Chow Down to Eurovision 2015 - Belgium

Goedenavond, Bonsoir, Guten Abend, this is Belgium one of the original Eurovision countries calling.

 

In 1956, when it all began, Belgium presented 2 songs Le plus beau jour de ma vie sung by Mony Marc and Messieurs les noyés de la Seine sung by Fud Leclerc. In that year each of the 7 competing nations could enter 2 songs, could you imagine if we had 80 songs competing in this year's Eurovision!!

 

I have chosen not to harp on the fact that no one recorded the first contest and just skip a year to bring you today's Eurovision classic.

 

1957 saw Bobbejaan Schoepen sing in Dutch Straatdeuntje (streetcar), well I say sing but there was quite a large portion of whistling. Bobbejaan scored 5 points and placed 8th tying with Lys Assisa, back for Switzerland. (I bet he was wishing he had tied with her the year before!) 



 

Our Eurovision dish today is a dish so obviously Belgium I'd avoided it for 2 years, so as not to be cliché.
 
I think it is time that we all embrace the mussels from Brussels.
 
And just in case you got a little too excited and were thinking muscles....I have prepared a simple guide to help you with your mussel/muscle appreciation.
 

 

 
I could no longer put this dish off because I am lucky enough to have access to the most amazing mussels at the farmers market. Mussels are a staple dinner every 3rd Saturday of the month (the week the mussel man makes an appearance) that they had to make their way into the Chow Down to Eurovision.
 
When I head to Belgium this year there will be no relaxing with a large beer and a plate of moules frites, I will be working very hard studying the dish.
 
I may even need to study it two or three times and perhaps analyse some Belgian chocolate while I am at it, that's just how dedicated and hard working I am!!
 
There are a few sauces that have been known to accompany this dish but after I read about a blue cheese sauce, that was the only way to go.
 

Moules Frites (mussels and chips) aka Game On Moules!

Ingredients for 2 people

• 1kg mussels
• Knob of butter
• Splash of olive oil
• 1 leek chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Handful of chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, chives, tarragon)
• 6 Kipfler potatoes
• 150g blue cheese
• 30ml olive oil
• 1/2 cup seasoned flour
• Oil for frying

For the moules (mussels)

• Clean and de-beard the mussels (I just pull the beard out and discard any mussels with broken shells)
• In a heavy based pot with lid add the splash of oil and knob of butter
• Add the leek and garlic and stir over a medium to high heat
• When the leek is soft add the white wine, mussels and put the lid on
• Cook until the mussels have opened (about 5 minutes)
• Stir through herbs and serve with chips and blue cheese dip

For frites (chips) (or buy some chips)

• In a saucepan of cold water bring the potatoes to the boil and cook till just tender
• Cool and keep in the fridge overnight
• Cut the potatoes into wedges or chips
• Coat in seasoned flour
• Cook in small batch in very hot oil till crisp

For blue cheese sauce

It is probably more of a dip than a sauce.

• With a fork mix the blue cheese and oil together until combined

 

That little orange morsel of sea sweetness and the blue cheese is a serious flavour experience "a party in your mouth" as they say!

 

Belgium will be represented in Vienna by Loïc Nottet who will perform Rhythm Inside.

 

 I am looking forward to seeing what Belgium can come up with for a stadium presentation.

Will Loïc set the audience and juries hearts a rapppabab-ing or is Rhythm Inside more of that "really cool quirky theme tune from the latest hipster HBO series"?

Or both?

Goei chance! 

 

Past Belgium Chow Down to Eurovision:

 

2014 Witlof Gratin

 

2013 Beer Soup

 

 

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Belgium

Goedenavond, Bonsoir, Guten Abend, this is Belgium calling and when you have 3 official languages you get an extra welcome.

Last year's Chow Down to Eurovision was a great success for Belgium, more artistically than on the score board but they made a sensational beer soup, yes that is a meal of beer!

This year they have gone for an equally comforting dish, with just a gentle nod to my idea of 80's food, where if it was covered in a cheese sauce it was fine dining.

Now the 80's weren't kind to hair or fashion but you can just imagine how great they were for Eurovision!

In 1981 Emly Starr sang Samson in Dublin, I'm not sure but I suspect in the 80's Samson may have lost all his butch manliness with a spiral perm.

Samson came 13th.

