Mum Dijk's Ontbijt Koek /  Mum's Dutch Honey Breakfast Loaf

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 Cups self raising flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons golden syrup or Appel Stroop (Apple Syrup)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon each of nutmeg, ground cloves and ginger powder
• 2 teaspoons Dutch cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon mixed peel (or tablespoon of good marmalade) and milk (OR 1 dessertspoon orange peel and 1 cup orange juice)

Method

• Mix all ingredients  together and pour into a large loaf pan, greased and lined with baking paper. 
• Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 35-50 minutes in a regular oven. 
• Less time for fan forced. 
• Check for browning and insert fork or similar and when it comes out clean it's ready.

Enjoy with a good smear of real butter or plain with your morning coffee or anytime of the day really.

Pictures are of a half eaten Koek but shows the texture and colour! 

It was very yummy and went fast.  

For a larger recipe use two smaller loaf pan and increase to these measurements:

• 3 eggs
• 3 cups SR Flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4.5 tablespoons honey
• 1.5 tsps spices
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 1.5 cups liquids

Easy to make.

Enjoy!

 Mum Dijk's Dutch Croquettes

These are traditionally served on New Year's Eve, but now they are eaten really any time. They do take a little bit of work but are delicious as a snack served on a serviette with a dollop of French Mustard or also served with a salad as a meal.  Enjoy!

You will need:

• 1 pkt of Continental Dutch Curry and Rice Soup (Still  available at Woollies or IGA in Australia)
• 600 mls cold water
• 500 grams mince steak or veal
• 60 grams butter (of mararine)
• 5 tablespoons plain flour
• Handful of fresh parsley chopped

The coating:

• Large packet breadcrumbs
• Several egg whites 

For frying: 1-2 packets Supa-Fry solid white oil (This oil gives the best results)

To Serve: French Mustard prepared or Seedy Dijon

How to do it:

1. Place minced meat, water and packet soup in a saucepan and simmer for 1/2 hour, stirring often to keep mixture from sticking to bottom of pan. 
2. After 1/2 hour, add butter to mixture and simmer for a further 1/2 hour
3. Add parsley and mix through
4. Sprinkle flour over mixture and immediately stir flour through and continue cooking the mixture for about 5 minutes until a smooth paste is attained.
5. Spread mixture in large baking or lamington tin. Spray with oil and line with baking paper if you want first.
6. Allow to cool until set and cold.

Putting it all together:

1. Take a knife and score the set mixture into rectangular portions.
2. Prepare 2-3 egg whites with a drop of oil and 1 tablespoon of iced water and beat till lightly frothy
3. Place breadcrumbs in shallow bowl
4. Roll meat mix between your hands into you short, sausage like shapes
5. Roll each one in breadcrumbs, then egg whites, then breadcrumbs again.

To Fry:

1. Melt solid oil in a deep saucepan til very hot. 
2. Add several croquettes and deep fry them until golden brown. If oil is too hot it will burn the crumbs, if not hot enough, they tend to fall apart. Good idea to try a piece of bread first, or a croquette to see how quickly or not it browns. 
3. Serve immediately or put in hot oven until all croquettes are ready to serve.

Please note:

      Croquettes can be frozen after bread crumbing them. I find they are better unfrozen, but          you could freeze some and see.

Enjoy your Dutch Croquettes!

Croquettes - My mother's recipe

I'm not sure if anybody in this day and age still reads blogs. Not with easy access to smart phones, tablets and  constantly keeping up with social media. Blogs appear to be pretty much a thing of the past...well at least, I no longer read them.

Anyway, having said all that, I was talking (online, where else?) to my youngest daughter and she said that she accesses some of these recipes here, because they were part of her childhood. Now a mum of 2 gorgeous girls herself, she asked me to post some other favourites of hers. Chicken Satay Skewers, Chocolate Self Sauching Pudding and the Dutch Croquette recipe that my mum used to make at NYE and I did too when everyone was still at home.

Here goes...(hope I still remember how to do this... So  used to touch screens and swiping left etc that I'm now unfamiliar with my laptop, that I used to know inside out...and forget about links and html!! 😊)

Go to Recipe button for the recipes 
Easy Dutch Beef Croquettes

Link to Recipe - Croquettes

German Apple Cake recipe

You will need:

• 125 g butter (real butter NOT margarine)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup caster or regular white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 3 medium to large Granny Smith Apples
• 1/2 tsp good cinnamon powder
• 60 g sultanas or similar dried fruit
• some extra sugar for top.

