Kırmızı Mercimek Çorbasi (red lentil soup)

30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.

31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.

Genesis 25:30-31

One of the easiest soup I know. But you need homemade chicken stock if you want to do it properly. Any homemade chicken stock will do: I made my latest version of this soup with Chinese chicken stock made from half a soup chicken, a piece of ginger and spring onions. Simmer for at least two hours.

Fry onion in some olive oil. Add a small tin of tomato puree and cumin powder. Add chicken stock and red lentils. Simmer for half an hour until the lentils are cooked. Optional: fresh tomatoes, potatoes, carrot. I didn’t puree my soup because red lentils cook soft very quickly, if you add potatoes you can puree the soup with a blender. Finally add some shredded chicken left over from making the chicken stock. Adjust for salt and add black or white pepper.

Finishing touch
Dress the soup with either one of the following: dried mint leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, red pepper flakes or sumac. You can also melt butter over low-medium heat. When it starts spitting, stir in chilli flakes. Then, pour the butter over the soup.

Dim sum 點心 dipping sauces

Not far from my home there is a Chinese takeaway which sells pretty good dim sum dumplings. All I have to do myself is prepare the right dipping sauce. Classic and simple is a soy based ginger dipping sauce. I like this sauce for pork shumai (烧卖) dim sum.

Ingredients for soy ginger sauce:
2 tbsp light soy sauce.
1 teaspoons minced ginger.
A pinch of white pepper.
Sesame oil to taste.

Alternatively you can serve a dipping sauce with black vinegar for Xiaolongbao (小籠包) dim sum.

Ingredients for Xiaolongbao (小籠包) sauce:
1 tablespoon light soy sauce.
3 thin slices of julienned ginger.
1 teaspoon black vinegar.

For shrimp dumplings har gaw (蝦餃) you need a lighter sauce without soy sauce.

Ingredients for ginger and rice vinegar sauce:
2 teaspoon ginger chopped finely.
1 ½ tablespoon rice vinegar.

Afhaalrestaurant “Het Oosten”, Zeedijk 147, 1012 AW Amsterdam

Aloo gobi

Literally potato-cauliflower. This dish is made with a dry masala.

Shopping list:

1/2 tsp amchoor powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi)
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
Pinch of hing
Salt to taste

2 green chilli
1/4 cup oil
1 onion
1 bunch chopped coriander leaves
3  tomatoes, chopped

1 cauliflower, cut into florets
4 potatoes, cubed

Optional to make aloo gobi matter:
1 tbsp green peas

Directions to make the masala

Crush a small onion, tomatoes and green chili with mortar and pestle to a rough paste.

Heat oil in a pan, sauté cumin seeds, add a little hing. Add ginger-garlic paste for a minute and then the crushed tomato, onion and green chilli paste and add turmeric. Cook until the oil oozes out.

Mix a little water with coriander powder, chili powder and amchoor powder as a souring agent, a little salt and dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi).

Add potatoes soaked in water and fry for 10-15 minutes on a low flame. Then add cauliflower, salt and fry for few minutes. Lower the heat, cover and simmer until the cauliflower is cooked but still firm. Before serving add garam masala and chopped coriander leaves

Served with mango chutney.

Hazenpeper

Hazenpeper is made of two words: haas (English: hare) and peper (English: pepper). Peper refers to peperkoek, which is a spiced cake with the following ingredients: rye, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Side note: peperkoek is nowadays called ontbijtkoek.

But peperkoek is just a minor ingredient, hazenpeper is a hunter’s stew made from hare, vegetables and red wine.

First you have the marinate the hare for 24 to 48 hours. Traditionally hazenpeper is made of the front legs (voorlopers) of the hare.

The marinate
Dice: onion, carrot, celery; add crushed garlic, cloves, freshly ground black pepper, juniper berries, bay leaf, fresh thyme, fresh tarragon, fresh chervil, 2 tables spoons of apple vinegar and add enough red wine to cover the meat. Marinate for at least 24 hours.

The next day
Separate the meat from the marinate and run the marinate through a sieve. Keep the wine separate from the vegetables and herbs. Dry the meat with kitchen paper and rub the meat with salt and black pepper.

