Stamppot

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Let me introduce to you the finest that dutch cuisine has to offer... well traveled as you are, dear reader, you might think of frikadellen, kroketten or - what the heck - hash brownies. But let me tell you, if there is one thing worth recreating it is stamppot: a refined dish made of mashed potatoes and a green vegetable of your choice. traditionally green cabbage. we used spinach.

1/2 kg of potatoes
1 kg of spinach
salt
nutmeg
butter
bouillon
flour

Make mashed potatos: Bring water with potatoes to a boil, peel them, mash them, add some heated milk, butter, salt and a dash of nutmeg. Meanwhile wash the spinach and sautee it briefly. And now... mix it all together. fun!

Traditionally, stamppot is topped off with some gravy and served with rookworst. We used organic bratwurst instead, which was a fine substiute.

To make the "gravy", I simply melted some butter, stirred in flour and bouillon until it had the right consistency.

Great comfort food!

Vegetarian Moussaka

We had a beautiful eggplant at home and as always some lingering potatoes, so tonight's dish had to be a vegetarian moussaka. the greek interpretation of a lasagne. or is lasagne the italian interpretation of moussaka? regardless.

1 eggplant
1 medium onion
2-4 garlic cloves
7-8 smaller potatoes
6 tomatoes on the vine
salt, oregano and nutmeg as you wish
butter, milk and flour for béchamel with no measurements


I salted the eggplant slices and left them for about half an hour before I patted them dry. I then roasted them in the oven for a bit. I can't say, if this actually did anything special to their flavor, but I felt fancy doing it. If nothing else, it did dry the eggplant for sure.

Meanwhile, I boiled the potatoes for a few minutes. Once I drained them, I prepared a simple yet delicious tomato sauce by sautéing one onion and a couple of garlic cloves, adding fresh tomatoes and some (greek) oregano and salt. After about ten minutes, I liked the consistency of it. After greasing the pan, I layered first potatoes, then eggplant, then the tomato sauce, repeated the layers of potatoes and eggplant and finished with a simple béchamel sauce (add flour to melted butter, whisk, add milk, don't forget to whisk, salt, whisk, nutmeg, still whisking, pour before it gets too thick!).

In the oven at 180 C for 40 minutes at least. At some point I added a little bit of water and covered the pan with some aluminum foil. Before serving I sprinkled some feta cheese on top which was probably my favorite part of the dish. K made a fabulous green salad with my

favorite shallot dressing.

voila! there it is! n*