Ilse's Kitchen - culinary adventures of a girl who loves to eat

I love, love love chocolate chip cookies. In Mexico, where I lived, they sold boxes full of chewy Mrs. Fields cookies where I lived - big, chewy and beautiful. They don’t have those here, but by now there are plenty of stores around that sell their own version of these massive American chocolate chip cookies - at well over EUR 1.50 a pop. Given the cost price of the ingredients and how good they are when they’re just freshly baked, it’s worth making your own. The last time I made a batch was on New Years’ eve, when I used a recipe by Tasty. They did so well that by popular request, I’m posting this blog post with the recipe in honour of completing my 90 days, 90 blog post adventure :). Ingredients (makes 12 - 14 cookies - that’s quite a few cookies, I know, but you can freeze leftover cookie dough for up to three months so it’s worth making the whole batch): 100g granulated white sugar 165 packed brown sugar (you can use light brown or dark brown sugar, or a mix of both. I...

I had a craving for fruits, for lightness and freshness today. This dessert met those needs perfectly - four kinds of fruit and just the right amount of bite. Oh yeah, and it’s no work and still looks pretty cool. Ingredients (serves 2): 1 big round slice watermelon, about 1.5 cm thick 2/3 cup Greek yoghurt 1.5 tsp maple syrup 1 cup mixed berries 1/2 passion fruit a bit of honey Instructions: 1. Slice the watermelon into wedges diagonally. 2. Mix the yoghurt and the maple syrup. Spread on top of the watermelon, leaving a bit of the outer rim yoghurt-free. 3. Top with the berries and passion fruit. Drizzle the honey over and serve immediately.

Cherries!!! The season is beginning and fruit and vegetable shops are starting to fill up with them - red, shiny and irresistible. For those days when you - like me - cannot resist and are looking for something different to do with them than eat them raw (which pretty awesome in itself), try this recipe for a feel-good brunch. Or dessert. Or whatever :) This photo was taken a while back at a vegetable market in Timisoara, Romania. Look at me being happy about all those heaping piles of cherries... 🍒 Ingredients (serves 4): cherry compote 500g sweet ripe cherries 4 tbsp lemon juice 100ml orange juice 2 tbsp red wine 1 vanilla bean 70g sugar 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon crepe batter 125g flour 2 eggs 300ml milk 20g melted butter 1 tsp rum (optional) pinch of salt cream cheese filling 200g cream cheese 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 30g (1/4 cup) powdered sugar Instructions: 1. Start with the compôte. Stone (de-seed) the cherries and remove the stems. If you lik...

I wanted a dessert that was fresh and light, but still felt like dessert. I still had some meringues at the house. They don’t usually last long - I really like to eat them as they are - but this time I decided to try something different. I wondered about the combination of citrus, the freshness of orange, the bitterness of grapefruit, along with the crunchy sweetness of meringue. In my mind, it all somehow seemed like quite a satisfying combination of flavours. I'm the first to admit that plating-wise it looks a little messy, but in terms of taste it didn’t disappoint :) Ingredients (serves 2): 1 grapefruit 2 blood oranges (if these are not in season, use regular oranges) 2 small mandarin oranges 4-6 meringues (about the size of those you make in this recipe) 2 teaspoons honey 2 teaspoons condensed milk to garnish: a few mint leaves for each plate, shredded Instructions: 1. Peel the fruit and cut into 5 mm thick slices. Make sure there is no skin on your slices. ...

The Italians, Swiss and French all have different base recipes for meringue. The version I grew up learning how to make is the French, which only requires 2 ingredients practically everyone always has in the house. Perfect for those sugar cravings days  :) Ingredients: 1 large egg (you will use the white only) 70g fine white sugar Instructions: Preheat the oven to 100 degrees Celsius. 1. Clean and thoroughly degrease a mixing bowl and whisk. Lemon or vinegar work well for this. 2. Separate the egg white from the yolk, and pour the white into the degreased bowl. Make sure none of the yellow gets in, or you’ll have to start all over. 3. Whisk the egg white until it gets foamy and peaks begin to form, then add in the sugar one tablespoon at a time, only adding the next after the first has been incorporated. When you are done you will have a stiff, smooth, shiny white mixture. The peaks shouldn’t collapse when you lift your whisk. 4. Line a baking tray with parchme...