Fry the meat in hot butter until brown. Take the meat out of the frying pan and add cubed streaky bacon. Fry until crispy. Add the vegetables and fry for a couple of minutes. Add some brandy/cognac, give it a quick stir and add the marinate to the pan and some stock (fond) made of game. Put the fried meat back into the pan and simmer until the meat falls off the bone. Take the meat out and pluck the meat from the bones.

Puree or mash the remaining sauce, but not too fine. Just don’t use an electric blender. Add two slices of peperkoek, a tablespoon of jam and put the meat back in the pan without the bones. If you have any, at this point you would add some hare’s blood and liver to bind the sauce. In a separate pan fry silverskin onions and mushrooms in butter, add these in last. If you don’t use blood you can dust some flower over the mushrooms and butter to bind the sauce. If you can’t get silverskin onion, you can use the pickled version (wash some of the sour taste off). Simmer for another half hour until the peperkoek has dissolved. Let it rest for another 24 hours before serving.

Kæstur hákarl

One food you cannot ignore when in Iceland is Kæstur hákarl or fermented shark. It shows to what great lengths the Icelandic people would go to make potential food edible in times of scarcity.

The shark used for hákarl is Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus), whose flesh is toxic to humans because of the presence of high concentrations of urea and trimethylamine oxide (TMAO). But if you press out the fluids and let the meat ferment for 6-12 weeks and then dry the meat for several months, the meat becomes edible. In the olden days (think: Vikings!) the meat would be buried and the sand was used as a weight to press out the fluids. If you do eat the meat fresh you get ‘shark drunk’. I wonder how bad this can feel, is it similar to taking in an extreme amount of alcohol or hallucinogenic drugs?

I had hákarl in Café Loki as part of a mini Þorramatur with rúgbrauð, hákarl, harðfiskur (wind-dried fish) and brennivín. Brennivín is made from fermented grain or potato and flavoured with caraway and was introduced in Iceland after the prohibition ended in 1935. The Vikings would certainly not have drunk brennivín with their hákarl.

Kæstur hákarl does smell of ammonia but the taste is not so bad at all. I even liked it and was sorry my plate only contained four pieces. By the way, Gordon Ramsay is a pussy.

Lobster soup in Grindavík

For the average tourist there is not much to see in Grindavík (population: 3300). It was only in 1939 a safe landing point for the fishing ships was created at Hópið but the fishing industry didn’t change much until the 1950s. A newly built breakwater gave the ships even more protection to harbour safely. Before 1939 the ships would have to be pulled ashore at night. The fish would have been salted for preservation. During the late 19th and early 20th century salted fish was Iceland’s main export product.

The day I was in Grindavík it was a very stormy and wet day. The night before a big storm landed in Iceland making travel by car not advisable. After a walk around the harbour I could only warm myself in Bryggjan Kaffihus & Cafe. The menu is very limited but they had a very tasty lobster soup (Humarsúpa), which is made from Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) also known as langoustine. This is the only type of lobster found in the waters around Iceland. The soup had all the flavour extracted from the lobsters but had barely any flesh in it. This is understandable since the stock has been in decline since 2005. Fishermen were unable to catch the full quota in 2017. Jónas Páll Jónasson, ichthyologist at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute: “There is no question whether lobster fishing will be banned in the near future, “it’s only a question of when it will happen.” Crusteceans are sensitive to changing ocean conditions and rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere, so there might also be a link to climate change but these animals also reproduce slowly in cold waters so despite the quota, overfishing is a factor.

Humarsúpa is basically a bisque and if you Google for recipes you will find so many variations it is hard to pick a recipe. Modern versions contain curry powder, cream, white wine and cognac.

Lobster soup, as long as stock lasts.

View from the window of Bryggjan Kaffihus

Cod, ling & tusk

Or in Icelandic: Þorskur, Langa & Keila. Just a few of the cod-family fish I ate in Iceland. But there are more similar fish with Icelandic names: Blálanga, Kolmunni, Lýsa, Snarphali, Spærlingur, Ufsi, Ýsa. Point is, white fish is very popular in Iceland and is eaten very fresh. It is also the ingredient of Plokkfiskur, somewhat of a national dish consisting of cod, potatoes and onion.

Common ling (Molva molva), Icelandic name : Langa.

