Junglefrog Cooking » meal

Onion-cheese quiche

Simone (junglefrog) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:29:34 +0000

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

Print recipe

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!

Korma curry, the ultimate waistline and living leaner

Simone (junglefrog) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:52:03 +0000

80-21-35 or is it 40-21-50? I honestly have no idea what the ideal measurements are supposed to be. What I do now, for a fact, is that my waistline is no where near those ideal measurements!

You’ve heard me complain about them time and time again, and you also heard me say I would be good and I would watch my weight and I would be skinny healthy at some point in the near future….

Well, ahum… it is that time again! O no, I can hear you thinking, not that again!

Delicious chickpea curry with minced meat

I do apologize; as a reader of my blog (or maybe you’re the lucky person who came here for the first time today) you probably think I am never gonna succeed so why give it another try, right? Being a foodie doesn’t really help in the whole scheme of things, as there are so many tasty morsels out there, but then I am also pretty sure that good food is never the problem.

It’s all the bad food I do eat in between. Busy, stressed, no time to cook. The grab-a-pizza-days… We all know those now don’t we? Combine those with a serious lack of exercise and too many of the pizza days and you do have your recipe for disaster. I’ve also watched the series of Obese on Dutch tv (and I know there is apparently an American edition of this too) and while I am nowhere near that heavy, it is still a good reminder of how easily things can slip and go too far. I am sure that one way or the other we all know how that feels, and we have all experienced the pains of trying to lose those terrible extra pounds!

So here I am once again… saying I am going to be snacking less, eating less junkfood and eating more healthy foods. Expect to see healthier food here too as that usually pretty much reflects my eating pattern. See a lot of cakes passing by? That probably means I’ve eaten my fair share of them in the process.

I do have to say – and that’s not an excuse – the fact that I sometimes need to shoot all that delicious sweet stuff is not really helping a lot in my determination to lose weight but I should not be a chicken and get on with it. I’ve told you before I am a firm believer in a change of lifestyle rather then a drastic decrease of calories, so don’t expect me to go all water and bread on you.

But yes ladies and gentleman it is time for weightloss effort number 52 to be on it’s way! And so handy too just before Christmas… On top of that one of my clients just mentioned that they would like me to photograph a whole bunch of recipes and they’re all sweet… Guess who will be doing the baking too? *sigh* This particular recipe I am sharing with you today at least is healthy and lean.. (but I do warn you; there will be loads of unhealthy recipes coming up too.. it’s almost Christmas after all!)

The ultimate waistline

Recipe type: Main

Author: Adapted from BBC Good Food

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 onion , chopped
400g minced meat (half porc, half beef)
340g frozen peas
100 ml cooking cream (can be left out if you want)
handful fresh coriander , chopped
brown rice , to serve (optional)
FOR THE PASTE
1 red chilli , deseeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves , chopped
thumb-sized piece ginger , chopped
tsp turmeric
tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp korma curry paste
FOR THE RAITA
200g fat-free natural yogurt
100g cucumber , roughly grated
salt, pepper

Instructions

Whizz together the ingredients for the paste in a blender or food processor – add a splash of water if you need. Mine was still too little volume for the processor so I used the pestle and mortar. Might be just as quick.,
Cook the onion in a splash olive oil for about 5 mins until softened. Stir in the mince and cook for another 5 mins to brown. Add the paste, cook for 1 min, then pour in 100ml water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins. Add the peas then simmer for a further 5 mins. Stir in the cream at the very end and heat through. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste where needed.
Meanwhile, mix together the raita ingredients and season to taste. When the mince is cooked, season and stir through the fresh coriander. Serve with the raita and brown rice, if you like.

Google Recipe View Microformatting by Easy Recipe

In terms of the “living leaner” challenge (and what a fitting name too!) this recipe stayed well within the limit of the 10 euro. Living leaner is a challenge started by my friend Mona from the blog Wisewords who tries to feed a whole family on ten euro a day! The minced meat was 2,50 and the coriander was a ridiculously high price of 1,39… I just wish coriander would survive in my garden but it doesn’t… But you can see how that saves a lot of money. The only other thing I had to get was the korma curry which I can’t remember the exact price but was 1 euro something and the cucumber (40 cts) The rest of the ingredients were all in the cupboard from leftovers from previous dinners.

Greek salad

Simone (junglefrog) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:00:26 +0000

Delicious greek salad

Every single time we go to Greece the very first meal I order is a Greek salad. There is nothing better then the taste of those gorgeous tomatoes combined with the salty feta and the juicy cucumbers. Yes, even the cucumbers taste better in Greece! And then enjoying that while the only other sounds are the soft clinging together of the boatmasts in the wind.

Greek tiny restaurant by the harbour

It’s been too long really since we last went to Greece. It will always be one of my favorite countries and fairly close too. With the current economic situation not being all too positive I’m not sure what that will do to the touristic site of the country. Will people still go to Greece or will they all decide it is not a good idea? You never know how situations like this will turn out. A lot of people in Greece are depending on tourism to support them. I’m certainly no expert when it comes to economics so I’ll better stick to what I do know and that is food. Obviously; as I have learned since; the food we get served in the majority of the Greek restaurants is really not the best. Touristic stuff, quickly put together. Although that is mostly true about the really busy places you can find really good and fresh food anywhere in Greece if you look a little harder. We’ve had some amazing seafood (I learned to eat fish in Greece after all) gorgeous moussakas and well, the Greek salad of course.

Simple but delicious!

I might not have made it into a traditional Greek salad. I’ve been served raw red onions on top in many cases, but I just don’t like that. I’m not a big fan of raw onions, so I left that out here and just kept to the plan and simple basics that are o so delicious and lightning quick to put together for a healthy lunch!

