Cooking with the Famous!

Yesterday was the day. Karin and I set out bright and early for Rotterdam where we would be attending a workshop with celebrity chef Andy McDonald. We arrived fashionably late after getting lost (never ask for directions in Rotterdam) but fortunately no one had yet started.
Winners were accompanied by someone of their choice, so it was a rather large bunch. Andy gave us explanations about what we would be doing and after that we broke up into groups to prepare a delicious vegetarian meal. Each group was told to grab a work station where a recipe would be waiting and because most of the ingredients were within reach, we could immediately get to work. Karin and I were in charge of making individual-sized tortillas, but unfortunately we did manage to forget the parsley and in turn tried to convince Andy that we thought it would be nicer thrown in at the end as a garnish.
There were a lot of laughs, plenty of good food and enough wine to keep us cheerful. Not only did we learn the much coveted "correct" chopping technique from Andy himself, but we also got to take home a goodie bag. Andy, Marjolein and all the assistants at Kookpunt Rotterdam who helped us yesterday, THANKS!!! We had a fantastic time!

Our feast included:
Appetizer
-Shot glasses with Gazpacho

Tapas
-Delicias de Queso (Manchego and goat cheese fritters with thyme)
-Patatas bravas
-Bread with tomato, garlic and sea salt
-Tortillas
-Aubergines with olives and rosemary
-Empanadillas with spinach, pine nuts and goat cheese
-Courgette fritters
-Chickpeas with egg and caper dressing

Dessert
-Crema Catalana


For more pictures, click here: Andy McDonald Workshop

The Week of Taste

Starting tomorrow, The Netherlands will be celebrating De week van de smaak, or The Week of Taste- a whole week devoted to good organic, seasonal food grown right here in The Netherlands. To kick of this delicious week, I visited the food fair held at Groeneveld Castle today. Groeneveld Castle is actually an estate that dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. We often go there on Sundays to walk through the magnificent, Baroque- style parks, but today it was all about the food!
There is a huge misconception about the Dutch not knowing cuisine. Well let me assure you that The Netherlands does indeed have a rich food tradition! The Dutch have a history of enjoying good food and drink. A a matter of fact, I dare say that food porn originated in The Netherlands! Just think of the lavish arrangements of Dutch food displayed in 17th century banquets! Products such as aged cheeses, crusty breads and delectable fruit make us want to grab into these paintings and take a bite. In fact, all food painting thereafter was greatly influenced by the Dutch tradition of the 17th century. But I digress.
This afternoon I got a chance to taste some of the treasures The Netherlands has to offer. Farmers (wooden shoes and all) from all over the country gathered at the Groeneveld estate to present their quality products. I've tasted an array of fantastic cheeses, sharp and sweet mustards, juices made with the prettiest of apples, pears and currants, raisin breads, crunchy cinnamon rusks, honey and even wine! I had no idea that The Netherlands has been working on establishing a wine tradition, but today I tasted a deep red Regent Barrique and a dry, citrusy Johanniter (which I am sipping on as I write). I came home with a few jars of mustard, Dutch spice cookies in various shapes and sizes, Betuwse wine, a piece of nettled goat cheese and a load of folders about pure, honest Dutch food. Among them a few invitations to visit the Dutch vineyards next weekend. I don't think I can resist.
Here's to the Dutch and their awesome food!

For an impression, click here and have a piece of Gouda while you watch!
Kasteel Groeneveldfestival

A Day in The Life

Every Friday evening, I sit down with a pile of cookbooks and a shopping list to plan our weekly menus. I do this, mainly because I love to try out new recipes and get inspiration from others. A simple photograph or mention of an ingredient and I'm dreaming up something new and delicious. Today though, I'll be giving a cooking lesson so I decided to do my menu planning over lunch instead.
I sat down with my four current books of choice (can you guess which ones?) and leafed through them over a steamy bowl of lentil soup and a glass of red. I should point out that this is one of my best soup recipes. I make my own spice rub in the pestle and mortar which I first saute with onions before adding in the lentils. Usually I serve the soup with some fat, black olives and homemade bread, but since this was yesterday's leftovers, I had no olives and wasn't really in the mood for bread. I did drizzle the soup with one of the most exquisite oils ever- huile d' olive anisette. A wonderful product from my new favorite goodie shop, Accent d' Oc. This amazing oil is green as absinthe (Van Gogh would love it) and is made with green anise and fennel seeds. The comparison with absinthe doesn't just apply to its color. This is powerful stuff! A few drops is more than enough. It has a flavor that you'll feel in your whole mouth, even in your nose. This is all positive commentary though so if you ever come across this oil- buy it!
Just as I was typing this entry, the postman rang with a package. A copy of the Dutch cookbook "Lekker Hollands" (Deliciously Dutch). I received news yesterday that I had won yet another recipe contest and that this gorgeous little book was on its way. Off to leaf through that one with my dessert- a nice espresso!