Cusk or tusk (Brosme brosme), Icelandic name: Keila.

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), Icelandic name: Þorskur or atlantshafsþorskur.

Drying fish in 1835 in Reykjavík.

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Catch of the day from Grindavík

Below is the catch of the day from the harbour in Grindavík with potatoes, langoustine sauce, kale and almonds (ISK 4900). This dish was served in the Lava Restaurant of the Blue Lagoon. The photo is not so crisp because I only had my iPhone with me in the restaurant. But this lunch - the catch of the day was Keila - was just perfect. Below the kale you can see some apple cubes marinated in I assume a vinegar mixture; the langoustine sauce looks like mayonnaise in the photo, in reality the sauce was so light it was about to fly away. The fish was so fresh it didn't taste like any white fish I have eaten in The Netherlands. Just wow! The view was not too shabby either.

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Plokkfiskur

The national dish of Iceland is mostly eaten at home, but also served in restaurants. It uses left over bits of cod (or similar fish), potatoes and onions. The sauce is made with butter, milk and flower. It is an ancient dish. Magnus Nilsson assumes in The Nordic Cook Book that plokkfiskur used to be made with salted or dried fish. Today fresh fish is used. In the most basic form the only seasoning is white pepper and salt.

It is an easy dish. Melt butter in a pan and fry onion translucent but not brown. Sift flower over the onions and stir to make a roux, add milk and stir until the sauce has thickened. Add the precooked fish and add pre-cooked potatoes. Mash and stir until you are happy with the consistency. Season with white pepper and salt - Magnus Nilsson, The Nordic Cook Book, page 238.

It should be served with Icelandic Rye Bread (Rugbrauð) and butter. You can make this bread by burying the dough in the hot soil near a hot spring. Rye bread is baked at much lower temperatures than wheat bread.

Plokkfiskur in Reykjavík Fish Restaurant, Reykjavík.

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Fish and Chips

Fish and chips are very popular. This dish has a long history. The English tradition of fish battered and fried in oil may have come from Jewish immigrants from Spain and Portugal as early as the 16th century. Trawl fishing innovations in the 19th century made plenty of fish available and around the same time fried ‘chips’ of potato were introduced, the railroads brought the ingredients to the British people. The Icelandic fish and chips is most likely a British influence. Despite the Cod Wars the two countries (specially Scotland) have a long relation.

Icelandic Fish and Chips. In this restaurant in Reykjavík you choose your fish (the choice was between cod, ling and tusk) and they fry the fish in batter. The ale is a Nr 10 Snorri by Borg Brugghús.

Dry Dock, Reykjavík.

Matur og Drykkur

Cod ́s Head cooked in chicken stock and blueberries. Served with rucola salad and lovage aioli.

“The Little Cook Book for Genteel Housekeepers” from the year 1800 details two types of courses. Expensive materials are used for respectable people while the cheaper materials are cooked for the unseemly. But the cheaper materials are best when treated with love and care.

4990 kr.

At Matur og Drykkur they serve the cod’s head so that is staring right at you. The head was taken from a big cod (a 15 kilo fish they told me) and even though there is are plenty of bone in the head I could barely finish it. The tongue was served separately - fried in batter with aioli on the side. The head was marinated in spices I recognised but couldn’t identify and cooked in chicken stock. I am also reading online that the head is not boiled but ‘lacquered’ in chicken stock. I think sooner or later they have to publicise the recipe. Just before serving I could see them scorching the head slightly with a gas blowtorch. The cod’s head and the two beers costed a fortune (actually, just ISK 7640 or EUR 54) but since it was my last night and a once in a lifetime experience I thought: well, what the hell. When eating a cod’s head it is inevitable you need to use your hands. You end up with very sticky fingers because of the fish glue.

I had two seasonal beers, both made by the local Borg Brugghús founded in 2010. The first was an amber ale but due lack of a bottle I am not sure which one. The second was a dark purple beer called NR. 59 Skyrjarmur, which is soured with traditional Icelandic skyr and sweetened back by blueberries. I had the NR. 10 Snorri before and I have to say that all Borg beers were really excellent.

