Belgium

«EU-Belgium» por NuclearVacuum - Location European nation states.svg. Disponible bajo la licencia CC BY-SA 3.0 vía Wikimedia Commons.

Recipes from Belgium that I cooked

Belgian fries

Steamed mussels with fries (moules frites)

Belgian endives with ham au gratin 

Verviers rice cake

Belgium

Verviers rice cake

                                                                               Receta en Español

Veviers is a city of the Belgian province of Liege. Rice cake is a typical dessert in this Belgian region. The recipe I present today is the way they do the cake in Verviers.

The origin of this recipe is unknown, what is clear is that in the 17 th century this cake was largely eaten in Verviers.

It must be made with round and short rice, and you can eat it heat or cold, as you prefer.
It is said that the good rice cake must have a slimy consistency.

You must remember that the filling of this cake must be prepared in advance because it needs to stand for 24 hours.

Ingredients (24 cm de diameter oven dish):

•   1 l hole milk.
•   135 grams round rice.
•   185 grams sugar.
•   1 cinnamon stick.
•   1 block of shortcrust pastry.
•   2 eggs.
•   Butter and flour  to brush the oven dish.

Method:

1-   Make the filling the previous day; put milk in a saucepan at high heat, once it reaches boiling point , set at low heat and put rice and cinnamon inside the saucepan.
Cook for 1 hour.

2-   Add sugar to the saucepan and let cook for an additional half an hour.

3-   Let cool and keep in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.
This is the result after 24 hours in the fridge:

4-   Add an egg to the rice and mix well with your hands.

5-   Take an ovenproof dish of 24 cm diameter, rub butter over the Surface of the dish and sprinkle with flour, put the block of shortcrust pastry all over the oven dish, prick the pastry with a fork.

(If you have enough time it is better to prepare shortcrust pastry by yoursekf, here is the recipe I used: Pastel de nueces de macadamia).

6-   Pour rice over the shortcrust pastry.

7-   Take the other egg, separate egg yolk from white, take the yolk and paint the surface of the cake.

8-   Preheat oven to 240 ºC , cook the cake during 25 minutes at the same temperatura, heat up and down. The last five minutes use only the grill.

My Comments to the Recipe

If you like rice pudding, this is tour dessert, for me it was delicious.
You can eat it cold or heat, accompanied by a cup of coffee. Belgian people suggest that the cake must be slimy, my cake wasn't so slimy, I should have cooked the rice for less time.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

 

Belgium

Steamed mussels with fries (moules frites)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Steamed mussels are considered the 'National dish' of Belgium, they are always accompanied by the famous Belgian Fries.

Ingredients (2 people):

•   1 Kg mussels.
•   2 onions.
•   2 celery branches.
•   4 blades of thyme.
•   2 bay leaves.
•   2 or 3 White wine glasses.
•   60 grams of butter.
•   Salt.
•   Pepper.

Method:

1-   Clean mussels.
2-   Cut onions into thin slices.

3-   Cut celery into pieces (including Green part).

4-   Melt butter in a saucepan.

5-   Add onions and celery until they become transparent.

6-   Add mussels and stirr well, mussels will start to reléase their juice.

7-   After 3 minutes , add wine , bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper.
Mix well.

8-   Once mussels are open, they are ready to be consumed.
Serve them accompanied by fries and buttered bread to dipp into the sauce.

My Comments to the Recipe

When I was in Belgium a could try mussels and fries, it just was the same recipe I have presented, celery has a peculiar taste, you shouldn't get rid of it, it provides the real taste of belgian mussels.

Mussels are soft and delicious.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

 

Belgium

Belgian endive with ham au gratin

                                                                               Receta en Español

Endive is known as 'Belgian White Gold'.

Endivie does not grow wild in nature, its natural form is chicory, which has green leaves and is quite bitter.

The discovery of the way of growing was made by Belgians, it dates from the time when Belgium was formed.
In 1830, during the Belgian revolution, a farmer from Schaerbeek, Jan Lammers, watched skirmishes near his farm, he decided to leave; to protect his products , he covered them with ground.Among his crops he had chicory, widely consumed in Belgium at the time.After a few weeks, when the farmer returned to his farm, he was surprised by the fact that chicory had grown with white leaves , and its taste was less bitter, this new chicory was called 'witloof' (White leaf in Flemish).Years later,Frans Bresiers, the head of the Belgian National Botanical Garden, made a few tests and grew the endive the way we know it today.Belgium is the country in the world where endives are eaten in greater quantity, Today I present you a very popular Belgian recipe, endices wrapped with ham and cheese bechamel ,really delicious!.

Ingredients:

•   8 endives.
•   8 ham slices.
•   400 ml milk.
•   2 cloves of garlic.
•   4 tablespoons flour.
•   150 grams of butter.
•   300 grams grated cheese (better if gruyère).
•   1 teaspoon of sugar.
•   Salt.
•   Pepper.
•   Nutmeg.

Method:

1-   Clean endives and take out the outer leaves, cut the base.

2-   Chop finely garlic cloves.

3-   Melt 50 grams butter in a saucepan medium heat.

4-   Add endives to the pan, add sugar, put the quantity of water you need to half cover the endives.

5-   Cook covered at medium heat for 15 minutes. Five minutes after starting cooking add the garlic.

6-   Stirr regularly , after 15 minutes endives will be slightly caramelized:

7-   Place endives on an absorbent paper , let them dry for 30 minutes. (Keep the liquid of cooking the endives in the saucepan).

8-   In another pan we prepare the bechamel sauce, melt 100 grams butter at high heat, add flour . Once butter is melted put aside and let the mix get slightly red.

9- Add milk little by little and stirr quickly with a wooden spoon.

10- Add 300 ml of the remaining cooking water (if you have less quantity add that quantity) keep stirring.

11- Set at low heat , add salt, pepper and nutmeg.

12- Add half of the cheese and let it melt , keep stirring until the mix  becomes thick and creamy.

13- Roll up each endive in a ham slice, put the rolls in a oven proof plate.

14- Pour bechamel over the rolls.

15- Preheat oven at 210ºC and place the plate into the oven. Cook for 20 minutes  , heat above and below.

16- After 10 minutes of cooking we add over the endives the remaining cheese , let cook in the oven for another 10 minutes.

17- Serve hot accompanied by fries or  mashed potatoes.

My Comments to the Recipe 

cheese bechamel is delicious , it provides softness to the endives, they can be a Little bitter but the taste is wonderfull thanks to all the ingredients of the plate.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Sources:
http://www.rtbf.be/info/societe/detail_ainsi-naquit-le-chicon?id=5568513
http://www.supertoinette.com/fiche-cuisine/251/naissance-et-culture-de-l-endive-ou-chicon.HTML

 

Belgium