This is what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 170C
2. Melt butter
3. Add egg, sugar and flour to the butter
4. Combine mixture to a stiff dough with knife (or wooden spoon)
5. Divide into 2 and set aside
6. Peel, quarter and remove core from apples
7. Slice apple into thin slices
8. Spray cake pan with oil and line with paper
9. Take 1/2 of mixture and press down into cake pan
10. Layer some apple slices on top of this layer, then add sultanas and cinnamon, continuing on with apples
11. Take other 1/2 of mix and crumble lightly between your hands and sprinkle over the apple layers.
12. Sprinkle sugar over the crumble 
13. Bake @ 170C for about 45 minutes, depending on fan forced 
14. Remove when cooked and lightly browned on top
15. Turn out of tin when cool
16. Enjoy hot with whipped cream, custard or icecream for dessert 
17. Enjoy cold with a cuppa.

German Apple Cake

Every so now and then I'm required to bring a cake to a get-together of friends or family.
The occasional cook that I am always wants to do something pretty simple.
I have two standby cake recipes which I acquired...you guessed it, from friends. Both are simple, but I'll share one of them with you today - German Apple Cake.
As I mentioned, I like SIMPLE. You can use two kinds of apple, either fresh or canned.
Today I chose to use fresh apple, mainly because I actually had some nice, green Granny Smiths in the crisper. (For the very rare person who doesn't know...it's not a granny I've stowed away in the fridge, but the name of the lovely green skinned, crisp cooking apple.) So all that's a little more fiddly about using fresh apples, is that you have to peel and slice them. If that's going to put you off making this yummy, but EASY cake, just open up a tin of pie apples instead.

To  see the recipe please click the Recipe Tab above or here

The finished product...nomnomnom

'One cup' Fruit medley cake

This has to be THE easiest cake to make. Haven't made this in years, but I used to bake it regularly when the kids were still at home, or when I needed to ' bring a plate' to a get together.
This cake is yummy, delicious and good for you.
So 'ave a go' as we say in Oz... :-)

'One cup' easy peasy fruit medley cake

You will need:
1 cup each of the following:

1. Fruit Medley
2. Shredded or desiccated coconut
3. Milk, Soy milk or any other 'milk' or even water will do
4. Soft brown sugar
5. Self Raising Flour.

I left my cake in the oven a little too long! :-)

This is what you do:

• Heat oven to moderate
• Grease and/or line loaf tin with baking paper (opt)
• Mix all dry ingredients together
• Add liquid (this is quite a runny mix)
• Pour batter into loaf tin
• Bake for approximately 45 minutes.
• Insert knitting needle, fork or skewer to see if cake is cooked.
• Let cake cool, then cut and spread with butter if desired.

This cake is also yummy hot with custard, cream or icecream.

Variation: Add any kind of raw nuts to the mixture and/or decorate top of cake with nuts before placing in oven. If you don't have fruit medley, you can use any other dried fruits. 

Enjoy!

Cooking or the lack of same...

You can find my latest recipe contribution by clicking on the Recipe tab above...

As you can see my cooking has become more infrequent than ever. This is not a good thing. Life should be full of good food and yet as I've ( or we - hubby and I) have grown older, we seem to worry less and less about putting in the effort to cook meals regularly. Hubby seems to enjoy the cheese and pineapple wraps he 'cooks' in the sandwich press just about every lunch time. I have late breakfasts because I go to the pool after my school bus run, or 'work out' (a VERY grandiose name for going to the local park and using the new exercise equipment) 2 or 3 days per week on the way home. So I have Organic oats at about 10.30 and don't feel hungry till about 3 pm, which naturally throws the whole hunger/feeding thingy out of whack and then I tend to have a hot drink with several crackers and cheese or sweet biscuits, which in turn throws out my dinner time hunger.

So soups are always a really good option for a quick evening meal. They are satisfying palate wise, fill your tummy up without feeling bloated which is not a good thing before retiring to bed and they are also

Yummy spinach and potato soup.

so simple to make. So when I was browsing through the new batch of gossip mags the neighbour deposits at my front door at least once a week, saw this great spinach soup recipe and knew I had all the simple ingredients available, I jumped to and voila! a beautifully flavoured soup ready in under an hour. Yum Yum!

I was happy that I'd actually got to and created something new to eat and hubby was delighted his wife had actually cooked him a meal for a change. 

I'll certainly be making this one again very soon.

It'a a real winter warmer.

Enjoy.

