Belgiubilee? Y Ecuador, si!

Belgian month is over. Or it will be tomorrow. In a way it's a relief - next month is Mexican, so lots of sour, sweet, fresh, herby flavours and a lot less boiling potatoes for yet more mash. I have just retired two extremely fragementary ends of nutmegs and washed up the nutmeg grater - it has recently sat next to the pepper mill as Just Another Seasoning that goes in everything. 

But I shall miss Belgian month too. It's good for seasonal eating at this time, and it's also a blissfully solid experience. Nothing has been imported unless it's a short hop across the channel for some seafood. Remembering that stuff like black pepper and parsley has a flavour is really pleasing. You know you've cooked and eaten, but the faffery is greatly reduced over some more precise and finicky cuisines (I've just done Japanese and French; the vibe is very different). I've cooked some dinner-party-style dishes and they've always been 10-20 minutes of cooking with little stress. Which feels nice, at a time when stress is ramping up in a number of non-kitchen directions. 

(This is the non-veggie end of the month, so be warned, there's a fair amount of flesh in what follows.)

This is a proper starter but it's quick and easy, if not cheap, and cheered up a glum Monday: seafood-stuffed tomatoes. Simply hollow out some tasty toms, salt the inside and drain for a few minutes. Then mix your seafood with some mayonnaise and season with black pepper. I did a pot of crab meat in one, and found grey shrimps for my other meal. You can obviously mayo according to conscience - easier with crab which makes its own sauce. But some mayo is vital, for Belgianity. These go well with rice if you're not having multiple courses for some godforsaken reason.

Then a reduced version of a magnificent one-pot midweek roast - not fancy enough really for a posh centrepiece but bloody tasty. If you're doing the full thing, roast a chicken with bacon under the breast, and smoked paprika on the skin. Give it about 40 minutes (unless it's unusually massive), then set it on top of a mix of roughly chopped onion, potato and cooking apple, mixed with a smidge of oil, salt, pepper and thyme. Pour a little stock into the bottom of the roasting tin. Then cook about another 40-45 minutes. It produces the most splendid but ugly cooked down veg - loads of roasting flavour. 

I just did thighs on top from raw for the 40 minutes along with the veg, and it all worked well enough. Didn't bother with bacon, did do the paprika which adds a smoky tinge. Even the leftovers were delicious which isn't always the case with roasted veg.

Belgian basics can work really well. I overreached myself after a site visit, trying all at once to answer emails for job #2, bath to get train ugh off me (wearing masks for all my long-distance journeys still, which means I now have delicious nose acne, but it feels sensible), make dinner and also start cooking soup for the next day when I had only a short lunch window. Cooked chopped potato with spinach for what was meant to be about 15 minutes and turned into about 40 while I was distracted. Very much not a richly verdant appetizer. 

But a bit of heavy seasoning with pepper and nutmeg (and it was at least beet spinach which has a bit more welly) and it was perfectly useful as a soup base. Served with sorrel and a splodge of creme fraiche stirred through - ideal, except for having to neck it before a load of Teams meetings, and then realising I probably had spinach teeth.

A properly Belgian salad - Liegoise, which I've often made before all this and will continue on rotation. It is delicious, and not terribly vitaminny. You want cooked new potato and green beans, still warm. Cook off some bacon bits and pour the lot, fat included, over your spuds and beans. Then deglaze the pan with your choice of tasty vinegar, pour that on, and that'll be your dressing. Sprinkle a bit of spring onion and parsley, done. Eat while it's warm.

 

(Well. It turns out I didn't have any green beans, doesn't it? Randomly bunging courgette in instead wasn't perfect, but it's a good, good model for warm salad. The bacony-vinegary dressing makes you snarf it down delightedly.)

The next three are all "could serve at an old-school fancy dinner party but took me 10 minutes tops" faves. 

Chicken supremes with herb sauce and asparagus - worked till 7.15pm, was eating dinner at 7.45, spuds included.

Chicken liver pate - literally made on my tea break. You poach livers in white wine for 3-4 minutes then blend with butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper and a splash of port or similar (Marsala here, randomly). Pour into a bowl and refrigerate.Splash of olive oil on top if you want to keep it a few days. Part of this was leftover for last night when I staggered in at 8.55pm off another long-distance train, and it was *very* welcome on toast. 

Waterzooi with scallops - waterzooi is a classic stew in Belgium, and can be with chicken or fish. I was really surprised how quick this was, because there's no cooking anything down. Sweat off some sliced leek, carrot, garlic, celery but only for 5 minutes, then pour on some white wine and cook 5 minutes, then mix in cream and cook another 5 minutes. Then scallops, all of 3 minutes for those. I'd always assumed it was a total ballache to make but it tasted Proper. (

Yes that's more mash. I have eaten so much mash this month and I have no regrets. Nutmeg it well.)

And one final recipe this jubilee - a proper Belgian feast, with beer, which again was less faff than I'd thought. Pork chops with mushroom and beer sauce. 

Cook your chops (call it 4 mins a side for a chunky one like this, from the market and as happy as it can be), and season them. Keep warm while you do the rest. 

Put a little chopped shallot or spring onion in the pan and cook briefly, then add chunky mushrooms and plenty of beer. Wheat beer, it turns out, when I checked the recipe (I got Duvel, which is excellent stuff but a) hella strong and b) not something I like to drink). Oh well. Cook that lot about 10 minutes. 

Duvel is also (c) FIZZY

Then swirl in some cream, and cook another 10 minutes till it's rich and savoury.

Like I say, you know you've eaten. Nutmeggy mash, more random courgettes, quite a plate for a jolly bank holiday. I admit Mexican month will be more photogenic, and I'll be assembling more, cooking a bit less which is good for June. But it's been a fun time. I continue to say Belgian is a Good Cuisine.

(PS There was a bit of an Ecuadorean detour a couple of weeks back. Migrateful, as before. I really enjoyed this one. 

 

Was a bit worried about making ceviche as I don't have one of those mythical super-fresh fishmongers, but Waitrose's raw prawns responded well to being lightly poached with garlic and cumin rather than just raw.

And I almost managed to turn a tortilla neatly. Interesting they don't cook any of the veg first, just hurl onion, pepper, spinach, coriander, courgette etc in with the egg and give it 5 minutes a side. It was good, so long as you look at it this way up...

And as to brains? I'm sort of okay. Worried less about covid than about various other things in the news which directly affect me, unfortunately. Resuming a full assessment round, but spreading out the visits in case I get the lurgy is sensible, and in any case I'm wiped out by the physicality of site visits now. But it means six weeks of tired instead of my usual 3-4 weeks of absolutely exhausted. And the dance of mask/no mask, handshake/no handshake, who is comfortable/not, who has covid and when did you see them last? Remains very much on my mind. 

I was doing a small job #3 today, external examining, and talking to students whose studies weren't as poleaxed as 2020-21 but have still been plenty disturbed. The omicron scare really isn't that long ago - I would have been in Dublin for this, if not for that. Snapping back to normal isn't possible for all of us, and is tiring even when we do. It's good to remember that.