Friday morning, beginning of September, we go shopping at the organic street market in the beautiful city of Haarlem. We want to buy fruit and vegetables, cheese and obviously mushrooms. The season just started but already the stall offers lobster mushrooms, truffle, chicken of the wood, mai take, trompette de la mort, cèpes and girolles, also the grey (grise) and the yellow ones (jaune). They look perfect and we decide to buy 150 grams. Greyish cap, bright yellow stem, perfect with an omelette. We cross the street and buy extremely old goat cheese, one that matured for 2 to 3 years. Its taste is full of umami, a bit spicy and makes us think of Roquefort. It will be perfect with the aromas and flavours of the girolle jaune.
Wine pairing
The fried girolle comes with an aroma that will make you think of a forest in autumn. Its taste is complex and nutty. The rich egg in combination with the grated old cheese made us decide to drink a glass of Flor de la Mar, barrel aged Chardonnay, produced by Casa Ermelinda Freitas in Portugal. The wine aged for 4 months in barrels made of American oak. It is medium bodied, nicely oaked and comes with hints of citrus and caramel. In general, you’re looking for a lightly oaked chardonnay, balanced, fresh, not too complex.
Whisk the eggs together. Warm a small non-stick pan, add some butter and make sure the pan is warm through and through. Add the mixture and leave on low heat until the omelette is baveuse. In the meantime, clean the mushrooms. Perhaps you need to cut off some of the stem. Slice the mushrooms lengthwise in halve. The stem is hollow and may contain sand or other bits of the forest floor. Quickly fry the mushrooms in olive oil. Grate some garlic and add to the mushrooms. Time to plate up: the omelette, fresh black pepper, the mushrooms and some grated goat cheese, not too much, it can be overpowering.
The cookbook review project hosted by Bernadette has come to an end, unfortunately! It was inspiring to read cookbooks from chefs that were new to us, like Patricia Wells and Nagi Maehahi. It was fun preparing dishes for our esteemed panel and sharing their views with you. Thank you so much Bernadette, for running the project!
Our suggestion to the cookbook review team was a book mentioned by Sheree: José Pizarro’s book Basque: Spanish Recipes from San Sebastián & Beyond, published in 2016. It’s a beautifully designed and edited book with a range of diverse dishes, for instance Veal Chops with Black-Eyed Peas, Pan Fried Cèpes with Egg Yolk and Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Blackcurrant and Camomile Syrup. The book is recommended by Claudia Roden (‘José Pizarro is an amazing cook who has brought us the best of Spanish food’) and Rick Stein (‘José’s recipes take us to the very heart of the best Spanish cooking’).
José Pizarro was born in the Extremadura region in Spain. Currently he owns seven restaurants in the UK and one in Abu Dhabi. He published six Spanish cookery books, received various awards and is often credited with making Spanish food popular in the UK.
We decided to make two dishes from the book, Grilled Octopus with Peppers and Aubergine and Roasted Lavender Peaches with Baked Custard. As a main dish we served Pork Belly with Sherry, Chickpeas and Chestnuts, following a recipe published in the Guardian. Our panellist Jan and Anton were happy to provide their feedback.
The starter: Anton mentioned the octopus was tasty, with the right texture and nicely grilled. Jan was also pleasantly surprised by the octopus and its flavours. We all felt the dish as a whole could do with a bit more flavour and some acidity. We also expected the parsley oil to bring the various components together, but that didn’t really happen.
We enjoyed our starter with a glass of Portuguese Vinho Verde, made by Cazas Novas. It comes with floral and fruity notes, has some acidity and a medium body with a good texture and a fresh aftertaste. In general, you’re looking for a wine with freshness, minerality and some acidity.
The dish with the pork belly strips was nice. Jan would have preferred the pork to be crispy. Perhaps prepare the stew and the pork separately? Anton enjoyed the chickpeas in the rich combination with sherry, onions, spinach and thyme. Surprisingly flavourful.
The recipe suggests leaving the pot in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. The next day we decided leaving the leftovers in a warm oven for a few hours. The result was a very nicely integrated stew; a tribute to all ingredients. Next time we will prepare the vegetables a day ahead with some of the pork, perhaps allow for more time in the oven and serve with crispy fried pork. We enjoyed the dish with a glass of Portuguese red wine, produced by Vidigal. The wine is made with aragonez, castelão and cabernet grapes. The wine has a nice red colour and aromas of fruit and herbs. Its taste is light, with some tannins and a touch of oak. In general, you’re looking for a smooth, easy to drink red wine with character.
