Calendar DUTCH FOOD

About Dutch calendar

This calendar “DUTCH FOOD” would not have been possible without the incredible support of:

Marijse Hofstede and Cunera Greveling for taking the time to not only photograph the bitterballen and gevulde speculaas but even creating the special orange tompouce for this occasion. Michiel Verheugd  for providing the setting in which to eat the bitterbal, follow us on Facebook to see the result.

Mieke de Bruin  for the photo of the mussels she prepared. Gonny Spaans-Koenen for arranging not only this picture but being a consultant all the way on how to prepare these Dutch dishes. Leny Meijerink for supplying the Dutch sausage for the pea soup and boerenkool. But this boerenkool (farmers cabbage or kale) would not even have been possible without our own personal supplier: colleague Bob. A boerenkool show model from his garden we are using to promote this vegetable among our network of farmers in Ukraine.

Also a thank you to Eva Peek who wrote all the short stories and recipes during her internship at the Embassy.

We hope you will enjoy the Dutch food!

The recipes will be published monthly on the Embassy’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DutchEmbassyUkraine/. Please share your photos of the dishes prepared with these recipes in the comments to our posts.

January - Split pea soup / Erwtensoep

Looking for a winter soup but tired of Borsh? Traditional Dutch split pea soup is the way to go. This recipe has kept the Dutch warm during winters for centuries now. Do not be surprised if the soup turns out so thick your spoon can stand upright in it. That means you did it right.

On a trip to Holland you can order the soup in one of our traditional brown cafes or next to an ice skating rink. You’ll also be offered a cup if you participate in the famous ‘new year’s dive’, when hordes of Dutch people run into the ice cold North Sea to start off the year fresh and well. But of course you can bring a bit of Holland to your kitchen by making it yourself.

Do not worry if you cannot find the green split peas, yellow ones will work just fine. And If you really want to go Dutch all the way, eat it with rye bread topped with some typical Dutch smoked bacon, katenspek.

INGREDIENTS

300 g dried green split peas

1 stock cube (vegetable pork or chicken)

1 potato, 1 onion, 2 celery sticks, 3 carrots, 1 leek, 100 g celeriac

1 smoked sausage, 1 pork chop, 100 gr bacon

DIRECTIONS

1. Boil 1,75 l water with split peas, stock cube and bacon softly for 45 min.

2. Add vegetables to the broth, cook for 30 min, add water when necessary. Add sausage for last 15 min. Then remove both sausage and bacon, slice and set aside.

3. Puree the soup as you like. Add pepper and salt. Add the meat again, serve with chopped celery leaf.

February - Kale / Stamppot boerenkool

There is no denying it, Dutch people love to mash their food. Stamppot literally means ‘stomped pot’, and there are endless variations to it. Kale (or ‘farmers cabbage’) just might be the tastiest of them all.  Although people like to think this dish has been around for ages, it is actually only in the 20^th century that the Dutch started to really mash everything together. The way older version with merely mixed ingredients is hutspot, which can be traced back to as early as the 16^th century.

Nowadays it serves as the perfect winter dish since the kale does not only withstand cold, but actually tastes better and sweeter after a night of frost. In Ukraine it’s not so easy to get though. That’s why our embassy colleague Bob grows some in his garden. Too much of a hassle for you? Maybe it’s worth a try, given its nutritive qualities we believe this dish might be the reason the Dutch are the tallest people in the world. In Ukraine you can find the locally produced kale which is called “кейл”or «кучерява капуста», it is already known as “Super Food”.

INGREDIENTS

1,4 kg potatoes

2 onions, 1 bay leaf

450 g kale

450 g smoked sausage

1/2 cup milk, 2 tbsp butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut and slice the vegetables. Put the potatoes on the bottom of the pan and put the kale on top of the potatoes.

2. Add the bay leaf, cover with water and boil gently for 20-30 min.

3. Meanwhile boil or heat the sausage.

4. Remove the bay leaf, drain and mash the vegetables with butter and milk.

Add salt and pepper, serve with slices of sausage.

March - Dairy lunch

Dutch lunch culture is never easy explain to anyone who did not grow up with it. Don’t expect a hot meal, let alone more than one course. Actually there’s not much of a difference between lunch and breakfast. 80 percent of Dutch people state they prefer to eat slices of brown bread – boterhammen – with cheese, accompanied by a glass of milk. Lunches mostly do not last over 30 minutes. A symbol of Dutch stinginess or the secret to Dutch efficiency? Maybe a bit of both.

