1. Introduction
Overview of Dutch history (from the 16th century - the Golden Age - and a timeline of exploration/colonial expansion)
• Highlights from Dutch cuisine: Cheese
From cheese markets to cheese platters, the Dutch are exceptional cheese-makers and -eaters. Much more than Gouda, this overview will include a history of the Dutch affection for dairy products, and will provide serving tips and a simple recipe for cheesy beer soup.
2. Your Dutch pantry
This chapter includes descriptions of common Dutch spices, sauces and condiments, substitutions for ingredients that are hard to find, and commonly used fruits, vegetables and proteins.
• Highlights from Dutch cuisine: Sugar
If the Dutch are famous for one thing in particular, it might be their sweet tooth. Here, we explore Dutch sweets, including hagelslag, a popular toast and sandwich topping that’s really just an excuse to eat chocolate sprinkles for breakfast.
3. Ontbijt (Breakfast)
From the simple and hearty to fresh-baked and buttered, Dutch breakfast is a bread-focused affair. (If you were hoping for pancakes here, you’ll have to skip ahead – the Dutch prefer their pancakes to be part of the evening meal.)
o Anise milk
o Saffron milk
o Pan bati (corn pancakes)
o Toasted barley and buckwheat porridge w/raisins and almonds
o Fried sweet scones w/caraway seeds
o Turn-Over Bitches (Dutch pain perdu with cinnamon-sugar and stroop)
o Buckwheat waffles w/spek (Dutch bacon) and Hollandaise sauce
o Apple variation with appelstroop
o Suikerbrood (Frisian sugar bread)
o Prune and apple bread pudding
o Rusks with hangop and rhubarb preserves
o Baked eggs with Dutch lettuce
• Highlights from Dutch cuisine: Licorice
Here, a run-down on Dutch dropjes, from sweet soft licorice to ghastly dubble zoutes. This essay touches on the history of the Dutch affection for licorice, as well as its perceived medicinal properties.
• Koffietijd (Coffee)
Pastries and cakes to be served with coffee or tea, plus custard-based drinks to be served at daytime celebrations.
o Peperkoek (Dutch gingerbread loaf)
o Apple tart w/lemon peel and dried apricots
o Rice tart (soft rice custard in a sweet crumb crust)
o Prune tart (dried prunes stewed in brandy and spices until soft and jammy, then spread into a sweet crust)
o Apricot coffee cake with rosemary
o Caribbean macaroons (made with brown sugar, coconut, and cinnamon)
o Boeterkoek (butter cake)
o Stroopkoek (an almost savoury spice and dried fruit cake made w/beer and sweetened with molasses)
o Duimpjes (almond and anise seed cookies)
o Luilakbollen (yeasted rolls with candied citrus peel, served warm w/butter and syrup)
o Kandeel (sweet mulled wine thickened with egg yolks)
• Highlights from Dutch cuisine: Genever (sometimes spelled “jenever”)
The history of this Dutch precursor to gin and how to drink it, including tasting notes.
4. Borrels (Drinks, especially gin but also beer)
Dutch people understand – perhaps better than anyone – how well salty, fried or cheesy (or cheesy fried) foods go with a few or too many drinks. This chapter includes recipes for finger foods that go well with beer, cold gin, or whatever else gets you through the evening.
o Bitterballen and kroketten (croquettes)
- Traditional
- Sate
- Paprika
- Potato and kale
o Borrelnootjes (spiced nuts)
o Pastechi
- Cheese filling
- Beef filling
o Keeshi yena (chicken stuffed Gouda cheese)
o Fried cheese balls
o Zoute balletjes (“salt cookies,” a type of crisp, savoury pastry that pairs well with beer)
o Frikandel (a fried meat item best explained as a casing-free sausage, spiced with nutmeg, coriander, cumin and pepper, and served with curry ketchup)
o Friet (thick Dutch French fries)
o Lekkerbekjes (battered fried cod pieces with dill)
o Rollmops (Herring fillets wrapped around pickled onions or cornichons)
o Uitsmijter (open-faced sandwiches of bread, meat, and tomatoes served to sober up bar patrons or satisfy drunk stomachs and prevent hangovers)
• Highlights from Dutch cuisine: Herring
Dutch sushi? Here we talk about the role of herring in Dutch cuisine, and the many ways it’s commonly eaten raw, cured, pickled and canned.
5. Het middageten (dinner, or “the hot meal”)
The Dutch prefer just one hot meal per day. If the hot meal happens midday, then the evening meal would be a cold dish, primarily involving bread. This chapter assumes you’d have your hot meal somewhere around 6:00 p.m., though to be honest a plate of cold meat and hearty bread is always sufficient for dinner, as far as I’m concerned.
o Hachee (stewed pork) with red cabbage
o Chickpeas (traditionally kapucijners, which are not chickpeas but … well, close) baked w/rice, bacon and caramelized onions
o Fried trout w/tomatoes and bell peppers
o Hutspot (beef stewed w/warming spices and served over turnip and potato mash)
o Hete Bliksem (potatoes and apples w/bacon and apple vinaigrette)
o Herring fritters and greens w/onion sauce
o Tempeh with tomatoes and eggplant
o Pom (chicken and potato casserole w/lemon zest and allspice)
o Juniper poached salmon and asparagus
o Celery salad
o Braised endive with egg
o Salted licorice ice cream
• Highlights from Dutch cuisine: Beer
There are more than 370 breweries in the Netherlands. Here, we’ll talk about Dutch brewing history, brown cafes, and how Dutch recipes use beer to add flavour and complexity to simple, homemade dishes.
6. Rijsttafel (Rice Table)
Rijsttafel is a meal in itself; this chapter provides recipes of varying degrees of complexity to aid in preparing rice table dinners for family dinner, or weekend entertaining. Many of the dishes originated in Indonesia, but were adapted by Indonesian immigrants to the Netherlands to suit Dutch tastes.
o Saoto (a rice noodle soup with chicken broth, lime leaf and turmeric)
o Yellow rice with ginger
o Maggi fried rice
o Bami goreng (noodles fried w/ketjap manis with spices)
o Gado Gado (salad of green beans, butter lettuce, pineapple, chilies and boiled eggs, topped with peanut sauce)
o Mussels braised in beer w/butter, chili paste, and scallions
o Meatball rendang
o Sambal prawns and snap peas
o Plantain fritters
o Chicken liver sambal
o Chicken satay (chicken thighs grilled on skewers)
o Banana ice cream
• Highlights from Dutch cuisine: Stamppot (sample provided)
Stamppot is a term that encompasses any number of mashed foods in combination; the most popular of these is boerenkool, a dish of mashed potatoes with kale or endive. Stamppots are comfort foods, cozy dishes of cheap veggies served with sausages, and are both economical and easy to throw together on a weeknight.
7. Gezellig (Foods to eat for comfort)
o Hachee (stewed beef) w/apples
o Moesterdsoep (mustard soup)
o Snert (Dutch split pea soup)
o Pickled beet soup
o Asparagus with ham and soft scrambled egg
o Maggi meatball soup
o Brown beans in stroop (baked beans w/stroop and beer, w/pork belly)
o Empanadas (savoury):
- Chicken loempia
- Ground beef
o Empanadas (sweet):
- Sweet potato
- Persimmon and cranberry
o Creamed herring on rusk
o Saffron vla (pudding)
o Chipolata vla (Dutch tiramisu, with ladyfingers soaked in rum, advocaat, and rose-scented whipped cream)
o Potato ice cream
• Highlights from Dutch cuisine: Pancakes
Explanations of common Dutch pancakes, including pannenkoek, rice pancakes, and poffertjes, as well as a couple of simple recipes with techniques and suggested uses. In the Netherlands, pancakes aren’t simply a breakfast food - they’re a way to give new life to leftovers, to stretch main courses, and as treats for children.
8. December (foods for the Sinterklaas and the Dutch Christmas season)
o Pork loin stuffed w/pear and currants
o Braised beef roast w/wilted greens
o Wine-braised red cabbage
o Beet salad with apples and dill
o Lettuce salad w/herbs and vinegar
o Roasted potatoes w/fresh parsley, garlic and nutmeg
o Haringsla (herring salad w/potatoes and pickled cucumbers)
o Boerenjongens (a flavoured brandy drink sweetened w/raisins or other dried fruit)
o Advocaat (a thick, custard-like beverage/dessert akin to eggnog)
o Speculaasjes (like brownies, but w/speculaas spices)
o Oliebollen (Dutch doughnuts w/currants and candied ginger)
o Crullers (Dutch egg doughnuts)
o Pistachio eggnog
9. Dutch staples
This chapter will provide basic recipes for Dutch staple foods, from apple-based condiments, to spice pastes, to sausages. Will include instructions for making sausages at home for those who have the equipment or inclination, and canning instructions for preserves.
o Appelstroop (apple syrup)
o Appelmoes (applesauce)
o Rhubarb preserves
o Apricot jam with brandy
o Candied citrus peel
o Hangop (a fresh cheese made of strained yogurt)
o Peanut sauce
o Mayonnaise met knoflook (garlic mayonnaise)
o Curry ketchup
o Sambals
- Sambal oelek (red chili paste w/garlic and vinegar)
- Green sambal (sambal oelek w/green chilies, scallions and herbs)
- Sambal badjak (sweet chili paste)
- Coconut sambal (chili paste made w/coconut and fish sauce)
o Sausages
o Rookwurst (pork and nutmeg sausage)
o Dutch Haggis (offal and buckwheat sausage with apple)
