Christmas is about celebrating life with family and friends. It is a special time when traditions and stories are shared and, while we are all Kiwis, our backgrounds encompass many cultures. We need to treasure our heritage and pass on our knowledge so that Christmas traditions and recipes remain an important part of family life, whatever your culture.
NCEA exams are over and the senior students have packed up their bags for the year so this week we are doing a Dutch Christmas.
My parents, Leon and Christina van der Fits (the name gives the culture away), are retired dairy farmers who have lived in coastal Pungarehu for more than 50 years. There is a large wooden windmill sitting among the flowers in the garden and my father still wears clogs outside in winter.
While we celebrate Christmas down the road on my brother's farm, there are still Dutch traditions that must be strictly adhered to. Two foods in particular must be eaten. The first is tompouce, which is a Dutch version of the Kiwi custard squares. In line with Dutch tradition, they must be served with a creamy cappuccino mid- morning after mass, eaten from a pretty Dutch plate with a cake fork (both of which came from Holland 54 years ago). The other stipulation for these tasty treats is that they must have a thick layer of pink butter icing.
In our version of the custard square, we have omitted the butter, that is usually added to the custard, in order to make it healthier and decrease the overall saturated fat content. The custard still sets firmly and tastes just as nice. We trialled with Standard (blue top) milk and Calcitrim (yellow top) milk and both worked well. Spread a thin layer of icing and add a few drops of colouring to give a pale pink colour.
Our second traditional Dutch dish that must be eaten on Christmas Day is the kerstfeest slaatje. This is a healthy, well- balanced savoury salad dish served on a large platter. The base of the salad is a mixture of mashed potato and finely chopped corned beef and may contain cooked, diced beetroot. The texture is soft and moist and is piled in the centre of the platter which is then covered with a thin layer of mayonnaise and decorated attractively with salad ingredients such as lettuce, tomato, sliced hard-boiled egg, sliced gherkin and cocktail onions.
The salad ingredients are simple and that dates back to the early days when fresh tomato and lettuce were a treat for families. Corned beef stock is added to the potatoes when they are mashed to give extra beef flavour.
My parents still insist on making the slaatje and they are the experts with many years of experience.Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. They make enough to cater for their large extended family and provide leftovers that can be taken home for the evening meal or to eat on Boxing Day.
We serve the slaatje with a few slices of Christmas ham and freshly cooked crayfish. The slaatje must be eaten sitting around the large family dining table for as many as we can comfortably seat. Saying grace and having the best crockery out add to the ambience of the meal.
After eating the meal, the townies in our family have a cup of tea followed by a beach walk from the end of Tipoka Rd while the farmers race home for the afternoon milking.
Make Christmas a special time with your family and friends. Enjoy the traditions and let the older generation tell their stories so the family culture and traditions are passed on to the younger ones.
If you enjoy Kai with Soul recipes, the first two years' worth have been collected in a great book. Published to celebrate the school's jubilee, you can buy it from the school office, Poppies Bookshop, The Crafty Fox and Mitre 10 Mega for $30. All profits go to the school. It's selling so well that it has gone into a second print run.
Content provided by Katy Power and the year 13 Food and Nutrition class at Spotswood College.
Roll out the sheets of pastry on a lightly floured bench to 3 millimetres in thickness (about 27cm by 23cm). Keep your rolling pin lightly floured in the process.
Lift and turn the pastry to prevent it sticking to the bench.
Roll away and sprinkle extra flour on the bench if the bench gets sticky.
Place each sheet of pastry on to an oven tray,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, use a fork to prick all over the pastry then bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden and puffed.
Cool the pastry sheets slightly, then trim the sides so they are straight. Line the base and two sides of a cake tin or baking dish with tinfoil and place one sheet of pastry into this. Aim to have the pastry the same size as the dish being used. (An expanding cake tin would be ideal.)
Spread the cooked custard evenly over the pastry base, using a rubber scraper.
Place the top sheet of pastry, puffed side down,Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design， over the custard and press firmly.
Spread the icing evenly over the top of the pastry sheet and refrigerate, covered with plastic foodwrap.If so, you may have a cube puzzle .
Cut into even squares once the custard has set. This takes a couple of hours or leave overnight.
Serve the custard squares on a small plate with a cake fork for ease of eating.
An expanding tin makes it easy to remove the custard slab before cutting into squares.Unlike traditional high risk merchant account ,
Use a sharp knife and wet the blade under hot water. This makes the process of cutting through the custard and pastry a lot easier.
