Witloof from Belgium

Although, the French claim it as their own, I am a firm believer that Chicory With Ham and Cheese was, still is and always will be a Belgian recipe.

Legends and facts :
1830 Schaarbeek (nr Brussels). A man called Jan Brammens, who was one of the many farmers, who had to escape from the violence in Brabant, before the independence of Belgium. Before he left, he quickly cut some chicory roots for his surrogate coffee. He threw them in his cellar and to prevent them from drying out he covered them with some soil. When he arrives back at his farm he discovers that the roots had sprouted many conical blanched hearts, which to his mind tasted very nice indeed.

A more accepted version however is about Franciscus Bresier, who worked at the Royal Gardens 'Botanieken Hof' or Kruidtuin'. Planning to grow loose leaved chicory, he kept the roots stacked one closely next to the other in the mushroom cellars and covered them with composted down horse manure. He also watered them regularly to give the plants a head start for when he wanted to plant them out.
To his amazement he noticed the blanched hearts that looked like Roman lettuce appearing on the roots.
During the next two years he did a trial with roots , covered with soil and roots that he left uncovered. Again, the covered roots produced this lovely vegetable.
The 1834-1835 winter is to be the official year that chicory or 'witloof', as we know it now, was discovered.
The way the chicory got out and famous is still a mystery, but a fact is that the first harvest made it's way to the market in Brussels in 1846. From 1840 till then the growing of chicory was a public secret that more and more farmers tended to cultivate. The cultivation then spread to the rest of Flanders, to the Netherlands and France.

Ingredients (for 2)

4 hearts of chicory (or more if you're gluttonous like me)

20 gr butter

100 ml water

1/2 organic stock cube

black pepper

nutmeg

4 slices of good quality cooked ham

for the cheese sauce (and if you like more sauce you can always multiply the amount)

50 gr butter

50 gr flour

300 ml milk

100 grated, mature cheese (cheddar, Gruyère or Gouda)

seasoning

Preparation

Clean-up the chicory by slicing off the brown bottom end and crossing in about 1 to 2 cm deep. Remove damaged leaves (if any).

Melt the butter in a pan and sautée the chicory hearts, add stock cube, pepper and nutmeg. Add the water and let it simmer (covered) until the cores are tender. The chicory shouldn't burn, so add extra water if necessary.

Drain in a colander, but keep the liquid.

Meanwhile make your cheese sauce.

Melt the butter in the pan and mix in the flour. Add the milk and vegetable liquid, bring to the boil, while stirring all the time. The sauce should be cooked through for at least a minute to prevent the floury aftertaste.

Take off the heat and stir in half of the cheese.

Roll each heart of chicory in a slice of ham and arrange in an ovenproof dish. Pour over the cheese sauce and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.

Put in a preheated oven 180 ° C or under the grill till the cheese on top has become golden brown.

Serve hot with mashed potatoes or as I do, with rice (that way I can devour at least three)

We often eat chicory just sautéed (step1) with potatoes and meat. When I serve it to people who haven't tried this glorious veg before I always add a tbsp sugar while sautéeing, if not the bitterness (although, only slightly so) might be a shock to some.

I know the 'very' original recipes say to boil the chicory in water for 45 minutes, but I find the intensity of flavours are more profound when sautéed, that's why I've prepared them like this most of my 'culinary' life.

What's still growing in the potager ?

Red Cabbage

Brussels Sprouts (Not originally from Brussels as the name is derived from 'Brassica' Sprouts)

And yesterday we've had our first harvest of Purple Sprouting Broccoli (they do turn the most beautiful deep green when cooked)

Lentil Paté

This dish is a success with vegetarians and omnivores alike. Have been making this for years.

Ingredients

2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped (leaves included)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
250 gr red lentils (I sometimes use Puy lentils)
2 tbsp curry powder
50 cl water or vegetable stock
2 tsp marmite or vegemite (optional)
50 gr wholewheat breadcrumbs
seasoning (salt, pepper)

Preparation

Sautée onion, garlic and celery in the oil for 5 minutes.
Add the lentils and curry powder, stirr and sautée for another minute.
Pour in the water or stock and bring to the boil.
Stirr in the marmite.
Cover and let simmer for about 30 minutes, until most of the liquid has been absorbed.
Take of the heat and mix in the breadcrumbs and add seasoning.
Pour the mixture into an oiled ovendish. Brush with more oil to get a nice crust.
Bake for 45 minutes in a preheated oven 200°C
It can be served hot as an alternative for meat or even cold, spread on a slice of fresh bread.

Work, work, work !

