The best frites in town!

We went on a little daytrip to Haarlem the other day. As soon as we got out of the station (a nice historical building), we found a neat looking frites shop Friethoes.

  

It was a small little place but bright and clean looking, natural decor and cool wooden tiles. The great thing was that the entrance door had a hand made bell ring thing that made an awesome cowbell sound when you open it. Best of all, this place didn't stink like other deep-fry places!


They use organicingredients and have home made mayonnaise,(and satay style peanut sauce too)

Large Frites 2.7e + Ketchup =3 euro

Potatoes almost taste sweet and oil was not yucky after taste, it's a must stop in Haarlem.

Friethoes

kruisweg 43 

2011 LA Haarlem

tel: 0621535607

Open 

Monday to Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 12:00-20:00

Close on Thursday and Friday

View Friethoes in a larger map

Frankendael Park

I'd like to show you the daytime view of the Frankendael Park where the restaurant De Kas I talked about before is in. 

Restaurant De Kas in the sun

De Kas's green house

something on the top of the chimney...

storks!! decided to stay in cold Amsterdam instead of migrating to sunny spain.

gangsta duck, not scared of people at all

Let op high heels?

very helpful warning. happens a lot to me! heels stuck between bridge panels.

Is it only me? or do pigeons look cleaner and cuter here.. look at those innocent eyes!

Chocolate Bavarois

First of all, I used to not really know the difference between Bavarois and Mousse. After serching online and asking Micha, my French culinary class teacher to make sure, the answer is:

Bavaroi: creme anglaise (cooked egg yolks, milk and sugar) based and uses gelatin to stabilize.

Mousse: uses whole eggs and cream, just whipped and mixed. No gelatin used.
                lighter texture than Bavaroi but this is not for people who are allergic to raw eggs like Rowan.

There is a more proper way to make bavarois, but I didn't want to make extra dirty dishes nor have to deal with complicated tempering, so this is a quick & easy home dessert recipe.


This only takes up to 1 hour including the cooling time, but in the end looks like a pretty fancy dessert.
Since I don't have an oven in our apartment, a gelatin dessert was a good solution to bring to parties. I tried both agar and gelatin. The bavaroi with agar seemed to be a little firmer than the one used gelatin, but it depends what you prefer and what you have in the cupboard.

Chocolate Bavarois 

Ingredients (makes 6 small cups)

• 250 ml milk
• 250 ml whipping cream
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 100 g dark / semi-sweet chocolate (200 ml chocolate chips)
• 1 tbs gelatin (or agar)
• 1 tbs brandy
• extra 3 tbs sugar and 15 almonds (or macadamia) for garnish

Method

1. If using agar, put in the cold milk and mix well 
2. warm the milk (do not boil) in a pot over medium to low heat 
3. whisk egg yolks and sugar well in a bowl until it turns to a whitish colour
4. whip the cream until stable and still slightly soft (70% of the way to being stiff), set aside
5. slowly add warmed milk to the egg yolk/sugar mix, mix well, put back in milk pot and keep stirring over medium heat (this will be the creme anglaise)
6. when the creme anglaise has become a little thicker (about 6 minutes), turn off the heat, add gelatin, chocolate and brandy, mix well 
7. pour this mixture into the whipped cream and mix well
8. strain into individual cups (easier & cleaner if you use a measuring cup to pour) and put in fridge to cool
9. while cooling the bavaroi, make caramelised nuts for the garnish. just melt the sugar until crispy brown in a teflon pan and add almonds (or macadamia), turn off the heat and cool,  use a food processor to blend into small pieces (or use a hammer)
10. when the bavaroi is set, top with caramelised almond bits
11. bon appetit!

I only had almonds when I made this, but caramelised lightly salted macadamias goes beautifully with chocolate!

restaurant De Kas

De Kas is a restaurant located in a nearby park, Frankendael Park. It used to be a city green house where apparently they kept tropical trees in the winter that they would put out on the street in summer. When the City stopped using it, it became empty and run down and they planned to demolish it. Chef Gert-Jan Hageman saw the building and decided it would be perfect for a restaurant and vegetable garden, so he approached the city with the proposal. He ended up buying it for 1 Euro from the city and he renovated it completely into the restaurant it is today.

The greenhouse is mostly now the restaurant, but there is also an herb garden in one section, which is mainly used to display what is in season. Also, he grows most of the  vegetable for their dishes at nearby farm just outside Amsterdam.  

De Kas cerebrated its 10th anniversary in January. 

coat check in the green house

It was our first time going there, but I has high expectation based on its website and what I'd read about it.  Rowan had first showed it to me and was mainly excited about the building and re-use of greenhouse (as an urban planning student).

I made a reservation for De Kas from Vancouver before leaving to Europe. I decided to book the chef's table, which was to be next to the kitchen and a special course. 

