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My Books: Belgian Café Culture

20th October 2016 by Regula 29 Comments

A week after the launch of Pride And Pudding, exactly one year ago, I started working on a new book, a passion project…

This book ‘Belgian Café Culture / Authentieke Belgische Cafés (in English and Dutch) is a plea to carefully handle the fragile café heritage of Belgium. For too long have we taken these little cafés for granted. Not enough have we stopped to think about their history and their relevance in our culture. They are part of our social and cultural patrimony in Belgium. When I walk the streets, everywhere I look I see forgotten and lost cafés.

When I read in the papers that a much-loved café was going to close down I went to visit it, to talk to the people there who were about to lose their local. I was probably one of the last to document it. Nothing could be done; the owners of the building wanted to renovate the café and there is wind of a more hipster implementation. For this reason alone a lot of authentic cafés have had to go.

Although this heritage has always been staring me in the face, I only realised how fragile it is, and how important it is to preserve it, after taking a Belgian beer sommelier course which involved a lot of homework visiting cafés. The news of the closure of café Den Akker gave me the drive to do something about it in the only way I know how: by writing this book and documenting the importance of it.

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Five years ago today, in a little town in England. Wedding bells, balloons, and beer.

10th June 2016 by Regula 3 Comments

A little personal post from me, but then again, it is a personal blog so it is alright.
Five years ago to this day, Bruno and I got married in our home away from home in Sussex, UK. When thinking about how we wanted to get married, it was important for us that we did it our way, or not at all. We are not religious, so we are not bound to a mother church. We are not emotionally bound to the country or town that we live in, so that was not an option either. So this little quintessentially English town that had been our favourite place in the world for years, and for me in my teens, was the only place we really could see us getting married.

The day came and so did the rain, it felt like it was march, the time when we had our fixed date in the calendar to visit this little town. The week before on our visit to sort the last paperwork kerfuffle it had been a heat wave here, but on our wedding day it was windy and cold. Although my dress was made for summer, the cold didn’t bother me that day, the wind did mess up my hair, but the torrential rain waited until we had to go for our dinner at the towns oldest and most haunted Inn.

We got married in town hall, where I arrived late making everyone there nervous as hell. The town crier was there to be a witness to the occasion and to loudly accompany us to the nearby historic public house for a toast. The whole town came out to see us and followed us to the pub, over the cobbles and in the light drizzle of rain. When we arrived at the pub, the blessed town crier threw open the heavy 17th century door and cried that the bride and groom had arrived. The unsuspecting punters at the bar nearly choked in their pints. We toasted with Stout and Cider and after my fresh husband and I got two hours to be together and walk around our beloved town while our friends Sassy and Frank took photo’s for our album and a little video….

My Books: Pride and Pudding

26th October 2015 by Regula 39 Comments

Pride and Pudding – The history of British Puddings Savoury and Sweet takes you on a journey through the fascinating culinary past of Great Britain.
Published by Murdoch Books in Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Also available in a Dutch translation.
Pride and Pudding was selected as one of the best ‘Books of 2016’ by Sheila Dillon from the BBC Food Programme, Delicious Magazine, the Irish Times and the Guardian. It was also shortlisted for the prestigious Andre Simon Award and the Fortnum & Mason award. The book won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for the UK, in the Food Heritage category.

Why this book?

Every book I write is about preserving a heritage, because in the present day far too much importance is given to new and exciting things while the past holds a treasure of beauty that is often forgotten. (See my other book Belgian Cafe Culture HERE)

Captivated by British cuisine – from its ancient savoury dishes such as the Scottish haggis to traditional sweet and savoury pies, pastries, jellies and ices, flummeries, junkets and jam roly-poly – I tell the story of British food, paying homage in particular to the great British pudding, which is versatile and wonderful in all its guises.

By tracing back to authentic cookery texts, the earliest of which dates from 14th century, I have re-created more than 80 recipes for the twenty-first century, and in the process I have rediscovered long-forgotten flavours and food fashions. I show you how pudding evolved over the centuries from being a savoury, often meat-based sausage-like dish, to the more dessert puddings we know today.

