Hot lightning (Hete bliksem recipe) – apple potato mash
This delicious and traditional Dutch dish goes by the name of Hete bliksem recipe. Which means hot lightning if you translate it. It’s essentially a potato mash with apple. Making it delicious sweet and savory combined.
Hete bliksem recipe
When I was asked by Ben from What’s Cooking if I wanted to do a guest post in his world series I was flattered. I love Ben’s blog and have been following it faith fully for years now. His Mexican dishes are fantastic and you should really check out his blog. He lives in Mexico so you can be sure those are authentic Mexican too. On top of that he is also a really nice guy… 😉 Ben has an awesome series of guestposts by bloggers around the world. He has done a series before and is now bringing it back. And I’m one of the lucky people that gets to play a small part here!
Typical Dutch dish
So the idea was to write something about a typical Dutch dish. So that got me thinking, what is a typical Dutch dish? Our national ‘cuisine’ doesn’t have a lot of highlights. The first thing that springs to mind is that we have lots of different mash-dishes (called stamppot) as our national kitchen, but then again those are terrible to photograph, so did I really want to go there? Plus most of them are typical winter dishes and in this part of the world it is spring so not the dish I was looking forward too.
What is it with the Dutch and stamppot anyway? Why do we mash everything together? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love stamppot and in winter we eat it at least once a week. We have several different varieties, but most commonly the potatoes are mashed with some kind of vegetable; endive, red cabbage curly kale, brussels sprouts, carrots (in which case it is called Hutspot) and spinach, we like to add little bits of cruncy bacon to it and eat the lot with a smoked sausage (rookworst)
Hete bliksem recipe
I could make croquettes but then, they do exist in other parts of the world. And I was stuck with all these winter dishes in my head. Or I could attempt to make stroopwafels but having never done that, I had no idea where to start.
But then it hit me; I could make hete bliksem (hot lightning)! This is a dish I hadn’t made in at least 20 years. Not because I don’t like it, but because it goes together with a baked slice of cheese, something I couldn’t put Tom through as the cheese hater that he is. But he was going out for dinner with work so I could make this. It’s still a mash and therefore by it’s own nature wildly unattractive, but hey, it’s Dutch! So I apologize for the somewhat unappealing photos as I assure you that the content of the plate are in fact quite good.
Quick and tasty
Jacqueline, my friend, and I used to make this all the time when we were student nurses. Mostly because it was quick and tasted good and didn’t require extensive kitchen space (which we certainly did not have) It’s a pretty old fashioned dish, as it doesn’t get made a lot here anymore either.
The core ingredients are apple and potatoes, in equal quantities which are then mashed together. There are a couple of varieties out there. Some with onions in it and other ingredients. But pair this with the caramelized apples and some crunchy bits of bacon and you’re gonna love it as it is the perfect combination of sweet and savory!
Hete bliksem recipe (hot lightning)
Ingredients
- 250 g apples plus a few slices extra
- 250 g potatoes
- 1 cinnamon stick
- maple syrup
- ground cinnamon
- 4 slices streaky bacon
- 200 g cheese in a flat piece
- salt
- 1 egg
- 50 g sesame seeds
How to make hete bliksem
- Clean and peel the potatoes and cut them into even size chunks. Boil them in salted water for about 10 min and then add the cleaned and chopped apples into the boiling water. Add the cinnamon stick as well. Leave to boil for another 10 minutes or until both apples and potatoes are to your liking. I like mine to be fairly chunky but that is a personal preference
- In the mean time bake the streaky bacon in a dry frying pan until crispy and set aside to drain on paper towels.
- Slice a few apple pieces and melt a little butter in a fryin pan. Add the apple slices to it and add a bit of maple syrup into the pan as well as some cinnamon. Let it simmer until the apple is soft.
- Prepare a plate with one whisked egg and one plate with sesame seeds. Cut your cheese into the required size. The smaller it is, the easier it is too handle.
- Dip the cheese into the egg and make sure it coats all sides. Then dip the cheese into the sesame seeds and make sure it is covered everywhere.
- Heat a non stick frying pan on high until nice and hot. Put the cheese slice in and bake until the sesame seeds are brown. You have to do this rather quickly or the cheese will melt completely. Turn and bake the other side.
- Drain the apples and potatoes and mash them together. Taste and add cinnamon and salt where needed. Remove the cinnamon stick before mashing
Nutrition Information per portion
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
