Pure Wagyu

Farmer Chris Boomsma rears Japanese Wagyu cattle, which are known for the tender, exclusive and flavourful meat. ' Wa ' means Japan and ' Gyu ' means beef. Until the 19th century, the Wagyu in Japan where only be used as draft animals in forestry and agriculture. Through the centuries of selection on muscular strength and endurance, the modern, high-quality and very tender meat came to be.

A portion of Chris's livestock were the first Wagyu's to ever be maintained and graze the dunes of Schoorl.  The animals have a good life and help take care of the natural landscape.

Wagyu beef is a tasty delicacy known for its typical fat distribution and characteristic marbling. This marbling, with his polyunsaturated fat, ensures an unprecedented taste sensation. The more marbling in the meat, the higher the quality.

A few interesting  points about Pure Wagyu Beef:
• the cattle 100% pure-bred Wagyu's are
• the cattle come from North Holland
• the calves remain for at least 8 months at their own mother
• the cattle are kept in a sustainable and humane way
• the meat contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
• the meat is free of antibiotics or growth hormones
• a Wagyu Sirloin steak contains less cholesterol than a lean chicken breast

One common myth is that the tenderness of the Wagyu meat is obtained by the cattle being massaged, listening to classical music and being fed beer.

To taste and purchase Pure Wagyu for yourself, visit their stall at The Sunday Market on 1st March at the Westergasfabriek.


Bilder & de Clercq's New Recipes Week 9 - 2015

As you may know by now, we are the chefs behind Amsterdam hotspot, Bilder & de Clercq. Every week we develop 3 new recipes for the stores and we'll be keeping you updated with the week's newest recipes. This weeks new recipes are:

Soprano's CannelloniWarm Chickpea SaladIndian Vegetable Soup


Prawns with Sumac and Grilled Fennel - Persiana

Persiana has taken the culinary world by storm. Sabrina Ghayour grew up in an Iranian family and was brought up on Persian food. Through hosting supper clubs, at which she served her style of Middle Eastern cuisine, her first cookbook was born.

We absolutely adore this type of food. It's about bringing people together over large plates, helping themselves and interacting with others. The recipes make use of easily available ingredients but combining them in amway to achieve authentic flavours.

We cooked her recipe for Prawns with Sumac, Coriander, Lemon and Garlic. An absolute winner of a dish. We made a couple of adjustments - you'll find our feedback under the original recipe.

Prawns with Sumac, Coriander, Lemon and Garlic

Serves 4

Ingredients
6 tablespoons olive oil
grated rind of 2 lemons and juice of 1/2
2 tablespoons sumac
5 large garlic cloves, bashed, peeled and thinly sliced
1 x 20 g packet coriander, stalks and leaves finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
800 g large raw peeled tiger prawns

Method
Select a wide, shallow vessel in which to make your marinade. Put in the olive oil, then add the lemon rind, sumac, garlic and coriander. Season well with a generous amount of sea salt and black pepper, add lemon juice and mix the ingredients together well.

Place the prawns in the marinade and mix well to ensure they are evenly coated, then cover the dish with clingfilm and marinate for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator if you can. Of course you can cook the prawns immediately, but a little marinating time will allow the flavours to permeate the prawns. As the marinade contains acid (lemon juice), I would not recommend marinating the prawns for longer than a few hours, as it may partially cook them (although they will be perfectly safe to eat).

Preheat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once it is hot, shake off the excess marinade from each prawn and place it straight into the frying pan. Cook the prawns for 2-3 minutes on each side until they turn pink and serve immediately.

Chefs notes: we adjusted the recipe a little to suit our tastes. We used 3 instead of 5 cloves of garlic, chopping them finely. We brought the amount of sumac back to a heaped teaspoon instead of 2 tablespoons and we served our prawns with grilled fennel, so that we had a vegetables accompaniment. 

Publisher: Good Cook Publishing

Author: Sabrina Ghayour

Price: 24,95 euro


Gebroeders de Wolf

How do you turn a problem into a solution? Ask Gebroeders de Wolf.

There is an overflow of wild geese in Holland, especially around Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Their size and numbers pose a threat to departing and arriving aircraft. Once way to deal with the problem is  a mass cull, but we all need solutions that have benefits as well.

Martijn van de Reep en Tom Zinger began their charcuterie company in 2014. They hunt wild geese and turn this delicious and very underrated meat into true delicacies.

We came across their stall at the Indie Brands market in The Foodhallen. Their range consists of dried and smoked sausages, smoked goose breast, terrine, pate and the one that we love best, the rillettes, in which goose meat is slowly cooked in goose fat, picked and potted - so delicious and indulgent. Flavourwise, it's comparable to duck with a slight gamey flavour.

For more information or to see when they'll next be at a market near you, visit their Facebook page.


Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

This carrot cake recipe is gluten free. The flour is replaced with ground almonds, which ensures that this is a light and moist cake. Of course carrot cake wouldn't be complete without the obligatory creame cheese topping.
Serves 8
Ingredients
5 eggs
265 g brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125 ml sunflower oil
440 g ground almonds
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
400 g carrots, peeled and grated
75 g shredded coconut
70 g toasted pecan nuts, roughly chopped
80 g golden raisins

cream cheese icing
250 g cream cheese
55 g icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method
Preheat oven to 160°C.

Grease and line the base of a 24 cm springform tin with non-stick baking paper.

Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer and whisk for 15 minutes or until thick and tripled in volume. Place the oil, ground almonds, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder, carrot, coconut, pecans and raisins in a large bowl and mix well to combine. Fold through the egg mixture and spoon into the tin.

Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes – 1 hour 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached. Allow to cool completely in the tin before refrigerating for 2–3 hours or until firm.

To make the cream cheese icing, place the cream cheese and sugar in an electric mixer and beat for 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the lemon juice and beat for a further 1 minute or until smooth. Carefully remove the cake from the tin and pread with the icing.

We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours 


Sous Vide Cooking

Grant Sous Vide machines recently joined us as a prestigious partner. Founded in 1952 and based near Cambridge, UK, Grant Sous Vide water baths and modular cookers are used all over the globe by some of the world’s most prestigious catering establishments and venues. Their machines are used by some of the worlds most well known chefs including Marcus Wareing, Ashley Palmer-Watts and Angela Hartnett, MBE.

As we are in the process of creating our new catering and dinner menus for Spring, we thought that our new sous vide machine would offer us the inspiration needed.

But what is sous vide cooking? Sous vide is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath or in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times, at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 55 °C  to 60 °C for meats and higher for vegetables. The intention is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside and retain moisture.

We are still in the testing fase, but the results are promising. Keep an eye on the site, we'll be publishing some of our sous vide recipes soon.


Bilder & de Clercq's New Recipes Week 8 - 2015

As you may know by now, we are the chefs behind Amsterdam hotspot, Bilder & de Clercq. Every week we develop 3 new recipes for the stores and we'll be keeping you updated with the week's newest recipes. This weeks new recipes are:

Aubergine CurryConfit Duck SaladPaparadelle with Chorizo PeperonataMarinated Tofu with Cauliflower Rice


Root Vegetable Soup

A deliciously healthy soup to keep you warm during these cold days. This soup also suitable as part of a detox diet.

Serves 2

Ingredients
50 g red lentils
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, bruised
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch chilli powder
salt and pepper
750ml - 1 litre chicken or vegetables stock
5 cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
4 tablespoons olive oil
freshly chopped parsley and 2 tablespoons coconut milk to garnish*

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the sweet potato, carrots, parsnip, onion, garlic, chilli to taste, turmeric and cumin on an oven tray. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil.

Roast for 30-40 minutes in the oven or until the vegetables are soft. In the meantime, heat a pot with 1 tablespoon olive oil and gently fry the ginger off for about 1-2 minutes. Add the stock and lentils and simmer gently until the lentils are cooked, about 15-20 minutes.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add them to the stock and mix well. Blend until smooth using a stick blender or in a blender. Return to the pot, reheat and adjust the seasoning if necessary. If the soup is too thick, add a little extra water or stock to thin it down.

Serve in bowls garnished with chopped parsley and coconut milk.

*To increase the health factor, sprinkle the soup with a few chopped peanuts and chia seeds before serving.

We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours 

 


Crepes Suzette

Today, February the 17th is International pancake day. While we love the traditional pancakes with a little cinnamon-sugar and lemon and American pancakes, we felt that we wanted to make it a little more indulgent. So here is an absolute classis which everyone should have in their repertoire.

Serves 4-6 

Ingredients
100g flour
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
about 300 ml milk
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon oil
butter for frying

Suzette Sauce
75 g butter
150g sugar
2 lemons
2 oranges
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier or orange liqueur, or to taste

Method
Mix the egg and egg yolk with the flour, oil and a pinch of salt and add part of the milk. Whisk until you have a thick mixture and add as much of the remaining milk as needed. (This can also be done in the food processor.) The batter should be the consistency of cream.

Allow the batter to rest for ± 30 minutes. Cook the crepes in a crepe pan or frying pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Grate the zest of the 1 lemon and 1 orange and squeeze the juice from all. Place the sugar in a pan and caramelise over a medium heat until an amber colour. Carefully add the citrus juices and cook over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Mix in the butter, grated zests and Grand Marnier or orange liqueur. If you dare, flambé the liqueur before adding, but please be very careful!

To serve, fold the crepes into quarters and reheat briefly in the sauce. Serve with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours


Le Salonard

Le Salonard is a culinary paradise in De Pijp. Housing a selection of wines, cheeses, pastries, charcuterie and other delicacies from around Europe, it's all one could ask for for the prefect night in.

There is also a small seated area where you can order a selection of sandwiches and salads.

In our opinion, it's the perfect recipe for the weekend. Buying a selection of their beautiful cheeses and charcuterie, pairing it with a wonderful bottle of wine and ending off with their heavenly looking brownies.

For more information, please visit Le Salonard.