♥︎Turkey stew with Oude Geuze

For ➍

300 g fresh pearl onions

a large knob of butter*

300 g smoked bacon**

2 cloves of garlic

250 g mushrooms

2 stalks celery

1 kg turkey leg (turkey cubes from breast or leg)

3 tbs  flour

3 dl Oude Geuze Boon

40 cl chicken stock*

2 tbs grain mustard

some sprigs of sage

a few sprigs of thyme

4 bay leaves

3 cloves

1 bunch of (young) carrots

pepper & salt

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

800 g pine cones potatoes***

a dash of cream****

Preheat the deep fryer to 170 °C.***

First soak the fresh pearl onions in a bowl of hot water and remove the outer skin of the onions.

Melt a large knob of butter* in a large stew. Cut the bacon into strips and stew. Peel and crush the garlic and add, followed by the pearl onions. Cut the mushrooms into pieces and stew them. Rinse the celery under cold water, finely chop the stalks and stew. Season the turkey cubes with salt and pepper. Stew them and sprinkle some flour over them. Stir well so that the flour is evenly distributed over all the turkey pieces and vegetables. Pour the Oude Geuze and the chicken stock into the stew. Add the mustard. Make a herb bouquet from the sage, thyme and bay leaf and add it together with the cloves. Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat down. Let the stew simmer gently for at least 1 h. 

About 20 m before dinner time, peel the carrots and put them in a pot over a gentle heat with a good splash of water and a good knob of butter. Season the carrots with salt and pepper and some finely chopped fresh thyme. Cook for 10 to 15 m under a lid. In the meantime, fry the pine cones until golden brown in the deep fryer at 170 °C. 

Season the stew with a little extra salt and pepper. *****  

Add the pasta in small pieces to your sauce and let it melt. 

Finish the stew with a dash of cream. ****

Spoon some turkey with sauce onto a plate and add the fried carrots and pine cones***.

*replace with vegan

**replace with smoked turkey meat

***replace with heart-friendly alternative

****optional

*****If necessary, add some beurre manié to thicken the sauce by kneading 1 tbs flour  into a paste with a knob of butter*.

Cod with spinach, shallots, smoked salmon & Blanche du Hainaut

For ➋

800 g cod fillets 

4 tbs olive oil 

15 cl Dupont Blanche, Hainaut white beer

500 g spinach 

4 shallots, chopped 

100 g butter 

100 g smoked salmon, cubed

400 g potatoes 

1 bunch of chives 

25 cl fresh cream 

1 egg

Bake the cod fillets slightly in olive oil. Bake for 10 m in the oven at 180 ° C. 

Deglaze with white beer and simmer for 1 m.. 

Meanwhile, stew the spinach leaves cooked and shallots briefly in 50 g of butter . Add the smoked salmon into cubes increased. 

Boil and mash the potatoes. Add a bunch of chopped chives and warm cream to the puree.  Mix well and season with salt and pepper, then add the egg and 50 grams of butter.

Serve.

Parelhoen met witloof & Trappist (guinea fowl with endives & beer)

For ➍
1 guinea fowl (1.5 kg)
salt & pepper
50 g bacon, cubed or sliced
50 g butter
10 shallots, sliced
3 dl Belgian beer, white or blond, blond Trappist recommended*/**
1 ts thyme
3 juniper berries
2 sprigs parsley
1 ts sugar*
6 endives***

Rub the guinea fowl with salt and pepper.
Heat the butter in a pan and bake the bacon for 5 m. Remove the bacon and brown the guinea fowl in the fat. Remove fowl and brown the shallots.
Add beer, thyme, laurel, berries, parsley (and sugar*). Mix.
Add bacon and heat the mixture.
Add the guinea fowl and let it stew on low heat for 45 m.
Heat some water to cook the endives for 10 m.
Add vegetables to the guinea fowl for the last 10 m of the cooking.
Remove the fowl and vegetables. Thicken the sauce, push through a chinois.
Cut guinea fowl into pieces. Put a piece on a warm plate with some sauce and with vegetables. Serve with boiled potatoes*** and blond Trappist beer.

*When using white beer or blond Trappist, don't add sugar. Blond Trappist should be a triple, like Westmalle or Leffe. When Belgian beers are not available, use pale ale instead...
**Add 10 cl fond de gibier to make a smoother sauce.

***Do not use hydroculture endives for a better taste. To have a smoother sauce, cut 1 additional endive into small chunks and put in the sauce from the start.
***Or serve with parsnip mash.

