The Belgians don’t only make chocolate, they have a superb (albeit one of the most underrated) cuisine on par with any sophisticated nation. Because the country lies in the middle of France, Luxembourg, Germany and Holland and has a tiny coastline on the North Sea,  a culinary fusion has developed that is unique and typical of the country. The area known as Belgium today has known many rulers, not limited only to the Celts, the Romans, the Franks, the Vikings,  the Spanish, the Austrians and the French (more or less in that order) and that all attributed to the culinary history and the creation of a cuisine that is

truly unique and utterly delicious. The first Belgians were hunter gatherers like so many other nations at that time but by the advent of the Middle Ages, when the country became the midpoint of the Northern European spice trade, a distinct cuisine had already developed. Peppercorns, cloves, ginger, saffron, cinnamon and nutmeg, not only spiced up the food but even their beer! To this day one finds spiced beer in Belgium – beer being the country’s national drink and also used liberally in cooking.

BELGIAN PORK CHOPS IN BEER

Ingredients

• 4 Pork chops, cleaned and trimmed
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large apple, peeled and chopped (just before use)
• 150ml Leffe beer
• 200 ml crème fraiche
• 25g Butter
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

• Season the chops and fry quickly in about half of the butter until both sides are golden brown and the meat cooked, set aside and keep warm.
• Heat the rest of the butter and fry the onions, then the apples lightly for a few minutes.
• Skim the meat residue of the pan and pour in the beer, simmering until the liquid has reduced to about one third.
• Add the crème fraiche and simmer to form a thick sauce  – pour over the chops and serve with stoemp.

Vegetables are important in Belgian cooking and feature in almost every meal. Potatoes, Brussels sprouts, hop shoots and lastly but most importantly the Belgian endive are turned into magical dishes that tempt even the most determined carnivore. Brussels sprouts were well known by around 1200 but it is the endive that has a story attached to it.  Belgian endive, also known as French endive and witloof, or white leaf, is a leafy vegetable that looks like a thin cylinder of tight, pale green leaves. It is somewhat unusual in that it is not grown from seed or seedlings directly in the soil. Instead, it is cultivated by forcing a second growth from the cut roots of chicory plants.

STOEMP

Ingredients

• 500 g Brussels sprouts, washed and halved
• 300 g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks – keep under cold water until used
• 200 g carrots, peeled and cut into half
• 100 g butter
• 1 bouquet garni
• Grated nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Boil the vegetables in salted water with the bouquet garni until soft.
• Mash everything together with a fork and season with the nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
• Fold in the butter and served hot with the pork chops or as is with a Pilsener beer.

“Credit for development of the Belgian endive is given to a Belgian botanist by the name of Brézier, who developed the “Brussels endive” from a coffee chicory root in 1846. The process of growing the Belgian endive is labour intensive, as it involves several stages. First, chicory seeds are sown and allowed to take root. After the roots are well established, the chicory leaves are harvested, and the roots are carefully pulled from the ground. The Belgian endive is then forced; that is, it is grown in darkness from the cut roots. The emerging endive must be kept beneath the soil, or covered by straw, to preserve its whiteness. Only the extreme tips of the leaves are allowed to emerge, gaining exposure to light and turning green. There is also a variant with purple leaves. The Belgian endive may be eaten baked, steamed, boiled, grilled, or raw”.

SPICY ORANGE AND HONEY BELGIUM ENDIVE

Belgiums is sown in open fields during the months of May and June and are harvested in September and October.

Ingredients

• 2 heads of chicory, cored and cut in half
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 100ml fresh orange juice
• 50 ml honey, warmed
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp cumin
• Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C
• Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan.
• Season the chicory with a little salt, pepper and cumin then place them into the pan with the cut side down.
• Cook for 2 – 3 minutes until it just begins to colour.
• Pour over the orange juice, drizzle the honey and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
• Stir in the mustard then place the pan in the oven for 30 minutes, turning and basting it occasionally.

So important is good food in Belgium, that it has the highest number of restaurants with Michelin stars per capita (while McDonalds  has consistently haemorrhaged money). The character of Belgian food can best be described as Modernised Medieval French Nouveau Cuisine. The food is spicy, beer and vinegar often used in both savoury and sweet dishes and mustard is not forgotten either. Fresh herbs like chives, chervil, parsely, tarragon and thyme are well loved. Venison is popular, fish and all kinds of seafood so well liked that it often has to be obtained from sister country, Holland because only the freshest will do. One of the most delightful street foods has to be the famous frites that are always sold, served in triangular paper bags with loads dollops of  mayonnaise, bearnaise sauce and even the dreaded curry sauce. Breakfasts are continental, lunch the main meal and dinner somewhat lighter but no less delicious.

Belgian chocolate began when Leopold II of Belgium* colonized the Congo in 1885 and managed to get a foothold into Africa. He had easy access to the cocoa plantations, loads of workers and the rest is history.  The Belgian contribution to chocolate is immense as they were responsible for the creation of praline – a family called the Neuhaus family – a Swiss family who lived in Brussels in 1912 have to take the cudos here – a buttercream-filled, bite-sized chocolate was the result,  it was filled with either with nuts or cream and coated with milk chocolate or crammed full of  a very good quality dark chocolate. A packaging known as  Ballotin was developed and patented for praline. Sugar remained a luxury until the 19^th century in Belgium, but from time immemorial there had always been apple and pear trees in Eastern Belgium on the edge of the Hautes Fagnes and for about 400 years the inhabitants boiled down the fruit of these trees into a thick, glutinous syrup that was black and sweet. Both children and adults loved it and chefs used it for savoury and sweet dishes. Not many business make this syrup anymore but the Siroperie Nyssen in Aubel still does and as soon as the fruit harvest begins in the middle of September, local farmers bring down their fruit to the siroperie and the fruit is shovelled into three huge copper kettles until they can hold no more. Each kettle can hold about 2,800 kilograms of fruit and it boils for 12 hours. It stands to reason that the syrup, like wine, will vary from year to year.

BELGIAN SUGAR TART

Ingredients

Pastry

• 350 ml all-purpose flour
• 20 ml granulated sugar
• 50 g unsalted butter, softened
• 60 ml milk, warmed so that it is just warm to the touch
• 7 g active dry yeast
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• A pinch of salt
• 1 extra large egg, beaten

Filling

• 120 ml heavy cream
• 2 extra large eggs
• 5 ml pure vanilla extract
• 250 ml packed dark brown sugar
• 60 ml unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• Icing sugar, for dusting
• 500 g blueberries or strawberries or currants or cape gooseberries, for serving
• Unsweetened whipped cream, for serving

Method

• In a small bowl, combine the milk with the yeast.
• Sift the flour into the bowl with the sugar, cinnamon and salt.
• Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add the milk mixture, the egg and the butter and using the fingers, gradually work the flour into the ingredients so that it all comes together to make a dough.
• Knead the dough until the pastry smooth and glossy and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the pastry to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
• Sift flour onto a working surface and roll out until it is about half a centimetre thick and fit into a tart pan with a removable bottom (about 23cm) and then trim the overhang.
• Cover with cling wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 10 to 20 minutes before filling.
• Make the filling:
• Preheat the oven to 200 C.
• Whisk  the cream with the eggs and the vanilla extract.
• Cream the brown sugar and butter until you have a smooth thick cream and pour the filling into the tart shell, bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 180 C for another 20 minutes until the custard is completely set.
• Transfer to a rack to cool and sift icing sugar over the tart.
• Serve warm or at room temperature with berries and whipped cream.

*Leopold II committed large scale genocide when he murdered about 10 million Africans in the most horrific ways  during his reign.