My four day introduction to Amsterdam in April, where I reunited with friends from the New York days, had me in complete awe. The canals, the bikes, the tilted homes all squished together, the streets of brick. It seemed like humanity had been reckless in not having, some time ago, named the whole city a United Nations World Heritage Site to be cordoned off and experienced only by advanced purchase tickets of self-guided audio-tours narrated by Patrick Stewart and Jane Fonda. But instead people walk around, go to work, buy coffee and ride trams. Like it’s no big deal.
While I was captivated by the physical city and its physical history, I wouldn’t be writing this today if I hadn’t also taken notice of the food – made possible by my cohort of willing and eager companions and my unwavering ability to sit at canal-side cafés.
On my first night in town, Suzanne showed me the canal-free neighbourhood of De Pijp which I admired through the rain drops from the back-rack of a Dutch 3-speed. To add to the Dutchness of the evening, I wore the dress that I had bought that day in the charming neighbourhood of Jordaan which was made in the Philippines. When we settled in for our pre-dinner drink, we ordered the quintessential Dutch bar snacks: bitterballen and kastengel.
Bitterballen are what I would describe as orbs of deep fried roux specked with flakes of you-name-it-but-probably fish. I say that because if I had to choose one steadfast constant in Dutch cuisine it would be fish; during my four day communion with the city, I managed, without trying too hard or really at all to eat cured whole herring on a bridge over a canal just like that lady in that photo below, slices of that same herring with bread-and-butter pickles and diced onions - photo visual provided in case this is conceptually hard to grasp, battered deep fried pellets of cod, grilled whole fish, fish in sauce and apple pie. You may think that I have drawn a contrived conclusion from a series of uncanny coincidences and perhaps you’re right. After all, I did eat bitterballen again at a canal-side café with Annika, Jay, Maria and Nanna and that time some of the balls were infused with Gouda.
Which leads me to Kastengel: I don’t remembering eating kastengel that night but I know that I did thanks to my food journal. Kastengel are probably one of the only fish-free items on any Dutch menu (not really!) and are, well, cheese sticks made from Gouda. At the risk of asserting yet another unempirical claim, Gouda seems to be the national pride of the Netherlands. The Netherlands has, and successfully so, built a tourism industry around that cheese. There is even an airport shop almost exclusively dedicated to its sale.
So there you have it: fish or cheese. I went with cheese.
The kastengel recipe I found online gave all measurements in grams. Still no food-scale-the-wiser, I used a suspect online conversion program which I’m starting to think is really just a bunch of teenaged programmers trying to ruin people’s food.
Did the conversion work? That depends on your outlook on life. The biscuits turned out to be savoury shortbread. With no memory of eating them, I have no idea if they were supposed to be. Also, they became very crumbly when left on the counter. I don't know if I can blame this on the conversion programme or not. But it didn't really matter; they tasted great and did remind me of a beautiful place and a great trip.
Kastengel
http://www.food.com/recipe/kaastengels-cheese-shortbread-276847
Ingredients
• 125 g salted butter = between ½ and 2/3 cup of a cup.
• 2 egg yolks
• 25 g cornstarch (1/4 cup?)
• 150 g all-purpose flour (1 and ¼ cups?)
• 100 g grated matured edam or gouda cheese (1/2 cup)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• For garnish:
• 50 g grated cheddar cheese
• 1 egg yolk
Directions
• Mix butter and egg yolks with a mixer then add the grated Gouda or edam.
• add the flour, cornstarch and baking powder.
• Roll the dough and cut into small rectangles about 1x3 cm.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F and place rectangles onto grease trays.
• Brush each one with the egg yolk and sprinkle with grated cheddar.
• Bake until done about 15 minutes.