Pudding was so important in British culture that even foreign visitors wrote about them and British food, for example this one, by a French visitor in his diary:

“Blessed be he that invented pudding for it is a manna that hits the palates of all sorts of people…ah what an excellent thing is an English pudding.”

In the book I explore how religion and politics all influenced food and flavours, and how wartime shaped what British food is today.

Part food history and part recipe book, I tried to capture the essence of Britishness through its food, this is a different kind of cookbook.
It took me 2,5 years to complete the book, of which most of it was research.

The illustrations in the book are created by my husband and tell part of the stories, as do the photoghraphs which I have taken myself. I also designed the book, so as you can see this is a very personal project.

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To order online Amazon UK and Waterstones (I don’t receive any commission from sales by clicking) Or signed copies through email, see contact page

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Praise for Pride and Pudding

It’s a labour of love that revives your faith in cookbooks – erudite, original, beautifully written, gorgeously shot and styled – something you’ll definitely want to own and leaf through. If it doesn’t win one of next year’s food writing and/or photography prizes I’ll be amazed.

Fiona Beckett

award-winning food and wine writer. Wine columnist for The Guardian and the author of 23 books on food, wine and beer.

This is quite definitely the most beautiful food book I have ever seen.
Regula Ysewijn has the aesthetic eye of an Old Master and the intelligence and attention to detail of a well-read scholar.
Every page is a delight. I would never have believed that a prune tart or cabbage pudding could look so captivating. You will want to have Pride and Pudding on your bookshelves. Not only because is it an extraordinarily fine looking book thats a pleasure to handle and behold, but also because the contents are fascinating.
Pride and Pudding is an astonishing achievement from an exceptional writer.

Joanna Blythman
acclaimed journalist and author of 7 books, most recent: ‘Swallow this’

Cook favourite and maverick creative Regula Ysewijn, is set to publish her first book, Pride and Pudding, in April. What started out as a childhood hankering for traditional English fare has become an all-consuming social study of the historical treats of Britain. And this is the beautifully illustrated, hardbacked result. Ysewijn collected handwritten cookbooks and vintage pudding moulds. She researched the etymologies of our dish names and the chronologies of our tastebuds. Crucially, she cooked the ancient recipes she came across, photographing, in glorious , painterly detail, jaune manges and apple tansies and glimmery almond flummeries. What a beauty of a book this is.

The Guardian – Cook

A truly wonderful thing of beauty…a very tasty masterpiece’ – Jamie Oliver

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Where to find my book

The English version is available online: Amazon UK and Waterstones! (I don’t receive any commission from sales by clicking)

The Dutch book costs 35 euros + shipping cost. You can find it in bookstores in Belgium and Holland (not signed).

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We have created something special:

The Limited edition pack

PRIDE-AND-PUDDING-LIMITED-EDITION-regula-ysewijn-LR

The Limited edition package with handmade pudding basin, a signed book, card set and signed art print.
Another news is that I’ve been working on a little project with pottery artist Solomia Zoumaras to create a Pride and Pudding – pudding basin! We’re still trying out glazes and clays but we managed to get a good one out of the kiln to show to you lovely people! The cool thing is that on the outside the pudding basin is quite modern, but the inside has a different shape so that your christmas pudding will come out pudding-shaped! So here is the deal: There will be 25 pudding basins, handmade by Solomia and printed with a design from the book. These basins come with a signed book (Dutch or English) a card set designed by Bruno, and a signed art print of one of the illustrations.

The limited edition costs 120 £ + shipping and contains*:
• A signed book – made out to whom you wish and personal message if you would like that
• The hand made pudding basin, designed by Solomia and I
• A card set with 5 cards (see below)
• A signed and numbered aprox. A5 size art print of one of the illustrations

Status pre-order for Limited edition:
Available: 25 / Sold: 15

Payment possible with paypal : contact me for a shipping quote

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pride-and-pudding-regula-ysewijn-handmade-basins-limited-edition-5831

pride-and-pudding-regula-ysewijn-handmade-basins-limited edition-5791

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Some reviews:

in English:

The Guardian > (30/01/16)

Fish on Friday >

The botanical Kitchen >

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in Italian:

Jul’s Kitchen >

Ma che ti sei mangiato >

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in Polish:

Cos Niecos >

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in Portuguese:

