Chufi

Sunday the 27 November the Dutch Society for Forgotten Vegetables organized a wine and vegetable-tasting at their farm in Beesel, Limburg. The owner of this farm, Jac Nijskens, dedicates his life to growing about 250 kinds of heirloom vegetable varieties, vegetables that are “forgotten” today, the vegetables that you cannot buy at the supermarket and the vegetables that (almost) no-one knows how to cook anymore. In collaboration with a local wine merchant he devised a menu of 5 small courses, each course was accompanied by an unusual wine. About 50 of us spent 4 hours eating and drinking in the large farm kitchen, while it was slowly getting dark and wet snow was falling outside. here's one of the staff preparing the centrepieces with some of the vegetables used in the cooking: First course: a creamy Jerusalem Artichoke soup, with cucumber, salmon and dill. Pinot gris 2003, Johanniger Qba Nahe Germany Second course: Pumpkinsoup with cream, and a little slice of pate with a sweet pumpkin chutney. There was a hint of vanilla in the chutney and they chose the wine to match this: Rondan Crianza 2001, from Rioja, Spain, made from the grape Viura. While pumpkin is not really a forgotten vegetable, it is (for most Dutch people) an unusual one. It has become more popular in recent years though. Third course: Chiogga beetroot with pickled red onions, crispy cod fillet and horseradish cream. This is what that beetroot looks like raw: It tastes sweeter than ordinary beetroot, and a bit less earthy. A lovely combination with the fish and the horseradish. With that, a wine that was very unusual and I have to say, not many at our table were very enhousiastic about it. Tellus Reserva 1997, Douro, Portugal. Made from 5 different grapes: Touringa francesa, tinta roriz, tinta amarela, tinta carvalha and tinta barocca. This was a very robust and almost a bit harsh wine. We all agreed though that it improved a lot when drunk with the food, and I felt it combined well with the bold sweet-sour flavours of the beetroot dish. 4th course, a medieval cabbage variety wrapped around a filling of Vitelotte Noir potatoes, yellow carrot from Limburg, and cheese. Served with crispy bacon and a slice of ham. Wine: Dom Pichard Barrique 1995, Madiran, France. Grapes: tannat, bouchy, cab sauvignon. Another bold and rustic wine that went very well with the pork and cabbage. Dessert: not exactly a forgotten vegetable, but definitely a very oldfashioned flavor: Lavender Icecream. Served with a delicious sweet wine from Corsica: Muscat Felix Pietri. This farm is unfortunately about a 2 hours drive by car from Amsterdam, otherwise I would probably go here every Saturday and beg for some strange carrots or cabbages to take home! Their website is Dutch only, but if you click on the word Plantenlijst in the menu on the left, you get a complete list (with pictures) of all the vegetables he's growing, from earth almonds to mountain spinach.

wow, everyone keeps on going cooking Dutch food! I love it! Today I bought some very old Dutch cheese: The one on the right is 2 years old, it's made in the Dutch province Noord Holland (where Amsterdam is). The one on the left is 3 years old and made on the farm Elisabethhoeve in IJsselstein, a town to the east of Amsterdam. You can see the crystallization in the cheeses.. both are delicious, with a salty but mellow flavor, very rich and buttery in your mouth. The 3-year old has a slightly more concentrated flavor and the texture is a bit harder and drier. I also bought a jar of appelstroop This is a very concentrated applepaste (about 3 kilo of fruit went into this little jar). The hilly landscape you see pictured on the jar is what the province of Limburg, where this appelstroop is made, looks like. The applepaste will also feature in tonight's dinner, in a recipe from that province. Cheese and appelstroop, two great things, better together.. lunch:

That is an amazing dinner... I was just thinking about you yesterday "I wonder how Abra's dinner went" , I'm so glad you posted this! That roast vegetable galette with stilton looks gorgeous. Forgive me if this was already mentioned in the blog, but what kind of pastry is that? I can see that this worked well with a big red.. and this would also make a lovely vegetarian main course I think.