 

 

Witlof Gratin
Ingredients

• 8-9 witlof
• Squeeze of lemon
• 40g butter
• 60g plain flour
• 250ml milk
• 250ml chicken stock
• salt and pepper
• 200g  maasdam or Swiss cheese grated
• 8-9 slices of prosciutto
• 100g parmesan grated

Method

• Bring a pot of water to the boil and add squeeze of lemon
• Add the witlof and boil for about 10 minutes
• Drain the witlof upside down in a colander (it is best to do this over night so they aren't too water logged)
• Make the sauce 
• In a medium saucepan melt the butter on high heat
• Add the flour and combine to make a paste
• Cook for flour for about 1 minute
• Slowly add some milk/stock while whisking to avoid lumps
• Reduce the heat and continually stir
• As the sauce thicken add more milk/stock and continue to stir
• Repeat till all milk is used and sauce has thickened
• Add grated maasdam and stir through
• Season with salt and pepper
• Wrap each witlof in a slice of prosciutto and lay in a greased baking dish
• Cover with sauce
• Sprinkle top with parmesan
• Bake in 180°C oven for 30-35 minutes

If so inclined you can arrange them to recreate a scene from Alien with one poking up.

AB was not a fan of the bitterness in the witlof but I love it, that speaks volumes, AB is the nice one around here!

Copenhagen will see Axel Hirsoux perform the hauntingly beautiful ode Mother, which if he makes it through, the final is the day before Mother's Day, well played Sir, well played!

I hope he brings the backing dancer with him as in my world he is singing to the ghost of his mother, Edith Piaf.

Goei chance!



Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Belgium

We have arrived safe and sound in beautiful Belgium but let me tell you we had a bit of an adventure getting here. This recipe involved having to go to Rome and almost every bottle shop in Melbourne, ok it's a bit of a stretch but work with me I'm building the drama. So lets begin, 16th January 2009 10.35am flight from Heathrow to Fiumicino.........maybe I should just do the condensed version??
When I decided to do the Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 I put a call out for recipes and ideas to my friends from various European nations. We were all connected through our time studying in Roma. It is amazing how people can bond through a shared experience of overcoming adversity, ours was Italian grammar e i verbi, la gramatica non è perfetta. My favourite experience with this group was when the school tried to replace the teacher we all adored, Sylvia, for one we couldn't stand. (All I have to say is Talk Show and the memories will come flooding back to those in the class reading this) So as a group we all stormed into the Director's office and demanded that the change not occur, this happened in about 8 different languages, lots of nervous angry facial contortions and hands gestures but in the end Sylvia stayed with us. Yay for people power, but to be honest I think they just gave in so they didn't have to endure trying to speak with us again. There was almost a complete semi final of Eurovision amongst the class, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, and Ukraine who referred to me only as "Australia" so I referred to her as "Ukraine", I'm not sure if we actually know each others names.

So the call out for Belgium was answered by Virginie who gave me this website of Flanders recipes for ideas. Grazie mille Virginie, sei sempre gentile.

Of course I decided on the beer soup, so our adventure continues. The recipe called for Rodenbach beer which with a little help from the peeps on twitter I found a store that had it, great. Only hitch by the time I got there they had sold out, as had every other store that stocked it I tried. I finally saw a bottle shop with the sign "hundreds of beers in store" what they failed to mention was the sign referred to the empty cans on display and not the 1 fridge of 6 packs. I held out hope till yesterday but I still couldn't get it so you know how I love a plan B.

I thought I'd substitute a beer of similar flavour, this involved me standing and starring at the store beer fridge till they thought I was possibly a performance art statue. I eventually found one that mentioned caramel toffee and biscuit flavour in the description, how could I lose and well transaction complete.

Before I get to the soup, today's Eurovision morsel is Belgium's 1986 winner Sandra Kim. The clip I've included is a remake of her J'aime La Vie video 25 years later. Watch out as she swaps the ice-cream of her youth for a juice, personally I would have stuck with the ice-cream.

Beer Soup
Ingredients

• 2 leeks
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 6 sections of lamb neck
• 660ml Rodenbach or Black beer
• 2 cups beef stock (or water and 2 cubes)
• 150ml cream
• chives to garnish

Method

• Chop the leek and celery into 3 cm pieces
• Add the oil to a large boiler on high heat
• Brown the lamb necks
• Add the leek and celery and coat with oil
• Add the beer, stock and reduce the heat to a simmer
• Simmer for about 1 hour till the lamb is tender and soup has reduced slightly
• Remove the lamb and break up meat, discard the bones
• Blend the vegetables with the stock
• Add the cream and stir through
• Add the meat back to the soup
• Serve and sprinkle with some chives (garnish is love)
• Don't drink the beer before it hits the soup!

 

 

It may not taste anything like the original beer but this soup was so delicious I could eat a keg of the stuff!

 

This year Belgium will find out if Love Kills from Roberto Bellarosa can bring home another win.

goei chance!