Lemon and Vanilla >

Ananas e Hortela >

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in Dutch:

Het Parool: by Jonah Freud >

Kitchen table happiness >

Aagje Blok >

Cuberdon Macaron >

To see my other books see the books page, to order a limited or signed copy email me x

Summertime at Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube

12th July 2013 by Regula 13 Comments

I was invited to join in on the fun for Jamie Oliver’s latest live Food Tube show on monday. After the first taxi stood me up I arrived at location fashionably late.
The back alley of the newly launched Fifteen restaurant – which is amazing, give it a try – was dressed up like a street fair with bales of hay, colorful bunting and artwork on the walls by Barnaby Purdy

Donal Skehan was there to cook up some tasty food along with the totally crazy smokin DJ BBQ, the lovely Chiappa sisters, the sweet Jemma from Crumbs & Doilies and the charming Gennaro Contaldo. There were the two boys of JacksGap who had a chilli tasting challenge with Mr chilli lover himself: Jamie Oliver. Plenty of Yoghurt was at hand to ease the burning flame of the little green devils. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in their place, it looked painfully fiery.

It was chaotic, it was exciting and still it was relaxed and layed back at the same time.

And if you are wondering, there was no real rehearsal before, it’s just a bunch of people doing what they do best, play with food – or if you’re Camden Brewery – with beer!

I had a great chat with Donal who is as lovely in real life as his
online persona – because as Jamie pointed out as well, we all feel we
know each other from our Instagram feeds and so meeting the first time
never feels like a first encounter at all.
I won’t lie, meeting Jamie and having a chat with him was a special moment. I would be playing it cool if I didn’t admit to it. But not because of his fame, but because of the amount of respect I have for him. Like so many others from my generation and beyond I took my first steps in the kitchen with the scribbles and notes I made while watching The Naked Chef.

My
mom wasn’t interested in cooking at all but I had a weird need to cook.
My first creation were rice waffles smeared with Nutella and butter,
layered into a cake. It was a sunday morning in the
spring of my sixt year and had woken up before the crack of dawn to
surprise my mom and dad with this “delicious” treat – they kindly refused to eat it though 🙂 The
kitchen was a mess, the rice waffle cake mysteriously disappeared
during the day and I forgot about cooking until the next time I made the
kitchen explode with burnt baked beans.

When
The Naked Chef came to our screens I saw a teacher, someone who told
me, relax, have fun and just cook it! So I did and I made some weird
looking food, I never been one to follow a recipe so all I did was use
my hands, feel the ingredients, smell them, taste them and chuck
together what I thought would be fabulous.

When
the plea for better school meals and the first Food Revolution Day
came, so awoke the Food activist me. I made better food choices and
tried to inform the people around me to do so as well.

Sustainable,
healthy food choices and animal welfare are subjects close to my heart.
I always hope to inspire people to think about their food choices, even
if I just reach one person I will have made a difference.I’m still pinching myself because Jamie named me as his favourite food blogger in The Sunday Times last month!The live show is gone from the Food Tube Channel on Youtube but there are some other fun bits to watch, especially the chilli challenge I mentioned before.
Don’t miss the next show, it’s great fun to watch, and to be involved in!
Thanks for inviting me!

Lookin smokin hot – DJ-BBQ

Red Hot Gennaro

Cooking Puttanesca

The boys having fun

This is what pain looks like – chilli challenge

beautiful food

pulled pork

Camden beer

Behind the scenes

You might also enjoy

Food Revolution Day 2013 – The ‘Last Night’s Leftovers’ lunch
A farmers life for me

Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding – Happy birthday to me …

28th March 2013 by Regula 29 Comments

Here we are again, the day I look forward to the most during the year … my birthday.
It’s the day when I am queen, when I am allowed to wear a crown of flowers and walk around in my widest petticoat no matter where I’m going even if it is a farm or going on a clifftop walk on my favourite Sussex coastal path.
Today – I bloom – like fiery red flower in a colorless world.

