Foodie Valentine dinner; Mont d'Or Cheesefondue

If there is anything I dislike it's commercial holidays. It looks like Christmas is more about how much presents and expensive food you buy your family than about just being together. With Easter nobody is celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ; who would even think about that if there are chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies and more chocolate around?

So it's probably no surprise that on Valentines Day I don't go out to have a 'romantic' dinner, in a loaded restaurant packed between other lovers. But off course there is nothing wrong with celebrating love ;-)


And to me there is only one perfect meal for two; Vacherin Mont d'Or cheesefondue!
If you never heard about this raw milk cheese that's riped in wood you should definitely check out this article from David Lebovtiz. 
In a nutshell: it's a soft, seasonal (sold between October and March) cheese made from cow's milk.

There are big cheeses where you buy a wedge from but I prefer to buy the little ones. These weigh about 500 grams and are sold in a little wooden box. Off course you could eat it like this at room temperature, but it's so much better if it's baked in the oven and served as a cheesefondue!

As I said before; it's the perfect Valentine dinner for two. Served with some bread and wine there is nothing more easy and romantic then dipping in this lovely melted cheese together.

But I sometimes also serve it for friends, after dinner, instead of a cheese platter.
Served this way one little Mont d'Or is enough for 4.

Here is how to make it:

Vacherin Mont d'Or Cheesefondue
adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients: 
- 1 Mont d’Or cheese, room temperature 
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and very thinly sliced (otherwise you will have a too strong garlic flavour) 
- about 60 ml white wine
Extra: aluminium foil

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC ( 390ºF)

2. Wrap the wooden box of cheese securely in aluminium foil, making sure to enclose it so the foil goes up to the top of the outside of the container, but leave the top exposed. Set the wrapped cheese on a baking sheet.

3. Poke eight-to-ten slits in the top of the cheese with a paring knife and slide the slivers of fresh garlic in them. Pour white wine over the cheese, do this slowly to make sure the wine goes into the slits and into the cheese.  Bake the cheese until it’s very hot – it will take between 20 and 30 minutes.

Serve with a crusty French baguette and pair with a good flavorful white wine, Champagne or beer.
I prefer to drink a bit of an oaky Chardonnay with it. 

Mont d'Or cheese with garlic slivers and white wine, ready to go in the oven

Yummy Mont d'Or cheesefondue!

Thai Red Chicken Curry with Cashews

As a foodie I like to try new recipes all the time. But I also really cherish my favorite recipes which I make over and over again for years and are always a succes.
One of our favorite weeknight meals is Thai red chicken curry with cashew nuts. I think I once found it in the Dutch Delicious magazine, but I'm not sure because of the many magazine clippings I collected.

It has been modified slightly because there were just a few vegetables in the original recipe.
I added  green beans and some extra pepper. 

It's quickly finished with noodles that only need to be soaked in some boiled water.

Once all the ingredients are prepared it's a quick and tasty weeknight meal. With a little heat from the curry paste and a crunch from the cashews.
I think the Mae Ploy curry pastes taste so good that, especially for a weeknight meal, it really doesn't make sense to make the paste from scratch.

My favorite brand of Thai red curry paste

Thai red chicken curry with cashew nuts

Main course for 2 persons

Ingredients:

-          1 tablespoon groundnut or sunflower oil

-          1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste (I use Mae Ploy; see picture)

-          1 large red pepper, cut into thin strips

-          300 grams chicken breast, cut into strips

-          200 grams of green beans, halved and + / - cooked 7 minutes

-          1 clove garlic, minced

-          1 tablespoon oyster sauce

-          1 tablespoon fish sauce

-          1 tablespoon brown sugar

-          2 spring onions, chopped

-          50 grams (roasted, salted) cashews 

-          150 grams of noodles or white rice,  to serve

1) Cook the green beans (if not already done) and keep the cooking water for the noodles to soak.

2) Heat the oil in a wok and stir-fry the curry paste and chicken about 2 minutes.

Add the peppers, garlic and green beans and stir-fry briefly.

3) Add the oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar and let simmer on low heat for about 4 minutes.

4) Add the spring onions and fry for 2 more minutes. Soak the noodles in the boiled water according to package directions.

5) Sprinkle with cashews just before serving.

Serve with noodles, white rice or fried noodles.

Dutch pancakes; budget dinner for one

Although I love cooking most of the time; I can't deny that I like it more if I can share it.
Most of the times that's not a problem; my husband is an enthusiastic and not so fussy eater.
But sometimes he must work overtime and let me know at the last minute... Whenever I cook just for my self I like it to be quick and tasty, so I often make Nigella Lawson's Lemon Linguine, Spaghetti Carbonara (without the heavy cream) or her Pea Puree with salmon. 
I can see a Nigella pattern here ;-)  
And I even admit throwing a frozen supermarket pizza in the oven occasionally! 

But tonight I did not feel like anything from the above. And because my husband is not a big fan of pancakes it was the perfect opportunity to bake them just for myself. It's a childhood favourite and I'm still happy to eat them for breakfast, lunch or as a main meal any time of the year.  While in wintertime it's a tradition to eat them after 'snert' (a thick typical Dutch pea soup). I remember my grandmother baking big piles of pancakes while the large pot of snert was simmering on the stove. She kept them warm by putting them on a plate on top of a pan with simmering water. 

Baking Dutch pancakes 

Dutch pancakes (pannenkoeken) are much thinner and larger than the American pancakes. The basic ingredients are always flour (plain, self-rising or both), milk, salt, and eggs. The addition of buckwheat flour is traditional but according to Wikipedia much less common nowadays. Although it looks like there is some kind of revival of the use of buckwheat flour because it's more healthy and ranks low on the glycemic scale. Wikipedia wrote a nice little piece about Dutch pancakes. 

