Sharing our love for good food and excellent wine with you: mushrooms, sauces, forgotten vegetables, pies and tartelettes. Join us and Cook and Drink with us!
The recipe of Peperoni alla Piemontese goes back to 1954 when Elizabeth David published it in her (third) book Italian Food. The dish is a true classic. Super simple, tasty, uplifting and a tribute to summer. The recipe as published by Elizabeth David was popularised by Delia Smith in her TV series and her book Summer Collection, published in 1993. A helpful video is available via her website. Bell peppers are popular in Piemonte and it seems they were originally prepared with anchovies and parsley only. It was probably Elizabeth David who came up with the idea to add tomatoes. Later others added tuna, which we think takes away the lightness of the dish. Another option is to replace the anchovies with black olives, making it a vegetarian dish. We prefer using sweet long bell peppers. They combine very well with the flavour of the tomatoes and the juices. Delia Smith uses quartered, peeled tomatoes which helps to brings the flavours and textures together. Our alternative is a bit more work: we use tomato confit. The tomatoes are very tasty with hints of garlic, rosemary and thyme.
Wine Pairing
Enjoy the roasted peppers with a crisp white wine or rosé. If you want to spend some money, then buy a bottle of white Piemonte wine, made with the arneis grape. The wine is made in the Roero area close to the village of Canale. A wine with a bright, intense yellow colour, present aromas of ripe fruit (especially apples), very fragrant. The taste is delicate and fruity with good acidity and a long finish.
Preheat your oven to 180 °C or 350 °F. Halve the bell peppers lengthwise. Slice the garlic. Chop the anchovies. Use a shallow baking dish. Add 2 tomatoes, some garlic, some anchovies and a generous amount of olive oil (and/or cooking juices of the confit) to each halved bell pepper. Transfer to the oven. The peppers will be ready in 30+ minutes. Enjoy with crusted bread. No need to serve with basil!
This is the first of two recipes with black garlic, which is made by fermenting fresh garlic in a controlled environment (humidity, temperature) for 6 to 12 weeks. The flavour and aroma of black garlic differ from fresh garlic. Black garlic has notes of liquorice and caramel. Its taste is long, intense and rich in umami. The consistency is paste-like which makes it easy to use in sauces and dressings. Black garlic is also supposed to be very healthy thanks to the amount of antioxidants it contains. Black garlic is becoming more popular, so your greengrocer or health food store should have it. If not, you can also order it online via the usual channels. We combine excellent beef with a mixture of black olives, shallot, thyme, rosemary, tomato purée and black garlic. A very powerful and intense combination, with sweetness, bitterness, umami and lots of aroma thanks to the herbs.
Wine Pairing
To balance the intense sauce, we suggest drinking a glass of dry red wine, one with some earthy notes, aromas of black fruit, limited tannins and clear acidity. We enjoyed a glass of Pinot Noir from La Cour Des Dames. A very nice pinot noir with sufficient earthiness and dark fruit.
The beef must be at room temperature. Halve the olives. Slice the scallion in 1-cm or 1-inch chunks. Finely chop the thyme and the rosemary. Coarsely chop the shallot. Heat a heavy iron skillet and quickly fry the meat. Transfer and keep warm. Reduce heat and gently fry the shallot. Add scallion, thyme, rosemary and black garlic. Add some vegetable stock. Combine with tomato purée and mustard until it’s a velvety sauce. The black garlic should be dissolved. Add more stock if necessary. Add liquid from the meat. Thinly slice the beef, add some black pepper and serve with the sauce.
