Paastaart

Holland celebrates Easter in a similar way as it does Christmas, with two days. In the case of Easter, First Easter Day is always on Sunday, Second Easter Day is on the Monday following and is often a holiday.

The gathering of family and friends around the breakfast, lunch or dinner table is key on First Easter Day. Stores are closed, children are dressed in their "Paasbest" (Easter Best) with new clothes and shoes. Eggs are colored, hidden and if lucky, all found. If it's not celebrated with an extensive brunch with rolls like paashaasjes, bread toppings, a couple of warm egg dishes and large amounts of coffee, the family will get together for a late lunch or early dinner. Lamb is a traditional dish served for Easter.

Friends and family will also spend time enjoying each other's company over a cup or two of coffee or tea, and with that ofcourse comes something sweet: a Paastaart, or Easter cake. Decorated with fluffy whipped cream, a light biscuit batter and an adult amount of advocaat, this Easter cake will put a smile on your face.

Paastaart
4 eggs

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
3/4 cup (100 grams) flour
1/4 cup (35 grams) corn starch
1.5 cups (375 grams) heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons (30 grams) powdered sugar
yellow food coloring
chocolate easter eggs
1/2 cup (100 grams) chocolate hail
1 cup (235 ml) advocaat

Beat the four eggs with the sugar until foamy. The batter should drip off the whisk in a broad, thick ribbon. Preheat the oven to 320F/160C. Butter and flour an 8' (20 cm) spring form. Sift the flour and the cornstarch together and then carefully fold into the batter: do this carefully as you don't want to loose all the air.

Place the form into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Do not open the door of the oven the first twenty minutes as the cake will deflate.

In the meantime, beat the whipped cream with the powdered sugar. Add three or four drops of yellow food coloring while you are beating, if you want it to be yellow, but plain white will also do just fine. Remove the cake from the oven, let it cool and remove it from the form. Split the cake in half lengthwise and spread 1/2 the amount of advocaat on the bottom half. Replace the upper part. Spread the whipped cream on the side of the cake and generously on the top.

Use the chocolate sprinkles to decorate the sides of the cake. Pipe twirlie bits with the rest of the whipped cream on top and strategically place the chocolate Easter eggs on top. Pour the rest of the advocaat in the middle of the cake, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and serve.

This cake contains alcohol and should be served to adults only! Vrolijk Pasen!!

Aspergesoep

"Aspergesoep is afvalsoep" I read somewhere on the internet, and I'd have to agree: asparagus soup is made with all the waste from an asparagus dinner. But what a soup! The sweet earthy flavor of the asparagus and the soft, silky mouthfeel is comforting but not heavy.

After you prepare asparagus for dinner, boil the skins and the end pieces in the remaining asparagus water, cover and simmer for a good thirty minutes, then put the liquid through a sieve. You should have about four to five cups of vegetable broth. Add half a bouillon cube of chicken stock to the broth.

Save four or five asparagus from dinner, and cut them into three or four pieces. Keep the heads and add the rest to the soup. Purée into a homogenous whole. Now melt two tablespoons of butter in a pan, add two heaping tablespoons of flour, stir until you have a paste and add in a ladle full of hot soup. Keep stirring and add one or two more ladles of soup...then pour everything into the big pot, stir until it all comes together and simmer it for another five minutes.

Cut up the remaining ham of your dinner in small dice, and chop some parsley. Taste the soup and adjust it with salt if needed, then stir in 1/4 cup of cream or whole milk. Divide the asparagus points over four bowls, ladle the hot soup on top, sprinkle with parsley and enjoy!

Asperges

"Cut here", my grandma said, pointing her knife at a seemingly random point in the sand. "Cut where?" I asked. I didn't see any difference between the area she indicated and the rest of the raised bed. Or any of the other 300 rows of sandy mounds we were standing amongst, for that matter. "Right here", she laughed, plunging the knife into the sandy soil and pulling up the biggest, whitest asparagus I had ever seen.

It was early Spring, and I must have been about 8 years old. My grandma Pauline had taken me to one of the many asparagus fields outside of the small town where I grew up in Limburg. During those early months, she would often join the asparagus harvesters out in the field to cut the growth for the day, and many, many days we enjoyed freshly cut asparagus, straight from the field.

White asparagus, contrary to the green ones that we are more accostumed to here in the US, grow below the surface in beds of loose sand. The moment their little heads see the light of day, the top hardens, changes color and alters its delicate flavor, so it's imperative that the vegetable is harvested right before surfacing.

Asperges are harvested from early Spring until June 24th. Brabant and the northern part of Limburg are the two areas that are famous for the quality, and the quantity, of its asparagus. During harvesting time, pretty much each village in the area will host an asparagus fest, feed or fair. The vegetable, nicknamed "white gold" because of the exorbitant prices it can fetch on the market, draws fans and foodies from far across the international borders.

The vegetable is easy to keep: wrap the stalks in a moist towel and keep it in the crisper for a couple of days. It also freezes fairly well: wash the asparagus, peel and pack them in a plastic bag, then freeze. When you are ready to cook, just remove the package from the freezer, unwrap the stalks and place the frozen vegetables straight into the boiling water.

White asparagus are traditionally served boiled, with eggs and ham, or with a Hollandaise sauce. They can be served cold, as a salad or starter, or warm as a main dish. Because of the whiteness of the vegetable, and being one of the first ones to show up on the table after a cold winter, asperges are a typical Easter dish.

Asparagus
1 lb of white asparagus
Water
Pinch of salt
4 eggs, hard boiled
1 tablespoon of parsley, chopped
4 slices of ham

Carefuly rinse the stalks, pat dry, and peel the asparagus with a vegetable peeler. The stalks are very fragile and will easily snap, so place them on a cutting board laying down, and while holding the stalk with one hand, peel the outer skin off, starting about 1/3 from the top. Cut about an inch from the bottom since that is usually a bitter, hard part. Don't throw the peels or the end pieces away, save them for asparagus soup. 

Put enough water in a pot that the stalks are barely covered, add the asparagus and bring to a boil. Depending on the freshness and size of the asparagus, it may take from 5 -20 minutes before the vegetable is cooked. It's ready to eat when the stalk is easily pierced with a fork.

In the meantime, remove the egg yolks from the boiled eggs and chop. When the asparagus are ready, take out of the water (keep the water for soup), drain for a minute and place the stalks on top of the ham on a serving platter. Decorate the white stalks with the chopped egg yolk, and sprinkle the chopped parsley over it. 

Saveur's Best Blog Award Nominations

 

Saveur, the top culinary magazine of America, is accepting nominations for their 2011 Best Blog Awards. If you enjoy reading this blog, please consider submitting it! It would be a great way to get the Dutch kitchen on the culinary map.

Here's the link: http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Nominations-2011-Best-Food-Blog-Awards.

Thank you!
Nicole

Advocaat

A sweet lady emailed me the other day wondering if I could assist her with finding recipes for some typical Dutch beverages. That in itself is not so difficult, but when she mentioned they had to be alcohol-free....ah.....that was a bit tougher to do. We like our beverages, we do, but apparently, we also like to spike them with plenty of booze! 

An old-fashioned, traditional, and easy to make at home drink is advocaat. Presumably first known as a tropical colonial concoction made with avocados, upon return to the blistery Netherlands, people sought out a creamy replacement for the fatty fruit and chose egg yolks instead. Smart move! Somehow advocaat with creamed avocados doesn't sound as appetizing as eh...raw eggs. Okay. Never mind :-)

Advocaat is a thick, creamy sweet drink, more often eaten with a spoon than sipped, that is also popular as an ice cream topping, as a pie filling, or flavoring for whipped cream or ice cream. Advocaat as a drink, however, has an old-fashioned feel to it: it's considered an old people's drink, predominantly for "ladies-of-a-certain-age", as my friend Hans said, who like to have it served with a dollop of whipped cream on top and eat it out of a dainty glass with a small spoon. Often, at birthdays or other celebrations,  an "advocaatje" is offered to the (older) ladies whereas the (older) men get a "borrel", a small glass of Dutch gin, jenever.

Advocaat is served and sold year-round. I never cared much for the store-bought version as it has a distinct aftertaste. However, this homemade advocaat is delightful: it's creamy, sweet, with a hint of brandy and smooth with that whipped cream. Maybe I'm slowly but surely reaching "advocaat"-age. If it is, it's surely something to look forward to! 

With the plentiful offering of affordable eggs during the upcoming Easter season, you may want to take advantage of the egg avalanche and try this recipe. The advocaat will hold well while refrigerated for about a week and makes for an interesting and welcome present. In order to avoid any possible food safety issues, you may want to use pasteurized eggs, or make sure the temperature of the advocaat reaches close to 145F for at least 15 seconds before retiring it from the boiler.

Select a smooth brandy for advocaat

Advocaat
7 egg yolks
3 eggs
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) brandy or vodka*
Pinch of salt

Mix the egg yolks, eggs, and sugar in a mixer until foamy, about a good four to five minutes on medium speed. Pinch a little between thumb and index fingertip to see if the sugar has dissolved, as it should not feel gritty. Slowly pour in the brandy or vodka while you keep mixing on low. 

Get a double boiler going on the stove (a pan with boiling water in the bottom and a bowl or pan that fits snuggly on top, also called bain-marie), pour the eggy mixture in the top bowl or pan, and stir until the mixture thickens. It's the heat that thickens the eggs, not the stirring itself.

Pay close attention to the heat: if the double boiler gets too hot, the eggs may curdle and the alcohol will dissipate. Pull the bowl as soon as you've reached the 145F/62C temperature (food safety), and place the bowl in an ice bath if possible - it is important that the temperature drops quickly while you keep stirring. For a smooth consistency, you may choose to pour the advocaat through a fine sieve in case you have small lumps.

After you've reached the desired thickness (you're looking for a pourable, thick puddinglike consistency), pour the advocaat in a clean jar or container and refrigerate it overnight, or serve it warm over ice cream or pancakes.

Makes approximately three cups (700 ml) of advocaat. Use the egg whites to make meringue or schuimpjes.

*If you are not fond of alcohol, make the recipe without, and flavor the advocaat with a few drops of non-alcoholic rum extract. If the custard is too thick, thin with a little bit of milk. Keep refrigerated.

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