722 replies to this topic

[Chufi]

By the way, Grub and Klary, I've heard that bread-thickened stews are still common in Scandinavia - are they part of traditional Dutch cooking too? And if so, are they associated with particular areas?

There is a tradition to thicken the juices of the butter braised beef with a slice of soft gingerbread. Not sure if that's only done in certain regions though.

I don't know of any braises that are thickened with ordinary bread.

[helenjp]

A slice of soft gingerbread! Wow!
Thank you so much for your work showing us Dutch cooking - it's really nice to see the materials and the process, as well as the finished dish.

[Chufi]

Again, thanks everyone for all your kind words. And thank you snowangel for the post with the links!

Here's another one.. appeltaart , apple pie.
Now ofcourse, applepie is made all over the world and there are probably as many recipes as there are bakers. Still I think that apple pie, at least in my family recipe, has some uniquely Dutch characteristics. Please correct me, if I'm wrong

Dutch applepie is usually made with selfraising flour, which produces a light, crumbly crust. The filling is rather dry and firm, with recognizable slices of apple. Not much liquid. (which is maybe why so many people prefer a large serving of whipped cream with their pie..)

The traditional apple to use is the goudreinette, which I think is known abroad as Belle de Boskoop. It is a large, tart, crisp apple that doesn't fall apart when cooked in the pie.




For the crust:

300 grams selfraising flour
200 grams soft butter
150 grams sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg

For the filling
ca. 1 kilo tart apples (unprepared weight)
50 grams (vanilla) sugar
50 grams raisins
2 tablespoons of sucade
1 - 2 teaspoons cinnamon
oatmeal or breadcrumbs, if necessary

1 beaten egg to glaze
1 springform tin 22 cm, buttered and floured

Sucade is the candied rind of a fruit called citrus medica. I've never seen the fresh fruit. The candied rind is used in applepie, in the famous newyears eve fritters oliebollen, as a flavouring in raisin- and gingerbread. It's a bit oldfashioned to use in homebaking but I like it and it's pretty.. It has a sweet, slightly orangey flavor and a chewy texture.


Preheat oven to 175 C / 350 F.
Mix all the ingredients for the dough together and use about 3/4 to line the springformtin. The dough will be sticky and a bit hard to handle, the easiest way to get it into the tin is to put clumps of it on the bottom, and then use your fingers (dipping them in cold water every now and then to prevent sticking) or the back of a spoon (ditto) to spread it evenly over the bottom and sides.



Peel, core and quarter the apples and slice them thinly. Mix with the other filling ingredients and put in the tin (If you use apples that will collapse during cooking and will shed a lot of liquid, put a handful of breadcrumbs or a layer of oatmeal on the bottom before putting in the filing).
Roll the leftover dough into thin strips with your hands, and use them to make a lattice pattern on top of the filling. Glaze with the beaten egg.


Bake for about 50 minutes at 175 C / 350 F, or until golden brown and risen. Don't overbake or it will be dry.



Here you can see how the appleslices have held their shape, and the texture of the crust.



In Holland applepie is often served with whipped cream, with a cup of morning coffee.

The recipe is also here in Recipe Gullet

Edited by Chufi, 21 November 2005 - 07:25 AM.

[Megan Blocker]

That pie is beautiful Klary, and well-timed! Hopefully someone will be able to add it to their Thanksgiving menu and report back...alas, my family will be eating at a restaurant this year (since we have lots of people and a wedding over the weekend), so I'll have to wait a little while to try this out.

ETA: For those of you who don't read the Dinner! thread, I made the butter-braised chicken for my little bro on Sunday, and it was a big hit. Delicious - Klary was right on about the gravy. Wowza.

Edited by Megan Blocker, 22 November 2005 - 09:34 AM.

[Swisskaese]

Lekker Klary!

The Appeltaart reminds me of my grandmothers Apfel Kuchen.

[handmc]

Now that is PIE!

Hope you are feeling better.

[Pan]

According to http://www.kingherb.com, citrus medica is called finger citron or buddhas hand citron in English. They also give a transliteration of a Chinese name, fo shou. http://www.dreddycli...dic_herbs_c.htm gives the English name simply as citron, which I suspect is correct. I could see where candied citron would go well in an apple pie.

[fifi]

Oh Good Grief! I have spent quite a bit of time in Amsterdam and The Hague and I have never found such a treasure as this on Dutch cooking. And, believe me, I have looked. I mean treasure in the truest sense of the word. I can't thank you enough.

[Abra]

I want to report that I made a speculaas flavored panna cotta that was fabulous. I did a regular panna cotta with a bit of honey and vanilla, and added a couple of teaspoons of speculaas spices. Since I was serving it with vin de noix, I also added a tablespoon of that, but you wouldn't need to. It made a really delicious, ultra-simple holiday-tasting dessert.