Miso is made by combining soybeans, salt and koji, a fungus that is cultivated on rice. The fermentation process may take months. Additional ingredients include (brown) rice, barley or wheat. Originally from Japan, it is now used in many other countries. In general miso is intense, salty and deep. Expect lots of umami! In this recipe we use white miso, because of its mildness, its delicacy and because it has some sweetness. Ideal for a sauce, marinade or dressing. Red miso combines well with oily fish and hearty vegetables. More information about miso, the manufacturing process and how to use it (including recipes by chef Nobu Matsuhisa) on the website of Hikari Miso. When buying miso we suggest to focus on organic miso and if possible a miso with less salt. Normally miso contains 12% salt. A starter with miso and asparagus was not on our radar until we saw the menu of Restaurant Green in Amsterdam. One of their dishes combines white asparagus with miso, wild garlic, hazelnuts and yuzu. We planned to enjoy the very last white asparagus of the season in a classic way, but why not end the season with something completely new? Unfortunately, the season for wild garlic finished a few weeks ago, so we replaced this flavourful component with chives.
Wine Pairing
A Pinot Grigio will be perfect with this dish. Light, crisp, citrus and apple. We opened a bottle of Pinot grigio produced by Zenato. An affordable wine that combined very well with both the asparagus and the sauce.
What You Need
White Asparagus
Crushed Hazelnuts
Chives
For the Sauce
White Miso
Yuzu
Mirin
Light Soy Sauce (we used Tsuyu)
(optional) Rice Vinegar
(optional) Water
Potato Starch
What You Do
Clean and peel the asparagus. Steam them for 10-20 minutes, depending on the size. We use our Russel and Hobbs food steamer. An essential kitchen aid for only 50 euro or US dollar. Combine 2 teaspoons of white miso with a tablespoon of mirin, a tablespoon of tsuyu and a teaspoon of Yuzu. Gently warm the sauce and thicken with some potato starch until it is silky. Now it’s a matter of tasting and adjusting. Probably add more tsuyu; perhaps add some water and/or rice vinegar. Also taste the combination with the asparagus before serving. The asparagus make the sauce milder. Serve the asparagus with the sauce. Add crushed hazelnuts. Add chopped chives.
Sometimes a dish is all about seasonal products, for instance the combination of white asparagus, morels and wild garlic. Sometimes it’s about a winning combination, for instance truffle and potato, or truffle and egg. This dish has a bit of both aspects because this year the end of the Dutch white asparagus season coincides with the beginning of the summer truffle season. And since both combine very well with egg, why not make an extravagant salad?
Wine Pairing
The salad has a velvety, rich mouthfeel. You will taste subtle truffle, some bitterness and sweetness of the asparagus and a hint of acidity thanks to the mayonnaise. The salad will combine very well with a Chardonnay with subtle oak. We enjoyed our salad with a glass of Mâcon-Bussières, produced by Thierry Drouin. The white wine is made from 100% chardonnay grapes and comes with a touch of oak, aromas of apple and citrus and a rich flavour with hints of toast and butter. An excellent wine and a perfect accompaniment of the salad.
What You Need
3 Eggs
12 Asparagus (tips only)
(home-made) Mayonnaise
30 grams of Summer Truffle
1 or 2 teaspoons of Excellent White Truffle Oil
White Pepper
What You Do
Cook or steam the eggs until slightly runny. We steamed the eggs for 9 minutes. Peel and leave to cool. Steam the tips of the asparagus for 9 minutes. No need to peel them. Leave to cool. Mix two tablespoons of mayonnaise with one or two teaspoons of truffle oil. Roughly chop the eggs and crunch the truffle. Gently combine the asparagus tips, the truffle, the eggs and some white pepper with the mayonnaise. Transfer to the refrigerator for one or two hours.
Only a few days left before the end of the asparagus season on June 24th! So dash off to your greengrocer and buy some lovely asparagus, white, green, purple, it’s all fine and great, as long as they are locally farmed and fresh.
Last year our favorite way to prepare them was with scrambled eggs and shrimps. A delicious combination. This year our favorite was with Truffle Butter and Egg. A combination that very much relies on the quality of the truffle butter. Other favorites this year were steamed asparagus with kimizu (the beautiful, light, golden Japanese sauce made with egg yolks and rice vinegar), à la Flamande (mimosa of egg, butter, parsley and nutmeg), as a salad and of course as a Charlotte.
