Dinner on a run: courgette, ricotta and ham quiche

Oh, Mondays! It's that day in the week when everything seems to need to happen at high speed. Maybe it's because we've grown accustomed to the slightly slower pace of the weekends, but Mondays always shake us up and cries in our ears "faster, faster, no time, no time".

Monday evening, Bibu has his swimming lesson, so it means I have to first pick up baby Pingu from daycare, then drive with Pingu to get Bibu and take him to the swimming pool, where I need to help him get dressed into his swimming trunks/ pester him for doing silly stuff and not hurrying up/ run after baby Pingu who wants nothing else than to touch everything in the changing room (other kids' dirty underwear included). En fin, you get the picture. Relaxing it is NOT.

And, when we get home, it's about 18:30 and there are two small kids demanding food NOW, so no use starting to cook at that time. The solution: it's quiche time!

I am working from home at the moment, so I can afford to make it at some point during the afternoon, before all the mayhem begins. If you work full time, a good idea is to make it the night before (great Sunday-night blues-beating pass-time)

Anyway, it's also a good way of getting kids to eat veggies without realising. The ricotta gives it a light flavour and both kids devour it in no time. Baby Pingu eats his virtually unaided (with his hands. Hey he's only a toddler) and will not leave a single crumb left.

Again, this is a courgette quiche (or tart? Does anyone know the difference?), but you can make a version with other vegetables of your choice.

Ingredients (for one tart, 8 portions)

• bit of olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped as small as you can
•  3 medium courgettes, chopped in little cubes
• 1 ready round puff pastry (pate feuillete)
• 1 pack of ricotta cheese (about 250gr)
• 1/2 a cup of grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 eggs, beaten
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven at 180° C. Cook the chopped onion in a little olive oil, in a pan, on low heat, until it becomes transparent. 

Then add the chopped courgettes (or zucchini), cover with the lid and let them "sweat" for about 10 to 15 minutes, until they are cooked but now brown. Check every now and then and give it a stir with a wooden spoon.

Take out from the stove, and set aside to cool for a bit.

Roll out your ready pastry on a round baking tray (leave the baking paper, it will avoid the tart getting stuck to the bottom) and pinch it with a fork a few times. Line the bottom of the quiche with a layer of ham. This also helps to avoid the sogginess which can be quite common in this type of quiches.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, the ricotta and the Parmesan together, season to taste. Add the cooked courgettes to the mix and then pour the whole thing over the ham-lined pastry. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes. Et, voila!

Once it's cooked, I usually just turn the oven off (mine is an electric one) and leave the quiche inside until I come back with my two hungry little caterpillars, ready to attack it.

It's cold (and rainy) out there: Carrot curry coconut soup for the masses

It's officially autumn! Maybe I should exclude the exclamation mark, as I am not really that fond of cold weather, specially in Belgium, where it seems autumn-winter is an almost ever present season....

Anyway, Sunday was such a horrible, miserable, rainy and cold day that I decided there was only one thing to be done: cook comfort food! And so I did. I took advantage of Pingu sleeping a very nice long morning nap and spent lots of time in the kitchen cooking a delicious and calorific lunch (recipe to come soon)

But then, of course, for dinner I wanted something a bit lighter, but equally warming and comforting. And what better than a nice vegetable soup?

I know, I know, for many "soup" is not compatible with kids. I get it, kids can be fiddly with soup: it's too warm, they don't like the "green bits" floating in it, etc. But this soup is a blended soup, so although it has a few ingredients, there is only one colour and one texture to it, in the form of coconut milk.

We had lots of carrots at home, so carrot soup it was. I wanted to try something a bit different and decided to add a bit of spice (curry powder) and a bit of creaminess to it.

Ingredients (serves 4 big bowls plus 2 small bowls for the kids)

• olive oil
• 1 medium size onion, chopped (I used two small ones)
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• half a red bell pepper (paprika)
• 1 kg carrots, peeled and cut
• 1 l chicken stock (bouillon)
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 brick coconut milk (about 250 ml)

The process is very simple and in fact you can apply it to the vegetable of your choice. First you need to put some olive oil in a pan in low to medium gas and cook the garlic, paprika and onion until the onion is translucent. The great thing is that, as you will blend the soup, it does not matter how small you cut the onion, for example. You can do it really fast.

Then add the carrots and let them "sweat" a bit in the pan for a couple of minutes. Add the stock and the curry powder. Put the gas on medium-high and bring to the boil. Once it's boiling, leave to simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrots are cooked and you can split them using a fork. 

Take out of the stove and blend using a hand-held blender until the soup is really smooth. Then add the coconut milk and blend a bit more. There has to be no lumps on it.

At this point, I think it would be great to add a few chopped coriander leaves on top, but Mr M hates it and the kids are not too fond of green bits floating around, so it was a no go for me.

I served the soup with "croque monsieur" for the kids and something slightly ligther for the grown ups. 

Family dinners: baked white fish with lemony crust

It's always a bit of a challenge to come up with weekday meals that will go down well both with the kids and us. Up until recently, I still had to prepare a "baby" meal for Pingu, but since he is now almost 15 months and shows interest in attacking anything edible, I decided I will only cook dinner once for the whole family to eat.

This recipe is a variation from my mum's and a few other recipes I gathered from magazines or found online. It's super easy, requires minimum hassle, it's ready in 30', and, most of all, the kids LOVE it.

Plus, it features fish as the main ingredient. What's not to like? I've been doing for a long time and it never lets me down. Tried and tested at its best.

Ingredients (for 2 adults and 2 kids, including second helpings)

• 1 pack of white fish fillets (I use 1 tray -about 700 gr) of the packed pangasius from Colruyt, but you can use any type of white fish)
• 1 cup of bread crumbs (chapelure in French/ paneermeel in Dutch)
• 1 table spoon dried parsley (persil in French/ peterselie in Dutch)
• juice of half a lemon
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Start by pre-heating your oven at 180 C. While the oven gets to the right temperature, pour a little bit of olive oil on a baking tray, just to coat the surface. Cut the fish fillets in two, so that the pieces are more manageable, place the fist on the tray and season to your taste.

In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, parsley, olive oil and the lemon juice, until you get a "wet sand" consistency. With a spoon, put this crumb mix over the fish fillets until the fish is completely covered. Just make sure the layer is not too thick, just enough to cover the fish. Then drizzle a bit of olive oil over the whole thing.

Once the oven is at the right temperature, pop the baking tray inside and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs look golden.

Voila, done. No fuss fish. You can serve it with some steamed broccoli, or any other green you fancy. Enjoy!