The Dutch kitchen with leaf vegetables.
Chicory (Belgian endive) with
ham, cheese and potatoes. Belgian endive is a leaf vegetable, that is cultivated in the
dark, covered with a thick layer of soil, so that the crop does not become green. Belgian
endive is related to common endive. Export countries are Belgium, North France and the
Netherlands. Remove after purchase the outer leaves, if they look not fresh. Cut the
chicory in slices and remove the bitter core if wished so. Personally I like the bitter
core for a pithy taste. Cook the potatoes in 30 and the chicory in 20 minutes in water
with some salt. Remove the water. Add pieces ham and cheese or use a ham-cheese sauce. You
can also cook each chicory as a whole and cut each chicory open after cooking to fill each
with a slice ham and cheese. Hereby taste Wiener schnitzel, cordon bleu
schnitzel
or fried or roasted chicken very good.
Endive
originally came from the Mediterranean area but is now cultivated all over Europe in large
quantities. Endive is closely related to chicory (Belgian endive) and is an annual plant.
Endive is the whole year round available in the Netherlands. In the winter months and
early spring this vegetable comes from warmed greenhouses, this endive is smaller and
softer then from the cold soil and can do with shorter cooking time. Cook the sliced
endive 10-20 minutes in a little water with some salt. Potatoes 30 minutes. Meat after
your choice. For mash pot endive see our web page Recipes
for Dutch stews (mash pots).
Purslane
or spinach with potatoes. Purslane is
in the Netherlands an almost forgotten vegetable. That is pity, because the refined,
sharp, light sour taste is appropriate in many dishes. Purslane is cultivated in food rich
soil, in the Netherlands mostly in glasshouses. In the summer time cultivated purslane has
relatively small leaves, with stalks and leaves both fitted to be cooked. The cooking
time is five till ten minutes just as for fresh spinach. The purslane cultivated in warmed
glasshouses in the winter is much more fragile and the fresh leaves are mostly used for
salads or mash pot. For cooked purslane you can use the same meat as for spinach. Right
you see purslane and left spinach.
Fresh lettuce.
This vegetable includes about hundred species, distributed world wide, but mainly in
temperate Eurasia. The most common known sorts lettuce in our Dutch country are
garden lettuce and iceberg lettuce. The garden lettuce was disappearing out of our
supermarkets in favor of iceberg lettuce, who was longer conservable in supermarkets and
refrigerator. The iceberg lettuce has more cabbage feature, but common lettuce is
returning back in the vegetable stores. Fine cut fresh lettuce with tomatoes and a lettuce
dressing.tastes excellent besides potatoes and meat apart. Of course you can join a fine
sliced onion to the lettuce and meat after your choice. Lettuce leafs and sliced tomatoes
can be eaten also on bread with meat. These both sorts of lettuce are also good for mash
pot as mentioned in our web page Recipes for
Dutch stews (mash pots). Right you see iceberg lettuce and left garden lettuce.
Bulgarian
meatballs (English Wikipedia) taste excellent with fresh lettuce or other fresh
vegetables. Bulgarian meatballs are made from ground beef or pork, or a mix of both, just
as in the Netherlands and Belgium, with spices and whipped egg. They can be shallow fried
or grilled golden-brown and are often prepared filled with diced onions and soaked bread
in it. It is a very popular dish. Right you see big Bulgarian meatballs with fresh
vegetables. For a bigger picture click on the link for meatballs and choose then for languages
the second link with Bulgarian Cyrillic script, for the better meatballs. My PC program
for making web pages refuses alas a direct link in Cyrillic script. Please do not blame
me.
Rucola (arugula or garden rocket) has
been cultivated in the Mediterranean area since centuries and now also in northern Europe
and America. The plant grows 10 to 60 centimeter in height. The cultivated plant has not
lobed leafs and the wild form deep pinnately lobed leafs. If you pluck the leafs then new
ones are coming soon. Rucola is related to radish and turnip, but we use here only the
young leafs and short stalks. The fresh young plants are used as a strong flavor enhancer
in salads, other raw vegetables, patties, ragout and soup or added to an Italian pizza at
the last moment. The young leafs can be eaten also on bread with meat in stead of lettuce.
You can also use rucola in stews and deep-fry mix. The taste of rucola alone is like
walnut and slightly bitterish. It has a rich, peppery taste, and has an exceptionally
strong flavor for a leafy green.
