Rijstevlaai – Dutch Rice Pudding Flan/Pie

If you’ve ever been to the Netherlands, you’ve most likely stumbled over a shop that sells Dutch flans/pies, vlaai (pronounced “fly”). Vlaai originates from the Limburg province of the Netherlands, but they can be found almost everywhere. The variety of vlaai is a dieter’s nightmare, but I don’t really care for that! My favourite variety is the creamy rice version. These flans/pies are different from others that are traditionally known, the pastry case/shell is made from a lightly yeasted, bread-like dough, not a crisp short pastry.

There’s a warning that comes with this recipe: do not make this with soy milk. If you do, the filling is absolutely vile,

Coconut, Rum & Raisin Ice Cream – Vegan

I can’t believe I’ve been sitting on this recipe for over a month. It needs to be shared!

From around 2000, I’ve always had this thing about coconut ice cream. It was only then, it started becoming readily available within the UK supermarkets. T, a Thai friend of mine, could never understand why I was ranting and raving about it so much. She said that coconut ice cream – blurgh… it’s all over Thailand!

It’s taken me over 10 years to make my own! I grabbed out my vegan scoop ice cream book and modified a recipe accordingly.

Apple Crumble

So, it seems that my sister, J, has started taking a passion into cooking. This doesn’t at all surprise me, considering I come from a family that is passionate about food. On Saturday, she was ranting about making apple crumble with custard on Facebook. I haven’t had apple crumble in yonks. She was going to have it with Ambrosia custard, oh yum. I just couldn’t get it out of my mind, I had to bake something!

I had lemons in the fridge, I was going to make lemon bars again, but then I thought sod it, I have all of the ingredients to make apple

Devonshire Scones

In the summer of 2005, I was on vacation in the West Country in the UK. To be honest, it didn’t really feel like a vacation, because I was living in the UK at the time, but it was a great getaway for a long weekend. There were a few things that I wanted to do during this trip, which was accomplished, including eating real Cornish pasties and having a cream tea.

I did wonder why a “cream tea” was so darn expensive. Only to realize that it contained tea, scones, clotted cream and jam. I remember it was rainy and dull, and the cream tea was welcomed with open arms. The scones are slightly dry, but go so well with a thick layer of clotted cream and strawberry jam. They were SOOOO good. It was funny because I thought that I could feel my arteries clogging up with every mouthful, but the taste, flavor and texture was so worth it!

Perfect Panettone

I was first introduced to panettone in 1999 by an Italian colleague. Panettone is the most wonderful bread ever. The last 2-3 years, I made an effort to buy one to scoff over Christmas. Before you know it, the whole panettone had gone! I mean, what is there not to love? The bread is light, fluffy, lightly sweet, slightly dry and fruity. The weird thing is why do people only enjoy it over the festive season? It is such a wonderful bread, that it should be enjoyed all year around!

Best Ever Lemon Bars

Lemon bars are quite popular in the US, but I’d never heard of them until we moved here. They were requested for an event that I was providing the catering for. The first batch was somewhat of a disaster (… don’t ask), but the second worked well.

Since then, I made another smaller batch over the Christmas season. They are now becoming my favorite go to recipe. The shortbread like base is crisp and buttery, and the custard like topping is zesty, tangy and lemony. They are basically like a transformed version of lemon meringue pie, without the meringue.

Squidgy Chocolate Brownie Cookies – Dairy Free

These cookies are fabulous. They are quick and easy to make, chocolaty, squidgy, soft, rich, dairy-free and absolutely scrummy. Did I mention they are only around 100 calories each? I think they went down a treat at work.

I needed to create a cookie platter (along with 5-6 other platters) for a recent wine tasting event, where I was donating the catering. Since my cookie recipe repertoire isn’t very big, I scoured the internet for something quick and easy. This platter alone consisted of chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, lemon bars and these brownie cookies.

Gevulde Speculaas – Dutch Spiced Biscuit (Cookie) Filled with Almond Paste

These are my favorite Dutch specialties. They bring wonderful warm memories of December and Christmas. I daren’t even think about the sugar, fat or calories in these things. However, they do have a redeeming feature – they contain almonds, although I doubt this counteracts the naughtiness of them. They are definitely worth the splurge once in a while.

