The Netherlands isn't really a place that is well known for it's culinary heritage... and some of their foods are a bit of an acquired taste (drops.... raw herring...). Still, there are some foods that I do love from this adopted homeland of mine.

The humble slavink is one of these foods! Basically, it is a sort of ground hamburger mince made into a sausage shape and then wrapped with pork/bacon. You can buy it quite easily at most supermarkets, but the slavinken that they sell tend to be quite poor quality meat, being quite greasy and you feel quite bloated and sick afterwards.

Instead, a better option is to find a good butcher (we have one that we always visit that makes really great cuts of meat.... a bit on the expensive side, but we eat less but better). They have also replaced the out wrapping of pork for a really nice thinly sliced cut of beef instead. This does make for a much less oily cook-up, but the taste is slightly different. That said, the meat is high quality and so you don't miss the bacon flavour attempting to cover up the poor filling!

Cooking up a slavink is pretty easy... it's like a huge oversized sausage. The first time I had seen them, I had thought that you were supposed to cook them in an oven... but after asking the butcher, I was told that it was a pan frying job.

A slow cook is required as the slavink is quite thick. Also, very little oil for the pan... even with a good quality mince and beef instead of pork on the outside, there is still a significant amount of oil and fats leaking out from the slavinken.

It does take a while to cook through slowly... and covering it to steam a bit after the first flip just like a burger is a nice trick. I like to eat mine with hot English Mustard... but my kids prefer tomato sauce. I guess if the kids had their way, they would eat everything with tomato sauce...

Of course, my wife would kill me if I just served up slavinken alone with chips/potato balls... and so, I've made a couple of sides to go with it all. Beans pan fried in butter, honey and garlic with a light splash of soy sauce... and on the right, plain steamed broccoli. Of course, with every family... one kid will like one version of vegetables and the other will like something completely different.

However, just because I'm a pain in the arse father... they still get both versions of the vegetables... and they have to eat them both. Of course, I'm a little bit pragmatic, and they will get a little bit more of the preferred vegetable and a little less of the less favourite.... but still both!

... or there will be no potato balls!