I’ve always been curious about fruit mousse. Chocolate mousse is one of my favourites, but I’d been longing to try something lighter, fruitier. As luck would have it I’d bought some passion fruit earlier this week, and still had a few left over begging to be used. That made me think - why not passion fruit mousse? So I made this simple but rich 3-ingredient dessert, a national favourite in Brazil. Ingredients (serves 2): 60 mL condensed milk (depending on how sweet you like it, you can use up to 75mL) 150mL whipping cream 3-4 passion fruit Instructions: 1. Place the whipping cream in a large bowl and whisk until whipped.  2. Add the condensed milk and gently fold into the cream mixture. 3. Open up two of the passion fruit and using a sieve, separate the juice from the pulp. Set the pulp aside, and gently stir the juice into the cream.  4. Pour the mixture into two glasses, and place in the fridge for 4 hours to let it set.  5. When ready to ser...

My local Turkish shop has delightful fruits and vegetables - and an array far broader than any supermarket around. The other day when I passed by I found fresh rhubarb, and couldn’t resist taking some home. Inspires by a great-looking Sainsbury’s recipe, this is what I did with it.   Ingredients (serves 2): 400g rhubarb (roughly 4 stalks), chopped into 7cm pieces 4 tbsp Greek yoghurt 80g maple syrup zest of 1 lemon Instructions: 1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Place the rhubarb on a baking tray and drizzle the maple syrup over. Take a baking brush and brush it over the stalks. 2. Place the tray in the bottom third of the oven and bake for approximately 12 minutes. 3. Remove and serve with the yoghurt, sprinkled with the lemon zest.

Here in the Netherlands, we’ve just lived through week 4 of quarantine. Nationally we like to call it an ‘intelligent lock down’, but that doesn’t change a whole lot - much like elsewhere it means no physical contact. No meeting up with friends, no hand holding, no hugs, no sex. All that can be a tough pill to swallow - video chats may go a long way in terms of social contact, but the sheer absence of physical contact makes me realise how important it is to me - what can’t be replaced by smiles over a screen. I crave hugs. My body misses being touched. But it is what it is - so I try to make the most of it and go for the next best thing.  If you can’t have sex, have ice cream ;) Ingredients: 150mL condensed milk 250mL Greek yoghurt 300g mixed fruit (I used a mix of blackberries, blueberries and red berries) Needed: one baking tray. (I used a small one, about 18 x 18cm, because my freezer couldn’t fit anything larger - and I ended up with relatively thick bark. If yo...

There it was: the first flip-flop day of the year. And flip-flop days, even in quarantine, call for ice cream. Ice cream it is. The recipe I dreamed up for you was inspired by a late summer day a few years back, when I took a detour on my bike ride to work and ended up passing by endless rows of blackberry shrubs full of ripe berries, ready for the picking. Struck by the rare phenomenon of berry bushes that hadn't been plucked bare, I returned after work that evening with a Tupperware box and set to work. This is what I did with them. Ingredients (makes 4 popsicles): 1/3 cup water 1/3 cup sugar 2 tsp honey 1 tbsp lemon juice 500g blackberries 1/2 cup yoghurt Popsicle molds (if you don’t have those, you can use mini paper cups and wooden popsicle sticks) Instructions: 1. In a saucepan, heat the water and sugar until the sugar is melted, then pour into a bowl and set in the fridge to cool.  2. Puree the blackberries using a food processor or hand blende...