Truffle Butter
Products with truffle (oil, tapenade, purée) can be very disappointing. The vast majority is based on oil that has been artificially flavoured using a synthetic agent such as 2,4-dithiapentane. Not a truffle in sight. In case of truffle purée or tapenade the mixture is often dominated by (button) mushrooms, dried cèpes, salt, garlic and again, synthetical flavored oil. In this recipe we use white truffle oil. The two main white truffles are Bianchetti (Tuber Borchii Vitt) and Alba (Tuber Magnatum Pico). Bianchetti is a powerful and remarkable truffle (we use it in combination with oysters) but it is not as expensive and special as an Alba truffle. A Bianchetti truffle will cost you 10 euro per 10 grams whereas an Alba truffle will be priced at 70 euro per 10 grams. When buying a truffle product, make sure you read the label and check which truffle is used.
A dear friend gave us a jar of white truffle butter and a small bottle of white truffle oil, both produced by Il Mondo Del Tartufo. The butter was fantastic and so was the oil. Both are made with Alba truffle. Later we combined normal butter with truffle oil (and perhaps a pinch of salt) to recreate the truffle butter.
Wine Pairing
The obvious choice is a glass of Pinot Blanc, although we actually prefer a dry Muscat in combination with a classic preparation such as à la Flamande. Depending on the dish it could also be a Verdicchio, an Albariño or perhaps even a Portuguese Vinho Verde. We combined our Asparagus with Truffle Butter with a Dutch wine, produced by Hoeve Nekum. The winery was founded in 1988 but the history of the actual farm (hoeve in Dutch) goes back to the 14th century. We enjoyed their Rivaner, a white wine with a light color, a floral aroma and a fresh delicate taste with some acidity. The combination with the rich, buttery slightly bitter asparagus was excellent. In general you’re looking for a fresh, gentle wine, not too complex and one that you would also enjoy as an aperitif.
What You Need
14 White Asparagus
1 Egg
some Butter
White Truffle Oil
White Pepper
What You Do
We use our Russel and Hobbs food steamer to prepare the asparagus. An essential kitchen aid for only 50 euro or US dollar. Towards the end of the season the asparagus can be fairly thin, hence the 14. Clean and peel the asparagus. Put butter in a cup. Start by steaming the egg. After 2 minutes add the asparagus. 3 Minutes later turn the egg upside down and place the cup in the steamer basket. Another 5 minutes later everything is ready. Peel the egg and mash with a fork, creating a ‘mimosa’ of egg. Add two or three teaspoons of truffle oil (depending on your taste and the quantity of butter) to the butter and mix. Add some white pepper to the mimosa. Spoon the butter over of the asparagus and decorate with mimosa. PS If you make this dish earlier in the season, then steam the asparagus for 20 minutes, the egg for 5+5 minutes and the butter for 5 minutes.
Recently we reviewed RecipeTin Eats Cookbook: Dinner by Nagi Maehashi as part of the cookbook review project by Bernadette. It is a beautifully designed book with lots of great pictures. It is also a very positive and inviting book. In 2023 it was awarded Australian Book of the Year and it made the New York Times Best Sellers list. Nagi’s very popular website offers over three hundred recipes and videos. She has over one million followers on Instagram. Her philosophy on food and cooking is based on four principles: fast, creative, clever and fresh. And cost conscious as well!
Nagi also runs a food bank, RecipeTin Meals, where she and her team (including three full time chefs) make homemade meals which are donated to the vulnerable.
RecipeTin Eats Cookbook: Dinner contains not only over 150 recipes, but also recipes for basic sauces, stock, bread, a glossary and a table with internal cooked temperatures. All very helpful. Not so helpful are the indexes (don’t expect the obvious table of content) and the way the recipes are grouped in the book. The recipe index for instance comes with categories such as everyday food and what I do with a piece of…. Perhaps a bit too creative?
Every recipe in the book has a QR-code. Scan it and you have a helpful video guiding you through the recipe.
