L'oven life

Baking is not a common hobby here.  It's also not common as a "necessity" or a way of being more cost-effective.  Baking just doesn't really happen much.  Well, maybe it does, but it sure seems infrequent compared to the baking that happens in Canada.

Most meals here are made on the stovetop.  They even have their own way of "slow-coking" a meal on the stovetop.  Soups and potato dishes are very common, and casseroles are not.

When I moved here, I was shocked to discover how much I used an oven in Canada- even though I really didn't cook much.  I was shocked when I went to make a casserole or bake some brownies (I don't remember the first meal I wanted to bake here), and these were the oven controls I had to work with. (This is an actual picture of the oven.... which was built-in.  Ovens and stove-tops are sold and installed separately here.)

The nob on the left can be twisted clockwise or counter-clockwise, and it has no beginning or end point.  There must be a proper term for that, but I can't think of the word right now.  I discovered that one of the settings was "off" (no light, no heat and no sound), but there were 5 other settings.  I bought an oven thermometer so that I could try to figure out what the other settings were.  After about 3 months, I discovered that the "third click to the right" was at least consistent heat, and would cook or bake food at a reasonable temperature, so that was the only setting I used.

Then, there was the nob on the right.  It says "degrees C", so it was easy to figure out what it was.  However, there sure was none of this "set the oven to 350 degrees, and preheat it while you prepare the food" business.  No, I would turn the oven on "3 clicks to the right", then check every 10 minutes or so to see what the inside temperature was.  If it was too hot, I'd turn the temperature nob counter-clockwise, and either just put the food in and keep an eye on it, or wait until it was a more reasonable temperature.  Sometimes, if I wanted to make sure that the temperature was right before putting the food in, it would take 45 minutes to heat it up to the right temperature.

  

 
After a little while, I discovered that baking is not common here.  Most people buy baked goods, and like I said, most meals are stove-top meals.  I have had conversations with other non-Dutch residents, and twice I have been told "Wow, you have an oven?  Lucky!"  Apparently an oven is not a necessity.  I think most people have some kind of combination microwave/oven that would fit maybe a 10lb bird, IF you were to bake a bird (which is also not common here.)

Anyways, as I was getting more familiar with my oven and the food here, I began to appreciate the fact that I had something that I could use to bake with.  Sometimes it's nice to just make some banana chocolate-chip muffins.  The smell of the muffins, and the satisfaction of making something that you can enjoy out of a bunch of seemingly random ingredients.... yum.  Yes, I was thankful to have an oven.

THEN, I got a surprise.  On December 5th, actually (which happened to be Sinterklaas here), my husband brought home a new oven!  (This story is really much longer, but I'll leave it at that for now.)  Just the fact that he would think to bring an oven made my day... week... month.  Then, we plugged it in.... YES!  It worked!  YES.... the temperature gauge was right!   Then, we measured it (by "we", I really mean "Martin").... and yep, the measurements were just right (this is especially important when it's built-in.)

I could go on and on, but the short part of the story is recorded in the two following pictures.  

I now have a beautiful, practially-new oven, with two dials.  I can set the oven to a certain temperature, and expect it to heat up to just that temperature.  I can even broil something if I want to!  I have also discovered that the "3-clicks to the right" on the old oven was actually convection bake.  The self-clean setting is called "steel wool with elbow grease", and I can't pre-set it to start or finish at a certain time (delayed cook).  However, I know that it is a beautiful, very good-quality oven that bakes well, and I have no "undiscovered buttons."  With the exception of only knowing 4 of the possible 6 settings on the oven, I can happily say that I use the oven to it's fullest potential.  There is something really wonderful about that!  Even more than that, I HAVE an oven.  Aaah... a simple thing that I have never been more thankful for :)

Milk

People drink milk here like it's going out of style.

Martin and I were at a friend's parents' house for lunch the other day.  The drink options were: halfvolle (1%) milk or karnemilk.  Of course we had tea and coffee after lunch, but milk only during lunch.  When we had lunch with his Oma and Opa, the drink options were: raspberry-flavoured yogurt drink, mango-flavoured yogurt drink, or plain milk.  Milk is not just meant to wash down your food, but it's meant to be enjoyed as part of the meal... and lots of it!

Karnemilk is probably Martin's favourite drink (it may even rival coffee.)  I have been scared off of this milk, because of the strange-looking streaks it leaves in a glass after being consumed.

