My husband recently spent a week in Amsterdam – riding his bicycle along the canal, taking in the sights, indulging in Dutch cuisine… Yeah ok, I may have been the tiniest bit jealous – but any of that immediately disappeared when he presented me with the most perfect gift – a selection of Dutch cheeses. I know, it’s not the normal, honey I’m back from my trip kind of a gift – but that’s why I loved it so much. All travel-envy was forgotten and now I’m busy thinking of ways to use all my glorious cheeses! Thoughts of wine, cheese and friends are filling my mind!
It’s a reminder about what makes food so special – it creates new experiences. Food brings people together and a new flavour can transport us outside the everyday. What an incredible gift!
I’ve decided this will be my new thing (ok, my husband started it) – to find and share with friends foods that inspire. Homegrown, artisanal provisions that celebrate cultures, traditions and everything we love about about real food!
Here are a few for the collection – Singapore Edition!
1. The Hunter’s Kitchenette Nut Butters // 2. A. Muse Projects Specialty Teas // 3. Two Rabbit’s Smokey Chilli // 4. GSH Conserves // 5. Jungle Beer // 6. The Edible Co. Granola
4 responses to “The Gift of Food”
Wow!! Nice ;-P
That’s what we always ask our friends to bring if they come over to Singapore: ‘Please bring some OLD Gouda!’
One way to serve cheese the Dutch (pub) way is to cut it in dice size pieces with some mustard on the side – to dip – or you can try ‘appelstroop’, something typical Dutch, instead of mustard.
I have a little jar for you if you like to give it a try.
Hi Mascha!
I’m going to try the mustard idea – I’ve never heard of that before! What is applestroop? I’m so intrigued! 🙂
Hi Militza,
Appelstroop looks a bit like molasses in colour and consistency, but then it’s made from apples. It’s completely different from the apple butter you can find in the organic shops!
I found a recipe in an old fashioned Dutch preserves cook book.
You need 4 kg of (ripe) organic apples – I like the tarty ones.
Don’t skin and core the apples, but wash and cut in four. Cook them in a pan with a little water until it’s pulp (a bit like apple sauce). Put this in a sieve covered with fine cheese cloth and catch the juice – this can take up to 24 hours.
Boil the juice [if you used apples that have fallen from the tree you can add some (brown) sugar] until it’s reduced about half to three quarters in size. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon! The appelstroop is ready when it comes from the spoon in a thread.
Let it cool completely, it will thicken even more. Keep it in a glass mason jar.
Use it as a spread for bread, on pancakes, in yoghurt instead of honey or as a substitute for blackstrap molasses.
Some people like to spice it up with cinnamon, but I like it the way it is.
Hope you like it as much as we do! The boys especially like it on their pancakes 😉 I like it on a slice with real dark bread with old gouda!!
Mascha
PS you can skip the first step and use natural apple juice, but not the cloudy one.
Hi Mascha,
Thanks a million for the idea – sounds like a fun weekend recipe! I think I’ll go for the tart apples as well… I’ll give it a go 🙂