Belgian Peasant Foods

Bread and potatoes are the traditional staple foods. Most meals include, pork, chicken, or beef, and Seafood is popular in the northern part of the country. The national drink is beer. In northern cities, popular dishes include mussels with fries and waterzooi a broth of vegetables and meat or fish. Throughout the country, French fries are eaten with steaks or minced raw meat. Cooking is traditionally done with butter rather than oil; there is also a high consumption of dairy products.

Chicken Waterzooi

Winter Vegetable Melange

Flemish Potatoes

Buckwheat Pancakes

Kippenwaterzooi
Gegratineerd Witloof
Konijn in Gueze
Mosselen friet
Luikse sla
Stoemp

Chicken Waterzooi     Yield: 4 servings

1 whole large chicken 

4 carrots 

3 celery stalks 

4 shallots or small onions 

Parsley 

1 sprig fresh thyme 

1 bay leaf 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

2 leeks 

14 oz mushrooms

4 egg yolks 

1 cup cream 

1 lemon, juiced 

2 tablespoon butter 

Pinch nutmeg 

Preparation for the stock: Place the chicken in a pot of water, covering the chicken entirely. Add 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, and 1 onion, cut into approximately 1-inch pieces. Add parsley, thyme and a bay leaf and poach until chicken is cooked. Add salt and pepper, to taste. 

Cut the remaining carrots, celery, onions into 1-inch sticks and place them in a saucepan with water to cover. Cut the leeks into 1-inch sticks, slice the mushrooms and add to saucepan. Parboil vegetables in salted water. Take out the chicken when poached (no red color must be seen under the skin) and discard vegetables from stock. Strain the chicken stock through a fine sieve. Take the skin off of the chicken and cut chicken into 8 pieces. Put the chicken and the parboiled vegetables into the stock. Mix the egg yolks with the cream and add to the stock. Add the lemon juice and butter. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. 

Serve in soup plates with boiled potatoes or white steamed rice. 

This recipe was provided by professional chefs and has been scaled down from a bulk recipe provided by a restaurant. The FN chefs have not tested this recipe, in the proportions indicated, and therefore, we cannot make any representation as to the results.

Winter Vegetable Melange  Serves 3

 • 2 Ounces Bacon - diced

 • 3 Cloves Garlic - finely chopped

 • 2 Medium Onions - chopped

 • 1 Medium Leeks - chopped

 • 1/4 Head Savoy Cabbage - shredded

 • 2 Medium Carrots - cubed

 • 2 Medium Turnips - cubed

 • 1/2 Pound Brussel Sprouts - halved

 • 1/2 Pound Celeriac - cubed

 • 2 Cups Chicken Broth

 • 1/2 Bouquet Garni

 • Salt And Pepper - to taste

 • Nutmeg - to taste

 • 1/2 Pound Red Potatoes - peeled and cubed

 • 1 Tablespoon Parsley - finely chopped

 • 1 Splash Sherry

Fry bacon until crisp in dutch oven. remove and set aside. 

Add onions, leeks, cabbage, carrots, turnips, brussel sprouts, garlic and celery root, Saute for 12 minutes. 

Add chicken broth bouquet garni, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. 

Cover and cook for 30 minutes. 

Add potatoes, sherry and bacon to pan. 

Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are done and liquid has evaporated. Discard bouquet garni. 

Stir and sprinkle with parsley. Serve

Flemish Potatoes   Serves 4 

• 3 Pounds Red Potatoes -- peeled and cubed

 • Salt -- to taste

 • 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter

 • 2 Medium Onion -- thinly sliced

 • Pepper -- to taste

 • Nutmeg -- to taste

 • 1 Medium Bay Leaf

 • 2 Cups Beef Broth

 • 1/4 Cup Chervil -- finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Boil potatoes in salted water for 3 minutes. 

Drain and reserve. 

Melt butter in large skillet. 

Add onions and cook stirring until softened about 5 minutes. 

Season onions with salt, pepper and nutmeg. 

Arrange onions on the bottom of a medium sized baking dish and spread potatoes evenly over onions. 

Add the bay leaf and enough broth to cover the potatoes. 

Bake until the liquid has cook away about 30 minutes. 

Check to make sure that it hasn't dried out and add more broth as needed. 

Sprinkle with chervil and serve.

Buckwheat Pancakes  Serves 10 

 • 1 1/2 Packages Active Dry Yeast

 • 3 Cups Milk - 100 degrees

 • 1 1/4 Cups Buckwheat Flour

 • 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

 • 1/3 Cup Sugar - optional

 • 2 Teaspoons Salt

 • 4 Large Eggs - lightly beaten

 • 2 Cups Water

 • 3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter

Dissolve yeast in milk. 

Let rest for 5 minutes or until foamy. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together buckwheat flour, flour, sugar, and salt. add eggs, and yeast mixture. 

Add the water a little at a time to achieve the desired consistency of batter. 

Cover the bowl and let rise until doubled in volume about 1 hour. 

Brush the surface of a hot griddle with the butter and make pancakes using a 1/2 cup of batter at a time.

Gegratineerd Witloof   Serves 4

2 cups milk

1 1/2 TB butter

2 1/2 TB plain flour

4 oz gruyere cheese, grated

1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

Pinch ground nutmeg

Salt & ground black pepper, to taste

1 lemon, juiced

8 endives, washed

4 slices leg ham, halved

    Preheat oven to 400° Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling. Remove from heat. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and stir over heat for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add 1/2 the warm milk while stirring constantly with a whisk. Gradually add the remaining milk, stirring until smooth. Return to medium heat and stir constantly until the sauce boils and thickens. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 3 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add 1/2 the cheese with the mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

            Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil over high heat. Add the lemon juice and endive and cook, partially covered, for 7 minutes or until just tender. Drain well. Wrap a piece of ham around each endive. Divide the endive among 4 individual ovenproof dishes. Pour the  cheese sauce evenly over the endive and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts and begins to brown. Serve immediately.

Stoemp    Makes 6 to 8 servings 

Stoemp is a dish that's very popular across Belgium and the Netherlands. It's basically mashed potatoes with different additions, such as root vegetables, cream, bacon, herbs or spices. Stoemp is typical for Belgian cuisine as it's easy to make, very tasty and satisfying

2 medium Idaho or russet baking potatoes (about 1-1/4 pounds), peeled and cubed

1/2 cup chicken broth, preferably homemade

1 tablespoon salt, plus additional to taste

2 large or 3 medium leeks (about 3/4 pound), white and light green parts only

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2/3 cup heavy (or whipping) cream

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

freshly ground black pepper to taste1/2 cup chicken broth, preferably homemade

Put the potatoes into a big saucepan filled with cold water salted with 1 tablespoon of salt. Then bring the water to a boil, partially covering the saucepan. Then, cook over moderate heat until the potatoes are ready which takes about 20 minutes. Drained potatoes should be pressed through a mill into a bowl. In the meantime, discard outer leaves of the leeks and cut off the roots. Wash the leeks thoroughly and slice into rings. Put some butter in a saucepan and melt it, adding the leeks and cooking them for about 5 minutes. They need to be stirred from time to time to avoid browning them. Add the chicken broth and cream as well as a pinch of salt, some pepper and grated nutmeg. Boil covered over small heat for 15 minutes. Drain the leeks and save the sauce – it should be put back to the saucepan and reduced by about half. Mix the potatoes with leeks and stir in the reduced sauce. Taste and add spice. If it is too dry, you can add more butter, cream or milk. Put the mixture into an ovenproof dish and keep around 2 hours in a preheated oven in temperature of 300 F, then reduced to 150 F.