It may sound like a meager meal, but at least the cheeses are world class. Archeological findings suggests cheese was already made in Holland in prehistoric times. Nowadays Gouda and Edammer cheese are among the most famous of the world, and you may stumble over more than one cheese museum while here. So who needs a hot meal if you can enjoy Dutch dairy every day?

INGREDIENTS

Bread

Good Dutch cheese

A glass of milk

Butter for on the bread

Yoghurt with fruits of choice

April - Tompouce

The tompouce is an iconic Dutch pastry, usually served at birthday parties. It is basically cream between two layers of puff pastry, with pink icing on top. It may not look extremely festive with its straight brick-like form, but this straightforwardness is actually its charm. No frills or extravagant cake decorations needed, a simple design and good quality is what the Dutch like in their food, as in their lives. It’s no coincidence that Holland’s most beloved sayings goes: ‘act normally, that’s crazy enough.’

So it’s a bit ironic that it’s not that easy to act normally when eating a tompouce. There has yet to be found a way to eat it without making a mess, although it helps to turn it on its side. The scarce times you will find a non-pink tompouce are around Kingsday on April 27th, and around important matches of the Dutch national football team. The icing turns orange, and during those days you will not see any restrained ‘normalcy’ in Holland. Bring your most extravagant orange outfit, and join in on the many exuberant street parties. 

INGREDIENTS

Pastry: ready-rolled puff pastry and 1 beaten egg white

Custard: 250 ml milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 egg yolks, 40 g sugar, 1 lemon zest, 2 tbsp corn flour.

Glaze: 100 g powdered sugar, 1 beaten egg white, 1 lemon zest and 1/2 tsp juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Pastry: preheat the oven to 205 °C, cut the pastry puff into rectangular pieces, brush with egg white and bake 10-15 min.

2. Custard: beat the egg yolks with sugar and lemon zest to foam, add corn flour and few tbsp of warm milk. Whisk. Then softly heat the rest of the custard ingredients, add the egg mixture and whisk until it is thick.

3. Glaze: whisk all ingredients for 5 min.

Put everything together and enjoy!

May - White Asparagus

Asparagus

Who doesn’t love the asparagus, the queen among the vegetables, the famous ‘white gold’? Dutch asparagus are always a treat. And the fact that they can only be served during the asparagus season that lasts just two months, only adds to their appeal. In earlier times, the asparagus was considered a medicine against problems like toothaches and heart conditions. Nowadays the Dutch eat them with ham, a soft boiled egg and melted butter.

One Dutch painter was especially inspired by the asparagus. 17^th century master of still lifes Adriaen Coorte got famous with no less than seven paintings of the tasty vegetable. If you want to cook them yourself and add an extra efficient Dutch touch, use the pealing of the asparagus to make soup. That way you get two dishes out of one vegetable, and reduce food waste.

INGREDIENTS

2 kg white asparagus

1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp butter

1 egg and a slice of ham

 DIRECTIONS

1. Clean and peel the asparagus, cut off the bottom inch.

2. Put the asparagus in a pan of water, the amount so that you will not cover the heads of the asparagus, add the butter, sugar and salt, bring to boiling point, lower the heat and cook till they’re tender.

3. Garnish with the ham and egg, serve with some melted butter.

Simple as that.

Watch our video with more spring asparagus recepies: https://youtu.be/7286FDaBYgw

June - Herring

Soused Herring / Haring

Some say the soused herring is an ‘acquired taste’, but the Dutch swear by it. You could argue it is the most typical Dutch snack out there, from the way it reflects our relation to the North Sea to our not so subtle manner of eating it. If you want to jump right into this tradition, there is no better time to do so then at the beginning of June. Not only is the herring of the highest quality, you can even attend actual herring eating parties.

Every year the Dutch celebrate ‘Little-Flags-day’. The first newly caught fish is welcomed into the port of Scheveningen, the first barrel is auctioned off for charity and the herring eating feast commences. The way to prepare it is rather simple. The herring is frozen and kept in salt for a couple of days, to ripen it. The herring is thus, contrary to popular belief, not really raw. This practice was already used in the Middle Ages. Then the herring is served with cut onions. Simple as that! So how do you eat it? Hold the fish by its tail, dip it in the onions, tilt your head backwards and let the slippery fish slide right into your mouth. Dutch culinary culture at its finest.  

INGREDIENTS

Traditional Dutch herring

Onions and pickles

DIRECTIONS

Cut the onions. Then, as explained above, hold the fish by its tail, dip it in the onions, and just go for it.

