Tag: recipes

Grand Dessert

31 July 2025

It’s not every day that we visit a museum to explore the world of food, let alone the world of desserts. End of last year the Kunstmuseum in The Hague (the Netherlands) opened the exhibition Grand Dessert about the history and joy of European desserts. According to guest curator Janny Van der Heijde (author of cookbooks and member of the jury of the Dutch version of the Great British Bake Off), “A dessert is more than just the ultimate ending to a meal. It reflects changes in culture, society and tastes down the centuries. You can tell a lot of stories using desserts. Stories about wealth and poverty, about temptation and deception, dominance and oppression, but first and foremost about love of all things sweet.”[1]

On Display

The exhibition shows a variety of pastries (glass and ceramic, made by Shayna Leib), moulds, recipe books, baking tins and fun objects such as dessert-bags (made by Rommydebommy), dessert-clothing and knitted desserts (Kate Jenkins). It shows how ice-cream was made, what desserts would be served during royal banquets and how sugar was used to create centrepieces, for instance Sugar Flower pieces (Natasja Sadi). Also on display a large, pink, moving jelly, created in 2024 by Chinese artist Rong Bao.

Moulds

We were especially intrigued by the vast collection of moulds, in all kinds of shapes, classic ones, fish, lobster, pineapple, shells, elephant, cow, pig and a young child (very odd).
Pudding can be both savoury and sweet, just think of the blancmange as it was made in 1510 with chicken, salt, flour, egg yolks, saffron, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and mace.

Jellies

The moulds made us think of jelly pudding, something we haven’t eaten for many, many years. We noticed a book by Sam Bompas and Harry Par, called Jelly, obviously. The book includes recipes for Campari & Orange jelly, Cherry jelly, Lavender jelly, Sex on the Beach jelly and many more. It discusses the history of jellies and techniques such as marbling. The shapes are incredible, look at their Jelly Parlour! We bought the book and will write about it in a future post. But first we must buy a pudding mould…

Practical

The exhibition Grand Dessert runs until October 26th.
Jelly by Bompas and Par seems to be out of print. We bought our copy for 7 euro.

[1] Quote taken from the website of the Museum

Jellies - Shayna Leib
Stressed is Desserts
Moulds
Pastries - Shayna Leib
Dessert Bag - Rommydebommy
Chocolates - Shayna Leib

Fried Prawns with Garlic and Samphire

24 July 2025

Shrimps and prawns are subtle, delicate and tasty. Popular food in many countries, just think shrimp cocktail, stuffed eggs with shrimps and of course, fried prawns with garlic and lemon.
For this recipe you need large, wild or organic prawns. We strongly suggest using ones that are not yet cleaned. It’s not difficult to clean shrimps and they taste much better than factory cleaned shrimps.
We serve the prawns with samphire. It’s a crunchy and salty vegetable that brings lots of colour and flavour to the plate. It can be eaten raw but it’s better to cook or steam it for a minute or two. The history of samphire goes back to the 14thcentury when the ashes of the marsh samphire (rich on sodium carbonate) were used to make glass. 

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed our Prawns with a glass of Picpoul de Pinet produced by Gérard Bertrand. A dry white wine, with a pale straw yellow color. It has aromas of citrus and gooseberries. The wine is full and round with minerality which is typical for a Picpoul de Pinet.
Recently we combined the prawns with a white wine made by Casa Relvas in Portugal. The wine is made with antão vaz and viognier grapes. Subtle aromas, gentle acidity and a nice finish.
You could also combine the prawns with a glass of Chablis, Verdejo or Soave.

