Category: main dish

How to Make a Roulade (Part 1)

10 July 2025

Butterflying meat is a technique that allows you to turn a thicker piece of meat (for instance pork tenderloin or turkey breast) into a piece that you can use to make a roulade, without damaging the texture. The first step is to slice the meat lengthwise, but not through and through. The second and third step are a bit more challenging: take your knife and half the meat, again lengthwise, from the centre to the right and then from the centre to the left. Basically, you have now quartered the meat but it still in one piece. Difficult? This helpful video shows you how to do it.
Some instructions stop after the first step and use a meat hammer to flatten the meat. Nice, but the result is not even close to the real thing.

Once the pork tenderloin is butterflied, it’s time to add the filling, on the outside. Sounds odd, but our butcher was right, if you fry the roulade inside-out, you get a much better result.

We have made pork tenderloin roulades with various fillings. This recipe is for a Mediterranean approach. You could also go for a spicy mixture with red pepper paste, garlic, onion, ginger and soy sauce.

Wine Pairing

In general both red and white wine can go very well with a roulade of pork tenderloin. It all depends on the filling. In case of this Mediterranean filling, we would suggest a more robust wine, for instance Syrah. This is a full-bodied red wine with medium to high levels of tannin. It has fruity flavors and a slightly peppery finish.
In case of a filling with red pepper paste, garlic, ginger and soy sauce you could pair the roulade with a more spicy red wine, for instance Zinfandel, or with a white wine with a touch of sweetness (Riesling, perhaps Viognier).

What You Need
  • Pork Tenderloin
  • Black garlic
  • Sage
  • Black Olives
  • Rosemary
  • Fennel Seed
  • Pancetta
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Butterfly the meat
  2. Devein and chop the sage
  3. Halve the black olives
  4. Crush the fennel seeds
  5. Make a mixture of black garlic, sage, black olives, rosemary, fennel seed and black pepper. It should be a powerful mixture
  6. Spread the mixture over the meat. Keep the edges free.
  7. Cover with slices of pancetta. 
  8. Roll up the meat
  9. Tie with kitchen twine
  10. Tightly wrap in plastic foil and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 2 hours
  11. Remove the roulade from the refrigerator and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 – 60 minutes
  12. Preheat your oven to 160 °C or 320 °F
  13. Fry in the oven until the internal temperature is between 65 °C and 75 °C, or 145 °F and 165 °F (pink and well-done respectively)
  14. Transfer to your worktop, wrap in aluminium foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes
  15. Slice and serve on a warm plate, for instance with green peas, or pommes dauphinois, or a salad or ratatouille. Just think about the filling and be inspired!
Roulade with Green Peas ©cadwu
Roulade in Pan ©cadwu
butterflying meat allows you to create a roulade
Roulade with Bok Choy ©cadwu

Pasta with Duck

5 June 2025

A few weeks ago we enjoyed Pappardelle al Ragù d’Anatra at restaurant Rigatoni in Haarlem. We loved the combination of pasta and duck so we decided to look into this Italian classic. We found a recipe in La Scienza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiar Bene by Pellegrino Artusi, published in 1891. His recipe (number 272) combines a whole duck with celery stalk, parsley, carrot and onion. When everything is nicely cooked, he removes the duck from the pan, passes the sauce through a sieve, removes the duck fat and adds some butter. The duck is served with Pappardelle and Parmesan cheese. The vegetables are served separately.

We decided to use orecchiette and fresh duck leg. Orecchiette is a pasta typical for the very south of Italy whereas Pappardelle al Ragù d’Anatra is typical for Venice. Using orecchiette is probably not-done from an Italian point of view, but we simply love the way it combines with this duck-based sauce.

Wine Pairing

The restaurant served the dish with a glass of Corvina, which we think was an excellent choice. The wine is made in the Veneto region, not far from Venice, with 100% corvina grapes. In general, we suggest a light to medium bodied, unoaked, red wine with aromas of red fruit. Its taste should be pleasant and warm with good acidity. A red wine that should be served slightly chilled.

