Cod and stoemp
If Brussels has a downside (graffiti, dog shit and the awful wine sold in most bars aside) it is the sameness of so many of its restaurants. There are only so many times you need to eat shrimp croquettes, tomatoes stuffed with shrimps (yes them again), rabbit à la kriek, overcooked mussels or Waterzooi with chicken (a creamy stew that is delicious—on the rare occasion that it is made with fish, not rubbery, battery-farmed poulet)
But on the upside there is stoemp—Belgian bubble ‘n’ squeak. Boil and mash some floury spuds. Cook some veg, mix together, et voilà.
In this case we fried some onions in some (lots of) butter, added some chopped carrots, put the lid on the pan, turned the heat right down and let them sauté, stirring occasionally until the carrots were almost done. Then we added some halved sprouts (since they were first cultivated a couple of hundred metres from here) and replaced the lid until the Brussels were done. Then we stirred the sautéed vegetables into the potato, seasoned and added chopped parsley before shaping into “cakes” (OK, we used those poncy chef’s rings) and frying.