Baking tool:

• non-stick frying pan,
• bottom 18 cm diameter
• sieve

 

Dough (makes 10 crêpes) :

• 350 g tapioca starch
• about 210 ml cold water
• pinch of salt

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

During an international Slow Food gathering I was happy to meet Teresa Corçao, top chef and owner of  Restaurante O Navegador, a famous restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. At that time I was looking for pancakes from all over the world and she promised me to send a very specific Brazilian recipe. Which she did. She concentrates on regional specialties and to promote the Brazilian culinary culture she started ‘Istituto Maniva’ in 2007. She wrote me that her recipe is in fact a great Indian invention. Beiju are made all over the country in many variations: thick, grilled, sometimes thin, such as this version from the Amazon region. They are eaten with something savoury (see below) or sweet (banana with chocolate sauce), or rolled up just with a knot of butter.

The ‘tapioca pearls’ to make a sauce or slippery pudding are ousted by corn flour or potato starch in most European kitchens but starch of tapioca (a Portuguese word) you can always buy in Asiatic stores. This flour of the cassava root or manioc (manihot esculenta, origin West Brazil) is a popular thickening in Chinese cuisine.

Baking tool:

• non stick frying pan,
• bottom 20 cm diameter

 

Batter (makes 4 pancakes):

• 240 g buckwheat flour
• 1 tsp salt (4 g)
• 400 ml water

 

Dip (Cho Chang):

• 6 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp white (rice)vinegar
• 2 tsp sesame oil (10 ml)

 

Cucumber salad (Oee Saengchae):

• 1 cucumber
• 1 tbsp finely chopped green of scallion
• 3-6 tbsp white (rice)vinegar
• 1 garlic glove, crushed
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt (2 g)
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp roasted sesame seed

 

Decoration:

• 4 scallions
• 100 g carrot
• 1 green or red hot pepper
• 300 g sea fruit cocktail
• 8 small eggs

 

For cooking:

• oil

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Cheju-do Haemul Chon, as the name tells us, stems from the Korean island Cheju in the Yellow Sea. A place where many Koreans spend their honeymoon because of the white blossom splendour of the buckwheat fields. Such a magic view that extensive festivities are devoted to it.

The gluten free buckwheat, often associated with Northern areas, has its roots in China, where this crop is grown for at least 2000 years. It was introduced to Europe not earlier than the 15th century. No wonder that people in China, Japan and Korea could make more of it than people in northern Europe like my countrymen the Dutch with their groat porridge and heavy pancakes. In Korea buckwheat noodles are made and also for instance this type of refined pancakes. Of course with something from the sea on it, and how clever to decorate the dark batter with eggs!

• Bakingpan (diameter 20 cm)

 

• Makes 8 pancakes:
• 125 g wheat flour
• 125 g buckwheat flour
• 1 sachet easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
• 500 ml lukewarm milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 g salt
• 3 tbsp chopped chervil
• 3 tbsp chopped chives
• 2 tbsp chopped tansy leaves
• (if unavailable: chopped sage)
• salted butter for baking and covering
• treacle

Hier komen de ingrediënten

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

In Belgium one of the most interesting pancake recipes from the past is the Flemish Cruydtcoeck, Kroetkoek or (Tente)groenkoek), a vegetarian pancake in which young leaves of tansy are mixed with the batter. It is supposed to be effective against worms and would stimulate blood circulation in the abdomen, resulting in a very satisfactory love-life. This type of pancake is already mentioned in a work by the Mechlin botanist Rembert Dodoens (1517-1585) and the Flemish still have a Confrérie devoted to its promotion*. Here you will find a slightly modernized recipe.

• 500 g parsnips
• pepper, salt
• wheat flour
• quite a bit of breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp. butter 1
• 100 g sliced ​​bacon
• watercress (or lamb’s lettuce)
• lemon wedges

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Parsnip cakes from Ireland. In the mid-19th century, Irish and English Quakers (The Society of Friends) organised food aid in the form of soup kitchens after the failed potato harvests – the only food for a third of the Irish population. They also ensured that parsnips, carrots, turnips and cabbage were sown to protect the country from hunger in the future. A number of them made such an effort to achieve this that they had to pay for it with an early death. But because of their efforts, the ‘cottage gardens’ were full of a variety of crops by the end of the century. Here a culinary tribute to those Quakers.

Traditionally the Irish have been fond of what you can pick in the wild, such as watercress. “Though mead and princely malt may be desirable for the infirm, dry bread and watercress are the food becoming the wise” is an old Celtic saying. But apparently not all Irish wanted to be that wise, as this traditional combination shows.

Baking material:

• poffertjes plate (with 19 holes)
• for sale at cookery shops
• can be ordered via the internet
• a brush for greasing

 

 

Batter (makes approximately 60 pieces):

• 200 g plain flour
• 50 g buckwheat flour
• ½ sachet easy-blend dried yeast
• 300 ml lukewarm milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ tsp. salt (3 g)
• 25 g butter, melted

 

To serve with:

• butter
• icing sugar

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

These soft little puffs, a favorite with children, were traditionally a New Year’s treat in North Holland. On old paintings one can see that poffertjes were street food in the 17th century. Now there remain only a few poffertjes stalls as can be seen on the photo in the Dutch version of this site, about which Kneppelhout wrote in the 19th century: ‘Who has not repeatedly enjoyed the fullest, if not the purest delight in one of her two cabinets, narrow as deckhouses?’ Because of that feeling of delight, many people have a poffertjesplaat at home, even though nowadays supermarkets offer this delicacy ready-made. In the past they used to be served with Fosco, a cold chocolate drink, the predecessor of Chocomel. No longer for sale. You will find an old-fashioned recipe below.

Baking tools:

• thin rolling pin 50 cm,
• (piece of broomhandle)
• non stick frying pan,
• bottom 22 cm diameter

Chicken (for 2 persons):

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½  teaspoon cumin seed
• ½  teaspoon szechuan pepper
• ½  teaspoon  black pepper
• 2 Chinese anise
• 2 chicken legs chopped in half
• 2 peeled potatoes in thick slices
• 1 red and 1 green pepper
• 2 coarsely minced spring onions
• 1 clove garlic
• salt
• small piece fresh ginger
• 3 tablespoons rice wine or sherry
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 Roma tomatoes
• coriander leaves

‘Bread’ (makes 2):

• 250 g plain flour
• 150 ml warm water
• 2 g  salt
• 35 g molten butter

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Bread from the Chinese province Xinjiang (‘New Border’) the domain of the Uyghurs, which they themselves call East Turkestan. Uyghur people are originally nomads, speaking a Turkish dialect. They settled in this region around 840, were converted to Islam in the 10^th century, were occupied by the Chinese in the 18^th century and annexed to that country in 1955 after al kinds of entanglement during the Sovjet regime. In 2010 their dalai lama Rebiya Kadeer was in the Netherlands to ask attention for the discrimination against this minority.

Uyghurs live very traditionally, reject the atheism of Chinese communism and do not like modernisation. And so even their food preparation is traditional. For Qatlima nan you do not need more tools than a rolling pin and a frying pan, after all nomads had to carry everything when travelling.

Spicy chicken (Da pan ji = chicken on a large plate) is a popular restaurant dish in Xinjiang. Obviously Chinese influence. Today the population of the province is 6 million Chinese against 8 million Uyghurs.

Serves two:

• 1 small or halved cauliflower
• 125 g diced lean smoked bacon
• 50 g plain flour
• 3 large eggs
• salt
• 125 ml milk
• 6 scallions, coarsely cut
• (without the dark green ends)
• parsley leaves

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

West Friesland is a region in the Province of North Holland where the land is so perfect for growing cauliflower that it produces 60 % of this vegetable in the Netherlands. Cauliflower is mentioned in the first cookbook published on Dutch territory, written by doctor Carolus Battus (1593). He simmers his Blom-Coolen in the broth of a castrated ram with ram’s fat or butter and seasons them with ginger powder. Never the less Doctor Van Beverwijck considers cauliflower prepared this way  in his book Schat der Gesontheit (Treasure of Health, 1642) aengenamer (more agreeable) and lighter to digest than normal cabbage.

In his time bloemkool was still very expensive, for it had to be imported from Italy or Crete. This changed at the end of the 17^th century when the cultivation in North Holland started. It was an enormous effort to drudge the cauliflowers through the ditches of ‘The domain of thousand islands’ with flat boats that had to be lifted over dykes. But the Dutch cauliflower appeared on the market.

And yes, already very soon with the notorious thick white milk sauce. The perfect  Dutch kitchen maid (De Volmaakte Hollandse Keuken-Meid 1761) calls this very good food. There is a lot of disputing about tastes!

See for another recipe for cauliflower on this site: Cauliflower pies with egg salad.