What You Need
  • Duck leg
  • Olive Oil
  • Carrot
  • Celery stalk
  • Onion
  • Bay Leaf
  • White wine
  • Tomatoes
  • Stock
  • Orecchiette
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Start by preparing the duck.
  2. Preheat the oven to 150 °C or 300 °F
  3. Heat a skillet and fry both sides of the leg until golden.
  4. Transfer the duck to the oven for one hour, skin on top
  5. After an hour, check if the duck is well done and moist
  6. Let cool
  7. Remove the skin from the meat and the meat from the bones
  8. Very coarsely chop (or pull) the meat.
  9. Set the skin aside
  10. Chop onion, finely chop carrot, thinly slice the celery stalk
  11. Heat a large pan, add olive oil and gently fry onion, carrot and celery.
  12. After 5 minutes add the duck meat and the bay leaf
  13. Add a splash of white wine and allow to evaporate
  14. Add the tomatoes (if using fresh tomatoes, then peeled and deseeded)
  15. Add stock
  16. Cook for 60 minutes
  17. Add more stock if required
  18. In parallel
    • Cook the orecchiette al dente
    • Heat a small skillet
    • Add some olive oil
    • Slice small squares of the skin of the duck
    • Fry these until crispy
    • Add some black pepper and Parmesan cheese to the ragù
  19. Serve the pasta with the sauce and decorate with the crispy duck skin and grated Parmesan cheese
PS
  • You can skip steps 1 to 6 by using Confit of Duck. We tried it, even though we assumed it would be too salty or its flavour not suitable. But we were wrong, it worked very well.
  • Some recipes use breast of duck, which we think is too lean for a ragù.
Orecchiette al Ragù d’Anatra ©cadwu
Pasta with Duck ©cadwu

Herb Roasted Chicken

24 April 2025

The first time we had chicken prepared this way was in a lovely restaurant in Vence, France. The restaurant was called Auberge des Seigneurs and offered a wide range of beautiful dishes from the days of King François I, such as blue trout, tian, chicken and lamb cooked on a spit before an open fire in the dining room. Ah, Madame Rodi, those culinary evenings, the wines from the Domaine de Rimauresq, and your infinite hospitality, dear memories.
The chicken was a special treat. It was juicy, tasty and rich. The chicken was rubbed on the inside with a very intense paste. A wonderful idea because the powerful rub flavoured the whole chicken, not just the outside. The result was aromatic, flavourful and light.
Since we don’t have a spit with an open fire at home, we had to find another way of roasting our chicken to perfection. An oven dish? A chicken sitter?
We think the best way to roast your chicken is using a baking rack over a roasting pan filled with water. The rack will guarantee an evenly cooked and golden chicken, the water helps keeping the meat juicy and the skin crispy.
We served our chicken with slow cooked fennel. 

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed a glass of red wine made with cabernet sauvignon grapes from the Pays D’Oc In France, produced by Abbotts & Delaunay. The wine is ruby red, it has aromas of dark fruit and the taste is long and velvety. Its fruitiness combines beautifully with the aromatic chicken.
In general we suggest an intense, fruity, easy to drink red wine.

