Chufi

I made the marbled cheesecake a couple of days ago. This was unbelievably good! I'd never made a baked cheesecake before because I was afraid of them But this recipe was so easy to follow and the result just perfect! And I even messed around with the recipe.. I was only cooking for 2 so I halved the filling ingredients and baked the cake in a 7 " springform tin.

Now I'm off to relax.. and gather up the courage for cooking tonight's dinner.. I'm making something I have never been able to make right.. and I've tried!! I have a personal tutorial from an eGulleter who is extremely good at making these things.. and I finally got a tool that hopefully will make the process easier.. we'll see.. fingers crossed!

Lunch: bread, cheeses, goat sausage and apples, all from the farmer's market. The goat sausage is really good! Extremely goaty. Dry, dark and sweet. Goat-candy As you may have noticed before, this is the quintessential Dutch lunch: bread with cheeses and cold cuts. I have to say that when the different components are good it's a lunch I never ever tire of. That said, when I forget to bring lunch to work and I have to go to the cafetaria and buy some floppy beige slices of bread and plastic wrapped sliced cheese that taste of nothing but plastic, it's a sad lunch indeed.

The morning's activities. Not that exciting, because, well, this story is getting old, but I still don't feel so good. So just a quick shopping trip and then back home for a quiet afternoon.. sorry about that. Noordermarkt, where they hold the organic farmer's market every Saturday first we had some tea and coffee in cafe Winkel on the corner. This place is famous for it's apple pie. People line up on Saturday for it.. Some say it's the best in the city. We only had coffee and tea today... Market. Vegetables Bread cheesecakes and other baked goods Butcher, the dark sausages are dried goatsausages After that, a visit to Dennis' latest discovery, a little Chinese teashop near the Haarlemmerstraat. It's actually a teashop annex hairdresser! You can see her at the washstand in the back. They have Chinese teas that you can't get anyhwere else in Amsterdam (says Dennis, and I trust him on this!) You probably thought we already had enough tea, but my husband disagrees! Here's what we brought home Random images from the bikeride home: Second hand recordshop that also sells apples and pears Bakery (a very good one, Arnold Cornelissen) with pretty facade The Westertoren, next to the Anne Frank House - these are the churchbells that Anne heard and that she writes about in her diary. The tower has been recently renovated and looks so beautiful, all shiny and colorfull especially when the sun's out. The picture does not really do it justice.

Oh, no! I love coffee! I'm really bad at making it though. I usually have coffee elsewhere. My favorite way to start the day is get to a coffeehouse early, drink coffee, read the papers and think about all the little projects I have going on Coffee at the office is so bad though, that I try not to drink it except the first cup I really need to get going. ← Sorry that this question is a bit late, but....what do you do when you have dinner guests, in terms of making them a decent cup of coffee (I ask because I have exactly the same problem)? ← well, I can make decent coffee (that's good enough for me anyway), but only one cup at a time like so: So I tell guests I can't make coffee, but that they can have some pretty awesome tea instead (Lapsang tea, which is smoky and dark - or Buddha Amacha, which is also very dark and naturally sweet, both are good after dinner teas I think) Some guests will then volunteer to make their own coffee. I say, let them! I also figure I feed them well enough that they won't hold the 'no coffee' against me.

Shaya, tell him he's welcome! We did choose from the ones they had listed, but you could ask them to mix something up I think. They were very cooperative. Thanks so much for that link, that's the best explanation in English I've seen so far. Oooh you're in for a treat! Beercafe In de Wildeman has a couple of different ones (at least they used to when we were regulars there, a couple of years ago), if you want to try it first instead of buying a bottle.

I forgot to mention that the House of Bols also houses a Bartender's Academy where you can have everything from a serious bartender education to an afternoon's workshop. I'm really curious how the cocktail-thing will catch on in Amsterdam.. I would think the time is right.. why it hasn't happened yet is a mystery to me.. I wish them goodluck though!

After that we only had very little time before I had to go to my concert. We ended up having dinner at Bazar, on the Albert Cuypstraat. This is what the Albert Cuypstraat looks like in the evening, when the market is over.. This always impresses me, the way these people build an entire shopping street every day and then take it apart by night only to have to build it up again the next day.. Bazar is a kind of middle eastern mix of cuisines.. Turkish and Moroccan style foods mostly. It's huge, beautifully decorated, budgtetfriendly, very popular with large groups. The food is okay, it's cheap (both our plates were about 10 euro each), it's healthy, and there's nothing actually wrong with it, but there's nothing to rave about either.. it's all a bit lacklustre, cooked for the masses, without much love or creativity. Makes you wish you were in Turkey.. but still, it fit our purposes, service is quick and friendly. Now I'm sipping another glass of Abra's vin de noix (on the rocks, I hope she won't find this sacrilege, but my sore throat needs the icyness), and I have to start thinking about tomorrow's shopping trip. What to cook...