yes, it's the syrup from the jar preserved ginger that I saw in your blog, the one that is exactly the same as mine I changed 'crystallized ginger' to 'preserved ginger' in the recipe, sometimes the translation-thing confuses me.. The sucade (citron) is optional, I only put it in because I had some left after making the applepie. Although you can buy gingerbread in the shops over here that is loaded with citron!! edited for clarification

percyn, I want that baked brie!! what a good idea to serve it with apples. Alinka.. sigh.. those tarts are gorgeous. The hazelnut one is my favorite! could I get a slice of that please... great looking Thanksgiving dinner Susan. Reading about the Thanksgiving dinners is so interesting to me. The same ingredients keep popping up, this really is a day for tradition isn't it? Something like that just does not exist over here. I think it's great.. Anyway here's what we had tonight: glorious bibimbap

Kruidkoek - Spicy gingerbread. This makes a very spicy, 'adult' gingerbread. I like it like that, but if you want a sweeter, mellower version, omit the pepper and powdered ginger . 150 grams soft butter 200 rams soft dark brown sugar 3 eggs 200 grams selfraising flour pinch of salt spice mix: 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon grond cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspooon ground powdered ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 3 tablespoons gingersyrup 3 tablespoons milk 50 grams chopped preserved ginger 50 grams chopped sucade (candied citron) - optional spices ginger, citron and gingersyrup Preheat the oven to 160 C / 320 F Cream the butter and the sugar until really fluffy. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the spices the flour, salt, syrup, milk, ginger and citron. Mix well. Pour into a greased cake tin, lined with baking paper (I used a 10 x 30 cm loaf tin). Bake for about 1 hour, until well risen. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out dry. It makes a soft, moist loaf that will keep very well, the flavor even gets better after a couple of days. Really good on it's own and even better spread with butter...

I'm so glad you had a nice time! I'm glad you also went to the Albert Cuyp market, it's very different from the fancy organic market at the Noordermarkt, but it's a 'real' market. I love it and I go there whenever I get the chance (4 times a week..) and ah, fondue at cafe Bern.. it's been too long since I've had that! Good choice! enjoy the goodies you brought home!

Dutch beansoup with barley and meatballs this was supposed to go in the Dutch Cooking thread, but after eating it (and looking at it) I decided it was not worthy. My husband started out by saying "this soup is ok but you should have left out the barley" and after eating a bowl he said "I do not really like this soup" (which is very rare for him, because he can usually muster up some enthousiasm even for what I consider my biggest failures) This is basically brown beans cooked forever with lots of onions and leeks. Then cooked for another eternity after adding the barley. Then cooked some more after adding the meatballs. It ends up tasting like sweet, bland, blah babyfood. In fact, everything that Dutch cuisine is always accused of. So this soup gets it's final resting place here in the Gallery of regrettable foods, instead of in the Dutch Cooking thread! byebye soup

the truth of food, yes, that's what it's all about. Thank you Lucy for making that so wonderfully clear through your writing and your pictures. I don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here, but reading about other peoples views about it and their celebrations here on EGullet does make me realize that I have a lot to be thankful for. As it happens, me and my husband just finished a rather disappointing dinner. But it was food, it nourished us, even if not deliciously, and tomorrow will bring new opportunities. I much rather keep trying, with the occasional failure, to strive for 'truthful' food - than to settle for the other stuff. edited to add: did you bake your stuffed tomatoes in one of those silicon moulds? what a great idea!!

Pasta with celery root, smoked bacon, and pied de mouton mushrooms. Cream, and parmesan. salad with belgian endive, fuji apple, walnuts and a honey mustard dressing. all ladled into indivudual bowls and eaten while watching Dogville on dvd. A perfect simple autumn dinner.

