Gentse Waterzooi

I'm back from my trip through Eastern Europe and I've also completed a summer course in technology. On both occasions I've met a lot of people from Eastern Europe, including their eating culture. But it turned out that Gentse Waterzooi, the typical creamy soup originated in Ghent was the most important dish during this week.

I've prepared it 2 times and a lot of people were very curious for the recipe so that's why I decided to include this Belgian culinary headliner on my food blog. Which urgently needed to be updated...
But first some dry crackers and than the main dish itself: first I'm going to tell a little about the origin of Gentse Waterzooi.
Originally this dish, which means -literally translated- "boiling from Ghent", was served with fish. In the Middle Ages the poor people from Ghent caught a lot of freshwater fish from the canals and rivers in Ghent. Especially river burbot, from the codfish family, was used. Besides fish some local grown vegetables were used like carrot, leek, celery and onions. After a few decades the fish was replaced by chicken because that was much cheaper and the rivers much more polluted.
Nowadays Gentse Waterzooi is one of the trademarks of fine dining in Belgium. Enjoy!

Ingredients (for 4 persons):

-vegetable bouillon (freshly made: add carrots, celery,  onions, leek, garlic cloves, bay leaves, parsley and
  rosemary to about 3 liters of water; add salt and pepper to your taste; let it stew for at least one hour)
-4 carrots
-2 leek whites
-2 celery stems
-1 chicken (or 4 chicken fillets, that's up to your taste and hunger ;) )
-8 small potatoes
-4dl fresh cream (not whipped cream, nor sour cream, just 'culinary cream)
-2 eggs (only the yolks are necessary)
-herbs: pepper, salt, a little tarragon, thyme, ...
-butter or olive oil
-parsley


Preparation: 

• Prepare the bouillon.
• Slice the carrots and the leek in small rounds of about 1/2 cm thick.
• Cut the celery in small pieces of about 1/2 cm.
• Peel the potatoes, cut them into rounds or cubes
• Prepare the chicken: chop it into separate pieces (wings, legs, ...) or cut the fillets into thick pieces.
• Make sure the bouillon is hot when you start cooking.
• Put a chunk of butter or two tablespoons of oil in a deep pan, add the vegetables and the potatoes and let it stew for a few minutes.
• Add salt, pepper, bay leaves, rosemary and thyme.
• 'Drown' the vegetables with bouillon and let it boil on a low fire. Then, add the chicken.
• Let it all cook for about 15 minutes (until the potatoes are almost cooked).
• Then, add 2/3 of the cream and the tarragon. Let it cook for another 5 minutes
• Make a liaison: whip the egg yolks with the remaining cream until the color is more white than yellow
• Serve the waterzooi in deep plates, add a spoon of liaison and some parsley.
• Enjoy your meal!