They look rude Mummy! (Week 9 - Netherlands)

My title refers to some sticky buns I made. You had to shape them like a snails shell, but mine unwrapped a little when baking - and I over cooked the first batch that prompted the comment from my 7 year old. My response - was typical of a mum having spent an age trying to create something that clearly looked different from what was intended - "Try before you decide!".


The second batch looked slightly better, and to his credit he did try and decided that they tasted much better than they looked. I enjoyed the Dutch food we had, I made 3 mains and the sticky buns and I scored the highest for each of them.. The Leek hodgepodge was my least favourite, although the other two loved it - I think the cheese made the difference, as it wasn't on mine as I don't eat the stuff. I would have been happy with more veg and no meat for a vegetarian option. (I gather that one of my readers is a vegetarian, so thought I would include something she could do). The chicken stew was delicious (and again, you needed have the meat in it and use Vegetable stock instead). The chunky bread was needed as it wasn't very think - my husband wanted a thicker stew for a higher score.


The clear favourite was what we took to calling ‘the finch dish’ Slavinken (Bacon-wrapped Hamburger Rolls). A bit of an explanation is needed. The name 'slavinken' (originally 'slagvinken') comes from the shape of the wrapped roll which makes them look like small birds, such as the 'vink' (finch). A 'slagvink' is a finch with a distinguished tone. A similar meat dish is the 'blindevink' or 'blind finch', the expression taken from the fact that finches in warbling contests seemed to perform better if they were hooded. A 'blindevink' is hamburger rolled in thin sliced of veal.


I pulled the next country out and got Costa Rica - confession time - I didn't want this country so I put it back in. Sent myself on a guilt trip, so searched through the box to find it. So, next week is Costa Rican food (not my favourite) but I have found a raisin cake which could make me change my mind....

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Oudejaarspot (New Years' Eve Chicken Stew)......................................80
Prei stamppot met rookworst (Leek hodgepodge with sausage).........76
Slavinken...............................................................................................90
Zeeuwse bolussen(Sticky buns Zeeland-style)……………………………………70                                  
 

Source for all recipes: godutch.com

 

Oudejaarspot (New Years' Eve Chicken Stew)

(Adapt quantities according to people)

One chicken, at least 1 kg [I used chicken thighs]

salt, pepper,

50 grams butter

1 small white or bok choy cabbage

2 large onions

2 large carrots

2 red bell peppers

500 grams potatoes

½ celery root

¼ litre chicken stock (I used chicken stock made from the carcass)

½ litre red wine

2 cloves garlic

piece of mace aril* [I used nutmeg instead]

2 baguettes or French breads

 

Method

1. Thoroughly clean the chicken inside and out, then pat dry and quarter it. Rub the pieces with salt and pepper, heat the butter and quickly brown the four pieces on all sides in a large skillet or pot.
2. Clean and dice the vegetables (discard the seeds of the peppers) and potatoes. Mince the garlic.
3. Add the stock, wine, vegetables, potatoes and garlic to the chicken, salt and pepper to taste and put in the piece of aril. Cover the pot or skillet, turn down the heat and cook the stew for 60-75 minutes on low heat.
4. Stir the stew once in a while. Serve with oven-warm, crisp bread and butter.
    
   * Mace Aril is a spice consisting of the dried aril, or lacy covering, from the nutmeg fruit of Myristica fragrans, a tropical evergreen tree. Mace has a slightly warm taste and a fragrance similar to that of nutmeg. It is used to flavour bakery, meat, and fish dishes; to flavour sauces and vegetables; and in preserving and pickling. In the processing of mace, the crimson-coloured aril is removed from the nutmeg that it envelops and is flattened out and dried for 10 to 14 days; its colour changes to pale yellow, orange, or tan. Whole dry mace consists of flat pieces—branched or segmented, smooth, horny, and brittle—about 40 mm (1.6 inches) long
    
    

Prei stamppot met rookworst (Leek hodgepodge with sausage)

Serves 4

1 kilo/2 lbs 2 oz. Potatoes
800 grams/ 1 lb. 13 oz. leeks
2 red peppers
4 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 - 1/½ cup milk
100 grams/4 oz. grated cheese
2 rookworst (or other sausage) total 500 grams/20 oz. (I cooked the ones that went in the mixture)
salt

 

Method

1. Peel the potatoes and boil them in bit of water for about 25 minutes. Halve the leeks lengthwise, spread the leaves and clean them thoroughly under the cold tap. Then cut the leeks in thick rings (1 cm or 1/3 inch).
2. Dice the peppers and take out the seeds. Heat half of the butter or oil in a pan. Put in the leek and pepper pieces and sauté them for about five minutes. Slice the sausage.
3. Drain the potatoes and mash them. Add the rest of the butter or oil and as much milk as to make a proper ‘mash’.
4. Mix in the leeks and peppers and half of the sliced sausage.
5. Grease an oven dish and put in the mix. Arrange the rest of the sausage on top, sprinkle cheese all around the sausage.
6. Put in a preheated oven - 200ºC/390ºF - for 20 minutes.
    

