My first mistake, I found out while going over the recipes again, was that instead of gently folding the almond flour into the whipped egg whites, I mixed them in with the hand mixer, which led to a much more firm batter (you want it to be lighter and more fluffy). The second mistake was that due to my impatience I put the macarons in the oven too soon instead of leaving them to create that magically “thick skin” that will make the macarons as they are supposed to be, with a flat bottom to spread filling on and press together with another macaron. Another great tip that I learned is to “drop” the baking sheet with the unbaked macarons on top onto the table. Don’t flip it over, just lift it about 20cm and let it fall back down onto the table. This will help create the “foot”of the macarons and give them their characteristic look.

Here is the recipe I know you have been waiting for:

Macarons
Makes about 40 whole macarons

Ingredients:
100 grams blanched, ground almonds
110 grams egg whites (about 3 egg whites)
200 grams powdered sugar
4 tablespoons sugar

You can choose to make the almond flour yourself or buy it. It does take a little bit longer to make it yourself but it is worth it.
You start by boiling some water to pour over the almonds and after 5-10 min or so you can pop the skin off. Dry the almonds well before blending or chopping them.
Add the powdered sugar and mix together with the almonds till you have a fine flour. Run the mixture through a strainer to remove any larger lumps and you always have the option of blending the larger pieces again so you don’t waste any ingredients. This is the part that takes the longest if you want to make sure you get all of the almonds blended to a fine flour.

In another bowl whip the egg whites till they start foaming. Then add one tablespoon of sugar at a time and continue whipping till all the sugar is incorporated and the texture is stiff and with a nice shiny surface.

Now is the time to let go of the hand mixer and bring out the spatula and gently fold the almond flour into the egg whites. Make sure that the mixture stays fluffy and as soon as everything is mixed together stop stirring.

Transfer the batter into a ziplock bag and cut a small hole in one corner.
Squeeze your desired size of macarons onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Then let them sit for at least one hour to create the dry skin. You can test this by gently pressing a finger against the surface of one macaron. If it sticks to your finger it is not ready yet but if it bounces back and doesn’t stick, it is ready to be baked.

Heat the oven to 150 C or 300 F and bake for 12-15 minutes.
Let them cool completely before spreading the filling and sandwich them together.

To make chocolate macarons you can substitute 15 grams of powdered sugar with cocoa powder. That is what I did for the ones you see on the pictures.

For the filling I found a butter caramel recipe

100 grams granulated sugar
150 ml whipping cream
85 grams salted butter

Heat the sugar in a saucepan without stirring at medium heat. Once the sugar starts melting and turns light brown, swirl it a few times.
Warm up the cream in another pot.
Make sure all the sugar has melted and if you need to stir it a little, use a wooden spatula and minimize your impact. Remove from heat and add in the diced butter. Be careful when working with warm sugar as it will burn really badly if you get it on your skin.
Stir the butter and sugar gently together and when it comes together place the pan on the heat again and add the heated cream a little at a time. This will bubble and spatter so wear oven mittens and apron while cooking this and stir gently.
Let the caramel boil for about 5 minutes before removing it from the heat and pouring it into a clean airtight jar. Close the jar and let it cool completely before placing it in the fridge.
You can store the caramel in the fridge and take it out an hour or so before use if you find it is too stiff to spread.

You can flavour the caramel with lot’s of different flavours. I used 2 teaspoons of fine salt to make Fleur de Sel Caramel, and you can add chili, cinnamon, chocolate or create your own personal flavour.

Now all you have to do it spread the caramel on one of the macarons and add another on top to make a sandwich and there you have your delicious macaron.
You can sandwich a bunch and keep them for a day or two in an airtight container in the fridge and take them out an hour or two before serving, this will absolutely not make your macarons taste any less than yummy!

-Enjoy!
Ayoe

We visited some of the most popular places to get the original pineapple cakes, which there were at least five stores right next to each other claiming that they were the original store, so I don’t really know what to believe, but they were good. One of the days in Taipei we went to Longshan temple and had lunch in the area. The lunch place was famous for their taro cake, so of course we had to try that along with sticky rice, thick soup with fish and pork balls. I have to admit that I have been a little sceptic eating in some of the food places because of their lack of cleanliness. However the food has been great in all the places we have eaten and no one has gotten sick, but it took me a while to get used to eating in different conditions than I am used to.

