Chufi

Mirandar, welcome and I´m glad you´re enjoying the thread! You´re referring to Groningen, either the province or the city (the capital of the province). They are famous for their coarsely ground, not too hot mustard. I´ll try and dig up a good recipe and might even make some this week! Thanks for the inspiration!

I've never made this myself but.. Raymond Sokolov has an interesting sounding recipe in With the Grain Cook 1 cup amaranth in 3 cups water for 25 minutes. Let cool to room temp. Mix this with 1/4 cup capers, 4 eggs and a can of anchovies (chopped). Pour in a baking dish and bake for 50 minutes at 350 F.

My aunt & uncle gave me half a kilo redcurrants from their garden, and I made the anise & cinnamon scented redcurrant jelly again that I accidentally made last year and which was so good! The half kilo made 3 little jars of jelly. I layered some jelly with greek joghurt for a quick dessert.. topped with raspeberries, also a gift. For the jelly: boil up equal weights of redcurrants and sugar. Add a star anise and a piece of cinnamon (for 500 grams of currants and 500 grams of sugar I used just one staranise and one cinnamonstick). Boil for about 15 minutes, press through a sieve (or a jelly cloth if you want a clearer jelly).

Now I want a tortillapress! What a beautiful piece of equipment! I got a special delivery from my aunt & uncle's vegetable garden this weekend: zucchini, capucijner peas, red currants and raspberries. We had the peas with onions and bacon, I made my anise & cinnamon scented redcurrant jelly, and we snacked on the raspberries all weekend!

Ah Leung, thank you so much for all the work you put in the pictorials. They will remain a wonderful source of information and inspiration for all of us. Best wishes for whatever you have planned now, and I hope you will still drop by every now and then!

welcome to the world of blogging Shalmanese! that is simply amazing. Your energy is mindblowing! (but I´ve thought that before, when reading about your big dinners for large groups). What´s it like being back home? which PNW foods will you miss when in Australia, and which Australian foods (besides cheap passionfruit ) did you miss while in the US?

Thank you, all, for the kind words and encouragement. If I ever do write a book about food, I´ll dedicate it to eGullet and the people who believed in me. It really means a lot! markemorse, who´s the author / publisher of the book you bought.. I recently saw a new book about Dutch food that didn´t look too bad... I´m curious if it´s the same one.

alwang: while mine did not look defective, it does not really have a tight seal. I think a tight seal is almost impossible with this kind of sliding lid. I usually put the smoker on, and when the first wisps of smoke appear, I wrap a couple of strips of aluminum foil around the corners that are not tightly sealed. (becareful doing this, the smoker is already quite hot)

here's some catch-up on recent dinners in Amsterdam. and beyond: we had a stupendously good Japanese dinner in the city of den Bosch, at restuarant Shiro. It´s tiny but oh so good. Den Bosch (or, ´s Hertoghenbosch as it´s also known, just to confuse the tourists) is only about an hours trainride away from Amsterdam. The restaurant is about a 10-minutes walk from the station. The city itself is charming and old, with lots of little cobbled streets and alleys. The kaiseki menu was superb and certainly to be compared with Michelinstarred Yamazato in the Okura hotel in Amsterdam, where we had dinner earlier this year. the atmospehere is much nicer though. I think (but cannot be sure since we were treated to this dinner, and prices/menus are not to be found online) that prices are about the same as at the Okura - I guess about 80 euros for a full kaiseki menu. Which seems really good value to me! See my Dutch blog click here for pictures of the dinner. Shiro Uilenburg 4, Den Bosch tel. 073 6127600 On the other end of the scale we tried a new and trendy little place in Amsterdam, called Burgermeester (master of the burgers, while burgemeester without the r means mayor - clever word eh?) which sells, you guessed it, burgers. But really good burgers! It´s a bit of a fast-food atmosphere, not a place to linger over dinner for hours. A very narrow little space with a couple of booths to sit (but many people just come in for take out). The lamb burger with spicy mayo was really good. They have about 8 different burgers, also fish and vegetarian. All come small or large. Real good value especially if you want to try different flavors is to get the miniburger special, where you get 3 different mini ones of your choice. the tunaburger with wasabi mayo was my favorite. 2 minor quibbles: the burgers all seem a bit busy, with lots of toppings/different sauces and flavors. A shame because I feel they use good quality meat etc., which gets sort of lost. Another thing is the limited side dishes - no fries! I guess because of the space, which is really small with customers practically sitting in the kitchen, they don´t want to do any deepfrying. But the baked potatoes they serve instead were not really good, I would pass on those next time. In my opinion, burgers need something crispy. Maybe they should just put some potatochips on the plate... Burgermeester Albert Cuypstraat 48 (in the non-market part of the Albert Cuypstraat) open noon - 11 pm no reservations

