Hutspot With Meatballs in Beer Sauce

My first recipe on Instructables, hutspot served with meatballs in beer-curryketchup sauce. Hutspot is a traditional Dutch recipe mostly eaten during the winter months. The most simple explanation for hutspot is potato/carrot/union mash and I will explain how I normally make it and give a short history. The meatball part of this recipe I picked up during my time as a student, which can be the reason for the beer. I won't talk much about meatballs, use your own basic recipe, but I will give you an explanation on how to prepare them together with the sauce. In this part I will also give a brief explanation of its history and traditions.

This recipe is especially made as an inspiration starter. Many variations can be made with this. You can change (not improve) your hutspot by adding ingredients you think match the taste. You can use the beer-curryketchup sauce as a start for other meat dishes, etc. etc.

I hope you like my recipe and all I can say is 'Smakelijk eten'.

Hutspot:

• 1 kg potatoes
• 1 kg unions
• 1 kg carrots
• milk
• grounded nutmeg
• salt

Meatballs:

All ingredients you normally put in your meatballs. I often use the following ingredients in various combinations. Ingredients used in the photo-version are in italic.

• ground beef
• egg
• unions
• tomato
• bread-crumbs
• balsamic vinegar
• soy sauce
• ginger
• bell pepper
• sambal (badjak)
• etc

Beer-curryketchup sauce:

• 1 bottle of lager beer
• curryketchup, I allways use 'Hela' just because all other brand do not meet my taste.

History:

Hutspot goes back to the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648), more specific, the night of october 2th to october 3th 1574. This night the siege of Leiden was ended. The legend speaks of a small orphan boy who found a pot with cooked food the Spaniards left behind when leaving their camp in a hurry. The pot contained mashed carrots with unions and parsnip which they named 'Hutspot'. In the centuries which followed the parsnip was replaced by potatoes. Many people living in Leiden, and many other Dutch, including me from now on, still eat Hutspot on october 3th as a remembrance to the relief of Leiden.

How to:

• Peel and cut the potatoes into small parts
• Cut the unions into halve rings
• Peel and cut the carrots into small blocks
• Put all ingredients in one cooking pot and cook it untill it is soft
• Drain the water and mash everything
• Add a little bit of milk if the mash is to dry.
• Add a little grounded nutmeg and salt.

Some variations:

• Add small blocks of baked bacon at the end.
• Remove carrot before mashing and add them again after mashing for a little more bite.
• Only cook halve of the unions and bake the other halve. Serve the baked unions seperate.
• Add blocks of pineapple at the end. This makes it somewhat sweet.
• Use creme fraiche or whiped cream instead off milk.
• When finished add cheese and put in under grill until the cheese is melted.

History and tradition:

Since hutspot has a well defined history I thought it was time for me to do some research on the history of this part of the recipe. Luckely it's not hundreds of years old, but only tens of years. Traditionally this dish included only hutspot. It was introduced somewhere before the 45th year (2001-2002) of my study association Simon Stevin. (I'm still researching the exact year.) It was eaten by the land-yachting committee during the first BEESD of the new committee supervisor. (BEESD: A day filled with maintenance of the land yachts, drinking beers and partying.) A couple of years later, probably during the 47th year (2003-2004), meatballs were added. The beer-curryketchup sauce was added even later, probably between the 48th (2004-2005) and the 50th year (2006-2007). We think someone just added the beer and curryketchup which turned out nice and therefore is made ever since. The new committee members do the dishes afterwards, the second years members do the cooking. The older members make a mess of the kitchen (and rest of the house) of the supervisor, using potato, union and carrot waste.

How to:

• Make the meatballs using your basic recipe.
• Sear the meatballs.
• Continue with low too medium heat untill they are still a little red on the inside, turn regularly to prevent them from sticking to the pan.
• Add the beer and continue with adding the curryketchup untill the sauce is only a little 'wet'. The sauce will thicken due to the heat and the evaporation of the water.
• Continue with low to medium heat until the meatballs are ready. Again, turn regularly, this time not only to prevent sticking, but also so the sauce can touch and 'infuse' the entire meatball.
• When the meatballs are finished, check whether the sauce is thick enough. When it's still to 'wet', just add curryketchup untill the sauce looks good.

Some variations:

• Use other meat than meatballs
• Prepare with much more beer like these beer brats. Add the curry when only a small amount of beer is left to intensify the beer taste.
• Experiment with beers other than lager.

When you're finished with cooking, it's time to serve. I like it most when some of the beer sauce is put on the hutspot and meatballs. So here's how to:

• Put the hutspot on the plate
• Put a meatball next to the hutspot
• Pour the beer sauce over the hutspot and the meatball

Risks:

• You can burn your inner mouth when eating too fast
• Even more dramatic, you can finish your plate in less than 5 minutes.