Leek with potatoes, cheese and mincemeat.
Leek is related to the onion, shallot and garlic. Leek came originally from the
Mediterranean area, but is now beloved and cultivated in Europe also in the Netherlands,
Belgium and Germany. Use for the leek only the white and light green parts. Wash the leek,
slice it in rings and cook it then in 10-13 minutes or stir-fry it for some minutes. You
can also stir-fry the minced meat in a stir-fry pan with some butter or olive oil and
eventually sliced onion or shallot and
some pepper. Cook meanwhile also the potatoes in water with some salt in 30 minutes. Cut
some Dutch cheese in cubes to add to the leek and mix it. Also a ham-cheese sauce over the
leek can do. A modern version for Dutch cheese is French cheese such as Roquefort. Of
course you can serve other meat with this dish such as cordon blue or Wiener schnitzel.
Asparagus.
We know green and white asparagus, both of the same sort. The green asparagus shoots are
harvested from above the ground and the white under the ground. In the Netherlands is
white asparagus most popular because his less bitter and tender taste. You have to peel
asparagus well and remove the tops. Wash it then and cook it ready within ten minutes in
sufficient water with some salt, such that all asparagus shoots are just under water. You
can serve asparagus with hollandaise sauce, this is a butter sauce thickened with flour
and a whipped egg and eventually a little vinegar or lemon juice. Also you can serve it
with cooked potatoes with butter sauce and the asparagus scattered with parsley. Suitable
meat is a thick slice of cooked ham or roast beef. The smaller asparagus from a glass pot
or tin are excellent as a snack with a slice of ham around it. Right you see cooked
potatoes with asparagus and hollandaise
sauce.
The Dutch kitchen with sorts of cabbage.
Chinese
cabbage with meat and potatoes. Also for this softer sort of cabbage you can better
serve the potatoes and cabbage apart. Hereby fits a cream, chives or cheese sauce for
the Chinese cabbage. Cook the sliced Chinese cabbage for 10-15 minutes in sufficient water
with some salt. Add at the end of the cooking time an handful of the fresh soft white
inner leaves, mix it with the cooking cabbage and let it cook with it for the last moment.
Cook the potatoes apart during 20-30 minutes. Do not forget to serve also a spicy meat
sauce for the potatoes and for the meat. Chicken, schnitzel or cordon blue taste also
excellent with this dish.
Pak choi is an open Asiatic snow cabbage
with green leaves and white stems and differs from common Chinese cabbage. Pak choi is
available whole year round and can come from Dutch greenhouses, Asiatic countries, Israel
or Spain. You can use the whole plant to slice and cook (eight minutes) or stew (ten
minutes), not to long so that the vegetable stays a slightly crunchy. Pak choi is also
excellent fitted for stir-frying. See our web page about Bami or nasi goreng with lumpia and rice dishes from Overseas with
recipes for pak choi. About four minutes in the stir-fry pan as ingredient for East
Indies chop suey with nasi or West Indies pak choi with white rice and meat or
chicken, of course with the needed spices. Right picture shows pak choi and left picture
above Chinese cabbage.
Cauliflower. The
cauliflower consists of the flower head of the cabbage, sort like as broccoli. There are sorts of cauliflower
in diverse colors. In the Netherlands is white cauliflower well known and is cultivated in
the Westland region. Cooking time is 10-15 minutes. You can cook the white flower head and
the smaller stalks at the flower buds, but not the thick stalk nor the surrounding green
leaves. You can make a sauce for the cauliflower as ham-cheese, cheese or a cream sauce
dispersed with nutmeg. As meat you can serve for example Wiener schnitzel, cordon bleu schnitzel, (made
of chicken, beef or pork and filled with ham and cheese), other sort schnitzel or a fried chicken
dish.
Broccoli. Broccoli looks almost the same
as cauliflower and consists also of the flower head of the cabbage with green closed buds.
In Europe broccoli is mostly imported from the lands around the Mediterranean Sea.
Broccoli is closely relater to cauliflower, but needs much lesser cooking times from 5
till 10 minutes. Also the little stalks at the flower buds can be cooked with the flower
head, just like cauliflower. The flower buts can be eaten raw and can serve as ornament
for salads. You can use the same sauces as for cauliflower, inclusive the meat. Left you
see a whole broccoli with green leaves and right broccoli flower buds with small stalk and
a cross section.
Romanesco or romanesco broccoli.
Romanesco thanks it's name to the first description in Italy of the sixteenth century as
broccoli romanesco (broccoli from Rome). Romanesco is related to cauliflower and broccoli,
bust has milder flavor and is less bitter than these vegetables. Romanesco broccoli has a
yellow-green color and has elegant buds. Each bud is composed of a series of smaller buds,
all arranged in logarithmic spirals. In the Netherlands was romanesco introduced around
1980 and now cultivated in larger quantities. You can prepare and cook romanesco as common
broccoli and also the flower buds can be eaten raw, just as common broccoli, and good as
decoration on salads. Right you see a picture of romanesco broccoli.
Brussels sprout is beloved in the
Netherlands and cultivated in large quantities, to be exported also. The name Brussels
sprout was given, because the origin was believed to be the Brussels region in Belgium. 
In Europe, the largest producers are the
Netherlands, France, Germany and the United kingdom. Most of the United States production
is now in California. The method of preparing Brussels sprouts for cooking begins
with removal of the buds from the stalk. Any surplus stem is cut away and the surface
leaves that are loosened by this cutting are peeled and discarded.To ensure even cooking
throughout, buds of a similar size are usually chosen. Some cooks will make a single cut
or a cross in the center of the stem to aid the penetration of heat. Do not boil Brussels
sprouts longer than six till seven minutes in water with some salt. Longer cooking times
cause the not beloved Brussels sprout air, especially not liked by children nor by me as
child. The grandmother of my wife could cook Brussels sprouts without the nasty air and
learned me to like Brussels sprouts as a tasty vegetable. You can make the cooked sprouts
more tasty with some nutmeg. With these vegetables fits cooked potatoes, fried bacon
and/or minced meat.
Artichokes
originally came from the Mediterranean area and now cultivated there in large quantities,
but also in the America in states with sort like climate (California). For the culture of
these vegetables sorts without thorns are used. They are harvested in still closed flower
buds. Leaves around the bud and the bottom of the but is edible. To prepare an artichoke
you have to remove the stem, one third of the upper flower bud and the ends of the outer
leaves. Cook young artichokes ready in twenty to thirty minutes in light salt water,
possible with some vinegar or lemon juice to avoid discoloring. Cook them gentle under
water in a pan with open cover, so not wished gases can escape. Bigger artichokes
need longer cooking time till forty minutes. They are well done if you can easily remove a
leave. You can serve them as entree with béarnaise sauce or vinaigrette. You can combine this with
a salad or cooked fish. Right you see artichokes ready for cooking.
The Dutch kitchen with legumes (pods).
Snow
pea is a legume, more specifically a variety of pea eaten whole in its pod while
still unripe. They are the young pods of the pea plant, whereby sometimes the very
small peas can be seen. In contrary to the adult pea you can eat the whole pod in young
condition. Wash the vegetables before cooking and cut off the outer ends. Some pods have
threads along the edges, which can be removed when cutting the outer tops. The cooking
time in slight salted water is five till ten minutes. Longer cooking times cause loss of
good taste. Adult green peas you can buy already cooked in a glass pot or tin from
the supermarket. You can also take yourself fresh peas out the pods and then cook the pies
within ten minutes. With these vegetables you can serve all sorts of meat. Left picture
shows young pods and right adult peas.
Green beans.
The green beans (American English), also known as French beans (British English) is a
legume close related to pies, lentils, common beans, etc. Green beans can be eaten just
like snow pies whole in their pods. You must wash the green beans first and remove the
outer ends. The cooking time in light salted water is about twenty minutes. After removing
cooking water you can warm it with some butter and scattered with nutmeg. Also with these
vegetables all kinds of meat can do.
Broad green and white field beans are also excellent with potatoes and meat
apart. See for this our special web page Diverse
traditional Dutch dishes with beans.
Dutch kitchen with root vegetables.
Summer carrots or wild carrots. The Dutch orange carrot is botanical almost identical to the
Dutch native white wild carrot.
The wild carrot crossbreeds very easy with the cultivated orange carrot. So we can find
sometimes a white carrot between the orange carrots. 
Personally I buy fresh already scraped carrots in the
supermarket. The cooking time in slightly salted water is about twenty minutes. You can
eat this carrot also fresh as extra snack in between. After removing water you can warm
the carrots for a moment in some butter and with a little spoon sugar. Besides carrots
belongs of course fresh cut parsley as ornament. Summer carrots combine excellent with
green garden peas. You can use all sorts of meat with this dish. Excellent hereby taste
fried fish sticks, like the Alaska coalfish (pollock).
Turnip with potatoes and bacon. We know yellow winter turnip and white summer turnip, both also suitable for
mash pot. The yellow turnip needs 25-30 minutes for cooking and the smaller white turnip
can do with 20 minutes. Peel the turnip and cut them in little pieces. Boil the turnip in
water with some salt added, till it's well done. Remove the water. For more flavor you can
add pepper and nutmeg. In stead of a thick slice of bacon you can use also meatballs,
fried or smoked sausages, etc. Left you see yellow turnip and right white turnip.
The parsnip is a root vegetable related to
celeriac and carrot. Carrots resemble parsnips, but are oranger than most parsnips and
have a sweeter taste, especially when cooked. The parsnip came in the Middle Ages from the
Mediterranian area to Western Europe and was before the introduction of the potatoes an
important food, tasting almost like sweet potatoes. In Great Britain and Ireland this so
called white root is still popular. Also in the United States parsnips brought by British
colonists were eaten. Just as else where also there the parsnip is replaced by the potato,
who is easier to peel than parsnip. Parsnips can be prepared as carrots, and when the
frost was over the land they can replace winter carrots in the Dutch hotchpotch (mash pot).
Scorzonera or black salsify.
The black salsify came from Southern Europe and spread in the Middle Ages over the rest of
Europe. Black salsify is typical winter vegetable. The thick black skin of the salsify
root is usually considered inedible and can be removed prior or after cooking. Since the
root sap is an extremely sticky latex,
peel fresh salsify with kitchen hand gloves on, or peel it under water with some vinegar
to prevent discoloring of hands and roots. After peeling the root is white. Slice it in
pieces and cook it in water with a little vinegar or lemon juice for 15-20 minutes. You
can also remove the black skin after cooking for 20-25 minutes and slice it then also.
Serve it with a white creamy sauce. It taste excellent with cooked fish and sort like
sauce. In the Netherlands is already cooked salsify in a glass pot available in the
supermarket.
Celeriac with potatoes and fried meat. Celeriac is a kind of knob celery, who forms a round
root just above the ground. This root can have a diameter from 8 to 12 centimeter, just
like a big potato. After washing well, you have first to cut the root in slices, then to
peel the skin off and to cut the slices in cubes. Cooking time in slightly salt water is
10 till 15 minutes. You can also fry them light brown in a frying pan with some butter, in
slices or in cubes. You can serve the cooked celeriac with potato or potato puree,
possible as mash pot also. Excellent with this meal fits baked blood sausage or other
fried meat, like game food. You can also use celeriac as flavor enhancer in a variety of
other meals, mixed oven dishes and soups, such as pea soup. You can also add fresh cubes
of celeriac or fresh young leafs to diverse sorts of salads, just like cut celery. Cooked
celeriac taste almost the same as parsnip and is also an almost forgotten vegetable.
Kohlrabi (German turnip) is the swollen
stem of a sort cabbage plant just above the ground. It is not a root what you eat. There
are different kinds of kohlrabi, with a pale green or violet blue turnip. Under the skin
both sorts are white-yellowish of color. These two sorts do not differ in taste. The
turnip must be young harvested when they are 7-8 centimeter in average, else they are to
fibrous. Also there is a larger sort (white large kohlrabi), that has very large turnips.
The taste is almost as cauliflower, but is more pithy. Raw kohlrabi taste like celery. You
can eat kohlrabi raw or cooked. Prepare the kohlrabi by removing the skin and slice it
then in pieces. The cooking time in water with some salt is about 15 minutes till they are
ready (firm but not hard). Hereby you can use a ham-cheese sauce or a cream sauce with
nutmeg spread over it. As meat can fit a meatball, rolled meat or meat such as you use
with cauliflower.
Turnip and chicory, parsnip and leek in a Dutch song of Drs. P are all vegetables, some forgotten,
others still eaten. They are all to find on this web page or our web page about Dutch stews (mash pots). Click here for the
original Dutch
song on You Tube for turnip and chicory, etc. (Dutch: Knolraap en lof, schorseneren en prei)
and if you have to cook for your spouse the song To and fro (Dutch: Heen en weer).
Bon appétit, enjoy your meal!
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