Pho

Hi there,

Today it was my turn to make lunch for the farm family and I Idecided to make one of my absolute favorite dishes discovered while travelling through South East Asia. Especially Vietnam, this national dish called Pho, pronounce as Va. It's basically a noodle soup, with a protein added,like chicken, beef our tofu. And it  is absolutely amazing because it's so simple yet so full of flavor. There are a lot of recipes for this dish and everybody in Vietnam makes the broth different, with a secret ingredient only the family knows and they will never tell. So I made my own version.
what do you need? For 4 persons
3 chicken breast
1,5 dl of soy sauce
1 dl of oyster sauce
1 dl of cooking sake
Juice of half a lemon
3 spring onions
2 garlic toes
3 table spoons of honey
500 grams of rice noodles
1 big paksoi
500 grams of silverbeet
2 chili peppers
1 bunch of coriander
Vegetable oil.

Get a big pan on the stove, chop the garlic and the spring onions very small. Put some vegetable oil in the pan not to much only a little layer to cover the bottom of the pan. Add the garlic and onions. Stir a couple of times, till everything starts to sweat. Now we add add all the liquids, so the sake, soy and oyster sauce. Get the chicken breast and put these in the pan. Cover the chicken with the sauce. Let this rest for a couple of minutes. So that the chicken can brown and soak up the flavors in the pan. Now add the lemon juice and the table spoons of honey. Give it a stir. Add 1,5 liter of boiling water to the pan. Let the chicken poach. This takes about 20 minutes so time to cut all the veggies. Clean the paksoi and silverbeet. Cut the ends of the silverBeet and chop everything in pieces. Do the same with the Paksoi. And the coriander, chili, cut the lemon in slices. Put these three items on a plate. Check the chicken, if the flesh is not white, let it poach some more. Taste the broth, and add what you think is necessary I  added a little bit of pepper. There is some foam on the soup that's ok we will drain it when the chicken is ready. So check that. After 20 minutes the chicken should be ready and perfectly moist. Get the chicken out of the pan and slice in generous pieces. Cover the chicken so it doesn't get dry. Time to drain the soup. If all goes well all the foam and garlic and oniond will stay in the sieve. And you have a clear broth. Add the vegetables and rice noodles. The rice noodles will take around 5  minutes to get soft. If they are soft, get some bowls and put the pho in. Take the plate with the coriander, lemon and chili to the table, do the same with the chicken. This way everybody can add whatever they like. And you have you're delicious home made pho. Everyone will love.

Enjoy!

Love,
the kitchenprincess

Dedication, dedication

Hi there,
After a busy, busy week at the farm it is time for a nice relaxing weekend with of course a good snack to go with it. But that's the thing here... the groceries are done once a week and you can add your preferences, but your never quite sure if they will make it. So basically it is always a surprise what you're gonna get. And then you have to share these goodies with 8 other people. Luckily there are no fights...yet. And then there's only one tiny tiny kitchen to cook in. So yeah sometimes it's quite challenging, but that's what they say. "A good cook can cook anywhere"  So I'm trying. :-)
For today my French toast with homemade yoghurt cherry ice cream. For 2-3 persons
what do you need?
5 pieces of white bread
2 eggs
4 table spoons milk
1 table spoon of sugar
Maple syrup

For the ice cream
20 cherries fresh or from a pot
150 ml of full fat Greek yoghurt
Juice of half a lemon

To make the ice cream, I used potted cherries cause that's what there was. Put these in a bowl and add 50 ml of the cherries juice in the bowl. Add the yoghurt and the lemon juice, mix these all together. The color should be really pink. If not, add a little more cherry juice. Cover the bowl and put this in the freezer. I made this the night before. But you can also make this the same morning leave it in the freezer for 2 hours and you have a nice semi fredo. (Sort of frozen). Before you make the toast, get the ice cream out of the freezer, so that it can get soft.
On to the French toast. Cut the pieces of bread diagonal in half. Put the eggs, milk and sugar in a bowl give it a good whisk, put a stir fry on medium high heat add a good piece of butter in the pan. Wait until the butter is melted and getting just a little brown. Get the piece of bread and slip it through the mixture. Make sure every piece of bread is covered and get it in the pan. Bake till both side are golden brown. Repeat till all the pieces are baked. Get a big spoon and make scoops of the ice cream and put these on the plate. Add the french toast and drizzle a little bit of maple syrup over it. And you're good to go.
Enjoy,