Greek salad

Print recipe

Serves:	1
Prep time:	10 minutes
Cook time:	None
Total time:	10 minutes
Dietary:	Vegetarian
Meal type:	Appetizer, Lunch, Salad
Region:	Greek

Ingredients

4 tomatoes (Make sure you use really good tomatoes. Watery ones will not do here!)
1/2 Cucumber (Seeds removed and sliced)
100g feta (crumbled)
75g kalamata olives
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

Directions


Not much to describe here as it is basically cutting all the vegetables in biteable sizes, toss them together in a bowl, add the crumbled feta and olives, sprinkle with olive oil and pepper and salt and you're ready to go!

Note

Delicious and fresh and just for a minute - makes you feel in Greece again..

Of chicken feet and tripe

Simone (junglefrog) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:59:56 +0000

We all know dim sum right? Or should I say, we all think we know, dim sum? I thought I knew what dim sum was all about when I accepted to go for lunch in London with Alessio, Jackie, Su-Yin and Charmaine. I had not met the last two girls before, but we would eat and we would eat dim sum, so it had to be good…

I think Jackie picked the place Princess Garden in a side street of Oxford Street, so when Tom and I got of the plane, we went straight into the busy chaos of Oxford street and with some directions from Google maps we found the restaurant on North Audley street without any trouble. Our other four lunch-partners where already there and after saying our hello’s we all sat down at the table. While we arrived Jackie, Su-Yn and Charmaine were already discussing menu options while Charmaine proceeded to order them in fluent Chinese (I think it was Chinese, but then I have no idea and I forgot to ask..)

The first couple of bites we received were normal enough to not scare us. I think they probably felt we could handle those, but then we got this tasty looking dish in front of us and – as with every dish – we asked what it was. Jackie proceeded to tell us, without blinking an eye, that these were chicken feet.

Yes you didn't know but these are chicken feet...!

Chicken feet??? Yes, they are first deep frozen and then cooked and then fried (I might have gotten this all wrong, but I was so mesmerized by the look of these feet that I forgot to pay attention) and then dressed in a delicious sauce, to disguise them to make them look like food. And yes, I did taste a tiny bit. Alessio, brave man, ate the biggest part of one foot and I stole one little joint from him. I mean; I could not walk away without at least trying, right? And to be quite honest; it was not as bad as you might have thought. It was crunchy (cartilage!!) but the taste was ok. Still the idea of eating the very same things we used to play with as kids after cleaning the chicken, sort of got me spooked a little! I actually think that the part I ate must have been the chicken’s toenail… Now you have to admit… that does not sound very good does it?

Curry like pieces of tripe

We then got loads more baskets in front of us and one of those was another first for me; tripe. I tried one piece and while it was not terrible to eat it’s also not going to be on my list of favorites.. lol… The rest of the food was absolutely delicious! I have to confess that I sort of forgot what we ate as it kept coming and every bite was as delicious as the next. It was also great fun to see Alessio and Jackie again and to meet Charmaine and Su-Yin. So thanks ladies and gentleman for giving us a great lunch experience!

Alessio eating his chicken feet

Jackie checking out the food

Charmaine and Su-Yin checking out the food

Orzo with feta, tomatoes and dill

Simone (junglefrog) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:00:56 +0000

Healthy salad with feta, orzo and tomatoes

Now you probably thought I would continue posting recipes for utterly decadent and unhealthy chocolate cakes, right? But no… sorry to disappoint; it’s time to get healthy again!

Talking of which I have a question for all of you… do you have any really good and really really fast recipes that you use for all those days that real cooking is just not an option?

I’ll explain what I mean. Tom and I really would like to get better in eating healthy and eating sensibly and also losing weight. We have are good moments, but what happens is that at certain points in the week we are too busy and those are the moments it all goes wrong and we end up ordering pizza or snacking on other unhealthy things… Weightloss and healthy eating down the drain. That just annoys me enormously and I know we have ourselves to blame ofcourse.

But how do you do it? To give an example of our current week schedule you can probably see the issue.

Delicious and healthy orzo salad

Tuesday I have a reportage in Friesland, about 2 hours drive from home. I will be back from work at around 8 pm if lucky.

Wednesday I have a wedding to photograph till 7.30. Home around 8.30.

Thursday I’m actually going out for dinner with a friend as it’s her birthday but let’s go with this week. When we are both home late and haven’t eaten anything in between we tend to resort to bad habits. So what I really want to try is to get some really easy and really fast recipes with virtually no cooking involved. Case in point; this recipe for orzo for instance.

Quick, delicious and fairly healthy.

So picture yourself, no grocery shopping possible anymore, so you’d have to do with things you have in the fridge, freezer or cupboard. What are your go to recipes for days where you have 10 minutes to whip up something? Sure we have some real easy pasta and rice and stirfry recipes but I need more variety….

Tell me your secrets on how to keep on track!

Orzo with feta, tomatoes and dill

Print recipe

Serves:	2
Prep time:	10 minutes
Cook time:	None
Total time:	10 minutes
Meal type:	Lunch, Salad
Region:	Worldwide
Website:	Epicurious

Delicious quick and fresh recipe which is perfect for a light lunch or dinner.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered depending on size)
1/2 cup dill (chopped)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup orzo
1,5 cup feta

Directions


Toss together oil, tomatoes, dill, zest and 1/2 tablespoon each of salt and pepper in a large serving bowl. Let stand at roomtemperature for at least 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook orzo in a pasta pott of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain orzo, leave to cool a little and then toss with the tomato mixture. Add feta and toss again

Note

Originally featured in Gourmet magazine in july 2008.

Junglefrog Cooking » meal

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