Chufi

Thanks to the wonderful Korean Home Cooking thread, I was inspired to do some 'sort of' Korean cooking today. Cold buckwheat noodle salad with gochujang (Korean chilipaste) dressing mandu, Korean potstickers (filling: pork, scalions, ginger and garlic) with a soy dipping sauce Dak Gochujang Bokum, chicken in hot chili sauce, recipe described by ChryZ here in the Korean Home Cooking thread. I think I'm in love with Korean food

Bump! It's hard to believe, but a year has passed since I cooked dinner for ... how many guests? 24, if I recall correctly. Another birthday is coming up. The dinner will be end of February. There won't be 24 guests, more likely, about 14-16. An easier number for dinnerconversation, and for the cook! I have had some thoughts already. I really liked the Italian pace of the dinner last year and was thinking of doing the same thing. Antipasti (to be decided), a pasta course (maybe a homemade lasagna), then a simple meatcourse with some side dishes. And a spectacular dessert! I already have a couple of ideas for that - Franci gave me the link to a pistachio ricotta/chocolate cake that looks amazing. Food has to be simple, prepare-ahead friendly (I'm doing all the work on my own) and while the budget is not tight, we usually don't go for fancy or expensive ingredients. If possible, I'd like to be able to enjoy the evening as well. I'll update on my plans, and all ideas/thoughts are very welcome!

I made the borlottibean soup with spelt yesterday. It had a great flavor and was the perfect soup for one of the first cold days we had in Amsterdam this winter. I found the directions a bit odd though. He has you sauteeing vegetables until soft, then add cooked beans and cook it all together for another 20 minutes, then puree that together, and only then add the liquid. I knew I would have a very hard time pureeing that dry mixture of vegetables and beans so I added the liquid before pureeing.

I made the fall-apart lambshanks with almond chocolate picada yesterday. I wasn't entirely pleased with them. The braising liquid (after reducing, before adding the picada) tasted very sour. The picada mellowed it out a bit, but not enough, and the endresult was a sauce with a decidedly bitter and sour flavor. I've gone over the recipe a couple of times and I'm pretty sure I followed it exactly. I used a full-bodied Spanish wine, nothing fancy, but one we think is good enough to drink on it's own. Here's what I think happened: I simmered the quartered lemon with the rest of the marinade, as stated in the recipe. When I fished out the lemon quarters the next morning, before braising, all that was left was the rind. The flesh had desintegrated into the marinade, so that means that all the flesh (and juice) of a large lemon was in the marinade. I'm guessing that's what made it sour. Any other ideas? Who has made these and what did you think? I also made the potato and cabbagegratin, which was delicious! (and it's sweet mellow flavor went very well with the lamb)

I made the chocolate banana beignets yesterday. The recipe says that the dough should fill 22 'holes' in the icecube tray, my dough filled about 40! I guess his icecubetrays are bigger than mine. Because they were so small, it was very fiddly getting the chocoloate inside. Also, I fried them for only 2 minutes because they were small. The one in the pic looks overcooked, but they weren't, they had the perfect gooey runny interior. What surprised me was that they taste very much of banana, while there is actually very little banana in the dough. I served them with chocolate icecream which was a great combo. The downside is that you have to go deepfrying right before dessert. Maybe not a good idea after consuming quite a bit of wine with dinner got some nice little burns on my hands now!

Salad with warm borlotti beans, radicchio, belgin endive and goat's brie. The dressing was pumpkinseed paste mixed with pumpkinseedoil and a bit of lemonjuice. It looks like brown goo but it was really delicious and worked well with the bitter leaves and tangy cheese. The fall-apart lambshanks with chocolate almond picada from Paula Wolfert's Slow Meditteranean. The potato-cabbagegratin from the same book. Zucchini fritters and carrots wih butter, lemon juice and parsley. Chocolate banana beignets from Giorgio Locatelli's new book (which is being discussed here. ) Served with the Cipriani's dark chocolate icecream from Marcella Hazan's Marcella's Kitchen. I had borrowed a friend's icecream maker for this, because mine broke some time ago and I haven't replaced it yet. As I stood ready with the chilled chocolate custard I realized that the most essential part of the machine, the churning wheel, was missing.. I ended up puting the chocolate mix in the canister that goes into the freezer, and stirring it up every 15 minutes.. pretending to be the churning wheel.. It was a lot of work but the texture of the finished icecream was perfect, and the flavor terrific.. it's my favorite chocolate icecream, intensely chocolaty without being rich or heavy.

Daniel, I'm sure i'm not the only one curious about what you're eating now that you're on the vegetarian/(vegan?) regime. Please post about it, here or someplace else, I'm really interested in what you;re coming up with for your daily meals, working with the restrictions of the new diet. Elie I'm craving Pad Thai now Shaya I LOVE udon noodles. So I'll gladly take some of your little one's dinner to go with the Thai red curry.. Hmm... could I make Pad Thai with udon noodles?

Bruce, thank you for this week. You have inspired me to clean out and organize my spicecabinet today , and to cook more Asian food! I have always been a bit intimidated by Asian food - you make it look easy and delicious. Thank you for that. Also, I loved that this blog was very much a family project - with your boys involved with the cooking, and that you showed what your familymembers were eating. Your kitchen is beautiful. Keep cooking and keep sharing with us on the Dinner! thread!

oh what a great idea! Was the cauliflower raw or cooked when you mixed it in?

I find it freezes okay, altough I've never tried making cakes from the frozen stamppot. I'd say, if it is a litle too wet after defrosting, add a little extra flour before shaping. Franci, the kaasbolletjes look wonderful!