It’s a big birthday this year -29- for the second time. Some part of me wanted to do a big party, another part just wanted it to blow over. I decided on a last minute posh afternoon tea at Kensington palace with my friends Sassy and Jo when we were gathered in London for Bruno‘s exhibition.
I had a special dress, made by my friend Jo, you might remember her from her Hotpot recipe a few months ago. Jo designs and produces beautiful bespoke wedding and special occasion gowns and after months of working on the design together it was ready to flaunt when we went for our Afternoon tea.

I call it my England dress, it shows the story behind my love for this country and its ways in an illustration Bruno designed and Jo embroidered onto the dress. I felt tears coming to my eyes when she revealed the dress… Aren’t I a lucky lady …
Jo’s craft-wo-manship is exquisite, the detail is amazing. Her brodeuse captured Bruno’s every line, flower and every tiny apple. The dress is all kinds of perfect and if you know me -being a perfectionist- I hardly ever find things perfect…
It is a special feeling when a friend makes you a dress, it will never feel completely mine, it will always be hers as well.
Thank you darling Jo, for making me the most special dress in the world x Thank you my dear friend Sassy for taking these pictures as a keepsake to remember x

A few of you were eager to see my dress so if you aren’t interested
in a girl running around in a red dress feeding swans and getting
attacked by squirrels – scroll all the way down for a good pudding!

Earlier this week I posted my recipe for Hot Cross Buns, while testing the recipe I had mountains of buns leftover and I didn’t want to waste them so I froze them. Now I use the buns to make my Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding. I guaranty you that a Bread and Butter Pudding has never tasted better! As the Hot Cross Buns contains spices and currants already, there is no need to add more.
Enjoy lovely people x

Now for a sweet treat …

Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding

What do you need
2 enamel 20cm pie dishes
2-3 stale hot cross buns sliced in 1 cm wide slices
butter
350ml/12fl oz whole milk
50ml/2fl oz double cream
2 free-range eggs
2 teaspoons of light brown demerara sugar
2 teaspoons of raw cane sudar to sprinkle on top
Nutmeg, grated to taste

Method

Butter 1 side of the hot cross bun slices
Arrange a layer of bun slices, buttered-side up, in the bottom of the dish.
Gently warm the milk and cream in a pan over a low heat to scalding point, be careful not to let it boil.
Crack the eggs into a bowl, add three the sugar and lightly whisk until pale
Add the warm milk and cream mixture to the eggs and stir well
Pour the custard over the prepared hot cross bun layers and sprinkle with nutmeg and the remaining sugar
Preheat the oven to 180C
Place the dish into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the custard has set and the top is nicely golden-brown

Enjoy while warm!

You might also like
Hot Cross Buns – paganism, christianity and superstition >
My vegan chocolate and beetroot birthday cake >

All pictures except for the ones with the Hot Cross Bun & Butter Pudding are copyright by the talented Sassy of Assassynation photography.
Gown handmade in Britain by The Couture Company in Birmingham.

Mussels with Belgian fries for Food Revolution day

17th May 2012 by Regula 27 Comments

Today we take a stand, for real food, for life and for family.
…

Food revolution is an organisation from Jamie Oliver.

As Jamie says in his article for the Huffington Post, “Food Revolution Day is an opportunity for everyone around the world to
do something. The Food Revolution and Food Revolution Day is about
empowering people through education or, frankly, just inspiring people
to be more street-wise about food, where it comes from and how it
affects their bodies. If you know how to cook you can save yourself
money, feel better and live longer, and the chances are, your kids will
follow suit. After all, we all kind of become our parents in the end.”

People tend to see Jamie as that cheeky guy from Essex, the naked chef. What a lot of folks don’t realize is the fact that he actually uses his ‘celebrity chef’ status to do good, to make a change. In 2005 he declared war to the unhealthy British school dinners, in 2010 he took the fight to Amerika. He has built kitchens all over Britain with his Ministry of Food, to learn people how to cook so they can teach others to do so as well. He is passionate about food and people’s relationship with food.

Today on 19 May, Food Revolution Day will happen in kitchens, homes and communities around the world.

In my case Food Revolution Day will start on my blog and the blogs of a few other lovely Ladies from all over the globe.
We are friends who have one big thing in common; our love for food – real food. So we found it very important to get involved. As we live in various places around the world and we couldn’t sadly be together for this day, we
are having a ‘virtual Potluck‘ dinner, this is where every guest brings a dish
she or he made to the table. We are
all preparing local sustainable food, in the hope to inspire others to
cook on this day. The dishes will be easy to cook and no processed food is allowed.We can’t be together today ladies, but we are closer together than some people will ever be. Have a wonderful Food Revolution Day!

