Leek is an easy vegetable, but needs often some decoration to make it tasty. Here is a nice recipe with Wasa crispbread that makes the rather dull leek into a crispy pie. An good handful of walnuts are recommended, however, it can be replaced or mixed with pecans, almonds or hazelnuts.

Ingredients

• 6 sheets of dough for savory pie
• 50 g butter
• 750 g leeks washed and sliced
• 100 g raw ham into strips
• 1 cup crème fraîche
• 200 g grated cheese, preferably pardano
• 50 g shelled walnuts
• 4 slices Wasa crispbread with sesame
• 3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

Leek pie with sesame crumb layer on a plate

Coat a greased cake pan (26-32cm) with the dough. Bake the leek for 5 minutes in 25 g butter. Mix the ham through it. Batter in a bowl the eggs with the crème fraiche and half of the cheese. Add the mixture to the leek.

Put the mixture in the cake pan and distribute it evenly. Bake for 15 minutes. Chop the nuts and crumble the crisp bread. Mix it with the remaining cheese. Spread it over the cake and put 25 g of butter flakes on top. Bake it for another 20 minutes.

Very nice!!!!

Breakfasts are different all around the world, which can vary from small plates to a whole menu as a start of the day. Next, not every Dutchman eats the same, so here a small collection of funky stuff for foreigners.

In general, Dutch people eat a lot of bread, for breakfast and for lunch, so let’s focus on that for this article. Though some like something salty on their slice of bread (bread is sliced or rather pre-sliced at the bakery), most go for sweet in the morning. As bread is almost always the same size, many products are pre-sliced as well and easy to put on your bread. Cheese and meat products are therefore always sold sliced.

• Pindakaas – Peanut butter … some love it, some don’t. This magic spread has made many grow tall and strong. It goes very well with: butter, hagelslag, sambal, cheese, jam and a spoon.
• Hagelslag – Sprinkles, who doesn’t want to have chocolate on his/her bread? Hagelslag comes in many variants, but is mostly referred to the chocolate sprinkles in: dark (puur), milk (melk), mixed of dark and white sprinkles (kwinkslag) and chocolate curls (vlokken). There are also sweet or fruity sprinkles and sprinkles made of anise, muisjes and anijshagel. Don’t forget to put butter or margarine on your bread or it will all fall off!
• Appelstroop – Apple butter is a concentrated apple syrup with a quite strong taste. Though often also pears or sugar beets are used in the process. It varies from brand to brand, but often tastes nowadays rather sweet to light sour.
• Kokosbrood – Coconut bread is a condensed form of grated coconut, which are sliced to the size of a cheque.
• Kaas – Cheese, the Dutch might not have as many variants as the French, but have nowadays quite some funky variants of the classic Gouda (pronounced as “G” something is stuck in your throat, “OU” like in someone stepped on your toes and “DA” like tadaah). Dutch cheeses range in ages from one month old to three years old: “Graskaas”, “Jong”, “Jong belegen”, “Belegen”, “Extra belegen”, “Oud” and “Overjarig”. Variants of cheeses are: Mosterdkaas with mustard seeds, Komijnekaas with cumin seeds, Sambalkaas with sambal (an Indonesian chili), Brandnetelkaas with stinging nettle, Friese nagelkaas with cumin and clove or Daslookkaas with ramsons / wild garlic.
• Ontbijtkoek – Breakfast cake is a sweet spiced cake. It has many spices in it and made of rye. For the ones that need a quick breakfast, take a slice of ontbijtkoek with a thick slice of butter.

Once we speak again about the cold, it is time for the first stew. Today was the ‘hutspot’ on the program and we had a delicious traditional Dutch meal made. The Holland primordial stew with sausages is very easy to make and warms the hearts of many Dutchmen. Actually, this dish is one in a row of similar dishes popular in the Netherlands, which all have in common that they feature mashed potatoes as the main ingredient. It is such a big part of the Dutch culture that Marcel got a special gift from his grandma when it was clear that he was not going stay in his home country for long: a masher.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg floury potatoes
• 1 kg carrots
• 500 gr onions
• 2 bouillon cubes
• 1 sausage
• 1 tbsp mustard

Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces. Peel the onions and cut into rings, peel the carrots and cut into small pieces. Boil the potatoes, carrots and onions with the boillon cubes for about 25 minutes until tender. Meanwhile, prepare the sausage according the instructions on the packaging. Allow about 10 minutes warming up in hot but not boiling, water. Drain the potatoes and vegetables, but save some liquid. Mash it all fine and add some of the liquid if it’s too solid. Add a chunk of butter and bring the stew to taste with salt, pepper and a nice scoop of mustard. Cut the sausage into slices and serve them together.

