Belgian creamy Endive Bake

With lots of grated Gryêre.

I call this vegetable Chicory. Endive in German is a very different kind. A huge green and yellow head of salad. Often favoured by slugs in the garden.

After coming back from Spa Francorchamps I looked through Pinterest for typical Belgian food.

What comes to mind instantly are Waffles, Fries and Chocolate. And I know beef goulash with dark Belgian beer and Moules Frites.

But that was more or less my knowledge of Belgian food. But now I have more. A list of the best 10 dishes.

Recipe for 2:

3 heads of endive/chicory

6 slices cooked ham

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 cup milk

1/2 cup endive cooking water

100 g Gryêre 

Salt, pepper, nutmeg, vegetable seasoning, Piment d'Espelette

20 g breadcrumbs

1 tbsp olive oil

Cut off the dark end of the endive and toss outer leaves if they are bad. Put them in a pot of boiling salted water and blanche 5 min. Drain and squeeze the water out.

Tip: since they are hot, use a colander and a big spoon to press out the water. Then use tongs to hold them to cut through the middle. 

Preheat the oven 190 C.

Wrap in a slice of ham and set them in a baking dish.

Grate the Gryêre.

Use the pot to melt butter in and stir in flour to cook out. Add milk and cooking water and stir until they are no more lumps. Add 2/3 of the cheese and the spices.

Mix 1/3 of the cheese with the breadcrumbs and add olive oil. Put that on top of the endive.

Bake at 190 C for 35 min.

 

 

Carrot Orange Cake

I need to get rid of some carrots. It always a bad idea to buy them in a 3 kg bag. 

Oranges I bought in Belgium this Tuesday. They are the other item here.

It is a typical cake baked in a loaftin. Good to freeze too. Maybe it saves me time to bake something for Easter. I just looked at my calender and thought, wow Eastern is in one week!

This is a recipe from Leckerschmecker.

Recipe:

1 organic orange zest and juice

300 g grated carrots

200 g flour

100 g ground hazelnuts

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

150 g sugar

150 g butter soft and unsalted

3 eggs

Glaze:

100 g icing sugar

1/2 organic orange juiced

1 package dried orange peel

Sugar stars to decorate

In a big bowl cream butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one after another stirring in between. Add salt.

Mix flour, hazenuts, baking powder together. Zest the orange and squeeze out the juice. Grate the carrots. Get everything together until you have a smooth batter.

Butter a loaftin (25 cm) and flour it. Pour in the batter and bake 55 to 60 min at 180 C.

Let it sit in the loaftin 10 min, then turn it out on a wire rack. Let it cool down completely.

In a small bowl add the package of dried orange zest and the icing sugar and squeeze just enough orange juice in the bowl to create a thick paste. Put it on the cake and some decor.

 

Fried Chicken

A crunchy coating, but very light. 

I think I did a decent job with the chicken. It is a rare occation that I deep fry chicken pieces. For most of my chicken recipes I use my trusty Air fryer.

A bowl of mixed salad with a yogurt dressing and some Basmati rice with added ketchup were served with the chicken.

I bought skinless and boneless chicken thighs. Patted them dry and cut them in strips. I made a seasoning mix and used it on both sides of the pieces (I hate onsided seasoned meat).

A wet batter to get a crispy outside does not take a lot of ingredients. The leftover seasoning went in too, don't waste it.

I fried the chicken pieces in two batches in a wok. Depending on the thickness between 6 to 9 minutes. They rested on kitchen paper on a wire rack.

Chicken seasoning:

450 g chicken thighs bone - skinnless

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Italian herbs

1/2 tsp Tajin seasoning

Salt and pepper

Batter:

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup water

Leftover seasoning

Oil for frying

 

 

Corned Beef Hash Filipino style

This is made after a recipe from Manila Spoon, but in my own way.

It was a long time ago I had a can of corned beef. I struggled with the keything to open it. Took me a second look to turn it around and open the metal box. Getting the meat out was a problem too.

This dish is pretty basic. Not many ingredients and a shorter cooking time. The mis en place up front does not take too much time either.

Recipe for 2:

1 can Corned Beef

1 medium onion

4 garlic cloves

250 ml beef stock

1 tbsp coconut oil

8 cherry tomatoes or 2 medium ones

4 larger potatoes

3 tbsp Light soy sauce 

2 tbsp Fish sauce

Salt and pepper

Parsley and chives

Do all prepwork first. Use a wok or a high pan and heat up the coconut oil.

Add chopped onion and garlic and give it 4 minutes. The quarted tomatoes in next and 3 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Now add beef stock and cubed potatoes. That needs to cook 10 minutes. The corned beef is next. Since it is cooked, it just needs a moment to melt in the dish.

Add soy sauce and Fish sauce for Asian flavour. I sprinkled some dried parsley and chives on top.

Eat it with bread or rice or as it is.

Smashing a Burger on my Plancha

I bought a Plancha together with the stove when I had redone my kitchen. But I rarely use it.

But I wanted to try a Smash Burger at home. And the burgers needed space and a I needed a place to toast the buns, I took the Plancha out of storage. 

I grated a little bit of onion in the ground beef and added seasoning. Slices of a good cheese went on top both patties to melt.

The buns had a mayo spread on to toast and I only used some Sriracha Mayo as a topping together with a couple of cherry tomatoes.

The Plancha is easy to clean afterwards. Just pour a little water on the hot plate and use the tool you use for turning the meat and scrape the burned bits off the Plancha. Then put it in the dishwasher.

Ingredients:

2 burger buns

250 g ground beef

1/2 grated yellow onion

Salt, pepper, paprika

1 tsp oil

1/2 sliced yellow onion

2 slices Edamer cheese

8 cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp mayo

2 tbsp Sriracha mayo

Lunch at Pit Bar Resto Spa Francorchamps

A whole day driving on a Formula 1 racetrack is a lot of fun. But when the engines are quiet during the lunch break, you are getting hungry.

The Rooftop 2/3 stories above the pitboxes has a huge Bistro. It can easily seat more than 100 people. They offer a lunch buffet for €35 including 2 tokens for drinks.

The place filled up very fast. The food was very good and there were different things to choose from.

A couple of large serving bowls of salads, breads and other stuff was presented.

Then the hot food. A large plate of fresh Belgian frits or French Fries were dropped of the moment I came. I could not resist.

I took pieces of chicken in a creamy sauce with many herbs and some pasta. The chicken dish is a Belgian speciality. I will soon try it at home.

Late Breakfast at Devil's Diner

I was on my way to Spa-Francorchamps and decided to stop over at the Green Hell for some morning laps.

Leaving at 6:45 AM on a Sunday means an early start and only some cornflakes for a short brekkie.

Going out on track directly after arriving made me hungry and I went up the stairs to Devil's Diner to look for some food.

The morning crowd mostly goes for their pancakes with maple syrup, but I looked for something savoury. 

There special today was Beans on toast with scrambled egg - no thanks.

I went for the farmer's toast that came with a cup of coffee too.

Ham, cheese double toast and two fried eggs with runny yolks on top. Great choice.