I think your tupperware lids are up there in tupperware heaven having a party with all the lids that have gone missing in my house over the years.

Wendy, when I saw your roast zucchini I knew what I wanted for dinner! No tarragon so I added rosemary, and sprinkled some walnuts on top. Lovely! we also had a clear-out-the-fridge salad with eggs, caper/parsley dressing, and hot potato'croutons'.

This looks very promising, David! What else have you planned for this week, foodwise - besides hunting for huckleberries?

thanks Randi for sharing your week with us! I hope you have some time off coming soon.. you deserve it!

exactly. It´s one of those things that´s really hard to explain but when you´re doing it, it´s easy. btw the real puff pastry shells are supposed to look like this

Gillian Riley, in het book The Dutch Table, calls it ´cooked meat in a smooth sauce´. I guess if they did not come up with a better translation, that means there IS no English word for this stuff

Yes, but you would not call the resulting sauce a liaison, right? I´m just curious about this word ragout. When I google english ragout recipes, I get lots of stews and braises, but most of them are not roux-thickened, whereas here, ragout always means a sauce with a roux base and then a liaison. ´sauce´somehow does not seem to be quite the right word.

Thanks Shaya! I think my question may get lost in my previous post, so I´ll ask again. What would this ragout-sauce (thick roux made with stock, then meat/ seafood/vegetables mixed in, then enriched with cream and eggyolk) be called in English?

It´s being released in The Netherlands on August 1. I can´t wait. 2 of my favorite things in 1 movie!! Now, the question is.. shall I bring my rats to the movie theatre??

made the apple spice bars yesterday. We had them today with (storebought) walnut icecream which was a fabulous combination!! To keep the walnut theme I used walnuts instead of pecans.. next time I might make a bit more of the glaze.. maybe even double the amount, because it was good enough to eat with a spoon!