I find these the perfect. Why? I love the Dutch spiced biscuits (cookies), speculaas, and I also love almond paste. When you get layers of speculaas wrapped around a thick layer of almond paste, what is there not to love? It’s like heaven for me. I would gladly work out for a longer amount of time just to enjoy these goodies!

Taai-Taai – Dutch Chewy Spiced Honey Cake Dolls

It’s closing in on December 5^th, and it’s this time of year when there are normally gifts and wonderful Dutch goodies in the house. Only this year, there are none. It was J who introduced me to these wonderful culinary delights, and for 10.5 years we had been together, I had never made taai-taai, speculaas or gevulde speculaas. This was because my mother-in-law would furnish us with a food parcel at this time of year.

Taai-taai aren’t exactly cookies, they are closer to gingerbread. They are spiced differently too, similar to that you would find in Dutch spiced biscuits (cookies), speculaas. They are soft, tough, chewy and incredibly moreish, made to be enjoyed with a cup of tea or coffee,

Spiced Pumpkin Custard Pies (Tarts)

I was so excited to have Thanksgiving and Black Friday off this year. It was four days off in a row. That’s the most I have had since I started work at my new place in May. However, I was greeted with some personal issues a couple of days before, which resulted in me thinking long and hard about my future.

I don’t usually celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact, I go out of my way not to celebrate Thanksgiving. Why? I am a non-American, and am thankful everyday for what I have. To demonstrate how I went out of my way not to celebrate it, I had a whole chicken that I wanted to roast, but decided to roast it on Friday instead. I didn’t want to be seen as celebrating Thanksgiving.

Dutch Cheese and Onion Bread (Kaas–Uienbrood)

Bar Walkers cheese & onion crisps (chips), the combination of cheese and onion does not conjure up good food memories for me. All I can remember is cheese and onion pies, pasties or rolls tasted like sick. When I say sick, I mean the taste you get in your mouth after you’ve been sick. What the heck they put in them savory pastries is beyond me, but they were absolutely vile. Because of this, I have avoided combining onions with cheese with anything, that was until we made some flat bread topped with goat cheese and caramelized onions for a catering event – man, that was so very yum (and didn’t taste like sick!)

Moving on from this, I was browsing

Banana and Hazelnut Muffins – Gluten-Free & Vegan

These muffins were intended to be flavored with banana and walnuts… only I didn’t have any walnuts, so made do with the hazelnuts in my pantry. The recipe was created to use up the bananas in my freezer, and to free up some space in preparation for Christmas/New Year.

The results were awesome! These muffins easy to make, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan-friendly, fluffy, banana-ry, nutty and ~165 calories each! Enjoy them in packed lunches,

Curry-Spiced Pumpkin, Chickpea & Spinach Soup

Winter is slowly creeping up on us. The long, cold, dark and wet nights are drawing closer. I think it’s time to make a hearty soup that is wholesome, delicious and vegetarian. This warming soup will be welcomed by anybody and everybody. It’s thick, creamy, lightly spiced and truly scrumptious. It’s best served with crusty bread.

Calling this soup a pumpkin soup is a little cheeky, because I used a winter squash. But I won’t

Pork Chops with Ginger and Spring Onions

It’s funny how we often crave the foods we enjoyed when we were children. This recipe is based on a dish my mother used to make, and still makes. Thinly sliced, boneless, pork chops are marinated in a mixture of Marsala wine, light soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and spring onions.

The combination of soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and spring onions bring out the Chinese-influence on this dish. Although my mother used to use Sherry

Grapefruit Ice Cream – Vegan

Here’s a not-so-familiar ice cream flavor to tantalize your taste buds: grapefruit.  You never see this flavor when made with dairy. I’m assuming the tartness of the grapefruit would split the cream/custard base. Anyhoo, being of vegan and dairy-free variety, we don’t have that problem. The resulting ice cream is refreshing, creamy and bitterly like grapefruit. It’s a wonderful change from the overly sweet grapefruit sorbets that you may find in shops.