Chufi

Sicilian Food by Mary Taylor Simeti. I have to confess that I find Nigella Lawson great sofa- or bedtime reading - particularly How to Eat. My favorite Cookbooks as Literature are Jane Grigson's works. Her Vegetable Book and Fruit Book start with a short description of each fruit and vegetable, often laced with anecdotes from history and mythology, poetry quotes, and personal memories. She is a master in balancing the personal and factual. Then she gives sound advice " how to choose artichokes", and then the recipes follow. Most of the time, no measurements, no directions to how many people something will feed, etc, (which makes these books unsuitable for inexeperienced cooks ), so even the recipes read like short pieces of beautiful writing rather than a dry recipe. Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food is another favorite.

Bruce, that chicken looks so good. I often think when I see your food : I want to make that! But then I have no clue where to look for the recipe. Is this one online somewhere? I've often wondered what "Belgian" endive is called in Belgium (and the Netherlands, and just about anywhere where English isn't the local language). Is it called the local equivalent of "Belgian"? ← Belgian endive is called lof, or witlof, in the netherlands, and loof or witloof in Belgium - wit mening white, and loof is (I suppose) related to the word leaves! It is also sometimes referred to as Brussels lof, because it was 'discovered' near Brussels in the 1830's. Oh and Brussels sprouts are caaled simply sprouts here what a marvellous idea. So you wilted some leaves and then mixed them with raw ones? I am always in doubt what to do with my radicchio. I love the flavor of the wilted leaves, softer and sweeter, but also like the bitter crunch of the raw ones. Thanks for the idea!

I freeze mine the same way. I've had the cracking problem sometimes, when I've used pasta rolled out on the thinnest setting, together with a very wet filling. Now, when I make pasta for freezing (instead of eating right away) I only roll out to the second thinnest setting.

Mmm, pork tenderloin. Haven't had that in a looong time! One of our Christmas dinners was a roast leg of venison. After the guests had left, I scraped every little bit of meat from the bone, and turned that (together with some roast butternut squash and caramelized onions) into pastastuffing. Put the little things in the freezer and tonight, that was dinner: I also made some braised endive (curly and belgian) with roasted ellow pepper, onions and garlic, pinenuts and raisins. Unexpectedly good!

thank you Suzy for this wonderful week of holidays and sunshine! A very happy new year to your and your family!

Beautiful pictures nakji! And how wonderful to be able to visit yet another country that is completely new to me. There are no good Vietnamese restaurants in Amsteram - as far as I know. I had a delicious Vietnamese dinner in Seattle though a couple of months ago. Maybe your blog will inspire me to try cooking some Vietamese food myself! You mentioned that you don't cook much, why is that, because it's so easy to find cheap and good food in restaurants and streetfood?

what sort of Dutch cheese is the Rofumo? I'm unfamiliar with it.

so many favorites! There is this unusual but delcious sweet polenta cake with figs, raisins and pinenuts. She says something like "very good with a dollop or 2 of whipped cream, but then, what isn't?" which was one of my favorite food quotes for years the eggplant patties are fantastic. there is this stew/braise of chicken and red cabbage.. perfect winter comfort food.

Abra, gorgeous dinners. I think the Barozzi looks wonderful - what is it about the texture that you don't like? I finally ordered a copy of the Splenid Table, but it won't arrive until January, so I'll be cooking ER diiners in the next year too I guess! This made me laugh. I also pick out a couple of cd's when I start a pasta making session! You now you need them

Suzy, what a treat, all those green trees and sunshine, the adorable penguins, smiling people in short sleeves and summerdresses, your gorgeous cookies, sweet Tuffy and your beautiful family! Thank you for sharing your non-traditionaal Christmas with us, I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this week. It's cold and grey here in Amsterdam and your pictures bring me some much-neede cheer!

Merry Christmas everybody! Kerstkransjes, Christmas wreath-cookies While these are ofcourse not uniquely Dutch, they are everywhere in the shops and bakeries this time of year, and I thought this was a nice way to wish all the readers of this thread Happy Holidays - whatever you're celebrating! 200 gram soft butter 150 gram sugar 1 tablespoon milk pinch of salt 300 grams flour, sifted 1/2 teaspoon bakingpowder 1 egg, beaten sliverd almonds and/or coarse sugar, to decorate Mix the butter, sugar, milk, salt together. Add the flour and baking powder and quickly mix to a smooth sough. Wrap in plasticfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 160 C. Roll out the dough (it will be very firm when it comes out of the fridge, but it will quickly soften enough to roll it out). Cut into wreathshapes and place on lined cookiesheets. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the almonds and/or sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Hang in the tree or just eat them!

