Chufi

Friday we had creamy chickpea & leek soup, with crunchy garlic croutons made from sourdough bread fried in oliveoil. With that, a watercress salad with smoked duck breast. (I have such a craving for duck lately. Why ??) Today I made Marcella's roast chicken. Served with parsley couscous per my husbands request, and carrots & leeks in a mustard cream sauce. I'm coming down with yet another cold and none of tonight's dinner tasted right to me. Dennis said it was delicious though.

There is a tradition to thicken the juices of the butter braised beef with a slice of soft gingerbread. Not sure if that's only done in certain regions though. I don't know of any braises that are thickened with ordinary bread.

Is/was chicken more expensive? In our house, we more often think of chicken than beef as a budget meal! ← Chicken is not really more expensive (if you buy the cheapest, batterychickens it's cheaper than beef) but since my father was a butcher until his retirement, and the meat was practically free, the chicken was more expensive and considered a luxury item!

don't worry. I do that on a regular basis

Venison braised with beetroot and port is one of my winter favorites (even if my venison comes in small portions from the butcher ) I think there's something in beetroot that helps to tenderize the meat. And this braise is absolutely gorgeous.. a beuatiful ruby red color.

Abra, thank you for taking us on your shopping trips... I love to look around foreign shops! This is amazing. Those are the exact same products I buy in my supermarket!! And, great picture of You and the Lambshank. Who needs manners when you can have good food?

hutspot means something like to "mash and mix everything together". See here for more info about this dish

Leo, are you sure you are not related to me.. we always had butter braised rabbit for Christmas at my grandparents house.. the best way to cook rabbit I think because the butter keeps it moist... Funny because I don't know anyone else who had this rabbit tradition!

'nagel' comes from 'kruidnagel' which means clove. The cheese is a specialty of Friesland, one of the Northern Dutch provinces. I googled a bit and I think Dutch clove cheese, or Frisian clove cheese, is what its usually called abroad. In my opinion, the one with just cloves is better, the two spices seem to clash a bit.

hehe that's the benefit of having EGulletters from all over the world.. it's always dinnertime somewhere I went to my Spanish/Portuguese deli for my usual fresh chorizo but they were out.. then they recommended this one, it was very very fresh and soft, and beautifully spiced, not hot at all just very fragrant and sweet. I'm getting it again for sure and if I remember I'll take a pic of them uncooked!

shrimp with avocado, and coriander mayo Hutspot, mashed carrots, parsnips, onions and potatoes, with fresh chorizo sausages

Today: hutspot This is another one of the Dutch stamppotten, potatoes mashed with other vegetables to serve as a main course. But unlike the others this one has a story attached to it. In October 1574, when the Spanish who had been besieging the city of Leiden had finally fled, leaving the inhabitants of the city hungry, a boy from Leiden wandered outside the citywalls and found a pot cooking over a fire. This was left behind by the Spanish who had to flee in haste. In this pot was a mixture of vegetables and meat that would become the famous ‘hutspot’. To this day, hutspot is eaten every year in Leiden on October 3, to celebrate the liberation from the Spanish army, as Leo explained upthread. Today hutspot is a classic Dutch winterdish that has changed a lot since 1574. The original version most probably consisted of beans, onions, parsnips and meat, whereas todays hutspot is made from carrots, potatoes, onions and meat. This is my version, a mixture of both. It’s made with potatoes, parsnips, carrots and onions. Use about equal amounts of every vegetable. If you use more potatoes, it will be blander, with more carrots and parsnips it will be sweeter. The exact proportions don't matter too much. Cut up all the vegetables in small pieces, cover with water, add salt and boil until everything is done. Drain and mash with a lump of butter and some milk, seasoning very liberally with salt and pepper. This is traditionally served with a piece of boiled beef, but because this is quite a sweet and bland dish, I like to spice it up. As a tribute to it’s Spanish history I like to serve it with fresh chorizo sausages. And ofcourse some gravy. Any good Dutch housewife usually has some gravy in the fridge from a braise.. as do I today.. so I serve it with the gravy from yesterday’s butter braised chicken!

Hi April.. what fun to hear that you are growing these peas.. is that very unusual in the US? Over here, the fresh peas are usually eaten plain, as a vegetable, with a little bacon and maybe some fried onions. The ones I used for the Captains dinner were dried. I don't know if you can succesfully dry fresh peas yourself, I've never tried it.. over here you would buy the dried ones, soak and cook, or just buy them in a can like you would buy kidneybeans etc. as for the cheeses: the Dutch don't cook much with their cheese, at least not in the traditional cuisine. Cheese is mostly eaten with bread, for breakfast and lunch. Very old, high quality Gouda can be reminiscent of Parmesan, so maybe that's what you had in Iowa. I'm planning on getting some good Dutch cheese later on (so much to show and do! ) and talk some more about that great Dutch product.

Guinea fowl, pheasant, patridge. Oh, I love partridge..

