365things relaunch! What do YOU want to see?

Hello, and welcome back to you (and to me) to 365thingsIlearnedinmykitchen. I’ve had a nice break, and thanks to all of you who commented and sent mails over my sabbatical.

I’ve had a minor rethink of 365things over the past few months, and I came up with a couple of topics I’d like to focus on a bit more. One of these new areas is looking at sustainable and locally sourced food in Brabant Walloon and Brussels. I'm also going to look at healthier eating, or at least food that does you *more* good.

I’ll still be cooking and posting recipes here, hopefully reflecting my new year’s resolution (remember those?) to reduce the amount of sugar I eat.

So, what do you think? Is there anything that you would like to see more or less of? Do you think about where your food comes from or sustainability? Let me know in the comments! Thanks J

Kx

Finding, getting and delivering Irish food in Belgium

Here at 365things, I sometimes get a big goo on me for a bit of Irish food. I’ve done a quick search for mail order companies that deliver Irish goodies here to Belgium and the rest of Europe. Most of these are English companies, but they have some Irish products, or at least familiar ones, in their range. If you’re planning a St Patrick’s Day shindig, order early to make sure you get it in time. One big thing to remember: I have not ordered from all of these companies, so I cannot comment on how reliable they are, so caveat emptor.

You can find some Irish and British products in some of the larger supermarkets in Brussels and in the areas where a lot of us live, like Waterloo and Tervuren. You can also go to Stone Manor, who have shops in Waterloo and Everberg. They have some St Patrick’s Day dressing up goodies for the kids (or yourself).

If you’re not able to get to these shops or if there is something you particularly want but cannot find, check out www.justlikehome.ie, who deliver all over the world. They provide hampers, usually with Tayto crisps, Cadbury chocolates, Barry’s tea, Jacob’s biscuits or Ballymaloe relish. There are special hampers for St Patrick’s Day and Easter. Another site, www.youririshshop.com, only delivers to the UK.

These websites are more for British products: www.britsuperstore.com and www.britishcornershop.co.uk but they also deliver direct to your door.

If you want one specific product and not a week’s grocery shopping, you can buy directly from your favourite brands.

Starting off with savoury stuff, naturally, fresh products are not available on-line. If you happen to be reading this from the UK, or if you have friends or family living there and who are coming over to Belgium soon, you can get Clonakilty pudding, sausages and bacon delivered to them. I checked out Kerry foods (Denny’s, Galtee, Low Low…) and, as have a lot of fresh products, they don’t have an on-line shop. Try Jack O'Shea's butchers on Rue Franklin in Brussels for a great selection of fresh and preserved Irish food, from sausages to cheese to brown bread to sauces and chutneys, including Ballymaloe relish. 

For chocolate lovers, Cadbury’s also have an on-line shop that delivers, but only to the UK. However, Lily O’Brien’s (www.lilyobriens.ie) deliver their goodies to the rest of the world, for a price. Those purveyors of happiness (their words, not mine), Butlers, also deliver, also for a price (www.butlerschocolates.com). Tayto sell on-line and deliver to your door (www.taytocrisps.ie).

Barry’s tea have an on-line shop and they post the tea to you: www.barrysteashop.ie. I had a look at the Lyons (www.lyonstea.ie) but there is no on-line shop. I also searched for TK’s red lemonade on-line, and there is one place that sells this outside Ireland, but delivery is only to the UK: www.theirishshop.co.uk.

You could always try making your own brown bread – the recipe I use is here. I know opinion is divided, but I love coddle, so if you fancy giving this easy dish a go, you could try this recipe.

Is there any particular Irish food that you miss? Have you found it easier to find Irish products in the last few years, especially compared say with 10 years ago? What do you ask visitors to bring over to you when they come? Is there anything that you have to sample when you go to Ireland? For me, it’s a simple sandwich… there is something about how sandwiches are made in Ireland that nowhere else is able to replicate. I think it has something to do with the bread. Hubs always gets a proper triple-decker club sandwich with chips or crisps when we go to Ireland. Mmmm – I’m hungry now for a white bread sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce… with turkey, and maybe a bit of melted brie… and a little salad… with crisps on the side... 

First, catch your kangaroo

Many thanks to all of you who voted in 365things first ever poll. The resounding winner of what I should cook this week was something Australian. I did a quick google search for Australian food. It’s pretty much food from all over the world, recognising the multicultural nature of the country. So, I turned to Hubs and in exasperation asked “what’s Australian?” “Kangaroo!” he said with a smile. Right. Thanks hun...

So where do you get kangaroo in Belgium? Someone told me you can get it in the GB at Pl Jourdan. That is completely off my route, so I tried the Carrefour in Waterloo (Mt St Jean).  I asked with the friendly butcher behind the counter if they had any, which resulted in the typical type of conversation I frequently have with salespeople in this country:

Me: est ce que vous avez du kangourou?

Butcher: huh?

Me: est ce que vous avez du kangourou?

Butcher: du quoi?

Me: c’est un grand animal qui vient d'Australie, et qui saute (hand gestures to indicate jumping).