Lia, see here in the Dutch Cooking thread for the recipe (for 2 kinds of speculaas)

Yes, Grub, please make more Hutspot! I can't wait to see what you will do with the next batch of leftovers. Hutspot soup maybe? Hutspot au gratin? Hutspot filled ravioli? Ah the possibilities are endless..

ScorchedPalate, thanks for the info on candied citron. Poffertjes, you could also add some candied orangerind. A friend of mine always adds some chopped up dried apricots to his applepie. Like the citron, this adds not only flavor, but texture. Don't soak them so they stay a bit chewy. edited to add: I'm now thinking that for Thanksgiving, maybe dried cranberries would make a nice addition to this pie!

Daniel, I'm speechless. you have some lucky friends!! One question. The bacon you used for the dessert courses. What kind of bacon was that? smoked or not?

Thanks fifi!! Abra, that sounds delicious. What a great idea. Now I am thinking that maybe speculaasflavored creme brulee might also work.. what do you think? Hector, this is the traditional way to eat white asparagus (when in season): with new potatoes, boiled eggs, ham and lots of melted butter. Was the dish you had, asparagus and ham baked together like a gratin? was there cheese on it, or just butter?

That cabbage looks so good. Is it just garlic, oil, and cabbage? No other liquid added?

Took a bunch of chickenbones from the freezer and made some stock. Infused it with loads of chillies, lemon grass, ginger, garlic, galangal. Strained and added coconut milk, fish sauce, lime juice. A creamy white soup that looked dull but had a great kick to it - lovely, fragrant and spicy. Also on the table.. noodle salad with the leftovers from Saturdays roast chicken. Flavored with shallots, ginger, garlic, lime leaves, chillies. Loads of chillies. Lots of chopped mint and coriander. Extra chili paste added to the bowl while eating. Now if all of that doesn't clear up my sinuses, I don't know what will

Again, thanks everyone for all your kind words. And thank you snowangel for the post with the links! Here's another one.. appeltaart , apple pie. Now ofcourse, applepie is made all over the world and there are probably as many recipes as there are bakers. Still I think that apple pie, at least in my family recipe, has some uniquely Dutch characteristics. Please correct me, if I'm wrong Dutch applepie is usually made with selfraising flour, which produces a light, crumbly crust. The filling is rather dry and firm, with recognizable slices of apple. Not much liquid. (which is maybe why so many people prefer a large serving of whipped cream with their pie..) The traditional apple to use is the goudreinette, which I think is known abroad as Belle de Boskoop. It is a large, tart, crisp apple that doesn't fall apart when cooked in the pie. For the crust: 300 grams selfraising flour 200 grams soft butter 150 grams sugar pinch of salt 1 egg For the filling ca. 1 kilo tart apples (unprepared weight) 50 grams (vanilla) sugar 50 grams raisins 2 tablespoons of sucade 1 - 2 teaspoons cinnamon oatmeal or breadcrumbs, if necessary 1 beaten egg to glaze 1 springform tin 22 cm, buttered and floured Sucade is the candied rind of a fruit called citrus medica. I've never seen the fresh fruit. The candied rind is used in applepie, in the famous newyears eve fritters oliebollen, as a flavouring in raisin- and gingerbread. It's a bit oldfashioned to use in homebaking but I like it and it's pretty.. It has a sweet, slightly orangey flavor and a chewy texture. Preheat oven to 175 C / 350 F. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together and use about 3/4 to line the springformtin. The dough will be sticky and a bit hard to handle, the easiest way to get it into the tin is to put clumps of it on the bottom, and then use your fingers (dipping them in cold water every now and then to prevent sticking) or the back of a spoon (ditto) to spread it evenly over the bottom and sides. Peel, core and quarter the apples and slice them thinly. Mix with the other filling ingredients and put in the tin (If you use apples that will collapse during cooking and will shed a lot of liquid, put a handful of breadcrumbs or a layer of oatmeal on the bottom before putting in the filing). Roll the leftover dough into thin strips with your hands, and use them to make a lattice pattern on top of the filling. Glaze with the beaten egg. Bake for about 50 minutes at 175 C / 350 F, or until golden brown and risen. Don't overbake or it will be dry. Here you can see how the appleslices have held their shape, and the texture of the crust. In Holland applepie is often served with whipped cream, with a cup of morning coffee. The recipe is also here in Recipe Gullet

