Chokotoff sauce

For ➍
150 g chokotoffs, crudely chopped*
a bit of milk or cream*

Put the chokotoffs in a microwave safe jug.
Add a bit of milk or cream.
Put in the microwave for 3 m at 650 W.
Serve hot with ice cream, or as a topping over tiny crèpes with ice cream.

*Alternatively, mix 150 g of chopped chokotoffs, 1 chopped bar of dark chocolate, 10 cl fresh cream and a pinch of salt in a small pan. Melt everything on low heat. Serve with ice cream.

'Chokotoff' (from 'chocolate' and 'toffee', and a wordplay on the Brussels' 'tof', meaning 'great!') is a Belgian sweet, invented in 1934 by famous Belgian chocolate-makers Côte d'Or. It has a half-soft caramel inside, covered in crispy dark chocolate. Each piece is wrapped as a small present, featuring the Côte d'Or elephant. It is a national institution, and the news that production would move from Belgium to Lithuania caused quite a stir. New owners, Kraft Foods, and Mondelèz  introduced a milk chocolate version, a white chocolate version (abandoned) , and a choco spread with the same taste (abandoned) .
Read another Côte d'Or chocolate inspired dessert: parfait glacé Dessert 58.

Faisan à la gueuze et mousse de poireaux (pheasant with gueuze & leeks mousse)

For ➍
2 pheasants 700 g
4 tbs olive oil
40 g butter
15 cl cream
250 g fresh walnuts
5 cl gin
25 cl gueuze
salt, pepper
leek mousse

Blanch the nuts to remove the skin.
Clear the skin of the pheasant near the head and insert a finger to lift the skin up to the thigh. Push a little cream between the skin and the meat. Rub gently to spread the cream and close with a toothpick. Put a knob of salted butter in the belly and close with a toothpick.
Bind the legs, rub oil on the pheasants. Sauté in a pan with a little oil.
When pheasants are browned add the nuts and mix. Heat gin and blaze the pheasants.
Pour the gueuze over the fowl. Cook covered over low heat for 30 m.
Reduce the cooking juices and whisk in the butter.
Cut the white meat of the pheasants into 2 mm slices.
To serve, put leeks mousse on a plate, pour a little of the leek cooking juices around it. Put some slices of the pheasant on the mousse.
Pour the pheasants' sauce on the meat. Decorate with nuts.
In second service serve pheasant thighs with fried mushrooms with garlic and a little green salad.

Poulet braisé à la gueuze (braised chicken with old Brussels gueuze)

For ➍
a farm chicken (600 g)
4 onions, chopped
4 slices smoked bacon (0.5 cm thick), cubed
2 bottles of gueuze 37.5 cl
2 slices of gingerbread spread with spicy mustard
a large knob of butter
1 tbs flour
fresh thyme, parsley & fresh bay
500 g waxy potatoes*
watercress

With a sharp knife cut the chicken. Remove the tighs and cut them in 2. Remove chicken breast from the rest of the carcass and divide into 4 large pieces.**
Put a large casserole over medium heat. Melt butter. Add the breasts and tighs. Season with salt and pepper. Fry them on all sides golden brown (5 to 7 m). Lift the chicken from the pot and keep warm.
In the same pot, brown the onions. Add the bacon. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and bacon. Just stir and simmer about 5 m on medium heat.
Make a bouquet garni of parsley, bay leaves and some sprigs of thyme. Place the chicken and its' gravy back into the pot with the bouquet garni. Pour over the gueuze, enough not to cover the chicken.
Spread a generous layer of spicy mustard on the gingerbread . Add to the stew. Simmer for 30 m on low heat. Add salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, boil the potatoes (cut as pommes château) in water with a pinch of salt.
Serve with sauce and potatoes. Garnish with some cress.*

*Or serve with a potatoes & carrots mash and braised endives. Omit the watercress.
**The carcass and the wings can be used to make good stock.