Take a look at our delicious menu
…………………………………………………………………….

Nibbles by Karin from ‘Yum&More’ in Germany originally from the USA

Panzanella by Giulia from ‘Jul’s kitchen’ in Italy

Salad with local greens by Valeria from ‘My life love food’ in England originally from Italy

Mussels with real Belgian fries by Regula from ‘Foodwise’ in Belgium

Crespelle Verdi di Pesce by Emiko from ‘Emiko Davies’ in Australia

Vanilla honey rhubarb galette by Zita from ‘Zizi’s adventures’ in Hungary
Rhubarb Panna Cota by Sarka from ‘Cook your dream’, England-originally from Czech Republic

……………………………………………………………………………

I am preparing Moules et frites, Mussels with real Belgian fries.

Did you know mussels are an eco-friendly, sustainable seafood choice?
Like oysters and clams, mussels actually clean the water they’re grown in.
They have no impact on the water because they don’t require treatment against disease.
Mussels are also high in protein, zinc, vitamin C, Iron and omega-3 so they are a healthy food choice.It has been said for hundreds of years that mussels are in season in each month that has an ‘R’ in it, but this is an old tale that originated from a time when there was no cooled transport. The fishermen couldn’t get the mussels live and well to their destination.
Now the season runs from July until april for the ‘Zeeuwse’ mussels, so I was very lucky to get the last of the catch.
I live just a 15 minute drive from Zeeland, where the ‘Zeeuwse’ mussel happily lives and thrives in the protected waters from the River Schelde.We are going to bake the Belgian fries in the traditional way using ‘Beef tallow’ for frying. The real ‘Frit kot’ (chip shops) in Belgium still uses this Beef tallow -rendered beef fat- and swear by it because it is actually healthier than the vegetable oil that is been used in a lot of places these days.
Beef tallow is highly resistant
to rancidity and much more resistant to high temperatures than the
vegetable oil. To be safe to eat you can only use the vegetable oil once
but due to its higher price a lot of places use it twice or more,
leaving the customer often with stomach and intestinal pains. Also in flavour, the vegetable oil can’t compete with the beef tallow and as for sustainability… beef tallow also wins because its a by-product!
So if you want to start eating from nose to tail, beef tallow is the way to go. Just ask your local butcher and I’m sure he’ll be happy to oblige.

Zeeland

What do you need (serves 1 as a main and 6 as a starter)

• 1 kg live mussels

• 1 leek

• 2 stalks of cellery

• 1 small carrot

• 1 medium sized onion

• 25 cl water (or white wine)
• Seasalt and pepperFor the Real Belgian Fries
• 1 kg potatoes, you need a good starchy potato like Bintjes and Berkeley Bowl
• ‘beef tallow’ for frying, very important to get the real ‘frites’ (ask your butcherfor it)

• SeasaltMethod

The mussels
Select mussels that are tightly closed or that close when you tap them.
Discard the ones with cracked shells.
Use you nose, they should smell clean and salty, like the sea.
Rinse them under running water and don’t be too gentle because you want all the sand to come out.
Remove the beards, clean the shells if you need to.
Cut your vegetables in small dices and put aside.

The ‘frites’You have 3 kinds of frites:
the ‘allumettes‘ (0,5cm), the ‘mignonettes‘ (0,7cm) and the ‘pont-neuf‘ (1,5-2cm).
The ‘mignonettes’ is the one you want for this dish and also the most common.We have to bake the fries twice to get the result we want.
If you are using a Frying pan, add the beef tallow to the fryer and set your thermometer to 150°. It’s very important to use the right temperature!Peel you potatoes and rinse them.
Cut you potatoes into +/- 0,7 cm discs, don’t be too fussy about the size but do try to keep them all around the same size so they bake evenly.
Then cut the discs into fries.
Dry the fries with a tea towel.If you fat has reached the right temperature, add the fries and fry slightly golden in small batches. (see image below)
Dry them with kitchen paper and leave them on a tray to cool.
You can leave them until the rest of your food is ready and fry them a second time just before serving.

