Chufi

Nigella Lawson's marzipan cake. It has equal amunts of marzipan and flour, which makes a very almondy, dense cake. Also, this was my first time making and using ganache... good stuff!

gorgeous, Ann. Love the little pool of melted butter on the top!

No, this is witloof (spelled witlof in the Netherlands), aka as Belgian Endive:

gfron1, I have no suggestions whatsoever for this challenge (allthough I was going to mention the Turkish chicken dessert, but M.Lucia beat me to it) but i can't wait to see what you'll come up with. has this been mentioned before.. wuold cheese count as an animal product?

Sorry guys, I only just found this topic due to my vacation! Swisskaese, are you answering to the original post about andijvie with your reply, or to the second question about couve galega? Because, I know nothng about couve galega, but I do know something about andijvie. Your link to curly endive shows me something that is not the same as the Dutch andijvie. That same website does describe Dutch andijvie though: escarole as markemorse already mentioned upthread. here's a pic from the Dutch cooking thread:

that is so interesting. I never thought of it like that. Beautiful pictures, hathor, I can't wait for the rest of the week. I love your writing, too, please talk as much as you like!

Well, since I completely missed out on Campania (although no-one should feel sorry for me, because all of September I was eating my way through the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia) I am hoping to contribute something to this month's region!

this is going to be good, I know it. I'm looking forward to some Italian inspiration for my kitchen.. happy blogging!

well, I had discussions about this with other US-based eGulleters, and I don't think you can get it outside of the Netherlands. It's a flavorless, 35 % alcohol, used primarily for preserving fruits and making advocaat (a kind of eggogg). It's pretty nasty stuff and no-one in their right mind would drink it on it's own (although elderly aunts of mine drink it straight, with a teaspoon of sugar mixed in). So the best substitute would be something like vodka with a not too pronounced flavor.

John, your apricots have an uncanny resemblance to the Dutch boerenmeisjes (see here for details), except that one has sugar aded and it should mature for about 8 weeks. The Dutch stuff is drunk (eaten, really) apricots and all, but if you would strain it, you'd have a sweet, very apricoty alcohol. Although you're probably looking for something not sweet?

It's definitely a hard cheese, but nothing like a bowling ball- it cuts fine with a knife or with a cheese peeler. I don't know what the brand name is- the piece is small enough that all I can see on the rind is "ord" and "noo". But I bought it at DiBruno's, and here's their product page: 10-year old Gouda If you want more information, Lisa Alois, the buyer for DiBruno's, is an eGullet poster; she can no doubt tell you more than I can. ← I was at a food-fair today, where I spoke to some (I think) reliable cheeseproducers (some of them were presenting their cheeses under the flag of thr Slow Food movement). This 10 year old Gouda has been on my mind ever since I first read about it. So I asked around. I had a long conversation with one of the cheesemakers who said that a 10-year old Gouda would be inedible. He said that 7 years is about the maximum age for a cheese to be still good to eat. He had one cheese at his stall that was about 6 years old. He only had it because he had gotten it back from one of his shops, where it been sort of left behind. He said that even in the Dutch CheeseMuseum (who knew that it existed ) there are no 10 year old cheeses. So, I am even more intrigued. What is this cheese that you can buy at Di Bruno's? who is telling the truth here? It needs more research...

that is an amazing dinner and an amazing amount of food! I have a real craving for sprouts now. I haven't had any sprouts yet, this season..

My supermarket throws the bananas away that, in my opinion, could happily sit in the fruitbowl for another couple of days before they have to be eaten. When I seen someone taking them from the shelves and throwing them in the bin, I ask if I can buy them, but they won't let me!

can someone explain to me what the 'dip and sweep' method is when measuring flour? And how is it different from something else I sometimes read, 'scoop and level'? thanks! When using American recipes, I spoon flour from by big flour jar into my 3-cupmeasurer until it comes to the required level. Am I doing it right?

John, I'm catching up and flying through the pages, but this is a lovely blog.. you eat and drink well.. Oh and I've been repeating your sig line to my husband every day since I first saw it!

we're home, and we had a fabulous time. full (very long ) trip report here!

We're home, and we had a fabulous time. full (very long ) trip report here

that is food for thought, Lori, and a challenge. It will have to wait a bit so I can arrange my thoughts a bit better... the first day when we got back I almost cried when I went to the supermarket and saw the sad display of vegetables, but I am almost ready to appreciate Amsterdam's blessings again

that's strange.. most of my friends love peanutbutter! I can't buy many chocolate-peanutbutter candy here though. My ethnic store (they sell foodstuff from all over the world) has reese's cups and I sometimes get them as a guilty treat.. We liked the beer, but we both felt that some of them lacked a bit in depth and complexity.. which is what we do find in our favorite Belgian beers.. But I should say we did not get to as many breweries as we had planned, so this is not a very well-researched opinion.

well, good food makes him happy and bad food makes him unhappy.. .he has a very good palate and is a really good taster.. and he can have pretty strong opinions about food! On the trip, I would sometimes give him the choice between several restaurants on my eGullet recommendations list.. "would you like Vietnamese or French tonight?" he's just not very analytical about it, and he did think that seeing so many people together who couldn't stop talking about "where did you buy this and how did you make this and I need that recipe" was kind of funny then again, I often have to listen to him and his friends talking about music that very same way, so I guess it's a good balance...

