Courgette pancake, Brie, warm cherry tomatoes

Put the oven at 180C. Get the Brie out of the fridge.

Grate a courgette (zuchini) and some Parmesan cheese

For 4 pancakes you'll need:
2 cups of grated zucchini, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan, 3/4 cup of flour
Mix well. Add pepper and salt and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg.

Put the cherry tomatoes in the oven for 10-15 mins

Melt butter in a frying pan. Use 3 tbsp of the courgette-mix for 1 pancake
Cook 2 mins per side

Serve as shown, with some chives

Baby beetroot, puff pastry

The greengrocer had these lovely baby beetroots, smaller than a golfball and I could not resist them.

They were pre-cooked so all I had to do was heat them up. To do that I warmed a bit of butter and a splash of olive oil and added a teaspoon of caster sugar, a splash of apple vinegar, salt and pepper. Halved the beets and warmed them up slowly. Stirring from time to time.

I had put the oven on 185C and used a saucer to cut 2 rounds out of frozen puff pastry, which I put between to buttered sheets of baking paper. The top layer weighted down with coins, to avoid the dough rising.
This way I baked them for 10 minutes, then removed the coins and top layer of paper and baked for another 8 mins till nice and brown.

In the meantime I made a vinaigrette from a teaspoon of Dyon mustard, a tsp apple vinegar and 5 tbsp olive oil. I cut a shallot finely and did the same with parsley.

In the end I put the hot halved babies on the pastry discs and spooned the vinaigrette and the beet juices over it. (inspired by Veg!, Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall)

NB Next time I might use flatbread dough instead of the puff pastry...

Marinated courgette, mozzarella

Cut the ends of 2 courgettes, then cut them lengthwise in 2 mm thick slices.

Put the courgettes in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of oil and use a pastry brush to get them all lightly coated.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a fairly high heat. Working in batches, sear the courgette slices for about 2 minutes on each side until tender and golden. Transfer them to a shallow dish.

Take the frying pan off the heat and let it cool down a bit. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil, finely sliced garlic and the zest of a lemon. Heat very gently for a few minutes – the residual heat in the pan may be enough – you just want to take the raw edge off the garlic and infuse the flavours into the oil.

Pour the infused oil over the courgettes. Add some salt and pepper, a little squeeze of lemon juice and torn  mint or basil leaves . Toss together, cover and leave for 1 hour at room temperature

Serve with the torn mozzarella scattered over it

(From Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Veg!)

Chicken fajita for posh people

The best way to eat fajita is with your hands but if you crave decorum and want to use fork and knife, here you go. From top to bottom:

Basil Leaves

Creme fraiche

Red fajita sauce from a jar

Red onions

Avocado

Basil leaves

Grilled paprika

Grilled chicken

Herring, beetroot salad

In a sense this could be a Thai recipe, combining salt (herring) with sweet (mayo, beetroot) and sour (gurkins, vinegar, capers, Granny Smith)). 

Basic ingredients are equal parts of boiled potatoes and beetroot, in 5x5 mm dices. The dressing is made from mayonaise and horse radish, but I added a little apple vinegar. 

A quarter Granny Smith, finely diced, slices of a shallot, spoonful of capers and finely cut gurkin or cornichons. Spoonfull of dill. 

Mix and taste, leave in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. Taste again, now you can always add more of one of the ingredients. Or if sour is not your favourite use a sweet apple and leave out the vinegar.

Mine was served with samphire. I like the raw, salted herring on top, but others mix the herring with the salad.

Cod, salsa verde and a very special mash

Start with the salsa verde: a handfull of parsley, basil and in my case wasabi rucula with a clove of garlic, salt (to take away the bitterness), pepper and olive oil. Use a blender. Then add finely diced gurkins and capers. Done.

Fry a finely sliced shallot and garlic clove in some butter till soft (to be used in the mash)

Put the oven on 200C. Boil some potatoes. 5 minutes before they are done start with the cod fillets. Use a plastic bag with some flour to cover them lightly. Fry them in butter, 3 minutes on one side, 3 minutes on the other. Stick the pan in the oven.

In the meantime mash the potatoes. While they are still hot stir in the shallot and clove and some watercress (or, as I did, wasabi rucula if you can find it). Then small, halved cherry tomatoes (3 pp) and a spoonful of sour cream.

Now the fish is cooked, so serve as shown.
A great recipe from Koken VTM, the Belgian tv channel.

Brill, mash, veggie vinaigrette

Start with the oven. Preheat on 160C. Peel a potato per person.

Then come the vegetables. Per 2 persons: 1 carrot, 1/2 courgette, 1 stick of celery, 1 shallot and a clove of garlic. Cut them all as fine as possible. Sweat the shallot and garlic in 1 dl olive oil. Then add the rest and fry for 5 mins. Then add a laurel leaf, some sprigs of thyme and rosemary, a table spoon of capers, the juice of 1/4 lemon and a bit of water. Keep on a low heat for 15 mins.
Boil the potatoes.

In the meantime fry the brill (a small one per person) in butter, light skin down. For 2 minutes. Then turn the fish and put the pan in the oven for 12 minutes. (Cooking fish is so simple)

Melt butter in milk then add the coiled potatoes to make the mash (it should be almost liquid)
Finish the vegetable vinaigrette with some parsley and tarragon

A recipe from www.een.be 

Gravlax, samphire, oranges

I was watching the kitchen TV, without the sound, when a chef on 24Kitchen made this. Today I tried to re-create it from memory. I started with the sauce by boiling a glass of the juice of a blood-orange and some chickenstock, then reducing it till syrupy. In the meantime I rinsed and boiled the samphire for 3 minutes. Whilst the sauce and veggies cooled down I used a sharp knife to get out the fleshy parts of an orange. Put two slices of salmon (from Lidl, great quality) on plates and served as shown. Don't forget to put some sea salt on the oranges. Bon appetite!

Brill, spring veggies, gratin dauphinois

Brill is a ...brilliant fish, like turbot but cheaper. And I got a great tip from the Belgian site een.be to prepare it. 

Pre heat the oven at 160C. Fry the fish, white side down, for 2 minutes in a spoonful of butter. Then turn the fish in the pan and move straight into the oven. For 12 mins. 

That's all folks.

Pumpkin, cod, mushroom

Start with the pumpkin. Peel, remove seeds and cut into 1 cm cubes. I used 750gr. Sweat in some olive oil. Add salt and pepper, 2 spoonfuls of tandoori paste, half a spoon of curry powder and the grated zest of a lemon and stir. Add 250 cl chicken stock and softly boil 8 to 10 mins till  cooked. Drain the liquid (but keep it).  Use a blender to create a thick sauce (if necessary add some of the stock).

Season the fish (I used the Norwegian nephew of cod, called skrei) and very lightly cover with oil, then fry in a dry pan, skin side down, till nicely browned.

In the meantime cut 4 mushrooms into small pieces. Mix 1 tablespoon mayonaise, with some milk, sushi vinegar and some wasabi. Cover the mushrooms with in.

Turn the fish till cooked.

Put 1 heaped tbsp of sauce on each plate (and freeze the rest), Then the fish (skin side up), followed by the mushroom and some rucola (or other green leafs) for color.