Dutch Cooking (2007-)

[amapola]

[Moderator note: The original Dutch Cooking topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Dutch Cooking (2005-2006)]

 

Hallo Klary,

This being my first post at eGullet, I thought it would be nice to put it in this thread, since your dutch food blog basically brought me here 🙂

I was raised a vegetarian and only started to eat meat just over two years ago so I never really picked up how to cook meat as a child. And though I have learned quite a bit since then and even some of my most carnivorous friends consider me to be the best meat cook they know , I'm still having trouble cooking 'proper dutch' meat dishes. Especially gravy, jus, is giving me nightmares, I still have not mastered a good gehaktbal met jus... So I LOVE your thread. And all the insights you give me into the wonderful world of my native cooking

Also, most of the dishes without meat you describe, are so pleasantly familiar to me. Would you believe there is a huge bowl of stoofpeertjes in my fridge and just a couple of weeks ago I made two tiny boterkoeken, by coincidence just the way you described, because I was looking for that chewy consistency and I figured a pinch of baking soda might do the trick...

Anyway. Sorry to be so longwinding, I have a tendency to use a lot of words when I'm enthusiastic about something.

I hope to hang around here for a while, and thanks for 'introducing' me here!

Annabel

Edited December 24, 2020 by Smithy
Repaired broken link (log)

[Chufi]

Hi Annabel,

Welcome to eGullet and I am honored you chose the Dutch Cooking thread for your first post! I hope this thread (and the rest of eGullet) will continue to inspire you.

It's wonderful to have another cook from Amsterdam on the boards!

Also, your post made me realize that I never did 'gehaktbal met jus' for this thread. I hope to get to it sometime in the next weeks (next week is supposed to be 'healthy week' here though, so I'm not sure buttery gravy would fit into that plan )

[rooftop1000]

If we all undo a button buttery gravy will find its way in

tracey

[Serj]

Klary,

I also would like to post my first post here! I have spent the last couple of weeks reading through the thread (slow reader, little at a time!). Thanks for bringing back some good memories - my mother is dutch and I spent half of my childhood in Amsterdam. Fast forward several years - I have just started culinary school in Chicago and this it is fun to see everything through a new perspective! Thanks again and keep up the good work!

Serj.

[Jmahl]

Dear Chufi:

Just lovely -- Those cooks look fab. I am tempted to try.

Jmahl

[Chufi]

Thanks, Jmahl!

Serj, welcome to eGullet! I'm glad you enjoy this thread. Do you still eat Dutch food from time to time, and do you cook Dutch recipes?

[tomtom11]

Hi all

Also this is my first posting on eGullet. I was very pleased to see such a long and interesting thread on Dutch cooking. Even some dishes from my home-province Limburg. Klary is definitely a good ambassador for the Dutch. She should be nominated for a "lintje".

The various recipes brought some memories back and some other things that popped up:

- appelstroop : I actually read somewhere it is made of lower quality apples (malshaped, fallen down, even rotten], water, lots of sugar. THen they are boiled down a very long time. A good way to process left over apples. Better apples should be used in other dishes obviously

- also a typical local dish is "Kroet en Kraboet", wich is appelstroop together with a baked slice of boudin noir (sausage made of blood), eaten together with roggebrood (dunno the english for this)

- the dutch also like to eat the kale cabbage with a big pool of gravy in the middle, instead of drizzling it around.

- in limburg the kale cabbage is is called "boerenmoos". Final day of carnaval (mardi gras) there is a boerenmoosbal (a fest of boerenmoos) where all the people dress up as farmers and decorate themselves with kale, also to celebrate a wedding. Check out : http://www.jocusvenlo.nl/verslageenfotos.asp?id=37 for some funny picturs.

- zure zult is also typical. It's actually a pate with sour taste

- Klary mentioned stampotten. I also like stampot made of brussel-sprouts.

- after mardi gras people tend to eat pickeld herring (proper english?) or "hieringslaai", salad of fresh herring (and beetroot). Supposingly to eat away the high alcohol levels of the day before

- as for candies/sweets, we can go on for ages: boterwafels, haagse hopjes, roomsoesjes, bosche bollen, tompouce, bolus, etc. All have lots of tradition as a background

Hope to be reading/contributing & enjoy your food.