Daniel, what happened to dessert? If you still need ideas... I made this zabaglione cake for a large party (25) earlier this year, to finish an Italian dinner, and it was wonderful. hazelnut zabaglione cake

Live it Up, I am so glad I was able to inspire you. No, I've never tried variations, but I think you're right, orangezest would be nice, or maybe ginger? And yes, they do spread, most awfully...

The recipes are, sort of, in Recipe Gullet. I say sort of because I realize that I wasn't taking notes or measuring anything, also I made different amounts of everything . But I have no doubt that experienced bakers will be able to make sense of my scatty directions, if not please pm me. The new Challenge is up and running! see here what tammylc is up to!

yes, it's time for round 12! For this pre-Christmas round I challenge tammylc. tammy is perhaps most famous on eGullet for her Dinner for 40 thread. However, I decided not to challenge her to make plated dessert for 40 . She is also an expert trufflemaker, but one of the things I remember about her foodblogs is something that you might not instantly pair with sweet desserts: her interest in cheese and wine. So, my challenge to Tammy is to sweeten up the cheese course! Create a dessert with at least 2 different wines and 2 different cheeses. At least one of the cheeses has to be a savoury rather a 'sweet' cheese (so no ricotta, mascarpone etc.) I can't wait to see what she comes up with! for future reference, these were the previous challenges: Round 1 (Kerry Beal challenges Ling in Vancouver BC)- Take pineapple upside down cake and bring it into this century Round 2 (Ling Challenges Gfron1 in Silver City NM) - Make a dessert containing an animal ingredient or product other than lard or bacon Round 3 (Gronf1 challenges Mette in Copenhagen Denmark)- Create a deconstructed beer dessert Round 4 (Mette Challenges Shalmanese in Seattle WA) - Create a dessert tapas plate consisting of 7 items in 7 days, using local and seasonal flavours Round 5 (Shalmanese challenges Chiantiglace in West Palm Beach FL) - create a dessert involving smoke that evokes Autumn Round 6 (Chiantiglace challenges K8Memphis in Memphis, TN) - create a dessert using Southern Sweet Tea Round 7 (K8Memphis challenges SweetSide in rural CT) - create a desset using 5 kernels of corn representing the 5 blessing of the Pilgrims Round 8 (SweetSide challenges alanamoana in the Silicon Valley, CA) - take fruitcake out of the land of the misfits and show us the beauty that lies within Round 9 ( Alanmoana challenges Dejaq in Nation’s Capital) - make a dessert using Champagne and at least three Citrus Fruits, along with Agar Agar. Round 10 (Dejaq in Nation's Capital challenges Kerry Beal in Ontario, Canada) - make a dessert utilizing white, milk and dark chocolate, along with a tea of her choice and a fresh seasonal pear. Round 11 (Kerry Beal in Ontario, Canada challenges Chufi, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to make a dessert that evokes the spirit of Sinterklaas, uses speculaas spices and includes a seasonal fruit or vegetable .

