Dominique is born, my sourdough starter

“Until the introduction of commercial yeast about 200 years ago, people had baked with sourdough for thousands of years. The slow fermentation of a true sourdough makes grains more digestible, boosts nutrition and produces delicious real bread. But you’ll need to make a starter before you can make the bread.”

 

An excerpt from the Zero Waste Chef, my inspiration for making my own sourdough starter baby. Thank you!

 

Dominique, DLCS sourdough starter inspired by the Zero Waste Chef – the making of

 

Have a look at the Zero waste chef’s detailed instructions on starting a starter HERE.

 

Dominique, DLCS sourdough starter inspired by the Zero Waste Chef

Dominique. Born 13-10-2018. 

 

Fingers crossed! It will take about 5-7 days to find out if she’s viable.

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Naturally painted Easter eggs

Are you painting any this year? I’m going to try dyeing the eggs the natural way. Here are some tips:

naturally dyed onion skin Easter eggs

Natural Easter Egg Dyes

Colored Easter Eggs Using Natural Dyes

By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., About.com Guide

It’s fun and easy to use foods and flowers to make your own natural Easter egg dyes. The two main ways to use your own dyes are to add dyes to the eggs when boiling them or to dye the eggs after they have been hard-boiled. It’s a lot faster to boil the dyes and eggs together, but you will use several pans if you want to make multiple colors. Dyeing the eggs after they have been cooked takes as many dishes and more time, but may be more practical (after all, most stoves only have four burners!).

Try both fresh and frozen produce. Canned produce will produce much paler colors. Boiling the colors with vinegar will result in deeper colors. Some materials need to be boiled to impart their color (name followed by ‘boiled’ in the table). Some of the fruits, vegetables, and spices can be used cold. To use a cold material, cover the boiled eggs with water, add dyeing materials, a teaspoon or less of vinegar, and let the eggs remain in the refrigerator until the desired color is achieved. In most cases, the longer you leave Easter eggs in the dye, the more deeply colored they will become.

Here is the preferred method for using natural dyes:

1. Place the eggs in a single layer in a pan. Add water until the eggs are covered.
2. Add approximately one teaspoon of vinegar.
3. Add the natural dye. Use more dye material for more eggs or for a more intense color.
4. Bring water to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
6. If you are pleased with the color, remove the eggs from the liquid.
7. If you want more intensely colored eggs, temporarily remove the eggs from the liquid. Strain the dye through a coffee filter (unless you want speckled eggs). Cover the eggs with the filtered dye and let them remain in the refrigerator overnight.
8. Naturally-colored eggs will not be glossy, but if you want a shiny appearance you can rub a bit of cooking oil onto the eggs once they are dry.

You can use fresh and frozen berries as ‘paints’, too. Simply crush the berries against dry boiled eggs. Try coloring on the eggs with crayons or wax pencils before boiling and dyeing them. Happy Easter!

Natural Easter Egg Dyes

Color	Ingredients
Lavender	Small Quantity of Purple Grape Juice Violet Blossoms plus 2 tsp Lemon Juice Red Zinger Tea
Violet Blue	Violet Blossoms Small Quantity of Red Onions Skins (boiled) Hibiscus Tea Red Wine
Blue	Canned Blueberries Red Cabbage Leaves (boiled) Purple Grape Juice
Green	Spinach Leaves (boiled) Liquid Chlorophyll
Greenish Yellow	Yellow Delicious Apple Peels (boiled)
Yellow	Orange or Lemon Peels (boiled) Carrot Tops (boiled) Celery Seed (boiled) Ground Cumin (boiled) Ground Turmeric (boiled) Chamomile Tea Green Tea
Golden Brown	Dill Seeds
Brown	Strong Coffee Instant Coffee Black Walnut Shells (boiled) Black Tea
Orange	Yellow Onion Skins (boiled) Cooked Carrots Chili Powder Paprika
Pink	Beets Cranberries or Juice Raspberries Red Grape Juice Juice from Pickled Beets
Red	Lots of Red Onions Skins (boiled) Canned Cherries with Juice Pomegranate Juice Raspberries

Conscious colouring; Dianne te Mebel

Do you remember my blog on Conscious colouring (see HERE if you haven’t read it yet) ?

Dianne te Mebel, owner and founder of the Instituut Haar & Gezondheid (Institute for Hair & Health) in Amsterdam has just launched her new website, with webshop to order natural and biological hairproducts.

 

Instituut Haar en Gezondheid Amsterdam

 

You can amongst others order the hairproducts of Pure pact and the official Henna “Startingpackage” online, and of course you can contact Dianne via the site to request personalised  information on consciously colouring your hair.