Trappist monasteries were founded by the Cistercian monastery of La Trappe in medieval France. Of the world's 171 Trappist monasteries, only 7 produce beer. 6 of them are in Belgium, brewing the highly valued Trappist following strict prescriptions.
Read the cooking fowl tip. Try the quick version. Read a classic recipe to braise the endives.
Read the braising endives without water tip.
Read the cooking endives @ microwave tip.

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.

Pearl barley risotto with pheasant & beer

For ➍
200 g pearl barley (hata mugi)
1 shallot , chopped
70 cl chicken stock
1 dash of white wine
100 g dried wild mushrooms, soaked in water
½ lemon, zest
4 pheasant fillets
20 cl Double Postel beer
250 g oyster mushrooms, cut into strips
2 handfuls of fresh herbs (parsley , tarragon , chervil , ... ), chopped
butter
olive oil
pepper & salt

The pearl barley is cooked like a risotto, named orzotto. Stew a minced shallot in a little olive oil. Add the pearl barley. Deglaze with the white wine and a splash of chicken stock. Cook on a low heat for 20 m. Check if there is still enough liquid. Add stock if necessary.
Pour in the liquid from the soaked mushrooms for extra flavour. Chop the mushrooms finely and add at the very end. Add grated lemon zest for freshness. Season with salt and pepper. Keep the risotto warm.
Fry the pheasant fillets in a little butter on both sides. The meat should still be pink. Season with salt and pepper. Further, let yarn in a preheated oven at 160°C for 15 m.
Make the sauce. Drain excess fat from the pan and deglaze with the Double Postel. Get the bakings loose and pour the rest of the chicken stock over it. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil.
Remove the meat from the oven, cover and leave to rest for a while.
Fry the sliced mushrooms in oil. Season with salt and pepper and add the spring onions. Let yarn on a low heat for a few m.
Serve the risotto with fresh herbs.

Double Postel beer is a Belgian brown abbey beer with a hint of Eastern spices. A good brown or red beer will do.
Read the tip on cooking risotto.

Flemish baked cod

For ➍
4 cod slices, 250 g each
20 cl fish fumet*
2 shallots
100 g fresh white breadcrumbs
100 g butter
1 lemon
1 tbs herbs, chopped**
salt & black pepper, milled

Preheat oven to 180°C. Peel and chop shallots. Peel lemon and discard white rims. Slice into rounds.
Spread shallots on the bottom of a buttered oven-proof dish as a bed for the cod.
Add salt and pepper, cover cod with breadcrumbs. Put lemon slices on top.
Put in oven for 25 m at 180°C.
When ready, keep fish warm and pour cooking juicess in a saucepan.
Add butter to the juices on low heat. Mix in the herbs.
Serve with boiled potatoes and a blond Belgian beer.

*Replace ¾ of the fumet by a Belgian blond beer to have a less fishy taste.
**The so-called fines herbes: 1 stalk parsley, 3 stalks chervil, 3 stalks chive...

The culinary traditions of Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, have been influenced by several occupying foreign states, from Rome to Burgundy to Spain and Austria. This dish reveals a medieval Burgundy origin.

Kalfsfricassé met Oud Bruin, mosterdcrème & venkel (Flemish veal & beer stew)

For ➍
800 g fricassee of veal, cut in chunks
1 bottle Vanderghinste Oud Bruin beer
20 cl veal stock
50 g mustard
pepper, salt, thyme & bay leaf
50 g butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 fennel, chopped
1 tomato,  concasse*
10 g chopped dill
25 g flour
pommes château

Brown veal meat in butter. Season with salt and pepper. Sift the flour over it and mix.
Pour the beer over the meat, which sould be covered. Add the onion, and fennel and thyme and bay leaf to it.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 h.
Add the veal stock to boil and cook for 1 m, add the mustard to it.
Add the tomato and chopped dill.
Serve with pommes château.

*Peel the tomatoes (dip them in hot water for 1 m to remove the peel easily. Discard all pits and juice, and keep the out shell. Cut into small pieces.

'Ouden tripel' was the first beer brewery Vanderghinste from Bellegem in Flanders created in 1889. It is a red ale with mixed fermentation, typical for the South of province of West Flanders. This oud bruin (old brown) beer is made of barley malt, wheat, caramel malt, hops and water. Then lambiek is added to have a slightly sour, refreshing taste. In 2012 the old name Vanderghinste Oud Bruin was reinstalled, with new labels and marketing.

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.