Butcher: de l’autruche?

Me: kan-gou-rou !!!

Butcher: ah, kangourou! Oui, bien sur!

So, kangaroo ‘caught’. To save you the embarrassment of repeating this conversation in your local supermarket, here’s a photo of what pre-packaged kangaroo looks like. In the local store, it's kept in the fridge with poultry. Incidentally, there was also some ostrich there too. 

Kangaroo, as for sale in your  local Carrefour. Possibly. 

Fun fact: in researching kangaroo I found out that Australians don’t eat a lot of kangaroo. In fact, Belgians eat more than the Aussies do.

But back to the kitchen… Roo is very low in fat, so according to all the reading I did, you only need to cook it for a very short time, and it’s best eaten medium rare. I thought I’d cook it like a steak – pan fried for a short time. I did about 8-9 minutes in total on a hot pan. Everything I read said that you should let the meat rest well after cooking.

I made a sauce in the pan while the meat was resting, with a little red wine (about a glass) and a teaspoon each of onion jam and fig jam. I also boiled a few potatoes and served some mange tout on the side.

Verdit? I thought it was quite good. I certainly would eat it again, and would buy it if it were on offer in the local shop – I think I paid about €4 for around 200g. Its tasty and low in fat. It has a strong taste however, kind of like venison and with an iron tang. Hubs thought it was good, if a little too strong tasting for him.

As I am cooking today to celebrate Australian Anzac day, I cannot fail to mention Anzac cookies. I found loads of recipes for these, and they are very similar to the chewy cranberry oatmeal cookies I regularly make. As I’ve already blogged about them and make them regularly, I decided not to make them again this week. If you fancy some yummy treats (and you could argue that they are good for you will all those uber-healthy oats in them!), you can find my recipe here.

I’ve written three posts on grocery shopping in Belgium (on-line and in real shops) and what to do with some of the goodies you can find here that you cannot find in supermarkets at home (boar and venison).

Try, try and try again – brown bread

Since I moved to Brussels ten years ago, I have been trying to make brown bread successfully. I have tried hundreds* of recipes, tried all the different types of brown flours I can find here (complet, 7 cereals, 6 cereals, gris, Soubry, Delhaize, Carrefour and a combination of these) but to no avail. Until yesterday. I tried The One Thing I had never ever done. I used the Belgian equivalent of buttermilk: lait battu. And this morning I tucked into delicious homemade brown bread for breakfast. Result!

Brown soda bread. ***so proud***

Now for the science: why can’t you use normal milk? First we’ve to start with what buttermilk is. Buttermilk is what is left over when you’re making butter out of cream. Courtesy of Wikipedia: “The tartness of buttermilk is due to acid in the milk. The increased acidity is primarily due to lactic acid produced by lactic acid bacteria while fermenting lactose, the primary sugar in milk. As the bacteria produces lactic acid, the pH of the milk decreases and casein, the primary milk protein, precipitates, causing the curdling or clabbering of milk. This process makes buttermilk thicker than normal milk”. Mmmm! Fermented milk. Sounds ... eh ... yummy. But this is what makes the magic – the bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda) is alkaline, and when mixed with acidic ingredients (such as buttermilk), it reacts and releases bubbles of carbon dioxide.  These bubbles help baked goods rise. Wow. Who said science is boring?

So, if you pine for some brown bread, just like you get in Ireland, this is the recipe I used, from Ballymaloe, for brown soda bread.

600g brown wholemeal flour (I used Soubry farine pour pain complet)

600g plain white flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

850ml buttermilk

You need to put bread into a hot oven, so pop the oven on now to 230°. I heard that you should really have everything as hot as possible, so if you’re going to use a dish, pop this in too. If you’re going to do a free-form bread, keep the baking tray in there to warm up. I didn’t, and the bread turned out fine.

So, mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (large bowl – seriously, this stuff get everywhere, so you’ll need something that will contain it as best it can).

Pour in the buttermilk and mix with a fork or spoon. If it’s a bit dry, add a bit more milk.

Sprinkle a little flour on your counter top and turn the dough onto the board. Bring it together with your hands. Seriously, the less you touch this the better, so less is more here.

I divided the mixture in two at this stage and made two cakes of bread. One went into a cake tin (sprinkle the bottom of it with some flour to stop it from sticking) and the other went onto a baking sheet (again, sprinkled with some flour).

Cut a deep cross into the bread and pop it into the oven for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 200° for another 20-25 minutes. Test it’s cooked by knocking on the bottom – if it sounds hollow it’s done. Cool on a wire rack. Resist the temptation to cut it open immediately. 

You can get lait battu in the Delhaize at Pl Luxembourg and the Carrefour at Dreve de Richelle in Waterloo. There are surely more places, so let me know if it’s in your local supermarket – 365thingsIlearnedinmykitchen@gmail.com.

Photos are in the camera - I'll post these and the photos to lots more stuff asap.

*ok, slight exaggeration. Maybe I tried three recipes. But I have tried all the different possibilities concerning the flours, so I've made brown bread about 20 times here.