Jen, next time you make the brussel sprouts stamppot, make sure you have leftovers. Nothing beats leftover brusselsprouts & potatoes, fried the next day in butter... If you want to get fancy, add an egg and some cheese and a bit of flour and seasonings, shape them into cakes and you have this:

Hathor, that looks great. I also have swordfish on my mind. I'm thinking of making this Swordfish impanata the star of a very special dinner I'm planning. It's a big dinner for about 12-15 people. Now, I'm having a hard time picturing this pie within a menu. What to serve before, after, with it? I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but I thought I'd start here.

Bruce, you know I love your food, and you've inspired me many times to cook a style of food that does not come natural to me, but that tastes so delicious when I do make it! So I am really looking forward to this week. Which brings me to my question... How did you become interested in lemongrass, ginger, chillies and szechuan peppercorns? Did you grow up with those flavors, or did you 'discover' them yourself?

Thanks Milagai. Yes, I am thinking about doing something like that, possibly combined with writing about foodlife in Amsterdam. eGullet will be the first to know when something happens on that front! Tom: some recipes are in Recipe Gullet. I am behind with putting recipes up there though. Also, some recipes I was not completely happy with when I tested them, and I won't put them in RG until I have tested and tweaked. And that may take a while edited to add: I've posted a list with links to all the recipes in this thread on my Dutch foodblog here. I'll put the link to this recipe index in my eGullet signature for easy reference.

Thanks Tom. So this is made with sour (pickled) herring? I assumed raw (maatjes) herring. I'm not really a fan of pickled herring..

isn't that what eGullet is for? happy birthday, and that is one stunningly beautiful dinner. How long did it take you to cook all that.. and did you have help? The 3 amuses alone would be an excellent dinner! the golden jelly is just gorgeous. edited to add: just saw course # 12.. that was a LOT of food!

Wow. 3 new eGullet members, making their first post on this thread, within a week! I wonder if that's some kind of record? welcome, tomtom11, and thanks for your words about Limburg food and cooking. 2 weird coincidences: I made brussel sprouts stamppot on Wednesday - a big batch to go in the freezer, because I love reheated stamppot, and: my husband requested a herring & beetroot salad yesterday! Maybe I should go and hunt up a recipe! Please contribute any recipes and toughts about Dutch food you have to this thread!

Thanks, Jmahl! Serj, welcome to eGullet! I'm glad you enjoy this thread. Do you still eat Dutch food from time to time, and do you cook Dutch recipes?

hathor, that pork with the pomegranate seeds looks amazing. With the amount of pomegranates you eat.. How do you get the seeds out? Do you know the Nigella trick with the wooden spoon? Lumas I'd love some of that pasta/bean soup. Soup with pasta & beans is one of the very few things my husband does not like to eat so I don't make it very often, I think I should make a batch for the freezer, for solitary lunches! It's healthy week in Amsterdam (well, in our house anyway ) but we're eating some good stuff! Made spring? summer? rolls today with shrimp, chinese leaf and dried shii take mushrooms. Chili dipping sauce. Also made udon noodles and beef in a broth that was infused with ginger, star anise and cinnamon. Fragrant, almost no fat, delicious!

So after I saw this last week: I had to make it! In the spirit of 'use what you have' I did make it with the celery asn in the recipe, because I had some, and because I like celery. The salad is lightly pickled cucumber, Chinese leaf, and kohlrabi, with a little shredded mint (not very Chinese - but really good n the salad). And sticky rice! It was delicious!

Thank you so much for this week. It has been really interesting and has given me a craving or foods I did not know I could crave I really feel I should explore Vietnamese food a little more. Good luck with whatever your plans are, and if you end up in a new and wonderful country, please do another foodblog and share it with us!

Thanks guys for the encouragement. I have two large pans of stock in the fridge now. I strained through paper towels, and there doesn't seem to be much fat left. But I'll degrease, and then reduce, tomorrow. To be continued!

I have my first ever pot of dark meat stock on the stove right now. I used some sliced beef shin, which I put in the pot right at the beginning with the vegetables, and a bunch of vealbones which were roasted with some tomatopaste before adding them to the pot. I brought the lot to the boil and then lowered the heat. 2 questions: I only had to skim once, and even then, there was very litle scum. Does this mean I'm doing something wrong? I am having a hard time determining the 'simmer level' This comment of FG has me worried: I sure don'twant my fat to emulsify into the stock. But now I worry that my stock may be on to low a simmer. Is that even possible? When I look into the pot I see the liquid is moving (little tiny particles are moving around, mostly upward) and then there is an occasional bubble, but very occasional. Is it better to leave it on very low, or to risk a higher temperature? Help, I don't want to be agonizing over this for the rest of the day

That's my family you're describing, and the food I grew up with. So, maybe you can find some ideas on the Dutch Cooking thread? Seriously, I vote for stamppot - equal amounts of potatoes and vegetable mashed together. The vegetable can be anything from cooked kale, apples, carrots & onions, sauerkraut to raw finely sliced vegeables such as endive, watercress, beetroot or even iceberg lettuce. Stamppot goes wel with (smoked) pork and you could serve a salad on the side. Cheap, too if you work with seasonal vegetables.

Hi Annabel, Welcome to eGullet and I am honored you chose the Dutch Cooking thread for your first post! I hope this thread (and the rest of eGullet) will continue to inspire you. It's wonderful to have another cook from Amsterdam on the boards! Also, your post made me realize that I never did 'gehaktbal met jus' for this thread. I hope to get to it sometime in the next weeks (next week is supposed to be 'healthy week' here though, so I'm not sure buttery gravy would fit into that plan )