My cousin and her family and 2 friends visited Amsterdam for a day. They were on [...]]]> We had walked around all day, in the rain. We had visited places and were tired and hungry. The perfect situation to eat stamppot. The traditional Dutch dinner – hearthy, warming, and pretty dang tasty too!

My cousin and her family and 2 friends visited Amsterdam for a day. They were on their way from Portland to Kenia and had a 23 hour stop in Amsterdam. Perfect for a visit.

It was their first time visiting Amsterdam, so we had things to do and see. Especially since their heritage is Dutch and they’d found the address where my cousin’s husband’s grandpa had lived before his parents moved their family to the other side of the world.

So we went to the airport, picked them up, went to their hotel and then into town.

We strolled around, visited a museum (Our Lord in the Attic – an example of Amsterdam’s tolerance). We took a canal boat tour around the city and then visited the house where their family left to the US from. My cousin’s 2 kids and her husband touched the door their (great) grandpa had used.

The weather was typically Dutch fall. It was dark and rainy. However, this didn’t stop us. After all, them being from the Pacific Northwest, they are used to terrible weather.

By the end of the afternoon everyone was tired. They’d been up for about 24 hours (including the flight over). We took a tram to our home, where everyone sat down (and used the computer) and I cooked.

I made three different types of stamppot: boerenkool, zuurkool and andijviestamppot. Everyone enjoyed the food and company. After dinner (and dessert) we walked them back to the tram and got soaked again due to a massive shower that lasted the length of the walk to the tram stop — stupid Murphy!

I’m so glad we got to spend time with family and friends. I loved showing them around my city and their heritage. I was excited to be hosting a dinner for 8 at my home.

Yesterday was a great day!

(We spent more time eating, talking and having fun than thinking about photography, so the picture portrayed here is made by M.Minderhoud, found on wikipedia, and the boerenkool was probably made by him/her as well!)

Recipes for stamppot will follow throughout the winter. Some have already been posted before.

Thursday was moving day. At 8am the movers arrived at our old house and after a cup of coffee they started loading [...]]]>
As I’m writing this I sit at my kitchen table, in my new kitchen, with a stew cooking on the stove behind me. It’s wonderful.

Thursday was moving day. At 8am the movers arrived at our old house and after a cup of coffee they started loading our 120 boxes and some loose things and furniture.

Around 2 pm all our boxes were unloaded and we (and the movers) were sitting in our new backyard to rest a bit.

the move went super-smooth. At some point we started helping a tiny bit, but not even that much. IT was mostly us standing on different floors telling them ‘this goes there’.

The first thing I started unpacking, was the kitchen. At the same time L started working on computer and media stuff, so we could sit down and watch tv later that night. I got about half the boxes unpacked that evening and after that I just couldn’t do things anymore. I sat down on the couch, L joined me and we had a drink and watched some tv.

Saturday morning I went on unpacking the kitchen and started giving things more final places. It all worked out. Every cupboard is filled now. There aren’t any empty ones left (even though this kitchen is way bigger than my old kitchen) but that’s okay. Everything is nicely spaced out. No more lifting a stack of bowls and plates to get to that thing you need. Eventually we’re planning on buying a nice, old-fashioned, cabinet, in which we’ll have room for some more stuff. Also, later this week (probably) we’ll put shelves up in the pantry/laundry room we created, which means my stock-supplies move there and suddenly I should have some spare room in the cupboards.

I love love love my new kitchen. It’s just so spacious and nice. There’s room to move around. We can both stand there and walk around without bumping into one another. We don’t have to ask each other to scoot over to make it past the dishwasher. It’s just great.

While I was finishing the kitchen, L finished the bookcases. We have half a wall in our living room filled with bookcases. He even unpacked, sorted and placed the books already. Next Saturday my late grandma’s antique cabinet will arrive and moves into the living room as well and then we’ll be able to completely finish unpacking/decorating that room as well.

Then there’s our bedroom. That still needs a lot of work. We did put the shelves into the walk-in-closet today and I started unpacking the boxes of clothes. However, I just discovered I don’t have enough hangers, so I quit that and started cooking instead.

I love, love, love that I get to cook again. Since the reunion dinner, I hadn’t really done much cooking anymore. At least no chopping and adding tons of different fresh ingredients. With the closing on the house and then packing and moving, we just ordered in or got microwave meals. I made the occasional simple dish, like the chicken adobo, but that didn’t involve that much chopping either. I’ll tell you though, I really missed it!

So tonight, I’m making a stew. It’s fairly simple, but has tons of fresh veggies and a nice chunk of meat (which will be cut up after cooking. And I’ll set the table, with actual place mats and such and we’ll have the first fresh-cooked dinner in our new house.