There was a program on Dutch television just last night, a documentary about someone who had raised 2 pigs and now was looking for a way to get them slaughtered, which turned out to be quite difficult because ofcourse there are all kinds of regulations and even transporting them to the slaughterhouse was a big project. Anyway, what struck me most about the documentary was the fact that this man really loved his pigs, wanted to kill them in the best way (with the least pain and stress for them) and then wanted to eat them. I felt that that was also about real food. It was about respect for the animal. So very far away from the porkchops in the supermarket. One segment showed a butcher measuring the pig and telling the owner what was 'in' it, (so many chops, so many kilo's of bacon, etc.) and then someone else went to the supermarket and bought all those things. Cost him 600 euro to buy all the items that make up an entire pig (but ofcourse minus the head) in plastic wrap. It made me think of this thread. Maybe this issue deserves a whole new thread, Daniel, because this is kind of digressing from the pigs head in your fridge. I'll think about it some more and maybe start a new thread.

I would love to see you cook Italian. Since I'm planning a trip to your part of the world (not until next September - but hey, I like the planning part ) anything scenic is of interest to me. Bring on the Kitsap Peninsula! I would also love a cyberdinner, if it weren't for the fact that I'm having dinner with friends both on Tursday and Saturday. Maybe that's something we could do one day outside of BlogUniverse?

I have no criticism or instruction, I just want to say that in an unsettling kind of way, this is one of the most beautiful pictures I've seen on EGullet. Food does not get much realer than that.. I am a butcher's daughter and have always been fascinated with what food, meat in particular, looks like before you find it in plastic wrap in the supermarket. Thanks for sharing this!

Oh my goodness. My first thought when I woke up was: how did Abra's dinner go.. and then I rushed to the computer before doing anything else.. My mom always keeps the lid slightly ajar. I cover it, but with a lid that has a small hole in it, so that's the same thing. That looks so good.. I'm so glad you liked the beef.. you said before that you thought this plate needed color, but it looks just perfect. What a lovely autumn dinner. They are adorable.. see, that's what I meant when I said you would work magic with my recipes. Like Pan said, you are an advanced cook, who can make the right decisions based on knowledge and experience. Now I want to try these! she sure was. And some other Cooking Goddesses, too.

thanks. That's just what I need as a midnight pick me up very impressive coffeestation! It looks so professional! Thanks for the shopping pictures. Pics of foodmarkets and shops are one of my favorite things in the blogs, it's so interesting to see how these things are differently organized in other parts of the world. Hey, and cute pets too! this blog is getting better and better...

Butter braised chicken with couscous Fennel in spicy tomatosauce (with garlic, raisins, cinnamon and fresh coriander)

Remember the beef braised in butter? Well.. what you can do to beef, you can do to chicken. While the beef was something my mom would cook during the week, and that we would eat often a couple of nights in a row, chicken braised with butter was definitely a luxury dinner for Sundays and holidays. You need even less ingredients than for the beef. Chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper and a very light sprinkling of nutmeg. Butter, water. Hoe much butter do you need? Chosse a pan that can accommodate all the chickenpieces without overlapping. Now you need to melt as much butter as you need to have about 1 inch of butter in your pan. (This is why it's a good idea to have a pan that fits your chicken pieces in snugly). Melt the butter. When it's foaming, put in the chicken. Now brown the chicken very, very slowly. The chicken is obviously going to braise much shorter than the beef, so you need to pack as much flavor in as you can at this stage. The browning should take about 15 minutes. Yes, by that time the chickenpieces are probably already done. But Dutch cooking is never about cooking things until they are 'just done'. So now you add water to come up halfway of the chicken. Cover the pan and braise. At least 45 minutes, longer won't hurt - I promise you this chicken won't be dry! It ends up like this. The dark colour of the gravy comes from the slow and careful browning. This chicken is good with anything. But I think it is especially good with brussel sprouts and mash - lots of mash to soak up that incredible gravy. This time I took the chicken from the gravy (which I will be using tomorrow for another dish) and served the chicken with couscous and a spicy vegetable stew

let me know if you need any assistance with those Dutch recipes Abra! Will you be making the speculaas with the almond paste filling, or the plain one?

I had this one, with chanterelles in a white wine cream sauce, in Germany a couple of months ago. Very very good.

One more answer to the question: where did all the spices go? .. they went into the cheese! Leidse kaas, with cumin: and Friese nagelkaas, with cumin and cloves (sometimes this one has only cloves): these are both "belegen", mature - somwhere between very young cheese and very old. I like this type the best for everyday eating.

I decided to use some of the speculaascookies to make one of my favorite childhoodtreats: the speculaassandwich Fresh, soft white bread, butter, cookies. This may seem weird but the combination of the squishy bread, the sweet butter and the crunhcy spicy cookies is just fantastic... I think I was maybe 12 the last time I had this... Now I wonder what took me so long!