Oh my goodness Alinka!! I love everything buckwheat. Those look so tasty.. would you be willing to share the recipe, my crepes never look so lovely and lacy. Oh and OT.. what does it say on your mug..

Dutch applepie My mom's recipe for applepie. Dutch applepie is usually made with selfraising flour, which produces a light, crumbly crust. The filling is rather dry and firm, with recognizable slices of apple. Not much liquid. (which is maybe why so many people prefer a large serving of whipped cream with their pie..) The traditional apple to use is the goudreinette, which I think is known abroad as Belle de Boskoop. It is a large, tart, crisp apple that doesn't fall apart when cooked in the pie. Another flavoring is sucade the candied rind of a fruit called citrus medica. I've never seen the fresh fruit. The candied rind is used in applepie, in the famous newyears eve fritters oliebollen, as a flavouring in raisin- and gingerbread. It's a bit oldfashioned to use in homebaking but I like it. It has a sweet, slightly orangey flavor and a chewy texture. 300 g selfraising flour 200 g soft butter 150 g sugar pinch of salt 1 kg tart apples (unprepared weight) 50 g (vanilla) sugar 50 g raisins 1 tsp cinnamon 2 T chopped sucade breadcrumbs or oatmeal for the base (optional) Preheat oven to 175 C / 350 F. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together and use about 3/4 to line the springformtin. The dough will be sticky and a bit hard to handle, the easiest way to get it into the tin is to put clumps of it on the bottom, and then use your fingers (dipping them in cold water every now and then to prevent sticking) or the back of a spoon (ditto) to spread it evenly over the bottom and sides. Peel, core and quarter the apples and slice them thinly. Mix with the other filling ingredients and put in the tin (If you use apples that will collapse during cooking and will shed a lot of liquid, put a handful of breadcrumbs or a layer of oatmeal on the bottom before putting in the filing). Roll the leftover dough into thin strips with your hands, and use them to make a lattice pattern on top of the filling. Glaze with the beaten egg. Bake for about 50 minutes at 175 C / 350 F, or until golden brown and risen. Don't overbake or it will be dry. From the Dutch Cooking thread Keywords: Dessert, Snack, Fruit, Pie ( RG1498 )

so, this thread inspired me to make this, you can see it here in the Dinner! thread

still battling my cold so I can say I had an extremely lazy Sunday.. the only thing I did was cook a simple dinner for friends that were coming over.. starting with the last jar of terrine we brought back from France earlier this year, some gherkins and some Passensale cheese I was inspired by snowangels Venison thread to make ome of my favorite braises, venison braised with port and beetroot on the plate with celeriac gratin with walnuts and gorgonzola, and pumpkin/potato mash with garlic and sage dessert: apple pie (shown after we had already devoured most of it )

This is going to be a great week!

Thank you Abra, and Shel, for this wonderful blog. Blogging is hard work but you did it with grace, generosity and a great sense of humour! Thanks for taking us on wonderful trips (making me even more determined to visit your state next year) and ofcourse, especially, for the lovely food. I'm sure you can find a way to share your Orcas dinner with us, somewhere on EGullet... I would love to see how it turns out.

Daniel maybe I missed it but how did this turn out? Would you do it again? I'm also curious as to how you served it.. I was talking to my mom the other day about the food from her childhood (on a farm) and she said she could still remember the 'hoofdkaas' (headcheese) that her mother made, it was one of her favorite things.. so maybe I should do one for the Dutch cooking thread.. just kidding..