Rows and rows of bottles My cocktail: Old jenever, lemonjuice, sugarsyrup, creme de cassis My friend's drink: Double Dutch Cosmopolitan (lemon jenever, unsweetened cranberry juice from teh island of Texel, and triple sec) we were the only visitors and so we got the full attention from the lady bartender, who was very passionate about her job! When I told her I'm very fond of corenwijn she put 3 samples up so we could do a taste test: from left to right young jenever, old jenever and corenwijn . We had a good time. It will be different when the place is busy, part of the fun we had was chatting with the bartender, but still, I would recommend this to visitors.. it's fun and informative, beautifully presented, and a good deal considering the cocktail at the end!

A trip to the booze-museum (or as it's really called, Bols Museum) The House of Bols opened about a month ago and I've been wanting to go ever since. I'm glad I saved it for this week though! The museum is located right across the street from the Van Gogh Museum: Meet Lucas Bols, who founded the distillery in 1575 in Amsterdam: The museum is a cleverly and beautifully designed exhibition of distillery artefacts, interactive rooms (where you can smell and touch various liquor and jenever ingredients), and panels with information about the history of the distillery. They are obviously trying to appeal to the young cocktailcrowd (and having a bit of a hard time doing that, you have to understand that cocktails are not at all a common thing in the Netherlands, there are only a couple real cocktaibars in Amsterdam) and trying to break free from the olf-fashioned image of jenever. Lovely old liquor bottles this apricot brandy bottle was popular in the fifties, it has a little ballerina doll inside Old distilling vats Room where you can sniff all the different odours of different liquor ingredients Come smell the juniper! Entrance fee is 10 euro, and for that, after your self-guided tour, you get to visit the mirror bar where they will mix you a cocktail of your choice.

no, she's my friend's dog, and she always comes with us on our coffee-trips. I love her! 1) The sticker wasn't on the sweetbreads, but on a pack of sliced ham (the sweetbreads are on the right of the ham) and indeed it says reclame which means it's on sale! 2) the sweetbreads were veal, and I know nothing else about them, except that they came from the most expensive butcher in Amsterdam... 3) yes it is! you know your Dutch culture!

Thanks Doddie! I had some errands to run all over town but managed to meet my friend for coffee along the way. I wanted to try the new lunchroom/coffeeshop recently opened next door to patisserie Kuyt, in the Utrechtsestraat - voted best patisserie of 2006, whatever that means. I mean, it means something, but I do not necessarily think these are the best pastries of the city.. but I digress.. here's the store with the coffeeshop next door (big red K on black sunscreen) pastries raspberry chocolate thingy and prune/frangipane My friend's raspberry chocolatepastry was a bit heavy, lots of chocolate ganache inside. My prune frangipane pastry was perfect. We both agreed the decor was weird - it looked like they had not been able to decide on a style, cosy old-fashioned or slick stylishly trendy. The endresult does not work at all.. service was okay but not as good as a 4.50 euro pastry deserves.. I don't think I would go back, I'd prefer to buy the pastry next door, but I would still recommend it to visitors who want to try their stuff and don't want to take it back to their hotelroom! Gimme some cake!! Just another random shot of gloomy rainy Amsterdam came home cold and wet and made myself some misosoup shii-takes, instant dashi, red miso, abura-age, spring-onions Steaming soup must be good for the sinuses right? Now I'm thinking, another episode of Dickens and maybe a nap. This evening's excursion: a trip to a booze museum, a quick bite to eat somewhere with a friend. I haven't made plans for that, it will have to be quick and cheap, I hope we won't end up at McDonalds After that I'm going to attend the annual concert of my mother's choir so I won't be back until late tonight. I hope I won't cough through the performance

Who knew cream cheese was such a fascinating subjct? here's my Philadelphia: It does not say creamcheese anywhere on the package. it says: zacht frisse zuivelspread, mild/dairyspread. Ingredients listed are: fullfat milk cream eggwhite something salt. edited to add: looking at the Kraft website, I now think that the Dutch version is more like the 'soft spreadable creamcheese', and not like the cream cheese bricks.

It's a cold rainy stormy morning in Amsterdam. I wish we would have had better weather this week, some balcony dinners would have been so nice The balcony looks very uninviting today: I do love our balcony. It's facing west, and it has walls and a ceiling so we can have dinner outside as soon as it's sunny and not too windy. The building in the background is a school, designed by Dutch architect Jan Duiker in 1929. This is also the view from my kitchen. It's unusual, but nice, to see kids in the classroom while you're in the kitchen! You can almost read what's written on the blackboard. Breakfast was again joghurt, granola, navel orange. I'm meeting my friend at 4 in the afternoon for our little mueseum excursion. Don't know what else I'll be doing today. My cold is definitely slowing me down and the rainy weather isn't helping! Now I'm off to do the dishes. We normally do them right after dinner (no dishwasher!) but last night we got distracted by Robert Mitchum & cheesecake

