Tortillas

October 24, 2016September 26, 2016Liesbeth Lohman Homemade, Liesbeth, New Mexican food 1 Comment

One of my absolute favorite things to eat is a homemade flour tortilla. I make these for my self a couple times a week. Obviously only using a fraction of the recipe below since I don’t need to make that many tortillas for one person. A tortilla is versatile enough that you can eat them with just about anything or just on its own (midnight snack of left over tortillas if there are any left overs).

While Hannah was visiting she confessed that while she had rolled plenty of tortillas in her life she has never actually made the tortilla dough from scratch! Well, it was time to fix that.

Here is a recipe that was passed down from my grandmother. My grandmother was a hispanic woman that had 12 children. She was always in the kitchen cooking and making sure everyone was well fed. My aunts are also master tortilla makers and they actually make their tortillas round. Mine are decidedly not round, but it doest help to use a tapered rolling pin.

Flour Tortillas:

4 Cups all purpose flour
3 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp table salt
3 Tbsp oil (technically vegetable oil but I often grab a mild olive oil)
1 1/3 Cups cold water

Mix all of the above ingredients in a bowl or on the counter top. Once it comes together in a ball, if mixing in a bowl transfer to the counter top, continue kneading the dough ball a good 5 minutes, making the dough smooth and elastic. Cover the dough with a very damp cloth and let rest for 1 hour or longer. (If you are feeling particularly impatient or don’t have an hour to wait, use lukewarm water and cut the resting time in half).

Heat a (flat) cast iron griddle (called a comal) on medium high heat. Once warm, lower the heat to medium. The trick will be finding the temperature where the tortillas cook quickly enough that they don’t become crackers but not so fast that they burn before they are cooked.

Depending on the size of your skillet form roughly 15 – 20 balls. Now start rolling!

Once you have a rolled out tortilla place this on the warmed comal, flipping once so not to burn them.

Once cooked, place the tortilla in a fresh kitchen cloth to keep warm and chewy. Serve with pretty much anything that you want, smeared with avocado and a bit of salt; filled with steak, chicken and veggies for a fajita; with a full New Mexican feast of enchiladas, beans and rice; smeared with butter and your favorite jam. So many possibilities!

South Africa: Vineyards

October 17, 2016September 26, 2016Liesbeth Lohman Liesbeth, Travel Leave a comment

The end of my South Africa tour, I spent three nights in wine country! Beautiful rolling hills with vineyards, delicious wine and food to taste.

A few tour companies advertised biking wine tours, sounded like fun except they were all booked full! So, we rented bikes and made our own wine tour. It was a lot harder than I expected with all those slopes and upward inclines. I can’t even say they were hills but it felt like it. Stopping at several wineries that day, one of my favorite vineyards was the Simonsig Wine Estate. The grounds were beautiful and the wine did not disappoint. They are quite commercial and largely exported. Nonetheless, this was not a set tasting like several other vineyards but a menu that you could pick 5 different wines to sample.

The next day we booked a cellar tour at Boschendal Estate. While they do make wine their core business is actually fruit! A quick lunch (with roaming roosters) of a toasted sandwich with chicken salad and fried egg we were off to take the tour including a peek into the saving room. They save out bottles from different years and age these, tasting every so often to find the perfect aged moment before releaseing.

Further on the stay in South Africa wine country, we managed to get a table at the widely popular Bread and Wines restaurant at the Môreson vineyard. Accompanied by a bottle of their Mata Mata wine we ordered beer and mustard poached pasture pork hock with spiced corn and sweet cabbage and the Springbok loin with braaied celery with curried parsnip and apple relish.

South Africa: On the road from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town

October 10, 2016September 26, 2016Liesbeth Lohman Liesbeth, Travel Leave a comment

Part of our South Africa tour was a drive from port Elizabeth to Cape Town, stopping in a few of the seaside towns on the way.

One of the more impressive meals was found in port Elizabeth in a restaurant called The Colonial Kitchen. I ordered an appetizer as my main because I was so surprised to find the slow roasted bone marrow on the menu that I had to have it. It was delicious! Served with toasted bread and a light tomato flavored sauce. To add to the joy, the restaurant had a very sweet old cat that loved being petted and lazying around on the patio.