This morning I sat and read behind the window, sun rays warming my skin behind the glass. Like yesterday, the warmth gave me a tinge of nostalgia for Bilbao. Specifically in Bilbao, leaving Uribarri behind you and turning left opposite the Ribera, for a little restaurant around the corner called La Citronella. La Citronella no longer exists but I as I’ve said before, I loved it. It had pattern-papered walls, others painted bright red, with tiny tables, a small kitchen, fabulous espresso machine, no-nonsense waiter and a different four course brunch menu every day, five days a week. One course always involved eggs - it was, after all, brunch - and the eggs were prepared a different way each day. And there was always a dessert, for what good is a menu without something sweet to send you home happy? Basking in the spring sun and thinking of La Citronella, I decided to make some comfort food. And with comfort food goes a comfort dessert - light enough for sunny days, but full of ri...

When I first discovered Reese’s Pieces, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Indulgence led to cravings led to the desire to be able to make my own: my motto about cooking has always been that if it seems halfway doable, I should at least try to recreate the things I love to eat. It was out of that thought that this experiment was born. My first idea was to aim for peanut butter cups of my own. Then, I started going through my pantry - and a better idea was born... Ingredients: 200g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks 100g white chocolate, chopped into chunks 100g smooth peanut butter 100g walnuts, halved  Sheet of baking paper Instructions: 1. Melt the dark chocolate au bain marie. To do that, bring some water to a simmer. Place the chocolate in a bowl that is big enough to be bigger than the circumference of the pan (so it can sit snugly on top it. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the top of the water - the bowl will be heated by steam. Keep...

Fresh, tangy and easily made at home. Until I tried it, I never would have guessed - but once I did I’ll think twice about about buying prefab lemon curd. Willing to bet you will, too... Ingredients: 3 large eggs 150g granulated white sugar 80mL fresh lemon juice 60g unsalted butter, at room temperature 1.5 tablespoon finely shredded lemon zest Instructions: 1. Start by grating the zest from your lemons. This is MUCH easier to do if you do it before, rather than after squeezing them.  2. Set the zest aside and juice the lemons. 3. Combine eggs, sugar and lemon juice in a heatproof, stainless steel bowl that is big enough to stand on top of a pan of boiling water. 4. Bring the water to a simmer and leave the heat on low. Place the stainless steel bowl on top (so that the bottom of the bowl only just touches the water) and stir to combine the ingredients properly. Keep stirring constantly while the mixture ‘cooks’ to prevent it from curdling. ...

If you’re ever in the mood for more time-consuming cooking and are looking for a good, wintery dessert that can feed a table full of people, try this apple strudel recipe from a Delicious Kookschool cooking course I followed years ago. I thought it tasted pretty authentic, although I can’t judge it as a real German might. Be careful with the dough - it's the hardest part - but other than that this is easier than it looks. Ingredients (makes 1 large strudel as photographed): Strudel dough: 500g flour 325g water 25g powdered sugar 10g salt 100g melted butter. Filling: 600g apple (Goudreinette), cut into small pieces 25g raisins soaked in warm water Dash of cinnamon 50g orange marmalade Vanilla sauce: 250 g milk 3 3gg yolks 75g sugar ½ vanilla stick Instructions: 1. Mix water, powdered sugar, salt and butter. Last, add flour. Make dough, push it flat and wrap in plastic, and place in the fridge for 1-2 hours. 2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Cel...

There are few desserts that will make me as happy as a good chocolate mousse, so you can imagine my delight when I figured out I could make it myself. This recipe has been my rock for over ten years - and it’s so good I’ve felt little need to tweak it over time. It’s a slightly surprising, egg free chocolate mousse, inspired by an Allerhande (the Netherlands’ largest grocer’s free recipe magazine) from way back when in 2006. The rosemary, the tingle of salt - it’s a hit every time. Ingredients (makes 4): 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary 150 mL milk 200g dark chocolate, in small pieces 250 mL whipped cream 100g white castor sugar 1 teaspoon coarse grains of sea salt pinch of regular table salt NB: If you're cooking for 2, don't halve the quantities. Just make it all. I promise, you’ll be happy you did. Instructions: 1. Remove the needles from the rosemary. Place in a pot with milk and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to sit for a while. In the...