Time for dessert. Peaches with Lavender? Four peaches and a tablespoon of lavender? Served with custard? We were intrigued. We looked at the list of ingredients and noticed Patxaran, a sloe flavoured liqueur from the Basque country, normally served as a digestif. Even more intriguing.
The combination of peaches, lavender, patxaran and custard was a winner. One night we served it with vanilla ice cream, which was a nice and tasty combination. We served our panel the peaches with home-made custard, following the recipe of José Pizarro. It’s a delicious combination. Rich, smooth, silky custard with uplifting, sweet and aromatic peaches. The sauce is a mixture of honey, patxaran and peach juice. Like us you would probably expect the lavender to be over the top, but it worked brilliantly. A winner! Our panel was very pleased and enjoyed the combination. “Lovely custard, great way to prepare peaches, interesting how the lavender is supporting the fruit, present, never overwhelming, could I have another glass of patxaran?” Of course you can!
Bernadette final review-question was: should this book be on your shelf? Our answer would be yes, because of the inspirational recipes, the use of ingredients and the beautiful pictures of food and the Basque country.
Basque: Spanish Recipes from San Sebastián & Beyond is available via your local bookshop or the usual channels for 15 euro or 40 US dollar. You can also enjoy the recipes José Pizarro publishes on a monthly basis in the Guardian.
Two or three times per week we enjoy the taste of fresh home-made no-knead bread. The crust, the flavours, the aromas! And how about the singing of the bread when it’s just out of the oven? Baking your own bread is such a pleasure.
Our recipe for no-knead bread is based on a recipe published by Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery, New York. It was published in the New York Times in 2006 and can also be found in his excellent book My Bread. The process is time consuming (it’s 24 hours from start to finish) but not labour intensive. The recipe is based on slow-rise fermentation. With only 1 gram of instant yeast in combination with 18+3 hours of rest the yeast will do a wonderful job. The dough will be perfect. And kneading, as you would expect, is not required.
Normally we bake our bread with blue poppy seed and brown linseed. Today we bake a luxurious bread with hazelnuts, raisins and cinnamon.
What You Need
200 grams of Whole Grain Flour
230 grams of Plain White Flour
1 gram Instant Yeast
70 grams Hazelnuts (peeled and roasted)
130 grams Raisins
2,5 grams Cinnamon
4 grams Salt (this is less than usual, most recipes for bread would suggest 8 grams)
345 grams Water
Additional Flour
Bran
What You Do
Mix flour, yeast, cinnamon and salt. Add water and create one mixture. Let rest in a covered bowl for 18 hours. Soak the raisins for 10 minutes in warm water. Remove excess water. Cover your worktop with a generous amount of flour. Remove the dough from bowl and flatten somewhat. Cover the middle third with one quarter of the raisins and hazelnuts. Fold the lower third on top of the middle third. Cover with the second quarter. Fold the top third on top the the middle third. Cover the centre with a quarter of the raisins and hazelnuts. Fold the right part on top of the centre. Ad the last quarter of raisins and hazelnuts on top of the centre and fold the fold the left part on top of it. Dust with additional flour and let rest on a towel dusted with flour and bran for 3 hours. Check that the pot (and the handles!) can be used in a really hot oven. Transfer the pot to the oven and heat your oven to 235˚ Celsius or 450˚ Fahrenheit. Put the dough, seam side up, in the pot, close it and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for 15 minutes or until it is nicely browned. Let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing it. Enjoy with a generous amount of butter.
Watercress tastes fresh and somewhat peppery. In this soup we combine it with chervil and dill (hints of anise) making it an even more uplifting, delicious soup. Adding cream or olive oil is optional. Easy to make, quick and vegan!
Chop the shallot and the garlic. Peel and chop the potato. In a heavy iron pan heat the butter, glaze the shallot and later add the potato and garlic. Allow to simmer for a few minutes. In the meantime, remove the coarse stems of the watercress and the chervil. When the potato is done, remove some of the stock and blender this with the watercress, the dill and the chervil until very smooth. Transfer back to the pan and leave on low heat for a few minutes. Press the mixture through a sieve and continue on low heat for a few minutes. You could add some excellent olive oil or some double cream. If you add cream, make sure you give the soup a few more minutes, otherwise your soup will have the typical milky taste of cream.
PS
Many recipes for watercress soup suggest smoothing the mixture (including the potatoes) with a blender. Please don’t be tempted to do so! It will give the soup a gluey texture, not nice at all. Our method is perhaps a bit more work, but the result is much, much tastier.
