Categories for Food

One of the new vegetables in springtime is asparagus. Here in the Netherlands they are mostly grown in Limburg, a province in the south eastern part.

I just read the wikipedia page i’ve linked to, and it does seem that it’s almost exclusively eaten in the north western part of Europe. Please correct me if i’m wrong. The countries mentioned in the wikipedia post are: Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.

I’ve grown to love asparagus. I do love green and white, but yes, i do prefer the white ones in springtime. There are many recipes for asparagus, most of them not very complicated. You can add a nice ham, or salmon, or boiled eggs which are finely sliced. The asparagus itself is quite tender. You do need to break of the lower part of it and peel it close towards the top. I use the peelings and lower buttons in the water while i get it to boil before i add the asparagus itself.

The potatoes i skin and boil for around 20 minutes. I used Roseval, a good waxy potatoe ideal for this recipe. I also use herbs, in this recipe some flat leaf parsley and chives.

The hollandaise sauce i made is easy. It’s a sort of mayonaise with melted butter. An egg yolk, some white wine vinegar, a bit of mustard, salt and pepper are first whisked together. Then the melted butter is slowly added and whisked at the same time.

It is a light and a bit sweet recipe. Wonderful!

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It was a drab, grey, stormy, dreary sunday. The windows were wet the entire day. Some bords on my little balcony fell over. I did very little. I watched some sunday morning tv. I listened to some music. I cooked paella.

This evening i watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I have seen it before. Some parts were entertaining. I did enjoy the fight!

I’ll leave you with the paella recipe. My apologies for the out of focus pictures. It’s a nice recipe, which you can adjust to your liking.

Bye bye!

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Apart from preparing the beetroots and cooking the potatoes, this is a quick salad to make! The combination of beetroot and feta is great. The potatoes are optional. They do make a more filling salad. If you don’t have potatoes, a slice of toasted bread can be served alongside.

I do like to bake my own beetroot. It’s easy, you wrap it in tinfoil and put it in a hot oven for an hour. If you want, you can buy the already cooked beetroots in the supermarket, but you should try baking your own, it does taste better!

You may use the regular deep purple red beetroots like i did today. But you can also use the yellow beetroots. You may use the chioggia beetroots, but i do prefer these rasped raw in a summer salad. It leaves the color rings intact.

It’s hard to imagine someone not liking the taste of beetroot. I do love it myself. But, if you really don’t like beetroot, i’m sorry. I can’t think of another vegetable taking the place of beetroot. Better skip this recipe if you really can’t stand it!

Ingredients salad

• 1 beetroot
• 2 potatoes
• around 80 grams of feta
• a handful of rocket salad
• 1 -2 spring onions

Ingredients dressing

• vinegar, white or red wine or apple
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 – 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of mustard
• fresh thyme, picked loose
• salt
• pepper

Preparation

1. wash the beetroot, wrap it loosely in tin foil and bake for an hour in a 200°C warm oven
2. after around 40 minutes, wash the potatoes and cook them for the remaining 20 minutes
3. press the garlic, put all the ingredients for the dressing in a small bottle and shake the dressing
4. put the rocket in a bowl
5. slice the spring onions and add
6. slice the feta and add
7. slice the potatoes and the beetroot and add
8. drip a few tablespoons of the dressing over the salad and toss the salad a bit
9. eat!

An easy recipe, and this time i got it from the BBC website. I bought the rhubarb last tuesday at the Meiden. It’s a lovely thin pink rhubarb, nothing like the tougher, broader and darker sticks you can get in summer. I couldn’t resist getting some!

This is a real easy recipe you can simply make during the week while you make your dinner. Or anytime you want to basically.

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I never made meatballs like these until a couple of weeks ago. These are the proper large meatballs which i used to get at home. I had a sandwich with a meatball at the frietshop Fritez here in Rotterdam. I did ask for the recipe for the meatballs when talking to the cook there. She told me you need to first bake them, then add a broth and slowly simmer them. So i decided to make meatballs myself, and hey, i’m turned into a fan! Especially since i discovered the minced beef at the butcher Mellegers close to my home. Where i got told the AH supermarket sells that kind of minced beef as a tartaar, which is sort of a chopped steak. I didn’t ask what sort of meat is inside the minced beef sold at the AH, it does scare me a bit. My advice, get some good minced beef!

The mash is simple. Just a couple of root vegetables cooked together. Then some butter, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. I should get a proper potato crusher. The one i had has broken down. I use a masher now. The mash is not as finely crushed, but still pretty good!

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Today i’m making soup, a sort of minestrone with a sort of pistou. I did look up some recipes in my soup recipe book and did use it as inspiration. This is what i picked out today. It will last me for four days, at least.

I bought most of the ingredients today. Some i already had. Some i forgot! Like the parmesan cheese for the pistou. But i do think i can manage without.

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