Apeldoorn, 1: home cooking

Apeldoorn, Netherlands, Nov. 4, 2010—

DINNER AT HOME this evening: old-fashioned domestic Dutch cooking that Hans and Anneke do so well. Well, not entirely old-fashioned, because Hans always manages to find something a little exotic.

This time it was a pumpkin soup he made. He bought an organic pumpkin, washed it well, then cooked it in the oven before reducing it to a purée with a hand-held blender he favors. He flavored it with cumin, red pepper, and coriander, combining it with chicken stock, and let us top it with a dollop of good Greek yoghurt: delicous.

Anneke had made her echt Dutch version of sauerkraut: kraut from the organic grocery combined with chunks of gerookte worst, a mild smoked Frankfurter-type sausage, and topped with slices of canned pineapple, the whole baked in the oven, then held a few moments under the broiler. This is in fact a delicious dish, odd though it may sound to Mediterranean eaters.

Riesling, Pfaffenheim (Alsace), 2008

Earlier we'd contented ourselves with a ham-cheese tosti for lunch, at the excellent café Martins, downtown. Until they opened three or four years ago there was no really good coffee in this fairly large provincial city (~150,000); with their good espresso and pastries they managed soon to expand in a new location to a much more ambitious business.

Brasserie Martins, Paslaan 5, Apeldoorn; tel. 055-5213102