Chufi

Mushroom barley soup with thyme-gouda toasts: the soup was made with fresh portobella's and chestnut mushrooms, and dried porcini and dried shii takes. A splash of Marsala to finish. Gooood.. for dessert, little savarins soaked in orange liqueur. I got these cute little savarin molds as a present yesterday and I just had to use them immediately..

One of my favorite savoury tarts is mushrooms and leeks: Leeks sweated in butter until soft. Mushrooms seared in hot dry pan until they begin to leak their juice. Bound with a dollop of creme fraiche, flavored with thyme, a scrap of garlic, and some nutmeg. (Don't omit the nutmeg) Sprinkled with a little bit of gruyere or other cheese. Another great one is caramelized belgian endive (endives quartered and briefly panfried) with pancetta.

was that a sweet or a savoury dish? I think it could go both ways and both would be delicious. But knowing your posts, I'm guessing this was dessert..

In my experience (lived in Amsterdam for 35 years) fresh beef is one of the most common meats, right beside pork and chicken. I would say lamb is much less common. Meatballs, sausages, schnitzels and other cuts that cook quickly are very popular. Some Dutch classics are prepared in one pot (stamppot for example, a typical winter dish of potatoes mashed with a vegetable (sauerkraut, kale, turniptops..) or splitpeasoup), but a typical dutch meal (the kind most people still have on a day to day basis) is not cooked in one pot but in 3. It consists of a piece of meat (pan fried or braised), a cooked vegetable and boiled potatoes. The frying or braising of the meat provides a gravy that is poured over the boiled potatoes. Gravy is very important! Dessert often is just a bowl of custard or fruityoghurt. Ofcourse even in the Netherlands we have been introduced to foreign cuisines. In supermarkets you will find many "exotic " ingredients readily available. Like children all over the planet, Dutch children can be picky eaters. However I think these children are lucky to have someone from another country come and cook for them. If you were coming to cook for my children, I would love it if you would introduce them to new flavours and customs, instead of cooking them the things that they're already used to. But that's up to the parents I guess! So maybe you can ask them in advance what their opinions on the subject are. What's the name of the town you're going to live in?

I wanted to make sticky rice, but all the recipes I looked at intimidated me with their mention of special cookers and bamboo steamers. Then, when I was at my Asian market, I saw these: I asked the owner how to cook them and he said "just put in boiling water until it looks done". He also said that it was less stickier than the loose variety of sticky rice he sold, but was still sticky rice. So I bought it and I have to say I was pleased with the result. Very, very easy (which is a big plus for some-one with rice-fear, like me), and a good sticky consistency. Anyway.. tadaa.. I am very happy to announce that yet another Egulleter is under the spell of Larb! I made larb! With beef, laos, mint & coriander. It was great. Next time I'll play around with the flavors a bit.. I think I would like it a bit more sour and a bit spicier. Can't wait to try it with other meats. Sri Owen gives a larb recipe for duck in her Rice book, that sounds lovely. So tonights dinner: Tom Ka Khai Larb on little gem lettuce with sticky rice!

Inspired by the wonderful Thai cooking at home thread I cooked a 'sort of' Thai dinner tonight. It was fun and it tasted good, but as I was cooking, I realized how insecure I was about what I was doing. This cuisine feels totally strange to me. I had to check the recipe over and over, I felt I could not trust my own judgment etc. The same thing happened when I was cooking an Indian curry a couple of weeks ago. Now the obvious answer would be that it's all about practice and getting used to new ingredients and procedures. I'm sure getting practice would help, but I'm thinking maybe some cuisines just suit some people better than others. I've done other 'complicated' and new things that came natural to me from the start. When I started experimenting with Middle Eastern dishes, I immediately had a feeling for the spices, the flavor balance etc. When I made my first mole, ofcourse I had to check the recipe but it made sense in a way a Thai recipe just doesn't (to me). I'd be interested to know if anyone shares this experience

Well, tonight was my first attempt at Thai food in a looong time. I made Thai fish cakes (made with cod and green beans) and a sort of Pad Thai, with shrimp and baby squid. Sort of because I did not have rice noodles so used udon noodles instead . Two dipping sauces for the fishcakes: sesame lime (home made) and sweet chili (from a bottle). Tasted and looked great.. was a lot of work though for something that looks so simple on the plate!

raspberry and pine nut is an amazing combination.. I have a recipe for a raspberry-pine nut crumble cake.. need to dig that up again, thanks for reminding me! My most delicious thing of the day was a piece of perfectly ripe Morbier cheese with whole weat crackers.

Yes, I make a simple dumpling mixture of flour, butter, milk and herbs. Roll into small dumplings, put on top of the soup, cover the pot and put in the oven. I love dumplings - I love their doughy texture and they look so cute on a soup or stew.

Salmon fillet with a coconut, cardamom, ginger & chile topping Fennel and potatoes cooked in white wine with cumin and mustardseeds. A piece of milkchocolate with whole hazelnuts for dessert.

