DUTCH OR NETHERLANDS FOOD IDEAS'

The apostrophe is dead - since everyone does it wrong anyway why not get rid of it.

I meant how do you know the posters aren't ZDutch or know very little about it!

We know you know about Google. You tell us often.

I wasn't so much concerned with the apostrophe as 'the mote in the eye' - a poster finding fault with another when her own post was not above reproach ;)

The apostrophe probably will go one day.language is in a constant state of evolution.

I do remember some really nice fish dishes in Holland particularly one which was small flat fish they were really small I think the meal was 2 or 3 of them with various vegetables and delicious but also had cod and other north atlantic fish. Great bakeries too I lived out of those. Also remember the cigars being handed around after dinner in the resturants which surprised me at the time wonder if they still smoke in thier resturants even Macca's in Amsterdam had the gold cardboard ashtrays on the tables in 2001.

Holland had no smoking laws which were relaxed a couple of years ago - in some bars/restaurants it is fine to smoke, usually small, non-chain type outlets.

To be honest the thought of Holland being smoke free just seems bizarre with their liberal policy on 'soft' drugs.

Amsterdam was the first place I had Steak Tartare, served with chips and mayonnaise.

In the flower market in Amsterdam you can buy cannabis starter kits, I thought that was interesting, wouldn't want to bring it here lol.

There are lots if stampot dishes, another popularone is with saurkraut (zuurkool) with potatos, nice with sausages and gravy and some ground cumin to season to taste (usually put on the table as not everyone likes it. Also kale cut up and boiled and mashed potatoes mixed together is great, this taste good with some white vinegar. You can probably google these recipes

As a child I also had stampot with apples, but haven't had it since. The dutch also like apple sauce with almost everything, not just a little like we have here in NZ but a good one or two serving spoons, goes well with any potato dish and helps the vegies go down. Used to have it with chips and with mayonaise mixed in the apple sauce when I was young.

Recently made some almond filled biscuits (Gevulde koek) and almond filled speculaas with recipes from google, they turned out really well. I have found that Moore Wilsons do good deals on ground almonds ($15 for a kilo, a lot cheaper then at Pak'nSave), and found some bitter almond oil that makes it taste that little bit more authentic (Nielsen and Massey almond oil extract). Try this site for some dutch recipes, though I think I got my baking ones from dutch sites mainly- http://mydutchbakingblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Gevulde%20Speculaas%20%28Almond-filled%20Spice%20Cake%29
I also made my own speculaas spices using recipes from google.
Have fun with the cooking and baking.

apple sauce is a must. ingies ou brought back memories for me. My kids now love to go to the O's for dinner (That's Oma en Opa) because there is always plenty of apple sauce. You are right about the serving size. it is used as a food item rather than an accompanying sauce. AND I used to mix it with mayo too. Lovely with big meat balls and potatoes.

Just remembered what my Mum makes so well and that is Blinde Vinken. Probably best to do a search online so you get the right measurements but basically it is a meatball sausage shape mixture wrapped in thin slices of veal or bacon and then baked. (Similar to Beef Olives) This would be easy enough to prepare before hand and cook at when required or even reheat. You can make different sizes for different appetites so everyone will be happy. Kids love it too with tomato sauce.or the aforementioned apple sauce.
What is the event you are catering for! International food is great. Have fun.

I love dutch meatballs.They are our favourite.But you need the flavourings, and you need to get those from one of the the Dutch Food Shops.If you are lucky, some of the better supermarkets will stock them.
Dutch meatballs you can use 1/2 pork and 1/2 beef mince, but I always use beef.Add to beef about 1 tsp nutmeg, and a few good shakes of Maggi Aroma, salt and pepper, mould into balls and fry in butter.Good 100 grams butter, let foam up and as foam is going flat and brown add meatballs.I always do them in the pressure cooker.Turn once or twice.
Add little amount of water after they are cooked to the juice in the pan, this is the gravy.We have these with boiled or mashed potatoes, and beans or peas.

Nice 74nova. We do ours a little differently. I use beef mince, egg and breadcrumbs with seasonings as I feel like it.I shape into balls and fry off in butter and oiluntil seared all over and then two different ways. You can either pour hot water into the frying pan with the meatballs and cover it with a lid, simmering until cooked through. OR Put them into a baking dish, cover with foil and bake in the oven. The water keeps the outsides from drying out. These meatballs do take a while to cook through because they are quite a bit bigger than NZ meatballs. Must try the pressure cooker method. The 'gravy' is so good on the potatoes.

Okay, some more food memories from when I lived in Amsterdam.