It’ll be wonderful!

[print_this]New-kitchen stew (recipe feeds 4)

• big chunk of beef (brisket, rib roast or such, about 500 grams)
• 6 tomatoes
• 1 big onion, chopped
• some garlic (to taste), chopped
• 1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• your favorite stew/steak seasoning to taste
• a pinch of salt (pink himalayan preferred)
• 1 bouillon cube (or enough powder to make a quart)
• far to fry in (butter, oil, lard or a combination)
• flour for dredging and thickening
• A good pour of red wine (optional)
• water

Dredge the beef with flour and a bit of the seasoning. Place your fat in a Dutch oven (I use a combo of butter, lard and olive oil for flavor) and let it melt. Place the beef in the pan and brown it on both sides. Add the onion and the garlic. When the onion turns slightly glassy, pour in some wine (optional) and let it simmer for a minute or 2. Then add enough water to mostly cover the beef.

Get the liquid to a slow boil and add the green pepper and 2 of the tomatoes. Add the bouillon cube and let it simmer for close to an hour.

Taste the sauce and add salt to taste (the amount really depends on your seasoning and the amount of liquid you needed to cover your beef, if your seasoning has salt, wait until you serve to check it. You might not even need to add any, I used a salt free seasoning, so I needed a good pinch.)

Add the rest of the tomatoes and yellow and red pepper. Let it simmer for another 30 minutes or so, until the meat is very tender. Remove the meat and cut it into smaller chunks. Add the meat back into the pan.

In a small bowl combine 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour with some more seasoning and a some of the liquid from the pot. Mix well to avoid lumps. Add the flour mix to the stew to thicken it. Cook it for a couple more minutes, so it thickens and serve with some nice crusty bread.

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It’s traditionally eaten with smoked sausage and jus, with a possibility of added bacon bits.

See how I’m saying with jus and not with ‘au jus’. Yep. That might be my biggest pet peeve in English food-language. Seriously. Jus comes from [...]]]> Tonight we’re eating ‘boerenkool met worst’ or the traditional Dutch curly kale ‘stamppot’ (mash).

It’s traditionally eaten with smoked sausage and jus, with a possibility of added bacon bits.

See how I’m saying with jus and not with ‘au jus’. Yep. That might be my biggest pet peeve in English food-language. Seriously. Jus comes from juice and relates to the juices that come from the meat. Jus is the French word for juis, which explains people saying ‘au jus’. And saying ‘au jus is fine, if you want to give your meal a French name. Filet de boeuf au jus would be fine in my book. Chicken au jus would make me wonder why you’re combining the 2 languages, but whatever-food-you-might-choose ‘with au jus’ just drives me nuts. DO NOT SAY THAT! (Sorry, didn’t mean to yell.)

Really, seriously, total pet peeve. I get sincerely annoyed and refuse to answer when people ask me ‘do you make that with au jus’. No, I don’t make it with with-juice… I don’t know what with-juice is, geez, it’s made with jus, juice, from the meat, possibly in powdered form, sure, but juice, from meat, not with-juice, whatever that may be…

So that’s my pet peeve. Tell me yours!

And for a quick ‘recipe’ for jus.

Generally for something like curly kale mash, where there’s no meat roasting to generate jus, I just use the powdered stuff. But I enhance it. Since I like to add bacon bits to the boerenkool I start out by putting the cubed bacon in a pan to cook and melt a little. Then I add some lard and butter (or just butter if that’s all I have) to add a little extra grease. If I actually have time and am not in the process of packing everything and having the sniffles at the same time (yes, I have the evil cold from hell) I’ll fry some onion and garlic up. However, right now I just don’t have the time or room for that.

In a little bowl I put some of the powdered jus and add a massive amount of garlic powder, some onion powder and some fresh ground pepper in there and mix it. NO salt please, it’s way too salty on it’s own already with the bacon and all.

Then I add some mustard seeds and a really good squeeze of mustard and dump it in with the bacon and the grease. I stir well to coat all the bacon and make a thick muck of it in the pan. Yes, it will look icky right then and there. And then you add the amount of water you need to make it the right consistency. It will tell you on the box how much you need, or you can eyeball it for color and thickness.
Stir so everything is well combined. Heat it through again, possibly add some more water if it needs it. And there you have it. Wonderful just to add to your boerenkool. It’s very tasty.

Now if I’d serve this with steak, I would totally add a good splash of red wine. You can vary with it. Just do me one favor. Don’t call it ‘au jus’!