What You Need
  • For the Rub
    • 2 twigs of Rosemary
    • 5 twigs of Thyme
    • 3 leaves of Sage
    • Salt
    • Oil
  • Organic Chicken
  • Black Pepper
  • For the Fennel
    • 1 Fennel
    • Olive Oil
    • Pastis (optional)
What You Do
  1. Finely chop rosemary, thyme and sage
  2. Transfer to a mortar, add a teaspoon of salt and make into a paste. It must be very aromatic and salty
  3. Add some oil, just to make it a bit smoother
  4. Rub the inside of the chicken
  5. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine
  6. Transfer the chicken to the refrigerator and allow to rest for a few hours (at least two)
  7. Preheat your oven to 350 °F or 180 °C (with fan)
  8. Pat the chicken dry with kitchen paper
  9. Add a layer of water to the roasting pan
  10. Cook until golden and done. The internal temperature should be 165 °F or 75 °C. In general, a chicken needs 30 minutes per 500 grams
  11. Allow to rest for 5 – 10 minutes
  12. Serve on a warm plate with black pepper (and slow cooked fennel)
PS
  • Slice the fennel, add olive oil to a pan, add the fennel, put the lid on the pan and leave on low heat for an hour or so. Stir and check every 15 minutes. Add a splash of pastis to enhance the taste.
  • Normally we use the leftovers to make chicken stock. Due to the intensity of the rub this stock will be okay if you want to make Mediterranean flavoured soups, for instance one with zucchini. 
Herb Roasted Chicken ©cadwu
Herb Roasted Chicken with Fennel ©cadwu

Tartiflette, history and recipe

20 March 2025

Perhaps we were thinking about Tartelette when we assumed Tartiflette was something sweet and small. But then we saw a cheese with ‘Fromage pour Tartiflette’ on its wrapping. We bought the cheese, looked for recipes and made Tartiflette. Two things for sure, it’s not sweet and not small.

In 1705 French chef François Massialot wrote Le Cuisinier Roïal et Bourgeois. According to wikipedia and others one of the recipes in this book is for Péla, a dish from the Savoie area. It’s a fairly simple dish with cheese, potatoes, bacon and onions. The dish is named after the pan in which it was prepared.
In the 1980’s too much of the local Savoie cheese Reblochon was produced and clever marketing people of the Syndicat Interprofessionnel du Reblochon created the Tartiflette, a Péla with Reblochon.

Obviously, we wanted to verify the story, so we looked for the recipe for Péla by François Massialot in the 1705 edition of Le Cuisinier Roïal et Bourgeois. No Péla. Well, people make mistakes,
Perhaps it was included in the first edition, published in 1691?
No, it wasn’t.
Maybe he added the recipe later?
We checked the index of the renewed 1728 edition: no Péla.

Did François Massialot write about Péla? Probably not.

Péla was (as is Tartiflette) a simple dish which makes it an unlikely candidate for royalty and bourgeois. Furthermore in those days potatoes had a bad reputation, they were seen as ‘coarse, insipid and the cause of flatulence’ (according to Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, in Savoring the Past). Not something you would happily serve to your king (and survive).

Back to the Tartiflette. It’s a tasty combination of bacon, onions, potatoes and reblochon, probably a modernized and commercialised version of an existing dish from the Savoie area, but nevertheless delicious.

Wine Pairing

An aromatic, white wine with clear acidity will go very well with the dish. It will add freshness to the combination. We decided to enjoy a red wine, one with supple tannins, medium bodied. Our choice was a glass of Château Margilliere Bastide, a wine from the Var region in France, made with grapes such as syrah, cabernet franc and grenache. A well-balanced red wine, with notes of cherries, gentle acidity and a touch of spiciness. Great with all ingredients of the tartiflette.

What You Need
  • 250 grams of firm, yellow, waxy Potatoes (Annabel, Charlotte, Ratte, Amandine)
  • 150 grams of diced (lightly smoked) Bacon
  • one large Onion
  • one Reblochon (or a piece of Morbier)
  • Olive Oil
  • Black Pepper
  • Nutmeg
What You Do
  1. Peel and slice the onion.
  2. Peel and dice the potatoes, same size as the diced bacon.
  3. On medium heat, fry bacon and onions for a few minutes.
  4. Add the diced potatoes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 200 °C or 390 °F.
  6. After 5 minutes the potatoes should be softer, but not yet ready. Duration depends on the type of potato.
  7. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and allow to cool somewhat.
  8. Halve the cheese.
  9. Coarsely chop one halve and add to the mixture. Combine. Add black pepper and nutmeg.
  10. Transfer the mixture to an oven dish.
  11. Halve the remaining cheese and put these two pieces on top of the mixture, skin side up.
  12. Leave in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden.
PS

