In case you were wondering what it was, it is a vegetable belonging to the cauliflower family, although its full name is romanesco broccoli. Go figure. It tastes and feels like cauliflower, although it resembles nothing so much as an alien life form, or at least a mathematical one - look at those spirals!
Sides We held our annual De Vooravond Van Sinterklaas party yesterday (a day late, yes) and spiced our holiday fun with three decidedly Dutch dishes - runderlappen, hutspot, and brussels lof. Although we can't recommend the last one, the first two were quite fun, so here you are!
Runderlappen
Runderlappen is basically meat and onions slow cooked in traditional spices, so start with 3lbs of round steak, pound it, saltand pepper it, then cut it into serving size pieces. Browned these pieces on both sides in about 1/2C of bacon drippings (I reserved these from preparing the bacon for the hutspot), then remove them to a slow cooker (with so much meat this took me several batches, and a little additional butter fat). After the final batch of meat is removed add 3 onions, sliced, and fry them slightly before adding 1C water, 3T vinegar, 1T mustard, 2 bay leaves, 1t whole cloves, and 10 peppercorns. Bring this to a boil, stirring to mix in the drippings from bottom of the pan, then pour over meat in the slow cooker. Add enough water (or broth) to just barely cover the meat and cook for 2-4 hours or until very tender. Turn meat every 1/2 hour or so. Serve hot with onions and some of the juice.
Hutspot
Hutspot is boiled potoatoes, onions, and carrots mashed together and served with meat. It's as easy as that. The recipes that we have seen call for about 6 onions, 6 carrots, and 8 potatoes to be washed, pealed, cut into pieces, and boiled in salted water alongside smoked sausages (Gelderse rookworst, to be exact). The vegetables are then removed and mashed together with 1/2C milk and 4T butter, then served with the sausages and cubed pieces of well done bacon. That's the traditional dish, but I left out the sausage and served it as the side starch to the runderlappen. I did serve it with the bacon, however, since I conveniently needed bacon fat for that dish!
Brussels lof
My computer translates this literally as "brussels praise" but I found a few web pages that make me think this is simply what the dutch call endive. In any case, endive is popular as a cooked vegetable in the Netherlands and several other European countries. In fact, the endive we were finally able to locate stateside had been shipped from Holland, and we don't mean Michigan. I washed our endive, then sauted them in butter over high heat for about 2 minutes per side, after which I reduced the heat and added 3T lemon juice, 1t salt, and 1T sugar to the butter, covered the pan, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. I can't say we enjoyed this dish. It was relatively flavorless, and next year I might try a different endive recipe, or I might search for a completely different vegetable all together. Who knows.
Happy (Dutch) holiday cooking!
Recipes | tagged Ethnic, Holidays, Main Dishes, Sides Probably all parents have a favorite sound byte that they like their children to perform in company; for some it's a song, for others a cute saying, but for Calvin it's simply "brussels sprouts." 
It may not sound like much of a sound byte, but when given, without fail, in response to the question "what is your favorite vegetable," it causes an almost universal widening of eyes and questioning tone. Really, we get a kick out of it every time. Is it true? Are brussels sprouts really his favorite vegetable? Believe it or not, yes. Nine times out of ten, when asked what veggie he wants with dinner, sprouts are the answer, and that has led to some really creative cooking around here. It's easy enough to keep a bag of frozen organic sprouts on hand for quick microwaving at lunch time, but dinners are another matter. So here is the first of what will likely be a series of brussels sprout recipes we've come up with.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts (easy as pie, though not quite as good)
1 lb Fresh brussels sprouts. Often we can find great organic sprouts in the produce dept at Meijer. I clean them much like lettuce - by soaking them in tepid water, then rinsing them in cold. I trim off the brown stumps and any bad spots, then shake them dry and put them in a bowl.
To the bowl I add 2-3T olive oil, 3/4t kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and a touch of garlic powder.
Toss sprouts until they are well coated, then spread them on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 30-40 minutes, turning every so often (which I do by shaking the pan a bit).
When done they should be lightly browned and slightly crispy (which beats mushy by a long shot). Serve them hot!
Another version that we have tried is to sprinkle them with parmesan cheese for the last few minutes of cooking - even yummier!
With freezing nights upon us and a garden full of green tomatoes, something had to be done. So on Sunday we treated ourselves to some southern cooking, organic style (and almost entirely sans processed foods). We have our own favorite chili recipe, one that uses Italian sausage as well as ground beef, and BBQ baked beans as well as the standard red kindneys. It also calls for chipotle - yum. Of course one can't have chilli without corn bread, and we found a great recipe for a southern corn bake makeover in our Healthy Cooking magazine that called for creamed corn, so I did an online search and came up with a homemade creamed corn recipe in order to avoid the canned variety. Lastly, we come to those green tomatoes, which we coated in a homemeade crunchy breading made from organic corn flakes and mock fried them briefly in only a small amount of oil before putting them in the oven to heat them the rest of the way. We also trimmed fat and calories by using reduced fat or fat free items whenever available, and kept it healthier by using all organic items (except for the Italian sausage, which I have yet to find in organic form).
Chili: Saute 1 large onion (chopped) with 3T garlic cloves (minced) in a tablespoon of oil. Add 1T chili powder, 1/2T chipotle powder, 2T paprika, 1T cumin, 4t oregano, Kosher salt, and pepper to taste, then add 1lb lean ground beaf and 1lb Italian sausage and cook until no longer pink. Add ~60oz of crushed tomatoes, ~16oz baked beans, and ~15oz red kidney beans. Simmer for one hour, and serve with cheese, sour cream, and green onion toppings.
Creamed corn: Melt 2T butter in a small saucepan. Add 2C corn (fresh or frozen) and 1/2C heavy cream (if using frozen corn add 1/2t sugar) and cook over medium heat, stirring until the cream thickens.
Corn Bake (makeover): In a large bowl combine 1C flour, 1C cornmeal, 3T sugar, 1/2t salt, and 1/2t baking soda. In a separate bowl whisk together 1 egg, 1C sour cream, 1/4C unsweetened applesauce, and 1/4C melted butter, then stir in the 2C creamed corn (see above), and add to dry ingredients. Mix just until moistened and transfer to a 13x9 baking dish to bake at 350 for 30 minutes or so.
Semi Fried Green Tomatoes: In a shallow bowl combine 1/2C flour, 1t sugar, 1t salt, and 1/4t cayenne pepper. In another whisk together 1 egg and a dash of milk. In a third place 1C cornflake crumbs. Heat 4t canola oil over medium heat. Dip 1/2inch thick green tomato slices into flour, then egg, then cornflakes and fry, four slices at a time, for ~2 minutes per side, or until golden brown, then remove to an ungreased baking sheet. Bake in oven at 350 for ~5 minutes or until tender.
Happy Southern eating!
Recipes | tagged Sides, beef, garden fare