Stoemp aux carottes (mashed potatoes & carrots)

For ➍
600 g potatoes, cut into chunks
2 onions, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
2 dl cream
a knob of butter
salt & pepper
nutmeg

Cook the potatoes cut into pieces with chopped carrots and onions in a large pot with salted water.
Cook 20 to 25 m.
Mash potatoes with carrots and onion with a fork.
Add salt and pepper, sprinkle a little nutmeg, add a knob of butter, cream.
Reheat quickly.
Serve f.i. with braised chicken with gueuze.

Tarte au citron (Brussels lemon tart)

For ➍
juice of 3 lemons or 10 cl
zest of lime or lemon
2 whole eggs
135 g sugar
165 g butter, cut in pieces
for the icing:
250 g cream (40%)
50 g sugar
2 vanilla pods
for the meringue:*
4 egg whites
150 g sugar
10 Breton shortbread cookies, crumbled

Beat the egg whites and sugar for the meringue. Place in a piping bag and make small balls (3 cm) on baking paper.
Bake the meringue for 75 minutes in an oven at 90 ° C.*
Wash the lemons and grate the rind. Squeeze the lemon juice then to obtain your 10 cl.
Heat it, stirring it together with the lemon zest, the 2 whole eggs and sugar until boiling. Take of the fire when it starts to boil and pour into a cold bowl (on ice).
Allow 15 m to cool, then mix in the butter pieces and put in cool place.
Whisk the cream, sugar and sago sticks to vanilla cream (not stiff) and secure in cool place.
Put a spoonful of whipped cream on top of 1 tbs crumbled shortbread cookies. Then spray the lemon cream on, end with a meringue. Decorate with with some zest of lime and lemon.

*Try microwave meringues.

Guinea fowl with mustard sauce

For ➍
4 fillets of guinea fowl, 150 g
butter
15 cl poultry stock, warm
15 cl cream, kitchen temperature
2 tbs mustard
1 apple, peeled & diced
salt & pepper
1 kg potatoes
1 kg tomatoes

Prepare mash from potatoes. Keep warm.

Skin and clean the tomatoes. Remove all juices. Dice the meat. Mix into potato mash.

Season the fillets with salt and pepper and fry in browned butter over high heat. Reduce heat. Cook fowl for 10 m. Remove from the pan and keep warm.

Stir the stock and cream through scrapings and fat in the pan. Boil for 2 m. Add the mustard. Season with salt and pepper. In a separate pan, brown the diced apple.

Serve the guinea fowl with the diced apple, a dash of potato & tomato mash.

Wine steamed mussels

For ➍
2 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs onions, finely chopped
1 tbs celery, finely chopped
1 tbs carrots, finely chopped
2 medium shallots, sliced thinly
1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped
1½ ts teaspoons fresh, chopped thyme
1½ ts fresh, chopped parsley
1½ ts fresh, chopped sage
½ ts salt
¼ ts ground black pepper
50 cl dry white wine
1 kg mussels, cleaned*

In a large skillet, over medium heat, melt the butter and olive oil and sauté the onions, carrots, celery, shallots, and garlic until they are just tender, about 5 m. Add the thyme, parsley, sage, salt, and pepper to the vegetables and cook for 1 m. Add the white wine to the skillet and bring it to a gently simmer. Add the mussels to the wine sauce, turn the heat up a bit, cover, and steam the mussels for 5 m, or until the mussels open. Serve the mussels hot with the wine sauce.

Serve with frites or slices of baguette bread.

*For a Belgian main dish, 1 kg mussels per person would be expected. Use several skillets to cook them in. Fill the skillets for ⅔, leaving room for the mussels to open their shells.

