Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken
Serves 2
Ingredients
Salad
2 chicken breasts
1 ciabatta roll
3 baby gem lettuces
1 tin anchovies, use as many as you like in the salad
50-75 g Parmesan, grated
olive oil
Dressing
150 ml sunflower oil
25 ml olive oil
10 ml fresh lemon juice
2 ml salt
5 ml sugar
few drops tobasco sauce
25-50 ml red wine or rice vinegar
2 ml Dijon mustard
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 egg yolks
salt freshly ground black pepper
Method
Begin with the dressing. Put all ingredients, except oils in a blender and mix. Slowly add the oils until emulsified. If too thick, thin with a little water.
Preheat the oven to 180° C. Cut the ciabatta into 3 cm cubes and place in a roasting tray. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with a little sea salt. Mix the ingredients together and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden brown and crunchy.
Slice the chicken breasts lengthways in half. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Slice off the bottom end of the baby gem and discard. Separate the leaves, rinse them gently under cold running water and dry off in a clean tea towel or in a salad spinner.
Place a grill pan over a high heat. Grill the chicken breasts for 3-4 minutes on each side until they are golden and cooked through.
Using a large bowl, mix together the salad leaves, dressing, anchovies, croutons and ¾ of the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.
Divide the salad between 2 plates. Lay 2 chicken breast halves on each salad and finish by scattering with the remaining Parmesan.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Walnut Cake with Spiced Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
Cake
220 g butter, at room temperature
240 g caster sugar
4 eggs
160 g fine semolina
2 teaspoons baking powder
300 g walnuts
Caramel
300g caster sugar
300 ml cream
1 star anise
½ cinnamon stick
25g butter
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the walnuts on a baking tray and toast them lightly in the oven, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 160C. Grease a 24 cm round springform tin or small fluted tins, of your choice.
Place the butter and sugar in a bowl of a mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs in, one at a time, until well combined.
Place the walnuts in a food processor and blend until finely ground.
Stir the baking powder through the semolina and fold through the egg and butter mixture, followed by the ground walnuts.
Spoon the batter into the greased cake tins and bake in the oven for about 35 minutes (large cake) or about 20 minutes (for the small cakes). Remove from the oven, cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before turing out onto a wire rack to cool completely before covering with the caramel.
For the spiced caramel sauce, heat the sugar in a pan until it turns golden-brown. Pour the cream in carefully and bring to the boil, stirring well. Add the star anise, cinnamon and butter. Cook for 2-3 minutes until thickened and smooth.
Strain through a fine sieve, cool completely and pour over the cake before serving.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Thai Style Mussels
Serves 4
Ingredients
3 Tablespoons sunflower oil
4 kg mussels
5 cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finley chopped
1 stalk lemon grass, hard outer layer removed and finley sliced
3 Tablespoons Thai green curry paste
400 ml coconut milk
fish sauce to taste (optional)
1 small bunch basil
1 small bunch coriander
2 limes
2 red chillies, finely sliced
Method
Place the mussels in a bowl of cold water. Discard any open ones.
Heat a large pot over medium heat with 3 tablespoons sunflower oil. Add the garlic, ginger and lemon grass and fry for a about 2 minutes. Add the curry paste and fry for another 1 minute.
Drain the mussels and add them along with the coconut milk to the pot. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Cook the mussels for about 3 -5 minutes or until they are all open. Shake the pot gently every so often to ensure that the mussels cook evenly. Season with fish sauce, if you wish, according to your taste.
Pick the basil and coriander leaves. Squeeze the juice of 1 lime into the mussels and stir well. Scatter the basil, coriander and red chilli over the mussels and serve with the remaining lime cut into wedges.
Delicious served with crispy bread or rice to mop up the juices.
If you're looking for a dessert to follow the mussels, try the Pineapple with Minted Sugar.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Wine advice: Iphöfer Kronsberg Scheurebe - Kabinett Trocken
Pineapple with Minted Sugar
Serves 3-4
This is the simplest recipe ever. In fact, there is no recipe to it. It's more of an assembly job and relies on your own taste. It's inspired by a recipe Jamie Oliver did many years ago.
Ingredients
1 pineapple
about 50 g sugar
small bunch mint
1 lime (optional)
Method
Peel the pineapple, cut into quarters and remove the hard centre core. Slice each quarter lengthways into thin slices. Place on a serving platter.
Place the sugar and mint in a small food processor and blend until the mint has broken up and the sugar has turned green. This can also be done in a pestle and mortar.
Scatter the minted sugar over the pineapple and serve. If you wish, you can add a squeeze of lime juice over the pineapple.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Cape Seed Bread
This is a typical South African bread recipe. It's healthy and delicious.
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients
1 cup bran
4 cups wholewheat flour
15ml sunflower oil
15 ml honey or brown sugar
15ml salt
100ml each sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds
3 cups lukewarm water
30g fresh yeast
Method
Mix the bran, flour, honey or sugar, salt and seeds together in a bowl.
Dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar in 250ml lukewarm water, add to the fresh yeast and leave in a warn place until frothy. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the yeast mixture.
Now, using a wooden spoon, add as much of the remaining water as the flour will absorb. (The consistency should be that of a fruit cake).
Spoon into a well-greased 750g loaf pan. Cover and set aside to prove for about one hour until the mixture has risen to fill the pan.
Bake at 200º C for approximately 60 minutes until the bread is cooked through.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Wedding Cupcakes for Bernadette's son
A few weeks ago, on a gorgeous Indian summer's day, Bernadette's son walked down the isle with his beautiful bride.
