Stamppot, The Netherlands' National Dish, Had Me Skeptical
Welcome to Grand Prix Gastronomy! This week, I’m cooking the national dish of the Netherlands, stamppot, which features kale, sausages, and mashed potatoes.
This project is pretty simple. As a complement to each race weekend, I’ll be cooking the national dish of that race’s host country and sharing information about the process and that dish’s history along the way in an effort to grow more deeply immersed in the local culture from my own home.
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What Is Stamppot?
I don’t actually think that I ever considered the Dutch needed to eat food. That sounds absurd, but I have never once heard a person traveling to the Netherlands for its excellent cuisine. So I had no idea what to expect from the country’s national dish, stamppot.
I cannot say that the name itself sounded exactly appetizing, and I also don’t think my impression of the dish evolved when I learned what it was: mashed potatoes mixed with kale and served alongside smoked sausages.
However, a little research into the phenomenon of Dutch cuisine helped explain my initial impression: The food was designed to be simple and filling, since the country operated with economy in mind. It was a big “meat and potatoes” diet that evolved as the country colonized other nations and was introduced to new ingredients and forms of preparation.
Stamppot comes in a whole slew of different varieties depending on the ingredients used. One version, hete bliksem, includes boiled potatoes, green apples, and treacle. I’m making stamppot boerenkool, the version with curly kale and Rookworst, a smoked Dutch sausage.
This Week's Recipe
My stamppot recipe comes from Panning the Globe, which I picked largely because the photos were lovely, the preparation seemed fairly simple, and the author of the recipe expressed my skepticism about the nature of Dutch cuisine.
I did also chat with my good friend Aleks about the dish; part of her family is Dutch, and it turned out that she'd actually made stamppot before! She recommended adding some nutmeg and paprika into the mashed potatoes for a little added flavor, so that's just what I did. I mixed the spices into my milk before adding it into the potatoes and giving it all a good mix. She told me that this deviation from the recipe is allowed, as she is Dutch.
Everything I read about stamppot highlighted its nature as a hearty, rustic dish that’s perfect for winter. We don’t really have winter here in Texas, so I saved my preparation for a rainy day. It seemed about as close as I was going to get to the Authentic Dutch Experience.
Cooking Stamppot
We'll be cooking some pretty labor-intensive meals here in Grand Prix Gastronomy, but stamppot is not one of them. Prep is really simple: you're going to dice up an onion, mince some garlic, slice your sausage into thin pieces, and cut up your kale. (I bought mine pre-chopped, though I do think I'd have benefitted from removing some of the reedy stalks and cutting the greens up a little finer.) That's pretty much it.
I cooked this dish on a massively busy day, so I did make it a bit out of order. After I prepped all my food, I moved on to sautéeing the onions straight away, getting them nice and cooked down. Then I added in the garlic for about 30 seconds, and then the kale. You'll want to add some water and a splash of white wine vinegar to help the kale wilt under a pan with a lid, then remove the lid to let it finish cooking. When you're happy with the kale's texture, remove it from the pan.
If you add in a smidge more oil, you can use the kale pan to cook your smoked sausage. The sausage should already be cooked through, but you're just adding a little bit of extra char and flavor with this step. When you're happy with how they look, transfer them to another plate.
Here, I took a cooking break for a few hours and put the cooked kale and sausage in the fridge while I finished work and recorded a podcast. Mainly, I wanted a mostly fresh, hot meal, but I knew I wouldn't be eating until 9pm if I waited to cook everything at the very end of my day — so I just saved the potatoes for last.
If you've ever made mashed potatoes before, you'll know this by heart. Peel and chop your potatoes into cubes, then pop them in some well salted water and bring to a boil, then let them simmer until soft. Save a cup of the cooking water before you dump out the potatoes.
As far as the actual mashing went, I realized at exactly the wrong moment that I don't own a potato masher, so I just kinda smushed everything with the bottom of a clean drinking glass. If you like a smoother mash, you'll want to opt for a potato masher, or squish the potatoes through a sieve, or whip them in a stand mixer, or blend them. The internet is full of great tutorials on how to do this, but since I was adding kale in, I wasn't super concerned about it!
I returned my mashed potatoes to the cooking pot and placed it back on a stovetop burner on low heat before I added butter, milk, seasonings, and my kale. I stirred the kale in, then let it continue to warm the greens through.
In the meantime, I portioned out my sausage and reheated my dinner serving in the same pan I'd used to cook the sausage in; I just wiped out the pan and warmed everything on a low heat.
To serve, I scooped a hearty portion of my potato-and-kale mixture into a bowl-plate, then topped it with sausage before sprinkling on some crunchy kosher salt and freshly chopped green onion — both steps that I actively encourage for that little bit of extra texture and flavor.
Finally, I poured a glass of blaufränkisch, which is a great wine to serve with smoked meats and potatoes because it's both a little fruity and a little smoky.
So, What's the Verdict?
This meal tastes like Max Verstappen: at first glance, it doesn't seem like you're going to like it, but you ultimately have to admit that it’s pretty frickin good at what it does.
Individually, I love all the main components of this meal. Mashed potatoes? Amazing. Kale? Great. Sausage? Perfect. I will be honest, though; mixing all those bits together didn't exactly seem like it would be an enjoyable prospect, and I had a lot of skepticism. It turns out that I didn't need to be quite so concerned. In fact, this is one of those dishes that's immediately going on my regular rotation.
You get a great blend of flavors and textures here. The mashed potatoes are creamy and a really delicious base on which to build the full dinner, and adding the nutmeg and paprika gave them a gentle warmth that is in no way overpowering. Stir in some sautéed kale and onions, and you've got a little crunch and freshness in every bite. The sausage adds the necessary smokiness and umami, and if you add the freshly chopped green onions on top, you've pretty much got a perfect dish — though it most definitely is one best enjoyed in the cooler months. Honestly, in retrospect, why was I so skeptical about anything served on top of mashed potatoes????
This is one of those dishes that I will probably immediately make in the future in one thousand different ways. I think you could have a lot of fun by adding different flavors to create, say, an Indian curry inspired stamppot, or even a Texas BBQ version. If you're not averse to prepackaged foods, this would make a great, easy dinner if you decided to go with some microwave or instant mashed potatoes, some leftover grilled sausages, and whatever veggies you have laying around.
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This is so not authentic. Never garlic or onion. Missing smoked ham hocks in boiling the potatoes then putting that meat through the mash. And plating it individually that way vs roasting a family size with the rookwurst. Totally missed the roasting.