RecipeTin Eats Cookbook is a cookbook with lots of international dishes such as Beef Wellington, Mussels in White Wine, Sauce Bolognese and Chilli Con Carne; no recipes with kangaroo or ostrich. We decided to make three dishes from the book, a salad with an Asian touch, a Moroccan dish with chicken and a blueberry tart with an almond filling. Our esteemed panel (André, Carolien, Hans, Joke, Martine and Rutger) was happy to join us on a sunny evening in May and talk about the three dishes. And the wine, of course!
We decided to make a Prawn Salad with Coconut Lime dressing because of the dressing. We expected the combination of Chinese Cabbage (or wombok in Australia), coconut, mint, cilantro and prawns to be tasty and refreshing.We served the dish with a glass of Pinot Grigio produced by Corte Vittorio.
A fresh and easy to drink wine with aromas of citrus and green apple. In general, you’re looking for a light white wine with pleasant acidity and fresh aromas. The panel was unanimous: refreshing, lots of flavours that go together very well, great colours, new flavours, love the way the apple combines with the cabbage, great on a summer evening, would like to make this myself, could I have the recipe?
The One Tray Moroccan Baked Chicken with Chickpeas comes with lots of flavours, baharat being one of them. A spice blend unknown to us. Fortunately, we could find it at our Turkish supermarket. Think cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, ginger. The chicken is marinated for 24 hours in a mixture of lemon juice, oil and baharat.
It is then fried in the oven with chickpeas (coated with ginger and turmeric), fennel and tomatoes. We served the Moroccan chicken with excellent crusted bread and a glass of full-bodied Italian red wine, produced by Stefano Accordini. The wine is made from 90% Corvina Veronese and 10% Merlot grapes. It aged for four months in oak barrels, which adds to the warmth and flavours of the wine. A very affordable wine with aromas of blackberry, plum and chocolate. In general, you’re looking for a full bodied, rich red wine that goes very well with flavours like nutmeg, cumin and cinnamon.
The panel liked the presentation, the colours, the aromas and the preparation of the chickpeas in the oven. The flavours were nice, but a bit bland. It could have done with more spices. Although the chicken marinated in the refrigerator for 24 hours, the flavours of the baharat were not really present in the meat.
Dessert was Blueberry Tart with Almond Filling. The heading of the recipe says prep time 45 minutes, 4 hours of cooling and chilling, 1 hour cook time. Sounds doable? In reality it’s a bit more work. The dough needs to be made, cooled, fitted in the tin, transferred to the freezer, in to the oven, baked blind,
cooled and then filled with an almond cream that must be mixed, cooled, added to the tin, topped with blueberries, baked, topped with more blueberries and baked for another 20 to 25 minutes. Still there? The idea of freezing the dough in the tin was great because it allowed us to do this step a few days earlier.
The panel liked the tart, the moist filling, well balanced, not too sweet, great crust and the combination of almond and blueberry was very tasty.
All three recipes required some adjustment: when we tasted the salad before serving it, we found the dressing needed extra mint and fish sauce. We also added more berries to the tart.
Should this book be on your shelf? The panel feels it’s a great, colourful, well-designed cookbook but that the number of recipes that are new or bring something specific (like the salad and the chicken we prepared) is rather limited. We would have liked to see more of Nagi, and perhaps of Australia, in the choice of recipes. One member of the panel decided to buy RecipeTin Eats Cookbook: Dinner, given the idea that if you would prepare one of Nagi’s recipes per week you would be sure to have at least one fast, tasty, colourful and creative meal per week. Very true!
RecipeTin Eats Cookbook: Dinner by Nagi Maehashi is available via your local bookstore or the well-known channels for approximately 30 euros or 30 US$. Prices may differ.
One of the classic ways of serving asparagus is à la Flamande (Op Vlaamse wijze) with melted butter, boiled eggs, parsley and nutmeg. The mixture of melted butter and egg is like a sauce, delicious with the asparagus. In this case we add lots of chopped chervil to the mixture of melted butter and eggs, making it a light combination of bitter, crunchy and sweet (the asparagus) and velvety, anise-flavoured and savory (the mixture).
