Passion for Potions

Ever since I was a little girl I knew I was special. Unlike normal little girls, I have never really been interested in playing with barbiedolls or little ponies, nor did I ever like any boardgames.
My main activity when I was young was brewing magic potions, which off course consisted of all natural ingredients, like dirt from the garden, flowers from the neighbors garden, spiders and rainworms (preferably still living.)  Although I put my heart and soul into every potion, they never really seemed to do much magic.. (a disappointment I am actually still recovering from.)

Although my invitation to Hogwarts seems to have been misplaced by the mailman, my passion for potions continued all through highschool. It's a shame my friends are still laughing about the time I bought a kombucha fungus online and started my own superhealthy fungusdrink-factory...

One day, when I got older and wiser and began exploring other parts of the world, I ran into some fellow potionbrewers when I traveled through western Java (Indonesia.) The Sundanese people, who live in the higher land of West Java, are known to brew a traditional drink called Bandrek.
It's hot and spicy and does not only warm your whole body, but it also cures a sore throat and should even work as an aphrodisiac. That sounds like a magic potion to me! I had to try it, not only because of its qualities, but also because the main ingredients were some of my alltime favourite spices like ginger and cinnamon!

Bandrek totally lived up to my expectations, as liquid fire it burned through my body and warmed me up with its delicious spices, just as promised.
Today, a few years later I still remember the taste of Bandrek and decided to recreate it. After all I àm a trained potion brewer!

After some research and a hunt for ingrediënts I am proud to say I made a perfect Bandrek! And because winter is coming and I don't want you to get cold, I will share my recipe with you. So here it comes:

Ingredients  (for 1 liter of Bandrek)

• 1 liter water
• 6 cinnamon sticks
• 10 star anise
• 20 whole cloves
• 10 all spice berries
• 14 cardamom pods
• 2 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and pounded to release the fragrance
• 12 cm Ginger, chopped into pieces to release the juices
• 1 small red chili
• 4 tablespoons of palm sugar
• 6 pandan leaves (pounded to release the fragrance)
• 6 lemon leaves
• half can of unsweetened coconutmilk

Most of the ingredients were pretty easy to find at the local market. Finding the pandan leaves was the biggest challenge, but I found them at a Thai store. I promise you 'vanilla of the East,' as pandan leaves are often called, are certainly worth the search, as the flavour doesn't compare to any other spice. 

The preparation of the drink is easy. Just mix all the ingredients, except the palm sugar and coconutmilk, in a cooking pan and let it cook for about 20 minutes, untill you smell all of the spices releasing their delicious flavours.

After 20 minutes, add the palm sugar and coconutmilk, stir it through and cook for another 5 minutes.
Done! It's that easy! just put it through a sieve and serve it hot.

Because as a true potionmaster a like a little dramatic effect, I chose to serve my Bandrek in a skullshaped glass.

If life gives you lemons.. make limoncello!

Because I really don't know why anyone would choose to make lemonade if you can just as easily make limoncello! So because life has certainly been giving me some lemons lately,.. Lets put on Fools Gardens 'Lemon tree', sing along as loud as you can and start peeling those lemons! :)

You'll only need the yellow outer layer of the lemons (the white underneath is bitter and the rest of the lemon obviously tastes sour.) So first of all, make sure you use organic lemons because you dont want to make limoncello out of pesticides and yellow paint. ;)

Ingrediënts (to make 2,5 liters of Limoncello)
6 lemons
1 liter alcohol (95%)
900 grams of sugar
1 liter water

So peel the lemons as thin as you can and add the alcohol. (As you can see I made twice as much Limoncello, but if you do something you'll have to do it right ;)
Now you'll have to be patient. Leave it in a jar for a week, in which the alcohol has taken on a beautiful yellow colour.








After a week of waiting, boil the water with the sugar and add the lemon-alcohol mix. Put it through a sieve, bottle it and again.. wait.. and let it rest for 2 weeks. And then Finally you can drink it! :)






Or you can use your limoncello to make a Scroppino with a twist! Because summer finally decided to show its face! So add some home made limoncello to the classic mix of wodka, lemon sorbet ice-cream and prosecco and Enjoy summer!

Undercover Carrotcake

New Zealand is probably one of the most beautiful countries of the world. It has such breathtakingly beautiful nature that it's certainly a must-go for every traveler. So don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of New Zealand, but if there is one thing you don't have to go look for on the other side of the world, it would probably be the cuisine! The menu of every cafe or restaurant pretty much consists of the same tasty but also very unhealthy and not very creative dishes, like nachos, patato wedges, fish and chips etc.
Nonetheless the Kiwi's have one specialty, delicious enough for me to want to fly all the way around the world to be able to taste it again.. New Zealand Carrotcake!!
The exact recipe of the best cake ever was hard to find, because every café apparently has it's own secret recipe, so I decided to go undercover and find out.. 

And ever since the first time I made my carrotcake at home, my friends and family have been asking me to make it at every birthday, party or any other excuse they could think of.

