A culinary gift box “a whole day filled with food” or “start to eat”
A couple of weeks ago, friends of mine gave a little housewarming party. Normally we give things like plates, glasses, flowers, a nice bowl, but this time I wanted to give something special. Together with some other friends we gave a so-called “whole day filled with food” box. And I made it…
The box was not really a box. It consisted of 3 little lunch bags. These are the ones that Bart “Ai Caramba” Simpson always uses. Each bag has a theme, and every theme refers to a moment in the day when you have to eat. So we had a “breakfast bag”, “appetizer-lunch bag” and a “diner bag”. Together it’s almost a full day filled with food. Or it’s a start to eat box. It’s just the name of course. One of the books where I found my inspiration was called “culinaire cadeautjes”, a Dutch book written by Hanneke De Jager. It’s a great book. The lay-out and the drawings are a bit too girly for me, but the recipes are tasteful and well-explained.
Last month I discovered a small competition between Dutch food bloggers. Every month you can send recipes about a certain theme. The winner of the month can choose the theme at the beginning and the new winner at the end of the month. This month – I really am using the word “month” too much – the theme is culinary gifts. I thought: “A perfect moment to write down the recipes of the gift box.” (note: It’s a competition between Dutch bloggers. I’m a native Dutch speaker, so I can always write it in Dutch, if that would be considered as necessary.)
Let’s start with the “breakfast bag”.
– content: homemade muesli and chocolate spread
Homemade muesli (source: Dagelijkse Kost en Culinaire cadeautjes)
What do you need? (Ca. 900 gram) 450 gram of Oats flakes, 60 grams of almonds, 80 gram of sesame seeds, ½ teaspoon of sea salt, 85 gram of dried coconut, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, 60ml apple juice, 60ml sunflower oil, 40 gram of cashew nuts, 50 gram of hazelnuts, 4 Tblsp honey
What do you do? Preheat the oven on 180°C. Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Use another bowl to stir all the liquid ingredients. Add the dry mix to the bowl with the liquid and mix everything very well. Spread the mix on two griddles covered with baking paper. Bake the mix for about 20 minutes till it is golden brown. Let it cool before putting in a jar.
Tricolored Chocolate spread
What do you need? (ca. 800 gram) 200 gram of hazelnuts, 200 gram of pure chocolate, 100 gram of (full-cream) butter, 1 can of condensed milk, 40 gram of Toblerone chocolate, 40 gram of white chocolate.
What do you do? Roast the hazelnuts in a pan. Blend them in a blender as tiny as possible. Even if they are already tiny, just keep on blending till the oil is getting out of the nuts.
When you blend long enough, you will get a kind of paste. Break the dark chocolates into pieces, white and Toblerone chocolate in little pieces. Melt every chocolate in a separate bowl. Use the microwave or melt it “au bain marie”. Cut the butter into pieces and add the butter to the melted chocolate.
You have to add the biggest part of the butter to the dark chocolate, because you have a lot more of this kind of chocolate.. If your pans are on a fire, take them of the fire. Stir 3/5 of the milk and the chopped hazelnuts into the dark chocolate. Keep some milk aside for the other two kinds of chocolate. 1/5 of the milk you add to the white chocolate and 1/5 to the Toblerone chocolate. Take a preserve jar or a jar with a lid and add a bit of the dark chocolate. Then you can make a layer of the Toblerone chocolate, afterwards a layer of white chocolate and finish with a layer of dark chocolate. That’s how you get tricolored chocolate spread.
“Appetizer and lunch bag”
– content: lemonade, not – don’t shoot me – homemade grissini, tapenade of olives and basil
Tapenade of olives and basil
What do you need? (ca. 200 gram) 100 gram of olives without the stones, 1 Tblsp. of capers, 1 anchovy, 1 Tblsp. of chopped parsley, 5 Tblsp. of olive oil, salt and pepper
What do you do? Mix all the ingredients in a food processor or in a blender till you have a granular spread.
Lemonade
The recipe of the homemade lemonade is also based on the book of Hanneke De Jager. It’s perfect to drink with some ice cubes in a hot summer or just as a longdrink with a bit of gin or wodka. I will publish the recipe on another date.
Grissini
It didn’t make the grissini by myself. The evening before the party, I had a lot of work to do and I didn’t have time to make it. If you want to make the grissini, there is a recipe in the book of Hanneke De Jager (Just to be clear, I have no shares of her publisher’s house 🙂 )
Diner-bag
– content: sea salt with own selection of dried herbs, olive oil and a salad dressing with honey and mustard
Sea salt with my own selection of dried herbs
What do you need? Dried herbs (thyme, rosemary, …), fine
sea salt, a bit of rice, a little bottle or jar
What do you do? Fill 1/5 of the bottle with dried herbs. Add the fine sea salt and the rice. Rice keeps the mixture dry. Keep the bottle for at least one month closed.
A salad dressing with honey and mustard
What do you do? 1 Tblsp of mayonnaise, 1 Tblsp of sun-flower oil, ½ Tblsp lemon juice, 1 Tblsp Dijon-Mustard, 1 Tblsp honey, salt and pepper, a little glassy bottle
What do you need? This is a very difficult recipe :). Mix everything very well and pour the dressing in the bottle. Shake it before you want to use it.
Olive oil with herbs and garlic
You can find the recipe in an older post (link)
It’s a lot of work, but they liked it and it’s an original gift.
note: the answer of the question about the chocolate spread is cilrag