Chufi

thanks for helping me out with the time difference! The Dutch word for Rucola is actually raketsla, which means rocket lettuce. But Rucola is the most commonly used word for it. I'll post the pudding recipe later.

I'm so glad. All I could think of during my own work day, was that I wanted to go home and blog! it's so addictive!

hey, if I can go there..

yes those kikker glasses.. I have maybe 10 different ones and my husband teases me about them.. but I like them! there's a different one for every mood! The rice comes from a shop called Delicious Food (why oh why do the Dutch feel the need to give their shops English names?) it's on the Westerstraat near the Noordermarkt.

Tonights dinner: curried parsnip soup, lamb meatballs, rucola salad, red rice salad, semolina pudding. The red rice somehow made me think of middle eastern flavors, so I made lamb meatballs with seasonings adapted from a Claudia Roden recipe. In the bowl with the mince are: finely chopped onions, parsley, chopped pinenuts, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, salt & pepper. Glass of wine for the cook and today's soundtrack: Patty Griffin, Impossible Dream: we started with the parsnip soup.. very good, quite spicy, but with a lovely round flavor and smooth texture: I cooked the rice the way it was suggested upthread (by behemoth if I'm correct). When it was cooked, I mixed it with sauteed leeks and garlic, lots of chopped coriander, olive oil and lemon juice, and left it to cool. On the plate with the meatballs and rucola: Also on the plate is some (not home made) pumpkin chutney that went surprisingly well with the meatballs. I liked the rice. It has a chewy texture and an earthy, nutty flavor that goes well with meat and spicy food. I think it would also go well with goats cheese.. or something smoky.. smoked meat, or a spicy chorizo. Dessert: baked semolina pudding. Just out of the oven: and in the bowl with blackcurrant sauce (from the freezer, made last summer by my aunt) and pouring cream: My friend brought these cute after dinner chocolates, filled with different liqueurs:

breakfast this morning was a bowl of joghurt, granola & minneola (my current favorite citrus fruit ). Also in the picture is the lunch I took to work: a cheese/rucola sandwich, energybar, apple and banana: morning coffee at the office, from my Zabar's mug. I got the mug on my first visit to New York, last October. We had breakfast at Zabar's every day during our stay!

well it was freezing today. That sun is deceptive! typical dutch treats.. I don't know. There are some typical dutch sweets but they are mostly holiday stuff (Sinterklaas & Christmas) Then there is stamppot ofcourse, which is, I think, uniquely Dutch. It is a dish where potatoes are mashed with enough of another ingredient to transform them from a side dish to a main dish. The most famous one is made with curly kale. It's eaten with bacon and smoked pork sausage. When properly made, it's a good dish - very comforting, soothing winter-food. But I wouldn't call it a treat! Oh wait.. I just thought of an oldfashioned dutch pudding. Might make that tomorrow. no sugar added, just milk, mango, banana and oatmeal, so it was as healthy for them as it was for me!

Oh and I wanted to say I am very glad that this blog gives you all a favourable impression of Amsterdam. I really love my city and I am very proud of it! Spread the Amsterdam-love!

There wasn't any, because Dennis sat in the kitchen with me while I cooked and we chatted!!

