Oh, slavinken You attest to the fact that, if you wrap anything in bacon, it becomes fantastic. And, you stopped my weight-loss in it's tracks. Classic love/hate. Here, let me demonstrate how much I need to practice food photography:
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| Salvinken |
It has been an interesting few months here in Amsterdam, complete with highs, lows, many visitors, great loss, a few wins, not-quite-as-many harring en broodje, a bunch of photography, financial terror, insomnia, some mounting of pictures on foam-core by hand, some remarkable heat, and some remarkable cold. Rain. There has not been enough writing, no studying of Dutch. I traveled to Hardinxveld and walked about that quaint, quiet town and did a decent shoot there.
In this episode's one-thing-leads-to-another story, the first two weeks of August were hot - 30+/ here with a ton of humidity. No AC here except in a few stores. You cool your place by a cross-breeze from front to back. Also, there are no screen doors. And, in my first floor shop, the windows don't open, so it is the doors. So, the insect population explodes, and invades the nice, shady indoors, mostly from the courtyards that are enclosed by every block, filled with greenery, short trees, detritus, because the street-level shops often don't use the street-level courtyards.
This apparently leads to a massive, consistent, persistent, apparently delighted spider population, small, large, huge webs, with whom one must form a sort of détente: they get as many of the bugs as they can, and you keep the walls clean but try not to, er, bug them too much in the corners so they can do their job. I'd like to think I'm taking after my sister the Buddhist when I occasionally move them outside when guests come by.
Then, in the middle of August, the temperature dropped to what Americans call 65°, and has pretty much stayed there - some rain, some sun, many clouds, some hope that I've chosen a good place to avoid global warming. All I need is a boat for my (inland) back yard. You know, like every resident of New Orleans should have.
I got some part time gigs maintaining a few websites, and that has been challenging and entertaining, as I have ot produce content. Producing photographic content is easy. Producing written content is HARD.
Along the way there has been some very good beer, in small quantities. (A friend visited from NYC, which was entertaining, but I can no longer drink like I used to. tolerance is shot.) There has been a lot of "Stone Soup".* I've discovered Slavinken.
I of course have a fantastic small local butcher, Nico, who perhaps unfortunately is right across the street, which as mentioned, is doing nothing good for my waist, very much like the fantastic beer. All the labels are in Dutch, which is instructive, and there are quite a few Dutch-specific preparations, including 'carpacciosalad' which is basically steak tartare; potato and other 'salads', and the aforementioned Slavinken.
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| Nico |
Wikipedia says:
"Slavink is a Dutch meat dish consisting usually of ground meat called "half and half" (half beef, half pork) wrapped in bacon (the Dutch equivalent of bacon is, however, not smoked), and browned in butter or vegetable oil for about 15 minutes. "
My butcher wraps his around beef filet. He has other stuff:
"A variation called blinde vinken is made by wrapping ground veal in a thin veal cutlet. Slavinken and blinde vinken are usually prepared and bought at the butchery or the supermarket; a standard slavink, before cooking, weighs around 100 grams/less than 1/4 lb. The bacon is "glued" to the filling with transglutaminase, an enzyme that bonds proteins."*All ingredients fall under 'if you are so inclined or have it on hand', based on the c. 1548 European folk tale:
STONE SOUP
- 3 cups leeks and/or a couple onions or other alums, chopped and very well washed
- clove garlic, peeled and crushed
- 3 tbsp olive oil or a big nut of butter
- Raid the fridge for fading vegetables, chopped: may include greens, lettuces, leftover potatoes, carrots, cooked beans, broccoli, cauliflower. Just no peppers, as they tend to throttle the rest of the flavors... but hey, maybe you really like peppers, it is a free country, suit yourself.
- leftover rice from Chinese delivery
- Salt, Pepper, Chili flakes, to taste, a teaspoon of thyme
- leftover tomato sauce or paste, if you go for that sort of thing
- Got bacon, spam, leftover lunch meat? Chop it and add it.
- Cup or two of white wine
- 2 Quarts, ± based on the amount of soup base you've generated and room in the soup pot, of veg, chicken, or other stock, or water.
1. Sweat the leeks/onions/garlic in olive oil or butter until clear and happy, with the herbs/spices
2. Add the vegetables, hard ones like carrots first, but not the greens, save them for last
3. Add wine, cook until bubbling for 10 minutes to reduce, add stock/water, cook at the lowest heat until the veggies are soft, usually about 30 min., but an afternoon on the stove making the house smell nice isn't going to hurt anyone
4. Add the leftover rice, lunch meat, or bacon
5. Add the greens, cook for another
Serve with toasted baguettes with some nice runny cheese spread over it, and a glass or three of sancerre or chablis.