Dutch cuisine is not elaborate because many homes did not have ovens, just gas rings. So there's a lot of stovetop cooking, such as steaks and boiled sausages (mmm, rookworst.) with boiled or mashed veg. Meat is expensive there so is used sparingly. Roast dinners were non existent - well, I never saw one.

Dutch pea soup in the winter is a beauty, look up Erwtesoep. Dutch soups often have meat in them, either sliced smoky sausage or "soupballs" of sausagemeat which I have seen sold tinned in Dutch shops here.

Pancakes are huge in the Netherlands, often with bacon and apple treacle (appelstroep) which you can buy in New Zealand. They are like a full meal.

A popular snack is liver sausage on toothpicks with mild mustard for dipping. And of course herrings, herrings, herrings swallowed head first, from street vendors, or choppedwith raw onion on bread.

Dutch bakeries are everywhere so there is no need to bake at home. I recall wonderful cream cakes and doughnuts such as oliebollen and tompoesjes and Amsterdammers and mergpijpjes (sp!), means marrowbones anyway, it's a sponge sandwich finger, layered with cream, coated with marzipan and with the ends dipped in chocolate. I have seen packets of these on sale in New Zealand Dutch shops. At Christmas, biscuits get spicy with the appearance of speculaas and pepernoten (gingernuts) which are seasonal food. Oliebollen are New Year food.

A sandwich topping for breakfast or lunch that always made foreigners boggle is breakfastcake (ontbijtkoek), often spicy or ginger flavoured, sliced thinly and served on bread and butter and eaten with a knife and fork. You can buy this in Dutch shops here. I like the one with ginger chunks on the outside. I serve it like a fruit loaf!

The second cuisine there is Indonesian. Indo restaurants and cafes abound,as Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony, and every chip shop will sell loempias (spring rolls) and sate. Chips are served with mayonnaise known as chip sauce.

On the canteen menu at the big firm where I worked, two popular staples were chicken livers on toast and frikadella, sort of tasty fried flat meat patties.

It may seem surprising, but when I lived in Holland (the province in which Amsterdam is situated) you could not get pizza there, or pies. We used to buy tinned pies in the UK - whenever any of my English workmates were heading back to the UK they would come back loaded with orders from their colleagues for English thick bacon (Dutch bacon is very thin and not the same cuts as here), and for tinned Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies.

But this was a long time back, and global cuisine is everywhere now, thanks to the Scottish restaurant.

ingies, thanks for this link.I sometimes buy those green packets of Dutch cakes (Delmaine!) with the dense almond filling.Would love to try and bake some myself.

I made some the other day, don't know what the ingredients are in the delmaine but some of the long shaped once you can sometimes buy in the supermarket have only 1% almond which is prob the almond on top- I only found that out on this message board. The home made ones are very nice.

This is the recipe I used, it makes 9 almond filled biscuits.
Ingredients- 0.5 teaspoons of baking powder, 200 g butter, 2 eggs, 9 blanced almonds (for the decoration), 275 g flour, 140 g castor sugar, 0.5 tsp salt, and almond filling (instruction- mix 125 g of almond meal with 125 g of castor sugar with one egg and rind of a half lemon and little almond extract and leave in fridge for around a week)
Seperate the eggs and add the egg whites to the flour, butter, salt and sugar and knead well together with cool hands, knead into ball of dough, roll out into 1/3 cm thickness and cut 18 10cm rounds, I filled 9 of the halves with about 20 gr of the almond mixture- flattened it out so it was smaller then the biscuits, then cover with the tops and press together well, then decorate with the almond, and paste the egg yolk over the top,bake at 175 celcius for around 30 min till light brown.
Translated from http://www.mijnreceptenboek.nl/recept/koekjes/gevulde-koeken-18580.html
Good luck.

Thanks! .for the recipe - and the translation ;)

thanks all,for this post,I am off to have my passport renewed now,going back!

oops.thread I mean,please dont pick on me elliehen,lol

Only just checked back on this thread.thanx so much for all your help.There are some great ideas' that I will be trying. All you Dutchies must really miss having all these wonderful dishes to have back home.

Never!

I believe in the old adage that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and up there ^^^ someone with an apostrophe missing lobbed a stone at someone with a country in the wrong place ;)

I suggest you look at an atlas, they are not the same. Holland is a region in the Netherlands, as is Zealand.

frickadellas yummmmmmmmmmm

Stroopwafels yummm

Depends who's talking ;)

In cricket (and some other sports), Holland and The Netherlands are interchangeable.

Oliebollen.yummmmmmmmmm