Hutspot met klapstuk

Yesterday, the city of Leiden celebrated the victory in 1574 over the Spanish invaders. It's an annual celebration during which the Leideners consume large amounts of white bread with herring and even larger amounts of something called hutspot, a colorful mashed potato dish. It's not only eaten on the 3rd of October, but is an extremely popular evening meal during the cold winter days. Hutspot is traditionally served with klapstuk, a piece of braised beef, but sometimes will also be eaten with a typical Dutch meatball. The best carrots to use for this dish are winterpenen, winter carrots such as the Flakkee or Autumn King, a larger and thicker variety of the orange carrot that is harvested shortly after the first frost. The sugars in the carrot add a hint of sweetness to this dish that will appeal to almost any eater, young or old.

The origin of this particular choice of starchy food goes back to a small remainder of stew that was presumably left behind in a large copper pot by the fleeing Spanish army. A young man found the still warm stew and shared it triumphantly with the rest of the starving Leiden-ers. Or at least with those that didn't like herring, I'm sure.

The name of this dish does not sound very appetizing, not even in Dutch. Loosely translated it means "hotchpotch with slap piece". Well, there you go, see what I mean? Who wants to eat that?

But, as is often the case, appearance deceives. In this particular example, the name is not very flattering and quite honestly, neither is the picture. But the taste will convince anyone that there is more to this dish than a silly name.

It is said that the original stew contained parsnips and white beans, and that the meat in the stew was mutton. How it came to be carrots with potatoes and beef.....only history knows. The carrot appeared in Holland for the first time in the 17th century, out of Iran, and was cross-polinated until it had a bright orange color, to honor the royal family, the Oranges. At that point, the carrot was introduced to the rest of Europe and hey presto! Long live the Queen and orange carrots for all!

As for the "slap piece": klapstuk is the meat that is cut from the rib. I used slices of beef chuck rib roast and it worked beautifully. The meat is marbled and during its 90 minute braising time will release all kinds of wonderful flavors and most of the fat. You'll love it!

Hutspot met klapstuk
For the meat
1 lb of sliced beef chuck rib roast
2 cups water
1/2 beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
8 black pepper corns, whole
1 tablespoon flour, dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Add the water to a Dutch oven or a braising pan, add the bouillon cube and stir until dissolved. Add the beef, the bay leaf and the pepper corns and braise on low heat for approximately 90 minutes or until beef is tender.

Remove the meat to a serving dish, discard the bay leaf and peppercorns and stir the dissolved flour into the pan juices. Stir scraping the bottom of the pan, loosening any meat particles that may be stuck. Bring the heat slowly up until the gravy starts to thicken. Pour the gravy over the meat and set aside, keeping it warm.

For the hutspot
6 large potatoes, peeled and quartered
8 large carrots, peeled and diced
4 large onions, peeled and sliced
2 cups of water
Pinch of salt

Place the peeled and quartered potatoes on the bottom of a Dutch oven. Pour in the water so the potatoes are just covered. Add the pinch of salt. Put the carrots on top, and finish with the onions. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and boil for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked. Pour off the cooking water, but save it. Mash the potatoes, carrots and onions until you achieve a mashed potato consistency or leave larger lumps, that's a personal preference. If you need more liquid to make it smoother, add a tablespoon of cooking liquid at a time. Taste, adjust with salt and pepper.



Now place a large scoop of hutspot on a warm plate. With the rounded side of a spoon, make an indentation on top of the hutspot, like a pothole. This is the famous "kuiltje". Put a slice of beef on top and pour a tablespoon or two of gravy into the kuiltje, and serve your beautiful, Dutch dish. All you need now is a pair of clogs and a picture of the Queen on the wall :-) Nah....not really.

21 comments:

  1. Very enjoyable & informative story. It is interesting to know the story behind the meal.You make it sound delicious! I will have to try it sometime.

    Carl

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  2. Wasn't Leiden relieved in 1574?

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  3. ...oops....Thanks!

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  4. When I worked in a produce department in Holland we would make hutspot trays ready. It would consist of 1/3 thinly sliced carrots and 2/3 thinly sliced onions. This you cooked together and then mashed with the potatoes. Delicious.

