Hello fellow gastronomes, I'm brand new to eG and was lured here after seeing a link to this thread on another discussion board. I have no idea what I was looking for at the time... that was hours and hours ago. I've been so caught up in reading here! My name is Susanne and I'm an American living for the last 3 and a half years in the Netherlands. I moved here to live with my Dutch boyfriend. It's been great for the most part and I love it here (I must to voluntarily live where it gets dark at 4 in the afternoon this time of year!). I totally took over the boyfriend's kitchen after I moved and have been having a super time adapting my American recipes for Dutch ingredients and learning new ones from him. I'm by no means an expert at Dutch dishes, though I make them almost as often as my comfort foods from back home, but when people started asking how to pronounce Klary's recpes I thought I might be able to help. Hey, 2 years of Dutch lessons have to be of some use, huh? I've also taken the liberty of adding a few comments about the Dutch foods from a North American's point of view. Hope folks find it useful and/or interesting. Groetjes vanuit Nederland (Greetings from the Netherlands), Susanne ---------------------------------------------------------- Flour - Dutch wheat flour is made with "hard" wheat and has a higher gluten content than that in North America. This makes for super bread but often terrible pastries and especially cakes. My observation has been that there are not many fluffy Dutch baked goods. They tend to be more heavy treats such as the boterkoek. I've made some quick breads with Dutch ingredients (using the same recipes I used in the US) that turned out more like construction material than a consumable. My solution for using Dutch flour in American recipes has been to sift, sift, and sift again and then mix as little as possible. To adapt a Dutch recpe to North American ingredients I would suggest to use a little extra flour and to mix it very well. About the translations and pronounciation of the Dutch names - The Dutch G is really difficult to translate because American Engligh has no equivilant. If you've ever heard the Scottish pronounciation of 'loch' with a throaty 'ch', then you have it. A Spanish 'j' as in Juan, if pronounced by a real Spanish-speaker is similar... a back-of-the-throat, gargled 'h' sound, almost. I used 'gh' as the phonetic translation. Speaking Dutch involves a lot of throat-clearing... The 'e' at the end of a word is pronounced as an English short 'e' as in tent but a soft sound, so I used 'eh' below. The stressed syllable(s) are in capital letters. Anyhow, here's my best shot at the phonetic spelling of Klary's recipes: koek/koekje - (kook/KOOK-yeh) cake/cookie boterkoek - (BOATer-kook) butter cake gemberkoek (GHEMber-kook) ginger cake/pastry Koffiebroodje (COFfee-broot-yeh) - lit. coffee bread but usually meaning a sweet baked item eaten as a snack with coffee Saucijzenbroodje (sauce-EYE-zen-broot-yeh) Vlaai (fly) - Pie Gevuldekoek (ghe-FULL-deh-kook) - filled cake/cookie Jan Hagel (yan HAH-ghle) - a man's name or a cookie Pannekoek (pl. Pannekoeken) (PAN-eh-kook/PAN-eh-kook-en) - Dutch pancakes Stroop (strope) - Very thick beet-sugar syrup, dark brown with a slight molasses flavor Pofftertje (POFF-er-tyeh) - tiny, puffy pancake goodies made in a special pan and dusted with powdered sugar Speculaas (spek-you-LASS) - Any of a number of cookie/cake confections made with a combo of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, and white pepper. Klary adds coriander and aniseed. These aren't listed on the jar of Speculaas spice mix I have but sound great also. Pepernoten/kruidnoten (PAper-note-en/KRAUT-note-en) - technically 2 different cookies but usually both mean a dime-sized crispy spice cookie, seasoned similarly to the speculaas and found absolutely everywhere during November and December. Stroopwafels (STROPE-vah-fels) - crisp, thin waffle cookies with a layer of butter caramel in the middle. My personal favorite that I would be forced to import if I ever moved back to the U.S.! Stoofperen (STOFE-pair-en) - Stewed pears in a sugar, cinnamon, and wine syrup Fries/Frisian (frese/FRESE-ee-en) - The northwesternmost provence of the Netherlands. Friesians have their own language, similar to Dutch and (as per some sources) possibly the root language of English. Note a wee bit of borrowed pride - my boyfriend's family was originally Friesian... Friese Dumkes (FRESE-eh DUM-kehs)- Aniseed hazelnut cookies. 'Dum' is apparently Friesian for 'thumb'. Olliebollen (OH-lee-ball-en) - Fried sweet-bread balls, usually with currants or apple bits in the dough. A New Year's Eve tradition. Appelstroop (APple-strope) - Very thick apple syrup. Tart and not very sweet. To me it has a taste like apple butter and molasses mixed, though the texture is syrupy like molasses. Draadjesvlees (DRAD-yehs-flase) - lit. 'stringy meat. Terrible translation for so tasty a dish. Erwtensoep/Snert (ERT-en-soup/snert) - Dutch pea soup. Erwten (green pea) is actually a killer to pronounce, so I always just use the name Snert, though technically that means day-old ertwensoep. I never liked pea soup till I tried the Dutch type. It really is different! Stamppot (STAMP-pot) - lit. Stamp, stomp or mash. Any one-dish vegetable/mashed potato combination. See below for specific types. Dutch potatoes are very crumbly and mashed potatoes are made with just a little bit of milk and butter added to the cooked potatoes then mashed with a wire potato masher. Hutspot (HUT-spot) - Mashed potato/carrot mix Hete bliksem (HATE-eh BLICK-sum) - Mashed potato/apple mix. Called 'Hot Lightning' because the cooked apples hold their heat for quite a long time. Delish! Borenkool stamppot (BOOR-en-kole STAMP-pot) - Mashed potato/curley kale mix. Andijvie stamppot (an-DIVE-ee STAMP-pot) - Mashed potato/endive mix Kroket (pl.Kroketten) (kro-KET/kro-KET-ten) - Mushy meat and seasoning sometimes veggie mix in a crumb breading, deep fried. Usual shape is a finger-long cylinder. Center remains mushy after cooking. Bitterballen (BIT-ter BALL-en) - bite-sized versions of bitterballen. Kroketten kruiden (kro-KET-ten CROWD-en)- pepper, salt, mace, nutmeg and thyme. Jenever (YAY-ne-fer) - Dutch gin. It's VERY strong but has little flavor (that I could tell) Boerenmeisjes (BORE-en MICE-yuhs) - lit. Farmer's girls. Spiced apricot in liquor. Boerenjongens (BORE-en YOUNG-ens) - lit. Farmer's boys. Spiced raisins in liquor. Advocaat (Ahd-fo-COT) - Alchoholic Dutch eggnog. Pik in 't potje (pick in het POT-tyeh) - Mashed potato/hard-boiled egg combo. (Though I think if you were to ask for this in most parts of Holland you'd get some strange looks. 'Pik" is slang for a male, ummm, member. ) Vla (flah) - Pourable Dutch pudding, sold in stores in cardboard milk cartons. Zeeuwse mosselsoep (ZAY-ooze-seh MOSS-le soup) - Musselsoup from the provence of Zeeland (Sealand) Bitterkoekjes (BIT-ter KOOK-yuhs) - A small, chewy, not-too-sweet cookie made of almonds and peach pits. A little odd but yummy. Kapucijners (cap-oo-SINE-ers) - Dutch Blue Pea in the US. Sort of like chickpeas. Appeltaart (AP-ple tart) - The real, original Dutch Apple Pie. I love it with sweetened dried cranberries instead of the raisins or citrus thingies.