 Because I figured it would be selfish to keep this great (secret) recipe from the rest of the word, the time has come to share it with you all. So here it comes:

 Ingrediënts: 

• 2 cups of raw sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup Oil (sunflower)
• 2 cups wholewheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup pineapple (from a can)
• 1 cup grated coconut
• 3 cups grated carrot
• 2 Teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon Allspice (also known as Piment)
• 2 cups sultanas
• 1 cup wallnuts (crushed)
• few drops of vanilla extract 

Creamcheese Icing

• 1 Cup creamcheese
• 2 cups icing sugar
• zest of two lemons

• pumpkin seeds (decoration)
• dried apricots (decoration)
• crushed wallnuts (decoration)

I know there are a lot of ingrediënts, but I promiss it's worth collecting them and from now on it becomes really easy:
Mix all of these ingredients together (except for the Icing ingredients of course) and stir until its blended.
Cover baking dish with baking paper and fill it with the mixture.
Bake the cake for an hour in 180 degrees.

When the cake is cooled down, mix the icing ingrediënts, ice the cake and decorate with pumpkin seeds, apricot and wallnuts for a New Zealand Look!

Bon appetit!

ps: This recipe is also perfectly usable for delicious carrot cupcakes!

The Paris-New Zealand Diet

The last year, I've spent some time abroad; for two months I 'studied french' in Paris, and later I went to New Zealand for 3 months to work and travel around. Eventhough both places were so different, from what I'm used to at home and especially from eachother, they both inspired me to change my eating habits..

Paris
In Paris, the city I love so much, everything seems to be so cultured. I love the haute couture fashion, the language of love, all the stylish people, the countless museums with beautiful art and of course.. La Cuisine! The french kitchen is classic and so refined. The city is full of the best restaurants in the world and on every corner you can find a petit Pattiserie with delicacies which are actually to beautiful to eat, but even more delicious.

While I was In Paris I found out what the secret is of French women, who manage to keep a perfect figure in the middle of so many irresistable temptations..  Only eat whats worth eating! Only eat the most beautiful perfectly combined meals, prepared with love, because that tastes so much better then 10 times as much ugly manufactured, loveless, gross things. Off course this way of eating has a pricetag, but it's all about priorities. Like all french people I just chose to rather eat one piece of culinairy art and starve the rest of the day, than eating a lot of anything else, because it's just worth it!

New Zealand
On the other side of the world (literally) I went back to basic. The family I stayed at only ate organic and preferably home-grown foods. They were vegetarians, with the exception of animals they hunted themselves, because that would be a waste of good meat. As used-to-junkfood citygirls we called adapting to our new New Zealand lifestyle 'bootcamp,' and spent our time in the garden, nurturing our patatoes, cabbage and lettuce and eating it for dinner.

I have to admit that I did feel pretty healthy with my natural food, free of preservatives, chemicals and of course grown with love.

The revolutionairy Diet
So now the time has come to combine the best of both worlds into my revolutionairy Paris-New Zealand Diet! Because I know these rules will make me look like a Victoria's secret angel in no time!

1. Only eat, whats worth eating
2. Don't wast the joy of eating on food, which is processed in some factory, where instead of love, they put chemicals and preservatives in it.
3. Pay attention to eating my carefully selected food, because 'the chosen ones' deserve to be eaten with as much love as with wich they were prepared.

My devotion to this revolutionairy diet has allready resulted in me making myself this delicious and very healthy Salad for lunch:

Ingredients: 
Rocket salad
Little Gem salad
Cucumber
Chicory
Grapefruit
Smoked Salmon
Dressing











Bon appetit!

God is a Chocoholic

As I was roaming the streets of Antwerp yesterday, just innocently shopping (and looking for the giant cathedral, which seemed to have dissappeared..) I suddenly got drawn into the former royal palace of Antwerp. Not because it is such a beautiful building, or because Napoleon once lived there, but because Chocolatier Dominique Persoone opened a shop there and I was just not strong enough to resist the temptation of the the delicious chocolates inside.

Once I stepped inside I had to face the challenge of keeping my wallet closed. Rather would I have bought a huge chocolate dog sculpture, chocolate lipstick, chocolate massage oil, chocolate books and even the chocolatebar-shaped counter. (Because that would look pretty cool in the kitchen of my future home) But I didn't and I'm pretty proud of that! :)








Apart from all the eatible chocolate, they also sold the chocolate shooter, once invented for a birthdayparty of the rolling stones but later presented as the socalled solution to the problem of every chocoholic.. Calories! With the shooter you can sniff chocolate to get the  taste of chocolate without eating it! It sounds fantastic, but I allready tried it once though.. Its funny and it does kinda work, but it definitely doesnt compare to eating it!

Off course I couldn't leave the shop without buying something so I had to try the really intriguing assortment of chocolates. My budget allowed me to choose 8 different flavours. And I allready regret not stretching my budget to buy more, because as crazy as these chocolates might sound, they were all DELICIOUS!

My top 5 chocolates: (within the flavours I tried off course)

5.Italian Javanais (White chocolate ganache with fresh basil, a chutney of sundried tomatoes, marzipan with black olives)
I have to admit I had my doubts about this one, but somehow it really worked
4.Espelette (bitter ganache, marzipan, slightly smoked chili pepper)
Because I like things spicy, even my chocolates
3. Carasel (Caramel ganache with fleur the sel)
Its just a classic combination of deliciousness
2. Bollywood (White chocolate ganache flavoured with saffron and a mild curry) sounds weird, but I like curry and appearantly I like it even more when its in a chocolate
....
1. BACON!
I know... but I promiss it's just the best combination ever!


So if you ever go to Antwerp, go to the chocolate line and try them all! Because I know that if anyone will ever ask me what my favourite chocolote flavour is, the answer will be: Bacon!