Further along the journey to Cape Town we stopped in a town called Mossel Bay. We booked a very cute hotel, The Santos Express, which is an old train looking over the beach. My suit was beautiful and felt like I was transported in time. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side. Rain poured down the entire day. We took a little stroll bout found that not too many places of interest were open so we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a waterblom bredie, a stew type dish traditional to South Africa. Waterbloem is a small water flower found in small ponds only blooming in the warm winter months. The Waterbloem didn’t add to much of an unknown flavor it is more like having a long slow roasted vegetable like courgette or green beans. The stew is typically made with lamb meat and potatoes.

Further down the road, our next stop was a little town called Fish Hoek. While searching for a place to sleep for the night and seeing so many cute sea see town pictures we settled on a B&B in Fish Hoek. Little did we know that Fish Hoek did not have the same picturesque vibe that we saw in the surrounding towns like Kalk Bay. Only two restaurants in the town and the one in walking distance was closed. So we caught a cab to Kalk Bay to eat at the Cape to Cuba restaurant. This was a funny place, very bright and colorful with Cuban inspired dishes. The pictures of the food were not notable but this gives you a taste of the decor including a swing.

Upon arriving in Cape Town we enjoyed a two day stop and got to explore the city a bit before moving on to the famous South African vineyards.

Cape Town has so many restaurants to choose from. We spent some time at the harbor area that looks out over the small fishing boats, you have an enormous tourist mall and lots of harbor side restaurants. Very, very touristy but endless choice. One of the restaurants we stopped at in the city center was called Hemelhuijs. The food was not only beautiful but also delicious. Starting with an orange wine with basil and soda, I ordered the veal with crab butter, parmesan and pine nuts. This did not disappoint, since both veal and crab are very soft flavors one did not overpower the other and was really a very lovely meal.

South Africa: Safari and Braai

October 3, 2016September 26, 2016Liesbeth Lohman Liesbeth, Travel Leave a comment

The first couple of days on vacation in South Africa had been a bit chaotic and tightly planned. After arriving in Johannesburg the next morning we caught a new flight to Nelspriut to look at chimpanzees and go on a two day safari. Mostly safaris advertise the big 5: elephants, rhinos, tigers, leopards, and buffalo. Not only are the big five to be found but many other animals like the giraffe and zebra are part of the experience. Some like the giraffes and elephants are in abundance in Krueger park and are very much out in the open but the leopard and tigers are are a bit more elusive. We got lucky in that we saw all big five plus lots of other animals in the first day. Including a very special mating performance by the lions which the tour guides found to be a special occurrence.

Part of our safari package was a braai, the traditional South African barbecue. Meet Mark, our safari guide for the day and our braai specialist.

While chatting with Mark it became clear that the braai is a very special and important part of their South African culture. Any chance he can get and at least once a week they braai. The type of meat changes but for us it was beef steaks royally seasoned with a light spicy chili and herb powder and continually basted with beer. The beer was just the type he was drinking from at the moment.

Typically to accompany the meat is garlic bread grilled in tinfoil on the grill with corn on the cob also grilled, a green salad, potato salad and a mixed brown and green bean salad. The braai felt very familiar to my Americanness.

Ending the two day safari we visited the Blyde Canyon and stopped at Harrie’s pancake restaurant. This time feeling rather familiar to my dutchness. I usually eat my pancakes filled with sweet ingredients like fresh fruit or syrup. But at Harrie’s their hearty pancakes really did look good so I ordered a spicy mince and cheddar cheese pancake.

Taste of Tomatoes

June 14, 2016Liesbeth Lohman Events, Homemade Tags: #tasteofamsterdam #Joynmetomaten 1 Comment

Food festival season is in full swing and, once again, a good friend arranged tickets to the Taste of Amsterdam. At one of the booths you could win tomatoes by taking a picture for promotion on social media. so…

We have tomatoes!

As you can guess we had a theme for dinner.

Tomato and beet salad – inspired by Martha Steward’s recipe but after cooking the beets in the oven I quickly threw them into a pan with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sage. Letting them cool down before plating them with sliced tomatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper and basil.

Mini tomato tarts – Using a lactose-free crust of oil, flour, rosemary and almond milk I slow roasted the tomatoes in the oven for an hour.

Lamb chops with tomato sauce – toss tomatoes, garlic, anchovies and rosemary in a pan to make a simple sauce on grilled lamb chops.

Bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato sandwiches – no explanation needed since the name says it all!

Gazpacho – onion, bell pepper and tomatoes are roasted in the oven before pureeing with cucumber, garlic, chili pepper, parsley, red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Don’t forget to sieve the puree before serving.

