Vegan 'oviebollen' (oven-baked oliebollen)

I don't know anybody who doesn't eat 'oliebollen' at New Years in the Netherlands! Traditionally, they are deepfried, but in 2016 one of the leading brands of supermarket baking products, Koopmans, introduced a ready-made mix for 'oviebollen', a.k.a oven-baked oliebollen.
Sadly, their mix is not vegan, so I decided to try this method with a from-scratch recipe and the results were surprisingly tasty!

What you need (12 pcs):

• 250g flour
• 250ml tepid water
• pinch of salt
• 20g fresh yeast or 7g dried yeast
• 15g sugar
• 100g raisins, soaked
• oil 
• flour for dusting
• powdered sugar, for serving

Pour the water in a large mixing bowl and add the yeast, stirring to dissolve. Stir in the sugar, then mix in the flour and salt to form a batter. Stir in the raisins. Cover the bowl with a clean, moist cloth and leave to rise in a warm spot for 30-45min.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C (gas 4 / 190°C fan oven). Grease and dust a muffin pan, then use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter into the holes. Drizzle 1tsp oil over each hole and bake for 20min. Remove the 'oviebollen' from the pan immediately (be careful, hot!) and let them cool slightly on a wire rack. Serve the 'oviebollen' dusted with powdered sugar.

Easy peasy chocolate-date truffles

These chocolate truffles are delicious and super easy to make!



What you need:
- 10-12 Medjool dates
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp rum flavouring
- dessicated coconut (to roll the truffles in)

De-seed the dates and put them in a food processor with the cocoa powder and rum flavouring. Process into a smooth paste (depending on how soft your dates are this can take anywhere from seconds to a couple of minutes). Once done, take a piece of the paste and roll it between your (wet) palms to make truffles. Roll them through some dessicated coconut and store in an air-tight container. Serve at room temperature.


Based on this recipe.

Vol-au-vent with mushroom ragout

Traditional appetizer for Christmas brunch or dinner, but very tasty any time of year.
Make your own ragout from cupboard ingredients and the possibilities are endless!

What you need (4 servings):
4 vegan pastry cases
50g vegan margarine
50g all-purpose flour
500ml mushroom stock (from a stock cube)
100g sliced mushroom (fresh or canned & drained)
1 clove of garlic, minced
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp of dried parsley
curry powder to taste (optional)
sambal oelek to taste (optional)
oil

Heat a bit of oil in a skillet. Saute the garlic and sambal oelek for a few minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are browned.
In a saucepan, melt the margarine at a low heat, making sure it doesn´t brown. Once it is melted, stir in the flour, about a tablespoon at a time until well incorporated. Cook the sauce on a low heat for a few minutes, stirring continuously. Add a bit of stock to the mixture, stirring well to incorporate the liquid. Add more stock once all the liquid has been incorporated. Continue adding stock until the sauce has the desired consistency.
Stir in the sauteed mushrooms and parsley, and season to taste with salt, pepper and curry powder (note: be conservative with adding extra salt since the stock already contained salt).
Heat the pastry cases in an oven according to the directions on the box (approx. 10-15 minutes at 150°C). Spoon in the mushroom sauce and serve immediately.

Brie and ham tartelets

Another staple at get-togethers are these tarts that a friend of mine always brings.

What you need (24 tarts):
100g Brie
6 squares of store-bought puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg
2 tbsp whipping cream
1 tbsp flour
75g ham
1 tsp dried oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven at 200C.
Finely dice the cheese and ham. Divide each square of pastry into 4 pieces. Line the holes of 2 muffin tins with a piece of pastry, flour-side down.
Beat the eggs with whipping cream and flour. Divide the mixture over the 24 tarts. Add a bit of the diced cheese and ham to each tart and season with oregano, salt and pepper.
Bake the tarts for about 15 mins. until golden and serve warm (or cool and re-heat in the oven before serving if making in advance).



Recipe from C1000 Kookboek 2004

Pesto pinwheels

Pesto pinwheels are the signature dish that a friend of mine always brings to get-togethers. They're very tasty!

What you need:

- 1 box of white bread mix
- green pesto (made fresh of store-bought)
- grated vegan cheese
- pine nuts, chopped walnuts or chopped cashew nuts (optional)

Pre-heat the oven at 200C.
Prepare the bread dough according to the instructions on the box. Leave it to rise for approx. 10 mins.
Roll out the dough thinly but make sure it is at least 30cm wide. Spread the pesto onto the dough using the round side of a spoon. Liberally sprinkle with grated cheese (and pine nuts / chopped nuts if using).
Loosely roll up the dough and cut the roll into 3cm wide slices. Put the slices on a baking tray, making sure they're not too close together as the dough will expand. Bake the slices for max. 20 mins in the heated oven (they are supposed to stay a bit pale!).

The pinwheels are best served when they are still a bit warm.


Or try this:
- don't want to bother with making fresh bread dough? Use (vegan) canned crescent roll dough! Divide the rolled-out dough in half for 2 rolls, and you can also choose to make the slices a bit smaller (1-2 cm wide). Bake according to the instructions on the package.
- use red pesto or tapenade instead of green pesto.
- you can easily prepare the rolls in advance and slice and bake when needed.

Chinese dumplings

While in China, I attended a cooking class. One of the dishes we made were dumplings cooked in 2 ways: steamed and fried. They were delicious!

What you need (approx. 20 dumplings):
at least 20 store-bought dumpling wrappers, defrosted (available at most exotic stores)
200g pork mince (or half pork/half beef if you prefer)
100g spring onion, finely chopped
100g carrot, finely chopped
100g Chinese mushrooms (soaked and drained if dried), finely chopped
chicken stock powder
soy sauce
salt
vegetable oil
water

You'll also need a wok, bamboo steam basket and some cheese cloth, cut to fit the bottom of the steam basket.

In a bowl, stir together the chopped vegetables. Make a marinade of 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp chicken stock powder and 1 tsp soy sauce and add to the vegetables. Mix well and leave to rest for a few minutes.
Put the mince in another bowl and marinate with a mixture of 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp chicken stock powder and 2 tsp soy sauce. Mix well and also rest for a few minutes.
Combine the meat and vegetables and mix well.
Place a dumpling wrapper on the palm of your hand and put a walnut-sized scoop of the meat mixture in the middle. Wet the edges of the wrapper with some water and fold the wrapper in half, Make sure the edges are completely sealed. Starting in the middle, make a few small pleats on the sealed edge of the dumpling. Place the dumpling on the cheese cloth in the steam basket. Repeat until there is no more meat mixture left.
Place the steam basket in a heated wok and add water to create steam. (it may be necessary to add some more water while you're cooking)
For steamed dumplings, cook the dumplings for 10 minutes. For fried dumplings, steam them for 6 minutes, then fry them in some oil for a minute on each side until they are brown and crispy.

The steamed dumplings must be served warm (or the dough will become chewy), the fried dumplings can be eaten warm or cold. Serve with soy sauce for dipping.