François Massialot is well known for the introduction of Crème Brûlée.
True?
Yes! See page 219 of the 1693 edition.

dish for tartiflette
Dish for Tartiflette
Reblochon ©cadwu
Reblochon ©cadwu
Tartiflette - ready for the oven ©cadwu
Tartiflette – ready for the oven ©cadwu
Tartiflette ©cadwu
Tartiflette ©cadwu

Mushroom Balls

6 March 2025

We were asked to prepare a vegetarian main dish for a buffet style dinner. We immediately knew what we wanted to cook: mushroom balls and oven baked vegetables. Tasty and colourful. Could we make it gluten free? Which in this case means not adding breadcrumbs to the mushroom mixture, so we needed to think about an alternative. We tried well cooked rice, but that didn’t do the trick. Next idea was to blender the rice and make a very sticky paste. It did what we hoped it would do: the mushrooms balls are firm, but not dense. Great! Plus, they go very well with the vegetables!

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed a glass of French Malbec with the Mushroom Balls. In general you’re looking for a long, full bodied red wine, smooth, with hints of berries and ripe dark fruit.

What You Need
  • 25 grams of dried Porcini
  • 150 grams of fresh Mushrooms (Button Mushrooms, Shiitake)
  • 1 Shallot
  • 2 cloves of Garlic
  • 1 sprig of fresh Oregano
  • 2 sprigs of Thyme
  • 1 sprig of Rosemary
  • 1 sprig of Sage
  • 40 grams of Rice
  • ½ beaten Egg
  • Parmesan Cheese
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Boil the rice in water (with a pinch of salt) or in vegetable stock for 40 minutes. The rice should be thoroughly cooked.
  2. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes. Drain and check for sand.
  3. Chop the shallot and fry in oil until translucent.
  4. Clean the fresh mushrooms, chop, add to the pan and fry on a higher heat.
  5. When the mushrooms are somewhat fried, add the chopped garlic for five minutes. Be careful not to colour the garlic.
  6. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and allow to cool.
  7. Chop the soaked mushrooms. Add to the mixture.
  8. Use a kitchen knife to chop all herbs and then add these to the mixture.
  9. Blender half of the rice until it’s a sticky paste.
  10. Add remaining rice, paste and a relatively large amount of pepper to the mixture.
  11. Beat ½ egg and grate a generous amount of Parmesan Cheese.
  12. Add cheese and egg to the mixture.
  13. Pulse with a blender. The mixture should have granularity.
  14. Taste and add pepper and/or Parmesan if necessary.
  15. Allow the mixture to cool and transfer to the refrigerator.
  16. Preheat the oven to 180 °C or 355 °F.
  17. Use your hands to make balls, line a rack with baking paper and place the balls on the paper.
  18. Bake for 15-25 minutes until the balls are slightly coloured and firm.
  19. Allow to cool and leave for a few hours at room temperature.
  20. Preheat oven to 160 °C or 320 °F.
  21. Bake mixed, chopped vegetables (beetroot, parsnips, sweet potato, potato, butternut squash, parsley root, kohlrabi) by placing them in a large oven dish with plenty of olive oil and sprigs of rosemary, thyme, sage, marjoram in the oven for 20 minutes under aluminium foil at 160 °C or 320 °F and then 15-20 minutes at 180 °C or 355 °F without foil.
  22. Warm the mushroom balls in the oven in a separate oven dish.
  23. Combine just before serving.
  24. If gluten are okay, use half the rice (no need to make the sticky paste) and add breadcrumbs. The mixture will firmer and drier, so perhaps use 1 egg.
PS

This recipe is for two. The picture shows the result of the recipe times 2.