Pancakes in the Netherlands are pretty popular; we even have lots of pancake-restaurants where you can order them with tons of different fillings. Plain ones are commonly eaten with sweet toppings like icing sugar (powdered sugar) or 'stroop'; treacle or syrup. A popular savoury filling is bacon & cheese. My 'secret' ingredient when making pancakes is to add a pinch of cinnamon to the batter. This even works with savoury fillings.

Pancake batter with cinnamon

If I make them as breakfast I use Jamie Oliver's 1tweetrecipe: 'Perfect pancakes: 1 egg, 1 cup self-raising, 
1 cup milk, pinch of salt. Whisk. Pour into a hot frying pan. Flip!' I get 3 pancakes from this recipe.

Today I made a bit more because I also love to eat them cold the next day (sprinkled with icing sugar and rolled up to be eaten by hand).
This recipe is adapted from an old fashioned and much reprinted Dutch cookbook; the Margriet kookboek:

Dutch pancakes

adapted from Margriet cookbook

Makes about 8 pancakes

Ingredients:

• 250 grams self-raising flour ( or substitute up to 50% with buckwheat flour)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg (large)
• 450 ml  milk
• Butter 
• Cinnamon
• Savoury and sweet ingredients as you like

1. Mix the self-raising flour with the salt.

2. Make a well in the middle, add the egg and half of the milk. Make a smooth batter of it, starting in the middle and mixing with a whisk. Add in the rest of the milk while stirring. Flavour with a pinch of cinnamon.

3. Leave to rest for half an hour if possible. 

4. Heat a small amount of butter in a frying pan, making sure it's hot before you pour in enough batter to just cover the bottom of the pan. (if you want to use bacon fry it first then add the batter)

5. Bake the pancake on medium heat until the top is dry.

6. Flip the pancake and cook the other side till golden.

7.Keep warm while baking the other pancakes. Fill as you like with sweet or savoury ingredients.

Rolled up Dutch pancake with 'stroop'

They are back; Dutch white asparagus!

At the end of April to me there is nothing more exciting than the arrival of the first asparagus.
Are they there yet? Can I afford them already?
Because especially in the beginning when they are still rare  the price can go up to € 18,- a kilo!
And even though I really love them I can control myself and wait a bit longer until they are a little cheaper. But it's a short seasonal delicacy, until 24th June, so don't wait to long!

When I talk about asparagus I always mean the white ones which grow under the ground. They are more expensive than the green and purple ones, even though it's the same plant, because it's much more labor intensive to grow and harvest them.

They are planted in 'beds' covered with white and black plastic, to control a bit of the warmth and keep them from coloring, and have to be dug up as soon as there tips come above the ground.

Asparagus beds at asparagus farm Santspuy in Etten Leur, Netherlands

You  have to peel the white asparagus before preparing them; their skin can't be eaten like the green ones. But even though it's more work and pretty expensive it's totally worth it; they are less bitter and much more tender. In the Netherlands we call them 'the white gold' or 'queen of the vegetables' with a reason ;).

Ready to harvest

Although we Dutch people do exaggerate it a little. Apparently we are willing to pay more for the white asparagus if they are 100% white; also the head. They are considered the 'best' quality if they are totally white and between 20 and 28 mm thick; the so called 'AA white' class. I can understand why Michelin star restaurants prefer these ones, but in taste it makes no difference if the tip is a bit green or purple.

Different categories of Dutch white asparagus

Besides from being a really healthy vegetable you can use it in many different ways; in salads, soups, quiche, risotto or pasta, cooked, steamed or grilled.
But the way I still like them best is the traditional Dutch combination of cooked white asparagus with a sauce of melted butter and parsley, served with ham, boiled egg and new potatoes (krieltjes in Dutch).

Traditional Dutch white asparagus 

Main course for 2 persons

This is not so much a recipe but more a combination of ingredients that combine perfect with each other. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 kilo white, thick, Dutch asparagus (weight before peeling)
• 3 eggs, cooked 
• 6 slices of cooked ham
• 50 grams butter
• 400 grams new potatoes, skin on
• few sprigs of parsley, chopped finely
• salt
• an asparagus pan (see picture below) where the asparagus can stand or a big pan which will fit the whole asparagus lying down

1) Peel the asparagus very carefully, you really don't want any strings of asparagus in your mouth, with a vegetable peeler holding them flat on a cutting board starting from just under the head and work your way down. Then cut about 1 cm off the woody end.  

Boil asparagus for 8-10  minutes (depending on how thick they are) in the asparagus pan,  remove from fire and leave them with the lid on the pan for about another 5 minutes.

Drain them well!

2) Boil the potatoes for about 5 minutes, rinse the water and fry them in a hot pan until lightly browned. 
Or cook them 10 - 15 minutes and serve them like this. 

3) Meanwhile cook the eggs for about 8 - 10 minutes and chop finely. 
I often cook them together with the asparagus if there is enough space in the pan.

4) Slice the cooked ham or make rolls of them and slice them on your plate. 

5) Melt the butter in a small saucepan and mix in the chopped parsley.

6) Serve the asparagus on a warm plate with the potatoes, ham and egg and pour some of the melted butter sauce over the asparagus. 

A heavenly combination! 

Wine pairing; Pinot Blanc from Alsace.

P.s. some proper pictures of the dish and how it's been made are following soon together with more delicious white asparagus recipes. 

Cooking asparagus in our garden