Remember to click on the Recipe tab under the cover photo to see the recipe...

Creamy spinach & potato soup

Creamy Spinach and Potato Soup

You need:
olive oil - 1 tbsp
rindless bacon - 2 rashers, chopped
onion - 1 chopped
garlic - 1 -2 cloves crushed
potatoes - 3 peeled, chopped
English spinach - 2 bunches trimmed, chopped (or 1 x 250gr pkt frozen spinach)
chicken stock - 6 cups (or 6 cups water with 2 Massell chicken or vege cubes)
ground nutmeg - 1/4 tsp, plus extra to sprinkle over top
cream - 1/4 cup

You do:

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil on high
2. Cook bacon 2-3 min until crip. Remove from pan and set aside
3. In same pan, sauté onion and garlic 2-3 mins until tender
4. Add potatoes and cook, stirring, 2 mins
5. Mix in spinach and pour stock over
6. Add nutmeg and season to taste
7. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer partially covered for 20-30 mins until potatoes are tender
8. Using a stick blender or food processor, puree soup until smooth
9. Reheat gently
10. Serve with a swirl of cream, sprinkling of bacon and nutmeg
11. Serve with any kind of bread.

Serves 4 Prep time 15 mins Cook time 35 mins

Egg plant and ricotta 'lasagna'

I made this recipe last night from my new cook book: Tiffiny Hall's Lighten Up Cookbook.

This is really yummy and quite easy to do.

The half that was left before I took a pic ;-))

Serves 4 

This is what you need:
3 medium eggplants (750gr) cut lengthways into 1.5 cm slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups (or 375gr tub) ricotta
1/4 fresh grated parmesan cheese
3 eggs lightly beaten
1/4 cup torn basil leaves
3/4 cup tomato pasta sauce

This is what you do:

1. Brush eggplant slices with olive oil and season.
2. Place under grill 12mins each side until soft
3. Put into 20cm x 20cm oven proof dish
4. Beat eggs lightly, stir to combine with basil, ricotta and parmesan
5. Layer eggplant, pasta sauce and ricotta mix alternately, finishing with ricotta mix.
6. I sprinkled a little more parmesan over the top.

Bake at 180C for 30 mins.

Enjoy

NYE Dutch Apple Fritters (Appel Beignets)

Mum's Dutch Apple Fritters (Appel Beignets) with icing sugar

This is what you will need:

• Granny Smith apples 2kg  or as many as you want... each apple makes about 5-6 fritters (or any green, tart, apples) 
• Crepe batter - ratio - 1 cup plain flour, 1 egg, 1 -1 and1/2 cup water (or milk and water if preferred), pinch salt. The consistency should by fairly thin, but should still coat the apple slices well (Make double quantity if you want to use about 10 apples)
• Supafry solid white oil for deep frying - 2 pkts  (I have found this oil gives the best results)
• Sifted icing sugar (soft powdered sugar/confectioner's sugar)

You will also need:

• Apple corer (available in any supermarket/hardware/kitchen shop for a couple of $s)
• Bowl with cold water and juice 1/2 lemon
• Saucepan for frying or deep fryer
• Absorbent kitchen paper
• Knife
• Potato peeler

This is what you do: 

1. For batter - Sift plain flour into wide jug or bowl and add egg(s) and water or water/milk and whisk well together until mixture is well blended and of a runny consistency to coat the apple slices. (see ratio in ingredient section)
2. Core, peel and slice apples and place in bowl with water and lemon so they don't go brown before you are ready to use them
3. Dry apples in a clean tea towel or cloth and add about 5-8 slices to the batter
4. Heat the oil till very hot...test with a little batter to see how fast it browns. Adjust heat so that the batter doesn't burn..you want the apple to be cooked through
5. When oil is right temperature, add the coated apple slices one by one to the oil...depending on size of pan, about 4-5 at a time. Turn them over half way through browning
6. Lift out with a fork or tongs, drain in basket and/or place on absorbent kitchen paper towel
7. Repeat until batter/apples are used up.

To serve:

Sift some icing sugar into a bowl and dip fritters into sugar or sprinkle some over each serving to taste. The sugar adds to the flavour as the apples are quite tart (sour).

ENJOY your Dutch Apple Fritters!

ENJOY your New Year's Eve celebration - I wish you a very happy 2013.

My family's NYE traditions

NYE 2011-2012 Sydney Fireworks

Even though I'm Dutch born, I don't bother much with traditional Dutch food, however...I do like to carry on one family tradition, which is to serve Dutch Croquettes (kroketten) and Apple Fritters (Appel Beignets) on NYE.

