Chufi

Chufi... I'm interested in this comment. Is there something specific that you don't like, eg texture? The dish sounds great and I'd love to try it (my book finally arrived). ← Yes I think it's a texture thing for me.... I loved the crunchy bits of bread on the top, but didn't like the bits in the other layers. The bread soaks up all the milk in the long, slow cooking, and as Paula Wolfert says in her intro to the recipe, becomes silky soft. I guess I just don't like the texture of milksoaked bread. If I ever make it again I think I would just do a layer of the greens, because the flavor of the slow-cooked mixed greens and leeks was really wonderful, with crunchy bread on top. edited to add: you should really try the pork coddled in olive oil.. its fantastic. I have since then coddled/confited goose legs in the leftover oil, also delicious!

Jen, I'm speechless (in both languanges...) you're very good!! vers = fresh, kraakvers = something like squeaky fresh, very very fresh. BTW I sometimes feel that the Dutch language is being taken over by English words. Esepcially in the foodbusiness.. everything is referred to as light, fresh, easy, etc. An english speaking person would feel right at home in our supermarkets!

A beautiful spread Abra! I made the panade of leeks and greens with Cantal cheese a couple of days ago. Leeks are slowly cooked down with a mixture of greens, then layeren into a pot with stale breadcrumbs. Hot milk is poured over, it's sprinkled with cheese and baked in a low oven. I used spinach, rucola and parsley for the greens. Instead of the Cantal, I used an Austrian Gruyere type cheese. This recipe is in the soup chapter of the book, but it's more like a bread & vegetable gratin: While this was good, it wasn't delicious and I don't think I would make this again. Maybe these breadbased dishes are not really my thing..

well, it's in RecipeGullet. here so even if you can't read my story, you can make it that would be a very undutch recipe indeed. Witlof - belgian endive - is a favorite Dutch vegetable, but usually boiled to death

Thanks April! I guess it's a good thing then that I did not start out with this one Yes, it freezes well. I put several containers in the freezer.. ready and waiting for the cold and rainy days of February. Ofcourse you could make less but it does not seem to make sense when something cooks for such a long time, to make only a small pan.

Dutch split pea soup - Erwtensoep, or, as it's affectionately called, snert I know I already posted a picture of this somewhere upthread, but as I was making the soup on monday, I felt it was impossible not to share this with you. Erwtensoep is a real Dutch classic - simple, rustic winter comfortfood. What you need for a very large pan of soup: 500 grams splitpeas Fresh pork. You can use various types, a hamhock, pigs feet, ribs. Here I have over a kilo of porkribs, and because I felt they were maybe not meaty enough, some extra pork shoulder, chopped up. Salt pork. A small piece of salt, not smoked pork. Smoked pork. Smoked pork sausages are traditional, but bits of smoked bacon could be added as well. Vegetables. Here I have a couple of large potatoes, 2 fat leeks, 3 onions, 2 large carrots, a small celeriac, half a bunch of parsley and half a bunch of celery leaves. You don't have to be too precise about the amounts. Now, a couple of points that will transform ordinary splitpea soup into the sublime Dutch snert.. - Chop up your vegetables fairly small. You want them to dissolve into the soup. - Don't add the smoked meats until at the very end, or your soup will get a harsh and too smokey flavor. Snert is supposed to have a very mellow, sweet flavor, with the contrast of little bits of smokey meat. - Most recipes tell you to use 2 litres of water for 500 grams of splitpeas. This gives you a thick soup fast, but not the complex flavor you're after. So I use 4 litres of water for 500 grams of peas. I simmer the soup for 2 hours covered, and then for about 2 hours more, uncovered. - Long, slow simmering is what gives this soup it's character. There are no shortcuts! During the latter part of the cooking, when the soup is getting thicker, it needs a lot of attention. I't burns easily and stick to the pan. You will need to stir it and scrape the pan at least every 15-20 minutes. - Don't eat it the day you made it. Really. This is going to be hard, because it smells so good, but trust me, tomorrow it will be even better. So. Throw everything, except the smoked meat, into the pot with 4 litres of water and a couple of bayleaves. Add salt and pepper, easy on the salt if you're using a large piece of salt pork.. Bring to the boil. While it comes to the boil, you can spoon off some of the scum that rises to the surface, but to be honest I'm not very thorough about that... When it boils, lower the heat and make sure this is simmering slowly. Simmer for about 2 hours, stirring often. Uncover the pan and simmer for a couple more hours, stirring even more often. The house is smelling heavenly by now. Take the meat out and separate meat and bones. This should be really easy. Shred the meat, get rid of the very fatty bits, and put the meat back into the pan. Slice your soked meats and put them in the soup. Simmer for about 30 minutes more. It should look like this taste it and add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it. Let it cool. As it cools, it becomes so firms that a spoon will stand up straight.. Next day, serve! I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but the texture has changed overnight, and the soup has become even more smooth and thick. edited to add: I know this does not look pretty.. but if only you could smell it.. as we were eating it yesterday my husband said, I wish you could put this smell on the internet for those EGulleters..

Hi gaf, unfortunately I don't dine in high-end restaurants as often as I'd like so I can't give you many personal recommendations. But if you like, I can give some suggestions based on experiences of friends, and the restaurant reviews that I read. I'm a bit busy right now but look for a list within a couple of days. Klary

Yay, it's a ducky blog!!! I always love your posts, and now we get a whole week of it! And you in the midst of moving, too! I'm so happy that your cooking conditions will improve. It must be awful not to be able to cook something you like, just because your housemate can't stand the smell of it!