July - Mussels

Mussels are our beloved black gold: healthy, tasty, fun to eat and served in beautiful big black mussel pan. Did you know that one ounce mussel meat contains more protein than one ounce of beef, and only a mere quarter of the calories and much less fat? Something to chew on. The season for mussels runs from July to April, and they are most famously caught in Zeeland, specifically in the village of Yerseke. On the third Saturday of August, they even celebrate their own mussel day there! Mussel day has it all: a carnival fair, marching bands, a chance to tag along on a special mussel ship, fireworks, and naturally loads and loads of mussel eating.
If you look at the figures, it is understandable the people from Yerseke feel that mussels deserve a good party. The mussel is the most important product from Dutch shellfish farming, and Yerseke is the epicenter of mussel sales of all Northwest Europe. They process around 90 million kilos of mussels per year, of which over 50 million come from Dutch waters. And maybe the Dutch also love mussels so much because it is one of few foods that are orange? Not all of them are, and all mussel sellers will tell you the white ones taste just as good because it’s just a matter of pigmentation. But as you can imagine, we at the embassy prefer the orange ones.

INGREDIENTS
2 kg mussels ( 1 kg per person)
2 onions
3 carrots
1 leak
Parsley
Bayleaf
250 ml white wine
Sauces
Baquette

DIRECTIONS
1. Only use those mussels which are closed after you have washed them.
2. Cut the vegetables and put them in a pan together with the mussels, parsley, bay leaf and wine. Cook for about 5-8 min till the mussels have opened. Shake the pan now and then.
3. Take out the mussels which are still closed and throw away.
4. Serve the complete pan with mussels just like that on the table with different sauces, bread and French fries.

Special thanks to Mieke de Bruin for this photo!

August - Cauliflower couscous

Most of the dishes on this calendar represent traditions that go back hundreds of years. But make no mistake, modern day Dutch food culture is anything but old fashioned. The new movement ‘Dutch Cuisine’ draws on our culinary memory to propel our food culture into the 21st century. It strives to be healthy, of high quality, sustainably produced, and always from the principle ‘less is more’.  The special focus is on vegetables: every dish should consist of 80% vegetable and 20% meat or fish, and as much as possible based on what the season brings. It strives to use what nature offers us from head to tail to reduce food-waste, and as much as possible cook with high quality local, fair-trade products.

Inspired by this movement, we made a dish with cauliflower as our central vegetable.  We also added a second important trait of modern Dutch cuisine, namely its connection to other culinary cultures. Throughout the ages, Dutch cuisine has always been an extremely adaptive, influenced by an ever changing mix of cultures. As a tribute to the Moroccan community in the Netherlands and its contribution to Dutch culture, we made cauliflower-couscous: modern, easy and healthy. You can visit http://dutch-cuisine.nl/  to get your own inspiration from this approach to food and cooking, which in its aesthetics of sobriety stands in the tradition of Dutch design, Dutch architecture and Dutch fashion.

INGREDIENTS

1 cauliflower, seasonable vegetables,  greens, brynza, dressing

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut half of cauliflower in slices of 2 cm, rub with oil and roast in oven (175 °C) for approx. 25 min on both sides.
2. For the couscous blend the rest of cauliflower to the size of couscous or rice, fry for 2 min.
3. Add all the seasonable vegetables you like such as different tomato varieties, cucumber and sweet pepper, greens (dill, parsley, mint etc) and mix with a dressing (orange & lime juice, honey, oil) through the cauliflower couscous.
4. Add Brynza or another soft cheese to your taste.

Enjoy!

September - Appeltaart

A lot of countries have their apple pie recipes, but we are proud to say the Dutch version is the best one. And if you do not believe us, take it from US president Clinton. He once visited a Dutch brown cafe in Amsterdam, and was so in love with his one piece he asked if he could take the entire pie home. We know the recipe has a long tradition in the Netherlands because a version of it can be found in the first Dutch language cookbook ever, stemming from 1514.

You know you have encountered a Dutch apple pie when it has good thick crust made from sand dough, a rich filling of apples and raisins and a dough-made raster on top. You can get it in almost every Dutch café, but it’s also extremely popular with many home baking aficionados: it’s simple, and since apple harvest season starts in September it’s a great way to comfort yourself with the passing of summer. It’s also the one exception to our infamous ‘one cookie rule’. Our Queen herself, from Argentinian descent, expressed slight horror over her discovery that Dutch people only serve their guests one cookie to go with their coffee. But if you visit someone in September, you might get lucky and be offered coffee with a point of warm apple pie, and who knows, even some whipped cream on the side…

INGREDIENTS

Dough: 300 g flour, 200 g butter, 150 g sugar, pinch of salt, 1 egg

Filling: 1 kg apples, lemon juice, 2 tsp cinnamon, 50 g sugar, 50 g dry raisins

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix flour, sugar, butter, and 3/4 of the egg, knead it into dough and leave in the fridge for an hour

2. Cut the apples, sprinkle with lemon juice, mix with cinnamon, sugar and raisins

3. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Cover baking tin with 60% of the dough, fill it with the apples.