Toast champignon (Belgian mushroom toast)

For ➍
600 g white button  mushrooms, cleaned & cut into chunks.
4 slices white bread (2 cm thick)
1 shallot, finely sliced
75 g butter
5 sprigs parsley, chopped
3 sprigs thyme
1½ cloves garlic, crushed
dash of balsamic vinegar or white wine

In a very hot pan, melt a knob of butter, over high heat. Color the mushrooms. Add another knob of butter. Reduce heat. Add the shallots and garlic.* Add the the parsley**. Pour a little dash of vinegar over the mixture. Add salt and pepper. Shake the mixture.
Remove crusts of the bread slices. Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan, over low heat. Coat the slices on both sides with melted butter. Put them in the oven. Toast them at 175°C until golden***.
Put a warm toast on each plate and spoon a generous amount of mushrooms on it.

*Or only add 2 cloves of garlic, together with the mushrooms.
**Add a little butter with the parsley.
***Or put them in a toaster without butter.

The underground catacombs of Paris where the first place where mushrooms were cultivated all year long. In 1810 the experiment by horticulturist Chambry at the XIVth arrondissement gave splendid white mushrooms, since then known as champignons de Paris. The constant supply to restaurants and bistrots gave birth to several Parisian culinary classics. This one, the toast champignon, became a Belgian traditional snack in Brussels brasseries.
Try the related oven recipe.

Picon club

For ➊
5 cl Picon
10 cl dry white wine like sauvignon

Pour Picon in a cooled glass. Add cooled white wine.
Serve immediately.

The famous Amer Picon cordial, (bitter Picon) was invented by Gaetan Picon in 1837 in French colony Algeria. He set up a proper Picon-factory in Marseille in 1872. Picon was born in Genua (annexed by France at the time) and knew Italian ameros, the bitter herbal liquors to get through winters. The original formula was close to these traditional Italian bitters with a mix of bitter orange extracts, quinine bark, gentian root and distilled alcohol.
Picon became especially popular in the North and East of France, the poorer areas of the Republic, as a cheap way to heighten the alcohol volume when a a generous shot was added to the beer.
For some unexplained reasons, the habit crossed the border to Belgium, where in the 1920's & '30's the shot was added to white wine, normally dry but it could be sweet as well.
For that reason, what is called Picon Bière in France is sold in Belgium (and the rest of the world) as Amer Picon. The so-called Picon Club became a hit, and Picon launched it's own 'Picon Club' variety to be added to white wine. Meanwhile, the alcohol volume was reduced to 21° (for the Amer) and 18° (for the Orange version). In the USA, where the original was popular in the 20's and '30's, some manufacturers have tried to re-establish the original formula with the classic strength.
As for the cocktail, some have come up with some sweetener like Cointreau, adding some lemon juice to adjust the citrus and lower the sweetness, some adding cognac to heighten the alcohol volume.
Picon can also be drunk on the rocks.

Le cocktail Lumumba

For ➊
6 cl dark Cuban rum*
12 cl milk**
5 ts cocoa powder**
whipped cream*
chocolate shavings*

For the warm version, heat the milk to drinking temperature.

Add rum and cocoa. Stir.

Top with whipped cream and add chocolate shavings.

For the cold version, mix milk and cocoa (or use chocolate milk**). Add rum*. Pour on ice cubes.

*For the original version, use vodka. Omit cream and chocolate shavings. Use brandy instead, or an equal mix of brandy and coffee liquor.
**For the original version, use dark chocolate milk.

When after the Congolese independence in 1960, Patrice Lumumba became prime minister and declared himself a partisan of mild communism, his fate was sealed by murder. In the former motherland Belgium, his name was used to mix a quite racist, but delicious cocktail of chocolate milk and vodka (the Russian influence). After his death, he was considered a martyr by African nations and by the USSR who honored his legacy with a stamp.
The cocktail disappeared in Belgium but lived on in several versions, hot and cold, with rum substituting the vodka (suitable enough, as Cuban fighters were involved in the Congo wars). (Sometimes it is replaced with brandy and/or coffee liquor, omitting the milk).
The warm version comes close to a simple version of the mighty Mexican serpent's chocolate.