When we arrived at De Kas, the chef's table  turned out to be right in the kitchen at a small table surrounded by all the activity, which was definitely the best seat in the place.

 It was quite a small kitchen for the restaurant's capacity of 130, but was very well organized and super clean, we could even see the chefs teaching some apprentices that night.

This was our starter. It was very hard not to eat too much of this freshly baked bread before starting the courses. Of course Rowan ended up eating more than half...Also, next to it was the pickled chipollini I was talking about before, and fresh Spanish olives which were irresistible!  They were sweet and with a silky texture.

After a glass of champagne, chef Baas (I think that was his name) gave us a tour of the restaurant and explained the history and concept of it. I really liked their idea of choosing the main vegetables first for a dish, then adding local seasonal fish or the meat that matches the vegetables, instead of the other way around. 

Baby Mizuna in the herb garden

I never knew how endives grow! their roots are bigger than the part you eat!

Amuse-bouche was two bruschetti,  tomato jam & pecorino, chutney & artichoke 

Goat cheese & kale quiche, macadamias, ruccola,  and Jerusalem artichoke

View from the chef's table

this is how close our table was to the work area

coquilles saint-jaques, rhubarb, polenta, green pea shoot

warm salsify salad, anchovy sauce, micro greens, black olives, crispy black sesame sheet

quail, puy lentils, beet and beet molasses

veal, basil butter, pearl barley risotto, New Zealand spinach, endive

When they started cleaning the kitchen,
 we were moved from the chef's table to the actual restaurant part 

had some dessert wine, (It's lame but I can not remember the name of it),
but it was very heavy like molasses and tasted like prunes. A little too syrupy for my tastes

Of course, some Dutch cheese! and traditional apple stroop.
I really liked the old orange cheese on the left, but couldn't even touch the middle one which had a smell reminded me Japanese  nukazuke pickles.

lovely chocolate mousse and pear sorbet
It looked heavy after all the other courses, but tasted so delicate and light, I finished it all!

Digestive herbal tea and lemon meringue

This is the main restaurant part (after all the customers had left, except for us)

They gave us anniversary souvenirs, basil planting kits and apples from their garden

It was 6 hours of delicious food, fun and educational experience learning about their garden and watching their cooking techniques. We both totally enjoyed it and loved their food and fun service. All the dishes were simply presented, but the best of the season ingredients were used and their technique really highlighted these delicious flavours and textures. It made me think that the vegetables I buy from the chain supermarkets are just similarly shaped and coloured crunchy stuff with barely any flavour...


The chef's table included everything : the tour of the restaurant, all the courses and the drinks. I'm glad that we booked this and it was a great deal. I'd like to go back for lunch next time becausein  the day time the restaurant is so different from at night. You can see the surrounding greenery and birds from pretty much anywhere you sit and, of course,  the sun shines through the glass ceiling.

De Kas

Kamerlingh Onneslaan 3
1097 DE Amsterdam
T: 020 462 45 62
F: 020 462 45 63
E: info@restaurantdekas.nl

lunch: 12 am - 2 pm
dinner: 6.30 pm - 10 pm

Dinner only on Saturdays

Close on Sundays

View De Kas in a larger map

Pickled Chipollini

Yesterday, I found my favorite vegetable in our neighborhood Javastraat shopping street! Mini Onions, I call them 'Chipollini' because an Onion is 'Chipola' in Italian and simply adding 'lini' means something small.

I saw them the first time in Italy when I was working on an organic farm. Someone roasted them after marinating in Umesu (Japanese pickled plum vinegar) and olive oil for an appertizer. That simple dish changed my whole view of onions. I realised onions could be the main flavour of the dish not just as a hidden addtional ingredient, chopped and melted in soups or sauces! They are so sweet, fruity, flavourful and can melt in your mouth.

I felt like I found a treasure in a hidden courner of a super market when I saw them. They were packed in a mixed  bag of shiny purple and yellow ones, and they were only 98 cents a bag.

I know I have a big hands and hard to tell if they are actually mini or not from this photo, but trust me they were! I've never spent such a long time just pealing onions. They were tiny.

I decided to simply pickle them because I had just had really tasty pickled chipollini at the restaurant De Kas the other day and Rowan had been craving them ever since. Yes, it's just pretty much copying the restaurant, but since I didn't know the receipe and had to guess it, I claim this as my own. 

Pickled Chipollini 

Ingredients

• two hands full of chipollini (mini onions, you can just use cut spring onions too)
• 2   tbs good olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 300 ml vinegar (I like japanese rice vinegar, tastes a little milder than wine vinegar)
• 150 ml water
• 1 bay leaf / laurier (fresh one is better if you can find it)
• 10 all spice peppercorns (or 1 tbs of mustard seeds)

From the left top:  Sterilizing a jar - boiling pickling juice - blanching chipollini

Method

1. Sterilize a jar
2. Peel chipollini and blanch them for 3 min
3. Combine vinegar, water, salt and all spice and boil
4. put a bay leaf in the sterilized jar, pour in olive oil, drop all the blanched chipollini in, then pour liquid until they are submerged.
5. Close the lid while hot and let it cool, store in a fridge.
6.  It's ready to eat from the next day.

