The work of art I had to draw upon for inspiration
was "The Watermill with the Great Red Roof" by Meindert Hobbema, a 17th
century Dutch landscape artist.
Looking
at the painting, I put myself in the shoes of the little fisherman in
the bottom left hand corner. What would he like to eat if he were to
take a little nosh break on this delightful day? I began to research
Dutch foods and quite honestly, I wasn't impressed. All the dishes
seemed rather bland and I simply could not bring myself to even taste
pickled herring. I decided to put together a little picnic combining a
number of dishes I found recipes for and I wanted to recreate the
painting, in an abstract manner on my plate.
I used
triangular shaped Gouda cookies to build the structure. The mortar was
Heksenkaas, a surprisingly tasty Dutch sandwich spread of cream cheese,
leeks, celery root and garlic. Instead of pickled herring, a
traditional Dutch treat, I used smoked salmon. For the "red" element, I
made a little slaw of roasted red beets and red onion dressed in peach
red balsamic vinegar. Snipped chives garnished the plate as well as a
small triangle of Gouda cheese.
I was quite
pleased with the results, even though I was kind of flying by the seat
of my pants. I never did a test run, but in the end, it all worked well
together. Below are the links for the recipes I used for my creation.
