Amsoi

Amsoi is the Surinamese, and partly Chinese, name for a variant of Brassica juncea. Soi is Chinese for ‘vegetable’. This plant is also known as brown mustard, Chinese mustard, Indian mustard, leaf mustard, Oriental mustard and vegetable mustard, and is a species of mustard plant. The taste is slightly pungent and reminds of mustard. The leaves are rich in vitamins A, C, and especially rich in vitamin K.

In The Netherlands you can buy amsoi, which will be a bit different from the plant you would buy on a Chinese, Korean or Indian market. The plant is very common and is widely used in cuisine. The genus of the plant is Brassica which contains cabbages.

Below a typical use in the Surinamese kitchen from New Draver restaurant: amsoi with salted beef, chicken and rice. No need to boil the amsoi separately, you can just fry the finely cut amsoi and stew the vegetable in its own water, which will be released during the cooking process.

Fladder, vlees- en bloedworst

This is one of my favorite Surinamese street foods and it’s so rare it’s been years since I tasted fladder. Fladder is tripe. The tripe is boiled in stock with spices and herbs in a huge stockpot. Chicken stock can be used as a base with onion, garlic, celery and madame jeanette pepers. Before serving the tripe is sliced and served with blood sausage and white sausage. A spoon of stock will be added and hot pepper sauce.

I bought the fladder below on Dappermarkt Amsterdam in 2017.

Annie's vis

If you don’t know Annie’s Place you will never find it. This Surinamese take away place is tucked away in a small nondescript building in Venserpolder, Amsterdam Zuid-Oost. The inside is very clean. One wall is filled with framed shirts signed by famous soccer players. Nobody goes to Annie’s place unannounced. You call, order and after 30 to 45 minutes you pick up your order. That’s what my co-worker who tipped me off Annie’s Place, told me to do. I ignored his advice and went there unannounced. Sub-sequentiality I had to wait 45 minutes for my fish. Okay, next time I will call beforehand.

The fish is Annie’s signature dishe. It is most likely American butterfish, fried to perfection and served with banana and cassave. The dish is a basic version of heri-heri, which consists of bakkeljauw, banana and cassava. You get three condiments: pickled cucumber, a dark brown sweet-spicy sauce and very hot yellow pepper sauce.

The butterfish was huge (the photo shows the fish on a 26 centimeter plate) and fried to perfection.

ANNIE’S PLACE
AGATHA CHRISTIESINGEL 28
1102 WK, AMSTERDAM-ZUIDOOST

Sopropo met zoutvlees

I just can't get enough of this. This recipe - but with antroewa instead of sopropo - comes from the book SuriMAM Cooking van Moreen Waal, Aretha Waal en Martha Waal. Publisher: Luitingh-Sijthoff.

Shopping list:

Zoutvlees (voor zover ik weet alleen verkrijgbaar bij een Surinaamse winkel, rundvlees in pekel bewaard).
1 Sopropo.
1 Ui.
Knoflook.
Gedroogde garnalen.
2 tomaten.
Boullion-blokje (Maggi).
1 eetlepel tomatenpuree.
1 of 2 Madame Jeanette of Adjoema. Fijngesneden zonder de zaadjes.
Zwarte peper.

Het zoutvlees afspoelen en een half uur in koken water ontzouten. Water verversen en verder koken tot het vlees zacht is.

Het zoutvlees in kleine blokjes snijden.

De sopropo over de lengte in tweeën snijden, de zaadjes met een lepel verwijderen en in halve maantjes snijden. In koud water zetten.

In een grote pan de ui, knoflook en hete peper fruiten, daarna de gedroogde garnalen en het zoutvlees toevoegen en 10 minuten bakken op laag vuur.

Daarna de 2 tomaten toevoegen (ontveld, in blokjes gesneden), de sopropo, bouillon-blok, tomatenpuree, zwarte peper en een flink glas water. Stoven tot de sopropo gaar is. Een half uurtje op heel laag vuur.

2022 version from restaurant New Draver. I think I should stew my sopropo much longer.

Wetenschappelijke naam: Momordica charantia. Sopropo komt oorspronkelijk uit India.