Wine Pairing
Serve the asparagus with a dry, white wine, for instance a glass of Silvaner produced by the German Winery Thörle. The wine comes with freshness, some acidity, minerality and fruit (pear, green apples). Excellent with our asparagus. A dry muscat will also be perfect. We decided to take a different approach and balance the lightness in the dish with a Portuguese white wine, made from chardonnay grapes and aged for 4 months in oak barrels. It is produced by Casa Ermelinda, a winery some 20 kilometers south of Lisbon in the Setúbal region with over 550 hectares of vineyards and 29 different grape varieties. The barrel aged chardonnay is Intense and comes with a complex bouquet of exotic fruits. The wine is balanced, fresh, elegant and long..
What You Need
4 Asparagus per person
2 Eggs
Chervil
Butter
White Pepper
What You Do
We use our Russel and Hobbs food steamer to prepare the asparagus. An essential kitchen aid for only 50 euro or US dollar. Clean and peel the asparagus. Put butter in a cup. Steam them for 10+5+5 minutes. After 10 minutes add the eggs to the steamer basket. After 5 minutes, turn the eggs upside down and place the cup in the steamer basket. Another 5 minutes later everything is ready. Chop the chervil. Peel the egg and mash with a fork, creating a ‘mimosa’ of egg. Combine mimosa and chervil. Add some white pepper. Add the butter to the mixture and combine. Spoon the egg mixture on top of the asparagus.
Last Friday Restaurant Betty’s in Amsterdam closed its doors after more than 35 years. Betty’s was the place to go if you wanted to enjoy delicious vegetarian food and excellent Vin Nature. The restaurant served a three course surprise meal. Each course was a culinary journey around the world and existed of five or more dishes, each one tasteful and interesting, eloquently introduced by Gido. In 1988 he and his mother Rifka started the restaurant. Rifka specialised in vegan cakes and Gido focused on savoury dishes. Later Gido and Lien transformed Betty’s into a petit bistro. A place where you could enjoy delicious food. The music and ambience were peaceful and relaxing. No rush, take your time, talk about the food and wine with Gido, have a chat with Lien about the spices from Olivier Roellinger, about their choice of organic, local ingredients, their self imported Greek olive oil. We enjoyed so many delicious dishes, for instance:
guacamole made with yoghurt, lime juice and roasted bell pepper
date caramelised in salted butter with chili peppers
borek with spinach, potato and garam masala
slow cooked ratatouille
saffron milk caps with artichoke and reduced tomatoes
potatoes fried in mustard seed oil with chili peppers, fennel seed and dill, and of course their
warm sticky toffee pudding
chocolate-chocolate cake and the superb
raspberry and white chocolate cake.
Everything homemade and super fresh, always served with love and attention. Thank you, Gido and Lien, for so many wonderful evenings!
A classic French dish and one of our favorites. Warm, rich and full of flavors. Obviously the dish is about two ingredients: chicken and wine. Use (organic) chicken, preferably with the bone, so a whole chicken, legs or drumsticks. A classic Coq au Vin is made with Bourgogne (Burgundy), a relatively expensive red wine from France made from Pinot Noir grapes. According to some people the wine you use for the stew must also accompany the dish. Which would mean that some of your beautiful Bourgogne ends up in the stew. Not the best idea! We think that the background of this ‘rule’ is about the quality of the wine you use for the stew: in this case you’re looking for a nice, medium bodied red wine with aromas of dark fruit; one you would be perfectly happy to drink. So not some left over red wine, or a wine you didn’t like. A perfect stew requires quality ingredients, that’s all. Earlier we thickened the sauce using mushrooms; in this version we use Beurre Manié, the combination of butter and flour, which gives the sauce a rich, velvety feel.
