Dutch food in NZ

It is 31 years since I left The Netherlands and in 1979 when we arrived here you literally could not buy anything remotely similar to traditional Dutch food. Now you buy anything you can over there. There are large supermarket chains that have overseas delicatessens, there are Dutch shops around Auckland, one in Bulls, one in Foxton which now also has a traditional Dutch-style windmill.

The things we like and missed were patat met mayonnaise (chips with mayonnaise), zuur kool (sauerkraut/cabbage), boeren kool (farmers cabbage), frikandel (a sausage or frank), pannekoeken (pan cakes) and kroketten (croquettes)

It does not matter how long one is in New Zealand and we love the unique foods here, you always have that craving for some traditional foods but it is also magic to enjoy the food from many cultures.

I hope you will be here on Saturday to enjoy another traditional Dutch treat: Poffertjes (fluffy baby pancakes – pictured right) which will be prepared by Willem van der Velde of the restaurant Dutch Delights. I have included his recipe below:

Dutch poffertjes (fluffy baby pancakes)

Ingredients:

500 grams self raising flour (buckwheat is even better)

1 litre milk

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of oil

Pinch of salt

50 ml vanilla essence

Mix all the ingredients together, except the oil, until you have a nice smooth thick liquid. Warm the poffertjes pan (a non-stick pan for baking pancakes) and brush some butter, or spray the oil, into all the cups in the pan.

Put the poffertjes mix in a squeeze bottle and squeeze the mix into all the cups. Cook until they’re golden brown on both sides and be sure that the inside of the poffertjes are cooked through. Place the poffertjes on a warm plate, put some butter in the middle of the plate, and liberally sprinkle some icing sugar at the top of them.

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