Love,
the kitchenprincess

Sunday's treat

Today is sunday which means at the farm that you have a day of. Time to sleep in, do laundry and for me it means time to bake. And this takes a while cause we're with 10 people in one house and you're not just gonna bake for yourself! So the recipe I have for you today is for 16 cookies but if you've got a big family or friends coming over just multiply by 2. Like I did.
What do you need?
115 grams of soft butter
3 table spoons of smooth peanut butter
150 grams of brown sugar
50 grams of white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
50 grams of macadamia nuts
50 grams of white chocolat
50 grams of chocolate m&m's
A little pinch of salt
125 grams of flour
A mixer
A griddle
Grease proof paper
A kitchen scale
A tea spoon of secret ingredient

As a start pre heat the oven at 175 degrees.
Put all the ingredients together in a bowl except for the nuts, the chocolate and m&m's and the flour. Get the mixer and mix everything together till it's smooth. Now add the flower and mix this together as well. Now add the secret ingredient to the mix. For me it's a teaspoon of all spice for a little extra kick. The mixture is ready. Time for  you to divide the mixture into 2 batches. Get another bowl and put one batch in. Now get a board and chop the macademians into small pieces and mix them into one of the mixtures. Get the griddle and put the grease proof paper on the griddle. Divide these into 8 or 6, with 6 you'll get bigger cookies, and put them in the griddle. I always to this with my hands. Make them a little bit flatter by gently pushing on them. Make sure that the griddle is big enough, for they will get bigger because of the heat. Let these bake for 13 minutes. For the second batch we're using the m&m's. Get another grease proof paper and put it on the bench. Divide the mixture into 6 or 8 pieces give them a little push and then gently push in the m&m's. When the first one is ready, get them out which the grease proof paper. Make sure not to touch the griddle. And put the other one which the paper in the griddle. The cookies are soft now. They will get a little bit harder. I like them chewy so that's why I put them in for 13 minutes. If you like them more crunchy put them in for 15-16 minutes. We still have the chocolate. Melt the chocolate. I always do this au bain Marie. When the chocolate is melted, get a spoon and drizzle the white chocolate over the cookies. You can all kinds of figures. Let this rest again. When it's time get out the second batch and let these cool off. Give it 10 minutes and it's time to eat your delicious homemade cookies and maybe share :-) !

Love,

The kitchenprincess

Perks of the job

Hi there,

As you all know we found ourselves a job here. It's not what you would've guessed if you know us but actually we really like it. We work at a organic, biological,dynamic veggie farm. That has all sort of vegetables. We learn how to weed, plant, grow and pack them. There's more everyday after work (you work from 8 till 5 with one hour lunch break), you go to the gardens and pick whatever you like. So everything is superfresh and literary handpicked. How cool is that?  Every night I try to make something nice with these amazing vegetables. Yesterday it was spicy broccoli soup.
What do you need?
2 broccoli's
1/2  onion
1/2 red pepper
1 toe of garlic
3 big stripes of bacon
2 tablespoons of cream
1 bunch of parsley
1/2 bunch of coriander
A double of dried herbs that you like. I used fennel, nutmeg and oregano.
pepper & salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil.
1,5 liter of water

First get a big pan on the stove, big enough to add water. Chop the onion and garlic in really small pieces. Put the olive oil in the pan. Add the onion and garlic in the pan. Make sure the gas is at medium/high heat.Now chop the broccoli in pieces also the cut the bottom. Mix these in the pan with the onion and garlic. Give it a stir. Let this heat up. Now chop the parsley and coriander,mix this with the rest in the pan. Add all the water (1,5) into to the pan. Also add pepper and salt. I used boiling water so I put the gas down to low/medium heat. Let this warm for 10 minutes keep stirring every now and then. After you did this put all the herbs in as well. Use how much you like and what you like. This way you make your own broth. That's much nicer then the premade ones. Let all the flavors get together in the pan. Let this rest for 10 minutes. Taste the broth, if it needs anything, just add it to the soup.
Now cut the chili into small rings and leave the on the board. Get the bacon and cut these in to strings of 3 centimeter. Put the bacon in a stir fry and let this get brown and crispy. You don't need oil or butter. The bacon itself has enough fat. Turn the gas of the soup to the lowest position and get the mixer. Mix it all the way you like. I like it with pieces of the vegetable still in but, you can also make it smooth. After this stir it again. Taste again, perhaps add some pepper and salt. After your approval the soup is ready. The bacon should be crispy enough by now so turn that of as well. Get 2 bowls. Pour the soup in get the cream and drizzle that over the soup. Put the bacon on top and finish of with the chilli. Ready to go.

