Chicken Ragout/ Kip met Kerriesaus (Dutch Chicken Curry)

This chicken with curry sauce is one of many Indonesian-Dutch dishes that have become part of Dutch cuisine. Served over white rice, this dish has a mild, creamy flavor. The chicken mushroom curry sauce freezes well and can be served over freshly cooked rice. This recipe was one of my mom's favorites growing up, and was what she cooked for her parents on their visit to her first apartment in Davis, California in the late 1960s.

Ingredients
Medium fryer chicken (save the fat and cuttings for stock)
3 cups mushooms
½ cup butter
2 cups stock
½ cup flour (approximately)
chicken boullion cube
curry powder
ginger powder
paprika
salt and pepper

Fry chicken over medium flame in butter, salt and pepper.

Bake with a bit of water for 1- 1 ¼ hrs at 300°F, basting at the beginning and throughout.

Start the sauce by preparing a stock with the chicken wings and other extras in water on low for several hours.

Sauté mushrooms in butter and set aside.

Remove chicken from oven when tender, let cool slightly and cut into small pieces.

Make a mixture of butter, a little stock, a little flour, alternating stock and flour as needed.

Add curry, ginger powder and paprika to chicken and mushrooms and simmer with sauce a few minutes to combine.

Serve over rice.

(Use chicken stock from a box or can to save time and sanity.)

Erwtensoep Recipe – Traditional Dutch Pea Soup

“Air-ten-soop.” A staple of traditional and modern Dutch cooking, erwtensoep is the perfect way to warm up on a rainy afternoon. In Holland, erwtensoep is often served with rye-bread covered in butter or mustard with thinly sliced ham. This recipe is from my Oma.

Ingredients
3 ½ cups dried split peas
8 cups water to start
ham bone or spare ribs
hunk of bacon/ham and/or kielbasa sausage (or other smoked sausage)
2 leeks
2 - 3 potatoes
3 - 4 stalks celery, diced
1 medium celery root, diced
1 - 2 carrots, diced
2 medium onions, chopped
bullion cube
salt and pepper

Soak the peas overnight.

Add water and salt into a large soup pot and simmer for one hour.

Add ham bone and bacon.

After another hour, add vegetables and simmer another 1 ½ to 2 hours, adding more water if soup becomes too thick.

Remove ham bone. Cut up ham/bacon and return to pot.

Add sausage and simmer another ½ hour.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Oma's Scones

Until I started this project, I had not eaten my Oma's scones since she passed away 23 years ago. When I baked these for the first time and smelled the sweet, warm tang of the lemon and raisin, the scent brought me back to afternoons with my Oma. We would sit together in the afternoon for Dutch tea time with a bowl of fresh-picket strawberries, tea, and warm scones.

The special secret of this recipe is the candied citrus peel - which you can buy or make yourself. I've put the directions for candied citrus at the end. I like to use mostly candied lemon peel with just a touch of orange peel. This is a large recipe, which halves easily. It makes a rich, dense scone great for tea time.


Ingredients
6 cups self-rising flour (or regular flour + 2 tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. salt)
2 cups white flour
2 sticks of butter
big slug of vanilla
2-3 tsp. cinnamon
4 oz. candied lemon/orange peel
1 lb. raisins
⅓ lb. currants
enough milk to hold it together


Combine dry ingredients in bowl.

Cut in butter with pastry cutter or two knives.

Add raisins, spices, vanilla and chopped candied citrus peel and stir.

Add milk and mix then knead dough for a few minutes with your hands.

Roll out and cut into squares.

Bake 10-13 minutes at 425°F.


Candied Lemon and Orange Peel

1 organic lemon or orange, washed
2 1/2 cups sugar

Peel the lemon or orange peel into strips using a vegetable peeler. Remove only the yellow zest, and not the white pith.

Combine the peels with 2 cups cold water in a small saucepan. Bring the water to a boil, then drain off the water.

Add 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar to the saucepan and mix to dissolve sugar.Add citrus peels back into the pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce and simmer on medium-low for about 10-15 minutes uncovered. Drain and let the peels cool.

Pour the last 1/2 cup sugar into a medium-sized bowl and add the peels, tossing to coat with sugar. Remove peels one at a time and shake to remove excess sugar. Store in airtight jar. The candied peels can be used immediately but will keep for several weeks.


Try this recipe and tell me what you think!

Poffertjes Recipe (tiny Dutch pancakes)

From my Oma
2 ¼ cups flour
10 grams yeast (7 grams is one yeast packet)
1 ¼ cups warm milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
¾ tsp. salt
butter for frying
*a poffertjes pan is required!

“Poff-er-chuz” Heat the milk until lukewarm. Mix the salt with the flour and make a well in the middle. Mix the yeast with a little lukewarm milk and let sit for five minutes. Then pour yeast mixture into the well, followed by most of the rest of the milk and the eggs. Stir to a thick, smooth batter. Add the rest of the lukewarm milk and vanilla and keep stirring. Cover the batter with a dampened cloth and leave in a warm place to rise for ½ hour to an hour.

Grease a special poffertjes pan with butter and heat over medium-high heat. Fill each of the wells of the pan just over half way with some of the batter and fry on both sides until golden brown. Squeeze bottles are wonderful for filling the wells without too much mess.

Serve with butter and powdered sugar, or jam, or syrup, or plain, or with chocolate syrup or anything you can think of that sounds delicious.

Where to get a poffertjes pan
(Available in cast iron or teflon - I recommend cast iron)

Dutch Epicure Shop:
http://dutchepicureshop.stores.yahoo.net/cairpopan.html

Little Dutch Girl Shop:
http://www.littledutchgirl.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2835

Dutch Connection Imports:
http://www.dcimports.com/kooppofpanho.html

Ebay: (search for poffertjes pan or ebelskiver pan)
http://www.ebay.com

You can also use a Danish Ebelskiver pan
Williams Sonoma:
http://www.amazon.com/Ebelskiver-Filled-Pancake-Pan-Williams-Sonoma-WS/dp/B001CJ7Y70

photo by Hans Dankers. Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.

Spreekwoorden

Ze kennen mekaar met een warme pannekoek belopen.
They live within a warm pancake's walk

Spreekworden (sprayk-worden) are Dutch proverbs. These sayings pepper daily conversation and some unique saying exists for almost any occasion. Food is both a physical and a metaphoric palette of culture - reflecting adaptations and hybrids of old traditions and new ingredients. For this reason, many of the hundreds of Dutch proverbs, are food-related. These sayings convey layers of Dutch cultural attitudes about everything from marriage to religion to human nature. Spreekworden reflect the experience of Dutch culture and the texture of daily life while registering opinion on the topic at hand. The pancake proverb above reflects both the common consumption of pancakes as well as the close proximity in which the people of the Netherlands live.