This should last up to 2 weeks in a fridge if you use clean utensils to scoop them out. In our case, I'm more than sure that Rowan's going to finish them up in the next 3 days...He's a pickle monster who can eat a whole jar of pickled cornichons in a day!

Feb 3.Setsu-bun

節分 Setsu-bun is one of the traditional Japanese seasonal festivals. It's usually around February 3rd, the same day as Chinese new year. This is a celebration of the (early) beginning of Spring, adapted from China in the eighth century according to wiki.

The only thing I remember about this celebration is that it's the day when you throw beans at an 鬼 'Oni' (a Japanese folklore demon) to get rid of bad luck and call for more 福 'Fuku' good luck. Kids usually throw the beans at someone dressed as an oni, chanting "demon out, good luck in."

(As a kid, I threw peanuts and individually wrapped chocolates at my parents house. Afterwards you get  to pick them up and then eat them after.)

As same as any other 'holiday' in japan, marketers thought it was a great opportunity to sell some more stuff and so they promoted setsubun as the day to also eat sushi rolls for some reason.  You are supposed to eat sushi rolls with seven things rolled in it (the number refers to the 7 traditional Japanese gods and goddess). We ate sushi rolls, but since I'm in Netherlands, and can not find all those ingredients, I decided to just eat our favorite: avocado roll with mayonnaise. Close enough. And oh, this year we were supposed to eat this sushi facing south-southeast. Don't ask me why, something about Chinese numeral system and yin-yang.

The weeks before setsubun, lots of Candies, bean products and sushi rolls at super markets in Japan come with paper masks of demons. I remember how much fun it was to collect all the different kinds from different stores when I was a kid. I tried to remember how they looked like and we drew one ourselves.

The Japanese ones pretty much looked like  a red or blue face with cute pink cheek and  horns. This is how our turned out.  It looks more realistic (even though it isn't a real one) due to Rowan's awesome drawing skill.

It was really hard to find individually wrapped candies in here, so these are our Dutch style setsubun beans: Hema yogurt coated raisins, Easter egg chocolates and Mini kitkats.

you throw them at an Oni (Rowan)

Then you are supposed to eat the same number of beans as your age after throwing them. Here we ate the same number of yogurt coated raisons...(they were way tooo sweet).


With easter egg chocolates, it's kind of like an awesome combination of Easter, and Halloween (scary Oni) and throwing things at people which is always fun. You have to then look around the room and find all the candy that you threw, like an easter egg hunt. 


The only problem with using easter egg chocolates instead of peanuts or dried soybeans is that it hurts when you get them thrown at you (as Rowan confirmed).

Atty cocktail

One of my favorite cocktails is the Atty (first had it at the The Diamond, made by Josh Pape). The Atty is very dry, refreshing, just lightly sweetened with a bit of anis from absinthe. The violet colour is simply beautiful, I think. I like wiping the rim of the glass with lemon and adding a tiny drop of lemon juice, so it makes a colour gradient from purple to lighter at the bottom.

ATTY from the savoy cocktail book (1930)

45 ml Dry Gin

23 ml Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth

3 Dashes (½ tsp) Le Fée Parisienne (68%) absinthe

3 Dashes (½ tsp) Crème de Violette

Stir in a half ice-filled mixing-glass until chilled, pour into pre-chilled cocktail glass and squeeze lemon peel over a glass and float it on top. mmm fancy!

I could not find Creme de Violette in Amsterdam so just used local Bols Perfait Amour instead.

B BROOD

I have discovered what I think is the best loaf of multigrain bread in Amsterdam. It's from a bakery called B Brood although they also sell at the fancy supermarket marqt.

Crispy on the outside but ridiculously moist inside. However, because it's so moist and fresh, it generally doesn't last more than 3 days.

Their loafs are all sourdough and you can choose several darkness of grain mix.

My favorite is this 'meergranen brood' means simply 'more grain bread'. (I already figured out that dutch,  ha!)  It has rye, oat, spelt, sunflower seed and probably more.

They have a couple stores. All the stores are clean and bright, very organized and easy to just point at the display to order. You will probably find a small queue in front of the stores. They also have freshly baked pastries like 'appel flap' which is pretty much like a 'chausson aus pommes' of french pastry and yummy.

Most of their pastries are around 1.5 euro, but a loaf of bread is 3.25 euro and half a loaf was 1.55 euro. I recommend you to only buy a half a loaf if it's only for you or for 2 people since their breads are so fresh and don't last long, better to go back and get a fresh one when you want more (which I'm sure you will!).