Thank you all for your nice comments on my food! I have to say that tonight's dinner was one of those lucky coincidences where you produce a great dish wihout having put much thought or planning into it. I had the cod, I just added some things that I saw when I opened the fridge, and the result was great! Any way, I thought I would share some food-facts-of-life with you all. My husband is fond of joking about the fact that when he met me, 13 years ago, I could not cook. He likes to think it was his good influence that improved my culinary tastes and skills! He is probably right though. He does not cook ( I won't let him into the kitchen, I mean there's only so many meals you can cook in your lifetime, why would I give some of them up to him?) but he can eat! which is a talent in its own right I think. We have a lot of different interests but eating at home, and to a lesser extent, eating out, are some of the things we really enjoy doing together. Good food makes us happy! Anyway.. 13 years ago, I did not have a single cookbook and now I have this: I know this collection is nothing compared to others (if I read the Cookbooks - how many do you own thread) but I am proud of my collection and I love browsing through my books, rediscovering old favorites, and being inspired. Food was not very interesting or creative when I grew up, and I often wonder how it came about that I learned how to cook and how I developed a certain style. I think that's a very interesting topic, I might have to start a new thread on that some day! I have very strong likes and dislikes for food, not necessarily for ingredients but for certain styles of food or certain cuisines. I am open minded and like to think I would try anything once, but that means eating it, not cooking it. I still feel I have a lot of things to learn. One of my New Years resolutions was to make more things that I "always wanted to make but never dared to". Sofar this has resulted in baking my own sourdough bread, making ravioli, and roasting a leg of lamb. Future plans include: boiling a live lobster, more roasting of large joints, learning how to poach an egg, making beef stock, oh the list goes on and on. Oh, and wine. I know nothing about wine. Dennis knows about wine - we even have a wine cellar, although it's in the attic So, most of the time, I am in charge of buying the stuff for "daily" use, and he buys the bottles that have to be shut up in the wine cellar for the next 10 years. It's one of my goals to become more knowledgeable on this subject, and especially about pairing wine with food. While typing, I drank a glass of limoncello (brought to me from Italy by a neighbor). I'll finish with telling about some of my plans for the rest of the week: tomorrow a friend is coming over for dinner which means a meal a little more elaborate then if it were just the two of us.. I might even make dessert!! On Wednesday I hope to visit a frites shop. No specific dinner plans for Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, Dennis is taking me out for a surprise date.. .. I told him this date better involve some good food since it's the last night of my blog.. but he says I don't have to worry about that. So that will be a surprise for you as well as for me!

I don't mind if people add salt to my dishes.. but I do want them to taste first!! How else will they know how much salt they need? If they taste first and then decide that they need more salt to have the dish suit their taste, fine. But if they load salt on their plate without tasting first, I'm insulted.

wow Susan I could have your brunch for dinner!!

I have to work tomorrow so I get ahead for tomorrows dinner. I'm making curried parsnip soup. Like all Jane Grigson's recipes, it's deceptively simple but very, very good. Here are the spices for the currypowder - coriander seeds, dried red chiles, turmeric, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds. I grind them in my ancient grinder (that used to be my husbands' grandmothers coffeegrinder) and it turns out like this: Parsnips, onions and garlic sweating in some butter, then I add some flour and a tablespoon of the currypowder: After that, add stock and cook until the vegetables are tender.. and blended, it looks like this. In the picture, it looks sort of green, while it actually is a beautiful pale golden yellow! I will reheat it tomorrow with some cream: While preparing dinner, a drink for the cook. If you thought lasts night's beer was heavy (9%), this one, Kanon (which means cannon ) is actually 11.6 %!! Tonights dinner: roast green beans (if you never had these, you really should. It's the best way ever to eat green beans. I toss them in oil with some salt and roast them in a very hot oven for about 20 minutes, together with some unpeeled cloves of garlic. When done, I scrape the soft garlic out of the skins, and add that to a dressing with balsamic viegar. Ohh so good!) The other thing on the plate is a piece of cod, ovenroasted with lemon juice, capers, some chopped shallots and tomatoes: after that we have room for a little cheese plate, the dutch blue cheese and the Emmental I bought Saturday, with the last bit of the walnut sourdough bread:

this is what my rice looks like: I will try the method you mentioned tomorrow. I'm curious how it will turn out! It's so nice that people all over the world are thinking about my rice-problem!

I had a minneola for brakfast, and after that I went to the park. Dennis had the morning off so he joined me for my walk and my coffee (exept he had tea ) After that, a trip to the supermarket for staples, and to the Albert Cuypmarket for fruits & vegetables. Tomorrow a friend is coming for dinner. I asked him what he wanted to eat and he said: 'something weird, like parsnip". I know he loves curry, so I'm going to make Jane Grigson's curried parsnip soup.. and I need some spices for that so I go to the spice shop, where they have everything. The herbs and spices are alfabetized, and this is only the A-H section! It's quite a coincedence but as it's about lunchtime, I pass the haringkar. Time for some herring and some herring talk with the expert. So this is the story: in the winter, the herrings don't eat much and they get very skinny. Then in the spring they start to eat like crazy and they get very fat! Around May, the herring fishing season begins. The first barrel (if that's the correct word) is usually sold early june, for an enormous amount of money, that's donated to a charity. So the herring I bought today, was caught in the spring of 2004 and deep-frozen. Every spring there are only about 6 weeks that they're fishing for herring. So the supply has to last for about a year, because then the new ones are coming in. If there are any left over, they get shipped to Russia It's not the prettiest food but it sure tastes good! Many people eat herring with pickles and raw onions, but I like them just as they are, on a soft roll.

