Chufi

Sweetbreads it is! I've made tomorrow's dessert, a marbled cheesecake, and it's cooling now. It was exhausting to make, although I do not blame the recipe but only my condition. I'm really not feeling too well. So the plans for asparagus risotto went out the window, and I made a simple pasta with pancetta, onion and belgian endive. Now I'm going to curl up on the sofa with a cup of green tea (Dennis is making some right now), see another episode of Dickens, and go to bed early. Hopefully I'll wake up with more energy!

No it isn't! That would be equally scaring though!

And those drinks, ah, that would be right up my hunny's alley. I have vivid memories of a martini party years ago, and let's just say he and the bottle of Blue Curacao were rarely parted! What else is in these drinks - is there tequila? ← There was definitely tequila! maybe IlCuoco can chime in and give the recipe? This really worked! I was thinking about this today, flavor is such a subjective thing. Pesto is no longer a strange or exotic flavor to me, while I'm sure it was way back when I first tasted it. I'm used to Italian, Japanese and Thai flavors. Yesterday's flavors, especially the sauce for the pork and the creamy beans, and the barbecue sauce on the shrimp, were really unfamiliar and new flavors to me. These are things we don;t grow up with and that are not commonly found in restaurants etc. over here. It's great to be able to discover new things all the time!

Thanks guys. I'm definitely not 100 % myself.. I went on my shopping trip and forgot my camera! Unfortunately Dennis is at work so who will make me tea now Anyway, here's some of what I bought: Can anyone guess what's in the whitish packet in the down-right-corner? It's my mystery ingredient for dinner tomorrow night. It scares me Lunch: I found a hardboiled egg, and with a bit of mayo and some chives this became eggsalad. On toast with some of the rookvlees Guilty pleasure: daytime tv (or rather dvd, in this case ) I'm currently addicted to the BBc adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House. 1 episode lasts 25 minutes, perfect to accompany lunch!

That does sound Dennis-y! I think it will either be this, or ceviche. Thanks for the link! Lori, I've missed your posts! How nice to see you here. Manchego with apple sounds really nice! I have no idea if we can get that here! I have to ask my fishmonger! Blue Curacao + yellow mango puree = vibrantly green drink! IlCuoco told the story of the origin of this drink.. the colour is supposed to resemble the color of the ocean in a bay somewhere in Mexico.. if I remember this correctly.. and that's where the drink was invented. And these are...? They do look cute. Pink is for chi-chi "martinis," not beer. Pink may be for wine, sometimes, especially if the pink is a retro-'50s-chic box (who cares then that the wine inside is mediocre?). Pink is never, never for beer. ← Those are baby turnips! I love rose wine.. but this beer was just too much. I tink it's another one of those alcoholic drinks marketed for (young) women. I'm probably simply too old for it A regular Dutch coffee cup (not a mug, but the kind that comes with a saucer, which is the kind I used to think they meant) will only hold about half an American measuring cup.

Good morning! Last night at dinner I suddenly felt that painful sharpness in my throat that is the forebode of a really bad cold! So I'm going to take it easy today, I really don't want to get sick this week.. too many fun things planned! I slept late, a bit troubled by dreams of aliens who left medicine for my sore throat on the nightstand. Maybe that's a known side effect of mangorita's? I ate so much last night that I'm actually still not hungry! I will have a little bit of rhubarb for breakfast in a little while though.

I'm home, it's late and I'm tired, but i can't go to bed without giving you at least a picture report of my evening! We had dinner with eGulleters markemorse and IlCuoco, and our respective spouses. markemorse had kindly offered to host a dinner that would offer many unknown and adventurous flavours! I arrived to find markemorse writing me out a to-do list I was to prep the shrimp, make the salad, and make the mayonaise.. which I was happy to do ofcourse.. Fortunately when IlCuoco and his girlfriend arrived they immediately set up a mangorita-making-station.. oohh they were really good! Cooking : cornbread being made appetizers: tequila marinated shrimp wrapped in bacon, grilled, with barbecue sauce and rosemary mayonaise here's the best thing I've tasted in a long time. Quesedilla's with duck confit, caramelized onions, tomatillo salsa.. can you imagine how good this was.. thank you markemorse for making this for me!! Then I was put in charge of frying the plantains. Big mistake.. I wasn't born to do this.. and after 3 mangorita's it's hard.. but I'm having fun.. plantains are looking pretty sad though.. Aruban black beans, hearts of palm salad with mint and lime, cornbread, and amazing jerk pork with a spicy jerk sauce. I'm hoping markemorse will chime in tomorrow and tell a bit more about the food, especially the beans which were terrific.. and the jerk sauce which was wonderful, sweet and spicy and deeply flavored. this picture really does not do the food justice! we had no room for dessert but we ate some anyway.. ginger lime creme brulees being bruleed to perfection: we drank mangorita's, (did I mention the mangorita's?? ), beer, banana beer, and german Gewurztraminer. We had a wonderful time. Thank you markemorse and IlCuoco for making this happen! And thank you to the respective wives, girlfriends and husbands (that sounds as if there were a dozen of them ) for joining us and putting up with the foodietalk! I'll be back tomorrow with some more details, answers to questions etc.. but I first need some sleep!

