Great with mashed potatoes and red cabbage Hachee (pronunciation ɦɑʃeː or hashay) is a traditional Dutch winter dish with beef. It has an almost medieval flavour, because of the use of vinegar and peperkoek (something like gingerbread but not quite the same). Hachee can be served as a separate dish, but I have chosen to prepare an oven dish, with red cabbage and apple on the bottom…
Netherlands
Eggs with gooseberries
Straight to the recipe An odd but tasty dish Recently I published an article in the periodical De Boekenwereld (The Book World) on Roman Catholic recipes in the eighteenth-century cookery book De Volmaakte Hollandsche Keuken-Meid (The perfect Dutch Kitchen Maid). The indirect cause of that article was a recipe I published on Coquinaria a year ago, a Dish for Lent with prunes…
‘Gilt poverty’
Straight to the recipe A very simple recipe from ‘the first Dutch television cook’ The information on this page concerns the first decennium of Dutch television. Information on the rather obscure and unique Dutch broadcasting system can be found on wikipedia. There were several member-based broadcasting organizations, each with their own religious or political ideology. Mentioned below…
Traditional Dutch Banketletter
“Keep it simple: start with an I” The banketletter is one of the few traditional Dutch Christmas bakes, as most Dutch December bakes are actually done for the national children’s feast Sinterklaas on December 5th. Most people just buy it in the stores, and I must admit that it takes some work to make a…
Stockfish with peas, apple and raisins
Straight to the recipe An ode to dried food A very medieval tasting recipe. It’s an ode to dried food, except the onion all ingredients are dried. This makes it an excellent dish for end of winter. The recipe was meant for fishdays or for Lent. If you prepared it for a fishday you could use butter, but in Lent when…
Traditional Game Sauce
Made with left-over meat from game stock When preparing a concentrated game stock, there is sometimes enough meat from the bones to make a tasty sauce. I had six kilo (twelve pounds) bones of hare and deer. When I had strained the stock I had almost one kilo of cooked meat. Being Dutch, I wouldn’t think…
Black salsify with parsley sauce
Straight to the recipe A ‘forgotten’ vegetable There are two vegetables that look like asparagus once they’re peeled: salsify and scorzonera or black salsify. Both are winter vegetables, and both are the root of a plant, while asparagus is actually the stalk with the bud. According to Allan Davidson, salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius) is better known…
Red mustard the Roman way
Straight to the recipe This is not the first recipe for mustard on Coquinaria. The first mustard-recipe, from the fourteenth-century cookbook Le Ménagier de Paris, was published fifteen years ago. Mustard in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times is comparable to tomato ketchup or soy sauce in some restaurants: there is a bottle on…
Vol-au-vent with ragoût
An old-fashioned first course This used to be a traditional first course in many Dutch Christmas meals. The most common version: ready-bought vol-au-vents, heated in the oven, a can of ragout, heated on the stove. The ingredients of canned ragout: water (what it contains most of is mentioned first), and less than 20% meat. Not just…
Mashed potatoes and endives
A very Dutch summer fare This dish, boiled potatoes and uncooked endives mashed together, was the favourite dish of my mother. We still prepare it on her birthday and her date of death (twenty years ago). So, for my family and me this is an emotional dish. My mother preferred meatballs with it, but I…
Queen’s Soup
Cream of Chicken Soup the Dutch way Three years ago I published the historical version of this soup on Coquinaria, from a seventeenth-century French cookbook. For that soup you needed partridges and cockscombs (not mushrooms, but the real thing), so I do not expect many people to have prepared that soup. That may be completely…
Clareit
Straight to the recipe Spiced wine for warm summer evenings and cold winter nights Mulled wine is most often red wine with spices, served warm at Christmas. In the Netherlands we drink Bisschopswijn (‘bishop’s wine’), also a warm, spiced red wine, on Saint Nicholas Eve (5 December), and in Spain you can drink Sangria, cold red wine with…
Anchovy sauce
This recipe is from a manuscript that is kept in the Royal Library in The hague. It dates from around 1780. A transcription is in progress. The original recipe *wel vervarschd (well rinsed) – desalted by putting in water which has been changed regularly Modern adaptation of the recipe Butter sauce with anchovies can accompany…
Recipes for Dutch Santa Claus
In the Netherlands the birthday of Saint Nicholas – or Sinterklaas in Dutch – is celebrated on the eve of 5 December. It is mainly a feast for children, but when the children stop ‘believing’ the feast becomes even more fun. In my family we celebrate the Dutch equivalent of Secret Santa, which does not…
Speculoos ice cream
Can one enjoy ice cream during winter? Absolutely! This ice cream with speculoos is a great way to use left-over speculoos cookies from the celebration of Dutch Santa Claus. It can be served as a refreshing entremet between courses, and of course it is a great dessert – especially when accompanied by a glass of…