Tag: koninginnedag

Orange Parfait

26 April 2025

Today April 26th, we celebrate the birthday of the King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Well actually, his birthday is tomorrow, but you can’t have a party on a Sunday, can you?
The Dutch royal family is also known as ‘de Oranjes’, which is reflected in the use of the colour orange when referring to Dutch royalty. There is no real link between the royal family and the colour. The ‘orange’ in their name refers to the French city of Orange, a Principality one of his ancestors inherited in 1544.
Over the years we prepared Orange Sabayon, Queen’s Soup, Orange and Almond Cake, Bouchée à la Reine, Orange Flan, Canard à l’Orange and Baba au Mandarine Napoléon on this day.

Today we finally have nice weather in the Netherlands, so let’s prepare something very special: a parfait of orange. The recipe we followed was published by Jeroen Meus, a well-known Belgian chef. He was inspired by Bernard Pacaud, a French chef who owns restaurant l’Ambroisie in Paris, awarded with three Michelin Stars.

Perfect

A (French) parfait is an ice cream made without churning, so no need for an ice cream maker. In this case the mixture is poured into an empty orange and frozen.
One of the components of a parfait is the combination of egg yolks and sugar, beaten until ruban. This means that the mixture has become pale yellow and soft. It should resemble Greek yoghurt.
The beaten egg whites will add lightness, as they do in mousse au chocolate.
Then it’s a matter of richness (cream), flavour (coffee, orange, mango, passion fruit et cetera) and sugar.
Making a parfait requires a number of parallel actions, but with the right mise-en-place it’s not difficult (although, to be fair, our kitchen was a bit of a mess).

Orange Parfait

The orange parfait as prepared by Jeroen Meus is a combination of:

  • Whipped Cream
  • Cooked Cream flavoured with Orange Peel
  • Whipped Egg White 
  • Orange Juice
  • Mandarine Napoléon
  • Egg yolks and Sugar (beaten until ruban)
  • Gelatine
  • A salad of Oranges and Blood Grapefruit

Details can be found on the website of Jeroen Meus, including a helpful video (in Dutch).

Orange Parfait ©cadwu
Orange Parfait ©cadwu

Royal Orange and Almond Cake

27 April 2023

April 27th we celebrate the birthday of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Hip hip hooray!
The Dutch royal family is also known as ‘de Oranjes’, which is reflected in the use of the colour orange when referring to Dutch royalty. Actually, there is no link between the royal family and the colour. The ‘Oranje’ in the name refers to the French city of Orange, a Principality one of his ancestors inherited in 1544.

Nevertheless, over the years we prepared Orange Sabayon, Queen’s Soup, Bouchée à la Reine, Orange Flan and Canard à l’Orange on this day. What better way to celebrate a birthday than by baking a cake, a flavourful, moist Orange and Almond cake?

What You Need

  • One large Orange
  • 3 Eggs
  • 100 grams Fine Caster Sugar
  • 125 grams of Almond Flour
  • 3 grams of Baking Powder

What You Do

Wash the orange and cook it (meaning the whole orange) for 2 hours in some water. Let cool.
Preheat the oven to 170 °C or 340 °F. Coarsely cut the orange, remove the pits and blender the orange until you have a marmalade-like consistency. Add the baking powder to the almond flour and mix. Beat the eggs and the sugar until light and airy. This may take 5 minutes. Add the blended orange and mix gently. Add the almond flour and the baking powder. Mix. Coat a baking spring form (18 cm or 7 inch) with butter, add the mixture and transfer to the oven for 40-45 minutes. The cake will rise only a little during the baking process. When ready, leave the cake to cool in the tin.

Orange and Almond Cake ©cadwu
Orange and Almond Cake ©cadwu

The Queen’s Soup

27 April 2022

Actually, this post should be called Potage à la Reine, or even better Koninginnensoep. Before looking at the details, let’s first talk about Dutch Royalty.

The first Dutch Queen (Koningin) was Wilhelmina who reigned from 1898 until 1948. She was succeeded by Queen Juliana and later Queen Beatrix. Their birthdays were always a reason for festivities with lots of food (and lots of beer nowadays). One of the favourite dishes was a soup called Koninginnensoep: a rich, creamy chicken soup with carrots and garden peas. Not very refined, but perfect for the occasion.

The recipe of this soup goes back to France, to chef François Pierre de La Varenne (1618-1678). He is probably the first chef who documented and prepared Potage à la Reine. The soup is made with two kinds of stock (one made with almonds, the other one with partridge or capon), bread, lemon and it is garnished with pomegranate and pistachios. It was prepared in the honour of Queen Marguerite de Navarre.

The Dutch Koninginnensoep is a simplified version of the Potage à la Reine. Some recipes suggest replacing the bread with rice; most suggest making a roux and adding eggs and cream to thicken the soup. The pomegranate is replaced by carrot and the pistachios by garden peas. A practical cheap, Dutch approach…

Enough details, let’s start preparing our version of this traditional soup. After all, today, April 27th, we’re celebrating the King’s birthday! Hurray!

What You Need

  • For the stock
    • Organic Chicken (bones and meat)
    • Carrot
    • Leek
    • Onion
    • Bouquet Garni (Thyme, Parsley, Bay Leaf)
    • Mace (small piece)
    • Olive Oil
  • Flour
  • Almond Flour
  • Butter
  • One Egg Yolk
  • Cream
  • White Pepper
  • Carrot
  • Green peas

What You Do

  1. Gently fry the sliced leek, the chopped carrot and the chopped onion in olive oil
  2. After a few minutes add the chicken
  3. Leave for a few minutes
  4. Add cold water, the bouquet garni, the mace and a piece of carrot
  5. Leave to simmer for one or two hours
  6. Pass through a sieve
  7. Cool the stock and remove the fat. You could do this the day before
  8. Remove the skin and bones from the meat and make cubes the size of garden peas
  9. Same for the carrot
  10. Set aside. 
  11. Combine 30 grams of flour with 10 grams of almond flour and 30 grams of butter (depending on the amount of stock, these quantities are for one liter)
  12. Make a roux and thicken the soup
  13. Leave on low heat for 60 minutes.
  14. Beat the egg yolk, add cream, mix some more
  15. Add the warm soup to the liquid, one spoon at a time
  16. This is known as marrying the soup and the eggs
  17. When done, add the chicken and leave on low heat for 10 minutes
  18. Stir gently
  19. Add white pepper
  20. In parallel quickly cook the garden peas (one minute will be fine) and warm the carrot cubes.
  21. Garnish the soup with peas and carrot

Garnish the soup with carrot and garden peas.

The Queen's Soup ©cadwu
The Queen’s Soup ©cadwu