The other day we bought a beautiful fresh bunch of basil. Whereas you can use the dried version of a lot of herbs in a lot of recipes, I find that basil is almost always best when you use it fresh. It is no use making a pesto with dried …
All you need to make yogurt is milk, a little scoop of good bacteria and a little patience and you’re good to go! The bacteria will do all the work for you, by fermenting the milk and transforming it into a thick, creamy, yogurt. Yogurt making really is quite simple …
Yogurt, sauerkraut, pickles, none of these products would exist without lactic acid fermentation. This is a series of chemical reactions that transforms your ingredients into something pretty different (and delicious) thanks to lactic acid bacteria. In this post we’ll explore lactic acid fermentation in some more detail, helping you understanding …
It’s bright red but slightly translucent, has a peculiar flavour, is full of sugar, keeps for a long time and used in typical British cakes. When using them in a cake, you should be cutting them in small pieces, rinse them and dust them with flour ensure they don’t sink …
If you have fruit trees or plants in your garden you’re probably also swamped with these fruits during certain times of the year. And who has enough space to store 5 kg of figs or 20kg of apples? Nowawadays commercial farmers have luckily found a solution for this. Fruits can …
Ever tried to squeeze all the air out of a pack of pre-cut vegetables? Noticed that instead of collapsing, it would just let out all air and return to its original size once you stopped pressing? Ever had a closer look at your bag of fresh spinach and noticed a …
Summer’s there! Warm temperatures, sun and long long light days. Living in the Netherlands, summer is no guarantee for nice weather, rain and cold(er) days are no exception. Summer for me is a synonym for berries, more specifically strawberries. It’s the thing we used to eat with our desserts as …
This month I try to focus all of my posts on the science of fruits and vegetables (I call it fruit & vegetable science month!). Then, this morning, I was browsing through the internet and ran into a (Dutch) post on making your own sauerkraut! It so came to happen …
Pickling is one of those cooking techniques that can completely transform or upgrade your food without a lot of trouble. Simply put the vegetables, or whatever you’ve decided to pickle in an acidic brine for anywhere between 5 minutes and days to transform that vegetable into something very different. Raw …
One of my favourite hobbies, as you might have discovered by now, is figuring out the science behind cooking and baking. Trying out recipes, explaining why they worked out, or why they didn’t… Nothing more fun than that to be honest. You’ll find a lot of posts on my website …