Madeira, my dear

June 14, 2016September 26, 2016Liesbeth Lohman Liesbeth, Travel Leave a comment

I have always wanted to go on vacation with my mother to Greece. As a young woman she visited the beautiful islands and has always spoke fondly of her getaway. But, while looking into vacation options, we decided Greece would have to wait until my sister could join us. For one thing our window for a week away was the wrong time of year, a bit too cool to have relaxed evenings on a terrace and, while you can find a flight to Athens, it is still a 4 – 8 hour boat trip thereafter to any of the more picturesque islands, it just wasn’t in the cards this time around. So that trip will still happen and with a bit of luck and planning maybe we can have my sister and her boys join.

With Greece out of the running for a place to visit I searched my own list of places I want to visit. The criteria, not too warm or too cold, not too far of a flight considering we are only going for maximum a week, somewhere beautiful and ‘authentic’ meaning I was not interested in staying for a week at an all inclusive resort where you don’t leave the actual hotel premises. While these can be very relaxing, we were looking for a bit more of an experience than just excellent weather and a beach to hang out on. After a bit of googling we quickly decided on Madeira. Already on my list but within a few minutes even after other suggestions it was decided! The flower island, the always spring time island.

I had heard of Madeira wine before, what I thought then was mostly used for cooking. It is a fortified wine on the sweet spectrum of wines although there is quite a variation in sweetness depending on the grape variety and aging duration. I had also heard of Madeira from a song called ” Have Some Madeira, M’dear” the first time hearing this song was a Dutch cover but a bit of an internet search it turns out it was originally in English by Flanders and Swann and has more famously been covered by the Limeliters. Click here to see a hilarious and rather inappropriate video which makes me laugh any time I watch it. Yes, I think I listened to it 50 times before going to the island of Madeira.

On to the trip! Madeira is known for its beautiful flowers and is now known to me for the many, many elderly folk. I personally brought the average age down by a few decades anywhere we went. Which was surprising considering all of the hills to walk up and down. Their main export, aside from Madeira, is bananas. The island is filled with banana and other tropical fruit plantations. Since it is a volcanic island the soil is very fertile and they use terraces to grow pretty much everything. Passionfruit are very well known but in Madeira (honestly I am sure it is not only Madeiran but since I have not seen these fruits anywhere else I can think for now that they are Madeiran) they have banana passionfruit, tomato passionfruit, orange passionfruit and the list goes on. Walking through the tourist market hall you can sample and buy these expensive and odd fruits.

Bananas and passion fruits are combined with many or the local specialities like scabbard fish and banana. Other favorites on the island are meat skewers stews. My favorite meal of the trip was quite a walk uphill from our apartment to a restaurant known for their Madieran (less tourist) food. Stews with beans and rice!

The most notable part of the food experience was the famed Poncha, the local cocktail. Made with sugar cane rum, lemon juice and honey is the classic. Use passion fruit juice or mint or just granulated sugar instead of honey to change it up a bit.

Happy Easter

March 28, 2016Liesbeth Lohman Homemade Leave a comment

Let’s kick off this new collaboration with a Holiday Meal! I, well I can’t just say I any more now that my awesome sister is with me on this blog, but I guess in this case I can say that we don’t really celebrate easter for the traditional religious aspects of the holiday. Instead it is always a great excuse to prepare a special meal to enjoy with family or friends, which is a fantastic thing to do no matter the season. Here are what our easters looked like:

Liesbeth’s menu

Deviled eggs as a canapè
Spinach, pine nut, feta and dill hummus
Pea and ricotta dip
Beet, goats cheese and fig salad
Low and slow braised lamb and beef ‘stew’
Spring greens with black ink pasta (Acini de Pepe pasta)
Ricotta cheesecake with Madeira syrup, blueberries and figs

PicMonkey Collage.jpg

Hannah’s menu:

Deviled Eggs to start
Honey & Thyme Gazed Ham
“Scalloped” Potatoes (this recipe was gluten and dairy free and was surprisingly satisfying)
Roasted Asparagus
Dinner Rolls
Creamcheese Pound Cake with Berries and cream.

Hannah’s menu is a bit more in line with the traditional American easter dinner, but we covered both ham and lamb, spring veggies and the obligatory deviled eggs!