Lamsstoofpot met geuze (Flemish lamb stew with gueuze)

For ➍
1.5 kg lamb shoulder (boneless)
butter
salt & pepper
2 onions
1 clove garlic
2 tbs flour
75 cl traditional Belgian gueuze
bouquet garni
4 carrots
4 turnips*
500 g potatoes
6 endives
150 g pickled onion
1 tbs powdered sugar
1 tbs chives, finely chopped

Cut the lamb into strips. Brown in butter. Season with salt and pepper. Cut onions finely, sauté with garlic. Sprinkle with flour, add to the meat. Add beer and bouquet garni. Bring to a boil and simmer for 70 m on low heat.
Dice carrots, turnips, potatoes and endives. Peel the pickled onion. Caramelise all vegetables in butter and sugar. Add to the meat. Cook for another 15 m. Season to taste and remove bouquet from the pan. Sprinkle with chopped chives..
Serve with winter vegetables like celery and potatoes.

*Replace with parsnips.

Zeeuwse mossels (Belgian or Zeelandic mussels)

For ➋
2 kg North Sea mussels with shells
2 carrots, sliced
1 leek, sliced
2 onions, sliced
salt & pepper
50 cl blond beer*
1 tbs parsley
20 g butter
1 tbs water

Rinse the mussels. Discard all open mussels.

Take a large recipient, put it on heat. Melt the butter. Sauté the leek, onion rings, carrots and parsley with 1 tbs of water. Add mussels. Add pepper. Add beer.

The mussels are ready when they open their clams. Discard all closed mussels immediately.

Serve with rye bread and butter (or, in a Belgian way, with frites and a good blond beer or a fresh pinot blanc).

*In Holland , you could buy the special mussel-beer. Or use Belgian pils(ener) like Maes or Stella Artois. Replace with water (or half of it), if you must. You could use a Belgian white wheat beer or a Luxembourg pinot blanc white wine. Use a Belgian lambic (old gueuze) beer for a fresh taste. Obviously, have a lambic to drink as well.

For a very long time, until the separation of the Low Countries in the 16th century, Zeeuws Vlaanderen, now part of the Holland province of Zeeland, belonged to the county of Flanders, and has remained culturally close to its former neighbour. It is the center of a weird Belgian mussel cult, as most Zeeland mussels are exported to Belgium. (Due to extreme pollution, it was impossible to breed the historic North Sea mussel on the Belgian Coast until recent years.). Wherever they come from, moules aux frites, mussels with frites, is a Belgian national dish.
La grande casserole de moules ('The great mussels' pot'), consisting of a painted mussels' pot and real mussels' shells, is one of the iconic works of Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers of the influential post-war Groupe Surréaliste-Révolutionaire. A widely publicized public fund-raising was organised to prevent the work being sold to an American museum. It is now exposed at the Ghent museum of modern art SMAK. A variant of it, Casserole et moules fermées ('Pot with closed mussels'), has been acquired by the London Tate Gallery.
Read more gueuze and Belgian beer recipes.

Oude kriek sabayon (Belgian cherry beer sabayon)

For ➍
5 egg yolks*
3 tbs granulated sugar
5 egg cups (15-20 cl) unsweetened Oude Kriek (cherry) beer**
4 scoops vanilla ice cream (or cherry ice cream)***
cherries***

Beat the egg yolks and sugar with a mixer in a large glass bowl or pan**** for 5 until pale and creamy.
Put the bowl with the yolk mixture into a pan of hot water on low heat.
Pour the kriek into the yolk mixture. Whisk the mixture until it is thick, foamy, and tripled in volume. This will take about 10 m.
Serve warm, tepid or cold with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or on a little bed of fresh or canned cherries.

*Always use 1 egg yolk more than persons served.
**Use ½ egg shell to measure.
***Optional.
****Use a large bowl: the volume will double or triple when foamed.

Read more recipes with Belgian kriek (cherry) beer: rabbit with beer, kriek sorbet. Try another Flemish sweet-sour recipe with cherries: meat patties with cherries.

