Corn and Smoked Sausage Fritters

I would like to personally thank the Sunshine State for sitting pretty with temps in the 80's at the beginning of April. Sure, I may shake my fist at my Florida friends when they share their pics of the Palm trees, foamy waves, and sunny weather map - but that's because I'm jealous.

Take out your violins.

I'm pretty sure that I have a case of seasonal affective disorder going on. Our long, harsh winter was filled with 5-foot mountains of snow-ice (which are decidedly NOT as fun as simple mountains of snow) and unforgiving negative temperatures with even worse wind chills. It seriously is the worst winter that I can recall. And the last of our snow just melted last week. That would be after the first day of Spring. Or as we're calling it in the Midwest, "Spring".

Okay, bows down.

Creamy Penne w/ Chicken & Smoked Sausage {HUNGRY book tour}

HUNGRY: What Eighty Ravenous Guys Taught Me About Life, Love & The Power of Good Food

author: Darlene Barnes
genre: Memoir
publisher: Hyperion
source: TLC Book Tours
"foodie" elements: YES
hard cover: 272 pages

random excerpt:  Some of what made that year hard for me was me.  I was becoming like the women relatives I remembered from my childhood who would spend all day making Thanksgiving dinner and then get mad at the diners who were done in ten minutes, not nearly as thankful as they goddamn well should have been. (p.86)

summary/synopsis (from the TLC website):  Newly arrived in Seattle, Darlene Barnes stumbles on a job ad for a cook at the Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity on the University of Washington, Seattle, campus, a prospect most serious food professionals would automatically reject.  But Barnes envisions something other than kegs and corn dogs; she sees an opportunity to bring fresh, real food to an audience accustomed to “Asian Surprise” and other unidentifiable casseroles dropped by a catering service.  And she sees a chance to reinvent herself, by turning a maligned job into meaningful work of her own creation: “I was the new girl and didn’t know or care about the rules.”

In HUNGRY: What Eighty Ravenous Guys Taught Me about Life, Love and the Power of Good Food naively expecting a universally appreciative audience,  Barnes finds an exasperatingly challenging environment: the kitchen is nasty, the basement is scary, and the customers are not always cooperative.  Undaunted, she gives as good as she gets with these foul-mouthed and irreverent—but also funny and sensitive—guys.  Her passion for real food and her sharp tongue make her kitchen a magnet for the brothers, new recruits, and sorority girls tired of frozen dinners.

Laugh-out-loud funny and poignant, HUNGRY offers a female perspective on the real lives of young men, tells a tale of a woman’s determined struggle to find purpose, and explores the many ways that food feeds us.

Boerenkool Stamppot (Kale Mash Pot)

Stamppot, which translates to "mash pot", is a traditional Dutch dish that consists of some combination of potato and vegetables that have been cooked and ...wait for it... mashed together.  Sometimes it's flavored with smoky bacon, but most often it is served with smoked sausage.

I've heard that it can be served as a side dish.  I think if you simply add bacon lardons for flavoring, that would work, but really, once you fold in slices of smoked sausage, I would consider it a main course.  Often,  whole links of smoked sausage are boiled right along with the potatoes and other veggies.  It is then removed and sliced and stirred back in once you drain and mash the veggies.  I can imagine the delicious flavor that this adds to the cooking liquid, but I really like my smoked sausage fried so that it picks up that extra flavor from caramelizing the outsides, so I chose not to boil it.  The seasoned fat still gets mixed in nicely once they are combined.

This is the first dish on my alphabetical culinary journey through Europe, which in case you hadn't guessed, is starting off in the Netherlands.  Okay tell me, is it the Netherlands or The Netherlands?  I struggle with which way to write it every single time.  Ping-pong in my head.  I think it's just "the".

In a word?  I absolutely loved it.  Well, technically that's four words.  But the sentiment remains the same.  I don't know much about the Netherlands, but I would love to visit one day.  Especially if I can find some good, salt-of-the-earth, comfort food like this Boerenkool Stamppot, or Kale Mash Pot.  Do you have any favorite dishes from the Netherlands?

Boerenkool Stamppot (Kale Mash Pot)

This traditional Dutch recipe is a combination of mashed potatoes and kale studded with smoked sausage.

by Heather Schmitt-González

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Keywords: boil entree kale potatoes sausage Netherlands

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled & cut into chunks
• 12 ounces kale, thick stems removed & chopped (weight after stemming)
• 1 small onion, peeled & cut into chunks
• 1 small bay leaf
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp.
• 8 ounces smoked sausage

Instructions

Add the potatoes, onion, kale, a bay leaf, a pinch of salt and just enough water to cover all in a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat a bit a simmer until potatoes are tender, ~25 minutes.

Slice the smoked sausage on the bias, and then sauté until golden. Set aside.

Drain the veggies and remove the bay leaf. Place back in pot with milk and butter; mash or whip with hand mixer. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary. Stir in the smoked sausage.

adapted from Food.com

Our first stop on this European Community Culinary ABC's journey is the Netherlands.  Hosting this month is Mony from Gata Da Plar with A is for Appeltart.  If you'd like to join us on this journey, we'll be in the Netherlands until January 27!