eG Foodblog: Chufi - Old Favorites and New Adventures

[Chufi]

Well, this headcold has settled in and decided to stay a while! I just hope I won't lose the ability to taste. That would be weird, while doing a foodblog

Anyway, on to business. Here's what I did before breakfast.. examined my sweetbreads. Here it is, before poaching

and after

Now, does anyone really think this looks appetizing??

Breakfast: yoghurt, granola, and today, a cut up navel orange.

On top of the pile of books on the right is Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's Near a Thousand tables: a History of Food which I highly recommend!

Edited May 10, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[Chufi]

Great writing and photography, Chufi! I'm enjoying this blog as much as your previous ones. A question for when you're feeling better: one of the photos shows a package of Philadelphia cream cheese. Is it quite easy to find in Amsterdam, or do you go an imports shop for it?

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Yes, Philadelphia is widely available here. I usually buy a supermarket brand because it's cheaper, but this week the Philadelphia was on sale

[Chufi]

Sweetbreads are chilling, dessert is ready, everything will (hopefully) take minimum time to put together.

I'll ask Dennis to pick a wine from the 'cellar' (which is in the attic) for the sweetbreads. I'm thinking a drop of cold sake will go nicely with the scallops in the Lapsang sauce. And I have a very special drink to serve with dessert!

I told Dennis what he's having for dinner. He said 'that's true love'

I'm off to the office for a couple of hours, see you later!

Edited May 10, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[Shaya]

I don't know which I'm more scared of...the raw sweetbreads or the poached ones

I love your piles of books in the background

Oh and great minds think alike...two nights ago I made a frittata with sauteed onion, endive and bacon! It was a really tasty combination.

Get well get well get well get well get well...

[Catriona]

Klary, if it's any consolation, I think it's the change in the weather that caused your cold, I have it too, as does half my office (london has lost its spring/summer, too).

I want your comfort pasta formula, it looks so good! I've never used endives (chicory?) in a pasta before, though, so need a pointer.

[IlCuoco]

Mangorita recipe; basically I adapted it from a Chris Schlesinger book but changed the mix a bit so it reminds me of my bay in Mexico (Ensenada) rather than his....

Puree a mango

Combine Tequila and blue curacao in a ratio of about 4 to 1

Add a bunch of limes (if making by the pitcher, I add about 6, maybe 7)

add mango puree (and mango juice or OJ if you have some) to get that nice sea green color. I'll use a mango or two for a whole pitcher so just eyeball it for individual drinks. The final drink should taste of lime, mango and with tequila in the background. Serve on the rocks or frozen. Very tasty and dangerous on a hot day.

I like to rim the glasses in a mixture of salt and sugar but that's just me.

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IlCuoco, I'm assuming you add the juice of the limes, or do you add them sliced?

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Yeah, juice...that's what I get for posting from the office....

Sorry...

[markemorse]

Those mangoritas really were perfect drinks...

I'm bummed that in the rush to get an appetizer into people's mouths we kind of forgot all about the homemade Ethiopian honeywine (tej) that IlCuoco brought with him...I only remembered it again after midnight. Refreshing and just strange enough...but it would've been yet another adventure in exoticism for the Chufipalate...

and how strange is this? the apartment down the hall in which the pork was being roasted also had a bottle of completely unrelated homemade tej in the fridge...is this an amsterdam thing, or does everyone know someone with access to homemade honeywine?

good stuff!

mem

Edited May 10, 2007 by markemorse (log)

[hathor]

Should I feel responsible for the sweetbreads? I thought they looked fantastic...raw and poached. The only part I'm not crazy about is cleaning them, but everything else isn't that scary. How will you make them? Sauteed with??

You know...I'm making a big birthday dinner for my mother this weekend, maybe I'll sneak in some sweatbreads. If I tell anyone in advance what I"m making, they'll get all twitchy.

Hope you are feeling better!

Here's a weird observation: Philadelphia was on sale at the Italian COOP this week. Seems Philly was on sale all over Europe!

[Chufi]

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Here's a weird observation: Philadelphia was on sale at the Italian COOP this week. Seems Philly was on sale all over Europe!   

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Actually I have a question about the Philadelphia you see in the picture. That's the 'cream cheese' you can buy here, and what I bought and used for my baked cheesecake. The creamcheese has salt added and while it's not overly salty, you can definitely taste the salt. The recipe (from Dorie Greenspan's book) said to add salt to the cremacheese batter, which I did not do, but which made me think that maybe this is not the creamcheese used for cheesecakes in the US?

I think the cake turned out great anyway, but I'm just curious. Just like expats are struggling to find substitutions for stuff, when you use cookbooks published in other countries finding the right ingredients can sometimes be a real challenge!

Edited May 10, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[CaliPoutine]

That sure looks like the Philly I use in my cheesecakes. I'm curious, is that Philly made in the US or elsewhere in Europe?

Also, I noticed some Hellman's Mayo. No Dutch writing I could see. Did you buy that there or bring it back from your trip abroad?