The name of the restaurant is taken from an Icelandic cooking book - and inspiration for the menu - called Matur og Drykkur (Food and Drinks) by Helga Sigurðardóttir, a former principal at the housekeepers school in Iceland. Below the book was a copy of The Nordic Cook Book by Magnus Nillson, my favourite and only nordic cook book. The restaurant is located in an old Salt Fish factory in the harbour area built in 1924 and used as a salt fish factory until the end of the 60’s. I really loved Matur og Drykkur. The staff is quirky and open for questions, the atmosphere is chic and laid-back at the same time. Both my shoes and waterproof trousers were muddy but I didn’t feel out of place.

Japanese tea ware

Over the years I collected quite a few Japanese tea wares. My Hagi-yaki I bought around 2004 on eBay. Since 2017 I have been completing my collection with additional ceramics and pottery. Images are mostly taken from the online shops I bought my tea ware.

Banko-yaki 萬古焼 kyusu with basket motifs by Tachi Masaki, 140 ml (2017)

Banko-yaki is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally from Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture and is thought to have originated in the 18th century. Initially white or yellow clay was used until the mines were depleted. They changed to a local clay which is known as purple clay (紫泥). I bought this small 140 ml kyusu for premium sencha. Masaki used a chigire 千切れ pattern on the surface of the tea pot.

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Kazuho Chasen by Tango Tanimura (2018)

Tango Tanimura is the 20th generation of a chasen making family in Japan. This 80 prong chasen is crafted from a single piece of white Hachiku bamboo that has been seasoned for 2-3 years. Designed for the Urasenke style of Tea Ceremony and suited for Usucha (thin tea).

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Wari-Koudai Totoya Chawan by Deishi Shibuya (歴史)

The only chawan I currently own is made by Deishi Shibuya who passed away in 2017. The motif of Deishi's work was an old huge cherry tree Usuzumi Sakura in Gifu Prefecture. The bright white glaze symbolises the cherry blossoms, the rough clay the bark of the tree. Shibuya used straw-ashes glaze for most of his work, which he studied for 30 years. The clay with blended rough sand is called Oni-Hagi.

Yunomi by Deishi Shibuya (歴史)

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Yunomi by Seigan Yamane

Most of my Hagi-yaki yunomi are made by Seigan Yamane. They hold between 200 ml and 250 ml to the rim and are the best size for daily tea. After a 15 year career in Karate (Yamane established a Karate school in 1974) he decided to pursue a life in pottery in 1987. In ceramic art the same principle holds: in vacuum alone motion becomes possible. Yamane: "Making pottery is a means to be vacuum rather than a way to express myself." This concept is taken from The Heart Sūtra. The sutra famously states, "Form is empty" (śūnyatā).

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Yuzamashi (water cooler)

Mogake is a technique consisting of applying seaweed on unglazed clay before firing. The salt from seaweed oxidizes with the clay during the firing and unique marks are made on the surfaces. Handmade by Hokujo, recognized as a Tokoname City Human Cultural Asset. Since I have an electric water cooker with temperature presets I don’t really need a water cooler anymore.

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Mizutama (polka dot) Dobin, 550 ml (2018)

Factory made ceramics but still pretty nice. The filter is also made of ceramics and therefore easy to clean. This size is too big for me, but for brewing cold green tea in the refrigerator in summer this dobin has the perfect size.

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Takasuke Shudei Kyusu Tokoname, Japan, 280 ml (2018)

One also needs a less expensive teapot for daily use. Perfect for lower priced sencha and a perfect match for my larger 200 ml yunomi. Although it is less expensive this kyusu is still a very nice piece of Tokoname-yaki.

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Tiger and Rooster tea caddy in style of Rinpa (琳派) school

Paper on aluminium.

San-namul (산나물)

Literally: mountain herbs & vegetables. Namul is a type of banchan made from herbs & vegetables. If wild greens are used the banchan becomes san-namul. The vegetables in namul can be fried, sautéed, fermented, dried, or steamed. A namul can also be made from seaweed or mushrooms.

Fresh mountain herbs & vegetables can be dried in summer so they can be consumed in wintertime. It takes quite some effort to make the dried vegetables edible again.

Preparing dried sannamul
Rinse in cold water and boil for one hour in plenty of water. Turn the heat off and let the vegetables sit in the water for another 3 hours. Drain and rinse in cold water. Soak the vegetables overnight and drain. The vegetables are now ready to be used.