Do you ever food-google? I do it a lot, and sometimes I come across really nifty ideas. Like this one: a five-minute crowd pleaser... strawberry dipped in chocolate set in ice cube trays! Brilliant! I have a heart shaped one and used that.. look how pretty they turned out :)

Blood oranges are gorgeous, and when years back my local eco store started selling the Italian Sanguinello, I was absolutely thrilled. Ever since, they've been a regular fixture in my kitchen. I'm a simple soul and like them because they're beautiful - and because blood orange juice is an awesome colour. This time I felt like something a little different and made candy out of them. Not the healthiest choice, I know... #sorrynotsorry Ingredients (makes about 26 slices): 1 cup (250 ml) water 2 cups (400 g) granulated white sugar 2 blood oranges (or 1 blood orange, and one regular orange, for some diversity in flavour) 200g dark chocolate Optional: a few tablespoons sugar to coat the finished slices Instructions: 1. Scrub the oranges under luke-warm water, then cut them in half horizontally. Cut into thin round slices, then cut these in half to make orange half moons. 2. Bring the sugar/water to a boil in a wide-bottomed pan, stirring until the sugar is dissol...

Isn't she lovely? You might not think it from the looks of it but this is actually one of the easiest desserts ever. The only thing that takes a while is waiting for the meringue to set in the oven, but I promise you - you won't regret the wait when it's time to eat these babies. Ingredients (makes 4): 3 egg whites (I used medium-size eggs) 165g white sugar few drops of vinegar 100ml whipping cream 1 additional tbsp sugar fresh fruit to top (I went for a very-berry combo: strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries) Pre-heat the oven to 100 degrees Celsius / 210 degrees Fahrenheit Instructions: 1. Take the vinegar and use it to rub the bowl you're going to use to whip your egg whites in, as well as the whisk. This de-greases the bowl, which is important for firm egg whites (they 'sink' when exposed to grease). 2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Do it carefully, you don't want a single drop of yolk to 'contaminate' the egg w...

Everyone with an office job and a love of creative breakfasts should stock up on puff pastry - you know, the ready made kind you keep in the freezer. This mini obsession kept me happy for quite a while, brought on partly by just how little it takes to make a decent pastry. So far, I've played around with mango, peach, cherry, pear, apple and chocolate. These cherry pin wheels were not just delicious, but pretty to boot :)

Meringue-making can be a pain in the ass, and the first time I tried to make these was a disastrous failure. I added the cacao in with the other ingredients and tried whisking, but the egg whites wouldn't take up any air and I ended up with a very drab, very pointless, very dark brown mixture. But I wasn't about to give up, so poured the gunk down the drain and tried again. The second time round I tried adding the cacao afterwards - a little bit at a time. That version actually looked like meringues, but they didn't taste right. Too much cacao. So I tried again. Below is the recipe that worked. Ingredients (makes about 20): 2 large egg whites 110g sugar pinch of maizena (corn starch) pinch of salt 1/2 teaspoon vinegar 12g cacao Pre-heat the oven to 100° Celsius. Instructions: 1. Before you start, make sure your utensils are clean and grease-free. Wipe down the metal of your whisk and bowl with vinegar and dry with a paper towel. 2. Begin this recipe ju...

White chocolate and rhubarb, could it work? I’d had mini pastries a lot like this with blackberry, which I loved growing up. I wasn’t really sure about this combination, but was tempted to try it nonetheless. And not sorry, because it turns out the white chocolate was more than sweet enough to compensate for both the sugar-free shortcrust pastry dough, and the wonderful tartness of the rhubarb. Don't take my word for it though... give it a shot and judge for yourself.