What You Need
  • Six large Prawns
  • Garlic
  • Olive Oil
  • Black Pepper
  • 50 grams of Samphire
  • Crusted Bread
  • Lemon (optional)
What You Do
  1. Use scissors to cut the shell of the prawn. Start behind the head and cut towards the tail. Just before the tail turn 90 degrees and make a cut around the prawn
  2. Remove the head, the shell and the legs of the body. Keep the tail on the prawn.
  3. Remove the black vein (the prawn’s intestines) and the slurry (if any)
  4. Wipe clean with kitchen paper
  5. Transfer the prawns to the refrigerator
  6. Wash the samphire
  7. Coarsely slice the garlic
  8. Heat a pan with water
  9. Dry the prawns and fry them in a skillet in olive oil (depending on the size maximum 4 minutes in total) on both sides and on the back.
  10. When the prawns begin to colour, add the garlic and reduce the heat
  11. Coat the prawns with the oil and the garlic in the pan
  12. Cook the samphire for one minute maximum (or steam for two minutes)
  13. Drain the samphire
  14. Serve on warm plates with some black pepper and lemon (if using)
  15. Enjoy with crusted bread
Fried prawns with Garlic and Samphire ©cadwu
Fried prawns with Garlic and Samphire ©cadwu

Exploring Asma Khan’s Ammu (Part 2)

17 July 2025

We continue our review of Asma Khan’s cookbook Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul by preparing two dishes: Pineapple and Chilli Chutney and Eggs in Tamarind Gravy and asking our esteemed panel (André, Joke, Martine and Rutger) for their thoughts. . Earlier we wrote about her Pumpkin and Coconut soup.

Asma Khan is an Indian British chef, cookbook author and restaurant owner. In 2012 her pop-up restaurant started for 12 guests at her home, serving food cooked from traditional family recipes. Today her all-female Darjeeling Express restaurant in London offers Indian Rajput and Bengali home cooking specialties.

In 2024 she won the Johannes van Dam Prize, a lifetime achievement award for an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the world of gastronomy. Previous winners of the prestigious prize include Yotam Ottolenghi, Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, Claudia Roden, Jeroen Meus and Alain Passard.

The book is called ‘Ammu’ which translates to ‘Mother’. The stories, the recipes, the whole book is a tribute to the food her mother (and the family’s cook) prepared. But we feel it’s more: it’s also a tribute to original flavours, to people taking time to prepare food, to sharing and enjoying, to communities and heritage.

Wine Pairing

Aska Khan doesn’t include suggestions for drink pairing in the book. As a main we served four dishes: Pineapple and Chilli Chutney, Eggs in Tamarind Gravy, Saffron Lamb and Pulua. We paired this with a red wine called Magenta produced by Domaine de l’Arjolle from the Côtes de Thongue area (west of the French city of Montpellier) made with merlot and cinsault grapes. The wine has a light red colour, and its taste made us think of cherries and red fruit. Excellent light wine that combined very well with the various flavours of Asma Khan’s dishes. In general, we would suggest a light, fruity red wine.
If you would like to enjoy a white wine, we would suggest one with limited acidity, for instance Pinot Gris.

Eggs in Tamarind Gravy
Eggs in Tamarind Gravy ©cadwu

When going through the book, we noticed this delicious looking dish. It made us think of Sambal Goreng Telor, an Indonesian side dishe which combines fried hard-boiled eggs with a sauce made with chillies, lemon grass, shrimp paste and other ingredients.

The recipe for Eggs in Tamarind Gravy is not too difficult, just a bit time consuming. The gravy is made with very thinly sliced onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, chilli, tamarind extract and water. Once combined it needs to be reduced by half. We read the recipe again and started to wonder why it was called ‘gravy’. The liquid in our pan resembled a watery soup, not gravy. We left it to reduce, on low heat, and we waited patiently. It started to thicken and after two or three hours we knew Asma Khan was right: gravy it was.
We think that the very thinly sliced onion, cooked through and through, worked as a thickener. Ten minutes before serving we made three shallow slits on the surface of each hard-boiled egg, which helps the eggs to absorb the gravy.
The panel loved the combination of subtle flavours: sweet, tangy, sour and rich. The sauce has the texture of old-fashioned gravy and it coated the eggs perfectly.