My absolute favourite food item, although it is not a dinner dish but dessert, is egg tarts. We had them whenever possible and some were better than others, but when we went to Lukang on the west coast around Taichung area, and walked through the Old Market st. I found the utmost best egg tarts that you could ever dream of. They were amazing and not only did they make them with the original filling, which I absolutely love, they had also experimented with different flavours such as coffee, red beans, and chocolate. The coffee was ok and the chocolate was great but I have to say that the original is still the best. They were in fact so good that we had to get another box of 6 tarts to take home, and I tried my best to convince Bob to ask the owner for the recipe but she just laughed and said she couldn’t give it to us. So now it is time to experiment in the kitchen to re-create the best egg tarts possible.
Any tips are greatly accepted!!

-Ayoe

He served us a lot of food that I had never tried before and one of them was falafel. They tasted great but I had no idea how they were made and didn’t think that I would ever attempt to create some on my own.

So here we are several years later, it is my birthday and we go to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner and eat falafel amongst other delicious food items. I decide that I need to make this at home, so I research the internet for good recipes and from there I created my own take on falafel.

Here is how it went down:

Ingredients

14 oz. can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
A medium bunch of fresh parsley
A small bunch of fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon cumin
8 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper
Oil for frying

If using dried chickpeas, place them in a bowl with cold water and let it soak overnight. If using canned chickpeas just drain them and rinse with cold water.

Pour chickpeas in a pot and cover with water and bring to a boil. Let it boil for about 5 min and turn the heat down to a simmer and let cook for one hour with the lid on.

Drain and let cool for 15 min.

In a blender combine onion, garlic, chickpeas, parsley and cilantro. Blend it together with a little water. It took me a while to get a good texture since there is not a lot of liquid in the recipe and you want to end up with a very thick paste. I added enough water to make a thick smooth dough.

In a bowl add the chickpea dough and mix in salt, pepper, sugar, cumin and a few tablespoons of flour. Only add a little flour at the time until you have the right texture.

My end result was a dough that was not quite thick enough to roll balls, so I decided to put the dough in a plastic bag and cut the tip off to squeeze it out into small balls. Just like decorating a cake, which by the way is one of my favourite things to do!

Heat up the oil in a small pan so the oil reaches fairly high in the pan. If you have a deep fryer you can definitely use that.

Either roll out small balls of dough or squeeze them out into the oil and let cook for 10-15 min while frequently turning them over till they get a nice crispy light brown surface.

Take them out and let drain on paper towel.

Serve the falafel with tahini, a sesame paste, and make the falafel part of a larger meal so maybe add in hummus and baba ghanoush and other middle easter dishes.

-Enjoy!

Ayoe

Before you start decorating you need to blow the egg white and the yoke out. To do this you poke a small hole at one end of the egg, then a bigger hole at the other end. Next blow hard until you pass out… :p

Once you blow everything out and only have the eggshell left, rinse with water inside and outside. Blowing the egg white and the yoke out means you will be able to keep the decorated eggs for much longer than if you were to boil them.

For our eggs we decided to dye them first using food colouring to give them a base coat before painting. In several bowls mix water, plain vinegar, and food colouring. The more vinegar you add the more vibrant the colour will show up on the eggshell. You can dip your egg in different colours a few times to create cool colours or patterns.

If you have some candles or wax crayons, you can draw some cool patterns before dipping your egg into the dye. Where you put the wax the colour will not show up.

Once the egg is dry from all the food colouring, you can start painting with a small brush using any paint. For our eggs we used acrylic paint.

To hang your eggs, tie thread to the tip of a toothpick and put the toothpick into the largest hole.

Happy Easter!

I decided to add in some spice, lemon and coconut milk because those three ingredients together have such an amazing flavour. This soup is great for getting rid of an approaching cold and also just wonderful to eat when you want to snuggle up in front of the fire place and enjoy the warmth of both.
This soup brightens up my day because of its beautiful colours and its wonderful taste.

Ingredients:

about 200 g of left over chicken meat
1 liter of chicken stock
200 ml coconut milk
a large piece of fresh ginger, sliced and cut into small pieces
1 red chili, cut in tiny pieces and seeds removed
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon tumeric powder
1 tablespoon tamarind chutney
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 carrots, cut into planks
1 can of bamboo shots
1 red pepper, diced
juice from one lemon
100 g vermicelli noodles or other thin rice noodles
a large bunch of coriander, chopped

Bring the chicken stock to a boil and add chicken, coconut milk, ginger, chili, fish sauce, turmeric, tamarind, brown sugar and lemon juice. Let it boil for a couple of minutes while you boil some water in a kettle for the noodles.
Pour the boiled water over the noodles in a bowl and let sit for 3-5 min to soften.
Now add the carrots, red pepper and bamboo shots to the chicken stock and let cook for a couple more minutes till the vegetables are soft but still firm.
Drain the noodles and place a small portion in each bowl.
Pour the chicken soup into each bowl, making sure you get some nice pieces of chicken and veggies.
Sprinkle chopped cilantro on top and your soup is ready to be served.
Doesn’t this look delicious?

