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This is an evening to invite all your cultural, creative and deep-thinking friends for a candlelit dinner with vibrant discussions around life, love and art accompanied by great food. All in honour of the master Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Rembrandt was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden, the Netherlands, and is considered one of the greatest painters of all time. He is famous for being a master of portraiture, landscape and narrative painting. He had a great interest in painting biblical themes… and also created highly evocative paintings on the big themes of love and life. His distinctive play with darkness and light was groundbreaking and his very honest and emotionally affecting works gave him a reputation for having great empathy for the human condition. This very broad and deep interest in people, love, religion and nature makes him our candidate to headline an evening for digging in to the deep discussions on the one big mystery there is: Life→
Menu
This menu is based on traditional Dutch food and is something similar to what you might be served at a family gathering in the Netherlands.
Dutch tomato soup
Serves 4 people
This tomato soup made with bacon makes a good start to any meal as well as a light lunch if served with some bread.
Amount and Ingredients
- 5 dl chicken stock
- 150 g bacon, diced
- 1 pcs onion, chopped
- 1 pcs small carrot, chopped
- 1 tbsp butter for sautéing
- 2 tbsp butter
- 500 g tomatoes, diced
- 1 pcs bay leaf
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pinch thyme
Instructions
Sauté the onion, bacon and carrot in the butter until they start to colour. Add the tomatoes, spices and chicken stock. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, remove the bay leaf and mix the soup in a blender until smooth. Return the soup to the saucepan and bring to the boil, season with salt and pepper, add 2 tablespoons of butter while stirring. Serve hot in soup bowls or soup plates.
Roast pork with mustard sauce
Serves 4 people
Always cook the pork with the fat left on, since you will get a juicier roast and it looks nicer.
Amount and Ingredients
- 2 kg pork roast, boned, with fat on
- 1 pcs large onion, peeled and cut into wedges.
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 pcs carrot, sliced
- 3 tbsp coarse Dutch mustard
- 3 dl chicken stock
- 1 dl cream
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- cornstarch
- 1 kg potatoes, peeled
Instructions
Cut the fat down to the meat diagonally at 1-cm intervals, turn the meat and repeat to create a criss-cross pattern. Season with salt and pepper. Place the meat in a roasting pan together with the onion, carrot and garlic and potatoes. To make the sauce: Remove the potatoes from the pan and keep warm. De-glaze the roasting pan with a little water. Transfer the liquid and the vegetables to a saucepan, add the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer until vegetables are very soft. Strain the sauce through a sieve into a new saucepan and return to the boil, add the cream, mustard and season with salt and pepper. If you want the sauce thicker, dissolve cornstarch in a little water and add it little by little to the sauce until you get the desired thickness.
Cooking with Inspiro
Set the oven for Auto Cooking, roasting, Pork/Veal, Roast Pork. Enter the weight and cook. When the meat is cooked, wrap in greaseproof paper and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Cooking with regular oven
Preheat the oven to 190°C, Insert a meat thermometer and cook the meat for about 1.5 hours or until the core temperature reaches 76°C. When the meat is cooked, wrap in greaseproof paper and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Final preparations
Slice the pork roast and serve with mustard sauce, roast potatoes and a green salad.
Apple-filled pancakes
Serves 4 people
In the Netherlands, you will find pancake houses everywhere you look. These pancakes are filled with apples and cinnamon and are great with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Amount and Ingredients
For the pancakes- 75 g sifted flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pcs large egg
- 2 dl milk
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 50 g melted butter
For the filling- 2 tbsp raisins
- 600 g Granny Smith apples
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon powder
- 3 tbsp apple butter or thick syrup
- 100 g sugar
- 40 g butter
- 3 dl whipping cream for serving
Instructions
Soak the raisins in water. Make the pancake batter by beating together all the ingredients. Set aside and let the batter rest for 30 minutes or more. Mix in the melted butter. Use a non-stick frying pan and make 12 thin pancakes about 30 cm in diameter. Peel, core and dice the apples, sprinkle with lemon juice. Heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan and fry the apples for 3 minutes. Add the raisins and sprinkle with cinnamon and a tablespoon of sugar. Fold a few times and remove from the heat. Grease an oven dish. Spread one side of each pancake with apple butter or syrup and with the apple-raisins mix. Fold each pancake in four and arrange them in the dish. Sprinkle with the rest of the sugar and bake for 12 - 15 minutes in the oven at 200°C. Serve warm with whipped cream.
Drinks
If you think of Dutch drinks, Jenever and lager beer come immediately to mind, but there are also Dutch wines and this is a good chance to try them out. Ask your wine store for recommendations. If your wine store doesn’t have Dutch wines, here are some alternatives:
Some recommendations
Starter
For the starter, go for a German Riesling like the Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spätlese Trocken 2003
Main course
For the main course, pick a wine with lots of flavour and spices, like a South African pinotage.
Dessert
The dessert, with its apples, cinnamon and sugar matches beautifully with an Austrian Trockenbeerenauslese
Music
Rembrandt lived from 1606 to 1669, an era known as the Baroque period in European culture. Baroque composers include Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Händel, and Johann Sebastian Bach. So get yourself some classical pieces to play in the background throughout the evening.
Antonio Vivaldi
The best of Vivaldi
George Frideric Handel, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Messiah
Johann Sebastian Bach
Essential Bach
Activities
Since one of Rembrandt’s greatest skills was self-portraits, and he produced over 90 of them, we think that a self-portrait competition might be just the thing. After dinner, give your friends a sheet of nice, thick drawing paper and a piece of charcoal. Give them a few minutes to sketch their own self portrait and then have a vote. The best piece wins a prize, like a book on Rembrandt’s work or a nice sketch book. Alternately, if your guests are not that artistic, a game of Pictionary is always good fun.
Decorations
It’s all about lighting. One of Rembrandt’s signature skills was the way he worked with dramatic contrasts between darkness and light. The best lighting for this table would be a dark room with very narrow beam spotlights centred on the table but if you lack spotlights in your dining room, candlelight will do the trick. Whatever you do, let the area around the table be quite dark. For the table, we suggest a classic romantic setting with white or off-white rough linen tablecloth and napkins, silver chandeliers and crystal glasses. It’s also nice to serve the wine from a crystal carafe. Table decorations can include flowers, leaves and fruits such as grapes, apples and peaches.
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