[Chufi]

Wow. 3 new eGullet members, making their first post on this thread, within a week! I wonder if that's some kind of record?

welcome, tomtom11, and thanks for your words about Limburg food and cooking.

2 weird coincidences: I made brussel sprouts stamppot on Wednesday - a big batch to go in the freezer, because I love reheated stamppot, and: my husband requested a herring & beetroot salad yesterday! Maybe I should go and hunt up a recipe!

Please contribute any recipes and toughts about Dutch food you have to this thread!

[tomtom11]

Maybe I should go and hunt up a recipe!

Please contribute any recipes and toughts about Dutch food you have to this thread!

←

Here is a link to a Hieringslaai recipe (in dutch) with a picture: http://jackslog.web-log.nl/jackslog/carnaval/index.html, also with a nice picture (scroll down).

I also have one from the "Kookboek van de Amsterdamsche Huishoudschool", dated about 1920 [Cookboek of the school for housekeeping (girls' school), which I got as a present from my aunt. I will check some old recipes and publish if it's interesting.

I'll make a translation of the 1920-recipe. I won't be making this dish (not enough fans in my family).

Ingredients:

3 clean hering files (soaked for few hours in milk, cleaned) and cut in small parts. Don't use hering for baking (big ones), use small fatty ones.

3 sour apples, diced in small cubes

12 boiled potatoes (no skin) and cubed. Make sure they are all-dente

3 small crop of lettuce or endive or other lettuce

shallot (pickled) and gurkin (pickled)

mayonaise

3 hardboiled eggs cut in very small pieces (yellow and white separate)

1 beetroot (boiled in skin, unskinned and then cubed). Check the cuisson u like.

Mis-en-place and finish:

Shred the lettuce or endive in small parts. Mix all ingredients except the shallot and gurkin until you get a nice smooth salad. Garnish with shallot and gurkin.

My comments:

I added the pickled comment, cuz I don't think non-pickled is nice as a garnish. Next, you could actually add the pickles in the salad, instead as a garnish. The final result should be a smooth, sour and mayo-rich salad of small dices. The colour should be light red because of the beetroot. The original recipes states to use either mayo or vinager with plain oil. I'don't think that's really the same. The recipe on the link uses vinager to thin the mayo, the salad to garnish. As for the amounts mentioned (or not mentioned), please think them over when you are preparing (for instance 12 potatoes!). The dominant taste should be sour hering, with a all-dente touch because of the othre ingredients.

Have fun

Tom

[Chufi]

Thanks Tom. So this is made with sour (pickled) herring? I assumed raw (maatjes) herring. I'm not really a fan of pickled herring..

Edited January 13, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[Milagai]

Chufi: I don't know if you have been asked this upthread,

but have you considered writing a cookbook and / or

cooking feature on Dutch food?

You have great recipes, pictures, food lore, history, etc etc.

Seems a winning package...

Happy new year to all

Milagai

[tomtom11]

Thanks Tom. So this is made with sour (pickled) herring? I assumed raw (maatjes) herring. I'm not really a fan of pickled herring..

←

Raw.

You could use pickled (I guess), but the dish will become quite sour. Then you might want to refrain from using vinegar.

Tom

[tomtom11]

Chufi:  I don't know if you have been asked this upthread,

but have you considered writing a cookbook and / or

cooking feature on Dutch food? 

You have great recipes, pictures, food lore, history, etc etc.

Seems a winning package...

Happy new year to all

Milagai

←

I do recommend that this thread gets an index of all recipes and the corresponding pagenumber. Otherwise it's a hell to find them back. Maybe in the first posting of Chufi (just like the eGullet cook-off does)?

Or a Dutch topic in the Europe forum. Only eGulet needs to move and decompose the thread then.

Tom

[Chufi]

Thanks Milagai. Yes, I am thinking about doing something like that, possibly combined with writing about foodlife in Amsterdam. eGullet will be the first to know when something happens on that front!

