Brabantse worstenbroodjes (Sausage Rolls from Brabant)

Brabant is a large province in the south of the Netherlands, forming the border with Belgium. One of the specialities in Brabant is sausage roll. In Dutch: worstenbroodje.
It can be made very easily in an Aga and it is a perfect warm lunch!

Ingredients (dough):
- 250 g flour
- 6 g dry yeast
- 7 g salt
- 10 g sugar
- 20 g soft butter
- 200 g lukewarm milk

Mix the ingredients and form a nice, soft dough (perhaps you don't need all the milk, when the dough turns too wet you can add some extra flour). Knead the dough for at least 15 minutes and let it proof at a warm place for an hour or so, until doubled in size. The warming plate of the Aga is a perfect place for this (cover the dough with plastic and place it on a rack).

Ingredients (sausages):
- 350 g minced meat (half beef/half pork)
- 3 g ground black pepper
- 7 g spice mix
- 8 g bread crumbs
- 8 teaspoons tomato paste

Mix the ground meat with the other ingredients and form 12 sausages, about 15 cms long.
Divide the dough in 12 equal parts, about 40 grams each. Roll them out and to a rectangle.
Wrap the individual meat sausages into the dough and pinch the edges to make sure the meat is sealed.

Place each sausage roll on parchment paper on a baking sheet. Cover with plastic and let proof for forty minutes to an hour. Mix an egg with a little water and brush the sausage rolls with the egg wash. Bake them half high in the roasting oven for about 20 minutes.

Melitzanes Moussaka (Greek Eggplant Casserole)

This traditional Greek dish takes some time to prepare, but the result is always worth the labor. The combination of eggplant, tomatoes, minced beef (or lamb) under a thick layer of béchamel sauce will make your mouth water! Actually, the main reason why I baked this casserole is the abundant crop that the six eggplants in my vegetable garden produce this summer. The recipe comes from an old booklet which I bought when I worked in Greece in the eighties: The Best Book about Greek Cooking by Chrissa Paradissis.

Moussaka consists of three elements: layers of eggplant, a meat sauce and a béchamel sauce.

Ingredients:
- 1250 g eggplant

- 1 large onion diced
- 750 g ground beef
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 3 large tomatoes (diced)
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- half a teaspoon cinnamon
- a bunch of parsley, chopped
- some olive oil
- a small glass white wine
- salt and pepper

- 100 g butter
- 100 g flour
- 875 ml milk
- some nutmeg
- 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
- 150 g grated cheese
- salt and pepper

Method:
Cut the eggplant into 1-2 cms thick rounds, sprinkle them with salt and let sit in a colander for an hour. Rinse well, pat dry and place the rounds on a baking plate, which is greased with some olive oil. Brush the top sides with olive oil. Roast the eggplant in the baking oven until golden (about half an hour),

Saute the diced onion in a pan with some olive oil for a few minutes on the boiling plate, add the (sliced) garlic and let saute on the simmering plate until the onions are tender. Add the ground beef (or lamb), transfer the pan to the boiling plate and brown, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the paste, the sugar, cinnamon and white wine. Bring to a boil and add pepper and salt to taste. Add the parsley and put a lid on the pan. Transfer to the boiling for half an hour.

In the meanwhile, make the béchamel by melting the butter in a pan on the simmering plate, whisk in the flour and let it fry for a few minutes, stirring well. Ad some milk and keep stirring. Bring to a boil and add more milk, constantly stirring, until all the milk is added. Let the sauce boil very slowly for a few minutes. Take the pan from the simmering plate and whisk in half of the grated cheese and the nutmeg. Bring to taste with pepper and salt. Lightly beat the egg and the yoke, but do not add it to the béchamel yet.

Place one layer of eggplant in a 20 x 30 cms pan (greased with some olive oil), add the meat sauce and cover it with the second layer of eggplant. Now whisk in the beaten egg into the béchamel sauce and spread it over the second eggplant layer. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Place the moussaka in the baking oven for an hour or more, until beautiful and gold.
Let it stand 10 minutes before serving.
Kali Orexi!

Klik hier om het recept van moussaka in het Nederlands te lezen.

Buttery Sourdough Buns

I explained before that in my opinion bread consists of only four ingredients: flour, water, salt and (some) yeast. But these soft dinner rolls are so tasteful that I sometimes abandon my principles. This American recipe I found on the website of King Arthur Flour and I adjusted it to make it Aga-proof (and changed the cups and spoons into grams). Thanks to my artistic friends Ellen van Eldik and Dorian Hiethaar for photographing my bread on the colorful arranged dinner table above.

Ingredients:
- 400 g flour
- 40 g sourdough starter
- 6 g dry yeast
- 15 g sugar
- 1 large egg
- 70 g soft butter
- 6 g salt
- 160 g lukewarm water
- 50 g soft butter for topping

Combine all of the dough ingredients in a large bowl and mix and knead to make a soft, smooth dough. It takes 15 minutes kneading at least. Cover the bowl (I use a transparent plastic dust bin liner for this) and let the dough rise on a warm place until doubled in size (this takes 1 1/2 tot 2 hours). The best place for proofing dough is on a rack on the warming plate of an Aga!
Gently deflate the dough and transfer it to a lightly floured work surface.
Roll and pat the dough into a rough rectangle approximately 30 x 40 cms. Spread half of the soft butter over the dough and roll it into a log, starting with a long side.
Cut the log in 16 slices (2,5 cms), using a sharp knife. Lightly grease two 20 to 24 cms round cake pans and arange 8 buns in each pan.

Cover the pans and let the buns rise for an hour, until they are noticeably puffy.

Uncover the pans and brush each bun with some butter (use half of the remaining butter for this).
Bake the buns for about half an hour on a rack high in the baking oven (spray some water on the flour of the oven after 2 minutes baking).
Remove the buns from the oven and turn them out of the pan onto a rack. Brush with the remaining soft butter. Serve hot or warm.

Rhubarb tart

The rhubarb in our vegetable garden is growing fast now: time to bake a delicious rhubarb tart! This is my favorite recipe.

Ingredients:
- 750 g rhubarb (cleaned and cut in small pieces)
- 15 g vanilla sugar
- 3 tablespoons custard powder
- 30 g sugar
- 100 g raisins

For the dough:
- 150 g sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 150 g soft butter
- 3 eggs
- 150 g self raising flour
- some salt

Mix the rhubarb, sugar, custard, raisins and vanilla sugar. Prepare the dough by mixing sugar, butter, zest and salt. Mix the eggs in, one at a time. Add the flour at the end and put the dough in a 24 cm spring form pan (greased and floured) and line bottom and sides. Fill the pan with the rhubarb mixture. Bake in the baking oven for almost one and a half hour.