Veal’s Neck stew

This week we have special meat in DeKrat, which I’ve never cooked with before: Veal’s Neck. As the milk drinking capital of the world there is a lot of veal production in the Netherlands. Strangely enough veal isn’t a kind of meat that is on the daily menu of the Dutchies and thus 95% of all veal is exported to our neighboring countries.

Veal’s Neck stew

Dinner for 2

400 gr veal’s neck, in pieces of 4x4 cm

1 tbsp. flour

1 tbsp. sunflower oil

2 shallots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

250 ml white wine

250 ml broth

2 bay leafs

½ lemon

6 twigs thyme

Preheat the oven at 180 C. Season the veal with salt and pepper and roll in the flour. Fry them in the oil until browned and set aside. Fry the shallots and garlic until softened, add the veal’s neck together with the wine, stock, bay leafs, lemon zest and thyme.  

De Krat

Our first box with local, seasonal, organic products has been delivered! I decided it was time to try one of these after noticing that I mainly grab the same fresh products every time I go last minute shopping for dinner. It’s just once, maybe twice a week I have a look in my cooking books to cook something besides the usual. I hope this box is going to help me to think out of the box a bit more as far as cooking is concerned. 

The box is called 'De Krat' and each week we will receive around five different vegetables, 1 kind of fruit, 2 times meat and/or fish, one bread baked by Brood van Menno and once specialty (this week it’s apple juice). We'll receive a few recipes by mail on the day of delivery so we'll have an idea what to make with all the different products.

This box is a good one to start with as far as I’m concerned! What better to eat this time of year than fresh white asparagus! And now I’ll be finding out what can be done with vervain, besides making a lovely cup of tea with it.

Knofi

Very good caterer with a lovely terrace to enjoy their goods at the Bergmannstrasse. It’s a wonderful sunny day and we took a stroll through the beautiful Victoria park before landing on Knofi’s terrace for a plate of Mediterranean food. Another good idea would be to visit Knofi first and have a wonderful picnic.

Sushi ’n Sake

One of the best sushi take outs in Amsterdam, located in the Eastern part. They also are very helpful and serve with a smile. And always more than enough wasabi, also very important! Their specialty is a very good crispy duck roll, that alone would make it worth the trip.

IJmuiden

IJmuiden, the best beach near Amsterdam. Because dogs are allowed to run freely, because it's so nice and quiet, because it has the Beach In to eat croquettes and drink hot chocolate and because you can buy the best fresh fish on your way back to Amsterdam

Pasta Puttanesca

Pasta is something I just could eat every single day. Especially spaghetti. And if the sauce is good, you definitely do not need a lot of it to make your dish delicious. I always like the puttanesca pasta so much for it is so simply to make, yet it is very tastful with a nice salty bite to it.

A good plate of pasta with a tomato sauce.

Dinner for 2

1 shallot, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

4 filets of anchovies, chopped

40 gr of black olives, chopped (green ones also will do just fine)

1 tbsp. capers

1 can of tomatoes

250 gr spaghetti

20 gr parmesan, grated

50 gr fresh goats cheese, moldered

A handful of fresh basil

Fry the shallot, garlic and anchovies until it softens. Add the olives and capers. Fry for a minute before adding a can of tomatoes, 50 ml water and salt and pepper. Bring to a boiling point, turn the heat low and let it simmer for about half an hour.

Pangasius with Broad Beans

My grandmother and grandfather-in-law are coming over for dinner and I want to make them something special, but also easy to digest. My choice for tonight is some nice oven baked pangasius.

Unfortunately I slipped on the bathroom floor two hours before their arrival – keeping my balance is really hard with this belly that is due in 12 days – so  it was a bit of a race against the clock and I had to skip the planned soup as a starter

Oven baked pangasuis 
Dinner for 4

½ a liter of fish stock

300 gr broad beans

25 ml white wine

A bit saffron

125 ml cream

4 pangasius filets

100 ml white wine

2 shallots, halved

Big knob of butter

Preheat the oven at 180C. Boil the stock down to about half. When the fish stock is boiled down add the white wine, saffron and cream. Bring to a boiling point, add the beans and lower the heat to simmer until the fish is done.

Pasta with mushrooms and green beans

After a very busy day I am craving a big plate of pasta, for which I used leftovers from the fridge combined in cream sauce.

Pasta with greens beans and mushrooms

Meal for 2

150 gr of green beans
2 chopped up shallots
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. of fresh thyme

250 gr mushrooms, sliced

Juice of ½ a lemon

150 ml cream

150 gr pasta

1 tbsp. capers

Cook the beans in 3 cm of boiling water for about five minutes, set aside. 

Pumpkin soup and a potato salad

We have lots of packing to do for the upcoming move, but I have the rest of the day off and the cabinets need to be emptied so there is plenty opportunity and enough ingredients to cook. It’s a soup and salad again tonight.

Pumpkin Soup with a potato salad 
Lunch or light meal for 2

For the soup:

1 tsp. olive oil

2 shallots, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp. of red curry

1 small pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks

1 liter vegetable stock

3 bay leafs

Mullets and a salad

I had a day off, so there’s time to try out a new recipe. Not that this recipe takes that much time to make, but today I have time to visit the Albert Cuijp market and buy some different fish than the usual trout. Today it’s mullets and this is how I made them tonight for the two of us:

Oven baked Mullets 
Dinner for 2

For the mullets

2 mullets

2 tbsp. olive oil

½ a tbsp. sea salt

1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

1 lemon

2 bay leaves

Vlaamsch Broodhuys

After strolling through a thawing, but still ice cold, Vondelpark, we head over to Vlaamsch Broodhuys at the Constantijn Huygenstraat

Unfortunately they're out of quiche. We both order a mackerel sandwich instead, which are so very good we decide to also share one of their salmon sandwiches. Normally we just go here to purchase bread from their bakery; I had no idea their sandwiches were this delicious. We will definitely return to their lunchroom as well!

Garlic chicken

This honestly is the very first time I have prepared a whole chicken! Shameful to admit I have been more of a chicken breast person. Until now!

This recipe is very simple, but also very tasteful! How? Like this:

Garlic chicken with mushrooms

Dinner for 3/4

The chicken

3 bulbs of garlic

Handful fresh thyme leaves

1 organic chicken (around 1.5 kilo’s)

1 tbsp. olive oil

100 gr mushrooms, halved

Savory Pancakes

I do like pancakes a lot, best of all with some good old fashioned Dutch syrup. As a breakfast that is, or lunch, not so much for dinner. With my dinner I definitely need to have my veg, as much as possible. I now have found a perfect recipe to have pancakes as a dinner every once in a while, but also not having to miss out on my veg

Savory Pancakes

Lunch or light meal for 2

For the pancakes (about 6)

100 gr flour

1 egg

200 ml milk

Sunflower oil

Spicy Shrimp Pasta

Blue Mondays. The start of the week, the end of a perfect weekend. The days are getting shorter and shorter.  We really are longing for a sunny, but easy to prepare dish so a light Shrimp pasta it is!

Shrimp Spaghetti 
Light meal for 2

250 gr of spaghetti

250 gr of shrimp

1 tsp. sunflower oil

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 chili pepper, grinded

1 cm fresh ginger, chopped

1 tbsp. butter

½ lime

Rocket

Cook the spaghetti in plenty of salted water. Fry the shrimp a couple of minutes in sunflower oil, add the garlic, chili pepper and ginger. Add the butter, stir till melted, press the lime above and then stir in the spaghetti so it’s nicely covered in butter. Add a few hands of rocket and ready you are.