While many people are eagerly awaiting the start of spring, culinary journalist Janneke Vreugdenhil is still in the winter mood. Over the years she regularly wrote recipes that are not out of place during a winter sports holiday or after a winter walk. NRC list them in this guide.
France
1 Tartiflette from the Alps
When Janneke worked as an au pair in the French Alps and, against her employer’s promise, didn’t get to ski herself, it was hoped for another bright spot. And that came. In the form of the Burgundian cooking habits of the couple she lived with. She gained almost three kilos in six days and attributes that to one thing: tartiflette. A casserole of potatoes, bacon, onions, cream and full-fat local mountain cheese.
Janneke will give one piece of advice with this recipe for the tartiflette: eat a green salad for that much-needed balance.
2gratin Savoyard
A classic in French (winter) cuisine is the gratin Savoiard. Unlike the much more famous gratin Dauphinois, this gratin is made by using broth instead of cream. That makes the casserole a bit lighter in taste, but it is also hearty food for a day in the mountains. Here too: a green salad is a welcome side dish.
Janneke tells about the origin of her recipe for the potato gratin the special type of cheese Reblochon.
Switzerland
3 Classic Cheesefondue
A good cheese fondue should not be missed during winter sports. Janneke reveals the basis of a good cheese fondue: use two or three types of not too young, but also not too old cheese for a balanced taste. If the white wine that goes through it has enough acidity, the cheese will melt more easily. And finally: don’t panic at the first signs of ball formation. Add a drop of lemon juice and a cornstarch paste and the fondue is saved.
Jane finds one classic Swiss fondue with Emmenthaler and Gruyère still the best.
Germany
4 German Kräuterquark
When Janneke helped her youngest son prepare for his German test in 2019, she had a taste for it. Coincidentally, she got the German cookbook that week Strudel + Knödel sent and so it happened: time for a typical German sandwich filling.
With low-fat quark, this dish quickly becomes a reformatory porridge. The secret of a tasty Kräuterquark is fatty quark as a base.
Austria
5 Spaetzle from the mountains
It is well known that mountain air makes you hungry. Years ago, Janneke wrote out the ideal snack for this: Spätzle. Small dough worms, which are first boiled and then often baked. There are Spätzle with cheese through the dough (Käse Spätzle), with finely ground liver through it (Leber Spätzle) and Spätzle that turn green through the green herbs. They function as a side dish, but can also be eaten au gratin with cheese as an oven dish.
Janneke gives at least the basic recipe for Spätzle, where you can put your own spin on it.
6 Tyrolean speck dumpling
Janneke stays with the Tyrolean bacon for the last recipe in this list. She makes poached bread balls with it. To do this, mix finely chopped Tyrolean bacon with pieces of stale bread, an egg, some flour and some herbs, and roll into balls. Then cook them for about fifteen minutes and you have a savory filling for a broth or a salad.
If you can’t get your hands on Tyrolean bacon, thicker sliced Schwarzwalder Schinken or Ardennerham also tastes great.
Italy
7 Tyrolean ribbon paste
Attached to the book Giovanna’s belly button by Ernest van der Kwast, Janneke imagines herself in South Tyrol. A beautiful region, which hangs between Austrian history and the Italian present. She puts on the table a melancholy dish from the region: ribbon pasta with Tyrolean bacon, cream and chanterelles.
Tyrolean bacon is one real seasoning in this classic dish.