Macaroni

Ten percent of the Dutch population thinks that macaroni and chili con carne are.......Dutch dishes. I kid you not. Eighty-seven percent of that same population eats macaroni at least once a week. When you ask children here in the USA what their favorite kind of food is, they'll usually say: Pizza! Dutch kids would tell you that macaroni was their favorite food.

A Dutch TV show called "Man Bijt Hond" ("Man bites dog") has a section called "Hond Aan Tafel", where the camara crew knocks on a random house door around dinner time and asks the surprised habitants if they can join them. Most often the answer is yes, and the short scene allows for a peek in the life of just an ordinary person. Nine out of then, the answer to "What's for dinner?" is...you guessed it.....macaroni.

And they're not the only ones that love macaroni. Yours truly enjoys a huge plate of the salty, warm, comforting pasta with a pickle on the side to provide some crunch, yummmmm!!!!!!!!!!!! It's one of the many reasons why I keep ground beef in the freezer: once the meat is thawed, this dish is quick and easy to prepare. Just what you need when you're looking for some comfort!

Dutch Macaroni
3 cups of elbow macaroni or fussili
1 lb of ground beef
1/2 a leek, white only, sliced thin
1 red pepper
1 sachet of macaroni spices*
1 small can of tomato sauce
Pickles, optional

Cook the macaroni according to instructions. Brown the ground beef in a skillet, pour off the fat and add in strips of red pepper and the sliced leek. Stir in the spices and the tomato sauce, simmer for ten minutes. Add the macaroni and mix with the sauce. Serve warm.

* I buy the macaroni spices in Dutch stores online, but the spaghetti spice mix packages that are available in your standard supermarket is practically the same.

Hutspot met klapstuk

It seems that I am on a Dutch roll here. Just a couple of days ago, I made boerenkool met worst and now I've just prepared a huge pot of hutspot met klapstuk. The name of this dish does not sound very appetizing, not even in Dutch. Loosely translated it means "hotchpotch with slap piece". Well, there you go, see what I mean? Who wants to eat that?

But, as usual, appearance deceives. In this case the name is not very flattering and quite honestly, neither is the picture. But the taste will convince anyone that there is more to this dish than a silly name.

Hutspot was originally (in the mid-1600s) made with parsnips and potatoes. Every October 3rd, the city of Leiden celebrates the victory over the Spanish invaders with white bread and herring and with hutspot, this last dish presumably left behind by the fleeing Spanish army and found by a young man who shared it with the rest of the starving Leiden-ers. Or at least with those that didn't like herring, I'm sure.

Nowadays the parsnips have been replaced by large carrots and it makes for a colorful and flavorful mashed potato dish, and very affordable, to say the least.

As for the "slap piece": klapstuk is the meat that is cut from the rib. I used slices of beef chuck rib roast and it worked beautifully. The meat is marbled and during its 90 minute braising time will release all kinds of wonderful flavors and most of the fat. You'll love it!

Hutspot met klapstuk
For the meat
1 lb of sliced beef chuck rib roast
2 cups water
1/2 beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
8 black pepper corns, whole
1 tablespoon flour, dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Add the water to a Dutch oven or a braising pan, add the bouillon cube and stir until dissolved. Add the beef, the bay leaf and the pepper corns and braise on low heat for approximately 90 minutes or until beef is tender.

Remove the meat to a serving dish, discard the bay leaf and peppercorns and stir the dissolved flour into the pan juices. Stir scraping the bottom of the pan, loosening any meat particles that may be stuck. Bring the heat slowly up until the gravy starts to thicken. Pour the gravy over the meat and set aside, keeping it warm.

For the hutspot
6 large potatoes, peeled and quartered
8 large carrots, peeled and diced
4 large onions, peeled and sliced
2 cups of water
Pinch of salt

Place the peeled and quartered potatoes on the bottom of a Dutch oven. Pour in the water so the potatoes are just covered. Add the pinch of salt. Put the carrots on top, and finish with the onions. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and boil for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked. Pour off the cooking water but save it. Mash the potatoes, carrots and onions until you achieve a mashed potato consistency, or leave larger lumps, that's a personal preference. If you need more liquid to make it smoother, add a tablespoon of cooking liquid at a time. Taste, adjust with salt and pepper.

Now place a large scoop of hutspot on a warm plate. With the rounded side of a spoon, make an indentation on top of the hutspot, like a pothole. This is the famous "kuiltje". Put a slice of beef on top and pour a tablespoon or two of gravy into the kuiltje, and serve your beautiful, Dutch dish. All you need now is a pair of clogs and a picture of the Queen on the wall :-) Nah....not really.

Kale with Kielbasa

The Dutch have a very solid and varied repertoire of winter dishes: solid in the sense that they all consist of the culinary trinity (meat, vegetables and potatoes) and varied because well....because there is scarcely a thing the Dutch don't add to their famous "stamppot". Literally meaning 'stomped pot", stamppot is a dish that consists of boiled potatoes mashed with either a raw or cooked vegetable. The meat is either served on top, on the side or cut into small pieces and mixed in. If the choice of protein generates any type of pan juice or jus, it will be served in a small hollow made on top of the mashed potato dish, the so-called "kuiltje jus" (kinda like a pothole in the road but different).

Those that know me well will be surprised to see that I served up mashed potatoes with kale, a dish simply called "boerenkool". There are few things in the food world that I don't care for, and one of them is boerenkool. Or was, should I say. Somehow the American kale is not half as bitter as the Dutch one is, so after preparing this dish with Michiel for Idaho's Melting Pot, I was pleasantly surprised, enough even to go home and cook it for myself two days later.

Kale is a dark-leaf vegetable that will add plenty of nutrition to your diet: it is riddled with vitamins and minerals and contributes plenty of protein. The butter and the kielbasa....not so much.

Kale with kielbasa

3 bunches of kale (or 1 lb)
6 large potatoes
3 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup of milk, warmed
1 smoked kielbasa
Salt

Cut the leaves off the stems and slice the leaves into narrow strips. Peel the potatoes, quarter them and place them in a Dutch oven. Add water to barely cover the potatoes, then put the kale on top, add the kielbasa. Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil. Boil on a low flame for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are done. Remove the kielbasa, pour off any cooking liquid that may remain and mash the vegetables with a fork or a potato masher. Add the butter and the milk and stir the whole into a creamy consistency. Slice the kielbasa and place it on top of the stamppot. Serve with mustard if desired.

Leftover Lasagna

Sometimes the pictures don't do food any justice, other times they make it look a lot better than it actually tastes. When I attended the culinary arts program at the Selland College (now CWI) at Boise State University, the students that were in charge of desserts for our restaurant would make the most beautiful displays: perfectly scooped ice creams with chocolate drizzle, lovely dollops of whipped cream......Showing the selection of goods to our guests always drew longing sighs and looks of admiration and dare I say, hesitation, from the diners. After all, you can't really say "They all look so good, I think I'll have a piece of each"  without getting at least a raised eyebrow from one of your fellow diners. (Which makes you wonder whether it's time to seek out more like-minded folks to eat out with).

I digress. The point is that these desserts all looked marvelous to me too, until I learned that the icecream on display was just a greasy scoop of shortening and that the whipped cream was actually shaving cream. Ewwww!!!!!!!!!! No wonder they held up so well during a two hour lunch service (I'm not always the quickest one to catch on, as you can tell).

So....food may look good but may taste not so fantastic, and the other way around. And all this to say that the picture of the lasagna posted may seem like the least appetizing thing posted so far, but I'll say: I had two helpings and I don't even like lasagna. Go figure.

I stood in front of the fridge and tried to find some inspiration for dinner. The ground beef I pulled from the freezer earlier last week to make sausage rolls with ended up being put back in the fridge because I made Brat Buns instead, and I had all kinds of leftovers: half a jar of spaghetti sauce with mushrooms left over from pizza night a couple of weeks ago , about a cup and a half of shredded Parmesan cheese from that same evening and about two cups of a garlic-and-herb cheese that usually goes on crackers from eh....Christmas. I used part of it up for some Boursin buns, but still had two packages left, and they were pushing their sell-by-date.

I also had spotted nine lasagna sheets before that had been in the cupboard for quite some time. Perfect!

Leftover Lasagna
1 pound of hamburger
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
2 cups of garlic-herb cheese
2 eggs
1 cup of Parmesan cheese, shredded
9 lasagna sheets*

Brown the pound of hamburger in a skillet, drain the fat and add the spaghetti sauce. If you wish you can add more bulk by adding fresh or canned mushrooms (drained). Put the garlic-herb cheese in a bowl and slowly whisk in one egg, then the other until it forms a thick sauce.

Boil the lasagna sheets according to the instructions on the box. Spray the inside of the pan you are going to bake your lasagna in with cooking spray, then spread a thin layer of the spaghetti meat sauce on the bottom. Lay the first layer of lasagna leaves on top. Cover the lasagna with a layer of the cheese sauce, sprinkle Parmesan on top, then put another layer of meat sauce. Repeat the pasta sheets, the cheese sauce, the cheese and the meatsauce until you've reached the last layer of pasta. On top of this, place the rest of the meat sauce and sprinkle Parmesan on top. I had some cheese sauce left over and dolloped the top as well.

Cover with foil (spray the inside of the foil with cooking spray so that no valuable cheese goes lost by sticking to the aluminum!), and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes. Let sit on the counter for ten minutes so that the lasagna can set.

Beef in red wine

The problem with having dinner with the Ladies once a month is that one usually goes home with loads of leftovers and there is no cooking done in the next couple of days. Nevertheless, it's going to be a busy week so I'm preparing a couple of dishes that can last me for two or three evenings.

I pulled a beef cross rib roast out of the freezer: I've had pork and chicken for the last couple of days so it's time for some change......

Beef in red wine is flavorful and tender and smells like summer in a Mediterranean country. I like to do the initial preparations in a Dutch oven and then transfer the whole kaboodle to my crockpot and forget about it for the next six hours while it simmers and fills up the house with beautiful smells. This beef will serve well with mashed potatoes.

Beef in red wine

2 strips of bacon
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 beef roast (approximately 2 lbs)
1 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, thyme
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups of water
2 cups of red wine
1 beef bouillon cube
2 bay leaves
4 slices of dried tomato (or 1 tablespoon of tomato paste)

Cut the two strips of bacon in one inch pieces and fry in a Dutch oven. When browned (but not crispy), take them out with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Saute the carrot, onion and garlic in the bacon fat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. When the vegetables are sauteed, remove them as well. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pot and heat until it starts to smoke a bit. Season the beef with salt, pepper and thyme, and quickly brown the roast on all sides. Add in the water and the wine, add the two bay leaves and one beef bouillon cube (or a cup of beef stock), the tomatoes and simmer for four hours, or until the beef is tender.

If you prepare the dish the day before, you'll be able to scoop most of the fat off the chilled sauce before serving it the day after. If you serve it the same day as you prepare it, you may want to ladle some of the fat off during the preparation: it will rise to the top.

Zuurvlees - A tangy meat stew

It's snowing outside like crazy, but I don't mind. Safely tucked inside, I'm busy preparing for the New Year, and in good Dutch fashion that means copious amounts of fried food. It's as if we're trying to ring in the New Year while slipping and sliding down Saturation lane, straight into a new decade!

These fried foods are not making any dents in my freezer space but I have to eat dinner as well, so I've pulled a package that contains a pound of stew meat. It's the last of the beef from a Hereford steer I kept for a short while. I've set it in a marinade early this morning and, this afternoon, it will sit easy and quietly simmering on the back of the stove. Gotta love a meal that practically takes care of itself during these busy days!

I'm making Zuurvlees, a tangy beef stew from the south of the Netherlands. It's traditionally made with horse meat and appelstroop but I'm sticking to beef. It's a great dish to use cheaper cuts of beef that need some extra "lovin'" on the stove to become tender and tasty.

Zuurvlees

1 lb beef, cubed
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
2 bay leaves
5 black pepper corns
2 cloves
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar*
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup of water

Put the beef in a container, place the slices of onion on top and cover with the vinegar and the water. Add two bay leaves, the peppercorns and the two cloves, cover and marinate for at least four hours, but preferably overnight.

Separate the meat from the marinade. Pat it dry with a paper towel, melt the butter in a Dutch oven and brown the meat. Drain the onions and cook with the meat until they're opaque, then add the marinade and the spices. Stir in the brown sugar. Bring back to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the meat is tender.

Mix the flour with the water and stir little by little into the juices in the pan, so that it thickens like gravy. Serve with mashed potatoes and sweet peas, or over a plate of French fries.

*If you happen to have appelstroop, add a tablespoon of it instead of the brown sugar. You can then use white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar.

Sometimes simple is nice....Beef broth with biscuits

I went out to dinner last night, to a place that had been recommended by a coworker. The food was alright but not great, and I was a little disappointed. I love good food and it's hard enough to get something good out here where I live, so I had high hopes. But the ragout was too salty, the salad bar had dried out cucumber slices and crusty pasta salad, and the focaccia was spongy and wet.

So today's lunch was so refreshing, a simple beef broth with pieces of meat, some celery and carrots, and homemade biscuits. Easy peasy and oh so nice!

Beef broth

1 piece of beef (roast cut) approximately 3/4 to 1 pound)
1 big peeled onion
3 ribs of celery
a handful of baby carrots or sliced and peeled carrots
1 cube of beef bouillon

Place the beef in a pan, add water to cover, add the onion and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer on low for 2 hours. Set aside and cool. Make sure you refrigerate your stock within two hours.

The next day: cut and wash the celery and carrots, and brown quickly in a pan. Bring the broth to a boil, add the vegetables, the bouillon cube and turn down to simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Cut the meat in bitesize chunks and put back in the pan.

This broth is great the first day to serve with some ravioli, leaving enough liquid and reserving the meat and vegetables for a hearty lunch the day after.

Teriyaki beef with rice and spinach

Why do we have so much stuff???? I am looking at the shelves in our refrigerator door, and there must be at least ten packages with sauces from fastfood chains, two jars of mustard, one of mayo, about a million (give or take a few) salad dressings, pickles and whatnots.

The packages with sauce go right in the trash, they've been there for eons so I am not even going to bother. I check expiration dates on all the salad dressings and but one or two are still good, so out they go too. Hey, I've instantly created some space ! While I'm at it, I also check what's in the crisper and what else needs to go, I have half of that roast left from yesterday. Ah...the crisper reveals fresh spinach that I bought the other day.

It's amazing what we keep in our refrigerator. After only eight minutes ( I timed it for your convenience), I have gotten rid of some items, rearranged some others, and found several ones that I didn't even know I had ( some mini wedges of brie cheese that will come in handy for the quiche I am making later this week!). I even wiped down some shelves and it all looks a lot better now! Set your timer and see how much you can get rid of, rearrange, clean and come up with in eight minutes, and drop me an email to let me know!

Time to fix dinner, I decided to cut the remainder of that beef roast in half. One half goes in a pot with water and an onion, for a nice beef soup, the other one I'm slicing for beef teriyaki. One more half empty bottle of sauce that I can get rid of :-)

Teriyaki Beef with rice and spinach

1 lb of beef, sliced in bitesize portions
2 cloves of garlic
teriyaki sauce (enough to cover and marinate meat)
a large handful of spinach per person
pinch of dried hot pepper seeds (like the ones you get with your pizza)
cup of rice
2 1/2 cups of water
salt
oil

Marinate the meat in the sauce for at least 30 minutes before preparation. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a nonstick pan and fish the pieces of meat out of the marinade, and brown the meat on both sides. Add the rest of the marinade with 1/2 cup of warm water and simmer while you prepare the rest of the food.

Put one cup of rice in a pan, add two cups of water, a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Cover with lid, turn down to simmer and set the timer for 20 minutes. I cook on electric and this is the way it works for me, you may have to experiment in the beginning.

Peel and chop the two cloves of garlic, and stir quickly in another skillet that has a teaspoon of hot oil. Add the washed spinach to the garlic and stir until the spinach is limp, sprinkle the hot peppers over the spinach, a pinch of salt and black pepper and set to the side.

Put a spoonful or two of rice on a plate, add the spinach on one side, and meat with sauce on the other. You have yourself a quick and tasty meal, and a cleaner, more organized refrigerator to boot!

*if you don't have any teriyaki sauce, don't despair, you may have a salad dressing that will do the trick: there's a citrus vinaigrette that you can add a splash of soy sauce too (and why not open up one of those endless cans of mandarine oranges that you have in your pantry and add it to the meat?), there's a ginger and soy based salad dressing that is great with beef and crushed pineapple (ha! another can gone out of the pantry!) or just use soy sauce laced with crushed pineapple liquid for a marinade. and if you don't know, why don't you send me an email or leave me a comment with what you have, and we'll think of something!*

If you have any leftover rice, save it until the next morning, add a splash of milk and some cinnamon and brown sugar, nuke it in the microwave for a couple of minutes and breakfast is ready :-)

Beef Balsamico

I always get a chuckle out of reading restaurant's menu cards. The fancier the better, because I've noticed a tendency in this country that all that is foreign is good, even if we don't know what it means. Well, for Pete's sake, if you are going to put a dish on the menu, at least check how to spell it properly! If you're up for a chuckle, check out the http://www.engrish.com website for some hilarious menu cards, translation mistakes and the likes.

And while I giggle about the PocariSweat soft drink, and wish I could have some 'cozy chocolates for heroines" (I am not joking! Talk about defined target audience!), I pull a piece of beef out of the freezer. Ah ! I guess we'll be eating "meat for the heroe of this house" today :-)

I was raised in a Dutch-Indonesian household, and while some of my traits are definitely more netherlandish, such as being thrifty and (sometimes very annoying) outspoken, my cooking habits are definitely more asian. This translates to cooking for ten when there are only two people in the household, which leads to food for eight frozen in the freezer, which leads to eh...well this blog for one! Slowly but surely I am learning to cut down on my portions.

The beef roast I have pulled out of the freezer is little over 3 pounds, so I cut it in half and put the other part in a ziploc bag in the refrigerator: we'll look at that in the next couple of days. Today we are making Beef Balsamico, a nice beef stew with vegetables, and a hint of summer.

Beef Balsamico

1 1/2 pound beef, cubed
1 1/2 cup beef bouillon (1 1/2 cup hot water and one beef bouillon cube)
2 tbsp balsamico vinegar
2 cups of pepper stir fry, or other vegetables (broccoli, corn, carrots, green beans, whatever you have in the freezer or pantry that needs to go)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp olive oil
sour cream (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown. Add onion, garlic and potatoes and stir occasionally until onions are transparent, be careful not to burn the garlic! In the meantime, set your crockpot to high. Add the bouillon to the skillet, add the vegetables and the thyme, stir in the balsamico and bring to a boil. Pour the contents of the skillet into the crockpot and cook on high for approximately 2 hours, or until beef is tender. The length of time depends on the beef and on your crockpot, so keep an eye on it. If you prefer your veggies crunchy, do not add them in until the last thirty minutes of cooking.

Serve in a bowl, hot, with a good piece of bread and a dollop of sour cream. This is good, whether you're a heroine or not!

Spaghetti alla Bolognesa

...or just plain ole "spagbog", as we call it.

At this rate, I am never going to get that freezer cleaned out. Don't you know it, when you start something new, life always gets in the way. Finally ready to write that book? Your house floods. Wanna lose some weight? The store has an all-time sale on your favorite chocolate bar. Etc etc etc. Devilish distractions, I call them. So too with this freezer fun. Now that I have my mind set of getting this thing taken care of, I often get home late, or eat on the road (I'm getting better at ordering smaller portions and not taking anything home!). But if you can prepare a little ahead, this dish can be ready and on the table in 30 minutes. Hurray!!!

One of the ways to be ready for situations like this is to cook your hamburger meat beforehand. Having some browned beef in the freezer, appropriately marked and wrapped, will have you serve nachos in no time, or whip up this spaghetti dish in less than thirty minutes. Do make sure that, if you decide to cook and freeze the meat, you cook it thoroughly and let it cool down sufficiently before you do so!

I cook for two (one portion for dinner and one for lunch the next day), but you can easily double the portions. This is another great recipe that will make a dent in your freezer and your pantry!

Spaghetti alla Bolognesa
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tsp olive oil
1 can of mushrooms (approx. 7 ounces), drained
2 cans of diced tomatoes, italian style
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 lb ground beef

1 tsp of dried thyme

1 tsp of italian herbs (or oregano, basil and rosemary)
1 bay leaf

1 can of medium pitted black olives, drained and chopped
1/4 cup of warm milk

2 servings of whole wheat spaghetti
parmesan cheese

Add the olive oil to a non-stick pan and cook the onion and garlic until clear and smelling yummy. Don't let the garlic burn! Add the hamburger meat and stir for several minutes, then add the mushrooms. Cook for a couple of minutes, until the meat is done, then add the cans of italian diced tomatoes. Stir and add the small can of tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, and turn down the heat. Add the herbs and the bay leaf and simmer for about twenty minutes on a low heat.

In the meantime, cook the spaghetti al dente (whole wheat pasta is great, a bit chewier and with more body than the plain old white pasta, try it sometime!) according to instructions. Drain.

Taste your spagbog sauce, salt and pepper to taste, or add more herbs. I love thyme so I am very generous with this, but not everybody likes it. Stir in the chopped black olives and heat for a couple of minutes more. Retire your pan from the heat, stir in the warm milk (this will tone down the acidity of your sauce and make for a wonderful, velvety flavor).

Put a big serving of spaghetti on a deep plate, top with the meaty sauce and sprinkle parmesan on top, if desired. Dried and grated parmesan will do, but if you can afford it, buy a little piece of parmesan at the store and grate it yourself, it's fabulous!