Spring is in full swing – at least in the cookbook world. France, Italy and Spain are filling up recipe books again, but luckily we also have all kinds of tasty treats in our own country. Fish, for example, which we think we should do more with. On the fire, but also in the oven.
Joris Bijdendijk, chef of star restaurants Rijks and Wils in Amsterdam, can safely be called a Dutch top chef. But one with a French edge: he learned the craft in France, even participated in a culinary competition program, and his wife is also French.
Chez Bijdendijk
No wonder that France and French cuisine are the main characters in his new cookbook Chez Bijdendijk (Nijgh Culinair, 34.99 euros). Seventy French classics are included in Bijdendijk’s new book. And these include dishes that the chef has never prepared himself before.
As gougères (savory profiteroles with cheese), French onion soup, beef bourguignon or islands flottantes . Can be made for the average citizen, but it also contains dishes that require more from the home cook. Lièvre à la royale , for example, hare with king sauce. Or chicken in the bag ( poulet en vessie ). Which Bijdendijk himself also prepared for this book for the first time, so take comfort if it doesn’t work out right away.
Although, the recipe in Bijdendijk’s book is very clear: follow it step by step and you will go a long way. Or else you take another sip of comfort wine, because the chef also pays attention to that, as befits a Frenchman.
Bijdendijk’s French training began with the brothers Jacques and Laurent Pourcel, star chefs in Montpellier. He worked in the kitchen at their restaurant Jardin des Sens for two years. He learned to cook with the seasons before it became a ‘concept’ in our country.
He also learned to cook with enormous pressure, because working in a French top kitchen is not a long-term job, but hard work. And he learned the importance of good organization of a top kitchen, the division of roles between saucier, entremetier and garde manger. The reader of this book will have to fulfill all of these roles independently. But you don’t have to feed a restaurant.
Almost all of us have one of the most beautiful kitchen tools: the oven. A device in which the heat circulates nicely and envelops your food with heat from all sides. Where people used to bake bread and large dishes, but which is unfortunately too often used today to heat up many prefab dishes.
Casserole Bible
Fortunately, we have another tool. Or better yet, helper. Her name is Janneke Philippi, and she is steadily working on an admirable mountain of cookbooks – designed and photographed by her husband Serge. On top of that mountain now lies the Casserole Bible (Carrera Culinair, 34.99 euros), a solid book with three hundred recipes.
Philippi in her foreword: “Coven dishes give me a magical feeling: you put a bowl with previously loose ingredients in the oven and a while later you put a coherent meal on the table.” That sounds great, but you don’t just throw ingredients together, you have to think about that. And fortunately Philippi does that for us. So that we can serve casseroles with meat, fish or vegetarian to our guests, dishes from Dutch, French or Italian, but also from American, Mexican or Asian cuisine.
They are bubbling and coloring wonderfully in the oven, while you are having a drink with those same guests. Of course, Philippi guides us through all the preparations, including a small oven lecture do’s and don’ts , but especially go for the recipes, which vary from crispy cauliflower dish with curry crumbs to moussaka with eggplant and cinnamon. And natural sweet casseroles with bubbling fruit and old-fashioned bread puddings. Can I leave a dollop of ice cream?
The Silver Spoon
Chocolate, we love it. The ancient Aztecs drank theirs chocolatl flavored with vanilla, chili pepper and allspice, as an aphrodisiac or at least stimulating drink, the Spaniards naturally took chocolate with them to Europe.
In markets in Peru and Brazil we saw the enormous cocoa pods, a kind of wrinkled rugby ball, with the cocoa beans neatly arranged in white membranes inside, which after a process of fermentation yield the divine gold – yes, brown-black. Bitter to eat like that, but of course you can do all kinds of things with it.
As do the makers of The Silver Spoon (Spectrum, 49.99 euros), thought. The Silver Spoon (1950) is the standard work of Italian cuisine, and over the years they have supplemented the pasta and other classics with books about other ingredients that Italians love. So also chocolate, although the spread of chocolate in Italy was slightly slower than, for example, in France.
But they caught up. What is a tiramisu without the powder, who wouldn’t want one torte ai tre cioccolati a cup café shakerato al cioccolato e vaniglia . Just to name a few. As in all books by De Zilveren Lepel, the description and step-by-step preparation of the dishes is easy to understand. Because of course it has to look beautiful the Italian way.
We cross the Mediterranean Sea to that of the ‘conquerors’ of the region of cocoa, the potato, the chili pepper and the tomato: Spain. Spanish cuisine is significantly less known in our country than that of Italy or France, even though we often go on holiday to that sunny country.
We may not get further than the bathing beaches, although the number of city trips to Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Bilbao or Malaga is on a sharp increase these days. And it is precisely in those cities that you will encounter the most fantastic restaurants. Just take a look at The Worlds 50 Best restaurants, it’s all about Spain and Latin America.
Bible of Spanish cuisine
Now we have to get in The Bible of Spanish Cuisine (Carrea Culinair, 34.99 euros) by Raquel Palla Lorden Don’t expect recipes from star chefs such as Quique Dacosta or Eneko Atxa, but Spanish cuisine offers a palette of flavors for people from all walks of life. Chicken in almond cream sauce is already a mouth-wateringly delicious dish, but I would also like to point out the Basque tart with pastry cream and cherries or a divine tuna tartare in sherry-caramel marinade that we once tasted on the coast of the province of Jerez (indeed, from the sherry).
Palla Lorden has neatly divided her book according to the regions of the country and that is logical: the fresh fish and shellfish from the coasts of Galicia are difficult to compare with the paella of Valencia or the acorn ham from Extremadura. But what she does show is that the Spaniards have a deep belief in the value of their local products. They are quite proud of that. And we’re quite happy with it.
Fish from the BBQ
Next week – but as insider friends we have already been able to take a look at the contents – the book will be published Fish from the BBQ (Carrera, 30 euros) by Bart van Olphen. Van Olphen is our national fish writer and fish importer, his sustainable fish products are available under the name Fish Tales in supermarkets from New Amsterdam to New York.
And we have to admit: we have already barbecued tuna together on a beach in the Maldives that we had caught ourselves. So we are somewhat biased. But that does not alter the fact that the book is a very handy book for the barbecuer. And that is necessary, because while meat on the coals mainly requires tough searing, fish requires a much more delicate approach.
Van Olphen shows that you don’t just get a side of salmon or a sea bass and papilotte you can put on the grill, but also langoustines, mussels or oysters. And you can also put soup or a Sri Lankan curry with catfish and pol sambol on the stove. And all this with sustainability tips and responsible fishing calendars.
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