I finally googled it, and discovered that it's the equivalent to buttermilk!  Seriously!?  Since it's so popular here, it's also really cheap (relative to CDN prices).  Bring on the baking!!

No wonder the Dutch are so tall :)

Grocery Shopping

Is the food any different here than in Canada?

Not really... I can find almost everything in the grocery stores (except chocolate chips, catalina salad dressing, thin salty bacon, and dry mustard),  but there certainly is a difference in how some of the products are packaged,  stored and prepared.  There's a difference in variety, and what products have a lot of competition- which leads to a difference in price.  I think this is the main contributor to food, meal and menu differences between the Netherlands and Canada.

Get ready for lots of pictures from the grocery store I visit most.  Please excuse the pictures... I didn't want to be noticed as I was documenting my shopping trip, so I didn't pay enough attention to the quality.

The produce is mostly the same- except it comes in smaller quantities here.

Breads: you can buy fresh breads at the local bakery, at the bakery section in the supermarket, or you can buy partially-prepared bread products like these.  Ciabatta buns, french baguette, rolls, pitas-- whatever you'd like, in a sealed, airtight bag.  Store it at home, then put it in the oven for 4-15 minutes (depending on what it is), then you have fresh bread!

Canned vegetables: green, red, brown or white beans, carrots, corn, peas, peas & carrot mixture, beets... I'm sure these are all in stores in Canada too, but based on the size of this store, I was surprised to see such a large variety of canned veggies.

The baking section: this is the entire baking section (except sugar and cinnamon are found elsewhere). Icing sugar is used to sprinkle on top of fruit bread, oliebollen or other breads, so it is sold in shakers, not bags.  I bought 3 different kinds of what I thought was "brown sugar" before I got the right one.  Flour only comes in bags of 1000g (that's 1 kg... no bigger).  Vanilla only comes in bottles of 38 mL, and I have only found 3 other artificial flavours between the 3 big supermarkets in town (almond, rum and lemon).  They're all made by the same brand so no competition for price.  I couldn't find rolled oats in this supermarket, but I found them at two others-- in 500g bags, no bigger.

I'm not sure what came first, a very small variety of baking supplies or a very small amount of people who bake.  In any case, I think it's a special thing to have homemade baking here.

Alcohol:  the wine and beer section is bigger than the fruit juice section.  And they sell beer with 0% alcohol.

Cereals:  this corner is the entire cereal section.  Complete with Corn Flakes, Special K, Bran Flakes and Muesli (or Cruesli).  No Rice Krispies!  Look just beyond the cereal though...

Chocolate toppings:  chocolate spreads and sprinkles, made to top off your breakfast toast, or add some flavour to your lunch-time sandwich.  Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, shavings, sprinkles, spread, or combinations... there are even pink ones (I think they're fruit-flavoured.... more healthy?)  Notice the number of different brands, and the fact that this is not the whole section (top shelf is cut off).

Deli meats and cheeses:  yep this whole aisle's fridge is just meats and cheeses.  Smoked sausage and Gouda cheese are staples here.

The "International" section:  Well, I think it's more like the Mexican section, with some Thai.  The bottom shelf has the only tortilla chips in the store, and up higher there is one can of mild salsa and one can of hot salsa.  No brand competition, so this is much more expensive than salsa in Canada.

 Canned meats: on the left of this shelf is canned meatballs, and on the right is canned hotdogs (knacks).  Dump the can and the liquid contents into a pot, turn on the stove, heat up, and ta da!  I think these are eaten (with mayonnaise and ketchup and other sauces) like we eat chips and salsa or chips and dip.

Oil and vinegar:  this is mostly for the oil... apparently there are lots of different kinds of oil, that are for different kinds of deep-frying?

Seasonings:  you're making meatballs?  Use meatball seasoning.  Making chicken?  Use chicken seasoning?  Fish seasoning, beef seasoning, pork seasoning.... the specific seasonings come in much bigger packages than individual spices.

Sauces and dips:  mostly mayonnaise and ketchup.  But ketchup and mayonnaise are used much more as dips than as ingredients.  I think all those big white bottles are different kinds of mayonnaise, that are used for different things, or with different flavours.  There is also a lot of garlic dip and garlic sauce here.  Sometimes, you even dip cheese into a dip!  Cheese becomes the base, and the dip adds flavour.  I still can't get my head around that one.