Cut in bite sized pieces and mix with soy sauce and perilla seeds oil. Fry in oil until done.

Below are two dried sannamul in bought at the entrance of Taebaeksan National Park (태백산 국립공원). I have used these sannamul as toppings for bibimbap.

On the left: Cirsium setidens, also known as gondre and Korean thistle (곤드레).

The Harvest Month

October, for me, is the harvest month. My parents’ vegetable garden is long gone, but they still have a single apple tree in the front garden. These apples are perfect for appelmoes (apple sauce), I salvaged the apples which were not eaten by insects. My parents live in a region of The Netherlands called ‘Achterhoek’, which is predominantly agricultural.

Recipe for appelmoes: peel and cut the apples in small parts, boil them with half a cup of water and a little sugar, like 1 tablespoon, until they fall apart. I guess you can easily skip the sugar. I prefer to eat appelmoes cold with balkenbrij or captain’s dinner.

The basket is made of willow twigs according to an old tradition. Once a year or so I meet the artisan on a local market and buy one or two baskets. If you don’t get them too wet, they will last a very long time.

Neuer Wein

New wine in Germany. Once yeast has been added, the sugar contained in the grapes is broken down into alcohol and carbon dioxide (the proces is called glycolysis). If the alcohol percentage has reached around 4% the wine may be sold as Federweißer or Federroter, if the wine is made from red grapes. The fermenting proces doesn’t stop, that’s why you cannot bottle a Federweißer. The carbon dioxide might explode the bottle.

To enjoy Federweißer you have to visit the German wine growing regions in September and October. Many winery owners sell Federweißer directly from the winery. It is custom to eat Zwiebelkuchen alongside a Federweißer. Sometimes you will find a bottle of Federweißer but not corked. You have to transport the bottle home vertically and consume the wine in a couple of days.

I visited the Ahrtal the last weekend of September. From the last weekend of September until the last weekend of October there are festivities in the wine villages (think: live music, small stalls where you can drink wine, freshly backed waffels on the street, nothing major but cosy enough for an enjoyable weekend or day. I parked my car in Mayschoß for a short hike to Altenahr following the Ahrsteig and then back to Mayschoß on the other side of the Ahr following the Rotweinwanderweg. Despite the Federweißer, the wine region is known for its red wines. The leaves on the trees were still mostly green, towards the end of October this region will look spectacular when the autumn colours take over.

Wine village Mayschoß in the background.

Below is the view towards Altenahr and the tunnels. Before the boring of the tunnels in 1834 the path from Altenahr towards the Rhine could be reached by hiking up to the Weiße Kreuz. Even the dead had to be carried along this path therefore a white cross was erected to mark a resting place for the party carrying the dead body, or so the story goes. After the late 19th century the white cross became a land mark for tourists. Across the river you will find the Schwarze Kreuz (black cross) on an equally beautiful view point.

Federweißer and Zwiebelkuchen at the 11th century Burgruine Saffenburg. During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) the hill castle was destroyed and never rebuilt. Archbishop Joseph Clemens von Bayern of Kurköln made the mistake of choosing the side of Louis XIV of France at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession. Soon he had to fight off forces of the Grand Alliance. The French Chevalier de Lacroix occupied the hill castle in October 1702 and in May 1703 the French surrendered after General Sommerfeld pounded the castle with 12-pounder guns und two mortars. 70 bombs landed on the castle.

Drawing of the Burgruine Saffenburg by Renier Roidkin, first half of the 18th century.

You don’t have to travel to Bavaria to enjoy Spanferkelbraten an einer Malzbiersauce. Usually the other German regions are well represented in the rest of Germany. It is not unusual to find Bavarian dishes in Rheinland-Pfalz. Spanferkelbraten is a roast suckling pig. This one was served with Apfelrotkohl and Kartoffelknödels. I like these German dishes because they resemble traditional Dutch food: meat with gravy, well boiled vegetables and potatoes.

Vesper Lynd

A dry martini," [Bond] said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet."

"Oui, monsieur."

"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"

"Certainly, monsieur." The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

"Gosh, that's certainly a drink," said Leiter.

Bond laughed. "When I'm...er...concentrating," he explained, "I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name."

—Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, Chapter 7, "Rouge et Noir'

IBA specified
ingredients

• 6 cl gin

• 1.5 cl vodka

• 0.75 cl Lillet Blanc

Preparation: Shake over ice until well chilled, then strain into a deep goblet and garnish with a thin slice of lemon peel.

Timing: Before dinner

 “Above all, he liked that everything was one’s own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared. Bond saw luck as a woman, to be softly wooed or brutally ravaged, never pandered to or pursued. But he was honest enough to admit that he had never yet been made to suffer by cards or by women. One day, and he accepted the fact, he would be brought to his knees by love or by luck. When that happened he knew that he too would be branded with the deadly question-mark he recognized so often in others, the promise to pay before you have lost: the acceptance of fallibility.” 

 —Ian Fleming, Casino Royale. 

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Other gin based cocktails

If you have gin you can make below recipes with either: dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, Campari, lime juice or lime cordial. Lime , lemon or orange twist to serve.

Martini

The martini has evolved over the years. In 1922 a common ratio was 2 parts of gin and 1 part vermouth. Stir in a mixing glass with ice cubes and pour in a chilled cocktail glass. A dry martini is made with dry vermouth. As time went on the ratio gin to vermouth changed to 4:1 in the 1940s and to 6:1 or even more in the 20th century. Served: ‘up’.

IBA specified ingredients:

• 6 cl (6 parts) gin.

• 1 cl (1 parts) dry vermouth.

Preparation: Pour all ingredients into mixing glass with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain into chilled martini cocktail glass. Squeeze oil from lemon peel onto the drink.

Timing: Before dinner.
Glass: cocktail glass or (preferable) champagne coupe glass.

Gimlet

A Gimlet is not a cocktail with a fixed recipe. It contains gin and some sort of sweetened lime juice (homemade from water, sugar, lime juice and lime zest or Rose's Lime Juice). Over the years taste has changed from quite sweet to more of a gin based drink. Stir ingredients in a mixing glass with plenty of ice. Served: ‘up’.

A modern recipe:

• 6 cl gin

• 1 cl Rose's Lime Juice

• 1 cl fresh lime juice

From 1953:
Half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else.

From 1928:
Gin, a spot of lime, and soda.

Glass: champagne coupe glass or Nick and Nora glass.

Negroni

IBA specified ingredients:

• 3 cl gin

• 3 cl sweet red vermouth

• 3 cl campari

Preparation:
Stir into glass over ice, garnish and serve.

Timing: Aperitif.
Glass: Old Fashioned glass.

Gin and tonic

One part gin, 3 parts tonic water. On the rocks. Use as much ice as the glass will hold. Serve with a lemon twist. Depending on the gin many different garnishes are possible. James Bond ordered a double measure of gin and added the juice of a whole lime and “dropped the two squeezed halves into the long glass”.

Glass: Copa de Balon. Out of fashion: a highball glass.

Bugeoguk 북어국

This is such a simple, light and tasty soup. You need good quality wind-dried Alaska pollock, pre-shredded. I bought a packet in Korea, but sadly I just finished the whole packet. I'm sure this will be available outside Korea. The Korean name of the fish is myeongtae (명태).

Tear 60 grams of dried pollack into 6 cm long pieces (this just means halving the pre-shredded pollack) and fry these for a minute or so in a tablespoon of pure sesame oil with a couple of diced cloves of garlic.

Add 1,25 litter of water to the pan and Korean radish (mu 무) cut in bite sized pieces. Boil for 20 minutes until the radish is cooked. Add 2 tablespoons of Korean fish sauce, simmer for a couple of more minutes. Pour a beaten egg into the boiling soup and only stir after the egg has set. Turn off the heat and add fresh spring onion. Serve with white rice, which you can add to the soup halfway for a more substantial meal.

Bugeo (북어) – dried Alaska pollock

You can also make a somewhat similar soup with hwangtae, made by drying Alaska pollack during winter and allowing it to undergo natural freeze-thaw cycles.

