la douce France

boterkoek - buttercake(GF - SF)

Before I physically go on holiday I promised to put this recipe on the blog.
My 15 year old loves boterkoek/buttercake and whenever my mother comes over she brings one especially for him. I never tried to make a gluten-free version, till now.
So, together with my son we made this lovely boterkoek and, although it's a bit crumbly, the taste is heavenly and the texture is airy and brittle.

Buttercake (GF – SF)
Special mold 18cm Ø

75 g brown sugar or 75 g brown rice syrup
70 g room temperature butter
2 egg yolks
pinch of salt
vanilla seed from 1 vanilla pod
140 g fine rice flour

Pre-heat the oven on 175˚ C.
Prepare your baking mold.
With a handmixer mix the butter, sugar/rice syrup, eggyolks, salt and vanilla well.
Stir in the rice flour and knead quickly with a cool hand.
Scoop the dough in the mold and make it smooth with your hand.
Bake the buttercake in 30 minutes. Let it cool completely before removing from the mold.

Boterkoek (GF - SF)
bron: Glutenvrij bakken, Rinie ten Have-Wolterinck
Speciale boterkoekvorm 18cmØ

75 g lichtbruine basterdsuiker of 75 g rijststroop
70 g zachte roomboter
2 eidooiers
snufje zout
vanillezaad uit 1 peul
140 g fijne rijstmeel

Verwarm de oven voor op 175˚ C.
Vet de vorm in en/of bekleed met bakpapier.
Mix met een handmixer de boter, basterdsuiker of rijststroop, eidooiers, zout en vanille goed door elkaar. Roer het rijstmeel erdoor en kneed snel met koele hand.
Schep het deeg in de vorm en druk gelijkmatig uit met je hand.
Bak de boterkoek 30 minuten en laat helemaal afkoelen voor je hem uit de vorm verwijdert.

aperitivo simplissimo

This is a simple, quick and very appetizing dish. Maybe dish is a big word, but anyway.
In Spain and Greece it’s a very common snack in springtime, when the first broad beans are picked.
I like it because of the bright color and the bite it gets from a little salt that is sprinkled on top.
So go ahead, peel those beans, cook them 2 or 3 minutes, rinse and cool them in ice water. Then… peel again or double dop as we call it here and see those beauties come out of their grey skins. Serve them on a nice plate and sprinkle with some Maldon salt.
Very good with some home made chilled limoncello.

saumon a l'oseille - zalm in zuringsaus (GF-SF)

I made this lovely salmon dish the other night.
My sorrel is growing very fast, so before it’s going to flower I decided to make sorrel sauce. And yes, the best way is with fish and a new potato. Simple and rich.

Sorrel sauce (2 pers)

a handful of sorrel leaves
75 ml of crème fraiche
20 g butter
salt and pepper to taste

Warm the crème fraiche and the butter in a small saucepan, together with the finely chopped sorrel and pepper and salt to your own taste. Let it simmer, but not to long, you’ll see the sauce getting some pinkish colour, taste and serve on a piece of seared or poached salmon with cooked new potatoes.

Zuringsaus (2 pers)

een handvol zuringblaadjes
75 ml crème fraiche
20 g boter
zout en peper naar smaak

Verwarm de crème fraiche en de boter, samen met de fijngehakte zuringblaadjes. Voeg peper en zout naar smaak toe. Laat het even rustig sudderen tot je de kleur ziet veranderen tot zacht-roze. Proef en serveer op een mooi stukje gebakken of gepocheerde zalm met een kruimige nieuwe aardappel.

yoghurt dressing (GF-SF)

I made this good-looking dressing. It tastes great too!
I’m in the mood for simplifying, less words, less ingredients, preferably from the farmer or my neighborhood or my tiny balcony garden.

“Simplicity is inexhaustible” (freely translated from Krishnamurti)

In the recipe I use calendula flower petals but you can also pick some daisies, that will be a nice view too.

Yoghurt dressing
6 tbsp full fat organic yoghurt
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
pepper-salt
1 tsp mustard
1 small clove of garlic, pressed
1 tbsp calendula petals
1 tbsp mixed fresh herbs like lemon thyme, rosemary, oregano, chives, basil

Mix everything together and taste well.
It’s great on a simple only green salad.

Walnutpesto - walnootpesto (GF-DF-SF)

This pesto was part of the catering I told you about.
Like every pesto I make them by hand, I love to see things changing and the smell is great when using a mortar and pestle. It’s the alchemy of cooking.

The pesto is very nice on a piece of bread or cracker and when you like you can shave some parmesan on top of it. It makes the pesto more round. The walnuts are drier then pine nuts, so use enough tasty olive oil to smoothen it.
But as a quick and simple pesto for your pasta it will be great too!

Meanwhile I made a lot of new recipes from other (gluten free) bloggers. It is so inspiring, I always have to be aware that my household is small and that we don’t eat that much.
I made these great crackers from chickpea flour, they are so good! Thank you Anja!

Also I’m working a lot in the picking garden and that inspires me to go out in nature and pick all sorts of things like nettles (I made an infusion to drink, full of calcium!), elderberry flowers ( I made syrup, really yummie, recipe follows), calendula from my own small garden, strawberries (for jam).

After a long dry period we have quiet some rain lately and that’s great for my balcony zucchini:

Walnut pesto
140 g unshelled walnuts
25 g flat parsley leaves
1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on size and taste), chopped roughly
2 tbsp of capers, chopped
1,75 dl extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
parmesan if you like

Dry-roast the walnuts briefly in a frying pan. Chop them up roughly and put them in the mortar together with the garlic, some salt and the parsley leaves. Puree by hand.
Than add the capers, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.
That’s it, easy. You also can use the food processor ;)

Walnootpesto
140 g gedopte walnoten
25 g platte peterselieblaadjes
1-2 tenen knoflook, grof gehakt
2 el kappertjes
1,75 dl extra vergine olijfolie

Rooster de walnoten kort en droog in een koekenpan met dikke bodem.
Hak ze grof en vijzel ze samen met de knoflook, snufje zout en de peterselieblaadjes tot een mooie puree.
Voeg dan de kappertjes toe en al roerend de olijfolie en peper en zout naar smaak.
Snel en gemakkelijk of als je nog sneller wilt: doe alles in een keukenmachine en hup, klaar!
Dan mis je alleen de sensatie van de geurexplosie die je krijgt als je met de hand vijzelt!!