Spices & Surprises (eGullet pastry and baking challenge round 11 The challenge for this dessert was to create a dessert using speculaasspices, evoking the spirit of the Dutch holiday Sinterklaas. For more about this holiday and the thoughts behind the elements of this dessert, please see the challenge thread Here, I give the recipes for the various components of this dessert: speculaascake trifle with poached pears, white chocolate custard and muscat wine filoparcels with almond paste membrillo speculaas parfait with cardamom-orangeflowerwater marinated clementines for the trifles: I made a small,simple spongecake with 120 grams selfraising flour 120 grams sugar 120 grams soft butter 2 large eggs 1 tablespoon speculaasspices. You can make your own spicemix following this formula: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, aniseed, coriander, cardamom, in a ratio: cinnamon 3 : cloves 2: nutmeg 2: ginger 1/2: aniseed 1/2: coriander 1/2: cardamom 1/2. If you make your own mix from freshly ground spices, you might want to add a little less than 1 tablespoon to the spongemix, because the spices will be more pungent and you want the cake to be only lightly spiced. Bake the cake for about 25 minutes in a 180 C oven. Let cool and slice thinly. The fruit in my trifles was a dutch poaching pear that, to my kowledge, is not available elsewhere. Use your favorite poaching pear and simmer in sugarsyrup with a little red wine or port for colouring. White chocolatecustard Just a basic custard from 400 ml cream, a tablespoon of sugar, 4 eggyolks - cooked over very low heat until thickened. Melt 125 grams white chocolate (I do this in the microwave) and stir into the warm custard, let cool. Assemble the trifles: Put slices of the cake in the bottom of individual glasses (or a large bowl). Make a mixture of 1 part pear poaching liquid and 3 parts muscat wine, and drizzle this over the cake. The cake should be nicely soaked. Top with the poached pears, our over the custard, top with lightly whipped cream and decorate any way you like - I tought the green pistachios made a nice color contrast. Membrillo For the membrillo I chopped up a couple of quinces, cooked them in ample water until soft. Drain, weigh. Puree the quinces. Put back in the pan with equal weight in sugar, and cook, stirring often, until you have a thick, red paste. (about 1 hour) Pour onto a baking sheet and dry in a very low ove, preferably with the fan on, for about an hour. Cut into small cubes and roll half of them in castor sugar. Clementines in cardamom-orangeflowerwater syrup peel 4 clementines and spend a lot of time removing as much of the pith as possible. Cut them in half crosswise and place in a shallow bowl. Juice 2 clementines. Make a caramelsyrup by heating 100 grams sugar with 3 tablespoons of water. Cook until you have an amber-coloured syrup. Of the heat, stir in the clementine juice. Put back on the heat en stir until the syrup is smooth. Take off the heat, add half a tablespoon of orangeflowerwater, and one cracked cardamompod. Pour over the clementines and leave to marinate (overnight) in the fridge. Serve these on top of a slice of speculaasparfait. First make speculaascookies following this recipe. You an omit the almonds but you don't have to. Now, take 60 grams of cookies (about 6 cookies) and crumble them. 2 eggs, seperated 50 grams sugar 100 ml. cream 1 tablespoon Amaretto liqueur Whip the eggwhites with half the sugar. Whip the cream in another bowl. Whisk the eggyolks with the rest of the sugar, then cook them au bain marie until thick and creamy. Mix he crumbled cookies into the cream, together with the Amaretto. Mix this into the yolks, and finally fold in the beaten eggwhites. Pour into small plastic containers/cups and freeze, for at least 4 hours. To unmold, briefly dip into a jug of hot water. Filo parcels make an almond paste by grinding equal amounts of sugar and almonds together until you have a fine powder. I flavored the paste this time with a little of the clementine syrup, and added a litle bit of milk to make a smooth paste. Put dollops of this mixture on sheets of filo, brushed with butter, and wrap them up any way yu like - I made square parcels and little purses. Brush with some more butter and bake in a moderate ovenuntil golden. ( RG1899 )

I finally broke down and ordered it on Amazon yesterday. It won't arrive until January though.. I also made the garlic cabbage today, to go with some braised hare and polenta. Delicious. I love that cabbage! I have leftovers, so I might try it with pasta as you suggest tomorrow, Pontormo.

Thanks everybody for the kind words! we just ate the last of the trifle and this is soooo good. I can't believe I made that up We both agreed that it needed a higher ratio of cake to cream though. But possibly that has something to to with the fact that it was in narrow glasses. Recipes will be in RG sometime tomorrow I hope. Oh and if anyone wants to try baking with the speculaas spices, and doesn't feel like making their own, pm me and I'm happy to send some to you. Spreading the speculaas-love around the globe, you know

Abra & chefpeon, what a bakefest. That must have been fun (and exhausting!) I wish I could have been there to help! and the speculaasjes, fake or not, look great

I've made my first membrillo yesterday. It's pretty soft and sticky, which makes me think I should have dried it a little longer. Maybe I could still do that? More questions. How long does it keep? and what else could I do with it, besides eating it with cheese, and just eating it as it is?