[Hector]

I would love a nice recipe for a dish I encountered in Arhem or anything. If anyone has a recipe like this, please tell me.. It was the most simple thing: White aspargus baked with some great quality ham, and boiled eggs. and that was it. A nice warm rustique creation.

And why are the dutch so crazy about peanuts??

Edited by Hector, 22 November 2005 - 10:18 AM.

[Chufi]

Oh Good Grief! I have spent quite a bit of time in Amsterdam and The Hague and I have never found such a treasure as this on Dutch cooking. And, believe me, I have looked. I mean treasure in the truest sense of the word. I can't thank you enough.

Thanks fifi!!

I want to report that I made a speculaas flavored panna cotta that was fabulous.  I did a regular panna cotta with a bit of honey and vanilla, and added a couple of teaspoons of speculaas spices.  Since I was serving it with vin de noix, I also added a tablespoon of that, but you wouldn't need to.  It made a really delicious, ultra-simple holiday-tasting dessert.

Abra, that sounds delicious. What a great idea. Now I am thinking that maybe speculaasflavored creme brulee might also work.. what do you think?

I would love a nice recipe for a dish I encountered in Arhem or anything. If anyone has a recipe like this, please tell me.. It was the most simple thing: White aspargus baked with some great quality ham, and boiled eggs. and that was it. A nice warm rustique creation.

Hector, this

is the traditional way to eat white asparagus (when in season): with new potatoes, boiled eggs, ham and lots of melted butter. Was the dish you had, asparagus and ham baked together like a gratin? was there cheese on it, or just butter?

[Poffertjes]

Chufi,


For the Citrus Medica, what do you recommend for a substitute?

Candied lemon peel?

I wanted to make your pie for thanksgiving. My dutch grandfather should like it.

If anyone has a substitute suggestion I would appreciate it.
Please keep in mind I will be doing this baking out in Iowa, no access to Whole Foods or ethnic grocery stores.

pof

[ScorchedPalate]

In the U.S., you can use the candied citron that they sell at holiday time for use in fruitcakes and pannetone. In California, at least, it's sold in translucent plastic tubs, in the produce section with other candied fruits (such as those nasty fake-red cherries and ultra-green pinapple), or sometimes on the baking aisle. You usually can only find it from October through Christmas.


You can also buy it mail-order from a variety of internet sources, if you find yourself in need of it during the off season.

Edited to add: You could also just use golden raisins (in addition to the dark raisins) in its place. I have a few recipes for dutch apple pie that don't have citron at all.

Edited by ScorchedPalate, 22 November 2005 - 12:14 PM.

[Chufi]

For the Citrus Medica, what do you recommend for a substitute?

Candied lemon peel?

In the U.S., you can use the candied citron that they sell at holiday time for use in fruitcakes and pannetone.
Edited to add: You could also just use golden raisins (in addition to the dark raisins) in its place. I have a few recipes for dutch apple pie that don't have citron at all.

ScorchedPalate, thanks for the info on candied citron.

Poffertjes, you could also add some candied orangerind.
A friend of mine always adds some chopped up dried apricots to his applepie. Like the citron, this adds not only flavor, but texture. Don't soak them so they stay a bit chewy.

edited to add: I'm now thinking that for Thanksgiving, maybe dried cranberries would make a nice addition to this pie!

Edited by Chufi, 22 November 2005 - 01:35 PM.

[Abra]

Sure, I think speculaas creme brulee would be yummy. Some of the spices drifted up to the top in the gelling process of the panna cotta, making a very slightly crunchy spicy top layer that was really nice.

[Chufi]

Kruidkoek - Spicy gingerbread.

This makes a very spicy, 'adult' gingerbread. I like it like that, but if you want a sweeter, mellower version, omit the pepper and powdered ginger .

150 grams soft butter
200 rams soft dark brown sugar
3 eggs
200 grams selfraising flour
pinch of salt
spice mix:
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grond cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspooon ground powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons gingersyrup
3 tablespoons milk
50 grams chopped preserved ginger
50 grams chopped sucade (candied citron) - optional

spices


ginger, citron and gingersyrup


Preheat the oven to 160 C / 320 F
Cream the butter and the sugar until really fluffy. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the spices



the flour, salt, syrup, milk, ginger and citron. Mix well. Pour into a greased cake tin, lined with baking paper (I used a 10 x 30 cm loaf tin). Bake for about 1 hour, until well risen. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out dry.
It makes a soft, moist loaf that will keep very well, the flavor even gets better after a couple of days. Really good on it's own and even better spread with butter...

