A homemade, edible gift is a kind of declaration of love

Question: what are the best gifts? Now if you say homemade gifts, I count that as a good idea. If you say: gifts you can eat, we are completely on the same page. But do you know what the best gifts are? Homemade gifts that you can eat (or drink).

When I recently hosted a book party, several friends and colleagues brought such gifts. Pastry chef Cees Holtkamp gave me a bottle of eggnog. “I use Amsterdam jenever these days,” he whispered in my ear. The eggnog was so tasty that the bottle was empty within a week; Every evening after dinner, my cutest glasses and my bone spoons, specially reserved for soft-boiled eggs and these types of delicacies, arrived on the table. It felt like a secret pleasure.

Television chef, podcast maker and cookbook author Jigal Krant gave me a jar of za’atar that he had picked with his own hands near Nazareth.

Food stylist Ingmar Niezen gave me two chocolate bars and a bag of cocoa beans in a coating of caramelized, slightly salted sugar. Together with her husband Kinito, she runs a most charming chocolate shop and factory in Zaandijk.

So that makes me very happy. Homemade food gifts say: I appreciate you enough to roll up my sleeves for you, get to work in the kitchen with pans and knives and graters and then do the dishes, just to let you enjoy the result . They also say: this is my taste, and I like you so much that I hope you share that taste with me, so here, taste it, and let me know if I rightly feel we have a connection. Giving someone a homemade food gift is actually a kind of declaration of love. Well, let me not get too lyrical, in any case it is a clear token of appreciation.

In my kitchen, somewhere at the bottom of a cupboard, there is a crate with all kinds of preserves that I eagerly distribute to people I love, but which I also sometimes take with me to appointments with people I don’t know yet. Homemade food gifts can also be a good icebreaker. Exchanged between strangers they say: we may not know each other yet, but I have enough confidence in the success of this meeting that I have already tried to assess your taste and would like to please you with this jar of homemade piccalilly/vegetable pickles/barbecue sauce /berry jam/plum chutney/kimchi, these hand-fried chocolates or freshly baked filled gingerbread.

Now that we are talking about homemade food gifts and cooking from cookbooks all month long, it is perfect that a delicious canning book has recently been published by Simone van Thull: the Canning and fermenting bible. It is a book from which, in all seriousness, I would like to try every one of the roughly two hundred recipes. But I started with Thulls rose harissa, a delightfully fragrant and spicy stuff that makes a perfect December gift for, well, whoever you want to show your appreciation.

Rose harissa

For approximately 500 g:

120 g pul biber (mild chili flakes); 300-400 ml boiling water; 5 cloves of garlic; 15 g coriander seeds; 10 g caraway seeds; 2-3 tbsp dried rose buds or a dash of rose water; 2 tbsp cider vinegar; 20 g sweet paprika powder; pinch of cinnamon; olive oil to pour over the pasta in the pot (only if you are not preserving the harissa)

Also needed: sterilized glass jar with screw lid, with a capacity of 500-550 ml (or several small jars)

Do the pul biber in a bowl and cover the chili flakes with boiling water, up to about 1 cm above it. Immediately cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 30 minutes. The chili flakes will completely absorb the moisture and swell.

Meal Meanwhile, in a food processor, add the garlic, coriander seeds, caraway seeds and rose buds (if using). Run the machine and add the cider vinegar, paprika powder and cinnamon. Do you use rose water instead of rose petals?

Then add it now. Also add the soaked pul biber. Turn briefly until you have a nice, not too fine paste. Add some extra water if necessary. The consistency should be quite firm, not that of ketchup.

Divide the paste over the pot(s) and press firmly while filling. In between, tap the jar(s) on a towel or oven mitt on the counter to get as much air out as possible. Fill the jar all the way to the bottom edge.

Swipe clean the edges with paper towels. Now either pour some olive oil over the harissa, so that it is completely submerged – this way the harissa is sealed off from oxygen and cannot mold – and then screw on the lid(s). Or preserve the jar(s) to preserve it for longer.

Leave the flavors develop for at least 24 hours. Unwrapped harissa can be stored in the refrigerator for about 2 months. You can keep a jar of preserved harissa out of the refrigerator for at least a year, but once opened it must be kept in the refrigerator and consumed within about 2 months.

This is how you wake up:

Bring Bring plenty of water to the boil in a high, thick-bottomed pan. Place a rack at the bottom of the pan or place a tea towel on the bottom, so that the pot(s) do not directly touch the bottom. Check whether you have tightened the lid(s) properly.

Business suit each filled jar with glass tongs – according to Simone van Thull this is an indispensable tool for canning, but for me it also worked fine with regular cooking tongs – and lower it into the water. The pot(s) must be upright and completely submerged in water.

Guard until the water boils again, then turn the heat down and soak the harissa for 15 minutes. Take the pot(s) out of the pan again with the (glass) tongs and place them on a tea towel. Allow to cool completely.

Check whether the lid is properly tightened. Is that the case? Then it went well. If you can still press the lid, the jar does not have sufficient vacuum and the harissa must still be stored in the refrigerator.

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