Mousse au jambon (Brussels ham mousse)

For ➍
500 g cooked ham, two thin slices of ham on soil
500 g cream (35% fat!)
20 g gelatin leaves
vegetal colour enhancer
4 Paris mushrooms
toast
50 cl vegetable stock, made of
1 carrot
1 leek stalk
1 stalk celery green
2 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
1 red pepper
1 onion
2 shallots
8 g white pepper balls
1 clove

Cut the vegetables for the broth into large pieces. Add herbs, spices and 2 l of water. Let simmer 30 m. Pass the broth through a fine sieve.
Spread 20g gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 m.
Add them to 50 cl broth, season with salt and pepper. Make a splash with darker Patrelle. Measure 25 cl off to the mousse to add, like the rest of the jelly layer.
Cover a rectangular shape of 3 cm depth with plastic wrap. Place the ham slices on the bottom.
Cut the ham into pieces of 5 cm, mix them into a fine puree. If possible, push through a sieve tamis.
Beat 500 g cream into a smooth mass.
Add 25 cl vegetable jelly and ham in the mix, and mix for 2 more m.
Pour the mixture into a bowl with ½ of the whipped cream, stirring gently with a spatula.
Put in the refrigerator for at least 1 h. Spread some vegetable jelly on top. Return to the refrigerator.
Cut into rectangles and serve with sliced raw mushrooms and toast.

Belgian homemade mayonnaise

For ➍
4 very fresh eggs*****
1 tbs vinegar*
1 tbs mustard**
1 tbs lukewarm water
4 dl peanut or grapeseed****** oil
pepper & salt

Let the ingredients come to room temperature. Separate eggs.

Beat 4 egg yolks with a whisk or a fork*** to get an airy mixture.

Add vinegar, water and mustard.****

Put the recipient on a towel to avoid slipping. Drip peanut oil into the mixture while whisking.

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with almost anything from salad to frites.

*Use lemon juice instead.
**Use a mild mustard.
***An electric mixer might be used. When using mayonnaise as decoration, mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon to get a stronger texture (the Dutch way).
****To have a smoother emulsion, add water to the egg yolks, then the the oil, then mustard and vinegar.
*****When very fresh eggs are used, the mayonnaise might keep a few days in closed jar in the refrigerator. Mix 1 tbs of hot water through the mayonnaise at the end.

A lighter version can be made by using 2 eggs, egg white included. A dressing version can be made with egg whites only.
******Using grapeseed oil will prevent the mayonnaise from separating when moved from the refrigerator. o.

Use mayonnaise in Belgian cocktail sauce, Japanese cucumber salad dressing, spicy cream sauce, cucumber mayonnaise, quick remoulade sauce, miso ginger dressing.

Belgian horse steak

For ➍
4 horse meat steaks 250 g, 2 cm thick, at room temperature
50 g butter
3 tbs peanut oil
salt & pepper
(4 shallots, chopped)*
(8 tbs of red wine)*

Grind pepper over the steaks. Choose a skillet that can accommodate the steaks with little room left.

Heat the pan. Pour in the oil and add half of the butter. Let the butter foam.

Put the steaks into the pan and fry for 5 m on each side.

Put steaks aside on a warm platter. Sprinkle with salt. Cover.

Remove fat from pan. Add remaining butter and melt gently. Add salt and pepper.* Pour over the steaks.

Serve with double-baked frites and a green salad with fresh mayonnaise.

*Alternatively, omit salt and pepper. Add shallots. Cook and pour in the wine, stir and let evaporate. Pour over steaks. Serve with frites.

The Belgian city of Vilvoorde, near Brussels, was the home of a flourishing horse-trade and, consequently, is still known for its pjeereju (horse-meat) restaurants.
Picture shows a sanded glass pane door of a now defunct local café, where horse merchants fixed their deals.
Visit the Vilvoorde City site.