A friend of mine used to work for the German Chamber of Commerce somewhere in the world, far away from home. In spring, he was charged to organise the chamber’s annual asparagus dinner, which included the direct import of white asparagus from Germany. Unbelievable? No, because Germans are simply crazy about asparagus!

Well, even I cannot elude the phenomenon either. Even after having spent years abroad, which has marked me in so many ways, I realise every spring how damn much I am still German. The sight of white asparagus just makes my heart jump. Who would have guessed that?

Maybe my love for asparagus is also my (vegetarian) way of striking a truce with the German cuisine, which usually is very heavy on meat. Because when it comes to asparagus, I help myself just like my fellow citizens. So here it comes, the classic recipe with sauce hollandaise.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp water (or white wine)
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 tbsp orange juice
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 100 gr liquid butter
• some salt and cayenne pepper

It is very important to carefully peel the asparagus. Usually it is then bound together and cooked in boiling water with a pinch of salt, sugar and some butter for about 15 to 20 minutes, according to the thickness of the asparagus. A different method consists of placing some asparagus in aluminium foil and to let it cook in its own juice in the oven (180 °C) for about 30 minutes. Just add little butter and sugar, but watch out that the sugar doesn’t caramelize and the asparagus sticks to the foil.

To make the sauce you will need some experience. Mix the water with the egg yolks, the orange juice and the lemon juice and heat it up carefully in a double boiler. Stirr constantly with a wire whisk until the sauce becomes creamy. Be careful that the egg does not coagulate! If it does, a few drops of ice cold water might do the trick (keep mixing), but better safe than sorry! Flavor with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

There we were, on the last day of our stay in Paris we went to a cosy street-bistro in Montmartre for lunch. Inspired by a delicious bowl of salad, we tried to recreate this atmosphere. Luckily our basil plant has grown much into a little monster, thus we had to transform our hedge into an Italian speciality. Home-made pesto. When made by yourself, you kitchen should smell like a jungle of herbs.

Luckily we still had a very nice bottle from our former Parisian neighbours Marc & Emmanuelle, who have family that make this great Pineau des Charentes.

Ingredients

• 30 gr of basil
• 50 gr pine nuts
• 50 gr Parmigiano
• 75 ml olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• pinch salt & pepper

Put the basil, pine seeds, salt, pepper and garlic in a small blender and mix it for a full minute. Add the cheese and mix it well. Finally, pour slowly the oil in the running mixer.

Hummus, Arabic: حمّص‎, stands for chickpeas, which is the main ingredient of this dish. In this recipe the basic recipe is presented and can be used to make many different variations. This spread is easy to make and is great in summer time when having a pick-nick or just as an appetizer. It’s rather quick to make and should take maximally 15 minutes to make, but it’s every time a pleasure to make. The difficult part is only finding the Tahini (sesami paste) in your supermarket or Arabic convenience store.

The basic recipe is already good, but it definitely should be upgraded with a selection spices and other ingredients. Try to vary with your own selection and imagination.

Ingredients

• 1 small tin of chickpeas
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 lemon
• 5 tbsp Tahini
• pinch salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tsp ground cumin seed

1. Mix in a mixer the garlic fine and add the salt and ground cumin.
2. Add the washed chickpeas and leave the mixer for a minute on.
3. Add while mixing the lemon juice, water, olive oil and Tahini.

Variations

• 1/2 onion (add in step 1)
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley (add in step 2)
• 2 tbsp fresh coriander (add in step 2)
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper (add in step 3)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (add in step 3)
• 2 tbsp roasted sesame seeds (add in step 3)
• Beets

Ah, it’s again one of those days when you just don’t want to leave the house. It’s winter, and the rain is beating against the windows. Now, a good way to make yourself feel a lot better is to trust the power of a hot chocolate… however, with a little spicy twist.

