Kaassoufflé (Dutch Fried Cheese Pastry)

Kaassoufflé is a grand French hat on a Dutch paper napkin. The name already tells you the joke: kaas is cheese, and soufflé comes from French souffler, to blow or puff. But nobody at the snack bar counter is whisking egg whites with a worried face. We are in the kingdom of the frituur (deep fryer), where the pastry swells, the breadcrumbs darken, and the cheese begins making plans.

My first serious argument about kaassoufflé happened at a verjaardag (birthday) table, not an archive. Half the family claimed it belonged beside the bitterballen; the other half said a meatless snack deserved its own plate so nobody would mistake it for a croquette. But let me tell you a secret: this modest square is one of the cleverest Dutch answers to the snack bar. It lets the cheese country eat from the fryer without pretending to be sausage.

The cooking asks for less bravado than restraint. Use belegen Gouda, matured enough to taste like itself but young enough to melt; oude kaas, old Gouda, turns oily and stubborn. Seal the pastry as if the cheese is trying to escape, because it is. Then chill the parcels before they hit the oil so the crumb can crisp before the centre runs. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple: good cheese, cold parcels, hot oil, and two quiet minutes before the first bite.