Huize Lytse Stientsjes
‘I forgot to turn
the oven on’
Door Julianne Veltman
By Julianne Veltman
Julianne Veltman
Mushroom soup and fish and chips à la Huize Lytse Stientsjes
For 6 people
Mushroom soup:
2 onions
Lots of garlic
500 grams of mushrooms
50 grams of butter
Flour
1 litre of water
2 bouillon cubes
200 ml of single cream
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper
Fish and chips with mushy peas:
6 fried haddock fillets
6 lemon wedges
Sauce ravigote or tartar sauce
1 bag of oven chips
750 grams of peas
Half an onion
2 tsp mustard
The soup: Cut the onions into small pieces and the mushrooms into slices. Dissolve the bouillon cubes in water. Sauté the onions and garlic with a little bit of butter and add the mushrooms. Add the thyme and the rest of the butter. After 5 minutes, add the bouillon. Bring to the boil and let simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the single cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.
The fish and chips: Bake the fried fillets and chips in the oven according to the instructions on the package. Serve the fish with lemon wedges and tartar sauce or sauce ravigote.
Boil the peas. Sauté the onions in a frying pan. Reserve part of the peas. Add part of the onion to the rest of the peas and purée the. Add the rest of the onions and the peas. Add the mustard and potentially some milk to taste.
‘We’re all great fans of soup’, says Nienke, as she enthusiastically chops an onion in Thamara’s small kitchen. Soon, she is joined by Thamara herself. The kitchen is part of her room and functions as a common room. ‘Pumpkin soup is my favourite, I think’, Nienke continues. ‘Welmoed loves anything spicy.’
Welmoed and Emma are sitting down on the large sectional couch in the room. ‘Honestly, I think you look fine’, Welmoed says to Emma. She explains: ‘Emma is really hungover.’
All four girls are members of Bernlef and attend drinks every week. ‘It’s a small association, so a lot of fun: we almost always run into each other’, Welmoed says. ‘Whenever we’re hungover after a night of drinking at home, Emma always makes us an English breakfast in the morning’, says Thamara.
Little stones
They don’t have a regular night on which they all get together, but they try to have dinner at least once a week. The girls all moved into Huize Lytse Stientsjes – Frisian for ‘little stones’ – at different times. Welmoed was first. ‘I moved here right after my year doing board work, so that would’ve been 1920’, she misspeaks, to the other girls’ great amusement. ‘Yeah, Welmoed’s been living here for a hundred years!’ Thamara adds, laughing.
In addition to mushroom soup, tonight’s dinner will be fish and chips. It’s Emma’s recipe; she’s half British, half Frisian. The four girls mainly speak Frisian to each other, interspersed with English, which especially happens when Emma is hungover. ‘Then I go back to factory settings’, she jokes.
‘Oh! I should probably check on the chips’, says Emma, rushing to the oven. ‘I’ll stir the soup some more’, Nienke offers.
Toilet roll
‘Our new common catchphrase is mâl’, says Welmoed. ‘Emma taught us that.’ ‘Yeah’, Nienke adds. ‘She always says: “That’s mad.” Mâl is the Frisian version. We also use the word neet a lot. It’s not really Frisian, but it means something superlative. Either really bad or really cool.’
Thamara’s room was only recently incorporated into Huize Lytse Stientsjes. ‘Before this, the man who rented this room used it as an art studio’, says Nienke. ‘That was kind of weird. He would use our bathroom and would always bring his own roll of toilet paper. When I moved in here, no one told me he kind of lived here as well.’ ‘Wait, really?!’ Thamara says, surprised. ‘Mâl!’
When the girls have finished their soup, Emma has a confession to make. ‘I won’t lie to you, I forgot to turn the oven on.’ Once again, her roommates make fun of how hungover she is. ‘Well in that case, do you want another drink? I have coke and ginger beer, but I could make you a cocktail’, Thamara suggests. She is the resident bartender at Huize Lytse Stientsjes. ‘I make a mean Moscow Mule!’
Anytimer
The two-course dinner is slowly turning into four courses. The soup is followed by the chips, then the fish, then Emma’s mushy peas. While Emma is busy with the peas and a hand mixer, Nienke hands out lemon wedges. Emma laughs when Nienke tries out the English tartar sauce by eating an entire spoonful. ‘Your face was like a rollercoaster of emotions.’
Once everyone’s cleared their plate for the fourth time, Welmoed and Nienke are alerted by their group chat that they each have to drink an anytimer. Thamara watches in dismay as Nienke and Welmoed squeeze more lemon juice into their beer in an attempt to create Desperados.
As a dentistry student, Thamara is shocked when Nienke also eats the last few pieces of lemon. ‘My mother always said that would ruin my enamel’, Nienke says with a wink. ‘Fortunately, I have a lot left.’ Thamara laughs. ‘It’s a good thing you’re my test patient soon.’
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