Hwangtae (황태) – "yellow" Alaska pollock drying during winter with repeated freeze-thaw cycles. Photo shared under CC BY 2.5 licensing: http://blog.daum.net/sansanaiys/2935

The Italian menu

The concept of the Italian menu is well known. It gives you quite a freedom to choose. Secondi piatti is served without vegetables or potatoes, so you can choose which contorni (side dishes) you like. You can skip the antipasto and start with primi piatti, or you can jump from antipasto right to secondi piatti, or skip secondi piatti and order dulce right after primi piatti. The only rule seems to be is that you order caffè last.

If you travel and eat alone you're stuck with the house wine. A quarter liter for each meal was quite enough for me.

Antipasto

Ristocamping Gran Sasso. Antipasto della casa. €10,00.

La Taberna di Rocca Calascio. Caprese €7,00.

Primi piatti

Agriturismo Al Borgo Restaurant. Zuppa di lenticchie con crostini. €6,00.

La Taberna di Rocca Calascio. Lenticchia di Santo Stefano di Sessanio. €7,50.

Ristocamping Gran Sasso. Tagliatelle allo zafferano, pesto di pomodorini secchi, ricotta salata. €10,00.

Secondi piatti

Residence il Palazzo. Primo sale di Pecora e Verdure. Local raw sheeps cheese, melted and served with a spoon of honey. The grilled zucchini and eggplant was amazingly good. €10,00.

Agriturismo Al Borgo Restaurant. Agnello. Plain grilled lamb meat. €10,00.

Contorni

La Taberna di Rocca Calascio. Contorne di verdure: cicoria €4,00.

Dulce

Residence il Palazzo. La Pizza Dolce is a typical cake from Abruzzo, which used to be eaten only at weddings. This little spongy cake was amazing. Each layer had its own consistency from soaking wet (bottom layer) to dry. €4,00.

Insalata caprese

This antipasta dish is all what the Italian kitchens is about: a few high quality ingredients. This appetizer only works if the mozzarella is fresh and soft and the tomatoes ripe and fragrant.

Arrosticini

Arrosticini is a typical speciality of Abruzzo. It can either be made from mutton or lamb, with pieces of oval fat in between the meat. The long shaped brazier it is cooked on is called a canala. 

On the high grasslands of Campo Imperatore there is a butcher located, which not only sells arrosticini, local cheeses, marinated artichoke hearts and ice-cold beer but also provides plenty of canala to grill the arrosticini you just bought. I returned the next day to the same spot to do it all over again.

Lenticchia di Santo Stefano di Sessanio

Sono straordinariamente saporite e il modo migliore per apprezzarle è una zuppa molto semplice: bisogna coprirle con acqua e aggiungere spicchi d’aglio scamiciati, qualche foglia di alloro, sale, olio extravergine e portare quindi a leggera ebollizione, a pentola chiusa. [ Fondazione Slow Food per la Biodiversità Onlus ]

Lentil soup made from Lenticchia di Santo Stefano di Sessanio at Rocca Calascio.

Contorno verdure: cicoria. Boiled and sautéed in olive oil and a little salt.

Panzanella

When your left over bread is hard as rock, you can still turn it into a salad. Quarter ripe tomatoes and spoon out the seeds. Puree the seeds and inner part of the tomatoes with one or two cloves of garlic. Use the puree to make a dressing with red wine vinegar, olive oil, black peper and salt.

Cut the tomatoes in cubes or strips and mix everything together. You can add red onion, thinly cut. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Throw in fresh basil leaves and if you have left over black olives, you can also throw them in.

Chickpeas, chorizo picante & spinach

One of my favourite one-pan recipes. The only problem is that you need to find chorizo which can be used for cooking - buy fresh chorizo and not the dry-cured version. I buy my Spanish ingredients at Pacomer Traiteur, Gerard Doustraat 66 Amsterdam.

Other than finding the proper chorizo this dish is easy. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a pan and fry one onion. Add a cubed carrot, quartered tomato, thyme and bay leaf. Simmer for a few minutes. Add two chopped garlic cloves , quarter teaspoon cinnamon, a teaspoon smoked paprika and 200 gram of sliced chorizo. Fry until the chorizo releases its oils. Add cooked chickpeas, a tablespoon of (sherry) vinegar. Simmer for a couple of minutes and add 400 grams of spinach. Stir until the spinach has merged into the stew and taste for salt and black pepper.

Quick lunch at work.