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292 recipes

Flamiche dinantaise

The flamiche of Dinant is eaten only one way: straight from the oven, so hot it burns the fingers, as the townspeople say. It is a rich, wobbly tart of strong fresh boulette or Herve-style cheese beaten with eggs and plenty of butter on a thin yeasted base, and Dinant's 'Confrérie de la Flamiche' still holds an annual tasting. Boulette and Herve cheeses are usually made with animal rennet; a strong vegetarian soft cheese mixed with fromage frais works. A common mistake is letting it cool; it sets and loses its creaminess. Chef's tip: serve it the moment the top puffs and turns golden.

60 min

Belgian Vegetarian

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Paling in 't groen

Paling in 't groen, 'eel in green', is the old riverside dish of the Scheldt valley between Antwerp and Ghent, served in summer in cafés along the river at places like Hamme and Lillo: pieces of eel cooked briefly in butter, then simmered in a vivid green sauce of sorrel, spinach, chervil, parsley, tarragon, mint and sage, thickened with egg yolk. It is eaten hot or cold with fries or bread. European eel is critically endangered, so buy only eel from a legal, responsibly managed source, cleaned and skinned by the fishmonger, or use thick pieces of another firm, oily fish such as mackerel. A common mistake is cooking the herbs for long, which turns the sauce khaki. Chef's tip: add the herbs only for the last 3 minutes, then bind with yolk off the heat. The fish is cooked when firm and opaque at the bone.

60 min

Belgian Fish

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Cramique

Cramique is the Sunday breakfast loaf of Brussels and Wallonia: a soft, golden brioche packed with raisins, bought from the bakery on Sunday morning and sliced thickly with salted butter. Its sister, craquelin, swaps the raisins for pearl sugar. A common mistake is adding the raisins at the start of kneading, which tears the gluten and turns the dough grey. Chef's tip: soak the raisins in warm tea for 20 minutes, then knead them in only at the end, gently.

75 min

Belgian Baking

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Bouquettes liégeoises

Boûkètes are the buckwheat pancakes of Liège, sold at the Christmas market and eaten at home on New Year's Day: a yeasted batter of buckwheat and wheat flour studded with raisins, fried in butter into thick, nutty little pancakes and served with brown sugar or sirop de Liège. A common mistake is a hot pan; the outside burns before the thick middle cooks. Chef's tip: let the batter rise for an hour until bubbly, then fry over a medium-low heat with plenty of butter.

45 min

Belgian Breakfast & Brunch

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Serradura

Portuguese for 'sawdust', serradura is the cool, creamy dessert you'll find in every Macanese restaurant and café from Taipa to the Senado Square backstreets, ordered to round off a long Macanese lunch. Alternating layers of sweetened whipped cream and powder-fine tea biscuit crumbs set softly in the fridge, so each spoonful is light, milky and caramel-sweet, with a gentle crumbly texture. It is usually served in small glasses, sometimes semi-frozen like an ice cream cake. Coarse crumbs are where it goes wrong; they stay crunchy and gritty instead of melting into the cream, so grind the biscuits as fine as sand. Chef's tip: whip the cream and condensed milk together only to firm peaks and stop there, or it turns grainy and buttery.

20 min

Macanese Desserts

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African chicken (Macanese galinha africana)

Macau restaurants have served galinha africana since the 1940s, and the story most often told is that a hotel chef in the city created it from spices that Portuguese sailors brought back from Mozambique and Angola. Today it is a signature at Macanese and Portuguese restaurants from Taipa village to Coloane, eaten at long weekend lunches with rice or crusty bread. Chicken pieces are marinated, grilled until charred, then baked under a thick, brick-coloured sauce of ground peanuts, coconut milk, chilli, paprika, garlic and onion that is rich, nutty and quietly fiery. It is often made with a pale, timid sauce; cook the onion, garlic and paprika slowly until really deep red before the coconut goes in. Chef's tip: marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge so the garlic and chilli reach the bone.

75 min

Macanese Chicken

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Escavèche

Escavèche is a speciality of the Chimay and Couvin area in southern Wallonia, a legacy of Spanish rule in the 16th century: fish fillets, traditionally eel or pike, fried and then covered with a hot marinade of vinegar, onion, thyme and bay that sets into a clear, tangy jelly as it cools. It is eaten cold, sliced, with crisp fries, in the brasseries of the Botte du Hainaut. A common mistake is not cooking the fish through before it goes into the marinade; cold marinade does not cook it. Chef's tip: let it set for at least 12 hours in the fridge; the vinegar mellows and the jelly firms. The fish should be opaque and flaking before marinating.

55 min

Belgian Fish

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Mitraillette

The mitraillette, 'submachine gun', is the overloaded sandwich of Brussels friteries, eaten after football or a night out: half a baguette split and stuffed with a hot meat patty or sausage, a heap of double-fried Belgian fries, lettuce and tomato, and a generous squeeze of sauce, usually andalouse, samurai or mayonnaise. It is messy and huge. This version uses a homemade beef burger. A common mistake is fries that are not crisp, which go soggy in the bread. Chef's tip: fry the chips twice, first at 160 °C until soft, then at 180 °C until golden, the Belgian way. Beef burgers must reach 71 °C in the middle.