Preistoemp met kabeljauw (leek mash with baked cod)

For ➍
4 pieces cod fillet
100 g shrimps* (optional)
mash:
4 stalks leek
1 kg potatoes (f.i. Bintje)
1 25 cl bottle white beer
1 large onion
a few bay leaves
few sprigs fresh thyme
sauce:
150 g fresh butter, ice-cold
pepper & salt
1 shallot
1 25 cl bottle white beer
a dash of cream
juice of ½ lemon

Peel the potatoes. Boil them in salted water.
Cut the onion. Saute in a covered pot with a knob of butter, without browning.
Cut the leek stalks into small pieces. Add to the pot with onions.
Make a bouquet garni: tie some bay leaves and some thyme sprigs together with kitchen twine. Add to the onion and leek mix.
Pour 25 cl beer in the pot. Let it simmer for 15 m on low heat.
Remove the bouquet garni from the pot with braised leeks. Drain the cooked potatoes and stir in vegetable mixture. Respect a mixture of ⅔ vegetables and ⅓ potatoes for a smooth mash. Add pepper and salt.
Meanwhile prepare a beurre blanc butter sauce**. Chop the shallot finely. Place a small saucepan over a medium heat. Cover the bottom with white beer. Add the shallot and a dash of lemon juice. Let the beer boil briefly.
Cut the refrigerator cold butter cut into cubes. Add a dash of cream to the pan and let the sauce reduce until ⅓ of the volume. Pour the sauce through a sieve been cooked so that the shallot pieces can be removed. Add them to the pot with leeks. Over low heat, whisk the sauce, gradually add the cold butter lumps. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
Preheat the oven to 150°C. Melt a knob of butter in an ovenproof pan over medium heat. Season the fish with some pepper and a pinch of salt. Fry the pieces of cod on both sides, so they get a golden crust.
Spoon a little bit of the drippings over the fish. When the fish is colored, put the pan in the preheated oven.
Let the cod cook for 7 m. Spoon some dripping between the pieces.
Serve each piece of cod with a portion of mash. Spoon some of the butter sauce over. white beer.
Add a serving of hand-peeled shrimps.*

*Optional.

**Or make a simple melted butter sauce with shallot and butter.

Try a leek mash with salmon and shrimps.

Oostends vispannetje (North Sea fish gratin)

For ➍
200 g salmon fillet
200 g Dover sole fillet
200 g North Sea shrimps, peeled
4 dl fish stock
75 g butter
75 g flour
5 cl dry white wine
4 dl cream
125 g white button mushrooms, sliced
150 g Gruyère cheese, grated
salt & pepper
parsley

Preheat oven to 200°C.
Cut the fish into chunks. Poach the fish in the stock until half cooked (about 4-5 m). Take the fish out of the stock.
Thicken the stock a further few m.
Melt the butter. Stir with the flour to a blond roux. Mix the roux and the thickened stock.
Melt a little butter. Sauté the mushrooms. Add the cooking liquids to the stock mix.
Add the white wine and cream. Thicken to half the quantity. Season with salt and pepper.
Take from the heat. Add the grated cheese and shrimps.
Arrange the fish in a buttered ovenproof dish. Pour over the sauce. Sprinkle some grated cheese over it.
Put in preheated oven and broil for 4 m. Finish with some chopped parsley.
Serve with bread or mashed potatoes.

*Alternatively:
1 fillet of cod, approximately 125 g, 1 fillet of sole, 22 scallops, 50 g peeled grey shrimps, 8 large mussels, 5 cl white beer (blanche de Namur, Brugse Witte of Hoegaarden), 5 cl double cream, 5 cl lobster bisque, 30 g Gruyère, salt & pepper.
Cook mussels and remove from the shell. Cut scallops into slices 3 mm thick. Place cod and sole fillets in an ovenproof dish.
Pour in beer, cream and lobster bisque. Add salt and pepper.
Cook in oven preheated to 180°C for 10 m. After 10 m, add shrimps, scallop slices and mussels. Sprinkle with grated Gruyère and broil under the grill for a few m.

Vlaamse stoverij (carbonades à la flamande) (Flemish beef stew)

For ➍
1 kg chuck beef*, cut in chunks 3x3 cm
1 tbs butter
3 tbs flour******
50 cl of brown beer**, at room temperature
water
beef stock
2 onions, cut roughly
2 sprigs thyme
2 leaves laurel
1 slice white bread, without crust
(Ghent) mustard
a few drops of (red wine) vinegar
a bunch of parsley, chopped

Heat a large skillet***. Heat the butter until brown.
Add the meat and brown it on both sides.
Take away from the heat. (Sprinkle the flour on the meat. Stir.)******
Return to heat. Add the beer. Cover the meat completely in beef broth.***
Add thyme and laurel. Put to medium heat.
In another skillet, slowly sauté the onions. Add 1 tbs of water (or beer) to stop cooking.
Add onions to the meat.
Simmer for 60 m to 90 m****, depending on the meat.