This only works with raw, unpeeled prawns: Baked prawns with garlic and chili Put prawns in a single layer in an ovenproof dish (or in individual dishes) Pour in olive oil to come half way up the prawns (yes, that's a lot of oil. You need to choose your dish carefully, so that the prawns are really packed in there). Sprinkle with salt. Throw in a couple of peeled garlic cloves. Cut some fresh red chillies in large pieces and throw them in as well. Put in a very hot oven for about 5 minutes. The oil will be boiling hot and the prawns lightly browned. The best part about this dish is the oil. It's flavour is so delicious that you'll want to drink it! So serve with lots of crusty bread to dunk in the oil. It's a messy dish to eat, but it's worth it.. edited to add that this is a recipe from Jane Grigson's Fish Book. She says the recipe was given to her by a Portuguese cabdriver in New York.

Yesterday I made Hungarian beef paprika soup, flavored with sweet paprika and caraway. Finished in the oven with parsley/chive dumplings, and served with a dollop of sour cream. Very, very good.

Today I had my favorite Sunday breakfast: freshly squeezed orange juice (today it was blood orange juice, which is even better) a soft boiled egg a hot piece of toast, buttered a couple of slices of mature cheese

Swiss chef, when I forst looked at the pictire of the filet with two sauces, I thought it was a dessert! very luscious looking piece of meat. Your dinners look great Octaveman. Suzy, polenta and mushrooms is one of my favorite combinations! Yesterday I made risotto with red cabbage, bacon, red wine and rosemary (based on a Marcella Hazan recipe, but the wine and rosemary were my additions). Now I know that this does not look pretty.. but the flavor was absolutely amazing. The cabbage melted away into the rice, the whole dish had a round, mellow and very satisfying flavor. dessert: chocolate cinnamon pistachio cake:

I had some left over Shula kalambar (brown lentils and spinach cooked separately, then mixed together with a large knob of butter, seasoned with ground coriander & cumin seeds and some minced garlic). Turned it into soup by adding a little bit of crumbled porcini stock cube and water.. pureed .. it ended up a thick, earthy and delicious soup. It also had an amazing color: very dark, moss green.

I also like the slow stuff. Having something on the stove, simmering away for hours, checking in on it regularly, and watching textures and flavors change. Also baking. Making pastry. Bread dough. Actually, anything that changes texture while you're working on it - like pastry, whipping eggwhites, whipping cream, making mayonaise. Sooo satisfying.

Dinner started with these: pieces of bread dough, fried in oil first, then briefly grilled with a topping of tomatoes, artichokes and mozzarella. After that we had Shula Kalambar, a dish of buttery lentils & spinach, lightly spiced with garlic, cumin and corianderseeds. To go with that, a mushroom chive frittata.

Spaghetti with red onions, garlic, rosemary, walnuts and roast cherry tomatoes: dessert: ricepudding made from leftover basmatirice, flavored with cardamom & coconut, with pistachio's:

salt sugar fat

there's nothing like joining EGullet for getting you out of your cooking rut! looking forward to your meals, please report back!

as for the word curry, I think it's interesting that as far as I know, the word is the same in most European languages. Only the Dutch (ofcourse) had to go and 'translate' it into kerrie

That looks great Chris! Yours is much yellower and therefore more curry-looking then mine - more turmeric I guess? One question: did you grind the coriander and cumin yourself and if so, did you roast them before grinding?

when cleaning out and reorganizing your pantry and spice cabinet, is your idea of spending a relaxing Saturday afternoon.

Dinner was great. After 2 hours of simmering, the lamb was tender but the liquid was quite thin, so I cooked it for another half hour uncovered, to thicken. Served it with rice and home made coriander paratha's. It was very rich and quite mild. One observation: you really need to blend the spice paste very well. I think mine was not blended enough, it had too much texture, and I had one or two bites where I could actually taste a little piece of coriander seed or cardamom.

well, my curry adventure is on the way. I'm making Rogan Josh, from a Madhur Jaffrey recipe. here's everything lined up. In the small green bowl are cloves, cardamom, pepper corns and dried chillies: the frying spices. On the oval white plate are dried coconut, chopped almonds, cumin seeds and coriander seeds: the roasting 'spices'. In the small white bowl are mace, nutmeg and turmeric: to be added to the paste as they are. Here the meat is fried in batches in ghee, together with the frying spices. The roasting spices are roasted and then put in the blender together with the fried spices, nutmeg, mace & turmeric. To the blender are added: ginger, garlic and water. This is blended to a paste. Onions are fried in ghee and to this the paste is added and slowly fried: Yoghurt, chopped tomatoes and water are added. This sauce joins the meat for some gentle simmering: My notes so far: This is very different from the way I usually cook. I noticed that I kept going back to the recipe dozens of times, because I was always wondering if I was doing it right. Some things seemed strange: using whole cardamom pods for the paste, frying spices before adding meat, etc. having never worked with ghee before, I can now say Ghee is Good! Can't wait to taste it..