An easy to make and delicious vegetarian starter with only five ingredients! We combine oyster mushrooms with Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, black pepper and olive oil. The oyster mushroom is a common, edible and often cultivated mushroom. Its texture is firm, meaty and moist, its taste mild, nutty and slightly creamy. Some website mention flavours like anise and seafood, flavours we don’t recognize.
The other main ingredient is nutmeg. Its sweetness and spiciness combine very well with Parmesan cheese and the oyster mushroom. The dish looks simple and we were tempted to add some greens, but the result is intense, tasty and uplifting.
Wine Pairing
We enjoyed our mushrooms with a glass of white wine made with Verdejo and Sauvignon grapes byPiqueras Almansa. This is a dry white wine with lots of aroma and a slightly spicy, fruity aroma. A balanced wine that goes very well with the various flavours in this dish. In general, we would suggest a white wine with clear aromas, not too much acidity and present flavours.
What You Need
200 grams of Oyster Mushrooms
Olive Oil
Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
Freshly grated Nutmeg
Black Pepper
What You Do
Grate a generous amount of Parmesan cheese, add some black pepper and nutmeg
Combine and taste: the nutmeg should be clearly present
Add olive oil to a heavy iron skillet
quickly fry the mushrooms
Sprinkle with cheese and transfer the skillet to the oven
Allow to grill for 8 – 10 minutes
Divide in two and serve on a hot plate
You could serve it with some crusted bread.
Other Recipes
Our favorite with oyster mushrooms is Alla Milanese. Another tasty recipe is this salad.
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.
The season of artichokes depends on the variety and where you are based. In Italy it’s from mid-winter until early spring, in other countries from March to June, or September and October. An artichoke should feel heavy, look fresh and the leaves should be closed. If the leaves are wide open, the artichoke is older and it could be dry with lots of choke (the hairs) and dry inner leaves. The artichokes we use in this recipe are special. Not only are they vibrant purple, they are also small with hardly any choke. In Italy they are called Carciofo Violetto. Tasty as you would expect from an artichoke and easy to eat because the texture of the leaves is not stringy.
WinePairing
It’s not straightforward to pair artichokes with wine. According to various researchers this is due to cynarin, a chemical especially found in the leaves of the artichoke. When the wine and the cynarin meet in your mouth, the natural sweetness of the wine is enhanced, making it taste too sweet. Pair artichokes with a bone-dry, crisp, unoaked white wine with clear, present acidity. For instance, Sauvignon Blanc, Grüner Veltliner or Albariño. The Carciofo Violetto artichoke in combination with the olive oil, Parmesan cheese and browned garlic (bitter, nutty) is less demanding when it comes to wine. We enjoyed it with a nice glass of Côtes de Provence rosé.
What You Need
Small purple Artichokes
Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic
Parmesan Cheese
What You Do
Preheat your oven to 180 °C or 355 °F
Cook the artichokes for 5 minutes in boiling water.
Allow to cool and remove the outer leaves. Be generous, it’s better to remove too many!
Halve the artichokes and place them in a shallow oven dish
Drizzle with olive oil
Transfer to the oven for 5 minutes
In the meantime, grate Parmesan cheese, chop the garlic and mix
Spread the mixture on top of the artichokes
Wait for the cheese and the garlic to colour, perhaps 5 minutes
There are so many interesting vegetables and fruits. We’re always keen to try something new, so last year when we found mashua we simply had to try it. And how about sand carrots? This week we spotted oca at our bio-supermarket. Small red tubers originally from Peru. Hopefully not imported, but we bought them anyway. Oca (Oxalis tuberosa, known as yams in New Zealand) originate from the Andes. It is grown in the highlands of several countries (Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina). Oca’s are also cultivated in various other countries, including the UK, Mexico, New Zealand and France. Oca is a member of the family of wood sorrels and the plant has clover-like leaves. The leaves and the stems are also edible. Nutrient wise oca tubers and potatoes are very similar. The oca tubers contain a high amount of vitamin C, calcium and iron. Oca tubers can be acidic, thanks to the presence of oxalic acid. The tubers have a lovely soft, red colour.
Oca tubers can be eaten raw, boiled and baked. We tasted a few slices of raw oca, only to find the texture not great and the taste a bit tangy, radish like. We decided to bake them in olive oil. The result was a pleasant surprise and some of the colour is still visible. The tubers tasted like a really, really good potatoes: soft and nutty.
What You Need
250 grams of Oca
Olive Oil
Black Pepper
What You Do
Preheat your oven to 180 °C or 355 °F
Wash the oca’s
Don’t be tempted to peel them because the peel is very tasty
Remove small bits of dirt with a sharp knife
Wash again and dry
Add olive oil to a baking dish
Add the tubers and make sure they are nicely coated
Transfer to the oven and fry for 15-25 minutes, depending on the size
Allow to cool for a few minutes before adding black pepper.
