Cooking with the Dutchess:
By Hanneke Eerden

   The recipe of today, hodgepodge or “hutspot” in Dutch, may sound Dutch and even though this is the most popular dish in my country during the winter time, it’s not genuine Dutch. Even I was surprised when I found out about that!

   The recipe can be traced back to the year 1574. During that time the Spanish had occupied The Netherlands. In October of that year they left their base camp and the Dutch people found a large pan with a meal that consisted of carrots, meat, onions. The Dutch citizen liked it so much they tried to reproduce it, with a few changes. And they ended up with this recipe. A recipe that a lot of Dutch people still enjoy during the cold winter times we have over here. But it’s not only tasty during cold times, I’ve even made it a few times on a cool day during Spring or Summer!

   But, back to the year 1574, at that time there weren’t any potatoes added to this meal, simply because there weren’t any potatoes available yet. Two hundred years later, the first potatoes arrived in Europe, but it took another two hundred years before they were used in hodgepodge or other dishes like these.

   For myself, I can say that I eat it on a regular base, and I really like the sweet taste of it. Preferably I like to serve it with a stew. A stew for example like the beef stew I posted this week on my website www.TheDutchessCooks.com. But because of the fact that beef stew takes a lot of time to cook, it’s not always possible for me to add this to the hodgepodge. But some tasty meatballs or sausages are also perfect to serve with this dish.

   It’s such an easy dish, with not many ingredients but sometimes simplicity provides you the best meals!

   What do you need?

   5-6 large carrots
   2 large onions
   5 large potatoes
   2 tablespoons mustard
   Pepper
   Salt
   ¼ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

   Start with cleaning the potatoes, peel them and put them in a large pan with some water. Clean the carrots, peel them too and then cut them into thin slices. Add the carrot slices to the potatoes.

   Peel and cut the onions in half and then in thin slices too. Put these on top of the carrots in the pan. Close the lid and bring to a boil. As soon as the water is boiling, let it simmer for 30 minutes on a low heat.

   Drain the potatoes, carrots and onions and put them back in the pan.

   Add the mustard, pepper, salt and nutmeg and then it’s time to mash. Mash until there are no coarse pieces left. You can leave it a little coarse, or do it the way I prefer this dish: mash until there’s nothing left to mash!

   If you made meatballs or cooked spicy sausages to serve with this dish, you could add a little bit of the grease to the carrot mixture too. It’s really delicious!

   Some people like to add the salt and pepper to the pan right from the start, but I never do that, because later when you drain the carrot mixture, the spices will be drained too and that’s a waste of taste!

   I hope you like these Dutch recipes, for next time I’ve already planned another one, so stay tuned!

As Always ~ Bon Appetit!

www.TheDutchessCooks.com