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  • Zucchini spaghetti

    Zucchini spaghetti

    A week and a half ago i met superchef Michael in an ayahuasca workshop. I’m not sure whether it was his fantastic guitar music and drumming and singing, or his wild ginger hairdo, his wonderful little daughter, the zucchini spaghetti he and Ariella served us, or all of the above, but since then i’ve felt a little bit in love – with the whole wide world.

    Of all those beautiful things, there was one that i could recreate at home. Spaghetti made of zucchini, isn’t that brilliant? Now that i’ve encountered it, it seems to be everywhere. But until last week the thought had never occurred to me.

    I make spaghetti from zucchini now using a julienne cutter, which i got for only € 6,95.

    Here you go, my version of the recipe by Michael and Arielle (from Restaurant Golden Temple in Amsterdam):

    Recipe for Zucchini Spaghetti

    Cook some tomato chunks (ca 390 ml) with herbs in a pan and cook slowly until the sauce thickens and tastes a bit more sweet. Roast 100gr of roughly chopped walnut in a dry pan. Chop 8 dried tomatoes with a small handful of pine nuts, a tablespoon of fresh parsley and one tablespoon of fresh basil. Stir in the tomato mixture with the tomato sauce.

    Cut one zucchini into spaghetti strings. Drizzle with some olive oil and lemon zest (grated lemon rind).

    Put the zucchini on a plate, spoon on the tomato sauce and to with walnuts and some pepper and salt and olive oil if you wish.

    Zucchini with walnut (oil) and lemon rind is really a winning combination. Try it!

    For an extra tasty, hearty tomato sauce:

    Fry a small onion in some oil until it’s brown (but not burnt). Add a small clove of garlic, fuinely chopped. fry for an additional 30 secs and then add the tomato chunks.

    In stead of onions, you can also use black semi-dried olives. Make sure to use good ones. The ones we in Holland get in the supermarket, are not good. Go to a specialist and taste a few different varieties. You’ll be amazed by the differences in taste and say goodbye to the salty supermarket crappy ones forever!

  • Automatische backup van je WordPress-site

    Let op: dit bericht is verouderd. Op dit moment raad ik een nieuwe backupplugin aan: BackupWordPress.

    Kun jij je laptop stante pede trashen als je er een gloednieuwe voor terugkrijgt? Of ben je dan te veel waardevolle zaken kwijt die dus (oei!) nergens anders dan op jouw computertje te vinden zijn?

    Wat voor de bestanden en instellingen op je computer geldt, gaat ook op voor je website. Alle gegevens die samen jouw website vormen, staan op de computer van je hosting provider. Als daar wat mee gebeurt, dan wil je niet afhankelijk zijn van je host of alles weer teruggezet kan worden zoals het was.

    Als ik een website voor klanten maak, is dit een standaardonderdeel van de installatie: de WordPress-plugin “WP-db-Backup” backupt de inhoud van je website. Al je berichten, pagina’s, widgets en reacties 1 x per uur, dag of week veilig in je inbox of gedownload naar je computer. Die je dan dus wel weer… backupt. Ja.

    Er is een premium plugin die je volledige WordPress-website veiligstelt: BackupBuddy. Op jouw verzoek gebruiken we die.

  • Basics of juicing: avocado-apple-kiwi juice

    Basics of juicing: avocado-apple-kiwi juice

    My best kitchen purchase ever: a juicer. A bought it a year ago and have been using it about every two days. Superhealthy and really, really delicious. Friends love it, too.

    Here are some good-to-knows, tips and tricks:

    How does a juicer work:
    This is how the juicer works: vegetables and fruits are grated into pulp. The pulp is being centrifuged and thus pushed outward against the walls with very fine holes. Only the juice and finest pulp goes through. The result: superfresh, naturally cloudy juice. Best is to choose a machine that fits whole apples in the shaft.

    The above is for high-speed juicers. If you want to retain even more nutrients in your juice, choose a mechanically driven slow juicer.

    What do you need for juicing?
    For fruit juices, use apples or pears as a basis. Jason Vale (Philips’ marketing puppet juice chef): apple-sandwich. Start with an apple, stuff in anything else you lie in your juice and then end with an apple again. It works for me! I always have apples, pears, kiwifruits, carrots, lemons, ginger, mint, beetroot and leafy greens lying around so i always have my favorite juice ingredients at hand.

    Don’t peel your veggies!
    Apples, pears, carrots, beets, cucumbers, zucchinis, and even lemons and pineapples (well, be a bit careful with those): don’t peel! That would be a waste of vitamins ánd time! They can all go inside the juicer without peeling.

    Juicing oranges
    Oranges and clementines do need to be peeled (but not lemons and limes), because the rind holds bitter oils which will spoil your juice.

    Juicing bananas
    Veggies and fruits with a lot of starch, are not suitable for the juicer. The filter would get clogged with pulp. Ideally, use a blender or hand mixer to blend banana, avocado, papaya, mango, prunes etc into the juice.

    Superfast juicing process
    I’ll let mr. Vale do the talking:

    Recipe for Apple-kiwifruit-avocado juice:
    Juice 3-4 apples and 1-2 kiwis. Blend the juice with one half avocado. The avocado creates a deliciously light, luffy, creamy texture. It’s like ice cream, everybody loves it!

    (Update, 4+ years later: I still love juicers, nothing beats the taste of fresh juice! But I found with all those juices, I was drinking a LOT of sugar and missing most of the fibres. And although I often used the pulp to make something different, it felt like a pity to leave so much of the fruit and veg unused. Long story short… I’m back to smoothies, using the blender. Simply add water or any kind of juice to chunks of whole fruits and vegs in the blender and you can basically drink your daily dose.)

  • Grilled zucchini with mozzarella

    Grilled zucchini with mozzarella

    Wonderful and healthy quick side dish. A great one if you own a contact grill.

    Cut the zucchini in slices and sprinkle with some salt. Let the juices come out while you cut the onion in rings and cut the mozzarella.

    Grill the zucchini and onions in the grill pan. Put on a plate, add the mozzarella and make it all beautiful and tasty using olive oil, pepper, salt and and herbs such as basil, oregano and/or rosemary.

    Enjoy!