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  5. Als echte Lei(d)enaar wil ik je bedanken voor het stukje geschiedenis die je mee hebt gegeven bij het gerecht. In Holland kom ik altijd mensen tegen die nog nooit van 3 oktober hebben gehoord. Dat kan natuurlijk echt niet ;) .
    Personally, I like to spice my hutspot up with some chili peppers or replace the klapstuk with a "Unox worst" ...as I'm just a student with little money and no time ;)
    But this really sounds like our traditional hutspot, so thanks for sharing!
    (and writing this great blog btw)

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  6. Hi there, thanks for these recipes. My wife, who is Dutch will be using this and your apple pie recipe for an international food bazaar fundraiser on Sunday. We would like to print out some of the explanation as well as the recipe to show to people who come if that's alright. We will of course include a link to your website.

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    1. Keep us posted on how well the food is received, what a great idea! An international food bazaar fundraiser sounds like a lot of fun, thank you for asking and for including the link to The Dutch Table.

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  7. Just made this for dinner last night, one of my favorite memories from growing up in Lynden, WA

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  8. The way I make it is 1/4 in weight carrots, 1/4 weight onions and 1/2 weight potatoes, that seems to be a nice ratio for a good taste.
    I also throw some Johnsonville Brats in a skillet with plenty of butter and let that simmer on low for about 20 minutes while turning the sausages over every 5 minutes.
    When the Brats are done I poor that butter with the Brats taste in with the Hutspot before I mix it all up.

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  9. I made it and it was good, though you didn't specify to finely slice the onions and that made for big chunks of them which wouldn't get mashed. Also it came out a bit bland. But on the whole it reminded me of what my mother in law makes sometimes.

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  10. I love this dish - one of my faves! Mom would make it at least once a week in the winter time but she would serve it with a large Bratwurst sausage. I was born in Nederland but emigrated to Canada at the age of 6. She cooked a lot of Dutch dishes and knowing how much I loved stamppot worreltjes (as we called it) would invite me & my daughter and son over whenever she knew my hubby would be working late and she would serve this dish. My kids loved it! Even my Canadian hubby loves a lot of Dutch food especially gebakjes and almond filled cookies and speculaas cookies. We shop at a Dutch store at least once a week. He also loves King peppermints.

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  11. So odd to find this dish is called hutspot when my Dutchbdad called it panenia.

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  12. it's really weird that the only klapstuk recipe i can find is an english website... something is wrong here...

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  13. When I was a kid, my mother made this with beef mashed in with the carrots and potatoes, but leaving some lumpiness to it. Was awesome. My Dad and I tried it once when she went to Rotterdam for a visit and we mashed it way too much. Still tasted good, but it wasn't like my mothers.

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  14. I used to make this occasionally. Everyone in the family loved it, but my youngest son insists he still has nightmares about it! He blames hutspot for everything that is wrong in the world.

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  15. My mother used to make this for the family but she used met worst as the meat. She would boil the potatoes, carrots and onions with the met worst in the mix. She would then remove the meat and mash all of the vegetables together. The met worst was cut into pieces and then served with the mix. The flavor from the meat makes it very tasty and is even better the next day, assuming some is leftover. Tom Van Dam (Michigan)

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  16. I made my first to the Netherlands in 1986 on business. I asked one of my co-workers there where I could find a Dutch restaurant He said there was no such thing as Dutch food. One evening I looked for a restaurant when I came across a small restaurant on a side street. That was my introduction to Dutch food. I'm one who likes to try new things. The hutspot sounded good so I ordered it. It was great. When I got hone I made it from memory. I don't know why, but I made it with cabbage. Like the restaurant, I served it with bratwurst. When I found a reference to this website, I subscribed. I found the recipe and made it correctly. l love to cook and this source gives me a wealth of recipes to share with m friends. Thant you 'The Dutch Table'.

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  17. I was brought up in West Michigan in the home of my grandparents, who were both the children of Dutch immigrants. Hotspot was a staple in our home. Ours was cabbage cooked with potatoes and spare ribs. I still love it! My husband, also the 2nd generation post-immigration, had something in his family called “mouse”— not sure what it was in Dutch but that’s how they pronounced it— which was kale mashed up with potatoes. The meat in his case was some kind of sausage. He loved it too!

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    1. Mous ("Mouse") is Groninger slang for Stamppot. I'm fourth generation in the US and my grandmother always used the term as well.

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