Semper Delicata

Recipes with liver, in Dutch

2009-12-14T14:56:29Z

Liver, and all organ meat, is not appreciated in these days (except for the -ethically unacceptable- forced livers of goose and duck). However, I love to eat liver once in a while, so I decided to dedicate a page on my site to recipes with it. Two to start with, more recipes will follow later, maybe.
As usual with modern recipes, they are in Dutch. The new historical recipe is almost ready to be published.
Enjoy!

Again: sushiday

2009-11-15T17:54:15Z

Exactly one year ago, my daughter had a sushiday with some friends. Yesterday, again it was sushiday, this time with the members and leader of the harp ensemble she plays in. Some wanted recipes, so I have put them online (Dutch only, sorry!). You can find them here.

Maybe next year we'll have another sushiday. That would be November 13, I guess ...

Medieval Fish Jelly: Delicious!

2009-10-29T18:22:40Z

When I offered this dish, a medieval fish jelly, to the upper grades (ages 9 to 12) of a primary school in Amsterdam, it elicited mixed reactions. Of course there are children who do not like fish, or they don't want to eat it because they never eat fish at home. And there are children who can't get rid of the preconceived, erroneous conception that medieval food is yuck. But there was a substantial part of my youthful public that actually loved it and even came back for more! (needless to say, the apple sauce was most popular!)

Anyway, I decided the recipe was worthy of a place on my site, so here it is: Pyke in Galentyne, a fifteenth century English recipe. I fell in love with it because not only does it look good and taste great, but it is also pleasantly fragrant, not fishy at all.

Pyke in Galentyne (English version) (Dutch version)

Vertical and horizontal cats

2009-10-29T09:21:41Z

We have one horizontal cat, and one vertical cat. At least, strokewise.

Hiro (born exactly two years ago, btw), will lean into any approaching hand with such abandon that he always ends up flopping down on his side to receive the full effect of the stroking hand. So he is our horizontal cat. Sometimes he waits on the stairs to get his caresses, and you have to be careful that he doesn't fall down the stairs (then he's a vertical cat too).

Micah always meets the hand half way by lifting up his body and front paws, especially the right one. In this he reminds me of Japanese Maneki Neko (the beckoning cat or lucky cat). At the same time he looks with piercing eyes at the stroker-to-be, and utters a kind of squeak that could be cat-talk for: "What are you waiting for? Get on with it!". He is our vertical cat.

Two new Dutch recipes

2009-10-27T15:59:48Z

Sorry to be a tease again, but the two new recipes on my site are both Dutch only. But the new historical recipe (in English) is almost ready!

To my page with recipes for 'meatballs in tomato sauce' in all variations, the latest addition is what I call 'Frenchified meatballs in tomato sauce'. The recipe is my own, from thirty years ago, but the basis of the sauce is a roux, hence the 'French'. There are a lot of spices and herbs in this recipe, and sour cream and lemon juice add a twinge to the otherwise maybe too rich tasting sauce. This dish used to be a favourite of my ex-partner.

The other recipe is an Italian sweet or dessert, Cassata Siciliana. Very sweet, lots of food colouring, but also very festive.

Enjoy!

Spiders

2009-08-22T12:12:25Z

What is it with spiders and wing mirrors? For months now I've had a succession of spiders inhabitating the left wing mirror of my car, weaving their web between the mirror and the car door. Most spiders were clever enough to hide out of the wind on the lee side of the mirror while I'm driving, but last week there was a stubborn cross spider who remained in the center of its web, oscillating wildly even when I tried to drive slowly. Of course the web broke, and the spider clung with all his eight feet to the last remnants. So then I stopped, to put him on the mirror where it could regain its breath (do spiders breathe?). Next day it was gone, no doubt in search of a safer place to build its web.

This week another spider has taken residence on my wing mirror, a different species, don't know what exactly. Small, elongated body, very long, thin, hairless legs. This one clung to the underside of the wing mirror, but one of its legs lost its hold, and it waved along with the wind. To be honest, it is quite distracting to have these arachnids as passenger, even if they're on the outside.

But ... I am not as afraid of spiders as I once was. I don't know what happened, but over the years my arachnaphobia has lessened. No longer will I, as I once did, jump up with a loud shriek in the middle of a loaded train wagon, throwing my bag and everything in it around, when a tiny spider lowers itself from the luggage rack. I still don't want to touch them, but the panic is gone. I wonder why.