This really was an eGullet vacation. Many of the places we ate, were places I read about on eGullet, and meeting all the eGulletmembers made this trip extra special. So thanks everybody for making this one of my most enjoyable holidays ever... and a very special thankyou to Abra and Shel, our generous hosts. One of the few things I regret about the trip is that we did not have an extra day on Bainbridge, I would have loved to spend the day in the kitchen with Abra and cook together. That would have been a lot of fun! And I could have had one more of these - cafe bonbon, made by Shel the coffeemaestro: I guess that means we'll have to come back.

della's pulled pork this is just the appetizertable ! brisket Abra's ribs, kayswv's beans, and charcoops truffled macaroni cheese chefpeon's homemade buns as the sun set over Seattle.. we sat down to this wonderful feast! and then there was dessert... chefpeon's napoleons little ms. foodie's brownies, Eden's partner Bill's strawberry icecream, Eden's apple- and cherrypie. I'm full again just by remembering it... the next day, we had leftovers for lunch and leftovers for dinner. Monday, when we were on the plane, we could skip the horrible plane-lunch (spinachlasagna!!) and have Abra's brisket, on chefpeon's buns, with Wendy's brownies for dessert. Even the flight attendants were jealous thank you everybody for making us feel so welcome! It was a truly memorable evening and I'm so glad we could end our holiday in a real home, with real food! oh and please correct me if I've attributed some dish to the wrong eGulleter. And I apoligize for the bad pictures.. both on Friday and Saturday, I'm afraid I was much to busy talking, eating and drinking to remember the right camera settings...

Day 19 - Bainbridge Island we had a quiet day.. took Abra and Shel's dog for a swim on the beach, had Chinese & Thai leftovers for lunch, sat on the deck in the sunshine.. then we started preparing for the big party. Well, I didn't do much! Abra had everything prepared.. the brisket was smoked.. the ribs were being brined in their bourbon-bath.. a bunch of Egulletters and their partners were coming over and treat us to an all-American feast.. I think there were about 20 of us at the table.. and enough food for at least twice as many people.. Abra makes walnut mayonaise to go into the prettiest potatosalad: Ribs smoking: grilling some of Abra's homemade hotdogs: Guests start to arrive and there's a flurry of hectic prepwork going on in the kitchen. I still do nothing except taking pics! tamiams salad little ms foodies devilled eggs somone brought this beer.. never seen it in The Netherlands! della's multi-layered dip (7, 8, 9 layers?)

it wasn't mole.. these were quesadilla's, with guacamole and black bean puree and cream drizzled on top. And yes they were really good!

hang in there, it's almost over.. it's still day 18, and we leave Seattle on the ferry to beautiful Bainbridge Island where we are going to stay with Abra for a couple of days. And it's an eGullet party.. Ling, hhlodesign, and rockdoggydog are coming for dinner and cooking a Chinese feast! Abra made some Thai dishes as well.. Before you know it, I'm in the kitchen chopping shallots.. I can't tell you how good it felt to hold a knife again after almost 3 weeks of eating out.. Abra made this Thai steamed chicken in bananaleaf, they were delicious (and beautiful!) She also made Thai ribs, they had a wonderful deep flavor that reminded me a bit of Indonesian Beef Rendang and noodles, I don't know exactly what went in them, I think she is sprinkling some pickled cabbage on top here.. Abra? rockdoggydog brought his own gasburner and wok and was out on the deck stirfrying.. waterspinach with garlic: tofu with celery, I loved this tofu! I think it had blackbeansauce? very good, salty and slightly spicy Ling and hhlodesign brought pork, duck and chicken, and their famous braised pork belly The belly was served in buns and was so delicious.. I ate much more of that than was good for me I'm afraid.. But it was so good, in it's sticky sweet syrupy sauce.. definitely on my list of 'favorite things I ate this vacation'! here's everything on the plate, together with the pig's ear salad rockdoggydog brought that I did not get a good separate picture of. I had never eaten pig's ear before, the texture is, yes, crunchy it does not have a very distinctive flavor by itself I think, but it was very good in the salad with a spicy dressing with (I think) sesameoil. And, I got to taste one of Ling's desserts! Months ago I told her I was dying to eat her Cabrales icecream.. and she remembered and that's what she brought .. together with this gorgeous fig & frangipane tart. Abra served a wonderful sweet Malaga wine with dessert. it was a wonderful evening with great company. Thanks guys for cooking for us!