PS: There's a reason why I can't give you the recipe for the soup now, but bear with me. I'll share it soon enough!

Wednesday Market Clafoutis

In my last post I mentioned a clafoutis with the gorgeous, electric blue plums I had purchased at the market. What I didn't tell you (don't you just love surprises) is that I had also purchased two kilos of pêche plat. These flat, saucer-shaped peaches are also known as UFO, Saturn or Donut peaches- understandable considering their appearance. They are much sweeter than normal peaches and they have a tiny little pit. Because they contain more sugar, they spoil quicker. Indeed, I've been eating a lot of peaches!

As promised, here's the clafoutis recipe...with plums, and peaches! You'll love it!

Wednesday Market Clafoutis

*100ml double cream
*200ml milk
*1 tsp vanilla extract
* 3 eggs
*100g flour
*60g caster sugar
*1 tbsp rum
*250g Anna Späth plums, or another type of plum such as Victoria plums, stoned and quartered
*200g pêche plat, or use white peaches since they are sweeter than normal peaches, roughly chopped


Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly butter a 25cm quiche pan. Line pan with fruit. Gently heat cream for two minutes. Take it off heat and add the vanilla and milk. Beat the eggs with the flour, sugar and rum. Slowly add milk and cream mixture to egg mixture while beating (I used an electric hand-held whisk). Pour batter over fruit and bake 40-45 minutes. Serve warm with a dollop of crème fraîche and a dusting of powdered sugar.

Market Day Autumn Salad

Wednesdays are fun around here. Since Hans has the day off, he takes Kirstie to school in the morning and meanwhile, I set the table so that when he comes back we can enjoy a quiet breakfast together. After our croissants this morning we headed to the market for some midweek produce shopping. We walked to our favorite stall and were pleasantly surprised to see some gorgeous, violet-blue, Anna Späth plums. This is one of the reasons why I love, love, love my local market. They always manage to surprise us with a new, and very irresistible fruit or vegetable. I purchased two kilos along with some pears and gushed all the way back to the car, commenting about all the beautiful things they had today and going on about a possible clafoutis with the plums.
Another thing I love about the market is the inspiration it gives me. I've created many a dish simply by looking around and seeing what's available. Sometimes the whole feel to the market on that particular day will be enough to inspire me. Today though, it was the crisp Autumn air and the wonderfully sunny skies. I didn't have to think long about what I wanted for lunch- a salad with the pears I had just bought and perhaps some Roquefort and some walnuts.

Here's the recipe:

Market Day Autumn Salad

*1 pear, halved and sliced
*5-6 handfuls of lettuce (I used Lollo Rosso)
*50g walnuts, roughly chopped
*50g Roquefort cheese, crumbled

For the dressing:
*2 tbsp good quality olive oil
*1 tbsp white wine vinegar
*pinch of sea salt
*2 tsps honey
*1 tsp Dijon mustard

Wash and spin your lettuce leaves. Cut the pear, chop the walnuts and crumble the cheese. Toss the lettuce leaves with some of the dressing but leave a little to drizzle over the salad at the end. Put the lettuce in a bowl and top with the pears, cheese and walnuts. Drizzle with the rest of the dressing and serve. Delicious with a glass of red Languedoc.

Serves two.

PS: More about that clafoutis to come!

Caramel Apple Muffins

I recently published a recipe for Caramel Apple muffins on my Dutch blog and have since gotten a few requests to translate the recipe. Your wishes are my command! Plus, it would be plain mean of me to not give you guys this awesome recipe!
I was having major sweet cravings a few days ago when I remembered a jar of Confiture de Lait I had purchased in Bourgogne. Before having the chance to dream up a recipe, I had to check this out for myself, which basically meant I had to open that jar and dig into it with a spoon, first. For those of you who don't know, Confiture de Lait is a sort of Dulce de Leche, but in my opinion, just a bit thinner and slightly less sweet. I hear French children sometimes get it after school on a bit of bread as a treat. It also makes a great pancake topping. Perhaps it was the weather, but after my initial taste, I started having visions of one of my favorite Halloween treats- caramel apples! With that idea in mind, I came up with these utterly moist, sweet, but not too sweet Fall treats. Hope you like them!