20 new recipes from manuscript KANTL Gent 15 vol.2

2009-08-16T17:11:33Z

As promised in July, a new installment of the edition of the fifteenth-century Middle-Dutch manuscript KANTL Gent 15, Vol.2. No less than twenty recipes this time. If ever anyone wants to look the translations over with a critical eye, please be my guest!

Two of these new recipes have already been published on my site in some of my bimonthly articles, a recipe for wafers (wafels), and for pea soup (erwtensoep).
There are also a few recipes for pasties, with a very concise recipe for pastry dough, and sauces (several cumin sauces), applesauce (appelmoes), an onion stew and some egg dishes. Some of the recipes were difficult to comprehend, especially recipe 2.91. Suggestions are welcome.

You can find the edition here

If you like grilled chicken, this is the recipe for you!

2009-08-10T15:19:35Z

A few weeks ago my family came to dinner. Lots of people, so it was a good occasion to try some recipes with whole chickens on my charcoal grill. They were absolutely delicious, really, so I decided to dedicate a few pages on my site to barbecuing chickens the slow way. Here you see the beauties:

The two on the outside are 'modern chickens', the one in the middle is a medieval stuffed chicken.

I also added a new Webshop. I already had one at Amazon.com, but now I added another with Amazon.de. What's the difference, you think. For people living in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and a few other countries, shipping is free if your order exceeds 20 Euro. And shipping costs from the American Amazon are ridiculously high for Europeans, even with the low dollar. In these webshops I have selected books on culinary history, editions of historical cookbooks, books on cooking and eating, and dvd's with movies in which cooking and eating are an important theme.

Webshop at Amazon.com; Webshop at Amazon.de

Cups and grams

2009-07-21T09:28:01Z

Thanks to the answers to my question in cooking, I have now started to add cups, pounds and fl.oz to the English versions of the recipes on my site. I hope that this will make it easier for those not used to the metric system to understand/prepare the recipes.

I wonder if there has ever been research on how the system of measurement used influences the recipes. Because one tends to use whole amounts or easy parts of them, in translating from one system to the other, these amounts will be changed slightly, thereby also changing the relative proportions of the ingredients. In many dishes this won't matter, but in some (like baking) the exact amount used is important.

Anyway, I hope you are pleased with my efforts. Please notify me of any mistakes.

When you are a regular visitor to my site, you will have noticed that the background pictures have changed, from light to dark. Whether or not this saves energy I have no idea, but imo it's more restful to the eye.

Finally, new translated recipes from manuscript KANTL Gent 15

2009-07-03T17:07:25Z

April 2006 was the last update on my edition of medieval cookbooks on my site. A lot has happened to me in the meantime (move to another village, illness) which caused this project to slide into the background.
Because it has been such a long time, I'll recapitulate.
There are three more or less medieval manuscripts with culinary recipes in Middle Dutch, all three dating from shortly before and a bit after 1500. My ongoing project is to publish these texts straight from the manuscripts ( NOT copied from older modern editions), and accompanied by translations in modern Dutch and English, and a glossary.

The first of these manuscripts, Wel ende edelike spise (UB Gent 1035) in 1872 by C.A. Serrure. It has a total of 62 recipes divided over two chapters. The online edition of this manuscript is completed.

The second manuscript is in fact a collection of four small manuscripts, bound together not too long after their coming into existence. The introduction to this convolute can be found here. The first three manuscripts, with culinary recipes, were edited in 1986 by W.L. Braekman, in two seperate publications. My edition of the first part (92 recipes) is completed. The second part is a WIP wich has been on hold for over three years now, but I hope to complete it this summer. It has a total of 206 recipes. The third part, with 122 recipes, will follow, and maybe also the fourth part with medical recipes. That part has never been published, as far as I know.

The third manuscript, UB Gent 476, was published most recently, in 1989 (2nd edition 1998) by R.Jansen Sieben and J.M. van Winter. That will be completed last.

I now present to you recipes 66-80 of the second volume of ms KANTL Gent 15.

There is one recipe for hypocras, slightly different from the one from the Ménagier de Paris on my site. There is a recipe for a celebratory cake ('Iaers coeck'), and there are several recipes with fruit (pie, jelly, custard). The pie recipes are remarkable because the crust is not made from dough, but from (hollowed?) flat bread.

I promise that the next update will be sooner than 2012.

New recipes

2009-07-03T16:28:06Z

Completely forgot to announce here: Last week I uploaded several new recipes to my site.
The new historical recipe is a combination of two nineteenth century recipes on poached salmon, served cold. The recipes are from the two 'keukenmeidenkookboeken' (kitchen maids' cookbooks) from 'Aaltje' and 'Betje'.
English: Salmon Salad from Cook
Dutch: Zalmsalade van de Keukenmeid

In Dutch, there are two 'Chinees-Indische' (Indonesian) recipes: Babi ketjap (Pork stewed in soy sauce) and Roedjak (savoury fruit salad). And an extra recipe, Pizza, because my daughter wanted to learn how to make those herself. And really, if you have an breadbaking machine with 'pizza dough' function, you'll have a pizza from scratch in less than 75 minutes, and the actual work takes only 15 to 25 minutes, depending on what you use as topping.

A new era in my kitchen

2009-04-26T08:07:06Z

Within a month, I lost my two most beloved kitchen machines: my seventeen year old Panasonic breadmaker (SD-BT2P), and my thirty-two year old kitchen Braun machine. That last one I got as a present from my father when I was eighteen years old, the breadmaker I bought when I was pregnant from my daughter, and my mother was dying of cancer. In those last months of her life, I baked several breads for her. She had lost most of her appetite, but she loved especially the brioche-like breads. She died a few weeks before my daughter was born.
So you see, these kitchen aids weren't just machines to me, they held emotional memories. Replacing them feels like starting a new phase in life.

That being said, I now enjoy immensely my new assistants in the kitchen. After some research, I chose another Panasonic breadmaker, the SD-255. The Braun I replaced with a Kenwood Classic Chef. I still feel like I'm being 'unfaithful', but no doubt that feeling will pass soon enough.

New recipes!

2009-04-15T13:37:57Z

A delicious dish of lamb with herbs and spices, from the oldest surviving Arabian cookbook dating from the middle of the tenth century, and for the Dutchies a summer dish of veal with tuna mayonnaise (vitello tonnato). These are the new recipes on my site.

The historical recipe is from Kitab al-Tabikh (litterally: 'cookbook') by al-Warraq. Thanks to the English translation by Nawal Nasrallah this ancient text is available to non-arabic speakers. The recipe is called Mulahwaja, it was a favourite dish of '1001 nights' caliph Harun al-Rashid.

The Vitello Tonnato has been a favourite dish of mine for years now, and finally it has found a niche on my site. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Mulahwaja English version
Mulahwaja Dutch version

I'm confused

2009-03-22T10:39:19Z

This morning I wrote in my Dutch Volkskrant Journal about the minimalistic portions that have been in and out of vogue for decennia now in certain restaurants. I was reminded of a passage in Leonardo's Kitchen Note Books, in which is decribed how Leonardo Da Vinci's attempts at introducing refined portions, beautifully presented (he was working as a cook to supplement his meagre income as a budding artist), resulted in his fleeing the restaurant because he was in danger of being lynched by unsatisfied customers.
I got this book as a Sinterklaas present (the original Santa Claus whose birthday is celebrated December 5 in The Netherlands) in 1987, the year it appeared. It is a tremendously amusing book, casting a whole new light on the brilliant artist and scientist Leonardo Da Vinci. In An Outline of his 'Gastronomic' Life the authors describe not only the anecdote recounted above, but also many ingenious kitchen machines, that throughout the centuries have been mistaken for war machinery. This is richly illustrated, for example the 'Device for Eleminating frogs from Drinking Water' (when the frog hopped onto the baited trap a hammer would deliver a blow to its head and continue delivering such blows until the frog became unconscious), the 'Giant Cow Grinder', an early design to convert lasagne to spaghetti, and my favourite, the 'Giant Whisk', which "had the disadvantage of being operated from within, its unfortunate driver being in constant danger of drowning in the custard or whatever he was whisking".

Then there are the kitchen notes. Very believable at first sight. But take this recipe: "One plum, stoned and quartered, then laid upon a thinnish slice of raw cow meat dried three months in the sun. Beside it, a sprig of apple blossom." Unless I am very much mistaken, there is no way fresh plums and apple blossom occur at the same time of the year.
When you look at the authors of the book, much is explained. Their names: Shelach and Jonathan Routh. Jonathan Routh is a famous prankster, known from the British version of Candid Camera.

And here is where I'm confused: a lot of people still take this book seriously. I must confess that I too once had a bout of wishful thinking and thought it COULD be true. It is a brilliant spoof. But most online bookstores still present this book with Leonardo Da Vinci as author, and some websites cite from the book as gospel truth ... Nowhere do I find any mention of this book being a spoof. But I do love it.

My day at the butcher's

2009-03-08T17:21:24Z

Last month I spent a day with a biological butcher, where I saw how black pudding is made, and brawn and scrapple. In Dutch: bloedworst, zure zult en hoofdkaas, en balkenbrij.
I made lots of pictures, and a selection of those can now be seen here (English) and hier (Dutch). Warning: not a page for vegetarians.

Chinese shrimp

2009-03-02T09:55:18Z

New recipes! But Dutch only, sorry. Translating the modern recipes too takes a lot of time. I want to start translating all recipes in English, not must the historical ones, but I simply lack the time.
Anyway, the modern recipes are Chinese, both based on pureed shrimp. Toast with shrimp and quail egg, and stuffed mushrooms. Both look lovely, and they taste good too.

Chinese toast and stuffed mushrooms

New historical recipe!

2009-02-21T16:49:10Z

The new historical recipe is for a vegetable that has both passionate lovers and ferocious haters: broccoli.
I chose a recipe from the Opera (1570) of Bartolomeo Scappi, to celebrate the new translation in English by Terence Scully that has appeared in 2008. This cookbook is mostly known for its wonderful engravings of kitchens and kitchen utensils, but it also has many recipes, that clearly show the characteristics of Italian cuisine. At last those who have difficulty reading sixteenth century Italian will be able to make their own maccaroni, tagliatelli, ravioli, frittata, zabaglione, mortadella, and lots and lots of other preparations according to the cook of cardinals and popes.
I also found some nonsense that several sites mention, about a certain Drusus, son of Roman emperor Tiberius, who loved broccoli to excess. When I wanted to check that story, I found something else entirely. But I added a little Roman recipe for broccoli anyway.

Dutch Broccoli in the Opera
English Broccoli in the Opera

More winter food

2009-01-07T15:18:47Z

Yesterday we ate a dish with beans, apples and syrup, one of my winter regulars. And I thought, why not make a picture of it and add the recipe to my site? It is simple, quick, easy, cheap and TASTY! On my site is the Dutch version, but here you have the recipe in short in English:

Fry 50 gram bacon and 1 onion (both chopped) in 1.5 tablespoon butter. Add 200 gram ground meat, fry until it has lost the raw colour, then add 2 diced but unpeeled apples, and 1 tablespoon apple syrup or another syrup. After three minutes, add drained and rinsed kidney beans from a 1-litre can (about 500 gram drained), heat through and add 2 more tablespoons syrup, and salt and black pepper to taste. Serve hot, with extra syrup on the table.
For vegetarians: leave out bacon and ground meat, use 2 tablespoons butter, and add 'ground vegetarian meat' at the same time as the apples.

Dutch recipe

Meatball, anyone?

2009-01-06T11:01:50Z

The new modern recipe (in Dutch) is a project. For now, there are two recipes for meatballs in tomato sauce, Italian and Indian. But more recipes will be added, because meatballs and tomato sauce is a marriage made in heaven. So, if you like the combination, keep in eye on this page!

Historical recipes: Scorzonera

2009-01-06T10:54:11Z

First of all: coquinaria.nl is back online! (actually since December 30)

At the moment it is cold outside, the whole country (The Netherlands) is suffering from 'schaatskoorts' (skating fever). And the whole country also seems to eat Dutch peasoup, if I look at how many people have googled the recipe these days.
The new historical recipes are also for winter food: black salsify or scorzonera (schorseneren in Dutch). They look like asparagus once they're peeled, but are completely different in taste, texture and nutritional value. In fact, they have the highest energylevel of all vegetables, even higher than potatoes (when they are boiled potatoes deliver 76 kCal, black salsify 81 kCal and asparagus 16 kCal per 100 gram).

There is a Dutch recipe from late eighteenth century for black salsify with parsley sauce, and a very young historical recipe from early twentieh century, for salsify fritters according to Escoffier.
I hope you enjoy this winter food!

Dutch version
English version

Temporarily out of order

2008-12-25T14:55:44Z

Just so you know: the server where my site (www.coquinaria.nl) is on, is having problems since Monday 22 December. It is virtually unreachable. The server was supposed to be repaired on Wednesday, but apparently not.

Anyway, I wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sushi Day, + new rice recipe

2008-11-23T10:46:44Z

Last week, my daughter and two of her friends decided it was Sushi Day. They made sushi out of 19 cups of rice (two large and one small rice cooker load). It will be a while before I crave sushi again!

Preparing sushi rice: teamwork.

There were some salmon and tuna leftovers. My cats loved Sushi Day too.
Very strange: Hiro ate sesame seeds, and he loved it!

Just a part of what they made.

There's a new rice recipe on the Dutch page on rice, for Indonesian nasi koening (spiced yellow rice)
I am working on an English translation of this page.

Hedgehogs!

2008-11-02T13:00:53Z

At long last, the historical recipe is ready. Originally this was planned for the months September/October, but some health problems caused a delay.
There are two recipes. The first is medieval, a subtlety. This was a pig stomach, stuffed with meat, and made to look like a hedgehog. After I found a butcher selling pig stomach, it appeared that he could only sell it cut up in pieces. Not what I needed. So I have used an alternative, pork caul.
The other recipe is from the eighteenth century, little hedgehogs made from marzipan, surrounded by a lake of creamy custard. The meaty hedgehog tasted good, but these marzipan ones are simply delicious! Since marzipan is a traditional sweet in The Netherlands at the feast of Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas, pakjesavond) on the eve of December 5, I hope many of you will try to make these. All my tasters (and there were many) commented on how much more tasty this marzipan was compared to commercially produced marzipan.

English version
Dutch version

New recipe (and new cat)

2008-10-24T15:47:27Z

A new modern recipe (Dutch only, as usual): eclairs filled with pureed smoked eel. If you like 'gerookte paling', this might be a nice way to expand the ways in which to serve it.
The recipe (in Dutch).

My last post here was sad, about the death of our dear cat Clio. After a few weeks we decided to get another female cat as company for Hiro. He really missed his mother. So we got one. At least, we thought we did. When the kitten was used to us after a day or two, and we were able to pick it up without causing the little thing to panick, it appeared that it had two little balls hidden under its tail. Apparently, fate is against our having female cats. My daughter and I argued about possible names for about a week (she: Felix, ; I: Gaius (with the double meaning 'gajes' (rabble or riffraff in English), and a cousin of mine had the briljant idea of Hannibal because of its surprise balls), but we finally decided on Micah (which means 'Who resembles God').
He is now a month with us, and great friends with Hiro. They chase and lick each other, and we even saw Micah trying to drink from Hiro. City, our boomerang-cat (gone-back-gone-back) is having some trouble holding his own, he has been gone so often, that Hiro doesn't accept him as a fellow inhabitant anymore. Next week we have an animal behaviour therapist over, I hope that will help us making City a happier cat.

Next week I will FINALLY be able to finish the new historical recipe. Stay tuned!

Sad cat post, again ...

2008-09-08T07:25:43Z

The trouble with pets is, they have a short life span. You love them, but you know they'll probably die before you.
Is the grief felt when losing a pet reason enough never to have one?

That is what I discussed with my daughter yesterday, after the dierenambulance (some sort of Animal Rescue) called that they had found our cat Clio, who had been missing since the day before. She appeared to have been hit by a car. Thanks to the chip all our cats have implanted, she could be identified straight away. I have seen Clio. She looked unharmed, but the driver of the ambulance showed me how he could tell she'd been hit, and not 'just died'.

I know a cat is not a person, but cats do have personalities you get to love. So we are sad. Not to distraction, but still ...
Hiro, her son, who at nearly eleven months still was allowed to drink occasionally from his mother, misses her too.

As I told my daughter, the grief of today is not greater than the joy we have had of having her with us for nearly three years.
So, because City has decided he definitely wants to stay in his old neighbourhood, I have already decided that in a few weeks, we will be looking for company for Hiro.
I do not want him to become 'a lone cat'. Two cats keep each other company, and they stay more cat, if you kow what I mean.

Well, that was it for the sad cat post. I hope it will be a long time before another one.