Now back to the mussels
Add the diced vegetables to a large pot to hold all the mussels, sweat the vegetables and add the water. Leave it to boil a few minutes.

Now back to the fries
Get the temperature of the fat to 190°.
Fry the fries in small batches until a beautiful golden color.

Before you put the last batch of fries in in the fat, add the mussels to the boiling water, add the lid and shake.
Leave for 5 minutes and shake.
The mussels should have opened now.
Put the lid back on. Turn of the fire.

Fry the last batch of fries.

Get some mayonnaise and add 1 teaspoon of mustard and 1 teaspoon of cooking water from the mussels. This is you mussel sauce, traditionally you should also add a bit of vinegar to the sauce.

When the fries are ready, sprinkle them with seasalt and serve with the mussels!

Delicious with a pint of real ale or a nice glass of dry white wine!

*Waste none: the leftover vegetables and cooking water of the mussels makes a delicous tomato soup, just add a tin of skinned tomatoes and a tin of tomato puree and bring to the boil. Puree the soup and bring to the boil again.

Enjoy!

Ah Belgian pride in a cone

Want to know how can you contribute to Food Revolution? Fabulous!

First of all: start cooking! Home cooked meals are the best!

Find out about you local food by asking your butcher, fish monger and vegetable man what’s local and in season.

Try and find out if you can buy meat and or vegetables straight from a farm so you reduce your carbon footprint but also by creating awareness about where your food comes from. I will probably mean ordering your meat, veggies and dairy in advance sometimes but this will reduce the trips you usually make to the superstore.
More time to cook!
By buying straight from the producer you reduce the amount of food that is thrown in the garbage and you also have a hand in the fact that less animals will be killed in vain.
I strongly feel that no animal should be slaughtered if it’s not going to be eaten nose to tail.
Not just for animal welfare but also for environmental reasons.
The carbon footprint of livestock is huge and if we keep up the current way of life, we will one day need to go vegetarian because the earth is just not producing enough food to feed the whole planet.
Eat less meat, but good quality meat from local farms instead of intensively reared meat.
Happy animals produce better and healthier meat!

Would you like to donate to Food Revolution Day? DONATE

The complete picture, mussels, fries and beer

Please feel free to leave a comment, I love reading them!

The Cotswolds, good morning sun

19th February 2012 by Regula 11 Comments

We went to stay with friends in the Cotswolds for a few days.
Leaving the busy and stressful life behind and being embraced by the silence and tranquility a country village offers.
We arrived late in the evening, as we turned into the single track road leading to our friends house it started to snow. For a few moments the cottages we drove passed started to look like someone had dusted icing sugar on them. It was cold, terribly cold but the warming fire roaring in our friends cottage warmed our frozen fingers and toes.

The next morning we went on a walk trough the fields wearing wellies and big warm coats.
We visited the church where my friends got married and went home to a cup of warming tea.

I adore this little Cotswold village and the way the yellow stones of the cottages catch the morning sun.

The last day of our stay I got up just after dawn and watched the sky turn from a greyish pink to bright blue from the cottage window. I jumped out of bed and dressed warm to go explore leaving everyone still asleep behind.

As I walked around the village, the sun giving her warmth and melting the dew and the ice on the flower buds I watched the community waking up. Dogs were walked, curious neighbours asked me where I came from and cats ran out of the houses to go exploring.

But there is a down side to this comforting story, in lots of these Cotswolds houses people didn’t start their days. Shutters were closed and padlocks guarded the gates. It’s the same story in all rural villages in the UK, people from the city buying houses in small villages to escape to when they can. And who can blame them, I too feel the soothing feeling of the slower pace of life a country villages seems to give.

But communities are broken and youngsters are forced to leave their home, because life in these sweet little villages has gotten too expensive for them to stay. Moving down the road from mum and dad is no option because even the smallest of cottages are sold as a luxury retreat in the country.

Pubs are forced to call last orders for good every day, because there are no people to pour pints for during the week. Village shops are disappearing, rural schools closing.

Rural Britain is beautiful, but it is changing.

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