What you may not know about Geert Wilders

Both at home and abroad, Geert Wilders, the leader and sole member of the populist PVV party, which won a quarter of the vote in the Dutch elections of 22 November 2023, has been much debated. Some have claimed that his policy proposals have redefined the Dutch political landscape. That much is true. Others have said that his frank, outspoken views of Islam have forced traditional left-wing parties to reexamine their core tenets. That is true as well. Yet others have rightly pointed out his uncanny ability to dominate political debate in the media, whether the topic is the complex problems caused by immigration from North Africa and Eastern Europe, or the uncertain future of the European Union.

But among all the essays, opinion pieces and debates, many of his critics, not to mention his supporters, seem to have overlooked one very elementary aspect of Geert Wilders. This is an aspect that I feel is crucial if we are to complete the nuanced and multifaceted portrait that we have all made of him. And that is the fact that he’s a despicable asshole.

Can we truly make sense of this man if we disregard the elephant in the room: the persuasive evidence that Wilder is a big steaming turd, consisting of crude, rude, self-aggrandizing megalomania? Surprisingly, even his biographers, who have delved into almost every aspect of his life, from the mysteries surrounding his financial backers to his my-way-or-the-highway flavor of in-party politics, have failed to remark that Wilders is a bottom-feeding windbag, a demagogue, all talk and zero substance, always happy to infuriate without contributing to society in a meaningful way. He appeals to people's basest instincts, bringing out the worst in people, for no other reason that he himself is scum, a depraved, heartless rat of a man, with neither integrity nor principles.

Since no-one else had taken the effort to point out this basic fact about him, I felt the need to make this known, in case some less astute observers had failed to realize this. If, in sharing this insight, I have stated the obvious, I hereby offer my heartfelt apologies.

Fondant potatoes

 I'm always looking for new ways to make potatoes. This one is fun to make, fun to look at, and the result was great --much better than I expected. I made this as a side dish with some redfish from the oven, which worked perfectly together.

Mine didn't look as nice as these, but they tasted awesome.

To start, you need to create a bunch of roughly cylindrical pieces of potato, all the same height (about 5cm/2in) and similar width (that of a medium potato):

• To achieve the same height, create one piece, then use it to "measure" the height of all the other pieces. 
• To achieve the same width, use potatoes that are roughly the same thickness. (I ended up having to halve some cylinders.) If you want to get real fancy (and wasteful), get yourself a round cookie cutter shape to make little towers of perfectly identical widths.

Keep doing this until you have enough potatoes for the amount of people who will be eating this.

Submerge all the towers in a bowl of water for 5 minutes to get rid of the starch, then remove and dry with kitchen paper. Heat a good amount of neutral oil (I used sunflower oil) in a big ovenproof skillet, then place the potato towers upright in the pan. Season and fry on a medium-high fire for a good 6–10 minutes to make the bottoms crispy brown (mine veered toward black). 

Meanwhile, start boiling a good amount of stock, about 250 ml/1 cup. I made veg stock with 1/3 of a stock cube.

When the towers' bottoms are brown, turn them upside down, season again and do the same for the other ends.

Start preheating the oven at 425 F / 220C.

When the towers are brown on both ends, turn down the heat. Tilt your skillet and use a piece of kitchen paper held with tongs to get rid of (most of) the oil. 

Add a good 30g (about 2 tbsp) of butter, along with some aromatics. I used crushed unpeeled garlic cloves and some branches of thyme. When the butter is melted, use a spoon to baste the tops of the towers a bit. The butter will start to brown quickly --when it does, add the stock. Wait for things to settle down, then place the skillet in the oven, and leave it there for 30 minutes.

When you take it out, the stock will be gone. Take the potato towers out and pour the buttery sauce over it.

Nameless vegetarian oven dish #1

 I'm following the Frische Rezepte YouTube channel, and it rarely names its recipes. The titles are just things like "I cook this EVERY DAY!" which, you know, is not a dish. Also, no you don't.

This feeds 3-4 people, without any sides or other food alongside it.

This turned out simple but nice. It does need 50 minutes in the oven, so beware of that. Here's the recipe written out, with some minor adjustments I made.

A red bell pepper

2 big tomatoes

150g feta

500g potatoes

1 small onion

3 cloves garlic

Olive oil

Big bunch of parsley

Lots of dill

3 eggs

200 ml milk (I used full-fat)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

100g flour

10g baking powder

100g cheese (I bought a bag of pre-grated cheese that I knew could go in the oven)

50g mayo

50g yogurt (I used 10% fat)

Shred the onion and 2 garlic cloves. In a tablespoon of olive oil, fry these 5 minutes. Meanwhile, dice the bell pepper, the tomatoes and the feta. Throw them in a big bowl. Grate the potatoes on a coarse grater, squeeze the water out of the grated potatoes, then add them to the bowl. Also add the fried onion and garlic. Chop the parsley and half of the dill and add them. Add salt, mix well.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

In another big bowl, beat the eggs and add the milk, vegetable oil, flour and baking powder. Mix to create a batter-type liquid.

Grate the cheese if it's not grated.

Coat the inside of a baking dish with olive oil. Dump in the potato-veg mix. Pour over the batter. Scatter over the grated cheese. Put in the oven and bake for 50 minutes.

Just before taking it out of the oven, make a little sauce to have with it: mix the mayo and yogurt. Mince or press the third garlic clove and add it. Chop the other half of the till and add it. Mix well.