Welcome to my lovely sister

March 27, 2016March 28, 2016Liesbeth Lohman Uncategorized 2 Comments

A couple months ago my sister approached me with the idea of starting a shared food blog. Initially, the idea was to create a new collaborative blog, but why, when this one already exists, is hungry for more posts and there is no reason why we can’t continue with this one together.

My sister is a wonderful writer and a fantastic hobby photographer. I am really happy to have her join in the food blogging fun. Hannah lives in the United States so our collaboration will be from a distance but hopefully we can use that to our advantage. You can expect more food but now from the two of us!

Because we live so far apart from each other we always have to put in some extra effort to keep in contact and to be a part of each others lives. It is easy to forget the little things that you can take for granted when your family lives around the corner. I am so excited she is joining me on this blog, one more way to keep us together and have fun in the meantime!

Welcome Hannah!

Haro, Spain

September 12, 2015October 24, 2015Liesbeth Lohman Travel Leave a comment

I was recently taken on a surprise weekend away. I didn’t know much ahead of time, in fact the surprise was kept until the gate, the only information I had was that it is about a 2 hour flight and fairly mild summer weather. I boarded the train to North Holland, the super fast intercity that stops in both Schiphol and Amsterdam. Getting out at Schiphol, my travel companion stopped to look at the train times but proceeded to the KLM check-in only to stop half way and pull out an empty duffle bag, meant for me to place my bag in so that it could be checked. We were already checked in for the flight and he already had my boarding pass on his phone, which I could not see. We passed ticket control and up to the KLM lounge for a little over an hour wait. Two glasses of Prosecco later we head for the gate and walk by it twice since boarding hadn’t begun. Finally the suspense was lifted !!!! We are going to Bilboa! As it turns out we take a short hour bus ride from Bilbao to Haro, a tiny town in the heart of Spain’s Rioja wine country. For the next day and a half I spent my time hopping from one wine tasting to the other and spending a bit more money on some wines to take home and share.

The town of Haro is a little town that centers around wine. The wineries and bodegas are mostly concentrated in a single neighborhood close to what used to be a train station, a location quite important for the wine trade at the turn of the century. The train station is no longer used but it is still central to many of the vineyards’ histories. The main grapes grown in this region for red wines are Tempranillo and Grenache.

The wine tour we took was at R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia, the oldest in Haro. They use traditional methods of wine making and aging, allowing the cave to naturally regulate the temperature. We toured caves covered in mold and spiderwebs. They also have an in-house barrel maker which I understand is quite rare as most vineyards order their oak barrels already made.

Haro only wakes up around 10 am with a long siesta from 2 until 6 pm and will have a lovely sound of chatter and wineglass clinking until about 1am. The main streets are filled with bars and restaurants. A glass of crianza wine cost around 1,60€ and a pintxo’s about the same. We filled our day time with wine tastings and the evenings with bar and restaurant hopping.

Two of my favorite dishes were a crispy parcel filled with morcilla (blood pudding) typically made using pork blood and rice.

I don’t really know the name of the pintxo below but it came down to a soft bread like pastry filled with meaty goodness and spicy sweet chili sauce.

The Science of Cooking

August 13, 2015October 24, 2015Liesbeth Lohman Me- Liesbeth Leave a comment

I passed and it was awesome and it was hard! Somewhere at the end of last year my brother-in-law shared the link of an online course to my Facebook page. The Science of Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science given by the harvardX school. Wow! That sounded interesting! And wow, it started the next week! So, with a few taps, I registered myself and ordered the recommended reading. I was assured by the description that basic math and chemistry would be sufficient to follow along. Well now, I think we have different ideas of what basic math and chemistry really means but, ok, I have Google to give me a hand. I certainly was not expecting the course to be so incredibly hard!

Concepts like ‘freezing point depression’ and ‘gluten molecule networks’ were introduced along with topics on emulsions and heat transfer were taught by video then with practice questions, including homework and labs each week. I might have struggled with the math and fought with the chemistry stuff but it was so worth it. Not only did I scratch the surface of understanding how cooking happens and why some methods of cooking are so incredibly important to taste and feel, but I got to make things like ricotta cheese and ice cream that was never put in the freezer, just used a bag of ice and salt.

The best parts were watching top chefs demonstrating the topics, like Spherification taught by Adrian Ferha, and the really cool equipment used to capture unique flavors. Edx.org gives an excellent course, I will definitely be following more!

Tales of Food

A little of me and a lot of Food