Fennel dusted? Do tell more! with what? fennel seeds? Isnt that Hellmans? ← Randi, yes it is. What I meant upthread was that I usually have both Hellman's and a Dutch mayo in the fridge, but at the moment only Hellman's Thanks cats2! I checked the label. 0.3 grams natrium per 100 grams creamcheese. Which means.. ah it's too early for this. Sandy, Eden is right, you can't compare baby turnips to their grown-up relatives. To me the baby ones taste like radishes, juicy and crunchy!

well, the pasta wasn't that good, just okay.. I simply sauteed some pancetta, added an onion and some garlic and some olive oil, added some slices Belgian endive. It ended up a bit dry. It would be better with the endives braised first, so they have more flavor and moisture. It says Kraft Foods, Hoofddorp on the tub. All other text on the tub is in Dutch. I guess Kraft is everywhere Hellman's I can get here in some supermarkets. I like it for salads (eggsalad, tuna salad etc.) but I usually also have some Dutch or Belgian mayo, which I like better as a condiment, especially for fries - Dutch mayo is more acidic and has a better texture for dipping stuff into it I think. That's it for today, goodnight! Tomorrow, a trip to a very special museum.. there will be alcoholic beverages involved. Stay tuned!

Just checking in with a final post for the day to tell you that cheesecake was sublime. That was the actual word we used, muttering it between bites and 'mmmmm' noises.. the other word was 'divine' (both in Dutch ofcourse ). This may be the best thing I ever baked! Such a smooth and velvety texture. Oh my.

Aren't they pretty? Sweetbreads, sliced, seasoned and floured, ready to be fried in butter Wine: I think this is one we brought back from our trip to the Pfalz a couple of years ago. Very good with the rich sweetbreads.. Yay! Sweetbreads! On the plate with potatoes fried with bacon, and double-podded fava beans with shallots and a little mint. I liked them. I did not LOVE them, and they will never be something I crave, but they were good.. it helped that I had sliced them very thinly so there was a good ratio of crusty outside to creamy inside. Dennis was really happy Dessert: Marbled cheesecake from Dorie Greenspans book One of my bad habits is that I keep 'good things' forever, afraid to eat/drink them, saving them for a Very Special Occasion. That's what happened to this bottle that Abra sent me for Christmas: So I thought tonight, and this being adventure week would be a good day to open it. Evening's program: see you all later...

On to dinner. Prep for the scallops in Lapsang Souchong broth Abra linked to upthread. I changed the recipe slightly, so had we more broth and we ate it like a soup instead of a sauce with rice: scallops, tea, ginger, garlic, shii-takes, springonions. It was really really good!

No chufi blog without the Vondelpark and het Blauwe Theehuis! My alltime favorite place in the city: Lunch: BLTC and tuna sandwich We took a stroll in the park and met the stork family! You can't really tell in the picture but there's one stork on the nest, the other one is in the far right of the picture.

Actually I have a question about the Philadelphia you see in the picture. That's the 'cream cheese' you can buy here, and what I bought and used for my baked cheesecake. The creamcheese has salt added and while it's not overly salty, you can definitely taste the salt. The recipe (from Dorie Greenspan's book) said to add salt to the cremacheese batter, which I did not do, but which made me think that maybe this is not the creamcheese used for cheesecakes in the US? I think the cake turned out great anyway, but I'm just curious. Just like expats are struggling to find substitutions for stuff, when you use cookbooks published in other countries finding the right ingredients can sometimes be a real challenge!

Sweetbreads are chilling, dessert is ready, everything will (hopefully) take minimum time to put together. I'll ask Dennis to pick a wine from the 'cellar' (which is in the attic) for the sweetbreads. I'm thinking a drop of cold sake will go nicely with the scallops in the Lapsang sauce. And I have a very special drink to serve with dessert! I told Dennis what he's having for dinner. He said 'that's true love' I'm off to the office for a couple of hours, see you later!

Congratulations Dorie! You so deserve it! I made the sugar cookies this week, and 'played around' by adding chopped crytallized ginger and lime zest. Picture here. I took them to a dinner and we had them with ginger/lime creme brulees, which was absolutely wonderful! Now I have a question about storing. I stored half the cookies in an airtight tin, and the other half in a ziploc bag. Next day, all of them had considerably softened. Is that inevitable, or is there a way to keep cookies like this crisp?

Yes, Philadelphia is widely available here. I usually buy a supermarket brand because it's cheaper, but this week the Philadelphia was on sale

Well, this headcold has settled in and decided to stay a while! I just hope I won't lose the ability to taste. That would be weird, while doing a foodblog Anyway, on to business. Here's what I did before breakfast.. examined my sweetbreads. Here it is, before poaching and after Now, does anyone really think this looks appetizing?? Breakfast: yoghurt, granola, and today, a cut up navel orange. On top of the pile of books on the right is Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's Near a Thousand tables: a History of Food which I highly recommend!