Slavinken (Bacon-wrapped Hamburger Rolls)

400 grams hamburger [I used mixed beef and pork mince]
8 slices of bacon or Italian pancetta
1 onion
3 tomatoes
2 'beschuiten' or breadcrumbs
1 egg yolk
salt, pepper, nutmeg
100 grams butter or margarine

 

Method

1. Finely chop the onion and sauté it some of the butter. Put the fried onions to the side.
2. Finely grate the breadcrumbs and mix it with the meat and egg yolk, and add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.
3. Divide the mix into four parts, (thick) sausage-shaped. (I did 8 instead, as I had 8 bacon) Wrap each roll (or 'croquette') in two slices of bacon or pancetta, one counter wise to the other.
4. Quick fry the meat-bacon rolls in the remaining butter. Skin and divide the tomatoes into four, take out the seeds and add the sections to the pan.
5. Put the lid on and simmer rolls and tomatoes for 10 minutes.
    

(Zeeuwse bolussen) Sticky buns Zeeland-style

400 grams flour
one package of yeast
250 ml milk
1 tsp salt
50 grams butter
1 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp fine brown sugar




Method

1. Sift the flour and add the salt. Follow the instructions on the packaged yeast, prepare and add it. Melt the butter, let it cool a bit and add it with the milk, ½ tsp cinnamon and 2 tbsp sugar to the flour and yeast.
2. Knead into supple dough and let it rise for an hour covered with a damp tea towel.
3. On the countertop, mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough into pieces of 16 inches (40cm) length.
4.  Roll these pieces through the sugar/cinnamon and form each roll into a snail’s shell or turban shape.
5. Put the buns on a buttered cookie sheet, pour over them the remaining sugar and cinnamon and bake them in a pre-heated oven at 225ºC/440ºF for about 45 minutes.
   The word ‘bolus’ originates in Greek where it means ‘lump of wet clay’, but also ‘huge piece’ or ‘mouthful’. As such the name for these and similar buns (sometimes filled with ginger or fruit) is obvious, in size, shape and colour. The other, more ‘domestic’ use of the word ‘bolus’ then becomes apparent “bulbous”
    

Also known as Holland, but strictly speaking that is the area around Amsterdam. Due to the maritime and economic power of these provinces in the 17th century, the Netherlands became known worldwide as Holland. To make matters even more confusing the inhabitants of the Netherlands are called Dutch. The Dutch have chosen Holland as brand name because Holland is internationally well-known, popular and an accessible name for our country and also because it sounds more hospitable than the rather official ‘The Netherlands’.

It is a very flat country, and much of it is below sea level. One-fifth of the Netherlands is made up of water and without protection two-thirds of the country would be regularly flooded. The lowest point in the Netherlands – at seven metres below sea level – is also Europe’s lowest point. Rotterdam is Europe’s biggest seaport, with over 30,000 ships using the port yearly. Amsterdam specialises in the diamond trade, and diamonds are brought here to be cut. Tulips are grown by the millions on its flat fertile land and a popular tourist sight is its fields of colour.

With 20 million bikes in the country the Netherlands has the highest level of bicycle usage in the world. Every year each Dutch person eats four kilos of Dutch liquorice or drop, which comes in a never-ending supply of sweet, salty and flavoured varieties. Often sold in pharmacies, it was once believed to have medicinal properties, and is as Dutch as tulips and clogs.

CUISINE

Holland produces an abundant of high quality, but inexpensive foods, such as dairy products, vegetables and meat.  Nutmeg is often used to flavour water steaming vegetables.

The Dutch don’t have a specific cuisine. You can find a regular meal of potatoes, vegetables and meat just as easily as a proper Indian, Chinese, Surinam, Turkish, Italian or Mediterranean meal. Breakfast and lunch are simple meals of bread, fruit and dairy products. Supper is usually a warm meal between 6 and 7 o’clock. Typical Dutch dishes include Snert, a pea soup with sausages; stamppot: another winter dish with vegetables, potatoes and meat mashed together in one stew with an indentation in the middle of the stew that is filled with gravy. Patat or friet, which are chips, but the Dutch prefer mayonnaise instead of ketchup and is a common standby on the fast food front. Herring is the most popular fish in Holland eaten on a bun with onions or pickles, or the Dutch way, fish by the tail, tip your head back and dangle it into your mouth! 

Dutch cakes and cookies are always good, and include: Amandelkoekjes Cakes with a crisp cookie outside and melt-in-the-mouth almond paste inside, Appelgebak, a chunky, apple-and-cinnamon pie, served hot in huge wedges, often with whipped cream (met slagroom). Mergpijpjes are soft cakes with a layer of almond on the outside and dipped in chocolate at both ends. Speculaas are crunchy cinnamon cookies with the texture of gingerbread as well as Poffertjes: a kind of mini pancakes, but thicker and sweeter.