My mum would spend most of NYE day in the kitchen, complete with apron and a towel turban around her head ("to keep the oily smell out of my hair " she said) when deep frying the croquettes and fritters. She never made the croquettes and fritters herself in her home country, because in the mid 20th Century many well to do families had live in help. The 'help' would spend days making tubs of fritters and croquettes for our large family and business and household staff.

Here in Brisbane, QLD though, where it's steaming hot at the turn of the year, mum would be perspiring over a very hot stove and feel quite hot and bothered by the time she was finished. After a cool shower she would appear changed and fresh as a daisy, ready to face the evening surrounded by her family and an influx of friends.

Anyway...rave on Tricia...better get those recipes typed up but please be WARNED! This recipe is not for you if you are on a diet, are super health conscious, gluten free, sugar free, fat free etc. This is a 'once a year' recipe which you share with friends and family. It's not a meal, although you can serve the croquettes as a meal with a nice fresh salad and I have done so in the past, but mainly it's a delicious savoury snack to serve in a serviette with a dollop of French mustard and a glass of bubbly of some kind.  I'm not a drinker as such, so a non-alcoholic or soft drink will do quite fine.

Ok, here goes and enjoy these 2 traditional recipes from my mother's recipe book.

Please click here > Recipe tab  or on the recipe tab above ^^ to find the recipe if you can't see it on this page..

Grain free 'bread' /pancakes

I'm not only an infrequent cook but I'm also an infrequent blogger! :-)
Anyway, here I am ready to roll again.

My health care giver suggested that grains are not the best for me and handed me a recipe for grain-free bread. For the life of me I cannot get that recipe to work for me. His bread is almost like wheat bread but mine turns out like a house brick.
I recently saw an ad for a charity in which an African woman just poured a great amount of batter into a pan over an open fire, then closed the lid on it and hey presto she had a massive flat bread in no time.
So...I got to thinking about how I could simplify my 'bread issues' and so I made up my own recipe with grain free flours.
This recipe doesn't quite have the texture of flat bread and are more like burritos/pancakes, but if you make it on a hot plate in the Weber Q range, it dries out more and the texture is more like pitta bread. You could also try putting a lid on your frypan, but the temperature will need to be very high, which is not always possible on a regular electric stove top. Gas cook top could be better.

I hope you'll try these as the flavour and texture are very good.

Enjoy...
(Recipe here or Click on the Recipe tab above)

Grain-free flat bread or basic pancakes

Recipe #3
(This quantity makes about 8 made in a small 8" non-stick fry pan)

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup besan (chick pea) flour
• 1/2 cup potato flour
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1 cup +/- cold water  ( or 1/2 water 1/2 milk)
• pinch salt (optional)

Method:

• Mix flours together well
• Add egg and water (water/milk)
• Beat together well until no lumps left in mixture.
• Mixture needs to be quite runny depending on the thickness of pancakes you want to make.
• Heat small non-stick frypan on HIGH heat, till pan is HOT.
• Pour thin layer of mixture into pan, swirling the mixture to the edge of pan
• Cook on one side till light brown, then turn to cook other side

For crisper 'bread' cook on high heat with lid on or in a Weber Q series HIGH setting with lid down till 'bread' crisps.

I just use this for my self, making them up freshly each time I need some. I keep the mixture in a small spill proof lidded bowl in the fridge.

Uses:

Can be used as regular bread - 

For breakfast top with bacon and eggs. Spread one with marmalade. 

For lunch spread with avocado, mayo, add salad and chicken, ham etc. Roll up.

Also can be used as a dessert pancake with sugar and lemon; maple syrup and ice cream/cream etc.

I hope you'll try these as the flavour and texture is good.

Enjoy...

Afternoon tea...

Where we live, the sun goes down early.
Well it seems that way because we live in a spot where our (side) yard rises up to the north, the road rises at the front of our house to the east, and behind the house towards the west, there are massive trees in other people's yards that block the sun by about 3.30 pm. In summer this isn't a problem but now that it's winter, once the sun disappears, the temperature drops quickly and it's time to close the house up a bit and have a nice hot cuppa.
My daughter teaches school nearby, so she pops in regularly. Today I didn't have anything to eat to go with the hot cuppa, so had the 'brilliant' idea to make pikelets or pancakes. Now you might think there is no difference between pikelets and pancakes but yes, there is. She chose the pancakes. These are the one's my mum used to make and they are Dutch pancakes...not like the thick small pikelets but very thin, like crepes. They are easy to whip up on the spur of the moment but just be prepared to continue making them while others eagerly devour them.
You'll be eating the last ones...
Enjoy.

