My Wee Little Christmas Dinner Tradition

First, can I say that I really enjoyed reading your post? My short comments don't really indicate how much I like to read your posts

Second, I am not Dutch - I am an escaped Brit, I did my own Brexit years ago - as in I exited Britain. But no politics, I just liked it here more. As my American friend Joe used to say "Every Dutch girl is pretty enough to be the prom queen". It's true.

Back to Christmas. I asked some cloggies I know, and it seems like witlof in ham and cheese is classic Christmas food. Try this recipe (https://www.littlespoon.nl/2016/12/witlo...n-anders/) and use Google translate or something similar. This goes great with beef or chicken.

Kibbeling, I love it, it might make a nice starter, I am not sure about it as a main meal. Though it seems the Dutch do like their soup, and mustard soup is also very popular. I was in the Dutch town of Doesburg not long ago, and they are proud of their mustard (and mustard soup). Here is a recipe from the Mustard Museum we visited, http://www.doesburgschemosterd.nl/recepten.html

Well, I'm glad that someone around here likes to read my posts! I'll type even more of them if I can ever get my Acer to run TS2 again. Love ya too.

Aw, it's saying that the Little Spoon page in your first link has gone 404. No problem; surely there are other witlof recipes out on the electron highway somewhere. How about this one?

Also, I'm adding the doesburgsche mosterdsoep to my Christmas dinner candidates; the first photo alone was enough to impress me. Leeks aren't the most common veggies around my neck of the woods, but the Brookshire's Fresh store out in Tyler almost certainly has some. Danke!

So is "cloggie" slang for Dutch shoes or the Dutch people themselves? I'm a tad confused.

Its a bad copy paste I think, try this : https://www.littlespoon.nl/2016/12/witlo...an-anders/ the one you linked looks nice, but misses the essential ham.

Cloggie is slang for the Dutch people, as they all wear wooden shoes...

If you make the mustard soup then it has to be a wholegrain mustard, not a smooth one.

(13-12-2018 05:16 AM)leefish Wrote:  Its a bad copy paste I think, try this : https://www.littlespoon.nl/2016/12/witlo...an-anders/ the one you linked looks nice, but misses the essential ham.

True, I must have overlooked the ham. But hey, how about that wine?

Come to think of it, witlof itself might not be the easiest veggie for me to find around here. Do you suppose that endives would be a suitable substitute?

(13-12-2018 05:16 AM)leefish Wrote:  Cloggie is slang for the Dutch people, as they all wear wooden shoes...

Hence, Klaartje's forum title. Right?

(Does "klaartje" translate into anything English, though? Google Translate doesn't seem to recognize it as a Dutch word.)

As for "all Dutch people wear wooden shoes," this Dutch guy begs to differ. Mister Holland also mentions ten Dutch foods that everyone should try, and I've already beaten him to the punch on two of them; I don't like licorice, but I love gouda. It's my second favorite cheese next to jarlsberg (so sorry, Netherlands, but Norway has you whooped there). I have a small wheel of applewood-smoked gouda in my fridge right now, as a matter of fact!

(I'll buy into the stereotype that Dutch people are super-tall, though. Remember that "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" video that I embedded in the "What Are You Listening To Now?" thread? Floor Jansen there is Dutch, and she stands 6' 0"! I assume that they measured her barefoot, not in high heels. That's quite tall for a woman, right? I can only imagine how tall the average Dutch man is....)

(13-12-2018 05:16 AM)leefish Wrote:  If you make the mustard soup then it has to be a wholegrain mustard, not a smooth one.

That's not a problem at all! There are plenty of brown mustards which include split mustard seed or even whole mustard seed. I have one such bottle of mustard in my fridge too. It's left over from Halloween, which is when I try to one-up the two churches up and down the road from my house by grilling hot dogs for the trick-or-treaters; too bad we got rained out this year. And is "trunk or treat" the stupidest Halloween fad or what?

I have a tiny kitchen too but I do have 4 working burners (used to be 3 but my husband fixed the other one!) I manage to cook from scratch every day. I also need a new kitchen cos my current one doesn't have doors on the cupboards and I don't have any drawers for cutlery and other such things.

(12-12-2018 11:36 PM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  This is an old 1945 bungalow style house - less than 2000 sq ft.

Wow, that is quite big. Our apartment is 68 meters square, which is about 750 sq feet.... There are only two of us, and we have one bedroom, a dining room, a kitchen, a sitting room and one bathroom.
My kitchen is 2.8 by 2.6 meters and I have a 4 pit gas hob, an electric oven, a fridgefreezer, a pantry cupboard, a washing machine and a sink in there. I keep one under the counter cupboard empty in a desperate attempt to prove to B that we could fit a dishwasher in the kitchen.

We keep the day to day dinner service in the kitchen and a storage jar on the counter with two of each knife/fork/spoon. The rest of the dinnerware, baking stuff and other none regular use cooking stuff and the cutlery is in the dining room (I have a sideboard and two very big built-in cupboards in the dining room). I prepare food in a space of 70cm square, it's doable, you just have to be organised. As far as the kitchen and cooking goes, mise en place is our motto.

We manage quite well, but we are terrifyingly tidy people. We have to be

I think you have even less space than I do in my kitchen!

As an only child of an only child... of a looong line of packrats (most of our furniture stems from the 1890's) - less than 2000 sq ft is just ridiculous for us. We are a family of three with 5 fur children presently. Our dream house (that we lost 3 years ago) was 3,560 sq ft. Everything fit beautifully, and there was room left over with which to dance! Now, not so much.

But, like I said, we are "owners" again and we'll be able to make changes soon enough. The first thing to fix will be the kitchen appliances - they all came with the house, and are all rather tired *sigh*

That mustard soup sounds very interesting! One of my favorite Indian side-dishes is fresh spinach cooked in mustard oil (FYI: mustard oil for cooking became obsolete sometime in the 90's - now you have to make a mustard paste, and flavor whatever light cooking oil you use with it.)

That mustard oil sounds interesting, how do you do it exactly? You lost me at the paste....

You just use dry mustard with the oil - like 1 tsp mustard to 1 Tbsp veggie oil. I mix it into a paste and let it sit for 15-30 minutes before heating - I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but s'what I do!
Here's the deets:
Kashmiri Spinach a la Catherine
For 1 pound of fresh spinach (washed, stems removed) I use 2 Tablespoons oil (so 2 tsp dry mustard)
Heat the oil in a wok until it smokes...
then add 1tsp yellow mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp garam masala - cover with a lid until popping ceases
add 2 diced scallions and the spinach, stir until spinach is wilted
then continue cooking for 10-15 minutes - until it is dry/moisture is all evaporated (soggy spinach is yucky!)
Drain it before serving to be sure it's as dry as possible.
The recipe says you can also use Swiss Chard - but, I haven't tried that before.
Good luck! Even dd Hattie likes it