Thank you Kerry for challenging me, this has been a great learning experience, and a lot of fun, and I now have a fridge full of sweet goodies! And thanks everybody for thinking with me and cheering me on! I could not have spent an entire day making dessert, if it wasn't for you as my audience I will announce the next challenge in a couple of hours.

I'm done! And tired. And on a sugar high from sampling my own creations I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. As I suspected form the beginning, my talent lies more in combining flavors, than in attractively plating them. I think the final plate is a bit too fussy, and not as elegant looking as I'd hoped for. But considering this is the first time I've attempted something like this, I think it's not too bad! Thanks to miladyinsanity, I overcame my frear of membrillo, and made some. It's fantastic. No photoshopping.. this really does look like this. Oh and it tastes good too.. So, the story behind this dessert. The challenge was, (in Kerry's words) So this week I challenge Chufi to make a dessert that evokes the spirit of Sinterklaas, uses speculaas spices and includes a seasonal fruit or vegetable The idea of trifle stuck with me from the beginning, the other part evolved as I was thinking about flavors, combinations and the meaning of this holiday. I also wanted to use the speculaas spices in an unusual way. For the trifle, I made a simple sponge cake, with the addition of the spicemix: The other ingredients for the trifle are a white chocolate custard, Dutch 'stoofperen' - a kind of pear that you can't eat raw, and that turns a dark red when cooked for a couple of hours -, whipped cream. The sponge was soaked with a mixture of the pear poaching liquid and a Spanish muscat wine. Pistachios on top for a bit of color contrast. I then made some speculaas cookies like this, and used them as the base for a rich parfait. I thought of this because of the speculaas icecream you can buy in the Netherlands this time of year, I wanted to make that but without an icecreammaker, I made the parfait instead. I froze it in a narrow plastic cup and then sliced in into rounds. Clementines are seasonal right now, and they are very much a part of Sinterklaas. Along with small gifts, children often get clementines in their shoe (the equivalent of the Christmasstocking). The clementines were marinated overnight in a caramelsyrup flavored with orangeflowerwater and cardamom. Not really a Turkish recipe, but flavors that remind me of Turkey anyway - the represent the birthplace of St Nicolaas. I made an almond paste and flavored it with orangezest and some of the clementine syrup. Wrapped this in filo (thanks K8memphis for that suggestion!) to represent the little gifts and parcels that we get for Sinterklaas. They are also a twist on this traditional Sinterklaas pastry: almond paste wrapped in puff pastry. The membrillo was cut into little dice, to represent both the jewels that decorate Sinterklaas' robe, and the 'strooigoed' - small pieces of candy that Sinterklaas' helpers carry around in bags to give to the children. Well, that's a LOT of words to describe a plate of sweets. How does it taste? The trifle is fantastic and i think that one is going to be on my Christmas menu! The white chocolate custard is divine, and works really well with the lightly spiced alcohol soaked cake and the richly sweet pears. The parfait is wonderful but very rich. It works really well with the tangy clementines though and I think that would make an excellent dessert just as it is. The membrillo is rich and sweet and sort of ties all the other flavors together. The little filo parcels are a welcome change in texture, with all that creamy softness of the other items. Oh and the slice of parfait with the clementine on top was supposed to just lie on the plate, but it was hot in my kitchen and the parfait started to melt, hence the little saucer.

chris, do they look like this? there was some discussion about those in the Umbria thread in October. Trumpet royale mushrooms, I think the concensus was...

well, you know, that is very much the spirit of Sinterklaas.. not really knowing what's going to happen.. I love that this way I'm able to celebrate Sinterklaas even 2 weeks after the actual holiday There's going to be something from Spain, because Sinterklaas arrives from Spain every year in November. Something from Turkey (or at least Turkish-inspired) because that's where the original St Nicolaas came from. Speculaasspices used in a way no Dutch person ever thought of. And because Sinterklaas is about indulging in really bad and tacky sweets, there's going to be white chocolate.

I really enjoyed this week. I already knew I loved Turkish food, but you have shown me lots of things new to me, and inspired me to go back to my Turkish cookbooks soon. I really feel that when I was in Istanbul, more than 10 years ago, I did not do it justice. I hope to get back one day and eat some of the wonderful things you have been showing us. Thanks!