Recipe below or click on tab above.

Mum's Dutch pancakes (crepes)

Recipe #2

You will need:
1 cup plain flour
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
good pinch salt
Some cooking oil

In a wide jug or small bowl place all ingredients and mix.
Beat with whisk or wooden spoon till bubbles rise.
Make sure mixture is quite thin and runny and if necessary add more water.

Pour oil into frypan and heat on high heat until it starts to smoke a little bit, then pour excess oil off into a cup. Repeat. (This helps to 'cure' the pan before adding the batter.) Do this once between each crepe.
Pour batter into centre of very hot frypan, swirling the batter to distribute it thinly over the entire surface.
Cook, sliding the pan across heat until one side is cooked.
Toss pancake or use egg slide to flip and cook other side.
When cooked slide onto plate.
Sprinkle with sugar and fresh lemon juice while pancake is hot.
Roll pancake up, using a fork.
Serve.

Repeat until all batter is used and everyone is happy.
You can have the last ones... :-)

Note: This quantity makes about 7-8 crepes. Just double or triple the recipe for however  many you need.
Other toppings: Golden syrup, Strawberry jam, Maple syrup.

Yummy Anzac biscuits

Well, here comes my first recipe.
A few nights ago I was wanting something sweet, but not too sweet.  Something yummy, but healthy. So here is the dead easy recipe for the good old Aussie biscuit (cookie) the ANZAC . This recipe was given to me by a friend many years ago.

Recipe # 1.

YUMMY ANZAC BISCUITS

You will need:
1/2 - 3/4 cup plain flour
1 cup soft brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
Mix together in bow
Then melt together in microwave or on cooktop:
125gr butter (4ozs)
1 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbps boiling water
To this add:
    1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarb)
Pour wet mix into dry and mix together with wooden spoon.
Place teaspoons of mix on greased and paper lined baking sheets - about 10cm apart to allow them to spread.
Bake in 180C oven for about 10 minutes.
Keep an eye on them as they brown quickly.
Cool on rack till they go hard and crunchy.
Enjoy!

Notes:

1.  You can use raw or white sugar but it makes the biscuits too sweet. Brown sugar gives them a more caramelly taste.
2. Add the 1/2 cup of flour first and if still quite wet, add the other 1/4 cup. 

Why this blog?

Well for a start, I love blogging. Just love putting 'pen to paper'...yeah you know what I mean. Love to type away and share my thoughts and it really doesn't matter to me if anyone will read them. Nope not at all. However, if you do choose to read on, I hope you enjoy my  scattered thoughts, crazy ideas and have a bit of fun reading my light hearted ramblings about being an infrequent cook.
Back to the subject...
...I really am not mad on cooking. Cooking of any kind does not really excite me, yet we need to eat to continue living. Hence the 'Occasional Cook', well, that's what I wanted to call this blog, but no luck. That title was already taken, by someone who is most likely in the same boat as I am...not a lover of cooking, but who has enough interest, like me, to get into the kitchen from time to time and turn out something quite reasonable. So I settled for 'An infrequent cook'...which is actually what I am. These days my hubby cooks most of our meals. After over 30 years of cooking for my now 'long left home' family, I gave up 12 years ago when I went back to work full time and hubby became the house husband and stay-at-home dad for our then 10 year old.
My cooking is simple, easy and nourishing. Don't expect to find modern, exciting ideas here that go under the heading of 'Modern Cuisine' or come from the Master Chef kitchen. No bits of salad leaves garnished with dots of some fancy sauce, sprinkled with nuts and a crumbed, deep fried prawn on top. No, not at all. From my kitchen will come recipes that my mum used to make, a friend's cake recipe that is just delicious and is easy enough for me to throw together and maybe even some meatless meal ideas from our long ago Noosa days.
So don't get too excited please.
I am ready to put up a recipe or 2 and photos to show how it's done. You really don't need the photos but I also love taking photos of almost anything, so you will get photos with the recipe whether you like it or not :-)). I refrain from giving myself the label 'Photographer' as I don't do fancy pics, but just an average pic to show you how it's done. Most come from my smart phone, others from my Fujifilm Finepix S1600, so nothing too highbrow.
I hope you enjoy my 'infrequent' cooking adventures.
Welcome to my brand new blog.