- Student
- 17/06/2016
What kind of house is this?
This Young People’s House is home to a mixed company of residents: three students, two refugees and landlord Sjaak Huijser (74), the driving force behind both of Eindhoven's Young People's houses. According to Michael Timmerman (26), student of Communication and Social Skills at Fontys, the landlord, who incidentally is not present during our conversation, is passionate about helping refugees, regardless of their status.
Omar from Sudan and Wonshet from Eritrea do not join us at the dining table. The three students say that all the recent media attention has made them a little bit withdrawn. Later, in her room, Wonshet is keen to talk. “I am happy here and I like living here. I'm taking language lessons in this house and I can practice my Dutch. But I do find it a difficult language,” says this young woman from Eritrea who has been in the Netherlands for 18 months.
How do you look back on all the media attention paid to refugees?
“It was pretty intense,” says Michael. “Last summer we were frequently approached by the press, radio and TV. A resident of the other Young People's House in Lodewijk Napoleon Square was even on Pauw, the TV talk show. We thought it was important to be involved in the release of information in order to show that you can easily live with refugees. But it got to the point where we'd had enough of all the attention. I'm glad all that is behind us now.”
Recipe for mini salmon soufflés with green bean salad (for 6 persons)
Anne-Roos prepares this meal with great creativity. Tip: make sure you have good muffin cups; the paper cups fall apart and the mini salmon soufflés morph into a kind of pancake (which also happens to taste great).
Preheat the oven to 190 C. Drain a can of salmon (200 g), remove the skin and bones and mash the salmon into a fine paste. Melt 40 g butter in a saucepan, gradually stir in 40 g flour and allow to simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and slowly stir in 3 ½ dl. milk and keep stirring until the mixture becomes a smooth sauce. Let the sauce simmer for 1 minute, stir in 50 g mature Gouda cheese, beat 3 egg yolks (keep the egg whites!) into the sauce, stir in a teaspoon of mustard and a little dill, add salt, pepper and ground nutmeg to taste.
Grease the muffin cups with a little butter. Beat the 3 egg whites until they are stiff and use a spatula to fold them into the salmon mixture. Pour the mixture into the muffin cups and bake the soufflés in the oven for 20 minutes until they are golden brown.
Green bean salad
Wash 300 g green beans, cut them in half, cook them with a little salt for 5 minutes, rinse them in cold water and let them drip dry. Mash 50 g blue cheese finely and stir into it 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 4 to 5 tablespoons of nut oil. Beat the ingredients into a smooth sauce. Mix 2 scallions cut into rings, 75 g rucola and 50 g walnuts into the green beans and add the sauce.
Enjoy!
How do you look back on all the media attention paid to refugees?
“It was pretty intense,” says Michael. “Last summer we were frequently approached by the press, radio and TV. A resident of the other Young People's House in Lodewijk Napoleon Square was even on Pauw, the TV talk show. We thought it was important to be involved in the release of information in order to show that you can easily live with refugees. But it got to the point where we'd had enough of all the attention. I'm glad all that is behind us now.”
Discussion