We continue our series of very simple, tasty dishes by preparing Flammkuchen (Tarte Flambée in France, Feuerfleck in Austria). The dish originates from the Alsace. The first part of the name refers to fire and flames. The story is that bakers baked bread in wood fired ovens. The oven would initially become too hot, and the bakers had to wait for the oven to cool and reach the right temperature. The Flammkuchen would be the indicator. If it was ready within two minutes or so, then the temperature was right. If it would burn, the oven was too hot, but nothing was wasted.
The dough of Flammkuchen is extremely simple, but also a bit puzzling. In all cases it’s flour, salt, olive oil and water. Some suggest adding egg yolks, others yeast. Adding yeast makes it into a bread dough. Doesn’t it seem obvious that the bakers would use the already prepared dough? Adding egg yolks seems odd too us. Why make a more expensive dough for a product that was to be used as an indicator only?
Back to yeast or no yeast. Which brings us to the question: isn’t Flammkuchen a kind of pizza? They do look very similar, and both are baked in a hot oven, but there are differences. Traditionally Flammkuchen are covered with crème fraîche, lardons and thinly sliced onions. The Flammkuchen should be very thin and very crispy. We think the bakers didn’t use their bread dough but made a quick, simple dough with the sole aim to test the temperature of the oven. Perhaps only water and flour?
Another difference is that Flammkuchen were not on the menu of restaurants until the 1960’s. Probably you would buy them at the local bakery or make them at home. Thanks to the global popularity of pizza, Flammkuchen have gained some visibility.
Drink Pairing
Flammkuchen are tasty, crispy, flavourful and not complex. Enjoy with a glass of white wine, with a beer, or your favourite drink.
What You Need
For the Dough
250 grams of Flour
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
125 ml Water
Pinch of Salt
Crème Fraîche
Black Pepper
Mushrooms (we used Trompettes de la Mort)
Red Onion
What You Do
Pass the flour through a sieve
Add a pinch of salt and mix
Add water and olive oil and quickly turn the mixture into a dough using your hands
Don’t kneed too long
Leave on room temperature for an hour
Pre-heat your oven to 220 °C or 430 °F
Roll out until very thin, 2 millimetre is perfect.
Add black pepper to the crème fraîche and mix
Place the dough on baking or parchment paper in a baking tray, cover with a layer of crème fraîche, add mushrooms and sliced onion
Bake for 10-12 minutes or so and serve immediately.
Baking Flammkuchen on a higher temperature is preferred, but then you can’t use baking or parchment paper. Best is to use a pizza stone. The baking time will be 3 to 5 minutes on 300 °C or 570 °F.
Recently we reviewed An invitation to Indian Cooking (published in 1973) by Madhur Jaffrey as part of the ongoing cookbook review project by Bernadette. When we leaved through the book we were looking for something special, something new and exciting to prepare. Dal soup (the classic Indian soup made with red lentils, onion, various spices and perhaps ginger or orange) was not on our radar, until we read her recipe. Interesting! Yellow Split Peas? Cloves? Croutons? Let’s start cooking! The soup was very tasty and uplifting. The split peas brought structure to the soup, making this soup different compared to lentil-based dal soup. The combination of peas and cloves is one to remember.
We’re always interested in new ways to prepare mushrooms, so when we spotted a recipe with cumin and asafoetida (asafetida) we immediately knew we wanted to prepare this dish. But what is actually asafoetida and where to buy it? The first thing to know about asafoetida is that it has an extremely powerful aroma. Its taste and smell are a combination of onion and garlic. We bought 25 grams at Jacob Hooy which is Amsterdam’s premium shop for spices. The Dutch name is Duivels Drek and the German name Stinkasant. Both names are a clear indication of its pungent smell. Mushrooms, tomatoes, various spices and asafoetida: we didn’t know what to expect of the dish. The result was delicious, aromatic (in a subtle way) and a tribute to the tomatoes and mushrooms, with a long-lasting taste. We loved it. Mrs. Jaffrey suggest serving the mushrooms with chapatis or pooris. Recipes are included in her book, obviously!
An invitation to Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey is a comprehensive introduction to the Indian kitchen, one with reliable, easy to follow, tasty recipes and useful background information. The book includes chapters on meat, chicken, fish, dal, soups, vegetables, chutneys, breads and desserts. Which reminds us of our plan to make Kulfi (ice cream with milk and cardamon pods). An invitation to Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey is available via your local bookstore or the usual channels for 15 euro or 18 US$.
Cook and Drink 