Pineapple and Chilli Chutney
Pineapple Chutney ©cadwu

We decided to prepare Saffron Lamb because of the intriguing recipe (more in our next review). Asma Khan suggests serving the lamb with Rose, Apricot and Pistachio Pulau and Pineapple and Chilli Chutney, so that’s what we did.

The chutney is made with red chillies (we used Kashmiri red chilies), Indian bay leave (tej patta), ginger, sugar, salt and water. It needs to cook until the chutney thickens and looks glossy. As with the gravy we were slightly worried: after thirty minutes our chutney wasn’t glossy or thick and the pineapple was bright yellow. But after three hours the chutney looked exactly as Asma Khan predicted.
The panel was surprised by the sweetness and gentle spiciness of the chutney. The flavour of the pineapple was clearly present, but in a savoury way. Tasty in its own right, very nice accompaniment with the lamb and the rice.

The Book

Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul by Asma Khan is available via the usual channels or your local bookstore for 35,00 US$ or 26,00 EUR.
Some of her recipes were published by the BBC, other recipes were published by Great British Chefs and these by the Foodnetwork.

Ammu by Asma Khan
Pineapple Chutney ©cadwu
Eggs in Tamarind Gravy ©cadwu

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

Tartelette with Pear

3 July 2025

Always a pleasure to serve a tartelette, with lemon, with blackberries, with raspberries or in this case with pear. The challenge is to capture the delicate flavour of the pears.
Making the filling is simple and quick. Making the pastry requires much more time. Feel free to use ready-made pastry!

What You Need
  • Filling
    • Pears
    • Butter
    • Lemon Juice
  • Pâte Sucrée
    • 50 grams of Unsalted Butter
    • 40 grams of Caster Sugar
    • 125 grams of All Purpose Flour
    • 1 gram of Salt
    • 1 organic egg
    • Water (optional)
What You Do (Filling)
  1. Peel and core the pears
  2. Chop coarsely
  3. Melt the butter
  4. Add some water
  5. Slowly cook the pears until soft
  6. Taste and perhaps add a drop of lemon juice
  7. Pass gently through a sieve, without applying pressure. You want as much liquid as possible without damaging the texture of the pears
  8. Set the pears aside and allow to cool.
  9. Reduce the liquid until it becomes thick
What You Do (Pastry Case)
  1. Combine sugar, flour and salt
  2. Dice butter, add to the mixture and combine. Use a hand mixer with kneading hooks
  3. Beat the egg and add
  4. Use your hands to make the dough. It should not be sticky, so it must be easy to make a ball. If too dry, add just a bit of water. If too wet, add some flour
  5. When done, remove from the bowl and wrap in kitchen foil. Store in the refrigerator for at least two hours. It can be stored for a few days.
  6. Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry to a circle a larger than the top of the tartelette forms. The dough should be approximately 2 or 3 mm thick
  7. Coat the forms with butter
  8. Line the forms with the pastry. Press the pastry well into the sides and bottom. Use a knife to remove the excess dough
  9. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator
  10. Preheat the oven to 190 °C or 375 °F
  11. Use a fork to prick small holes in the pastry
  12. Line the forms with greaseproof paper or aluminium foil, add baking beans and bake blind for 10 minutes
  13. Remove the paper and the baking beans
  14. Reduce the oven temperature to 160 °C or 320 °F
  15. Transfer back to the oven for 5 minutes or until golden
  16. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool
Assembling the Tartelette
  1. When the pastry cases are completely cool, add the pears
  2. Use a spoon to drizzle the pear-syrop on top of the pears
  3. Serve immediately
Simple Pear Tartelette ©cadwu
Simple Pear Tartelette ©cadwu

Exploring Asma Khan’s Ammu (Part 1)

26 June 2025

Recently we bought Asma Khan’s cookbook Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul. ‘An entrancing book’, according to Nigella Lawson.
Asma Khan is an Indian British chef, cookbook author and restaurant owner. In 2012 her pop-up restaurant started for 12 guests at her home, serving food cooked from traditional family recipes. Today her all-female Darjeeling Express restaurant in London offers Indian Rajput and Bengali home cooking specialties.