Good to see you here! even if I missed you in Weesp! the eGullet world is really a very small world.

Thanks Jennifer! I do have a cup measure, and a set of measuringspoons. I have it memorized how much a ' stick' of butter weighs, and I have a conversion chart hanging on the wall in my kitchen. I do prefer to weigh though! But at least it's better now that I know that a cup is not the same as a Dutch coffee cup. You can imagine my first baking experiments from American books were a disaster..

Lunch was the sandwiches I brought from home, and a banana and half a litre of milk that I bought in the cafetaria. And numerous cups of bad office-coffee... Tonmorrow I will have some time to go grocery shopping, and maybe a little excursion in the city. Any requests for something in particular? Oh and I could use an adventurous recipe for scallops. I tend to simply panfry or grill them and serve them on some salad leaves... but would like to do something different this week. For a first course, so it has to be light and preferably not with a very creamy sauce. Spicy is ok! Hiroyuki, I can't believe you haven't read the Makioka Sisters! But I guess that's the same as Dutch people never going to see Rembrandt's pictures And for everybody else, this is on-topic, because they discuss food a LOT in this book. They seem to be eating all the time!

Hi Hiroyuki.. yes, I always like to give my pets Japanese sounding names, somehow it seems to suit them. Yuki (or actually, Yukiko) is a character in one of my favorite novels, Tanizaki's Makioka Sisters. And isn't 'dozo' Japanese for please, that's what it sounds like to me when in Japanese movies people are offered food or a drink. I hope this is not an offensive use of a Japanese word to you I am SO glad you said this!! We actually did not have asparagus and peteh in the same meal. But yesterday evening after I went to the bathroom I made a comment to Dennis about the phenonemon you are describing He said he had not noticed it and that I was imagining it! So thank you for proving I was right! It's a weird thing isn't it?? I did not know there was another foodstuff besides asparagus that does this!

I'm having breakfast right now. It looks the same as yesterday's (joghurt, granola, rhubarb). I made lunch to take to work, and it looks like yesterday's lunch: sandwiches with young Gouda and rookvlees (but not otasted, ofcourse). I'll get to your questions later, now I'm off for a day of 'regular'work!

Thanks Bruce! My pestle and mortar is really not much use. It's one of those ceramic ones.. yes, I should get a proper one. The thing is, I'm lazy.. I would really prefer the foodprocessor to do this job for me.. and this comes from someone who prefers to whip eggwhites, cream and all sorts of batters and doughs by hand, just because I HATE to clean the foodprocessor! My cooking Asian food is really something that started only recently. Slowly, I'm learning, and getting the right tools and utensils (and a fridge full of sauces )

It's been a long day (even longer because yesterday was a very late night, involving one beer too many ) so I'm about to retire for the night. Tomorrow I'll be at the office all day, which means I'll be able to check in every now and then and answer questions, but I won't be able to post pics (not that there's anything pictureworthy , food- or otherwise, where I work ) After work I'll head over to our dinnerparty straightaway. No-one knows where I'm going, huh?

belated happy birthday Marlene! and Shaya, happy birthday to your little guy! I'm pleased to hear you're teaching him that it's okay to have multiple birthdayparties Those profiteroles look gorgeous. Kim Shook what a feast! I cooked Indonesian today. Sambal Goreng Udang Peteh: prawns and peteh beans in spicy coconut sauce. And a salad of cooked and raw vegetables with a cold peanut dressing. Details here on the eGullet blog I'm doing this week!

I made some cookies to take to dinner tomorrow. Our host has led me to believe that these cookies will go well with the dessert he has planned I used the sugar cookie recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking - from my home to yours, and added limezest and ginger. We just had a couple with tea. They're great!

Peter, the new herring season officially starts the first week of June this year. But you can get the herring year round, because last year's catch gets frozen straightaway and will last until the new season begins.

Just a guess, but are these petai? ← Makan King is right, these are petai, or peteh beans as they are called here. Yesterday I said to Dennis: "So, I'm doing another foodblog, and the theme is adventures. What foods don't I cook for you that you would like me to cook?" "Kidneys, liver, sweetbreads..." "Shut up!" "... and Indonesian food". So that's what I did. Sambal Goreng Udang Peteh, and a salad of cooked and raw vegetables with a cold peanut tamarind sauce. Peteh beans are lovely little things. They have a very pungent aroma and a strong, almost bitter flavor. They are great together with sweet prawns in a spicy coconut sauce. This is something I'll always order in an Indonesian restaurant. Ingredients for the spice paste: from 12 o'clock: garlic, laos, ginger, lemongrass (from a jar) , chilipaste from a jar, candlenuts, coriander seeds, shallots, trassi. paste (I started it in the foodpocessor, but because it was such a small amount, I finished it in the mortar - still I did not get it fine enough I think) Other ingredients: creamed coconut, tamarind paste, lime leaves, and a peanut sauce mix from the toko. I bought these today because they were so pretty. More pink: rosé beer I bought this because I saw it advertised and was curious.. all for the blog you know It was pretty awful.. very sweet, like boozy lemonade, but not in a good way! No pictures of the actual cooking of dinner. It got a little hectic. But here's the finished salad: blanched green beans, raw turnips and cucumbers, hardboiled eggs, all with a cold peanutdressing. A bit of krupuk (prawn crackers) on top. Prawns and peteh beans in spicy coconutsauce All served with sticky rice. I thought it all tasted great. Dennis said it was delicious, but not quite like the real thing I know he's right though. With these dishes, it's all about balance and the way all the indivudual flavors in the spice paste work together. I did not get that quite right!