Tom: some recipes are in Recipe Gullet. I am behind with putting recipes up there though.

Also, some recipes I was not completely happy with when I tested them, and I won't put them in RG until I have tested and tweaked. And that may take a while

edited to add: I've posted a list with links to all the recipes in this thread on my Dutch foodblog here.

I'll put the link to this recipe index in my eGullet signature for easy reference.

Edited January 14, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[Jensen]

I've been a huge fan of stamppot ever since reading Chufi's first post about it. I've made it with kale, cabbage, arugula...lots of different greens.

Tonight, for the first time, I made it with brussel sprouts. Maybe I should qualify this by saying that brussel sprouts are my favourite vegetable. Maybe not.

It was, without a doubt, the best. Unbelievable.

I might be spoiled for all other versions...

[Abra]

Wow, Klary - thanks for the recipe index. It's great not to have to scan the whole thread everytime I want one of your recipes!

And Jen, thanks for the Brussels sprout recommendation. That sounds like something I need to make this week.

[Chufi]

Jen, next time you make the brussel sprouts stamppot, make sure you have leftovers. Nothing beats leftover brusselsprouts & potatoes, fried the next day in butter...

If you want to get fancy, add an egg and some cheese and a bit of flour and seasonings, shape them into cakes and you have this:

[Shaya]

Oh my goodness, Chufi, those look amazing!

[tomtom11]

Check out Chufi's bitterballen recipe. U can make bitterballen of the stamppot too. Nice as a appetizer.

My neighbour made bitterballen of red cabbage with the braised beef. Also very nice.

[Jensen]

Jen, next time you make the brussel sprouts stamppot, make sure you have leftovers. Nothing beats leftover brusselsprouts & potatoes, fried the next day in butter...

←

There were leftovers and they were incredible fried in butter (later in the evening...who can wait until the next day?).

The cakes look incredible. Now I'm almost regretting having had that late night snack. (No, what I'm really regretting is not having made a ton of the stamppot!)

Did you mention upthread something about freezing it? Does it freeze well, with no potato problems?

[Niamh]

I was buying cheese the other day, and remembered this thread, so, in honour of it, I got two goudas - a 5 year old one, and a younger one flovoured with cumin. I had no idea that gouda could taste that different! The five year old one was strong, with crunchy crystallised bits. It is a bit too strong for me to eat on its own, but it is making a very good adittion to things where mixed cheese/parmesan usually goes. The cumin flavoured one is great - I don't normally like cheese that tastes of other things, but I bought it because there was already a very small piece cut. I was great to nibble or in sandwiches, I'll be buying more next time I'm cheese hunting!

[Franci]

Thank you, Chufi! I made the goudse kaasbolletjes tonight. As Shaya said, I couldn't stop eating too

[Chufi]

The cakes look incredible. Now I'm almost regretting having had that late night snack. (No, what I'm really regretting is not having made a ton of the stamppot!)

Did you mention upthread something about freezing it? Does it freeze well, with no potato problems?

←

I find it freezes okay, altough I've never tried making cakes from the frozen stamppot. I'd say, if it is a litle too wet after defrosting, add a little extra flour before shaping.

Franci, the kaasbolletjes look wonderful!

Edited January 18, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[Franci]

I tried one more of Chufi's wonderful recipes:

Kruidkoek

I reduced a little bit the quantities because I am the only occasional sweet eater in this house.

I baked only two small disposable aluminum pans. I reduced a little more the spices, I am not used to it, the amount of cloves scared me, but I would have been fine using the total quantity.

I really like it, maybe more freshly baked then after two days.

Another time I will add walnuts instead of ginger. Chufi, walnut is also traditional, notenkoek a friend said, right?

[helenjp]

My sister sent me a little book on Dutch cooking (in English), which has more chat than recipes. It mentions white beans with green beans - "blote billetjes in het gras" (and translates that as "bare bums in the grass").

Apart from the enjoyable image, this sounds like good spring and early summer food - do you have a recipe for this Chufi, or any personal hints?