-Enjoy

Ayoe

Ayoe and I plan to work on a few more bruschetta recipes so we could put them together for another ebook On top of the bruschetta ebook idea we also have a few more ideas, such as easy-to-make meals and healthy desserts. Have you checked out our ebooks section?

I love that I know what I get by making it myself.

I will share this precious recipe with you and even if you are not Danish you will still enjoy it. It is healthier than most bread because it has grains and seeds in it and not just plain wheat flour. It is heavier and will leave you feeling full for a longer period of time after eating a couple of slices. And best of all it tastes great!!

To get started with the rye bread you need to make the sourdough, which takes 7 days. You don’t have to do a lot during that time, just a lot of waiting.

140 g (1 cup) rye flour
1 dl (1/2 cup) plain yogurt
1 dl (1/2 cup) buttermilk

Mix everything together till you get a wet soft mixture. Leave it in a large container without lid but cover it with plastic wrap. Make sure the dough only fills up the container about halfway. Place it in a warm area and stir the mixture twice a day to add some oxygen to the mixture. I stir it when I get up in the morning and before I go to bed in the evening and it takes less than 5 min per day. Do this for 7 days. Around day 4 or 5 you will notice a difference in the mixture. It will start to bubble and get bigger in the container. On day 7 you can start using the sourdough.

For the first loaf dissolve the sourdough into 5 dl (2 cups) lukewarm water. Then add in 500 g (3 ½ cups) rye flour. For the following loafs I only use 400 g (3 cups) rye flour. Use your hands to mix the flour with the sourdough and water and you will end up with a porridge like dough. Cover the bowl with a wet tea towel and leave it in a warm place overnight.

On the second day I start off by removing about 400 g (2 cups) of dough. This will be my sourdough for the next loaf. Put the dough in an airtight container and sprinkle some coarse salt over the top and leave it in the fridge till next time you make rye bread. You can leave it by it self for up till 3 weeks and if you want to keep it longer just stir it a couple of times per week till you want to use it, but don’t keep it too long.

Now the fun begins! This is where you can be creative and add your favourite flavours to the bread.

In the remaining dough you add:
400 g (3 cups) wheat or rye flour, or half each. You can also substitute about 150 g of the flour for seeds, grains or grated carrots. I usually use 75 g sunflower seeds and 75 g pumpkin seeds and a mixture of rye and wheat flour.
1 dl (1/2 cup) lukewarm water, if the dough is very dry you can add a little more water, but be careful not to add too much as the finished loaf will then be soggy or unbaked on the inside.
1 ½ tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon dark syrup (not maple syrup but the real thick kind, you can also use a good honey instead). This will give the bread its typical flavour of Danish rye bread.
Mix everything together with your hands until you have a nice thick porridge.

Butter the sides and bottom of a rectangular bread tin and pour in the dough. Use a rubber scraper to press the dough down into the tin to make sure all the air bubbles are removed. I dip the scraper in water before pressing the dough, as it will make the process easier. The dough should only fill up the tin about ¾ so there is room to rise.

Let it rest with a wet tea towel on top for about 1-2 hours before baking.

Heat up the oven till 190 C (375 F).

With the rubber scraper I slice a 1-2 cm (1/2 inch) deep line lengthwise through the middle of the loaf before baking. This will keep the bread from cracking in random places and give the bread a nice surface when baked.
I repeat the slicing a couple of times during the first 30 min of baking to make sure the slice doesn’t close completely.

Bake the bread for 1 hour and 50 min.

The smell of sweet rye bread will soon fill your kitchen and the rest of your home and will leave your mouth watering and impatiently waiting for it to be ready.

When ready take the bread out of the tin and let it cool on a grid. I always place the bread on its side and after cooling for about 1 hour I put it in a plastic bag. This will give the bread a softer crust, so this step is optional. If you want the crust to stay very hard and crispy just leave it to cool completely before packing it.

I always eat at least one slice of hot rye bread with butter, which then melts all over your hands and a couple of chunks of good cheese.
This is the best part about making rye bread!!

When the bread is cooled completely just store it in a plastic bag in a breadbasket and cut slices as needed. I never cut up the whole bread all at once because this will cause the bread to dry out really fast.

You can easily freeze the bread and take it out and leave it on the counter still packed in the plastic bag a day before you want to eat it.

