Hundreds of years ago, when Ghent’s canals were lined with watermills, a bit of grain from the mills escaped into the water. This naturally resulted in the waterways teeming with fish. So the original waterzooi was a vegetable stew based on fattened-up freshwater fish.

But with industrialisation came increasingly polluted waters, and the fish became scarce. Hence the turn towards readily available and affordable chicken (which everyone had running around in their gardens). Today, we are blessed as to be able to choose whether we should like our waterzooi with chicken, freshor even saltwater fish.

As for the name, zooien in Old Dutch means to cook slowly. And that’s exactly what I did. Preparing waterzooi is by no means difficult, but it does require a good dose of patience. Well worth the wait, I might add.

Ingredients:
1 kg whole chicken, cleaned, or whole thighs
1 leek
1 celery
1 bunch fresh parsley
3 large carrots
2 medium onions
4 cloves
2 dl heavy cream
Few sprigs fresh thyme
Few bay leaves
Salt and pepper
Slab butter
2 egg yolks

For the bouillon: Remove the less desirable parts of your leek, celery and parsley (leaves, stems, etc) and throw these into a large pot with one roughly chopped carrot and one whole onion pricked with the cloves. Add thyme sprigs and bay leaves, along with the raw chicken – skin, bones and all. Season with salt and pepper. Fill with water until all ingredients are just covered and let simmer for a good 30 minutes, or until the meat is falling off the bone. Then remove the chicken and allow to cool. Use a sieve to separate the veggies from the bouillon and set the bouillon aside for later. Throw away veggies.

While your bouillon is cooking, melt the butter in another large pot and add the best parts of the vegetables. This includes the other onions, two carrots, the white part of the leeks, celery and parsley leaves. These can be sliced into fine strips or roughly chopped into bitesized pieces, according to your preference. Slowly sweat the veggies in the butter.

Once the veggies are tender, remove the chicken meat from the bones and add to the pot, together with the freshly made bouillon. After the stew has had several minutes to warm up, it’s time to add a thickening agent: beat together the egg yolks and heavy cream, then add slowly to the pot, stirring all the while.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and ladle into deep bowls. For the finishing touch, garnish with a bit of parsley and serve with small boiled potatoes.

I find that a strong blonde Belgian ale is the best pairing for this dish, such as a Gentse Tripel (to stay with the Ghent theme), but I admit that a crisp glass of dry white wine goes nicely, too.

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