit. What I will do, and you can see all entries below, is that I will let you choose which one you like best. Click the like under the image of your choice and the ones with the most likes will have won. It’s not really about winning so I figured that this is a better option then letting me pick my favorite.

Ofcourse if I had to choose; Meeta’s image above is definitely one of my favorites as it’s warm tones go really well with the (delicious!) soup. If you’re looking for the recipe of the soup go here.

Now you’ll have an extra week to vote for your favorite. After one week the voting will be stopped and the winner will be showing up in the same list… So vote for your favorites now!

Related Posts:

• Creamy cauliflower soup – DHSPC #5
• Donna Hay challenge # 2; the results!
• Donna Hay challenge #1 the results!
• Bruschetta with arugulapesto – DHSPC #6
• DHSPC #4 december results

Onion quiche with cheese

Very slowly but surely there is some white fluff coming out of the sky. It’s not a lot but it’s cold enough for the white stuff to remain. The day has been grey and very overcast. Certainly not ideal for taking photos so that’s a bit of a nuisance really… Yes, ladies and gentlemen by the look of things, it appears we ARE finally getting something resembling a winter. If I’m totally honest I am ready for spring. I mean, I love winter, I really do, but then I like winter to appear when it is supposed to. For me that is around Christmas. And not at the beginning of February when all I can think of is spring! But if nature has proven anything lately then it is the fact that it cannot be controlled. So winter it is then. At least it is good for getting rid of some of the mosquito-eggs (I hope).

We have this thing here in Holland called De Elf Stedentocht. It’s a skating race across eleven cities (cities = steden) for a distance of around 200 km. It’s held on natural ice only, so that means that we have to wait for the weather gods to be with us, in order for the ice to be thick enough to hold masses of people at the same time. The last time it was held was in 1997! So you can see that it is rare for the ice to be of good enough quality. Every year, usually around this time, we do have some frost and as always there is this buzz going around for people that maybe this year we will be having the tour… Willem-Alexander, our crown prince even participated last time so you see, it’s a big deal here..

Ten yrs old.. getting skating lessons..

I’ve never been really good in skating… I found this picture of me at the age of 10 trying to do some skating..:) I’m the clumsy one on the left holding my friends hand and that’s my little brother behind her keeping an eye on things… I used to fall on my face quite a bit and I guess I never really learned it properly. See those skates by the way? Those are called Friese doorlopers and  you can tie them under your regular shoes. This particular water (slootje) we are skating on was behind my parents house, as we were overlooking farmland.

Onion quiche

Now when it’s cold and dark outside, you want something warm and comforting, right? This particular quiche is perfect for that. it’s incredibly easy as it uses ready made croissant dough. The onions are slowly cooked in some dark beer giving it a hint of sweetness. We loved it! I used port salut in the recipe as I know Tom hates stronger cheeses (he hates all cheese but as long as it’s melted on something and not too strong he’s ok with eating it) but I would recommend using something with a bit more flavor. Blue cheese combined with regular cheese would be fantastic too. Recipe from Delicious Magazine

Onion-cheese quiche

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Serves:	4
Prep time:	30 minutes
Cook time:	35 minutes
Total time:	1 hours, 5 minutes
Meal type:	Lunch
Misc:	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot
Region:	Worldwide
From magazine:	Delicious magazine

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 750g onions (in half rings)
• 100ml dark beer
• 1 can croissant dough (Here you can buy these in tins which have enough dough for 6 croissants. not sure how that would be in other countries)
• 100g ham
• 4 eggs
• 150ml double cream
• 3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley (plus a little extra for garnish if you want)
• 200g abbey cheese (for instance port salut or any other good cheese you want, rind removed)

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the onion rings and bake for about 8-10 minutes until they are nice and soft. Don't let them get too brown though! Pour the beer in and keep cooking until there is no moisture left in the pan. Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Roll the dough out and line a 10 x 30 cm tin with it or a round tin with a diameter of 24 cm. Make sure there are no holes in the dough. Line the bottom with the ham. Whisk the eggs, mix with cream, parsley and add pepper and salt to taste. Add the onions into the tin. Pour the egg-cream mixture over it and put the cheese on top in slices. Bake the quiche in the oven for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown and cooked. Sprinkle with a little extra parsley.

Note

While the recipe states that the qty's are for a tin of the size I have you I found there were far too many onions, so I actually made two out of the qty given. One of 10 x 30 cm and one round one. Which is fine but just thought I mention it!

Related Posts:

• Spicy cake with persimmon
• Greek salad
• Nectarine frangipane flan with verjuice glaze
• Lamb’s lettuce salad with feta and tomatoes
• Tarly salad with orange hazelnut dressing – living leaner