40 min

Belgian Fast Food

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Couque de Dinant

Couques de Dinant are the famously hard honey biscuits of Dinant on the Meuse, made only of flour and honey, pressed into carved wooden moulds showing castles, animals and the town's skyline, and baked so hot that the honey caramelises into a very hard, glossy biscuit. Dinant bakers say they keep for years; locals let a piece melt slowly in the mouth rather than biting. Honey is traditional; golden syrup makes a vegan version. A common mistake is a soft dough; it must be stiff enough to hold the mould's detail. Chef's tip: dust the mould with flour, press hard and tap the dough out sharply.

60 min

Belgian Baking

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Sirop de Liège

Sirop de Liège is the sticky, almost black fruit spread of the Pays de Herve and Liège, made each autumn by cooking apples, pears and dates for hours, pressing out the juice and boiling it down until it sets like soft liquorice. It is spread on bread with soft cheese, stirred into the sauce for boulets liégeois and served with cheese boards. A common mistake is stopping too soon; it should coat a spoon thickly and set firm when cooled. Chef's tip: cook it very slowly in a heavy pan in the last hour, stirring often, as it catches easily once thick.

570 min

Belgian Chutneys & Dips

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Konijn met pruimen

Rabbit with prunes is the Sunday dinner of Flemish grandmothers, from the Westhoek to the Kempen: rabbit joints browned in butter or oil, then braised slowly with onions, thyme, bay and a bottle of brown or abbey-style beer, with prunes added for sweetness and a spoon of mustard for bite. It is served with fries or boiled potatoes and apple sauce. This recipe is cooked with beer, as it traditionally is; for an alcohol-free dish, use the swap in the ingredient note. A common mistake is boiling the rabbit, which makes the lean meat dry and stringy. Chef's tip: keep it at a gentle simmer under a lid, and add the prunes in the last 30 minutes so they stay whole.

150 min

Belgian Meat

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Truite à l'ardennaise

The rivers of the Belgian Ardennes, the Semois, the Ourthe and the Lesse, are trout country, and every inn in Bouillon and La Roche serves truite à l'ardennaise: a whole trout fried in butter until golden and finished with strips of jambon d'Ardenne, the smoked, cured pork ham of the region, crisped in the same pan. This dish contains pork. It is served with boiled potatoes or fries and a green salad. A common mistake is adding the ham at the start, which makes it hard and salty. Chef's tip: dust the trout with seasoned flour so the skin crisps, and add the ham only for the last 2 minutes. The trout is done when the flesh is opaque and lifts off the backbone.

30 min

Belgian Fish

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Minchi (Macanese minced meat with potatoes)

If one dish says home to Macanese families, the descendants of Portuguese and Chinese Macau, it is minchi: a quick hash of minced beef and pork seasoned with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and a touch of sugar, mixed with crisp little cubes of fried potato and crowned with a runny fried egg. It appears on weeknight tables, at Macanese restaurants near Rua do Cunha, and at gatherings of the Macanese community abroad, always with plain white rice. Savoury, slightly sweet and full of crunch, it tastes like the meeting of a Portuguese kitchen and a Cantonese wok. A common error is stirring the potatoes into the meat too early, which makes them soft and floury; fry them separately until crisp and fold them in at the end. Chef's tip: let the mince sit undisturbed for a minute in the hot pan before stirring, so it browns instead of stewing.

30 min

Macanese Meat

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Galinha à portuguesa (Portuguese chicken)

Puzzlingly, you will not find this in Portugal: galinha à portuguesa belongs to Macau, where cooks mixed a Portuguese idea of a creamy baked chicken with the turmeric, curry powder and coconut milk that came through the Portuguese trading routes from Goa and Malacca. Macanese restaurants and Hong Kong's cha chaan teng serve it bubbling in a clay pot or baking dish, golden on top, with chicken and potatoes in a mild, yellow, gently sweet coconut sauce, always with white rice to soak it up. It is a favourite for family dinners and Christmas tables. The thing people get wrong is boiling the coconut sauce hard, so it splits and turns oily; keep it at a gentle simmer. Chef's tip: brown the chicken well first, and finish under a hot grill for the speckled golden top that Macau restaurants are known for.

75 min

Macanese Chicken

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Kletskoppen

Kletskoppen are the lacy, crackly biscuits of Bruges, sold in the old city's bakeries and served with coffee in the cafés around the Markt: brown sugar, butter and chopped almonds with very little flour (this version uses none), baked until they spread into thin, see-through, toffee-flavoured lace. A common mistake is putting them too close on the tray; they spread enormously and join up. Chef's tip: let them cool for a minute on the tray before lifting, and drape them over a rolling pin while still warm if you want curved tuiles.