Parfait glacé Dessert 58

For ➍
200 g chocolate bar Dessert 58**
2 eggs, yolks & whites separated, room temperature
25 g powdered sugar
2 dl cream***
3 tbs warm strong coffee

(Cut out 4 chocolate elephant vignettes to decorate the parfait. Set aside.)
Break the chocolate tablet(s) into small chunks. Prepare a bowl for a bain-marie. Heat the water. When warm, put the warm coffee in the bowl, add the chocolate chunks and melt them with the coffee. Let cool a bit.
In a clean bowl, beat the sugar and yolks until foamy white. Mix with the chocolate.
Beat the egg whites and spoon through the mix.
Whip the cream*** until almost stiff and spoon through the mix.
Fill 4 glasses with the mixture and put 3 h in the freezer.
Remove 10 m before serving and add the vignettes.

*Based on a recipe from the Belgian Côte d'Or website.
**A good milk chocolate bar with a good praliné filling might do the trick, but not the magic.
***Reduce amount of cream to have a less creamy texture and a richer taste. You can save the cream to serve with dessert.

Dessert 58 is a speciality chocolate bar created by Belgian chocolate manufacturer Côte d'Or in 1958 to celebrate the Brussels World Fair. Rich milk chocolate enrobes a creamy mixture of, originally, hazelnuts and almonds. Nowadays, the Dessert 58 is made with almonds and cashew nuts.
The illustration shows an early wrapper for Dessert 58, with a modern logo.
The Côte d'Or elephant trademark is a reference to the African Golden Coast, now Ghana, where much of the cacao beans were imported from in the 19th century. In 1870 Belgian chocolatier Charles Neuhaus started a chocolate factory in Brussels, depositing the name in 1883, selling the factory and the name before the end of the century. The elephant logo was created in 1908, with palms and very non-Ghanaian pyramids. Côte d'Or is now part of the Kraft group.
A parfait, French for perfect, is a frozen custard dessert made with eggs, sugar, whipped cream and flavourings such as a purée, liqueur, coffee or chocolate.
Try another Côte d'Or chocolate inspired dessert: ice-cream (crèpes) with chokotoff sauce.

Sour-cherry lambic sorbet

For ➏
100 g sugar
50 g honey
15 cl water
300 g pitted black sour cherries
25 cl good kriek lambic like Lindemans

Heat the sugar, honey, and water in a small saucepan just until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool the syrup completely.

Purée the cherries in the blender until smooth. Mix in the syrup and the lambic.

Pour the sorbet base slowly into your actively churning ice cream maker. After about 30 m, it would be thoroughly mixed.

Pack the sorbet into the chilled container. Freeze until firm, about 4 h.

Belgian kriek-beer is created by adding sour cherries to gueuze or unblended lambic. Avoid cheaper and sweeter brands. Read the anglerfish in gueuze recipe for more information on gueuze.
The sour cherries used in the beer are typical for the borough of Schaarbeek, near Brussels, where a feast of the cherry is organised every year.
Belgian lambic is available with several different fruits added, you could use raspberry lambic with real raspberries, as a variation.

Boeuf à la gueuze (Brussels beef with gueuze)

For ➋
2 beef fillets, 150 g each
300 g chuck beef*
50 cl gueuze
15 g soft butter
1 onion
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 leek
½ tomato
1 clove of garlic
peanut oil
1 thyme stalk
1 bay leaf
15 cl veal stock (fond de veau) or chicken stock
salt & fresh black pepper

Peel, wash and cut vegetables.

Cut beef into 3x3 cm cubes*. Braise in a pan with oil until brown..

Add onion, carrot, celery, green of leek, tomato and garlic.

Braise for a few m. Add thyme and bay leaf.

Add gueuze. Reduce for 3 m.

Add broth and simmer for 20 m on low fire.

Peel potatoes, cut into small pieces, put in a large baking tray. Cover with water. Add salt and 30 g of butter. Cook for 10 m on medium fire.

Meanwhile prepare the stoemp à l'oseille, a sorrel potato mash.

Put the beef and vegetable braise through a sieve and collect the juice.* Put juice in a pan and reduce with ⅓.** Put aside.

Braise the fillets of beef in butter, or grill, according to taste. Add salt and pepper.