Pure Pact

Check out the site; http://www.diannetemebel.nl/

The Netherlands’ most pure restaurant; Natuurlijk.

Lisette Kreischer (Check HERE my previous article about her ), organised and thus invited me to the election of the The Puur Restaurant Week (Pure Restaurant Week), which took place yesterday in Restaurant Proef in the Westerpark in Amsterdam. The election took place for the 3^rd time and there are 324 participating restaurants. Proef has been founded 7 years ago by Marije Vogelzang and Piet Hekker in Rotterdam (he’s also founder of the Bakkerswinkel, which is just like Proef situated in the park). They moved to Amsterdam in 2006 and since last month Marije focuses on her work as a designer and Piet is running the restaurant on his own now. The restaurant looks industrial, cool and yet warm like a homey livingroom.

The audience was a mix of amongst other restaurant-owners, culinary journalists, biological ingredient suppliers, sponsors, bloggers and writers and other foodies. At 15.00h the guests received a welcome drink. Rabarbarella is a cocktail which reminded me of a smoothie, it had a beautiful texture and a very girlish-pretty-pink-colour, consisting of rhubarb, banana and  a hint of… vodka. The meeting started with an introduction by Jeannette van Mullem, the initiator of the Puur Restaurant Week, with a welcome-word and an explanation of the Puur Restaurant Week. All participating restaurants offer a 3 course honest, fair and pure menu. The Ambassador of this one-week-lasting event; cook and tv- maker Ramon Beuk, was unfortunately not present, but we were shown a short movie he made to promote the week, check below (in Dutch);

Jeannette told us; “I hope the culinary journalists present, will spread the word about the Puur Restaurant Week. Everyone should know about this election and about the Pure Week and about how honest and pure the nominated pure restaurants are. While showing a Powerpoint presentation, she informed the audience more in-debt about the the Puur Restaurant Week and also pictures were shown of the dishes the jury-members had tasted. These dishes will be the same dishes you can eat when you visit and choose the pure menu! The participating restaurants were assessed by questionnaires filled in by guests and the goals was to pick out the 5 best, but the jury had such a tough job they decided to make it 6. All the conditions of the Puur Restaurant Week had to be taken into account; biological ingredients, fair-trade food and sustainably caught fish; also the menus  were evaluated on flavour, quality and presentation of the dish. The jury consisted of Jeannette van Mullem, Jeroen Thijssen, culinary journalist of Dutch newspaper Trouw, the Chief editor of Misset Horeca; Martine Zuil, Chief editor of Dutch foodie magazine Delicious; Makkie Mulder and of course the ambassador of the week; Ramon Beuk. During the event we were offered fairtrade, organic and sustainably prepared drinks and snacks. I tested a banana-beer… very interesting but perhaps more suitable for a tropical beach than a fall day in Amsterdam.

The nominees were;

• Aangenaam in Haarlem. The jury was impressed by a quinoa salad.  Aangenaam is the Dutch word for agreeable, pleasant, pleasing and the jury said that that’s exactly what their dinner in this place was.
• De Culinaire Werkplaats from Amsterdam (The Culinary Workplace; See my previous article about De Culinaire Werkplaats HERE). Eric Meurs and Marjolijn Wintjes were the only restaurant-owners who could unfortunately not attend this event. De Culinaire Werkplaats is a restaurant where you experience food, where you learn about food, where food and art are one.
• Fifteen in  Amsterdam prepared a bruschetta with tomatoe, olive oil and basilicum. This place, founded by Sarriel Taus, cooks tasty, is sociable and sustainable according to the judges.
• In Merkelbach in Amsterdam, Jeanette herself was the lucky jury-member to have dinner and she tried seabass, puree of parsnip, “oerwortel”  (which is translated as prehistoric carrot, but I have no idea if that is also the English name) and pancetta. She said this place has an elegant way of cooking.
• Natuurlijk in Egmond presented a loin beef carpaccio with old cheese, pineseeds and applesirup. The judge (Dutch newspaper Trouw culinairy journalist Jeroen Thijssen) described this place as Ridder in de orde van duurzaamheid  (In English this would be translated as “Knight in the order of Sustainability”, derived from The Order of Orange-Nassau, in Dutch: Orde van Oranje-Nassau, which is a military and civil order of The Netherlands, created on April 4 1892 by the Queen regent Emma of The Netherlands, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina.
• De Veldkeuken (The Fieldkitchen) in Culemborg, presented their assigned judge with bread with seeds, goat-cheese, walnuts and honey. The judgement was that the restaurant is very special on a very special spot.  A pearl in Culemborg, situated next to the river the Lek.