In 2024 she won the Johannes van Dam Prize, a lifetime achievement award for an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the world of gastronomy. Previous winners of the prestigious prize include Yotam Ottolenghi, Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, Claudia Roden, Jeroen Meus and Alain Passard.

We prepared five dishes from the book and asked our esteemed panel (André, Joke, Martine and Rutger) for their thoughts. In this post we will look into Asma Khans Pumpkin and Coconut Soup and a dessert from Bengali, Bhapa Doi. On July 17th we will post part 2 of this review.

Flavours and Aromas

Asma Khan’s cookbook is about the food she enjoyed when she lived in India, the food she missed so much when living in the UK. By publishing the recipes, she creates an opportunity for all of us to enjoy the food that is close to her heart. That’ s why we followed her instructions to the letter, with one exception; we used less chillies.

Spices

Buying the right spices was a bit of a challenge. One of the ingredients of the Pineapple Chutney is Tej Patta, or Indian bay leaf. It has a clear cinnamon-like flavour and is not to be confused with common bay leaf.
We also needed not too spicy large chillies. We found some excellent Kashmiri Red Chilies. Flavourful, a touch spicy and dark red.
One dish required Cassia Bark which we couldn’t find and replaced with cinnamon.
We wanted to serve original Indian beer, so we had to find a few bottles of Kingfisher or Cobra.
The shopping took a bit of time, but it was worth the effort!

Not Just Another Cookbook

The book is called ‘Ammu’ which translates to ‘Mother’. The stories, the recipes, the whole book is a tribute to the food her mother (and the family’s cook) prepared. But we feel it’s more: it’s also a tribute to original flavours, to people taking time to prepare food, to sharing and enjoying, to communities and heritage.

Pumpkin and Coconut Soup
Pumpkin and Coconut Soup ©cadwu

When talking about our menu, we looked at the menu of The Darjeeling Express and decided to prepare one starter and four dishes as main course. A vegetarian Pumpkin and Coconut soup would be ideal as a starter. The ingredients are pumpkin, onion, garlic, ginger, red chillies, coconut cream, salt, star anise and fennel seeds. Two tablespoons of fennel seeds (for 6 servings)? Star anise? Would that work? 

The panel was impressed: a delicious pumpkin soup, spicy, but not the kind of spiciness that lingers on. The fennel worked beautifully with the pumpkin and coconut. The star anise gave the soup a nice additional and unexpected aroma. André’s favourite.

Bhapa Doi
Bhapa Doi ©cadwu

When reading the book, we noticed that the recipes are not too complex, however, most are rather labour intensive. The book includes several recipes for desserts but given the time we needed to prepare the other dishes we decided to make a relativity easy Bengali dessert (not included in the book).

The Bhapa Doi is rich and moist, the taste long and (not overly) sweet. It made us think of cream cheese pie. The raisins combined very well with the creamy flavours and the cardamom. Perhaps we could have made smaller portions?

What You Need (for 7 ramekins (150 ml))
  • One tin of Condensed Milk (approximately 400 grams)
  • 250 ml Greek Yoghurt
  • 100 ml Whole Milk
  • 1½ teaspoon of finely crushed Cardamom Seeds
  • Handful of Sultana Raisins
  • Pistachio Nuts (to decorate)
What You Do
  1. Soak the sultana raisins for 15 minutes in lukewarm water
  2. Preheat your oven to 170 °C or 340 °F traditional (no fan)
  3. Combine the condensed milk with the yoghurt until smooth
  4. Add the milk and combine
  5. Add the crushed cardamom seeds
  6. Use kitchen paper to dry the raisins
  7. Add the raisins to the mixture
  8. Fill the ramekins with the mixture
  9. Place the ramekins in a baking tray
  10. Add boiling water up to 2/3 of the height of the ramekins
  11. Close the oven door and reduce the temperature to 120 °C or 250 °F
  12. Leave in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes, until set
  13. Test with a needle (it should come out dry)
  14. Remove the ramekins from the baking tray and allow to cool.
  15. Best to refrigerate the ramekins for 4+ hours in the refrigerator before serving
  16. Decorate with pistachio nuts
The Book

Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul by Asma Khan is for sale via the usual channels or your local bookstore for 35,00 US$ or 26,00 EUR.
Some of her recipes were published by the BBC, other recipes were published by Great British Chefs and these by the Foodnetwork.

Ammu by Asma Khan
Pumpkin and Coconut Soup ©cadwu
Bhapa Doi ©cadwu

Field Peas

19 June 2025

Field Peas (Pisum sativum subsp. Arvense, Austrian winter pea, Kapucijner in Dutch or Blaue Speiseerbse in German) are well known as dried or canned peas. Typical winter-food. The season for fresh Field Peas is relatively short (6 weeks in June and July) so we were happy to buy them earlier this week, for a reasonable price. Last year they were incredibly expensive because of a very poor harvest. Ask your greengrocer for Field Peas and explore another forgotten vegetable. One that has been around for over 7000 years!

Fresh Field Peas are tasty, sometimes a bit dry and should be eaten young. Best is to combine them with rich flavours and butter or oil. We could imagine adding Satureja to a dish with Field Peas. We combined the peas with bacon and served them with Boudin Blanc and mustard.

Wine Pairing

A not too complex red wine will be great with the rich flavours of this dish. We enjoyed a glass of Rioja made by Campo Viejo. The wine is made with tempranillo grapes. It’s an aromatic, fairly bold, dry red wine with pleasant tannins. 

What You Need
  • 500 grams of fresh Field Peas
  • Olive Oil
  • 100 grams of Bacon
  • Black Pepper
  • (optional) Boudin Blanc and French mustard
What You Do
  1. Shell the peas
  2. Cook or steam the peas 5 minutes or until al dente
  3. Drain and let cool
  4. Add olive oil to a warm heavy iron skillet
  5. Add peas and bacon to the pan and fry on medium heat for 10 minutes
  6. Stir to combine the flavours
  7. In parallel fry the boudin blanc
  8. Add black pepper and serve with French mustard
A dish with fresh Field Peas, Bacon and Boudin Blanc ©cadwu
Fresh Field Peas ©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

Pear Pie with Frangipane

29 May 2025

Juicy, sweet ripe pears, frangipane and a crunchy crust, what more can you ask for! This very tasty pear pie is not difficult to make. The only challenge is finding ripe pears. The juicer the better!

Frangipane is a classic from the French pâtisserie and was first mentioned in 1652 by François Pierre (de) La Varenne. His recipe for Tourte de Franchipanne describes a crust made with puff pastry and a filling with what we would call crème pâtissière, enriched with crushed pistachios and almonds.
In her book Tarte Tatin, Ginette Mathiot includes a recipe for Strawberry Frangipane. Same approach, but with crushed almonds only.

The current Larousse Gastronomique takes a different approach by beating sugar and butter until creamy (beurre pommade in French), then adding the eggs, one at a time, and the almond flour. No cooking required. Our approach is fairly similar, we combine soft butter, sugar and almond flour and then add the beaten egg.

Obviously, the recipe provided by Varenne is for a rich sauce whereas the second method is about making a paste, which is very suitable for a Pear Pie.