Spread the bread with mustard. Add to the meat by stirring and breaking the bread. (When adding after 60 m, let it dissolve for 30 m.)
Thicken the sauce*****.

Add a few drops of vinegar before adding the meat to the sauce again.
Sprinkle with parsley when served.
Serve with fresh frites, a small salad or braised endives, and a glass of brown beer like Liefmans Gouden Band or Sint-Bernardus Abt 12 from Watou. Or a full-bodied red Rhône wine with a little sweet aftertaste.

*Use pork belly instead. Remove fat.
**The beer should be mildly sweet like Liefmans Gouden Band from Oudenaarde or Sint-Bernardus Abt 12 from Watou. Use a dark ale when Belgian beers cannot be found. Avoid the Dutch Oud Bruin beer, a rather tasteless, sweetened beer. English old brown ales can be great, but are too sweet for this dish.
***Use a deep narrow skillet, so you need less broth to cover up.
****The real recipe goes for completely soft and broken meat and requires at least 90 m of cooking. When chunks in gravy are preferred, cook for 60 m.
*****If necessary, remove some of the sauce and thicken in a separate pan.

******Optional.

Vlaamse stoverij, also known as carbonades flamandes, (from the Spanish 'carbonnade' for to grill the meat over hot coals), is a Belgian/Flemish dish, essentially made with meat and beer. It is made with beef around Ghent, and with tender pork deeper to the South. The Liefmans Gouden Band brown beer has been called the best brown ale in the world by beer writing authority Michael Jackson. Use the less expensive Liefmans Oud Bruin instead for the stew or Sint-Bernardus Abt 12 from Watou. A slightly sour beer like the Rodenbach red/brown beer from Roeselare is more suitable for pork and will make it taste sour and sweet. Different versions of the stew are made with other local beers like Brussels' kriek and gueuze or one of the Trappist beers.

Konijn met kriek (cherry beer rabbit)

For ➍
1 rabbit, cut in pieces
50 cl very good kriek-beer
1 roughly chopped onion
2 carrots
2 chopped celery stalks
2 laurel leaves
1 sprig of thyme
10 grains of white pepper
25 cl dry white wine
50 cl can of cherries (griottes)
100 g roux

Marinate the rabbit and vegetables, pepper in the beer. Put a night in the refrigerator.

Drain the ingredients and save the liquid.

Melt a chunk of butter. Brown the pieces of rabbit. Set aside.

Roast the vegetables. Add white wine. Add salt and pepper.

Add the marinade and bring to boil. Add the rabbit and let simmer (for about 30 m).

Take the rabbit out, keep warm.

Bind the sauce with the roux. Add the pieces of rabbit to the sauce and the cherries.

Serve with boiled potatoes.

Belgian kriek-beer is created from gueuze with sour cherries. Avoid cheaper and sweeter brands. Read Anglerfish in gueuze for more information on gueuze.

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.

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.

Quick guinea fowl with endives

For ➍
4 guinea fowl fillets*
2 tbs butter
2 sliced shallots
1 kg of witloof, endives, roughly chopped or cut lengthwise
(1 ts sugar)**
3 juniper berries
1 tbs white or blonde beer
4 tbs of jenever (gin)

Heat the butter in a skillet. Brown the fillets.
Add shallots, witloof, (sugar)** and juniper berries. Add 1 tbs of beer. Stew for 20 m.
Add 4 tbs of jenever (gin), turn up the heat for 2 m.

*Use chicken fillets instead.
**Optional.

Read the braising endives without water tip
Read the cooking endives @ microwave tip.
Try the Belgian classic version.

A savoury cake with ham, mustard & lager

For ➏
3 eggs
150 g flour with yeast (or self-raising flour)
10 cl sunflower oil
12,5 cl milk
100 g grated Gruyère
150 g boiled or baked white ham
50 g Cheddar*
1 ts mustard**
5 cl lager beer**
salt & freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Get eggs out of the fridge.

Cut ham and Cheddar in chunks.

Add mustard, beer, salt and pepper. Leave for 30 m.

Heat milk. Let cool a bit.

In a salad bowl, whip the eggs. Incorporate flour. Gradually add oil, then the milk.

Add the Gruyère. Mix in the ham and Cheddar* mix.

Pour in a non-greased cake mould. Put in the oven for 45 m.

Serve warm or cold with a green salad. Drink a cold lager** with it. Or present small slices as appetizers.

*Use a semi-firm Belgian cheese, like Chimay instead.
**Use a good Belgian blond beer, and tasty Belgian mustard.