Enjoy your delicious fresh meal!

Love ,

The kitchenprincess

Ps. Wanna know more? Follow me at Instagram @j_thekitchenprincess or tell me what you think!:-)

Farm Veggies

Hi there,

We have been in Perth for almost a week now, and yesterday it was time to experience one of the most popular things in this area: Farmers market. Just an half hour ride with the train and you're there. Amazing. I love markets, I don't know what is it, maybe the sight of all this different shapes and colours, I can spend hours there, just looking and tasting. So we did. And we bought some good stuff. Feta straight from the farm, freshly picked basil, delicious. I wanted to make something where all this flavours would come alive even more. And this the result. Yet again very easy. For 2 persons.
what do you need?
400 gram of lentils drained 240 gram
1/2 eggplant
50 gram of almonds
100 gram of feta cheese
1/2 bunch of basil
one orange
extra virgine olive oil
salt and pepper

Start by draining the lentils through a strainer. Put them in a pan add boiling water, a little bit of salt and a little bit of olive oil. Let this be for the next 15 minutes and then stir gently. It takes a while to cook the lentils about 40 minutes, so now there is time to prep everything. Cut the eggplant in thin slices. And peel the orange, make sure you peel as much white of as you can. Then cut the orange in to slices above a bowl, don't throw the juice away. Cut the basil into small pieces, save some leaves as a garnish later. Put a stir fry on the stove, add a table spoon of oil, wait until the pan is hot then add the eggplant with a little bit of salt. Stir the lentils gently again. Get a big plate and put in somewhere handy, next to you. After 5 minutes or so when the eggplant has coloured a bit, flip them over. when the other is coloured as well put them on the big plate. Then get the almonds and roast them in the pan. It is time to drain the lentils. after you drained them put them back in the pan and mix half of the cut basil through the lentils. and add these on top of the eggplants. Get the feta out of the fridge and break these with you're hands over the lentils. The almonds are done when you start smelling them and they browned even more. Time to turn of the stove. Leave the almonds in the pan. Grap the orange and add them to the dish. Carefully pour the orange juice over the dish at well. Do the same with a table spoon of extra virgine olive oil. Make sure it's divided. Now divide the almonds over the plate to. For a last finishing touch put some whole basil leaves on top.
You're ready to go! Enjoy

Love,

The kitchenprincess

PS. if you wanna know more check instagram @j_thekitchenprincess

Philly cheese steak in Australia

So here we are. We just arrived in Perth, Australia and we need some getting used to. It's colder about 18 degrees and so different then Asia. At the moment we're in a hostel and figuring out our next steps. We're looking for a job, got an Australian number and we're getting a bank account. So much to figure out so time for simple food. But nevertheless I still wanted to make something Yammie. So Philly cheese steak it was but then with a little Spanish twist. What do you need? For 2 persons who are hungry:
300 gram of good quality steak
1 tomato
150 grams of cherrytomato
1/5 zukini
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
Cheese, how much, what type? Whatever you prefer
4 whole wheat buns
4 table spoon of good quality extra virgin olive oil

To begin: get the steak out of the fridge we're not gonna do anything with it just getting it to room temperature. Slice the zukini in very thin slices and sprankle olive oil and a little pepper and salt over them. Then put them one by one in stir fry on medium heat. Let the zukinis bake. In the meanwhile slice up the cherry tomatoes in four. Put these in a bowl. Check on the zukinis are they coloring? Flip them over. Get another stir fry on the gas and put a table spoon of olive oil in the pan. Sprankle the steak with pepper and salt only one side. You when the oil is hot enough when it gives of a little damp. Put the thesteaks in the pan. I like mine rare so I flipped the steaks over after one minute. Put if you like more medium then wait a little longer. When you flipped them over put cheese on the steaks. It's time to get the zukinis of of the stove and on a plate. Now this is the moment where you put them in an preheated oven of 180 degrees for 2 to 3 minutes till the cheese is melted. I didn't have an oven so I did it in the pan. (Apparently nobody bakes in hostel such a shame :-)). The cheese didn't melt entirely but that's ok. When you put the steaks, it's time to build you're sandwich. Cut all the buns in half. Remember the tomato? Cut it in four and rub it on side of the buns. Sprinkle some olive oil over the buns as well and some pepper and salt. Put the zukini slices on the same side as the tomato rub and at the cherry tomatoes. Now cut the meat carefully in slices how big you like, and lay them on the bun to. Sprankle the chilli powder over the cheese. And enjoy you're meal!

Love,

The kitchenprincess