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The winner was Natuurlijk in Egmond aan Zee. Natuurlijk means natural or of course. Natuurlijk took the concepts of sustainable, fair trade and biological and presented them in an approachable way. They stimulate sustainability in every way and are very accesible. The winners Niels en Mirjam Gouda,who opened their restaurant only 7 months ago, and the other nominees, received awards and of course great fame and publicity. The owner of winning Natuurlijk mentioned her restaurant is only open for 7 months. I saw on their website that on top of the food the offer some extra’s I’m definitely interested in! As a goodbye we received a pure bonbon made by Van chocolade. On their website I see they make chocolates from amongst others salvia, wasabi and even gorgonzola. Wow. I’ll definitely keep you updated about my opinion on those!

What do you think of the Puur Restaurant Week? Would you go? Did you try any of these restaurants? What was your experience?

More info;
Lisette Kreischer has got a new website and it’s gorgeous; http://www.lisettekreischer.com
All about & to make reservations Puur Restaurant Week http://www.puurrestaurantweek.nl
Restaurant Natuurlijk in Egmond aan Zee http://www.natuurlijk-egmond.nl
Restaurant Proef in Amsterdam http://www.proefamsterdam.nl
Restaurant Aangenaam in Haarlem http://www.aangenaametenendrinken.nl
De Culinaire Werkplaats http://www.deculinairewerkplaats.nl
Fifteen Amsterdam http://www.fifteen.nl
Restaurant Merkelbach in Amsterdam http://www.restaurantmerkelbach.nl
Restaurant de Veldkeuken in Culemborg http://www.veldkeuken.nl
Van chocolade http://www.vanchocolade.nl

Pure Pact by Veggie in Pumps at De Culinaire Werkplaats

As announced, Lisette Kreischer of (amongst others) Veggie in Pumps (http://www.veggieinpumps.com), invited me to the official presentation and Dutch product- launch of Pure Pact; a new organic haircare productline (http://www.purepact.nl). Last Tuesday this happening took place at De Culinaire Werkplaats in Amsterdam (http://www.deculinairewerkplaats.nl).

 

I can’t give you my opinion on the products yet, I’ll take my time to test them and will keep you posted. Everyone who I’ve met who tried the products though, was super-enthusiastic, amongst which Dianne te Mebel, director and owner of Instituut Haar en Gezondheid (http://www.instituuthaarengezondheid.nl), a hair-saloon in Amsterdam which specialises in working with (and particularly painting with) natural products. They are one of Holland’s first saloons to use Pure Pact.

If Pure Pact is as good and honest as they say (100% purity allows raw material to activate long after application. 100% pure organics – from herbs, plants, flowers and fruits – extracted with the newest technologies for the purest result, preserve the maximum from nature’s gifts for cosmetic use), I’ll become a fan. I’ll let you know! My comment so far is that I wonder what is the meaning of all those ingredients on the packages… is it all truly biological and ecological? Minus; I want to know what’s in the products I use and I’m not a scientist.

BUT;

Lisette, now I’ve met you live, I’m even more impressed with your style. You know how to market a product and organise an event. No, to create an experience! Of course she didn’t do it alone, so big up for the whole team of Veggie in Pumps; I also had the pleasure to meet Amadea, Dieke and Marloes.

As expected, I love the location the event took place at; De Culinaire Werkplaats is a beautiful experience on its own, their team made very good vegan snacks to trigger all senses, with flavours connecting to the Pure Pact products. For example;a “cocktail” of black carrot, lime and cres, a “spoonfull” explosion of chocolate, strawberry and mint, or vegan “bitterballen” with quinoa and sesame and soy-yoghurtsauce- very impressive! This has been the first time I liked a soya-“dairy”-product. My favourite snack was chips made of lotus root. I’d never seen a fresh lotus root so I asked Eric Meursing (together with Marjolein Wintjes he is creator of de Culinaire Werkplaats), where I could buy one and he gave me one. I’ll also let you know what I did with it soon! Also I would like to thank the beautiful “Kleine Medewerker” of De Culinaire Werkplaats, because she seemed to put passion and love in the lovely snacks she was making. They turned me on!

I met some interesting and inspiring people at this excellent networking event ; June, with her stylish blog on tips and ideas on ethical fashion, eco beauty, fair food en eco travel;   (http://www.followjune.nl) , Liv, a “beautyblogger”, who blogs about natural cosmetics, ethical fashion and pure food; (http://puraliv.blogspot.com), I also met two lovely ladies from Den Haag & Rotterdam (forgot your names, sorry!), one of them is working together with Lisette to develop an innovative and unique concept, I’ll see if they’ll allow me to write about that when the development hits a next stage. And last but not least, thank you Dieke for the nice head & shoulders massage! Very relaxing and very recommendable(http://www.salonphysique.nl).

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