An extremely easy and to-die-for starter that will make your guests, or loved one, to ask for more. Only a few simple ingredients: leek, bacon, cream cheese, eggs and bread. This is the Luca starter, from the name of the dear friend who inspired this fantastic dish. Have fun with it!
Last weekend it was gay pride weekend here in Amsterdam, great party of all time, really. The cute part is that it takes places on a canal, of course! The parade is pretty long as it lasts about 3 hours on the Prinsengracht, which is the outer canal that defines the historic center of the city.
I have never been a big gay pride fan I must admit. Before moving to Amsterdam, I have only been to one or two. None of them I really liked. I cannot say why, but I just didn’t. In Amsterdam I was first invited the year I moved here and since I lived very close to the canal where the parade was taking place, I decided to go and have a look.
It was love at first sight, the amount of people attending was way beyond my expectations. It was just this huge family day, where kids, grandparents, parents, gay and straight couples were all attending. It was incredible.
The Netherlands have a history of acceptance and freedom that is unmatched in most countries. Dutch are yes progressive, but most importantly they are very pragmatic. They’d rather keep something under control than prohibit and lose control over it. But do not be mistaken, here tolerance involves many rules! And Dutch people do not like when someone breaks the rules of tolerance.
Going back to my gay pride experience. There were thousands of people gathered around the canal, on the bridges, from the windows, but also on the house boats where people live, or simply on the boats parked by the side to enjoy a closer look. The parade itself was fun, and colorful with loud music as you would expect. It has been three years that I have been living here and I have not missed one. As a matter of fact, we also had friends coming to visit us this year to participate.
The message of the gay pride is always a strong one, even in this country where the gay civil rights reached a level that is unknown in many other countries (mine especially). It is still a needed celebration to remind us that we are still far away from having reached equality everywhere. It is not a pride for one country only, but for many others. Citizens from all corners of the world live in this beautiful and liberal city. The message of happiness of the show we saw Saturday will be shared across the globe.
Our friends also thoroughly enjoyed it. Luca, who is a friend I have known for 20 years, used to go to high school together with me, also happens to be a great cook. You cannot come to our place, knowing how to cook and NOT share a recipe. So, after a careful selection, he came up with this great one, which we tested yesterday. We rented a boat to take them out and this was the perfect snack to enjoy.
I could see this being served in multiple occasions to be honest, as it has a versatility factor that makes it suitable as a snack, but also as an aperitif or simply as a starter.
For this week I replaced my hand model (Hoang) with another hand model (Luca)
Ingredients
- Sliced bread (from a loaf): 8
- Leek: 3
- Spring onion: 1, sliced
- Mustard: 1 tsp
- Cream cheese: 100 g / 3.5 oz
- Egg: 2
- Milk: 200 ml / ¾ cup
- Bacon: 50 g / 1.8 oz
- Butter: 20 g / 0.7 oz
- Salt: a few dashes
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 160 C (320 F)
- Clean the leek, cut them into sticks of about 15 cm (6 inch) long and divide each into 4 pieces,
- then wash and dry
- Melt 10 g (0.35 oz) of butter in a non-stick pan, add the leeks, a pinch of salt and a ladle of hot water and cook covered, over low heat for 5 minutes. Drain and let cool
- Flat the sliced bread with a rolling pin, spread butter and mustard and divide each into 2 rectangles . Line with parchment paper in a baking dish , place the sliced bread at the bottom and on the sides (overlap them slightly), then fill these with the leeks, sliced spring onion and bacon
- Mix the eggs with a pinch of salt, cream cheese, milk and pepper. Pour the mixture on the leeks, sliced spring onion and bacon.
- Bake for about 35 minutes until golden
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