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!

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

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..

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.