Edited by Chufi, 25 November 2005 - 02:12 PM.

[Abra]

Is the gingersyrup the syrup from bottled, preserved ginger, or something you make? I detest citron, so I'm glad to see that (optional) next to it!

[Chufi]

Is the gingersyrup the syrup from bottled, preserved ginger, or something you make?  I detest citron, so I'm glad to see that (optional) next to it!

yes, it's the syrup from the jar preserved ginger that I saw in your blog, the one that is exactly the same as mine
I changed 'crystallized ginger' to 'preserved ginger' in the recipe, sometimes the translation-thing confuses me..

The sucade (citron) is optional, I only put it in because I had some left after making the applepie. Although you can buy gingerbread in the shops over here that is loaded with citron!!

edited for clarification

Edited by Chufi, 25 November 2005 - 03:43 PM.

[helenjp]

I made your apple pie yesterday Chufi, and my enthusiastic family finished it up for breakfast.

It's too early in the season here for the fresh Buddha's hand citron, and I didn't preserve any citrus peel last year, so I added thickish shreds of tangerine/mandarin peel.

[shelly59]

I made the gingerbread today, Chufi, and it was a great success with everyone. What a wonderful recipe, thank you.

Edited by shelly59, 27 November 2005 - 06:01 PM.

[Chufi]

wow, everyone keeps on going cooking Dutch food! I love it!

Today I bought some very old Dutch cheese:



The one on the right is 2 years old, it's made in the Dutch province Noord Holland (where Amsterdam is). The one on the left is 3 years old and made on the farm Elisabethhoeve in IJsselstein, a town to the east of Amsterdam.
You can see the crystallization in the cheeses.. both are delicious, with a salty but mellow flavor, very rich and buttery in your mouth. The 3-year old has a slightly more concentrated flavor and the texture is a bit harder and drier.

I also bought a jar of appelstroop

This is a very concentrated applepaste (about 3 kilo of fruit went into this little jar). The hilly landscape you see pictured on the jar is what the province of Limburg, where this appelstroop is made, looks like. The applepaste will also feature in tonight's dinner, in a recipe from that province.

Cheese and appelstroop, two great things, better together.. lunch:

[azureus]

Today I bought some very old Dutch cheese:



The one on the right is 2 years old, it's made in the Dutch province Noord Holland (where Amsterdam is). The one on the left is 3 years old and made on the farm Elisabethhoeve in IJsselstein, a town to the east of Amsterdam.
You can see the crystallization in the cheeses.. both are delicious, with a salty but mellow flavor, very rich and buttery in your mouth. The 3-year old has a slightly more concentrated flavor and the texture is a bit harder and drier.

Thank you for the cheese pics! The three-year old cheese does look very close to the cheese that I ate a few weeks ago. I'm visiting my friends again for New Years, so I'm hoping to get some more of that cheese then.

The appelstroop looks similar to what we call apple butter or apple cheese here. Does it have sugar and spices added to it?

Dutch Apple Pie was at our Thanksgiving gathering as well. Everyone loved it! I'll try to post some photos soon.

April

[Chufi]

The appelstroop looks similar to what we call apple butter or apple cheese here.  Does it have sugar and spices added to it?

I looked at the jar, and it seems it's nothing but applejuice, cooked down until it's a paste. No sugar or anything added. It has a tart, very deep flavor.

Dutch Apple Pie was at our Thanksgiving gathering as well.  Everyone loved it!  I'll try to post some photos soon.

[Kevin72]

These pictures and recipes are so, so, so fantastic. The appeltaart in particular is a standout.

Is there a dish in Dutch cooking called appel skivvers or something similar? Little balls of dough with apple in them? You have to buy a specialized griddle for them. My mom bought it a few years back and made them and they're quite a production!

[Chufi]

Today it's time to broaden my horizon a bit and leave the farmland surrounding Amsterdam - where both my parents grew up on farms, and where many of the recipes so far have been coming from - and the province of Friesland, which I have a particular fondness for, maybe because my father's ancestors are from Friesland.. anyway, today I'm looking south.
I think we spoke about the province of Limburg upthread.. Limburg is traditionally seen as the most 'burgundian' province of the Netherlands.. it is a predominantly catholic province and the people there are known for their food and ofcourse their beer.. many good beers are being made there.. maybe I should write about them also some day.

In Limburg dialect this dish is called Kenien in 't zoer, which in Dutch would be Konijn in het zuur - Sour Rabbit

Ingredients


two rabbit legs (actually I ended up cooking 3 legs, without changing the rest of the recipe, and I think you could just as well cook 4 legs with these ingredients)
50 grams of butter
1 onion, finely minced
2 bayleaves
2 teaspoons soft brown sugar
10 ml. red wine vinegar
20 ml. water
1 slice of soft gingerbread
2 teaspoons appelstroop
12 dried prunes (pitted and soaked, or use ready-to-eat dried prunes)
salt and pepper.