Thank you all for the kind words about my rats! I know lots of people are freaked out by rats, so this means a lot. I've only had them for a week and am still trying to figure out what they like. They can be very individual in their tastes (and characters). But here's what they do to a slice of cucumber. Every single rat I've had does this. If I leave it long enough they'll only leve a thin, perfectly round strip of peel. I think they're trying to tell me they'd prefer their cucumbers peeled 2006 was Rembrandt-year, because it was his 400th birthday. Lots of Rembrandtesque activities, expositions, and even liquors! Jenever is not the same as gin. See wikipedia for some explanations (although it's confusing with all the different distillates) on jenever and gin. To make it more confusing, jenever comes in various types that vary hugely in flavor. There's young and old jenever, but this does not mean the drink has been aged but says something about the way i't's made, but corenwijn can be aged (the one we have right now has aged 6 years and is wonderfully smooth).

that's what my friend instructed me to do! I'm glad that will work! She was at the 'lapjesmarkt', the market on Noordermarkt. On Saturday they hold the farmer's market there, and on Mondays it's clothes, fabrics and secondhand stuff. And this lady with the asparagus! She was sort of selling the vegetables from a truck, so I don't think she's a regular there. I have 2 logs of cookie dough chilling in the fridge, and I now have to go and do some other, non foodrelated stuff. Meanwhile, a question: who knows what this is? It will feature in tonight's dinner. I have never bought it or cooked it, though I have eaten it. The cuisine it belongs to is one I hardly ever cook from!

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.

Shaya, we had an asparagus delivery last week. You can see pics on my Dutch foodblog here (although to be honest the picture of the raw asparagus is of last year, because I forgot to take a picture this time, but they looked exactly the same). We ate 2 pounds, and I have 2 pounds in the freezer. My friend says this works quite well, but I've never tried it. I might try to do something with them this week! I was thinking of asparagus risotto maybe?

Dennis is working from home today too which means he makes me tea. There are 2 things in the kitchen I don't do and that I let him do: making the soft-boiled eggs for our Sunday breakfasts, and making tea. He stopped drinking coffee about 10 years ago and consequently, became obsessed with tea! Here's part of his current collection: He just made a pot of this: which unfolds into this: It looks beautiful but I did not care much for the taste. My current favorite is this tea: It's extraordinarily floral and fragrant, but without the sort of 'perfumy' scent that you sometimes get with jasmine tea (although I do love jasmine tea). A friend brought it from Paris, but we have since found a shop in Amsterdam that sells it too, although not in such a beautiful box

I had a meeting in the center of Amsterdam early this morning and on the way, I took this picture (an Amsterdam blog should have a canal, right?) As you can see, it's raining. After 6 weeks of glorious sunny warm weather, the weather turned around this weekend and now it's grey and wet! Well, the farmlands and gardens really needed the rain, and I figure this way it'sll be more fun to stay indoors and cook! I came across a little market where this lady was selling asparagus. It's really white asparagus season here now. These looked great, fresh and juicy. Fortunately we have a good friend who visits the asparagus-growing regions regularly, and he always brings us huge bunches of just-dug-up asparagus They've spoiled me for anything you can buy! My favorite bakery. You have to love a bakery with Bert and Ernie on the facade! I also did some grocery shopping for this evening, more about that later. Came home and had lunch.. a grilled cheese sandwich with young Gouda and rookvlees, which is lightly smoked lean beef. A favorite cold cut with anyone watching their fat-intake (not that I'm doing that, at least not this week ) because it's very lean but still nice and savory. I'm loving Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours! I got it last week. I might do some baking this afternoon...

I forgot about the freezer. I won't show you pics of the freezer drawers, because they are filled with unlabelled containers (I'm really, really bad at labelling). But this is the most important drawer: Korenwijn, or Corenwijn. A type of Dutch jenever, in my opinion, the best. This one has aged 6 years and it was issued in the Rembrandt-year last year, which is why it says Rembrandt on the label. We keep the glasses in the freezer too. Spices, herbs, flours, grains etc. Vinegars, oils, cooking wines etc. I know I should not keep them so close to the stove, but I almost never use the 2 burners right next to them. Oh and my babies would like to meet you I've only had them a week and they are really still babies.. I need to spend a lot of time with them to socialize them.. one of them is bold and curious, but the other one is pretty scared and shy. Meet Yuki (in the back) and Dozo: