Refrigerator Soup

I have days where I'm running around doing ten million things and I don't have (or want to make) time to focus on eating. Luckily, I'm not picky in that sense and take pleasure in even the smallest things, like a cracker with Brie or a slice of bread with butter and a piece of chocolate. But when it's cold outside, the body wants something more than just a bite: it's time for something warm, comforting and with substance to it! That's when it's "refrigerator soup" time. I put a pot on the stove, do some of the basics and let it slowly simmer while I do the running around. By the time I'm done, the soup's ready to eat!

I always keep a package of brats in the freezer, they're easy to fix and versatile: you can make Brat buns, use them for a stew or cook them up and eat cold with a piece of bread and some mustard. Pretty much any kind of bratwurst will do, although I do tend to favor the original brats.

The main ingredients to my refrigerator soup is: brats, onion, celery, carrot and anything you can find in the crisper of your refrigerator. The "crisper" is the bottom drawer of your refrigerator where you are supposed to keep fresh vegetables so that they stay crisp. In my case, the crisper is right on top of the freezer, so often I find my veggies frozen stuck to the bottom. Some people also call their crisper, "slimer" since veggies turn into unsightly squishy blobs if they stay in there too long. Well, here's a recipe to prevent that from happening!

Refrigerator Soup
2 brats, sliced
1/2 cup of diced onion
1/4 cup of diced celery
1/4 cup of diced carrot
3 cups of water
1 cup of canned beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups of diced, shredded, cut up vegetables
1/2 a bouillon cube
Pinch of salt and pepper

This doesn't seem much of a recipe but it's all about what you have. I always have fresh carrot, celery and onions in the house, but I also keep these in dehydrated form. Go through the fridge and see what you can come up with: half a jar of salsa that needs to go? Throw it in. Some leftover broccoli from last Sunday's dinner? Use it up. Don't use anything that needs to go for real though: if it's moldy, slimey, or if it smells funky, throw it out. This soup is not going to save it!

Fry the slices of bratwurst in a Dutch oven until they are golden brown. Pour off some of the fat but keep enough to have approximately one tablespoon (some brats are fattier than others) in the pan. Add the onion, celery and carrot and stir in the hot fat until the onions are translucent and the carrot and celery are softening a bit. Pour in the water, add the beans and whatever vegetables you were able to find.

I had some leftover kale from a boerenkool dish I made a week or so ago and two tomatoes that looked rather tired. It really doesn't take much to make a sturdy soup!

Belgian Chicken (rabbit)

As a child, one of my favorite dishes was a sweet and tangy stew that my Belgian grandma Pauline used to make. It was usually served during Christmas as the main dish and sometimes during Easter. My brother and I loved it and would often ask for this Belgian chicken dish. Because that's what we were told it was: chicken made the Belgian way.

One pretty Sunday in Spring, I must have been six or seven years old, my grandma's sisters and nieces came to visit. The table was set for lunch and judging from the smell that came from the kitchen, I knew we were going to have my favorite dish: Belgian chicken! How appropriate, I thought, Belgian chicken for Belgian ladies and said so to one of my grandma's nieces. She looked puzzled and said she had never heard of Belgian chicken before. I dismissed it at the time and figured they must call it something else over there.

Once they started serving lunch I was initially disappointed: instead of the boney legs and tender breast meat, I saw chunks of what looked like beef. I briefly hesitated but decided to say nothing, because once I tasted a piece of meat I realized that it tasted very similar to the chicken dish. It was so good I even asked for seconds. The whole table held their breath. I may have been ditzy as a child, but even I knew something was wrong. "So you really like this meat, huh?" one of my aunts asked, barely containing her laughter. "Yes, I do" I said, wondering what all the fuss was about. "It tastes just like Belgian chicken.". At that point the whole table was in stitches, laughing. Why? Because the meat was foal. And I happened to be a horse-crazy little girl at the time and nobody had dared tell me that we were going to have horse meat for lunch.

For a split-second, I was hurt. They were making me eat HORSE MEAT?? But then I realized that this horse meat tasted darn good and I held up my plate demonstratively for seconds. What can I say? My tummy wins over my heart, I guess!

We had a great time that Sunday, visiting with the family and eating good food. Nevertheless, when they all left I took my grandma aside and asked her if these people were from Belgium, then how come they had never heard from Belgian chicken? Ah....the moment of truth. I guess that my initial reaction to eating horse meat made my family realize that taste ruled over cuddliness in my book. Turns out that Belgian chicken is nothing else than rabbit. And I am glad to say that neither my brother nor I have stopped eating rabbit.

Rabbit is hard to come by here in America but I found a small poultry processing plant in a town nearby that also does rabbits. And they happened to have a couple of them in the freezer, ready to go. Hiphiphurray!!!

So yesterday, I was in my kitchen cutting up this animal. It was a little unnerving because neither the head nor the tail was on this pink carcass. Enough for my mother to venture the thought that perhaps it was cat after all: it was not unheard of during the war years to buy "rabbit" in the stores and have a diminishing feline population at the same time. These pieces of meat were called "roof rabbits" among the people in the know......

Anyway, back to the bunny. So if there are no Easter eggs in your yard this year, I guess it's because I ate the Easter bunny. Just like that. With vinegar and brown sugar. And it was good! For those of you that have never had rabbit....it tastes a little bit like chicken. Belgian chicken. :-)

Belgian Chicken
1 medium sized rabbit, approx. 2 lbs
2 cups of water, divided
1 cup of white wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
1 large size onion, peeled and sliced thin
2 tablespoons of butter
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/3 cup of water
salt
pepper
pinch of ground cloves

Cut the rabbit up. I did a slightly un-traditional cut because I did not have a cleaver and the rabbit's backbone is hard as a rock. Make sure you remove small bones or splinters before cooking the meat, they can be nasty.

Add the water, vinegar, bay leaves, peppercorns and slices of onion to a large bowl and add the pieces of meat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, take the meat out of the marinade and pat it dry with some paper towels. Heat two tablespoons of butter in a Dutch oven and quickly brown the meat on all sides. Remove from the pan, brown the onions and add the meat back in. Pour the marinade over the meat but keep the peppercorns behind, they are a pain to remove once the sauce is made. Bring to a boil, turn low and simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove the meat from the pan, scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan and add the brown sugar and the second cup of water if needed. Bind the sauce with a tablespoon of flour and 1/3 cup water, taste and adjust with salt and pepper. Add the meat back to the sauce and simmer for another hour or until the meat is tender to the point where it falls off the bone.

Add the pinch of ground cloves, taste again and adjust. You want a sweet, tangy but not overly sugary taste. Serve with boiled potatoes and red cabbage.

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.

Biscuits and Gravy

Emile's comment the other day made me realize that biscuits and gravy could easily be misinterpreted as some outlandish concoction, especially if you translate the American biscuit for an English one and gravy for eh...gravy. It's not a biscuit and it's not gravy, at least not how you know it overseas. Trust me.

Here in America it's a regular item for breakfast, both at home and in restaurants, but I understand the confusion. Notes from a travel journal I kept on a trip to Memphis in the mid-nineties (yes, that was last century!) reads: "This morning we're eating breakfast at a large family restaurant. It's possible to order off the menu but most guests are gathered around the breakfast buffet, loading up their plates with the most bizarre combinations. The pancakes here are as thick as roof tiles and some of the items on the buffet line would do well to appear for dinner, but surely not for breakfast? Fried rice, shredded potatoes? And the most bizarre thing of all, regardless of what's on their plate, each guest is sure to ladle spoonfuls of some off-white, lumpy sauce on top."

Well, that off-white, lumpy sauce back then was gravy. I did not know it then and when I finally moved to the United States and figured it out, I avoided the stuff like the plague. It looked lumpy and pasty and I was convinced it would taste like wallpaper paste. I tried my hand at biscuits once but they emerged from the oven like hockey pucks so that was that. I shelved the whole "biscuits and gravy" thing away as one of those American things I'd never understand, like root beer and corn dogs.

Fast forward to last Spring. Talking about food one day with my friend Luke from West Virginia, he mentioned that his were the best biscuits and gravy. I was sceptical but was willing to give it a try. What can I say? The man was right. The biscuits were buttery, tender and flaky and the sausage gravy warm, spicy and comforting. To this day, I cannot make them as fluffy and buttery as he does but they'll do.

The key is, for the biscuits, to not overwork the dough: the less you handle it, the better. Easy to say, harder to do for a breadbaking fool like me, but I manage to restrain myself and just pat the whole thing together. As for the gravy.....get good quality sausage and make sure you cook the gravy long enough to get rid of the flour taste.

Biscuits and gravy
For the biscuits
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons of cold butter
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon of sour cream
1 tablespoon melted butter

Mix the first three ingredients, cut in the cold butter and stir in the buttermilk and the sour cream. Carefully fold the dough several times until it comes together  (four or five folds will do) and pat into a rectangle on a lightly floured countertop. Take a glass or a cup that has the circumference for the biscuits you want (average of 3 inches will do just fine) and cut rounds out of the dough. In the meantime, heat the oven to 400F. Melt the two tablespoons of butter in the oven dish. Take each biscuit and carefully place it face down into the butter, then flip it over so that the butter-covered side is up. Continue until the dish is full but not crowded. Bake the biscuits golden-brown in about 12-15 minutes.

For the gravy
8 oz of mild pork sausage
8 oz of spicy pork sausage
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup of milk

Fry both sausage meats in a skillet until it's crumbly and cooked. Sprinkle the flour over the meat, stir several times, then slowly stir in the milk. Keep stirring, making sure you get all the crunchy bits off the bottom of the pan until the sauce thickens. Taste and adjust the flavor if needed.

Tear open a warm biscuit and ladle a generous spoonful of gravy over the two halves. Sit down, take a bite and be comforted!

Somehow you always end up with a bit of leftover biscuit dough: too small to make another biscuit but too much to just throw away. Here's what you can do: pat it together, roll it out and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Roll up jelly-roll style, slice and place sliced side down into a buttered ramekin. Sprinkle some more sugar on top and bake with the rest of the biscuits at 400F. Yummie with a scoop of ice cream or just to munch on while you wait. Now, ain't that cute?

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.

Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of those recipes that is a super-standby. When I make biscuits and gravy for breakfast, I usually make a larger batch of biscuit dough. One part goes to biscuits and the rest gets rolled into a large circle and covers this quick and easy chicken pot pie. It's one of those dishes that uses what's in the freezer and the pantry to produce a weekday meal: it can be on the table in less than 30 minutes.

Chicken Pot Pie
For the filling
2 cups of mixed vegetables*
1 can of mushroom soup
1 cup of milk (optional)
1 cup of cooked chicken, cubed
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
Pepper

Prepare the mushroom soup in a sauce pan according to the instructions on the can. If it asks to add water or milk, add one cup of milk only. Heat the vegetables in the soup and add the chicken. Flavor with the Worcestershire sauce and the pepper. Taste and adjust. Simmer for about five minutes or until hot, then pour into a pie pan or shallow oven dish.

For the dough
1 can of prepared buttermilk biscuits
1 tablespoon melted butter
or
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons of cold butter
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon of sour cream
1 tablespoon melted butter

If you use the prepared biscuits, take them out of the can and separate them from each other, placing them in a circle on a lightly floured countertop. Roll the prepared biscuits together into a larger circle.

If you make the biscuits yourself, mix the first three ingredients, cut in the cold butter and stir in the buttermilk and the sour cream. Carefully knead the dough together (four or five kneads maximum) and pat into a circle on a lightly floured countertop.

Roll the dough into a circle slightly larger than your oven dish. Carefully lift the circle and place it on top of the pie filling. Cut the dough that hangs over the edges, brush the top with melted butter and bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the biscuit dough is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. (You may want to place a baking sheet underneath the pie pan in case the filling bubbles over; it makes for easy clean-up!)

Chile Verde Pork

Sometimes I'm at a loss. There are only a few choices of protein that I keep in the freezer: chicken, beef and pork, and its variants such as sausage, smokies and other obscure meat products. (Oh yeah, and a couple of pieces of salmon that I realllly need to use up one of these days, recipe anyone?). Anyway, back to the loss. Here's how it usually goes: if I pull beef out of the freezer, I'm inclined to go for a roast or some type of beef stew like Beef Balsamico or zuurvlees. If the choice falls on chicken, I come up with a myriad of ways to prepare it: roast, stewed, fried, grilled......you name it. But with pork, all I can think of is shredded pork. And that's it. And I really wasn't in the mood for shredded pork.

So when I found* a pork picnic roast in the freezer, I knew I had to come up with a different recipe. Browsing the web, I came across various ways to prepare "pork chile verde" and remembered that several months ago a dear friend from Colorado, Fred Fell, emailed me a recipe of pork chile verde. At first glance it seemed a bit spicy because of the jalapeños, and there was no bean in sight. And you know me, I love beans. I automatically assumed that "chile" meant beans. Well, not so much. Chile can also be eh...chile. As in peppers. Duh.....it took me a minute or two to process that thought. And here is me pretending to know it all!

But ofcourse, between one thing and another, I could not find the recipe and I didn't just want to get any old recipe from the web. I emailed Fred and hey presto! he responded this morning with the recipe. Just in time to get some essentials at the store and get cracking!

Now, Fred is going to wonder why I even bothered to ask him about the recipe at all: I ended up using a variety of different items that were not the original ingredients. But that's just how it goes, and I can't help it. I start following a recipe and halfway through I think: "Hmmmmmm, I wonder what happens when I use this instead?" or "Would that other thing be just as tasteful?". Yeah, so I'm useless following recipes, what can I say?

Chile Verde Pork

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 lb of pork meat, cubed

2 teaspoons of cumin

1 teaspoon of black pepper
2 teaspoons of dried oregano
1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced thin
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 lb of tomatillos, husked
1 can of roasted green chiles
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 cups of warm water
1/2 chicken bouillon cube (or 2 cups of chicken stock instead of the water and the bouillon)
1 cup of cilantro, stems and leaves

Heat the oil in a skillet or Dutch oven and quickly brown the pork, adding the cumin,the oregano and the pepper. Plug in the crockpot and transfer the pork after draining the fat, keeping enough fat in the pan for the next step. Sauté the onion and the garlic in the fat and add to the meat in the crockpot. Slice the tomatillos in half and place them, together with the unpeeled garlic, cut side down in the skillet. Cover and roast for about five minutes, then turn them over and roast for another five minutes or until the garlic feels soft. Put the tomatillos, skin and all, in a blender bowl and add the canned green chiles and the cilantro. Squeeze the soft garlic out of the skins and add them to the bowl. Quickly blend into a smooth, green sauce.

Now add the sauce to the crockpot. Simmer for two hours until meat is tender. Taste and see if you want to adjust the flavor with some more cumin, cilantro, salt or pepper. Remember, a recipe is just a guideline! Serve with rice and tortillas and a refreshing dollop of sour cream.

What can I say? Heaven must be green. The meat is tender, the sauce is flavorful and has a lovely tomato-ey flavor but not the acidity from a red tomato, and the cilantro is a wonderful touch. You just have to try it, I guess! If you want to add some heat, blend in a jalapeño or two.

* It's not like I open the freezer one day and go "hey ho! what's this?". Well, actually I do but what I meant to say is that I was the one who put the roast there in the first place, it's not like I have some little gnomes running around stuffing food into my freezer. Or that my freezer is so huge that I lose things in there. Although I do sometimes wonder....I've been cooking out of this thing for the last three years now and there is just no end in sight. Maybe the gnome story is not so far-fetched after all?

Erwtensoep (split pea soup)

Oh, the ubiquitous split pea soup......when it's cold in Holland and people go ice skating on the lakes and the canals, the traditional picture is that a small shack "koek-en-zopie" sits next to the ice selling hot split pea soup and coffee with cookies for those tired and cold after such a wonderful day on the ice. I'll be darned, but each time I've gone skating I've never seen one of those shacks. May have something to do with the fact that I've only been skating once or twice in my life and the experience was so unpleasant that I may have blocked the memory of a soup shack. I fail miserably in the skating department, it is a very un-Dutch side of me.......

But I hopefully redeemed myself by making a very good split pea soup: it even passed the "wooden spoon" test! (i.e. the soup is so thick that a wooden spoon will stand up on its end and not fall over when stuck in the soup).  Hand over those bitterballen, I'm back!

Erwtensoep
2 cups of split peas
4 cups of water
1 carrot, peeled
2 ribs of celery
1/2 an onion, peeled
1 bay leaf
black pepper
pinch of salt

About 12 little smokies or half a kielbasa

Rinse the split peas and remove anything that doesn't belong (stones, sticks, dried up discolored peas...). Put the peas and the water in a Dutch oven. Mince the vegetables and add to the peas. Bring to a boil, add the bay leaf and simmer for about 40 minutes. When the peas are soft, either puree or just stir several times, the peas will dissolve and make a creamy soup. Stir in the smokies or the kielbasa (slice before adding), heat until warm and taste. Add pepper and salt if needed.

This is an easy, quick solution. I keep a pack of smokies in the freezer. Split peas do not have to be soaked in order to cook quickly so you can have this soup on the table in less than an hour.

Traditionally, this soup is served with dark rye bread and pancetta.

Mussels à la Belgique

I don't actually know that there is such a thing as Belgian-style mussels but I'm not entirely making this name up either. The way these are prepared are very similar to how they're eaten on the Belgian coast. With a dipping sauce, some bread and, here I am majorly lacking today, some golden fries.

In the Netherlands, mussels are usually on the menu when the letter "R" is present in the name of the month: from September till April, you can find mussels on the menu at restaurants, for sale at the fish mongers and on the stove in Dutch kitchens all over the country. Well, I wasn't up for making fries what with one thing and another, but I didn't mind making the sauce and baking the bread. "R" has been in the months for a long time and I was really starting to crave these puppies!

I dug out a bag of mussels from the freezer. They're so quick to prepare and totally hit the spot today: their salty, oceany smell reminded me of summer, of holidays on the beach and of happy times. Get frozen ones if you can, they've been cleaned and scrubbed already and will save you a lot of time. Don't eat the ones that have broken shells or don't open up during the cooking process: they're likely to be bad and may make you sick.

Mussels
2 pounds of mussels
1 rib of celery, diced
1/2 carrot, peeled and diced
2 shallots, peeled and quartered
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 cups of white wine
2 cups of water

Dipping sauce
2 tablespoons of mustard
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 tablespoon of vinegar

Mix into a smooth sauce.

Put the water, the wine, shallots, carrots, garlic and celery in a Dutch oven with a lid. Bring to a boil. Lift the lid, add the mussels and boil for seven to eight minutes. The mussels will open up and will be ready to eat.

To serve, place the pan on the table with an extra plate for the shells. Serve with fries and a dipping sauce. Use your fingers to pull the mussels out of the shells or a small fork, dip into the sauce and eat up.

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.

Brown beans with rice

I don't know if I should post this recipe on this blog, because nothing that I used came out of the freezer. I love beans and try to eat them at least once a week: they're healthy, affordable, quick and versatile and tasty to boot, but that was not what I set out to prepare.

I pulled a pound of hamburger out of the freezer on Monday to make Dutch sausage rolls but I ended up making Brat buns instead. So I thought I'd make spaghetti tonight, but by the time I walked in the door, it was too late to get that started (plus I wanted to make sure I could catch the 6:30 pm episode of "The Office") so.....I'm rummaging through the fridge to see what I can scrounge up and here is this sad little piece of salt pork, just sitting there, all by its lonesome self. And immediately brown beans and rice come to mind: it's quick, it's tasty and mighty comforting on a cold, windy night like this one.

Brown beans and rice, or as we say in Holland, bruine bonen met rijst, is a typical dish from Suriname, a former colony of the Netherlands. Here in America, I don't have easy access to the Dutch brown beans, so I use pinto beans instead.

Brown beans with Rice
1 small piece of salt pork
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tomato, deseeded and chopped
2 cans of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup of water

1/4 cup of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of ginger
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup of celery leaves
1 tablespoon of sugar

1 cup of instant rice
Water

Cut the salt pork in small dice, then fry in a Dutch oven until soft. Add the onion and the garlic. Stir until soft, then add the tomato. When the tomato has softened as well, add the beans, the water, the tomato sauce, ginger, pepper, the bouillon cube and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about twenty minutes. Taste and adjust (don't add any salt before tasting, the pork tends to be salty enough), add the sugar and the celery leaves, remove the bay leaf and stir everything together. Simmer for another five minutes while you prepare the rice.

Put the rice in a microwaveable bowl, add enough water so that the rice is covered, then microwave on high for two and a half minutes. Let it sit to dry for a minute or two, then stir.

Serve the beans on top of the rice. Nice with some crunchy slices of cucumber.

Yummmmm....that totally hit the spot. Now I have to think of what to do with that thawed hamburger meat....

Fried chicken

Oh boy!!! I had some leftover chicken legs and wings and a cup of buttermilk from the buttermilk buns I made the other day, and no plans for dinner. Hmm....chicken......buttermilk......ha! Buttermilk fried chicken!

There's a place in town that claims to have the best fried chicken in the valley. I have to agree, as I've not yet had chicken that good anywhere else, and I've been wanting to try my hand at preparing it myself. It is not a traditional dish in Holland so I can't remember ever frying chicken before. I love these little adventures!

From what I've read, one is supposed to marinate the chicken in a buttermilk dressing for 24 hours, then flour and let sit for another four. Well........this girl wants to eat now! For those of you that know me well enough, you're probably laughing right now because you all know that patience is NOT one of my virtues.

So I made a buttermilk dressing, de-skinned the chicken parts except for the wings and marinated the whole thing for a whopping.......20 minutes. That's about the time it took me to make the flour mix and to get the fryer started. I deep-fried these puppies, but you are welcome to fry them stove-top instead in a large skillet with an inch or so of oil. As always, please take care in the kitchen, especially with hot oil. Roll up your sleeves so they don't catch on a handle or hang in the oil, send kids/pets/husbands out of the area so that you don't have to worry about tripping or anybody getting hurt.

Fried Chicken

2 chicken legs, no skin
2 chicken wings
2 chicken thighs, no skin
1 cup of buttermilk
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt

2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon Old Bay spices
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Oil for frying

Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a ziploc bag and add the chicken one by one. Make sure each piece is covered with the marinade, push most of the air out of the bag and close. Set aside, turning over every now and then.

When you feel the chicken has marinated long enough (if you are planning on using the chicken within half an hour of adding the marinade, you can leave the bag on the counter. Any longer and you should refrigerate the meat with the dressing, for food safety reasons), mix the two cups of flour with the rest of the ingredients and put it on a large platter. Take a piece of chicken out of the bag, and while dripping wet, lay it on the flour. Do the same with the rest of the chicken. When all the pieces are on the flour, discard the rest of the marinade. Turn over the chicken pieces so that each piece is now covered in flour. Set aside for ten minutes, then turn them over again. The marinade will slowly moisten the flour that's on the chicken. By turning it regularly, you will be able to add additional flour which will give you a nice crispy crust while keeping the meat moist.

After about thirty minutes, turn on the fryer or heat two cups of oil in a skillet. When hot, carefully place the chicken, two by two in the pan. If you are using a fryer, check the manual to see what setting is recommended for frying chicken. Fry only matching parts at a time, that way you know they will all be done at the same time. Fry the chicken legs for approximately 7 minutes or until golden-brown. Now fry the rest (they will need less time) and let all the pieces drain on a plate with several sheets of paper towels.

You can serve the chicken with dressing or just as is.

The picture is probably the most un-inspiring one of this series. If it was only scratch-and-taste.......

Shoarma

Shoarma, or shawarma, is a Middle Eastern dish traditionally made with lamb. The seasoned meat is skewered in layers and roasted vertically in one large cone shaped piece, then sliced in thin strips and served in pita bread with crunchy vegetables or over french fries. The spices are pungent and flavorful and are complimented by a garlic buttermilk dressing.

I used the breast and thigh meat from a whole chicken I cut up yesterday and three leftover tortillas from last week's roti.

Shoarma
2 chicken breasts
2 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon of shoarma spices*
1 tablespoon of olive oil

4 tortillas
1 small cucumber, sliced thin

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 cup of buttermilk
1/2 cup of mayonnaise

Cut the chicken meat in slices or chunks, stir in the spices and let sit for about 30 minutes. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and quickly saute the meat until done.

Mix the garlic, buttermilk and mayonnaise and stir into a smooth dressing.

Fold a tortilla in half and fold again, so that you have two pockets. Put the cucumber in the bottom pocket and the chicken in the top. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.

*As for the shoarma spices, they are easy to make. If you double or triple the following recipe, it will provide you with enough spices to cover several meals. All the spices are ground.

Shoarma spices

1 teaspoon of paprika

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of coriander

1/4 teaspoon of cloves

1/4 teaspoon of black pepper

1/4 teaspoon of ginger

1/4 teaspoon of allspice

1/4 teaspoon of garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix together and store in an airtight jar.

Chicken Soup

Sometimes less is more. A brothy soup with just a few choice vegetables can be more satisfying than a five course meal (not including dessert ofcourse, dessert always wins!). I'm not claiming to make the perfect soup but the one I prepared yesterday was pretty darn good!

Last night I cut up a chicken that I pulled a couple of days ago. I used the breast and thigh meat for shoarma, and saved the carcass to make today's soup.

Chicken Soup

1 chicken carcass, or four chicken thighs
1 large carrot, peeled
1 celery rib
1 medium size onion, peeled
6 cups of water
1 bay leaf
10 black peppercorns

For the soup
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 large celery rib with leaves, diced
Chicken meat from the carcass
2 chicken bouillon cubes
Salt
Pepper

Take the skin off the chicken. Break the carrot into pieces and do the same with the celery, this is just for the stock so it doesn't have to look pretty. Put the chicken carcass in a stock pot or in your Dutch oven, add in all the ingredients and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for a good two hours.

Remove any scum that may have gathered on top with a spoon. Ladle the broth into a clean vessel. Pull all the meat from the chicken: discard the bones and the vegetables.

Bring the stock to a slow simmer and add in the carrot, celery, the chicken meat and the two bouillon cubes. Stir and let simmer on low until the vegetables are done. Taste, adjust and enjoy.

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.

Leftover dinner...............

Yummm.....I'm busy baking bread for tomorrow's Ladies Dinner so tonight I'm eating the leftovers from yesterday's pulled pork on tortilla chips with a dollop of sour cream and some refreshing salsa yummm! Wow, what a sentence......

Shredded Barbeque Pork with Black Beans

It's cold, it's dark and there is no sign of summer in any way, shape or form. The snow is still on the ground and, in my most pessimistic moments, I'd almost dare say I am sure the sun's left us for good. Global warming? Ha! Half of the globe is snowed in and iced over, and the other half is drowning in rain. Kinda sort of. But look at this....is this cold or is this cold??

I'm exaggerating a little bit but yesterday was one of those days where a healthy salad, a quick snack or a boring sandwich could not have managed to make the blues go away. Fortunately, I have just the food for that! The beautiful smell of barbeque wafting from your crockpot will put a smile on your face and make you feel a little warmer inside, and with the help of your faithful storage items, this dish is a cinch to make. Global warming? Huh. Cold outside? It's all good. Just pull up to the table, grab a plate and enjoy this gorgeous summery dish. If you don't like pork, it can easily be made with chicken or beef.

Barbeque Pulled Pork

1 pork roast (about 1lb for four)

1 medium size onion, peeled and sliced thin
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 small can of roasted green chiles
2 cups of your favorite barbeque sauce
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

Salsa
Sour Cream
Tortillas

Fire up the crockpot and add the onions, tomato sauce, chiles, barbeque sauce and spices and stir. You can cut up the roast in chunks or put the whole thing in whole, whatever fits best but turn it over once or twice so it's covered in barbeque/tomato sauce.

Cook on high for 6 hours or until the meat is tender. Pull the pork out, shred it with two forks to pieces and stir it back into the sauce. Taste and adjust (you might like more cumin or chili). Stir in the can of black beans. Heat for another ten minutes or until the beans are hot.

Warm the tortillas, put one on a plate and put two heaping spoons of barbeque pork in the middle. Add a dab of sour cream and salsa, roll up and eat! For some crunch, you can top it with some shredded lettuce.

This meat is also good over a plate of tortilla chips nacho-style or served over rice.

Cauliflower soup - a quick lunch

Of all the food that I cook, perhaps one out of five makes it to this blog. It's either because I didn't care for the taste or because the recipe was too complicated or required too many ingredients. And sometimes it's because whatever I cooked is all gone before I can take a picture or jot down notes.

This recipe is one that would have not made it to the blog had it not been requested by a friend. It's one that I often make when in a hurry or just not in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's filling, comforting and above all easy and affordable.

Cauliflower Soup

1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon of butter
1 bag of frozen cauliflower florets
2 cups of water
1/4 of bouillon cube
salt
pepper
1/4 cup of milk
2 teaspoons of spicy Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of shredded cheese

Saute the onion in the butter until slightly browned. Add the florets, the water and the bouillon cube, bring to a boil and simmer for about five to six minutes, or until the cauliflower is soft. Remove one or two florets if you want some for garnish. Blend the cauliflower with the water into a soft puree. Add the milk and the mustard until well blended, stir in the cheese and taste. Adjust with salt and pepper if needed.

Now...this is your basic cauliflower soup and from here on it's all yours to make it your own. If you use grated sharp Cheddar cheese and have some leftover crumbled bacon, stir in a handful. The cheese combined with the slight hint of mustard and the bacon will make a great soup. You can also cut up some ham and stir it in, add some croutons and some extra cheese and you've got a great lunch. A leftover boiled potato from last night can be cut in dice and added to the final minute of boiling to add some body and volume to the soup.

Whatever you add, think texture. A creamy soup with crunchy croutons will challenge the mouth and keep things interesting.

Chicken in white wine

Last week's roti left me with some extra chicken to use up. No despair! I love the following dish which is one of my favorite Spanish recipes - I still cannot master my mom's recipe but this one is a close second.

Great for using up leftover wine from the Christmas holiday celebrations. This dish is light enough to serve for lunch or dinner and a big hit with all. Many dishes are better the day after: so is this one.

Serve with rice and a green salad, and some nice, crusty bread for mopping up the sauce.

Chicken in white wine

1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 chicken legs and thighs (or 2 chicken breast, cut in chunks)
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
1 small can of mushrooms (or one cup of fresh mushrooms, sliced)
1 1/2 cup of white wine
1 1/2 cup of warm water
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 bay leaves
thyme
pepper

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven and quickly brown the chicken on all sides. Add the sliced onion and the garlic clove and saute until translucent. Add the wine, the warm water, the bouillon cube and the mushrooms and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, add the bay leaves, a sprinkle of thyme and pepper and simmer for at least 45 minutes.

Taste the sauce and see if it needs adjusting. If not, thicken it with a little bit of flour and water and simmer for another five minutes.

Serve over rice or just by itself, with a green salad and plenty of bread! It somehow doesn't look very appetizing on the picture but by golly....it's all gone!