Season the rabbit with salt and pepper.
Melt the butter and slowly, thoroughly brown the rabbitpieces. When they are nicely browned, add the chopped onion. Cook for a couple of minutes until the onion has softened.
Add the bayleaves, sugar, vinegar and water to the pan. Let bubble for a bit, then turn the heat to low and simmer the rabbit over very low heat until tender (about 1 hour should do it).

Take the rabbit from the pan. Turn the heat to medium. Crumble the slice of gingerbread into the pan

and cook for a minute or so until the sauce has thickened a bit. Turn the heat to low again, add the appelstroop to the sauce and stir until melted. Taste for salt and pepper. Put the Rabbit back in, add the prunes and serve (or reheat later).
It now looks like this:


I served this with Hete Bliksem, 'hot lightning', a mash made of apples and potatoes. The 'hot' part does not refer to spicyness, but to the fact that the apples retain the heat much longer than potatoes, so this is a mash that can burn your tongue!

In Holland, traditionally only 'zoete appels' (sweet apples) are used for this dish. However these are now hard to buy. I got a bag from my aunt this weekend, she knows someone who grows these:

However I have seen many recipes that use other kinds of apples, or even pears. Use any kind of firm, not too tart apple and this will taste great.

Equal amounts of apples and potatoes


Cook in salted until tender, then mash together with a knob of butter and a splash of milk. I like it best when not too thoroughly mashed, it should still have some texture.

All together on the plate (with a couple of strips of smoked bacon because I thought that would be a nice flavor contrast)


The sauce was really good, quite tart but with a lovely depth of flavor. I had never used gingerbread to thicken a sauce like this but it was great. ideally you should not use a gingerbread that has pieces of ginger or citron in it, but I just picked them out of the slice I had left from last week, thinking it would still be better to use my own homemade bread for this!

[Chufi]

These pictures and recipes are so, so, so fantastic.  The appeltaart in particular is a standout.

Is there a dish in Dutch cooking called appel skivvers or something similar?  Little balls of dough with apple in them? You have to buy a specialized griddle for them.  My mom bought it a few years back and made them and they're quite a production!

Thanks Kevin

now.. apple skivvers that does not really sound like a Dutch word to me..
are you sure that's a Dutch dish? Could you tell me a bit more about them?

[Kevin72]

It was a phonetic spelling. I've Googled it and can't come up with anything close.

You make a batter, spoon it into a round mold, mound slivered apple over the top, and then cook until golden. Then you carefully flip it in the mold so that the whole thing comes out perfectly round. Man, this is no help at all. Just the spelling of "appel" upthread got me to wondering. I'll ask Mom about it and come back.


Holy crap that rabbit dish looks great! And I love crumbling the gingerbread into the sauce!

[azureus]

Is there a dish in Dutch cooking called appel skivvers or something similar?  Little balls of dough with apple in them? You have to buy a specialized griddle for them.  My mom bought it a few years back and made them and they're quite a production!

Thanks Kevin

now.. apple skivvers that does not really sound like a Dutch word to me..
are you sure that's a Dutch dish? Could you tell me a bit more about them?

The Danes make abelskivvers, which are spherical "pancakes" cooked in a pan with hemispherical indentations. My DH's Danish grandma has promised to give me her abelskivver pan someday. . .

April

[Chufi]

The Danes make abelskivvers, which are spherical "pancakes" cooked in a pan with hemispherical indentations.  My DH's Danish grandma has promised to give me her abelskivver pan someday. . .

April

thanks April! so, not Dutch but Danish.. I'm glad, I was getting worried that there was a Dutch appledish out there that I had never heard of

Edited by Chufi, 28 November 2005 - 01:36 PM.

[Abra]

I make that apple and potato dish too, in its German incarnation, where it's called Himmel und Erde, Heaven and Earth. Onions and bacon, sauteed together, make up the topping. It's peculiarly delicious. And now that I think of it, using the gingerbread as a thickener seems German too, since lots of Sauerbrauten recipes call for gingerbread, or gingersnaps. That's a thing we don't do in my part of the world, thicken gravies with bread or cookies. I wonder why not.

And yes, aebleskiver can have apples in the center, or jam, or be eaten just plain. The pans are available online - just Googling I see that you can get one here. They say not to use them on a flat top electric stove, by which I assume they mean a glass or ceramic top. That's what I have, and although I haven't made any aebleskiver for a long time, and maybe not on this stove, I've never thought that it would be a problem. Does anyone know what the issue would be?