Put the onions on the bottom of a greased oven dish. Put the cod on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the wine over the cod. Bake this in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. Pour the fluid in a pan and reduce on high heat to half. Turn off the heat and add the butter, whisking all the time, piece by piece. Finally, add the bread crumbs and pour this sauce over the fish. Put the lemon on top and sprinkle with parsley.

  

Belgium is one of the greatest beer-drinking countries in the world. This tiny nation produces some 130 beers. The Belgians are also intrepid mussel eaters, and their boats haul in an export mussel crop second to none. To combine these two Belgian passions, what better recipe than this one, which cooks the mussels in root vegetables and beer?

Cut the peeled carrot and turnip into neat 5 mm cubes. In a large saucepan or wide pan with a lid, heat the butter and saute the carrot and turnip without browning until well greased and shiny, then add the onion and turn a few seconds. Add the beer, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer until the root vegetables are softened and the beer is reduced to nothing and has slightly caramelised on the base of the pan. Now add the scrubbed mussels, pepper them, cover, raise the heat again and steam the mussels until they open, shaking the pot or turning the top mussels to the bottom at least once.

As soon as the mussels open, throw in the parsley, stir two or three times and serve immediately in wide soup bowls. Add a ladle of vegetables and juice to the base of the bowl. Pepper as with moules marinieres, do not expect everybody to eat all the soup.

Serves 6

  

Scrape and clean the mussels thoroughly, removing the beards and discarding any broken or open ones. Wash them in several waters.

Chop the onions, shallots and celery finely. In a very deep saucepan, melt the butter. Add the mussels and stir. Pour in the beer, add the pepper and very little salt, cover the saucepan and cook the mussels over a medium flame until they have all opened.

Remove the mussels, reserving the liquid. Open the mussels, leaving them on the half shell, and layer them in a wide, semi-shallow serving dish.

Strain the liquid into a smaller saucepan. Mix the cornflour into a paste with a little water and add it to the liquid. Heat this to just under simmering point. Beat the egg yolks and cream and gradually beat in a little hot liquid. Pour the mixture into the saucepan, whisking all the time, until it thickens: it MUST NOT boil.

Check the seasoning, then pour the sauce over the mussels, and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

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

  

Preparation:
Cook the lobsters (if they’re fresh) and let them cool a little. Split each lobster in half lengthwise. Remove the sand sacs in the heads, and the intestinal tubes. Reserve the coral and green matter in a bowl. Remove the rest of the meat and chop it fairly roughly. Break the claws, remove the meat and chop it as well. Chop the ham, mushrooms and shallots finely. Melt 35 g (1,2 oz.) butter in a large pan, put in the lobster meat and cook it for about 1 minute; then add the ham, shallots and mushrooms, and continue to cook gently for another two minutes.

Pour the warmed brandy into the pan and set it alight to flambé the shellfish and vegetables. Then pour in the wine and port, season to taste, cover and cook gently for 20 minutes.

Beat the egg yolks into the cream and add this to the reserved coral and green matter: then away from the heat, beat it into the lobster mixture, making sure that it thickens without boiling. Check the seasoning, and serve in a warm tureen with buttered noodles.

4 servings.

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

  

Lay fish fillets in a shallow pan. Sprinkle with celery leaves, salt, and some pepper and barely cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer carefully until fish flakes. Remove fish with a slotted spoon to a dish in a warm oven. Strain fish stock into a clean saucepan, discarding celery leaves.

Beat egg yolks and cream together. Stir 1 tbsp. of fish stock into egg mixture and then blend into remaining stock. Reheat very slowly, stirring continuously. Do not boil. Adjust seasoning.

Pour sauce over fish, garnish with parsley and serve. Traditionally the fish and sauce is spooned onto thick slices of dark rye bread.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Olga Drozd – Posted at the Food Forum at 17:54:59 06/18/2001.

  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. – 190° C

Melt half of the butter in a large skillet. Add the endive and potatoes and saut? until just tender.

Butter a baking dish and strew the shallots over the bottom, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Lay the fish on this bed, pour in the wine and stock, cover with foil and bake 10 minutes.

Transfer the potatoes and endive to a second baking dish, lay the fish on top, and cover with foil to keep warm.

Reduce the cooking liquid in the fish pan to a syrup, swirl in the remaining butter, taste for seasoning, and pour over the fish. Return to the oven uncovered for a few minutes to give the sauce a glaze.

4 servings.

Source: Jay Harlow in the San Francisco Chronicle, 10/6/93.

  

Chop some parsley, tarragon and sage. Wash and chop sorrel and spinach. Clean eels and cut into 3-inch pieces. Melt the butter and saut? the eels. Lower the heat and add spinach and sorrel. When these vegetables are wilted add wine, thyme, bay leaves, chopped parsley, tarragon and sage. Season with pepper and salt and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Cut the bread slices in 2 and brown them in butter. Keep warm. Beat the egg yolks with some sauce and add this mixture to the rest of the sauce. Don’t let it cook, or it will curdle!

Put the eels on the croutons, pour some sauce over them and serve at once.

4 servings.

Source: my collection

  

Clean the mussels. Melt the butter in a pan. Chop the onion and fry it in the butter. Add the wine and some celery leaves and pepper. Add the mussels and cook them on high heat until they open. Remove the mussels and throw the empty shells away. Put the mussels in a dish and keep warm.
Pour the cream in the pan and add the chopped parsley. Boil for a few moments until slightly thickened. Pour the sauce over the mussels and serve at once with French loaves.

4 servings.

Source: my collection

  

Cut the fish into pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Put the butter in a big frying pan. Fry the fish for 10 minutes on a low fire. Take the fish out of the pan.

Pour the beer into the frying pan with the juice of 1 lemon. Leave it on a low fire.

Melt the gelatine or make a fish gelatine following the instructions on the package.

Put a first layer of fish in a earthenware tureen. Garnish with 2 or 3 lemon wedges, a few bay leaves, a few tarragon leaves and 2 or 3 small onions (or some onion strips).

Add a little bit of beer and then some gelatine to cover the fish.

Continue with layers fish, lemon, bay leaves, tarragon and onions, beer and gelatine. The last layer should be a layer of gelatine, garnished with lemon wedges, tarragon and bay leaves.

Put the tureen in a cool place (not in the refrigerator) and keep it there for at least 3 days before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Elisabeth Lange – Belgische Kookkunst ABC. My translation.

  

Clean the vegetables. Cut them into small strips.
Flavour the yoghurt with pepper and salt, nutmeg and the juice of 1 lemon. Pour some yoghurt on each plate, put 1 or 2 tablespoons shrimps on the yoghurt and finish with vegetable strips.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Kris VANHOUTTE – My translation