vegetarian – Page 2 – Cook and Drink

Thank You Betty’s!

1 June 2024

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!

Caponata

4 April 2024

This very tasty dish originates from Sicily and is a mixture of chopped and fried vegetables. Eggplant (Aubergine), Tomatoes, Celery, rRed Onion and Green Olives are the main ingredients. The vegetables are prepared and served in an agrodolce sauce, so sweet and sour. Although we’re not keen on using sugar in a salad, in this case the combination of sugar and vinegar is perfect.
Perhaps the ingredients make you think of Ratatouille. Caponata and Ratatouille are very different dishes. Capanota is about fried vegetables, about crunchy celery, about sweet and sour.

Food and Wine Pairing

We served our Caponata with a roulade of pork with sage, rosemary, pancetta, black olives and black garlic. A dish we enjoyed with a glass of Barbera del Monferrato 2022, produced by Livio Pavese. In general, we suggest a full-bodied red wine with perhaps a touch of oak. Some acidity to balance the caponata and dark fruit (plums, blueberries).

The next day we served the Caponata with a roulade of chicken with pancetta, Parmesan Cheese and sage. A dish we enjoyed with a glass of Spätburgunder from the Pfalz area in Germany. In general, we suggest a medium bodied red wine with aromas of red fruit. Medium tannins and balanced acidity. Its taste dry, aromatic, fruity, juicy with a touch of strawberry.

You could also add some canned tuna (in olive oil) and serve the Caponata with crusted bread as a starter, perhaps accompanied with charcuterie and a glass of Crémant or Prosecco.

What you Need (recipe for 4)

2 Aubergines
400 grams excellent ripe Tomatoes
10 Green Olives
Capers
30 grams Tomato Puree
4 cloves of Garlic
4 small Red Onions
3 stalks Celery
Tablespoon of Caster Sugar
Tablespoon of White Wine Vinegar
Black Pepper.

What You Do

Best to prepare Caponata one day ahead.

Wash the vegetables.
Slice the eggplant lengthwise in 8 and then in chunks. Drizzle with salt and mix. Put the chunks in a sieve and let rest above a bowl for one or two hours.
Coarsely chop the onion.
Quarter the tomatoes. Remove the internal hard bits and the pits and put these aside. Slice the outer part of the tomato lengthwise in three.
Roughly cut the remainder of the tomatoes, add to a sieve and use the back of a spoon to capture the juices.
Coarsely chop the garlic.
Halve the olives.
Use a knife to peel the back of the celery stalks, or ribs. Slice.
Combine the tomato puree, black pepper, the caster sugar, the vinegar and the tomato juice.
Set your oven to 140 °C or 285 °F.
Discard the liquid of the eggplants, wash of the salt, dry with kitchen paper and fry the chunks in a generous amount of olive oil until golden.
Transfer to a baking tray in your oven.
Fry the onions and the celery until somewhat translucent. Add these to the baking tray.
Now add the olives, the capers, the garlic, the tomato mixture and the tomatoes. Mix. Perhaps add a splash of water.
Cover the baking tray with aluminium foil.
After 20 minutes it’s time to mix the vegetables. Check if you need to add extra water.
After another 20 minutes, remove and discard the foil, mix and increase the temperature to 160 °C or320 °F.
Now you need to keep an eye on the mixture. It may take 10 to 20 minutes for the liquid to somewhat evaporate, but you don’t want the dish to become dry.
When ready, let cool and transfer to the refrigerator.

Flammkuchen

15 February 2024

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.

Summer Truffle and Egg

1 September 2023

Only a few weeks to go before the end of the summer truffle season. A truffle with mild flavours and aromas but nevertheless great when used in cold dishes, such as truffle mayonnaise or a salad with chicory. We decided to go for a luxurious appetizer with an excellent glass of white wine. We bought 25 grams of truffle (and paid € 12,50) and enjoyed every minute of it.

Wine Pairing

A lightly oaked chardonnay with lots of character will be great with the summer truffle and egg. We opened a bottle of Casa da Passarella Dão A Descoberta Branco. An elegant Portuguese wine with lots of character. Fresh, aromatic, lasting.

What You Need

3 Eggs
Mayonnaise
25 grams of Summer Truffle
(optional) White Pepper

What You Do

Boil the eggs until nearly hard. Peel and allow to cool. Slice in halve, remove the egg yolk and use a fork to create mimosa. Grate half of the summer truffle, combine this with the mimosa and add some mayonnaise, just to get the right consistency. Perhaps some white pepper. Stuff the eggs, cover with cling foil and transfer to the refrigerator. After 2 hours decorate the eggs with thinly sliced summer truffle. Time to sit back, relax and enjoy summer.

Summer Truffle - Rippitippi / Public domain

Vegetable Stock

13 July 2023

It’s all too familiar, you’re reading a recipe, you like what you read until it says, “Use 250 ml home-made broth or dissolve a bouillon cube in 250 ml water”. Hm. The cube is not an option because it’s salty and salty only. Perhaps open a jar of (organic) fond made by Jürgen Langbein? Or make your own?

You only need four ingredients to make a very tasty vegetable stock: onion, leek, carrot and celery. The result is full of flavours, with a touch of sweetness, saltiness and length.

The combination of onion, carrot and celery is known as mirepoix in the French cuisine and as soffritto in the Italian kitchen. A classic when making a stew, a ragu or the aromatic base of a sauce. Adding leek to the combination makes it more complex and tastier.

The celery could be a bit confusing: should it be celeriac, the root (knob) or celery, the fibrous stalks? Some suggest using the root in winter and the stalks in summer. We suggest using the stalks in all cases. They are very aromatic and they bring saltiness to the stock, different from the root.

The stock freezes very well. We have two versions in our freezer, as ice cubes for sauces and small 250 ml containers for risotto, soup, a stew etcetera.
Problem solved!

What You Need

1 Large Onion
3 Celery Stalks
1 Carrot
1 Leek
1 Bouquet Garni (Parsley, Bay Leaf, Chives)
Black Pepper Corn

What You Do

Clean and chop the celery, the carrot and the onion
Add all ingredients, some crushed pepper corns and the bouquet garni (if using) to a pan with cold water
Allow to simmer for one hour
Pass through a sieve, taste and decide if you want to reduce the liquid
Use immediately or transfer to your freezer

PS

Three stalks of celery, you think, but what to do with the remaining ones? The answer is simple, chop the stalks, add to boiling water for 1 or 2 minutes, cool in ice water and freeze. They will be perfect for months. Ready to use as accompaniment with fish, with pork or as an ingredient of your mirepoix or soffritto. Or your vegetable stock, of course.

Pasta with Tomato Balls

3 July 2023

Recently we reviewed Oh She Glows for Dinner by Angela Liddon as part of the great cookbook review project by Bernadette. Angela Liddons aim is to create tasty, colourful, nutritious, vegan, simple, healthy, easy to make food that you can prepare in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, her book shows that this is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, we liked her idea for a burger with tomato-based patties. We changed the recipe and turned the dish into Pasta with Tomato Balls. It’s certainly a tasty, healthy and colourful dish, but not one you can make in a few minutes.