One day/walking/history tour we took took us past a farmers market where I are the best pie-thing ever. It was a chicken pot pie with spinach inside topped with sliced potatoes (of course…it’s Ireland) and sliced almonds. There was a lovely glaze finish on top and it was served with a delicious chutney made from tomatoes, raisins and cumin. I think the chutney could have used more spice, but the locals don’t eat almost any spice.

Water’s tagline is “a pint’s a pound the world around.” I think Guinness’ tagline should be “a pint’s a pound…just drink it you clown.” it really does taste better at the source in case anyone was wondering…and so light! I want the beerlines in the picture below installed in my house instead of water.

Jameson was great too, but I do love my scotch above all else. Still, it was great to see a whiskey distillery for the first time.

I went on this trip with one of my best friends and the goal was to just relax ad see the sights. If you cant relax in Amsterdam, there’s something wrong…I’ll just leave it at that. Surprisingly, there were some nice food bites I tried, which I would like to share.

I’ll start by exclaiming my appreciation for delicious cheese. There are not that many small scale cheese makers in the Dutch countryside, but the ones who exist do it right. I visited a farm that made those funny wooden shoes AND cheese — crazy I know. The smoked gouda was incredible, and the maker claimed it he ages it and stores it without the need for refrigeration at any point…pretty incredible.

After a few days of wandering around, it was my birthday in early June, so we decided to go all out on a crazy dinner. We went to De Kersentuin, under Chef Michel van Dijk. The cuisine was very good and quite playful…

Amuse Bouche of mint-gel shot, something with yogurt chips (here’s where my memory fails me!), and watermelon puree with some creme.

Next were scallops with brown-butter cauliflower on top of a parsnip (i think) puree with frisee salad and baby shrimp

Alongside we ordered a seafood (don’t remember if it was crab or lobster) salad served between slices of watermelon within pepper wafers served with a few drops of a cream or yogurt sauce. I remember this was excellent, ad surprisingly the dish did not fall apart when I tried to cut it as I thought it would.

The next dish I remember very well — a deconstructed lobster ravioli with a lobster broth. Honestly the way the “wrapper” sort of gelatinized and stuck to the fork, I would leave it. But the lobster and the broth were phenomenal.

Next was a grilled filet of fish — sorry again I forget which kind, but it looks like it could be branzino (I doubt it though because I don’t see the black flecks) or tilapia? Who knows. It was served with a great butternut squash puree topped with white asparagus and halved peas and I believe some potato-type poppers (taro, other root veggie?).

The last dish was duck. I don’t really have to say more than that because…well, I love duck, so it was great. Port wine sauce reduction with the same squash puree and potato thing tied it to the other main.

There was a palette cleanser and desert which was a bonbon shell with cherries and ice cream inside and a dusting of
Pistachio on the rim. When they brought it out they poured a hot strawberry soup on top, which melted the shell thus revealing the treat inside. I do remember the waiter spilling the first batch on his hand and burning his arm — ouch!

All in all a great experience and talented chef. The other cool meal we had was called rijkstable or rice table. We ate at Sama Sebo on Hobbemastraat near the Van Gogh museum. This type of meal is basically a flat fee and they bring you every dish on the menu. It was pretty ridiculous. Everything was delicious and we were too hungry for me to diarize what I ate. I remember I really liked their version of chicken stay with a spicier peanut sauce.

Right side, left side, composed dish how you’re supposed to eat it.

While I still love walking under the glittering lights of New York, I’ve come back from my travels with a greater sense of understanding of what food means to different people. To the starving, it’s eating to live; to the uninterested, it’s eating not to be hungry; to the glutton, it’s living to eat; and to the passionate, it’s art. A true higher form of expression condensing emotions, thoughts and technique into a single presentation piece. My preference is some precarious balance between artsy food and a delicious, fragrant mess…

large version

Cake – lemon poppyseed with sliced strawberries. Mom split the batter into two tart shells, so it came out a touch dry after baking and not rising as much. Fixed with a drizzle of macerated strawberries soaked in brown sugar, mango juice and grand marnier. Topped with some whipped cream!

Almond Cake
While cleaning the dishes, she was telling me about an Almond cake she made earlier in the week that had no flour and no (explicit) sugar. But she said it came out a bit flat (later I learned it was because she got lazy and didn’t whip the egg whites! =P). I decided to whip up a batch then and there. The recipe is here at Anja’s Food 4 Thought. I think it turned out wonderfully. I only made a few small changes: added 1/4 tsp of vanilla essence and orange essence and instead of toasting and grinding almonds, I used almond powder which resulted in a finer (cake-like) texture, but no toasted almond flavor.