Caramel Apple Muffins

*250g flour
*150g blond cane sugar
*2 tsps cinnamon
*1 tbsp baking powder
*1/2 tsp soda
*pinch of salt
*3 small apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
*2 eggs
*1 tsp vanilla extract
*150ml milk
*65ml corn oil
*12 tsps Confiture de Lait, or Dulce de Leche, plus extra to ice the muffins

Preheat oven to 200C and prepare your muffin pan. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. Add in the apples and stir to coat them with the mixture. In a jug beat milk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix gently. Use about 1 tbsp of the batter for each muffin. Then top with a tsp confiture de lait and another tbsp batter. Bake the muffins 20-25 minutes. Ice them with some confiture while they are still warm so that it sort of seeps into them.

Makes 12 muffins.

NOTE: The confiture de lait doesn't work the same way jam would when used as a muffin filling. The gooey syrup rather disappears into the sponge giving it a bit of extra sweetness around the center!

Almost a Decade

Today the skies reminded me of one of my favorite Ruisdael paintings, The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede. The work is a true classic. As a matter of fact, when there is talk about "Dutch art", Ruisdael is the first master that comes to mind. Even before Rembrandt. His flat landscape with thick, often threatening clouds dotted with spots of sunlight, the windmills or bleaching fields, the turbulent seas- all of these are powerful symbols of The Netherlands*. I have sometimes heard people complain that the country lacks majestic landscapes. "It's just too flat here!" Well, funny enough, in the middle ages, flatlands were considered to be as close to paradise as you could possibly get! Every country has different elements of beauty and to me, The Netherlands is a stunning little corner of the world. I love gazing at the long stretches of lush, green land and how it almost seem to melt into skies. I've never seen clouds more beautiful than I have here.

This afternoon I decided to really take my time to admire the Dutch landscape. During my lunchtime walk, I often stopped, just to observe. I looked at people racing by me on their bikes and wondered if this modern symbol of Dutch transportation would have made its way into Ruisdael's paintings had it existed in the 17th century. In a few weeks I will be celebrating a decade in this country. Sure the first few years here were hard, but I feel it would've been ignorant of me to not have made the most out of this wonderful opportunity. I have grown to love this country even more through the study of its language and culture. I am glad I've been able to call The Netherlands "home" for the past ten years.

*People often incorrectly refer to The Netherlands as "Holland", but the name "Holland" actually refers to two provinces in the country: Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland.

Apple and Plum Crumble

It was still dark when I set out to walk the dog this morning. The sky was clear and the cool air seemed to forecast wonderfully brisk autumn-like weather. Officially, there are still a few weeks to go before summer comes to an end, but I knew today would be one of those days begging for warm, cozy food. As daylight began to break and I made my way home, my heart was already set on what to make for dessert that evening. Crumble!

Here's to chillier days!

Apple and Plum Crumble

*400g ripe Victoria plums
*550g Jonagold apples
*50g whole wheat flour
*50g oatmeal
*2 tbsps unrefined cane sugar
*60g ground almonds
*70g cold butter cut into small cubes
*1 tbsp rum
*1 tsp ground cinnamon
*pinch of grated nutmeg
*vanilla ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. Clean fruit and cut into thick chunks. Lightly grease an 11 X 7 1/2 inch oval pan. Arrange fruit in pan, drizzle with the rum and sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. In a food processor, combine the flour, oatmeal, sugar and butter. Pulse a few times until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Spread over the fruit and bake 50 minutes. Serve the crumble hot with a good scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Foodies in Amsterdam

This afternoon a friend and I checked out the New Food Fair in Amsterdam. The Haarlemerstraat and the Haarlemerdijk are bursting with specialty shops where you can pretty much find anything your heart would desire, and today most of the stores took their wares outdoors for all to sample. We wandered in and out of gorgeous little shops, chatting about goat's cheese, tasting wine and every so often examining jars of jam for the right consistency. We oggled crusty breads, tasted fig 'sausage', admired barrels of oil and fancy vinegars and eventually sat down at a table in a quaint little bookshop specializing in cookbooks to discuss famous food writers and talk about our favorite kitchens. I picked up a copy of Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes after having drooled my way through his latest series.

Before hitting the fair though, we met at Cafe Winkel on the corner of Noordermarkt and Westerstraat for a slice of one of the most decadent apple pies ever, served still slightly warm, with a huge dollop of whipped cream. I particularly loved how the chunks of apple still had a bite to them. Blisfully sated, we walked through the organic market where I came across a French woman selling just a few, well selected treats. After tasting her exquisite green anise seed infused olive oil, I vowed to become one of her regular customers.

To me, there's no such thing as too much food talk! It's days like these that make me realize how lucky I am to have made food one of my biggest passions.

PS: Notice my foot shaped cookie cutter! Funny how you search everywhere for something only to find it when you least expect it.