30 min

Belgian Baking

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Garnaalkroketten

Along the Flemish coast, from De Panne to Knokke, the North Sea grey shrimp is king, and garnaalkroketten are the dish every seaside restaurant is judged by: a molten, creamy shrimp-flavoured béchamel packed with little brown shrimps, set firm, crumbed and fried until golden, served with fried parsley and lemon. In Oostduinkerke, shrimp fishers on horseback still drag their nets through the shallows. A common mistake is a béchamel that isn't thick enough, so the croquettes burst in the oil. Chef's tip: make a strong shrimp stock from the shells, if you have them, for the béchamel, and chill the mix overnight so it is firm to shape. The shrimp are already cooked; fry until golden and hot through.

90 min

Belgian Snacks & Starters

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Cougnou

Cougnou, also called cougnolle or bommetje, is the Christmas bread of Wallonia, given to children on Christmas morning: a soft brioche shaped like the infant Jesus in swaddling clothes, with a little clay or sugar medallion pressed into the middle, eaten with hot chocolate. Bakeries in Namur and Charleroi make them from early December. A common mistake is shaping them too small, which dries them in the oven. Chef's tip: make three balls, one large for the body and two small for the head and feet, pressed together tightly so they bake as one.

65 min

Belgian Baking

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Jan in de zak

Jan in de zak, 'John in the bag', is the old Flemish farmhouse pudding cooked for Shrove Tuesday and winter Sundays in West and East Flanders: a soft yeasted dough with raisins and currants tied up in a floured cloth and boiled for hours, then sliced and fried in butter and eaten with brown sugar or treacle. It is the Flemish cousin of Dutch 'Jan in de zak'. A common mistake is tying the cloth tightly, which leaves no room for the pudding to swell and makes it dense. Chef's tip: tie the cloth loosely, leaving room for the dough to double, and keep the water at a steady simmer.

180 min

Belgian Desserts

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Filet américain

Despite its name, filet américain is a Belgian classic, served in Brussels brasseries with a mound of fries, or spread on a baguette as the famous 'broodje américain': very fresh lean beef, finely minced and mixed with mayonnaise, mustard, capers, chopped onion, parsley and a dash of Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco, so it is creamy and tangy. The beef is eaten raw, so it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Buy a whole piece of the freshest steak from a trusted butcher, trim it and mince it yourself just before serving; never use ready-minced beef. A common mistake is preparing it in advance; make it and eat it at once. Chef's tip: chill the meat and the bowl well and mix with a fork, not a processor, so it stays loose. Use shop-bought mayonnaise, which is made with pasteurised egg.

20 min

Belgian Meat

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Lukken

Lukken are paper-thin, crisp waffle biscuits baked in West Flanders, around Kortrijk and Roeselare, in the days before New Year, when children go from house to house wishing neighbours a happy new year and are rewarded with them. They are made in a special iron that presses a fine pattern; a pizzelle iron or a thin-waffle (gaufrette) iron works. A common mistake is using too much batter, which makes them thick and soft. Chef's tip: use only a teaspoon of dough per biscuit and roll them while warm if you like, for 'rolled lukken'.

60 min

Belgian Baking

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Salade liégeoise

Salade liégeoise is the warm salad of Liège, eaten as a main course in the city's brasseries in summer when green beans are in season: just-cooked green beans and waxy potatoes tossed while warm with onion softened in butter and a sharp vinegar dressing, scattered with parsley. In Liège it is made with crisp bacon lardons; this version leaves them out and adds a fried egg on top for a fuller meal if you like. A common mistake is dressing cold vegetables, which don't absorb the vinegar. Chef's tip: deglaze the onion pan with the vinegar, then pour it straight over the hot beans and potatoes.

30 min

Belgian Salads

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Caricoles

Caricoles are the whelks sold hot in paper cups from street carts in Brussels, at the Marolles flea market, the Place Sainte-Catherine and the Christmas market: the sea snails are simmered for an hour in a peppery broth with celery, onion, thyme, bay and a lot of black pepper and chilli, and you pick them out with a toothpick and drink the broth. Buy whelks live or freshly cooked from a fishmonger. Live whelks should be tightly closed inside their shells or retract when touched; throw away any that smell bad or have broken shells, and any that stay open and limp after cooking. A common mistake is skipping the purge, which leaves them gritty. Chef's tip: soak live whelks in salted cold water for an hour and rinse them several times, then start them in cold broth so they don't toughen.

90 min

Belgian Fish

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Welsh cakes

Welsh cakes, picau ar y maen or 'cakes on the stone', are cooked on a cast-iron bakestone in kitchens across Wales and sold warm at markets and rugby matches, and they are a must on St David's Day, 1 March. The dough is like a rich scone with currants and mixed spice, and they are dusted with sugar while hot. Chef's tip: keep the heat medium-low; they need time for the middle to cook before the outside darkens.

35 min

British Baking

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Bubble and squeak

Bubble and squeak is what English households, especially in London, make on Boxing Day and Monday mornings from the Sunday roast's leftover potatoes and greens. It's named for the noise it makes in the pan. The mash and cabbage or sprouts are fried until a deep brown crust forms, then turned and crisped again. Serve with a fried egg and brown sauce. Chef's tip: press it flat and leave it alone in the pan; the crust only forms if you don't keep stirring.

30 min

British Breakfast & Brunch

by KrazyBadal 0 views

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