Ketchup and mayonnaise even come in tubes.

Butter and substitutes:  I can successfully distinguish between real butter with salt, unsalted, and margarine (halvarine), but there are a lot of other butter substitutes that I can't figure out (well, I haven't put much effort into it yet.)  I know that one of these products looks like butter, but you use it to make gravy.  You put about 1/4c of this "chroma" into a fry pan, once it's melted, add the meat, then as it mixes with the juices, it makes some kind of gravy-like sauce.  I'm still not sure what I think of it.  But I think some of these products could be treasures... could be.  Although, I'm a little nervous of a butter product in a squeeze bottle.

Frozen veggies:  these three doors are the entire frozen vegetable section.  This may be what I miss most!  It's mostly spinach, beans and peas, with some mixed vegetables... but even those are different.  Oh.

Potatoes:  I totally forgot about the well-loved potato!  There is always a large selection of potatoes in any grocery store.  Of course, you can get your 5 kg bag of potatoes (I get mine for $1.50 Euros), you can get smaller amounts, OR you can get fully washed and peeled potatoes, in almost any size, packaged like pre-washed lettuce.  The frozen potatoes (mostly french fries) take up more space than all of these frozen veggies combined.

Welcome to my world of adventures in the kitchen!

Erwtensoep recipe

Thanks Mieke for the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 500g dry split peas (about 2c)
• 2 medium-large carrots
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1/2 kohlseleri (or 2-3 stalks of regular celery)
• 1 onion
• 2 big leeks (or 4-6 smaller leeks)
• 1-2 bouillon cubes (vegetable or beef)
• 2 smoked sausages  (each sausage is about 200-300g)
• 3 pieces ham, with bone in (Haaskavbonade) (about 500g total).
  
  - you can change the amounts of the veggies, based on your preference.  One recipe calls for 10 carrots and no potatoes.  You can't really go wrong with this!
  
  

1)  fill big soup pot 1/2 full with water.

2)  add split peas, ham and bouillon*
3)  boil for 1- 1.5 hours, until peas are cooked

-- find a nice book to read, clean the house, chop veggies, or go on facebook ;) --

4)  wash and chop all other veggies (dice, into bite-sized pieces)
5)  once peas are cooked, take out ham and add all other veggies, simmer on low for 2-3 hours
6)  remove bone from ham and dice into bite-sized pieces.
6)  1/2 cook sausages in a separate pot.
8)  once veggies are all cooked, use immersion blender to blend.
8.5) I used an immersion blender because I don't like the look of the cooked split-peas.  But I think in the real dutch recipe, they just serve the soup as is.
9)  dice sausage into bite-sized rounds, and add to veggie pot with ham.

* The recipe that I used in Canada required the peas to be soaked in water overnight.  No need for that in this recipe.

Erwtensoup

I think that's how it's spelled.  Pea soup- a common dish over here.  Last week, Romy (my sister-in-law) and I spent an afternoon together, making our first batch of Erwten soup, and with Mieke's tips, we got all the right ingredients, and it turned out well.

Two surprises for me:
1) the size of the leeks!  I looked up some Canadian recipes for this soup last week, and some of them called for 3-6 leeks.  Only two needed if they're this size!

2) Kohlseleri?  I don't know how to spell it, actually.  But I think it sounds something like that.  It looks like a mix between an octopus, potato and turnip.  It cuts like a turnip, and smells and tastes like celery!  It's PERFECT for soup, because it has the nice flavour of celery, but it can be cooked and mashed with NO stringy things!  Chances are that these are also sold in Canada, but I just overlooked them in the grocery store because they look so unappetizing!

And here's the soup in process... it turned out well!  I didn't take any pictures of the final product, partly because we ate it as soon as it was all done, and partly because, well, cooked split pea soup smells and tastes much better than it looks.

Grocery Shopping

We went grocery shopping today.  I had a few recipes in mind, so I had my list of ingredients with me.

I wanted to make manicotti... no manicotti noodles, no cottage cheese, no cheddar cheese.  I guess ricotta, parmesan and gouda will work.

I wanted to make a casserole, so I looked for frozen kernels of corn.  In the vegetable freezer, I found a box with a picture of corn on it, and a big number 2.  I shook the box, and it was definitely two frozen cobs of corn.  Canned corn it is!

Time for me to try new things and be resourceful myself!  Also, time for me to start importing slow-cookers... they also aren't used here!