Serve the beef fillet on a warm plate. Add some stoemp, and decorate with some sauce. Serve remaining sauce and stoemp in preheated dishes.

*Use only vegetables and beef fillets for a lighter, modern dish.
**This is the classic way. Alternatively, thicken the mixture without sieving, and serve as a meaty sauce.

Stoemp à l'oseille (Brussels sorrel mash)

For ➋
100 g fresh sorrel*
300 g potatoes
30 g soft butter
salt & fresh black pepper

Peel potatoes, cut into small pieces, put in a large baking tray. Cover with water. Add salt and 30 g of butter. Cook for 10 m on medium fire.

Clean sorrel. Add to the potatoes. Crush the mixture with a fork. Add salt and pepper, mix well.

Serve with Brussels beef with gueuze, grilled chicken or meat.

*Use good quality sorel in glass bowl or tinned instead. Adjust seasoning.

Oeufs à la Meulemeester (Brussels' eggs & shrimps)

For ➋
4 fresh eggs
125 g North Sea grey shrimps, peeled
10 cl fresh cream
25 g grated cheese (Emmenthaler or Gruyère)
20 g butter
25 cl white beer of Hoegaarden
1 tbs Ghent mustard *
1 tbs chervil
salt & black pepper

Butter 2 small gratin dishes.

Slightly heat the beer to let evaporate the alcohol. Add shrimps and let stand for 1 h. Separate beer and shrimps.

Bring water to the boil and cook 3 eggs for 7 m. Meanwhile, separate yolk from the other egg and beat it.

Cool the boiled eggs with water and peel them. Slice them into delicate rounds.

Meanwhile, heat the butter. Add the beer, the cream and the yolk. Mix well. Add mustard and chervil. Add salt & pepper.

Preheat the grill to maximum heat.

Spread the shrimps in the dishes. Cover with sliced eggs, pour sauce over them, cover with grated cheese and a few pieces of butter.

Grill for 10 m.

Serve with some rye bread, a small salad and a wine vinegar vinaigrette.

*Or a good Dijon mustard.

Father and son Meulemeester are characters from an immensely popular Brussels' theatre comedy Le Mariage de Mademoiselle Beulemans (Young Lady Beulemans' marriage). Her parents are wealthy Brussels' brewers, hence the beer reference, and she falls in love with the wrong (French) man instead of the young Meulemeester. From its start around the Brussels World Exposition of 1910, the play in authentic Brussels' dialect, mixing French and Flemish, stayed popular into the 60's, when it was still performed at the Brussels' Théâtre des Galéries and was made into a popular movie several times. (The picture shows a fragment of the 1960's version poster.)
The name could also be derived from a Flemish dish in the Bruges' countryside, near the port of Zeebrugge, where it is still served today in several variations, then meaning eggs in the miller way.
Read more North Sea grey shrimps dishes: baked endives with shrimps, tomate crevettes, kerremelksmeus.

Monkfish in gueuze

For ➍
800 g monkfish
1 stalk leek, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
35 cl gueuze*
50 g butter
1 sprig thyme, chopped
1 ts parsley, chopped
1 ts chervil, chopped
(sea) salt & (freshly ground black) pepper

Cut the fish in chunks.

Melt the butter in a skillet, large enough to hold all of the fish. Add the leek, celery and onion and fry lightly.

Add the fish. Brown lightly.

Add salt, pepper, garlic and thyme.

Add gueuze and let simmer for 15 m.

Add parsley and chervil.

Lift fish out, keep warm.

Filter sauce and thicken a bit.

Serve with steamed potatoes. Drink a good gueuze with it.

Belgian gueuze (or geuze) is a slightly sour beer, traditionally brewed around Brussels. Mort subite, 'sudden death', is one of the most famous gueuze breweries, best drunk at the Brussels' café with the same name. (The name comes from the swift final step in a card game, popular at the café in the 1920's, when it was visited by civil servants from the nearby Belgian National Bank).

More monkfish recipes: monkfish with samphire.