[Chufi]

No chufi blog without the Vondelpark and het Blauwe Theehuis! My alltime favorite place in the city:

Lunch: BLTC and tuna sandwich

We took a stroll in the park and met the stork family! You can't really tell in the picture but there's one stork on the nest, the other one is in the far right of the picture.

[Chufi]

On to dinner. Prep for the scallops in Lapsang Souchong broth Abra linked to upthread. I changed the recipe slightly, so had we more broth and we ate it like a soup instead of a sauce with rice:

scallops, tea, ginger, garlic, shii-takes, springonions.

It was really really good!

[Chufi]

Aren't they pretty?

Sweetbreads, sliced, seasoned and floured, ready to be fried in butter

Wine:

I think this is one we brought back from our trip to the Pfalz a couple of years ago. Very good with the rich sweetbreads..

Yay! Sweetbreads!

On the plate with potatoes fried with bacon, and double-podded fava beans with shallots and a little mint.

I liked them. I did not LOVE them, and they will never be something I crave, but they were good.. it helped that I had sliced them very thinly so there was a good ratio of crusty outside to creamy inside. Dennis was really happy

Dessert: Marbled cheesecake from Dorie Greenspans book

One of my bad habits is that I keep 'good things' forever, afraid to eat/drink them, saving them for a Very Special Occasion. That's what happened to this bottle that Abra sent me for Christmas:

So I thought tonight, and this being adventure week would be a good day to open it.

Evening's program:

see you all later...

Edited May 10, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[Peter Green]

Ah, Robert Mitchum in Farewell My Lovely...

A good finish to the evening

[Chufi]

Just checking in with a final post for the day to tell you that cheesecake was sublime. That was the actual word we used, muttering it between bites and 'mmmmm' noises.. the other word was 'divine' (both in Dutch ofcourse ).

This may be the best thing I ever baked! Such a smooth and velvety texture. Oh my.

[Chufi]

I want your comfort pasta formula, it looks so good!  I've never used endives (chicory?) in a pasta before, though, so need a pointer.

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well, the pasta wasn't that good, just okay.. I simply sauteed some pancetta, added an onion and some garlic and some olive oil, added some slices Belgian endive. It ended up a bit dry. It would be better with the endives braised first, so they have more flavor and moisture.

That sure looks like the Philly I use in my cheesecakes.  I'm curious, is that Philly made in the US or elsewhere in Europe?

Also, I noticed some Hellman's Mayo.  No Dutch writing I could see.  Did you buy that there or bring it back from your trip abroad?

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It says Kraft Foods, Hoofddorp on the tub. All other text on the tub is in Dutch. I guess Kraft is everywhere

Hellman's I can get here in some supermarkets. I like it for salads (eggsalad, tuna salad etc.) but I usually also have some Dutch or Belgian mayo, which I like better as a condiment, especially for fries - Dutch mayo is more acidic and has a better texture for dipping stuff into it I think.

That's it for today, goodnight! Tomorrow, a trip to a very special museum.. there will be alcoholic beverages involved. Stay tuned!

Edited May 10, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[MissAmy]

That dinner looks absolutely sublime! I love sweetbreads fried in butter, but unfortunately, I have no one who will eat them with me.

[Shaya]

Oh that anniversary dinner looks really great. Good for you for getting past the sweetbread-cooking phobia; you've inspired me to do the same! I can't wait to see some favas for the first time this year. I love them.

[Megan Blocker]

Feel better, Klary!

That dinner looked superb...I love the thinly sliced sweetbreads. The ratio of crunch to smooth does look like a good one! I never thought I would crave sweetbreads, but then I had the fennel-dusted ones at Babbo, and I changed my mind.

[rockdoggydog]

It's all so beautiful Klary. I must say that I do crave sweetbreads, but I also love most all offal.

Rocky

[Jean Blanchard]

So glad you made the cheesecake. I'll trust your opinion and make that next since I'm cooking my way through Dorie's book also. Your dinner looked perfect. Happy Anniversary!

Jean

[Abra]

That dinner looks gorgeous, and it was a great surprise to see the vin de noix. I hope it traveled and saved well!

[CaliPoutine]

Lunch: I found a hardboiled egg, and with a bit of mayo and some chives this became eggsalad. On toast with some of the rookvlees

Isnt that Hellmans?

[little ms foodie]

I love the universality of food.  Here I am, thousands of miles away from Amsterdam, and yet half the stuff in your fridge is what's currently sitting in mine...

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Klary I'm just finally getting a chance to start reading this as I've been on the road but I totally thought the same thing when I saw your fridge picture. It makes the world a smaller place when we all share funny commonalities like this!

[lucylou95816]

Klary

I recently tried sweetbreads for the first time, hesitantly, I may add. They were sauteed with bacon and mushrooms in a madeira sauce. I really liked them.

Your cheesecake looks FANTASTIC....great picture with the wine glasses and the slices of cheesecake in the background.

Hope you are feeling better.