 
Mushroom Balls ©cadwu
Mushroom Balls ©cadwu

Lamb Shank with Star Anise, Ginger and Djeroek Poeroet

28 November 2024

The obvious way to prepare lamb shanks is to fry them briefly in oil en butter and then cook them for hours in red wine with a bouguet garni of rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage and perhaps lavender. Maybe add a small tomato to help the sauce. We take a different approach by adding strong flavors like ginger, cilantro seeds, star anise, soy sauce and the leaves of the Makrut or Thai lime (also known as Djeroek Poeroet or Djeruk Purut). You will get a full, complex sauce in combination with tasty, juicy, tender and aromatic meat.

Wine Pairing

The obvious choice would be a glass of Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris. We once enjoyed the dish with a glass of Gewurztraminer from the Alsace. A touch of spiciness and sweetness, which worked really well with the star anise and ginger.
Combining the lamb shanks with red wine is more challenging. Our choice was a bottle of Cuvée Equinoxe produced by Domaine d’Arjolle, from the Languedoc region in France. The wine is made with 100% merlot grapes. It has an intense ruby ​​color and aromas of red fruit. The flavour is soft and long, with a touch of sweetness and oak. A soft, not too complex Syrah could also be very nice with the lamb shanks.

What You Need
  • 2 Lamb Shanks
  • Shallot
  • Olive oil
  • Fresh Ginger (4 cm, depending on your taste)
  • 1/2 red Chili
  • 2 Garlic Cloves
  • Noilly Prat
  • teaspoon of Cilantro Seeds
  • 2 Star Anise
  • Low Salt Soy Sauce
  • 6 leaves of Djeroek Poeroet
What You Do

Fry the meat in olive oil, giving it a nice colour. In the mean time cut the shallot, peel the ginger and slice, remove the seeds from the chili and cut the garlic clove (but not too fine). Remove the meat from the pan and glaze the shallot, chili, ginger and garlic. Add the Noilly Prat, crushed cilantro seeds, star anise, some low-salt soy sauce and the djeroek poeroet. Stir. Transfer the meat back to the pan and add some water, perhaps 3 cm. Leave to simmer for 4 – 6 hours in total. Check the pan every hour and add water if so required. After 6 hours remove the shanks from the sauce and cool. Reduce the sauce, let cool and transfer to the refrigerator. The following day remove as much of the fat from the sauce as possible. Warm the sauce together with the shanks, check taste and tenderness.
Serve with steamed Bok Choy tossed with sesame oil or with rice.

Lamb Shank ©cadwu
Lamb Shank ©cadwu

Beef and Black Garlic

11 July 2024

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.

What You Need
  • Excellent Beef
  • Olive Oil
  • Black Pepper
  • For the Sauce
    • Shallot
    • Scallion
    • Thyme
    • Rosemary
    • One Clove of Crushed Black Garlic
    • Teaspoon of Tomato Purée
    • Ten Black Olives
    • Vegetable Stock
    • Teaspoon of Mustard
What You Do

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. 

Beef and Black Garlic ©cadwu
Black Garlic ©cadwu
Two Cloves of Black Garlic ©cadwu

End of the Asparagus Season

20 June 2024

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.

Asparagus with Truffle Butter ©cadwu

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.

Asparagus 2024 ©cadwu
Asparagus 2024 ©cadwu

Asparagus with Chervil

6 June 2024

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.

Asparagus a la Flamande ©cadwu
Asparagus with Chervil ©cadwu

Coq au Vin

29 May 2024

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!

What You Need

  • 4 Drumsticks
  • Slice of Pancetta or Bacon
  • 10 Pearl Onions
  • 100 grams Button Mushrooms
  • 2 Garlic Gloves
  • 1 Carrot
  • Chicken Stock
  • Red Wine
  • Bouquet Garni (Bay Leaf, Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary)
  • Black Pepper
  • Olive Oil
  • Soft Butter
  • Flour

What You Do

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.

Coq Au Vin ©cadwu
Coq Au Vin ©cadwu