Cut the slab into squares within a few hours after making, while the pastry is easier to cut through. The pastry becomes moist the next day and is harder to cut through.
NCEA exams are over and the senior students have packed up their bags for the year so this week we are doing a Dutch Christmas.
My parents, Leon and Christina van der Fits (the name gives the culture away), are retired dairy farmers who have lived in coastal Pungarehu for more than 50 years. There is a large wooden windmill sitting among the flowers in the garden and my father still wears clogs outside in winter.
While we celebrate Christmas down the road on my brother's farm, there are still Dutch traditions that must be strictly adhered to. Two foods in particular must be eaten. The first is tompouce, which is a Dutch version of the Kiwi custard squares. In line with Dutch tradition, they must be served with a creamy cappuccino mid- morning after mass, eaten from a pretty Dutch plate with a cake fork (both of which came from Holland 54 years ago). The other stipulation for these tasty treats is that they must have a thick layer of pink butter icing.
In our version of the custard square, we have omitted the butter, that is usually added to the custard, in order to make it healthier and decrease the overall saturated fat content. The custard still sets firmly and tastes just as nice. We trialled with Standard (blue top) milk and Calcitrim (yellow top) milk and both worked well. Spread a thin layer of icing and add a few drops of colouring to give a pale pink colour.
Our second traditional Dutch dish that must be eaten on Christmas Day is the kerstfeest slaatje. This is a healthy, well- balanced savoury salad dish served on a large platter. The base of the salad is a mixture of mashed potato and finely chopped corned beef and may contain cooked, diced beetroot. The texture is soft and moist and is piled in the centre of the platter which is then covered with a thin layer of mayonnaise and decorated attractively with salad ingredients such as lettuce, tomato, sliced hard-boiled egg, sliced gherkin and cocktail onions.
The salad ingredients are simple and that dates back to the early days when fresh tomato and lettuce were a treat for families. Corned beef stock is added to the potatoes when they are mashed to give extra beef flavour.
My parents still insist on making the slaatje and they are the experts with many years of experience.Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. They make enough to cater for their large extended family and provide leftovers that can be taken home for the evening meal or to eat on Boxing Day.
We serve the slaatje with a few slices of Christmas ham and freshly cooked crayfish. The slaatje must be eaten sitting around the large family dining table for as many as we can comfortably seat. Saying grace and having the best crockery out add to the ambience of the meal.
After eating the meal, the townies in our family have a cup of tea followed by a beach walk from the end of Tipoka Rd while the farmers race home for the afternoon milking.
Make Christmas a special time with your family and friends. Enjoy the traditions and let the older generation tell their stories so the family culture and traditions are passed on to the younger ones.
If you enjoy Kai with Soul recipes, the first two years' worth have been collected in a great book. Published to celebrate the school's jubilee, you can buy it from the school office, Poppies Bookshop, The Crafty Fox and Mitre 10 Mega for $30. All profits go to the school. It's selling so well that it has gone into a second print run.
Content provided by Katy Power and the year 13 Food and Nutrition class at Spotswood College.
Roll out the sheets of pastry on a lightly floured bench to 3 millimetres in thickness (about 27cm by 23cm). Keep your rolling pin lightly floured in the process.
Lift and turn the pastry to prevent it sticking to the bench.
Roll away and sprinkle extra flour on the bench if the bench gets sticky.
Place each sheet of pastry on to an oven tray,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, use a fork to prick all over the pastry then bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden and puffed.
Cool the pastry sheets slightly, then trim the sides so they are straight. Line the base and two sides of a cake tin or baking dish with tinfoil and place one sheet of pastry into this. Aim to have the pastry the same size as the dish being used. (An expanding cake tin would be ideal.)
Spread the cooked custard evenly over the pastry base, using a rubber scraper.
Place the top sheet of pastry, puffed side down,Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design， over the custard and press firmly.
Spread the icing evenly over the top of the pastry sheet and refrigerate, covered with plastic foodwrap.If so, you may have a cube puzzle .
Cut into even squares once the custard has set. This takes a couple of hours or leave overnight.
Serve the custard squares on a small plate with a cake fork for ease of eating.
An expanding tin makes it easy to remove the custard slab before cutting into squares.Unlike traditional high risk merchant account ,
Use a sharp knife and wet the blade under hot water. This makes the process of cutting through the custard and pastry a lot easier.
Cut the slab into squares within a few hours after making, while the pastry is easier to cut through. The pastry becomes moist the next day and is harder to cut through.
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