Kalfsvleespasteitjes - Veal ragout in puff pastry I´m not sure what the English word would be for what we call ´ragout´ (which is not a Dutch word ofcourse but French). In Dutch it means a thick roux made with stock, with vegetables, seafood or bits of meat added. Originally a way to use up leftovers, this thick sauce is also the base for bitterballen en kroketten (where scoops of the sauce are breaded and deepfried). Serving the sauce in puff pastry shells is a traditional lunch dish. When I was little we always had this on Newyearsday. The puff pastryshell is supposed to be round and you can buy them ready made, but I made them from storebought puffpastry. Making them round is too much hassle I think so I used my method for making little pastryshells: Take a square piece of pastry, make two cuts. The cuts meet in 2 corners, but not in the other 2. Sounds complicated but is very easy to do. Fold the sides over, brush with beaten egg and bake at 200 C / 390 F until risen and golden (about 10 minutes). You can scrape out the inside, I just crushed it a bit with a fork. Set aside. For the sauce (makes enough for 10 small pastryshells): 250 grams stewing veal 1 small onion studded with a couple of cloves 1 carrot, cut up Some parsley A bayleaf Some peppercorns. Cover with water, slowly bring to the boil and let simmer until the meat is really tender. It will depend on the cut of meat how long this will take. About an hour should do it. Take the meat from the broth and let it cool, then cut into small pieces. Strain the broth. 250 gram mushrooms, quartered if large A knob of butter Sautee the mushrooms slowly in the butter until cooked, Don´t let them brown. Put in the bowl with the meat. Melt 20 grams of butter in a saucepan. Add 20 grams of flour. Mix well and when it is lightbrown, add 250 ml. of the broth from the meat. Bring to the boil, whisking, and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Put the meat and mushrooms in and simmer for a couple of minutes. Season with: Salt &pepper Nutmeg Some lemonjuice A bit of mustard A tablespoon of white wine This sauce has a tendency to be bland, so be generous with the seasonings. Keep tasting until it is to your liking (and keep in mind you´ll be adding cream later which will weaken the flavors). Set the mixture aside (can be prepared ahead). 1 egg yolk 100 ml. cream When it´s time to serve: reheat the pastryshells in a low oven. Bring the meatsauce to a simmer over low heat. In a small bowl, mix 1 egg yolk with 100 ml. cream. Add this mixture to the sauce and heat through. Don´t let it simmer too hard or it will split. Taste and adjust the seasonings. You can add a little butter for more richness and a lovely glossy sauce. Spoon the sauce into the heated pastry shells and serve immediately. Note: you can bake little lids for the pastryshells and put these on top. I forgot to do that this time! Instead of veal, use chicken (nice with a bit of smoked ham added to the sauce), seafood, or for a vegetarian version, mushrooms only.

I made two classics for our Father´s day brunch today: shrimp cocktail and veal ragout in puff pastryshells. Shrimp cocktail Now ofcourse I wont´s claim that shrimp or prawn cocktail is uniquely Dutch, but when you use the famous, delicious Dutch shrimp, it is! Small, grey, briny and sweet, these are a real delicacy. The shrimp cocktail is a classic way of serving them, with a sauce made with mayonaise, ketchup and a touch of whisky. For 6 small or 4 larger portions 200 grams boiled and peeled grey tiny shrimp Some lettuce leaves and thin slices of tomato For the sauce: 3 tablespoons mayonaise (homemade is best, if using storebought, add a bit more lemonjuice) 1 tablespoon ketchup 1 tablespoon whisky Lemonjuice to taste Salt and pepper A bit of paprika (sweet or spicy, as you like it) Mix all ingredients for the sauce together. Put a slice of tomato and a lettuce leaf in the serving cups or glasses. Mix the shrimp with the sauce, and pile the mixture in the glasses. Serve immediately.

Peter, I'm glad you're enjoying the thread. Do report back if you make the sudderlapjes! I´m dreaming about a large and well-illustrated hardcover too About the eel: there is a recipe for fresh eel that I've been wanting to make for a long time. But fresh eel is getting very hard to come by here.

Michael, I am very sorry about your friend. In a way, this is an issue that I have been thinking about a lot lately. It's all about choices, making them, and then standing by them. If I choose the chocolatecake today, I will be fat tomorrow. Not from the one piece of cake, but from the accumulation of choices that are only based upon the NOW, the instant gratification, the instant satisfying of a need. But, this does not mean I can't eat a piece of cake. But eating it is just as much of a choice, as not eating it. You have to be able to look beyond the cake, into the future, And that's the hard part, because chocolate cake wants to be savoured in the moment, and is able to make you forget that there even is a future I also know a couple of people who made the decision to live in the moment. They know that the smoking and drinking and eating unhealthy food will kill them. But they say they rather live short lives with all the things they like, than long lives without them. This is also a choice, and one I have to respect. It's not up to me to say they're wrong, or to assume that when they face their death, they will wish they'd done things differently.

Randi, I can imagine you must be exhausted by now! But please don't feel you're letting us down. This is what makes the blogs so wonderful, they're about real life I'm really enjoying looking in on your week. And yes, only a couple of more days and someone else will take over.. you can sit back and relax!

I would also love to hear more about cookbooks that focus on regional cooking. Or other resources (websites maybe?) If I wanted to cook a Normandy dinner, where would I go for information, recipes?