Recipe for love: Take one Dutch person, add a Slovak

For Dutch university student Lisa Verberne, cooking with her Slovak partner is an intimate experience.

“You expose yourself just by how you chop an onion or by how much garlic you use,” she tells The Slovak Spectator as she stands by a small stove in a tiny Amsterdam dormitory kitchen filled with heavy warm air. “You’re vulnerable in a way.”

With potatoes already washed, Verberne and her partner begin cooking lokše, traditional Slovak potato pancakes known to some as ‘Slovak tortillas’ and often served with roast duck and stewed red cabbage in Slovakia.

Although Dutch cuisine is centred around potatoes - the national dish of the Netherlands is stamppot, potatoes mashed with vegetables and topped with smoked sausage - Verberne said that she would never have thought to use potatoes as an ingredient to make dough, as they are used in lokše.