Posts from — November 2005

500 g – 1,1 lb bacon – in 1 chunk
thyme
bay leaf
4 big carrots, cut in slices
1 bunch of green celery, chopped
2 leeks, in rings
3 turnips, cut in slices
1 small green cabbage, chopped
pepper

Put the bacon in a pan. Add 6 cups of water, pepper, salt (not too much), thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, turn the fire low and let simmer for 1 hour.

Add the vegetables, bring again to a boil, turn the fire low gain and let simmer for 2 hours.

Take the bacon out of the pan and cut it in slices, or cubes. Put it in a soup tureen. Add the hot soup, season with pepper and salt and serve immediately.

Remarks: 4 servings.

Source: my collection

4 trouts
100 g – 3,5 oz butter
3 shallots
100 g – 3,5 oz. mushrooms
2 tb flour
Juice of one lemon
1 tb chopped parsley
0.75 l – 3 cups red wine
Salt, pepper

(You will need a casserole big enough to hold the fish side by side and deep enough to take the liquid, and which can be used on top of the stove.)

Melt the butter and saute the finely chopped shallots until they just begin to soften. Add the sliced mushrooms. Brown gently and add the flour. Mix well, and when the flour has soaked up the butter, add the wine. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Clean and wipe the trout dry. Add to the wine, with salt and pepper, and cook very, very gently so that the liquid is just simmering for 15 minutes.

Place the trout on a warmed serving dish and reduce the sauce to thicken slightly. Check the seasoning. Away from the heat, add the lemon juice and stir in a walnut-sized piece of butter.

Sprinkle with parsley and serve with boiled potatoes.

Remarks: 4 servings.

Source: A Taste of the Belgian Provinces, Enid Gordon and Midge Shirley (published by The Tuesday Group, rue Frans Merjay, 1060 Brussels).

10% Crème de Cerises
10% Eau de Vie
80% Alexander Rodenbach beer

First pour the Crème de Cerises and the Eau de Vie together into a long-drink glass or a Rodenbach cocktail glass.

Then pour in the Alexander Rodenbach beer to create an attractive, decorative head.

Serve cool.

Remarks: 1 serving.

Source: The Rodenbach Brewery

1 hare
200 g – 7 oz. butter
2 litres – 8 cups red wine
0,5 dl – 1,65 fl. oz.oil
0,3 dl – 1 fl. oz. vinegar
60 g – 2,1 oz. flour
50 g – 1,75 oz. brown sugar
5 large onions
1 dl – 3,3 fl. oz. red currant jelly
1 bouquet garni (thyme, parsley, bay leaf)
pepper and salt
1 dl – 3,3 fl. oz. hare blood
8 slices white bread

Mix vinegar with blood to prevent it from clotting. Add the liver.

Cut the hare into pieces and season with salt and pepper.

Melt 100 g (3,5 oz.) butter with the oil and saut? the hare until all parts are evenly browned. Dust with flour and still with a wooden spoon until the mixture has coloured.

Mince the liver and add it again to the blood. Pour this mixture over the hare with the wine, brown sugar and bouquet garni – season with salt and pepper. Cover and let simmer for 1 3/4 hour.

Peel the onions, cut them into fine strips and add to the hare after 30 minutes.

Remove the hare from the pan and keep warm. Sieve the sauce and pour back over the hare. Continue to cook over very low heat for 5 minutes.

Cut croutons out of the bread and brown them in the remaining butter. Spread with red currant jelly.

Put the hare with the sauce on a warm platter, garnish with croutons and serve immediately.

Remarks: 4 servings.

Source: my Fidonet collection

Speculaas, a specialty of Belgium in which flat gingerbread cakes are cut into different shapes, are the inspiration for this recipe. Similar cookies are made in Holland, Germany and Austria. These are decorated with melted white chocolate and some pretty red sugar.

Note: Traditionally these cookies are not decorated in Belgium, so if you want the true thing you leave out the sugar and chocolate.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg

2 ounces good-quality white chocolate (such as Lindt or Baker’s), melted
Red colored sugar

Combine first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat brown sugar and butter in large bowl until light. Add egg and beat until fluffy. Gradually add dry ingredients and beat just until combined. Divide dough in half. Flatten each half into rectangle. Wrap with plastic; chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350?F. Lightly butter 2 large baking sheets. Roll out 1 dough piece on lightly floured work surface to 13 x 9-inch rectangle. Trim edges to form 12×8-inch rectangle. Cut into 24 4×1-inch rectangles. Lightly press miniature cookie cutter into each rectangle to make imprints (do not cut through dough). Arrange cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until edges begin to darken, about 8 minutes. Transfer cookies to rack and cool. Repeat with remaining dough piece.

Working with 1 cookie at a time, brush imprints with melted white chocolate. Sprinkle colored sugar generously over chocolate. Let stand until chocolate sets, about 2 hours. Shake off excess colored sugar. (Can be made ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week, or freeze up to 1 month.)

Remarks: Makes 4 dozen.

Source: Olga Drozd – Posted to the Food Forum 12/18/2000

2 bundles asparagus
4 eggs
100 g – 3,5 oz. butter
a small bunch of parsley
pepper
salt

Boil 8 cups of lightly salted water. Add the asparagus and cook for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime cook the eggs. Mash the yolks and the egg whites separately. Mince the parsley.

Melt the butter and serve in a preheated sauce boat.

Arrange the asparagus on a dish. Cover with the mashed egg yolks (not on the tips). Put the mashed egg whites over the mashed egg yolks and decorate with parsley.

Serve the melted butter separately (it has to be poured over the dish).

IMPORTANT: when you serve the dish, everything still has to be warm, including the eggs!

Remarks: 4 servings.

Source: my collection

3/4 c flour, all-purpose
1/8 t salt
1 egg – slightly beaten
1 tb vegetable oil
1 t rum
1/2 cup light beer
vegetable oil for frying
2 egg whites
4 medium apples
1/2 c sugar, powdered
Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in egg, 1 tb oil and rum. Gradually beat in enough beer to make a medium-thick batter similiar to thickness of whipping cream. Cover bowl – let stand 1 hour.

Heat oil for deep frying to 350F. Immediately before cooking fritters, beat egg whites until stiff and glossy. Use a wooden spoon to fold beaten egg whites into batter.

Peel and core apples – cut into 1/4 inch crosswise slices. Dip in batter, 2-3 at a time, covering completely. Lower into hot oil – fry until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels – keep warm. Repeat until all slices are battered and fried.

Remarks: 24 fritters.

Source: Fidonet – Author unknown.

125 g – 4,4 oz. butter
125 g – 4,4 oz. sugar
125 g – 4,4 oz. peeled, roasted and chopped almonds
750 g – 26,25 oz. flour
3 egg whites, beaten stiff
3 egg yolks
25 g – 0,9 oz. vanilla sugar

Mix the butter with the sugar and the vanilla to a fluffy mass. Add the egg yolks one by one, then add the almonds. Continue by adding the flour and end by folding in the beaten egg whites.

Butter a pastry tin, dust it with flour, pour in the mixture and bake the pie in the middle of a preheated oven (175° C – 355° F) until it is golden.

Yields 1 pie.

Source: my collection, my translation

4 slices Affligem (you can use another Belgian cheese or a young Gouda instead)
4 slices cooked ham
4 slices warm, toasted bread
2 ripe pears, peeled and halved

Put on each of the warm toasts 1 slice of ham, half a pear and 1 slice of cheese on top. Put in a warm oven and serve when the cheese starts to melt.

Remarks: 4 servings.

Source: my collection