4. Make a grid on top with the rest of the dough, and brush it with the left 1/4 of egg. Bake for about 60-70 min.

October - Hutspot

We know, hutspot is not exactly the most photogenic dish on the menu. But bear with us, its historical significance is beyond compare and there is hardly any dish with such a patriotic story attached to it. It all goes back to the night of the 2nd of October, in 1574 in the city of Leiden. It was during the Eighty Years' War, when the Seventeen Provinces of what are today the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg revolted against Philip II of Spain, a war that would last from 1568 till 1648. At the start of that October of 1574, the inhabitants of the city of Leiden were hungry and desperate. In May the city had been sieged by Spanish troops and after two months the city had run out of food, thousands of Leidenaren starved to death.

But the night of 2nd of October, the army of Watergeuzen, “Sea Beggars”, led by prince of Orange Willem the Silent came to the rescue. They broke the dikes, sailed to the city and made the Spanish troops flee for their lives. The flight was so hastily that they left their pots with carrot and parsnip-stew cooking on the stove. As this was the first real food the people of Leiden tasted in a long time, it made such an impression that to this day, they still eat it on the 3 October festival, in celebration of the ‘relief of Leiden’. Of course, as with any tradition, it underwent some significant changes over the years. We now eat it with potato instead of parsnip, although potato only gained popularity in the 19th century. But why would we let historical facts spoil the fun. It just has the flavour of victory over Spain. And especially after our traumatic loss in the world cup final in 2010, we like to taste as much of that as we can.

INGREDIENTS 6 large peeled and quartered potatoes                                               

9 large peeled and diced carrots

4 large peeled and sliced onions

500 g sliced beef roast, 8 black peppercorns

500 ml of water, 1/2 beef bouillon cube

1 bay leaf, 1 tbsp of flour dissolved in 1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS

1. Dissolve bouillon in water, add the meat, bay leaf, peppercorns and braise on low heat for 1-2 hours until the meat is tender.

2. Remove the meat, bay leaf, peppercorns and mix the dissolved flour with the remaining juices. Stir and increase the heat until the gravy thickens. Pour it over the meat.

3. Cover the potatoes with water, add salt, carrots and onions. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, lower the heat and boil 20 min. Remove and set aside the water. Mash it all, add cooking liquid if needed.

November - Bitterballs

Bitterballs / Bitterballen

How to even begin to explain a bitterbal? Imagine a croquette, but small and round. The literal translation would be "bitter balls," but don’t worry, the taste is in no way bitter or harsh. Their name comes from the tradition of serving them with bitters, strong alcoholic bitter drinks such as jenever – Dutch gin. In reality however they are nowadays more often served as a beer snack, usually with some mustard on the side. You can order them in any Dutch café, on its own as well as part of a selection of fried finger foods, called bittergarnituur. Clinically speaking you could describe them as balls of deep fried ragout. 

But really, they are so much more than that. More than any other food, this meat snack is associated with the typical Dutch ‘gezelligheid’ you might have heard of. This vague notion of fun, cosiness and togetherness that defies translation. You can find gezelligheid at a typical Dutch birthday party, where everybody sits around in a circle of chairs, drinking coffee and tea from 14h till 17h. A colleague can be gezellig or, if he goes off to lunch on his own, particularly ongezellig. The way you decorated your apartment should be gezellig. And when you share bitterballs with someone over a beer and it’s STILL not gezellig, something is clearly wrong. The only way to truly understand the meaning of bitterballs however, is of course to try them yourself. Get your frying pan out, buy some mustard, and be ready for gezelligheid to come your way.     

INGREDIENTS 

Roux:  1 stick butter, 1 cup flour

2 cups shredded, cooked beef, 3 cups beef broth

1 chopped onion, 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Breading: 1 cup flour

2 eggs (beaten)

1-2 cups bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt butter, gradually add flour, slowly add broth, keep stirring till it thickens. Stir in the onions, parsley, beef, and cook until it’s thick gravy. Add salt and pepper. Keep it in fridge for few hours to solidify. 

2. Roll the solid gravy into small balls and roll them through the flour, egg mixture and breadcrumbs. Put them in the fridge.

3. Take a saucepan and heat enough oil to cover the bitterballen. Fry them golden brown and serve with mustard.