PREPARATION

1. Cheeses: Use 3-5 cheeses depending on the amount of people you are serving. Make a selection of different kind of cheeses, hard, soft, strong, cow milk, goat milk etc. I choose a truffle Brie, Epoisses Gaugry, Gorgonzola dolce, Roquefort caves Baragnaudes and a hard Alpine cheese with a dried flower crust. Serve your cheese at room temperature! Go to Magazijn houtman en menkveld or L’amuse (Rotterdam or Amsterdam) for the best cheeses!
2. Charcuterie: this is optional and leave out if you want to make a vegetarian board. I used Serrano, coppa with fennel and pepper and truffled salami.
3. Nuts and crackers: use 2-3 different kind of crackers or/and nut and fruit bread/ baguette and a selection of nuts like almonds, macadamia, walnuts etc.
4. Spreads: fig preserves, quince spread, honey, appelstroop (Dutch) will all work great on a platter with cheese and charcuterie.
5. Fruit: make a selection between dried and fresh fruit like figs, grapes, dates, kaki, pomegranate, cherries etc.
6. Briny stuff and pickles: olives, marinated artichokes, gherkins, Amsterdamse uien (dutch), pickled onions etc. You can pickle literally every vegetable from carrots to asparagus but I like to keep it simple and used store bought.
7. Crudités: cherry tomatoes, radish, carrot, cucumber, celery, cauliflower etc. for a healthy balance on your platter.