......And then there is time for a bit of fun and to relax. Bert, my OH, taking a break from building the greenhouse and Kerel, the dog, taking a break......... ah well, from going to the neighbours begging for food, I'm sure. They never invited us over for a bite to eat.

Braised Cabbage with Mustard

For Freddie from the Great Big Vegetable Challenge

Ingredients

1 white, green or savoy cabbage

25 gr butter

1 tbsp grainy mustard

1 organic vegetable stock cube

1/2 glass water

nutmeg & pepper

1/2 glass milk

Preperation

Quarter and slice the cabbage in 1 cm strips. Wash and drain.

Melt the butter and add the cabbage.

Stirr in the mustard and crumble the stock cube.

Pour in the water and cook the cabbage (covered with lid) till al-dente.

Pour in the milk and season with pepper and nutmeg.

Ready, Freddie !

It goes well with sausages or meat balls.

Braised Red Cabbage

This recipe might look strange to most people, but don't knock it till you tried it. This is the way my grandmother, Mit used to make it and after her my mother, Irma and now me.
I had some strange looks and comments from some the volunteers we host, about the jam. Needless to say they all succumb to the warm feeling this dish brings to their stomachs.
It is a great accompaniment for game, but equally nice with sausage, pork chop or lamb.
Usually I prepare it in my pressure cooker, that reduces the cooking time. The cooking time stated below is for the normal pots.

Ingredients

1 red cabbage, quartered and sliced
4 large onions, chopped
1 kg appels, peeled, cored and chopped
50 gr butter or goose fat
loads of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp white pepper
2 tbsp white vinegar or cider vinegar
1 jar of jam (dark fruits like blackberry or black currant)
brown sugar (optional)
salt

Preparation

Bring the cabbage, covered with cold water, to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes and drain in a colander. Cooking it like this will make the cabage more digestable.
Melt the butter or goosefat and add the onions, a layer of cabbage, appels, thyme, some cinnamon, pepper... and repeat.
Add vinegar and some water and the bay leaves.
Leave it on a low heat for 1 to 2 hours, stirring regularly. You might have to add some water during this process to avoid the cabbage burning !
Towards the end mix in the jam and add sugar and salt to taste.

The cabbage will benefit from making it the day before you want to serve it.

Pissaladière

Oh my ! This beats pizza by a mile or any other savoury tart !
It is very easy if you can forget the crying of cutting the onions.
Originally it is made with a yeast dough like pizza, but you can use shop bought shortcrust or puff pastry. I make it with flaky pastry.
This recipe is for you Friedel !


On the photo : Friedel & Andrew about to get on the road towards Morocco
Flaky Pastry ( for a 28 cm tin)
250 gr plain flour
125 gr butter
200 ml water
salt


Preparation
Put flour in a bowl and make hole in centre. Into this put salt, softened butter. Mix evenly with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
Add water bit by bit and stop when the flour has absorbed it. Mix well but not too hard.
When it comes away easily from the fingers, make into a ball, put into a bowl covered with a cloth and leave in a cool place for an hour.


Filling
1 kg onions , garlic
Provençale herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano)
olive oil
1 egg
seasoning (salt & pepper)
1 tbsp tomato puree
+/- 20 anchovy strips
20 black olives

Preparation
Peel the onions, slice thinly & crush the garlic. Fry gently in some olive oil without browning.
Add the herbs. Sauté until the onions are soft.
Stir in some tomato puree.
Season with salt and pepper.
Leave to cool and add 1 egg, mix well.

Roll out the pastry. Line the buttered and floured baking tin (alternatively, you could just use grease proof paper)
Cover the base with the onion purée. Use the anchovy strips to make a lattice on the tart. Add the olives between the strips.
Bake in a preheated oven 220° C for 25 minutes.
Serve hot or at room temperature.

Aaah ! Potatoes !

The advantage of insomnia is of course that, amongst all the rubbish thoughts, you sometimes have good ideas too. Like the one I had last night. I decided that there is a good spot in the garden to plant potatoes. So this morning, together with Stephen (our first volunteer of this year) I started digging over the patch, which is about 3 x 6 meters.
Although the sky was blue, the Mistral wind was trying to spoil things for us with gusts of 95 km/hr. I suggested to Stephen to stand with his back against the wind so he wouldn't get the sand in his face, with which he agreed was a good idea.
Two hours later and it was all done, ready for us to start forking it over on Monday. We might even get the rotivator out.
Next week I can get some plant potatoes and Bob's your uncle. Our first attempt to growing potatoes !

Baked Spareribs with BBQ sauce

Ingredients

2 kg spareribs
3 onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
250 ml tomato ketchup
25 ml cider vinegar
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp chilli powder or tabasco


Preparation

Preheat the oven to 230° C. Put the spareribs in a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes.
In the meantime mix all other ingredients together and pour over the spareribs. Turn the heat down to 180°C and bake the ribs for about an hour or until tender.
Take the ribs out of the marinade and give them extra coulour on the barbecue or under the grill. Pour the sauce back over and serve with crusty bread or rice and a green salad.

Chocolate Truffel Cake

Ingredients

400 gr dark chocolate
900 ml whipped cream (unsweetened)
150 gr crushed biscuits (digestives or Spritz-type)
2 tsp almond essence
cocoa powder to garnish


Preparation

Melt the chocolate in a hotwater bath (Bain Marie).
Fold in 1/3 of the cream and take of the heat.
Add the biscuits and almond essence to the cream and pour in the chocolate mixture. Fold it in well.
Pour into a spring form cake tin or line with tinfoil to prevent sticking.
Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours at least, 24 hrs is even better.
Cut into wedges and serve sprinkled with cocoa powder.

Belgian Cinnamon Cookies

Ingredients for +/- 30 pcs

200 gr butter
450 gr dark brown sugar
100 ml water
1 egg
2 heaped tbsp honey
750 gr self raising flour
a pich of salt
2 tbsp cinnamon

for finishing: milk or beaten egg & 30 bleached almonds

Preparation

Mix the butter and sugar well. Add the water, egg and honey.
Sieve the flour, salt and cinnamon. Then add to the butter mixture. Mix to a homogenous dough.
Leave to rest in a cold place for up to 5 hours.
Divide the dough into 30 portions. Roll and flatten to about 1.5 cm. Put them on a baking tray, lined with baking paper.
Press an almond in each cookie. Brush with egg or milk and bake in a preheated oven (170°C) for about 15 minutes.

Sweet peppers stuffed with spiced potatoes

My absolute favorite vegetarian Indian dish.

4/5 servings

Ingredients

4 tbsp sunflower oil
100 gr onions ; chopped
handful of cashewnuts ; roughly chopped
handful of raisins
1 tsp white pepper ; ground
2 tsp garam massala
1 green chili pepper ; finely chopped
3 tsp fresh ginger ; finely chopped
4 tsp coriander leaves ; finely chopped
salt to taste
750 gr boiled potatoes ; mashed
10 red peppers (I prefer green peppers for this recipe)
40 gr butter (for basting)

Preparation

Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onions, cashewnuts and raisins over a medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add the pepper, garam massala,chili, ginger, half of the coriander and salt.
Add potatoes and stir for 5 minutes.
Fill each pepper with the potato mixture and arrange in a greased baking tray. Add knobs of butter and bake in a preheated oven at 175 C for 35 minutes.

For the sauce (this can be done while the peppers are in the oven)

Ingredients

2 tbsp sunflower oil
6 green cardamom pods
1 bay leaf
1 onion ; finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic ; roughly chopped
1 tin (400 gr) peeled tomatoes
1 tsp mace
salt to taste
60 ml cream

Preparation

Heat the oil in a pan.
Saute the onions, cardamoms, bay leaf, garlic and tomatoes.
Add 100 ml of water and cook for 30 minutes.
Strain through a fine sieve.
Add mace, salt and cream and stir.


Remove the peppers from the oven and pour over the sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining coriander.

The yummiest pasta sauce

This recipe is especially for Emma, who wasn't too sure about the use of anchovies, but after eating it, she was sold immediately and asked me for the recipe. So there you go Emma, enjoy !




Ingredients

1 head of garlic or more ; roughly chopped
15 cl olive oil
1 tin of anchovies ; roughly chopped - save the oil to add to the pan later
1 or more red chilies ; finely chopped
1 tbsp dried oregano
70 gr tomato concentrate
3 tins of 400 gr peeled tomatoes
2 jars of 140 gr capers in vinegar
1 tbsp dried basil or a bunch of fresh
salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp sugar


Preparation

Pour the olive oil in a cooking pan and add the garlic, glaze on a low heat, stirring regularly. Take care not to burn the garlic.
Stir in the anchovies till they dissolve, before adding the chilies.
Next in the pan is the tomato concentrate and oregano. Let this simmer for a couple of minutes, still stirring.
Squish or squelch (don't know which word to use here) the peeled tomatoes in.
Simmer for a further 15 minutes, then adding the capers and their vinegar and the basil.
Bring back to a simmer, season with salt and pepper.
I always add sugar to cut through the tartness.