Wine Pairing
We decided to open a bottle of Merlot, produced by Le Fat Bastard. An easy to drink red wine with the right aromas and a hint of wood. Worked beautifully with the richness of the sauce, the depth of the mushrooms and obviously the chicken!
Cube the strip of pancetta or bacon in, peel the onions, slice and quarter the carrot, peel and finely chop the garlic. Add olive oil to a warm heavy pan. Begin by frying the pancetta or bacon until crispy. Remove from the pan and let drain on kitchen paper. Add (whole) pearl onions and carrot to the pan and fry until golden. Remove from the pan and let drain on kitchen paper. Add chicken to the pan and fry until golden. When golden add the garlic and fry for 3 minutes on medium heat. Add pancetta, carrot and onions back to the pan. Add chicken stock and red wine. The chicken should be nearly covered. Add bouquet garni and leave to simmer on low heat for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken. Clean the mushrooms with kitchen paper and fry them gently in a skillet. Remove chicken and bouquet garni from the pan. Transfer the chicken to an oven at 60 °C or 140 °F. Discard the bouquet. Reduce the liquid. Use a fork to combine 20 grams of butter with 20 grams of flour (or more of both, depending on the amount of liquid). Add the Beurre Manié to the liquid, stir and allow to simmer and thicken for some 15 minutes. Return the chicken to the sauce, add the fried mushrooms, black pepper and allow to integrate for 5 minutes. Serve with a fresh green salad (a vinaigrette of olive oil, white wine vinegar and Dijon mustard will be great) and crusted bread.
A Thursday afternoon, we were chatting to our fish monger when he pointed us at something new and would we like to try it? He pointed at Purple Dye Murex or Spiny Dye Murex. In Dutch these sea snails are called Brandhoren of Stekelhoren, in German Herkuleskeule or Brandhorn, in French Murex Épineux or Murex Tinctorial, in Spanish Cañaílla and in Catalan Corn Amb Pues. The name is intriguing. The French ‘tinctorial’ and the English ‘purple dye’ clearly refer to the milky secretion of the snails. When exposed to air it turns into a powerful and lasting dye, which was used in ancient times to produce purple. You would need lots and lots of snails to get a decent amount of dye, hence the fact that purple is still associated with royalty, dignity and being expensive. The German name Herkuleskeule refers to Hercules. One day our hero was walking his dog on the beach when the dog bit on a sea snail. The dog’s mouth turned purple and that’s how purple dye was discovered. We love stories like this! A painting by Peter Paul Rubens shows this scene on the beach, although the snail in the painting looks more like an escargot.
Back to our culinary world. The sea snail is popular in Spain and Catalonia, so we think it’s best to combine a portion of snails with other food (for instance smoked almonds, chorizo, olives, manchego, pimientos de padrón) and serve as tapas. Another option is to add the snails to a stew but then you wouldn’t see the impressive shells. We decided to combine the sea snails with a vinaigrette. A tasty, simple combination. Next time we will combine the Purple Dye Murex with aioli because we think the snails can do with a more velvety sauce.
Wine Pairing
A glass of Cava, a cold beer or a glass of Vinho Verde will be wonderful. The wine shouldn’t be too complex, and it should bring sufficient acidity to the dish.
What You Need
For the snails
200 grams of Purple Dye Murex
Small shallot
Thyme
One Garlic Clove
White wine
One bay leaf
For the dressing
Excellent Olive Oil
White Wine Vinegar
Lemon Juice
French Mustard
Red Onion
What You Do
Ask your fish monger if the snails are clean
If not, you will have to soak them a number of times for a few hours in salty water
Heat a pan with water and add chopped shallot, thyme, chopped garlic, bay leaf and wine
After 15 minutes add the snails
Allow to simmer for between 10 to 30 minutes. We cooked our snails for 20 minutes, but that was perhaps too long. Ask your fish monger for advice
In the meantime, finely chop the small red onion and make a vinaigrette
Allow the snails to cool until lukewarm or at room temperature
Cook and Drink 