I had lunch at Morlang, a restaurant in the centre of Amsterdam on one of the canals (it's on the far right of the picture) One of my best friends is a waiter here and I often stop by to have coffee or lunch while I watch him work . Today he served me a raisin bagel with aged Gouda cheese (and some fries I tried not to eat..): As it's getting dark, I head over to another part of town to meet friends for a drink. Amsterdam has a couple of breweries, but this one, Brouwerij 't IJ, has by far the most picturesque location. It's in an old mill: It's always very crowded. Their bar hours are a bit weird, like shopping hours, so you can hear the call for the last round at about 7:30 pm . Below is their most famous beer, Columbus. It's strong (9%), sweet and has quite a strong effect on me. . I have one of those and then another one of their beers, Struis (meaning ostrich), also 9 %. After that... dinner has to be simple. (In the background, todays soundtrack: Lori McKenna - Pieces of me) I make a spicy, garlicky tomato-fennelsauce. I add the mussels I cooked yesterday. Toss it with spaghetti and lots of chopped coriander and then we eat in front of the tv (sometimes that's just what you have to do..):

they look good! but I think my rice is different. It's Camargue red rice, with a long thin grain that stays long and thin when cooked (I found 1 recipe, with picture, on Delia Smith's website), where as the grains in your links seem to break down in cooking. I had no idea I bought such an unusual ingredient!

see here and here for several suggestions in different price categories. Enjoy your stay and I would love to read your reports!

there's also the phenomenon of 'weekend headaches'. When you drink a lot of coffee at work (and many people do because 'taking a break' has become synonimous with 'having a cup of coffee', I have people at my office who drink at least 20 cups a day), chances are that on weekends, you get withdrawal symptoms because of the different coffee rhythm. I alternate regular coffee with decaf and I only have coffee in the morning, at a total of 3 cups maximum. I really don't like the way too much caffeine makes me feel!

I made a chorizo omelet for my husbands lunch. Next to it is my midmorning snack: some walnut sourdough bread with peanutbutter, and a glass of applejuice and this is a view from the kitchen where it's all happening, as seen in the 'butler mirror'. I love my kitchen. This was an empty space when we moved here, and we planned and designed the kitchen ourselves. It turned out exactly (or almost exactly anyway) the way I wanted it: I'm off for an afternoon of shopping. No not for food, sometimes a girl has to do another kind of shopping But I'll be meeting some friends along the way and I'm sure there'll be some food and drink involved.

Now, a question. I bought red rice yesterday because it looked pretty Now what can I do with it? none of my 200 + cookbooks seem to be able to offer a recipe. Any suggestions?

You can get haring (herring) all year, but the season for Hollandse Nieuwe (dutch new) herring starts in june. I'll try to get some more info on this.. looks my lunches for this week are booked, with fries and herring.. As for the Rijsttafel (ricetable), I'm afraid Indonesian food is not really my favorite! We eat Indonesian (or Thai, Chinese, etc.) in restaurants sometimes but I almost never cook it myself. Too bad for my husband because he loves this kind of food...

It's funny, because in Holland, all the good fries places call their fries "Belgian fries". Belgium is considered to be THE place for fries! I will try to have fries this week.. if they'll fit in with all the other things I want to eat! I make my own mayo all the time, but it's nothing like the mayo you get with your fries. Homemade mayo always comes out more like a sauce, much thinner. I suspect they put some kind of emulsifier in it in the mayo factory!

hehe I'm afraid not. I have never been to one and have no plans in that direction! Not all Amsterdammers go there you know..

You are all so kind! I will try to answer some of the questions later but first things first.. sunday breakfast: we like to eat a light breakfast. Today I made a mango/banana/oatmeal smoothie. Dennis likes to mix his with granola, I have mine just as it is. The rats get some too: yes they're cute and they know it! Now I'm at my desk having some coffee from my favorite mug. My mum had this made for me when I was born, 35 years ago, so it is a miracle that it's still in one piece (I use it daily):