Remember that the first loaf of bread will be a little different from the rest, so don’t be discouraged if the first bread is not completely as you expected.

It is important to only add water and flour on the first day of making rye bread, as this is where you make your new sourdough. So don’t add any grains or seeds before the second day. On the second day you can add seeds, grains, grated carrots or potatoes or anything you like. Just be mindful that it all takes up space and changes the recipe. So do not add to many different ingredients into one loaf, but experiment one loaf at the time and make sure the measurements still add up to the original as described here.

If you have a friend who wants a piece of your sourdough, offer to make some extra, next time you bake. You simply add an extra 250 g (1 2/3 cup) rye flour and 2.5 dl (1/2 cup) water on the first day and then remove the extra 400 g (2 cups) sourdough and place it in a separate container and give your friend this recipe.

-Enjoy!

Ayoe

We are so excited that our first cooking video is now available to you, so you can get even more help and tips of how to cook super easy and delicious meals. Watch us juggle potatoes and have fun in the kitchen!

Since this is our first, and by that we mean the very first ever, video to be uploaded on youtube we would very much appreciate any good advice, comments and ideas for what you would like to see us cook next.

In case you want to make this dish you can find the recipe here

Thank you so much

-Enjoy

Ayoe & Bob

For tonight’s dinner I decided to make “Super-Quick Salmon Stir-Fry” since we had some frozen salmon fillets in the freezer that need to be consumed.

INGREDIENTS
Sea salt and rashly ground black pepper
1 cup basmati or wild rice
3/4 pound salmon fillet, skin off and bones removed
A handful of raw shelled peanuts
1 clove of garlic
A thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
1 fresh red chile
A small bunch of fresh cilantro
Peanut or vegetable oil
1 heaped tablespoon tandoori or mild curry paste
A handful of snow peas
1/2 can of coconut milk
A handful of bean sprouts
1 lime

I substituted a few items for tonight. For example I just used regular rice instead of basmati or wild rice. Instead of peanuts, fresh chile, and garlic, I used almond, chile flakes, and onion.

The fillets we had came from a whole salmon that we cut up earlier so the fillets still had skin and bones. For ease of skin & bones removal I fried the fillets for about 2 minutes each side before removing the skins & bones.

Directions
1. Make rice
2. While the rice is cooking away, chop the salmon into even-sized chunks
3. Crush the peanuts up
4. Peel and finely chop the ginger and garlic
5. Halve, seed, and finely slice the chile.
6. Pick the cilantro leaves from the stalks, finely chop the stalks, and pu the leaves to one side.
7. Put a frying pan on a high heat and add 2 lugs of peanut oil
8. Add the garlic, ginger, most of the chopped chile, and the cilantro stalks. Stir for about 30 seconds then add the curry paste and stir for another 30 seconds
9. Add the salmon, cook for a minute or so, then a the snow peas and coconut milk. Let everything cook for another minute.
10. Taste and season with a little salt and pepper
11. Serve the salmon stir fry with rice. Halve the lime and squeeze over the juice. Then sprinkle some crushed peanuts, remaining chile and cilantro leaves on top.

-Enjoy!

“Hmmm what to do, what to do? Right, I think I can make some fried rice with these items!”

Here’s what I did!

INGREDIENTS

~0.5 kg (~1 lb) of Left over roast beef
~1 lunchbox of rice
4 eggs
1 onion
1 – 1 1/2 cups of mixed veggies & edamame
~10 shrimp
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Soy sauce

DIRECTIONS
1.) Thaw all the frozen items by leaving them in cold water.
2.) Cut up roast beef in small pieces
3.) Chop the onion into small pieces
4.) In a frying pan, pour about 2 tablespoon of olive oil and heat up the pan. Once the pan is hot add the chopped onions. Stir until the onions soften.
5.) Remove the onions from the pan, put them aside.
6.) Break the eggs and add them into the frying pan. Scramble the eggs for about 3 minutes then remove from the pan.
7.) Add onions, roast beef, and shrimp into the pan. Cook until the shrimp are red in colour. Then add the eggs back in the pan.
8.) Drain the frozen veggies and edamame. Toss them into the frying pan and stir occasionally.
9.) Add soy sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir for about 5 minutes then remove everything from the pan.
10.) Add about 2 tablespoon of olive oil and heat up the pan until the oil is nice and hot. Add rice and stir for about 3 – 5 minutes or until they are a bit crispy.
11.) Mix the meat & veggies back in the pan with the fried rice.
12.) Add soy sauce to your taste. Add additional salt & pepper if more seasoning is needed.

-Enjoy!