We were asked if we would make cupcakes to serve to guests after the ceremony. As their colour scheme included lime green, we decided on using with that as our base.
After working on flavours and designs with them, we finally decided to start with green cupcake cases. These were filled with a light and airy lemon sponge, filled with homemade raspberry jam and topped with vanilla meringue buttercream, a raspberry and fresh mint.
This was also the perfect opportunity to put our new Magimix Patissier to good use. This machine is ideal for making cake batters, pastry, bread dough and meringues.
With it's powerful and quiet motor, it was a breeze preparing the sponge. We were loved the results and can't wait see what else this mixer can do.
During the ceremony, Mischa finished off the cupcakes and presented them on a special stand in the church gardens. The cupcakes went down a treat, rounding off what was a special and glorious day.
If you would like to order cupcakes from the Amsterdam Flavours Chefs for a special occasion, please contact us here.
Pumpkin Salad
This recipe is inspired by one of our favourite chefs of the moment, Yotam Ottolenghi.
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 medium butternut, halved, seeds removed and each half cut into thirds (peel the skin off if you like, but we tend not to)
3 red onions, cut into wedges
50 ml olive oil, plus extra to drizzle over the salad
4 Tablespoons white tahini (available from health food shops)
lemon juice, to taste
1 garlic cloves, crushed
50 g pine nuts
2 Tablespoons za'atar (a Middle Eastern spice mix of dried thyme, sumac and sesame seeds)
small bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
50 g rocket leaves
50 g baby spinach
Method
Preheat the oven to 220C.
Place the butternut and onion on an oven tray, add 40 ml olive oil, salt, pepper and the za'atar. Spread out evenly and roast for about 30-40 minutes until the vegetables have coloured and are cooked through. Keep an eye on the onions that they don't burn. Set aside to cool.
Make the dressing by mixing the tahini with lemon juice to taste, 2-3 tablespoons water, garlic and salt. Whisk until the sauce is the consistency of cream.
Heat a frying pan with the remaining 10 ml olive oil over medium heat and fry the pine nuts until golden. Transfer to a bowl to cool.
To serve, place the roasted pumpkin and onions on a serving dish. Drizzle over the tahini dressing and sprinkle with the toasted pine nuts and chopped parsley. Top with the rocket and spinach leaves, drizzle with olive oil and serve.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Duck Confit
Ingredients
4 duck legs
100 g coarse sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 head garlic, separated into cloves
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves, crumbled
700g duck or goose fat
Method
Rub the duck legs with the coarse sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, one crushed garlic clove, four sprigs of thyme and the bay leaves. Pack tightly into a ceramic dish, skin side down, then drizzle over the brandy, cover the dish with cling film and leave to marinate in the fridge for 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 150C. Scrape the marinade off the duck pieces.
Heat the duck or goose fat in a heavy ovenproof casserole dish, then add the duck, the remaining garlic cloves and the remaining thyme. Make sure that the duck is completely submerged in the melted fat.
Transfer the dish to the oven and bake for 3½-4 hours, or until the meat is very tender when pierced with a skewer and the fat in the skin is completely rendered.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool uncovered. Strain half of the fat and bring to the boil in another pan, then pour into a clean ceramic dish large enough to hold the duck without it touching the sides. Leave to set in the fridge.
Once the duck is cool, place into the prepared ceramic dish and strain over the remainder of the melted fat and place into the fridge for 1-2 hours to set. (This can be stored in the fridge for up to one month.)
To serve, preheat the oven to 200C. Scrape off the fat from the duck legs, then place into a roasting tray. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes, or until the skin is crisp and golden-brown. Serve immediately.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Egg en cocotte
Serves 2
Ingredients
50 g samphire
knob of butter
125 ml crème fraiche
50 g grated Parmesan
2 free range organic eggs
2 thick slices white or whole meal bread
salt and pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Place the roasting tray in the oven and half fill with hot water. Bring a small pan of water to the boil and cook the samphire for 1 minute. Drain off the water and leave in the colander.
Grease 2 ramekins or oven-proof cups with butter and divide the samphire between them.
Beat the crème fraiche to loosen and season with salt and pepper. Spoon into the ramekins, grind over some pepper and sprinkle over half the cheese.
Press lightly with the back of a spoon to create a ‘crater’ and carefully break in the eggs, ensuring the yolk stays intact. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese.
Place the ramekins in the roasting tray filled with hot water and cook 8-10 minutes for soft cooked or 20 minutes for hard cooked.
Toast the white or whole wheat bread until golden brown and cut into ‘soldiers’ (strips). Serve the eggs cocotte with the toast soldiers.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Baked apples
Ingredients
4 apples
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
50 g demarara sugar
30 g dried apricots and 30 g dried cranberries
50 g butter
250ml creme fraiche
splash of marsala
icing sugar, to taste
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Mix the sugar with the spices. Mix half the sugar-spice mix with 80 ml water and 80 ml Marsala in a roasting tray. Remove the cores from the apples using an apple corer.
Chop the apricots into small cubes and mix with the dried cranberries. Mix together with the remaining sugar and spice mix in a small bowl.
Fill the apples with the apricot-cranberry mixture. Place a cube of butter on each, lay them in the roasting tray and bake them for 30-40 minutes, basting with the juices now and again.
Whisk the creme fraiche with a splash of Marsala and icing sugar to sweeten until slightly thickened. Serve the apples warm with the Marsala creme fraiche.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours









