Spring Has Come to Eindhoven

Spring has come to Eindhoven! This means that we actually have a few days each week when it's not snowing or raining. And last week we had a few days when the temperature reached 20 degrees C (high 60s Fahrenheit).

Spring has also brought the total surprise of flowers planted in the grassy medians along the larger streets. I had no idea! I have always loved the big grassy medians - they really make the big streets seem calm and peaceful. And now I find out that they're planted with spring flowers. I was a bit late with the camera to catch the purple crocuses. But the daffodils are coming out in full force.

You can see the last remnants of the crocuses alongside these daffodils.

One side you have the yellow daffodils with orange "horn" (is that the right word?), and on the other side you have all-yellow daffodils.

You can really see that the plantings are not random - they're quite planned. Here are some tiny daffodils.

Tiniest Celery

I was so happy to have gotten Chinese celery from the Asian market a while back, to make Water Boiled Beef with. Later, I was at the Saturday Market at my usual vegetable seller's stall, and I noticed that they had selderij. Now, I had always assumed that, despite the similarities between the words selderij and celery, selderij must mean parsley (the Italian parsley) because that's what it looked like to me. But this time, I actually picked up a bunch and put it to my nose. Lo and behold, it had the celery fragrance!

I bought a bunch, not knowing what I would do with it. First, I looked up celery on wikipedia, and indeed found that this is what some called "wild celery." I put it next to my computer mouse so you can see how truly tiny this celery is, even skinnier than Chinese celery!

Turns out that the reason why Chinese celery was a "seasonal produce" at my Asian market, is that celery traditionally has seasons. It used to be a winter vegetable, and people would eat it for its salt content as a tonic. I decided to make a simple salad out of it with a Sichuan spicy vinaigrette. It was okay, but the flavor of this celery is so strong, you should really use it more like parsley.

Oh and by the way, yesterday the vegetable seller taught me that the big celery, the one we have in the US which we eat with buffalo wings, is called bleekselderij. That would be pale celery (bleek=pale, selderij=celery). The bleekselderij I bought in order to make jambalaya was imported from Spain.

De Distilleerketel Windmill, Rotterdam

I took another trip to Rotterdam to see the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, this time with my design history class. This time, I decided to try again to visit the "only working windmill in Rotterdam," De Distilleerketel. Last time I was in Rotterdam, I tried to visit this windmill, but it was closed in the first few weeks of January.

Why was I so intent on visiting this windmill? I read about it even before I moved to the Netherlands in this NY Times article about new demand for the product of these windmills, flour, coming from immigrants especially from Africa (link here). Ironically for the country of windmills and milling grain, the only types of flour you can find in the supermarket are white wheat and whole wheat. Even looking in the health food store, you can only find maybe oat flour. So having baked with a ton of different flours in the US (spelt, barley, etc.), I was really missing this variety or whole grains.

Rotterdam itself is a rather modern-looking city. Like Eindhoven, a lot of it was bombed during World War II, so it has many examples of modern and contemporary architecture, including these cube houses designed by Piet Blom. Coming into Rotterdam, I really felt like a country bumpkin since it is truly a "big city" with lots of skyscrapers and a big harbor. In fact, I read that until 2004, Rotterdam was the world's busiest port for more than 40 year (Shanghai is now the busiest).

But in the Delfshaven neighborhood, one turn off the main road with trams clanking by, you enter a canal that really looks like "old Holland." The windmill is actually situated on the narrowest peninsula I've ever seen. So narrow, that it is only one building length across (so some lucky residents get to have water views on opposite sides!).

De Distilleerketel is on the tip of this narrow spit of land.

And inside is a tiny little shop surrounded by sacks of flour. The guy standing inside the wooden box is the miller, and he told me that he also is the miller at the Schiedam windmills. Those are the world's tallest windmills! He said they were nearby, and when I went back to Rotterdam station I looked on the subway map and apparently Schiedam is only 2 stops (i.e. a few minutes) away from Delfshaven! So De Distilleerketel can claim it's the only working windmill in Rotterdam, but Schiedam is pretty darn close. The customers at the window at the moment are from Africa, so what the NY Times article said was quite true. Indeed, when my friend pointed to something on their price list that she didn't understand, teff, he said that it is something only Ethiopians buy to make big pancakes that function as plates. Injera bread!!! (Also something I was introduced to in Cincinnati of all places.)

So what did I bring back to Eindhoven? In the back row, 2 kg of organic wheat flour, 2 kg of organic whole wheat flour, and in the front row, rye (roggemeel), barley (gerstmeel), spelt (speltmeel), buckwheat (boekweitmeel), and gluten flour. Meel means flour, as in meal like cornmeal. Mission accomplished!

Sichuan Water-Boiled Beef

Sichuan Water-boiled beef is actually a dish I was introduced to in Cincinnati at all places. There is really only a couple Chinese restaurants I liked in Cincinnati, Sichuan Gourmet (my favorite) and Grand Oriental (good for dim sum), both in the Fields Ertel area. It sounds like a really bland dish, but it's actually super spicy and savory, and the beef slices should be tender within the chili-spiked red broth.

On my trip to NY, I hunted for a copy of Fuschia Dunlop's cookbook Land of Plenty covering Sichuan dishes, and copied a few recipes from it in the library. One of these was Sichuan water-boiled beef. I was lucky when I made it back in the Netherlands, because I actually had forgotten to buy the celery for it at the mainstream supermarket Albert Heijn. When I remembered, I was in the Asian market and it turned out they had skinny Chinese celery in seasonal rotation! Much more tender and flavorful than the big celery we have in the US, Chinese celery is one of my favorite vegetables.

The recipe turned out really well, though could be a bit more spicy. I think I'll add some more chiles and not de-seed all of the chiles as well, next time. This was also my first time using Thai Knorr bouillion cubes rather than the Dutch ones. I can attest to the fact that the Thai cubes taste a lot more like pure chicken (with garlic) broth, whereas the Dutch cubes have different herb and vegetable flavors in it (along with little green flecks which the Thai version does not).

Sichuan Water-Boiled Beef

from Land of Plenty by Fuschia Dunlop, where the dish is called "Boiled Beef Slices in a Fiery Sauce"

Serves 2 as a main dish, 4 with rice and two or three other dishes

1 head of celery (about 1 pound)

4 scallions, white and green parts

a small handful of dried chiles (8-10 chiles)

about 1 pound lean beef (flank steak is good)

salt

1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine or medium-dry sherry

about 1/3 cup peanut oil

2 teaspoons Sichuan pepper

3 tablespoons chili bean paste

3 cups everyday stock (see page 318) or chicken stock

2 teaspoons dark soy sauce

4 tablespoons potato flour mixed with 4 tablespoons cold water, or 6 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 6 tablespoons cold water

1. Clean and remove the fibrous outer edge of the celery stalks. Chop each stalk into 3 or 4 sections, then slice these lengthwise into 1/2-inch sticks. Gently crush the scallions and chop them into 3 sections to match the celery. Wearing rubber gloves, snip the chiles in half, discarding as many seeds as possible. Remove any fat from the beef and cut it, against the grain, into thin slices about 1 inch by 2 inches (you should have about 3/4 pound of beef after trimming). Add a 1/4 teaspoon of salt and the Shaoxing rice wine, mix well, and leave to marinate while you prepare everything else.

2. Heat 3 tablespoon of oil in a wok until hot but not yet smoking. Add the chiles and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry until they are fragrant and the chiles are just beginning to brown (take care not to burn them). Then immediately slide the spices out into a bowl, leaving the oil in the wok. When they have cooled down a little, move them onto a cutting board and chop them finely with a gentle rocking motion, using a cleaver taken in both hands or a two-handled chopper. Set them aside to use later.

3. Return the oily wok to the stove and heat over a high flame. When it is smoking, add the vegetables and stir-fry for a minute or two, adding 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of salt to taste, until they are hot and just-cooked but still crunchy. Then pour them into the serving bowl.

4. Heat another 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok over a high flame, until just beginning to smoke. Turn the heat down to medium, add in the chili bean paste, and stir-fry for about 30 seconds, until the oil is red and fragrant. Add the stock and the dark soy sauce, season to taste with salt, and return to a boil over a high flame. Then add the potato flour or cornstarch mixture to the beef and stir well in one direction to coat all the pieces. When the sauce is boiling vigorously, drop in the beef slices. Wait for the sauce to return to a boil and then use a pair of chopsticks to gently separate the slices. Simmer for a minute or so, until the beef is just cooked, and then spoon it onto the waiting vegetables. Pour over the sauce.

5. Swiftly rinse out the wok and dry it well. Heat another 3-4 tablespoons of oil in the wok until smoking. Sprinkle the chopped chiles and Sichuan pepper over the beef dish and then pour over the smoking oil, which will sizzle dramatically. If you move quickly, the dish will still be fizzing when you bring it to the table.

[I just directly sprinkled the chopped chiles and Sichuan pepper over the beef dish, skipping the extra oil and sizzling effect.]

Candied Clementine Granola Bars

I came across this thought to make candied clementine peels and fold them into chewy granola bars, as I was eating clementines one day. I thought it would be a neat, efficient way to use the peels I was about to throw away. I looked online for some recipes and came across this one from Gourmet. It calls for boiling and rinsing the clementine peels twice before candying them; I think this is to get rid of any wax or chemicals on the peel. You will lose some flavor this way (the water I poured down the drain smelled so fragrant!), but I guess better safe than sorry. Clementine peels are easier than regular orange peels to candy, because you can candy the whole thing - no need to separate the white part from orange part.

Candied Clementine Peel

Gourmet | January 2005

Yield: Makes about 1 cup

1 pound clementines (4 to 7)

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups regular granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups water

Vegetable oil for greasing rack

1 cup superfine granulated sugar

1. Halve clementines crosswise and juice them with a citrus juicer, reserving juice for another use. Discard any membranes still attached to peel, then cut each half into eighths.
2. Bring peel to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan three-fourths full of cold water with 1/2 teaspoon salt and boil, uncovered, 10 minutes, then drain and rinse peel. Repeat procedure with more water and salt, draining and rinsing peel again.
3. Bring regular sugar and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add peel and gently simmer, uncovered, until tender and translucent and syrup is thickened, about 1 hour.
4. Transfer candied peel with a slotted spoon to a lightly oiled rack set in a shallow baking pan, spreading it out so pieces don't touch, and let drain 30 minutes. If using peel for chocolate tart , reserve 1/2 cup candied peel before coating remainder with sugar.

Coat peel with sugar:

Put superfine sugar in a small bowl and toss peel, a few pieces at a time, in sugar to coat, then transfer with a dry slotted spoon to a sheet of wax paper to dry slightly, about 1 hour.

Cooks' notes:

• Candied peel can be left in syrup and cooled, then chilled, covered, 2 weeks.

• Candied peel tossed with sugar keeps, uncovered, at room temperature 1 day or, chilled between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, 1 month (you may need to recoat with sugar).

After step 3, I just put the whole thing - peels and syrup - into a bowl and let it chill. At the same time as I was looking at how to candy clementine peels, I read about making chewy granola bars from one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. They referred to another favorite website of mine, King Arthur Flour's website, where you can find their own blog. Note that the recipe for this granola bar is not the same as in their Whole Grain Baking cookbook. The cookbook has a more complicated version where you first make your own granola, mixing and baking and all, then make the granola bar out of it. This version is much simpler since there's only one mixing and one baking step.

I'll let you look at the recipe on their site yourself, since they have a handy feature that switches between measuring the ingredients by weight or by volume. I always measure by weight if possible, since it's a lot easier with no measuring cups to wash. Here's a link to the recipe.

I have to say, I usually don't like fruit flavored granola bars (or fruit flavored baked goods in general), but I loved these granola bars. For my mix-ins I used the clementine peels, sesame seeds, and chopped toasted almonds. The clementine peels and clementine syrup were so clean and fresh-tasting, worlds away from packaged granola bars. They were a perfect counterpoint to rainy Dutch weather.

Warm Green Bean and Potato Salad

I have two binders where I keep my recipes. One binder is for recipes I've already made, the other is for recipes yet to be made. I've started to make more of an effort to clear out my "yet to be made" binder by either taking out some recipes that I've passed over for several years already, or by finally making the recipe.

I decided to try Warm Green Bean and Potato Salad from Everyday Food, because I when I flew back to the Netherlands in January I had a very interesting Warm Green Bean and Potato Salad by Charlie Trotter on United (link to pic here). Interesting, but not necessarily something I'd eat again and again. I wanted to see if this version would suit me better.

Turns out, the Everyday Food version wins. It's savory and smoky, but with the lemon juice (and hot chilis I added myself), it becomes rather addictive. I actually made this twice in one week since I finished the first batch so quickly.

Warm Green Bean and Potato Salad

from Everyday Food

serves 4

Ingredients

1 lb red new potatoes

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 slices bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-in pieces (I used a package of diced bacon from the supermarket - they're quite common in the Netherlands. Bacon slices are uncommon)

1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 1.5-inch lengths

1-2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

I also added 2 seeded, diced red Thai chilis

1. In a large saucepan, cover potatoes with 2 inches salted water. Bring to a simmer and cook until potatoes are just tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high; add potatoes and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, mashing potatoes slightly, until golden brown in spots, about 5 minutes. [The red potatoes I bought were pretty big, so I first cut them with a knife on a cutting board, then mashed them in the skillet.] Transfer to a serving dish and keep warm.

2. Add bacon to skillet. Cook until bacon is browned, about 3 minutes. Add green beans and cook, stirring occasionally, until bright green and crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Add to potatoes along with lemon juice and taste. Season with salt and pepper and toss gently to combine.

Spinach and Tofu Soup

On my trip back to the US, I brought back a few cookbooks including a really reliable, standard Chinese cookbook, The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo. Coming back to cold, damp Netherlands, the first recipe I made was Spinach and Tofu Soup. I loved it for its clean tasting broth, helped out no doubt from the last of the turkey stock I had in my fridge from Thanksgiving. So be sure to use a high-quality broth for this; I knew I would save my Knorr cubes for other soups that would have more intense flavors layered on top (e.g. the spicy lentil and bulgur soup from Turkey, recipe here).

Spinach and Tofu "Gunn"

from The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo

5 ounces fresh, or chopped frozen spinach

1/4 lb lean pork loin

3 squares tofu

2 tbsp oil

4 cups chicken or meat stock

salt to taste

2 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 4 tbsp water (I used tapioca starch)

2 tabsp finely diced cooked Smithfield ham (I used one package of diced cooked ham, sort of like Canadian bacon, that I found in the supermarket)

marinade:

2 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dry sherry

1 tsp cornstarch

1. If using frozen spinach, thaw, dry, and finely mince. If using fresh, wash, parboil 1 minute, rinse, squeeze dry, and chop.

2. Cut the pork against the grain into 1/8 inch thick slices. They should be about 1.5 inches long. Place them in a bowl with the marinade ingredients and let sit for 15 minutes.

3. Cut the tofu squars into 1/2 inch cubes, cover them with hot water, and soak for about 10 minutes.

4. Heat your wok or pot over high heat until hot, add the oil, swirl, and heat for 30 seconds. Add the marinated pork slices and stir-fry until all pinkness is gone.

5. Add the stock. When it boils, drain the tofu and add, stirring gently.

6. Turn heat low to maintain a gentle simmer, cover, and let simmer for 5 minutes.

7. Season with salt to taste, then add the dissolved starch and stir gently until dish is thickened.

8. Stir in the spinach and diced ham, and continue to stir for about 1 minute. Add pepper to taste.