What You Need
  • For the Crust
    • 50 grams of White Caster Sugar
    • 100 grams of soft Unsalted Butter
    • ½ Egg (beaten)
    • 1 gram of Salt
    • 150 grams of All Purpose Flour
    • Cold Water (optinal)
  • For the Frangipane
    • 50 grams of Almond Flour
    • 40 grams of Sugar
    • 40 grams of Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
    • One Egg
    • Lemon Zest (optional)
  • For the Filling
    • 4 Ripe Pears (Williams, Bartlett, Conference)
  • For the Coating
    • Apricot Jam
    • Water
What You Do
  1. Start by making the dough
  2. Combine sugar and butter. Use a hand mixer with kneading hooks
  3. When mixed, add halve of the beaten egg
  4. Combine salt and flour
  5. Pass through a sieve and add to the mixture
  6. (optional) add some baking powder if you want a crispier crust)
  7. Use the kneading hooks to mix
  8. If the dough is too dry, add some cold water
  9. It’s ready when the pastry comes together in a ball that doesn’t stick to the surface
  10. When done, remove from the bowl and wrap in foil. Store in the refrigerator for at least two hours. The dough freezes well, so it’s a great idea to make a bit extra
  11. Now make the frangipane
  12. Combine almond flour, sugar and butter. Beat until fluffy
  13. Add the beaten egg
  14. Mix
  15. (optional) Add lemon zest
  16. Transfer to the refrigerator
  17. Preheat the oven to 180 °C or 355 °F
  18. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and use it to line a 16 cm (6 in) tin. Best is 2 millimetres
  19. Transfer to the refrigerator and leave for 30 minutes
  20. Prick the pastry with a fork, to prevent air bubbles forming during baking
  21. Add the frangipane to the pastry case and spread evenly
  22. Peel and slice the pears, add on top of the frangipane
  23. Transfer to the oven for 30 – 40 minutes or until golden
  24. Use a fork to combine apricot jam and water, ratio 4:1
  25. Warm the apricot mixture
  26. When the pie is still warm, coat with the apricot mixture
PS
  • We made the crust with pâte sucrée, or sweet shortcrust pastry. The result is a flaky, crumbly crust. You could also use (ready-made) puff pastry or pate sablée. Adding a few grams of baking powder is an option when you want a lighter, crispier crust.
  • When we first saw a recipe for frangipane with pistachios, we wondered if that would be a good idea. Now that we have read the 1652 recipe, we will definitely give it a try.
Pear Pie ©cadwu
Pear Pie ©cadwu

Asma Khan Wins Johannes van Dam Prize

25 May 2025

The Johannes van Dam Prize 2024 was won by Indian British chef, cookbook author and restaurant owner Asma Khan. In 2012 her restaurant started for 12 guests at her home, serving food cooked from traditional family recipes. Today her all-female Darjeeling Express restaurant in London offers Indian Rajput and Bengalihome cooking specialties. On her current menu are dishes such as Chicken Momis (dumplings served with smoked chillies sesame chutney) and Badami Baingan (aubergine with coconut, peanut and tamarind). Sounds delicious!

Prize

The Johannes van Dam Prize is a lifetime achievement award for an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the world of gastronomy. Previous winners of the prestigious prize include Yotam Ottolenghi, Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, Claudia Roden, Jeroen Meus and Alain Passard. The prize giving ceremony used to be part of the Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food, but for reasons unknown to us it was decided to separate the two events. As a result, the prize giving event in 2024 with Asma Khan was relatively small and went by hardly noticed. A pity.

Cookbook

We bought her cookbook Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul. ‘An entrancing book’, according to Nigella Lawson. We were impressed by the great stories and of course the recipes. Over the coming weeks we will prepare some of the dishes and ask our review panel to taste the flavours of Asma Khan’s kitchen.

Join us!

Please join us in preparing one (or more) of her dishes. You could buy the book, look at her recipes as published by the BBC or these recipes published by Great British Chefs or these from the Foodnetwork.
Post about it on your blog and ping back, track back, share or re-post.

Let’s enjoying Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul!

Ammu by Asma Khan
Ammu by Asma Khan