More deliciousness after the jump!

Scallops
Truly delicious scallops…possibly the best I’ve eaten (and most probably the quality of Whole Foods fresh bay scallops and a lucky perfect sear than anything else). Pretty standard preparation for the scallops…Quick rinse, patted dry with paper towels. Seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides. Non-stick pan with canola oil (I would have used grapeseed if I had it on hand) heated on medium-high until the oil starts shimmering. Then I took a tablespoon of butter and cubed it and tossed the cubes into the pan. Right after the butter stopped foaming I added the scallops. Since they were medium sized (9 scallops in a pound), they took about 3-4 minutes on the first side and then 2 minutes on the second side and voila! The fun in this dish was making the spice oil…I will have to add the recipe later, but basically it was grinding some fresh spices (black peppercorns, cumin, salt, paprika), then heating them in oil until it just starts to bubble for 2 minutes, then removing it from the heat and pouring it over some fresh lemon zest and minced garlic. After cooling add some lemon juice and salt to taste. Served on a bed of chopped flat leaf parsely and cilantro, this dish was sublime.

Fresh fettucini with roasted heirloom tomato rustic pasta sauce
I’d like to think my cooking has become more refined over time. I think my strongest case would be making homemade pasta. After traveling to Italy last spring and taking a cooking class, I was hooked to fresh pasta. You just CANNOT compare fresh pasta with dried pasta. I was shopping with the family this weekend and we walked into a Williams-Sonoma (overpriced, I know, but whatever) and I finally just paid up and bought a pasta machine. The pasta was easy enough to make…I’ll go into detail in another post, but the sauce was a lot of fun. I bought a carton of heirloom tomatoes, halved them, drizzled with some nice EVOO and some basil chiffonade and threw them into a 225F oven for 3 hours. Yes 3 hours. Seriously? Yes. Trust me, it was worth it. I took everything off the baking sheet (even the drippings) and lightly crushed the tomatoes with a spoon before adding more fresh basil and a little salt/pepper. Tossing the fresh fettucini in this sauce and topping with fresh chunks of mozzarella was heaven. MUST try this a lot more in the summer.

Homemade ravioli
We had a few extra hands in the house, so we made another batch of pasta dough and used the ravioli press we bought in Italy last spring to push out some fresh ravioli. We didn’t really feel like going to the store and buying ricotta since making these was an afterthought, so my mother had a great idea to just throw random stuff inside. We ended up using some finely chopped spinach, arugula, parmesan, pecorino, mozzarella, nutmeg, salt, pepper, egg and a touch of sour cream to help bind the filling. Topped with some fresh olive oil, parmesan and pepper.

Next up was a Soft Egg Yolk Raviolo with ricotta and spinach covered with truffle butter.

Now starts the pastas, which were arranged in trios. First up were the
Ecuadorian Shrimp Over Squid Ink Spaghetti with roasted peppers and broccoli di rapa in a shellfish sauce with calabrian chilis, Butternut Agnolotti with a sage brown butter topped with amaretti and buffalo mozzarella, and Pappardelle In A Game Sauce with venison and hare finished with barolo wine and bitter chocolate.

The next three were Orecchiette In A Spicy Garlic And Olive Oil Sauce with escarole, sausage, cherry pepper and anchovy finished with caramelized pecorino romano; Spaghettini “Arrabbiata” with mushrooms, black olives and minced spanish anchovy in a spicy tomato sauce; and Sauteed Ricotta Gnocchi In An Arugula And Sundried Tomato Sauce finished with grated goat cheese.

A wonderful 8th pasta followed but was not photographed…Rigatoni with pancetta, onions and pepperoncini in a light tomato and basil sauce finished with mascarpone. Then came a palette cleanser — mascarpone gelato with a drizzle of sweet balsamic reduction served on a chilled strawberry “soup”. Incredible, but we needed more!

Last came a nice dolci, Panino Of Crispy Pistachio And Hazelnut Caramel Wafers filled with hazelnut gelato. The meal was enjoyed over some Napa Silver Oak 2006.

Fish market below

One of the appetizers. It is called the Milos Special, and it is made of fried zucchini and eggplant chips (not soft inside like tempura, but very crispy) stacked in a tower with a cavity in the center, which is filled with a sour greek yogurt dipping sauce. And on the side are pieces of fried Greek saganaki cheese.


Tuna crudo appetizer. Again, amazing.