Ingredients

• 600 ml milk
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 chili pepper
• 40 gr of cocoa powder
• 50 gr sugar
• 80 gr dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp Amaretto (optional)
• 1-2 tbsp starch

Bring the milk with the cinnamon stick to boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes. In the meanwhile, cut the chili pepper lengthwise and remove the seeds (wash your hands afterwards).

Stir the cocoa with the sugar into 100 ml milk until it’s smooth. Then mix it with the rest or the milk in the pot. Add the chocolate and let it melt. Finally, add some Amaretto if you like. Strain it and serve.

This is the first recipe with meat in it. It might not be surprising when you realize that one of the authors is vegetarian. Cooking with meat gives another dimension and in terms of tastes, no soy burger or carrot soufflé has ever replaced for me the unique qualities of a meat product. In the future I should give more recipes with meat in it, but don’t be surprised what you can do without.

The following recipe is a recipe from Bali, an Indonesian island. Once it was a colony from the Netherlands. Still in the Dutch supermarkets you can find many Indonesian products, which we will use in this recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 chicken wings
• 2 spring onions
• 1/2 tbsp palm sugar or maple syrup
• 1/2 cup Ketjap sauce or dark sweet soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp lime juice or lemon juice
• salt
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 serving of galangal
• 1 serving of ginger
• 1/2 stalk lemongrass
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 Thai chilies, chopped or 1 tsp tablespoons sambal oelek
• 2 star anise (opt)

Crush the spices with the blade of a knife in order to crack them.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the chicken and spices. Fry shortly the chicken for five minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients and 1/2 cup of water.

Cover and simmer 45 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Serve with white rice and tomato and avocado salad. This chicken is better reheated.

Fish in a package … a gift on your plate.

After being a week with my son and haven’t had any fish, once back I was longing to eat again a portion of Dutch fish. Cod is such a delicious fish that is not farmed, but caught in a fair manner.

Ingredients
For these cod packets you need for 2 people:

• 350 gr cod
• 1 onion into rings
• 1 clove garlic chopped
• 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 1/2 lemon sliced
• 2 sliced tomato
• 2 tbsp dry white wine
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Tear 4 pieces of baking paper and put them double.
Fry the onion and garlic gently in a bit of oil. Put this in the middle of the greaseproof paper and then lay the cod on it. Sprinkle with parsley and and the lemon slices. Then cut the tomato in slices over and drizzle with the wine. Wrap the package tightly and place them for about 20 minutes in the oven until the fish is cooked.

Serve with some rice and vegetables and of course an extra glass of dry white wine.

Bon appetit

This recipe came from my dear aunt. Although she calls it a strudel, she isn’t German. But that’s the beauty of cosmocooking. To dare to use ingredients from different countries and find nice combinations. So we mixed ricotta with feta, Parmesan cheese and dried apricots. This time the list of ingredients is a bit longer than usual. As you have to fold the mixture into small packages, she calls it a strudel, but we rather prefer to call it secretly Spanakopita.

Ingredients

• 3 shallots
• 100 g dried apricots
• 1 lemon
• 50 g pine nuts
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 300 g frozen spinach
• 1 egg
• 100 gr feta
• 200 gr ricotta
• 50 g grated Parmesan cheese
• salt, freshly ground pepper
• 8 sheets filo pastry

Preheat the oven to 190 °C (175 °C hot air). Peel and chop the shallots. Cut the apricots into cubes and hold 1 tablespoon separately. Wash and grate the lemon. Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet and keep 1 tablespoon separately. Fry the shallots in 2 tablespoons of oil. Cook the spinach 3 to 5 minutes with the shallots. Put the mixture in a sieve and press the moisture from the spinach.

Beat the egg, crumble the feta and mix it with ricotta, Parmesan cheese, apricot, pine nuts, lemon zest, salt and pepper and put it through the spinach.

Place 4 sheets of filo pastry next to each other, brush them with oil. Place on each sheet another sheet of filo pastry and brush again thin with oil. Spoon the spinach filling on the center of the sheet, fold the pastry over the filling and close to form a package and then place the dough seam down on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Brush the top of the packets with olive oil and bake in the oven for about 35 minutes browned. Arrange them on plates and garnish it with the withheld pine nuts and apricots.