Wow, you really know your Amsterdam.. I've never been to Marius, but I've heard about it and read really good reviews on the Dutch restaurants sites. It's a table d'hote style of restaurant I think? Have you been there? edited to add: What an impressive dinner. The cassoulet looks delicious... And I count 3 different lighthouses in the pictures. They must really mean a lot to you!

John, 1 day late, but I still want to wish you a very happy birthday.. your guests are so lucky to have you cook such a dinner for them! I'm making celery remoulade tonight in your honour (thought about doing the cassoulet too, but voted in favor of the celery.. just kidding.. even with your detailed instructions, cassoulet still scares me!)

hey, that's okay, I'm not in the vegetable business.. can somebody shed some light on my fontina situation... I just had aother piece with some bread and I'm telling you, if this is the real thing, I don't like it (and I like almost every cheese).

Patrick, that's practically the same recipe as Claudia Rodens Whole orange cake.. only that one does not have the ginger.. Now I am not as accomplished a baker as you are but this is one of my favorite cakes.. what didn't you like about it?

My favorite parsnip soup is curried parsnip soup. The spicy homemade currypowder really balances the sweet parsnips very well.

made Bagnet Vert today.. bread soaked in vinegar, parsley, olive oil, garlic, anchovies, yolk of a hardboiled egg. While I was putting all the ingredients in the blender I realized I did not have enough parsley.. so this sauce is perhaps not as vert as it should be.. Served over slices of warm, boiled potatoes, with the eggwhite from the boiled egg crumbled on top. Now I have a question about fontina. I bought some at a local cheese shop.. one i don't trust very much, but that day, it was the only place I could find it. It smells and tastes very strong. I used it in my mushroom timballo today, only a little bit, and I think it's overpowering the dish.. So I guess my question is.. what should good fontina taste like?

I used the recipe from the foodnetwork website.. no picture there. The recipe says to cut the cardoon in 1/4 inch thick pieces, but I never know how much an inch is, I have to use my special inch ruler for that and I was to lazy to search for it so... the pieces were probably much thicker than they should have been. The taste was really good though. I'm going to try out some more cardoon recipes soon! Elie that soup looks good, I love chickpeasoup, but I have to say the bread looks even better! Oh btw.. I'm making a mushroom timballo (Marcella Hazan's recipe) tonight.. is this a Piedmontese recipe.. it has fontina in it?? (just checking if I should post it in this thread...)

what do you mean by reduced in texture? Softer cardoons? A more compact custard? I've been looking at other sformati recipes, they intrigue me, but I've never had an 'official' one and that always makes it a bit more difficult to cook something I think.

I'm sorry that it took me so long.. I've been eyeing this thread from the beginning, very impressed with all the dishes.. today I finally got round to doing some Piemontese cooking myself. Claudia Roden has a recipe for pheasant 'in salmi' in her chapter on Piemontese cooking. The birds are cooked in a red wine sauce, flavored with juniper, cloves, cinnamon, bacon, sage and rosemary, and anchovies. That's what I made.. only I had a pair of partridges in the freezer, so I substituted them for the pheasant.. served with soft polenta. I also made sformato di cardi.. from Mario Batali's recipe.. I made them in individual molds.. but I have no clue if this is what it should look like. I ended up fooling around with the proportions of the recipe so much, that it could be very far away from the original. It was delicious though! First time I cooked (or ate!) cardoons, I love them!

Muffin

That napoleon looks so lovely. I might try something like that for my husband's birthdayparty! I had the last of my fake oliebollen for dessert. Reheated in the microwave, spread with butter. Mmmm...

I have it too. And since I started photographing my food, I have a new excuse: "that serving dish has already been in a picture 5 times.. I need to give the folks at EGullet something new to look at " Seriously. I always want to buy, but moneyproblems are my only salvation. Sigh...

I think so.. they look like muffins, with a really round and raised top. I did not turn them as they baked, I think that would have affected the rise too much.

to bake = bakken. So yes, bakbollen would be a good description.. Bakken actually can also be used to describe frying (like in sautepan.) Language is complicated.. edited to add: or, ovenbollen.. (you know like regular fries versus ovenfries..)

Ok I have to admit I became a little obsessed with this idea! I just had to try it myself! So I did. I used the recipe for Oliebollen qouted above, roughly quartered, so the proportions ended up like this (this made 12 buns): 250 grams of flour 250 ml. warm milk half a sachet yeast 50 grams soft white sugar 50 grams melted butter 1 egg flavorings: about half a small apple, chopped finely, a handful of currants, a handful of candied citron. Dough was left to rise until doubled, then punched down, and left to rise again. I set my oven to about 190 C. I greased 2 6-hole muffinpans with sunfloweroil, rather liberally, so as not to take the oil comletely out of the oliebollen I heated the muffintins in the oven for a couple of minutes until the oil was hot and then filled them one at the time. Baked for about 10 minutes. I brushed them with milk when they came out of the oven, and sprinkled with soft sugar. Voila.. the practically oil-less oliebol! I'm not sure what we should call this.. any ideas? They are fantastic. They are not the same as the real thing, ofcourse, because they don't have the crispy crunchy crust that you can only get from deepfrying. But they are so light, fluffy, and their taste is definitely that of the real thing! I can imagine that this is something you can make much more often, it's easy and fast, and ofcourse it's healthier. Thank you Cadbury for this creative contribution to Dutch Cooking! this will be in my repertoire from now on!

I love everything you love! Thank you so much for this blog Marlena. I really enjoyed reading it, you have such a great, unique writing style, that I too did not miss the pictures at all. From the Greek hills to Waitrose to puddings , I could see it all!

Helen, you did such a great job - keeping on blogging through migraines and colds!! Thanks for sharing your family life with us. I love that picture of your son doing calligraphy on the kotatsu. I hope you feel better soon.