Het pakket (week #47)

In de groententas van deze week:

• veldsla
• knolselderij
• Elstar appels
• andijvie
• butternut pompoen
• sjalotjes!!!

De sjalotjes van de Aardvlo behoren echt tot mijn persoonlijke favorieten. Gek dat zoiets onbeduidends zo’n topper blijkt te zijn :) Sommige dingen veranderen nooit: “klein maar fijn” was mijn motto vroeger toen ik wat onder de maat bleef ;) De appels smaken trouwens ook naar vroeger — hoewel ik moet uitkijken met zulke uitspraken want voor ik het weet komt mijn broer weer met een smaaktest ;)

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Gringo Bento (#86)

I didn’t have time before to update you on this week’s bento #86: Gringo Bento. Called that way because of the Mexican foodies :) Although the American Heritage Dictionary classifies gringo as ‘offensive slang’, it has a positive ring for me because it sounds like the name of my gorgeous tomcat Ringo :)

Don’t you love the (organic) blue maize tortilla chips?! This must be a very healthy bento because I even exceeded the five colour rule ;) How many tints do you count?

The tier on the left contains corn cob, a slice of zucchini, parsley, homemade salsa picante (recipe below), a piece of carrot and something I call an avocado gringo, because it’s neither a quesadilla nor a burrito since it hasn’t been baked or grilled afterwards like the first, nor wrapped liked the latter. It consists of four layers of multigrain wheat tortilla with guacamole, salsa, lettuce and cheese in between.

As you can see I brought some red grapefruit in another side container. The bento box tier on the right contains pepitas (popped pumpkin seeds), sour cream for the bean dish, dried strawberries as a sweet, a mix of corn salad and plain lettuce and frijoles (kidney beans) with red bell pepper, corn, onion and zucchini.

It was yummy :)

CSA (and organic): lettuce, corn salad, corn, parsley, carrot.
Organic: wheat tortilla’s, tortilla corn chips, onion.

Salsa picante

Making salsa picante is really easy!

Needed:

• 4 tomatoes without skin & hearts, roughly cut (look at Gnoe’s tip!)
• 1/2 onion, peeled and roughly cut
• 1 red pepper, de-seeded (or sambal, chili sauce or tabasco to taste)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon of oregano
• 4 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
• salt & pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a food processor and shred until smooth — or almost smooth. Et voilá!

If you don’t have a blender just cut the ingredients with a knife. This recipe is so flexible! You can use leftover tomatoes that have gotten overripe, or you could replace them by canned tomatoes, pureed etc. Instead of ketchup you can also take some tomato paste and add a bit of sugar or honey for sweetness. There’s almost no excuse not to make this salsa!

Last but not least, here’s Gnoe’s tip to undress tomatoes ;) The easiest way to peel tomatoes is to immerse them in boiling water for 1 minute after cross-cutting the skin. Drain, and immerse in cold water for about 5 seconds (or hold under the cold tab). The skin comes right off!

Recipe courtesy of Eethuis Iris

Spooky veggie! (week 43)

Is it a mole rat? Is it a monster? Or… just a beet root? Well, it scared me for a minute when I looked in this week’s bag of vegetables!

Other fruit & vegetables:

• Topas apples
• white cabbage
• green batavia lettuce
• a big bunch of parsley (krulpeterselie)
• leek

There should have been another pumpkin but there wasn’t :( Maybe next week! Erm… that’s the day after tomorrow ;)

Herfst Hike Bento (#81)

Yesterday I went on a hike on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug (‘Utrecht Hill Ridge‘). If I want to participate in the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge I’ve got to get outdoors! I walked for 9.41 km and (in this case) I am also counting my cycling to the train station, so I’m 7 miles down for the challenge – 93 more to go!

For lunch, I brought bento #81, called Herfst Hike Bento because I like alliteration and ‘herfst’ is the Dutch word for autumn.

Top tier

• Crackers
• Crispy fried seaweed snack
• Mini matcha muffin with azuki filling
• 2 yoghurt coated apricots
• Fudge candy
• Corn cob
• Watercress leaves
• Cove-ripened goat’s cheese star
• Fairtrade African pepper spices (hiding under cheese) for corn
• Lemon infused extra vierge olive oil for corn cob

Lower tier

• Falafel (chickpea patty)
• Chili-tomato sauce for falafel
• Mini carrot
• Yellow Cabbage quiche (a.k.a. pie of slobber cabbage ;)
• Garden peas with Fairtrade Basil Herb mix
• Sundried tomato spread with another goat’s cheese star

I thought I had some edamame left but when I got the bag out of the freezer it appeared to be garden peas. No matter, I like them too ;)

CSA (& organic): corn, carrot, yellow cabbage
Organic: watercress, falafel, tomato spread

My hike took me through different types of landscape: estates, sands and moorland, but mostly forest. Which is preferable for autumn ;) Especially when you can enjoy the great weather I got! I should confess I took a wrong turn somewhere, but I got back on track quite easily ;)

Along the way I also released a bookcrossing copy of Almayer’s Folly for my 2nd round of the 2009 History Challenge at Stoop Pavilion (de Koepel van Stoop): a folly itself.

You can find the pictures I took on my hike in a special set on Flickr.