Next week we’re featuring all things culinary, including your favorite recipes! So we ask you, Holland America Line fans, what are your favorite dishes on our ships?

Do you have photos of those dishes? What about the dish makes it your favorite? Maybe it’s the way it melts in your mouth or makes your taste buds sing with joy! Tell us and show us why it’s so scrumptious and memorable! We want to feature your photos on the blog and other social media channels, and we’ll get the recipes to go with your photos so you can make them at home.

Send photos to info@hollandamericablog.com so we can share your favorites with all of our fans. And don’t forget to tell us why you love that dish so much.

Cruising Can Open a New Culinary World
A cruise allows guests to open up their palate and try new and exotic dishes, treats never before thought about or available. The menus and venus are diverse and varied, from simple (yet flavorful) pasta plates to grand affairs like chateaubriand and lobster tail. Chilled fruit soups and gravlax to crème brûlée and molten lava cake. And let’s not forget about the extensive vegetarian menu. From the casual Lido Buffet and the formal Main Dining room to alternatives like The Pinnacle Grill and An Evening at Le Cirque, dining on Holland America Line is a highly anticipated experience for most guests.

With the famed Culinary Council composed of Holland America Line’s Master Chef and Council Chairman Rudi Sodamin, and renowned international chefs Mark Best, Jonnie Boer, David Burke, Elizabeth Falkner and Jacques Torres guiding the menus, there’s sure to be something for everyone.

But there’s always that one dish — whether it’s a savory starter, mouth-watering main course or incredible chocolaty dessert — that you just can’t get enough of. In fact, you ask for it every night even when it’s not on the menu. And if you could have the recipe, you’d make it at home.

To get you thinking about your favorite, here are a couple of popular dishes that guests praise cruise after cruise. These are just teasers so be sure to click through to see the entire recipe.

RUDI’S GRAND MARNIER CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE

Here’s a birthday cake strictly for adults, a luxurious liqueur-flavored mousse on a foundation of chocolate génoise — no candles necessary! Holland America Line’s Master Chef Rudi Sodamin has suggested Grand Marnier to flavor the mousse, but you could substitute cherry liqueur, framboise, Frangelico, or another of your favorites just as easily.

Yield: one 9-inch cake

Chocolate Génoise Ingredients:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2/3 cup superfine sugar
1/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sifted unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Instructions:
1. Clarify and brown the butter: In a small, heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter starts to look clear, watch carefully until the solids drop and begin to brown. When they become deep brown, pour the butter immediately through a fine strainer or a strainer lined with cheesecloth into a small bowl. Transfer 3 tablespoons of the butter to a medium bowl. Add the vanilla and set aside.

Continued … For the full recipe, click HERE.

CULINARY COUNCIL MEMBER ELIZABETH FALKNER’S SHRIMP, ANDOUILLE AND GRITS

Yield: serves 2

Ingredients:
1 piquillo or poblano chile pepper or red bell pepper
1/2 cup grits
2 cups water
1 tsp salt, plus more as needed
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp Tabasco sauce, or to taste
1/4 cup cream
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, cut into quarter-inch slices
1 andouille sausage, about 3 ounces, cut into chunks or slices

2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 stems of okra, sliced into discs
1 tomato, diced including skin and seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup chicken stock
8 large shrimp
2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp parsley leaves, minced

Instructions:
Char the chile or bell pepper on direct flame until blackened all over. Cover or put in a bag in the refrigerator to sweat. Once cool, slip off the charred skin, and core and seed the pepper. Cut into quarter-inch slivers.

Continued … For the full recipe, click HERE.

They sound good, don’t they? Don’t forget to send us your favorite foodie photos from your cruise! info@hollandamericablog.com. And check back on the blog next week and we feature five days of fabulous food!